Yeet. Sorry this is late. Exams kept me busy and this has been the first week I've ever really had to relax. I promise to keep this consistent. Without further ado, the rest of this gay and bloody tale.

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So today, I'm going to talk about all the pre-war stuff.

Menelaus wants to get Helen back from Troy and because of the promise, all of Helen's past suitors must help him. Menelaus's brother, Agamemnon is all for going to war.

Let's take each important character on the Greek side one by one.

There's a dude named Ajax The Greater who was really strong and never hurt by either side but still died; more on that later. There's also a guy called Ajax The Lesser. I don't think he's that important. Diomedes is Athena's favored warrior and is second best to Achilles. He was gifted the ability to tell the difference between Olympians and humans.

Ok, now for the more important things.

Odysseus is the king of a small kingdom called Ithica. He and Penelope just had a baby named Telemachus. He doesn't want to go to war for that reason, even though he's the one who proposed the damn plan in the first place.

Since he's known for being really smart, he pretends to be insane in order to escape going to war. Agamemnon and Menelaus call him out on his BS and put him to a test. They take Telemachus, but him in front of a plow, and if Odysseus runs over his son with the plow, then he is truly insane.

Odysseus obviously didn't go through with it and is off to war.

Thetis didn't want Achilles to go to war, so she dresses him up as a woman and makes him go to a priory (at least I think. All I know is that he was sent to a place with a lot of women). Anyway, Odysseus and he are pretty good friends so he's able to figure things out really quickly. 

Something I forgot to mention is that Thetis is a very powerful prophet. She foretells that Achilles will either die young as a warrior or live a long life staying in Greece. He chooses the warrior life.

Achilles agrees to go because he's the greatest Greek warrior, being invincible, and all. He goes to war and takes his soldiers, the Myrmidons, and his boyfriend, Patroclus. HOMER, YOU CAN FIGHT ME. 

Fine, I'll indulge more, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE 150% IN LOVE, GREEK SCHOLARS CAN'T TELL ME OTHERWISE. *ahem* So Achilles and Patroclus have pretty much known each other forever. They're best friends. They also look a bit similar. Some versions of the story say they're cousins, but they're just finding an excuse to prevent their obvious love.

CONCLUSION: THEY ARE A THING AND ACHILLES IS THE BOTTOM.

Anyway...

So before all the Greeks can set sail, they need to make sacrifices to each god. Agamemnon did something that pissed off Artemis and that's not good.

In order to sail to Troy, Agamemnon has to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia. Uh oh. He doesn't want to, but peer pressure. He tells Iphigenia that she's gonna marry Achilles to make her come to the sacrifice spot.

She eventually finds out that she's supposed to be a sacrifice and accepts her fate. Unlike Psyche, her story doesn't end happily. What happens to her depends on the story you're reading. Some say that she dies completely, Artemis rescues her and makes her a priestess, or Artemis fakes the sacrifice with the help of the god Pan and then she's free to run away and do whatever.

But no matter way, she's never heard from again.

Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, is not very happy with him. That will be really important later.

So now they're free to sail! Yay!

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Welp, that happened. It gets more messed up from here. At least we have Patroclus and Achilles and that's really all we need. I can make a whole book of me gushing over them. Anyway, once again, I'm sorry for not being consistent with posting. Honestly, I may have to go back on hiatus after I'm done with The Illiad. I have not had time to research Celtic Myths. However, now that I'm on break, I will hopefully get that time back. Depending on how I feel after this is over, I may just keep going with the Greek Myths and research Celtic ones in the background. I'll figure this out. Thank you so much for reading and look forward to the next story!

Currently listening to: She Likes Girls: Metro Station