#aasachp7

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Alopeke: A deme of the city of Athens. Home to several notable Greeks, including a particularly sexy one apparently.

Comments:

WE MADE IT! Thank you to everyone and your support and patience, this chapter was a LONG time - literal years! - in the works and completing it is a major artistic, academic, AND personal hurdle for me. I can’t express how important getting this far was for me.

I’m excited about the upcoming chapter, which I’m still roughing out the broad strokes of. We still won’t be launching directly into the Great War, let’s take a moment to stroll around and appreciate the peak of the Classical world for a bit longer... Keep checking back for more details! In the mean time, please reblog AaSA, share it with your friends and followers so I can get some more exposure! :3

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Thrasybulus of Miletus: The wheat-stalk-removing tyrant in question, as the anecdote was recorded by Herodotus (5.92f).

Periander: The second tyrant of Corinth and one of the Seven Sages, credited with making Corinth prosperous in the 7th/6th century BCE. We’re not sure if he’s a fair and just dude or a wicked nasty dude, but Herodotus seems to think he took a cue from our friend Thrasybulus above. 

Comments:

I realized I haven’t mentioned Corinth by name in ages haha... oops

Sparta’s lifestyle heavily emphasizes cunning and trickery, at least according to the stereotypes of their enemies anyway. Corinth is really digging into him for doing little to nothing in the first Peloponnesian War (and really, he’s been getting away with doing nothing for decades now).

The Persian archer on the coin is probably Artaxerxes I or something, who is currently Persian king. 

It was Persian policy to keep their own culture - that is, the culture of the royal court - under wraps when dealing with their subjects; evidence of Persian decrees in Egypt, for example, heavily emphasize an Egyptian perspective and the Persian language is rarely used in favour of Aramaic, the lingua franca of the day. Like the Romans would be after them, the Persians were scary good at absorbing aspects of their subject’s cultures to keep them happy and under control. They weren’t, however, above a little historical revisionism when it suited them, of course. After all, you can still think yourself an honest person if you think yourself to be justified in your actions...

I also read an article once ages ago that it seems to be a Thing to depict Persians holding cups with three fingers, idk why, but it’s something that stuck with me.

corinth: how do u no all the greek things

persia: i LITERALLY JUST SAID I LIVE RIGHT NEXT TO ASIA MINOR, IT USED TO BE ASIA MINE.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Paradise Garden: A garden enclosed by walls, popular in Achaemenid Persia, which grew to adopt connotations with later conceptions of “paradise”, such as the Garden of Eden in Genesis.

Comments:

in order to draw corinths face i just channeled all my anxiety about all the assignments that are due immediately after reading week. 

one page left, folks!

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Eumenides: The final play in the Oresteia, Eumenides situates the solution to Orestes’ murder of Clytemnestra in the court of Athens, where Apollo and Athena preside alongside the people of Athens. Apollo argues that avenging Agamemnon’s murder was more relevant and important and that -logically- women barely have any role in child bearing compared to men anyway (???) and thus matricide is ok because reasons and Orestes should be absolved of his crime. Athena, being the logical goddess of wisdom and therefore very masculine-minded, concedes to this argument after Apollo points out that she popped out of her dad’s head that one time (???????).  

Comments:

It’s time for Persia to make his sales pitch.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Iphigenia: Agamemnon’s eldest daughter, whom he sacrificed to Artemis in order to appease her so that the Greeks could sail to Troy. Also the main character of two plays by Euripides (that I would talk your ear off about if I could).

Atreus: The grandson of Tantalus and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, subject of a family curse that just keeps giving and giving. 

Comments:

HI i know lots of people have lots to say re: agamemnon as a character and its really interesting and I just wanted to remind everyone that yeah there were different interpretations because yahoo literature and there are a few posts i’ve read from the classics fandom that have really opened up avenues of thought about these 3000 year old characters that are really complex and important to me, thanks.

also i totally used Iphigenia at Aulis and Among the Taurians in my thesis because i love... euripides... so much :D

Just a refresh: Megara is a “daughter city” of Corinth that has been persuaded into the Athenian sphere of influence, much to Corinth’s chagrin. Ionia (Miletus) is in effect a “daughter” of Athens (though I have introduced them as uncle/niece) - she was “rescued” by him after being briefly under Persian control and is now feeling a bit chafed as Athens himself now is using inspiration from Persia to become the head of his own empire. 

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Troy: A famous city in Asia Minor (now Turkey) also known as Ilion, the stage of the Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad. According to legend, the Greeks took ten years to siege the mighty city and were finally able to do so with the aid of the Trojan Horse.

The Iliad: One of the two quintessential Greek epics attributed to Homer and the closest Greek religion might get to a text of biblical proportions. Knowing and reciting Homeric epic was the basis of education across the Greek world. The Iliad describes the Trojan War, the Odyssey and here the Oresteia describes the fall out afterwards.

Comments:

Sparta is passionate about three things: austerity, superstition, and anything involving music and oral recitation Especially The Poet. If he were less disciplined and spoke more, he would be That Guy who is constantly quoting The Poet... but that role might fall to Athens... maybe Delphi or Olympia?

Athens is represented by both the chorus and in part Agamemnon in the play in the sense that he represents - in his own mind - both the citizenry as a whole and as a great compassionate leader who was reduced to these actions by circumstance.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Oresteia: A trilogy of Greek tragedy by Aeschylus, one of the oldest Athenian playwrights. By the time it would have been performed here, it was probably already a classic. This is the opening third of the plays, Agamemnon, which centers around the murder of the titular character by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus upon Agamemnon’s return to Argos from the Trojan War. The other body in the opening panel is Cassandra, a priestess fated never to have her prophecies believed whom Agamemnon brought home as a spoil of war.

Comments:

I didn’t want to hit you over the head with the character parallels, but I hope they’re visible all the same. At least, these are character parallels from Athens’ point of view, anyway!

In an ideal world I would have provided my own translation, but until that day is realized, this version is translated by Morshead and is available in its entirety at the Internet Classics Archive.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

The Long Walls: The walls that connected Athens to its harbour at Piraeus. It was thought by the Athenians that the walls were part of a great defense against Persia, while the Spartans only saw the risks of Persia taking over such an easily defensible fortress. 

Xenia: Ancient Greek rules and customs surrounding hospitality and the relationship between guests and hosts. This was something Zeus himself presided over, and violations were taken extremely seriously. A classic example of a violation is almost every instance in the Odyssey, think of the guest-host relationship between Odysseus and Polyphemus the cyclops!

Comments:

I was actually going to have Ionia serving the wine, but I thought... Athens is hyper vigilant about any female relatives in his house and would probably prefer to keep her out of sight. 

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Updates on Saturdays! Hopefully!

Comments:

Chapter six of Athens and Sparta Adventures was posted way back in 2012, when I was in the midst of my undergraduate degree in Classics. Since then, I graduated as a Classics Major with distinction and finished my Masters Thesis in Ancient Societies and Cultures. I have battled a lot of anxiety and negative feelings and hopelessness that entangled itself with my studies and with my artwork, and so many years later I am proud to present chapter seven.

This chapter is less of a blow by blow account of battles and events as my previous works were, so if you were hoping to launch in to the Great Peloponnesian War I apologize. Now, let us take this intermission of events - and also this intermission of my intermission hiatus - to enjoy a day in the life of Athens and Sparta (and Corinth too!)

A side note: I am currently in a weird living situation that prevents me from accessing my personal collection of books and notes from many of my classes for a period of at least two more years. As a result, things may be a bit... sloppier than they would have been when i was more vigilant about these things (and trying to pass my exams!) I do, however, have access to one of the best libraries in the country for 8 months a year - I just need to be able to balance my research during that time with my /actual/ school work. :’)

I did my thesis on masks - not explicitly dramatic masks, but my research did overlap a bit here and there with ancient greek theatre, so this chapter is a nod to that.

What can you expect in this chapter? We get some development of a backstory to Athens and Sparta’s relationship in the Archaic period, some current events and popular literature, there’s tension, there’s drama, there’s plotting, there’s murder, there’s romance, there’s food and drink and banter - there’s hopefully a little sprinkling of everything!

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Harmodius and Aristogeiton: The two lovers who became known as the Tyrannicides when they killed reigning tyrant Hipparchus of Athens. Effectively democracy in Athens was founded in part due to Spartan aid and in part due to a couple of gays who were mad about getting hit on.

Hippias: Remember that slimy little backstabber and brother of tyrant Hipparchus from chapter one? Dude who ran off to Persia to get Darius on Greece’s case? Throwback.

Comments:

In some cases this page is quite rushed because I’m falling behind schedule but also... I’m quite pleased. I tried to reincorporate the colour schemes of all the earlier chapters of AaSA and I hope you enjoy the nostalgia and the “catch up” from all that time I was unable to work on it.

- Athens laughing in the last panel is supposed to be reminiscent of a gorgon

- Athens and Sparta continue to have a complicated relationship

- Sparta keeps going to Delphi over and over because he has a lot of questions but he’s also too superstitious to question the oracle (and also because he’s a bit stupid)

- Yes Sparta’s actually at home in bed with his waifu for once lmao

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Satrap: a governor of a province of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Persian empires

Anatolia: “Where the Sun Rises”, a word the Greeks used to describe what is now Turkey. The Ionian Greeks, who traced their lineage to Athens, lived on the western coast.

Comments:

wait

what

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 7: Thirty Years of Peace

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Quick Ref:

Laconia: The region of Greece that Sparta is situated in, also known as Lacadaemonia. The semi-mythical founder Lacadaemon gave his name to the territory and the name of his wife to Sparta. In this comic, likewise, Laconia is portrayed as Sparta’s wife and represents both Spartan women and perioikoi.

Herma: A statue sacred to Hermes that originated as piles of stones alongside roads and other locations of transitions. These statues marked boundaries and warded off evil, offering protection to travelers. Usually, these statues depicted a male head and phallus.

Comments:

The colour scheme is changing to reflect the fact that we are back in the main storyline, not negligence on my part!

I’m sorry for any bad star wars references you may or may not find