I'm reading Madeline Miller's Circe. I loved her first book, and this one isn't bad. It's harder in a way.
To balance it out I'm also reading The Trojan War by Strauss. This one is about what we know historically, with archaeology.
The Netflix series Troy: Fall of a City helps me to imagine Ipiphigenia's situation, understand how historical, how mythological and what choices they made. Strauss gives the option of substituting a deer for Ipiphigenia. In the BBC series they don't do that. They slit her throat. Watching it you wonder if the guy is crazy, but Strauss points out it shows Aggemenon's commitment to the war.
Here's a quote from the Strauss book I liked that is a description of the skills of a warrior king from Sparta (p.34-35):
They could break an enemy's lance or deceive him with words. They knew how much flour it took to feed an army and how much wood was needed to burn a corpse. They knew how to pitch a camp or launch a fleet, how to debrief a spy or sent out an informer. They could draw a bow and split a copper ingot like a reed or hurl a spear and pierce the seam of in an enemy's armor. They shrugged off mud and snow, towering waves or buckets of rain. They could appraise lapis lazuli with a jeweler's eye or break a merchant's neck with hangman's hands. They could court a milkmaid or rape a princess. They feared the gods and liked the smell of death.
To balance it out I'm also reading The Trojan War by Strauss. This one is about what we know historically, with archaeology.
The Netflix series Troy: Fall of a City helps me to imagine Ipiphigenia's situation, understand how historical, how mythological and what choices they made. Strauss gives the option of substituting a deer for Ipiphigenia. In the BBC series they don't do that. They slit her throat. Watching it you wonder if the guy is crazy, but Strauss points out it shows Aggemenon's commitment to the war.
Here's a quote from the Strauss book I liked that is a description of the skills of a warrior king from Sparta (p.34-35):
They could break an enemy's lance or deceive him with words. They knew how much flour it took to feed an army and how much wood was needed to burn a corpse. They knew how to pitch a camp or launch a fleet, how to debrief a spy or sent out an informer. They could draw a bow and split a copper ingot like a reed or hurl a spear and pierce the seam of in an enemy's armor. They shrugged off mud and snow, towering waves or buckets of rain. They could appraise lapis lazuli with a jeweler's eye or break a merchant's neck with hangman's hands. They could court a milkmaid or rape a princess. They feared the gods and liked the smell of death.
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