#achidamia

Just a short comic with these two

of all the artistic depictions of achilles in classical art, these two are probably my favourites.

(left: achilles and deidamia by joseph pollet; right: achilles binds patroclus’s wounds by bertal thorvaldsen)

most artistic depictions of achilles show him as either angry of grieving (as he is in the iliad) but these two show a more tender side of his, one that is not often depicted. as for the one with pat, i know That(TM) amphora piece is basically the official poster of their relationship, and clearly thorvaldsen’s sculpture is based on it, but something about this one appeals to me a bit more. the way achilles is much closer to him, his thigh supporting patroclus's injured arm while he mends it. achilles is probably gently admonishing pat for being reckless.

Achilles and Deidamia

When a soon-to-be child soldier destined to die prematurely falls in love with you when you're also still a girl, and you give birth to a future child soldier destined to end the war that his father (whom you can only imagine as a boy because you never saw him as a man and now he's dead) couldn't, and you desperately beg those commanders to stop coming after the child of prophecy and for the child of prophecy not to abandon you, but your pleas are in vain every time. After all, you were just a girl years ago and now you're just a woman, and you'll never understand the honor of becoming a man whom the poets will sing about.

And in the end, neither of them returned from the war, because one of them was lost in body and the other lost in spirit. Everything so that the poets would keep then alive, you suppose, and you do not understand. But hey, you're smiling! If you don't smile, who will? It won't last long, though — everyone knows that a woman's fate is to stay behind and mourn those who have perished in the war. And you haven't been a girl for years, ever since one left and the other was born. Yes, you have been a woman since before you knew it: you have been a woman since you learned to suffer like one, to turn toward the sea in search of something like one, to weep over your beloved son's toys like one, to mourn your widowhood like one. Marriage and the act of giving birth are, after all, aspects of Death.

Anyway, I love her, so thanks for the request! I tried something different with the colors and the pseudo-​​composition here.