Really Sucks How Agamemnon Is Typically Portrayed As A Monster In Most Modern-ish Iliad Retellings In

Something I find makes the life and death of Achilles far more tragic is the fact that all he is is the Trojan War. His parents’ wedding begins the conflict, and he dies before the end of the war. His entire life was spent in something he had no control over. Did he know Helen? Paris? Hektor? The Trojans became his enemies only when he reached the beaches of Troy.

Hell, if we go by the Achilleid, Achilles didn’t even know what the war was about until he was sailing to Troy. A young boy whose birth produced an unjust prophecy that dictated the rest of his life: Live long and die in obscurity, or die in war and live in the minds of the people forever. No greek man of his time could bear to die in obscurity, but it was especially impossible for Achilles to do so. His father Peleus, a legendary Argonaut whose adventures would be remembered for millenia, his mother Thetis, a towering goddess raised by the queen of the gods herself.

Their child had to be known.

At Aulis the greeks call for Achilles, a legend before he even steps into the battlefield, and he is forced to go to war. And he fights, he kills, he ravages the city of Troy. A boy who has never even seen a battle in his life, living in peaceful Pthia and later protected by mighty Chiron in Thessally, becomes a machine specifically created for one purpose: To destroy Troy.

This is the reason why Achilles refuses to fight after the taking of Briseis. Unlike Agamemnon, who lived before the Trojan War, who had a wife and family before the Trojan War, who will leave Troy. Or Odysseus who will tell his tales to his son and wife after 20 years away. Or Menelaus who after years regains his family and rules Sparta in peace. Achilles has no life, no future, he IS Troy, more than even Hektor, Paris, and Priam are. Thus, when his honor is threatened, everything he has ever lived for has been taken away from him. Realize that before the taking of Briseis, Agamemnon mentioned takingthe “bride prizes” from the other greek kings and despite this not going anywhere none of them attempted to argue. Would Odysseus attempt to kill Agamemnon if his bride prize were taken? Would Diomedes or Greater Ajax?

And yet, after Achilles lives his entire life for war. After he struggles and suffers so much at the face of adversity. At the loss of his everything, Patroklos. At the slight to his honor. He spends the rest of eternity regretting everything he had ever done. Perhaps it is a mercy to Achilles that shades forget their life on earth

So cool!!

Pallas Athena, Goddess of Wisdom

I love your drawings so much!!

Powerful Telamonian Ajax, bulwark of the Achaeans, son of Telamon

Something I really like about Hadestown is how Orpheus always speaks as if he’s singing and expecting the responder to finish his tune. It really emphasizes his proficiency in song. Something that adds to this are Hermes responses, he doesn’t reply in song to Orpheus. Why? Hermes said it himself “…and I liked to hear him sing/and his way of seeing things”. He doesn’t match Orpheus’ tunes because he only wishes to hear them and perhaps doesn’t see himself worthy of replying in song. Perhaps after Orpheus’ and Eurydice’s separation and Orpheus’ death Hermes felt as though he had to maintain that memory of Orpheus living, breathing — somehow. So he did, and that’s how we got Hadestown. It’s an old song after all, and he’s been singing it for a long time.

!!!

“Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways who was driven far journeys, after he had sacked Troy’s sacred citadel”.

Hehehehehe

Luck Runs Out but ANIMATED! It's finally doneeee

Here's the link to the full video:

HAHAHAH he’s so cuteeeee

Okay a final one (probably) from @patroquiles (I couldn’t find the og post)

Aristos Achaion

You think Helen ever dreamed of Castor and Pollux saving her from Troy like they saved her from Athens as a young girl after being kidnapped by Theseus? Did she ever awake breathless and scared not understanding that she was in Troy after vivid dreams back with her family?