#we’re given hectors story just as we’re given achilles’

[st-alia-atreides]

absolutely buzzing with thoughts about paul as a tragic greek hero and everything that comes along with it. he’s orestes torn between his dead father and his tormented mother, who just wants his father back, and yet only brings more death and destruction. he’s oedipus, tragically aware of what his fate is promised to be, so sure he can circumvent it. (he can’t.) he’s achilles, cruel and destructive, choosing glory and honor and immortality-by-memory above all (or was it chosen for him?) he loves and is loved and it’s still not enough. he can’t save chani from her fate or his sister from herself, and he certainly can’t save the world from what he’s done to it

[wanderingnork]

Re: that Hector post I reblogged. I LOVE to see that wider context of why Hector is so beloved and Achilles reviled, it’s fascinating. Definitely going to reread the Iliad with that in mind. I’ve been meaning to do a full reread for a while so that’s the inspiration I need. XD

That said, here’s why I personally have always liked Hector a lot. It’s not because he’s somehow overall nobler than the Greeks, it’s always been clear to me that everyone in the epic is, to put it mildly, a mess. No one’s free from flaw (and that’s the Point of the whole thing). There are two things that I always appreciated: one, that Hector is the leader of an embattled people and has been clearly doing a damn fine job, and two, he’s nice to Helen.

For that first one, the fact that Troy is still standing strong, has an inspired army defending it, and hasn’t collapsed from within says that Hector is doing his job as a leader well. I admire that. He’s a match for the clever and wise leaders among the Greeks. Things don’t really go wrong for Troy until after he’s killed. Lots of factors play into that, of course, but it’s clear that Hector’s death puts a huge crack in the morale of the Trojans.

Second one…look. Most people in the Iliad don’t treat Helen well. From the gods on down, she’s the target of open hate for a lot of people. At a minimum, she’s ostracized for her role in the war. Which, depending on your source, may not have been much. Maybe she was kidnapped outright by Paris thanks to the inspiration of Aphrodite, and had no say in the matter—and is now being treated horribly. Maybe she DID run away with Paris of her own volition—in which case we’re dealing with a young woman who got married to a much older man she didn’t choose, was rash about looking for love, and thanks to her role in society was probably not fully informed of the geopolitical consequences of her actions. In either case, by the time of the Iliad she pretty much seems to hate her life. Agency or no, Helen regrets the actions that brought her to Troy. She’s not being treated with kindness by the Trojans, Paris has really turned out to be nothing like she believed, and fleeing the city to reach the Greeks might very well result in her husband killing her for unfaithfulness. (Which, kudos to Menelaus, he actually does not do in the end.)

And then you get Hector. At his funeral, Helen is the last of the women to speak, after Andromache (his wife) and Hecuba (his mother). Helen says outright that Hector was frequently her only advocate. He took care of her as Paris should have, but didn’t, and considered her family despite the awful circumstances of her presence in Troy. That’s pretty fucking exceptional behavior, especially given how many other women in the story (even goddesses!) are treated. Sure, Hector is as bloodthirsty and murderous as every other warrior in this story. He’s just as down with defiling bodies and looting corpses as any of the Achaean warriors. But I always really appreciated that he was willing to extend the hand of kindness to someone no one else wanted to touch.

[imaginingmarvelandeverything]

Chapter 10: The Fall of Troy

Pairing: Morpheus x OC (Cassandra of Troy)

Warnings: death, violence, attempted sexual assault (not explicit)

Word count: 4354

A/N: Here is chapter 10 of Fated and Forgotten! This is a long one, and as you can probably tell from the title, we’re at the end of the Trojan war! It is not the end of this story though, as the synopsis says, this is going to eventually follow the series. There’s just 3000 years before we get there! There are a few changes from the mythology in this, which I needed to fit with the story. This is going to be the last update until next week, as I’m going away for a long weekend tomorrow. Hope you like it!

Main masterlist

Series masterlist

Ko-Fi

Cass pulled apart the bread in her hands and dropped some small pieces next to her where she was sitting on her window ledge. Alexander pecked at the crumbs on the ledge as she slowly ate the rest of the bread. The raven had become her closest friend over the past week and a half. He wasn’t afraid to tell her exactly when Morpheus was watching and when he wasn’t. The bird seemed to be glad to be back out in the waking world and she was reluctant to keep him shut up with her, so she had been sending him off to check on the battle raging outside the city wall. Her words on the day of Hector’s death seemed to have struck a chord with Paris because he had taken over as head of the army.

The Greeks had given them back what was left of Hector’s body, so they could have a funeral. Cass had been permitted to attend, if only to not arouse the suspicion that her absence would have no doubt caused. But her parents grief had blinded them, and when no one was looking she had been able to slip Hector’s dagger into the flowing fabric of her dress. When she got back to her room, it hadn’t been hard to use the dagger to rip her bedsheets to form a rudimentary thigh holder for the dagger’s sheath. She had decided to keep it on her at all times until the time came.

She looked up as the door was pushed open. Alexander flew out of the window and up onto the roof, where he could still be in hearing range without being seen. But luckily, it was only Agnes anyway.

“My lady.” She said breathlessly as she bowed her head and the guards shut the door behind her. “Your brother has returned, Achilles is dead.”

The news should have filled her with joy and hope, but instead pure dread settled in her stomach. She had learnt her lesson now though, she didn’t let it show on her face and instead plastered on a smile. “That is wonderful news.”

“The Greeks are retreating. The city is saved.” Agnes smiled, happy tears filling her eyes.

“Then I order you to take the week off. Go and see your family out of the city to celebrate.” She smiled, hoping Agnes would believe the tears in her eyes were also from happiness.

“My lady, I could not. That would leave you alone.” Agnes said, her face falling.

Cass walked forward and took her hands in hers. “I insist. Now the war is over, I believe my father may have a change of heart. If you leave now, you can be home before tomorrow afternoon. I will still be here when you return.”

“As you wish, my lady.” Agnes curtsied and moved towards the door before pausing. “I hope you enjoy the festivities, even if they will not bring the Prince back.”

“Thank you, Agnes, for everything.” Cass smiled, the tears beginning to fall as the door closed behind Agnes.

“My lady?” Alexander flew back down to land in the window ledge.

“Tomorrow night, the city is going to fall. I will not have her here when it does.” She turned to face the bird. “She believes me because it was not a prophecy, because I gave her a good enough reason to leave without question. But I cannot help the others.”

“It is not your fault.” He flew in to perch on her shoulder, his claws digging lightly into her skin.

She looked up at him. “I know, but that does not make it any easier.”

The bird inclined his head, as if he was listening to something. “Lord Morpheus wishes to speak with you tonight, he will we waiting in the library.”

She took a breath, wondering how she would even fall asleep with all the nervous energy beginning to form. “I will be there, if I ever actually manage to get to sleep.”

***

Cass found herself stood in the library as soon as she fell into a deep enough sleep to slip into the Dreaming. It must have been almost dawn, but her mind hadn’t stopped racing for most of the night, constantly replaying what was to happen the following night. But the weight on her shoulders eased slightly as she took in the surroundings shelves that were stacked high with scrolls of parchment. Alexander stayed in the waking world, ready to wake her if anything happened earlier than it was supposed to, leaving her seemingly alone in the library.

But she knew she wasn’t as she walked further in. Places in the Dreaming felt different whenever Morpheus was present in them, it was like they had more energy than normal, his very presence bringing them into sharper focus. She used that as her focal point and found him leaning over a desk in the far corner. Rolls of parchment covered each inch of the dark wood and he seemed engrossed in them.

“Sorry. I did not mean to keep you waiting.” She said, coming to a stop a few steps behind him.

He did not turn to look at her, instead focusing on moving the papers in front of him. “It is no matter, I have plenty to keep me busy.”

“What did you wish to speak to me about?” She asked, moving closer and peering over his shoulder at the papers in front of them. They looked like plans for something, extensions to the palace maybe.

He finally stood up straight and turned to look at her. “You have seen your death?”

“I have. Why?” She whispered, trying not to think of the images she had seen.

“It will be easier for me to give you a place here in the Dreaming if I know when it will occur. My sister is rather fast at taking souls when the time comes.” He said, but something about his tone suggested to her that he wasn’t telling her everything.

“Three months from now, mid-month I think. I cannot be entirely sure.” She said, watching confusion flash through his eyes.

“But you said the city falls tomorrow.”

“It does. I do not die in Troy.” She didn’t elaborate, unwilling to drag up what was waiting for her in less than a day.

Morpheus’s eyes seemed to darken as the air grew thick around them. “What happens tomorrow night?”

“Nothing you can prevent, and I do not wish to spend this time thinking about it.” The room darkened, her emotions brushing up against his and causing a reaction stronger than normal. Before she even felt the ground move beneath her, the pair of them were stood in the bright sunlight of Fiddler’s Green.

Morpheus’s face was unreadable, but she knew he had felt their emotions playing off each other as well. “Very well, we need not discuss it further. Alexander will stay with you, so I will know if something changes.”

She just nodded. The air still felt heavier than usual, like his power was seeping out into the air between them. “I have to go.” She whispered, finally bringing herself to look back up at him. Confusion clouded his features and his lips parted as if he was going to protest, but she cut him off. “There is to be a city wide celebration tonight, I will be expected to help with the preparations.”

“Then I will not keep you.” His tone was light, but the worry lines creasing his brow didn’t disappear.

She nodded in his direction and woke herself up before she could say anything she might regret.

***

Paris avoided looking Cass’s way the entire time they were helping oversee the preparations outside the palace. Two guards hovered close by, keeping an eye on her, as per her father’s orders. She knew he had told them to take her back to her room and lock the door at the first sign of trouble. Hector’s dagger was still strapped to her thigh, but if it came to it, she would go without complaint. Tonight could only end one way, no matter what else happened.

Alexander cawed softly from where he was perching on the statue in the centre of the courtyard. She shot him a small smile to show she was fine and went back to showing the people in front of her where he father wanted the drinks station to be placed.

Until her younger brother, Helenus came sprinting through the arches. He took several deep breaths before hastily speaking. “Come see what the Greeks have left us!”

Everyone dropped what they were holding and raced after Helenus, everyone but Paris, Cass and the two guards. The two siblings shared a brief look before Paris averted his eyes and stalked after their brother. Cass moved slower, the two guards following her like shadows as they walked through the city. People were swarming the streets, all moving in the same direction. The reason for the excitement became very clear as they reached the city gates.

A giant wooden horse had been dragged through the gates and into the entrance square. People were swarming all around it, talking about how the Greeks must have seen the error of their ways. As they walked closer, the inscription on the side became clear: The Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena for their return home.

Cass’s blood ran cold, The Greeks will commit sacrilege to enter the city, but the people will not see it. That prophecy was been the only one that had been triggered by Paris’s presence. At the time, she hadn’t known what it meant, but the horse in front of her fulfilled it perfectly. Horses had always been scared to the people of Troy, and the Greeks must have known that they wouldn’t want to destroy even a replica.

She pushed through the crowd, aware of Alexander flying above her as she made her way to Paris. She caught her brother by the arm, unflinching under his burning gaze as he turned to face her. “Paris, this is a trap. You must tell them to take it back outside the city walls.”

Paris glanced behind her and she knew the guards must have joined them. “This is another one of your delusions, sister. The Greeks have retreated, this is merely a symbol of their surrender. They know what horses mean to the people of Troy, it is merely a gift so we will not follow to finish the job.”

“Or they knew what horses mean to us and they hoped that would mean we would not destroy it! Please, Paris, listen to me. Something is wrong. They will listen to you.” She tightened her grip on his arm.

“You would do well to keep this to yourself, if father hears, he will lock you back up. Maybe for good reason.” He ripped his arm away from her and stalked off towards Helenus.

Cass watched him go, her mind reeling. What was going to happen, was going to happen. She hadn’t been able to stop it so far. But she was here this time, standing mere feet away from the issue. And she would be damned if she let it go. She glanced around the square, making sure not to draw the attention of the guards. It was getting late and the torches lining the walls had begun to be lit. An axe had been left alone underneath one, the blade embedded into the wooden block of a woodcutter who was clearly admiring the craftmanship of the horse.

More people started to fill the square as the news of the horse spread through the city like wildfire. She glanced back at the guards; one woman could move through a crowd faster than two men in full armour. She moved without thinking it through further, darting between people as she ran towards the torch and axe. The shouting of the guards was lost in the crowd as she yanked the axe out of the chopping block. The torch took less effort as she pulled it from the wall. She risked a glance back at the guards, finding them still trying to push through the crowd, before running back towards the horse.

She kept the torch and axe as close to her as possible, unwilling to even risk a bystander being hurt. She was only a few steps away from the horse when she was tackled from the side. The torch and axe went skittering across the stone paving as she rolled over and swung at whoever had grabbed her. But Paris caught her arms, crossing them over her chest and pinning them down.

“Paris, let me go!” She shouted in desperation. She knew this was it, her one and only chance. If they got her away from the square, the future would be set in stone. “Paris, please! You don’t understand, please.”

“I warned you, sister.” He murmured as the guards finally managed to push through the crowd. “Take her back to the palace. It seems the end of the war has not brought an end to her delusions.”

“Paris, please!” The guards grabbed each of her arms and hauled her to her feet. “It is a trap, if you do not listen to me, you will doom us all! Paris!”

But he turned his back and ignored her shouts as she was dragged from the square.

***

“I need you to do something for me.” Cass told Alexander as he flew down to perch on her window ledge.

The bird cocked his head to the side. “What is it?”

“One of the guards outside has the only key to the door. When it starts to get bad, they will abandon their post and I do not wish to be trapped in here.” She told him, glancing out of the window to where the sun was beginning to dip beneath the horizon. “There is not long left.”

“Leave it with me.” He flew off, leaving her alone again.

She pushed herself up onto the ledge, bringing up her legs and curling them beneath her. The sound of singing drifted up from the festivities, firelight flickering throughout the city. She wondered how much everyone had drank, how much of a resistance there would be when the fighting started.

There was a squawk in the hall, followed by muffled cursing and she couldn’t help the small smile that overtook her face. She returned her gaze to the city and found her thoughts drifting towards Agnes. She hoped, more than anything, that her friend had managed to get away in time. Even if she could only save one person from the coming bloodshed, it was better than nothing.

Alexander flew back down and dropped a gold key into her lap.

She picked it up and smiled at him. “Thank you.”

He bowed his head in acknowledgment before looking out of the window. “How long now?”

“When it goes completely dark.” She pulled the dagger out of its sheath and twirled it in her hands. “When it gets bad, I want you to go back to Morpheus.”

He hopped up to perch on her knee. “He said-”

“I know what he said. But what happens next, I would rather not have anyone see it.” She turned to look at him. “Please, grant me this.”

“Very well. But Morpheus will not be pleased.” He said.

“I will talk to him when I next see him.” She assured him. The sun had fully set now, and with it, the feeling of dread began to fully settle in her bones. She replaced the dagger in its sheath. And they sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity.

The change was so subtle at first, that neither of them noticed it. The noise had been at a constant level all night so they didn’t pick up on the change in tone. But soon the shouts of jubilation shifted into screams of terror. Both Cass and Alexander went rigid and shared a look. The bird flew up to perch on her shoulder as she swung her legs off the window ledge and climbed down. The key in her hand cut into her palm as she closed her hand into a fist around it.

They heard shouts down the hall followed by footsteps as the guards were alerted to what was going on. She waited several breaths before slotting the key into the lock and turning it. She felt the bolts move and ripped the door open.

She glanced down the corridor but it was deserted. The screaming was coming from the front of the palace, so she knew her best bet was out of the back. That would also put her in the opposite direction of Athena’s temple. Maybe, just maybe, if she didn’t make it to the temple, her fate would be different. That the man wouldn’t-

She took a breath and walked out into the corridor. She pulled the dagger from its sheath as Alexander’s claws dug into the bare skin of her shoulder. She regretted not changing out of her best dress into something more practical, but there was no time for that now.

She made it down to the back door without issue, all the corridors were deserted. She pushed open the door and stepped out into the warm night air. It was a beautiful night, too beautiful for the bloodshed that was currently occurring. She turned her attention back to the raven. “Go home.”

“I would rather stay.”

“You promised me, remember. Go.” She made sure her tone left no room for argument and he reluctantly took off.

She regretted it as soon as he was gone, leaving her all alone. But she knew she wouldn’t be alone for long if she stayed put. So, she gripped the dagger tighter and started walking. If she could make it to the back city wall, she might be able to slip out unseen and make her way to somewhere her face was not known.

She stuck to the backstreets, ducking out of sight each time she even glanced movement up ahead. She changed course several times as she heard the clanging of metal and blood curdling screams she knew she would haunt her for how ever long she had left.

She ducked out of sight as she heard voices up ahead; Greek soldiers talking about locating the missing members of the royal family. She allowed herself a brief moment of relief, hoping her younger siblings had somehow managed to get away. She had only seen Paris’s death, so she held onto the hope that the others would be safe. She was still holding onto the hope that she could get away. But it was only too late that she realised her mistake.

In evading the last soldiers she had taken a dead end street that led to the last place she wanted to be. She was about to turn around when she heard voices coming up the path. She turned and ran, swallowing down her fear as her sandals beat against the path. She crested the hill as the reality truly set in. She blindly stumbled into the temple and threw herself down at the feet of the statue.

“Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, I kneel at your alter and beg you for protection. I know my brother wronged you, but I ask for mercy now, for you to intercede before the man following me has the chance to defile your temple. Please.” She gripped the dagger tighter as she heard footsteps echoing up the front steps and her tears began to fall, dripping off her nose onto the floor bellow. “Please.”

“You are in the wrong temple, priestess. I am not sure Apollo would abide by you asking another god for help.” The voice was gruff and she refused to turn around and look at the man.

“This is a place of worship, acts committed here will be judged by the gods themselves.” Cass glanced up at the wooden statue in front of her, silently pleading for mercy.

“I am Ajax, head of the western armies, and I have the favour of the gods, witch. I will do what I wish without fear of repercussion.”

She listened closely as he stepped closer, waiting for the right moment. When he was close enough, she swung around and slashed the dagger across his abdomen. He cried out and stumbled backwards, giving her the chance to dive around him. She bolted for the exit, but a hand grasped her ankle and pulled her back. The air was pushed from her lungs as she hit the floor, hard. He started pulled her back towards him and she clawed at the floor and kicked out her free leg in an attempt to get free, but he was twice the size of her.

He grabbed the back of her dress, succeeding in ripping the fabric and causing it to fall from her shoulders. She choked down her fear, swinging again with the dagger, but he caught her hand and ripped it from her. She used the distraction to move again, but in doing so, the dagger ripped into the skin above her left hip. She hardly felt it as she managed to hit him in the face. He barely flinched, his eyes darkening further with rage. He raised a hand to hit her but then his attention was drawn upwards.

Alexander flew into the room and straight at Ajax. The man stumbled back to avoid the ravens claws as he went straight for his eyes. Cass pushed herself backwards until she hit the foot of the statue. She should run, but she was frozen to the spot, trying to hold her tattered dress to her chest.

Alexander’s claws dug into Ajax’s face, leaving deep grooves in it’s wake. The bird evaded most of the mans attempts to grab him, but as always, all it took was one lucky shot. Cass screamed as Ajax got a lucky shot in with the dagger and Alexander fell out of the air at her feet.

She reached out and pulled the raven into her lap, gently stroking at his blood stained feathers. “I am sorry.” She choked out. He croaked weakly before his eyes went dull and he went still. She stopped trying to control the sobs trying to escape her chest as Ajax got back to his feet. She screwed her eyes shut and tried to press herself closer to the statue as he approached.

But before he reached her, he dropped to his knees and started screaming.

Her eyes flew open to find Morpheus standing in front of her, glaring down at the man who was still screaming, backing away from something she couldn’t see. She could feel Morpheus’s anger, the rage simmering underneath his skin, and knew he was showing Ajax his worst nightmares.

“Morpheus?” She eventually managed to choke out.

He turned to face her, his eyes softening as he took her in. He unclasped his cloak and pulled it from around his shoulders in a graceful arch. He wrapped it around her shoulders as he knelt down in front of her. She used her free hand to pull the heavy fabric closer to her, noticing for the first time that the darkness inside his cloak seemed to contain galaxies.

“May I?” He held his hand out towards Alexander and she was surprised to see tears in his eyes.

She handed him over and pulled the cloak closer around herself. “I told him to leave, but he came back and tired to protect me. I am sorry.”

“He did as he was asked.” He said, waving his free hand over the bird. She watched as Alexander disappeared in a flurry of sand. “He is at peace now.”

“You were not supposed to be here.” She said, trying to stop the tears that were still streaming down her face. She noticed Ajax had dropped her dagger and reached out to grab it. In doing so, the cloak fell open slightly, showing Morpheus the wound in her side.

“I know.” He whispered, his gaze dropping to the small pool of blood that was beginning to form beneath her.

“The fates-”

“Are my problem.” He cut her off. “I have an offer for you.”

She looked up at him, his eyes seemed to be glowing again. “What is it?”

“Immortality. An eternity in the Dreaming. You could spend the rest of time learning all there will ever be to know.” He shifted forward, watching her reaction closely as he reached out to look at the wound in her side.

“What is the cost?” She asked, knowing from personal experience, that there was always a price to pay.

His fingers ghosted over the injury and he flinched at the same time she did. “Your help. There are times I have to step away from the Dreaming, you would watch over it in my absence. You would also help me create new dreams and nightmares. That is all I will ever ask of you, your life is still yours. But there are more men on their way, I need an answer now.”

She studied him closely, but her mind was already made up. “Yes.”

Chapter 11

Taglist: @yanna-banana @thefinalgirlpng @itshamleth @lokigirlszendaya​ @yunloyal

(shoot me a message to be added/removed!)

[atlantic-riona]

Superhero comics are American mythology. They have their roots in demigods and heroes of the Greek/Roman tradition, and earlier traditions. Batman is a man of cunning, like Odysseus; Superman is super strong and fast, able to bound impossible distances, like Hercules, Gilgamesh, or Cúchulainn. We can even look back to American folk heroes as a precedent.

I'm going to use DC Comics here for examples because 1) I’m not as familiar with Marvel, and 2) I think that DC has the more iconic superheroes, in the tradition of fantasy/myth (but that's another rant for another time).

We have our gods/demigods (Superman, Wonder Woman) and our ordinary mortal heroes (Batman). They each have an origin story, which is similar to stories of heroes that you see across cultures, and a narrative path they follow. Bruce Wayne's parents are killed in an alleyway, so he takes up a crusade against crime, to stop that happening to anybody else. Superman comes from another world (in a sense his divine origin) and gets raised by ordinary parents (similar to the early life stories you see with semi-divine heroes across mythologies). Superman and Batman then protect a certain area (Metropolis, Gotham) from those that would seek to destroy it. Almost like a one-man Knights of the Round Table, protecting Britain from Saxon invaders.

And like the Arthurian tradition, the respective Round Tables see more members join. In the spirit of many older mythologies, it’s a younger generation. Just as the demigod heroes replaced the Olympians, who replaced the Titans, or as Fionn mac Cumhaill replaced the Ulstermen, who replaced the Tuath Dé Danann as the central figures in the culture’s stories, the Batfamily, Teen Titans, Supergirl, Impulse, and more begin to replace the older generation.

However. The commercial nature of superhero comics ultimately limits them from becoming true mythology. Batman can never retire. No Robin will ever be his permanent successor. Wonder Woman never dies. Nobody in the comics universe can age or die, at least not permanently. The characters never can grow and change too far from their original conception, because they won't be marketable anymore. At the same time, people get bored with the originals after awhile and leave. So comics are stuck between making the characters interesting and making sure they never get too far from the original, in order to keep people buying the comics. What they end up doing is endless reboots, retellings of the same stories again and again and again; not because they appeal to people on a deep level, but because they're banking on nostalgia, familiarity, and superficial curiosity.

It would be like if the Greeks endlessly told the story of the Trojan War, for a hundred years, only we're permanently stuck in the Iliad, Hector kills Patroclus and Achilles kills Hector only for all three to resurrect five seconds later with no lasting harm done, the gods occasionally get rotated in and out as interest waxes/wanes, and the quality of the writing gets worse every time. In the short term, it might get the publishers some money, with people buying the new stories because of nostalgia, familiarity, and/or curiosity, but ultimately it'll kill off the entire industry.

When my grandmother was young, she remembers every kid bought comic books and traded them, boys and girls. Today, comics aim themselves at a very specific age range, banking on the nostalgia factor. Or at specific groups, in the hope that a brand new character will draw in new readers—only to turn around and cancel that series, because very little depth was given to the character beyond “target X audience,” and people aren’t interested after the initial few issues. Comic companies might want to write a new female superhero (or revamp a pre-existing one), but if the extent of her character is “she’s a woman and that’s super rad,” most...people aren’t going to be interested. If she has no flaws, no arc to go through, nothing that makes her an interesting character, then she’s not going to draw in new readers and she’ll push away old readers. Every hero has some kind of arc or journey he or she undertakes, all the way back to Gilgamesh. And like I said above, this limits comic companies—they can never allow the mythology to naturally progress and change. It always has to be about what garners the most attention, the most profit—not about what the natural progression of the story might be.

This is why in fandom, where there isn't a need to make money, things progress more naturally. Go back far enough on Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net, and most of the stories in the comics category are about the original founders of the Justice League—Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and so on. Look there today, and most of the stories focus on or significantly include the younger generation. This is a trend that naturally happens with mythologies, and will most likely keep happening in fandom, if not in the actual comics.

tl;dr: American superheroes are America's mythology, but because of their corporate nature, they can't fully progress as most natural mythologies/legends do

[incandescent-eden]

STORY MASTERLIST

A (not so) comprehensive list of all the things I write about, all of which are subject to change at any given time because I do a lot of refactoring!

LOOOOONG POST INCOMING I write... a LOT, and I have... MANY projects :) Feel free to ask me about any of them! :)

With love <3 Continue reading below the cutoff if you want to know the basic rundown of my worlds and works!

ANGELVERSE:

This universe encompasses all of the angels and demons I like to focus on. Works in the angelverse will likely be about Faraday (formerly known as Efrem), a demon lieutenant, Ezekiel, a young angel, the archangel Uriel, or angel Raguel / angel Sophia (their stories are intertwined).

The main concept I have on Angelverse surrounds Faraday, who has grown into himself as a demon and made something of himself. He finds it impossible to shake who he was before. The question comes up during an important meeting between Heaven and Hell of whether he is truly Faraday or Efrem, his own self that he has shakily become, or the self he inherited from being his father’s son. There’s also brotherly angst between Faraday and Ezekiel, who refuses to let go of the past. (If you look at my old works tagged ‘ezekiel,’ you’ll see Ezekiel used to be a part of Faraday/his ‘ideal’ self, which is why new Ezekiel, separate from Faraday, reads so differently.)

The Raguel and Sophia stories are also closely linked to characters Andromeda and possibly Zachariah. Andromeda’s father runs a cult and has captured an angel in his attic. When Andromeda finds the angel (Sophia), her otherwise “normal” life is thrown into disarray as she starts unraveling threads about her father’s actions as a cult leader. If Zachariah is to be a part of it, he would be living with Andromeda’s family, having run away from his past.

Prominent characters in Angelverse include: Faraday, Uriel, Ezekiel, Stena, Michael, Ramiel, Raguel, Sophia, Zachariah, Ambriel, Ruhiel, Gabriel, Raphael, Luci, Bee, Sasha, Saoirse, and Heather. With the exception of Sophia, all names ending with “el” are angels, while the rest are demons. Also, I say prominent, but like half of these characters are from a bygone era (2018 when I first created them).

TW/CW for heavy religious (Christian) imagery, emotional abuse, violence, transphobia mentions and cult talk. Additional content warning because I tend to write angels as LGBT, but I recognize that some people are not comfortable with this affiliation with Christianity.

LUXTRURA (NOTE: LUXTRURA IS ON PERMANENT HIATUS):

Luxtrura is the name of a fictional country in ye olde European fantasy style, and I haven’t thought of a title for the WIP yet, so I mainly tag it ‘luxtrura’ or ‘luxtruran trio.’ This WIP is a fantasy / dystopian / political intrigue about an uprising in the kingdom of Luxtrura run by an inexperienced king and corrupt nobles all vying for the crown.

Luxtrura (at the current moment) follows the life of His Majesty Devron Fharren, the Eighth Fharren King, who inherited the crown by kingdom decrees at the age of 21. Unlike most kings, Devron has only had seven years of proper royal tutelage on statecraft, having only been named heir to the throne when he was 14. He soon finds he has inherited a kingdom that has been deeply wounded, that his people hate him, and that he has few allies among his own country’s nobles, his friends, and neighboring royalty. Revolution is brewing, and he has a choice to make: to claim his birthright or to help his people.

Prominent characters include: Devron Fharren, Eden Barison, Mili Starr, Plumeria Rwalke, Lilia Tao, Rassaya Tao, Andrea (a mysterious stranger who gives only her first name), Jakob Fiyre, Cordelia Fiyre, Liseline Fiyre, Sonja, and Orange and Rouse (the dragons).

TW/CW for violence, sexual assault mentions, transphobia mentions, political talk, blatant classism, and death.

GLOWING EYES:

A “what-if” scenario where Victor Frankenstein and Dorian Gray had met and become friends and also Frankenstein wasn’t a man and was named Viola and was not a pleb weakling like Victor. Also Dorian Gray is fat because I said so.

This story reimagines the Frankenstein and Dorian Gray cast as students in their final year of the prestigious University of Ingolstadt, with Frankenstein having returned from a year off during which she was suspended for [redacted] reasons. The vibe we’re going for is dark academia, but I don’t think they ever actually do any learning?

Prominent characters include: Viola Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Elizabeth Lavenza, Henry Clerval, Basil Hallward, Deukalion, and special shoutout to Justine Moritz and Sibyl Vane because I didn’t want to put them in, but they definitely deserved better in the source material.

TW/CW for death, violence, toxic/obsessive relationships, grave-robbing, body part mentions (eyes, limbs, etc), and mentions of the Devil. Basically, if it was a concerning part of either the Frankenstein or Dorian Gray stories, it will still be concerning.

Fun fact, there is a Glowing Eyes playlist that I am NOT too ashamed to share with the public! :D

HELEN OF LEGEND:

A retelling of the Helen of Sparta story that explores Helen’s thoughts and motivations. Who was the woman behind the face that launched a thousand ships? And did she ever even want those ships to be launched? (Spoiler alert: the answer is no.)

Helen of Legend gets pretty heavy handed because I get really mad about people lauding the Greeks as the end all be all of culture, and I’m still really mad about how people dress Millie Bobby Brown up like she’s 25-40, so make of that what you will.

On the bright side, Helen of Legend is a sapphic retelling!

Prominent characters include: Helen, Leda, Menelaus, Clytemnestra, Penelope, Theseus, Aphrodite, Paris, Cassandra, Hector, and Hecuba.

TW/CW for misogyny, implied past sexual assault, sexual assault mentions, mentions of spousal and emotional abuse, people being generally creepy about bodies, people being creepy toward children (Theseus), cities burning, subtle classism, and death.

OF DANCERS AND DREAMERS:

A musical about Anne-Marie, a non-binary Vietnamese lesbian born into a wealthy family, and Jules, a Tunisian baker’s daughter who is working her way into the Paris ballet. Anne-Marie wants to be a designer, but their mother, Mme Trinh, has other plans. The year is 1884, and it was hard for the Trinh family, as immigrants, to establish their foothold in society, and Mme Trinh will not have her child throw away the family’s hard work. One day, while at the ballet, Anne-Marie becomes smitten with Jules, a ballerina with the most dazzling smile. They find solace in sharing their passions with one another and become friends, each eventually realizing they have fallen for the other in a time that is unfriendly to both of them.

Prominent characters include: Anne-Marie, Jules, Victor, Mme Trinh, and Amandine.

TW/CW for subtle homophobia, classism, mental illness, and parental guilt tripping/emotional toxicity.

THE LYRE EFFECT:

A play about life after death, and what it means to live and love. This play follows Patroclus upon his death, desperate to return to Achilles. He meets the reluctant Eurydice, embittered by decades alone in limbo halfway between life and death. Together, they almost throw someone off a boat (is it really murder if they’re already dead?) and have a chance to tell their stories, stepping out from the shadows of their more famous lovers.

I took a lot of liberties with this, so Orpheus is a woman (wlw OrphEurydice), and I would like for both Achilles and Patroclus to be played by trans men, and for all of the characters to be played by non-white actors.

Prominent characters include: Patroclus, Eurydice, Achilles, Orpheus, Apollo, Hades, Charon

TW/CW for talk about death

SPEED ROUND (OR: THINGS I WRITE ABOUT THAT AREN’T AS AMBITIOUS JUST YET/AT THE CURRENT MOMENT):

Here Lies Forever - a story focusing around two young people, Medb Flaherty and Virgil Sutherland, growing up at an orphanage amid war, abandonment, and sickness. Medb is a blind writer who dreams of traveling the world with Virgil, her best friend since their teen years, but when the war strikes too close to home, Virgil leaves Medb and their peaceful student life behind to join the army. Unwilling to let go, and recognizing the pain Virgil is in, Medb takes it upon herself to save Virgil, the both of them haunted by the ghosts of their pasts.

On the Corner of Maple Street - short stories about the lives of Sarah and Evangeline together, two lesbian women who met when Sarah was 28 and Evangeline was 31. Sarah was a toy maker and Evangeline was an actress. They have a son named Oliver, who’s now in his forties, and they’re grandmas to all the neighborhood children. They live on the corner of Maple Street :)

Partager Un Reve - short stories, often romantic, about two circus performers, Alyona Ledbedeva (who does aerial silks) and Li Mey Ri (an acrobat). They’re cute together, there’s not really much to say here.

Claire  - there’s a really old novelette floating around on my account and you can find it if you search Claire, but like it’s OLD. An 18th century French lady who contracted TB and died but was brought back by a necromancer named Cecil (Cecil is the character of my friend @sinnabon-cosplay !) and is now immortal. Fun times with Claire and Anthony usually involve lamenting the fact that they’re stuck as teenagers.

Miscellaneous - miscellaneous demon and monster characters like Alexander, Felicity (both vampires), Sparrow (succubus/Heather’s youngest sister), Zephyr (fae, husband of Spar), Lycan (she’s... a werewolf), and so on. Not really connected to a plot

Performing Possumhood - uh this was a play I wrote with my friend @holdingonmyheartlikeahandgrenade for a 24 hour play festival, it’s about a guy named Thomas who becomes herald for a kingdom and then on his first day of work, the king dies, and his son becomes king, except the new king??? is a possum???? and like no one does anything about it, so Thomas just feels like he’s going insane, poor guy (also everyone else is named Thomas except the king, whose name is His Majesty King Parthur Pencildragon of Alpacalot)

Nordic questing team - I’ve literally written nothing for these fools, but I’m tempted to make it into a dnd campaign! The characters I have are Val (short for Valnotte) (she’s a nokke), Hanne (human poison seller who wears an eyepatch just because), Fur (short for Bjorgolfur, he’s a werewolf who left his pack because he was too good at being alpha wolf but he didn’t want to be alpha, he wanted to press flowers and have a cute little cottage by a cliffside with a pretty garden damn it), and Bo (full name: Boscobel Blue, he’s a cow boy. Literally. He has cow ears and a big septum piercing and a tail. Also he’s a shepherd. His sheep are carnivorous :))) Make of that what you will)

Alice x Secret Garden - another play but where Alice Liddell and Mary Lennox are 18 years old and find themselves in Wonderland, after Mary is jaded from the end of WW1 and is frustrated at her friend Dickon’s marriage proposal, and Alice runs away, trying to retain her childhood as best she can

Retellings - I do myth and fairy tale and folk retellings! :) You can search ‘Tithonia’ for my sleeping beauty retelling, and I wrote Orpheus and Eurydice a while back. Still working my way through Icarus :’) Also ‘Mermaids Can’t See’ is a retelling of the classic mermaid story but written as a ??? field guide? journal entry? notes about mermaids?

If there’s a work you want specifically about a character, I always tag characters, and I also will tag character introductions and pictures/references of them as “beanpuff char[]”!

[andessence]

me, going in to the “an arrow’s flight” tags for good pyrrhus content and finding next to nothing: :/ me, going into the general pyrrhus tag for any pyrrhus content and finding it flooded with hate from song of achilles fans: >:/

listen y’all i’m a tSoA stan too but we CANNOT possibly pretend to convince ourselves that madeline miller didn’t do other characters dirty to advance/give sympathy to her OTP. in some cases common iliad interpretation is subverted which is cool but other times facts are straight up IGNORED. it even happens with the main character like !!! patroclus’s funeral is before priam comes to beg for hector’s body back, but miller needed another reason for achilles to gently angst and correct a Straight Fool saying “sorry for the loss of your friend” so fuck the iliad’s timeline! it also probably wouldn’t do to have achilles squash reader sympathy by dragging hector’s corpse all around patroclus’s tomb but anyway.....

shit man before i even talk about pyrrhus i GOTTA say that she made some Real Questionable choices about patroclus’s representation too. i love that boy, i really do, and i think if miller’s characterization existed without precedent it would be totally fine but the undeniable uwu-ification of Soft Boi Sweet Baby patroclus is !! fucking rude and also pretty lame in imagination as it seems to say that one of our gays has to “really behave like the girl” and that’s !! wack !! yeah patroclus isn’t the legendary warrior achilles is.. but that DOESN’T MEAN you make him constitutionally unable to fight and relegate him to the office of femininity in order to code him gay!! it’s demeaning !! YES he can be good at medicine and YES he can think the war is terrible given his specific circumstances of “destined to lose my love in the war” and he can be sympathetic as a conduit character but it’s pretty fucking broke that miller clearly thought that it was necessary to make his character feminine in order to overtly show the gay relationship. it reeks of the “okay but which of you gays is really the man and which is really the woman” rhetoric

so KNOWING DEAD ASS that miller fudges characters to get the means for her love story, you gotta admit her treatment of pyrrhus is really fucking wack. yeah accounts of him generally seem to concur that he was Harsh and Rigid and Made Questionable Human Sacrifices but the specific way miller chooses to portray him is... hhhhh. okay so she wraps it in this guise of “he’s had all  the humanity bred out of him by thetis and therefore He’s Evil And We Hate Him, right?” but we’ve spent this WHOLE ASS BOOK talking about how war and society at large make monsters of us and that even a pacifist like patroclus becomes consumed by the glory of battle in the heat of it, so making your Unredeemable Asshole someone who’s human sense to hate violence is worn down by gods sort of mixes our symbolism up. is it man that corrupts himself? the gods? society? miller’s fucking up the clarity of that message with thetis creating this pyrrhus. it’s ALSO fucked because we spent the whole book building sympathy for achilles by patroclus saying “wow if achilles were raised by his mother he would have been cold and heartless and that makes me feel for the softness that could be lost in his demigod body” but pyrrhus LITERALLY UNDERWENT that tragic dehumanizing and suddenly we’re supposed to hate that instead of empathize with it! 

and of COURSE we had to put the last nail in the coffin of empathy for pyrrhus by having him try to r*ape briseis because miller has been using r*pe as a shorthand for evil this whole time and that sure doesn’t feel tacked on or oversimplified at all! and we have Woke Boy Patroclus whose opinions about women’s rights are SO anachronistic that everyone else looks like a monster (to be fair, it IS monstrous, but i can see the pandering in patroclus being our Feminist Good Guy from a mile away).

and making pyrrhus your plot contrivance not  to bury achilles and patroclus together right away?? idk abt that one buddy! feels like u needed just 1 more homophobic hurdle to overcome and u dropped that burden on pyrrhus! because pyrrhus being the hetero asshole ? y’all EVER read up on pyrrhus pre-troy? the whole ass episode with philoctetes? ENORMOUSLY GAY (even when i don’t mention how some modern retellings make it explicitly gay). the ONLY way i buy pyrrhus trying to stop achilles’ associated memory with patroclus is as desperation for honor and HMMMM WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! that’s the theme we always return to as achilles’ tragic flaw and that is made SYMPATHETIC AS HELL in achilles because when prophesies control your life and you can’t choose happiness, memory and honor are all you have, but when PYRRHUS makes bad choices to maintain honor and memory then suddenly it’s entirely unsympathetic and evil of him!

i’ll say it again i fucking love the song of achilles but i can do that while also acknowledging that it told a specifically manipulated and narrow narrative that left lots of character complexity on the cutting room floor

and if i have to live my damn life going through the pyrrhus tags just to see blind, belligerent “fuck you pyrrhus! patrochilles 4 LYFE” sentiment, i’m going to lose my fucking mind!

[widerivertales-blog]

RPGs and Stats

I've started working on a new tabletop RPG, with the tentative title of Olympiad. It's PbtA, and will throw players into the world of Mythical Greece-- where heroes do battle with monstrous creatures and each other among the sunny seas.

I've been thinking a lot as I get into it about Stats, and their importance (especially in PbtA games, where the rules are so directly tied to the kind of narrative you're helping to create) and in the interest of organizing my own thoughts I figured I'd spend a little time discussing them here.

Stats (or Attributes, whichever you prefer) are sort of the first line of defense as far as indicating what kind of a story a game should be telling. Take DungeonWorld, for example, one of the most popular PbtA games and one which draws its stats directly from D&D. This leads players to engage with it as a more narrative-heavy version of D&D, which I think is what the creators were going for.

Other games handle it differently. Spirit of '77 (a game which Wikipedia calls "an action RPG based on 1970s pop culture") has five stats: Four fairly standard, if genre-tinted (Might, Hustle, Smooth, Brains), and one which is rooted explicitly in the narrative they're trying to create (Soul). This keeps things action-centered (Might and Hustle are both physical traits, and the others are far from soft), fitting for a game which requests you play "at Maximum Volume."

Saga of the Icelanders (an RPG about the earliest settlers in Iceland) goes further, giving the player only four stats: Versed, Young, Gendered, and Wyrd. Versed measures the skillfulness of player characters, Young their youth, Gendered the degree to which they match societal expectations for their gender, and Wyrd for their fatedness, the driving force behind all action. These four create an explicitly different environment from Spirit of '77-- a less action-packed one, one more about community and individuals relationships with it and with a harsh outside world. This is, of course, fitting for a game about settlers in a frozen waste. It's less violent, as well-- although all the stats might be applied to physical situations, it's a far cry from DungeonWorld, which differentiates between Strength in Dealing Damage (Strength) and Strength in Withstanding Damage (Endurance).

I think there are two big questions you have to ask yourselves in figuring out the stats for your game:

A.) What attributes do I want to highlight in the characters?

B.) What am I willing to abstract?

DungeonWorld wouldn't be DungeonWorld if Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance were bound together in a stat called "Physical", in the same way that Spirit of '77 wouldn't be Spirit of '77 if it didn't have a way to measure that intangible oomph of a character's soul.

This all brings me, in a roundabout way, to my own project. What, exactly, makes a Greek hero tick? BY what standards must we measure them, and how far can we abstract?

Lets take a list (pulled from Wikipedia, then edited down to the heroes who I actually know enough about to discuss).

Achilles (Αχιλλεύς or Αχιλλέας), hero of the Trojan War and a central character in Homer's Iliad

Aeneas (Αινείας), a hero of the Trojan War and progenitor of the Roman people

Ajax the Great (Αίας ο Μέγας), a hero of the Trojan War and king of Salamis

Bellerophon, hero who slew the Chimera

Daedalus, creator of the labyrinth and great inventor, until King Minos trapped him in his own creation.

Ganymede, Trojan hero and lover of Zeus, who was given immortality and appointed cup-bearer to the gods

Hector, hero of the Trojan War and champion of the Trojan people

Icarus, the son of the master craftsman Daedalus

Jason, leader of the Argonauts

Odysseus, a hero and king of Ithaca whose adventures are the subject of Homer's Odyssey; he also played a key role during the Trojan War

Orpheus, a legendary musician and poet who attempted to retrieve his dead wife from the Underworld

Perseus (Περσεύς), son of Zeus and the founder-king of Mycenae and slayer of the Gorgon Medusa

Theseus, son of Poseidon and a king of Athens and slayer of the Minotaur

Lets work through these, one by one:

Achilles: A noble hero, son of the Nereid Thetis, skillful in battle and (in some version) indestructible. Deeply Prideful.

Aeneas: Son of Aphrodite, leader of the Survivors of Troy, Progenitor of the Romans, Namesake of the Aeneid.

Ajax the Great: Tall and mighty, most famous for his great shield. Wrathful, and at one point a rival of Odysseus.

Bellerophon: A great slayer of beasts. Rode Pegasus, killed the Chimera by tricking it into suffocating. Defeated the Amazons by dropping boulders on them. Destroyed when he attempted to fly to Olympus.

Daedalus: Renowned inventor, designer of the labyrinth. Designed wings and escaped.

Ganymede: A prince of Troy, so beautiful that Zeus abducted him.

Hector: Noble Prince of Troy, and a mighty warrior. Fought Ajax to a standstill.

Icarus: The son of Daedalus, died when he flew too high on wax-sealed wings.

Jason: Leader of the Argonauts, Proud and Skillful. Abandonded Medea and lost Hera's favor, was killed when the Argo rotted away and crushed him.

Odysseus: The Clever King of Ithaca, better at escaping problems with his mind or his skill at Archery than in combat. Delayed in returning home by his boasting to Polyphemus, and the latter's curse.

Orpheus: Famed and skillful musician, Argonaut.

Perseus: son of Zeus, killed the Gorgon to save his mother.

Theseus: son of Poseidon and also King Aegeus. Slayer of the Minotaur, escaped the Labyrinth with the help of Ariadne.

Obviously this a varied bunch, but I do think there are a couple of through-lines that might be interesting to explore. Lets run that list again, simplifying them down into just their attributes:

Achilles: Noble, Skillful in Battle, Prideful

Aeneas: Noble Trojan

Ajax the Great: Mighty, Wrathful

Bellerophon: Slayer, Clever, Prideful

Daedalus: Inventor, Clever

Ganymede: Beautiful

Hector: Noble, Mighty

Icarus: Prideful

Jason: Proud, Skillful, Desired by Medea (Until Desertion),

Odysseus: Clever, King, Skillful, Archer. Proud.

Orpheus: Skilled Musician

Perseus: Son of Zeus, Slayer

Theseus: Son of Poseidon and Aegeus, Slayer, Lover

Here, I think we can see the similarities more clearly. Many of the heroes are Noble, or of Noble Blood. Many are Mighty or Skillful in Battle. Several Are Clever. Several are skillful in other ways (as Sailors, Tacticians, or Musicians). Many are Romantic, Desired, or Beautiful, and almost all are Proud.

We can simplify these things into six basic stats:

NOBLE

MIGHTY

CLEVER

SKILLFUL

DESIRABLE

PROUD

Which would be good, but I'm not entirely content. I think some abstracting can be done-- and CLEVER and SKILLFUL have a little too much overlap for my comfort. After all, where do we draw the line? Odysseus's tricks are clearly him being CLEVER, and Orpheus's music is SKILLFUL, but what about the tactics of Bellerophon? What about the skill at sea of the Argonauts? What, frankly, about some of Odysseus's military plots? Sure, creeping out of Polyphemus's cave under the sheep is CLEVER, but isn't blinding the Cyclops in the first place more an act of SKILL?

Let me make something clear: There's nothing wrong with having both. I think they're slightly different, and interesting things to play with: I just don't know if, for the sake of the kinds of stories we're building, it's important to differentiate. In broad strokes, I think heroes who fit into one category will usually fit into the other-- much as with Strength and Endurance. There's nothing wrong with separating them, I just think it indicates something different about this game's priorities than what I'm looking for. Lets merge the two, and pick the broader of the two names (SKILLFUL).

So our final five attributes are:

NOBLE

MIGHTY

SKILLFUL

DESIRABLE

PROUD

And, yeah, DESIRABLE and PROUD are probably related. For the moment, I'm keeping them separate. For the moment, I'm putting CLEVER and SKILLFUL together. That may all change as the process moves on.

[brightbeautifulthings]

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

"We're going to survive--our songs, our stories. They'll never be able to forget us. Decades after the last man who fought at Troy is dead, their sons will remember the songs their Trojan mothers sang to them. We'll be in their dreams--and in their worst nightmares too."

Year Read: 2018

Rating: 3/5

Context: I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Doubleday. Trigger warnings: rape, death, child death, slavery, violence.

About: The Silence of the Girls is the story of the Trojan war told from the perspective of Briseis, a queen turned slave when the Greeks raid her city. She's given to Achilles as a prize, no more human than stacks of gold or fine cloth. When a plague forces Agamemnon to give up his own slave girl, he demands Briseis in her place. This is not a love story, or even a story of war, glory, and heroes. This is the Trojan war told by the girls in the margins, where the Greeks are invaders at best and monsters and brutes at worst.

Thoughts: I wanted to like this more because I love the idea of telling the story of the Trojan war through the voices that are usually silenced. Mythology (and history) has a tendency to gloss over the nastier aspects of ancient Greek warfare, including the forced slavery and rape of the conquered women and the absolute decimation of the male population, even the babies and children. It's an ambitious story Barker has set herself up to tell, and she isn't quite up to the task. While the novel does address these aspects, it flinches away from the worst of them. This certainly makes reading about extremely difficult subjects easier, but... I'm not sure it should be easy. The novel doesn't have the grit it takes to tell this story. I got just as much sense of them from Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles (admittedly, very tough competition), and the story is a lot more enjoyable.

I don't care much for Briseis's perspective, particularly in the first half of the novel. So few things actually happen on the page. It's seemingly endless pages of her thoughts and reactions, but there's little dialogue or action. The novel tells us what to think rather than presenting events and allowing us to draw our own conclusions. In contrast to Briseis's stately, measured narrative, the dialogue of the other characters is awkward, modern British and filled with slang and swearing. If this is an attempt to show the stark differences between the Greeks and the Trojans, then mission accomplished, but it mostly comes off as utterly at odds with the rest of the narration.

The structure is also somewhat unwieldy. There are strangely placed questions in italics where it seems like Briseis might be speaking to someone, but it's oddly explained later as her talking to the "voices" in her head and then rarely mentioned again. ...What? I don't understand why they're included at all, since they bring little to the story or the overall structure. Part II shockingly switches to Achilles's perspective, which seems contrary to the novel's entire agenda. It may be that, no matter who else was there, this was always going to be Achilles's story, and he takes over it as he does everything else, but that seems like a generous interpretation. His scenes bring more of the landmarks of the Trojan war to the page, but the book strangely skips out on some of the important ones, like Hector's death. I have no sense of why Barker included some and not others. Then there are sections where it's hard to tell who the narrator is; it might be Patroclus, or it might be some weird version of third person omniscient. In order to truly tell this story from the margins, I would have stayed in Briseis's perspective or branched out to other slave girls rather than include the traditional heroes.

The characters aren't bad, but they aren't wonderful. I think Barker underestimates the levels of agency or power that Briseis might have, even as a slave, and she comes off somewhat flat at times. Her characterization of some slave girls as "genuinely indifferent" strikes me as patently false, not to mention dehumanizing. Achilles is little more than an angry, overgrown child at times, but apparently the one thing every interpretation can agree on is that Patroclus is an angel and everyone in Achilles's camp loves him. There's a missed opportunity for more character development between him and Briseis and, again, I have a better sense of their relationship from TSOA. Similarly, the relationship development between Briseis and Achilles comes too late in the novel to make a real impact. My overall impression is that The Silence of the Girls fails to live up to its potential, but the potential is definitely there.

[rhetoricandlogic]

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

While I loved Greek mythology as a kid, I had no idea that The Iliad existed. My first proper introduction to the story of Achilles and the fall of Troy was actually the 2004 film. It’s a treat, and one that you owe yourself; it’s half an interesting take on the story (pushing the realism angle) and half an enjoyably bad big budget movie (HECTOR! just… HECTOR!). Troy’s release coincided with a few years where my preteen self was obsessed with seeking out representations of queer men in media, so, naturally, the story of Achilles and Patroclus became near and dear to my heart. (“In conclusion: cousin.”) It’s been almost a decade, but picking up The Song of Achilles brought back the days when I despaired over ever getting my hands on a copy of Velvet Goldmine.

The Song of Achilles tells the story of the Trojan War through the eyes of Patroclus, Achilles’ childhood companion and lover. Patroclus, the son of a minor king, is an awkward and ungainly prince. When he accidentally kills another boy, he is exiled to the court of King Peleus and becomes close with the prince, the half-god Achilles. The two spend an idyllic childhood and adolescence with each other, but when they come of age, the Trojan War breaks out. Achilles is destined to either win glory and death at Troy or live a long and forgettable life. Achilles picks the former, and Patroclus won’t let let him go alone, even if that is the fondest wish of Achilles’ mother, Thetis, who despises all mortals.

Adapting a myth is a particular challenge unto itself. (Side note: can we do away with the idea that the book is always superior to its film adaptation? They are two different mediums! Case by case, people, case by case.) On the one hand, you’ve got your own take on the material, thus your desire to adapt instead of create wholesale. On the other hand, you have to negotiate how faithful you want to be to the original texts… after you’ve decided which ones you want to use. Do you stick with just The Iliad or do you also include earlier texts that expand on his youth? Because I’m not terribly familiar with the source materials Miller is using, I’m finding myself in a difficult position. For instance, I can’t fault Miller for having Achilles be a child of rape or Achilles going off to war as a celebrated hero without having fought a single battle; that’s on the ancient Greeks. She’s decided to stick as close to the “historical record” as possible, while highlighting how true Achilles and Patroclus’ love for each other was to the exclusion of all others.

Unfortunately, this means that Miller writes herself into a few corners. When the Trojan War breaks out, Thetis hides her son among the daughters of King Lycomedes, dressed as a woman. In the original myth, the young Achilles and the Princess Deidameia have a fling that results in a son, Neoptolemus. But because Achilles having a fling while away from Patroclus would violate Miller’s concept, she turns it into a rape arranged by his mother, instead of incorporating it as an obstacle to Achilles and Patroclus’ happiness. Honestly, in this respect, The Song of Achilles reminded me hard of my misspent youth reading super-generic boys’ love manga—heteronormative roles (Patroclus is a healer, while Achilles is a warrior), the glowing raptures of pure and true love, and the demonization of women. (And now I’m picturing The Song of Achilles as boys’ love manga. Join me, won’t you?) For most of the book, we’re only given Thetis, who tries to control her son’s every move, and Deidameia, a wailing, screaming, emotional wreck who hurls herself at Patroclus at her first real opportunity. Later, we are given Briseis, who, even if not completely developed, is kind and affectionate, but the damage is already done. Despite the fact that the culture Miller is writing about had plenty of men who had male and female lovers in their lives, there’s this weird rejection of both bisexuality and the idea that people might be attracted to more than one person in their lives. While both Achilles and Patroclus engage in heterosexual sex at least once, they’re disgusted by it. (Achilles moreso than Patroclus; he describes it as “greasy”.) It’s an odd byproduct of Miller’s devotion to depicting their relationship as all-consuming and deeply important, and it’s an unwelcome one. I’d much prefer a novel where this was a problematic affair that the couple overcame, rather than this bizarre rape scenario.

Compounding this is the fact that Miller’s Achilles is quite idealized. His shift into the glory-seeking, arrogant, and sulking Achilles familiar to readers of The Iliad feels abrupt and weird. His character development is too flat to make him feel like a fully-realized character: instead, he’s an impossibly perfect subject of love until the source material requires him to not be. It’s unfortunate, because Miller’s writing style is a lot of fun—readable, with enough of an eye for unique detail to keep things fresh. (Too little, and I don’t hear an author’s voice. Too much, and all I hear is straining style.) I’ve gotten more entries for my commonplace book out of this one than my recent reads. And Miller acknowledges that her characters are speaking a different language; part of the episode in the court of King Lycomedes hinges on Deidameia using a masculine noun instead of a feminine noun. It’s a light touch, to be sure, but it does remind the reader that this is another time, another place, and another culture. I might give her next novel a whirl as her voice develops, if the story is original. But with this as an example, I’m not too sure about her powers of adaptation.

Bottom line: Miller’s devotion to the “historical record” and portraying how true and pure the love of Achilles and Patroclus was to the exclusion of all other relationships leads her to write herself into a few corners that she solves bizarrely, as well as idealize Achilles to the point of flatness. Miller’s writing style is a lot of fun, though—readable, with a good eye for detail, and a good approach to writing about Ancient Greece. A pass.

In addition to this review from Clare: I experienced -again- that I’m extremely sensitive to weird metaphors. They throw me out of the book and it takes really a long time until I can continue. They seem to be Miller’s speciality. Like: 

... I also saw the answers. Yes, they nodded to each other, yes, yes.

How about no, no, no? If answers start running around and noddig, we’re in trouble. Or:

Iphigenia. A tripping name, the sound of goat hooves on rock ...

Look, here’s goat hooves on rock. No Iphigenia sound there.

Also: why is a boy who never faught a battle in his life ... a hero worshipped by all? I had the same problem with The Traitor Baru Cormorant. It’s just not likey that completely inexperienced individuals match the hero-specifics without even trying.

And then the main thing: why, instead of using the -at least partially bisexual- relationships as a plot-point to develop character growth and discuss a whole bunch of problems (and resolve them) - try to make this purely homosexual at all costs, even the cost of completely destroying half of what was previously built. If such was the original intent, there’s no sense in introducing Iphigenia at all.