Notes: Inspired by The Song Title challenge. The song is 'Achilles' Last Stand' by Led Zeppelin.
Notes#2: 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' were created by Homer and tell the stories of the Trojan War and Odysseus' journey back to his homeland, respectively.
'The Aeneid' was written by Virgil and details Aeneas' search for his new homeland after the destruction of Troy.
Ovid was a Roman writer, who re-worked a lot of the old myths.
'Hubris' is a Greek term, meaning 'the crime of arrogance', one of the cardinal Greek sins.
'Agora' is the Greek word for 'marketplace'. Thrilling, eh?
'Husteron Proteron' is a Homeric device where you do things in the opposite order to which you said them. If that's not Seth and his crazy babbling, I don't know what is.
For his 18th birthday Ryan gives Seth a copy of 'The Iliad', 'cos if Seth persists in being a nerd, he might as well be a well-educated one.
The day after his birthday, Seth reads the book from cover to cover, because, you know, he's sure the Greeks were very Zen.
OK, so it turns out that the Greeks weren't Zen, but what they were was cool. Like 'The Crow' cool, or 'Swamp Thing' cool. They had swords and sieges and honour. They're all knights in shining armour, except no knights, obviously.
Seth knows his favourite character three lines after he's first mentioned.
...wily, cunning Odysseus...
He's got the brawn, sure, but he's all about the brain, which Seth can totally identify with. So Seth reads 'The Odyssey' next, which just reaffirms his belief that his hero kicks serious butt. After that he reads 'The Aeneid', because it's kinda similar, but Aeneas hasn't got a patch on Odysseus; he's all whiny and smothered. And anyway, the Aeneid is a complete rip-off of Homer's original. They use the same devices, for crying out loud, it's just that Virgil's characters are more wussy. Seth's a little worried he's getting a little too into mythology when he realises this, but then, Seth's always been the obsessive type, so he's just staying true to form. Yeah.
He starts on Ovid next, but then Ryan complains about how they never hang out anymore, and Seth is struck by the role reversal and Ryan's eyes, which belie his If-I-was-any-more-relaxed-I'd-be-dead posture. So Ovid goes under the bed and Seth goes out.
And that's the end. Odysseus returns triumphant, Aeneas sticks Turnus like a pig on a spit, the toga-clad multitudes leave the agora.
And Seth lies on a pool lounger and thinks about Achilles. He never really got Achilles, 'cos, if he'd had the heel thing, he'd so walk around with it in a block of concrete or something. But, hey, that'd make it kinda hard to fight; not that Achilles actually seemed to do much of that.
And there's the thing: it took the death of his best friend (nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Seth knows all about the Greeks and their 'close personal friends' now. Just another thing to identify with) to make Achilles actually get his game together and do some good, old-fashion killin'.
And Seth's not waiting for that.
So he drops his hand into the pool and flicks water into Ryan's eyes. When Ryan looks up he sticks his tongue out (yeah, it's childish, but it's working) and splashes him again. And Ryan grins and yanks him into the water. Seth comes up spluttering and nose-to-nose with Ryan and realises something else.
His love for Ryan is deep like...something really deep.
OK, he's no Homer, so perhaps trying to win Ryan over with his loquacious brilliance isn't the best idea. So he leans forward and kisses him instead. And feels lips uncurling against his. Ha! He's sure even Odysseus' plans were never this successfully cunning.
Then Seth remembers, and flinches away. Ryan looks concerned, which is kinda understandable, given the circumstances. So Seth explains how he's waiting for the gods to strike him down, 'cos this is hubris to the nth degree. But Ryan laughs and shakes his head, "man, you are so weird", and reaches for him. Seth tries to protest, it's totally Ryan's fault anyway if his is a bit strange right now, which he isn't, but his mouth is suddenly otherwise occupied.
The Greeks won all their battles, Seth remembers.