Achilles: *Opens the door and holds it open* After you, sir. Agamemnon: No thank you. I never let anyone walk behind me. 7 out of 10 attacks come from behind. Achilles: Well, that still leaves a 30% chance that I'll attack you from the front... Agamemnon: Yes, but it will be easier to stop. I can obviously always block the blow. I would countert it. Not that you would ever have the guts to- Achilles: *Slaps Ag* *Walks inside* Agamemnon:

eyes

Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos, tr. by Anne Carson [ID in alt text]

So I uhhh... I finished the Iliad. I had a lot of fun but there were so MANY weird ass funny moments that I HAD to draw. Enjoy my personal retelling of these bits. (The designs for the characters are very undocumented and definitely not final though).

PART ONE:

Part two over there!

Agamemnon, Steven Berkoff

aaaaaaaaaaaa the iliad/odyssey as cat memes aaaaaaaaaaaaa

going to have to unfollow you , for humiliating me in front of the other war lords

Electra At The Tomb Of Agamemnon, 1868-1869 Frederic Leighton

Agamemnon: I never considered you a rival.

Achilles: I never considered you at all.

scrambled my Achaean designs again,,,, save me. The Iliad save me…

[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.

dad jokes

Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos, tr. by Anne Carson [ID in alt text]

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

agamemnon: so what are your powers?

ajax: i'm super strong

odysseus: i was blessed by athena with wisdom

achilles: i have super human speed

patroclus: i can control achilles

agamemnon: that's not really-

odysseus: no, trust us. he's our strongest member.