In Pastels

We love history, mythology, and the classics here Read a lot. Write a lot... Also trying to code a lot

[pastellus]

Salvete 🩵 This is a casual blog dedicated mainly to content surrounding classical antiquity and Greco-Roman literature, reblogging and sharing writing advice, and on occasion, my own rambling thoughts about certain topics that I'm maybe a little too passionate about…

You can call me Pastel or Stell (She/Her), I speak both English and Spanish (as well as a tad of Latin that I really need to pick back up), I'm a historian, and I've dedicated a good part of my life to the study of ancient history, mythology, and the classics. Here's links to some of the aforementioned ramblings and some other potentially fun things:

— ON THE CLASSICS Excerpt: Euripides' The Trojan Woman (On A Funeral Song for Troy) Excerpt: Virgil's Aeneid (On Camilla of the Volsci) Silly Thoughts While Reading Cicero's De Amicitia Silly Thoughts While Reading Euripides' Electra Silly and Cute Thoughts on Alcibiades and Socrates (from Carson's Eros the Bittersweet) — ON TRANSLATION Classics: What is Lost in Translation My Suggestions on English Translations of Homer's Iliad & Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid My Suggestions on English Translations of Virgil's Aeneid (previous ask with some explanations) Mis Sugerencias Sobre Las Traducciones De Los Clásicos Al Español

— ON CONTEMPORARY LIT. Lavinia: Following Virgil's Path

— ON ANCIENT ART Octopus Art in Minoan Pottery (Updated with Mycenaean example and a talk about it from ROM's curators) Athena's Little Owl in various examples of Greek Pottery – Updated with explanations on Athena's Aegis depictions and the Gorgoneion – Updated with explanations on why olives trees are one of the symbols of Athena and often seen in pottery alongside little owls

— ON THE SUBJECT OF ✨ME✨ Little Thoughts On Media Criticism

Stells' Carrd

Some info about Stells

Post by @pastellus · 2 images

💬 4  🔁 4  ❤️ 39 · Treated myself to the Fagles Penguin Classics box set since they were on sale. Working towards owning physical copies of a

Post by @pastellus · 1 image

💬 0  🔁 2  ❤️ 9 · Andromeda's Broken Chains I figured it was about time I shared a bit more about me, and might as well start with this tatt

[of-ardea]

god sorry but it makes me lose my mind when people read the aeneid at a surface level and take it as propoganda instead of looking deeper and seeing the anti-inperial meta-narrative at play

[alexcabotgf]

[pastellus]

When they saw Patroclus lying dead who was once so brave, so strong and young, the horses of Achilles began to weep; their immortal nature stood aghast at that masterwork of death. They reared their heads and shook their manes, they stamped the ground with their hooves and mourned for Patroclus, lifeless, destroyed, mere flesh and bone, defenceless now, his spirit gone, a castaway from life, now naught. Zeus saw the tears of the immortal steeds and grieved, saying, ‘It was my mistake, it was my thoughtlessness at Peleus’ wedding. We should never have given you as a gift, poor horses! What business did you have among wretched humankind, plaything of destiny, you whom neither death nor the sorrows of old age torment. Men have tangled you in their own miseries.’ Yet the two noble horses continued to pour out their tears for the eternal misfortune of death.

Constantine P. Cavafy, The Horses of Achilles (Translated by Avi Sharon)

[pastellus]

Whats your favorite classic? At the moment 👀

The Iliad and The Aeneid will always be my most favourites 💛 But! Classics are the main thing I read along with poetry, so here's a few others: Greek Tragedy: Euripides' Bacchae (I have a tattoo of this one), but I'm a huge Euripides fan in general Philosophy: Plato's Phaedo, Cicero's De Amicitia Historical Fiction: Robert Graves' I, Claudius Gothic Literature: Machen's short stories, Wuthering Heights, Rebecca Sci-Fi: Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed Fantasy: Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle Latin American literature: Borges' short stories (especially The House of Asterion and The Library of Babel, but Fictions is my favourite collection of his), there's also a lot of poetry in this category Honourable mention to some magical realism classics that aren't all that old yet, because I absolutely love Allende's The House of the Spirits and Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate!

Sorry for the long answer haha I love to be asked about my favourite books and many of them happen to be classics, so thank you so much for the question!

[pastellus]

What do you mean ODYSSEUS' WIFE? They can't even be bothered to name Penelope, I'm so tired...

[pastellus]

Hi all! I've been gone for so long, but know that it's mainly because I 100% achievements for Hades II out of sheer OCD weeks ago and I have so many negative thoughts on the game. I got annoyed drafting a post with all of them, so I just went back to the comfort of reading instead 🥲🥲🥲

[pastellus]

[pastellus]

Playing Hades 2 and being me means you get unbearably sad whenever you see Hecuba... Including a version of her from after she turns into a dog was a brilliant little detail, but so painful to me, especially when Odysseus is nearby too...

Justice for the Queen of Troy 😔

[mcaelius]

holds cicero out to you by the scruff of his neck

[augustusnotoctavianus]

i accept.

[iphigenesis-deactivated20251113]

i didn't even type 'ho'...

[pastellus]

I can only assume "home" is first because you're writing long texts about how nostos is a central theme in the Odyssey 🤭

This is the truth I choose to accept

[pastellus]

I've been putting together some readalongs for friends who were reading the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid for the first time, and one thing I always mention before every read (which I rarely see mentioned around here) is how much the experience changes if you read them out-loud.

These epic poems are meant recitation and to be performed, and damn, it really shows — especially if you're reading the original or a translation that puts its focus on preserving the rhythm and poetry.

Always one of my biggest recommendations and something I honestly do myself whenever I read a lot of Classical literature (with a few notable exceptions lmao).

[spineless-lobster]

Augh got inspired by those edits on pinterest so I made one for the iliad instead of doing homework or going to bed because I have my priorities straight

[little-li0nheart]

I wanna get a copy of the Iliad (and maybe another copy of the Oddysey) but I don’t know which translation to get… I really want one that’s as faithful to the original as possible, but a lot of what I’ve seen seems to be very controversial 😔

[pastellus]

This only includes my favourites among the ones I've read, but it might help!

Post by @pastellus · 3 images

💬 0  🔁 4  ❤️ 16 · Iliad Translations · I recently made this for my booktwt account, so I figured that now that I have the time I might as we

It also includes a link to a tool to compare translations 💛

There's a lot of faithful translations out there and among them, many great ones too, so I firmly believe that choosing a translation largely comes down to whose writing you enjoy the most! After all, it's poetry, and you'll see that the way different translators choose to word different passages can vary a lot.

[mt-isnothere12]

what your favorite iliad translation says a lot about you, actually. its my personality test.

[pastellus]

100% agreed!! The ranking of my favourite English translations changes a lot, but it currently goes: 1. Rodney Merrill 2. Caroline Alexander 3. Robert Fitzgerald 4. Robert Fagles 5. Peter Green 6. Samuel Butler 7. Richmond Lattimore I've read a handful of others too, but, well... this is a ranking of my favourites 😂

[pastellus]

Guess who got a Bacchae tattoo 🌿🍇 ἀμπέλου δέ νιν πέριξ ἐγὼ ᾽κάλυψα βοτρυώδει χλόῃ

"The green vine that clusters round it in a wreath was my work" — Euripides, The Bacchae (Davie's translation)

[katerinaaqu]

Ohhhhh 👀 congrats! It looks pretty 😍 👌🏻 ✨️

I was also contemplating getting my third tattoo myself! 🤔 looks so pretty 😍

[pastellus]

Thank you so much! I've been wanting to get a Bacchae one for forever, and after rereading it recently I finally settled on exactly what to get (I'm so indecisive when it comes to tattoos) 🤣 You should definitely get another one!! Hell yeah!

[pastellus]

Guess who got a Bacchae tattoo 🌿🍇 ἀμπέλου δέ νιν πέριξ ἐγὼ ᾽κάλυψα βοτρυώδει χλόῃ

"The green vine that clusters round it in a wreath was my work" — Euripides, The Bacchae (Davie's translation)