#i've been chewing on this poem for WEEKS guys its so good

[doloneia]

been consumed with thoughts about teucer lately (as usual) but especially after reading a translation of this poem (Helen, by the Greek poet Giorgos Seferis) which is basically a twist on Teucer's perspective in Euripedes' Helen where he reflects on the Trojan War and his exile from Salamis.

the entire poem is incredibly moving and i recommend everyone read through it themselves but i just want to go through some of the highlights for me that made me put my head in my hands and start rocking back and forth:

these lines... OUGH.... the way teucer is on the margins of both greek and trojan identity, how he has spent his life raised on the periphery of heroes like herakles and peleus and nestor, born to an argonaut but never truly accepted into that world like his brother, how he watches similar heroes of his generation quarrel and bleed and die, and how he is left somewhere outside that paradigm after the war.

chewing on these lines a bunch but i love how teucer is depicted with this sort of skeptical and cynical perspective towards the war, especially because he lost so much as a result. also this characterization feels so accurate to me teucer always has self-loathing out the wazoo

his sympathy for paris.... seferis' adaptation/interpretation of teucer here is so fascinating to me because before teucer considers the human cost of the war his mind thinks of paris, and how he lost something he never had in the first place.

this section is amazing for many reasons - it builds up the human cost of the war and the resulting devastation among both greeks and trojans in a way that really underscores teucer's dual heritage, and the punch of "an empty tunic - all for a helen" really cements the gut-punching moment of how fruitless the conflict becomes in scenarios where helen is transported to egypt. how trojans and greeks fought and died for a conflict based in nothing - an empty tunic.

and the break in thought after teucer's mind turns to ajax? the sudden shift to contemplating human mortality? can you hear me sobbing on the floor?

anyways i recommend this poem to any big teucer fans out there please read it you won't regret it