Yum Yumi

Hyperfixations currently (Mostly GM/EPIC related, but not all):

- Polites (writing a fanfic about him, the crew and my harpy oc!)

- Perimedes x Elpenor (I guess Perinor is their official ship name? But I call it LotusWine)

- Dionysus x Ariadne (Power couple.)

- The Chaos Trio siblings (Aka Apollo, Hermes and Dionysus. Just. Them, their family dynamic >>>>)

- Epimetheus and Anchiale (siblings of Prometheus, I'd actually love to make a longer post about them both)

- Leodes (if you check my posts you'll see I just infodumped about that man at some point- That post took like 12 hours of work... Hoping that now he'll get out of my head. /lh)

- Birds! Pigeons! Dinosaurs!!! (Literally please send me random cute videos about any of them and you'll make my day.)

- Harajuku/Yume kawaii fashion! (Anything and all pastel and cute >>>>)

I'm also in a TON of fandoms, but currently mostly:

- Epic (duh)

- Hades

- Cult of The Lamb

- Spy x Family (My BIGGEST ever hyperfixation right before EPIC took my life over)

- LambyLand

- Ace Attorney

- Pokémon

- FNaF (been here since FNaF 2)

- Undertale/Deltarune (Been here since day 1)

- Danganronpa

- Splatoon

- One-Punch Man

- Mob Psycho 100

- JoJo

- Game Grumps

I can also be found on:

Reblog account - @yum-approves

Spy x family account - @codename-eclipse

Instagram - Yumiki_cosplay / Squibbling_

Ao3 - Yum_Yumi

YouTube - Squibbling

TikTok - Yumiki_Cosplay

- He's a 'mantis'

No, not the bug, but a 'diviner'/'seer'. Not exactly a prophet like Tiresias (although they technically fall under the same category?), he does not seem to have "visions" per se...

I like to imagine Tiresias to be mostly like an "automatic" prophet, getting visions even without conscious volition, meanwhile Leodes needs to REALLY work to find the signs and interpret them.

Because as much as I read he more-so mentioned dealing with (I'm assuming animal?) sacrifices.

(Interesting to note: this is not something I saw in every translation, sometimes he mentions JUST being a soothsayer? In my estonian translation he blatantly calls himself "the seer of sacrifices". Although the manteis who specifically worked with entrails were called 'existpex' so hm, I feel like a lot of this is up to interpretation/a topic of debate.)

He's just kinda like an unlicensed divinator since he wasn't exactly a... Recognized Oracle of anyone. No. Seemingly he's the seer of the suitors, independently hired?

His role is to make sure all ceremonies are done correctly, all the needed steps to respect gods are taken. Supervising, doing stuff "by the book". And then, most importantly, interpreting the outcomes. Possibly then by checking sacrificed animal's livers, looking at the weather, at water, bugs, birds — quite literally anything could be seen as an instrument for divination.

...Which leads into the most important point.

- HE WAS NOT THE ONE TO TELL THE SUITORS ABOUT THEIR IMPENDING DOOM OF ODYSSEUS RETURNING!

That was another prophet named Theoclymenus (The one that Telemachus dragged along)?! HE had visions. Give my man some recognition, don't let Leodes steal his spotlight! Let everyone know Eurymachus laughed at that guy instead of Leodes! Although he probably bullied both anyway.

- Leodes exists in only 2 scenes.

1. Where he's pouting next to the mixing-bowl until Antinous tells him to be the first one to go and try to string the bow.

And then, after failing because of his delicate hands, Leodes goes on a dramatic rant. Basically just: "This contest is hopeless, I’m out. Everyone, stop wasting your lives chasing Penelope and move on to other women. But maybe some of you need to be humbled with this contest, so pop off y'all, you'll learn I'm right."

Then he returns to continue pouting in his spot. BUT ANTINOUS DOES NOT LIKE THAT. He basically goes off like "Leodes!! Stop being dramatic. You failed because your mommy "blessed" you with literally 0 muscle, not because the bow is cursed and we'll all fail... ANYWAY. MELANTHIUS, GET US STUFF TO MAKE THIS BOW MORE EASY TO STRING."

2. The scene where he's begging for mercy.

In quite literally a bloodsoaked room, Leodes runs to hug Odysseus' knees to be like "PLZPLZPLZPLZ SPARE ME, I WAS SO NICE! I STAYED RESPECTFUL— I TRIED WARNING AND STOPPING THOSE OTHER MEN! I PROTECTED THE WOMEN!!! I'M A SIMPLE SEER! DO I DESERVE THE SAME FATE? PLEASE, MERCY!"

But in the end Odysseus just goes, "Uh-huh. Boo-hoo. You probably prayed for me to never return. And you probably just wanted to fuck my wife so. Die." and then beheads Leodes with the sword that once belonged to Agelaus.

First one to try and string the bow, final one to die. Kinda poetic, huh?

- So. Tl;dr. The solid info we get about him is that he is:

1. The mantis/soothsayer/diviner/seer. Most likely using animal sacrifices as his main "tool".

2. He respected women and tried to keep the other suitors in check. He just kinda sucked at it. (Although here we could debate how true his own words are? Since Ody doubts him? But for argument's sake let's say he is truthful, it would line up enough with what Homer described Leodes being like.)

3. He despises all the suitors for being such disrespectful assholes. He sees himself as above them. Purer. Morally cleaner. (But we genuinely have no idea what he could have done since he was not spared in the end, guilty by association at the very least.)

4. Don't forget his "unworn delicate" hands and unmuscular body! (Just the way those traits are worded make me laugh every time, dw Leodes, you don't need to be strong to be loved <3)

Now my favorite part... Time for my own interpretations/theories/headcanons~

- It's very clearly stated that he despises the suitors... Yet when turning to them he refers to them as "friends".

That's what makes me feel like he has 0 desire to be there but is sorta forced to, I imagine cause he was basically hired as a personal mantis for the suitors... And as a personal mantis? You're expected to give as favorable results as possible on readings. So he's forced to stay all polite and agreeable even with them. Yet in turn the suitors must also at least slightly respect him, his role is hard to replace.

- Let him be low-key sassy plz. Passive aggressive sass with the suitors.

- I don't believe he was in love with Penelope at all? I've seen the headcanon that he's one of the only suitors who was genuinely in love with her... And don't get me wrong! That's a very cute take! But I read his character more as someone just clocking in because he has to. While still making sure to be respectful with everyone, protecting the women as much as he could. Kinda just going along with "being a suitor" because Antinous bosses him around and uses him as like a 'test rabbit' constantly. Guilt by association. Even if he meant no harm and tried his best... In the end he still was complicit, even if it was from cowardice.

- Like? The only hint that we have for Leo's love is Ody being like "I'm assuming you didn't want me back so you could have my wife"... Meanwhile all we saw Leodes do was show signs of not wanting to be there. Trying to string the bow because Antinous told him to, putting on a pathetic display and being like "okay, I tried, can we go home now?". And once everyone is dead him just being like "PLEASE! LET ME LEAVE ALIVE, PLEAAASEEEEE!!!".

- Oh, I also totally wanted to go more into detail about this, but it feels more fitting into this theorizing/headcanon territory... Him sitting next to the mixing-bowl has some interesting implications?

So. A mixing-bowl aka a 'krater' is, like the name implies, a large vase where wine was mixed with water. Because in ancient Greece they didn't really drink pure wine, it was an "uncivilized act". And so they mixed it.

This huge vessel was placed in the center of the symposium, which happened after dinner. No wine until you've eaten your veggies, I guess. And then the servants have pitchers they refill at this krater to bring it over to the guests. Makes sense so far.

Now the fun part — Every symposium has someone called a 'symposiarch', an overseer of sorts. Deciding how strong the wine is, making sure nothing gets out of hand and keeping an eye that formalities were taken (like libations, pouring a small amount of wine in honor of deities or mourned souls).

But more often than not the "three-krater limit" wasn't exactly respected and stuff still went a bit wilder than "First for health, second for pleasure, third for sleep" and ended up more in the "fourth for bad behavior, fifth for shouting, sixth for rudeness" territory.

So what I'm trying to get to is that even if Leodes wasn't actually given the duty as the symposiarch (Since the suitors anyway barely gave a fuck about being proper about anything so as if they gave that duty to anyone)... It feels like he kinda took it on himself? Sitting next to the krater?

Of course he sat there because that's where the other men were the least, only having the servants fetching wine every once in a while... But I dunno, pretty funny to imagine this dude pouting in the middle of the room going like "Hmph, I'm the only guy here who's ACTUALLY keeping things in control. I'm keeping track of how much we're drinking. How the wine is being mixed! That the gods are getting their part! Everything! And yet everyone is still so idiotic UGH-". And that could nicely play into him using the liquid in the vase to try and make some readings, oooOOooOoooo~ He's so mysterious, staring into the wine, what does he interpret from it~

- Imagine him already having arrived at the conclusion that Odysseus would be returning... And that he wouldn't be sparing Leodes. Him feeling like a dead man walking. And due to that becoming even more complicit. Just pure hopelessness. That final scene where he goes to beg his king, desperation to live still there but deep down he already knows the answer. Even when his head is on the ground, it still tries to cling on and keep begging... UGH- Just a shockingly impactful death, the description of his head falling is so... Ahhhh!!!!

- He definitely has lots of very "weird" interests. Fascinated by like bugs and entrails, will infodump about them. No, Leodes, infodumping about livers isn't rizz. /lh (It would 1000% work on me ngl)

- I kinda like the idea that he comes from a linage of manteis? So he has learned his craft from his father Oenops.

- Him being hyperaware constantly and concluding things from wildly specific coincidences. Like:

Antinous: *sneezes*

Leodes: A sneeze? Right after finishing your third goblet of wine? On a Saturday evening? In clear weather? You won't be having any children.

- I'm giving him a tragic love story. And nobody can stop me. Him falling in love with a wreath maker outside the palace, but ofc he gets killed by Odysseus before he can really confess anything.

- In my eyes he's a short-king. He deserves a tall girlfriend (or ofc any type of partner, pansexual pride rahh, I just happen to be making a female oc).

Welp. That's about it.

I wanna reiterate — If anyone has different takes on this character, that's a-okay! I like seeing them! I just had so much fun doing this deep-dive and seeing how my own take differed in ways.

There's a 100% chance I got some info wrong, but I did genuinely try my best with my interpretation of stuff... In the end this is just for funsies, DO NOT TAKE MY INFO AT FACE VALUE, OH MY GODS, PLEASE. GO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

And if you sat through this whole post, aww, thank you! Here, have a lil sketch~