I Don't Rate Books Based On Character Development And Plot Holes. If It Made Me Bawl My Eyes Out And

Some of my favorite Apollo paintings!

I do not know the artists' names because I just had these on my computer, but if anyone does, please let me know!

^ by Simón Vouet

^ by Briton Rivière

more

Laure de Châtillon, ‘Jeanne d’Arc voue ses armes à la Vierge’

Greek mythology from A to Z:

[O] - Orpheus (Ὀρφεύς) was a musician, poet and prophet. He was considered the best musician and poet of all, and he perfected the lyre. It was the god Apollo who taught Orpheus how to play the lyre when he was an adolescent. According to a source, his music had the ability to charm the animals and make the trees dance.

That time Hermes stole some of Apollo's cattle.

🌿 twitter 🌿

So out of spite I sped-read The Iliad

Because I wanted to see if there was any way that Patroclus and Achilles’ relationship wasn’t as understandable or blatantly obvious as The Song of Achilles made it out to be. Y’all are welcome. 

Here are things Achilles has said to/thought about Patroclus, heavily paraphrased bc I’m not citing verse (my thoughts in italics):

In general, to start, “Patroclus” is almost always followed by some variation of “my companion”, so there’s that-

Book 11

“(Patroclus), joy of my heart”

Book 16

“Every Trojan and Greek can die as long as we two survive! We can take Troy together” —Achilles’ goofy ass bruh, I swear -_-

“Zeus, give him strength, keep Patroclus alive and bring him back to me” —Zeus: ope

Book 18 (y'all I put the wrong book why ain’t y'all stop me! 😭)

“I hope the gods have not done something that will break my heart (like kill Patroclus)”

[Antilochus preventing him from cutting his wrists after hearing he’s dead, covers his face in dust, screams so loud his mom hears it at the bottom of the ocean]

“What pleasure is there for me, when Patroclus, my beloved companion has been destroyed, the man I honored above all…”

“My own heart has no desire to live on….unless Hector is (killed for killing Patroclus)”

“So now I’ll go (kill Hector), killer of the man I loved” —Now I know he claims love for a lot of men, but he wasn’t willing to fight for any of their dead bodies until Patroclus, sooooo

“I’m going to wait to bury you until we’re both dead so that we’re together in death” —Shit’s a lil weird, but Achilles is a drama queen so it’s in line- UPDATE- okay so, if they wait to be buried together they’ll go to the same place! Makes sense!

Book 19

“I can’t even eat I’m so distressed, not even my own father’s death would upset me as much. I would have had you tell my son of me if you were alive because I thought only I would die” —-this one in particular gets me because Deidameia is alive, but he wanted Patroclus to tell his son about him!

Book 20

“(Hector’s) getting closer, the man who scarred my heart more than all other men”

Book 22

“I’m going to leave your [Hector’s] body here to be torn apart by animals while Patroclus is getting the burial he deserves”

“I’ll not forget [Patroclus] as long as I’m alive. Even when I’m dead, I won’t forget my companion”

Book 23

[Patroclus’ ghost asks to be buried together, Achilles agrees and tries to hold him but he vanishes] —-Why would Patroclus ask this of someone he didn’t love? And why would Achilles agree so easily?

[Gives him a golden urn and commands they have a mound]

In fact, literally all of book 23 is a damn festival for Patroclus lmao

Incidents of him with women:

Book 9

“He stole from me (Briseis), a woman I love. Let him sleep with her! I still won’t fight”  —-Don’t sound very loving to me, and also star point because they offered Briseis back amongst hella other shit and he still said no

“Achilles slept with Diomede, Patroclus slept opposite Achilles with Iphis" 

Book 19 (again!)

Briseis cries over Patroclus’ body, saying that when Achilles killed her husband, Patroclus was nice and would make sure Achilles would marry her instead  —–Idk how this would make anyone feel better about their dead spouse, but….go off, I guess? Not to mention he knew Achilles wasn’t gone make it! Liar lmao

Book 24

He sleeps with Briseis after Priam comes to beg for Hector’s body

Final verdict: 

Bisexual, open relationship. I won’t deny evidence of him and the ladies, but he was most definitely in love with Patroclus. 

The movie Troy can suck it, and I’ll die on this hill in aristeia like Patroclus. 

(update! Lmao y'all I had the right quotes, wrong book for some of them- why ain’t y'all say nothing?)

Greek mythology from A to Z:

[E] - Eos (Ἕως) was a Titan goddess of the dawn. She was described as having rosy fingers, a light pink gown woven with flowers, wearing a tiara and having large white-feathered wings.

October 7, 2021 at 05:07PM

Greek mythology from A to Z:

[N] - Nike (Νίκη) was the goddess of victory, depicted as having wings, hence her alternative name “Winged Goddess”.

Zephyrus and Flora by Clodion (1799)