Okay yall this app is for yapping right? I'm breaking my Tumblr rant virginity today. Let's pop my rant cherry and talk about the scarce representation of Diomedes in modern receptions of the iliad.
There's been plenty of adaptations of the Trojan war littered throughout our modern media, and yet a jarringly few amount of those include Diomedes, and even fewer yet include him as a major player.
This is so weird, seeing as Diomedes WAS a main character in the Trojan war. He had a whole book dedicated to him ffs, and a later book where he's a main player with Odysseus during their night raid of Troy. So why then doesn't anyone care to put him into their adaptations? Why has he been forgotten by modern retellers? And even if he is included into retellings, why is book 5 constantly overlooked? Or better yet– any of the books where he's a main player?
I have a theory (a game theory). Trojan war retellings typically centre around Achilles– or at least he's supposed to be the main, glorious fighter. And Diomedes... He's just too competent, too good, too outstanding. I believe they're afraid he'll overshadow Achilles. Achilles, who spends 90% of the iliad cooped up sulking in his tent, meanwhile Diomedes is out chasing Trojans and stabbing gods while being mistaken for a god himself. Not a good look for brilliant, god-like Achilles. I can assure you this doesn't come from a place of bias, I adore Achilles as a character in the Iliad and I am by no means belittling his feats of strength– but comparing his rage-fueled rampage to Diomedes' book 5 rampage... From an outsider's view, it might make you question the role of Aristos Achaion. And yet, adapting Diomedes' stunning competency in battle buffers that role at the same time.
We've seen the second best, making a fool out of the literal god of war and shaking the Trojan forces to their core, so what more of Achilles, said to be leagues above the rest? What more of Hector, who even Diomedes dares not to fight? Writers shouldn't fear Diomedes, but instead use him as a means to create that hierarchy of power, allowing the audience to truly see where the potential of Achilles lies. He doesn't have to overshadow Achilles, he could be used to indirectly bolster him instead! And in that way, this could help make modern retellings closer to the grand scale of the original epics. I find many retellings lose that... epicness.. of the epics.. for lack of a better term.. and part of that epicness entails the epic scales of strength, especially when it comes to big epic characters like Achilles, and including these power hierarchies and shows of immense strength and battle prowess could help to inject more of that epic-magic back into an otherwise un-epic narrative (take a shot everytime I say epic).
This is, of course, also paired with the fact that Diomedes' feats during the Trojan war are undeniably superhuman and difficult to adapt into live action film, and taking Troy (2004) as an example, many adaptations tend to shy away from including the gods as major players. This restriction of storytelling makes it impossible to truly tell a story about Diomedes, resident god harasser of the Achaeans. And Diomedes isn't the only victim of this– bringing Achilles back into the mix, his little spat with the river god, Scamander, isn't often included in modern media either. However, with the film technology of the current years at our disposal, there isn't much excuse to avoid covering these grand feats. All this to say that if Nolan, disappointing as he already is, decides not to include the full grandiosity of the original epic (given his previous admittedly beautiful feats of special effects and cinematography), I'm gonna throw a hissy fit. But! I digresssssssss
I wonder if you guys agree with me too 🙂↕️ I'm no expert, and this is just what I feel based on what I've seen. I'd love to see other people's different opinions on this issue too! 🩷 Peace out my gangalicious gangsters
titsay
baratheonpilled
romaincrisis
izzy806
kianamaiart
theartofmadeline
