Odysseus: Do it or you're straight.

Achilles: *Loud gasp*

Agamemnon: *breathes*

Achilles: *hisses and snuggles closer to Patroclus*

Odysseus: You know that voice in your head that tells you that you're doing something wrong?

Achilles: You mean the one that sounds like Patroclus?

Patroclus: The man I love was prophesied to die after killing his rival…

Younger Patroclus: Who was his rival?

Patroclus: The man who killed me.

chesglam again except im a huge greek mythology nerd and a sucker for the bury your gays trope!!🤗🤗

"We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other."

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Started this piece in digital but didn’t feel like finishing it in digi. So I switch to gouache and pencils for colouring. Kinda works better for this pic I think.

My heart aches for them...

Achilles and Patroclus

Alexander and Hephaestion

Hannibal and Will

Ash and Eiji

when i read the song of achilles i was very surprised at how genuine and equally matched their love for each other was. there wasn’t any such thing as one being more in love than the other. i’ve become so accustomed to that trope, that i kept waiting for it to happen; but it never did. i’m so used to love being a miserable, painful, unrequited thing, i kept expecting the moment when finally their unconditional love reached its limit but it never fucking did.

there was never a moment that patroclus wouldn’t have died, fought, or killed for his lover. and never one moment where achilles wouldn’t do the same. it never mattered that achilles was aristos achaion, because patroclus was the world to him and never stopped being so.

we never had to watch them grow apart, or become bitter towards each other. it was all pure, faultless, unyielding love until the very end. they never had to yearn, they never had to doubt. patroclus agonized over the idea of one day losing his achilles, constantly worrying over him. and achilles completely wrecked with grief over losing his most beloved.

that feeling you get when you listen to someone talk about characters like icarus or cain, or achilles, and they just. don't understand. they fundamentally do not understand the characters. they don't get their motivations. they dismiss the character's circumstances. and you listen to them talk and you can see that think they sound smart saying these things, and you are filled with rage.

because no, icarus was not a "stupid little boy who didn't want to listen to his dad"; he was a child prisoner, thrown into the labyrinth because king minos wanted to punish an innocent soul and knew that daedalus wasn't one. to say that it was foolish of him, to fly as high and as fast as he did, feeling the freedom kissing his shoulder blades for the first and last time, would be as dumb as to say that it is stupid of you to get into the shower first thing right after going to the beach.

and no, cain wasn't an evil mastermind brother murderer. he was a kid without god. a child not given instructions to life. the first older brother with no one above him. have you never hit your younger sibling, and when they started crying, began praying for them not to tell your mother? have you never lied to said mother about the bruise on the younger kid's cheek when she came into your room an hour later?

and achilles - oh, god's, achilles. as young, as maybe arrogant and foolish as he was, he was viewed as someone above all else. he was a demigod - one of a few, but the strongest of all. have you never stepped into a middle school as an adult and, looking upon the fighting children's faces, realised that it is better to let them do what they must? is it not human, to try and avoid conflict with those below you?

My professor spoke of The Iliad today.

I expected the same old dribble about Helen and Paris and the war.

BUT

She actually took a good few minutes to speak of Achilles and Patroclus, and the way their love is coded beyond friendship. In her words "Patroclus was Achilles' loved one, not his cousin as is told in a film. But the person he loved."

I was so happy to hear an academic acknowledge this.

I have a very important question for ya'll.

Was Achilles a top or a bottom?

I have been debating with my friend on this one for awhile and need expert opinions.

Have you ever thought about the faith Achilles had in Patroclus? Achilles always waits for Patroclus.

Achilles waited for Patroclus to come to his palace. He waited for Patroclus to come closer to him to be his friend and right hand man. He waited for him to sleep together. He waited for their first kiss. He waited for Patroclus to reach him, for he was not going to leave with Chiron without him. He waited for him on the island of Skyros in order to be reunited one day. He waited for "his husband". Achilles waited to see Patroclus every evening or morning after the battle because he was his life breath. He hoped to be reunited with him because he was his home and safe place.

He waited for his return after Patroclus left in his armor for Troy. He waited for a sign or a message from his spirit. He wished that his wait would be short and that the gods would finally give his soul a rest so that he could be with Patroclus again.

He waited for Patroclus in the Underworld.

Achilles always hoped that Patroclus would find a way to be reunited with him. They are the eternal reunion.

Literally all the trojans when Patroclus died

fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck

6 y/o Achilles: I'm old enough to say frick!

Phoenix: No you are not.

Achilles: I'll say it anyway!

Thetis, from the other room: No you fucking won't!

Thetis: Why do people think I have distaste for you, Patroclus?

Patroclus: Because it was easiest to paint you that way. You’re a Nymph who was bound to mate with a mortal man. It was easy for them to spin that into hatred for me, hatred for humans.

Thetis: They have me mistaken. I love most humans. Some of you do some… questionable things, but then again, so do the gods.

Achilles: Everyone’s kind of messed up in their own way, aren’t we?

Patroclus: it’s what makes us unique. Even so, I thank you Thetis, for being supportive of your son and I.

Thetis: You mellow him out. You help him. How could I not support you?

*we love supportive mom Thetis here.*

Reading Circe, in that Odysseus mentioned Achilles. He said along with line, "Then the best part of him died, and he was even more difficult after that."

Then, Circe asked "What was his best part?"

Odysseus said, "His lover, Patroclus. He didn't like me much, but then the good ones never do. Achilles went mad when he died; nearly mad anyway."

I definitely am not crying.