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amari_zApparently shame is less of a factor in my life than ever, because I have continued to run around buying books as though I have nothing but leisure to read them. They're for research, I tell myself. Um. Yeah.
One of my recent purchases was this. (Shut up, I got it used.) Coolest thing ever (okay, maybe not ever, but close).
In writing Manslayer and thinking about the rest of the oh, 98 stories I'm supposed to write, I've gone through and tried to untangle Achilleus and Patroklos's family tree. Greek mythology genealogy is like a Gordian knot made of gum (if you tried to cut through it with a sword, your sword would just get stuck). Amazingly, the writers of the movie Troy, whom I'm told made Achilleus and Patroklos cousins, to the indignation of many, were not exactly right, but not completely off their heads either.
So, Achilleus and Patroklos have a common ancestor, Aegina. Agenia had a child with Aktor, who is called Menoitios, who is Patroklos's father. So Agenia is Patroklos's grandmother.
Aegina also had a son by Zeus. That was Aiakos. Aiakos had three sons, one of whom is Peleus. Peleus is Achilleus's father. So Aegina is the great grandmother of Achilleus.
Which makes Patroklos Peleus's cousin (not Achilleus') (or really, half cousin since Aktor is Aiakos's half brother--I don't know what the technical term is for that, let's just go with half-cousin). So I think that makes Achilleus Patroklos's half-cousin once removed. Or, if you're from my part of the world, where families are extended and we don't do any of this fancy genealogy crap--Patroklos is Achilleus' uncle.
But wait! It gets more interesting (and oddly almost symmetrical). Who exactly Patroklos's mother was is not known. One of three candidates is a woman named Polymele, the daughter of Peleus and some unknown woman (but not Thetis, Achilleus' mother). If Polymele is Patroklos's mother (she married her half-cousin twice removed), Achilleus would then be Patroklos's (half) uncle since Achilleus and Ploymele are siblings with different mothers. (And, rather frighteningly, Polymele is her own son's half-cousin once removed (or as I'd put it, her son is also her uncle)--but hey, it's Greek mythology!)
Umm, well, yeah. Confused? I have made my own chart.
But I'm chuckling at how indignant people would have been if the filmmakers had gone with the Ploymele theory (legitimately supported by the sources as a possibility) and had Achilleus be Patroklos's uncle. I can hear both the shrieking and the dirty jokes.
One of my recent purchases was this. (Shut up, I got it used.) Coolest thing ever (okay, maybe not ever, but close).
In writing Manslayer and thinking about the rest of the oh, 98 stories I'm supposed to write, I've gone through and tried to untangle Achilleus and Patroklos's family tree. Greek mythology genealogy is like a Gordian knot made of gum (if you tried to cut through it with a sword, your sword would just get stuck). Amazingly, the writers of the movie Troy, whom I'm told made Achilleus and Patroklos cousins, to the indignation of many, were not exactly right, but not completely off their heads either.
So, Achilleus and Patroklos have a common ancestor, Aegina. Agenia had a child with Aktor, who is called Menoitios, who is Patroklos's father. So Agenia is Patroklos's grandmother.
Aegina also had a son by Zeus. That was Aiakos. Aiakos had three sons, one of whom is Peleus. Peleus is Achilleus's father. So Aegina is the great grandmother of Achilleus.
Which makes Patroklos Peleus's cousin (not Achilleus') (or really, half cousin since Aktor is Aiakos's half brother--I don't know what the technical term is for that, let's just go with half-cousin). So I think that makes Achilleus Patroklos's half-cousin once removed. Or, if you're from my part of the world, where families are extended and we don't do any of this fancy genealogy crap--Patroklos is Achilleus' uncle.
But wait! It gets more interesting (and oddly almost symmetrical). Who exactly Patroklos's mother was is not known. One of three candidates is a woman named Polymele, the daughter of Peleus and some unknown woman (but not Thetis, Achilleus' mother). If Polymele is Patroklos's mother (she married her half-cousin twice removed), Achilleus would then be Patroklos's (half) uncle since Achilleus and Ploymele are siblings with different mothers. (And, rather frighteningly, Polymele is her own son's half-cousin once removed (or as I'd put it, her son is also her uncle)--but hey, it's Greek mythology!)
Umm, well, yeah. Confused? I have made my own chart.
But I'm chuckling at how indignant people would have been if the filmmakers had gone with the Ploymele theory (legitimately supported by the sources as a possibility) and had Achilleus be Patroklos's uncle. I can hear both the shrieking and the dirty jokes.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-12 04:29 pm (UTC)The whole A/P relationship is bad enough--I had to go with one of the alternatives for Patroklos's mother for my fic. Otherwise I don't think I could have handled it. : )