Please info-dump me about shearing culture in furry Iliad I need this to function 🙏
Tak poza tym to przepraszam, że rzadko rebloguję, mega mnie interesuje twoja furasowa Iliada, ale trafiło mnie ✨chroniczne zmęczenie✨
Tragoidia 🐐 // Shearing [info-dump]
Aw, hey, thanks for actually asking??
Since a lot of my designs have either long hair, fur or wool, I decided that it would be interesting to use it to my advantage not only visually, but also lore wise. I'd like to exploit the fact that this universe is full of antopomorphic animals, because it would be boring to have a dog Achilles who doesn't growl at Agamemnon or not let big bear Ajax scratch his back on a tree or not make fun of big deer antlers randomly falling out during the shedding season. So, the shearing which should be called grooming in instances of some characters like Atreidae, but shearing sounds nicer, so we're gonna stick with that:
It all started as a joke: "what would happen if Odysseus asked Diomedes for help post-winter, when his hair gets longer?" Naturally, it would go wrong - as a carnivore Diomedes never had any experience with shearing. Probably Sthenelus would be involved, too, as a close friend, but... He's a peacock. A bird. They don't cut each others feathers. Sounds like a stupid choice on smart Odysseus' side, doesn't it?
Not when we take into consideration the aspect of intimacy that accompanies the shearing. Usually farmers start shearing sheep around the belly area. Now imagine living in Tragoidia universe and getting naked and having a servant anywhere near your crotch with scissors. No. Just. No. Only your family are allowed to do that. Preferably partner, eventually children, parents and at the very least - close friends. A servant would be allowed to do that only in rare circumstances (Euryclea would be a great example).
For Odysseus the choice of helper was obvious - his war-husband (/j). He couldn't foresee how disastrous it would be. In this universe, the animals that cultivate shearing are mostly sheep, goats and long-haired cattle. So in reality, Odysseus would be better off asking either Agamemnon or Menelaos for help (which he did next time). But his intimate partner, during Penelope's absence, was his first choice.
The sheer intimacy comes from the trust that must be put in the person who's helping the other groom their hair/fur/wool, the vulnerability of laying fully naked on the back when they start, the combing that happens afterwards and dressing up... Additionally, males can expect nice gifts from their skilled wives some time after - a new coat or blanket, they're resourceful.
This has a darker aspect, too. Laertes overgrew & neglected his wool due to the grief and Calypso (jackal) abused the concept and wasted all the precious wool.
@kira-k wrote this lovely drabble featuring the concept:
It's important to note that in nature shearing is almost exclusively performed on sheep due to their thick wool. However, there are some exceptions, such as angora goats. To gather hair of a cashmere goat, people have to brush it down & collect. Odysseus is a mix of these after father (angora) and mother (cashmere).
But take this all with a grain of salt! I don't have experience with taking care of farm animals (I should have been born a shepherd, I promise, I wouldn't start any wars) and this is a fictional universe with antrophomorphic animals. Not everything has to make sense, although I think it's a fun concept to explore :)
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Swoją drogą, nie masz za co przepraszać?? 😭 Dziękuję, że się interesujesz i życzę dużo wypoczynku letnią porą <3
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