You know...I am a die hard Odysseus girl here, okay? But I frequently catch myself thinking about the OG Greek hero model haha or rather the most iconic speciment; Heracles himself.
We know that Heracles was named at birth Ἀλκαῖος (Alcaeus) or Ἀλκείδης (Alceides) with the word ἀλκαῖος coming from the word ἀλκή which means "strength" or "power" (so the name Alcaeus stands for "strong" or "powerful") However after he went mad by Hera's hand and he killed his children he ran to the sanctuary of Delphi and demanded an omen to cleanse himself. There Pythia (or for others Apollo himself) nicknamed him "Heracles" (Ἡρακλῆς) aka "Hera's Glory". After that point on the hero was called by everyone as Heracles instead
However imagine, just imagine if his mother, Alcmene, continued calling him by his birth name for the rest of his life? What if she was the only one who called him that? Or the only one Heracles allowed to call him that? Also bonus if Heracles was indeed named "Alcaeus" and the "Alceides" part was almost hypocoristic. So me imagine mama Alcmene still calling Heracles "my little Alcaeus" and still treat him with some of that tenderness of his childhood like caress his hair, ask him how he is or if he is eating well, allow him to rest his head on her knees etc...
Guys I am not okay...
