thhouseofblack

[thhouseofblack]

Peisistratus really said Princess Treatment only when it comes to Telemachus

[thhouseofblack]

there is this cracky odypendio fic idea running in my head that i want to write but i have two ongoing fics so now im just here like 🧍‍♀️

[thhouseofblack]

During the Trojan War years, Diomedes ends up falling down with a terrible fever after some battle. He is constantly pushing himself to his limits and its something that his body just can't keep up with or handle, which he doesn't realise.

The reason his fever worsens so much is because he assumes it is but his usual post-battle exhaustion and carries on, and the people closest to him (re: Odysseus and Sthenelus) are familiar with how he pushes himself during battle, and assume the same.

It is only when Odysseus wakes up one morning to Diomedes' skin burning and the man not waking no matter how much Odysseus tries to get him up, that it is found out just how ill Diomedes has been.

Everyone panics, seeing Diomedes of all people so unwell, but none moreso than Odysseus himself, who then proceeds to spend his days on his knees by the side of the bed Diomedes has been given in Machaon's camp for the wounded and ill.

No one can call the King of Ithaca away from the King of Argos' side, Ithacans, Argives - even Sthenelus at one point tries to coax Odysseus away from Diomedes' bedside and rest for a bit. The other Kings and War Commanders try, so do Machaon and the other medics, yet Odysseus doesn't heed any of their words, so consumed in his terror and fear for Diomedes' life.

Odysseus doesn't eat properly, doesn't sleep properly, doesn't fight in any battle during the time - just day in and day out taking care of Diomedes, ensuring that all the herbs he needs to take are given to him appropriately, making his men sacrifice a few rams to Lord Apollo for Diomedes' health, praying to all the Gods that he can think of to preserve Diomedes' life.

(if anyone brings up Odysseus' near constant weeping besides Diomedes sickbed, they are promptly hushed up)

Anyway, Diomedes wakes up two very long weeks later to his right hand tightly clutched in between Odysseus' hands, and to the sight of an incredibly pale and gaunt Odysseus, with swollen eyes and tear-stained cheeks, asleep in what looks to be a very uncomfortable position.

(Odysseus never talks about it after, but Diomedes hears all about it from everyone else, and well, he can't help but pick up and enjoy the way Odysseus has turned so incredibly attentive afterwards, looking after his health constantly)

[thhouseofblack]

someone needs to draw odydio like this ‼️

[thhouseofblack]

"Clytemnestra killing Agamemnon is understandable." and "Elektra and Orestes killing Clytemnestra is understandable" are statements that can and should co-exist.

[thhouseofblack]

“My dear Telemachus, The Trojan War is over now; I don't recall who won it. The Greeks, no doubt, for only they would leave so many dead so far from their own homeland. But still, my homeward way has proved too long. While we were wasting time there, old Poseidon, it almost seems, stretched and extended space.

I don't know where I am or what this place can be. It would appear some filthy island, with bushes, buildings, and great grunting pigs. A garden choked with weeds; some queen or other. Grass and huge stones . . . Telemachus, my son! To a wanderer the faces of all islands resemble one another. And the mind trips, numbering waves; eyes, sore from sea horizons, run; and the flesh of water stuffs the ears. I can't remember how the war came out; even how old you are--I can't remember.

Grow up, then, my Telemachus, grow strong. Only the gods know if we'll see each other again. You've long since ceased to be that babe before whom I reined in the plowing bullocks. Had it not been for Palamedes' trick we two would still be living in one household. But maybe he was right; away from me you are quite safe from all Oedipal passions, and your dreams, my Telemachus, are blameless.”

[Odysseus to Telemachus - Joseph Brodsky]

posting this here because i spent a good five minutes crying over this beautiful poem that I had the good fortune of coming across.

[thhouseofblack]

just read a 12 page analysis and review of Telemachus from 1920 🧍‍♀️

[thhouseofblack]

a telemachus/Neoptolemus fic with an inversion of Odysseus and Achilles' meeting on Skyros.

So this time around, it's Telemachus in disguise wearing women's clothing, here to drag off Neoptolemus' to safety because the latter is stuck somewhere and can't leave without breaking xenia

bonus points if they have to get fake married while in telemachus is still stuck in disguise (much to neo's enjoyment)

[thhouseofblack]

Smashing them together like dolls

[thhouseofblack]

Philoctetes is a better man than me, if i knew that everyone was together (even if it's like war and not just fun yk) and i alone was abandoned in some random island, the fomo would have killed me before the snake poison

[thhouseofblack]

Chapter Two of 'Fighting From Afar' has been posted!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63800938/chapters/164088295

Chapter Summary:

please don't leave your children alone, old war-weary men may take that as an oppurtunity to manipulate them to go to war. (Penelope and Telemachus - along with most of the Ithacan royal family, find out about Odysseus death. Telemachus makes a decision)

[thhouseofblack]

ten year old telemachus is serving too much realness rn how do i get him to serve at war

[thhouseofblack]

*Neoptolemus and Peisistratus in bed, bickering for the 100th time*

Telemachus, sandwiched between the both of them: can you guys please shut up I want to SLEEP

[thhouseofblack]

this is the greed the gods warn against telemachus

"Oh you draw Telemachus x Neoptolemus, you must hate Telemachus x Peisistratus-"

WRONG

[thhouseofblack]

same the ulysses part bothers me so much, but you're so right he absolutely does have some of the best lines in the entire musical!

the "PURELY BUSINESS" is so satisfying i listen to business just to hear that again and again

(also!! Odysseus screaming "HELP ME GODDESS, I CARE NOT HOW, BUT DO IT, DO IT NOWWWW" in Ulysses' Prayer had me cracking up its so funny)

paris the musical goes so hard, odysseus's part in 'Business' has me screaming it's so good!!

[thhouseofblack]

penelope knows of his reputation, diomedes knows that.

she knows that he has been raised as a weapon, that is what he has been taught to do since he was a child, that he has so much blood and death on his hands, that he has destroyed, destroyed and only destroyed.

(something he never knew bothered him until odysseus joked about it at Troy, until he met penelope after the war and felt the fear of staining her with the blood on his hands)

she knows and yet she answers his letters, with the same heartfelt affection as always, she knows and yet her eyes gaze at him with concern and adoration everytime he visits the shores of Ithaca, she knows and yet she has prepared the dishes he enjoys the most for every feast (he had not even mentioned it to her, which means she noticed, that she pays attention to his likes and dislikes).

diomedes comes to the easy conclusion that she doesn't know.

for if she did, then she would not be treating him as she does now, she would not be letting him close to her precious son, she would not share with him her soft smiles that he knows are reserved for only the ones she cares about.

so he lets her know.

he can lie to anyone else in the world without care or guilt, but keeping something from her feels akin to blasphemy.

she looks up at him, her eyes like stone as he repeats again and again that his hands are coated in the lifeblood of thousands, that he knows of nothing but destruction.

and when he goes to his chambers (not his– the guest chambers that he has been given) he packs his things, not even bothering to call for a servant. he knows what will happen on the morrow, she will throw him out. why ever would she want someone like him close to her or her son.

she has him summoned in the morning, and when he goes to her, he is ready for him and his men to be thrown out of ithaca.

penelope does not do that.

instead, she brings him to her weaving chambers and makes him sit before the loom.

"These hands have only destroyed because that is all they've been taught to do. Much like destruction, creation too is a skill that can be learnt. These hands that have destroyed can create just as well. I will show you. "

[thhouseofblack]

paris the musical goes so hard, odysseus's part in 'Business' has me screaming it's so good!!