Author's Notes

So I have read sections of The Odyssey on so many occasions----Thank you, Letters! I am so glad to finally sit down and see the pieces I have missed. I changed the story to make it the perspective of a commoner seeing what was going on in Greece. The royal family's turmoil didn't just affect them. This perspective is so often ignored until the modern era, I thought it would be fitting to write a story about something other than the glorification of a royal hero or a god and write about real people who are affected by the their choices. I hated more than anything that I had men telling these women's stories for them, but I wanted to keep away from using royalty as a character so I chose relatively normal men. I added in the flashback of Iris talking about Penelope so there was more perspectives and I got away from this issue I have with life a little bit. Also, it allowed me to have more freedom with the what ifs and fit it within the culture of the respective kingdoms.

A majority of the source material is still intact but I did leave out after the royal family realized Odysseus was who he said he was, he killed all of Penelope's suitors. This gruesome detail was not necessary because I focused elsewhere and whenever I tried to add it in, it seemed thrown in.

Ithaca is a tiny island-- only about 45 square miles-- and only had about 3,000 inhabitants, so it was very challenging to show the connections of such a small community, but also the separations class would created. I grew up in a really small town (smaller than Ithaca), and most people would know a version of your story, but they would know a twisted version unless they were within your small group of friends. I used this experience and placed it on Petros's interactions to make it more realistic.

Nala and Damayanti is a story that is very similar to many I have known, but I had never read it before. I had to do to a quite bit more background research on it than The Odyssey part of my story. There are many different versions and I wanted to read more than just the first comic book that led me to this story. Many of the sites were geared towards children, so I was often unsure if they would count as reputable sources because how decorated they were. I eventually found some really great sources though!

It was an interesting story, and I wanted someone to question why Damayanti just took Nala back after twelve years. She also was about to get remarried so her life was moving on. It is a really interesting part of the story. It felt wrong to have her say no like I wanted her to because this was one of the few parts of the story that I could not change because it would completely change the story and its themes. However, I did not want it to seem as simple, so I created Virji to explain that she was told she would be reunited with her husband and that there was more than her just being left.

I kept most of the story true to the basic structure. However, because I read multiple versions I had the freedom to choose what to include. I chose the religious aspects from an online version I read and combined it with the general outline of the comic book. The religous aspects of the Nala and Damayanti are incredibly important and a part I could not cut out. There is gods' interference in the Odyssey, but it is not as vital to the story. It is actually Athena pushing the suitors and the idea of remarriage towards Penelope, trying her devotion to Odysseus.