From My Fantasy Writing Desk:
Hand of Fire, my novel about Briseis and the Trojan War, is on sale for $0.99 on Amazon from December 26 through Jan 1. If you haven’t read it, now’s the time to load it onto your tablet or Kindle.
“Briseis steps out from the handful of lines she gets in Homer’s epic, and fearlessly tells her own story as healer, war prize, and partner to the famous Achilles—here a godlike hero who manages to be all too human. Recommended!”
–Kate Quinn, NYT Bestselling author of The Alice Network
More books on sale
For more books on sale, click through here for an enticing selection of fantasy novels on sale through the end of December, including Hand of Fire. There’s a rich mix of historical and contemporary fantasy books, so get out those gift cards and escape into some good stories.
Archaeology I Enjoyed:
International Bronze Age Splendor
.jpg)
They’ve found two more early Mycenaean tombs near Pylos. The evidence of the early importance of Pylos grows with each new extraordinary find. While Pylos is famous in Homer as the palace of the wise but chatty Nestor, these tombs predate that excavated palace.
The rich, very international finds of these tombs, along with the even more magnificent Griffin Warrior tomb also found in this area, has led to a rethinking. Pylos, more than Mycenae, may have been the power center of the earliest stages of the Mycenaean Greek civilization.
Further study of the objects in the earlier find of the Griffin Warrior tomb leads the two University of Cincinnati archaeologists to believe, “the warrior had both military and priestly functions as did the king or ‘wanax’ described in inscriptions from the later Mycenaean period. If so, he would have been one of the early kings of Pylos, possibly the first, and if so the leader of the first kingdom on the European mainland.”
Although these two more recently found tombs were pillaged in ancient times, they were protected more recently by the collapse of the tholos stone roof. Flakes of gold leaf show that the floor was lined in gold. That would have made for a dramatic setting. They also found beads made of amber, carnelian and malachite, and a golden pendant depicting the head of the Egyptian goddess Hathor. The wealth of finds shows that Pylos had active trade with Crete, Egypt and elsewhere in the Near East around 1500 BCE. Click here for the New York Times “Tombs at Ancient Greek Site Were Gold-Lined Chambers”
Trojan Texts
Here’s an interesting article about the literary treasures in the Troy exhibit at the British Museum. There are vases, paintings and sculpture in the stunning exhibit. However, also included are books. The earliest papyrus fragments of the Iliad and Odyssey are on display and some of the famous early translations/adaptations such as Chapman’s Homer that influenced Keats so deeply. There’s also the first book published in English: Recuyell of the historyes of Troye, published by William Caxton around 1474, possibly an inspiration for Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida.”
I had a good laugh at the final sentence of this article. I have no idea if this unfortunate situation is accurate or not, seems so unlikely but it’s awfully specific, “Visitors should remember to take their reading glasses as the signage is rather small and frequently at ankle height.” Ankle height? Perhaps the advice should be, “visitors should practice their forward bends before attending” I would happily read floor level signage, but I don’t think getting to London before March is going to happen. Click here for Fine Books Magazine “The Literary Treasures of Troy”