Sunday, April 08, 2007

Character Profile: Themistocles

"I am not of the noble Grecian race,
I'm poor Abrotonon, and born in Thrace;
Let the Greek women scorn me, if they please,
I was the mother of Themistocles."

--Plutarch


Thems--as I like to call him for short-- is by far the most exciting yet difficult character to write about in The Owl & The Eagle. This man has so much charisma and ambition it's ridiculous. He is poisounous charm, foxy intelligence, shrewd merchant and zealous patriot. He's always looking out for number one, and doesn't care much about who he has to step on to stay at the top. He is the cult of personality, which makes it exceedingly hard to grasp who the real Themistocles is.

In my story, Thems does indeed have the bulldog face and curly hair of that famous bust you see above, but there's a twist. In my mind's eye he's a carrot-top, with orangish red hair set off by a pair of small, hazel eyes that see sharply. He's quick to laugh and most insults roll right off his back; he's used to them. He's managed to dodge ostracism and Persian arrows so little frigthens him except for failure, or worse, fading into obscurity. It seems he takes little seriously but he's always calculating and factoring things into his plans, because he is blessed with uncanny forsight. He is impatient and often blunt, which tends to rub some people the wrong way. The commoners love him though, because he is willing to converse among them and speak up for them, even though it's usually to his own benefit...

4 comments:

Gabriele Campbell said...

Oh yes, read hair goes with that face. :)

Gabriele Campbell said...

Oops - anyone need an 'a'? 'Cause I've got an extra one.

red, of course.

Meghan said...

Yeah, for some reason the busts looks like my biology teacher from high school, who has orange-red hair and I think hazel eyes. So of course Thems has it too. (^_^)

Wynn Bexton said...

Have you been to Athens? There are still traces of those Long Walls.
And in the Agora museum there are pieces of clay voter's shards for the ostracism votes that I believe had fragments of his name on them.