A wall fresco of Paris abducting Helen by force, in a villa in Venice (Italy, mid-1700s).

Paris was asked to judge a beauty contest between Hera, Aphrodite and Athena.  Each tried to bribe him, and he chose Aphrodite, because she promised him the most beautiful woman in the world – Helen of Sparta.

Helen was married to King Menelaus of Sparta, which Aphrodite hadn’t actually told Paris.  He broke into Menelaus’ house to steal her from him.  In some accounts, she fell in love with him and went willingly; in others, she was taken by force.

Helen was famous for her beauty, and Odysseus advised her father Tyndareus to make all her suitors promise to defend her marriage to the man he chose for her.  Therefore, when Paris abducted Helen, Menelaus was able to call them to help him get her back.  This started the Trojan War.

Aeneas and His Father Fleeing Troy
Simon Vouet (French; 1590–1649)
ca. 1635
Oil on canvas
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California

By xX_Moriendum_Xx

By Boru

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Hector and Paris interpretations homework from Robinius Iliad class #3!

*All artists are credited with their twitter handles or names

These are so amazing! I’m happy everyone enjoyed the stream/lesson despite all the chaos (Dw it was fun and I loved it)!!! Check out all these amazing homeworks and interpretation! The verdict is nobody likes Paris, but these interpretations make it hard to hate him.. Also everyone loves hector, WE LOVE HECTOR!!!!!!!!! 

by earei_ 

by marimo

by 22crust

by tarkara

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Achilles and Patroclus interpretations homework from Robinius Iliad class #2!

*All artists are credited with their twitter handles or names

The assignment was to draw what you think Achilles and Patroclus look like to you based on short descriptions of their personality/achievements before class (where Robinius talks more in depth about them). Since there is no one way that Achilles and Patroclus look like, I thought it would be nice to see everyone’s unique vision! I love all of these images so much, and yes the last one is one that I actually received and showed on stream. 

Also the link below will take you to the twitch page! 

BBC HISTORY 

Achilles against Hector (2019)

Achilles’s song (2019)

The death of Patroclus (2019)

The Iliad (2019)

Patroclus comforts Briseis (2019)

An episode in which Patroclus comforted Briseis when she fell into slavery:

Briseis, looking like golden Aphrodite,
then saw Patroclus mutilated by sharp bronze.
With a cry, she threw herself on him, hands tearing
at her breast, her tender neck, her lovely face,
fair as a goddess, lamenting:
“Patroclus,
you who brought the utmost joy to my sad heart,
I left you here alive, when I went off,
taken from these huts. But now, at my return,
I find you dead, you, the people’s leader.
Again for me, as always, evil follows evil.
I saw the husband I was given to
by my father and my noble mother killed
by sharp bronze before our city. My brothers,
three of them, whom my own mother bore,
whom I loved, have all met their fatal day.
But when swift Achilles killed my husband,
you wouldn’t let me weep. You told me then      
you’d make me lord Achilles’ wedded wife,
he’d take me in his ships back to Phthia,
for a marriage feast among the Myrmidons.
You were always gentle. That’s the reason
I’ll never stop this grieving for your death.”    
                                        Homer, Iliad, Song 19

Thousand Ships (2019)

To Troy (2019)

Helen of Troy (2019)

Triumph of Achilles (1892)

greek mythology fancast

↳ nebahat çehre as hecuba

But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen…
Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o’er-teemed loins,
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep’d,
‘Gainst Fortune’s state would treason have pronounced:
But if the gods themselves did see her then
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
Unless things mortal move them not at all,
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion in the gods.

william shakespeare, hamlet, 2.2.477-494 (x)

greek mythology fancast

↳ selma ergeç as iphigeneia

When the army of the Akhaians was held up at Aulis for lack of winds, the seers foretold that it would be possible to sail only if they sacrificed Iphigeneia to Artemis. At the insistence of the Akhaians, Agamemnon handed her over to be put to the knife and she was dragged to the altar. But the leaders could not bear to look on and, to a man, they turned their eyes elsewhere.

antoninus liberalis, metamorphoses27 (x)

greek mythology fancast

↳ michelle yeoh as penthesileia

For a few years after the campaign of Heracles against them, they say, during the time of the Trojan War, Penthesileia, the queen of the surviving Amazons, who was a daughter of Ares and had slain one of her kindred, fled from her native land because of the sacrilege. And fighting as an ally of the Trojans after the death of Hector she slew many of the Greeks, and after gaining distinction in the struggle she ended her life heroically at the hands of Achilles.

Now they say that Penthesileia was the last of the Amazons to win distinction for bravery and that for the future the race diminished more and more and then lost all its strength; consequently in later times, whenever any writers recount their prowess, men consider the ancient stories about the Amazons to be fictitious tales.

diodorus siculus, library of history, 2.46.5-6 (x)

greek mythology fancast

↳ rekha sharma as andromache

There came running to meet him his bounteous wife, Andromache, daughter of great-hearted Eëtion, Eëtion that dwelt beneath wooded Placus, in Thebe under Placus, and was lord over the men of Cilicia; for it was his daughter that bronze-harnessed Hector had to wife. She now met him, and with her came a handmaid bearing in her bosom the tender boy, a mere babe, the well-loved son of Hector, like to a fair star. Him Hector was wont to call Scamandrius, but other men Astyanax; for only Hector guarded Ilios. Then Hector smiled, as he glanced at his boy in silence, but Andromache came close to his side weeping, and clasped his hand and spake to him….

homer, iliad, vi (x)

greek mythology fancast

↳ naveen andrews as hector

Forthwith he leapt in his armour from his chariot to the ground, and brandishing his two sharp spears went everywhere throughout host, urging them to fight; and he roused the dread din of battle. So they rallied, and took their stand with their faces toward the Achaeans, and the Argives gave ground and ceased from slaying; and they deemed that one of the immortals had come down from starry heaven to bear aid to the Trojans, that they rallied thus. And Hector shouted aloud and called to the Trojans: “Ye Trojans, high of heart, and far-famed allies, be men, my friends, and bethink you of furious valour, the while I go to Ilios and bid the elders that give counsel, and our wives to make prayer to the gods, and promise them hecatombs.”

homer, iliad, vi (x)

annadoll2001:

Sophia Schliemann

When Schliemann dug through a mound on Turkey’s western coast that he heard from drunk archaeologist Frank Calvert was Troy, he did not stop when he hit some Hellenistic Roman ruins. Oh no he did not. He did not stop when he hit more and more and more cities, no sir. He dug and dug until he found stuff that interested him: PRIAM’S TREASURE!

Among the treasure, which included goblets and daggers and axes and golden cups, was this stunning array of golden jewelry, seemingly forged by Hephaestus himself! These must be the jewels of Helen! The most beautiful woman in the world!

Wait wait wait wait wait. But why would Helen’s jewels be buried in the ruins of Troy? Wouldn’t she have taken them with her back to Sparta at least? I mean, she probably didn’t know that Schliemann would be putting them on his wife three thousand years later. And also she probably would have been offended. Sophia here is no mean looker but she is also no Helen of Troy.

And huh, I wonder how advanced Schliemann’s knowledge of geological stratigraphy was? Probably not advanced enough to know that he had plowed straight through the twelfth century “Troy” and all the way to the Bronze Age! Oh no, now we’re back at that same problem we had with Agamemnon’s mask…consider these jewels DUBITABLE.

The Song of Achilles - Sketches and Poses

One of my recent character design projects was The Song of Achilles! Here are some sketches of the characters I focused on

Expressions |Colour & Lineup

Eric Shanower’s “Age of Bronze,” a retelling of the Trojan War with an emphasis on historical accuracy and completeness. It’s not every day that a comic book gets positively talked about breathlessly by academic archeology journals. 

If you want to read it, the way to do this is simple and cost-free: just go to your public library, because it’s the kind of “important” eat-your-vegetables comic book that librarians doing collection development tend to buy, and patrons ignore. I know, I know…usually, the fact that librarians love it and push it tends to be the absolute kiss of death when it comes to actual readability (we connect emotionally and fall in love with pulpy, visceral, primal, real fiction with hot blood instead of “important” fiction), but…for once…they actually picked something cool, with boobs and blood, and a lingering sense of doom accompanied by an emphasis on historical accuracy unseen in comics since Carl Barks put down his pen. And there’s an awful lot, so if you want to read it all top to bottom, set aside a summer vacation (or a year) to get through it. And considering they’re probably (tragically) not checked out all that often, the comics are probably in like-new good shape and not dog-eared. 

Of course, that’s not the only way to read Age of Bronze. If you haven’t been to a public library in a while, you should go now, because it’s not like when we were kids. Among other things, most community ones have Netflix-like ebook and yes, movie services that you don’t even need to be in the physical building to access, and Age of Bronze is on some of them (obviously I can’t speak to your location’s circumstances, but I’ll bet real money you can be reading Age of Bronze free within the hour on your iPad if you visit your local library system site, in addition to probably more movies than Netflix). I give librarians a lot of flak because they are members of the urban professional class and their taste and sense of what counts as valuable reflects that, of course, but don’t get me wrong, here….aside from that, I am completely in accordance with the goals of the public library: there is a universal right to access and participate in culture these institutions are incredibly important in spreading (yes, especially for the little old biddies reading romance novels), a right that is far more important than bloated, illegitimate, rent-seeking squatter’s rights like copyright, and the interests of publisher middlemen parasites. If the choice is them or the universal social good of libraries, I pick libraries every time. 

The fact libraries exist is a little miracle, God, can you imaginetrying to start them now, in 2022?