#thersander

And some headcanons I have for them

Aka Thebans

The leaders(In order thats; Oedipus, Eteocles, Creon, Laodamas and Thersander)

Specifically:

Aegialeus: it’s likely that he was born late, if we go by Statius’s Thebaid where Adrastus was mentioned to be “lacked male issue” by the time he married his daughters to Polyneices and Tydeus respectively (Thebaid book 1, 390–394). Had to say, this reason makes sense to explain why Adrastus wanted to marry off his daughters so eagerly. If so then Aegialeus was likely born after the time of the double marriage, and still old enough to beget a son before he went for war. Would he be at the age of eight by the time the first Theban War took place? (Might be younger though, since there’s Achilles as an example…)

Alcmaeon: he would be old enough to take heed of his father’s orders for vengeance, but not old enough to do that until about ten years later. Perhaps we may go with Orestes parallel and consider him to be around ten when the Seven went against Thebes, so he’d have the vengeance in his 20’s?

Diomedes: so I actually failed to identify any source for that statement on the wiki page for Diomedes. Nevertheless, Diomedes being younger than the rest of the group makes sense for BOTH the thing about people around him constantly reminding him of the his father and the war in Thebes AND the parallel of him being younger than most of the other Achaean chieftains by the time of the Trojan War.

Sthenelus: older than Diomedes, for sure. Old enough to father a son or two a few years before the Trojan War took place—if Cometes was real, that is (if not, then Cylarabes having died without an issue probably means he could be born at any time which does not help with our calculation). Let’s say, he might be at least eighteen when he begot Cometes, and Cometes being…well, eighteen? When he consorted with Aegialeia (you see, another thing that’s so fricked up is the age difference. If Aegialeia was a daughter of Aegialeus then maybe this makes some…sense—but she would be too young for Diomedes in that case; but if she’s a daughter of Adrastus then…it’s straight up two generations between Cometes and Aegialeia which is just…ugh. Welp another reason why I don’t acknowledge this wicked version of Aegialeia’s story). We don’t actually know the time gap between the Epigoni campaign and the Trojan War (again, that claim on Diomedes’s wiki page is unsourced), but if it’s five to ten years then Sthenelus would be ranging from 16 to 21 when he went for Thebes.

Thersandros: he might be older than Diomedes or about the same age—putting his age between Aegialeus’s and Diomedes’s just in case.

Promachus: his father Parthenopaeus was young. Like, the youngest among the Seven against Thebes. Still, he was old enough to father a son before he left for war (again, let’s say it’s eighteen for the sake of calculation), and we don’t really know when he did that. Let’s say the age when Parthenopaeus left for war ranges from 18 to 23: then Promachus would be around 10 to 15? Again being the youngest, perhaps?

Can’t really decide the age for Amphilochus, Euryalus, Polydorus, Medon simply based on their lineage…

That is a really hard question😂 like what's your favorite music THERE ARE SO MANY!!!

I like to obsess over forgotten minor characters like a true nerd (like Epipole, the Greek Mulan, Thersander, Diomedes fellow Epigone) but except for that, I'm basic.

It's Odysseus ok 😂 he has a lot of whump and a happy ending! All I could ask for.

Also Perseus, the non Ovid version in which Medusa was always a monster.

My favorite myth is Pandora, the interpretation in which Hope is one of the evils, or the worst of them, because it forces you to endure all others for no rational reason. Sometimes you gotta cut your losses, not hope it'll get better.

Plus it's so rad that she got created like this super woman, with all the gods gifting her something, and her job was to open a box?? She didn't even need higher cognitive abilities for that, legend.

I can tell you my least favorite may be Herakles, or Theseus, who looked up to him. I cannot avoid interpreting the 'divine madness' as an excuse for a mean temper and being too cuddled by the gods to suffer proper consequences for his actions. He killed his family and in exchange he became The Hero™️. Rip Megara and kids I suppose, fridged for character development.

I'd love to let a Herakles stan change my mind though.

My least favorite myth(s) are the modern retellings twisting the original's meaning and agency to make a cheap fake feminism point or an over-edgy tragedy in which everybody sucks.

I know people think Miller but I mean more Jennifer Saint, super dry narration, no positive character, the pointlessly saddest endings in the canon wtf

That was a lovely question! Thank you! 🥰🥰