#aegialeia

Cassandra: I don't think cassandra likes men period but if she did she would have no interest in romantic violence Andromache: if anything she would probably like her husband covered in blood less that man gives her heart attacks like every other day. she wants hector safe at home being her weighted blanket where he BELONGS

Aegialeia: if she did she would have probably liked diomedes more (SORRY MAN)

Aphrodite, goddess of love and grace

Hermes (I was experimenting w his new design)

Patroclus :D (and a old sketch I have of him)

Some patrochilles (I have a hyperfixation w them)

and achidamia :p

and and and odydio

and some Diomedes drawings (i'm cooking something)

Ooh lovely question

So, if we're going with the homeric epics- yes! They did seem to hold affection for each other, as shown by Diomedes wanting to reveal himself when Helen used his wives voice (and the voice of the other wives) on the greeks inside the trojan horse as told in the Odyssey when Telemachus visits Menelaus and Helen in Sparta

In the Iliad Aphrodite makes a claim that Aegialeia should mourn Diomedes when he falls in battle, as punishment for him injuring her - though id say here it's less clear if its actual affection much more than social expecation

Beyond that I don't remember any sources that properly adress their relationship before the Trojan War, beyond that they married.

And we also have to keep in mind that the sources that have Diomedes exiled arent necessarily compatible with the Homeric Epics! The stories had different versions and variations throughout the centuries and different places and some things are only a topic mentioned in later times. Its blurry!

Now when it comes to my personal headcanons I like to think that while they were close and held affection for each other - a familial, more on the platonic and duty-bound kind of love - their marriage was strained from the start, having been partially a result of Aegialeus' death - Diomedes uncle and Aegialeias brother (or father in some other traditions) as well as Adrastus' death - Diomedes grandfather, or at least in parts, resulting in a lack of direct male heir, because Aegialeus' son was too young to rule, which only left Diomedes as male heir. (Sorry for the many names i hope its still clear gjsjdjs)

They hold affection and try to make it work, but grief and what should be and shouldn't have been is still casting a shadow on their relationship that later draws them apart - Again thats a headcanon not from any sources that indicate this

And yeah, in most sources it's a payback from Aphrodite making Aegialeia cheat with Stheneleus' son ...or the entire argolian youth :") though theres also a version or two where it's Palamedes' father (or brother? In maybe one version?) sows rumors that the greeks are taking trojan woman and scorn their wives at home as payback for Odysseus (and Diomedes) killing Palamedes and not receiving punishment. Those rumors cause Aegialeia to commit adultery with Cometes in the end. So yup!

Tltr; yes, I believe initially they did

He left your mother in the care of the man he appointed as ruler, unknowing that she was pregnant with you and your twin sister. She gives birth to you at the sea-shore, while she is on her way to the temple, to pray for a safe delivery of her twins.

That gift is granted. The woman tell you the tale often, how your mother delivered you on the beach, with only her servants at her side. They wrapped the both of you in linen they carried with them and while some of the women rushed back to the city to inform the palace, she held you and nursed you, attended by her servants and you soon peacefully fell asleep in your mothers arms with the seas lullaby as she gathered strength to return to the city with her baby twins. She names you after the place you were born at: "sea-shore". Aegialeus and Aegialia.

You are allowed to stay in the palace with your twin sister and your mother, and the new king is treating you fairly, but the two of you never quite fit in, your father was a stranger, the people often still treat you as such...and then your mother dies, struck by Apollos arrows and her bodys fagilty. Her wish had been to bring you to your father when you were old enough and the politics in his kingdom more secure. But when she dies, the land your father rules is at war with Thebes. That is not what your mother wanted, but with her gone the man who housed you all his life sends you to your father, not keen on keeping a potential rival to the throne within his halls. Your sister remains home, for now.

When you reach the palace in Argos you find an old man. He's mourning. It's your father, who, upon seeing you and hearing you out takes you in as his son without question. Yet the whole land is grieving.

You don't know the men were who died, though you hear their stories, but you join your newly found father for the funeral of the men. The wailing and funeral pyres remind you of your mothers and the ache in your chest scorches your soul.

Seeing the man, who treated you more fatherly in those few weeks than the man who raised you all your life, mourning as you are, enrages you, and you step forth to join the oath of the sons to avenge their fathers.

Later, you bring your twin sister to the kingdom of your father and you are raised loved in his house. Your new home. And you grow into the role as heir for the kingdom and become half brother, half father figure to these other kids who swore the oath with you, though many of them are your age.....these people, who you didn't even know before you found them mourning as they lost their fathers, and you found yours. They become family, and you know that you are willing to go for war with them and die, even though the weight of the oath is surging up at you like a tidal wave and the grasps of fate are closing around you like a noose.

*its funny how this sentence can apply to like at least three different Epigoni