Assara, A Fierce Scarred Warrior Of The Galhot Tribes, Lives Under The Heavy Shadow Of Her Exile. Her

Ramalina montagnei

Striped Ramalina

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⋖ Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo ⋗

Beautiful parrots native to Australia. The males have a bright red tail and females have golden stripes and accents on their feathers🪶

it's been a while since i've posted arcane, but here's my tribute piece for the Art of Arcane exhibit by Gallery Nucleus! this piece was a little wish fulfillment because i wanted to see these guys together ☀️ If you're able to attend, the show runs from May 10-25! if not, you can also see the work here: https://gallerynucleus.com/events/1085

2021 | 2024

from “The Joy Book, Children’s Annual” ~ 1926 ~ Helen Jacobs (1888-1970)

ARCANE | Commune Entrance Designs | Florian Jouet

I just had to do the math I had to know!! 🤣

2555 is such an insane number in the worst way possible for the poor guy isn't it?? Even if it was a little more or less than that oh man I can't! The depression is real!

Like you said I have no idea how people are not talking about this!

Calypso was bedding Odysseus against his will every night for 7 years.

A week has 7 days and there are about 4 weeks in a month. Every month has on average 30 days. Or there are 365 days in a year.

Add them up and you will realize that Odysseus was raped more than 2500 times.

Let that sink in!

Concept art for The Jungle Book (1967) by Al Dempster and Art Riley

-Ulysses and the Sirens-

Oh gosh perfect close for this part girl ❤️❤️✨

The way it starts with Odysseus putting his loved ones in place of the slaughtered and grieving ones 😢 Astyanax, Priam and Adromache as his own son, father and wife, gosh he really is putting himself in their shoes feeling the suffering he has caused them....

And now he curses all the people and chain of events which have brought him into this war, and made him lead this great massacre released upon the people of Troy... Such a tragic figure that now has to bear the weight of the blood that was spilled, as always you express his frustration in the best way possible!

Is Polites worried for Odysseus being alone drunk, or is there some other danger for him to be alone at this moment? Maybe seeing his great grief mixed with it all adds to the concern because Odysseus surely must be quite a messy sight at this point... The way he says he's tired of being wise...

The detail of mixing the wine with water is such a great addition, as it shows how much Odysseus wants to drown in the alcohol to forget all this nightmare for he wants to drink it all pure and strong...

Oh gosh poor guy, you surely described his post shock of the war so well, the way he can't sleep, yet he's so restless and tired... He must be seeing the bloodbath each time he closes his eyes, and the way he just falls apart in puddles of tears pulling his own, probably sweat soaked, hair 😭

Man the way he begs for his family, maybe because of all the post trauma for the war and not wanting it to be reflected on his family, but maybe also all the acts that his comrades have committed that were considered blasphemous and so he is afraid that the Gods will release their wrath upon his family as punishment? Either way gosh the way he begs and the way he keeps repeating that he just wanted to go home is so heartbreaking... The price he took for all that he has done is breaking him apart in the middle of a desperate prayer 😢😢

The way Menelaus and Agamemnon go in and start praising him immediately completely contrasts with Odysseus weak and sarcastic response! He calls himself liar schemer and trickster with sarcastic aversion! And he considers his drunken state just one more shame! The poor guy really can't stand himself at this moment which you so well and sadly pointed out by him not knowing what to tell his wife and son after this...

And I really like how you described the others so perplexed with Odysseus reaction after the plan worked so well, and yet for Odysseus it didn't work well at all, at least not as he wanted with this level of suffering and so much blood that will never leave him...

I also loved how Agamemnon tried to speak yet couldn't face Odysseus eyes right afterwards! The way he makes him remember the wrath of the Gods really put some more thought into him, as well as him being reminded of their own losses of people like Achilles in the war. I really love when the dark sides of battles are portrayed this way!

The way Odysseus asked if this was all worth it, and what the Trojans actually did to deserve such a fate really made him jump and blame all of this talk in his drunken state! But in a way it seems it's because he himself doesn't want to think about it much, that he's avoiding facing the same void that Odysseus is contemplating! And Agamemnon can't face that these people were indeed also just trying to defend themselves and their land.

Menelaus seems to be indeed much more sympathetic and soft with Odysseus which clearly helps a lot, I like it how he doesn't want him to melt away in his demons like that and that he doesn't want him to blame himself for what others have done. The way Odysseus says he will take part in the celebration seems so sarcastic as well... yet a bit soft. And the way Menelaus says he won't mention his state to anyone! Poor guy must really look bad!!

I also like how Odysseus is so dismissive of the spoils, not really denying them but saying he will accept whatever, because he really is suffering with what was done to this place and people, he's ashamed so he doesn't want to relish himself in gains... And also because of past experiences, the poor guy is even weak in his jokes now!

It's very heartwarming how Odysseus badmouths himself claiming his lack of honor yet Menelaus tells him that for him he's the greatest of Greeks, it clearly touched Odysseus too and gave him at least some comfort in the middle of all the chaos and conflicted emotions he's going through... Aww his weak smile and that fact he only needed someone to acknowledge his suffering and he himself as a person is very deep ❤️ the small words sometimes speak the loudest.

Gosh and it ends with poor Odysseus thinking that he's finally going home after so much time and struggles, such a cruel fate for this poor man!!

"Stoping a king seems impossible, God help us with two." That's great hahaha so sweet to see his humour returning a bit! This is a perfect close to the beginning of fic, for he finally is able to rest and sleep thanks to the words of his companion ❤️

The ride was fantastic dear! You always outdo yourself with your writing! Always fantastic and so expressive with the scenes and character! Amazing work ✨✨❤️❤️💖💖

I commented on this before but I love how you have chosen the version where Neoptolemus throws the baby instead and has this tension with Odysseus!! I also don't see Odysseus as a baby killer but like I said before I see Caleb so much in Odysseus that it just became a reference, so that's probably why 😂😂

Oh gosh the girl being sacrificed like that at Achilles tomb is a damn gruesome detail! Can definitely see why it seems it is from the Trojan's perspective of things 😆 her caring for his tomb instead is much softer. Poor Odysseus did try his best to spare who he could...

I did know that mixing wine with water was common practice but didn't know it was unusual to drink wine without being mixed unless it was for dipping bread, that's very interesting!

I really liked the conflict between Odysseus and Neoptolemus, the way you made them be a contrast to each other was great ✨

Oh gosh yes the beaten up arrogant, almost crippled ugly guy that probably shouldn't even go to war in the first place 😂😂 and now being used as a threat hahaha

And of course the way Neoptolemus grabbed Odysseus by the balls with the death of Palamedes!

And Adromache didn't want or needed to hear any more...

Gosh the baby calling him papa was definitely the peak of it all, it was such a good and heartbreaking addition 😭

Oh boy with that comparison to that Tudors scene I can definitely imagine her distress as she screams for her lost baby 💔

Like I said above I really liked how you made Odysseus not want to get involved with the choices of the spoils it really shows his negative feelings towards the results of this war! And the way you portrayed his friendship with Menelaus is very touching indeed with those last words of encouragement ❤️

Once again fantastic work girl, truly great ✨✨✨💖💖💖🥰🥰

Continuing from Part 2

Guilt (P3 + Footnotes)

"Odysseus" Meriones approached him, "Are you alright?"

Odysseus winced in pain. He hadn't realized he had clenched his fist so hard that it hurt him. He unclenched it.

"Yes..." he whispered, "Yes, I'm fine..."

Odysseus moaned. That baby...the look at that infant's face...Astyanax was gone...he had given his place to Telemachus. Priam's slain face was Laërtes...mourning Andromache was his wife... He grasped his head with both hands.

"Damn you Neoptolemus! Damn you Helen for starting it! Damn you Menelaus for dragging me into this... Damn you Palamedes! Damn you all! Why should I have taken this blood upon me?! Why did it have to be me?!"

He sighed.

"Polites...I want to be alone for a little while..."

"Do you think that is wise...?" Polites asked with hidden meaning.

"Wise!" Odysseus voiced like an echo, "No, perhaps not but I got tired of being wise for now..."

Polites sighed.

"At least add some water to your wine...please Odysseus"

Odysseus dismissed him with a move of his hand. He wasn't much in the mood for anything at that moment. He knew war wouldn't be pleasant but these events of just one night were taking the cake. He was exhausted; sleepless for two nights and a full day and right now the Sacker of Cities, the Man of Many Ways was terrified. He collapsed again and his tears overflowed from his eyes, wetting the table below. He grasped his wet hair with his fingers as if he was ready to uproot them.

"Gods! Please Athena, please, I beg of you...if you love me...p-protect my son! Let the miasma fall on me! Not him! I-I...I just wanted to g-go home! I just wanted to see them again...my Penelope...my Telemachus...! I-I never meant for this to happen! P-Please...! I beg of you if you love me...p-protect my son! Don't let the gods' wrath fall upon their heads! P-Please...! F-Forgive me! I...I just...I just wanted to go home!"

He couldn't decide what to pray for first... Words cascaded out of his mouth without any coherent way or syntax. He only prayed desperately, wetting with his tears the table. Sun was already setting and Troy was taken...but at what cost...

*

Menelaus and Agamemnon entered Odysseus's hut one after the other.

"I gotta give it to you, Odysseus!" Agamemnon said, "You WERE telling the truth when you said you could take Troy in one night!"

Odysseus was collapsed upon his chair, looking at them with an unreadable expression to his face. The jug was resting empty somewhere after the feet of his seat.

"Hm..." he hummed, "That's me. I am the trickster, remember? I lie, I scheme and I trick. That is what I do"

Agamemnon raised a brow.

"Are you drunk?!" He asked in disbelief

"One more shame to add to the events of this night..." Odysseus replied bitterly.

"Shame? I do not understand. We finally sacked the city. You can finally go home."

"Home..." Odysseus whispered, "I wonder...what shall I say to Penelope when she asks? Or Telemachus? If he asks 'father what did you do and you were away?', 'I was at war, my son', 'did you fight honorably and sack many cities?'... What shall I say for what we've done...?"

"I do not understand you Odysseus. It was your idea"

"Yeah somehow I do not doubt it..." Odysseus mumbled bitterly, "I was wrong, Agamemnon. This was not what I imagined...what I planned..."

He sighed shifting his position a bit to his chair.

"Priam is dead, you know that..."

"Yeah, like we expected to-..."

"On the altar. On the freaking altar, Agamemnon..."

"Yeah I heard..."

"Imagine that happening to any of us...in our homelands. If one cannot respect the holy laws then what?"

He played a bit with his empty cup.

"Priam murdered on the altar...Cassandra raped mercilessly and now Ajax looks for shelter to the very same altar he dragged her out of, to avoid being stoned to death..." the king of Ithaca rubbed the bridge of his nose, "...death...death and fire everywhere..."

"Odysseus..." spoke Menelaus, "I understand that you are grieving, it was not easy or pleasant but..."

"The boy...he was the same age as my son! Thrown off the wall..."

"Odysseus" Agamemnon spoke again, "I honestly don't understand you. Others would fly from joy with your glory. You had a good plan and it worked. Thanks to you we can all go home."

Odysseus's eyes became bottomless. Even Agamemnon had to lower his gaze against it.

"The blasphemy put us under the anger of gods, Agamemnon. Remember that. Listen..."

Agamemnon seemed like indeed trying to listen something.

"The Trojans are not the only ones mourning. We lost many good men too. We lost Achilles. Or have you forgotten?"

Agamemnon sighed deeply.

"His loss...was tragic indeed" he finally said, "we had our differences but his loss was a great price..."

"Quite so..." Odysseus whispered, "was it really worth it? The price we had to pay to sack Troy?"

He shifted his weight to his chair lethargically. He rubbed his forehead with his free hand for a second. The dizziness bad settled for real in his brain. He leaned his head back again, earning a small cracking sound from his neck.

"And since we are at it, I have a question for you, Agamemnon, son of Atreus, the first among the Greeks... What did the Trojans REALLY do to us to deserve such an end?"

"You're drunk! You don't know what you're talking about!"

Odysseus snorted humorlessly.

"Oh, I am drunk, alright. But I know exactly what I am talking about. And you do too. They took Helen, sure, or at least one of them did. But their real crime against us was that they protected their lands...from us. That's what we would have done as well..."

Agamemnon was ready to speak again but Menelaus stopped him.

"Brother, that's enough"

He then turned ti Odysseus sympathetically.

"Look, Odysseus, I understand that it hurts and I am sorry too that I put you through that indirectly, but please do not melt away. No matter what the actions of others was not your choice."

Odysseus said nothing. He only sighed.

"Will you join us at the games later? You are the hero of the day. Your presence is asked for."

Odysseus scoffed.

"Oh I will be there, alright. I never miss a good party!"

Menelaus smiled sadly.

"Thank you, Odysseus...for everything. I really mean it... I will see you later, when you sober up a little..."

He looked at his friend and added;

"And...we shall mention none...of this" he pointed at him indicating his condition.

Odysseus soullessly nodded as if wanting to attempt some humor.

"Thanks...I appreciate it"

Agamemnon was ready to say something but apparently he decided against it. He only sighed and turned to leave before finally asking;

"Will you come to take a pick from the spoils? You deserve it given it was thanks to you we got in"

The tired king made a dismissive move with his hand.

"No. I'm fine with whatever. Just include me to the next lottery" he replied indifferently

"Are you sure? You deserve a better share"

Odysseus smiled humorlessly.

"Last time I chose and defended my choice, we lost Aias the Telamonian. I think we lost enough for one decade, don't you think?"

It was a failure of attempt for humor and he knew it but Agamemnon only sighed.

"Suit yourself" he said defeated, heading for the exit

Menelaus was about to do the same but apparently something made him stop and turn around.

"Odysseus?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you...truly... You gave me back my honor

Odysseus snorted again.

"With the cost of mine..." he whispered bitterly, "Not that anyone ever thought I had any..."

The king of Sparta, though, shook his head negatively.

"To me you will always be the greatest of all Greeks"

The man who endured all torments looked up and for the first tike a small smile rose to his dry lips. That word of kindness was what he needed for his tormented heart to feel some sort of hope. At least there was finally one who neither blamed him nor glorified him. Menelaus saw his torment and responded. That was enough.

"Thank you..." he whispered

Menelaus nodded his head in return.

"Now rest, my friend. We have a long way before us...we are going home..."

Home...the tormented king of Ithaca thought. Yes, finally they could go home. After 10 endless years they could finally embrace their families. Just few more months of journey and Odysseus could finally go home... All he had to do was to learn to live with what he did... He watched both the kings through his cloudy vision, getting out of his tent and Polites coming back in.

"I am sorry, Odysseus! I couldn't stop them!"

Odysseus dismissed him with a hand gesture once more.

"Don't sweat it, Polites. Stopping a king seems impossible. Gods help us with two!"

Polites smiled softly. At least he would gain some of his humor back, he thought.

"Help me get to my bed, Polites..." sighed Odysseus hoarsely, "I need to rest... I am very tired..."

~~~~

Oh gosh what have I done?! Hehehehe well not sorry...not really! 😆 I hope you enjoyed this ride.

As you see I tried incorporating some of the Epic Cycle to the situation but I did tamper around with the timeliness. The Epic Cycle is a lovely mess anyways and holds many contradictions with the homeric poems but it includes many things.

Now the fragmentary poem Iliou Persis is sven mentioned how Odysseus throws Astyanax off the walls but most sources have Neoptolemus donit and I do agree with those more. Now in Trojan Women by Eurypedes the messenger Talthybius tells Andromache that Odysseus schemed so that her son would be thrown off the walls and that he persuaded the Greeks they couldn't raise the baby. Odysseus doesn't strike much as a baby killer in Odyssey or even the Iliad although he is known for being cruel in his punishments (see the excecution of the 50 conspiring slave girls) but nowhere jn Odyssey does Odysseus refer to that fact even if he does speak of his regrets for other actions of his and if he HAD thrown Astyanax off the walls himself I doubt he wouldn't have made any reference to it so I believe that Iliou Persis should he treated like Telegony when it comes to the homeric poems; a bit contradictory to the homeric epics (unless there is some lost fragment that tells us how Odysseus went on a rampage he could not remember lol 😆 ) so I made a mixture of all the above to show how Odysseus "killed" Astyanax or subconsciously persuaded the Greeks to do it and I added the role of Talthybius here too.

Iliou Persis seems to also be the most violent form when it comes to the Greek side such as that they offer Priam's daughter Polyxene to Achilles's tomb as a sacrifice, thus causing the rage of Athena (I swear the thing was written by a Trojan lol 😆) Eurypedes mentions how Polyxene was offered as slave to Achilles symbolically so she should serve his tomb. I also added the detail of Odysseus trying to persuade Neoptolemus to choose her as his price to speak Andromache but his attempts are a failure.

Drunkenness was severely discouraged in ancient geeece thus the concern in Polites's words when Odysseus uses it as a coping mechanism for the traumatic events of the night. Moreover the Greeks always mixed their wine with water (thus having the modern name for wine in Greek κρασί which comes from the verb in ancient greek which means "to mix") the wine that was not watered was called άκρατον and it was qlmost never consumed unless dipped in bread. The analogy between wine and water depended.

In this story I depict Neoptolemus as somehow a nemesis to Odysseus. Similar to what Agamemnon or Hector were for Achilles. I have no idea why but the idea stuck with me especially since the two are the two candidates for the murder of Astyanax. Somehow I imagined them again as the polar opposites thus the two of them having tension.

Odysseus mentions Thersites who was beaten really badly by him in the Iliad. In other sources it is mentioned that Odysseus has him stoned to death after Theraites attempts treason. In this story Thersites was already dead.

I know that for Palamedes the most famous version of his end comes from Hygenius who writes how Odysseus frames him for treason. However Pausanias mentions from the Epic Cycle that Palamedes drowned at a fishing expedition and that "he believes the murderers were Odysseus and Diomedes". 🤔 somehow I wanted to use a lesser known version plus give a bit room to doubt for instance did Palamedes really fell by accident and Odysseus is guilty for not helping? Or perhaps Odysseus pushed him? Maybe he held him under? Dunno. Leave it to your imagination. I know is not so spicy as the framing story but bare with me hehehe

Talthybius here simply hears "it was Odysseus who planned it" thus sending that information yo Andromache without the rest of the details..

Astyanax uttering a word was totally random. If he were an infant a few months old or almost a year old in Iliad that means he would be around 1 to 1.5 years old when Troy fell so I thought it would be more impactful if the poor baby uttered a word before his end.

The interaction with Andromache was placed there for the dramatics and the impact. When Andromache screams "MY BOY!" I was inspired by the series "The Tudors" when Anne Boleyn laments her final miscarriage (by the way I think Natalie Dormer would make an amazing Andromache!)

The story with Palamedes was also added to make the connection between two mothers and their impact to Odysseus. Plus I thought it would make more sense if Odysseus was furious not only for being embarrassed or that he has to go to war but because Palamedes put his son in danger. (Of course Penelope would be part of that scheme!)

Odysseus refusing to participate at the choice of spoils was just a random detail but as a general rule from Eurypedes it seems that he eats the old Ekavi (Hecuba) as his slave (probably she would be to serve Penelope( so I imagined Odysseus wouldn't want to choose but getting whatever would be lucky for him to further implicate that he wouldn't want anything further to do with the war. He also mentions the incident when Telamonian Aias (aka the great Ajax) went mad when Odysseus won Achilles's armor from him and then he killed himself in shame.

I also wanted to portray the friendship between Menelaus and Odysseus which seems to be really strong since Menelaus always talks with the warmest words for Odysseus.

For further questions and analysis please ask me to the comment section or reblog etc!

I wanna also tag some of my best friends commenters rebloggers etc! Thank you guys! Sorry if I forget anyone!

@loco-bird @aaronofithaca05 @tunguszka20 @doob-or-something @jarondont @prompted-wordsmith @simugeuge @fangirlofallthefanthings