Small Aristos update: we're currently in rehearsals for a project called Constellations!! 🌌 This summer, you'll be able to watch three filmed Achilles/Patroclus scenes from Aristos.

I'm really really excited about the staging, and our cast is truly the best. Even though Middle Achilles and Patroclus BOTH got Odysseus on the personality quiz, which feels like a threat. Follow along on our Instagram for behind-the-scenes content and pickle discourse.

I don't think we talk enough about the main character of book 1 being named "grief of the people" and the one in book 2 being called "he who causes pain"

WIP of Penelope with her forever-unfinished shroud.

sweet figs

do you call it love or do you call it

i look towards the distance, he's calling my name / i'm running to meet him, he grins and he waves / i wish i had a secret, i wish i had a thousand / and just so i could tell him every single one

(cw below the cut - corpse; blood)

Tomorrow, perhaps

Tomorrow, perhaps...

[at Achilles's funeral] Agamemnon: *places his hand on the pyre and sobs* Agamemnon: How could you do this to me? We are so understaffed.

Golden feathers touch the ground

He tears his hair, 'Who made this mess?'

"Say that there were two boys who raced each other to the sunrise."

"Say that one went too far,"

"and the other went with him."

"Grief is closely allied with anger. They are expressed with similar sounds: moans, groans, shouts, and screams. Like anger, grief responds to a terrible loss or terrible harm done — but without any sense of the possibility of reparation. Anger turns the pain outward, against others; grief turns it inward, to the self. People subsumed by rage try to replicate the wrongs they have suffered by hurting others. Those consumed by grief long to turn their own bodies into that of the dead loved one, by lying down in the ground, cutting the hair, scratching the face, and rolling in the dust. The enraged want to humiliate, hurt, or kill; the grief-stricken want to be dead and to inhabit the perspective of the dead.

But grief is different from anger, because it can be expressed and experienced collectively. Through the funeral rites and games for the dead Patroclus in Book 23, Achilles shares his loss with other Greek warriors, just as the Trojans in Book 24 are able to share their grief at the death of Hector. Even enemies, like Priam and Achilles, can share a moment of grief. Anger drives communities apart; grief brings them together, over a shared acknowledgment of irredeemable loss."

Emily Wilson's Introduction to The Iliad, p. xliii

the world was young; our lives a song unsung

your eyes the drowsy shade of summer

Anyone who’s sad about there being no Achilles/Patroclus in Epic, I am BEGGING y’all to go listen to Aristos: the Musical. The sound quality isn’t as polished bc it had a smaller budget but the writing and performances are simply magical, and I really think it could take off if more people hear it

For centuries, scholars have debated the Embassy scene and what exactly it was that Achilles really wanted. Should he have accepted the gifts, or was he right to reject them? Since Achilles' refusal to be appeased marks the beginning of his tragedy, the usual conclusion is that he made the wrong decision and he will learn his lesson. But the point of the Embassy scene was to establish that Achilles had three options, not two, and it is the third that will break his heart. Achilles' tragic error did not lie in his acceptance or rejection of Agamemnon's gifts; his tragic error was that he did not follow where his thoughts always seem to tend-- to Phthia beyond the sea; to Peleus, his father; to home.

From The War That Killed Achilles, by Caroline Alexander

Achilles Grieving Patroclus

"He cries my name/ He makes no sound/ O Icarus/ Is falling fast" -- "O Icarus," ARISTOS: The Musical

I love the musical, and found it after I finished reading the Iliad. I probably have every song memorized, but "O Icarus" is my favorite. I wanted to draw Achilles grieving as (somewhat) accurate to the epic; so, extreme grime, red eyes, and gore.

See the helmet-less version under the cut:

If I remember correctly, in the Iliad, Achilles shears off all his hair (after tearing some out) to show his extreme grief over Patroclus' death. So I tried to capture that semi-jagged, I-want-it-gone look here.

This is wildly cool!! Especially love the text formatting. You picked some of my personal favorite lyrics, too! Thank you, OP! 💛

Achilles Text Posts

Text comes from ARISTOS: The Musical, specifically the songs, "O Icarus" and "The Slave Women's Lament."

See the textless versions of the art here.

The perspective evokes the Jacques-Louis David Patroclus painting, only this time, he isn’t turned away in despair, he’s turned towards the person he loves and protecting them from the world 😭 Thank you for all your beautiful Aristos art, elianzis!!

I had no idea there was an Achilles musical until I saw art of it on your twitter

Me too i found about here, in tumblr... it's great musical. i'm in looooove with it!

Here's a little sketch of Patroclus and Achilles

hi!! do you mind if i ask what you mean by the libretto is gonna hit shelves? where can we buy it from?

Hello there!! Thank you so much for asking! You'll be able to order a physical copy online, and it'll also be available as an e-book. Specific retailers to be announced.

Can't wait to share it with you all! 📚💛