Another busy day, but late tonight I skipped around and worked on a couple of small bits, starting to hone them down so I can work in earnest on them later.

One of the pieces was from the part where Helen's brothers leave to join the quest for the Golden Fleece, and it nearly rips my heart out to try and write it. I don't know why this particular leave-taking affects me more than some of the others, but it might be because one of the bits from Homer that I already was aware of was this scene where Helen is on the battlements of Troy with King Priam. The armies of Greece (where Helen is from) are below them, and Priam, rather than resenting her for being the cause of all this, kindly asks her to tell him who some of the men are--a very kindly gesture indeed, considering that they all intend to kill him and destroy his city.

So Helen tells him, and she describes some of the better-known warriors a little--but then she adds that she doesn't see her two brothers, and wonders why they haven't come.

In the next line Homer tells us that the reason is her brothers are dead; they're underneath the beloved earth back in Helen's homeland. Once they leave (in my scene), she will never see them again, and when they die she won't know about it, but will keep thinking of them for long years afterward, wondering about them, worrying whether she's lost their love and approval. It's so terribly sad.