Mythologia: Exploring the World of Gods, Goddesses and Heroes

Greetings Readers and History-Lovers!

After a long Summer break, we’re finally back on the blog to bring you more entertaining information, topics of conversation and, of course, more books!

I hope that this post finds you all happy and safe, despite the ongoing crises plaguing our world.

During the past several months, I’ve been busy delving into worlds of gods, goddesses and heroes. What better way to get a respite from the modern world and its troubles than to explore Greek and Roman mythology?

And what an escape it has been! 

I’ve always enjoyed mythology, and as I’ve grown older and begun to write my own stories, I’ve realized that it would be wonderful to retell many of these fabulous myths in a way that would allow us to get to know these gods, goddesses, and heroes on a more personal level. 

The goal with the Mythologia series from Eagles and Dragons Publishing is to re-create a mythical world in which the reader can suspend all disbelief and experience these epic tales in a new and exciting way, right alongside the immortals and demigods whom we have read and heard about for ages. 

This series is also a lot of fun for me to write, because anything goes. I don’t need to be constrained by historical timelines or detail as much as with other series, though I always make an effort to set the stories in their known, geographical locations. You can’t keep a good historian down! I get ideas from the seeds and scattered mentions by ancient authors in various texts, and then let my imagination run wild.

The Council of the Gods by Raphael, c.1517, Villa Farnesina, Rome

Why mythology, and why now?

That’s a tricky question. I suppose that in the last year, during this modern plague, I’ve found comfort in mythology, a resonance in the stories that has helped me to get through in some way.

This series was always intended to be an escape, an exercise in the suspension of disbelief. This past year seemed like the perfect time for that.

However, it is also worth mentioning that even though myth is comprised mostly of stories of gods, goddesses, and heroes, those stories deal with very human feelings and trials which we all face in one form or another. They are stories of love and loss, of hope and of deep fear. They are stories of jealousy, of curiosity, of wanting to belong and of wanting to be better than ourselves.

The Gods know we’ve all faced our share of challenges in the last year and a half or so. That is part of the reason for which I have gone back to the Mythologia series. It has comforted and inspired me.

I also just love mythology as a religious and storytelling tradition that has spanned ancient Greek and Roman culture. It’s the very foundation of epic storytelling in the West.

The Mythologia series can be read in any order, but the first book, Chariot of the Son, deals with the Phaethon myth.

The Fall of Phaethon (Sebastiano Ricci 1659-1734)

He [Zeus] recalled the Fate [Moira] foretold a time when sea and land and heaven’s high palaces in sweeping flames should burn, and down should fall the beleaguered bastions of the universe.

(Ovid, Metamorphoses 1. 252)

Why the Phaethon myth?

I forget what I was researching at the time, but I came across a description of one version of the tale and remember being really saddened by it. I felt strongly that this was a story that I could tell, a story that would be extremely moving for readers of all ages. 

There are a few versions of the Phaethon myth, including Hesiod’s Theogeny of the 8th or 7th century B.C., and versions by Apollodorus and Pausanias in the second century A.D. In these, Phaethon is often the son of Eos and Kephalos.

The version that touched me the most is by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18) from Book II of his work, Metamorphoses. This work is a continuous narrative of myths in fifteen books which has shaped much of our view of mythology to this day.

You can download a free version of Ovid’s Metamorphoses on the Project Gutenberg website HERE.

With Chariot of the Son, I wanted get to know the people who, unbeknownst to Phaethon, make up the family – Clymene and Helios, his parents, an Oceanid and a Titan; his sisters, the Heliades; the Titan Prometheus, and others.

Also, knowing that the story has a tragic end, I wanted to get inside this young god’s heart and mind to try and experience the reasons why he wanted so much to drive the Sun’s chariot across the heavens. 

As I thought about his burning chariot and the scorching of the world that created the Sahara desert, it occurred to me that this story has some very human themes such as wanting to belong, the need for love and approval, and the urge to prove oneself.

It is also a myth that is not often explored, and so I set out to tell it as I saw it. I hope I have done this tragic tale justice.

We are, after all, reminded of Helios and Phaethon when we look up at the sun in the daytime sky, or see a picture of the burning expanse of the Sahara desert.

The Sahara Desert – Created by the burning of the world when Phaethon drove his father’s chariot

Perhaps what I love most about the myths is that they enable us to feel and see our world and history with wonder, and that is a precious thing.

I love this book and writing it was, quite literally, a dream-like experience.

Stepping into such an ancient world where these mythic characters experience things on a very human scale has been a wonderful experience that I hope you will enjoy.

Though the books in the Mythologia series are labelled in a specific order, they can all be read individually as stand-alone stories.

Chariot of the Son is, of course, the first book in the Mythologia series, and it is available for 0.99.

Just go to the book’s page on the website HERE. You can also go to the Buy Direct page on the Eagles and Dragons Publishing website to get your copy.

Stay tuned for the next post on Greek mythology in which we will take a brief look at the myth of Pelops and Hippodameia.

Thank you for reading.

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Book Reading – Chariot of the Son

Hello everyone!

Well, I’ve done it! I’ve gone and posted my first foray into video book readings. If you watched the video above, I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to share it around.

Yes, I know. I’m a bit awkward, and not entirely video-friendly (or is it that video is not friendly to me?). But, if I don’t try new things out, and take some risks, new adventures will remain out of reach. With time, I promise I’ll find my video groove.

Lest we forget, these stories were a part of an ancient oral tradition, and were meant to be spoken aloud. What would ‘the poet’ think of YouTube, I wonder?

Chariot of the Son was released on Amazon in December, but I thought I would post this video reading now because it just became available on Kobo and iTunes/iBooks.

If you haven’t got a copy, and your interest is piqued after reading the EXCERPT, be sure to head on over to one of the retailers to grab a copy. This is a story that can be enjoyed by anyone who likes Greek mythology, from young adults on up. The Percy Jackson crowd might enjoy this!

If you missed them last year, I posted some blogs about the Mythologia Series and on Retelling the Myths.

Chariot of the Son was a real joy to write, and I’m really excited to write more in the Mythologia series. After I finalize the three projects I’m working on now, I’ll get to work on the next in the series which I think will be a retelling of the story of Bellerophon and the Chimera. How does that sound?

In the meantime, if you’ve read Chariot of the Son, I would really appreciate it if you posted an honest review at any one of the retailers mentioned, or on Goodreads, as reviews really do help others to find the book.

That’s all for this week.

I’ll be back soon with a ‘funny’ post about the lighter aspects of life in the Roman Empire.

Thank you for reading.

If there are other myths you would be interested in reading about, tell us in the comments below. We all have our favourites! Which are yours?

Sun

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The Cult of Mithras

Tauroctony (Wikimedia Commons)

Tauroctony (Wikimedia Commons)

Hello everyone,

I’d like to thank all of you for your patience and kind words over the last few weeks. It has indeed been a difficult time with the sudden loss of my father.

I’m soldiering on with my writing. The first draft of Thanatos (final part in The Carpathian Interlude series) is finished and promises to be a wild ride into darkness – something to match my mood of late.

I’m also thinking of trying out some new things involving video, so look for that in the coming weeks.

Today, I wanted to draw your attention to a guest post of mine on the English Historical Fiction Authors website (EHFA).

If you haven’t seen this site, you should check it out and sign-up for their e-mail updates. If you like history, you will get a daily dose of fascinating blog posts on a wide range of topics.

screen-shot-2012-08-04-at-7-55-48-am

When the kind folks at EHFA contacted me to ask if I would be able to post on the site several weeks ago, I of course said yes!

With the subsequent loss of my father, however, I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it. But, writing is therapeutic for me, and so I put together a post called The Cult of Mithras – the British Connection in which I look at Mithraism and The Carpathian Interlude series and how the cult of Mithras was present in Britannia.

If you like ancient mystery religions, or The Carpathian Interlude series, I think you’ll enjoy reading this post.

I’ve also thrown myself into research for another Eagles and Dragons series novel and, as ever, history has been a wonderful distraction from the strange days in which I find myself.

So, thank you again for all your wishes, and I look forward to talking more history with all of you.

Oh, and by the way, from February 18th-22, Chariot of the Son is available for FREE DOWNLOAD from Amazon, so be sure to go and get your copy.

As ever, thank you for reading…

Greece 2006 076

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Mythologia – Retelling the Myths

Olympians

“Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth–penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.” ( Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth)

December 7th is launch day for Chariot of the Son, the first book in the new Mythologia series.

Today, I wanted to talk a bit about the importance of myths and of retelling them.

Why is it that myths and legends have stood the test of time? Why are they still as popular today as they ever were?

Those are some wide open questions that I won’t fully answer here, for that kind of discussion, you should read Joseph Campbell’s seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as well as the transcript of the discussion between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell called The Power of Myth.

“Dream is the personalized myth, myth the depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic in the same general way of the dynamic of the psyche. But in the dream the forms are quirked by the peculiar troubles of the dreamer, whereas in myth the problems and solutions sown are directly valid for all mankind” (Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces)

Myth and legend speak to us on a level that is both spiritual and psychological. Humans have always been drawn to tales about gods and heroes, of great deeds done under extreme circumstances.

ancient Bellerophon

Bellerophon and Pegasus battle the Chimera

And as Campbell posits, the archetypes of the hero and the journey he takes are things that cross cultures and eras in human history. No matter the age in which we live upon this earth, we are drawn to elements of the tales that make up our myths and legends. We never tire of them.

Our ancient myths and legends are still going strong, not only because we connect with them in such a deep way, but also because we tell and retell these stories over and over again for successive generations.

When I was little, I loved the story of Perseus and Medusa, and I’m sure that young Greek warriors or Roman lads enjoyed those stories too.

Harry Hamlin as Perseus in Clash of the Titans

Harry Hamlin as Perseus in Clash of the Titans

The myths inspire us to be greater, to exceed ourselves, to press on through hardship. We gain strength through hearing them and experiencing them.

You may not enjoy some retellings of myths and legends such as Hercules, Clash of the Titans, or the Percy Jackson novels, but they are important in that they keep these tales alive, they continue to inspire. For the record, I enjoyed all of those I just mentioned!

A young Henry VIII may have enjoyed tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, flipping through his copy of Caxton’s printing of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, as much as a youth would today reading a more recent iteration by Howard Pyle. I know I did, and still do.

Myths and legends throughout our history have also served as ‘teaching tales’ for humanity. We learn, and are reminded of, courage and compassion, humility and goodness, fear and heroism, life and death, and everything in between. Myths and legends show us the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly divine of mortals and immortals.

Apollo slays the Python on Mt. Parnassus

Apollo slays the Python on Mt. Parnassus

These tales brought us closer to our gods and heroes, and as a result help us to come closer to who we are, or have the potential to be.

“The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realization. As he crosses threshold after threshold, conquering dragon after dragon, the stature of the divinity that he summons to his highest wish increases, until it subsumes the cosmos. Finally, the mind breaks the bounding sphere of the cosmos to a realization transcending all experiences of form – all symbolizations, all divinities: a realization of the ineluctable void.” (Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces)

In deciding to retell various myths and legends as part of the Mythologia series, I am on a quest to write new and entertaining versions of these tales. But I also want to get up close and personal with the gods, goddesses, and heroes who have haunted the realms of my imagination since I first became aware of them.

The Gods

I’m not sure which myth I will explore next, but whichever one it is, I can’t wait to unleash my imagination in the same way as I did with the first one in the Mythologia series.

Chariot of the Son is out this December 7th, 2014, and will be available for just $0.99 cents until the Winter Solstice. So be sure to grab a copy! You can read a lengthy excerpt by clicking HERE.

Phaethon

Phaethon

Also, I’ve been interviewed on the website of a fellow author, Effrosyni Moschoudi, whose book, The Necklace of the Goddess Athena, has been rocking the Amazon charts. If you missed it, be sure to check out Effrosyni’s brilliant guest post from last week on the Goddess Athena and the Parthenon.

If you would like to read a bit more about what inspired the Mythologia series, as well as my other writing projects, head on over to Effrosyni’s Blog to read the interview and find out some behind-the-scenes stuff!

I guess I’ll see you the other side of launch day. I do hope you enjoy my retelling of the Phaethon myth in Chariot of the Son.

For now, I think it nice to leave you with some more words by Joseph Campbell:

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” (Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth)

Thank you for reading.

Chariot of the Son (Final)

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Chariot of the Son – The First in a New Series

Chariot of the Sun

Today, I’m happy to announce the first book in a new series from Eagles and Dragons Publishing.

It’s called Chariot of the Son, and it is a retelling of the Phaethon myth from Greek mythology. But, before I talk about the story, I’d like to mention the series.

I’ve always enjoyed Greek mythology, and as I’ve grown older and begun to write my own stories, I’ve realized that it would be wonderful to retell many of these fabulous myths in a way that would allow us to get to know these gods, goddesses, and heroes on a more personal level.

There are several myths I would like to delve into, and Chariot of the Son is the first in what I am calling the Mythologia series.

The goal with the Mythologia series is to re-create a mythical world in which the reader can suspend all disbelief and experience these epic tales in a new and exciting way, right alongside the immortals and demigods whom we have read about for ages.

Helios - The Sun God

Helios – The Sun God

This series is also a lot of fun for me to write because anything goes; I don’t need to be constrained by historical timelines or detail as much as with other series. I get ideas from the seeds and scattered mentions by authors in various texts over the ages, and then let my imagination run wild.

Why the Phaethon myth?

I forget what I was researching at the time, but I came across a description of one version of the tale and remember being really saddened by it. I felt strongly that this was a story that I could tell, a story that would be extremely moving for readers of all ages.

There are a few versions of the Phaethon myth, including Hesiod’s Theogeny of the 8th or 7th century B.C., and versions by Apollodorus and Pausanias in the second century A.D. In these, Phaethon is often the son of Eos and Kephalos.

The Fall of Phaethon (Sebastiano Ricci 1659-1734)

The Fall of Phaethon (Sebastiano Ricci 1659-1734)

The version that touched me the most is by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18) from Book II of his work, Metamorphoses. This work is a continuous narrative of myths in fifteen books which has shaped much of our view of mythology to this day.

With Chariot of the Son, I wanted get to know the people who, unbeknownst to Phaethon, make up the family – Clymene and Helios, his parents; his sisters, the Heliades; as well as the Titan Prometheus, and more.

Also, knowing that the story has a tragic end, I wanted to get inside this young god’s heart and mind to try and experience the reasons why he wanted so much to drive the Sun’s chariot across the heavens.

I’m very excited about this book, and writing it was, quite literally, a dream-like experience.

Stepping into such an ancient world where these mythic characters experience things on a very human scale has been a wonderful experience that I hope you will enjoy.

And, now for the cover reveal for Chariot of the Son

Chariot of the Son (Final)

Many thanks to OctagonLab for the great cover which, quite suitably, blinds us with beauty and intensity.

Chariot of the Son will be released on December 7th, 2014.

However, you can read an excerpt of the book on the Eagles and Dragons Publishing website by clicking HERE.

If you like what you read, the book is available for pre-order for a special price from Amazon right now.

And remember, if you don’t have a Kindle, there are FREE Amazon Kindle reading apps that will allow you to read on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, computer and other devices. Just click HERE!

I hope you enjoy this new book, and thank you for reading…

Chariot of the Son

Chariot of the Son is an epic retelling of the story of Phaethon from Greek Mythology.

During the age of Gods and Titans, Phaethon spends his days alone on the plains of Ethiopia, his only joy in life watching the Sun travel across the heavens.

When the sad bonds of his life are about to overwhelm him, a truth is revealed to Phaethon which sends him on a quest across the world to find his place in the order of things, and to unite the family that he has never known until now.

This is a story of love and loss, of deep yearning to find one’s place and to make a difference in a world where even the Gods can weep.

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