Cassandra (52 page)

Modern experience with the series of wars which have disfigured the twentieth century suggests that people revert to normal very quickly under siege. `You can get used to anything,' said one old lady about London during the Blitz; and T.S Eliot adds, `Habit is a great deadener.'

I found a mention of `Troas, child of Troy' in Sir Thomas Browne's essay `Of Troas'. Browne refers to the Roman historian Strabo, who states that Troas was established before the fall of Troy and by the people of that city.

Contemporary Roman maps referred to it as `Novum Ilium', that is, new Troy. It seems to have survived the Dark Ages when the Argive civilisation fell into ruin, to feature in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St Paul.

The Minoan Kingdom was destroyed by earthquake and invasion about 1300BC. The script Linear B reveals that Crete or Kriti was occupied by people who spoke early Greek. Minoan (Linear A) has not been deciphered.

It was a civilisation with plumbing and no walls. The paintings and artifacts reveal a sunny, delightful, relaxed society in which women had position and power.

I have made the bold assumption that the Minoans who spoke Linear A went to Troy. According to various sources the city is only two generations old when the Achaeans come. That makes Troy Minoan, with the wine-loving phallic dancer Dionysius and the Mother, Mistress of Animals and ruler of everything else, as their main gods.

This fundamentally sensible arrangement - an irresponsible but powerful male deity and the responsible Mother - is not reflected in Achaea, where they have the stern Father Zeus, his wife Hera, and his squabbling children. It is agreed that the oldest god is Pan; even Herodotus says so.

 

This book has caused me nightmares; I have never considered what a war would really be like. It may be the first time someone as fervently anti-war as me has tried to take on a siege and the destruction of a city. I felt like a murderer the whole time I was writing it.

However, having been fascinated with Greece since I was a child, met my best friend Themetrula Georgovasilopoulos and was made an honorary Greek, and with Ancient Greece since I found Herodotus in an opportunity shop at the age of twelve, I have attempted it.

I have travelled most of the roads I describe on my own feet.

Aeschylus,
The Oresteia
,
The Suppliant Maidens
,
The Persians
and
Seven Against Thebes
, Penguin, London, 1987.

Euripides,
Ion
,
The Trojan Women
,
Iphigenia in Tauris
,

Alcestis
,
Hippolytus
and
Electra
(I prefer Gilbert Murray's translations), Penguin, London, 1962.

Herodotus,
The Histories
(translation by Aubrey de Selincourt), Penguin, London, 1935.

Hesiod,
Collected Works
, Penguin, London, 1962.

Homer,
The Iliad
and
The Odyssey
, Penguin, London, 1964.

Sophocles,
Antigone
,
Oedipus the King
,
Electra
,
Philoctetes
and
Oedipus at Colonus
, Penguin, London, 1985.

Thucydides,
The History of the Peloponnesian War
, Penguin, London, 1987.

Virgil,
The Aeneid
(translation by John Dryden), Pelican, London, 1971.

Boardman, John,
The Greeks Overseas
, Pelican, London, 1964.

Brooks, Iris,
Costume in Greek Classic Drama
, Methuen, London, 1962.

Browne, Sir Thomas,
Miscellaneous Writings
(ed. G. Keynes), Faber and Faber, London, 1931.

Chadwick, John,
The Decipherment of Linear B
, Pelican, London, 1961. Contains Michael Ventris' decoding of this language, proving it be an early form of Greek.

Culpepper,
Complete Herbal and English Physician
, reprinted Harvey Sales, London, 1981. He quotes Dioscorides, the ancient Greek, extensively.

Durrell, Dr James,
Leaves from a Surgeon's Casebook
, Cassell, London, 1942.

Laver, James,
Costume in Antiquity
, Thames and Hudson, London 1964.

Severin, Tim,
The Jason Voyage
and
The Ulysses Voyage
, Arrow Books, London, 1987. These contain all you need to know about navigating a Bronze Age boat. Severin's remarkable endurance and courage in building
Argo
was an inspiration to me, as well as providing me with authentic details and maps.

I have used votive tablets at Epidavros and Pergamon for medical triumphs, Jung for the psychiatric practice, and archaeological records for the weapons, chariots and horses.

Especially useful were traveller's guidebooks produced by the Greek government, and studies by Woolley, Wheeler and Cottrell.

Kerry Greenwood
- historian, lawyer and writer - has written more than 60 books. Her fiction includes historical, fantasy, detective and crime novels - for adults and young adults.

She is the author of 20 (so far) Phryne Fisher novels set in Melbourne in the 1920s (and filmed for TV as
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
); and six (and counting) Corinna Chapman books, set in the same city in this century.

Kerry holds both the Ned Kelly and Davitt Lifetime Achievement Awards for her crime fiction; and Davitt Awards for individual novels.

She lives with an accredited Wizard; and a few registered cats, who supervise her with loving paws.

Clan Destine Press
is honoured to celebrate Kerry's love affair with the ancient world. It began with our publication of her Egypt novel
Out of the Black Land
; then the extraordinary
Delphic Women trilogy
:
Medea
,
Cassandra
and
Electra
; and continues with her new series
Herotica: adventures in love & time

 

 

 

 

CLAN DESTINE PRESS

 

 

is proud to release

 

this ebook

 

 

and hopes you enjoyed the story.

 

 

 

http://www.clandestinepress.com.au

 

First published in eBook form by Clan Destine Press in 2014

PO Box 121, Bittern

Victoria 3918 Australia

Copyright © Kerry Greenwood 1997

First published in Australia, Reed Books, 1997

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (The Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of any book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-In-Publication data:

Greenwood, Kerry

CASSANDRA

2nd ed.

ISBN 978-0-9871604-2-3

Series:Greenwood, Kerry. Delphic women; 2.

Notes:Includes bibliographical references.

A823.3

Cover Design © Ran Valerhon http://www.valerhon.com

Maps © Amanda Wrangles