Maty's blog
| 2024-11-04 |
| Rome before Rome |
| What's the difference between a myth and a legend? Well, one way I deal with the question is to ask people whether they would prefer to be described as 'mythical' or as 'legendary'. This is relevant, because I'm something of a specialist in Greek and Roman myth. (Or at least, I've written two well-received books on the topic, which I'm counting as the same thing.) However, my next book which will hopefully be out in time to land in Christmas stockings, is on the topic of Roman legend, which is something different. That's 'Rome before Rome' – the story of the early years of Rome and of the centuries before that starting with when the area consisted of the 'Fields of Janus' – that Roman god who has given his name to the month of January. For Roman trivia experts, the oldest building in classical Rome was a structure on the Janiculan ridge (and guess where that name comes from) called the 'Fort of Janus' which had apparently been there since forever, even in the time of Romulus and Remus. Some bits of the Roman foundation legend are evidently fake – indeed there's around half-a-dozen foundation legends, so at least five of them are fake. Even the most common of the legends – the story of Romulus and Remus contains elements familiar to academics who study legends and how they are formed. For example. the child-king who starts his career hidden in exile is a theme that runs from twenty-five centuries ago with Sargon the Great all the way up to Luke Skywalker some time yesterday. The manor difference between a myth and a legend though, is that while the tale has grown in the telling, a legend retains elements of an original factual story. And much to the frustration of those who insist that Rome grew organically like a city in a modern nation state (spoiler alert: it didn't) no-one has been able to categorically disprove the legend. In fact such evidence as can be firmly established shows that the Romans were on the right track with regard to their origins. Which made telling their story all the more fun. |
| 2024-10-04 |
| A little (too much) knowledge ... |
| A few nights ago we settled down to watch The Revenant, a film starring Leonardo Di Caprio. It was billed as based on a true story and featured survival in the wilderness. This sounded good, especially as we would be watching with a friend who is both an expert woodsman and interested in the period when the movie was set (the 1820s). It quickly became apparent that this was an 'art' movie – slow as molasses with lingering shots of – for example – water dripping off a branch. Not quite like watching paint dry, but close. However the entertainment value the film lacked was supplied by our friend. Five minutes in our hero fires a musket. This was greeted with a howl of outrage from the sofa, because apparently muskets of the time used black powder, which should have produced a cloud of smoke. This did not happen. Nor should firearms of the time be self-loading or have the range or accuracy of modern sniper rifles, as we were indignantly informed as the film went on. It quickly became apparent that the director's experience of actual wilderness survival was limited to being over a kilometer from the nearest place serving soy lattes. Mr Di Caprio, after an attack from a grizzly (which should not have had cubs that age at that time of the year), should have died from drowning, hypothermia and starvation in the first hour as he swam icy rivers and lit fires in the wrong place with the wrong materials while foraging for food that would not have been available. All against a scenic background of mountains which apparently do not exist in North Dakota where the action allegedly took place. The final straw was a 'wilderness' scene clearly shot in a managed forest. If the lack of plant diversity did not give the game away, the fact that the trees were in suspiciously straight lines was a definite hint. At this point we kicked our friend from the room and watched the rest of this turgid drama in silence. Now I know why I'm not allowed to be present when ancient history shows like HBO's 'Rome' are being screened. |
| 2024-09-05 |
| Decisions ... decisions |
| The dog days of summer have slunk by. We have already had Labor Day which in these parts counts as the unofficial end of the season. That does not mean that summer is over though – we have seamlessly transitioned into an 'Indian summer'. Unlike actual summers in India, this season is wonderful – mild temperatures and sunlight gentle enough for swimming and hiking without the ultraviolet skinning one alive, as happens in June. (UV is a problem if you live at altitude. While snowshoeing in the mountains it is quite possible to get frostbite and sunburn at the same time. ) Also. wildfire season is pretty much over so it's safe(r)to venture into the backwoods again. Now school is back however, and properly speaking it's time to return to the grindstone. There are deadlines to meet and courses to prepare. But … This morning I tiptoed past a closed computer, grabbed the suntan lotion and went to the lake. It's ten kilometres long, that lake, and the tracking app on my phone tells me that we kayaked along 5.68 km of it. We ended up in a secluded beach without seeing another person on the way. Then, since the water is still warm enough I swam for an hour before settling down in a chair with with a book (the kayak has quite a carrying capacity). Now I'm all loose and sun-dazed and bracing to seriously, definitely return to work tomorrow. Except … it's going to be beautifully sunny again, and apparently the berries in the forest are really abundant right now. And I do like a good huckleberry pie. |
| 2024-08-04 |
| Home, Dangerous Home |
| As I write this, Stromboli is erupting and Mt Etna is also getting restless. One might wonder why the people who inhabit the slopes of those volcanoes don't simply move to a safer and more salubrious location. Now that I am rather in the same sort of situation, I wonder no more. Usually the interior of British Columbia has some of the best air in the world. There's miles and miles of pine forest pumping oxygen into the atmosphere and no major industries to pollute it. The prevailing west wind gets washed clean by rain as it comes over the Cascade mountains, so by and large one can suck in lungfuls of the sweet stuff while ascending mountain trails or snowshoeing through the forest. Lately though, we also get July and August. That's wildfire season – and it's getting so bad that one or two towns get mauled – or even obliterated – by fire each year. So these are nervous months, when go bags are packed and one daren't go too far from home for fear of missing an evacuation alert that means you have to fling everything into the back of the Jeep and drive to safety. Even without that danger there's the stifling, smelly smog from burning trees and undergrowth that fills the sky and makes outdoor activity unsafe. Yet, like the good citizens of Stromboli, we stick it out and pray that the worst won't happen. Why?Because even if it's badly located this is home. Sure, the downside goes pretty far down, but the upside is extreme in the other direction also. For two months of the year I'd happily relocate home and cats, but the other ten months make up for the nervous moments several times over. But for now, I'm praying for rain and lots of it, rather as the folks of Stromboli are crossing their fingers and hoping that their volcano stops grumbling. |
| 2024-07-04 |
| The Bow of Apollo |
We talk of the 'Greek and Roman myths' as though these are a sort of anthology of stories, but technically this is not correct. In fact there is one Graeco-Roman myth. It's a long, rambling tale with more byways and sidetracks than a National Express bus route, but all one connected story. In fact that story is the greatest collective achievement in literature. Authors have been adding and re-interpreting aspects of the tale starting with the anonymous storytellers of before 1200 BC right through to June 2024, when I added my own modest contribution of 'Medea: Queen of Witches' to a growing collection of modern books re-telling the old, old stories. An example of how these tales are really each episodes of a single myth can be seen in the Bow of Apollo. This bow was given by Apollo to his grandson Eurytus. There are different versions of what happened to the bow thereafter, but the most common version (though Homer disagrees) is that Hercules took the bow when he killed Eurytus in a dispute over Eurytus' daughter Iole. (Hercules wanted the girl, but daddy understandably didn't want to hand her over.) Jealous of Iole Hercules' wife killed him with poison – another long story - and the bow ended up in the hands of a Thessalian shepherd who leveraged this possession to become king. This king's son joined the army headed to besiege Troy, taking the bow with him. However, through another mythical misadventure too long to relate here, he ended up stranded along the way on a remote island. A prophecy said that Troy would not fall unless the Bow was present at the scene, so Odysseus went and got it. By some accounts he also retrieved the son, who went on to kill the adulterous Paris with that bow. Odysseus still claimed possession of the bow, which went back to Ithaca with his household effects. Odysseus himself was more than somewhat delayed and returned over a decade later to find his house swarming with suitors for his wife Penelope. Taking the Bow of Apollo from the wall, Odysseus mowed down the lot. Thus one item crops up in what today might be considered three separate myths (and another two minor ones). People do the same, even more often. And that's a good thing. The more one becomes familiar with one aspect of the myths, the easier it is to follow the rest. |
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