#ships » andromache & helenus

[aphthiton]

ooc. left over tag drop 🚶

[nausikaaa]

WIP Wednesday

thanks for tagging me @martsonmars and @forabeatofadrum

i have kind of a downer of a snippet to share today. the problem with writing from the perspective of a victim of war, not to mention a woman in ancient greece, is that it’s all kind of a downer, though i try to pepper in silver linings. stick around under the cut for a mini essay on the subject, then some cute picrews to make up for it and showcase one of those silver linings.

for now, this is Briseis thinking about her position as a slave:

Lyrnesses was not a rich city by any stretch, but every slave had their own room, handmade clothes, and went to bed at night with a full belly. To some that may mean nothing. They were still slaves, and that is it’s own indignity that no amount of kindness can lessen, I know. But my own father, born to a wealthy family in Egypt, was taken by pirates as a child and sold as a slave. He arrived at Lyrnesses as a young man, where the illegality of his enslavement was discovered and he was freed, eventually attracting the attention of my mother. But he never forgot his mistreatment, and understood how quickly and startlingly our fates can change, and so he was always kind to those less fortunate.

I wonder if he ever could have anticipated how my life would turn out to echo his own, to be free, enslaved, and then freed again. But for a woman, I was never as free as he became, and now I never will be. I am forever tethered to that part of my life by the children I carry within me.

a lot of Briseis’s section of the story focuses on her life as a slave. ancient Greek and Roman slavery was very different than more modern slavery. though I wouldn’t call it better, people were more aware that it could happen to them if their fortune changed. lose a war, board the wrong ship, fall into debt, and your whole life could change overnight. this could make many people more reluctant to mistreat slaves as they had an awareness that there was not much difference between them.

in Rome, slaves were often freed after 10 years in the army or whenever their master wished (often upon their deaths), and they could take their master’s family name (and sometimes inheritance) in the process, and build a business or reputation. while freedmen were looked down on by snobs, they could still achieve greatness. some of Rome’s best poets and satirists were freedmen or their sons, and they wrote about it openly.

but that’s men. for women, marriage could be it’s own form of enslavement. they were bought and sold, legally classified as property, controlled and restricted, and not allowed to own anything, even their own children. in wars, they were the ones who would be taken as slaves (with the exception of a few men, such as Helenus, Chaon and Mestor, Trojan princes i will touch on in later chapters) which is exactly what happens to Briseis.

for an interesting historical fiction novel about roman slaves, i would recommend The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper, but be warned it contains a lot of sexual violence and major character deaths, as it focuses on an enslaved brothel worker who forges strong friendships to survive the darkness and eventually claws her way to freedom, at a steep cost.

okay, and here are the picrews of Briseis, Andromache, and an OC i made called Mintha. their friendship was inspired by The Wolf den, they look out for each other and manage to find happiness together in their terrible situation. Briseis keeps a level head, Andromache calls out bullshit, and Mintha offers an optimistic outlook.

picrew link

[burner-of-ships]

crying again over this part of A Thousand Ships

Andromache living half in the past, seeing shadows of what she could have had. healing in some ways, but stunted in others.

i don’t have a point to this, it’s just somehow both sad and comforting to think about. a bittersweet ending.

[neoptolemid]

Middle of the night

This is a story between Helenus and Deidamia, a talk between the two during the night discussing the future but also a lot of the past

It was late at night and the weaving room was lit by only a single candle and the room was lit by a single candle and the sound of a single loom being used. It was Deidamia who sat alone weaving a new piece. The design was simple and more akin to something of a blanket, a piece to be used to warm and comfort a person.

She had been working on this blanket for the past month and she made blankets like this one every year in the same month.

She had long since worked out a pace for herself and hummed to move along the time as she went.

Her hair no longer was kept wrapped and high but she wore it loose and let it fall over her shoulders, her hair had lost some of youthful shine and took on more luster and gray.

She had no care to mind though her life was full, she had loving children and partners to keep from any thoughts of vanity in gray hairs.

She worked her speed and hummed a single tune, something mostly solem.

Work was interrupted with quiet footsteps, and she knew the intruder far before they gave a slight knock on the doorframe and came in.

"Hello deia, what are you doing up so late?" The question and voice belonged to her husband, the priest king of Eprius Helenus. He spoke hushed in the quiet room and walked to her pulling a seat next to her.

He too was aged by time, his hair had grown long and also gray. She remembered from when they had first met and his hair was black and cut short, he had been shorn quickly and roughly with no care put into it but she supposed that was the nature at the time.

When they had come to Skyros all those years ago.

"I couldn't find sleep and I wished to continue my work on this piece, what made you awake also at this hour?"

"I admit I was looking for you, I wanted to speak to you about your trip to Delphi, if I have the dates correct you'll be going in the next few weeks?"

"Yes that is correct"

She knew well enough that this would be the set up to a conversation, she didn't know exactly what the end of the conversation would bring. She knew well enough he was trying to breach a subject that was causing him thoughts, he was always a bit of the type to dance around things. He meant all the bust but he would always start out with making small talk and speaking on all things around him first.

And like she thought he wouldn’t quite get to his point yet “did you intend to take Kassandra with you like you did last year?”

His voice was quite like prior but there was hesitation in his voice now, worry clung to him a bit.

“If she wants to go with me then I will welcome her company, if she doesn’t wish to come with me again then that is fine. I would not push her.”

“Andromache and I wanted to make the request that even if she asks to not bring her.”

This had her stop, this had her turn and finally turn and look helenus in the face.

“Why not, if she wishes to come then I would allow it and she is my daughter she ought to be at my side how I will it to be” Her voice punctures the air, she speaks hard for a moment with him, looking him in the eyes and burying her gaze.

She knew this was coming, this house wishes to put the past to rest and all she wishes to do is give simple remembrances. Her grief swallowed her once and after climbing back she simply wanted to give small tokens and things as remembrances, as small offerings.

She knew the tainted nature of the past in this house, it was not something she could deny or hide, not something she could apologize for and she accepted all that.

Helenus looked somewhat taken aback from how Deidamia came to be, but his offense wasn’t taken so hard that he simply slipped back from her, he couldn’t meet her eyes and his shoulders slumped a bit.

He kept his arms close to himself and softly rubbed the back of his hand with his thumb, seemingly working out words and what he would say.

“Look Deidamia, we simply think it would be best for you not to take her, she is so little and Delphi is not close, it is a journey and for such a small girl”

She didn’t care to hear anything but the reason that had drawn him to seek her out in the middle of the night. “Cut it out. Helenus.”

“You going to Delphi is fine but just don’t take Kassandra”

“Why Helenus?”

Her tone was sharp with him, if he were to continue this charade of answers her tone would do nothing but grow with him.

"Andromache and I simply don't think it's the best, recently kassandra was asking about Neoptolemus and it is not a topic I or Andromache really want to entertain any growing interest in."

She signs, she softens, her shoulders relax and she turns her gaze from him and to her work, "alright, I can understand that, I can be fair, I will not take her."

Silence slinking back in and the only sound to be heard is her making her work, the sound of fabric passing by fabric, but he does not leave.

Something in the silence bothers him and keeps him from leaving just yet, something in the air keeps him where he is, there is more to be said he can simply feel it. He doesn't know yet what must be said but the words will surely fall from him, but while he collects his thoughts he turns to look at her work.

It is a rather simple blanket, the patterning is minimal and the color is teal.

"I'm am sorry if I have upset you Damia, I simply worry for you and for Kassanadra, I do not want this grief to consume you"

The shuttle drops from her hand with a thunk as she turns around to him.

"Consume me! Do I not live here, do I not govern here, do I not raise my daughter here! Do I not love you here! How am I not present, in what way do you need me to be more present. Pray tell me Dear Helenus how I am not present here"

Her voice pitches and it is very nearly a yell, while her mood might have settled had he left, he said what he supposed he was supposed to, he spoke what he believed necessary.

She stands taking his arm. Eyes boring into eyes she speaks and cries to him.

She weeps to him, in that moment she cries and breaks to him "You barely let me grieve alone, I know what my son did, I know he wasn't perfect, I know he did harm, I've seen the harm first hand. But I can't not grieve for him, I can't not, he was my baby! My baby that I raised by my hand"

"Oh, Damia . . ."

"I know his crimes!” her anger breaks to a quiver as she continues “but I can’t stop loving him, he’s my son and I’ve no more sons now, I love Kassandra I truly do but I’ve lost my sons, I’ve lost my last bit of Achilles and Patroclus.”

It falls out like that, and part of that hurts Helenus, he knows that he is forever loved in her arms but such old names still hurt. Years elapsed and still those names sting.

It is unfair that such old names should still sting and hurt him.

Between the two boys Pyrrhus was the image of Deidamia with Achilles’ eyes and while Oneiros was alive he took mostly after Patroclus, it was forever clear the boys did not share a father. It was forever funny that while alive, although Pyrrhus was the elder of the two brothers, Oneiros outgrew him. Who would know that he would be taken from the living age while still young, no one would know how tall he would grow be.

He loved her so much but such words like these acted on old fears that he truly was no one's first choice, he was not wanted ever first.

“I .. . I’m sorry you feel that way Damia, I really am sorry you feel that way” he pulls her close and kneels to the floor with this, he holds her with his person. He folds around her and holds her with all that he can.

If he just truly holds her as tightly as he can then nothing can get to her, nothing can harm her as long as he holds her and hides her within himself. He can go through so much in life, he has seen the hardships of life first hand and none of that is anything that she deserves.

It is her voice that breaks the moment of silence between the two of them.

“He left me,, I let him leave me, I couldn’t keep my baby boy safe and simply keep him at home on skyros. I couldn’t even do that much as his mother! I let him leave me, I let my boys leave me and they died!’

Her breaths come quick as she speaks.

So much of everything she has felt pours forth to him, she wept for her son when he left, she wept for the child she has raised and cared for.

Grief swallowed her when black sails came in the direction of skyros, one could think it was simply the ending of a war and that people might be returned. However the only sails were those of black sails not a single other ship, and this was only trouble, this was only a sign of grief to be had. True to nature these sails came with nothing good, they took what was good to her, they took her peace.

They came with gifts and promises, they came with fortunes.

Nothing but empty things.

They came the same way when Achilles and Patroclus left her.

What's a child to do when they are offered all the things of a king, what is a child to do when they are told of glory to be won and gifts to be given. She remembers distinctly the gifts promised.

She remembers promised arms, surely too big. She remembers the promising of a shield, surely too heavy for her boy. She remembers the promise of a daughter to be a wife, surely he was too young to care for such things.

“I did NOTHING! I did nothing, Helenus, I did nothing but weep, I did nothing but look sad. I was an ideal wife and mother to some known force as I just sat where I was and wept for what I had lost and all I stood to lose. I should have done something, I could have done something I could have and I did nothing!”

Her sorrow rang out and filled the room, it made an effort to swallow both. He felt for her, he felt for her position and the emotion that hung on her back and weighed her down.

[king-of-zeroes]

Aeneid, aka bad fanfiction of the illiad/oddessy

Turns out I wrote an abridged version of the Aeneid after a few glasses of gin and forgot about it so here it is because why not.

Aeneas. 

The bridge of Classical Mythology between Greek and Roman. Son of the Goddess Venus and Trojan prince Anchises. He fought in the trojan was and got his butt kicked and rescued by his mother after Diomedes grabbed him by the leg and used Aeneas as a weapon to beat half an army to death and Neptune saved him by breaking character to save him from one of Achilles drive by beat-downs despite him being a minnor character at this point. This is some less than subtle foreshadowing. During the sack of Troy at the end of the legendary Trojan War, Aeneas was commanded by the Gods to leg it alongside his dad, his wife (who then died) and a buncha fanboys called the Aeneads. However he is plagued by Hera. I mean Juno - the roman rebranded version of Hera. In fact most roman gods and heroes were of Greek invention but given a new colour palette and name. ORIGINAL CHARACTER! DO NOT STEAL!!1! Basically if mythos was deviantart. Why is Juno even angry ad Aeneas, he aint don nothing wrong. shes just the go-to villain to screw over demigods for some reason. anyway Aeneas gets a fleet of ships because his mum gave them to him (a common theme that aint gonna stop soon so buckle down) and after a booze cruise to Thrace is told to go to Italy (where a lot of people from the Trojan war went to) as he is prophesised to become a great king. so off they go but Juno causes a storm for literally no reason to they crash at this island where they see a giant table with a ton of food so they eat it and a few harpies say "One day you'll get so hungry you will eat your table!" So they're like "Cool, whateves" and got lost and land in Buthrotum (how do you pronouce that?) and they're brought as prisoners to the rulers Helenus and Andromache. See Buttwhatever is a Greek city but has been taken over by trojans. but Aeneas is a trojan so why??? Plot holes aside, Helenus says if they go the short way, they'll die like super brutal to scylla and charybdis who are like the worlds greatest tag team wrestling team if WWE included murder. So they start the long ways around and one of Odysseus's men I mean Ulysses. DEFINETLY NOT ODYSSEUS. ULYSSES IS AN OC. Nah screw it, he's just a renamed Odysseus. And this guy helps them away from this Cyclops that Odysseus just stabbed in the eye. Then Juno asks Poseidon I mean Neptune to have them crash as Aeneas is supposed to destroy Carthage (Junos fav city) bu they crash in Carthage. Maybe Neptune was drunk. So they Queen of Carthage, Dido (no not the singer) sees the crew get slam dunked on her shores and Venus forces her to become his Overly Attached Girlfriend because the Gods have no fucking idea of consent in a relationship. So these two are at it but Venus is like: "Son, you know I just got you a super hot GF who I made to be always wanting it but you gotta go so you can be a king." So Aeneas leave in the middle of the night. Dido is distraught as she was forced to love this due who bailed so she lit the entire city on fire and stabbed herself. In some versions she still survived for a few days. Holy shit she's hardcore. So Aeneas dad dies and they celebrate I mean comisterete I mean HONOUR his memory by partying all day and night non-stop for a week. They party so hard they wake the dead guy up and he joins the party, gets wasted and says "VISIT ME IN HADES MA BOI" then dies again from alcohol poisoning. So to procrastinate actually doing his job, Aeneas decides to go to hell. Relatable - I've been in retail and hell is preferable. so on his way to hell he meets Dido cause she died. Remember? I dont. well I say "Meet", meet as in when you see your boss/teacher/colleague you don't like in a shop so literally dive into the next isle. So he meets his dad and the dude gice him a nine hour lecture about how good Romulus is, how great Rome will be and how FUCKING AWESOME his decendent GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR will be. Because he apparently couldn’t do it alive. so he climbs out of hell. wait how did he even get in there anyways? what could this nerd do to go to hell? be bad to workers on black friday? so he climbs out of hell. all his men are hangry (a new emotion I have invented that is a combonation of hungry and angry) so they end up eating their breadtables. BOOM! OMINOUS PROPHECY FROM EARLIER FULFILLED WITH SIGNIFICANTLY LESS PAIN THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT. So they hit up the natives (the latins) and Aeneas is like. "Dude, I know this is your crib and we are basically a bunch of murderhobos with giant superiority complexes but hows about you let me move in and marry your daughter." Then Juno returns to Ruin Everything and starts a war between these otherwise nice people. So the kings BF who the princess was engaged to (Turnias) is psyched for this while Aeneas legs it because he has realised he has never actually won a single fight by himself because his mum has always showed up at some point to save his sorry ass so Venus saves the day (again) by hitting up her husband to make Aeneas a ton of legendary game-breaking weaponry despite the fact he's only a level 2 paladin. So after schenanigans happen, Aeneas friend died who he was supposed to protect died and deciding to shamelessly rip off the moment from Achilles and Patroclus becomes a meatgrinder of death. Suddenly some of that sweet Grimdark Angst has made this loser competant. So this turnip guy legs it and this significantly smarter and better woman called Camilla shows up and kills most of Aeneas' fanbase so he sends a dude to assassinate her while she's distracted by something shiny. because feminism hasn't been invented yet. Turns out this was a super smart move as she was the Goddess Diane's adopted daughter and she super-smites the assassin dude. Then a whole lot more murder happens than I can physically talk about where a bunch of siginificantly more cool and interesting people die until it is the Super Final Shoenun Showdown between Aeneas and Turnip. Turnip dies. So that happened. Aeneas and the princess are basically King and Queen of a literal mountain of corpses. Thus ends the worlds worst continuation fic & state sponsored plagiarised propaganda.