More Buried Treasure.

Last week I told you how I stumbled upon a gem of a book I found at a used bookstore. This week I went back to said bookstore and found yet ANOTHER gem. This one is called Voyages in Classical Mythology, and I snatched it up for only $15.



Voyages in Classical Mythology is an encyclopedia that chronicles the voyages and adventures of 44 heroes and deities from Greek and Roman mythology. Besides recounting the tales of famous heroes like Herakles and Achilles, author Mary Snodgrass also covers the travels of lesser-known characters like Nauplius and Palinurus. Although this book doesn't directly help me with my Themistocles novel, it does sometimes explain the origins of certain place names in and around Attica/Athens which I find useful. For example, history tells us that Themistocles lived in an area of Athens called Melite. As it turns out, Melite was the name of a queen of Athens whom King Aegeus divorced because she bore him no children. It's the kind of fun fact I like to slip into my stories.

Each hero's story is broken down into four parts: genealogy and background, journey, alternate versions of the story and the symbolism behind the tale. This makes reading the book much easier to digest and allows the reader to keep everything straight in their head. There are even bullet points for heroes like Herakles who not only went everywhere but did everything.

It would have been nice if the book had focused on maybe ten heroes and really done an in-depth analysis of their travels around Greece and their influence on Ancient Greek culture, but this book is really meant as a basic encyclopedia of Ancient Greek and Roman deities and heroes and to be enjoyed by anyone of any age. At only $15 and full of interesting stories fun facts, Voyages in Classical Mythology is a good book to own.

Finding Buried Treasure.

These days it's very hard for me to find a book on Ancient Greece I don't already have. Every week I poke around Borders looking for something new on the subject, and every month I do a search on Amazon's massive website to see if I missed anything. Lately it seems the only books I don't have on Ancient Greece are ones I can't afford (some textbooks cost well over a hundred dollars). So imagine my surprise when I nonchalantly glided into a used book store the other day and found (gasp!) a book on Ancient Greece I'd never seen...for only seven bucks!

A History of The Greek City States 700-338 B.C. by Raphael Sealey is a great find. Published in 1976, this book gives a basic account of...well, the Greek city-states between 700-338 BCE. But what makes it stand out is the level of detail. The author dives into not only what happened but WHY. Take a look at this paragraph from Appendix A, which tries to explain some oddities in Cleisthenes' division of the trittyes, demes and tribes:

"Usually each trittys held a connected parcel of territory, but [D.M.] Lewis draws attention to some anomalies. Two of these are especially revealing. The first concerns the costal trittys of the tribe Pandionis. Most of this trittys lay in a block south of Brauron; but the deme Probalinthos, just south of Marathon, belonged to the same trittys, although seperated from it by the coastal trittys of the tribe Aegeis. This anomaly can be explained.

There was a much older unit, the Tetrapolis, consisting of the adjacent villages of Marathon, Oenoe, Trikorythos and Probalinthos; this continued to perform religious functions; indeed as late as the first century B.C., on occasion when the Athenian state sent the sacred deputation called the Pythias to Delphi, the Marathonian Tetrapolis sent its own seperate envoys. Cleisthenes detached Probalinthos from the old Tetrapolis and allocated it to the more distant trittys of the tribe Pandionis. The district of Marathon had Peisistratid connections; the anomaly surely reveals a desire to prevent the old Tetrapolis from retaining political significance."

Super detailed, right? Although all this convoluted stuff might explain why I'm one of the few people crazy enough to take on this time period in Athenian history. There's a LOT going on!

In short, A History of The Greek City States 700-338 B.C. is full of maps, illustrations, notes and interesting ideas. If you can find it or order it online, it's a good one to have in your collection (at least if you love ridiculous amounts of detail like me).

The Lightning Thief (Full Review)

Percy Jackson & The Olympians is not really for adults. It's a tween adventure series meant to be read by 6th graders just starting to learn about Ancient Greece and Rome. Still, that didn't stop me from picking the first book up at Borders yesterday, and I have to say that I found The Lightning Thief to be a quick and entertaining read.

The basic premise of the story is this: Percy Jackson is an somewhat ordinary if troubled kid from New York who finds himself in the middle of a war between the gods. It turns out that Percy (Perseus) is the son of Poseidon and is suspected of stealing Zeus' master lightning bolt, which allows any god that posseses it to rule over all of Olympus. Of course the poor kid has no idea what's going on (or even who his father is) until every imaginable monster from Greek mythology comes after him and he's forced to go on a quest to clear his name. Tagging along for the ride is Annabeth, daugher of Athena, and a satyr named Grover. They have only until the summer solstice to find the missing bolt and return it to Zeus, otherwise a war between the gods will commence, and the world will be destroyed.

What I really love about this series is the idea that the Greek Pantheon not only existed in ancient times but still exists today; as long as Western Civilization lives on, so do The Olympians. Author Rick Riordan doesn't just have them sitting around Olympus wearing chitons and togas either; the Olympians are active around different cities in America and have modernized themselves: Dionysus wears a Hawaiian shirt, Ares rides a motorcycle, Charon likes Italian suits and Medusa owns a shop that (naturally) sells stone statues. This unique twist makes for some great reading, and the action is fast and furious as various monsters pop up (always in interesting disguises) in an attempt to prevent Percy from completing his quest.

I only have a couple of complaints about this book. One is that Annabeth is said to be the daughter of Athena. Anyone worth their weight in Greek mythology knows that Athena is a virgin (along with Hestia and Artemis). Another is that the kids can't seem to learn their lessons fast enough when it comes to monsters. They keep ignoring their instincts and doing things that get them into trouble. I'm aware that it's a plot device, but sometimes I have to shake my head at the lack of common sense these kids sometimes show.


Speaking of learning lessons, I DO like how Rick Riordan explains learning disabilities like dyslexia and ADHD, both of which Percy has. Rather than them being something that kids should be ashamed of, they are something magical. For Percy, dyslexia is a result of his brain being hard-wired for Ancient Greek instead of English, and his ADHD is explained as a battlefield reflex, one that will save him in his fight against powerful monsters. I think that sends a really positive message to children: ADHD and dyslexia are not disabilities that you should be ashamed of. They do NOT make you stupid in any way, shape or form.

The Lightning Thief is not a long read; it's 375 pages of big print and short chapters, each full of adventure and starring a likable young hero who is able to overcome all manner of adversity in order to save the world. I managed to get through the entire book in a day, and am thinking about getting the next book in the series soon. So if you like Greek history and mythology, I highly recommend The Lightning Thief. :)

Marathon: "Nike" (Just Do It)

Close to 2500 years ago, a small army of Athenian Greeks and their plucky Plataian allies took a bold stand against an invading army. It was at a place called Marathon that the outnumbered Hellenes achieved total victory against the might Persian Empire. This victory is still known today by almost everyone, thanks to a young runner named Philippides who practically flew the 26 mile distance between Marathon and Athens to report the stunning win. Once he arrived in the city, Philippides used the last of his strength to shout "NIKE!" (victory) and immediately dropped dead. The modern Marathon race is in his honor.

Writing a book about the Battle of Marathon is an excellent idea, and Professor Richard A. Billows is smart to release this book on the eve of the battle's 2500th anniversary. Unfortunately, Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization wasn't quite what I was hoping for. Rather than a detailed account of the battle with an array of new theories to offer, the entire first half of the book is simply a broad overview of Archaic Greece. That's great for those just starting to dip their toes into the world of ancient history, but for those of us who are a bit more advanced, it's kind of a let down.

To be fair, the author has some imaginative insights. He stresses what it was like to actually be there. The sights, the sounds (or lack there of), the smells; even the feel of what it must have been like to be a phalanx hoplite. When trying to capture a sense of the ancient experience for a modern audience, Billows smartly compares phalanx warfare not to modern warfare, but that "...It is rather the experience of being in a huge crowd that gives way to commotion: a demonstration crowd, perhaps, confronting a formation of police and surging to and fro under police baton charges, or the water canon, or charges mounted police." Professor Billows also offers a strong case for which route the Athenians took to return to Athens after the battle (some think a mountain pass and some think the main road; according to the author, it was probably both). Yet even with this insight I was disappointed there wasn't more.

Like many battles in history, most of the time spent at Marathon was a waiting game. The Greeks and Persians waited for days before anyone actually made a move. This gave the Athenians a lot of time to think. Not just about the Persians, but about their surroundings. What did the Ancient Greeks think when they saw the eerie marsh lights flickering above the swampy marshland that surrounded Marathon? What did the local sanctuary dedicated to Herakles possibly look like? Would the Greeks have made sacrifices at this sanctuary along with any other local shrines in the hopes of being granted victory in battle? What would it have been like to cut down local trees and use them as a barrier against a cavalry charge? Didn't the Persians SEE this happening? How long would it have taken? How many men could the Greeks afford to spare from patrol duties in order to finish the project? I would love answers to these types of questions.

That said, it's pretty apparent that this book isn't really aimed at more advanced students of Ancient Greek history. It's really a guide for those who might be curious about why a modern Olympic even is named after a long forgotten battle. Thus, I can't object to any book that teaches people history. :)

3.5/5 Stars

Athens, Attica and the Megarid.

Guess what, Gentle Readers? It's time for another (short) book report!

Athens, Attica and the Megarid: an Archaeological Guide is the result of intensive research on the part of Hans Rupprect Goette, who leaves no stone unturned (literally) in his detailed account of the Attican countryside.

The work is divided into seven sections: Athens and Piraeus, Sounion and the Mesogeia, Marathon and north-east Attica, the areas around the Thriasian plain, the Megarid, the islands of the Saronic Gulf, and finally the Appendices which include information on things like architecture, geography, flora and fauna. The divisions are wonderfully comprehensible, and Goette includes maps and sketches every few pages to give the reader an idea of the area he is covering.

To say the least this book is VERY detailed. It's over 350 pages of small print that's packed with information on every ancient shrine, palace, farmstead, cave, temple, fort, boundry stone, statue, monument, quarry, theatre, cemetery and wall ever built in Attica. There are fabulous details on rarely visited places like the forts at Eleutherai and Oinoe and the harbors at Lavrion and Porto Raphti. The author also takes the time to acknowledge the little things that are huge in importance: a boundry stone that seperated a coastal tritty from an inland one, an ancient quarrry road, a goatpen with architecutral furnishings for milking animals, a gaurd post in a small mountain pass. It's clear from reading this guide that Goette took on a Herculean task, but luckily for readers he manages to succeed and succeed very well.

Athens, Attica and the Megarid is not cheap. The book is $108 on Amazon. Yet such is the price for extensive research. If you are interested in the ruins of Attica, then this book is for you.

Paul Cartledge strikes again (a short book review).

I love Paul Cartledge.

He's a brilliant professor of Greek history and has written several articles and books on the subject (Sparta especially). I often refer to these works when I'm working on my novel. So of course I was excited to learn that he has a new book out.

Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities is somewhat of a beginner's guide to Ancient Greece, but still more advanced than say, Ancient Greece for Dummies. It's a good place to start for those with more than a fleeting interest in the subject.


In his latest work, Paul Cartledge attempts to condense the entire history of Ancient Greece into a few hundred pages; a herculean task if there ever was one. He starts from the beginning--literally--by introducing readers to the island culture of Cnossos around 3000 BCE, and ends with the rise and fall of Byzantion. His choice of cities may appear somewhat arbitrary at first (Massalia?), but as he explains in his introduction he actually picked each city carefully. Many of the smaller islands or lesser-known polis were home to many famous philosophers and powerful Greeks, as well locations for many historic battles.

It's a short book and will not be the most detailed thing you've ever read on Ancient Greece, but it is useful for those who want to brush up on their ancient history. Here's a list of cities covered in the book:

1) Cnossos
2) Mycenae
3) Argos
4) Miletus
5) Massalia
6) Sparta
7) Athens
8) Syracuse
9) Thebes
10) Alexandria
11) Byzantion

Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day

As much as I love big, thick history books bursting with facts and details, it's always good to return to the basics. Which is why I enjoy Phillip Matyszak's "Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day".

Divided into IX sections, the book teaches history through the guise of a travel log. You'll read about the best way to get to Athens(thus learning about ancient roadways and destinations), where to stay (which discusses dwellings and lifestyles), what to do (a good way of introducing readers to ancient entertainment like the symposium), who to meet (which features men like Pericles and Thucydides) and what to buy (which covers everything from the local monetary system to what items can be found in the Agora). There are even maps of the city, pictures of famous people and sightseeing recommendations.

I really enjoy Matyszak approach. Instead of weighing you down with a myriad of facts all at once, he takes his cue from modern travel books and presents information in bite-size pieces. He also includes amusing stories to make sure the reader is engaged. The book is a bit stiff in price (it's nearly $20) but the upside is that it's easy to navigate and provides a few fun gems that can be mined from its pages. Here are a few fun facts right from the source:

1) The word economy comes from the word oikos nomos or "the organization of the household"

2)The famous Academy was originally a hero shrine

3) In prehistoric times the Piraeus was an island


If you are looking for a fun way to be introduced to or get re-acquainted with Ancient Athens, I highly recommend this book.

A Short Book Report: Lords of the Sea

It's amazing how sometimes when we really need something it just suddenly appears.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to come across a new book on the Athenian navy. I say lucky because I've been in the process of editing my novel and needed more detail and insight into this very subject. And that is exactly what I got with John R. Hale's Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy.



Hale breaks the book down into five sections: Freedom, Democracy, Empire, Catastrophe, and Rebirth. Part one focuses on the founding of the Athenian navy through the workings of (who else!) Themistocles. Hale goes into detail about how the navy was built (literally--there is some great detail to be found here), how naval tactics changed during the late Archaic period and thus made it possible for the Greeks to achieve victory over the Persian fleet, and how acquiring a navy laid the foundations for Athens' future empire.

The second part of the book (Democracy) explores Athens' Golden Age. It was at this time that the Athenian navy was at the peak of its power, bringing wealth, culture and knowledge from abroad into the city. There are some fun details here, but things really get interesting in the section called "Empire", which deals with both Athens' struggle to maintain control over its neighbors and its war(s) with Sparta. The conflict is not an easy thing to break down considering how LONG it lasted (over 30 years). Still, Hale manages to successfully convey how rapidly naval tactics and technology changed and how that affected the outcome of the conflict.

The last two sections deal with the Athenian navy's fall after being defeated by Sparta, it's brief comeback and eventual capitulation to Macedonia. It charts the events from 397 BCE to 324 BCE and covers everything from the Second Maritime League to the last battle at Amorgos. Hale does a good job summarizing the events without getting too convoluted but still feeding us relevant and interesting nuggets of information. Most readers will probably feel satisfied with his explanations.

In short, I really enjoyed this book and feel that it's an asset to anyone who is writing about or even interested in Hellenic history between the late Archaic age and the start of Alexander's great empire. It's well-paced, well-written and well-researched. And well...I like that!

More Ancient Greek Reading Adventures!

Who gets excited about a book like "Pastoral Politics: Animals, Agriculture and Society in Ancient Greece"? I do!!

...Man, I am such a square.

The 21 Letters of Themistocles

As anyone who's tried to research Themistocles knows, there aren't a whole lot of ancient sources on the Athenian navarch. The earliest we know of is Herodotus, and shortly after a few words from Thucydides. From there the sources get pretty dubious due the increasing time lapse between his death and later authors.

But one of the most dubious sources is also one of the most interesting: 21 letters accredited to the political powerhouse that follow his adventures from Argos, where he was exiled sometime after 478 BC, to his triumphant escape to Persia in the mid 460s. These letters are addressed to everyone from King Pausanias of Sparta to Themistocles' personal banker, and go from petulant to proud, angry to contrite. Modern scholars are pretty sure they were written around the first century A.D., so it's safe to say they probably aren't Themsitocles' personal letters (though could there have been an earlier source...?).

That being said, I was still intrigued and decided to read them for myself, but getting my hands on a copy was HARD. No matter what I Googled or where I looked online I couldn't seem to find these phantom letters! Luckily Amazon came to my rescue by bringing up Patricia A. Rosenmeyer's "Ancient Greek Literary Letters", which has all 21 in tact for my reading enjoyment!

The letters are fairly short, and unfortunately they don't shed a whole lot of new information on Themistocles; they just re-hash what earlier sources have already reported. What's really weird about them though is their contradictory nature. They make Themistocles look downright schizophrenic!

For example, in one letter Themistocles thanks Aristeides for helping take care of things back in Athens for him. Yet in another correspondence Themistocles has only childish spite for "The Just" one:

"I hope the victory statue set up at Salamis will fall down and crush you; it's stone you know, large and plenty heavy[!]"

And:

"So Aristeides, son of Lysimachas can go hang himself, and the rest of you [Athenians] can go hang yourselves too."

I have to admit out of all 21 letters, this is by far my favorite. It's just so hilariously immature! I can't help imagining Themistocles standing in the direction of Athens and sticking his tongue out.

As for the I, Themistocles itself...I'm SOOO close to finishing my first draft! Themis is in Aeolia right now, trying to get an audience with the Persian king. I think Themistocles should be involved in one last good ruse before I write "The End", but I'm still not sure what that should be. Does he help the Athenians at the battle of Eurymedon? Is he involved in Artabanus' court intrigues in Susa? Does he create more mischief for Sparta while abroad? Can't seem to decide...

Oh. before I forget, there's something I want to ask readers: what do you think of the title I, Themistocles? I like it, and the words even appear in a "letter" to Artaxerxes according to Thucydides, but it's far from original (I, Claudius, I Elizabeth, etc.). What do you think of these alternative titles?

1) King of the Sailing/Floating/Windswept/Briney Walls
2) King of The Winedark Sea
3) Teaching Cattle to Walk Backwards: The Life and Times of Themistocles
4) Odysseus in Athens
5) A Victory Wreath for Foxes

I'm really liking Teaching Cattle to Walk Backwards (a shout-out and 1000 points to anyone who gets the reference!, King of The Briney Walls, or Odysseus in Athens. Let me know what you think in the comments section (and feel free to make your own suggestions).

The Role of the Physical Environment in Ancient Greek Seafaring...

...Is actually the name of a book I just finished by Jamie Morton. I'm not sure it was worth $80 (!) but I'm still happy I got it, as I know nothing about the workings of the Mediterranean and need to better understand the very LARGE role ships played in the lives of Ancient Greeks (I'm currently trying to write the Battle of Salamis). Despite being annoyingly repetitive and hard to follow at times (I'm not familiar with oceanography and meteorology ) I got some great information out of the book and hope to use it in my novel.

Here's a brief synopsis for anyone who's interested.

"In this study of the world of ancient Greek mariners, the relationship between the natural environment and the techniques and technology of seafaring is focused upon.
An initial description of the geology, oceanography and meteorology of Greece and the Mediterranean, is followed by discussion of the resulting sailing conditions, such as physical hazards, sea conditions, winds and availability of shelter, and environmental factors in sailing routes, sailing directions, and navigational techniques. Appendices discuss winter and night sailing, ship design, weather prediction, and related areas of socio-maritime life, such as settlement, religion, and warfare.
Wide-ranging sources and illustrations are used to demonstrate both how the environment shaped many of the problems and constraints of seafaring, and also that Greek mariners' understanding of the environment was instrumental in their development of a highly successful seafaring tradition."

Dinosaurs & The Greeks

Recently I caught an interesting episode of Ancient Mysteries on the History Channel (I know, I know, something actually related to history on the History Channel!).

The book the show is based on.

According to Adrienne Mayor, an author and classical folklorist, Greek myths may have been inspired by prehistoric fossils. After researching numerous passages from ancient authors, interviewing various paleontologists and analyzing and interpreting ancient art, Mayor concludes that the Ancient Greeks came across prehistoric bones and associated them with strange creatures like the Griffin and Cyclops.

Elephant...or Cyclops?


The show was so interesting that after it ended I ordered Mayor's book The First Fossil Hunters on Amazon to learn more. The verdict? Although it's needlessly repetitious, Mayor's overall conjecture is fascinating and perhaps even plausible.

One of the things I was surprised to learn is that the scientific community doesn't believe the Ancient Greeks were capable of recognizing prehistoric fossils as bones. I can't fanthom why this would be, and luckily Mayor agrees. She argues that they DID recognize the bones of prehistoric animals, and cites various ancient authors to prover her point. For example, Herodotus reports that in order to win a war against their neighbor Tegea, the Spartans were told by the priestess of Delphi to find and bring home the bones of Orestes (a prince of Mycenae and a relation to the Spartan king Menelaus). Eventually the bones were found on the edge of Tegea, where they were encased in a large coffin measuring almost ten feet long. The Spartans took the remains back to Sparta, reburied them in a lavish ceremony, and won the war.

Although it seems strange to us that the Greeks would think bones that big could be human, Mayor explains that the Ancient Greeks believed heroes like Theseus and Orestes to be three times the size of mortal men! Since most of the prehistoric bones found in Greece belong to huge prehistoric mammals like elephants and rhinosoraus, it's not hard to see why the Ancient Greeks believed in giants and bigger-than-life heroes.

Mayor offers more proof that the Greeks understood fossils with the Monster of Troy vase. This otherwise normal looking column-krater has--for inexplicible reasons--the Monster of Troy portrayed as a weird, white, skull-looking... thing. Mayor insists it is a skull, perhaps a fossil poking out from the side of a cliff. She draws attention to the fact that the teeth are drawn like that of prehistoric animal and that mouth looks like an actual jawbone.

What is that???


She also thinks that the Griffin, which has its origin in Scythia may be based on a dinosaur. Mayor traces the story of the Griffin all the way to the Gobi desert, where nomadic tribes roamed about prospecting for gold. These nomadic Scythians reported to the Greeks that they had seen winged creatures with the body of a lion and the beak of an eagle, and that they fiercely protected the gold dust that fell from the mountains. When Mayor did some investigating she learned that around the area are the well preserved bones of Protoceratops, a dinosaur with a beaked skull and a large crest that could be mistaken for wings. Her side-by-side comparison between the remains of a Protoceratops and a picture of a Griffin is pretty interesting.

Terrible Lizard or...

Terrible Griffin?

Although there's no way to prove her theory is correct, it's interesting to think that if they didn't inspire the myths, prehistoric bones at least convinced the ancients that giants and heroes of huge size really existed. At any rate, despite a few editing issues I enjoyed the book. I think I might even use some of the material in my story. :)