Next daft project, to write a novel about imaginary people set in a period I know nothing about.
Out of the sea he stepped the great bull,
white as the foam, as the breast of a gull
the bright sky was brazen and rang with the song
of women keening for some tragic wrong,
a mother with bent head, hiding her tears
from the child in her arms, calming his fears,
a girl on a ship, a sword with blood pearled,
the white bull that bellows the end of the world.
Sounds intriguing, Jane – back in my scholarly days, Minoan was ‘my’ period.
Then as soon as I’ve finished it, I’ll send it to you and you can pick the howlers out of it 🙂
😅 let’s see what I remember! Please do though, I wouldn’t mind beta reading if the kids are back at school by then! I still have lots of lovely books on Minoan history and I play with the idea of going back to school one day…
It’s the idea of the Minoan civilisation being matrilinear that fascinates me, and how the Mycean Greeks hated it so much. The story of Ariadne, Pasiphaë the Minotaur must have been perverted to puff up Theseus. I’m going to rewrite it so it won’t correspond to the accepted storyline of the myths, but it ought to make a good ‘alternative’.
That sounds like a good angle!
I really hate the standard Greek myths, so cruel and misogynist, and they were passed on right up to modern times as somehow heroic, models of exemplary manly behaviour. No wonder it’s taken equality so long to get started!
A bit like the bible if I dare say that 😬
Exactly like the Bible, and exactly like the treatment of all the old stories once the Christian monks got their moralising mitts on them.
Yes, I’ve nothing against the teachings of Jesus but some of that Old Testament stuff is pure patriarchal propaganda.
Well, it was an intensely patriarchal society. I think Jesus took a back seat in the teachings of the early church. Seems to have been much more about social control, morality and keeping people in their places. I don’t think there can have been much quoting of Jesus. It didn’t really suit.
It sounds to me like you know quite a bit about this period! 😀
Just enough to be intrigued, not enough to get the details right 🙂 At least nobody really knows much about the Minoan people. Most is speculation, and mythical figures are well, not real, are they?
You’re probably asking the wrong person about real. 😏
There’s probably no such thing 🙂
😀
Good excuse to do a lot of background reading! 😀
That leaves you free to fill in the blanks. (K)
I hope I’m up to it!
I’m sure you are.
Well, it’s gaining momentum, so that’s a good sign.
Great writing!
Thank you!
I watched an apocalyptic cartoon today. It seemed pretty realistic. Made me wonder how close we are.
Depends what you are. If you’re an Orangutan or a hedgehog you’re pretty close.