Hector of Troy…

Im rereading the Iliad so I drew my buddy Hector. HE DESERVED BETTER, FOREVER A HECTOR APOLOGIST

@kebriones thank you for awakening my Hector obsession

Do you think Patroclus is Homer's self-insert OC? No but for real, the Iliad is like Avengers Endgame level universe crossover of Greek mythology. Why isn't Pat in more stuff?

Lol!!! Patroclus as Homer's self insert is so funny actually, like yeah who DOESN'T want to be the underdog that somehow manages to very dramatically steal the show and change the course of an entire war 🤣 mary sue behaviour right there

I have often wondered why Patroclus isn't in more things myself. Like most of the heroes in the Iliad come from myths even older than the Iliad, and their lore just kept expanding after the Iliad was composed. Like you have SO much stuff about Achilles and Agamemnon and others, not to mention Odysseus; you have extensive Iliad fanfic about the most minor Trojan characters imaginable (looking at you Virgil); you have all those later myths that have the main heroes' offspring doing things and going on adventures and killing/maiming people....... but nothing about Patroclus. Zilch. Nada. And it's just so bizarre to me. Like Patroclus is an awesome character if you think about it. He was probably invented only for the purpose of shifting the narrative of the Iliad, of bringing about Achilles' grief and rage because Achilles' death has to be as dramatic and intense as possible, but I don't think that's reason enough to not include him in any other myths.

An answer to this could be that there are a lot of myths and stories that simply didn't stand the test of time. Like we know for a fact that Patroclus makes an appearance in some ancient greek tragedies, but the fragments remaining do not have any of his lines, or we only have the summaries of those plays by later authors who didn’t go into too much detail about his role in the plays. Another answer could be that Patroclus' existence as a character is very closely tied to Achilles', but whenever Achilles appears in a myth or play or story, he tends to eclipse every other character and draw the attention on himself. So the people who later preserved those stories in writing simply didn't bother to include Patroclus. But that also bears the question: why didn't Patroclus capture the people's imagination more, the way Menelaus or Nestor or even Neoptolemus do? I really don't know. If anyone has a better answer than this, I'd love to hear it.

Thank you so much for this ask!

"Ugh classics are so boring" Classics:

Iliad, book II, vv. 257-264

women want me for my deceitful nature and fine thighs

I will never understand how Odysseus has all the braincells while also having none of them at the same exact time. He is an amazing war general and is insanely smart but has the attention span of a rat fuelled by the need to cause chaos simply because he is bored. He can't listen to one thing while getting distracted by the thing he was specifically told not to touch.

On the Mount Pelion (2023)

The centaur Chiron and his 'students' Achilles and Patroclus return after a long day of training and learning to heal.

Achilles: See I'm straight but if there was a man I would marry it'd be Patroclus.

Briseis: How do you feel about that, Pat?

Patroclus:

Patroclus: It's not helping with the rumors.

Briseis: I think the kiss you guys shared in my tent isn't helping with the rumors.

Achilles: Yeah I just hate that he didn't give me enough tongue.

Hera seducing Zeus

Based on the scene in the Iliad book 14. I followed how it was described + what Hera was wearing but also took some creative liberties.

Patroclus *exists*

Achilles :

the women of troy? nah nah, the women of depression is more like it

#patrochilles with twitters new update I made an account here so here’s a drawing of them >:D

#Iliad #tsoa #fanart

After reading the Iliad and The Song of Achilles, I only can say that the most beautiful thing about fiction books like TSOA is how, after more than 2000 years, we still fall in love with the same characters, their lifes, up and downs and the love they once felt. How all those feelings still make an impact on us

....the Iliad doesn’t have anything explicit, or even implicit, about our heroes having sex. Patroclus and Achilles sleep in the same tent, but the narrator tells us that each of the men has an enslaved woman at his side. I felt I had to respond to the reader’s possible expectations and possible disappointment in two ways. One was to discuss the Patrochilles relationship fairly extensively in the introduction and notes, and make clear the ways that it’s taken absolutely seriously, and is at the emotional heart of Achilles’ narrative arc. In the introduction, I also discuss the fact that the Iliad doesn’t treat sex as a measure of closeness or love—so the fact that the poem doesn’t tell us that Achilles and Patroclus had sex is in no way a sign that they’re less than everything to each other. The characters who do have sex in the Iliad—Helen and Paris, Hera and Zeus, and various warriors with the enslaved women whom they regularly rape—are not exactly doing so out of “love.” 

Within the translation itself, I knew that I had to convey the profound intimacy and love of Achilles and Patroclus; the reader or listener has to understand on a deep emotional level that Patroclus is Achilles’ person, and that without him, he is all but dead himself—and he also knows that his death is at least partly his own fault. You, the reader or listener, should feel his devastation.

“My friend Patroclus, whom I loved, is dead.

I loved him more than any other comrade.

I loved him like my head, my life, myself.

I lost him, killed him…. “

By the time you get to Book 18, if you don’t feel the full horror of that moment with your whole being, I’ve failed.

Excerpt from Enduring Epics: Emily Wilson and Madeline Miller on Breathing New Life Into Ancient Classics on Literary Hub

People who hiperfixate on Epic of Gilgamesh, Iliad/Oddysey and The Bible are actually the coolest mfs out there. Like yess pleasee draw more Gilgamesh x Enkidu fanart, write more Achilles angst, call Jesus of Nazareth your babygirl, nothing makes me happier.

“He whom I value more than all others, and love as dearly as my own life? I have lost him”

- the Iliad

“When he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.”

- the Song of Achilles

“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”

- Aristos: the Musical @aristosmusical

Gouache on paper

Here’s teenage Patroclus and Achilles, soft and carefree and unknowing of their fate, plus some quotes that twist my gut every time I read them

Odysseus: *Gets Palamedes framed and stoned to death after he threatened his son*

My reaction: "Damn, I wonder who he got that from-"

Athena: *Drives greater Ajax mad to the point that he kills a bunch of sheep before then killing himself all because he was hostile towards Odysseus.*

My reaction: "Oh, that's who"