#aasachp9

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 2

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Quick Ref:

The Libation Bearers: The second play in Aeschylus' Oresteia, which describes the fallout in the house of Atreus after Clytemnestra's murder of Agamemnon. Siblings Electra and Orestes reunite and plot vengeance against their mother, fearing that she will doom them to slavery or death.

The Eumenides: The third and final play in the Oresteia, which follows Orestes being chased by the Furies after murdering his mother Clytemnestra. Orestes eventually flees to Athens, where he stands trial. The quotes on this page are from the last lines of the play, when the Furies are welcomed into Athens to be worshipped as the Eumenides, or the "Kindly Ones".

Comments:

Don't worry, it was all a dream! Say, now that I think of it, I keep torturing characters with scary dreams of Athens. Is it foreshadowing? I guess yes and no...

There's also a reference here to a conversation Corinth had with Persia in Chapter 7 as well.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers

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Updates Saturdays (ideally) :)

It's been a while! Welcome back to the thirty years of peace (continued...)

Comments:

By the time this is posted, I will be out of town on vacation until the end of the month. I decided to risk posting this even though I only have a few pages ready to roll in order to motivate me to finish the chapter, so I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you like and if you have speculations or questions etc etc, I'm always glad to hear from readers to see if I'm hitting the mark (or if you have interpretations that never even occurred to me)

Since I'm out of town, I apologize if I don't edit the "previous" / "next" page links in a timely manner. If I haven't done this by October, definitely bug me about it :)

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 6

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Quick Ref:

Didyma: While Megara consulted the oracle at Delphi, Miletus consulted the oracle at Didyma, and the two seemed to act in concert with each other somewhat. The name literally means "twins" as the sanctuaries to Artemis and Apollo were both located there.

Comments:

me drawing the worst pegasus ever last page "hope this isnt fully visible in subsequent pages" [it was]

This brings us to the "end" of the first arc of this chapter, but don't worry, we will still be hearing more about Corinth and Megara's uneasy life together.

This page was partially born out of a sense of frustration that @en-theos has talked about extensively regarding the disproportionate focus in retellings of stories such as the Persephone myth on the daughter as some kind of rebellious free spirit fighting her overbearing mother rather than a story of mutual grief/loss/struggle between mother and daughter.

I haven't read a whole lot of adaptations of such things to be honest, and one of the few that I really think gets it of the ones I have read is actually a chapter in Greek Myths Western Style by Barbara McBride-Smith, which is entirely told from Demeter's perspective, haha.

This all said, I don't want to impact how you read this story by saying that. It's obviously still a totally valid reading to take Megara's side, or Corinth's side, or both their sides, it all depends on you and your experience and your reading! :)

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 8

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Quick Ref:

Amazons: Mythical warrior women associated with Asia Minor. While there are many ideas about the origin of the word "amazon", the Greek folk etymology was "a" or "without" and "mazos" (mastos) "breast", linked with the idea that Amazons would remove their right breast in order to facilitate archery.

Perserschutt: The German archaeological term for the Persian dump, or the debris from the Achaemenid sacking of the Athenian acropolis in 480 BCE. This debris was cleared from the acropolis before the Parthenon and other structures were built or rebuilt.

Athena Promachos: "Athena who fights on the front line", an aspect of Athena portrayed in a gigantic bronze sculpture on the acropolis. According to Pausanias, the top of her helmet and spear could be seen by sailors approaching the city from Attica or Sounion. You'd think that if it could be seen that far away, that surely Aegina might see a glimpse of it too, hahaha.

Comments:

Don't you love when your favourite uncle visits and has a completely normal conversation that doesn't get weird?? What do you mean that doesn't happen??

Athens is referring to the 480 BC Persian sacking of the acropolis, which happened back in Chapter 4 and was left in ruins until Chapter 6 when Pericles puts the plans for reconstruction in Athens' hands. In archaeology, 480 is a great terminus post/ante quem in the record since we can see that layer of destruction and a pretty dramatic shift in artistic styles on the acropolis before and after. The poor archaic kouros sculpture that Athens is tossing off a cliff made way for a more classical style that used a more natural and relaxed contrapposto posing. You can read more about Greek sculpture in a hetalia comic i did a zillion years ago.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 7

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Quick Ref:

Warp-weighted loom: A contraption that helped keep strings taut for weaving, and we even find some bronze age weights in the archaeological record from none ofther than Miletus! Neat!

Against Simon: A speech written by Lysias for a court case that tries to outline the egregious deeds committed by the speaker's opponent. Simon was the kind of guy who would burst into the women's quarters of a house that wasn't his, the nerve! And them being so proper they didn't use other parts of the house too!

Comments:

drawing establishing shots is always a struggle. imagine... birds eye view of miletus... very organize much street. wow.

This page is dedicated to anyone who's ever had a relative call them from the next room and then respond with silence when you yell back "WHAT??"

The flashback is a reference to this page of chapter 6, and there's going to be a few more flashbacks upcoming because I'm trying to tie this chapter in to previous ones where I can so that I don't feel like I'm going totally off the rails.

The line in Greek (οὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἄλυξις, οὔ, ξένοι, χρόνον πλέω.) that she utters under her breath is yet another quote from Aeschylus' Agamemnon. It's the line that Cassandra speaks to the chorus before walking into the house of Atretus after Agamemnon, knowing she will be murdered when she does. Smyth's translation is "There is no escape; no, my friends, there is none any more."

Yes, yes, blorbo is back :) enjoy his... that...ness.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 9

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Quick Ref:

Libation: One of the most basic practices in Greek Religion, pouring a libation was often accompanied with a prayer and performed daily, often in the morning or in the evening. In this case, Athens is pouring wine, but a libation could be other types of liquid or mixtures such as milk or blood if the situation called for it.

Patera: or phiale, a shallow bowl for pouring a libation. This one is being emptied on the ground, which was typical for cthonic deities. Athens has a particular preoccupation with his own cthonicness, so I feel like it wouldn't be weird for him to invoke Athena as a cthonic deity... but maybe he's talking to Demeter?

Comments:

The Greek should just read "Alas! Goddess!"

Several references to old chapters here, which were super fun to draw. The panel with Sparta and Corinth is from chapter 3 when Athens is trying to rally the Greek poleis against Persia; the panel with Sparta vehemently trying to avoid eye contact is from chapter 5 when Athens showed up to help against the Messenian revolt, and the final panel with Sparta and Athens facing off is from chapter 6 during the first Peloponnesian War.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 11

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Quick Ref:

Erectheus: The mytho-historical founder and first king of Athens. He was the judge in the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the city's favour. Since he was (through a bizarre series of events) born from Gaia, there's a lot of depictions of him popping out of the ground. This lent credibility to Athens' "cthonic" origins, since Athenians claimed to have descended from him and not immigrated from elsewhere.

Women in Athens: While women were not able to vote in Athenian democracies, they did have their own recognition of "citizenship" under Periclean law. Women were barred from public life largely due to the belief that they were unable to control themselves or their appetites.

Comments:

Okay okay so generally we do see people reclining while they're eating but this is a bit more informal, haha. And there's hot lentil soup (fakes) that would be a disaster to spill on a nice couch!

The Greek reads "Now it is time to sleep" and "Go on, kid!"

(does he realize that there's been so much wine this chapter specifically because he's hard to deal with)

This is (mostly) the end of Athens' arc in this chapter. I think Miletus has pieced together something about his current situation...

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 10

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Quick Ref:

Ostracism: The Athenian practice of expelling a citizen of the city for ten years by democratic vote. The practice is so named because ostraka, potsherds, were inscribed with the name of the desired exile, collected and counted.

Aspasia: A metic woman from Miletus that became the consort of the Athenian statesman Pericles, and was subsequently one of the most famous women in 5th century Greece. She was possibly a hetaira (a high class courtesan), but we have to take that assumption (and any others from Athens) with a grain of salt since our sources for that claim are from political comedy.

Comments:

This sequence is inspired by reading Women in Athenian Law and Life by Robert Just after picking it up from a used bookstore and having it on my shelf for years and years, hahaha.

Miletus is circling the issue, but there's a bit more to uncover. It's a tough time to be the personified demos in a democracy...

The flashback is from this page of chapter 6.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 3

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Quick Ref:

Acrocorinth: That biiiiig rock on the horizon looking southwest from the gulf of Corinth is one of the most geographically defensible heights in Greece's history over the centuries. It is also the source of the Pirene spring that provides fresh water to Corinth.

Comments:

Had a tricky time thinking about how long Corinth's hair actually is, I so rarely draw it loose!

I recently found out that Megara and Miletus have a relationship that goes back a long time, all the way to the 7th/6th century BCE, so I wanted to frame this chapter around them. Both are colonies of Dorian Corinth and Ionian Athens respectively.

Megara fought a war of independence with Corinth at a very young age around the beginning of the 7th century BCE or so, so she's adjusting to spending time with her mother city again.

I guess Athens isn't the only one who calls Miletus "Melitta" (honeybee)?

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 12

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Quick Ref:

Black Soup: The famous Spartan soup made of boiled pork, blood, vinegar, and salt. It typically comes up in comedies or criticisms of "unsophisticated" Spartan dining and cuisine.

Tyrtaeus: A Spartan elegiac poet from around the 7th century BC who was renowned for his martial songs. This is J.M. Edmods' translation of a fragment (CURFRAG.tlg-0266.7)

Comments:

ok ok so I'm terrible at taking hiatuses when I say I'm going to, but this quarter of the chapter is going to get us through the last full week of December and then for real I will start my hiatus proper and fix up the last quarter! :) promise

I've had this scene in my head for eons, basically since I wrote chapter 7 if not before that. I struggled a lot with thinking about how to draw Persia holding court or a banquet or breakfast or anything, and just decided to go for it.

And for the first time in ages we get a little glimpse of Assyria and Babylonia, who we haven't seen since Assyria's cameo in chapter 2! While she was mentioned by name on that page, I don't even think Babylonia has appeared once in AaSA before this point, even though she's had a design for as long as AaSA has been a comic. They're just here to hang out judgementally, haha.

(On a related note, is it a bit weird for Sardis to be serving breakfast in his own house...? lol)

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 4

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Quick Ref:

Hydria: A ceramic (or bronze) water jar. It ain't gonna fill itself!

Comments:

Why is she writing on the roof? Uh... why not? Gotta keep things spicy.

Corinth is totally hip with the kids she knows all about normal mother-daughter activities, definitely. She fills her own water all the time, toooootally...

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 5

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Quick Ref:

Epidamnos: Although not mentioned by name here, Epidamnos was the colony co-founded by Corinth and her colony, Corcyra that would become a point of contention between the two. Today, the site is in Durrës in modern Albania.

Chalcedon: One of Megara's early colonies in Asia Minor which would get tossed around between Persia, Sparta and Athens quite a bit.

Byzantium: Another of Megara's early colonies located directly across from Chalcedon, although you may know it better as Istanbul was Constantinople now it's Istanbul not Constantinople been a long time gone, Constantinople~ (and hey, the song is Canadian!)

Comments:

The wall Megara is referring to was first proposed allllll the way back in chapter 3. Corinth eventually did build her own long walls to protect her harbour, similar to Athens' long walls to Piraeus.

The "since you are so known for doing that" snipe is a reference to the stereotype that Megarians were somewhat two-faced and likely to go back on their word (though, this could very likely be an Athenian sentiment).

Megara founded her colonies Chalcedon and Byzantium shortly after fighting a war of independence with Corinth in the 7th century BCE. "Little Meg" refers to Megara Hyblaea on the island of Sicily, which had been destroyed by Syracuse (one of Corinth's colonies) a few years before Athens was razed by the Persians in the early 5th century BCE.

[athensandspartaadventures]

Athens and Sparta Adventures: Chapter 9: Libation Bearers pg. 14

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The Persians: A tragedy by Aeschylus and the only surviving part of a trilogy. The play centres around the Persian queen Atossa waiting for news of Xerxes' campaign against Greece. Darius' ghost appears. It's a whole thing.

Promanteia: The privilege of consulting the oracle at Delphi before others, which could be very important during urgent political matters. People came from all over the Greek world to consult the pythia, so the line was probably pretty long!

Comments:

Since I've been revisiting Greece as a character, I've been thinking about her relationship with the others. I think although they haven't interacted in AaSA really, that Sparta just kind of acts on her behalf without actually interacting with her or consulting her.

Also, this may be the most insight into Sparta's thoughts and motivations that I've attempted to portray so far! Haha.