So How 'bout Those Trailers. OMG.

thinking of King Priam's grief, watching Teucer, the child of the sister who was stolen from him and Troy all those years ago, the sister who he has longed for all these years, stand against him and his children during the trojan war

From The Odyssey Of Homer Engraved From The Compositions Of John Flaxman.

🌿🏺 Classicstober '23 Week 2: Icarus, Achilles, Asclepius, Pandora, Theseus, Arachne, Helen.

both the iliad and odyssey plus trojan women should be required reading before you odysseus post

Debated posting this for a while because. yknow. but i figured it was all artistic enough that it couldn't hurt to share. Odysseus and Penelope truly are the only couple ever tbh, i love how much they love each other <3 Referenced from "Paulo e Virginia" by Puttinati

There's been some amount of academic discussion about Paris' two names - usually in terms of which is earlier and where they come from and what epithets are used with which name. (Most of his epithets "belong" only to Alexander, if you're curious.) But, a small branch of it is "who uses what name, in-story, in the Iliad" ; Ann Suter (this woman, uhh her ideas are pretty crazy so approach with awareness of that), I.F. de Jong and, commenting on especially the latter's article, Michael Lloyd.

I lean more towards Lloyd's assessment that de Jong's premise (that "Paris" is between the Trojans and "Alexander" for the Achaeans as a sort of 'international' name) can't really be supported. But! That doesn't mean you still can't have fun with the split in names and get something in terms of character and worldbuilding out of that!

So, first of all, in the Iliad, "Alexander" is used far more than "Paris". Only Hektor ever uses "Paris" in direct speech, about or to him (we'll get back to Hektor).

Everyone else, Achaean or Trojan, uses Alexander.

Both Suter and de Jong would, in various ways, either ignore this or explain it away as a "this only happens when the Trojans are talking to Achaeans" (Hektor, before the duel), or "what is said is going to be said to Achaeans" (Priam, telling Idaeus what to report to the Achaean commanders). Honestly, that seems overly complicated and not very reasonable to me. Especially in the case of Priam, if Paris was the name he's most used to using, there is no reason for him not to use Paris and then Idaeus simply switches when reporting the speech to the Achaeans. Yes, reported speech/instructions are usually relayed verbatim, but switching a name wouldn't be changing what's actually been said.

And, anyway, coming back to Hektor, who is the one to most consistently use Paris? Also uses Alexander, when thinking to himself, in his own head. (He also uses Paris to Achilles.)

Myth-wise, in various later sources you get the very logical conclusion of "one name was given by his foster father, the other by his royal parents". (Though there's not necessarily any consistency, even with one writer, which name was given by whom.)

Given the way the Iliad prioritises Alexander, I'd go with that Alexander is the name Priam and Hecuba gave their son, even if he was going to be exposed, before giving him away. Given how Alexander is used by basically everyone to address him, this would make good sense, I think. The Achaeans would only know of Alexander, prince of Troy, and that is certainly the name most/all Trojans would use. Paris is then the name given him by his foster father. Hektor using it can be turned into a look into their relationship, because what you see is Hektor using the name of the "outsider" (by a bare technically "not" his brother), to insult his brother, when he's angry. A verbal distance to add to the emotional one, if not one that's complete and sometimes blurs.

(This doesn't take into account post-Iliad sources, where 'Paris' vastly outnumber the uses of 'Alexander'.)

Gaston de Latenay, Nausikaa scans by Book Graphics blogspot/2014

its not about fuckin. problematic romance or whatever the myth isn’t ABOUT romance it’s about demeter and persephone’s separation. death took her child and her heart broke. The world withered from her grief. its okay if you all hate your moms and wanna run away with a guy with face tattoos or whatever the fuck but making demeter the antagonist to a forbidden romance plot means you’re illiterate sorry

Sthenelus bandaging Diomedes' finger

(from a lost 550bce amphora)

This is too cute

i WISH more people knew about age of bronze, it's literally the 'historically accurate' comprehensive and GAY adaptation of the trojan war all the accuracy warriors are clamoring for

it's a comic series written and drawn entirely by Eric Shanower, started in 1998 with those exact parameters

historically situated in the Mycenaean/Hittite cultures

drawing from nearly every text on the war from Homer to Shakespeare

explicit about the possibility that achilles+patroclus may have been meant as lovers. Shanower is gay himself, and found it important to depict them as such all the way back in 1998.

it can be read here in part or here completely (🏴‍☠️), but i also highly recommend supporting the artist, since this is a multi-decade passion project.