WEAPONS OF DESTRUCTION

WAS THE SPEAR THE FIRST WEAPON INVENTED BY HUMANS? – As I take my characters up into the Northern Mountains with their Guide Pierus leading the way, the question comes up, what kind of clothes will they ideally be wearing? In an internet search, I find a drawing of an Ancient Gael and recognize Pierus the Guide immediately! The man has what appears to be a bear-skin draped around his shoulders and is  carrying a long spear. I’ve not mentioned weaponry in MYTHS yet, but I do believe that a Human going into mountains filled with vicious, wild beasts would quite logically be carrying a weapon with him. And it's logical to me also that,other than a club, a spear would have been the first invention of destruction made by Humans, preceding the bow and arrow.  So,... someone has invented the spear..., I wonder who that was....

MYTHS OF HELICON MOUNTAIN, SEARCH FOR PEGASUS: THE RED SCRIBE'S DISCLAIMER

“Only Thessaly and Ephyria precede Macedonia in antiquity,” the red scribe writes.  “They were the first of the great nations to rise in the Midland after Deucalion’s Flood.” 

 

            He lifts his brush, looks up at the window, and observes the clouds moving across the sky.  The story of Diomedes’s search for Pegasus is never told in the East, nor is it found in the chronicles of Thessaly.  Neither is it written in Thessaly that Macedon was the first to rebel openly against the Titans. 

Educated by Priests and aware of his mother’s cruel death at the order of old King Antiphates, he considers the politics behind these myths.  He adjusts his chair and shakes his head.  Truth and facts are of no concern to him; he’s there to do the bidding of the queen, not to question.  Every child in the Three Island Nation of Ortygia knows the story of Diomedes’s search for Pegasus and believes that it’s true. 

“I record this as I find it written,” he writes in a footnote disclaimer, “and I place my future in the hands of my most gracious Queen.” 

 

THE SPIRAL PETROGLYPH

Writing MYTHS: On the way to Macedon’s land, Telly and his fellow travelers come to a high rock bluff on the north end of the pass between Mount Ossa and Mount Olympus that has a spiral petroglyph carved in it. This sign is familiar to Telly because his mother always drew one like it on the ground at Oraea Springs after a rain. He asked her once what it meant. She told him that it meant ‘the way’.... “The way to where?” he asked. “I don’t know" she answers. "It’s very old. It predates the passing of the Comet. The sky, perhaps; my grandmother Europa taught it to us and told us to remember it.” --. Idea first, research second: Prehistoric spirals have been found all around the globe and although there is plenty of speculation, no one knows what they mean. In MYTHS, Telly will need to find his way home, so this is my story, and I’m sticking to it.

A "What if" Moment

 On my reading list: "Lost Civilizations & Secrets of the Past”, original essays by sixteen authors who write about a species of ancient astronauts. One of the contributors, Paul Von Ward, author of “We’ve Never Been Alone: A History of Extraterrestrial Intervention” (2011) refers to them as Advanced Beings (AB) and describes himself as an independent scholar. I like that description, “independent scholar”. I also like the fact that as a reader I don't have to believe to enjoy the idea of extraterrestrials, and that’s the best part about these books. I can let my imagination go crazy--and I do!

Delphi and the Delphic Oracles

Setting stages:  My first mention of Delphi and the Delphic Oracles, but I’m sure it won’t be the last time I find my characters drinking from the famous spring at Delphi.    From Part Two: SEARCH FOR PEGASUS. 

 

 Urana’s children have climbed the dizzying heights of Deucalion’s mountain with Hellen to see the ruins of his father’s boat. 

 

 While they drank from a small spring, a figure with wild, white hair and nearly bent double with age came out of a cave and offered to speak an oracle for a fee.     

 

“Who is she?” Telly asked, surprised by her appearance, for this place seemed quite deserted. 

 

“You drink from the famous Spring of Delphi,” Hellen answered, shooing the old woman away. "Many come up here and pay the old woman for an oracle.  I myself, find it best not to know what’s ahead.”