#TheGoodSpartan

[the-good-spartan]

In the Gymnasium - Adimantos, Antidas & Brasidas.

My dream, as far as art goes, is to be able to draw realistic (as I imagine them anyway) scenes of ancient life. I don’t know that I’ll ever get there, but I wanted to see how far I could go with it as my skills now stand.

This is 100% the very limit of what I can draw at this point in time. I am actually surprised to say I’m pretty happy with it.

I do wish they’d exercised in socks. And I skipped body hair. Next time. For now it’s back to character design :)

#brasidas #brasidas of sparta #thegoodspartan #Adimantos #Antidas #my OC #artists on tumblr #Sparta #Spartans #jpdoingart

[jpdoingart]

My OC Antidas.

I wanted to do some drawing/shading/colour practice and I wanted to redesign Antidas because I hadn’t drawn him in a really long time and while I like my original design, it was pretty gnarly anatomically. This is the result.

Like my last drawing of Adimantos, this is post-Another Life, when he can grow a moustache and cut his hair short-ish. No more braids - thank the gods!

#digital art #jpdoingart #original character #character design #thegoodspartan #spartan oc #oc antidas

[brasideios]

Pulled out my hard copy of the Good Spartan, thinking it was a recent print out - or at least, one after the story was complete; but then I saw this in the contents:

I sure didn’t call it that in the published version 😂

#it’s from about 80% of the way through the writing process #the last chapters don’t exist yet. #theGoodSpartan

[the-good-spartan]

Antidas

😍 I am obsessed.

#thegoodspartan #ancient sparta #my oc #antidas #oc Antidas #Sparta #Spartan #spartan hairstyle #jpdoingart

[the-good-spartan]

WIP Wednesday

[This really should have been last week’s WIP Wednesday, but since I’ve only written a few sentences in the last few days - one of which is ‘He came to stand before the idol, standing tall and beautifully adorned where she stood, facing the door....’ I am going to skip giving you a larger sample of what I’m working at just now 😂😅]

Time to introduce a new OC for this tiny WIP snippet 🙌

Bardas is Brasidas’ ex-mentor and a close friend, and is a cousin of Archidemos. He’s about five years older than Brasidas, and (though this has never been mentioned in the text) he is in charge of the Iron House, which was the armoury in (historical) Sparta; a position which, in my head at least, is very prestigious. He’s a kind of mover and shaker behind the scenes for the Eurypontids.

I often think about how there was no real comprehension of depression (or other mental illnesses) in the ancient world, and especially in Sparta, where it was all about repressing feelings; so it crops up a lot in my writing. Long story short, Brasidas one way and another got in touch with his feelings, and often finds himself in the support role of his friends breakdowns.

This particular snippet occurs after Archidemos died in 427 - this scene is right at the beginning of 424. Mikkos was his lover who died before the beginning of this story.

***

Brasidas had just finished eating, and was heading out into the snowy dark when Bardas called after him. He stopped and turned back, waiting for him to catch up.

Though they saw each other as frequently as they always had, it seemed as though they always spoke of trivialities or politics. Bardas had grown quieter, more reserved, and Brasidas knew that it was more than an effect of the low morale that all of Sparta was suffering under that winter; it had begun with Archidemos’ death and hadn’t eased since. He always seemed tired. The one attempt Brasidas had made to draw him out about the root cause had been firmly side-stepped, and he’d taken the hint.

They embraced, and Bardas said, ‘Agis wishes to meet us tonight. He meant to send a messenger, but it was forgotten amongst the rounds of meetings today.’

[There’s a little back and forward here - but that’s spoilers so I’ve excised it :)]

[Bardas said] ‘I knew it was going to be harder to get things done when Pleistoanax returned, but I never thought he would be like this. The attack is constant and insidious.’ He sighed, a long sigh. ‘I’m tired of it.’

Brasidas tentatively suggested, ‘You miss Archidemos.’

Bardas glanced at him, hesitating, but said, ‘It has been difficult. Agis is a good king, a good Spartan, but he doesn’t have the same way of seeing to the heart of things.’ He paused, looking at Brasidas for a long moment before he said softly, ‘No - I can be honest with you.’ There was another pause before he said, ‘You’re right. I do miss him – as a friend, as a brother. I know I should have left my mourning behind, but I find I can’t. If I’ve been reserved with you of late, it’s because I don’t want to talk about it. Words…’ He shook his head, the bitterness back in his voice. ‘My whole life has been about words: what can be done with them, their utility, their power and their failure to have power when we most wish them to. No talking will bring him or Mikkos back; no talking will take the suffering away. Only time can do that, if the gods are kind.’ He looked at Brasidas then, and added in a warmer tone, ‘I haven’t talked to you about it because I know you understand, and that is enough.’

Brasidas could say nothing to that, only rested a hand on his arm for a moment, before turning the subject.

#TheGoodSpartan #wip wednesday #bardas #myoc #snippet #wip #jpdoingart #jpdoingwords

[the-good-spartan]

Progress check - A redraw of the first, rough sketch of Antidas that I did.

Admittedly, I didn’t redraw the hair because those braids were hard enough the first time ☺️

Detail of the braids 🙂

#thegoodspartan #ancient sparta #my art #my oc #Antidas #character design #jpdoingart

[the-good-spartan]

Another of my OCs, Diomede - or the first tentative movement towards drawing her, via a re-draw of an Ancient Greek vase.

She’s the second wife of Brasidas, (the first was/is Nikaia, and I will draw her too eventually) and she’s also Adimantos’ wife, as women having more than one husband was common, according to Xenophon.

Her married state is marked by the short hair, which they cut for the wedding night, and it’s likely they were required to keep it cut thereafter. I’m not sure if I want to take her hair shorter, or make is curlier - but I’ll figure that out :)

Here is a little snippet about her from The Good Spartan - I will write more about her soon though :)

***

Brasidas, once the days of meetings and the usual end-of-season business was out of the way, finally got himself a puppy. It was black, and like all puppies, a silly, long legged, clumsy creature with needle teeth and no sense of personal space or the sanctity of material possessions. Brasidas named him Ajax, after the old hound he’d lost years before.

He brought him home on a cold but not yet snowy evening from the syssition, tucked inside his cloak, his soft little belly warm against his hand.

Diomede was sitting with one of her shawls on her lap, repairing it by the light of a lamp. She looked up as Brasidas came in, smiling. It faded somewhat when she saw the wiggling puppy.

‘Why do you have that?’

He set the puppy down on the floor, and said, ‘This is Ajax. He’ll be a great hunting hound one day.’

She looked over at the silly creature, who was immediately drawn to a dangling cloak near the door, and was jumping, tumbling, then jumping again in an attempt to grab the corner.

She observed, ‘He has a long way to go.’

He chuckled. ‘He does.’

‘I am expected to train him?’ she asked as he capered to where she was, and stood on his hind legs to get a better sniff of her.

‘No, I know a man who can do it for us. I won’t have time, and you don’t know the commands necessary for hunting.’

She was still looking at the puppy, who was looking up at her, and she set aside the shawl, pulling him up onto her lap.

‘He has a certain charm,’ she said, holding him up so that they could look into one another’s eyes. He leant down and gave a tentative lick of her wrist. She giggled – a sound Brasidas had never heard her make before. ‘Alright,’ she said to him, setting him down on the floor again with a smile. ‘You can stay.’

#thegoodspartan #ancient sparta #my oc #Ancient Greek #ancient art redraw #oc diomede #jpdoingwords #jpdoingart

[the-good-spartan]

The area around Amphipolis.

[Map is from Gomme’s A Historical Commentary of Thucydides (1956).]

#thegoodspartan #ancient greece #ancient history #greek history #spartan history #brasidas of sparta #map of Amphipolis

[the-good-spartan]

Sphakteria and Koryphasion (Pylos).

[Map is from Gomme’s A Historical Commentary of Thucydides (1956).]

#sparta #ancient sparta #thegoodspartan #ancient greece #lakedaimon #ancient history #greek history #spartan history #Pylos #map of Pylos

[the-good-spartan]

Me: claims to be an unbiased historian

Also me:

#if Brasidas is involved #my academic neutrality is null and void #TheGoodSpartan #brasidas of sparta

[jpdoingart]

Bardas (an OC) in Sparta.

Just tinkering around with backgrounds and things.

#jpdoingart #digital art #original character #oc Bardas #TheGoodSpartan

[brasideios]

I know nobody cares but…

This song is Alexidas to me. This is Alexios’ song. I’m dying, pleasantly, lol.

#Hello hyperfixation my old friend #I don’t have a playlist per se #but I have begun compiling something #that resembles one #TheGoodSpartan #fanfiction #assassin’s creed odyssey #Alexidas #jpdoingwords #Youtube

[brasideios]

I wrote the thing because no one else would.

Sometimes now I read the thing again, then spend my day stalking around my house screaming on the inside.

My heart is an alligator.

#That’s a #Hunter S Thompson #quote #about the alligator #TheGoodSpartan #fanfiction #behold the field in which i cultivate my vibes #ahhhhhhhh!!!!! #jpdoingwords

[brasideios]

The Good Spartan, the Poem Version?

While I’m at it… back in April of last year, I wrote a kind of poem version of The Good Spartan? Kind of from Alexios’ POV?

I don’t know why, I don’t remember doing it, but here it is anyway.

[I was probably just needing to let some things go while writing TGS - It was challenging not being able to express Alexios’ POV at times.]

In Every Life

In every life,

I would let you live.

I would meet you again

In wreaths of smoke,

Fight beside you,

Our fluid dance of death

And smile when at last

You turned those warm brown eyes

To survey me.

The world you carry

Behind those eyes;

The heartbreak and the suffering

But then no one knew

Perhaps not even you

If you felt anything at all.

How else could you survive?

How else could you continue?

Those warm brown eyes

And voice like honey

Melted in the sun…

Even then

Not knowing what might be

Our eyes danced to meet

As we danced in combat.

What else might be?

What else might be?

In every life

I would steal again into that tower

Watch over you as you slept,

pretend to myself I waited

For you to wake

but content

To listen to your breathing

To know I wasn’t alone anymore.

And from the first, I had this urge:

to guard you, watch over you

To keep you safe

As ribs protect the heart.

In every life I would find you

Browned by sun and salty

With the brine of the sea

Aching to kiss the salt from your lips

Aching to touch you

To know you

To find my way

Like water through a faultline

To the place where you were

I never wanted the surface

But the deep water

The strange fish that swim

Through the places

where no light shone.

I had no fear of your darkness

I had no fear of pain

I wanted to see the places

Even you didn’t know were there.

In every life

For you and you alone

I would dare to step

Where everyone cursed me.

Hated me for what I’d done

As a small boy, unknowing.

You led me there and for you

I went.

Still I guarded you, even

where we were safest.

For you I’d fight anyone

Even Hades himself.

In every life,

I’d press myself to you

Soul to soul, mouth to mouth,

Skin to skin, pain to pain

And panting my love

Hear it echo back to me,

In your inarticulate murmurs

Against my lips, against my ear

Each to each we are redeemed.

Each to each we are alive.

In every life

I would follow you into darkness.

From Temple to battlefield

Battlefield to death,

Death to underworld.

That we should end

As two souls,

shapeless, formless.

Yet even there,

We would know each other.

… yet.

That choice was not mine to make.

And there is only one life.

I must live mine

and yours…

Yours

must

be

enough.

It must be enough.

#assassin’s creed odyssey #fanfiction #TheGoodSpartan #poetry #i apparently write in a state of delirium sometimes #my past life springing surprises on my future self #jpdoingwords #Alexidas #alexios of sparta #brasidas of sparta

[jpdoingart]

To go with the studies of my OC Antidas, the studies of my OC Adimantos.

Forgot to post these last week.

#OC Adimantos #TheGoodSpartan #jpdoingart

[jpdoingart]

Antidas is fast. but Adi has a good arm ☺

#TheGoodSpartan #jpdoingart #OC Antidas #OC Adimantos