Don’t worry, Telemachus, sweet light of my eyes: I'll be both mother and father to you.

Commissioned art, made by the amazing @ube-kun

i just think it's neat that odysseus gets put in a position where he has to kill his child to avoid going to war and he can't do it and then agamemnon gets put in a position where he has to kill his child to go to war and he does it

Pov: You're Menelaus, Agamemnon and Odysseus looking at these three goddesses.

Commissioned art, made by the wonderful @gretasartt

This is so good!!! 🤩🤩

some ladies ✨

reblogs and comments appreciated <33

We really don't talk enough about the tragedy of Odysseus killing suitors.

They were not strangers or some kind of barbarians. They were his friends' children, he knew them and loved them. In other life they'd have been his son's closest friends.

Penelope knew them since they were kids. They spent time in their palace. We can assume Penelope and Odysseus loved inviting them, wanting kids but not having their own, so they enjoyed their company: playing with them, teaching them, feeding them. They probably were happy to introduce Telemachus to them when he was born, enjoying the thought that even if they don't have more children, Telemachus will still have many older brothers.

And then Penelope watched them grow older, she watched them become ambitious, watched them, who she knew as children, come to her palace to marry her, watched them flood the palace and waste Odysseus' wealth (Odysseus would invite them and feed them himself once), watched them grow wary of Telemachus as he was getting older, watched them become more and more impatient with years. She watched this and she watched her own feelings change. She used to love them, she used to enjoy hearing their laughter in the palace, she used to order slaves to prepare best parts of meat for them, and then she couldn't bare the sound of their voices, couldn't stand them wasting all the food, she came to hate them with all her heart, even though she could never forget how happy she was once to host them at Odysseus palace.

Odysseus remembered them as kids eating from his hands, he remembered how Penelope enjoyed the childish stories they would tell her, he remembered them as children he loved and trusted, he remembered them crying on the shore looking at the ships when he was taking their fathers away. Then he returned home to see that the children of his friends who he all lead to war and who he all lost one by one, some of whom he held as they were dying maybe even promised to look after their sons at home, feasting on his wealth, abusing his wife and threatening his son.

Odysseus lead their fathers to death and then killed all of them himself.

Penelope watched them as they changed from infants to boys to men and then to dead men. She loved these boys and grieved for them, she hated these men and felt relief to see them dead.

We need to talk more about suitors.

Hermes in Ody's life before the Odyssey.

Too bad the prophet Cassandra never met Odysseus

They say if she made a prophecy Nobody would believe her

I’ve gotta say, that is exactly the kind of stupid thing that probably would circumvent a curse.

Cassandra: YOU ARE ALL GOING TO REGRET THIS SO MUCH YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW. 

Odysseus: Regret it why?

Cassandra: You won’t believe me if I tell you. If I prophecy, nobody believes me. That is my curse.

Odysseus: … I’m Nobody. Fill me in. 

*A couple of months later* 

Odysseus: HELLO PENELOPE, I AM HERE PRECISELY ON TIME AND NOT YEARS LATE incidentally I rescued and adopted a Trojan seer while I was away, she’s great, got me home really fast, Cassandra this is your new mother who’s not going to treat you like shit. 

Penelope: … I’m going to need more details, but okay, sure. 

Cassandra: *in tears* I love you, new family. 

Cassandra: Penelope, I’ve had another vision.

Penelope, sighs: Go tell your father.

[Image description: a screen shot of a Tumblr tag: #athena smacking apollo upside the head: you’ve ruined a perfectly good greek tragedy is what you did. look at it. it’s got found family. description ends]

Athena would never¹. Calliope on the other hand…

¹complain about Odysseus’s story not going tragically; she rather likes Oddysseus, most of the time. She would absolutely smack Apollo, but not about this.

Epic au where everything's the same except that Odysseus during his journey find out that his a trans woman and spent the trips afraid that when she gets home Penelope won't love her anymore

Only to find out when she's back that, while she was away, Penelope discovered herself as a trans man

And they live happily ever after as a t4t couple

And Telemachus is just happy to have both his parents home no matter what!

(I love your headcanon btw!)

This family makes me cry

“and I’ve been waiting, waiting”

Lil sketch of Penelope and baby Telemachus 🥹

I need that milf and dilf biblically.

(Art by @/wop_mia on tiktok btw)

now that the ithaca saga is out i'd like to just put it out there that, in the original text, after they reunite odysseus and penelope immediately run off to fuck - obviously (20 years at sea away from your wife call that the wettest dry spell mankind's ever seen). BUT while they're getting all hot and heavy, athena decides to put her owl motif to good use and wingman for odysseus by quite literally holding off the dawn until they're fully satisfied (od. 23.345-348). which is just. what a way to end off one of the greatest pieces of storytelling in human history

The irony of the fact that Athena is a virgin goddess!

Details + reference picture! I love them >V<

You folks seemed to enjoy the Telemachus/Argos piece. If that wasn’t sad enough for you, here’s a follow up with Odysseus and Argos :)

“Her” is referring to Ody’s mother, Anticlea.

when I tell you I will do anything but my job