#only for agamemnon to win the war and then GET FUCKED AND DIE for being a dick

[equalseleventhirds]

achilles and jon parallels (on the assumption of annabelle as odysseus, obvs) (and tbh mostly focused on Jon In The Apocalypse):

literal fucking godlike power/invulnerability (with perhaps? one fatal weakness?)

marked...... when young........... by the gods.............

achilles trying to avoid the trojan war and being tricked (by odysseus) into revealing himself: jon pretending he doesn't believe in the supernatural until jane prentiss's attack (hastened by a spider) forces him to admit it

the greeks were prophesized to lose troy if they didn't have achilles, the web's plan (and also jonah's plan) Requires Jon

the fucking smiting, achilles could NOT let a wrong go unavenged

odysseus and achilles are on the same side but also were opposites and fought a lot, but also odysseus gave achilles actual good advice and sometimes made him stop with the fighting to do a smarter plan (in which i continue to hold out hope abt annabelle........ but also she did give good advice. also told him he was responsible for eating trauma so.)

[pinelife3]

The Silence of the Girls

Pat Barker’s newish (August 2018) book The Silence of the Girls (TSOTG) recounts the final months of the Trojan War, as told by a slave woman. The obvious companion piece to TSOTG, and the key text Barker is responding to, is The Iliad, but Barker doesn’t pull out the way Homer did:

The Iliad only covers a few weeks in the last year of the war and does not include the famous Trojan horse or the actual defeat of Troy: at a high level, The Iliad covers Agamemnon’s lady troubles, the plague, Achilles’ sulking and decision not to fight, the death of Patroclus, Achilles’ return to battle, the death of Hector, the abuse of Hector’s body and Priam’s visit to Achilles.

TSOTG covers these events (also starting in media res - more on that later) from the perspective of Briseis. Our protagonist, formerly the wife of a king, was taken during the sacking of a city neighbouring Troy and was given to Achilles as a prize - like all of the women in the Greek camp, she is a slave. Barker and Briseis continue on after the burial of Hector to include the fall of Troy (no mention of the horse though...) and the rape and destruction which followed including the fate of Astyanax, the Trojan women being handed out as prizes, and the Greeks eventually setting off to return home.

I mention the famous events from the Trojan War above, but in TSOTG most of these happen off screen (out of our protagonist’s line of sight) and are reported to us as gossip spreading around the Greek camp. The reader is stuck in the camp with the women and doesn’t see any of the excitement and action on the battlefield (except for when Briseis climbs on the Myrmidon ships to see the battlefield in the distance). The reader is also privy to a lot of ‘girl talk’ amongst the women as they discus their experiences with the Greek soldiers: who’s pregnant, who’s beloved, who’s in favour. So despite hitting the same broad plot points, we are kept away from the iconic set pieces of the war, and instead get a tour through the backrooms where women do laundry, pray, and heal the injured soldiers. 

When we studied Wide Sargasso Sea in high school, it became part of an interesting conversation on high-lit fan fiction: Jeans Rhys reveals the mysterious mad woman in Rochester’s attic, and she shows us how he drove her mad. More than a hundred years after Jane Eyre was published, Rhys, a Dominican author, chose to get into it with one of the stodgiest pieces of English literature out there. She introduced new themes of colonialism and undermined Rochester as the Byronic hero. I don’t think anyone will read Barker’s text that way - Homer’s works and the Bible are so canonical that referencing or interacting with them feels like it doesn’t count as fan fiction (has anyone ever argued that Paradise Lost was fan fic?). Because Barker is a serious author with a Booker Prize on her shelf, they call TSOTG a ‘retelling’ rather than fan fic, but what is more fan fic than recounting a famous story from another character’s perspective? 

For reference: Stephanie Meyer has done this twice to her own novels. She retold Twilight from Edward’s POV in Midnight Sun and wrote a gender flipped version of Twilight called Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined. From Wikipedia, it seems like a pretty straight-forward find and replace job: Life and Death tells the story of 16 year old Beaufort Swan who moves from Arizona to Washington to live with his dad - on his first day at school, he meets the beautiful and mysterious Edythe Cullen... 

^^ It’s fun to laugh at Twilight but remember this: Bon Iver recorded a song for the soundtrack. The New Moon soundtrack also featured Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear and a bunch of other bands with legitimate indie credibility (Pitchfork still gave it a 5.4) - why did they agree to be on this soundtrack? They must be getting approached for this kind of work all the time and New Moon’s budget was not huge - only $50 million so it’s not like they would have been offering obscene cash. Probably a mystery for another time...

Most of Barker’s works deal with war in some capacity. The only other book of hers which I’ve read is Regeneration. In that book, Barker riffs on historical figures, places, events, and literary works as she explores the impacts of WWI on returning English soldiers suffering PTSD. There are a lot of complicated ideas moving around and bumping up against each other - it’s like she’s playing a 20 string guitar or jamming out on a 40 piece drum kit or something: she’s just super masterful and it’s a good read but also interesting to look at how she achieved it technically. It’s a super satisfying book to explore and think about and probably my favourite war book (maybe tied with Slaughterhouse 5).

In TSOTG, she’s still interested in war, but now she’s looking more closely at the impacts of war on women. In a way, TSOTG seems kind of blunt and stupid in its handling of war compared to Regeneration. Barker is so focused on proving that women had it bad during the war and trying to deromanticise the Greek warriors, that she depicts all the men (except Patroclus and Achilles) as childish brutes: they’re capricious and proud, they’re rough and inconsiderate, they take offence easily, they eat messily and they drink too much. We never see them in action on the battlefield, so the one thing they’re good at is hidden from us: we don’t get to admire their magnificence but when they die, the women make fun of their shriveled cocks. Of course, we see this through Briseis’ biased eyes (fair enough given her situation), but what she reports of their behaviour is pretty bleak. No one has a rich interiority: they just fuck, shit and fight. It seems like Barker’s argument is that the men must be assholes because they rape their slaves. But we know that’s not how it works: the men raped their slave women because that was the cultural norm but beyond the raping they were average guys. In fact, the raping and slaving made them average. Not heroes, not assholes. Just 1100BC guys.* 

(*This isn’t ‘boys will be boys’ - if anything it’s historical relativism. I’m not saying it’s average because they were guys, I’m saying it’s average because it was a long time ago. Remember, Jesus was a radical thinker with all his wacky ideas about compassion and love - and he was still more than a 1000 years away. The Greeks were very advanced in some ways, but their culture relied on slavery - at a point you need to accept that that was their normal (bad by our standards, yes) and engage with them on their own terms otherwise you’ll never get anywhere in a conversation about their values.)

Barker retells this astonishing passage from The Iliad about three quarters of the way through TSOTG - just to set it up, Achilles killed Prince Hector and has been desecrating his corpse (dragging it behind his chariot) as vengeance for the death of Patroclus (Achilles’ closest friend). In ancient Greece, it was believed that you couldn’t pass on to the underworld until you’d had a proper burial. Beyond being disrespectful, the abuse of Hector’s body torments his family because it means Hector cannot pass peacefully to the afterlife. Growing desperate, Hector’s father King Priam has snuck out of Troy and come to the Greek camp to beg Achilles to return Hector’s body:

Priam found the warrior there inside ... many captains sitting some way off, but two, veteran Automedon and the fine fighter Alcimus were busy serving him. He had just finished dinner, eating, drinking, and the table still stood near. The majestic king of Troy slipped past the rest and kneeling down beside Achilles, clasped his knees and kissed his hands, those terrible, man-killing hands that had slaughtered Priam's many sons in battle. Awesome - as when the grip of madness seizes one who murders a man in his own fatherland and flees abroad to foreign shores, to a wealthy, noble host, and a sense of marvel runs through all who see him so Achilles marveled, beholding majestic Priam. His men marveled too, trading startled glances. But Priam prayed his heart out to Achilles: "Remember your own father, great godlike Achilles - as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age! No doubt the countrymen round about him plague him now, with no one there to defend him, beat away disaster. No one - but at least he hears you're still alive and his old heart rejoices, hopes rising, day by day, to see his beloved son come sailing home from Troy. But l - dear god, my life so cursed by fate ... I fathered hero sons in the wide realm of Troy and now not a single one is left, I tell you. Fifty sons I had when the sons of Achaea came, nineteen born to me from a single mother's womb and the rest by other women in the palace. Many, most of them violent Ares cut the knees from under. But one, one was left me, to guard my walls, my people  the one you killed the other day, defending his fatherland, my Hector! It's all for him I've come to the ships now, to win him back from you - I bring a priceless ransom. Revere the gods, Achilles! Pity me in my own right, remember your own father! I deserve more pity ... I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before - I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son." Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire to grieve for his own father. Taking the old man's hand he gently moved him back. And overpowered by memory both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely for man-killing Hector, throbbing, crouching before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept himself, now for his father, now for Patroclus once again, and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.

(Not sure about this translation but it’s the best I could find online)

So this scene plays out beat for beat in TSOTG, and it’s very moving and well done (well done by Homer originally - and Barker renders it well too), but Barker wants to make it about the women so in response to Priam’s famous line ‘I kiss the hands of the man who killed my son’, Briseis thinks: "And I do what countless women before me have been forced to do. I spread my legs for the man who killed my husband and my brothers.” Is she an asshole for thinking about herself in this moment? I understand what Barker is trying to do: elevate the suffering of the women to the same platform that the men have always had. But this is graceless. It’s not a competition. 

Another element I found frustrating was the suggestion in TSOTG that the Greeks regarded Achilles’ close bond with Patroclus as unusual - characters are scornful of Achilles’ relationship with Patroclus and make snickering jokes about them being gay. This is disappointing because I am sure Barker did her research and therefore she must know that ancient Greece was probably more accepting of homosexuality (at least between men) than society is today. The only whisper of controversy around their relationship was the ancient equivalent of the ‘who’s the bottom?’ question: the Greeks would have been curious about who was dominant and who was passive, but wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow at Patroclus and Achilles being together.

Frank Miller also choose to make his ancient Greeks homophobic in 300 and Alan Moore, always happy to play the expert, was quick to point out the mistake:

There was just one particular line in it where one of the Spartan soldiers—I'll remind you, this is Spartans that we're talking about—one of them was talking disparagingly about the Athenians, and said, ‘Those boy-lovers.' You know, I mean, read a book, Frank. The Spartans were famous for something other than holding the bridge at Thermopylae, they were quite famous for actually enforcing man-boy love amongst the ranks as a way of military bonding. That specific example probably says more about Frank's grasp of history than it does about his grasp of homosexuality, so I'm not impugning his moral situation there. I'm not saying it was homophobic; just wasn't very well researched.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of ancient Greece would be familiar with their permissive attitudes toward homosexuality. Why did she choose to do this? I know she’s not homophobic because Regeneration sensitively observed the suffering of gay men, for example that minor speech impediments (lisps, stutters) manifested in men who were repressing their homosexuality. I don’t understand this choice from a woman who wrote maybe the best war book of all time.

TSOTG wraps up with a reflection on memory and the stories people want to hear:

I thought: Suppose, suppose just once, once, in all these centuries, the slippery gods keep their word and Achilles is granted eternal glory in return for his early death under the walls of Troy...? What will they make of us, the people of those unimaginably distant times? One thing I do know: they won’t want the brutal reality of conquest and slavery. They won’t want to be told about the massacres of men and boys, the enslavement of women and girls. They won’t want to know we were living in a rape camp. No, they’ll go for something altogether softer. A love story, perhaps? I just hope they manage to work out who the lovers were. His story. His, not mine. It ends at his grave... Once, not so long ago, I tried to walk out of Achilles’ story - and failed. Now, my own story can begin.

Through the sickening dramatic irony, I can pick out three points Barker is trying to make:

Achilles looms large, but Briseis is her own person and deserves her own story

This is the untold true story of what really went down during the Trojan War - the people aren’t ready for this heat but I, Pat Barker, will bring it to them regardless

This isn’t a love story, but if it were, it would be the authoritative and definitive Trojan War love story

Point 1: Briseis deserves her own story

As I mentioned earlier, TSOTG begins in media res - meaning unlike in Troy, we don’t see what the gang was doing before the fighting kicked off, the catalysts of the war, the journey from Greece, etc. The action begins mid-way through the war, mid-way through a day, mid-way through a battle as our protagonist, mid-way through her life, peers over the parapets watching the Greeks disembowel her countrymen. So TSOTG begins as Achilles enters Briseis’ life and ends just as he leaves it - it begins in media res because no one would want to hear about her boring ass life before incandescent Achilles walked into it. Briseis is most interesting when she’s talking about Achilles, watching him from afar, describing their awkward encounters, analysing his behaviour - sure, the story is from Briseis’ perspective, but she’s always looking at Achilles. Is Barker arguing that we should care about Briseis outside of Achilles? She can’t have it both ways! She can’t complain that no one cares about anything but Achilles and then tell a story centered around Achilles, make Achilles the most interesting character and - in a particularly weird move - allow him to narrate some chapters in the second half of the book. 

Point 2: This is the grittiest telling of the Trojan War that readers have ever had to grit their teeth through

The suggestion that this is ‘the untold true story of the women of Troy’ is totally bogus - exploring what the Trojan War cost women has been done. Euripides wrote the The Trojan Women in ~415BC, some 600+ years after when the Trojan War is estimated to have taken place (if it took place at all). It’s a tragedy which focuses on the Trojan women (Hecuba, Andromache and co.) as they process the death of their husbands, and learn what their fate will be (i.e. which Greek they will be gifted to). As with TSOTG, the action happens off-stage, out of the women’s line of sight and is reported to them by men as they come and go from the stage. It is a relentlessly horrible play: the centerpiece is the murder of Hector’s baby son Astyanax (Odysseus throws him from the walls of Troy) and the women’s response to this terrible news. 

It seems like Barker also takes issue with modern narratives glossing over the rape, slaughter and slavery that occurred during the war - but even Troy (by no means an unromantic movie) makes these elements pretty explicit:

In the clip above, the Myrmidons have brought Achilles the newly enslaved Briseis in case he would like to rape her. The slavery and rape threat elements are there. Is Barker saying that she wants to see the rape? Does this scene somehow read as romantic because he chooses not to rape her? Rape is being used more and more, especially in TV, as a way of creating realism in fantasy shows - and people do seem to have an appetite for it (see: Game of Thrones, Outlander). So her suggestion that modern audiences want a sanitised version of the war doesn’t work for me. 

Point 3: This isn’t a love story. It’s about rape. But also... don’t you just love Achilles?

Quoting from Briseis’ final words again:

No, they’ll go for something altogether softer. A love story, perhaps? I just hope they manage to work out who the lovers were.

Sounds pointed. Barker is implying someone out there got the lovers wrong. It can’t be Troy because they went with the Achilles/Briseis angle too, so is she referring to Madeline Miller? Miller’s 2011 novel The Song of Achilles is a love story focused on Patroclus and Achilles (disclosure: I haven’t read it). As I mentioned earlier, Barker, going against all evidence we have about ancient Greece, chose to make her Greeks homophobic. She does touch on Achilles and Patroclus’ famous intimacy, but frames it more as some kind of preternatural closeness which goes beyond brothers or lovers. In Barker’s defence, Homer never explicitly said that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers, but the suggestion of it is certainly part of the canon. I had a high school Classics teacher who scoffed at Troy because she thought Achilles should have been banging Patroclus instead of Briseis. 

Also: since we’re talking about a ‘rape camp’, were there really many lovers?

For a feminist take on The Iliad, this book has some weird gender politics. Achilles rapes our protagonist - a lot. He’s childish, he has mummy issues, he’s abrasive and fussy - but we want Briseis to win him over! We want Achilles to notice her. He’s so magnetic, even if you write him as a spoiled pig, he’s still Achilles. He’s the coolest guy in school. He’s the rower with big shoulders. He wears his hat backwards. He comes to school on Monday with a black eye. He doesn’t know anything about computers. He says he likes Hemingway. He smells good without deodorant. His socks never stay up. If you walk beside him in a hallway, you can feel heat radiating from his body. His pouting and brattiness play into his magnetism somehow. I honestly think Barker might have fallen into the same trap as high school girls throughout history: we just love a bad boy. Want a glimpse into the terrifying mind of teenage girl? When I was 17, I dumped my high school boyfriend because he wasn’t enough like Achilles or Hector. People are romantic about the Trojan War, but that doesn’t mean they want a love story. 

[frickengreenfrickyeah]

An Irreverent Intro to the Iliad

A/N:I’ve taken the introduction to the Lombardo translation and condensed it. Any time I says something to the effect of “don’t quote me on this” that means I’ve added my own analysis or thoughts that I cannot back up in any way, so don’t, like, put it in an essay if you don’t plan on doing your own research.

Anyway, you don’t care about that stuff, you came here to read about the Iliad.

It’s really fricken long, so, for the sake of mobile users, everything’s under the cut except for this:

“Rage. Bitch, lemme tell you about the time that Achilles fucked over the entire Greek army by Rage-quitting.”

Timeline for the Noobs 

Ten years ago:

Aphrodite bribes Paris so she can win a beauty contest between herself, Athena, and Hera. Paris’ reward for his ‘heroics’ is Helen

(There’s probably an essay’s worth of symbolism you could dig into here, what with the goddesses all representing different priorities: erotic love, wisdom/justice, and familial duty. I wonder what Paris’ choice reveals about his character?)

There’s some disagreement about whether or not Helen when with Paris willingly

Seeing as literally no other woman in the Iliad (and maybe the entire Cycle? Don’t quote me on that) willingly went with her kidnapper, I’m calling bull on that. Do with that what you will.

Menelaus gets really mad that Paris stole his wife, so he rounds up the Greek army, and they go to war. (It’s worth noting that Athena and Hera are both on his side here.)

Present day:

Agamemnon(Boo), Menelaus’ brother kidnaps a girl. Then he has the balls to get upset that the girl’s father called Apollo’s plague down upon the Greeks until she’s returned

Achilles points out that Agamemnon’s being a dick and people are literally dying because he won’t let go of one girl. Agamemnon says, “Fine. If I have to give up my lady-war-prize, I’m taking yours as recompense.”

Achilles allows Agamemnon to take his girl, then Rage-quits. As consequence, people die.

Hypocrites. Hypocrites everywhere. If you wanna analyze that for an essay, I think there’s plenty to talk about. 

The Theme Worth Giving a Shit About (Because it Drives the Narrative)

Heroes risk their lives on the battlefield in exchange for Prizes

Ie. riches, bitches, and clout

Honor <--> Shame is how they judge the value of others and themselves. Honor wins Prizes, Shame loses Prizes

3 Characters Worth Giving a Shit About (Because They Explore the Aforementioned Theme)

Achilles: Main character. Rage is his thing. Also, pouting. 

His honor is insulted by Agamemnon(Boo) taking away Briseis, his lady war prize. Since war prizes are how their society rewards heroes for risking their lives, Agamemnon is basically saying he doesn’t care of Achilles dies or not.

And that hurts Achilles’ feelings because he knows he’s gonna die. There’s a prophecy about it. 

The only reason he’s fighting is because society conditioned him to believe that Prizes and eternal glory were worth dying for.

Now that he doubts everything he knows, he refuses to fight for the Greeks.

The entire poem is the consequences of his Rage-quit

Agamemnon: fuck this guy

He loses his lady war prize, so he takes Achilles’. Because short-sighted spite is the best motivator.

He and Achilles start the poem in the same place, believing that material goods should equally compensate a loss. Achilles is the one who learns that that’s not how that works.

Agamemnon starts as a dick and ends as a dick. Google Iphigenia if you want to learn more. And that shit he pulls with Cassandra? Major dickbag. Fuck this guy. 

Hector: The Trojan hero, and honestly the only likable guy here. 

He is Achilles’ foil. 

Just like Achilles, he’s separated from society - but, unlike Achilles, it’s not because he rejects their values. It’s because he never questions them.

He’s basically the perfect hero, and he suffers for it:

His son is scared of his war helmet

He can’t stay closer to home to fight defensively because that’s ‘shameful’

And he can’t even stay in the city that long on his breaks because wine and women are too tempting. 

Side Characters to Maybe Give a Fuck About

Patroclus: The most important of the supporting cast, and he’s only in it for, like, maybe a book

Achilles’ BFF and probably more

(Read: Definitely more. If you listen carefully, you can hear me chanting OTP OTP OTP every time you open your book.)

He is Achilles’ double

He never doubts society but supports his bestie’s midlife crisis anyway

His death at the hands of Hector symbolizes Achilles’ death because he was wearing Achilles’ armor at the time

Achilles causes Patroclus’ death btw

When he Rage-quits, he asks Zeus to help the Trojans (because short-sighted spite is the best motivator). Patroclus goes to help the Greeks wearing Achilles’ very recognizable armor, causing Hector to target and kill him

His death redirects Achilles’ Rage at the Trojans instead of the Greeks

Diomedes: a badass fighter

Greater Ajax: a badass fighter

and (I think) the guy who talks sense into Achilles at some point

Ajax the Lesser: a badass fighter (are you sensing a theme in these characters?)

Odysseus: the only smart guy here

The Odyssey is about him btw

The Trojan horse was his idea, according to the Aeneid (and maybe other places? But definitely the Aeneid.)

WTF is an Epic Poem Anyway?

Epic Poem: recounts events with far-reaching historical consequences, sums up the values and achievements of an entire culture, and documents the full variety of the war

Basically, if “’Murica, Fuck Yeah” sums up America, then the Iliad sums up Ancient Greece

(Actually, Hamilton is a better comparison, but I needed to make a joke. Fite me.)

That “full variety” thing is why Book 2 and a couple other places just list off a bunch of ships or leaders and their dads. That shit is boring. Skip it. 

But also, that ‘full variety’ thing is what makes other parts of the story so interesting. Homer will sum up a dude’s life story right before he kills them or some shit. It magnifies the scale of the narrative by showing how insignificant one person’s experience is - no one person can stop the war.

That’s what makes Achilles’ story even more powerful --> because his impact on the war is significant. His Rage controls the ebb and flow of it. 

He can’t stop the war though. No one can. 

The Gods are Petty as Fuck

Homeric gods look/act like humans, but they’re different mainly because of two things:

1. They can’t die.

That means they treat the events of the war less seriously than the mortals do.

2. The gods know about fate

To the modern reader, it seems like the humans have no agency, but that’s not really the case

Knowing fate is a bit like knowing the plot of a movie. It gives insight into a character’s actions that would otherwise seem random.

By reading this poem, you’re basically a god. Don’t let it go to your head. (But, hey, there’s a reason I’m majoring in this shit)

Bards like Homer would more directly be gods because they changed and adapted the story as they told it, just like the gods influence human actions in the story.

Don't quote me on that tho

Character choices are usually doubly motivated - by the human, and by the gods

Ex: Achilles chooses not to kill Agamemnon because Athena tells him not to.

This is personifying the literal thought process he had so that the reader understands what’s going through his head.

Fate doesn’t force anyone to act out of character --> fate is the consequence of their life choices

The gods not caring about death and his own lack of foresight is what Achilles messes up on

He asks Zeus to help him get revenge on the Greeks because he assumes Zeus cares about that sort of thing, but Zeus is bigger than that.

That leads Patroclus’ death, btw.

The “Enduring Heart” Shit

Achilles is really butthurt that Agamemnon wronged him

The lesson he has to learn is that even if material goods can’t make up for losses, there’s no other option --> you can’t bring people back from the dead, so you have to move on

That’s the Enduring Heart shit

also, if you abstract that concept it sounds kinda like entropy to me (Don’t quote me on that tho)

He learns that lesson by feeling pity for Priam (Hector’s dad) instead of perpetuating the Rage Train

And, hey, that Enduring Heart shit is a lesson that all of us could take to heart. None of us want to die, but it’s gonna happen. Maybe that’s not fair, but throwing a temper tantrum isn’t going to change anything. Really, the only way to avoid being miserable is to embrace our mortality so we can appreciate life while we have it

don’t quote me on that tho

In a nutshell, Achilles has to accept his mortal-ness. Otherwise there’s a lot of unnecessary suffering. 

That’s why we don’t need to see him die in the Iliad even though everyone makes such a big deal about the prophecy about his death. His journey was completed as soon as he found pity in himself instead of Rage - essentially rejecting the godly side of himself (oh yeah, I forgot to mention. His mom is a goddess) and embracing his mortality. 

because gods don’t have to deal with death, they can Rage all they want, remember?

Also, if he never dies, he can’t be reunited with Patroclus. 

OTP OTP OTP

You could probably write an essay about how Achilles died as soon as Patroclus did.

Honestly Boring Historical Context (That might be interesting if you’re a nerd like me?

The poem was basically historical fantasy even when it was first written. There are gods and super strength and shit

Greek History Over-Simplified: The Mycanaean Period was prosperous but ended suddenly. The Dark Ages of Greece followed, and we don’t know much about what happened during that because they forgot the written word was a thin. 

The events of the poem probably take place during the Mycanaean Period because they use bronze weapons. 

But warfare is described from more of a Dark Ages perspective. Like, they don’t use chariots the right way

Which suggests that chariots were part of the source material, then the Dark Ages made people forget how they were supposed to be sued, so the bards just kinda made shit up to explain their presence. (Don’t quote me on that tho)

The Oral Tradition of the poem means that this story was told thousands of times over hundreds (thousands?) of years. So the narrative is hones at shit.

it has the sculpted body of an Olympic athlete. Each muscle toned to do a specific job and everything works perfectly together to accomplish the sporty feat of interest. Every verse is packed with character, setting, plot, and cultural significance

Except for that Catologue of Ships shit. Boooo boring ships.

There were probably lots of other versions of the poem, but Homer told it best. His version was written down as soon as the written word was (re)invented

Side Note that wasn’t in Lombardo’s Intro

The Iliad and Odyssey are both parts of a larger body of work known as the Epic Cycle 

(The Aeneid is basically Caesar Augustus-insert fanfiction at that, btw. Virgil was a satirical fanboy and I’m living for it.)

Characters and events are introduced with the assumptions that the reader already knows their importance

But we only have fragments of the rest of the Cycle today because it was either never written down or the manuscripts were lost

I’m looking at you, Burned Library of Alexandria

*sad fiddle music plays in the background

Videos That I Learned Shit From (Only, like, the first two links are relevant to the topic at hand, btw)

Basic Plot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faSrRHw6eZ8

More about the Epic Cycle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3bn0eKt4Rw 

Iphigenia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifFsKCrH3GM 

Oresteia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kpGhivh05k             

The Odyssey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-3rHQ70Pag&index=4&list=PLDb22nlVXGgfwG1qbOtNgu897E_ky_8To (Also, this story is my favorite of the Epic Cycle)

The Aeneid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRruBVFXjnY&list=PLDb22nlVXGgfwG1qbOtNgu897E_ky_8To&index=5  

Ancient Greek History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzGVpkYiJ9w&index=2&list=PLDb22nlVXGgexsbafIwirG6Tk9uww9dSW    

And, yeah, these videos are all from the same channel. I’m a basic bitch and a ho for not leaving my comfort zone. Fite me. 

Honestly, if anyone has other sources, let me know. Youtube history/video essays are my shit.

I hope this was helpful.

[clodiuspulcher]

Can I ask what draws you to Agamemnon? He's often kind of a difficult figure to grapple with. Sincere question btw, not meant to sound mean I swear :)

NO NO this isn’t mean at all it’s uh. yeah I know it’s an unpopular Take / Opinion and I really do … care deeply about Agamemnon as a character, so thanks for giving me a chance to explain! it’s complicated, he’s complicated… This is gonna get long

I: APPEARANCE Let’s first put the shallow aspects on the table: he’s big, he’s powerful, he’s My Type (physically), I’m gay. This never comes through in film adaptations (although you know what? 1962 Electra Agamemnon comes close, although he’s overshadowed by the hot Aegisthus) but look at how he’s described in the Iliad: He’s compared to 3 gods, canonically Agamemnon is the most handsome man Priam’s EVER seen in his like one million years of life (a list of men which includes Aeneas , Hector, etc). (this post). When Priam says he’s “Every inch a king”, baby, you know what that means-Anyway , @kashuan‘s art is VERY good for conveying how I imagine Agamemnon based on these descriptions. and he’s drawn like exactly my type there. It’s a lot to reckon with.He’s big. He has big arms and big thighs and could kill me if he wanted and he’s powerful and his aristeia is badass and i’m gay. thanks. II: PERSONALITY Now this part is. more about Agamemnon’s character. first, Agamemnon in the Iliad is in fact deeply flawed- he’s imperious and arrogant and shortsighted and short-tempered, he’s stubborn and selfish and ALL OF THE THINGS PEOPLE HAVE SAID HE IS but there’s also a complexity to his character that tends to get flattened - I think because Agamemnon’s at his worst in book 1, people adhere to this AWFUL first impression and don’t bother to look beneath the surface / take the rest of his behavior / his character into account / use this as the baseline of their understanding, but there IS MUCH MORE to him than that behavior even in the Iliad itself, as detailed in THIS POST. He’s a powerful warrior in his own right, and his failings reflect both the internal flaws of his character and the weight of his responsibilities; we see his concern for his men, for the army, the people, in books 4 and 10 (when he can’t sleep because of his anxiety about his men, about Hector). He DOES however, learn and become better, he grows, he’s dynamic: he and Achilles finally make up (book 19! book 23! They’re good now!) and the Odyssey also ends with their ghosts talking as friends.

(Side note I wonder how this works out when Agamemnon’s son kills Achilles’s son but… that’s for another day).

There’s complexity in Agamemnon’s characterization in the tragedies as well, each tragedian has a different portrait of Agamemnon but he’s never one-dimensional.Euripides’ Hecuba has Agamemnon as concerned about his image and his reputation, anxious (and almost insecure) about his authority, but also concerned with justice and the rule of law, even towards one’s enemies. Sophocles’ Ajax portrays an imperious, proud, stubborn Agamemnon who refuses to realize he’s in the wrong but is able to be convinced by the council of Odysseus and eventually, again, comes to an understanding. Seneca’s Trojan Women shows Agamemnon as a Stoic voice of Reason, urging Pyrrhus not to be too violent/hubristic in their victory, and I love both the presentation of Agamemnon as a tired old man wanting to go home and the sort of man who gets into arguments with teenagers about war crimes. As usual, Seneca excels at this subtlety of characterization, this is like the epitome of the Dichotomy of Agamemnon, sympathetic and infuriating, a good leader and a stubborn, proud man, stoic and short-tempered, as present in the Iliad, is here too, and I love it , and him. Seneca’s Agamemnon almost reverses this (HE REALLY SAYS “What can a victor fear”) but I still love that play, and there’s something to be said for the characterization of Agamemnon as someone who learned ABSOLUTELY nothing from victory.

Overall, it’s true that we get, mainly, a portrait of a hard, ruthless, powerful, embittered man- remember how he destroys that one guy Menelaus wanted to save in the Iliad - but he has a sort of “aggressive charisma” as Kashuan once put it and I REALLY see it, and honestly that in itself has some sort of an appeal to me. But with this portrait of his personality, his softer aspects, the moments of gentleness we see, are more striking, they really stand out and indicate the extent of his feelings. In the iliad, for example, we clearly see he loves Menelaus and while he’s almost laughably over-protective (MORE ON THIS LATER), his care for his brother is evident, touching, especially juxtaposed with his shortsighted selfishness. Just look at what happens in Book 4, when Menelaus is barely wounded and Agamemnon is practically writing his eulogy. Right afterwards, also, “Noble Agamemnon showed no reluctance, no cowardice or hesitation, only eagerness for the fight where men win glory”- he rushes in to fight (but not before first taking out his anxiety on his men by demanding more from them. Cannot do anything appealing / good without mitigating it with irritating behavior. love this fool). It takes him like 9 books to finally apologize to Achilles but he defends Menelaus from Nestor’s reproach in book 10, is anxious about Menelaus being in danger if he’s picked to go on a night raid with Diomedes (HERE) and is endearingly not-subtle about it, frets over him in book 4, when he’s wounded, etc.

The love for his family is something that continually stands out and is perhaps his main “redeeming” trait. In the Odyssey, as mentioned, he ask Odysseus desperately about Orestes with heart-rending choice of words especially when one considers Orestes’s Actual Fate: “Come tell me, in truth, have you heard if my son is still alive, maybe in Orchomenus or sandy Pylos, or in Menelaus’ broad Sparta: that my noble Orestes is not yet dead?”. Agamemnon’s no longer a king- he’s a worried father, he regrets the most not being able to see Orestes before he’s killed; it is this pain, of not being able to be a father to his children, which seems to cut the most deeply, which he speaks of multiple times to Odysseus. Then they just cry for a while, with each other. (I like these tender aspects hidden in a big mean man.. but I also like his big meanness).

the Tragedies take this to another level, of course, to drive home the PATHOS required for his death to have an impact but his love of his family is very much on display there. Iphigenia in Aulis in particular provides us with some agonizing demonstrations of this love: Iphigenia reminisces about an exceptionally tender moment in their relationship, when she was young (you used to ask me, “I wonder, my darling, will I get to see you married one day, married and settled happily in your husband’s home, your life ever blossoming, making me proud of you?” And I’d touch your chin, my father, hang from your beard, father, like I’m doing now and say, “and what about you, father, will I get to see you, father, an old man, visiting me at my house, ready for me to repay you for your hard work in raising me?”) an image hard to reconcile with the merciless violence and stubborn arrogance Agamemnon displays in the Iliad (BUT AGAIN, THAT’S THE APPEAL). Clytemnestra assumes he’s crying because he’s sad to see Iphigenia leave them, Agamemnon’s messenger tells him the arrival of his family will cheer him up: even his subordinates know how important they are to him.

I’d need a whole nother post to talk about his relationship with Clytemnestra but please peruse these crumbs I picked off the ground (HERE). they Had something, tbh the tragedy ONLY WORKS if they did and I will DIE on this hill. In Aeschylus, Clytemnestra calls Orestes the “mutual pledge of their love”, he calls her a “great-hearted woman”, she shirks in Aulis at his curt, demanding tone towards her, noting it as something out of character, she takes charge anyway, knows he can’t or won’t actually force her not to be involved in the Iphigenia marriage preparations-All of this creates an image of a man whose imperious, ruthless, stubborn character is balanced with a surprising capacity for tenderness, a genuine fondness and love for the members of his family, which makes the fact that his hand, albeit forced, aids in its destruction, that much more devastating.III: PSYCHOLOGY/HISTORY

Where things get especially interesting for me, character-wise, is when one thinks about his lineage, his past, and his childhood with respect to his current character. This section is about the House of Atreus in general.

Agamemnon clearly bears the scars of his environment: he was born into the House of Atreus and IMO that informs everything he says and does, all his thoughts and feelings, the way he perceives both the world and his place in it. Seneca’s Thyestes is a horrific portrait of what Agamemnon (and Menelaus’s) childhoods must have been like, ATREUS is their father, they were old enough during this event to almost be accomplices which means they’re clearly old enough to remember it. Speaking of that, Atreus isn’t worried that participating in his god-crime schemes will turn his sons evil because, in his mind, they were born evil (Ne mali fiant times? nascuntur. God GOD). Agamemnon and Menelaus grow up in a nightmare house, adjacent to atrocity, under the almost comically cruel hand of Atreus who sincerely believed his sons inherited said cruelty as if its on the same chromosome as the “house-curse” gene. It’s genuinely a miracle Agamemnon and Menelaus grew up to be functional fucking human beings, in my opinion. It also gives a lot more weight to his relationship with Menelaus and the hard imperious cast of his character; their bond was forged in fire, Agamemnon likely protected Menelaus from the worst of Nightmare House being the older brother, and being as protective as he is. There’s this one Iliad adaptation, I can’t think of it off the top of my head though, where when Agamemnon’s freaking out about Menelaus being Barely Wounded he says “don’t die… for you are all I have” and that’s absolutely  how I think about their relationship in this context- Menelaus WAS all he had for so long, they clung to each other, they preserved their humanity in the face of horror BECAUSE OF each other.

But functional like.. .for a given value of “function”. Agamemnon is clearly deeply affected by these events, the weight of the Curse of the House of Atreus clearly impacts him. Take Iphigenia in Aulis, where he says “each one is born with his bitterness waiting for him”, the fact that a Son of Atreus would say that, I think, speaks to the innate, unspeakable fear of the certain destruction of his world, of the tragedy that awaits him, at his own hands, of the House-Curse waiting perched on his shoulder to strike just when he thought he’d created something impenetrable. The tragedy of Iphigenia in Aulis is Agamemnon’s realization that he has locked himself into this, that he has no other choice (see: this post about the Odysseus impact, there is in fact a point when it’s inevitable, although he still made the first move which makes it even WORSE he created this, etc) and all he can do at this point is watch as the life he so carefully built for himself and his family collapses around him, just like he must have always dreaded it would. (Also in the Iliad It’s Agamemnon who says “We must toil, in accord with the weight of sorrow Zeus loaded us with at birth” and that reminds me of this aspect of him too: Good Things Never Last, Bad Things Never Die, etc.)

It’s made clear that the story of Atreus and Thyestes is widespread, familiar; Teucer in Sophocles’ Ajax and Neoptolemus in Seneca’s Trojan Women both call out Agamemnon for trying to reference his lineage as a source of authority because it is a HORRIFIC lineage. “I know about the famous family of Atreus and Thyestes”, Neoptolemus says. And THEREIN LIES A CONFLICT: Agamemnon’s sense of self comes from his authority, his kingship, his position of power and his social status as a member of the nobility, of the class of royalty BUT. It’s all undercut by the fact that this power, authority, indeed his very identity is based in cruelty, violence, and crime; Agamemnon is descended from the most ignoble nobility, which he knows all too well.

It’s Interesting that Agamemnon’s relationship with his identity, status, family, power is brought up in Ajax, of all plays, primarily concerned with the destruction of Ajax’s identity- reminding Agamemnon of the crimes of his house genuinely cuts him down. I see Agamemnon as a man who genuinely fears his past, who dreads the legacy of his father and in his desperation creates a crisis for himself (as happens in tragedy).

We (I) laugh at Agamemnon “forgetting” about the god-crime shit before he pulls rank by referencing his Authority and Status but there’s something in Agamemnon continually being owned by forgetting about the House….  Agamemnon wants to distance himself from the “legacy” he inherited from Atreus, but he can’t without disavowing his power, his authority, his identity. Whether he likes it or not (he does Not), this is fundamental to who he is. I feel like that knowledge too lurks in his mind, rises to the forefront occasionally at his lowest points-

Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon pretty clearly sees him / his actions as the next link in the god-crime family chain, a continuation of the house -curse, heir to his father’s throne and his crimes, hence her belief that killing him is the only way to end it/ stop the cycle of violence (spoiler she is wrong but there’s another post coming eventually about how they are Very Similar Characters short version the Etruscans Understand).

IN short, I think there’s a lot of complexity in Agamemnon people overlook, or don’t get to see since they don’t read the peripheral plays. Agamemnon seems to me a man in conflict with himself, a Man of Contradictions, who defines himself by his authority and status while fearing the source of it, whose devotion to his family contrasts with the horror of his childhood, and with his own agonizing role in its destruction, a man who willfully ignores or cannot bring himself to fully interact with the legacy of Atreus, who tries to distance himself from the crimes of his house and the cruelty of his father while being reminded of both every time he’s called by the epithet Atreides.

[avicebro]

The House of Pelops

Hello everyone. Today we’re going to talk about another child of Leda: Clytemnestra. Besides having the name I constantly misspell, her story is very interesting so let’s go. 

This will go off on a lot of tangents I’m sorry.

Agamemnon’s Ancestors

 We’ve already discussed the birth of Clytemnestra (if you would like to read it you can do so here) so we’re going to talk about her husband, Agamemnon. With that we can talk about one of my favourite things in Greek Myth: family sagas. Often times in myth, if you look at the parents and grandparents of the character, it can tell you something about the character themselves. We’ve seen this with the descendants of Io continuing the cow theme with Minos and Europa, and now we see it here with the House of Pelops.

The House of Pelops is defined by their first son of Zeus: Tantalus. He’s famous for how he must spend the rest of his days: always thirsty and hungry, and always just in arm’s reach of water and food. Why did he end up in such torture though? Well, he wanted to prove that the gods didn’t know anything. So, he invited them to a dinner party where the main dish was his boiled son, Pelops. Zeus was quick to notice that he had served his grandson and punished Tantalus for his imprudence. They bring Pelops back to life but this was only the beginning of the bad.

(Side note: Demeter actually ends up accidentally eating a part of him because she was a little depressed over her daughter being abducted. They make him a new arm and she feels really bad.)

Pelops would have a fling with Poseidon, before going to find a bride. He fell for Hippodameia, but there was a problem. Her father was very protective of her. Only the one that would be able to beat him in a chariot race (the horses a gift from Ares) would be given her hand in marriage. If you lost, you would be killed. 

Not wanting to die and to get the girl, Pelops bribes the charioteer to tamper with the axels. When the father crashed and is on death’s door, he curses the charioteer. The charioteer then turned on Pelops by trying to steal Pelops’ new girl, but he gets yeeted into the ocean, but not before cursing Pelops and his descendants. This would continue haunting the family. 

Pelops and Hippodameia would have three sons. One of these three sons was not a piece of shit: Pittheus. Pittheus was a good king and grandfather to Theseus. Everyone loved him. But his two brothers, Atreus and Thyestes, were the complete opposite to him: vengeful, wicked and violent. 

When Heracles’ commissioner of labours accidentally gets himself boiled alive, an oracle says that a son of Pelops will now rule over Mycenae. But the question is: will it be Atreus and Thyestes? It is decided that whichever son brings the golden fleece will rule. Atreus tells Artemis that he will sacrifice the golden lamb to her if she gives it to him. Like a bro, she does, but then not like a bro, Atreus hides the lamb and sacrifices another lamb instead.  

This ends up backfiring when Atreus’ wife, who had been cheating on him with Thyestes, finds this out and brings the golden fleece to her bae. As the rules are whomever has the fleece rules Mycenae, Thyestes shows up with the fleece and becomes the king. 

Since Zeus was invested in this family and was annoyed that Atreus was not king, he told his great grandson to make a counter bargain. If the sun could be reversed, so it would set in the east, Atreus would be king. Thyestes agrees, Zeus makes it happen, and then Atreus is king again. 

But Atreus is still angry that he’s being cucked by his brother, so he pulls a page from his grand daddy’s book by inviting his brother to a meal. Like Tantalus, son is on the menu. This time it is up to three sons. 

Thyestes would end up gaining the throne again when his son, Aigisthos (who was born by his daughter by the way) kills Atreus, and then he banishes Atreus’ sons—Agamemnon and Menelaus. 

Now We Can Actually Talk About Agamemnon

With the help of their father-in-law, Agamemnon and Menelaus successfully take over Mycenae once more. Menelaus goes back to rule over Sparta with Helen. Some versions of the myth suggest that Agamemnon actually won Helen’s hand, but he gave her to his brother Menelaus as a gift (which is why some adaptations of the myth include Agamemnon ‘taking’ Helen during the fall of Troy, suggesting he wanted her for himself the whole time). Other versions have Menelaus winning her for himself. Agamemnon marries her sister, Clytemnestra, who is known as being hot, but like, not Helen hot. 

Agamemnon would have 4 kids with Clytemnestra, but only three matter to us: Elektra, Iphigeneia, and Orestes. 

Helen’s non-deity daddy made everyone who fought for her love to vow that if someone were to steal her away, everyone would fight to bring her back. So, when she is successfully seduced and or stolen depending on the variant of the myth, Menelaus comes crying to his brother Agamemnon to help him get her back. Agamemnon becomes the head of the Greek army.  

Right as they’re about to head off to fight Troy, Agamemnon does the great job of saying that he’s a better hunter than the goddess of hunt herself, Artemis. This does not make the goddess very happy.  

Artemis retaliates by making it impossible for them to leave for Troy. When asked how they could please her, the oracle tells them that they will have to sacrifice Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigeneia. Depending on the telling, she is brought to the Greek camp under the pretense that she is being married to Achilles, and that a wedding will bless their travels. She is sacrificed like an animal. Depending on the version of the telling, Artemis can save her and turn her into one of her huntresses or not. 

This makes Clytemnestra mad. 

(side note – some modern retellings of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia include Agamemnon actually being sad and torn over killing his daughter? These retellings also refuse to explain why the Greeks are stranded in Greece in the first place, just leaving it to “Poseidon hates us”. This is to probably make Agamemnon a more complex and complicated character while not realizing what makes him either of those things in the original texts.) 

Return of Agamemnon 

Agamemnon is one of the first people to return from the Trojan War. He comes back, heralded by praises of his military prowess, wearing the royal purple and throwing the spoils of war around. One of these spoils of war is Cassandra. 

Very quickly but for those who are not aware of her myth: Cassandra is one princess of Troy. She catches the eye of Apollo (which makes sense because Troy did like Apollo, which ends up fucking things up for the Greeks during the war) and he tries to get her as his new bae. She says sure: just give me the sight of the oracle, thus to be able to see the future and I’ll date you. Apollo gives her this, and in return Cassandra ditches him. The god is very angry that a mortal played him. So, he makes it so that while she can see the future, no one believes her. 

When Agamemnon is told to come inside by his wife, Cassandra is begging him not to do it. With her curse, no one listens to her. 

Let’s talk about Clytemnestra. So, at this point she’s spent the entirety of her life as the hot-but-not-Helen-hot sister, watching her brothers go on adventures and such, and being married to Agamemnon, which just based on how he is in in the Iliad, isn’t the nicest thing to be married to. Then her husband is roped into a war because her sister gets abducted again. Then when you think your daughter is going to be married to the famed hero Achilles she’s sacrificed because your husband is an idiot. And even when he returns from war and things seem to be fixed, he comes back with a girl. 

All I’m saying is I understand Clytemnestra’s choice to a) cheat and b) convince her new bae to kill Agamemnon. 

Surely her new bae wouldn’t need much convincing: it’s none other than Aigisthos—the guy who exiled Agamemnon and Menelaus in the first place! 

His wife runs a bath for him, and it is there where he is killed by Aigisthos. At the same time, Cassandra is killed by Clytemnestra. 

(Side note: the death in the bath is symbolic for the end of the war.) 

She later has a recurring nightmare of giving birth to a snake. Then, her son Orestes comes home from exile. 

Orestes 

There is a list of things that you do not do in Ancient Greece—having sex with Zeus, trusting Theseus, not sacrificing the thing that you promised the gods you were going to sacrifice to them. In the criminal justice system of Greek Myth, killing family members is considered especially heinous. And at the top of the worst family member you can kill is your mother. Those who capture those who do these crimes are called The Furies. 

Orestes learns that his mother and her new bae have killed his dad. He, in return, pretends to be a bearer of his own death. When Clytemnestra calls for her new lover to share the news, he kills them both. 

(Side note: depending on the version, he doesn’t do it alone, but with Elektra. She isn’t chased by The Furies, however. The Elektra complex is supposed to act as the father-daughter version of the Oedipus complex because she avenges her father.) 

The Furies learn of this matricide and start chasing Orestes so he can be dragged to Tartarus and he can meet his ancestor Tantalus. They chase him from Mycenae all the way to Athens.  

(Side note: it should be mentioned that these myths are from a series of plays, called The Oresteia, written by Aeschylus. It should also be mentioned that the author is from Athens. As everyone loves the myths around the Trojan War, and with The Odyssey, we know that Agamemnon was killed, Aeschylus [and later on others would add on to what happens to Orestes] made it his job to tell the story.) 

Orestes begs Apollo, who feels partially responsible with the whole Cassandra thing and because he also persuaded him to kill Clytemnestra, to help him with dealing with The Furies. He sends him to Athena, because she’s the goddess you go to if you need a plan.  

Athena steps in and decides that he should be put on trial. Apollo acts as his defendant. The judges end in a tie. As the patron goddess of Athens, Athena is given the final ruling. 

She lets him go. Now: why. 

For those who don’t know about Athena’s backstory, a quick summation: Zeus is told that his wife will bear him a son that will usurp him. But she’s already pregnant. So, like any sane King of the Gods, he eats her whole. Then about 9 months later he has this splitting headache. He asks Hephaestus (or Prometheus, depending on the story) to just hit his forehead with an axe. As you do. From his forehead Athena springs out, fully grown up and in battle armour. And everything’s fine.  

Athena rules that since she was technically born from only her father, that for her, and thus in Athens, the father was all that mattered. So, if you want to commit matricide, do it in Athens. 

She renames The Furies into The Friendlies (which sounds more menacing in my opinion) and Orestes is allowed to go free! Yay! 

Notes 

I don’t think I have many notes for this one. Just um, I should write about The Iliad. 

Also the ruling by Athena always annoyed me as a kid.  

[ec-sanderssides]

Pride

Hey guys, So this one was inspired by my current location, and boy was it fun to write. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the story, it’s taken from the Iliad. Although I did alter a few things to better fit the characters (and make it angstier, shhh). This one goes out to @shadow-desu. I told you I would get revenge. TW: Character Death

“Roman,” Anxiety called out, as he entered the tent. "Are you there?”

Hands came from behind to grasp his waist, pulling him back. Recognizing the feel of them, Anxiety relaxed into the hold.

“Have you come to entertain me in my boredom?” Roman purred, his arms now fully wrapped around his lover.

Anxiety huffed. “You mean staring at yourself in a mirror isn’t entertaining enough?”

Roman chuckled. He sounded better than he had in days. Maybe this conversation wouldn’t end terribly. Still that didn’t mean he was looking forward to it.

Anxiety pushed Roman’s arms out of the way, and turned to face him. 

“Seriously though,” he said, all traces of teasing gone from his voice. “Agamemnon sent me.”

A scowl instantly appeared on Roman’s face. “So that bastard is making even you do his dirty work now. I didn’t think he would stoop so low.”

He whirled away from Anxiety and began to pace furiously. Feeling the conversation rapidly beginning to spin out of control, Anxiety moved to catch his shoulders.

“Roman. Roman!” he said, “Calm down. He’s not making me do anything. He just came to me because he knows you’ll actually listen to me. But if he’d tried to make me do anything, I would have told him to fuck off. You know that.”

Roman had stopped pacing, but his muscles were still tense and coiled under Anxiety’s hands. Wanting to get to the point before Roman could blow up again, Anxiety continued.

“Look, Agamemnon is a dick sometimes, okay, most of the time. But for once he’s got a point. You can’t spend the rest of the war in your tent, Roman. You have to fight.”

Roman jerked out of Anxiety’s grip. “You would dare ask that of me? After knowing the insult he paid me!” He laughed, but it lacked any of his normal warmth. “And here I thought I could trust you.”

Anxiety felt his face grow hot. “This isn’t about your stupid pride!” he shouted angrily. “People are dying, Roman. Our friends are dying. And you just sit here, knowing you could change that, and do nothing. Do you even care!”

“I am not the one in the wrong here,” Roman snapped back. “Agamemnon is the one who stole my prize. He is the one refusing to apologize. He is the one refusing to make amends. I only want what’s due to me.”

“So you don’t care,” Anxiety said flatly. “You and your ego. You are such a self-obsessed bastard sometimes. You don’t care about any of us out there. Not even me.”

“If you find me so unbearable, why not go seek out Agamemnon,” Roman said, his expression full of rage, “Clearly you prefer his company nowadays!”

“Maybe I will!” Anxiety told him, all thoughts of trying to stay calm now having fled. “At least he’s out there fighting, instead of hiding away like a coward.”

With that he stalked out of the tent, hands clenched into fists, storming through camp. He made his way to an empty fire pit, his palpable aura of rage keeping anyone else from approaching.

He stabbed angrily at the fire. Stupid arrogant prince. Why couldn’t Roman just get over himself. They needed him.

He sighed, his shoulders sagging as the anger was replaced by weariness. They really did need him. The Greeks were losing. And, as much as he hated to admit it, Roman’s pride wasn’t entirely unfounded. He was truly the greatest warrior in their army, maybe even of all times.

Not that it mattered with him not leaving his tent anytime soon. What were they going to do?

Just then, someone else sat down beside him.

“Well, hello there,” Patton smiled at him, “What has you all worked up?”

“Roman,” Anxiety answered shortly.

Patton’s smile faded a bit. “Ah,” he said, tipping his head back. “I take it he’s still being stubborn then.”

Anxiety didn’t bother to respond, only moodily poking at the fire some more.

“He’s young,” Patton said softly, “and prideful. But he’ll learn, in time.”

“And how many more of us will die before then?” Anxiety asked bitterly. “We can’t go on like this. And the worst part is that there’s nothing else we can do. It’s not like we can magically make another Roman appear out of nowhere.”

Patton was looking thoughtful. “Actually,” he said slowly, “Maybe we can.”

Anxiety stared at him. Right, clearly the stress of the war had made the old man finally crack.

“Are-are you feeling okay?” he asked cautiously.

“I’m fine,” Patton replied, his eyes now gleaming. “In fact I’m better than ever. I have a plan.”

“Uh-huh” Anxiety said, now wondering if he should maybe go and fetch someone. Maybe Logan? He was probably the smartest person Anxiety knew, so if anyone knew how to deal with whatever was wrong with Patton, it was probably him.

“Hear me out,” Morality begged. “Look, half the reason we’re doing so badly right now is because half the army’s convinced we’re doomed without Roman.”

“I mean they’re not wrong,” Anxiety muttered, but shut his mouth when Patton huffed at him.

“What I’m saying is that we need something to lift everyone’s spirits, to get them ready to fight again. If we can just get them feeling confident, I know we can win.”

“And how would we do that?” Anxiety asked. He could see Patton’s point, but he wasn’t sure where this was going.

“Well, if Roman refusing to fight is what has them depressed, then to cheer them up, we just have to make them believe that he’s agreed to fight again.” Patton said, his voice filled with excitement

“I think they’ll figure out we lied to them, when they notice he’s not there,” Anxiety drawled.

Patton gave him a small, secret smile. 

“That’s where you come in,” he said. “Anxiety, you and Roman do look somewhat alike. You have relatively similar heights and build. With a helmets over your heads, no one could tell the difference unless they got up close. And if you’re wearing his armor….”

Anxiety thought about it. It… wasn’t a bad suggestion. Roman’s armor was distinctive. He’d insisted on getting it custom-made. So as long as nobody got too close to him, and they only saw the armor, maybe.

“That-that could actually work,” Anxiety said slowly, “As long as I can get his armor, then yeah, maybe.”

“I believe in you,” Patton said. “I’m sure you can do it.”

Anxiety watched and waited. He had been lurking near Roman’s tent since sundown, waiting until he felt sure the other would be asleep. Carefully, he crept up to the tent. Hopefully he hadn’t made a mistake.

He hadn’t. As he peered into the tent, he could see Roman sprawled across his furs, his face only just illuminated by the moonlight. Anxiety couldn’t help the soft smile that crept across his face. In moments like this, he remembered why he loved the idiot.

Making sure to keep his steps light and soft, he moved carefully towards the chest where Roman kept his armor. Keeping on eye on Roman to see if he was waking up, he bent and picked up the chest.

It was heavy, but Anxiety didn’t let that deter him. Arms straining, he quickly made his way out of the tent, with Roman still lost in dreamland. Once he was out, he let out a sigh of relief. He’d done it.

But then looking back at Roman’s tent, he felt a pang of sadness. If only none of this were necessary. If only Roman had listened to him. Looking back down at the chest containing the armor he was supposed to don when tomorrow came, doubt began to creep into his brain.

How was he supposed to imitate Roman? How could he measure up to his stupid, prideful, perfect lover? But he had to. There was no other way.

Sighing he glanced back at the tenet. Hopefully Roman wouldn’t be too furious when he found out what Anxiety had done. Hopefully he would understand.

“Sleep well, Princey,” he murmured. “I wish you could be with me tomorrow.”

With that, he picked up the chest again, and began to trudge back to his tent. He needed all the rest he could get.

Inside his tent, Roman’s brow furrowed, and he shifted restlessly in his sleep. His dreams had taken a dark turn.

When Roman awoke the next morning, he felt restless. This was not an unusual state for him recently, as staying in one’s tent was hardly stimulating, but this felt… different.

After hours of pacing, muttering, and attempting to read, he decided to give his hands something to do, and turned to polish his armor. But when he went to look for his chest, it wasn’t there.

Roman stared at the empty space, puzzled. He wasn’t sure where it would have gone. Unless, maybe it was Agamemnon. A dark scowl crossed his face, if Agamemnon had had the gall to steal his armor as well as his war prize, he was going to kill the man, consequences be damned!

His murderous thoughts were then interrupted by Logan racing into his tent in more disarray than Roman had ever seen before.

“Roman,” he gasped. “You have to come. Quickly. He’s calling for you. We don’t have much time.”

He was frantically tugging on Roman’s arm, but Roman shrugged him off, not in the mood to be manhandled.

“Who’s calling,” he asked cooly, ready to dismiss the other if it was something trivial.

“Anxiety!” Logan said, “He’s with the healers. They don’t know if he’ll make it. Roman, please, he’s begging for you!”

Roman’s heart turned to ice.

He shoved Logan out of the way, knocking the slighter man over, racing out of the tent. No, no, it wasn’t possible. This could not be happening.

As the healer’s tent came into sight, echoes of their last conversation drifted through his head.

This isn’t about your stupid pride! 

You don’t care about any of us out there. Not even me.

How could he have been so stupid? As he pushed open the tent flap, Roman begged to every god he knew for the chance to make amends. To not punish Anxiety for his pride.

Inside the tent, Patton looked up tearfully, Anxiety’s head cradled in his lap. His lover lay still, his only movement the faint rise and fall of his chest. Where his skin wasn’t crusted over with drying blood, it was pale and waxy. His eyes weren’t open.

Roman slid to his knees beside him, his arms reaching out to cradle the other.

“Anxiety,” he whispered. “Anxiety, please open your eyes.”

But the other didn’t stir.

“Anxiety!’ he begged. "Please, please, just open your eyes. I’m so sorry. I love you please. Let me make this up, let me make this better. Just open your eyes.”

Pulling the other man closer, he could feel tears beginning to drip down his cheeks.

“There’s so much more I have to say to you,” he murmured. “So many things we haven’t done. I didn’t mean any of what I said earlier, can you forgive me? You were right, and I was foolish. I should I have listened to you. I will always listen you in the future, just please wake up!”

Rocking back and forth, Roman begged and begged, all thoughts of pride forgotten.

“Wake up! Wake up, I need you. I can’t do this alone. Please, Anxiety, stop doing this, I love you, please!”

His voice broke on the last please, choked by sobs. Logan came up hesitantly beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Roman, I’m sorry,” he said shakily. “We were too late. He’s gone.”

“No,” Roman whispered hoarsely, “No, he can’t be.”

“His last words were of you,” Patton said, sounding choked. “It- it was your name. That was the last thing he said, your name.”

Roman keened, a high-pitched sound more akin to a wounded animal than a human. He screamed, his grief echoing throughout the tent. Anxiety was gone. Gone, gone, GONE!

So lost in his sorrow, he barely noticed the hands shaking him, only reacting when they tried to pull Anxiety from him. He snarled up at Logan, his hands clutching around the body possessively.

“Roman, please” Logan said. “You have to let him go. We have to bury him.”

Let him go, how could he ask such a thing.

Seeing his refusal on his face, Logan tried again. “Roman,” he said, “I know you’re upset, I am too, but he must be buried.”

Roman snapped.

“You think you understand my grief, Logan of Ithaca!” he roared. “You know nothing! You still have a life waiting for you. All that I am has been destroyed. You would dare take him from me? I would kill you where you stood.”

Logan paled, but did not move.

“Roman,” he said softly, “If he’s not buried, his spirit will never find rest. You can’t hold onto him forever.”

Roman flinched as the words bit into him. Turning away from Logan, he pressed his face into Anxiety’s cold chest.

“Go,” he said bitterly. “Leave me. I will prepare his body. You can go and build his pyre.”

As Logan and Patton moved to leave the tent, Roman lifted his head up, and called after them.

“And Logan,” he said, making sure his tone conveyed the full weight of his words. “Make sure it’s fit for a king.”

Logan met his eyes and nodded solemnly, before exiting the tent with Patton. Roman turned back to face Anxiety, one hand reaching out to softly caress his face.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry, my love. I failed you.”

Later that night, as the pyre burned and the women of the camp wailed, Roman turned to Logan.

“What happened,” he said, his voice flat and cold.

Logan looked uncomfortable, but he answered.

“He took your armor,” he said dully. “Pretended to be you, so he could lead the troops. So they’d stop being convinced things were hopeless. He was doing well actually. You-you would have proud of him. But then Hector came.”

Roman’s eyes narrowed. So it was Hector.

Logan continued, his voice sounding more broken by the minute. “Anxiety tried to hold out against him, but he’d gotten trapped behind enemy lines. We couldn’t help him, and Hector just wouldn’t, he wouldn’t stop. By the time we broke through and reached him, we were too late. He was already, well you saw.”

Roman stared at the pyre, his eyes burning, his jaw clenched. Yes, he had seen.

“I’m going to burn Troy to the ground,” he said, feeling the bloodlust rise within him. “I will take Hector and throw his body to the dogs. I will grind their city to dust, bring their people to ruin, and when that is done, I will fly Anxiety’s standard above it, so that they might know, that even in death, he surpasses them.”

Logan was staring at him, pale and uneasy. “Roman, please don’t do anything stupid,” he said quietly.

“I will only do what is necessary,” Roman replied harshly, turning from the other. He had to visit the blacksmith.

Two days later, Roman stood ready. His new armor gleamed. He had not needed the blacksmith after all. No, this armor was forged by the gods themselves. He was pleased with it, it would suit his purpose well.

As he marched through the camp, his hand went to the space above his heart. That had been his one request to Hephaestus, that Anxiety’s name might be inscribed above his heart. The god had looked at him with sympathy, and then agreed.

Once he had reached the front lines, he donned his helm. It was time.

“I will avenge you, Anxiety,” he murmured. “I’ll avenge you if it’s the last thing I do.”

It would be.