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Do yall ever just

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-`♡´-

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My (young) Ziba design✨

The Bible describes Ziba as “Saul’s servant.” However, I imagine Ziba as Jonathan’s valet. Specifically, Saul hired him to serve his son. Ziba had been by Jonathan’s side since he was a boy, taking care of him, and he was with Jonathan long before David ever met him.

Ziba loves Jonathan. (It is an erotic love, and perhaps even a sexual one.)

He is captivated by the prince’s beauty.

Ziba also grieves for Jonathan.

Jonathan is not in an emotionally healthy state. He is oppressed by many obligations and must endure the abuse of his mentally unstable father.

Whenever Jonathan is exhausted, Ziba wants to hold him—tightly, almost to the point of suffocation.

Jonathan is kind and warm toward Ziba. But it is not love.

Jonathan does not realize Ziba’s feelings.

And then… David enters the picture.

As we all know, David and Jonathan become lovers.

Ziba witnesses their relationship and comes to understand it.

He grows jealous of David. He hates him.

It’s not just because of Jonathan’s love.

Ziba also fears that because of David, Jonathan will suffer even greater abuse from Saul—

or worse, he might even be killed!

And Ziba’s fears become reality.

(As we know,) Jonathan helps David escape and nearly gets killed by Saul.

After David flees, Saul continues to curse Jonathan and torment him severely.

Ziba watches as the prince visibly struggles after David’s departure.

It pains him.

And he resents David for it.

Jonathan dies in the Battle of Gilboa.

Ziba thinks of him, tormented by grief and pain.

He even considers dying himself—but in the end, he cannot go through with it.

When he hears that David has become king,

Ziba wants to kill him.

To him, it feels as if Jonathan’s death is entirely David’s fault.

10 years later, David and Ziba meet again.

David commands Ziba to become Mephi’s servant.

As Ziba cares for Mephi, he remembers Jonathan.

It pains him—but in some ways, it also brings him a quiet happiness.

After all, taking care of a child who resembles Jonathan isn’t such a bad thing.

However, Ziba despises the way Mephi adores David—

how he follows him like a father.

He feels sickened whenever David tells Mephi stories about his father.

To Ziba, David stole all the love that was ever his.

And now, he wants to drive a wedge between Mephi and David… 💀

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How common were nicknames or pet names in Ancient Macedonia? In your novels, Hephaistion used some with Alexandros. Were terms of endearment (love, sweetheart, darling, etc) a thing back there?

Nicknames, Diminutives, and Endearments in Ancient Greece

This is really two different questions. The first involves the use of nicknames, the other of endearments. I want to divide them to clarify the difference. Why?

Most cultures employ endearments, and usually diminutives. Not all cultures employ nicknames, or not formulated as we think of them.

In the modern Western world (including modern Greece), “nicknames” are often a shortening of longer names for familiar use. In some cultures (such as the informal US), the impetus to shorten is so strong that those who insist on using a full name-form may be labeled “haughty.” E.g., “Charles” is perceived differently from “Charlie” or “Chuck.”

Then we have diminutives. Sometimes the diminutive is also the nickname (Charlie), but not always: “Bobby/Robby” is a diminutive of “Bob/Rob” which is the nickname of “Robert.” Even very short one-syllable names can have a diminutive: “Annie” for “Ann/e.”

Again, a diminutive is not the same as a nickname. Diminutives are typically given to children, but also to anyone perceived as junior or childlike. So diminutives for an adult often imply an insult. (Something Trump uses quite well.)

Modern Greeks also shorten names and use diminutives (a lot). For men, diminutive forms are “-akes,” “-akos,” and “-oules,” but “-itsa” and “-oula” for women. My name, Jeanne = Ioanna in Greek. The common nickname for that is Yanna, but the diminutive is Ioannoula. Yes, diminutives are often longer than the original. I’m not going to go further, as I’m no expert on modern Greek names. That’s just basic stuff. Better to ask a Greek. 😉

How modern Greeks shorten names isn’t necessarily how ancient Greeks did. When writing Dancing with the Lion, I had to wrestle with whether to use nicknames, and decided to do so, mostly due to the LENGTH of Greek names, which are unfamiliar to most English-speakers. Furthermore, there may be some evidence for shortened name forms: Kraton for Krateros.

But not all nicknames were a shortening. Remember, the ancient Greeks didn’t find their names “long.” Sometimes they used an “extra” name. Among the better known are Antigonos ho Monophthalmos: the One-Eyed, and Kleitos ho Melas: the Black, to differentiate him from another high officer, Kleitos ho Leukos (the White). We also use nicknames like that, but we then drop the given name. The very different nickname becomes the name. Most people called “Shorty” aren’t “Clinton the Shorty.” But that is how the ancient Greeks used them (or so it seems from texts). Such substitutional nicknames can completely eclipse a person’s “real” name. Anybody able to tell me Sting’s or Madonna’s without looking it up? That could also happen in ancient Greece, but less often. By all accounts “Platon” was a nickname, not Plato’s birth name.

Back to shortening given names. We aren’t sure how often it happened, and whether the ancient shortening would have resembled modern. But if Kraton for Krateros is any example, it probably did. Therefore, I felt comfortable choosing Alekos for Alexandros, or Sakis (as Ptolemaios calls him), although Sakis is usually more common for Anastasios. (Btw: Alekos is if you’re talking about him, Aleko if you’re talking to him.)

It can be tough for non-native speakers, or even native speakers, to guess what might be the shortened version of names no longer in use, such as Hephaistion. I polled quite a few Greek friends, who suggested Phaiton, Phaiston, or Phaistas. Obviously, I choose that last.

(Incidentally, I’ve seen “Phai” used quite a bit by fans. When I mentioned that to a Greek colleague, she practically burst out laughing and said not only was that a woman’s name, it sounded like something a hetaira would pick as a sort of “stage” name. Greeks tend to be blunt. 🤣 So…probably best to drop its use.)

 Now, as for endearments, the ancient ones weren’t too different from modern.

Philos is the most obvious, and most generic. Our equivalent of “dear,” or “beloved.” O phile is the vocative (what you say TO someone). It’s really o phile (male) and o phila (female). Remember Greek is a gendered language, so a male love is ho philos and a female one is he phila (the nominative case). If you’re referring to them, in English, we’d use that nominative.

O philtate, is the superlative. If o phile is dear one or friend, o philtate is dearest one or best friend. You could also translate it as “dearest love.” Again, the nominative form would be ho philtatos/he philtatē.

There’s also erasmios/erasmia, which implies something sexual, but not always.

Finally ho agapetós/he agapeta (o agapete/a) is also “dear,” but implies more familiarity. One can make it personal by using the possessive: o agapete mou. There’s also a diminutive form o agapoula (female) or o agapoules (male), but that would be used for women or (either gender) children. It might be used for an eromenos (younger beloved), but not an adult male (unless you intend to insult him).

While you can call someone o phile, it’s kinda generic. O philtate isn’t. Likewise, o agapete isn’t, either. Agapetos neither assumes nor denies a sexual relationship. But they’re both versions of “dear” and “love.” Philtatos is a little archaic.

O khara is “My joy,” related to kharis (grace), the root of charisma. If you want to make it specifically possessive: o khara mou (masculine). This (to me) has a feel of something a man says to a woman or younger boyfriend, although spouses might use it for each other.

O meli & o melema would be “sweetheart” or “my sweet friend.” Meli is honey (literally honey, like you put in your tea). O meli is an archaic form that stuck around in vocative only, like as an address as in a letter to a friend: “Dear …”

Related to the above is o glukutaton, which means “sweet [little] thing.” It’s in the neuter. There’s a playfulness to it, but could also be demeaning, depending on the target. A man might say this to a boy or woman he finds attractive. Saying it to an adult man would be an insult.

He kallistē/ho kallistē, related to kalos (beautiful), can be used as “Pretty one.” On pottery (et al.) we find reference to “Kalos ___” (enter a name). O kallistē would be what someone might call that “beautiful one.” As above, this is more often said by the erastes to an eromenos or eromena.

Last, there’s one I think I used once, somewhere in the books (Dancing with the Lion) or later short bits: o khrusion or o khrusion mou, which means “Golden One,” or “My Golden One.” It’s Hephaistion’s pet name for Alexandros, although he doesn’t use it a lot, and he usually means it either as a bit of a joke, or sometimes when he’s really overwhelmed/in awe of what he feels for Alexandros.

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you can never stop a brat being a brat

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King of Argos can be a competitive maniac at time….

(I guess I have this one? I hope it’s saucy enough😞 I’ll make more I promise….👨‍🍳)

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This is so fucking funny

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People: It haunts/bothers/scares me, so it shouldn't exist.

Me: I'm not holding your hand because we learned this in kindergarten. That's a you thing. Johnny's snack may seem offensive to you, but Johnny likes eating it. Don't ruin his time he gets to consume it. That thing someone created may seem offensive to you, but the creator put time and effort into it. Don't ruin their creative experience.

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The ability to separate fiction from reality is very important, and also very easy

Reading a lolisho, rape, snuff, etc story on AO3 doesn't make someone wanna do any of it, cause it's, yknow, a story, a fictional story

Playing violent video games don't make people want to commit violent acts, fighting games are incredibly popular, yet if you walk down the street, generally, you won't just square up with some random person cause you feel like it

Looking at feral yiff doesn't mean someone's gonna go do anything to a real animal, it's just a piece of art, one that's specifically designed to make you horny too

It's so incredibly easy to just, close the tab and be like, "wow that was hot, I had a great time, thankfully it's not real cause that would be bad."

Just jerk off and have fun, don't feel guilty, it's okay, it's just a drawing, it's just a fanfic, I promise you and the world will be just fine, you're not a terrible person, pet pet you on the head, it's okay

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we really have to hand it to bruises for being easy to acquire, fun to touch, usually relatively harmless, and capable of turning a variety of pretty colours as they cycle through the stages of their life cycle from birth to death. they do so much for us. and even more if you're a bit of a pervert about it.

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"ohh my god you can't just-"

Am I yours to command? Does the collar 'round my neck have your name on it? I kneel to no king nor god, and I see no crown on you.

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Y'all can have all the shame you want but nothing quite beats looking up the cell structure of a killer T cell/white blood cell so you can figure out where they would metaphorically feel horny...

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Who the hell uses the word twink and doesn't think it has to do with body type

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I really like my Odyssey 🤭 and if this gets enough likes I’ll remove his clothes 🫣

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I really like my Odyssey 🤭 and if this gets enough likes I’ll remove his clothes 🫣

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I really like my Odyssey 🤭 and if this gets enough likes I’ll remove his clothes 🫣