Greek Heroes
Most beloved companion of the hero Achilles, and in many retellings also his lover. In the Iliad his fateful decision to try to save the Greeks by dressing in Achilles’ armor sets in motion the final act of the story.
Who is Patroclus?
"Frail she was but crafty, with a mind like a spiked-toothed eel"
Who is Perse?
"He was another knife, I could feel it. A different sort, but a knife still."
Who is Odysseus? (The knife = Odysseus)
"I shooed the wolves and lions outside....I led [these men] to my tables, then hurried to the kitchen to bring out heaping platters of stewed figs and roasted fish, brined cheese and bread....I carried more fish, more cheese...I set out fresh water in bowls, so they might wash their fingers...When the captain's cup was dry, I filled it from the brimming bowl."
What is Xenia?
"The truth is, men make terrible ______"
What is Pigs?
Born from the nereid Thetis, this swiftest of all Greeks and best of the Achaian warriors at Troy, described by Odysseus as beautiful, brilliant, graceful and deadly. Odysseus thinks that "he made a terrible soldier, however many men he could bleed."
Who is Achilles?
"His face was like a quiet pool that would hold everything safe in its depths."
What is Daedalus' face?
"I lay on the dirt, weeping. Those flowers had made him his true being, which was blue, and finned, and not mine. I thought I would die of such pain, which was not like the sinking numbness Aeetes had left behind, but the sharp and fierce as a blade through my chest. But of course I could not die. I would live on, through each scalding moment to the next. This is the grief that makes our kind choose to be stones and trees rather than flesh."
What is Circe's GRIEF? (Unreturned love)
"That unwholesome air had thickened, coating everything with an oily heaviness...It rose from unpurified crimes, from deeds done against the gods, and from the unsanctified spilling of blood."
What is Miasma?
"I was a golden witch who had no _____at all."
What is Past?
Son of Zeus and the most famous of the golden-age heroes. Known for his tremendous strength, he was forced to perform twelve labors in penance to the goddess Hera, who hated him for being the product of one of Zeus’ affairs. While all the other boys played at killing monsters like this guy, Odysseus always dreamed of being Daedalus instead.
Who is Heracles?
What is Circe's Loneliness?
"The spiral shell. Always another curve out of sight."
Who is Odysseus?
Circe holds a piglet, cuts its throat, and lets its blood drop into a golden basin. Medea and Jason wash their hands into sacred water while Circe sings hymns.
What is Katharsis?
"The light had reached the loom, and its cedar scent was rising through the air. The memory of _________' white-scarred hands, and the pleasure I had taken in them, was like a hot wired pushed through my brain."
Who is Daedalus?
Hero of the golden who comes to Aiaia with his lover to seek absolution for a horrific crime they committed to ward off Aeetes. Circe observes he is "rolling out boulders, yoking the bulls, plowing and seeding the field," always taking credit for actions that belonged properly to Medea.
Who is Jason?
"They circled him like bees their hive."
"Even wise men go astray sometimes, but never her. She is a fixed star, a true-made bow."
Who is Penelope?
"After Knossos' sunny, out-flung pavilions, my house was snug as a burrow. I walked its neat rooms, feeling the silence, the stillness, the scuff of no feet but my own. I put my hand to every surface, every cupboard and cup. They were all as they had been. As they should ever be."
What is Nostos?
What is Witch?
Prince of Athens, sent to Crete as part of Athens’ promised tribute of fourteen youths to feed the Minotaur’s savage appetite. Instead, he killed the Minotaur with the princess Ariadne’s help.
Who is Theseus?
Who is Hector?
"'I told them' he said to me, 'I told them and told them. Where there is rot in the walls, there is only one remedy.'
The purple bruise at my throat was turning green at its edges. I pressed it, feel the splintered ache.
Tear down. I thought. Tear down and build again."
What is Circe's Trauma?
"My throat clicked. I felt a space open in me...I drew breath, and spoke my word."
What is LOGOS?
Witchcraft is nothing but such __________. Each herb must be found in its den, harvested at its time, grubbed up from the dirt, culled and stripped, washed and prepared."
What is DRUDGERY?