#city of argos

[artemlegere]

Homer Reciting His Poems in the City of Argos

Artist: Denis A. Volozan (French, 1765-1820)

Date: c. 1811

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Homer

Homer (born c. 8th century BCE) was an Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.

[vyunok-obyknovenniy]

Get ready with me to build a giant wooden horse

Did I just spend 3 days drawing that eyeliner meme? Yes. Yes, I did.

I'm very late to this year's inktober but nevertheless I'm here))) I decided to combine the official prompt list with the classicstober here, specifically prompt 15 - dagger and prompt 20 - Odysseus. I don't know, if I will draw any other prompts, but this one was fun and I hope you like it :)

The dagger was based on Mycenaean daggers in the national archeological museum in Athens and some Mycenaean dagger reproductions I saw, the scene depicted is Odysseus hunting Athena' boar. I hc this dagger was either a gift from Athena herself or from Autolycus, I haven't decided yet.

[somepinkthing]

"Hector was a good man" "diomedes was an honorable man" BZZZT WRONG. Diomedes was there to steal, burn, and wage war same as the next person. In fact, he was pretty adamant about it. Hector had no issue with the greek's actions, merely that they were directed at him—I mean look at what he wanted to do with patroclus's body, only to then cite respect for funeral rites when it was his own turn to die. Hector also owned slaves within his own city walls—people that he likely took from their homes during troy's own conquests. All that seperated him and the greek warriors was which side they were on.

The Iliad isn't a story about morally upstanding men. Sure, it has men who have honor and perform honorable acts, but these are not good samaritans. It's is a story about war and grief and the real victims of fights between so-called-honorable men and gods. The urge to find a "good guy" in this story is wasted. Hector doesn't have to be morally good just because achilles isn't. Troy didn't lose because they were more or less evil than the greeks. It all just. Is. Because of fate? Because the gods said so? Because people will always make disastrous mistakes and it will always end up biting not only them, but everyone else around them? Who knows? In the end though, doesn't it all feel so pointless in the face of the endless amounts of grief and destruction that war leaves behind? Maybe that's the whole point

[blackholepenguin]

Baxian tryna get that damn hand off:

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

The way the Crescent City males are unafraid to cry and to say I love you to each other. And how they constantly check in on each other and ask if they're ok like really ok. They are just the ultimate in non toxic masculinity. Just the most beautiful men inside and out

[mt-isnothere12]

I like to think when diomedes goes to italy, hes confused for the first time in his life. like true confusion. he’s now the leader, he makes all the calls, all the choices. he doesnt have anyone superior’s orders to follow anymore and he kind of hates it. diomedes doesnt know what to do with his life. he’s had general thoughts that go more like: leave argos -> italy(?) -> live. He’s premanently stuck in war mode. he’s in survival mode, planning for the short term needs instead of long term goals (these were also plannes why higher ups). I think, at that moment, he had to ask himself: “what do I want from my life?”

[bukashki]

Day 2/3: Duel (with an Anti-hero :D)

[dootznbootz]

[v3suvia]

On Diomedes of Argos.

Typically, when people think about their favorite heroes of the Trojan siege, they think of the likes of Achilles, or Odysseus, or even Agamemnon (or if you’re based, Hector.) And while these are all valid to whatever extent— because let’s be real, no one is choosing favorites based on who has the purest moral standpoint— they’re not exactly remembered for the noblest of reasons.

Achilles spends half of the Iliad inside his tent as a sulky burrito, and the other half slaughtering Trojans and crying over the consequences of his own actions. Odysseus is a chronic liar, and Agamemnon is Agamemnon. But at the end of the day, they’re still remembered (for better or for worse, really.)

Though, on the topic of Homeric heroes, I feel there is one who is often overlooked despite achieving great feats over the course of the epic; Diomedes of Argos. (Note: arguably the most metal of the Achaean heroes at Troy.) So, let’s rant talk about him!

Diomedes was one of the key players in Homer’s Iliad— a recount of the last year of the Trojan siege. Being summoned to fight under oath, Diomedes headed his fleet of 80 ships to Ilium. As well as having a whole chapter dedicated to how kickass he was [read more about that whole thing here], the king of Argos was also a master strategist, and extremely noble— not just in his war efforts.

For example, there are multiple points in the Iliad where he checks the leader of the Trojan expedition, Agamemnon, calling him out on his cowardice or for otherwise being an inadequate leader, [Book 9; ‘Agamemnon, I will begin by taking issue with you over your proposal… do you really believe the Greeks are the cowards and weaklings you say they are? If you for one, have set your heart on getting away, then go.’] [‘Zeus has granted you many things… He gave you the sceptre of power and the honour that comes with it, but he did not give you courage— and courage is the secret of authority.]

And one instance where he truces with the Trojan hero, Glaucus— both of them exchanging armors (on an active battlefield, btw) to honor the fact that their grandfathers had been allies, [Book 6; ‘So let us avoid each other’s spears... And let us exchange our armor so that everyone will know our grandfather’s friendship has made friends of us.’]

He is also one of the only soldiers in the war who avoids committing hubris in the entire epic, which is probably the most telling of all his virtuous traits.

Diomedes also has a proverb named after him! ‘Diomedean Necessity/Diomedean Compulsion', which basically means when someone does something for the greater good (despite the reluctance of the person in question.)

This is taken from the myth of Odysseus and Diomedes taking the wooden statue of Athena— dubbed the Palladium— from Ilium. During this heist, Odysseus tries to stab Diomedes in the back to steal the acclaim of taking the Palladium for himself.

Rather than punishing Odysseus on account of betraying his ally for personal gain, Diomedes ties him up and drags him back to camp instead, because he knew the Greeks couldn’t win the war without Odysseus’ wisdom.

Anyway, why the rant? Sure, I could sit here and convince you that he’s the coolest Greek hero, but what would I be trying to accomplish in doing so? Well, it’s simply because while every other Homeric hero is recognized and represented in modern media, Diomedes isn’t.

He wasn’t even mentioned once in Troy (2004), the film adaptation of the Iliad! Despite him being the focus of multiple chapters in the book, as well as playing a big role in the Achaean army’s over-all victory.

I’m sick of everyone (and by that, I mean most modern media) depicting him as though he was just some dude™ in the Iliad when he was actually (from a mildly biased standpoint) one of the best of the Achaeans at Troy.

TLDR; Diomedes of Argos = Based. He solos ur favs (probably. He almost killed Ajax the greater at Patroclus’ funeral games 💀)Put him in more movies/shows/games so me and the other two Diomedes fans can be happy.

[violetasteracademic]

My Maasverse ship graveyard

Listen I have had an ungodly number of ships that never even came close to sailing in the Sarah J. Maas multiverse. These were my real and genuine thoughts but this is all in fun and for anyone who wants to have a good laugh, okay? This is a safe space for our goofy lil ideas. Spoilers for everything. RIP.

Starting with the most obvious first:

Feyre and Lucien. I know I am not the only one who fell prey to assuming the first ACOTAR was a love triangle. Lucien was giving I could steal your girl energy the entire time.

Manon and Elide. Manon's who did that to you was hotter than Rowan's who did that to you. I said what I said. These are lesbian women who just happen to be in relationships with Dorian and Lorcan, men who are also lesbians. And they know their wives are in love.

Ithan and Jesiba. I was so sure this was happening. The black cat and golden retriever energy these two were giving off was insane. I still can't believe Jesiba didn't have her Taylor Swift moment and rail the captain of the sunball team before things went down the way they did.

Morrigan and Vassa. I swear on my grave, I initially thought Vassa was introduced as a love interest for Morrigan so she could have a second chance romance with a human queen. That's immediately where my mind went.

Declan and Isaiah. Did these two ever even meet? Idk. I don't think so. But I kept waiting for it to happen. I got very hyper fixated on the idea of the Commander of the 33rd legion Isaiah Tiberian, who was kind of this goody two shoes and rule follower, and Declan Emmet being a hacker and breaking the law to solve crimes. I invented this entire story in my head where Isaiah was going to need to lean on Declan and his hacking to help solve all the shit they were doing and would have to turn a blind eye to the illegality of it all, and then Feyre would make a painting for them called The Commander and the Cyber Criminal.

Tharion and Ariadne. Idk guys... I still kind of ship it? But I'm also very here for his chaotic arranged marriage. I don't know what's going on with any of it, but they had a few moments. And then Ari showed up at the end of CC3 after being MIA the whole book, after Sathia ran away to save her ex. But Hypaxia also smirked knowingly over Sathia and Tharion!? I don't know. I also ship Ariadne with Manon and Elide. I think they'll throw down in the multiverse and form a polycule with their lesbian husbands.

Fenrys with literally anyone. Get this man the love of his life.

Baxian with me. Baxian, the man, the myth, the legend that you are. When he beat down Pollux's ass for assaulting a woman at a bar I was like, oh yeah. This one's mine. I know you can never really recover from losing a mate but I think together we could really try. LET ME LOVE YOU.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Please share your ship graveyard with me, no matter how goofy or silly. We've all been there!

[lilith-13x]

i need to talk about an underrated character in the sjm universe.

BAXIAN

sometimes i think about how they took away the LAST piece of his mate that he had. they wrecked his tattoo of her writing. his MATE. that he had in his life for such a tiny period of time and will have to live without her for who knows how long, and then never find her again because danika’s soul is gone

and also he had to chew off rhun’s hand for nothing plus whatever else he experienced under sandriel

poor guy fr. i don’t think anyone talks about him enough

[shadowqueenjude]

Sorry I'm on a bit of a haterade streak today but I've got more frustrations with SJM as an author:

All of these descriptions are about either villains or POCs. "Not beautiful, but striking." Oooookkkk...interesting. Why you gotta say "not beautiful?" You could just say striking and stunning or something. But she goes out of her way to emphasize they're "not beautiful." Huh.

[hlizr50]

Another HOFAS Pikachu meme...

Beware of spoilers

[captainsophiestark]

Power Couple

Tristan Flynn x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2024!

Fandom: Crescent City

Day Twenty-One Prompt: "We've done worse."

Summary: Tristan and his SO are in the van working together to help Lidia, Ruhn, Hunt, and Baxian escape. It's the mission of a lifetime, and they can't afford to fail.

Word Count: 2,534

Category: Fluff, Humor, Angst

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

"Alright, are you two set?"

I leaned forward and picked up the radio on the dash, holding down the button to reply.

"Set."

"Good. They're on their way out now. I'll give you a signal when they clear the gates."

"Copy."

I set the radio back on the dash, then took a deep breath and started the car. A moment later, I felt a warm, familiar hand resting on my thigh.

"I heard what you said to Dec, but I feel like it's my job as your boyfriend to ask: you ready for this?"

I huffed a laugh and turned to look at Tristan Flynn, sitting in the passenger seat of the van next to me. We'd been here for the better part of an hour now, doing my least favorite part of a mission: waiting.

Our friends had been captured by the Asteri, and we'd finally figured out a way to get them back. It wasn't going to be easy, but it was a chance, and not one of us had hesitated to take it. For Tristan and I's part, we'd be providing support for our friends' getaway car. Tristan would put his Aux training to the test and provide firepower, while I'd be living up to my driving reputation behind the wheel.

If things were going according to plan, Lidia would be on her way out of the Palace of the Asteri with our friends in tow. They'd be racing through the city streets in moments, and we'd meet them there. My heart raced, mostly at the thought of everything that could go wrong, but I nodded anyway as I laid my hand on top of Tristan's.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm ready. Just... worried."

"About?"

"Something going wrong when we're still too far away to help."

I turned to face Tristan as he nodded, giving my thigh a little squeeze. We shared a small smile.

"I know how you feel. We've just gotta trust them to take care of themselves until they can get to us. And then nobody coming after us will stand a chance."

I huffed a laugh, the smile on my face growing a little more sincere. Tristan never failed to make me feel better, even in the face of ridiculous life-threatening situations that had become all too normal in the past few weeks. I shook my head.

"I can't believe we're about to go racing through the streets of the capital city as part of an insane jailbreak from the most fortified jail in the world." Tris just shrugged.

"We've done worse."

"Babe. Literally what have we done that's worse than this?"

"How about the time you came as my date to a Lord Hawthorne function and had to sit through dinner with my entire family?"

I snorted. "Okay, that was worse."

The two of us shared a smile and a little laugh, the moment fading to something slightly more sincere as we held hands, staring into each other's eyes waiting for Dec's signal. We both knew what was at stake if something went wrong today. Not just for our friends, but for each other. The Asteri were brutal, and I wasn't going to let them get their hands on my boyfriend.

The radio crackled to life. "Alright, Daybright's heading to the gate! She got everybody out, but they've already got people trying to take them out. They'll be on you in a minute, get ready to go!"

I snatched up the radio and gave Dec another "Copy" before taking the car out of park and shifting into gear. Tristan leaned over, gently grabbing my chin and pulling me in for a fast, hard kiss. He pulled back, his eyes holding mine for just a moment, his expression unusually serious.

"We've got this, sweetheart. Let's show those bastards just who they're messing with."

I nodded, heart racing in my chest, and Tristan climbed into the back of the van. I heard him getting his gun ready and moving towards the van's sliding door, ready to provide support when we met up with Lidia and the rest of our friends. I took a deep breath, getting my head in the zone.

Right on cue, I heard an engine roaring from around the corner of the alley we were hiding down. I timed my exit perfectly, tearing out onto the street and falling immediately alongside Lidia in her jeep. I nodded to Lidia as I pulled alongside her, then a little bit ahead. I heard the sliding door of the jeep open.

"Where the fuck is your hand?" Tristan shouted. I could barely make out the words over the road noise and gunfire, and frankly, I didn't really want to know who his question had been addressed to.

Even if I'd wanted to, I didn't have the extra bandwidth for it, either. A pedestrian stepped out into the street, and I had to swerve to avoid them. I popped down a side street, not exactly our planned path, but not one that would be a problem either. We ended up flanking some of the forces on Lidia's tail, and Tristan took them out one by one.

A moment later, the radio crackled to life, the next part of our plan ready to go. I took a deep breath and redoubled my focus on the road ahead of me, buildings and people flying by. We were about to burn down the Spine, starting in the Eternal City; things were going to get a little wild.

I managed to fall into line with Lidia again as we neared the end of a massive street heading straight out of the city, explosions echoing in the distance. I heard Tristan shouting again, making sure our allies knew the plan.

"We'll cover the highway. Get to the port!"

After a moment, the van door slide shut again. Tristan was climbing his way back to me, but I didn't even glance at him. My attention was otherwise occupied.

Based on Lidia's intel, Mordoc and his dreadwolves, the biggest threat to our group's success, would be coming out of the southwestern gate. Now that Tristan and I had helped with the firefight through the city, we were going to try to make some trouble for the dreadwolves.

I took a deep breath as I hit another open road, only to find the southwestern gate closing quickly ahead of me. I swore under my breath and floored it, while Tristan rolled down his window and took a few shots at the people in the gate's guard station. I grit my teeth as we neared the rapidly-closing steel. It was going to be close, but we had to make it out of this city.

"Holy shit," Tristan breathed as we squeezed through the gate, steel scraping against the roof of our car and pushing our van down to the limit of the shocks. Our back bumper hit the road as we just managed to clear the city wall, and next to me, Tristan let out a whoop. "That's right! Nice work baby!"

I laughed, unable to stop a grin at getting through our near miss. We were nowhere near out of the woods yet, though—I had a pack of dreadwolves to catch.

"How did he look?" I asked, sparing just enough attention to glance at Tristan. "Ruhn."

"Bad. But he'll survive."

I let out a little sigh of relief. I'd come to care a lot about Hunt and Baxian, too, but Ruhn had been in my life a lot longer. Almost as long as Tristan. He was like a brother, and I felt a weight ease off my chest with the knowledge that he was going to be okay.

Assuming we could all make it back to the Depth Charger alive, of course.

"Alright. Time to lap these fuckers," I said, locking back into the zone and racing down the highway ahead of us. I didn't need to look at my boyfriend to know he was grinning.

"Go get 'em, babe."

The rest of the world faded out around me as I focused on driving as fast as possible, closing distance on the dreadwolf guard ahead. We had a limited window to slow them down before we had to peel off and make our own escape, and I wanted to make the most of it.

Lo and behold, I rounded a corner and exited flat out, and the tail end of the dreadwolf pack came into view on the road ahead.

"There we go! Holy shit, I love you," Tristan said next to me. I laughed, still not taking my attention off the road.

"I'm glad you're into this. My driving scared off a couple of people before you."

"Ha. Wimps."

I smiled, working to close the gap ahead enough for Tristan to get a clear shot. We only had another few minutes before we'd need to peel off for the sub. I needed to make them count.

About thirty seconds later, we were in reasonable range for Tristan to do his part. He popped out of the sunroof, bracing himself on the seat as he held his rifle up to his shoulder. I did my best to keep the car steady and in a straight line, and a moment later, I heard the bang of Tristan firing above me.

I kept my eyes on the cars ahead. Mordoc was running with a convoy of four cars, but if we could even take out one of them, it might make the difference for our friends' getaway.

Right on cue, I saw both back tires blow on the car closest to us. I moved to one side so we could pass them, and Tristan ducked down to avoid a few errant bullets as we sped by. Luckily for us, as planned, Mordoc had decided Lidia and our friends were the bigger prize. He didn't even slow down, although he couldn't have missed the loss of one of his cars.

"Time?" Tristan shouted down to me over the wind. I screamed back up at him to make sure he could hear me over the noise outside the car.

"Our turn's coming up fast! This is your last shot, so make it count and then get back in here!"

Tristan didn't respond. We were a little closer than we'd been to the remainder of the dreadwolf pack, and we'd taken out one of the four cars. Mordoc was obviously still untouched in the lead, but he'd at least have fewer numbers trying to catch up to Lidia.

I heard Tristan's gun fire two more times, and the back tires of the third car exploded. Unlike the first car, this one knew they were under fire and started swerving the moment their back end hit the road. They were trying to take Tristan and I out with them.

Tristan ducked back into the car, throwing his seatbelt on and closing the sunroof. And not a moment too soon.

I managed to control the car well enough to avoid the rapidly-slowing dreadwolf car, still chasing Mordoc to put distance between us and the angry dreadwolves behind us. The second car, the only one left besides the lead car with Mordoc, started slowing down like they wanted to do something about Tristan and I. But they were too late.

I kept up our speed until a few hundred meters before a side road, which Mordoc's cars had already passed. Then, I slammed on the breaks, slowing us down as much as possible before lifting off the breaks and turning into the corner. The tires on the van squealed, and I swear we almost went up on two wheels, but I didn't let it slow me down. I got back on the gas as we cleared the apex, tearing off down our escape road at mach 10.

"Are they following us?" I called over to Tristan. The road we'd turned onto was much narrower, and with trees and wildlife on either side, I didn't want to risk taking my eyes off the road to look in my mirrors if I didn't have to.

"No," came Tristan's reply after a moment. "If they were following us, they'd be in our mirrors already."

I let out a long breath and leaned back in the seat, relaxing my death grip on the steering wheel just a little. I kept our speed up, but now it was normal speed, not racecar speed.

"Nice work, babe," said Tristan. He reached over to put a hand on my thigh again, giving it a little squeeze. "That was great work."

"You too, Tris. Best marksman I've ever seen."

I spared a second to glance over at my boyfriend, and I found him grinning at me, a wild look in his eyes. I smiled back. All I wanted to do was lean over and kiss him, but technically, we weren't quite out of the woods yet.

Tristan kept an eye on the mirrors and had his gun at the ready as I refocused on the road. It felt like an eternity, but finally, we made it to one of the Depth Charger's launches which would be taking us and our van back to the ship.

When we pushed off of shore, out into the ocean, I took my hands of the wheel and my feet off the pedals for the first time in way too long. I flopped over sideways, resting my head on Tristan's shoulder.

"Great work, sweetheart," he said quietly, rubbing small circles against my thigh. "Seriously. That was amazing."

"Thanks. Have you- I wasn't paying attention to the radio. Did Dec call with any updates?"

Tristan shook his head. "Not yet. But we gave them a good opening. And they're all strong as hell."

"Yeah."

We fell silent for a moment after that. I couldn't help the seed of worry burrowing into my brain, spinning out with a thousand different scenarios of ways our rescue may have gone wrong. Tristan, my wonderful boyfriend, knew me well enough to notice.

"They're okay," he said, moving to wrap an arm around my shoulders and squeezing me against his side. "I'm sure they are. They made it, and we're gonna hug the shit out of them the minute we get back to the ship."

"...How can you be so confident? Mordoc and one of his other cars got away from us. What if-"

"Nope. We're not doing what ifs. I know they made it, because they're almost as badass and capable as we are. There's no way that shithead and his attack dogs managed to stop them."

I snorted, burying my head into Tristan's chest to stifle a further laugh. Nobody else could lift me out of a funk like he could.

The two of us stayed like that, sharing a rare moment of quiet together, until the Depth Charger came into view. I sighed.

"Thanks, Tris. Now come on, we've got friends to check on."

"Can't wait until they're all healthy again and we can compare stories. We did some badass stuff out there, I don't want anybody forgetting it."

"Assuming our friends are fine, and we get the happy ending we're aiming for? I'm not letting anybody forget the time we ran down the dreadwolves and took out half their pack in a matter of minutes. Hunt and Bryce might be the magical chosen ones or whatever, but as far as I'm concerned, we're the best power couple of them all."

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989 @space-helen @misshale21

Maasverse Taglist: @lilah-asteria

[onemustalwaysbecarefulofbooks]

All I'm gonna say is. . .finding it pretty fucking unfair that not only can Cassian have his wings "shredded", Hunt and Baxian can have theirs sawed off all together and be *good as new* in a few short days but for the Illyrian females, two little snips and it's game over forever.

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Ok but Bryce is actually really funny here lmao