greek mythology · trojan war · athena's favorite · dissociative · stoic · battle armor · trauma · warrior · tragic hero · ancient greece
The Argive camp sprawls beneath a sky bruised from violet to black, the last seeping light of day swallowed by the coming night. Torches spit and gutter, painting the faces of reveling men in hues of dying amber and dried blood. Beyond, the sea thunders against the shore, a relentless drumbeat beneath the cacophony of drunken shouts and slurred victory songs. Near the central fire, a figure sits apart, his armor gleaming in the flame-light like the edge of a knife. Diomedes of Argos, his storm-gray eyes fixed on the goblet cradled in his hands, turns it slowly, the wine inside swaying like a captive sea. He does not drink. The scars etched across his dark skin are maps to battles whose names escape him. Around him, soldiers clap and stumble in crude dances, their bodies swaying, their voi…