#source: orestes

[incorrect-blind-channel]

Joonas: I'll take care of you.

Joel: It's rotten work.

Joonas: Not to me. Not if it's you.

[incorrectlooneytunesquotes]

Love ees all we have, ze only way zat each can help ze ozair.

Pepe le Pew

[streets-in-paradise]

It's the first time I see a book retelling mentioning it.

I knew it wasn't just a Troy meme!

[lilyflxwers]

sources: useralyssa//aeschylus/the oresteia//natalie diaz/postcolonial love poem - wolf OR7//sylvia plath/a letter to ruth tiffany// orestes/euripides//richard aiken/crush//yevgeny yevtushenko/fury

[whencyclopedia]

Atreus was the mythical Greek king of Mycenae. He is perhaps best known for being the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, two heroes of the Trojan War, as well as for the terrible curse placed upon his family. This was a hereditary curse, plaguing the family for five generations with a vicious cycle of murder and revenge. The curse of the House of Atreus began when its founder, Tantalus, offended the gods by serving them a feast made of the dismembered remains of his own son, Pelops, in an attempt to test their omniscience. It continued with the rivalry between Atreus and his brother Thyestes that blossomed into a bloody feud, and it afflicted the next generation as well, with the murder of Agamemnon by his own wife. The curse did not end until Atreus' grandson Orestes avenged Agamemnon's murder and was absolved from all guilt by the gods. The story of Atreus and his heirs made excellent dramatic material for ancient Greek and Roman literature, as seen in the trilogy known as the Oresteia written by Greek tragedy playwright Aeschylus (c. 525 to c. 456 BCE) and the tragedy Thyestes written by Seneca (4 BCE to 65 CE). The members of the House of Atreus are referenced in many different sources of Greek mythology, with Atreus' descendants being collectively known as Atreidai, the plural form of the patronymic name Atreides.

[katerinaaqu]

Okay an Agamemnon-friendly post so you are warned! The post is inspired by another made by @hermesmoly

As you know the sources that absolutely HATE Agamemnon speak among others on traditions rescued or invented by post-homeric sources that Agamemnon killed the husband and children of Clytemnestra to have her as a wife. Some of it I memorize it to my mini-analysis here:

And of course Tyndareus would have absolutely no clue who killed them lol 😂 like "oh what do you know! They are dead. Hey you! You are tall and handsome have my daughter for wife!" And then Menelaus with Tyndareus and the Spartan army helps Agamemnon to take Mycenae back from Aegisthus.

Wait, Aegisthus who? Yup we know Aegisthus who was their cousin and was the reason they got exiled in the first place. His coup was reversed and then Agamemnon established himself back to authority and dedicated himself to expanding Mycenaean influence and area till he made it the most powerful kingdom in Greece. But Aegisthus came back; years later he became Clytemnestra's lover and the two of them conspired the murder of Agamemnon and after they succeeded they ruled for years till Orestes took his revenge.

Aegisthus is my proof not to support the idea that Agamemnon slaughtered Clytemnestra's family to get to marry her. Even if one can say he was desperate to get back to power, even if someone says he lost it for some reason and wanted to get revenge quickly, even if we say that no one ever knew (and in Eurypedes it is not even the case! Apparently every interested party knew haha) I don't think it is plausible to say he conspired for the murder of the family of Clytemnestra. He did many things and as I mention to the analysis he doesn't seem meant to be a pleasant character but no I am not convinced it is plausible he conspired or executed the murder of Clytemnestra's family.

The dude didn't even plan the assassination of Aegisthus who was the reason to exile him!

Food for thought

[perplexingly]

Ok so you like self destructive tragic characters right. Self inflicted trauma on top of external trauma type stuff. (I've been thinking about Anders lately and you described him this way and I. can't stop thinking about it.) Can you elaborate on this type of characterization and what exactly makes a character written this way successful and not come off as just incompetent, frustrating or pure evil? I've found myself keeping an eye out for more characters like this but I haven't found any more that aren't shoved squarely in the "evil villain" box both by their source material and their fandom. As a character creator myself I'd love to write more characters like that and given how much you seem to appreciate them I'd love to hear your input. (Hope this ask isn't too weird, I just love well rounded characters that don't fit the status quo and I'll take that wherever I can get it.)

(Also, I've been replaying Skyrim recently before getting back into DA and once again our gaming interests have somehow realigned and all your posts about Enderal are tempting me to try it myself. I'm curious what mods you use, if any beyond Enderal itself? Your posts are the first I've heard of it so I'm not sure if it's even recommended to use mods lol, but I thought it was worth the ask)

Hello! Yes I love characters like that, but I’m afraid I won’t give you the analysis you need, I don’t have many thoughts in my head…

I think that characters like these do come off as all these things you mentioned (just look at all the Anders discourses around, or how Hamlet is perceived as indecisive and pathetic, Captain Ahab as insane, and Victor Frankenstein as “the real monster”), but regardless are still compelling, maybe because they often have very strong convictions, embody that “road to hell is paved with good intentions” proverb? Some of them are also just straight up charismatic (and often kind too!) and it’s easy to like that, though I don’t think that’s a necessary trait to find them interesting. (Anders came off as charming in Awakening as well, but then again, I liked the way he acted in DA2 more). Oh another thing is that they’re almost always the thing that moves the story forward.

Of the top off my head I can think mostly of self destructive characters in classic literature but I’m sure every media and every time period has plenty. Besides previously mentioned I’d also consider characters such as Captain Nemo (by the end of the story at least, for the most part he’s presented as noble and high-functioning), Jekyll of Jekyll&Hyde, Marlowe’s Faust (this one is 100% self inflicted without much external tragedy), any protagonist of any Dostoevsky book, maybe Balladyna (she’s a villainess akin to Macbeth though), maybe Orestes and Electra

Oh for modern works, definitely Captain Flint from Black Sails, Tolkien’s Turin (though there is a literal curse on his family line), Mrs Danvers from Rebecca, maybe Fitz from RotE (though he is more passive than any other character I listed here). I’m sure there are much better examples, it was all off the top of my head though :D

About Enderal, yesss I recommend it highly!! I didn’t use any mods, but there’s a bunch on Nexus (it has a separate page from Skyrim, though I believe Skyrim mods should work as well??). Enderal is more akin to a stand alone game than a mod though, for me it took 60hrs to beat and I didn’t do all of the side quests/didn’t meet all of the named npcs 🥹

Also, good luck with your endeavors!!

[miffy-junot]

a hint of homoeroticism between Napoleon and Junot

Here is an excerpt from an 1853 biography of Napoleon:

'He wore, then, the famous gray frock-coat; but it was very shredded; he placed his hat backwards, as if he were about to fall; fastened his cravat badly, and did not wear gloves, because they were too expensive. His pleasures were confined to a few melancholy walks, in the Jardin des Plantes, leaning on the arm of Junot, whom he called his Orestes; exchanging his dreams with him; for the unfortunate are those who have the most extravagant dreams. But the awakening was terrible. "I saw him," said Junot, "in a violent emotion, when he met on the boulevards the marvellous men of the time, who seemed to be swimming in madness, he wanted at all costs to get out of this situation;"'

source

It is known that Napoleon and Junot were very close in this time, but something struck me about this account: 'his Orestes'.

This is a reference to the Greek mythological figures of Orestes and Pylades, whose devotion to each other has been, for hundreds of years, a symbol of homoeroticism. Here is what Erōtes, a contemplation of 'the two kinds of love' attributed to Lucian of Samosata, says on the subject:

'Phocis joined Orestes and Pylades from infancy; they took a god for witness of their mutual love, and sailed through life on a single ship. Together they put Clytemnestra to death, as though both had been Agamemnon’s sons; by both was Aegisthus slain. Pylades suffered even more than Orestes, when the latter was hounded by the Furies. When Orestes was accused of being a criminal, Pylades stood by his side. Their loving friendship was not hemmed in by the boundaries of Greece, for they sailed together to the farthest shores of Scythia, one ill and the other nursing him. When they reached the land of the Tauri, the Fury herself, avenger of Orestes’ mother’s murder, prepared their welcome: barbarians attacking from all sides, just as Orestes was laid low by his mad ravings. But Pylades wiped away the froth and tended him, covering him with a finely-woven robe, showing not so much the tenderness of a lover as that of a father. [...] That’s how things stand. When an honest love, nourished from childhood, gathers strength and reaches the manly age of reason, then the one we have long loved is able to return that love. It is hard to tell who is whose lover; just as in a mirror, the tenderness of the lover is reflected by that of the beloved.'

source

[lyculuscaelus]

Some thoughts concerning the Epigonoi. They’re probably around the same age, maybe with Alcmaeon being the oldest—but still the age difference wouldn’t be too significant.

Specifically:

Aegialeus: it’s likely that he was born late, if we go by Statius’s Thebaid where Adrastus was mentioned to be “lacked male issue” by the time he married his daughters to Polyneices and Tydeus respectively (Thebaid book 1, 390–394). Had to say, this reason makes sense to explain why Adrastus wanted to marry off his daughters so eagerly. If so then Aegialeus was likely born after the time of the double marriage, and still old enough to beget a son before he went for war. Would he be at the age of eight by the time the first Theban War took place? (Might be younger though, since there’s Achilles as an example…)

Alcmaeon: he would be old enough to take heed of his father’s orders for vengeance, but not old enough to do that until about ten years later. Perhaps we may go with Orestes parallel and consider him to be around ten when the Seven went against Thebes, so he’d have the vengeance in his 20’s?

Diomedes: so I actually failed to identify any source for that statement on the wiki page for Diomedes. Nevertheless, Diomedes being younger than the rest of the group makes sense for BOTH the thing about people around him constantly reminding him of the his father and the war in Thebes AND the parallel of him being younger than most of the other Achaean chieftains by the time of the Trojan War.

Sthenelus: older than Diomedes, for sure. Old enough to father a son or two a few years before the Trojan War took place—if Cometes was real, that is (if not, then Cylarabes having died without an issue probably means he could be born at any time which does not help with our calculation). Let’s say, he might be at least eighteen when he begot Cometes, and Cometes being…well, eighteen? When he consorted with Aegialeia (you see, another thing that’s so fricked up is the age difference. If Aegialeia was a daughter of Aegialeus then maybe this makes some…sense—but she would be too young for Diomedes in that case; but if she’s a daughter of Adrastus then…it’s straight up two generations between Cometes and Aegialeia which is just…ugh. Welp another reason why I don’t acknowledge this wicked version of Aegialeia’s story). We don’t actually know the time gap between the Epigoni campaign and the Trojan War (again, that claim on Diomedes’s wiki page is unsourced), but if it’s five to ten years then Sthenelus would be ranging from 16 to 21 when he went for Thebes.

Thersandros: he might be older than Diomedes or about the same age—putting his age between Aegialeus’s and Diomedes’s just in case.

Promachus: his father Parthenopaeus was young. Like, the youngest among the Seven against Thebes. Still, he was old enough to father a son before he left for war (again, let’s say it’s eighteen for the sake of calculation), and we don’t really know when he did that. Let’s say the age when Parthenopaeus left for war ranges from 18 to 23: then Promachus would be around 10 to 15? Again being the youngest, perhaps?

Can’t really decide the age for Amphilochus, Euryalus, Polydorus, Medon simply based on their lineage…

Alright I expect this to be quite different from how everyone calculates their age so let me know if you have other theories!

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

having Cassandra and Apollo thoughts...

thoughts about how she still calls Apollo "the god I love", even after the curse. how he gifted not just her, but her twin with the gift of prophecy. he loved both of them. they loved him.

I know people claim Athena avenged Cassandra's rape at the hands of Ajax but tbh that wasn't Athena avenging Cassandra - that was Athena punishing Ajax for violating the sanctity of her temple.

if Cassandra hadn't been inside Athena's temple, Ajax would have gotten away with it. and in a way, he did anyway.

and then when you think about Cassandra's death...the one to avenge her is the god she loves. Apollo. he cursed her, yes. but he still loved her too.

because think about it. apollo did not give a flying fuck about Agamemnon. if it was just Agamemnon who died, Apollo would have thrown a party.

but Cassandra was also killed. someone Apollo loves, and a favored priestess.

...remember what happened to Agamemnon when he insulted a priest of Apollo? a plague fell on the Achaeans.

and when Cassandra is killed...Apollo finds a way to make her murders pay the price. He gets Orestes to kill his own mother to avenge Cassandra.

frankly, I love them. I want more of them. This messy, complicated relationship with so much more meaning than "apollo got mad because she wouldn't sleep with him". Even with the cursory view I have, I can see there is so much more there.

Gods, I need to get my hands on those primary sources so I can obsessively read about them in full.

If anybody has recommendations on which primary sources have Cassandra and Apollo please tell me

I am begging you.

RAWRRAWRARWR I LOVE THEM👀

I also have thoughts about Apollo and Orestes but that's for another time

[death-before-ilion]

Fundamental sources

Greek mythology is recorded in numerous texts, covering multiple centuries, locations, traditions and variations. Many of these ancient sources are lost to us, or fragmentary. This leaves us with an incomplete (albeit vast) and oftentimes incoherent collection of written sources on which to base my own work.

The sources which are considered by the ancient Greeks themselves as foundational and central to Greek mythology are essentially : the early Greek epic poets (amongst which is, of course, Homer), Hesiod (author of the famed Theogony, not counted as an epic poet) and the Homeric Hymns (called Homeric because they are written in the same language, style and meter as the Iliad and Odyssey). These texts were written down between the 8th and the 5th centuries BC, and are based on oral material that goes much further back.

Of the early epic poems, only the Iliad and the Odyssey attributed to Homer still survive, considered by the ancient Greeks as the pinnacle of their literature. Of all the other epics, only fragments and (if we're lucky) summaries remain. The Trojan Cycle was made of the following works :

The Cypria, which describes the origin and early years of the Second Trojan War

The Iliad, which tells of the wrath of Achilles and the death of Hector

The Aethiopis, which describes the intervention of Amazons and Ethiopians in the war, and the death of Achilles

The Little Iliad, a dense work that covers events from the funeral of Achilles to the episode of the Trojan horse

The Sack of Troy, which, as its title suggests, tells the events from the Trojan horse to the desctruction of the city and the anger of Athena

The Return from Troy, in which the Greek heroes return home, with tragic developments, such as the murder of Agamemnon and the revenge of Orestes

The Odyssey, tells the return of Ulysses, the longest and most adventurous return of all Greek heroes

The Telegony, that covers further adventures of Ulysses until he is killed by Telegonus, his son by Circe

To this we can add a Theban Cycle (covering the life of Oedipus, both Theban Wars and the revenge of Alcmaeon) and a few additional epics (including a Titanomachy I would have loved to read). Chances are high that there were many more, lost to us even by name.

Hesiod left us three complete works and a number of fragments, the most important of which is the Theogony, which describes how the universe began and the early history of the gods.

Lastly, the Homeric Hymns, of which three may be later additions, are poems or songs that praise the gods, each hymn being dedicated to a specific god.

In the context of my work, these sources will be taken as having the highest authority. Later sources will be accepted if they provide additional material that completes or extends the earlier texts, or if they help resolve an obvious inconsistency or impossibility.

[blueeyeddarkknight]

Val as Orlando in as you like it in the Guthrie theater 1981 _1982 🎭

Billy9865, Gagerick gregnant on Twitter

The luponedolls on Instagram

Patti lupone newspapers on Twitter

Related posts (the whole theater Val collection) 😊

[ilions-end]

i've seen the term "prix de rome" pop up in descriptions of several artworks i've reblogged here. apparently it was a prestige competition where artists competed in making the best depiction of a specific motif for that year (mostly taken from mythology or ancient history). what i DESPERATELY need is a table overview of each year's subject and participiants (not just winners!!), which the internet is NOT giving me

anyway here are the epic cycle-related motifs i've managed to find traces of so far:

(some years show two subjects, i'm guessing this is either a mistake in my sources, or the painting, sculpture and composing-competitions were working off different motifs)

1717: aphrodite asking hephaestus for armour for aeneas

1769: achilles placing the body of hector before the body of patroclus

1771: the battle between athena and ares

1801: achilles receiving agamemnon's envoys

1803: aeneas' flight from troy

1809: priam at achilles' feet

1810: the wrath of achilles

1812: odysseus and telemachus slaying the suitors

1815: briseis mourning patroclus

1816: oenone refusing to heal paris, OR odysseus and neoptolemus finding philoctetes

1817: helen saved by castor and polydeuces

1820: achilles rewarding nestor the prize for wisdom at the funeral games

1822: orestes and pylades

1823: aegisthus discovering the body of clytemnestra

1825: antigone burying polynices

1831: achilles pursued by xanthus

1843: oedipus exiled from thebes

1845: odysseus and nausicaa

1849: odysseus recognized by eurycleia

1850: the death of achilles

1852: philoctetes on lemnos

1854: hector and astyanax

1859: aeneas in latium

1860: orestes resting at the altar of athena

1861: the death of priam / the fall of troy, OR chryseis reunited with her father

1866: thetis delivering the divine armour to achilles

1868: the death of astyanax

1871: oedipus and the corpses of his wife and sons

1875: clytemnestra (just. clytemnestra?)

1876: priam at the feet of achilles AGAIN

1880: odysseus and telemachus reunited

1881: the wrath of achilles AGAIN

1883: oedipus cursing polynices

1888: odysseus and nausicaa AGAIN

1912: oedipus finding his dead sons

1934: odysseus and calypso

[tylermileslockett]

Originally performed in 458 BC, Agamemnon is the first play in Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, which also includes Libation Bearers and Eumenides. The play is set in front of the palace of Argos and begins with a Watcher noticing a beacon fire which signals the return of Argos’ king, Agamemnon, ten years after sailing away to conquer Troy. The information is subsequently confirmed by a Herald, soon after which Agamemnon arrives in a chariot that also carries Cassandra, the Trojan princess, a spoil of war and a new bedmate of Agamemnon. Regardless of this, Clytemnestra welcomes her husband gushingly, eventually even persuading him to enter his palace by treading over a purple tapestry more becoming for gods than humans. It is a hubristic act, with which Clytemnestra tries to give further justification to what she intends to do next: murder Agamemnon. Left behind, Cassandra, a prophetess cursed not to be believed by anyone, senses this outcome. Even so, she decides to enter the palace as well, believing this to be her inevitable fate. Indeed, it is: Clytemnestra murders both Agamemnon and his lover, and defends this decision before the Chorus as a just act of revenge for Agamemnon having sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the gods for a transgression of his own – namely, killing Artemis’ sacred deer. However, that’s not the whole story, as we soon learn from Clytemnestra’s lover (and Agamemnon’s cousin) Aegisthus, who unexpectedly appears on stage. He is in on the murder plot as well, as a way to avenge his brothers, who had been not only slaughtered by Agamemnon’s father, Atreus, but also cooked and served as dinner to Aegisthus’ father, Thyestes. The Argive Elders bemoan this sudden turn of events and warn that Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, will inevitably return to look for v3ngeance. Source: greekmythology.com

Want to own my Illustrated Greek myth book? Support my kickstarter for my book "lockett Illustrated: Greek Gods and Heroes" coming in October.You can also sign up for my free email newsletter for free hi-res art and a big discount on my etsy print shop. please check my LINKTREE 🤘❤️🏛😁

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[littlesparklight]

Do you prefer if Iphigenia was killed or rescued by Artemis?

Short answer: rescued.

Longer one: Those two options aren't incompatible with each other!

The thing with the deer-substitution variant isn't a question of "is Iphigenia killed or not?" but "do the mortals who kill her believe she is dead?"

Agamemnon dies upon coming home, killed by his wife and her lover - this is an absolute point in the tradition, and isn't going to be subverted (unlike Iphigenia's potential survival). Now, Agamemnon being killed by Klytaimnestra and Aegisthos doesn't actually necessarily mean she kills him for Iphigenia's sake, but that does seem to be the mainstream reason. (With no real variant giving an alternate reason without also being coupled with Iphigenia's death, as far as I'm aware? Not sure there is any other motive given her but I'm not plugged into this part as well as others of the myths around the war.)

So the next potential absolute point in tradition is a sacrifice of a girl/Agamemnon's daughter at Aulis.

And for the deer substitution, the texts that touch on this do not actually say anyone saw her be exchanged, and saw the deer put/sacrificed in Iphigenia's place.

The Kypria, our oldest surviving source, is fragmentary; we know from summary that Artemis saves her in some manner, but not how, and not what the Achaeans saw. The Bibliotheke mentions the deer substitution, but in addition to this part being a summary of an already compressed/summarising work, it doesn't detail the specifics of the substitution, how it happened or what the Achaeans saw. And the Catalogue of Women, too, mentions the rescue, but again, that is as much information we get from it. Not how/why/what anyone sees or knows.

Do the Achaeans see the deer? Do they know they're killing a deer, not Iphigenia?

The gods can create eidolons and show only what they want to be seen; we don't actually know if the Achaeans are written as seeing anything but Iphigenia.

Because, in the end, the important thing isn't whether Iphigenia dies at the altar in Aulis, but whether everyone else thinks she does. That is what Agamemnon's punishment springs from; the (apparent) death of his daughter, and, after the war, being killed for it.

Not whether Iphigenia actually survived, which, as we know when her stay with the Tauroi are involved and Orestes and Pylades come there, she is presumably still believed to have died.

Or at the very least, Klytaimnestra must believe she was indeed sacrificed. If Klytaimnestra is present at Aulis in any deer-substitution version of the story, and everyone only sees "Iphigenia", then her motives remain exactly as we're familiar with them from surviving tragedies. If she isn't present, then it's still the same.

In the case of a deer-substitution variant where everyone sees the deer, Klytaimnestra's motives might remain exactly the same if she remains in Mycenae, and thus simply do not believe the story that Iphigenia was rescued - it's not as if Iphigenia herself is available to be given back to her mother! On the other hand, even here you can actually keep Klytaimnestra's motives somewhat the same, for even if she's present to see the deer in a version where they all know there is a deer instead of a girl... Agamemnon was still willing/let himself be pressured into killing his daughter. He didn't know she would be rescued! And it's not as if Artemis hands Iphigenia back to her parents; whether a deer or not, whether said deer is seen for what it is or not, Iphigenia herself is as "dead" to her parents either way. Klytaimnestra could well kill Agamemnon on these points alone, the difference to an actual dead (or believed to be dead) Iphigenia minimal.

Iphigenia's sacrifice is important narratively, but the girl herself doesn't actually need to die for it to still "happen" and have that importance, so.

That's why I lean on "she was rescued, but no one knows that for all they saw was 'Iphigenia' being sacrificed".

[katerinaaqu]

What kind of tender words that are used between friends in greek myths? I am genuinely interested at how tender they could be that people saw it as romantical?

Hmm there is plenty since the ancient Greek writing was supposed to be emotional in the first place. I analyze some of it to my post about Achilles and Patroclus;

OK your question is very good to be reminded of of course and have them gathered around once more. So here are some examples;

Words that come from the ancient word φιλέω-ώ (filèo or filò). The verb means "to love" but the word of love here can be used in various contexts including friendly love or family love or even romantic. An example of course from the Iliad and Achilles:

But what pleasure/happiness is left of me when my beloved companion is lost?

(Translation by me)

In the passage Achilles is using the term φίλος (fìlos) which here means "beloved" or "dear" and goes along with the term that stands for "companion" (which be analyzed further down). The same word is used for any type of tender relationship (with friends family partner or even country and land). In fact the term φίλος is used for example in Aeschylus to signify the tender companionship between Orestes and Pylades which doesn't present such passionate scenes between the characters to indicate relationship also we see characters like Menelaus using it for Odysseus again without sexual or romantic implications or from Thetis to her son. But obviously in the passage of Achilles it is much more passionate. And in this context is also used to the full degree φίλτατος aka "the most beloved". Here's an example from Eurypedes's "Orestes"

This one is the most beloved (here: to me) among the mortals

(Translation by me)

Throughout the play Orestes and Pylades have an amazing bond of companionship and friendship. This is the passage of Orestes describing what Pylades is to him. Between them though there isn't the same intensity or passion that one could place between Achilles and Patroclus so the nature of their relationship seems to be what it seems: tender and close friendship. And of course partnership.

And speaking of which the second word in this passage is:

The word ἑταῖρος (etèros) which stands for "comrade" or "companion". As a word is used to all kind of contexts from a friendly relationship to partners in the army or war or in a trip. For example one of the most famous examples of someone using that word is no other than Odysseus himself to refer to his crew:

And I immediately rushed back to my swift ship where I found my comrades grieving severely

(Teanslation by me)

So the word itself is resembling in both use and meaning of the word "another" it was also often translated as "your significant other" which is why also one translates the word as "partner" on occasion and used for husband and wife but obviously that is not the way Odysseus uses it vs Achilles using it of course to the passage I initially quote.

The phrase κεχαρισμένος/η θυμῷ (keharismènos/I thymò) which means "dear to my heart". The phrase is used in various contexts that seem to be interpreted as lovers but also used between characters such as Telemachus and Nestor's son Peisistratus (who also reside to the same room and bed thus leading many interpret their relationship as romantic or of sexual nature) or even as known in the Iliad Briseis uses the same phrase to Patroclus seen from my analysis above.

The phrase though is being used in various of contexts where we hardly assume any friendship yet alone romance (see my funny post where Agamemnon uses that phrase to refer to Diomedes)

So as you see in this context reminds me of good old comedies when men were addressing each other as "hi honey!" Or "certainly, darling" in one way so it is more like a phrase to point towards companionship in that context rather than any sort of fully lovey phrase. The phrase though has been used equally by characters like Telemachus with Nestor's son Peisistratus with whom they share a room and apparently is indicated they share a bed. It is unclear if that indicates that they have some relationship apart from the natural closeness between two people of the same age. Although many readers indicate the passage where they sleep together in the same bed as sexual might as well be the same as...any sleepover young people might have. But as I mention to the example of Agamemnon, the phrase is not necessarily used in a sexual or romantic manner.

"Same as my own head/as my own life". This phrase is used for devotion and expression of outpost love aka that you love someone equally to your own life. As a phrase it was linked with various of characters with of course the most prominent one being Achilles:

The one I valued most of all of my companions, equal to my own life!

(Translation by me)

Achilles uses the phrase I highlight with word ἶσον -> equal and ἐμῇ κεφαλῇ -> my own head (aka "my own life"). The phrase is used in a different manner and a different word in the Greek tragedy "Antigone" where the heroine is opening the play with a very passionate and tender speech towards her sister:

Oh my most beloved sister Ismene

(Translation by me)

Here the word κάρα which means "head" or "heart" depending on the translation is used with the same principle only this time to express deep sisterly affection rather than the talk between lovers.

So here are some examples that are being used both for relationships that are interpreted as romantic and some platonic examples (either friendship or family). I will be happy to elaborate further on some extra examples in comments or reblogs if needed but this is a small sample.

Hope it helps 🙏 🙂 ☺️