hello, friend!! I have a three-part question for you. Feel free to pick one or do all three as the mood takes you!
1. What is something you researched, expecting it to feature prominently, that ended up fading into the background?
2. The reverse: what's something you researched to add a little detail that ended up becoming significant?
3. What's your favorite tidbit you discovered about Ancient Greece while researching for this fic?
(Also: congratulations!! You're an inspiration, and it's a delight to be along for the ride!!)
Oh, a three-parter! I love it!
1. There have been so many research rabbit holes I've gone down that aren't relevant anymore, hah! The one that sticks out in memory the most right now is the Mycenaean Fountain discovered in the acropolis in Athens.
Here was the original footnote I wrote for it: "It is a stairwell that was discovered in 1896 and excavated in 1937 on the northern slope of the acropolis, dated to the 12th century BC. Scholars suspect it to be the passageway in the Festival of Arrephoria, during which young Athenian women brought secret offerings up to the acropolis at night through a hidden underground passage." (Here is the paper!)
I wanted this to be the backdoor from which Callisto and Zagreus would infiltrate the palace and hammer home how different the Bronze Age-style palace would have looked, compared to the "sacred hill" form it took in later eras. Alas, getting to see the fountain, its relationship to the festival, and the connection to Athena all ended up fading into the background.
2. I have a VERY GOOD ONE for this one. The inclusion of Xanthos was entirely because, early on, I was looking for a set of horses for the chariot race. I had played around with the idea of a set of horses named after famous horses in myth, when I a) found out that Achilles' horses were, in fact, immortal and b) they came as a set of siblings.
From there, the snowball gathered, Xanthos came into the story, he and Balios were passed through the children of Neoptolemus (Achilles' son), and we created an unholy bloodline in Thymoetes and Apheidas (descendants of both Theseus and Achilles, though the latter is only alluded to), HAH!
3. I don't know if I have a specific favorite tidbit, but I am fond of these two. That kohl is made of lead (don't wear it, kids!) and Socrates' speculation on the etymology of theoi, the word for gods:
“Something of this sort, then, is what I suspect: I think the earliest men in Greece believed only in those gods in whom many foreigners believe today— sun, moon, earth, stars, and sky. They saw that all these were always moving in their courses and running (theonta), and so they called them gods (theous) from this running (thein) nature; then afterwards, when they gained knowledge of the other gods, they called them all by the same name. Is that likely to be true, or not?” (397c-d)
These kinds of folk etymology tend not to be rooted in any real linguistic truth, but it's a dreamy story about the divine and nature nonetheless.
Thank you so much for submitting these great questions! They were super fun to answer! <3
