#classical revision

[mylittleredgirl]

watching classic trek again and i forgot how unhinged scotty is. like sure he’s emotional in general but i cannot possibly overstate how little impulse control he has when an all powerful alien entity Looks Wrong at a female crewmate. scotty will throw his entire body at the problem with no plan and no hesitation. higher brain function completely bypassed. doesn’t matter that there’s zero chance a physical attack will work, or that kirk is ordering him to stand down, or that the alien of the week ALREADY wrecked him with a range attack earlier in the episode when scotty did the exact same thing.

chivalry isn’t dead in the 23rd century but it WILL be because scotty will get his dumb ass killed by an all powerful alien robot—and then!! four seconds after he comes back to life!! he tries to lunge at nomad AGAIN and the others have to physically restrain him. i love him. i love this show.

[ramvur]

"So weep no longer, though you love me"

#GazPriceWeek Day 3: Blue

[greekmythcomix]

[sttmh]

porfavor mesmo que seja só um rascunho 🙏 a cena angst do classic e o reaper conversando pela primeira vez sobre os resets, seria ouro puro!!!

Here is a lightly edited preview! Future revisions may change details, but this idea of how stats change over resets has been something I've been thinking about for nearly the whole extent of STTMH.

Sans liked to take his naps, Reaper decided. Or maybe it was regular sleep? Reaper wasn't that familiar with mortals' day-to-day, but even he could see that Sans spent an unusual amount of time horizontal on the ground. Or maybe it was something specific to whatever world Sans was from?

Reaper's frown deepened. There were too many unknowns surrounding his alternate that Reaper did not like. He especially despised that Life was so willing to open her grove to him, even offering to give herself and Reaper (without asking him, Reaper might add) nicknames for the duration of his stay.

And Reaper despised liars.

Sans shifted, his sockets opening slowly. His eyelights flickered to life a moment later, and he jerked back, slamming his skull into the tree he leaned against. Reaper snorted, drifting back slightly to give him space. Sans rubbed the back of his skull and blinked.

"uh, hi," Sans greeted, slyly smiling.

Reaper raised a browbone and cocked his skull, amused. Sans seemed to have trouble talking with him sometimes. Maybe it was because Reaper was technically also Sans, but Reaper liked to attribute it to the fact that, according to Sans, gods didn't even exist in his world. Reaper couldn't understand how that was even possible, but neither could he understand how another him could exist as a mortal. Reaper was fairly certain he would go mad.

"why don't we have a chat?" Reaper hummed, crossing his legs underneath him as he hovered.

"we kinda already are, but sure," Sans snickered, his smile fading as Reaper leaned forward, his invisible eyelights sweeping over Sans's form.

"i've been wondering this for a while," Reaper continued, his voice mockingly critical. "but why is your lv one?"

He could see the moment the question processed, and Sans's sockets widened with a hint of shock and fear. Reaper leaned back, smirking in satisfaction with Sans's reaction.

"what makes you ask?" Sans asked, and Reaper swallowed the urge to mention that Sans's mask was slipping.

"i've judged countless mortals," Reaper hummed lightheartedly, and he snorted at the strange look that came across Classic's face at the wording. "and i've never seen a soul like yours."

Sans glanced sideways, his gaze distant for a moment as he doubtless checked himself. "i... don't understand," Sans struggled. "i have a lv of one because i haven't killed anyone."

"you're lying," Reaper sighed in disappointment. "on both of those."

Sans raised his face, staring at him.

"do you honestly not know? shouldn't you mortals at least know the breadth of the sins you've commited?" A sort of dawning realization crossed Classic's face, and Reaper leaned back as he rolled his sockets. "i guess all mortals are the same. how ignorant," he mocked.

It seemed Reaper had hit a chord, and Sans bristled. Reaper shrugged with indifference. Sans rapidly mellowed and glanced at the grass under him, his sockets narrowing. Reaper waited, leaning his chin on his hand as he counted the seconds.

"let me give you a hypothetical," Sans whispered, shifting uncomfortably.

"go on," Reaper hummed after Sans went quiet, his interest piqued.

"let's say there was a kind of time loop," Sans began, resolutely refusing to meet Reaper's gaze as he blinked. "if you gain a lv and then time resets, what would happen?"

[kayystudiess]

My best friend came to help me with my notes today 🐱 the fluffy paws were all the motivation I needed to get these pages done!

Hope everyone has a productive day! :)

[mcaelius]

everyones getting grades+stuff i've only done 2/9 exams 😭

[ezekiel13]

[chloedoesart]

The art prompt for the AHiT discord server last fall was Halloween costumes for the characters, so I decided to combine my two favourite grumpy, Scottish birds! I didn't actually finish this in time to submit it, so enjoy this work in progress instead.

(I also sketched out the three girls as Huey, Dewey, and Louie but never refined the sketch to a point where I was happy with it)

[hopecoreclown]

want to do a zine about myths of punishment

sisyphus, tantalus, prometheus, maybe pandora??

idk thoughts are welcome

[mingos-commodoreblog]

"90s Rewind" CDTV Music-Disk released at Revision 2025

[panlight]

IS there a cringier piece of writing in Twilight than:

Aro started to laugh. “Ha ha ha,” he chuckled. Or is that like, the pinnacle? I'm not talking ~problematic stuff just like, clunky writing generally, dialogue that was so awkward it pulled you out of the story, etc. Please share!

[legitspidey]

Ok

I need the classics nerds to listen to me here

(and the chronically online, you can stay too)

So in Plato's Phaedrus, he goes on about the soul being two horses and the charioteer and stuff but my point is about the part when he says that when someone sees a 'godlike face' or someone who they think is the image of beauty then they revere them like they were a god and their soul starts to grow wings.

And if they are without the person they love then their soul growing wings is painful but as soon as they see the person they love the pain is soothed.

Stay with me here...

Soulmate AU

WHAT IF when they see their soulmate they start to grow wings and it hurts BUT when they're with their soulmate its soothing and not painful and they can let their wings grow

guys do you see the vision

because there's so much potential - you've got soulmates, wings, forced proximity, hurt/comfort

[slaps roof of car] this bad boy can fit so many tropes in it

Imagine, if you will, person A turning up to person B's house in the middle of the night bent over in pain. As soon as person B opens the door, it's like its all better. The pain leaves and the itching stops and it's like the sight of them soothed them. Person A asks if they can stay over because they can't bare it anymore and of course person B agrees

cue domestic fluff

I'm going insane someone sedate me I have exams to revise for I cannot be thinking about ts

[withasideofshakespeare]

An AMENDED Rundown on the Absolute Chaos That is First Quarto Hamlet

O, gather round me, my dear Shakespeare friends And let me tell to ye a tale of woe. It was a dark and drizzly winter night, When I discovered my life was a lie... This tale is a tragedy, one of Shakespeare sources turned into gardening websites, "misdated" quartos, and failed internet archives. It is also a story of the quarto itself, an early printing of our beloved Danish Prince's play, including an implied Hamlet/Horatio coffee date, weird and extremely short soliloquies, and Gertrude with a hint of motivation and autonomy.

But let us start from the beginning. Long ago, in the year of our lord 2022, I pulled a Christmas Eve all-nighter to bring you this post: https://www.tumblr.com/withasideofshakespeare/704686395278622720/a-rundown-on-the-absolute-chaos-that-is-first?source=share

It was popularish in Shakespeare circles, which is why I am amending it now! I returned to it tonight, only to discover a few problems with my dates and, more importantly, a mystery in which one of my sources miraculously turned into a link to a gardening website...

Anyhow, let us begin with the quarto! TL;DR: Multiple versions of Hamlet were printed between 1603 and 1637 (yes, post-folio) with major character and plot differences between them. The first quarto (aka Q1) is best known for its particular brand of chaos with brief soliloquies, an extra-sad Hamlet, some mother-son bonding, weird early modern spelling, and deleted/adapted scenes with major influences on the plot of the play!

A long rundown is included below the cut, including new and improved sources, lore, direct quotes, and my own interpretations. Skip what bores you! And continue... if thou darest!

What is the First Quarto? Actually, what is a quarto?

Excellent questions, brave Hamlet fan! A quarto is a pamphlet created by printing something onto a large sheet of paper and then folding it to get a smaller pamphlet with more pages per big sheet (1). First Quarto Hamlet was published in 1603 and then promptly lost for an entire two centuries until it was rediscovered in 1823 in the library of Sir Henry Bunbury. Rather than printed from a manuscript of Shakespeare, Q1 seems like it may be a memorial reconstruction of the play by the actor who played Marcellus (imagine being in a movie, memorizing the script to the best of your ability, writing it down, and then selling "your" script off to the print shop), but scholars are still out on this (2).

Are you saying that Hamlet comes with the stageplay equivalent of a “deleted scenes and extra credits” movie disc?

Yep, pretty much! In fact, there are even more of these! Q2 was printed in 1604 and it seems to have made use of Shakespeare's own drafts, and rather than being pirated like Q1, it was probably printed more or less with permission. Three more subsequent quartos were published between 1611 and 1637, but they share much in common with Q2. The First Folio (F1) was published in 1623 and its copy of Hamlet was either based on another (possibly cleaner but likely farther removed from Shakespeare's own text) playhouse manuscript (2, 3). It was an early "collected works" of sorts--although missing a few plays that we now consider canon--and is the main source used today for many of the plays!

The versions of the play that we read usually include elements from both Q2 and F1.

So... Q1? How is it any different from the version we all know (and love, of course)? What do the differences mean for the plot?

We’ll start with minor differences and build up to the big ones.

Names and spellings

Most of the versions of Shakespeare's plays that we read today have updated spellings in modern English, but a true facsimile (a near-exact reprint of a text) maintains the early modern English spellings found in the original text.

For example, here is the second line of the play transcribed from F1:

Francisco: Nay answer me: stand and vnfold your selfe.

For the most part, however, the names of the characters in these later versions (ex: F1) are spelled more or less how we would spell them today. This is not so in Q1.

Laertes is “Leartes”, Ophelia is “Ofelia”, Gertrude is “Gertred” (or sometimes “Gerterd”), Rosencrantz is “Rossencraft”, Guildenstern is “Gilderstone”, and my favorite, Polonius gets a completely different name: Corambis. 

(This goes on for minor characters, too. Sentinel Barnardo is “Bernardo”, Prince Fortinbras of Norway is “Fortenbrasse”, Voltemand and Cornelius--the Danish ambassadors to Norway--are “Voltemar” and “Cornelia” (genderbent Cornelius?), Osric doesn’t even get a name- he is called “the Bragart Gentleman”, the Gravediggers are called clowns, and Reynaldo (Polonius���s spy) gets a whole different name--“Montano”.)

2. Stage directions

Some of Q1's stage directions are more detailed and some are simply non-existent. For instance, when Ophelia enters singing, the direction is:

Enter Ofelia playing on a Lute, and her haire downe singing.

But when Horatio is called to assist Hamlet in spying on Claudius during the play, he has no direction to enter, instead opting to just appear magically on stage. Hamlet also doesn't even say his name, so apparently his Hamlet sense was tingling?

3. Act 3 scene reordering

Claudius and Polonius go through with the plan to have Ophelia break up with Hamlet immediately after they make it (typically, the plan is made in early II.ii and gone through with in III.i, with the players showing up and reciting Hecuba between the two events). In this version, the player scene (and Hamlet’s conversation with Polonius) happen after ‘to be or not to be’ and ‘get thee to a nunnery.’ I’m not sure if this makes more or less sense. Either way, it has a relatively minimal impact on the story.

4. Shortened lines and straightforwardness

Many lines, especially after Act 1, are significantly shortened, including some of the play's most famous speeches.

Laertes’ usually long-winded I.iii lecture on love to Ophelia is shortened to just ten lines (as opposed to the typical 40+). Polonius (er... Corambis) is still annoying and incapable of brevity, but less so than usual. His lecture on love is also cut significantly!

Hamlet’s usual assailing of Danish drinking customs (I.iv) is cut off by the ghost’s arrival. He’s still the most talkative character, but his lines are almost entirely different in some monologues, including ‘to be or not to be’!  In other spots, however, (ex: get thee to a nunnery!) the lines are near-identical. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to where things diverge linguistically, except that when Marcellus speaks, his lines are always correct. Hm...

5. The BIG differences: Gertrude’s promise to aid Hamlet in taking revenge

Act 3, scene 4 goes about the same as usual with one major difference: Hamlet finishes off not with his usual declaration that he’s to be sent for England but with an absolutely heart-wrenching callback to act 1, in which he echoes the ghost’s lines and pleads his mother to aid him in revenge. And she agrees. Here is that scene:

Note that "U"s are sometimes "V"s and there are lots of extra "E"s!

Queene Alas, it is the weakenesse of thy braine, Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe: But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen, I neuer knew of this most horride murder: But Hamlet, this is onely fantasie, And for my loue forget these idle fits. Ham. Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours, It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet. O mother, if euer you did my deare father loue, Forbeare the adulterous bed to night, And win your selfe by little as you may, In time it may be you wil lothe him quite: And mother, but assist mee in reuenge, And in his death your infamy shall die. Queene Hamlet, I vow by that maiesty, That knowes our thoughts, and lookes into our hearts, I will conceale, consent, and doe my best, What stratagem soe're thou shalt deuise. Ham. It is enough, mother good night: Come sir, I'le prouide for you a graue, Who was in life a foolish prating knaue. Exit Hamlet with [Corambis/Polonius'] dead body. (Internet Shakespeare, Source #4)

Despite having seemingly major consequences for the plot, this is never discussed again. Gertrude tells Claudius in the next scene that it was Hamlet who killed Polonius (Corambis, whatever!), seemingly betraying her promise.

However, Gertrude’s admission of Hamlet’s guilt (and thus, betrayal) could come down to the circumstance she finds herself in as the next scene begins. There is no stage direction denoting her exit, so the entrance of Claudius in scene 5 may be into her room, where he would find her beside a puddle of blood, evidence of the murder. There’s no talking your way out of that one…

6. The BIGGEST difference: The added scene

After Act 4, Scene 6, (but before 4.7) comes this scene, in which Horatio informs Gertrude that Hamlet was to be executed in England but escaped:

Enter Horatio and the Queene. Hor. Madame, your sonne is safe arriv'de in Denmarke, This letter I euen now receiv'd of him, Whereas he writes how he escap't the danger, And subtle treason that the king had plotted, Being crossed by the contention of the windes, He found the Packet sent to the king of England, Wherein he saw himselfe betray'd to death, As at his next conuersion with your grace, He will relate the circumstance at full. Queene Then I perceiue there's treason in his lookes That seem'd to sugar o're his villanie: But I will soothe and please him for a time, For murderous mindes are alwayes jealous, But know not you Horatio where he is? Hor. Yes Madame, and he hath appoynted me To meete him on the east side of the Cittie To morrow morning. Queene O faile not, good Horatio, and withall, commend me A mothers care to him, bid him a while Be wary of his presence, lest that he Faile in that he goes about. Hor. Madam, neuer make doubt of that: I thinke by this the news be come to court: He is arriv'de, obserue the king, and you shall Quickely finde, Hamlet being here, Things fell not to his minde. Queene But what became of Gilderstone and Rossencraft? Hor. He being set ashore, they went for England, And in the Packet there writ down that doome To be perform'd on them poynted for him: And by great chance he had his fathers Seale, So all was done without discouerie. Queene Thankes be to heauen for blessing of the prince, Horatio once againe I take my leaue, With thowsand mothers blessings to my sonne. Horat. Madam adue. (Internet Shakespeare, Source #4)

First of all, the implication of Hamlet and Horatio's little date in the city is adorable ("Yes Madame, and he hath appoynted me / To meete him on the east side of the Cittie / To morrow morning.") It reads like they're going out for coffee!

And perhaps more plot relevant: if Gertrude knows of Claudius’s treachery ("there's treason in his lookes"), her death at the end of the play does not look like much of an accident. She is aware that Claudius killed her husband and is actively trying to kill her son and she still drinks the wine meant for Hamlet!

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! My thoughts! Yippee!  On Gertrude: WOW! I’m convinced that she is done dirty by F1and Q2! She and Hamlet have a much better relationship (Gertrude genuinely worries about his well-being throughout the play.) She has an actual personality that is tied into her role in the story and as a mother. I love Q1 Gertrude even though in the end, there’s nothing she can do to save Hamlet from being found out in the murder of Polonius and eventually dying in the duel. Her drinking the poisoned wine seems like an act of desperation (or sacrifice? she never asks Hamlet to drink!) rather than an accident.

On the language: I think Q1′s biggest shortcoming is its comparatively simplistic language, especially in 'to be or not to be,' which is written like this in the quarto:

Ham. To be, or not to be, I there's the point, To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all: No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes, For in that dreame of death, when wee awake, And borne before an euerlasting Iudge [judge], From whence no passenger euer retur'nd, The vndiscouered country, at whose sight The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd. But for this, the ioyfull hope of this, Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world, Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore? The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd, The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne, And thousand more calamities besides, To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life, When that he may his full Quietus make, With a bare bodkin, who would this indure, But for a hope of something after death? Which pusles [puzzles] the braine, and doth confound the sence, Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue, Than flie to others that we know not of. I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all, Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred. (Internet Shakespeare, Source #4)

The verse is actually closer to perfect iambic pentameter (meaning more lines have exactly ten syllables and consist entirely of iambs--"da-DUM") than in the Folio, which includes many 11-syllable lines. The result of this, however, is that Hamlet comes across here as considerably less frantic (those too-long verse lines in F1 make it feel like he is shoving words into too short a time, which is so very on-theme for him) and more... sad. Somehow, Q1 Hamlet manages to deserve a hug even MORE than F1 Hamlet!

Nevertheless, this speech doesn't hit the way it does in later printings and I have to say I prefer the Folio here.

On the ending: The ending suffers from the same effect ‘to be or not to be’ does--it is simpler and (imo) lacks some of the emotion that F1 emphasizes. Hamlet’s final speech is significantly cut down and Horatio’s last lines aren’t quite so potent--although they’re still sweet!

Horatio. Content your selues, Ile shew to all, the ground, The first beginning of this Tragedy: Let there a scaffold be rearde vp in the market place, And let the State of the world be there: Where you shall heare such a sad story tolde, That neuer mortall man could more vnfolde. (Internet Shakespeare, Source #4)

Horatio generally is a more active character in Q1 Hamlet. This ending suits this characterization. He will tell Hamlet’s story, tragic as it may be. It reminds me a bit of We Raise Our Cups from Hadestown. I appreciate that this isn't a request but a command: put up a stage, I will tell this story. Closing notes: After over a year, it was due time this post received an update. My main revisions were in regard to source verification. Somehow, in the last year or so, one of my old sources went from linking to a PDF of Q1 to a garden website (???) and some citations were missing from the get-go as a result of this being an independently researched post that involved pulling an all-nighter on Christmas Eve (but no excuses, we need sources!)

I have also corrected some badly worded commentary implying that the Folio's verse is more iambic pentameter-y (it's not; in fact, Q1 tends to "normalize" its verse to make it fit a typical blank verse scheme better than the Folio's does--the lines actually flow better, typically have exactly ten syllables, and use more iambs than Q1's) as well as that the spelling in the Folio is any more modern than those in Q1 (they're both in early modern English; I was mistakenly reading a modernized Folio and assuming it to be a transcription--nice one, 17-year-old Dianthus!) Additionally, I corrected the line breaks in my verse transcriptions and returned the block quotations to their original early modern English, which feels more authentic to what was actually written. A few other details and notes were added here and there, but the majority of the substance is the same.

Overall, if you still haven't read Q1, you absolutely should! Once you struggle through the spelling for a while, you'll get used to it and it'll be just as easy as modern English! If you'd prefer to just start with the modern English, I have also linked a modern translation below (source 5). And finally, my sources! Not up to citation standards but very user-friendly I hope... 1. Oxford English Dictionary 2. Internet Shakespeare, Hamlet, "The Texts", David Bevington (https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Ham_TextIntro/index.html) 3. The Riverside Shakespeare (pub. Houghton Mifflin Company; G.B. Evans, et al.) 4. Internet Shakespeare, First Quarto (facsimile--in early modern English) (https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Ham_Q1/complete/index.html) 5. Internet Shakespeare, First Quarto (modern English) (https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Ham_Q1M/index.html)

And here conclude we our scholarly tale, Of sources, citation, and Christmastime too, Go read the First Quarto! And here, I leave you.

[greekmythcomix]

The essay question most likely to be asked on Odysseus is ‘how good a leader is Odysseus’ or ‘how responsible for his men is Odysseus’ and the answer, based on the text, is *always* ‘not very’

Here is a Basic Essay plan:

~FOR his being a good leader /responsible:

- tries to get them to leave Ismarus after attacking Cicones

- gets his men back from the Lotus-Eaters, using force in their best interests

- makes stops to take on food and water and ensures crews are well fed, so much so they vote him extra in thanks

- saves his remaining men from Polyphemus by clever thinking and action

- always shares food and loot equally with his men

- after several search parties come to sticky ends, he puts himself into the party and draws lots for fairness

- refuses to abandon his crew to Circe’s magic

- follows Hermes’ instructions to ensure his men are saved from being pigs (yes technically this means sleeping with Circe too)

- chooses not to tell his crew about the dangers of Scylla because he thinks it will cause unnecessary panic

- does tell them not to eat Hyperion’s cattle and tries to prevent them all from dying by begging help from the gods

- gives motivational speeches to try and improve morale (“my friends! We are utterly lost!” 😂)

- can carry *really* heavy stags on his own😉

- is such a responsible leader he attempts to stay awake for days on end to steer them home, and his men only make incredibly bad decisions (opening bag of winds, killing Hyperion’s cattle) when he’s not there to stop them

~AGAINST his being a good leader/being responsible:

- even though he tries to get his crews to leave Ismarus, they refuse, essentially mutinying, and he lets them = questionable authority

- puts his men unnecessarily in danger by insisting on exploring Polyphemus’ island even though they’ve already taken on food and water and even though he has ‘a bad feeling about it’, because their *might* be guest gifts, thus kudos, in it for him

- continues to put his crew in danger by revealing their location having escaped from blinded Polyphemus in order to claim kudos from having been the one to blind him

- continues to put his crews in danger by shouting out *again*, after they’ve narrowly escaped being sunk the first time, in order to further insult the cyclops, resulting in a curse that ends all their lives despite his men *begging* him to shut up

- puts his own life in danger by insisting on hearing the sirens, thus endangering his crew by removing their leader and putting them in the difficult position of refusing his orders (when he begs to be untied)

- doesn’t tell them what’s in the bag from Aeolus… although they should probably assume he’d share it with them if it was loot, because he has set a precedent for always doing that, by not telling them he creates confusion, leading to their mistake of opening it

- doesn’t stop the rest of the ships from entering the harbour at Telepylos, even though he moors outside = again questionable authority

- abandons 11 ships to the Laestrygonians because he cannot save them (ok he didn’t know they were monster cannibals but still, responsibility)

- chooses a more dangerous route when given a choice by Circe, because Jason’s already ‘done’ the Clashing Rocks and Scylla & Charybdis are unclaimed = more kudos for him again, adding to his personal kleos

- fails to prepare his crew for the dangers of Scylla & Charybdis instead choosing to sacrifice some of their lives for his and the rest of the crew’s (return to in Evaluation)

- absents himself at the crucial moment of their desperation in Hyperion’s island, ostensibly to pray for help, but knowing what Eurylochus is likely to do ie: go against his orders and kill the forbidden cattle

(If I’ve missed out some points I may add more later)

~EVALUATION

- although he can’t possibly be expected to know what’s coming (eg: Laestrygonians being monster cannibals), perhaps he should have taken more stock of the way things were going

- arguably, sacrificing some lives for the majority is one of those horribly difficult decisions of leadership, so this might even be admirable (?)

- he does question every decision he makes in order to choose what he considers to be the best course of action…

- …unless if it involves his own kudos, which is his priority

~CONCLUSION

- although he is not without leadership ability, Odysseus arguably makes too many decisions in his own favour, and is directly responsible for the loss of (12 ships x c.50crew each) c.600men, plus uncounted enslaved people from Troy

- and whereas some decisions made by his crew/men can be blamed for events (not leaving Ismarus, opening Aeolus’ bag, killing Hyperion’s cattle), that Odysseus doesn’t/can’t stop them suggests a lack of leadership on his part and/or a lack of trust in him from his men, and, on these events, we *only have Odysseus’s word for it*, as the sole survivor and narrator of these books, which are being narrated for the dual purpose of entertaining the Phaeacians and gaining sympathy from them so that they will help him get home and this is potentially an unreliable source that, like Odysseus himself*, simply cannot be trusted.

*due to his portrayal in every other literary text containing him as a character

I should end this by saying I LOVE Odysseus as a character. He is ‘meaty’, meaning there’s so much that can be discussed when it comes to him. If anything, he’s an annoyingly enjoyable antihero, like Milton’s Satan, or Shakespeare’s Richard III. Though he’s not a tragic hero and is only a ‘hero’ by Ancient Greek terms, *not* modern:

https://youtu.be/rXTecz3PN18

[starrynightsxo]

revising sucks when the exam is the next say and you know bugger all

[stefisdoingthings]

studying ancient greek is so much fun like you get to translate prose about good and evil and identity and civil war but also a judicial text about a man suing Simona for financial fraud (actually Simonas slept with the other man's eromenos and he was mad and beat the shit out of Simonas with his friends while drunk)