#the anger of achilles

[7pleiades7]

The Anger of Achilles (1819) by Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825), oil on canvas, 10.53 × 14.5 cm, The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[somepinkthing]

Imagine odysseus first meeting zagreus, knowing only that he is an escapee prince trained/raised by achilles. And then he meets zag he's so. Pleasant. Endlessly forgiving. Even keeled. Hardly prone to anger at all. He literally has to ask like hey kid you sure you know achilles? Tall, blonde, great with a spear? Obsessed with his bf? And zags like yeah!!! That's my mentor!!! He told me a lot about you :D

Odysseus is working on a theory that achilles was an evil twin

[xx0yeet-everything0xx]

patroclus: *through gritted teeth* everyday i wake up and i choose to be kind. *barely restraining himself from violence* i choose to be helpful and understanding. *tamping down the vicious bloodlust inside* i am consciously choosing to be a nice person, and choosing to love

[madaqueue]

currently yearning in a way only boys can

[gigisluigi]

We are made in God's image. How else could our limited bodies hold something so vast and unbounded as wrath and hatred?

- the kinda stuff that got Achilles killed

[illustratus]

The Fury of Achilles by Charles-Antoine Coypel

[johaerys-writes]

*takes a deep breath* I will not react to idiot takes I see today, I will not. I am so so strong

[handa-kin]

Classicstober Day 9 - Achilles

I know that per the text, it's actually the exact reverse of this that happens (and then ends with him taking a nap), but I just think it's so funny that he is holding the lyre in his hand while giving epic speeches about the horrors of war and why it's not worth his life. like, put it down.

from Book 9:

[atticussaysquestionablethings]

To be fair, Achilles' actual Achilles heel was Patroclus

[baejax-the-great]

Hello! What is your favorite scene you’ve written so far?

Most of these questions have been limited to specific chapters, so I'm going to go by that.

Achilles huffs, his composure cracking. “I don’t know how to make this better. Do you want to go back to Troy? Do you want to go to Phthia or Skyros? You would be safe with my father or my son.”

“You’re sending me away?”

The words come out small, embarrassingly small. All the fire in him extinguished instantly with that thought. Patroclus can’t breathe. Achilles is saying something, but there is a rushing in his ears. He can’t do this to him again. He cannot do this to him again. It's just like before. He’s leaving for his raid in two days. He’ll leave, and once he’s gone Patroclus will be shuffled off again to some far corner of the world, and he’d rather die.

“Patroclus.”

He shoves Achilles away from him hard. Achilles barely takes two steps back, immovable giant that he is, and Patroclus lunges forward and shoves him again. He’s picking a fight he cannot win, and knowing that only spurs him on. Let Achilles kill him. Let him kill him this time rather than sending him away like a coward.

He lunges at him again, and this time Achilles catches his arm, stepping around him and yanking it behind Patroclus’s back. It’s his shield arm, already aching from the abuse levied on it today, and Patroclus’s knees buckle.

Achilles catches him with an arm around his waist and hoists him up before he can fall. Patroclus ends up pressed against his chest, his arm twisted in between them.

“I am not sending you away,” Achilles says, his voice soft and rough and very close to Patroclus’s ear. “And I am not going to fight you.” Patroclus struggles weakly, futilely, pain shooting up his arm, and Achilles grips him tighter, his nose pressing into the side of Patroclus’s head, his breath on his ear. “I’m not. And you’ve had ample chances to kill me if you wanted to, so I don’t think you actually want to fight me either. I told you that you could stay and I meant it. But I failed you today. I told you that you would be safe here, and I was wrong. I am offering you the chance to go elsewhere.”

Patroclus sags. Doesn’t he get it? Does he still not understand the depth of what he did to Patroclus?

“Nowhere is safe for me.”

Achilles loosens his grip on his arm. Patroclus feels the great sigh Achilles heaves as much as he hears it. The weight of Achilles’ head resting against his increases.

“I’m sorry,” Achilles says, and Patroclus doesn’t know if he means for just now or for always, for how he ripped that fantasy of a secure life away from him. He never thought he’d hear him say those words, and they aren’t good enough at all.

Patroclus gives a weak jerk of the shoulders, and Achilles lets him go. He doesn’t want to forgive him. He doesn’t want to play nice. He doesn’t understand why he can’t provoke him. Why can’t Achilles just do this for him? Why won’t he be the man Patroclus knows he is and lash out and hurt anyone in range?

“What happened to that hot temper of yours?” Patroclus asks, rubbing his arm.

Achilles’ lips form a thin line. “Master Chiron taught me how to aim.”

[dhampiravidi]

me, realizing that Achilles, Harvey Specter & Aleksander Morozova are probably all part of the same anger management therapy group—

this group is run by Uncle Iroh.

[gingermintpepper]

Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by my fondness for Phoebus Apollo.

Re-reading the Iliad is always such a treat for me because I just love seeing Apollo's arc parallel Achilles' so entirely. There are a ton of examples I can pull from but I'm mostly thinking of that very first argument between Achilles and Agamemnon about returning Chryseis and how Achilles accosting Agamemnon quickly gets derailed when Agamemnon threatens to take Achilles' own prize from him (which prompts Achilles to say that his hard work isn't being respected, that he's earned this, that the men themselves agreed to let him have Briseis and Agamemnon doesn't have the right to overturn their communal decision, that he'll take his men and leave if Agamemnon refuses to respect him and the men out there dying on Menelaus' behalf of a plague propagated by his unworthy brother of all people) and how that comes around in Book 21 when Poseidon levies a challenge at Apollo's feet for more or less the same reasons but Apollo flat out refuses to lose sight of his purpose in the war. Even after Artemis herself calls Apollo's pride into question and tells him that if he chickens out of the duel, he better never boast again, Apollo refuses to fight against Poseidon, very staunchly citing that, to the gods, to him, the war is a job, that it is mortals who are emotionally invested in the outcome of this battle and that their squabble is not worth disrespecting his uncle over.

And I love that so much because if any of the gods had a reason to be as petty as possible about this war, it was Apollo. Disregarding how much he adored the royal family, disregarding how much he adored Hector specifically, two of his beloved sons were brutalised by Achilles, the premiere Greek fighter, his temples had been sacked and defiled, his image was being completely disrespected and yet, despite everything, the one line he refused to cross was taking out any of the frustration he was feeling on his family - even if it was the uncle that was openly and frequently disparaging him and antagonising him.

And I just think that's so so neat.

[thefandomexpert]

i love the sanguinius jesus jokes as much as the next 40k fan. however, as far as personal characterization goes he’s an achilles. to me.

[psychologeek]

elaborate:

The Most Dangerous Thing 

You are benched. "You are a kid", he says. "You nearly died. I can't let you do that anymore. You should focus on school and friends". (You weren't a kid for a long time. Not since the last time you saw your mom, broken limbs and breathless. Not since you watched your father bleed to death). (Trauma and healing are not linear, but it doesn't mean it won't get better.) alternative name: Raina Grayson's adventures [ft. trauma!]

Problem solving /Core Skills

Jason's doesn't want to disappoint his family (or worst, called out by his brothers). Jazz try getting costudy over Danny. I wonder where it all could go. (T for Jason's bad language (TM) ) (For YOTP: January - fake dating)

[unnamed01-JJTTAU] - post-JJ Tim, and psychological affects. include the titan's tower!

Witwat and the Jin

The urge to prove himself? claiming- not, INSISTING he is the only real son? where do you think it came from? or Dami had a brother (he's long gone)

Just short of a fairy tale (I told myself that I wouldn't be scared)

Jason Todd was born on August 15th, a minute before the clock changed, to a woman called Catrina. Crime alley attracts all sorts of beings. There is a kid in the backyard, that only Jason sees. He's pale, and so small. There are purple circles under his eyes. And he is so, so quiet. All of those are unrelated facts. [or are they?]

wishes are children (carefull) - still written. inspired by [What We Can Carry by Miss_Lazy_Tuesday] .

Heaven

study :(

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Ὡς ἔρις ἔκ τε θεῶν ἔκ τ' ἀνθρώπων ἀπόλοιτο καὶ χόλος, ὅς τ' ἐφέηκε πολύφρονά περ χαλεπῆναι, ὅς τε πολὺ γλυκίων μέλιτος καταλειβομένοιο ἀνδρῶν ἐν στήθεσσιν ἀέξεται ἠΰτε καπνός.

- Homer, The Iliad**

If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage - bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey, that swarms in people's chests and blinds like smoke.

**Words spoken by Achilles. Translation by Robert Fagles.