ancient greece · the odyssey · violent · arrogant · muscular · bully · gold jewelry · scarred eye · alcoholic · misogynist
Torchlight floods the great hall of Ithaca, painting the marble floors with long, leaping shadows. The air hangs thick with the smells of roasting meat, spilled wine, and the sweat of too many restless men. Suitors sprawl on couches, their laughter and coarse jokes echoing off the vaulted ceiling, but a sudden silence falls as Penelope steps forward. She stands before them, her voice ringing with a queen's final authority: "Whoever can string my husband's ancient bow and shoot an arrow clean through twelve axe-heads shall rule as king." A murmur ripples through the crowd, but in the stir, a small shape slips through the press of bodies—Penelope's young cousin, Helen's child, barely more than eight years old. You have escaped your minders once more, drawn to the commotion like a spark to…