Behind Kassandra's Song

This story grew out of "Kalliste", epublished on www.beyondthefarhorizon.com. Kalliste is the personal servant of Potnia, or The Most Holy, aka the Earth Mother, one of the earliest Goddesses we have record of anyone worshipping. She (Potnia) is outside of the normal hierarchy of Gods and Goddesses, as some search on the name will show. Kalliste, born in 1651 BC became the personal servant of Potnia (or P'dania), and was gifted with certain powers, among them being that she doesn't get sick or age, poisons have very little effect on her, and she can alter her guise to appear young, old, or somewhere in between. This does not fool cameras, by the way.

Kassandra became the personal servant of Apollo. Those up on the Greek myths know she was granted a little of Apollo's ability to "see" the future. But only in part. She sees the probabilities, and experience has shown/taught her how to make them come out. But she also bears Apollo's Curse: any prophecy she tells someone will not be believed.

In the myths she was killed by Klytemnestra or Orestes, depending upon which myth you choose. In my version, seeing what was coming, she escapes during the confusion surrounding Agamemnon's death, and goes to Delphi where she raises a temple to Apollo. They reconcile, though he does not take back his Curse. She becomes the Pythia or Prophetess of Delphi.

One of the things I noticed early on in reading Greek Mythis was that the Gods always left a way out. You had to be clever, and if you were, you could wiggle out of whatver dilemma they put you in. In Kassandra's case, we go back to the actual mechanics of the prophecy the Pythia would give. The petitioners would "make a donation" to the temple, and then be allowed to ask a question. The Pythia would go into a trance and babble something in an unknown tongue to a priest. He would write it down and give it to the petitioner. Nowhere in that do they actually hear her give the prophecy, or understand it, as it is in a language they do not know.

This neatly avoids Apollo's Curse. They are handed their answer, and can choose to believe it or disbelieve it. She did not tell it to them, she told it to the priest. Wiggle room. Of course the answer is slightly cryptic, and can be misunderstood. In retrospect, of course, it is seen to be exactly on target.

Whenever you create a character you have to create problems. The other problem all of these personal servants of the Gods have is that they must have contact with one of Them from time to time, otherwise the stresses of their long lives begin to byild up. In Kassandra's Song Kit has a psychotic episode or two, and consciously tries to ignore her past.

So you have an undercover cop who can alter her appearance, has mental problems, and is placed in danger. She's shot at the end of Chapter One.

So what does this have to do with the previous post? I needed to fill in Kassandra's past, including her guilty feelings (still there) over the death of her family and the destruction of Troy, for which she blames herself. And for that, I kind of needed to have an idea of when that war probably occurred.

Are there other personal servants? Yes. What about the Ten Commandments? Remember that comment about wiggle room? Think about it. Kassandra (and Kalliste) both remind people that they aren't Christians.

And, by the way, a long life lets me include doing plenty of flashbacks, and I like writing flashbacks.

Kassandra's Song is available from Amazon, and is also on the Kindle.

The Trojan War

I recently stumbled on Herodotus' version of the Trojan War. I downloaded free copies from Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org He approaches it from the historical point of view, and concludes that war did happen in the Troad. He has an estimate of when, it occured, but more on that in a bit.

Before going any farther, it is my opinion that Troy/Illios/Wilusa were one and the same, and that the Ahhayian's mentioned in Hittite archives are the Achaians. After reading everything I could find, there was a "Trojan" war, though it may not have been quite like we find in the Illiad, Quintus of Smurna, and so on. A war did take place there. Was it Troy VIIa at the Hisarlik site? My opinion is yes. Now back to the "father of History".

One of the things he mentions is that there was plenty of provocation on both sides. Each side, Asia and Hellas, were stealing each other's women to work as slaves, or as wives, for some time. Things kept escalating, and nobody would back down. War became inevitable. What he explores is whether someone named Helen was actually taken to Troy. He suggests that when Alexandrros/Paris docked in Egypt, Helen and the treasure he had stolen was removed by the Egyptians.

Aside from some navigational oddities, like why go to Egypt when your destination is the Dardanelles, this makes the whole storyline that this was all to rescue Helen nothing but a big mistake. There is some evidence that this was a fig leaf.

It doesn't take much research to discover that a lot of food was grown in the Black Sea littoral. That wheat was traded with what is now Greece. Illios, being a good place to dock and wait out bad weather when traversing the Dardanelles (the harbor has since silted over, but 1832 Royal Navy charts show the bay still there) would be in a position to exact a toll. That city would grow very wealthy as it was also where East-West trade crossed. And such wealth would appeal to the acquisitive instincts of the Argives. It was almost natural that a war of some kind would follow.

The mistake a lot of people make is in not looking at the slightly wider picture. In my stories I've characterized Priam as King of Illios and King of the Dardanians. He would have a lot of resources farther inland to draw from. That is the context of the "Trojan" War.

Now per Herodotus, the Greek expedition landed in Mysia, sacked some cities, and otehrwise chewed up the countryside. Imagine their chgrin when they learned they were in the wrong place. So then they sat waiting for the right wind so they could go to Illios. And this is important. The Aegean is not a placid lake. Sailing at the wrong time of year could be disastrous. And if they wasted most of a summer burning and pillaging in Mysia, they would face autumn storms, not something you want to do if given half a chance.

Now we begin to enter into the mythical elements. Iphigenia is sacrificed to get favorable winds. The Argives land. They fight for several years. Eventually they take the city with the Trojan Horse. Much slaughter, burning, pillaging, raping, and otehr things. The men are killed, the women become slaves. And then the victors at Troy go home.

And a city grows at the same spot, Troy VIIb, but the Argives have other problems. Economics are a very powerful force.

Herodotus covers some of this. More is found in the Illiad and Quintus of Smyrna. Recent archaeology has filled in some of the blanks. For instance, on the day that Odysseus returned to Ithaka, there was a total eclipse of the sun. This was in 1199 BCE. If we run the clock backwards and say he was gone for 20 years, that puts the start of the Trojan War in 1219 BCE.

Now I have my doubts that: a) the war took 10 years of siege outside the walls of Troy; b) it took Odysseus 10 years to get home. The war probably did last ten years, but I think only 18 months of it were spent in the Troad. And as for returning home, all but three years are tossed away leaving him 4.5 years when he was gone. This pushes the Trojan part of the Trojan War to around 1204 or so BCE.

I've seen dates that suggest anything from 1176 BCE to 1224 BCE. The 1204/05 time is almost right in the middle.

When you read Herodotus, when you read The Illiad, and you throw out the supernatural elements, you get the account of a military expedition and event.

And when you do all of that, you end up with the hooks for a story or two. More of that next time.