#Sthenele

[spineless-lobster]

Trying to look up pat’s mom and finding out that he actually has five moms one of which is achilles’ older half-sister which is devastating to me not just because they’re cousins but because that means whatever twisted alternate universe troy (2004) takes place in is right

[blue-lotus333]

Mothers of Patroclus

+ How I personally see them, since theres barely any info abt them, imma take some creative liberties :p and yes, all of them are the wives of Menoetius. Idk why there’s so many different versions of Patroclus mother but..whatever

Philomela (probably the most popular woman to be seen as Patroclus’ mother). I imagine her to be a strict, disciplined and sensible woman.

Polymele, Daughter of peleus & half sister of Achilles. I imagine her to be very bubbly, generous and gentle (and mostly taking her appearance after her father ofc, also I can imagine her being VERY pissed at Achilles if she finds out that her son died bc of him)

Periopis, princess of Pherae & daughter of King Pheres. I imagine her to be compassionate & very kind

Sthenele, princess of Iolcus. I imagine her to be a bit dull, worn out and isolated.

Damocrateia, princess of Aegina, and a half-demigoddess half-Naiad daughter of Zeus & Aegina. I imagine her being charismatic, creative & expressive.

[whencyclopedia]

Patroclus

Patroclus is a figure from Greek mythology who fought in the Trojan War and was most famous for his close friendship with the Greek hero, Achilles. He followed Achilles to Troy and would ultimately die because of him and his actions.

Patroclus' story is most famously told in Homer's (c. 750 BCE) Iliad, a retelling of the great Trojan War and one of the most epic stories of all time. He is portrayed as a kind and loyal man, loved by his comrades and cherished by Achilles.

Early Life

Patroclus was the son of Menoetius, one of the Argonauts (a band of Greek heroes) and the king of Opus (according to some sources). His mother is usually listed as Polymele, Sthenele, Periopis or Philomela. When Patroclus was young, he accidentally killed a youth over a game of dice. As a result, he was exiled from Opus and sent to the court of King Peleus of Phthia to atone for his crime. It was in Phthia that he became inseparable from Achilles, King Peleus' son. Patroclus was older than Achilles and considered a good role model as he was a balanced, kind and thoughtful youth.

According to Pseudo-Apollodorus in his Bibliotheca, Patroclus was one of the young hopefuls who hoped to marry Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. After Helen had run off with Paris of Troy and war had been declared between the Greek city-states and Troy, Patroclus followed Achilles to the Trojan shores. Patroclus was caring and sensible, while Achilles was hotheaded and impatient. So it was thought that Patroclus would keep him in line and be a good influence.

Continue reading...

[lyculuscaelus]

“Medusa, Sthenele, Euryale” look nothing like ”Diomedes, Sthenelus, Euryalus”

You’re overthinking.

[tylermileslockett]

ARGONAUTICA 7: The Island of Ares Book 2 continues with the argonauts rowing to exhaustion and camping upon an island where the god Apollo, with golden curls and silver bow, suddenly stomps past , journeying out to sea. quote they build an altar, sacrifice meat, and danced in celebration of the god. The next day the row out, passing the cave of Hades near the river Acheron, where they moor and are met and entertained in the palace of king Lykos, who tells them that their abandoned comrade, Herakles, passed by previous on his labor to retrieve the girdle of Hippolyte. Here the argonaut prophet Idmon, is gorged and killed by a boar. And 2 others die to illness. They embark out and pass by an island with the recent tomb of Sthenelous, who died while returning from the expedition with Herakles against the Amazons. Persephone, queen of the underworld, sends up Sthenelous’s shade (spirit) so that the argonauts see their compatriot one last time in ghost form. The men moor the ship and pour libations and sacrifice sheep in the dead hero’s honor. Next the crew pass by the cape of the Amazons, descendants of Ares, at the Thermodon River. Eventually they come across the island of Ares, where the Stymphalian birds shoot down sharp feathers like arrows. But the men, with shields held high in defense, come ashore screaming in loud fury, scaring the birds off into the sky. After leaving the island of Ares, they pass the Caucasian mountains where they hear the screams of the titan Prometheus who is doomed to have his regenerating liver eaten out by Zeus’s giant Caucasian eagle, which they spy flying amongst the peaks. Book 2 ends with the crew finally reaching Colchis, the land where the Colchian Dragon guards the golden fleece in Ares’ sacred grove. But before they can attempt such a feat, they must find king Aites for assistance. But will the king help the argonauts, or plot to poison their intentions?

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[teatitty]

“Patroclus and Achilles were cousins” really fucking depends on who you think the mother of Patroclus was because let me tell you there’s a lot of debate around that. We know for a fact his father is Menoetius, but his mom? Either Sthenele, Periopis, Polymele, Philomela or Damocrateia

All of the above were wives of Menoetius but there’s no Definitive Answer as to who was the mother of Patroclus. Periopis was the daughter of Peres, Polymele was Achilles’ half-sister and daughter of Peleus, Sthenele the daughter of Acastus, Damocrateia was the daughter of Aegina and Zeus and Philomela’s bloodline is completely unknown!

There is only a 1 in 5 chance that Achilles and Patroclus are related to eachother so like. If you want to go the classic “its greek myth everyone was doing incest back then” sure you absolutely can but there’s also...other options, like, Right Here that you can choose from instead. Just saying

[blesscdones-blog]

do you have a review somewhere on tsoa? i'm not a big fan either but i'd like to hear your pov!

Full disclosure, I haven’t finished reading TSOA—I struggle to get past the first few chapters and I don’t feel that it’s fair for me to come up with a review when I haven’t fully dug into the text.  On the other hand, the more I think about it and the more I talk about it, the more important it seems to me to discuss why I struggle so much with the novel and why it fucking pisses me off to the extent that it does.  

I think it’s important to note that my issue doesn’t lie in it being, at its core, a published Iliad slash fic.  What did Ovid write—and Seneca and Aiskhylos and Euripides and Sophocles—if not fanfiction?  Plato published his headcanons.  The Classics are a mess and, honestly, nothing is sacred.  

My issue lies in how Madeleine Miller threw out perfectly interesting bits of lore or otherwise twisted them to construct her narrative on a foundation that was misogynistic, ableist, and biphobic.  It isn’t that I dislike the story.  I don’t care for The Dark Wife and I’m not accusing it of being built on a rotten foundation.  It certainly has its issues, but my dislike of TDW is rooted in pettiness and disinterest.  

I don’t dislike the story of TSOA.  It isn’t the story—it’s everything that surrounds it, everything that intersects with it, everything it is and chooses to be.  Forget the grammar, the changes in tense, how the narrator reports on events he wasn’t there for, the tired and trite cliches.  

It’s how Patroclus’ mother exists only to be “simple” (an implied developmental disability) and a thing of pity; she’s so unimportant that she doesn’t even merit a name or a personality of her own.  She isn’t aware of anything that goes on around her:  she doesn’t even notice pr care when her newborn is replaced by a pillow.  She smiles when she isn’t supposed to be, spills food and drink on her person.  

According to MYTHINDEX, the mother of Patroclus is most commonly known as Sthenele—a daughter of Acastus, the son of Pelias of Iolcus—but there is some mention of her under the name Periapis or Polymela/Philomela and a daughter of Peleus.  Both options provide plenty in terms of story possibilities/dynamics, or at the very least a name for the mother of Patroclus, the narrator of TSOA.  

It’s how Thetis is afforded less grace and dignity than her very rapist, who is described almost nobly in comparison.  The language used to describe her is ugly and misogynistic:  she is wily and sullen, an “old fish” with a “reluctant womb”.  She hates her husband—not because he raped her, but because his mortality is beneath her.  Her rapist is “pious” and “mild” and has a “smile-lined face”.  

The complexities of Thetis’ mythological tales are distorted to make her laughably ambitious, greedy in her desire to make Achilles immortal despite his protests.  The same Thetis that in the Iliad laments over her son’s short life and trades in her favor with Zeus for his benefit, who raised Hephaistos in infancy after he was rejected by his birth parents, who succored Dionysus in his madness, is instead cruel and utterly unmaternal, a “lesser” divinity who could only curry favor with “stronger” gods and lacking in everything noteworthy outside of shapeshifting and immortality.  

Thetis isn’t used as a source of pity for Patroclus the same way his nameless mother is, but she is a source of forced external conflict.  And lmao Miller has her coerce teenagers into having sex—essentially rape—in order to have Deidamia conceive Neoptolemus??  Because why??  I don’t mind that Miller erased Achilles’ rape of Deidamia as it happened in the Achilleid (the earliest surviving literary account that describes Achilles’ stay on Skyros iirc), but it’s fucking ridiculous that she writes a victim of rape forcing two teenagers to have sex (rape!) because she wants Achilles’ love of Patroclus to not have any internal conflict because internal conflict is for suckers, apparently. 

Sorry—I realize this post is kind of a mess and there’s still a lot I need to learn and read up on the topics at hand, but I’m fucking irritated by TSOA and I don’t care who knows.  I’d rather read Alcestis by Katherine Beutner any day of the week (and it still has its problems, but at least it’s good).  

[aphroditepandemos]

Giulio Romano - Ajax defends Patroclus's corp 1538/39 fresco  Sala di Troia, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua    

Patroclus was the son of Menoetius in Greek mythology, and best friend of the hero Achilles. His father was one of the Argonauts, while many different women have been mentioned as Patroclus' mother; Polymele, Sthenele, and Periopis.

When he was young, Patroclus had an argument with one of his friends, Clysonymus, while playing dice; in the heated argument that followed, Patroclus accidentally killed him. To evade the wrath of Clysonymus' family, Menoetius took Patroclus and they both fled to Phthia, where King Peleus reigned. There, Patroclus met Achilles with whom they formed a deep friendship, and Peleus sent both of them to be tutored by the Centaur Chiron.

Both Patroclus and Achilles were prospective suitors of Helen when she was about to get married; thus, they both took the Oath of Tyndareus, according to which all suitors of Helen would protect her and her future husband from any threat or danger. When Helen eloped with Paris, prince of Troy, Menelaus, who had married Helen, invoked the Oath of Tyndareus, thus getting the support of all previous suitors, including Patroclus and Achilles. This was the start of the Trojan War.

[tylermileslockett]

ARGONAUTICA 7: The Island of Ares

COLOR SKETCH process

Book 2 continues with the argonauts rowing to exhaustion and camping upon an island where the god Apollo, with golden curls and silver bow, suddenly stomps past , journeying out to sea. quote they build an altar, sacrifice meat, and danced in celebration of the god. The next day the row out, passing the cave of Hades near the river Acheron, where they moor and are met and entertained in the palace of king Lykos, who tells them that their abandoned comrade, Herakles, passed by previous on his labor to retrieve the girdle of Hippolyte. Here the argonaut prophet Idmon, is gorged and killed by a boar. And 2 others die to illness.

They embark out and pass by an island with the recent tomb of Sthenelous, who died while returning from the expedition with Herakles against the Amazons. Persephone, queen of the underworld, sends up Sthenelous’s shade (spirit) so that the argonauts see their compatriot one last time in ghost form. The men moor the ship and pour libations and sacrifice sheep in the dead hero’s honor.

Next the crew pass by the cape of the Amazons, descendants of Ares, at the Thermodon River. Eventually they come across the island of Ares, where the Stymphalian birds shoot down sharp feathers like arrows. But the men, with shields held high in defense, come ashore screaming in loud fury, scaring the birds off into the sky.

After leaving the island of Ares, they pass the Caucasian mountains where they hear the screams of the titan Prometheus who is doomed to have his regenerating liver eaten out by Zeus’s giant Caucasian eagle, which they spy flying amongst the peaks.

Book 2 ends with the crew finally reaching Colchis, the land where the Colchian Dragon guards the golden fleece in Ares’ sacred grove. But before they can attempt such a feat, they must find king Aites for assistance. But will the king help the argonauts, or plot to poison their intentions?

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