Jan 4
Far far too much Agamemnon is cruel and greedy and only wanted to sack Troy for riches and not nearly enough Agamemnon’s childhood showed him the fate that lay in store for one who is in power if they do not respond with shows of force to threats, with the weight of defending his name and the last of his family, a man whose brother’s wife, his sister in law, was taken from him. Far too much Menelaus saw Helen as a prize to be won back and not nearly enough Menelaus was a man in love, who lost a wife who represented to him not only the status and stability that a young boy ousted from his home would have dreamed of, but a time of peace and love, and the loss of a genuinely beloved wife
#I just think that the modern perception of ‘people who do morally dubious acts cannot feel anything#except for emotions I have assigned moral weight to#that match the moral weight I’ve assigned to this action’#is tiring#overdone#the wrong way to view these characters#and is just so incredibly boring#this is not to say that there is not truth to the idea that Menelaus would have revered a wife like Helen#and that the sacking of Troy was a matter of glory and prestige as well as honor#but beneath these lie very human motivations and emotions#tagamemnon#menelaus#agamemnon#another discussion to be had here about how actions done in war must immediately be justified by the people perpetrating them being Evil™️#because if they aren’t you have to grapple with the reality that you too are capable of these atrocities
