Iliad - Blog Posts

So cool!!

Pallas Athena, Goddess of Wisdom

Odysseus discovered something while he was at war

i want to see an adaptation of the iliad that accurately portrays achilles’ grief over the death of patroclus.

i don’t want to see achilles act out in anger and violence as he realizes that patroclus died in his armor.

i don’t want to see achilles remain stoic and emotionless as he carries patroclus’ body back to camp.

show me achilles collapse to the ground when he hears the news. show me achilles sob so loudly that his mother on the bottom of the sea hears him and thinks him dead. show me how another warrior must hold down achilles’ hands so that he does not cut open his own throat to join patroclus in death.

show me achilles carrying back patroclus’ body and sobbing into his chest. show me achilles refusing to leave patroclus’ side to eat or sleep because he can do nothing but cry. show me how achilles looks his mother in the eye and say how he no longer cares if he dies when only a few days prior he said that nothing is worth his life.

i want to see achilles, the most powerful warrior of the greeks, to be completely undone by grief.

“Why have you come to me here, dear heart, with all these instructions? I promise you I will do everything just as you ask. But come closer. Let us give in to grief, however briefly, in each other’s arms.” - Homer

in middle school during my Intense Greek Mythology Phase, Artemis was, as you can likely guess, my best girl. Iphigenia was my OTHER best girl. Yes at the same time.

The story of Iphigenia always gets to me when it's not presented as a story of Artemis being capricious and having arbitrary rules about where you can and can't hunt, but instead, making a point about war.

Artemis was, among other things--patron of hunting, wild places, the moon, singlehood--the protector of young girls. That's a really important aspect she was worshipped as: she protected girls and young women. But she was the one who demanded Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter in order for his fleet to be able to sail on for Troy.

There's no contradiction, though, when it's framed as, Artemis making Agamemnon face what he’s doing to the women and children of Troy. His children are not in danger. His son will not be thrown off the ramparts, his daughters will not be taken captive as sex slaves and dragged off to foreign lands, his wife will not have to watch her husband and brothers and children killed. Yet this is what he’s sailing off to Troy to inevitably do. That’s what happens in war. He’s going to go kill other people’s daughters; can he stand to do that to his own? As long as the answer is no—he can kill other people’s children, but not his own—he can’t sail off to war.

Which casts Artemis is a fascinating light, compared to the other gods of the Trojan War. The Trojan War is really a squabble of pride and insults within the Olympian family; Eris decided to cause problems on purpose, leaving Aphrodite smug and Hera and Athena snubbed, and all of this was kinda Zeus’s fault in the first place for not being able to keep it in his pants. And out of this fight mortal men were their game pieces and mortal cities their prizes in restoring their pride. And if hundreds of people die and hundred more lives are ruined, well, that’s what happens when gods fight. Mortals pay the price for gods’ whims and the gods move on in time and the mortals don’t and that’s how it is.

And women especially—Zeus wanted Leda, so he took her. Paris wanted Helen, so he took her. There’s a reason “the Trojan women” even since ancient times were the emblems of victims of a war they never wanted, never asked for, and never had a say in choosing, but was brought down on their heads anyway.

Artemis, in the way of gods, is still acting through human proxies. But it seems notable to me to cast her as the one god to look at the destruction the war is about to wreak on people, and challenge Agamemnon: are you ready to kill innocents? Kill children? Destroy families, leave grieving wives and mothers? Are you? Prove it.

It reminds me of that idea about nuclear codes, the concept of implanting the key in the heart of one of the Oval Office staffers who holds the briefcase, so the president would have to stab a man with a knife to get the key to launch the nukes. “That’s horrible!,” it’s said the response was. “If he had to do that, he might never press the button!” And it’s interesting to see Artemis offering Agamemnon the same choice. You want to burn Troy? Kill your own daughter first. Show me you understand what it means that you’re about to do.

Kind of feeling like a 2 or 3

Which Achilles are you today?

It is right to seek peace for the dead. You and I both know there is no peace for those who live after.

-TSOA, Madeline Miller

Greek mythology art dump! (I can't draw dogs so it was traced a little but I'm learning how to draw canines wanna put that out there so I don't mislead but everything else is all drawn by me) and credit to @kyleesarthell for some of my inspo on ganymede's jewelry and hair kinda!

→Commission info←

“Showing Athena around the Greek Camp”

Recorded by Odysseus Laertides (1700 b.C.)

There’s a certain idea that’s been on my mind for a while so here you go-

A very cursed Iliad AU

Writing tips

in my opinion, many modern greek retellings/stories inspired by greek mythology don't fail because they're inaccurate. they fail because they have nothing new to say.

i don't mind changes to the original myths, as long as they make sense and they have a narrative purpose! i understand that making changes is sometimes necessary to convey a certain narrative, especially to modern audiences.

is epic the musical mythologically accurate? hell no! but the changes serve to tell a specific story and to convey a certain message. also, epic the musical is self aware about its "inaccuracies". and the music just bangs.

is hadestown accurate? no! does it make the change that I always dread, removing the kidnapping from the hades/persephone myth? yeah. but hadestown is barely about them, and it uses greek mythology as a "narrative frame" to tell a certain story. it has a point. it has a message.

what are stories like lore olympus trying to say? what is the messagge of the hundredth persephone/hades retelling? what are we supposed to take from them? "don't listen to your mother she's a bitch"? "mothers are irrational and you should forsake her for a man"? very feminist.

why are we still doing the medusa "feminist" retellings? it's BEEN done. too many times. and they're ALL the same. it's a worse crime than being bad: they are boring.

i'm tired of retellings that are just "what if this very famous story was THE OPPOSITE and the protagonist was an ASSHOLE the whole time and the villain was MISUNDERSTOOD and the real VICTIM" okay but why. why would that be the case. what's the point of the story you want to tell. or do you just want to use shock value.

of course, i dislike retellings that are so different from the myth that they go AGAINST the spirit/message of the original, because in that case what's even the point of retelling the myth? just tell an original story. but i would take stabbed poseidon and capitalist hades any day over the same basic story of medusa being a girlboss or demeter being bad because of... reasons?

tl;dr: stop being unoriginal and tell a good story. or at least an entertaining one. i beg you

‘Battle of Troy’ Based on Troy (2004) movie

Troy is an ancient city situated on the northeast coast of Turkey. The Trojan war is a famous war, held between Troy and Sparta in Greek mythology. Homer was an author who had written one of the greatest epic poem in history named ‘Iliad’. The Trojan war was fully described in the ‘Iliad’. A brief history of Trojan war according to Troy movie (2004) is described below:

Troy was a peaceful country. Priam was the king of Troy who was very benevolent. Priam had two notable sons and they were- Hector and Paris. Hector was the greatest warrior in the Trojan army. He was a great leader, son and father. Paris was very attractive and lovable. But he wasn’t as much responsible as his elder brother Hector. On the other hand, Sparta was another ancient city in Greece. Sparta was an imoportant site in Mycenae. Mycenaean period was the most powerful period then. Menelaus was the Spartan king. Menelaus’s elder brother Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae. Agamemnon was a powerful warrior but not a good person. Menelaus was mostly a follower of his elder brother but was not as victorious as his brother. Menelaus was married to Helen, who was a beautiful lady. Helen never loved Menelaus and neither did he. Achilles was the bravest and best warrior of Sparta. Achilles was strong and careless.

Once Spartan king Menelaus invited Trojan princes Hector and Paris and were making a peaceful treaty between sparta and Troy. There, Paris fell in love with Helen and so did she. But Helen told Paris that she couldn’t be with him as she was married to Menelaus. paris made a plan to be with Helen. The next day Hector and Paris left for Troy and paris according to his plan smuggled Helen to Troy. In the middle of the journey, Paris showed Helen to Hector and explained about their affair. Hector felt embarraced of Paris. But consequently Paris convinced Hector and finally took Helen to Troy.

Meanwhile, Agamemnon and Menelaus discovered the runaway of Helen with Paris. Menelaus became furious and told Agamemnon that he wanted a revenge. Agamemnon liked that and planned to attack Troy and control the most important coastal city of Asia. Then Agamemnon commanded all the kings of Greece to gather their armies against Troy. And as Troy was a very powerful city, Agamemnon wanted to hire Achilles, the best warrior. As achilles wanted to be remembered in the history, he joined the war between Troy and Sp[arta with his young cousin Patroclus.

Hector and Paris arrived at Troy with Helen. Priam, king of Troy accepted Helen wisely as his daughter in law and named her ‘Helen of Troy. The next day Spartan army arrived at the beach of Troy and began to destroy the apollo temples of Troy. There, Briseis, cousin of Hector and Paris was praying.Achilles took Briseis and returned to the Spartan camp. agamemnon wanted to have Briseis but Achilles protested and there created a feud between them. So Achilles denied to go to the battle next day.

The next day Paris challenged Menelaus. There held a duel between them. Paris used the sword of Troy in the battle. But as Paris was very weak and he had never been to any battle, Menelaus easily took away Paris’s shield. Menelaus injured Paris in the thigh and he fell to his knees and scrawled to his brother and could not stand back again. Hector caught hold of Paris and disagreed with Menelaus and Agamemnon tom let Paris return to the battle again. Menelaus became violent saying that the rules of war had been violeted and attemted to kill Paris. Then Hector killed Menelaus immediately. Agamemnon became shocked at his brother’s sudden death and ordered the Greek armies to attack Trojans then and then. Then a great fight betweeen trojan and Greek started. In the fight Hector killed one of the powerful warrior of Grreek, Ajax. After that Greek army soon returned to their ships. Trojan King Priam started to gather his councilors to plan about attacking the Greeks. The Trojan armies were very good at archeries. So, Priam ordered his archers to attack the Greeks in the next day at day break. The Trojan archers threw flame arrows to the Greek camps. And then Hector and his armies surronded the Greek camp and attacked the Greeks. Then Patroclus was in the armor of Achilles to inspire the Greek armies as Achilles denied to fight. Hector thought Patroclus to be Achilles and killed him. When he removed the helmet, he realized that the one he killed wasn’t Achilles but his cousin Patroclus. Achilles heard about the death of his cousin and became raged in anger.

The next day Achilles challenged Hector for a dual. Hector got prepared for the battle. Hector was sure of his demise and so he in the previous night showed his wife Andromache a secret tunnel out of Troy. He also told her to rescue as much Trojans as she could when there would be a full battle in the city of Troy. 

There held a great dual between Achilles and Hector. Both of them were so courageous and strong. But eventually Achilles killed Hector and took his body with him to the Greek camp. At this Praim got hurt. So, in the middle of the night, Priam went to the Greek camp in disguise and rerquested Achilles to return his son’s death body to him as his son deserved an honour of proper burial. achilles was pleased with the courage of Priam and returned his son’s body and Briseis to Priam and told him that Hector was the best warrior Achilles ever fighted. And then Achilles announced a 12 days off of the battle for Hector’s funeral. Agamemnon became angry at that. At that time Odysseus, king of Ithaca, planned to build a great Trojan horse and told Agamemnon that they could attack troy by hiding in that horse.

The Trojan thought the Trojan horse to be a blessing from the sea God Poseidon ans accepted that. At the dead of the night, The Greeks came out of the horse and began to destroy Troy. At that time, Hector’s wife Andromache led Paris and otherTrojans through the secret tunnel. Paris left Helen telling that he would come with Briseis and went to find Briseis. On the other hand, Achilles kept searching the Troy for Briseis as he fell in love with her. Priam watched the Greeks destroying all the Trojan religiousa datatues and claimed that Greeks had no respect for the God. Then,Agamemnon killed Praimand caught hold of Briseis and tried to enslave her. But at that time, Briseis killed Agamemnon with a blade she was hiding in her back. Then Achilles came running and found Brisies there. Paris found them both, shooted Achilles with arrows several times in the heels and killed him. Briseis burst into tears but Paris took her with him and left for the tunnel out of Troy. At last Odysseus found Achilles’s body and arranged a funeral for him.

The battle of troy was a great battle but none of the side won the battle as both of the king got  killed. The beautiful city Of Troy got destroyed because of jealousy, stubbornness and love.

People who have read "the song of Achilles" need to read "the silence of the girls" and Homer's Iliad, as in song of Achilles the story is told from Patroclus' perspective, someone who loved Achilles so he's incredibly biased and mainly focuses on how amazing Achilles was,

when actually he's the reason so many died during the trojan was because of his massive tantrum over Briseis (who would not have been like a close friend to them she would have just been a slave for Achilles to use)

Then again after Patroclus dies he commits horrific acts "in the name of love" but in Homer's Iliad the entire plot is off Achilles anger, it starts with his annoyance of being dishonoured and ends with his rage as his lover is killed because of his original anger.

“what’s your favorite horror movie?”

idk maybe when Andromache drew a bath for Hector to return to, not knowing that he was already dead

Idk maybe when his baby son cried at the sight of his father in a helmet, and so, laughing with his wife, he took it off and laid it on the ground, then held his son in his arms and kissed his head. All the while, his house mourned for him while he was still living

IDK IDK maybe when he died, Achilles tied him to his chariot and dragged him around troy for his family to see. Maybe when his people had to stop his aged father from running out the gates and wallowing in dung to beg for his son's body. Maybe when Achilles continued to desecrate his body for the next several days, until the gods themselves couldn't bear it any longer, all the while keeping his body preserved from injury. Maybe when Priam, the old king, kissed his sons' murderer's hands under the cover of night just to get his eldest's body back

I was looking up something today and two of my recent searches popped up. I think that they may perhaps be equivalent.

“Your name isn’t Hermes, it’s Bore-mes. Because you bore me.”

- Apollo to Hermes (at one point, probably)

"Telephones didn't exist in Ancient Greece." What do you mean?? Odysseus literally had one.

How do I explain that my fandom is approximately 3000 years old, my favourite characters are war criminals and Alexander the Great liked the same gay ship as me

Achilles and Patroclus are asteroids

There are two trojan asteroids named after Achilles and Patroclus. Discovered 22 February 1906 by Max Wolf at Heidelberg, 588 Achilles was the first-ever Jupiter trojan found. Only eight months later (17 October 1906), August Kopff discovered the Binary Trojan 617 Patroclus at Heidelberg. 

They are reunited in the stars.

There’s a butterfly called Morpho achilles patroclus

So, the other day, I just found out that the butterfly Morpho achilles has a subspecies called Morpho achilles patroclus. There’s also a butterfly called Morpho deidamia.