#ODYSSEUS DID NOTHING WRONG

[sowearecleariamhere]

Penelope could easily be painted as the damsel yearning for her lover, the woman without much agency waiting for her husband to come home (which of course we all know she isn't, she is a literal and metaphorical queen), and in a lesser story*) she might have been cast into that stereotype. I think that is why I love her almost yelling "You're mine" at Odysseus in WYFILWMA.

It is so possessive and decisive, ruling out any "buts". It perfectly underlines her steadfastness, her loyalty, her agency. She claims Odysseus as hers without question once she knows it is really him, that he is finally back home. She is seemingly offended that Odysseus even suggests that she might not accept him after how much he has changed. (She will make her own mind up about that, thank you very much, and said mind has been made up for 20 years btw)

It is not only that Odysseus has come home and now she chooses him. No, she has been choosing him over and over and over for the past 20 years with every action she took. It is not him coming back that now puts her in the position to choose him - it only reveals that choice, that there never was another choice other than Odysseus. Which leads me to my honorable mention:

Ody: "[...] You’ve been waiting for love."

Pen: "I've been waiting for you."

Penelope definitely had a surplus of suitors (108) and even if their motives might have been questionable, she could have easily found a new husband if that was what she wanted, maybe even one that genuinely loved her. But Penelope's love is Odysseus. Love for her is synonymous with him. No one else is even worth considering, she would rather be alone or even die before she gives any other man the time of day.

tldr; I love love LOVE the wording in WYFILWMA, how it shows how Penelope is just not taking this shit from her husband. She knows what she wants and that is Odysseus, even if it is not the original model but the slightly banged up version, the heavily traumatized, now with grey hairs probably, war criminal, ruthless god torturer version of her husband.

Because he is still her husband, goddamn it.

This might very well not make much sense bc I am insane over them currently

*) "lesser story" is not referring to the odyssey or saying epic is better than the odyssey, I mean to compare them both to any completely different work (or franchise if you will) that does not give characters agency where they should have it

[spellbound037]

Who wants a rant on why Eurylochus (in Epic) did nothing wrong? No one? TOO DAMN BAD!

SO! 1.) The wind bag. See, Odysseus did NOT, in fact, tell them what was in the bag. In the Odyssey, Odysseus tells no one what the wind bag is. In Epic, he tells Elpenor and Perimedes. None of that would matter, though, because Odysseus is also a well known liar. If the guy who lies constantly, including at points where there is literally no reason to lie, tells you the bag which is almost certainly full of treasure is actually full of air, that bag is full of treasure.

2.) Circe's island (with relation to his reaction to Scylla) Suggesting they leave the 14(?) men who Circe had taken is not the same as outright sacrificing six men. Circe is an extremely powerful spellcaster, much more powerful than anyone Ithaca had to offer. That meant that, if they got the men back, they would very likely still be pigs. Only Circe and a handful of other extremely powerful spellcasters could turn them back into men. meaning that they wouldn't actually be saving the men at all, they would be acquiring pigs. These pigs would be pigs until they died. It would be much better to simply leave the pigs with Circe and her nymphs, knowing they'd be taken care of, than to bring them on a perilous journey by ship when they knew they were being hunted by Poseidon.

3.) The mutiny. Valid crash-out, outright. Jorge has said that Eurylochus acts as the voice of the crew, and the crew has just lost six members. They're tired, they're angry, and the main things they probably remember right then are Scylla and Polyphemus. Whether or not any of this is Odysseus' fault, they (very fairly) blame him. If your boss is willing to fire you to get home a little earlier, report him to HR. If your captain is willing to kill you to get home, mutiny.

4.) The cows. By this point, the crew haven't eaten in days. This is inevitably leading to a Donner Party style situation, and looky here, there are a bunch of cows. And look again, LYING MOTHERFUCKIN ODYSSEUS says that you CAN'T eat these cows! Why? He won't say! (he doesn't in the song. He does in the myth, I think, but again, LYING Odysseus.) Hunger rewires your brain chemistry to do things that are utterly illogical for food. The other important thing to remember is that Eurylochus quite likely does not believe they're going to survive at all. They can't, actually. If they leave the island and the cows, they'll likely starve to death. As a demigod of sorts, Odysseus will take a somewhat longer time to starve to death, but the rest of the crew will very likely be dead in a week. If starvation doesn't take them, Poseidon is still trying to kill them! If Poseidon doesn't kill them, these men are still aging. If it takes them another year, even another six months to get home, they're not young men. More of them will die on the journey. They can't fight or run like they could 12 years ago, any danger they encounter will kill more of them. Dying here, with full stomachs on nice grass, very likely seems like the best option to the starved minds of the crew.

5.) The final, all encompassing, important point. Odysseus is familiar with the gods. His great-grandfathers are Hermes and Zeus, he was trained by Athena. This means that he likely has a much more grounded, personified idea of the gods. Eurylochus, and by extension, the rest of the crew, do not. Poseidon's wrath is not something to be avoided, it's the unquestionable end. Circe's curse isn't something to be undone, it's permanent. Helios' grief isn't something to be a little wary of, it's the very welcome grand finale to their journey. It will leave them as a tragedy, but it will end them, finally.

[arowithanotp]

thinking about how in God Games ares is the only god whose argument athena doesn't refute

Apollo: the sirens were trying to kill him first now they'll be cautious

Hephaestus: well the crew were a bunch of idiots

Aphrodite: a broken heart can mend

Hera: he's never cheated on his wife

meanwhile ares says odysseus is a coward who should've fought scylla head on instead of sacrificing his men. The only part of his argument athena counters is him calling telemachus pathetic and weak. All athena says in favor of odysseus is that if ares wants to see violence he should let him go. She never denies that odysseus messed up by feeding his men to scylla only implies that he learned his lesson

[minlicious]

i hate it when someone hates on my favorite character but their arguments are actually valid and make sense but i can’t agree with them because i made liking that character half of my personality

[bestiainfinita]

I had a discussion on Instagram about Eurylochus and wanted to share it here , the post where this conversation happened is irrelevant but it was about Eurylochus and the end of the Thunder Saga, anyways I made a comment and this guy’s responded:

Then I responded with this across some comments (I chose not to use screen caps for most of my things because they are a lot of comments and it might be over the limit of them, and I had the stuff I said saved):

Lol what are you in buddy???

First of all, since the start Eurylochus has had one objective in mind just like Odysseus, Eurylochus wanted to protect the crew and to get them home while Odysseus wanted to go home to be with his son and wife, that’s the main reason the diversion between Eury and Ody happened, because Ody cared more about getting home than about the crew, while Eury cared more about the crew than getting home.

In ‘Full Speed Ahead’ (Song 03) he tells Ody that they are out of food and they need to feed THE CREW so he asks the captain / king what they should do, because that’s is what he’s supposed to do, he proposes attacking and just taking the food because he wants to ensure food for the crew no matter what, this is also proveen in ‘Polyphemus’ (Song 06) when the first thing he says is “There are enough sheep here to feed the entire fleet” he was thinking about the crew again. Then in ‘Remeber Them’ (Song 09) he’s the one who ask “But captain, what do we do with our fallen friends?” because he CARES about the crew.

Also he not only cares about the crew but he cares about Odysseus too (he’s part of the crew but anyways), this is better shown in ‘Luck Runs Out’ (Song 11); “You could be caught off guard and lose your life” “I just don’t wanna see another life end” “You are like the brother I could never do without”.

Then in the same song (‘Luck Runs Out’) we understand why he opened the wind bag. He was afraid, he was afraid of the Gods and what they might do to him, Odysseus and the crew; “You could be caught off guard and lose your life” “Or piss off this God and infuse us with strife” “Don’t forget how dangerous the gods are”.

Now the Circe thing, y’all have very selective hearing and didn’t understood Eury at all, he is still afraid during this song (‘Puppeteer’ Song 14); he’s afraid of a Goddess, of Circe, he gave those men for dead because they were captured by a literal Goddess, and he is also afraid of what she might to to Odysseus and the rest of the crew if they try to face her; “Think about the men we have left before there’s none, let’s just cut our loses, you and I, and let’s run” “What if she can’t be killed!? — Will you chose to leave?”

By the way, I would like to point out that in this song (‘Puppeteer’) Odysseus says “There’s no length I wouldn’t go, if it was you I’d have to save, I can only hope you’ll do the same…” and Eurylochus responds by literally doing that, by trying to stop Odysseus from going into that suicidal mission, (let me remind y’all that the only reason Odysseus stood his ground against Circe was thanks to Deus Ex Hermes).

And another thing, some of you people like to say Eurylochus wanted Odysseus gone or blasphemy like that, then why didn’t he killed him in ‘Mutiny’ (Song 24), he had Odysseus stabbed and defenseless but he didn’t killed him, he and the crew just restrained him and treated all of his wounds, they didn’t want him dead, they just couldn’t trust him anymore and therefore couldn’t have him as his captain.

Then they said this (ignoring stuff I already talked about):

And finally I finished the conversation and responded with this:

1. I literally addressed the Circe situation in my previous comments, and explained how he gave those men for dead because to save them they would have had to fight a LITERAL GODDESS (remember they just lost 11 ships / more than 500 men to another God), and again, the only reason Ody won / was able to talk it through was thanks to Hermes’s intervention.

2. Again, I believe the treasure was a misdirection, and the real reason was fear, as I have explained before / in my previous comments.

3. If he wanted to forget what he did and act like nothing have happened, he wouldn't even have confessed in the first place, so it's obviously not about that.

4. That part was a metaphor, see how it is similar to 'Luck Runs Out' in the way that one was talking as a friend and the other as his title, in 'Luck Runs Out' Odysseus is the one talking as a friend while in 'Mutiny' Eurylochus is the one talking as a friend (we know because he called him "Ody" instead of "Captain"), so he was talking one on one and Odysseus was responding talking about himself about how HE wanted to go back to HIS kingdom HIS son and HIS wife ignoring what Eurylochus was saying to him as well as his concerns (like he did in ‘Luck Runs Out’), then the crew jumps in showing Odysseus that all of the crew thinks the same, that they are all tired, that they are all hurt, and that they are all hungry, something that Odysseus's own suffering has made him oblivious to, and now he tries to talk to the crew, to calm them and convince them, but he has already shown them that his priority is himself, so they ignore his pleading and try to give themselves comfort in the only way they currently can, try so solve the only problem they as mere men are able to, and so they killed the cattle to eat.

[nysus-temple]

hiii Nysus here. sorry for disappearing once again. i got stucked in the 8th circle of Hell (university)

[seeminglyseph]

For no reason in particular I am thinking about Agamemnon warning Odysseus in the original poem that Penelope might not be faithful based on his own experiences with Clytemnestra, never mind the context is entirely different and Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter before running off to war for 10 years and coming back a young slave princess. Like. Your experiences are not universal.

And like, Odysseus isn’t faultless in those goings on sometimes, and Epic the Musical would have like… probably a weird tone to throw…. All of That in there, but it does make me think a little about like… how many names from his introductory battle plan ended up in the Underworld by they were sailing through and how much of that is cresting the Despair Event Horizon as much as the prophecy?

Like the culmination of loss and his mother’s shade representing this ticking clock of “you will run out of time if you take too long. You are all mortal, the people you love cannot wait for you forever.” Feeding the desperation enough to make him ravenous.

[abearthatwrites]

A Brief Rundown of the IRL Ithaca Saga (to the best of my memory, in probably not chronological order)

jorge (creator, odysseus) decided it'll be cool to celebrate the ithaca saga with the epic cast via a trip to ithaca, greece

surely nothing can go wrong

mico (telemachus) seemingly found out about the trip with the rest of the fandom. he proceeded to plot a trip to ithaca

the epic cast dealt with multiple broken vans and missed a ferry by one minute. they had to cancel a stream because they were too exhausted

mico made it onto a plane

ithaca got hit by a typhoon, forcing them to move another stream indoors

mico got banned from tiktok. it was reversed

mason (tireseas) asked luke (zeus) to stop the rain. luke refused

the crew hiked up to odysseus' palace. they ran into a roadblock. mason looked into the future and did not see a way around it. (they found a way around it)

the crew found a well and sang their epic songs into it. except jp (crew) who just sang happy birthday

janani (aphrodite) also sang "royal we" into the well

anna (penelope) made it onto the plane to fly out to ithaca

hermes (troy) decided to take a plane to ithaca like a normal human instead of teleporting. he got side-eyed by a woman at the airport as he slept sprawled out in a chair. this quickly became a meme

hermes arrived in ithaca to the delight of everyone except jorge. mico also appeared in his videos. mico still had not updated anything after getting on the plane

anna's connecting flight got cancelled, leaving her stranded in a fancy hotel. she struggled to find the toilet in her hotel room

mico finally updated, claiming he was stuck in munich. mason appears in the video and gives him a water bottle, proving he is lying

the fandom believes mico anyway

mico is forced to post another video revealing he had been gaslighting us basically the entire time and was just delayed in getting to ithaca, that was all

troy and talya (circe), in character, talk about tea. troy says the tea tastes like her father's approval. earle (ares) then asks for 1000 cups and breaks down crying as luke cuts the camera

jorge posts a video apologizing for mico's absence, encouraging him to fly to ithaca, new york. mico appears in the background of this video

mico posts a video saying that he's finally in ithaca, but the crew is in ithaca, new york. jorge appears in the background of this video

jp films a behind the scenes video, calling out "some random guy" who just showed up asking if anyone knows jorge. it's mico

janani sings "royal we" again, but after she says "troy was breached" troy comes out screaming in pain. mico appears in the background of this, filming the video from two points above

it's time for the ithaca saga livestream... except it gets cancelled because the connection is bad and jorge's devices are dying

TL;DR: the gods saw the epic crew in ithaca and went "do you guys think it'll be really funny if we just. recreated the odyssey"

[arowithanotp]

"I watched my friends die in horror crying as they all were slain. I heard their final moments crying their captain in vain"

who gave six of their men up as chew toys to scylla odysseus who refused to tell any of their crew anything that was happening ever odysseus who drove their crew to starvation odysseus who sacrificed dozens of men with their own wives and family including your SISTERS HUSBAND odysseus who started this goddamn mess by DOXXING THEMSELVES TO A CYCLOPS???? WHO ODYSSEUS???????? WHOOOOO?????

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Ironically, after having obsessively listened to the entire saga on repeat last night, my favorite song was I Can’t Help But Wonder. It was my least favorite on my first listen through, but the more I listened to it and absorbed all the meanings and implications? I just. Loved it so much more 😭

There’s Odysseus finally meeting his son for essentially the first time (yes he held him as an infant, but he doesn’t know him as a person), there’s the fact that he spent twenty years wishing he could know his son. And then there’s Telemachus on the other side of the conversation who’s been dreaming of knowing his dad for twenty years and is worried his dad won’t love him?? Devastating. Imagine desperately loving and wanting to meet your child for twenty years and being told they worry you won’t love them??

AND THE LINE ABOUT ODYSSEUS TELLING HIS INFANT SON HE WOULD CAPTURE THE WIND AND SKY FOR HIM?? Guys. Odysseus literally captured the wind and sky to get home to his son and wife.

And then we have the reunion with Athena 😭😭 They don’t even talk about anything that happened?? I just imagine this scene of Odysseus saying, “Show yourself. I know you’re watching me,” just like he did when they first met, and neither of them say a thing about their argument, nothing about Athena fighting for him and saving him, nothing about everything that happened between the last ten years.

And without saying any of that, Athena goes straight into a roundabout way of saying, “You were right, I was wrong, and I led you astray.” She said, “I’m sorry,” without saying it. And there’s a beat of silence. Odysseus sighs. And essentially tells her, “No, you weren’t wrong. And I wasn’t wrong either. That world could exist somewhere far away, but it doesn’t exist here. I’m too old and tired to ever find it though, so you’ll have to make it exist someday for both of us.”

He forgives her in un-said words. It’s an absolution of the wrong Athena feels she’s committed. A goddess apologized to him, and Odysseus absolved her of her sins. Just. AHHHHHHHHHHH.

And then they part ways 😭😭😭 and there’s a tone in their voices that says it’s really their final goodbye this time. And they didn’t even say goodbye.

[fangirlofallthefanthings]

THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS WHOLE TIME!!!!!!!!! OMG I FEEL SO VALIDATED!!!

"Which means, in this case, the pleasure Calypso could’ve brought Odysseus was only material: food and drink to keep him from starving, shelter to keep him from dying… and nothing more."

To take this FURTHER: It's Xenia. The thing that's literally one of the main points of the Odyssey. From that one line of "no longer pleased him," I knew in my BONES that it had to do with material gain. Food, clothes, nursing him back to health from drifting at sea for nine days. Nothing more.

Until she made it more.

This situation is so messed up yet so morbidly fascinating. It gives a stark window into the hierarchy and customs of hospitality in Archaic Greece. It's exciting and horrifying at the same time. It begs the question...

What if this was between a king and a banished princess? A nobleman and a lowly messenger down on his luck? A queen and a dismissed handmaiden?

Would people say the same about them as they do about Odysseus?

The Odyssey, book 5, line 151–155:

τὸν δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀκτῆς εὗρε καθήμενον: οὐδέ ποτ᾽(1) ὄσσε δακρυόφιν τέρσοντο, κατείβετο δὲ γλυκὺς αἰὼν νόστον ὀδυρομένῳ, ἐπεὶ οὐκέτι ἥνδανε νύμφη.(2) ἀλλ᾽ ἦ τοι νύκτας μὲν ἰαύεσκεν καὶ ἀνάγκῃ(3) ἐν σπέσσι γλαφυροῖσι παρ᾽ οὐκ ἐθέλων ἐθελούσῃ:(4) She (Calypso) found him (Odysseus) sitting on the shore—never once were his eyes Dry of tears, while his sweet life was passing away Lamenting his homecoming, for the nymph no longer pleased him. But indeed in the nights he slept, by force, In her hollow caves, unwilling beside the willing (nymph).

(1) οὐδὲ ποτέ: this is a good phrase to invoke pathos, as we see οὐδέ, “never”, being put alongside ποτέ, “once, at any time”, showing the picture of Odysseus crying on Ogygia since day one, never once free from sorrow. Notice, too, how this phrase comes first and foremost, presenting itself as a lead-up to the entire sentence, overshadowing this part with a sense of melancholy.

(2) ἐπεὶ οὐκέτι ἥνδανε νύμφη: I’ve been seeing a lot of interpretations based on this one single sentence, “…since she no longer pleased him”—but you know what? Just a reminder that in Ancient Greek, the word ἥνδανε (it’s 1st person singular indicative form being ἁνδάνω), with the meaning “pleased, delight”, is mostly used in the context of “being pleased with ransoms/words/food and drink…”, which is anything that promises material gains:

(e.g. “ἀλλʼ οὐκ Ἀτρεΐδῃ Ἀγαμέμνονι ἥνδανε θυμῷ”, Iliad. 1.24: but it (Achaeans’ assent to Calchas’s speech that promised ransoms) did not please the heart of Agamemnon son of Atreus; “…ἐμῷ δ᾽ οὐχ ἥνδανε θυμῷ”, Odyssey. 10.373: but it (Circe’s urging of Odysseus to eat the food) did not please my heart; “…μάλιστα δὲ Πηνελοπείῃ / ἥνδανε μύθοισι…”, Odyssey, 16.397–398: but he (Amphinomus) pleased Penelope the most with his words; etc.)

Which means, in this case, the pleasure Calypso could’ve brought Odysseus was only material: food and drink to keep him from starving, shelter to keep him from dying… and nothing more.

(3) ἀνάγκῃ: the dative singular of the word ἀνάγκη means “force, constraint, necessity” and sometimes even more, “torture; anguish, pain” (the latter is more seen in tragic plays), but here I believe the former meaning alone is more than enough to demonstrate the lack of consent in Odysseus when he slept beside Calypso.

(4) παρ’ οὐκ ἐθέλων ἐθελούσῃ: I love this line so much—the way Homer uses the participle of the verb ἐθέλω “to be willing” twice, each in different gender—the masculine nominative one for Odysseus being οὐκ έθέλων “ not willing”, the feminine dative one for the nymph being ἐθελούσῃ “too willing”, and putting them together to fit both the meter and the theme? This is literally perfect.

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Odysseus: ...And thats everything that happened. Telemachus: Wow... I am sorry you had to go through all that. It must have been hard giving up your crew like that. Odysseus: I mean if Polites was still there it would have been. But after the mutiny you would be amazed how easy it was. Penelope: Deserved. (Casually eats) Telemachus: Mother, you cant be so callous! Penelope: The moment they mutinied they stopped being his crew. He did nothing wrong. This is a good lesson for you. Odysseus: Your mother is right, it was a dick move of them. Penelope: Odysseus, massacring a bunch of idiots is one thing, but I will not stand for bad words at the dinner table. Odysseus: Apologies my love. Penelope: Forgiven, now go back to talk about the part where you were stabbing Poseidon.

[albumstar]

Something I'm starting to notice about this fandom; y'all can like Epic's version of Odysseus without trying to paint Calypso as a rapist.

Odysseus in the original tale did cheat on his wife. Several times. And there's nothing wrong with acknowledging that. But trying to paint him as blameless and all the other women as rapists for seducing him is not the winning move y'all think it is.

Like Tiktok is becoming the worst when it comes to the topic of Calypso.

[blessedbyahuntress]

Blessed by a Trickster

Chapter Four: The Scary Part? He's Tiny

Prev/Next

Warnings: None!

Word Count: 763

You stood at the helm of the ship, next to Eurylochus, who kept glancing at you when he thought you weren’t looking. He’s rather awful at judging that.

“Is something wrong?” You asked, turning to him.

“What?”

“You keep looking at me weirdly.”

Eurylochus hummed, debating whether or not to tell the truth. He settled with telling half of it.

He shrugged. “Nothing’s wrong.”

You raised an eyebrow. “I don’t believe you in the slightest.”

Eurylochus was saved from having to try and stutter out an excuse by Polites, who sprinted up to you, barely acknowledging the second in command’s presence with a small nod as he turned to you.

Polites’s glasses kept slipping off his nose and he continued to adjust them as he spoke. “There’s an island- Ody thinks it might be- what the lotus eaters were- talking… about.”

You blinked. “Oh,” was all you said.

Polites raised his eyebrows. “Oh?” He demanded. “That’s the first thing you think to say?” You shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah.”

Eurylochus snorted in amusement and Polites narrowed his eyes mockingly at his friend.

Then the world seemed to move in slow motion. Eurylochus was speaking to you, but you couldn’t hear a word he was saying. You yourself seemed to move fine; you could shake out the stiffness in your arms and legs in normal time. You snapped your fingers in front of Polites’s face, but you didn’t get a reaction.

You heard laughter from above your head, and you looked upward.

“Reveal yourself,” you ordered.

“Hm… I don’t think I will.”

You smirked. “I meant, please reveal yourself, Lord Hermes.”

A handsome yet short man appeared before you. He had a mop of curly light brown hair and a black mask covering his eyes. The snakes that were curled around his staff flicked their tongues at you as the tiny wings on his sandals flapped. “How did you-” He looked down at himself in surprise and yelped. 

He gave you a reproachful look. “Please don’t do that again, little lady,” he said, shaking his caduceus at you.

You crossed your arms. “Hello, Lord Hermes. Please stop stalking me.”

Hermes giggled and glided around you, studying your stance and scars. “Now, now,” he chided. “You shouldn’t talk to a potential patron like that!”

You raised your eyebrows. “Patron?” You asked, unable to keep the skepticism from your voice.

“Oh, yes.” Hermes came to a stop in front of you, still hovering a few feet above the ground. “I’ve been watching you for quite some time, Y/N of Ithaca.”

“Yeah, I sort of got that part. Your voice in my head and all.”

Hermes laughed again. “Ooooh. Quick-thinker, too, I see.” The tips of his sandals skimmed the deck of the ship as he looked at you thoughtfully. “I think of myself as lucky to have reached you first, before any other god could offer to be your mentor.”

You blinked.

“Come on,” the god urged. “I’m sure Odysseus has told you of his own mentor, Athena? Shame she abandoned him.”

“I-I…” You couldn’t finish, your mind skimming through the possibilities of how this could end. “What could you offer? Why should I not wait for a different god or goddess like Ares or Artemis?”

“So glad you asked!” Hermes beamed. “I am the god of thieves. I will teach you how to steal more than objects in the heat of the moment. I will teach you how to detangle hidden meanings and important information from the most confusing of sentences.”

You tilted your head slightly. That skill sounded useful.

“I am the god of travelers,” he continued. “I can aid you in your journey home.”

“I am the god of speed. I can train you so hard, you’ll have more stamina than any man. You’ll be as fast as Achilles was.”

“I am the god of language, and I can teach you the skill of negotiating-”

“Let me sleep on it,” you interrupted.

“Oh.” Hermes gave you a sad smile. “You won’t be sleeping tonight.”

“What do you-”

Suddenly everything sped up, leaving you stumbling. Eurylochus grabbed your shoulders to steady you. You could feel Polites’s concerned gaze on your back as you grabbed Eurylochus’s forearms in an attempt to make the world stop spinning.

“Whoa,” Eurylochus said as you swayed slightly. “What’s wrong, Y/N?”

You opened your mouth to respond, only to slump forward.

“I forgot about how fragile mortals are,” Hermes giggled inside your head. “You might be having that sleep earlier than either of us expected.”

Then you blacked out.

[odyssiaca]

odysseus is generally seen as 'morally ambiguous' due to his not always being seen as the best of people- but this is a very modern and feminist take, and whilst nothing is inherently wrong with the idea of feminist takes and retellings, it skews what we have and already know of the myths, and this can be seen most predominantly in the character of odysseus. odysseus is two things:

- not meant to a hero

- not meant to be good

he is written as a man faced with impossible odds, and who loses some- if not all- of his morality in doing so. BUT where does the idea of him being 'bad' come from? the penelopiad by margaret atwood, a woman known for being quite vitriolic towards men of any kind. in recent years, people have picked up on three major things from the odyssey:

- the hanging of the maids

- odysseus cheating on his wife

- odysseus going mad at the end

NOW, to break it into points:

the hanging of the maids is so often seen in a feminist light due to margaret atwood, where odysseus is painted as some cruel, vile, disgusting predator who loathes women. this isn't true to the odyssey AT ALL. in the odyssey it is explicitly stated by the nurse that raised telemachus: 'i shall single out those who betrayed you, my lord' and by one of the maids herself- melantho: 'if we sleep with the suitors, when they become king we will be in favour with him.' and THIS is why he killed the maids. not because he was insane, not because he was bad, but because they had betrayed not just him- but his wife. not all the maids were killed, only those who slept with the suitors. the argument most often used for this is that the women couldn't say no, but this goes against what the maids themselves say in the odyssey when they believe no one to be watching.

odysseus cheating on his wife HE DIDN'T. but he is a man, and as a man, he cannot be raped. he is a terrible man for sleeping with circe and calypso when he could have- as epic decides to say- say no. which is untrue!! these are goddesses. titanesses. circe is the daughter of helios, and calypso is daughter of atlas. they could overpower him simply by looking at him. circe turned his men to pigs, even with the moly she could have easily done the same- or worse- to him. the idea of him choosing to and being unfaithful stems from madeline miller's, Circe which whilst not inherently bad, goes out of its way to put all men in a terrible light, because the heroes deserves no rights in feminist retellings. odysseus wanted to say no, but could not as hermes explicitly told him he couldn't. on the flip side, calypso threatens, ensnares him and only releases him when told to by hermes and the council of the gods. in the odyssey it is literally stated: 'and odysseus stayed on the shores weeping for home before joining the nymph in her bed.' he did not WANT to sleep with calypso, but was left with no other choice but to do so. this is a recurring theme for calypso.

but he is blamed due to his gender, and the idea of 'feminism' and 'patriarchy'.

and now, the real reason for odysseus being seen badly:

the telegony the telegony is a myth written after the odyssey with telegonus- son of circe and odysseus- as the main character. in this he travels to find his father and meet him, but accidentally kills him on the shore. (peneleope marries telegonus, and circe marries telemachus) but this is where the idea of odysseus' insanity comes from. in the telegony, it is stated he went mad after the war, and couldn't survive without bloodshed, and so he went out seeking war, and women, and battle, and went mad in this.

the statement: 'generous to odysseus' is wholly unfair, because he is a man forced to lose everything, assaulted, violated, tortured and imprisoned with no hope of survival. he goes to war knowing he won't return for 20 years, won't see his wife, and won't watch his son grow. he is a man not a god, or a demigod. he's just some dude doing his best.

[antinousletmehit]

˚₊‧꒰ა Chapter 6 ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

୨୧┇pairing: Telemachus x reader

୨୧┇sad sad chapter

────୨ৎ──── ────୨ৎ──── ───

It’s broken..there’s nothing left.

Now all he had left were the memories that were never his. Something that was carved by his father’s own hands was now broken apart in his. His broken sobs must have been audible through the castle, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything. The young prince doesn’t recall getting off the floor, or exiting his door. All he could feel were the broken pieces in his hands. His feet seemed to carry him themselves as fresh tears ran down his cheeks. Telemachus briefly thought about what he would do if he saw a suitor roaming the halls.

For once there was no thought about what he would do. Just thoughts of seeing the only person who would know what to do. The boy could barely hear his own footsteps over the sound of his choked sobs. He felt as if he would fall over at any minute. As if he would vomit all over the floor. He felt completely and utterly sick. He stumbled up the stairs, his body hitting the railing. Telemachus made it up the stairs, wanting nothing more than the comforting presence of his mother’s arms.

The only time he took both his hands off of the broken ship was to open the door to his mother’s room. The room was dark except for one candle illuminating a small area of the room. Through the darkness, he could see his mother curled up on her side. Her breathing deep and even, fast asleep. The boy couldn’t even bring himself to move. He stood there, tears running down his face. After only a second, Penelope woke up, as if she knew that something was wrong. She instantly sat up, seeing her only son standing there, shaking.

The queen slowly got out of bed, as if her movements would scare him away. She gently reached out to him.

“Telemachus..what happened?”

“Mother…I-it’s broken.” He blubbered, close to incoherent.

Penelope inched closer, seeing the broken ship in her son’s hand. Seeing her son in shambles completely tore her apart. All she could see was a young Telemachus sneaking into her room, sniffling because he couldn’t remember anything about Odysseus. He might be taller and stronger now, but those feelings of absence had never left his life, and had only grown stronger along with him. It was something only his mother had noticed.

“Telemachus..” were the only words she could manage. She cupped her hands underneath his own as they trembled, the pieces shaking along with his hands. The boy then leaned his head against his mother’s. Whimpers left the boy's throat as he attempted to hold back another sob. Penelope moved her hands over his, scooping the broken pieces out of his hands. She silently walked over to her husband’s side of the bed, gently releasing the pieces on the nightstand, as if he would fix them in the morning.

She moved back over to her son and tightly wrapped her arms around him. He melted against his mother’s frame, draping his head down so he could lay his head in the crook of her neck. Telemachus let out heartbreaking sobs, holding onto his mother as if she would leave him as well. All Penelope could do was run her fingers through his hair and maneuver her fingers along his back. The prince was so wrapped up in his feelings that he didn’t realize that his mother had brought him back to her bed and laid him down. Penelope crawled under the covers beside him, resuming to hold him tightly against her. He felt like a child, having to be held through his emotions.

“It’s gone…he’s gone.” Telemachus mumbled, against his mothers chest, holding onto the side of her chiton while he cried.

“I know…I know.” His crying broke Penelope possibly more than they did Telemachus. All she could do was hold him.

“I miss him..I-I just want my father back”

The queen nestled her face against her son’s hair so he wouldn’t see the emotion building up in her own eyes.

“I miss him too…”

Telemachus managed to catch his breath and speak a fully eligible sentence, “It was her. Y/N. There’s a passageway..between our rooms. She found it and was messing with my stuff. Then she dropped it.”

Penelope went rigid. She was never known to be violent and upset. But hearing of this young woman not only insulting her son, but destroying the one thing he had left of his father might as well be her breaking point. She didn’t say anything, but she continued to play with the boy’s messy hair.

“I’m sorry…that I didn’t do anything. I’m sorry that I disappointed you mother.” Telemachus sniffled, looking up at his mother with Odyssesus’s rich brown eyes. He felt that he had done the one thing that he promised his mother he wouldn’t do.

“You could never disappoint me, my son. And there is no reason to apologize,” Penelope sighed, “What she has done is truly and terribly wrong.” The boy heard a stiffness and anger that he’s never heard from his mother before.

Telemachus wanted to ask what he should do. How to fix the mess that he had become involved in. His mother must have read his thoughts from the contemplating expression on his face. Penelope wrapped her hand around the back of Telemachus’s head and lowered his head back down to her chest.

“Fight. Fight back Telemachus.