HAS A FINE EXCHANGE.

pitch | the year of pieria's roses

2026-06-19T05:53:28Z

How did Andromeda become a villain in Sappho's story? Was she always that?

In her own story, Andromeda was never the villain but first the tender and then the scorned lover, and there was a year in time when she wasn't the villain of Sappho's story either. She had not yet stolen Atthis from her. Atthis was known to neither one of them.

Being the daughter of an olive trader who is making a fortune in the olive oil business, she begins sponsoring Sappho for the fun of it, because she can, to outrage the poetess who looks down on Andromeda's New Money ways, and to be closer to this blazing young woman who is clearly meant to tread the heavens one day. However, what she wants for her, freedom - freedom not to marry and not to be bound to a man - is not what either of them gets, since Sappho is of a conservative, noble family and the following year agrees to marry the tradesman from Andros that her parents have chosen for her.

Which leads her to break off her relationship to Andromeda, who takes it extremely personally - how her beloved goes with tradition rather than with her.

This will become Andromedas origin story.

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timeline |

2026-03-26T07:08:53Z

633, Andromeda born in Eresos
630, Sappho born in Eresos
620, Sappho's father dies, she takes up the singer craft
612, first tyrant of Mytilene killed
611, Andromeda starts sponsoring Sappho's work and the two become lovers
610, Sappho marries Kerikles, breaks it off with Andromeda
609, Andromeda starts pursuing Atthis to get revenge
608, Sigean War, Myrsilus' rise to power, Sappho gives birth to Kleïs
604, Sappho is exiled to Sicily
597, Myrsilus dies
595, end Sappho's exile
590, Pittacus is elected ruler
580, Pittacus resigns
570, Sappho dies
571, Andromeda dies

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historical context |

2023-06-29T17:17:08Z

Take the original historical context of Andromeda:

She lived smack in the middle of the Great Age of Greek Tyranny (750-500 BC), in a Lesbos that prospered economically, but also saw war (Sigean War, 608 BC) and instability, insofar that many aristocrat families tried to seize power, one after the other. It was this intrige that eventually sent Sappho and her family in exile to Sicily, while Andromeda - unaffiliated with the aristocracy - could stay behind and profit from the unrest. No one would ever want to go down on olive oil, after all - not in Mytilene and not abroad. Her father's and thus her business would come to boom.

Meanwhile the second tyrant of Lesbos, Myrsilus, was rising to power around the time of the Sigean War and his second-in-command Pittacus of military fame stood by his side as the long arm of the law, until eventually in 597 BC, Myrsilus died and Pittacus could take over the throne himself. Despite prompting laws that were extremely unpopular with the aristocrats of Mytilene, Pittacus would eventually come to be regarded as one of the Seven Sages of Greece.

He reigned a Lesbos in prosperity. And Andromeda lived there.

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info | permissions

2023-06-28T23:01:28Z

CHARACTER
NAME: Andromeda
AGE: Mid-twenties
GENDER: Female
SPECIES: Human
BIRTH DATE: November 30th, ~633 BC
RESIDENCE: Mytilene, Lesbos, Greece
OCCUPATION: Heiress to a trading family
LANGUAGES: Aeolic Greek, TBD
POWERS: None

PERMISSIONS
BACKTAGGING: Yes, please, I rely on it
4TH WALLING: Yes
THREADJACKING: No
KISSING: Yes, primarily F/F
HUGGING: Yes
SEX: No, FTB okay
FIGHTING: Catfights okay, otherwise ask first
INJURY: Yes, though contact me about severe injuries
ROMANCE: Yes, primarily F/F, though not turning down F/M if good chemistry
DEATH: Yes, but let's plot

CONTACT: PM or thewriteway.

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