#tagamemnon

[wolfythewitch]

my favorite war criminals

[og]

[thoodleoo]

banned from the study of late republican roman history for referring to mark antony exclusively as cleopatra's trophy husband

[lionofchaeronea]

Denarius minted in Greece in 48 BCE by Cn. Calpurnius Piso, proquaestor, on behalf of the proconsul Cn. Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great). Featured on the obverse is Numa Pompilius, the mythical (?) second king of Rome, said to have taught the Romans the "arts of peace" and instituted many of the religious observances of the Roman state. Piso likely chose this image due to his own claim to be a descendant of Numa. On the reverse, the prow of a galley. Photo credit: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com

[deliberately-dee]

Reading The Symposium for the philosophy❌

Reading The Symposium to see Alcibeades hitting on Socrates ✅

[alibonbonn]

bad news guys Agamemnon's shield fucks the hardest actually !!!

[peggy-sue-reads-a-book]

Menelaus Menelaus Menelaus Menelaus Menelaus Menelaus Menelaus Menelaus Menelaus Menelaus (oooh, rock me, Menelaus)

[trialsinthelateromanrepublic]

trial of Statius Albius Oppianicus

iudicium Iunianum date: 74 BCE charge: lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis (poison attempts) defendant: Statius Albius Oppianicus advocate: L. Quinctius tr. pl. 74, pr. 68 (ORF 107.I) prosecutors: P. Cannutius (subscr.) (ORF 114.II) A. Cluentius Habitus (nom. del.)  iudex quaestionis: C. Iunius aed. 75? jurors (thirty-two in all): C. Aelius Paetus Staienus (Staienus [1]) q. 77 (voted C) M’. Aquillius sen. ? M. Atilius Bulbus sen. (voted C) M. Caesonius pr. by 66 L. Cassius Longinus pr. 66 (voted NL) C. Caudinus sen. (voted NL) L. Caulius Mergus sen. (voted NL) Q. Considius sen. (voted NL) Cn. Egnatius sen. (voted C) C. Fidiculanius Falcula sen. (voted C) Ti. Gutta sen. (voted C) Cn. Heiulius? sen. (voted NL) ? C. Herennius sen. (voted C) M. Minucius Basilus sen. (voted C) L. Octavius Balbus, = ? P. Octavius Balbus sen. (voted NL) ? C. Popillius sen. (voted C) P. Popillius sen. (voted C) P. Saturius sen. (voted NL) P. Septimius Scaevola sen. (voted C)

Cic. 1 Ver. 29, 39; 2 Ver. 1.157; 2 Ver. 2.31, 79; Caec. 28, 29; Clu. 66-77, 105; Quint. Inst. 4.5.11; [Asc.] 206, 216, 219, 255, 263St; Schol. Gronov. B 339St; Schol. Pers. 2.19; see also Cic. Brut. 241, 244, 251

[olympushit]

Agamemnon: What is that?

Patroclus: My to-do list.

Agamemnon: That's a piece of paper with Achilles' name on it.

Achilles blushes wild

Patroclus winks

Agamemnon: Oh dear lord!

[morosexualhoratio]

hey girl sorry um. we stabbed your boyfriend in the senate house. yeah a seer told him to beware the ides of march but he didn't listen. brutus and cassius got him. i'm so sorry

[corviiids]

meditations on the odyssey

[en-theos]

made another one

[birdwatchy-standaround]

everyone loves Predynastic Egyptian Terracotta Bowl with Human Feet. shout-out to a real one

[thoodleoo]

don't care + didn't ask + do not argue me into agreement + there are no trustworthy pacts between lions and men + wolves and lambs do not have a kindred heart + there will be no love between me and you nor will there be any oaths until one or the other of us falls to feed shield-bearing ares on his blood

[wolfythewitch]

Odyssey

based on this poll

[aristoteliancomplacency]

It’s that time of year again. Courtesy of digitalhammurabi.com

Addition about the image, courtesy of Twitter user @lui_log: wrt the background image, which is a stone plaque showing a winged goddess flanked by owls: “Also, we don't know whether this is a depiction of Ishtar, as the piece has been looted, thus has no archaeological context that could point us to whom it shows. Nor does it bear an inscription. The owls could mean that it is Ishtar's sister Ereshkigal, Goddess of the Underworld.”

[specialagentartemis]

in middle school during my Intense Greek Mythology Phase, Artemis was, as you can likely guess, my best girl. Iphigenia was my OTHER best girl. Yes at the same time.

The story of Iphigenia always gets to me when it's not presented as a story of Artemis being capricious and having arbitrary rules about where you can and can't hunt, but instead, making a point about war.

Artemis was, among other things--patron of hunting, wild places, the moon, singlehood--the protector of young girls. That's a really important aspect she was worshipped as: she protected girls and young women. But she was the one who demanded Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter in order for his fleet to be able to sail on for Troy.

There's no contradiction, though, when it's framed as, Artemis making Agamemnon face what he’s doing to the women and children of Troy. His children are not in danger. His son will not be thrown off the ramparts, his daughters will not be taken captive as sex slaves and dragged off to foreign lands, his wife will not have to watch her husband and brothers and children killed. Yet this is what he’s sailing off to Troy to inevitably do. That’s what happens in war. He’s going to go kill other people’s daughters; can he stand to do that to his own? As long as the answer is no—he can kill other people’s children, but not his own—he can’t sail off to war.

Which casts Artemis is a fascinating light, compared to the other gods of the Trojan War. The Trojan War is really a squabble of pride and insults within the Olympian family; Eris decided to cause problems on purpose, leaving Aphrodite smug and Hera and Athena snubbed, and all of this was kinda Zeus’s fault in the first place for not being able to keep it in his pants. And out of this fight mortal men were their game pieces and mortal cities their prizes in restoring their pride. And if hundreds of people die and hundred more lives are ruined, well, that’s what happens when gods fight. Mortals pay the price for gods’ whims and the gods move on in time and the mortals don’t and that’s how it is.

And women especially—Zeus wanted Leda, so he took her. Paris wanted Helen, so he took her. There’s a reason “the Trojan women” even since ancient times were the emblems of victims of a war they never wanted, never asked for, and never had a say in choosing, but was brought down on their heads anyway.

Artemis, in the way of gods, is still acting through human proxies. But it seems notable to me to cast her as the one god to look at the destruction the war is about to wreak on people, and challenge Agamemnon: are you ready to kill innocents? Kill children? Destroy families, leave grieving wives and mothers? Are you? Prove it.

It reminds me of that idea about nuclear codes, the concept of implanting the key in the heart of one of the Oval Office staffers who holds the briefcase, so the president would have to stab a man with a knife to get the key to launch the nukes. “That’s horrible!,” it’s said the response was. “If he had to do that, he might never press the button!” And it’s interesting to see Artemis offering Agamemnon the same choice. You want to burn Troy? Kill your own daughter first. Show me you understand what it means that you’re about to do.