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It would be the perfect set up to look at internalised racism in moc in positions of power and how they use that power to approximate whiteness but this isn't that kinda series and she isn't that kinda author.

So I'll do what most people seem to do and quietly accept that the Illyrians are probably just white.

Rhysand and Azriel both approximate whiteness in a way Cassian doesn't. Rhysand is mixed and able to hide his wings while Azriel (despite being an abused bastard child) is from a noble family and is constantly remarked as having a classical beauty.

Hopefully I don't need to explain to anyone how being "noble" and "classical" are terms that have almost exclusively been applied to white peoples and white cultures.

Cassian is as Illyrian as they come. Grass roots level. And yet of all the Illyrian x White Woman pairings, his is the one that goes directly against what he's been culturally conditioned to. (I want to say I haven't read ACOSF but I don't care if Sarah retconned or explained away this next bit.) Nesta is literally called a Witch by his people. Her powers and magic and existence go against what they believe in and see as holy.

And I love Nesta but the Illyrians aren't wrong. Their fears and superstitions aren't childish or ignorant. She is dangerous and unnatural.

One of the nicest characters, a moc is paired with a white woman who doesn't like him. Then in the next book he's her personal torturer, their "romance" is rooted in sex and the white woman competes in his peoples sacred cultural practices???

For Cassian to look beyond his cultural viewpoint to understand Nesta is fine. But for specifically the least toxic, most culturally connected man of colour to be mated to a white woman who doesn't want him and whose magical identity flies in the face of his peoples beliefs??

.....not in the way you think she is, rather.

People do know that the Sparta from Homeric myths is not the same Sparta as the one we are familiar with in popular culture, right?

People do know that countries, islands and cultures can change over time, right?

The "violent, bloodthirsty Sparta" that people think of (especially the agoge, aka the Spartan education) is mostly documented thanks to later sources, like a source from the 4th century BC, Xenophon (who wasn't even Spartan himself!)

Sparta rose to prominence as a military powerhouse in the 7th century BC. The Spartan education is said to have been created in the 7th or 6th century. Not widely popularised, merely created. So the Sparta depicted in popular culture is most likely inspired by this era of Spartan history.

The Iliad however was written...... in the 8th century BC. Homer was born a century before the military stronghold!

And his stories take place even earlier than his birth. For when does the Trojan War takes place, according to scholars? 12th or 13th century BC!!!!

They're not from the same eras of Greek history!

You're allowed to make headcanons all you want, but it would be severely incorrect to act as if the Spartans from Homeric myths and more generally ancient Greek mythology are the same as their "bloodthirsty, violent and ruthless" counterparts from our usual modern depictions. And that's without even going into the supposed accuracy of this description... (but that's a whole other story)

Six centuries or even more separate Penelope (and Helen) from this epoch.

Ellen von Unwerth