This Is The Second Of The Two Things I Didn’t Necessarily Like In Song Of Achilles. With How Ancient

i'm not even sure that i believe in God, but i started going to this episcopal church recently bc there were just so many older gay people there and i felt like i needed that in my life and there was a gay priest. people were actually so chill about me being trans, which shocked me, but i figured there were just humoring me - but this past sunday the priest did a sermon on the story in acts about the Ethiopian eunuch. and like, i've heard a thousand sermons on this passage bc its like the first missionary story and people use it a lot to justify their colonization blah blah blah but like everyone glossed over the eunuch thing.

but the (straight) priest talked about how eunuch is a kind of stand in word for gender non-conforming person and actually literally said from the pulpit that we should be welcoming and accepting of all trans people and not ask them to change and !?!?!?! like i never expected to hear that preached in my lifetime, especially in fucking kentucky.

the world can seem so dark and being trans is fucking hard and you just come to expect so little from people ESPECIALLY chrisitans and i'm just so pleasantly surprised. it's just kind of amazing to see chrsitians live up to this loving their neighbor shit they are always talking about

blessed be the shit that goes down

blessed to see everyday regardless how shit goes down

Alternative timeline

Elf-lover by mildthemes

Remember Me Like This by shady-swan-jones

Another Tale of Darkness Indeed by Hopeful_Foolx

This Fate Bound Throne by callitagift

Salt of the Sea and Iron Smoke by @poopsiekitten

Reforged in the Making by FormerlyIR (Irony_Rocks)

Bound to His Being by ChapterEight

A Deal with the Devil by Iblametumblrformyproblems

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Human Halband

what makes night within us may leave stars by essaupe

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The Best Laid Plans by @ichabodjane

The Heat & The Pulsing Rush by AnMorrighan

The Adventures of the Low Man by @ichabodjane and @somebirdortheother

But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness, like a heartbeat, drives you mad by coraleethroughthelookingglass

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Queen of the Southlands by FormerlyIR (Irony_Rocks)

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Shake Like the Bough of a Willow Tree and First Impressions by @myfavouritelunatic

Numenor

consolations of the flesh by framboise

All It Takes To Bind You by @shady-swan-jones

cry of the mourning petrel, tooth of the sea by @rain-sleet-snow

kalopsia by properhaunt

to call dark deeds good by prettybrilliantfunny

banquets have burned for you by @conundrumoftime

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Hands on You by @lisenberry

A Beacon Of Stars by @jhalya

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i cannot heave my heart into my mouth by fallofrain

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mitosis by @orcas86

the too plentiful light by @thefudge

More Painful Sacrifices by myfavouritelunatic

Until the Dawn Comes by @scribblecat27

light of the Two Trees by dxrklina

Primal Play by thenagil

destitute of the light he once craved by @mirroringdust

That all encompassing feeling by @naldoreth

and laid her soiled gloves by by @mortaltempless

A Goodbye by @youwearfinethingswellwriter

the labyrinth that binds us by eastwynds

Teeth by @pinkorchestra

A door, once opened by @maeday1551

I put a spell on you by @sixofwaffles

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In Case of Defeat, Break Glass by eastwynds

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Instruments of Salvation by @scriberated

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Part 2 - Modern AU, Explicit & ABO

I had this idea for a few years, and never knew how to put it to words (and images) so to speak. But now I did (I hope)! For those who don’t know, this is a crossover between Saint Oniisan and Good Omens. Aziraphale and Crowley go for a vacation to Japan and meet Jesus and Buddha who are also vacationing there. (I drew one image on the subject before)

they cut this scene from the pilot because it was too gay!!!!!! too explicit!!!!! stop looking at each other like that!! stop playing soft and heartfelt music!!!!

Achilles x Patroclus Explained: for anyone who needs it plainly mapped out for them one more time.

The Iliad:

-Most obviously there is a Special Relationship between Achilles x Patroclus

-Achilles and Patroclus share a Bed & Tent, Patroclus also does all the  “domestic” work for the 2 of them on top of being a soldier

-”But he had Briseis who he was going to marry”, despite only bragged about her because she was a war prize taken by Agamemnon thus taking his honor, he was “locker room talking for the boys” when in reality he had no sexual contact/dimension/relationship with her yet. He also knew the prophecy he wasn’t coming back from Troy so this is one of two reasons we can say that they have no plans together, (see bullet point one for second reason) and then later he wishes Artemis had killed her way back when they were raiding cities. It is also inferable that Patroclus had planted this seed of thought in her mind to put her at ease with Achilles as well as protect his honor because Patroclus is always there for Achilles (Achilles does take Briseis into his bed in Book 24 but again totally as a spoil of war… she is a conquest not a lover)

-Greeks know Achilles will only listen to Patroclus, Especially Nestor who goes to Patroclus to persuade Achilles to re-enter the fight

-When Achilles receives Patroclus’s body his first thought is to end himself with a sword because he does not want to live in a world without Patroclus

-Achilles’s rage at the death of Patroclus and wishing he had let all the Greeks die and they conquered Troy together

-Refusal to eat & sleep while weeping for days on end in bed with Patroclus’s body

-Andromache’s speech about Hector, forsaking all her other loved ones for her husband, aka her one true love and then Achilles giving the almost exact same speech right after about Patroclus his “beloved”

-Achilles kills Hector (Gods even fear his rage and that such emotion could cause war to end before prophesied) aka Achilles could change fate because he so “grieved” for Patroclus - totally homies right?!

-Achilles drags Hectors body from his chariot damaging and defiling the corpse for days; Angering the gods, to which he doesn’t care

-Thetis then comes to Achilles, to which he wants none of her comfort, during their conversation she also has to suggest AND specify for him to now have sex with a woman and maybe find a wife before his life is over (why does she have to specify “woman” & who/what was keeping him from getting a wife)

-Achilles tosses and turns sleeplessly (body of Patroclus is still kept in his bed) and he longs for Patroclus’s “μένος” (menos) which in ancient greek translates to “Might - Manhood - Vigor - Semen” plainly speaking “Spunk” (both kinds!)

-Achilles reaches to embrace the ghost of Patroclus when he appears before him - desiring to physically touch 

-Achilles plays the role of the woman and/or wife of the deceased when they burn Patroclus’s body on the funeral pyre and then collects the ashes himself and puts them in the golden urn. Achilles then charges the men to do the same to him when he dies putting his ashes in the same golden urn and burying them together so that they will physically be together for all eternity - which does happen

-LITERALLY ACHILLES x PATROCLUS

Most Ancient Greeks, Shakespeare, Artists & Intellectuals:

ACTUAL Greek Artwork from 500 BCE (currently resides on display in Germany)

-There is no reference to this moment in any record or story. In this depiction Achilles wraps Patroclus’s arm while he sits between his open legs, and Patroclus lets his dick hang out, while Achilles’s is visible as well, super intimate for “bros”

-Later greeks assumed or imagined their relationship as Pederastic (An older “erastes” lover & an “eromenos” younger beloved) because that was the norm of that period but no one could definitely decide who was the top and who was the bottom 

**SIDE NOTE They do not have an age gap to support the Pederastic Theory AND after the pederastic relationship ended the men involved married women which we know neither Achilles nor Patroclus had nor plans to do

-Plato totally thought Achilles was a Bottom in his “Symposium” 

-Aeschylus (the literal inventor of Greek Tragedy) portrayed Achilles & Patroclus as lovers in his lost play “The Myrmidons” which was based on The Iliad. Surviving lines from the play are of Achilles speaking of “Patroclus’s Reverent Company, his thighs, and being ungrateful for many kisses”

-345 BCE = Athenian politician, Aeschines states in a speech during his trial that Homer didn’t have to say what they were because 1. the Greeks were more sexually fluid then 2. there wasn’t a word for “Homosexual” 3. Homer was a storyteller and ANY educated man knew what they were, like its THAT obvious

-Alexander the Great and his lover Haphaestion (this is a whole other can of worms still being fought) liked to think of themselves, and referred to each other as “Achilles & Patroclus”

-Shakespeare features the two in his play “Troilus and Cressida” in which Patroclus is called “Achilles’s Brach” aka “Achilles’s Bitch”

-Renaissance Artists & those onward armed with their skill, knowledge, and obsession with all things ancient painted numerous depictions of the two, usually scenes of Achilles receiving Patroclus’s body, and for “buddies” they sure love painting them showing A LOT of skin

-By roughly the 1960′s & 70′s historians and scholars started talking about them openly again with the

“ARE WE READY TO STOP PLAYIN’ AND OPENLY ACKNOWLEDGE THEM AS ‘YOU KNOW’”

  All joking aside we still have a select number of Historians, Scholars, and Hollywood still holding out:

-What about Briseis!? (see above) they both also do sleep with a woman each but sadly here they are seen more as conquest and war prizes than actual lovers - again there is a fluidity

-Achilles was a HERO! Best of the Greeks -He’s always shown as A MAN’S MAN! YET in a separate myth (see Achilleid) his mother Thetis was able to hide him among a group of girly girls on Skyros to which he was perfectly disguised and has a one night stand with the princess again showing their regard for sexual fluidity. ALSO Do not disrespect that he was a manly hero and a femboy! This also explains how his son comes to be - again this is a completely separate myth and origin

-Could they be cousins!? (NO)

-**Closing Eyes** Homo-erotic? WHERE? “Item Not Found”

-”Well all we can say, there is no source, Homer never explicitly stated that Achilles and Patroclus were a couple or had a sexual relationship that we can find in the source material so… I am choosing to ignore all context and blatant evidence, as well have no heterosexual explanation for them either…  you’re just reading into it too much”:

EVERYONE who has a brain and has read The Iliad:

As for myself having read the Iliad, studied this Art, History, and Culture, as well as having a BFA; when you know, YOU KNOW. Feel free to share, use this as inspiration to read “The Iliad” if you haven’t already, think critically, and study up on your own!

IN CONCLUSION = THEY GAY & THE OTP !!

(Highly Suggest “The Song of Achilles” as well)

There are two things that I didn’t nessarcirily like in Song of Achilles. The first will be discussed now and I will post later the second. I didn’t like how Miller portrayed why Achilles continued to not fight after quitting. Now, there is no fault to her, I might have read a different translation or just generally interpreted the Iliad differently. Or maybe she did include this, I just remember it not being as big of a deal.

So, I thought it was because Achilles realized that he could continue to live and live a long life with Patroclus. And that he didn’t need to fight or to be a hero. Achilles did say a throw away line that he didn’t need to fight in someone else’s war, but it was more portrayed as an excuse to throw a hissy fit. Which, I guess this is from Patroclus’ POV, but anyways.

We could’ve had a scene in the book where Achilles tells Patroclus that he has decided to live a long and happy life with him. Because of this, it would’ve hurt more when Patroclus dies and Achilles fights and dies. We would know that before Patroclus’ death, Achilles decided that he wanted to live a long and happy life with him. And that he gave up being a hero for that before his death.

Anyways, I’m just sad we didn’t get this extra angst in this story.

to know the flaws and love them, too.

post by user gayassnatural / 300 arguments, sarah magnuso / coffee and cigarettes, sade andria zabala / wild geese, mary oliver / state of grace, taylor swift / the first bad man, miranda july