#nostoi

Since I already had Iliad and Odyssey in the legendary modern Greek translation and purchased around a year ago the Butler translation (because the book was gorgeous 😍) realized I had to keep going so here goes

"Homerics" or "Epic Cycle" with the fragments of epic cycle and other works originally attributed to Homer including Vatrachomyomachia, Titanomacy, Oedipus Cycle, Thebais, Epigonoi, Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi and many more (gosh so many in that small book!)

Quintus Smyrnaeus "Posthomerica" in 3 parts

Euripides "Trojan Women" and "Hecuba" because we want some critical take on the war too from the realm of "ancient adaptations"

And last but not least I thought why not

Apollonius Rhodius "Argonautica" because the epic cycle is one thing but let's see the trip that was partially playing its role to the whole thing hahaha 😆

Because nothing starts the year better than re-reading awesome books especially when they include both the original text and some really nice translations! 👌🏻

agamemnon starts seeing iphigenia in the corners of rooms after aulis, her dress bloody from where the sacrificial knife went in. all she does is watch him. he starts shrinking in on himself. confusing people. diomedes opposes his talk of abandoning the fight and returning home and agamemnon starts shouting at him except hes calling him achilles. he thinks he sees iphigenia during the sacking of troy, and takes cassandra with him out of the city. his dead daughter sits across from him in the bathtub, and hes so busy looking at her he doesnt see the axe coming down.

menelaus, the longer they spend away from home, becomes more and more prone to explode about the smallest things. he yells at his brother when agamemnon is hesitant to sacrifice his daughter. he throws himself recklessly into the Trojan line day after day. he awards achilles armor to odysseus, knowing that itll upset ajax, wanting ajax to pick a fight. he still argues they should have left ajaxs body to rot after he killed himself. he almost kills helen when he finds her in the sacking, but aphrodite touches his shoulder and clears his mind.

According to the Nostoi, lost poem of the Epic cycle.

Agamemnon was killed upon returning from the war.

Clytemnestra was killed by Orestes 7 years later.

...

So Menelaos and Helen come back from their vacation/couple therapy and they find both their brother/sister dead 🥺