have been losing my shit over the fact that 1. there's a passage in polybius's history where he tells us that the tyrant demetrius of phalerum once made a giant mechanical snail to parade through athens and trail slime everywhere 2. people have been trying to figure out how this massive snail worked since at least 1937

and they were tentmates

emperor hadrian and his horse borysthenes

Do you think Telemachus visits that salted field and thinks of his father?

Penelope tells him how much his father loved him. How he saved him. Kissing his cheek as her own tears fall.

They go together and she tells him how it went, voice trembling, remembering the fear and anger she felt then as it bubbled within her once more.

He's told how his father lunged to save him, thundering hooves nearly crushing his head. How the king trembled as he cooed to his baby. Comforting his son as much as himself, fearing what may have happened if he was not quick enough.

Does Telemachus know that Odysseus would do anything to be able to soothe him again? To kiss those dampened cheeks and pull him into his chest once more?

Does the young prince dig his hands into the dirt? Trying to find anything left from his father?

Does he feel like he also cannot grow just like that field? As though he is partially stunted?

Odysseus ventures into the Land of the Dead

I just realize i never properly draw telemachus

You've heard about Cicero: The Roman Musical. Now get ready for Six-style musical about the wives of Mark Antony! (also featuring Curio)

Featuring but not limited to:

Antonia Minor's steamy duet with Dolabella

Fulvia's epic battle-cry rap number, including a verse based on Octavian's terrible poem

Octavia's heartfelt power ballad about desperately trying to keep the Octavian-Mark Antony alliance together while looking after all the children (while simultaneously refusing to allow other people to walk all over her)

Cleopatra singing about her political ambitions, comparing JC and Mark Antony, defending herself against her portrayal in Rome & in modern media

Also featuring a song/rap number based on Cicero's second philippic because it needs to be there!! Mark Antony climbing in through the roof, possibly in a stola, Curio and his dad is there ---

Some kind of ensemble song with the wives addressing the audience based on Shakespeare's Friends, Romans, countrymen speech

you see my vision, right?

Also yes, I'm aware there's six of them on the poster. One of them is Curio perhaps. Also, graphic design is my passion, can you tell?

i think of demeter in her fields, hands buried in the earth, guiding smaller hands than hers. showing her daughter how to help the plants, how each one flourishes. the plants her daughter grew will die when she loses her, withering away to nothing but bittersweet memories neither goddess can truly revisit.

of andromache, cradling the babe she always wished she'd had closer to her chest as the cries of trojans ring through the streets. her husband is dead. her city is burning. hush, little baby, do not cry, mama's going to sing you a lullaby.

other times i ponder thetis, watching her son grow up. he was sweet once, he laughed louder with every passing day. his hands were so soft, his touch so gentle. how she watched him leave like a lamb sent to slaughter. he has sharp claws now, he wields them alongside his even sharper fangs.

i wonder what hera must have felt when she watched heracles grow, held him with all the care in the world. named after her, her little lion. did she feel remorse for the child she lost when she learnt of his parentage? or was that betrayal simply another part of her now?

clytemnestra weeping on the beach, cradling her eldest against her. a daughter lost to the whims of men and their wars, another lost to jealousy and the need for vengeance. a son lost to deception. it is alright, orestes, do not cry, you have made me so proud.

did pasiphae scream when asterius was ripped away from her and locked in a cage he could only escape through death? did gaia cradle her stomach when the children she brought to life were forced back within her, unwanted?

did anyone but them care?

hey can we talk about mark antony's "dead julius caesar robot" trick in appian's roman history

Run, he is mvp

Yes I’m waking up but do you think Odysseus woke up every day thinking about his homeland and his family? Yes I need to brush my teeth but Odysseus had to drop an infant off the walls of Troy, unless Neoptolemus did that for him Yes breakfast is good but Odysseus is trapped in a Cyclops’s cave Yes I have to do my work but Odysseus had to go to bed with Circe only then will his men be released Yes lunch is appetizing but Odysseus is in the Underworld meeting his past now Yes I should decide whether to take a nap or not, but Odysseus had to go between Scylla and Charybdis Yes I still have work to do but Odysseus’s crew just disobeyed his order and ate Helios’s cattle Yes dinner is delicious but Odysseus is still trapped on Ogygia ;-; Yes I know we have to do the dishes after dinner, but do you know that Odysseus had to kill all the suitors just to reunite with Penelope? Yes I should sleep now but do you think that Odysseus could finally feel happiness when he was in the olive-tree bed with Penelope, while Athena was prolonging the night just for them?

in today's letters: brutus is getting involved in cicero's plan to have his son elected to the priesthood via dubious means! brutus would like cicero to help out pansa's doctor, who is being accused of murdering pansa! dolabella has been defeated a bit! could cicero please help out some guy with a legal dispute over an inheritance! decimus brutus has (accidentally?) pissed off the senate by saying maybe they should be more worried about antony! haha the senate doesn't need to worry about antony at all! or lepidus for that matter! and lepidus and his army have set up camp next to antony and are definitely getting ready to fight him for realsies!

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"O heavenly razor, happy razor with which Pamphile shore her plaited tresses to consecrate them. It was no mere man that forged you, but beside the furnace of Hephaistos, Charis of the shining headdress — to use the words of Homer — lifting a golden hammer wrought you with her own hands." ~ Anthologia Graeca, Palladas Epigram 6.61

I've finally found a source for this!!! Though it's only poetic allegory, I'm taking this as "canon" confirmation that Charis actively smiths with Hephaistos (their marriage is likely also to have started as allegory anyway, so it's as valid a source as they come).

so i want to give something modern to every one of my ancient characters design

for example, Odysseus wears a Bennie and ankle high sneakers, Jesus has Converse and Achilles wears flip flops or shark slippers

Maybe Heracles should wear a lion onesie lol

anyways if anyone has suggestions or headcanons of other characters I'm all ears