Gay For Clodia

She/her. In love with Clodia Metelli. Populares are the best. Latin poetry. Julius Caesar.

[poetrylesbian]

[poetrylesbian]

[hylialeia]

listen it's not that I think epic the musical is a perfect adaption of the odyssey but it was an impressive passion project that knew what it wanted to be and knew what people gravitated to in the original work and it put significant effort into conveying this through its unique medium and tone to the point that hundreds of other people felt compelled to put effort into their own artistic interpretations of that version of the story. and that's really cool! and yes I would be more critical if it was a 100 million dollar project made by a professional because what the fuck do you mean you're a world-famous director and you cut the my name is nobody scene are you goddamn serious

[aborted-your-virtus]

This is exactly how I feel. As a Classicist, I love Epic because it captures some of the spirit of the Odyssey and adapts it to be more modernised, similar to how Disney in 1997 adapted Hercules (there’s actually a lot of references to accurate stuff in that film which I like such as Hercules’ adopted parents being called Alcmene and Amphitryon and the inclusion of art from the Classical period throughout the film). Those adaptations don’t feel like they’re going “fuck you” in your face as someone who studies the ancient world. It shows the stories you love in a slightly different light. They include the key parts but are maybe slightly condensed due to time constraints. I was slightly irked when one of my friends called me a hypocrite for being against Nolan’s movie while adoring Epic the musical because the thing about Nolan’s film is that it is an adaptation with millions put into it and so many fucking celebrities in the cast to gain interest while Epic began as an indie passion project that came from the heart and love of the story and wanting to retell it. I think Nolan just saw that the Odyssey was popular and exploited it for that. The red carpet events are completely nauseating particularly Zendaya’s earrings that were created through the mutilation of ancient artefacts. The story of the Odyssey was also mutilated in Nolan’s adaptation. No one that truly loves the poem would take out the nobody trick and bed trick that define the metis (cunning) of the hero and heroine. Jorge had the grace to not call Epic, “The Odyssey” as he was aware he had made changes, I love him for that and he’s doing the same with Ilium which I’m really excited for. Nolan, on the other hand, had all the grace of a reversing dump truck in titling his disrespect of ancient culture and storytelling, “The Odyssey”.

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

ohhh my god I just fact-checked, Nolan actually DID cut the "Nobody" scene from his Odyssey movie. Mfer that is like cutting the Father reveal from Star Wars. Let me speak in a language you understand this is like not dressing Batman up in his suit. "It was not possible to work it in" the TikTok musical with a budget of $4 and a scratched Hamilton CD managed to work it in in SONG form, step up your FUCKING GAME

[maxiemumdamage]

As someone who has written academic papers about the role of disguise and deceit in the Odyssey — Nobody is so damn important.

Prior to this point, when Odysseus tries to exercise Xenia (ancient Greek guest rites/hospitality code), he did what he was supposed to do. (Well, we think so anyway — notably, the most famous books of the Odyssey are told by Odysseus, who isn’t exactly a reliable narrator.)

But when Polyphemus kills and eats some of the men, the game changes. The Cyclops makes it clear he has no intention of abiding by Zeus’s laws, and will cannibalize the lot of the men. So, Odysseus responds in kind — he breaks Xenia and lies. He introduces himself under a false name as part of a trick. Polyphemus then breaks Xenia again — he tells Nobody he’ll be eaten last, and that is the Cyclops’ guest gift to him.

Odysseus’ transgression is clearly the lesser one. The Nobody trick works. It gets Odysseus and most of his crew out of the cave alive.

But, crucially, before leaving Odysseus sheds his disguise. He admits his true identity, in detail, so he can boast of his achievements and add vanquishing a Cyclops to the list. And it bites him in the ass spectacularly.

The only reason why Polyphemus can curse Odysseus, can bid his father Poseidon to curse the man who blinded him, is because he now knows who did it. If Odysseus had kept his mouth shut, he might have safely made it home from there. But while a big part of why the Nobody disguise vs. real name reveal is showing Odysseus’s hubris, it’s not just about that. It’s also about the start of a pattern that hurts him more than it helps him.

From this point in the Odyssey on, Odysseus lies about his identity constantly. And sometimes it protects him, but more often it’s a detriment or at least unnecessary. He’s lying about his identity primarily to people who are on his side — a kindly loyal swineherd, his son, his faithful wife, his ailing father.

The last one is especially damning, because happens when Odysseus has already killed the suitors and returned home and reunited with the rest of his family sans disguises. He knows from everyone else that Laertes never betrayed him or his legacy, but was mourning his son and heartbroken for almost a decade. Odysseus has publicly declared his return to everyone else — his father doesn’t know because he’s living in squalor remotely. But Odysseus doesn’t tell his father who he is. He makes up a fake identity and tells a story implying Laertes’ son is dead. And when Laertes bursts out crying, then Odysseus drops the charade and finally admits who he really was.

There was no utility to that lie. No loyalty to test. No hidden threats to worry about. But Odysseus still instinctively lies to his beloved father about who he is, only dropping the charade when he sees the damage it’s doing to his relationships.

Because at this point, lying is pathological for Odysseus. He can’t seem to stop doing it. Because with Polyphemus, a lie protected him and the truth hurt him. That is the point of the “ Nobody” disguise.

And they fucking cut it???

[aborted-your-virtus]

Practicing Ancient Greek while listening to Bikini Kill is kind of a vibe.

[aborted-your-virtus]

I enjoy the image of Patroklos and Sarpedon shrieking at one another like vultures. It amuses me.

[aborted-your-virtus]

Well, I have realised that I have a very special talent of fucking myself over, shooting myself in the foot, digging my own grave, etc.

[aborted-your-virtus]

Had exams this year and have been re-teaching myself some Ancient Greek casually for the last 2 weeks with my post exam summer free time in preparation for the Ancient Greek summer school I’m attending. I went last year at intermediate level so this year I’m at advanced which involves reading actual Greek texts. I feel I’m currently working at beginner-intermediate level. I am slightly cooked. Hopefully I’ll be able to consolidate every single fucking thing in time.

[aborted-your-virtus]

It might be okay! I’m reading some sections of Homer’s Iliad with vocab and am comprehending and translating okay :)

[gemsofgreece]

Homer: *writes a story about a man and his crew trying to return home after war*

Homer: *adds a noble, loyal, romantic, motherly, just, dignified, ingenious female character named Penelope*

Homer: *adds a wise, sharp, supportive, decisive, divine female character named Athena*

Homer: *adds a treacherous, powerful, magical, seductive, grey, divine female character named Circe*

Homer: *adds a lustful, obsessive, selfish, toxic, abusive female character named Calypso*

Homer: *adds a heartbroken, soft, sensitive, affectionate motherly female character named Anticlea*

Homer: *adds a stunning, highly perceptive, slightly bossy, somewhat shady, ambiguous, regal female character named Helen*

Homer: *adds a merciful, helpful, decisive for the protagonist’s survival divine female character named Leucothea / Ino*

Homer: *adds a youthful, vibrant, brave, playful, slightly lazy, wise beyond her years female character named Nausicaa*

Homer: *adds a wise, respectable, intelligent, regal, empowered, feminist female character named Arete*

Homer: *adds a flawed, disloyal, treacherous, disrespectful, corrupted, opportunistic female character named Melantho*

Homer: *adds an elderly, motherly, loving, confidant, loyal female character named Eurycleia*

Homer: *dies about 2,800 years ago*

Lupita Nyong’o, 2026: tHiS maN nEeDs to bE caLLeD oUT fOr hIs mIsOgYNY cOs hE fOrgOt wOmEn exISt wHiLe I tAkE milLiOnS prOfiTing fRoM hiS wOrK aNd cUltUrE

megaminds that look up to hypocritical Hollywood vultures: YAAAAAS Queen say it louder for the people in the back!!!!

[aborted-your-virtus]

As someone who aspires to be a Homeric scholar one day, her interview was so upsetting and clearly brain dead. It just shows how the actors and probably Nolan himself know and respect NOTHING about the epic, the culture it portrayed and was written in and how it even came to be written. We don’t even know if Homer existed as the Odyssey came from an epic oral tradition built on formulas and the human imagination and then it was written down and attributed to Homer (he could’ve been the first to record it) but Homer means so much to scholars both ancient and modern because he is the name we attribute to the epics we love so much. The Iliad and the Odyssey are timeless for a reason in the way that they explore not only the experiences of a culture, which allows us to learn more about it thousands of years later, but of humanity itself. The poems are so human: the way that the characters are portrayed experiencing emotions and hardship, Penelope weeping into the night for her beloved husband; Odysseus falling asleep after staying awake for days; Achilles’ grief and anger over the death of the man he loved; Helen seeking respite of grief through drugs; and so much more, especially in the anthropomorphism of the gods themselves. Also there is so much beauty in the revelation of the culture that we can see within the poem in the aetiologies and the agricultural and natural similes that provide a window into the world of the audience of the time.

But of course in our stupid, media-driven, capitalist, raping of ancient culture and works of the past for money society, none of that matters. Lupita attempts to make a point about sexism in an ancient patriarchal society in a way that makes my blood boil. It was a patriarchy thousands of years ago in a somewhat similar way to how it is now really (of course women do have more rights nowadays in some places more than others, but we have yet to achieve equality all around the globe) and she says, in a slightly jovial tone, that she would have confronted Homer about the lack of “screen time” his female characters have which is just insane. First of all, “screen time”, really? I suppose it kind of works in the cinematic context of talking about a movie and the way that the term can also be applied to other forms of media but the compound noun denotes just the appearance of women of which there is plenty and most certainly enough. In fact, the Odyssey has so many female characters that were considered to be well-written for the time that Samuel Butler in 1897 argued that the poet of the Odyssey must have been a poetess, namely Nausicaa, the young Phaeacian princess who clothes and aids Odysseus in supplicating her MOTHER, Queen Arête (an example of a WOMAN WHO HAS AUTHORITY) when he washes up on Scherie. But, of course, Hollywood wouldn’t know about that because it is so often cut from any adaptation of the poem as is the case in Nolan’s.

Furthermore, she goes on to say that Homer didn’t understand women as he wasn’t able to spend any time with them (going for a patriarchal “no bitches” dig at an ancient poet who might not have really existed while trying to make a feminist take, how awfully mature). As mentioned in my previous paragraph, the Odyssey has an array of female characters who I consider rather human. In an ancient oral tradition we might expect characters to be more similar to archetypes but they are not, they are complex. I think every character in the Odyssey has a layer of complexity to them in the stories surrounding them and the speculation that can be made, the epic focuses more on action and dialogue than thought, we see characterisation through their speeches. While we have no access to Penelope’s innermost thoughts, we can see her feelings and her cunning which suggest her strong desire to be reunited with Odysseus and her overcoming her lack of autonomy to save her household. Penelope is hidden from us deliberately, she is as mysterious and complex as her multifaceted, πολῠ́τροπος (many turned) husband, Odysseus. Her own epithet even mirrors πολῠ́τροπος, it is περῐ́φρων (thinking around) which in itself evokes a sense of turning. They are both on a journey to get back to one another: Odysseus navigating the seas and Penelope the household. We don’t know the true Odysseus, what we hear of his travels are from him himself and we don’t know the true Penelope as her thoughts are also hidden from us, as with all the characters which makes their actions more complex. Eumaeus the swineherd was once a prince who was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery, the poet addresses him directly when he speaks which might suggest that he could’ve been an actual person in the audience (the name at least) or simply a device to evoke pathos as the later Roman poet Vergil does with Dido and other characters in his epic, the Aeneid, to draw out a sense of their emotions. The technique demonstrates the multiple narrative levels of the poem which in its structure is also just as complex as its protagonists. A final point in terms of female “screen time” as I think this essay has been long enough and I could write about it all day, as a dear friend of mine said, there is a woman constantly omnipresent throughout the poem, and that is the muse who is evoked in the very first line.

[aborted-your-virtus]

Is there an easier way to memorise Ancient Greek paradigms?

[aborted-your-virtus]

Why haven’t the people of classics tumblr been obsessing over Lucian’s ‘True History’? There is so much possibility for fanart and discussion within it. There is literally canon mpreg!

[aborted-your-virtus]

Well, I have realised that I have a very special talent of fucking myself over, shooting myself in the foot, digging my own grave, etc.

[aborted-your-virtus]

Had exams this year and have been re-teaching myself some Ancient Greek casually for the last 2 weeks with my post exam summer free time in preparation for the Ancient Greek summer school I’m attending. I went last year at intermediate level so this year I’m at advanced which involves reading actual Greek texts. I feel I’m currently working at beginner-intermediate level. I am slightly cooked. Hopefully I’ll be able to consolidate every single fucking thing in time.

[aborted-your-virtus]

Well, I have realised that I have a very special talent of fucking myself over, shooting myself in the foot, digging my own grave, etc.

[fawnblooms]

The catalog of ships is like a beautiful woman

[echo-loves-flowerboy]

The catalog of women is like a beautiful ship

[necromycologist]

[taking notes frantically]

[aborted-your-virtus]

Oh yeah happy pride month people. (Sorry it’s a couple days late I’ve been drowning in exams). Ecce, a lesbian flag version of Lesbia.

[aborted-your-virtus]

Am I actually starting to enjoy Tacitus?

[aborted-your-virtus]

I kind of want to actually read some more of his stuff. I can’t believe it.

[aborted-your-virtus]

Am I actually starting to enjoy Tacitus?

[aborted-your-virtus]

Just found out that Ancient Rome had a genre of literature that just focused on idealised suicide, noble deaths and martyrdom. Can’t say I’m surprised.