#and i LOVE the achaean squad

[mushyooms]

athena's favourites (they are war criminals in several countries)

[baejax-the-great]

top 5 fav things about Big Ajax?

He is big. This might seem silly, but I come from a family of very tall, broad, and strong people, and in general feel comforted by their presence. I think his physique is one reason he gets written off as stupid, unfortunately, because there is a tendency to assume big means brainless. Not really sure where that comes from, but it is one of the things that put me on the Ajax defense squad.

He's almost always depicted on defense. I just find it interesting that the second best of the Achaeans isn't out cutting everyone down, but rather shielding people or corpses or ships. You think of Ajax, and you think of a big fuck-off shield.

The tragic arc of his story. For him to finally be the best, a friend/relative had to die. And even when he was the best, it went unrecognized. There was no winning. Great stuff. Relatable.

The whole scene by the ships. We love an epic last stand in this house (even if he was eventually rescued by Patroclus).

When asking for help from Zeus, who he has rightly deduced is helping the other side, he's like, "if you are going to kill us, at least take this mist away so we can die in the light." What a prayer. What a guy. Fuck the gods.

[scrrface]

LITERATURE QUIZZES repost with your muse’s results for the following quizzes.

HOMERIC EPITHET

––– You are Tony, best of the Achaeans. In the Homeric context, “Aechaens” basically just meant “Greeks,” so you’re the best of the Greeks. Homer used this epithet to describe Agamemnon, Achilles, and Dimoedes, all of whom were apparently the best of the Greeks, despite the superlative nature of the word “best.”

FATAL FLAW

—Your BRUTAL HONESTY. You’re blunt. You’re outspoken. Frankly, you’re kind of a jerk. But you get away with it because you’re usually right and also because you’re indispensable to the major plot. But honestly? It’s going to come back to haunt you. One of these days, you’re going to be TOO honest. You’re going to refuse to lie at a critical juncture, upholding your honorable caustic truthfulness, and you’re going to pay the ultimate price for it.

LITERARY SETTING

—You got Pemberley, Mr. Darcy’s stunning country estate! This elegant mansion is replete with classy chaise lounges, tasteful decoration, natural beauty, andlarge marble statues of wealthy, gorgeous Brits. Totally ideal for a charming, Lizzy Bennet-type like yourself! The secluded woody hills are perfect for taking dates on long, romantic (un-chaperoned) strolls, and the house itself is so Instagram-worthy that even Taylor Swift (house-party hostess extraordinaire) will be jealous of you and your squad’s bash-throwing capabilities! 

GREEK MYTHOLOGY DEATH  

— If you were a figure in Greek mythology, you would be slaughtered in Odysseus’s feast room. According to myth, it took Odysseus an extra ten years to return from the Trojan War, during which time everyone just assumed he was dead. Dudes starting hanging around his feast room, hoping to marry his wife Penelope. When Odysseus finally arrived home, he snuck inside and slaughtered them all. You wouldn’t necessarily be one of the suitors—there was an innocent bard or two in there as well as the town herald—but you WOULD be super deceased.

tagged by: @daiseun ( yay thank you !!! i love doing these ) tagging: @vigcur , @pcrsonas , @infernoath 

[annastrxng]

Literature Quizzes:

Tagged by: the lovely @ofshrewsbury

Homeric Epithet: You are Anna Strong, best of the Achaeans. In the Homeric context, “Aechaens” basically just means “Greeks,” so you’re the best of the Greeks. Homer used this epithet to describe Agamemnon, Achilles, and Dimoedes, all of whom were apparently the best of the Greeks, despite the superlative nature of the word “best.”

Fatal Flaw: You got I) Fatal flaw: You’re an idealist in a cruel, callous world. You want the world to be good. Here’s the problem: it’s usually not. At best it’s subpar. At worst it’s a nightmare void, and your naiveté is simply a plot device used to emphasize this point. Your inability to accept the world’s present darkness will lead to your untimely downfall, but not before your dewy-eyed idealism and rosy visions of utopia erode away. You will become a shell of your former self. Sorry about that. Yikes

Greek Mythology Death: You got Murdered by accident, in Achilles’ armor. One day, during the Trojan War, Achilles decides to just up and quit. He’s the greatest warrior apparently ever, so this is something of an issue. You can’t bear to watch men die in battle for Achilles’ pride, so you don his armor yourself and lead his men into battle. Everyone thinks you are Achilles, and morale is high. You die, however, because somewhere in there you remember that you’re actually terrible at fighting. Silver lining: Achilles avenges your death something FIERCE. So that's something.

Literary Setting: You got Pemberley. You got Pemberley, Mr. Darcy’s stunning country estate! This elegant mansion is replete with classy chaise lounges, tasteful decoration, natural beauty, and large marble statues of wealthy, gorgeous Brits. Totally ideal for a charming, Lizzy Bennet-type like yourself! The secluded woody hills are perfect for taking dates on long, romantic (un-chaperoned) strolls, and the house itself is so Instagram-worthy that even Taylor Swift (house-party hostess extraordinaire) will be jealous of you and your squad’s bash-throwing capabilities!

Tagging: @insatiablevalor @ordinaryxgentleman @selahstrxng @softerthanthesun @sewingamerica @quietresistance @cavalrylad @thestrongdove @thccourier @brwstr @caughtbetweenatorrieandapatriot @captaindandelion @abewoodhullturncoat @virginiandelicate @veterantreasurer  @breakfastkills @bigeyedpetticoat @valiancie and anyone else who wants to do it

[wishingfornever]

1/16/2018 – No Contact:  Historical Nonsense

Current time, 3:33am.  I’m not dead.

Rather, I feel dead.  Saw the movie Alexander.  Long, long movie.  Not very well received it seems.  I enjoyed it.  A lot of historical accuracies as well as inaccuracies.  Good details, though.  A lot of nods and references here and there.  Though I wish it touched more upon the siege of Tyre.  Or any siege, really.

A couple days ago, Esther’s spectre haunted me.  In a dream.  I realized it was a dream because I was happy.  Horrible, eh? I’ll ignore that for now.  Work yesterday was terrible.  Like, so… so busy.  I felt like I could die.  So, when I say I feel dead I mean it.  New shoes.  Bad shoes, I fear.  Wore them out of necessity.

There is more.  Can’t imagine what.  My mind is like a cave, dripping and echoing.  I’m tired but I’m glad I saw the movie.  Again, surprised it was poorly received.

I like how they start off in the Battle of Gaugamela.  A lot of cuts back and forth between Alexander’s campaign and his personal life. There was a part that went too long with Shah Dariush.  Or Shahnashah or whatever.  He was an emperor.  Can’t be bothered looking up the Persian word for it.

Anyways, it lasted a little long but I have to say the Shah had very pretty eyes.  No homo.

Actually, a lot of the men were really attractive.  This is coming from a hetrosexual male.  Very handsome, mostly.  I’m not sure why.  I do appreciate how the characters were COVERED in scars.  Alexander saw A LOT of fighting.  During one of his sieges, he got stuck behind the walls by himself.  He was surrounded and killed 12 people before Macedonian forces could relieve him.  I believe he was relatively short with different colored eyes.  That’s all I can remember.

Admittedly, I’m more familiar with the names in Alexander than in Troy.  More familiar with what happens, at least.  That’s the problem with these movies, you know what’s going to happen.  Something that I found interesting and I’m not sure if it were intentional is that it seemed like the Macedonians had slight Irish accents.  However, Non-Macedonian Greeks had regular English accents. This may be because the actor who played him was Irish, but I suspect maybe it was for a different reason? I recall hearing a story about how Macedon wasn’t really that Greek.  The Persians referred to Macedonians as “Greeks with Hats.”  They saw them as Greek but they were different.  In fact, they were different enough for Alexander to almost get denied to participate in the Olympic games because he wasn’t Greek enough.

Of course, he’s a hero in Greece today.  Great Greek general, him.  So Greek.  So long as it’s AFTER he does something significant.  -,-

Greeks… what you are and who you are.  In the movie, people kept talking about how they were descended from some hero or god.  Typical, right? Ariel does something similar, I guess.  Of course, she claims to be descended from Alexander’s line.  Which… may be possible? Cousins at some point, maybe?  Idk, she may have claimed to be more closely descended.  Because Alexander’s mother was Albanian, or whatever. She was from Epirus which was basically Greek but with some Illyrian influences.  Illyria, of course, is Ancient Albania.  In fact, modern Albanian is supposed to be a more modern form of the old Illyrian language.  Pretty neat, right?  I think Angelina Jolie used an Albanian accent to reflect this which is interesting.

Now that we’re back on accents, they got a lot of shit for being Irish. But because they were sort of the outcasts of Greece, it’d be appropriate for the Macedonians to have an Irish accent while the rest of Greece has English accents.  Really, the accents shouldn’t matter too much but should be consistent.  It helps to differentiate different peoples, like I sort of mentioned.

Macedonians are a Dorian Greek people.  For those who don’t know, there are four tribes of Ancient Greeks and Dorians are one of them.  Spartans were Dorians as well.  Athenians were Ionians.  Between Athens and Macedon were Aeolians.  A bit Northwest of Sparta were the Achaeans. However, Macedonians are CLEARLY not Spartans.  Obviously.  In fact, when Gaugamela was won, Alexander sent a tribute to one of the Temples (I think Delphi which is an Aeolian city, iirc) talking about how the tribute was a gift from “Alexander, Son of Philip, and all the Greeks except the Spartans.”  They did their own thing, being boring and laconic as well as entirely overrated.

That said if Macedonians speak with Irish accents then their Dorian cousins should speak… with Scottish accents!  Ta da!  Because they’re cousins, sort of.  Like the Irish and Scottish.  Eh?  Eh?! They’re Celts, see.  And the Scottish were actually Irish settlers that mixed with the local Picts.  Super related.

The entire point, however, is for the characters to be clearly understood.  They can have American accents for all it matters, so long as when they say the Greek words they say it correctly.  And in Greek.  Maybe then say it with a Greek accent but only then.  And even then, it wouldn’t be the same MODERN Greek accent.

Foreigners who don’t speak the language of the main characters (in this case Greek) should still have accents, though.  This reflects that the language they learned to speak is different from the one they’re speaking.  This is why the emphasize certain sounds or whatever. Thus, the Persians having Iranian accents?  It might not be the BEST for clarity’s sake, but it doesn’t matter.  It’s what Alexander and his generals would have heard.  We hear from their perspectives.

Speaking of Alexander and his generals, I was disappointed that there was a lack of colors.  The shields should have at least been painted, not including the armor which was most likely also painted and designed because why not?  Regardless, each shield would have been different to a point.  At least in earlier armies.  I’m not certain about Alexander’s forces.  I heard that he paid for the arms and armor for his men.  Maybe not entirely but up to a certain point.

Still, the clothing would have been different colors at least.  Red, blue, yellow.  Common colors.  Purple, not so much.  That’s hard to get so it’s super rare historically.  Purple dye was worth more than it’s weight in gold back then.

Most everyone seemed to wear white linens.  I mean, I get it… you think of Greece, you think of white marble.  And linen.  And buttstuff. Not the point.  The point is, colors are great.  Really should have some more.

Something else that I do appreciate is that Alexander was wearing a long sleeved shirt.  As you could perhaps guess, long sleeves weren’t really a thing Greeks did.  Or… shirts, for that matter.  Really, they had this thing called chiton which is like this flat cloth that they clip on.  Super simple.  They’d also leave one shoulder bare at times.  Don’t confuse the chiton with the toga.  The toga is significantly longer.

The greeks left the right shoulder bare because they thought leaving a left shoulder bare was barbaric.  At least, when you had to cover a shoulder.  I mean, the greeks were fine with total nudity.  In fact, children existed almost entirely naked up to a certain age.  And seeing someone run through town naked was like, “Really?  Who cares?”  And if at least a bottom was worn, a bare chest wasn’t the end of the world.

Rather, the bare should was just for if you had to expose a shoulder.  Like, choose one and they chose the right one because the left is something barbarians would do.

Strangely enough, Alexander’s campaigns ended in India where some local traditions keep the right shoulder bare for different reasons. Coincidence?  Perhaps but I’m inclined to think perhaps something else is at work.  Aliens with poor fashion sense.

I was reminded of Ariel a lot during the movie.  Not because she claims to be descended from Alexander but because her internet persona tends to involve diamonds or Athena.  Athena is a big thing with her for the obvious reasons.  She loves knowledge.  And the library of Alexandria?  She is really big on that.  Just finished Assassin’s Creed Origins, she did.  Where she deals with Cleopatra, which is the third Cleopatra from Ptolemy’s lineage who is the narrator from the movie.  You know, the bimbo in the carpet, the seducer of Roman emperors.  Her.

Yeah, she’s Greek!  Interesting, eh?  Not sure how Greek as if Ptolemy took an Egyptian wife and if his son took an Egyptian wife and so on and so on.  But still, Greek.

Anyways, Ariel looks… A LOT like Angelina Jolie.  Like, a lot.  Except Angelina Jolie is slender and perhaps a bit shorter, Ariel is as tall as me and a bit less slender.  Not to say she’s fat or big boned or even thick.  Rather, she is strong.  She isn’t as slender but she doesn’t need to be.  She is like Angelina Jolie but instead of a Macedonian queen from Epirus, she were a TITAN!!!  DUN DUN DUN!!!

I told Ariel this a long time ago.  I was unsure how she’d receive it but she took it really well.  She thought Angelina Jolie was the most beautiful person on earth.  Or at least most attractive.  She’s a great actress, too.  If I were Alexander and she were my mom, then I’d want to fuck her too.  Let’s be honest.  It’s just wincest at that point.  ;) Kidding, kidding.  Though I have wanted to make a joke about how the worst part about being good looking is that your cousins are good looking but you have to say no.  :3 I do have attractive cousins, mind you.  Not just Adela.  Like, I come from a good line.  Very handsome men very beautiful women.  When I was younger, I had a crush on one of my cousins.  Then on one of my aunts.  I won’t get into it but I thought they were really pretty and I was like, “Gasp!” Lol, that sidetrack. Anyways, I like how it sort of implied that Alexander knew the wine was poisoned.  Saw the gorgon in it and still drank it.  Saying he killed himself to be with his old lover, who was very attractive.  I think it’s the Joker from Suicide Squad.  Can’t remember his name but I recall his face from American Psycho.  He was the one who thought Huey Lewis and the News were alright.  ;) The armor… oof.  From what I can tell, MOSTLY accurate with a lot of real world inspirations.  Some armors here and there were a bit “What?” but were good for the most part.  A lot of these helmets running around, but do you see the tall helmets that sort of curve forward?  It looks sort of like a bronze smurf hat.  Those are Phrygian helmets and they were VERY popular at the time. I think they look disgusting, but some can look alright.  The Phyrgian look carried on YEARS after.  Well into the Medieval Era and even during the time of Napoleon and beyond, you’d still see crests that are inspired by these old helmets.  Mostly French, of course, because they wish they were Greek for… reasons.  Can’t be that Greek, their capital was named after a Trojan.  HA!!!

Some things I didn’t like was how they referred to their own world as the “Known world.”  It should have just been “The world.” And even then…

They also referenced Carthage, Sicily, and Rome.  Um… sure, they exist. In fact, the Siege of Tyre, Carthage took in Phoenician refugees who were escaping the city.  Very profitable.  And Sicily… I mean… um…  Half of it belonged to Carthage.  The other half was Syracuse. Just say Syracuse, which was a city settled by Dorian Greeks as well.  You’re already planning to conquer Carthage, you’ll conquer Syracuse and complete Sicily.  Then the “Roman tribe”? No, Rome was CERTAINLY not a tribe at this point.  They were a city-state, very similar to Greek city state but they ran off a Republic system at this point.  And that’s a very specific city state to mention.  Why not the Etruscans or Umbrians?  Or you could say “Italians” or “Latins” or whatever.  Or mention the Greek colonies in southern Italy.

Whatever…

Something else he says is that they’re “Strong fighters.”  Compared… to who?  To Greeks?  I don’t believe they fought Greeks at this time… in fact, I’m fairly certain they are still fighting their neighbors.  Umbrians, Etruscans, Samnites, Apullians, and even some Celts.  I mean, they consolidated SOME power from neighboring Latin tribes… but they haven’t really fought any Greeks until AFTER Alexander died.

I think that was just a sort of nod to what Rome will accomplish. Personally, I think Rome is overrated.  Especially since they always seem to do REALLY poorly at the beginning of all their wars.  It’s later in the wars when they become competent enough to achieve anything.

Also, there is a scene where they’re looking at mountains in the Hindu Kush.  It’s a man’s face but the face is comprised of mountains. I was waiting for this scene because I’ve seen the movie before… however, I only remembered it as the outline of a face, screaming out in pain.  The face I saw?  Was more derpy than I remember.  Just sort of there, creeping and lurking.  Saying, “o hai wut u doin?!  Doin anithin fuuuuuuuuun?!” It’s a very annoying face which is why they went into India.  Obviously.

Jokes aside, I did enjoy the movie.  Perhaps more than Troy.  Long, though. Very long.  Could have been shortened some but… still.

Going to head to bed soon.  Before I do, Gaugamela.  The light infantry running with the horses was totally true.  That happened.  What might not have happened would be the Persians doing war cries or war chants or whatever back at the Greeks.

You see Dariush motioning silently to his men whereas Alexander barks orders.  Persian orders were relatively silent.  I remember reading somewhere that this was a stark contrast to Greeks who were always shouting because they were trying to intimidate their enemy by saying, “Yeah, I’m bad, and if you get close I’ll stick you!” Of course, you get accustomed to this.  That’s how battles work.  You know they’re just as mortal as you are.  So, when Persians invaded Greece?  War changed.  Where Greeks yelled and shouted, the Persians said nothing.  Their faces were usually covered and they were very quiet.  The comparison I heard was that they were basically like space invaders, so foreign and strange that it actually intimidated the Greeks.  It was frightening that this faceless and vast foe said nothing while you fought.  They’re nothing like the monsters you knew.  That’s what makes them scary.

Anyways, I could go on and on about the movie.  I think I’ll stop here.  I need to go to bed.  I don’t work tomorrow but I have to do dishes. It’s weird because I haven’t been here at all basically and the dishes are stacked REALLY high.  Adela… -,-

It’s fine.  She just ate more than expected.  It’s weird how quickly she goes through dishes.  Today is another day.  In a couple of days, it’ll be Esther’s birthday.  I hope it’s a good one.  I won’t message her, even though she’ll expect it.  Not even on the 20th when we met in person.

I’m out of her life.  It was easy for her.  Maybe she’ll get out of mine, too.  Good night.

[grimdarkandhandsome]

PERI’S ANGER

    I remember Peri once lost her temper with Lysandra on the dusty slopes of Olympus Mons. We were all very excited about the Troy Unbound holo that was coming out that summer. We compared officers to Ares and Athena, we stayed up late debating what-if scenarios, and we rushed back to the HMS Titan after every patrol to play the previews again. This was during the Rust Summer War, against the Machine Legion, so our missions were mostly raids on military factories. I know that campaign has some fans now, because of the kitschy banners or something, but honestly to me it was basically a lot of running. We'd pile out of the drop pod, dash down some canyon trail, fight a few robots, toss some bombs on the objective, and run back to the ship for hot cocoa. I remember it was such a relief to get the dust out of my hair in the evenings. (We didn't have full helmets on our cadet uniforms, just these stupid little Amelia Earhart things.)

    We didn't actually have mission failures that much, altho Peri died to aerolasers a few times, and Lysa died a lot to the death shredders. She said they were her nemeses. Oh and whenever the Wraith Eagle showed up we were all blasted to bits, but that wasn't our fault, Orbital Command really should have dealt with that.

    Anyway, one day during a high-altitude insertion Lysa announced that she had an idea. We craned our necks awkwardly to look at her, strapped tightly in our seats in the shaking drop pod.

    'Guys. What if,' she said with malicious delight in her eyes, 'Odysseus didn't really think of the Trojan Horse ploy at the end of the war? What if he knew the whole time, but just didn't say anything?'

    'Well,' said Shawn, 'like, why did he wait so long?'

    'Because,' Lysa revealed, 'he wanted to stay away from Ithaca, to satisfy his wanderlust! And that's why he strays so long in the Odyssey, too. I mean, if he's such an all-conquering hero, why does he spend like eight months just eating out of Calypso's palm?'

    'I thought he was eating out a different body part,' said Shawn.

    'That doesn't make any sense,' said Peri, 'the Trojans wouldn't have believed the Achaeans were really retreating unless they had already had the plague and the attack on their camp.'

    'It doesn't matter,' said Lysa, straightening her glasses, 'because the Trojans were defenders, and the Achaeans were attackers. So it's the Achaeans who could choose when to terminate the conflict.'

    'Unless the Trojans retaliated!' said Peri. 'No, in the early years, an Achaean retreat would be such an obviously foolish move. The Greeks would know the Trojans wouldn't believe the Greeks wouldn't expect a second war.'

    'Well, be that as it may,' said Lysa, probably pretending she fully understood that, 'the Trojans weren't always as perceptive as you think. How long did it take them to find out about Achilles' ankle?'

    This last point was a longstanding sore spot among us, but Lysa was saved from rebuttal because right then the drop pod hit the ground with a thump. Peri turned away, strapping on her helmet and rifle. We all jogged out the door as it hissed open, into the Martian wind. Lysa and the rest of us marched down west toward the enemy control room, while Peri scaled the ridge toward the towers.

    It was odd for us to see Peri come out of her shell as forcefully as that. Lysa complained about it while we engaged the first few sentries. The way she expected us to sympathize with her side annoyed me, and not just because of how I felt about Peri.

    'Lysa, you can't get grumpy every little time someone fails to recognize your jaded sophistication,' I said over the commlink as I circled a robot stormtrooper.     

   'I suppose when one gets to this level of lofty superiority one must expect some lesser sprits not to understand true class,' mused Lysa, powering up her electro drones.

    Part of it was that Peri loved Hector and always chose him in our tournaments, while Lysa played as Patroclus. But a bigger part was that, to Lysa, life was a canvas for self-expression. She had been planning her warrior career since she was three orbits old. Whereas to Peri life was a puzzle, and she called people who worried about little things 'lost fish'. What I mean is, Lysa's obsession with having the perfect squad mixed poorly with Peri's withdrawn personality.

    We didn't see Peri for an hour or so, but our part in the battle went great. I held my ground in the control room alone for about sixty seconds before Shawn came back with the cyber crystal. That was a big deal for me at the time. And I smashed eighteen robot soldiers, plus one robot dog. Lysa fashioned some sort of virus to make the factory's mechanical workers attack the guards, which she told us about in happy detail as we jogged away from the collapsing reactor. 

    Peri caught up with us as we exited the factory complex, matching step with us.

    'Where were you today?' asked Lysa. 'I didn't see much covering fire.'

    'I was waiting for a shot at the cyberbrain palanquin. Which I hit, actually.' Peri pushed her hair out of her eyes. 'But I thought of a reason why your Odysseus theory wouldn't work.'

    'You two are still fighting about this?'

    'We're not fighting,' smiled Lysa, 'we're debating.'

    'The reason is,' said Peri, 'that Troy Unbound isn't about exotic plot twists. Not actually. It's about memory. That's why Homer didn't write about the Horse or Odysseus, only about the rage of Achilles and the honor of Hector. Everyone loves the Trojan War because they can feel, internally, that something like that really happened in the old days.'

    'Well, I feel internally that Odysseus had things under control, and he had a plan. There's a reason, I think, that the Greek intellectual tradition is the one that survives today, and not the Trojan one.'

    Peri just stopped jogging and looked at her. 

     'What? Hurry up, don't dawdle!'

    Peri blinked. She lifted her laser rifle and, without affect, shout Lysa in the head. She crumpled instantly, an offended look on her face below a tiny, smoking entry wound. A Heavy like me could have survived that shot, but Lysa was a Light so she didn't wear much shielding. 

    'Peri!'

    'Shit! What the hell??'

    'I hope you're willing to carry her back to Reanim Deck, because I'm not going to do it.'

    'That's fine,' said Peri, picking up Lysa's ankle.

    And she dragged her body thru the dust to the rendezvous point.

    For most of us, this was basically a rare glimpse into Peri's typically sniperish personality: six weeks of silence, waiting for the appropriate moment to be bold and assertive. For me, it was a sad day that I didn't like to think about. It was the day you learn the person you're in love with is just as foolish as everyone else.