#meriones

And then I read the actual text and found how silly everything is??? Why didn't anybody tell me that the Iliad is literally just a family feud between the gods, and full of dudes (and Athena) throwing bolders at each other, and Agamemnon and Achilles acting like they're having a petty break-up.

Hera (on at least 3 seperate occasions) tells Zeus that he's their father's worst child, and that he's obligated to listen to her because she's not only his wife but his elder sister. Like, she hit him with the "I'm older than you how dare you talk to me like that."

Then we have Zeus banning all the gods from interfering with the war (except of himself of course) before announcing the "Trojan War: Frenzy Round" where he calls all the gods to join (including A RIVER???) and lets the Greeks win just because Hera slept with him.

Athena manipulating Zeus in almost every interaction because she's "daddy's little girl" + everytime she goes to battle she wears her father's tunic and I'm just imagining it like some toddler wearing their parent's shirt.

She also beats the crap out of Ares AND Aphrodite, leaves them on the floor and says "whoever messes with me will get owned"

Hera proceeds to beat the crap out of Artemis with her own bow. Hermes is literally on Hera's side, but sees that and is like "yo Leto I'm not gonna fight you because I think you should go check on your kid..." while Artemis runs crying to Zeus who's like "my precious daughter who hurt you???" And she's like "YOUR WIFE!"

(Also, on the other end, so many people hate on Agamemnon but not Achilles as well? Like they were both stubborn, Achilles more so. PLUS Achilles brutally killed/enslaved so many people even before Patroclus' death, I'm surprised that Agamemnon-only hate is more popular. Like everyone sucks in the Iliad, it's either you hate everyone, or you like the characters in spite of their crimes.)

It takes Patroclus dying for Achilles to forgive Agamemnon (at this point Agamemnon was convinced to give Achilles so many gifts including but not limited to (returning Briseis, gold, land, one of Agamemnon's daughters' hand in marriage)) Achilles then proceeds to murder a bunch of people.

Odysseus and Diomedes jumping a guy, killing 13 other people, and stealing horses.

Nestor drinking wine in the middle of a battle, hearing the chaos, and saying "wait a minute, I gotta get a good view of this action" Also Nestor kicking Diomedes to wake him up.

Helen insulting the crap out of Paris.

Hector insulting the crap out of Paris. Also Priam basically calling his surviving sons trash now that Hector is dead.

Idomeneus and Meriones being tag-team bros. Why don't I ever hear about them huh?

Also the amount of times I read the phrase "the two named Ajax" or "Ajax and Ajax" like did they just stick to each other because they share a name? Like Ajax (the greater) literally has Teucer, his own half-brother to back him up, and for some reason the two of them just hang out with Oilean Ajax on the battlefield???

House of Atreus sketches ft. Agamemnon, Aegisthus, little Mene and grumpy Atreus, early Thyesetes concept + lil' Ody fam sketches (Anticlea, Laertes, Autolycus, Odysseus)

Meriones and Idomeneus (African Wild Dogs) concepts, at last! Bonus: heraldic sketches, because I need my readers to be able to tell between the camp parts.

Laertes (angora goat) vs Icarius (ladoum sheep), Laertes vs Agamemnon + some silly concepts of a plushie & odydio cuddles

parts one and two are linked below if you wanna check those out!!!

part one

part two

- idomeneus and meriones running into each other in the greek camp while everyone else is fighting. fully imagined them just standing there and pointing at each other like: "yo, dude, what are you doing here?"

- meriones, instead of going to his own tent, decides to take a spear from idomeneus and basically tells idomeneus "dude, my tent is so far, please don't make me go all the way out there and just let me borrow one of yours."

- idomeneus being totally chill with it, so long as they hurry the fuck up and no one sees them away from the battlefield because then people will think they're cowardly losers.

- patroclus.

- no further notes on this one, just patroclus. what a guy.

- agamemnon trying to convince the rest of the greeks to retreat in the middle of battle. AGAIN.

- and agamemnon keeps on doing this, throughout several books at this point, and it's actually kind of impressive. i guess he really just wants to leave troy because he's sick and tired of NOT winning all the time.

- odysseus having absolutely none of this and immediately putting agamemnon on blast. odysseus literally curses him and calls agamemnon pathetic and dishonorable. preach it, king.

- and agamemnon actually listens to odysseus and immediately goes "shit, you right, my bad."

- posideon and zeus beefing in book 15.

- specifically posideon basically saying that if zeus doesn't let the greeks win, he's never going to forgive zeus. peak sibling behavior.

- meriones and aeneas shit-talking each other in the middle of a very intense, very important battle.

- this is immediately followed by patroclus telling meriones to "stop yapping and throw hands".

- in retrospect, patroclus probably regrets saying that, given that throwing hands is what got his ass killed.

- patroclus throwing a massive rock at some trojan, effectively killing the poor guy, then proceeding to mock the way the trojan fell as he died. absolutely FOUL behavior and it made me giggle just a little bit.

- i should probably mention that this "poor guy" was cebriones, hector's current charioteer and half-brother. hector's proceeding crash out was completely understandable, when you think about it.

- odysseus reminding achilles of the importance of breakfast. eat your breakfast people!!!

Arabian Jird Meriones arimalius

A rodent found in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and UAE. It lives in sandy deserts, but little is known about it.