tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42137426004290626612024-02-07T20:21:33.416-08:00Ancient VillainiesBeing the thoughts and findings of Roger Hudson,
historical crime author, about the mystery of writing, life and
skulduggery in Ancient Athens in the Fifth Century BC and the ancient
world generally and meRoger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-74818255918162045802016-09-07T08:53:00.000-07:002018-02-08T07:57:01.698-08:00THE NOT-SO-PETTY CRIMINALS OF ANCIENT ATHENS<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiALa1K1-Rgb6U-MDXF6NNEgu_1N2FQA_v-YeSpeapcX6ky8_xAOhyphenhyphenBJqzqo9nVZGAtjogQjjjtKMdApTYClxH2aMjXlzFqy3Sa8NDmdhYsTPXjvX7qwtcO2UfNfWK0VzVS4hhuuo8-iexx/s1600/agora+market.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiALa1K1-Rgb6U-MDXF6NNEgu_1N2FQA_v-YeSpeapcX6ky8_xAOhyphenhyphenBJqzqo9nVZGAtjogQjjjtKMdApTYClxH2aMjXlzFqy3Sa8NDmdhYsTPXjvX7qwtcO2UfNfWK0VzVS4hhuuo8-iexx/s320/agora+market.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The market place in Athens</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">It seems that petty crime was no rare thing in Ancient
Athens. There was even a section of the market area called ‘Thieves’ Market.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 13.65pt; text-align: center;">It may have been what we would call a flea market, where second-hand clothing
and other goods are sold but one that also forms a channel for getting money
for stolen goods. I bought a bicycle in one such in </span><st1:city style="line-height: 13.65pt; text-align: center;" w:st="on">Dublin</st1:city><span style="line-height: 13.65pt; text-align: center;"> some years back, no questions asked. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, no bikes in ancient times, so what forms of theft were there?<br />
<br />
You could be mugged, of course. If you weren’t carrying money or things you’d
just bought in the market, they’d take your clothes and leave you to go home
naked. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">They might even make you spit out any small change you had tucked away
in your cheek (yes, that was normal in a time before the invention of pockets). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">On the longer routes to other towns and villages in <st1:place w:st="on">Attica</st1:place>,
these would be highway robbers or bandits.<br />
<br />
If you went to the baths or the gym, as the wealthier men did frequently, you
paid someone to keep an eye on your clothes, if you had sense, or a ‘cloakstripper’
would be rummaging them for any money or valuables you might have left with
them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And, doubtless, if you carried your money in a purse or satchel on a
strap over your shoulder, that could be grabbed and made off with by any number
of street urchins.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>No use reportin</span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 13.65pt;">g it to th</span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 13.65pt;">e police – there weren’t any. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 13.65pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg80CYEpNr9F17GMC0luCCZQpQzkLynjnXnSAdcj4YtH6gMUsfUpgDpeoil_kbe04AwehQuxQah-FqM8oSER7Sh3DONCyHf98hjwJEPUWguvQjziGtZaTXxGgaEnTuyGiyG84saFkojSS0/s1600/scythian+archer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg80CYEpNr9F17GMC0luCCZQpQzkLynjnXnSAdcj4YtH6gMUsfUpgDpeoil_kbe04AwehQuxQah-FqM8oSER7Sh3DONCyHf98hjwJEPUWguvQjziGtZaTXxGgaEnTuyGiyG84saFkojSS0/s320/scythian+archer.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">A Scythian archer</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 13.65pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 13.65pt;">The Scythian guards
patrolled the central areas to keep order and might nab any blatant wrongdoer
they spotted but, in the narrow lanes between market stalls, they couldn’t be
everywhere. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Law rested really on victims grabbing (arresting) the thief before
he got away and taking him to the authorities. Not much hope of that if the
mugger was threatening you in a deserted alley with a club or a knife and there
were two of him. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Mind you, if you came upon a burglar on your own property, you
could take action even to killing him and be seen as justified – that’s if it’s
at night: by day, you could only kill him if he resisted. Always, villains had
to be caught in the act or such crimes were difficult to prove.<br />
<br />
But, if wealthy houses had no ground floor windows and the street door was
guarded by a porter with a dog, how did burglars gain access? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Simple. They dug
a hole through the wall. Either from a lane beside or from inside an adjoining
house. In the main, houses were built of sunbaked mud bricks, so not too
difficult to chisel away at them when folks are all out, say, at a big
religious festival or maybe all asleep. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjum4ldk_p6CDiD9Kj-NlDxid2i6swE6yExP3oE4_fTkkNDNP2ifXlAK-VVd9akopbj2DTe_I_IAwpT0YzPh7k6F_NcNhCMCurOET1-JRDJ6qgieuYDrumvgquZG7A196Z-G1VJvm8AJbFH/s1600/Weighing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjum4ldk_p6CDiD9Kj-NlDxid2i6swE6yExP3oE4_fTkkNDNP2ifXlAK-VVd9akopbj2DTe_I_IAwpT0YzPh7k6F_NcNhCMCurOET1-JRDJ6qgieuYDrumvgquZG7A196Z-G1VJvm8AJbFH/s320/Weighing.jpg" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Weighing scales for grain</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Over the relatively low rooftops and
down into a courtyard may have been another way in but not such an easy way
out.<br />
<br />
However, it wasn’t only the professional criminal that indulged in
illegalities. The number of laws and inspectors relating to weights and
measure, false coinage, and quality of foodstuffs gives a pretty good idea that
such offences were rife. </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOTcowCEMT4fovaq43UDUego5gKpLk5JxpONSYBfGIYEYIG_XdkNGZdx1U295OrixPhHtEkOg79FqNq-ZRY5bBpeSIOM49kGHedXf1HXq_Cpg2vKyC5QTedW20orTj7LEBGHHWn1MPQFq/s1600/Weights.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOTcowCEMT4fovaq43UDUego5gKpLk5JxpONSYBfGIYEYIG_XdkNGZdx1U295OrixPhHtEkOg79FqNq-ZRY5bBpeSIOM49kGHedXf1HXq_Cpg2vKyC5QTedW20orTj7LEBGHHWn1MPQFq/s320/Weights.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Assortment of market weights</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">But there are always ways round these things, like two
sets of weights, one for when the inspectors are around, the other when they’re
not. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">You only have to look at the non-round shapes of coins that have been
unearthed by archaeologists to realise how much clipping of the metal at the
edges must have gone on even though value of a coin was determined by its
weight. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdW_lkTHYlhwF7meXAnP9iKiq4yIqWVxhhxJ73X_XG7qMabO4yHJQWe_us33CJ5InFpVNLwAFdoXKhlWgE-i4PmT1nQfmGoPU99cT473fG30u34d3yreHFzRWEPzrf0AxYVhtkpLEcgzIr/s1600/obol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdW_lkTHYlhwF7meXAnP9iKiq4yIqWVxhhxJ73X_XG7qMabO4yHJQWe_us33CJ5InFpVNLwAFdoXKhlWgE-i4PmT1nQfmGoPU99cT473fG30u34d3yreHFzRWEPzrf0AxYVhtkpLEcgzIr/s1600/obol.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Athenian silver obol - Known as an 'owl' because of the symbol</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">If a customer had doubts, there was a public slave stationed in the
market place specifically to test coins and weights.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
What punishments did culprits face? Well, stallholders faced a fine but, as
today, probably not high enough to be a real deterrent. It’s possible there was
an equivalent of the medieval stocks and also a wooden device round the ankles
that hobbled a culprit in the hope that the public ridicule that went with
these would be enough to put people off. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.65pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In the case of more serious theft, it
was the death penalty. In <st1:city w:st="on">Athens</st1:city>,
that meant being shackled to a board somewhere outside the city gates and being
left to starve to death. Pretty grim</span>.<o:p></o:p></div>
Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-23562459923964721242016-09-07T08:45:00.001-07:002016-09-07T08:45:04.219-07:00Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-7220265830274887972016-08-11T08:49:00.001-07:002016-08-11T08:49:50.232-07:00Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-83262475605475114132016-08-06T15:20:00.001-07:002016-08-06T15:20:33.775-07:00Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-4445053059758643192016-07-21T02:16:00.001-07:002018-02-08T09:40:32.105-08:00CITY OF DIRTY TRICKS<span style="font-size: large;">For all its reputation for noble philosophical minds, ancient Athens has to have been tops at political dirty tricks.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dredging up past misdemeanours of opponents and getting the word round, or even making them up in rumours
difficult to deny.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Charging opponents with embezzlement or defaming the gods or of taking bribes and then hauling them into court – again, it didn’t have to be true as
long as it stuck.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Speeches in the Assembly were a good method, but ran the risk
of being accused yourself of misleading the people (which was a crime), but graffiti was anonymous,
so were dirty jokes and satirical songs.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhdufjvP3evLtn0Op2NtNkgOIiedA1yEGdtWyjo4LnjkYw4nZBJ19DgpSFpgxZMNOdfPYTjbwvO1kMv74fR0Y-KXrmNkmWlEi7jXGJt6oxibZ88nwnb7Lvv7nrw5wIfQyXT58TlJKbyN4/s1600/trojan-horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnhdufjvP3evLtn0Op2NtNkgOIiedA1yEGdtWyjo4LnjkYw4nZBJ19DgpSFpgxZMNOdfPYTjbwvO1kMv74fR0Y-KXrmNkmWlEi7jXGJt6oxibZ88nwnb7Lvv7nrw5wIfQyXT58TlJKbyN4/s320/trojan-horse.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Movie version of the Trojan horse</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mind you, it had a long history with the Greeks. One of their
great heroes, Odysseus, was noted for trickery and respected for it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Trojan Horse was his idea and here he is tricking the Cyclops by hiding under a sheep.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They even had a god of cunning. That was Hermes, who was also patron of thieves,oratory, poetry, sports, invention and trade, boundaries and travellers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He was also messenger of the gods and played his own first trick when he was a baby.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc03flQlhzlByFyFC4K4GOINy4BiSPgiK5DMxnUKxCs2kMZya2MA_iXeKIqykdglRGECCfbGvTNO_Bphc7OBOla2QdzNNm7hi9uWUhSUCxvzvnfGHiHOj6ZiV0D1wzxOg7H6retR-C7lrD/s1600/odysseus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc03flQlhzlByFyFC4K4GOINy4BiSPgiK5DMxnUKxCs2kMZya2MA_iXeKIqykdglRGECCfbGvTNO_Bphc7OBOla2QdzNNm7hi9uWUhSUCxvzvnfGHiHOj6ZiV0D1wzxOg7H6retR-C7lrD/s320/odysseus.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Odysseus tricks Cyclops</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVciCNxbzQMg5S1099vyDGFdnEeqAX53nk_H6d11wpijcYDH-lk7y5sCNFbzQFN77cI7XQJPoAVKVy8mzLgSq8NW3WCioYj5arwaXd_VYdPOH9mKRVUzbS56GHgain5p_BcyC4DpTW6NI/s1600/hermes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVciCNxbzQMg5S1099vyDGFdnEeqAX53nk_H6d11wpijcYDH-lk7y5sCNFbzQFN77cI7XQJPoAVKVy8mzLgSq8NW3WCioYj5arwaXd_VYdPOH9mKRVUzbS56GHgain5p_BcyC4DpTW6NI/s320/hermes.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hermes, god of cunning</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">All Athenian houses had a bust of him at the front door which featured in the dirty trick that destroyed General
Alcibiades when he was accused of having vandalized scores of them when drunk – almost certainly organised by rival
politicians.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimznKUIJdZ4LzISjlOs3Bn7XwjB8novGedW-7-BHDPK04MMHiKJQ_CZFanAk_bwymdkrP1Mf-QwW0Dkfie98ycLTjIVJGjFMUovVg6vnfJ4cX2Kbevf9dFqIa6fNvJ1YKoXDnjYCZ1Jrt3/s1600/Themistokles+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimznKUIJdZ4LzISjlOs3Bn7XwjB8novGedW-7-BHDPK04MMHiKJQ_CZFanAk_bwymdkrP1Mf-QwW0Dkfie98ycLTjIVJGjFMUovVg6vnfJ4cX2Kbevf9dFqIa6fNvJ1YKoXDnjYCZ1Jrt3/s400/Themistokles+1.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Themistokles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Top political trickster has to be Themistokles, who features in my novel "Death Comes by
Amphora".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">His most successful trick was getting a false message to the invading Persian Great King Xerxes that fooled him into sending his fleet into the worst possible place for a naval battle where the Greek navy, led by Themistokles, slaughtered them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then, years later, when the Athenians chucked him out, Themistokles somehow persuaded the next Great King to give him a princedom, though we don’t know what false promises he may have made to get it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Whatever they were (like offering to lead a new Persian invasion), it seems the only way he could get out of keeping them was to commit suicide.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That's the story anyway.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In my novel, there are more cunning stunts that smack of Themistokles’ way of operating.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It looks as though Perikles learnt a lot from his example.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My novel "Death Comes by Amphora" is available on Amazon Kindle.
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ywHGNZHxNBA-_lTZJJMrps-pwlCczD4ChOarWJ_YvFizvwERrLmQrnFtO0vKu60QLddPCIeMVR0YDXwy-8YOoUpfv-7dvIdBHvjbVtnfJnFglRnhBksDQe1hyEV01t3fFtFtr8D3W7SL/s1600/trident+coverF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ywHGNZHxNBA-_lTZJJMrps-pwlCczD4ChOarWJ_YvFizvwERrLmQrnFtO0vKu60QLddPCIeMVR0YDXwy-8YOoUpfv-7dvIdBHvjbVtnfJnFglRnhBksDQe1hyEV01t3fFtFtr8D3W7SL/s400/trident+coverF.jpg" width="256" /></a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PH6PVT2/ref=cm_sw_su_dp">Amazon.com</a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PH6PVT2"><span style="font-size: large;">Amazon.co.uk</span></a></div>
<o:p></o:p>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-83554767672133646402016-07-09T06:13:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:37:37.288-08:00WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnITUkNcB5KCbvp7vq1oyCgKCAul1r0HxDeVPG_QDWBY799Wp6k6A9xxLeDsaSXrHTxhjxdZ7_CnXetAbOjVxZKRfcB4koqqdJTd3nHcBFFDq7GXBW-lskLMoKd5MWl9-7GrhaT_tQc93/s1600/medea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjnITUkNcB5KCbvp7vq1oyCgKCAul1r0HxDeVPG_QDWBY799Wp6k6A9xxLeDsaSXrHTxhjxdZ7_CnXetAbOjVxZKRfcB4koqqdJTd3nHcBFFDq7GXBW-lskLMoKd5MWl9-7GrhaT_tQc93/s320/medea.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Medea kills her sons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">You’d think they hated women. Well, they didn’t trust them
anyway. Or more like those wealthy Athenian men who ran things didn’t trust
themselves. They didn’t trust themselves not to fall in love, or lust, or
infatuation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The evidence? Look at all those plays with their powerful
female characters organising a sex strike like Lysistrata, killing their
husband like Clytemnestra, taking revenge on their husband by killing their
children like Medea (above), or just disobeying orders and screwing things up like
Antigone. All powerful, passionate women. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The men must have been scared of that, so they shut the
women away and kept them uneducated, so that the women accepted it. Men
(wealthy men anyway) didn’t marry till they were 30. Away fighting in wars
before that and lots of brothels to let off steam, no chance of meeting citizen
girls of their own age and falling in love. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir8jPd_yTOlZp2FNXEDeVy5kGuEEolzA9DqI0cRiOQdmJlupNlgXzyEW1vGGHjZKPPsmds1L5hA7ZDjV1bnHW2OVMPxvcfypyQ8eVZ5XMFZ0GfSTZivni7HMA8-iiJSrLjrb0P9ZpQEPBH/s1600/snog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir8jPd_yTOlZp2FNXEDeVy5kGuEEolzA9DqI0cRiOQdmJlupNlgXzyEW1vGGHjZKPPsmds1L5hA7ZDjV1bnHW2OVMPxvcfypyQ8eVZ5XMFZ0GfSTZivni7HMA8-iiJSrLjrb0P9ZpQEPBH/s320/snog.jpg" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Relationship - Not stated</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">When they did marry, it was to inexperienced girls of 14 –
that way virginity was guaranteed - that’s gotta be my son not some other
guy’s. It also meant more wives died in childbirth, unfortunately. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">And then the wives were kept locked up in the house, allowed
out only for funerals and a few religious festivals. The husband or slaves did
the shopping. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The wife was there just for procreation and to bring up the
kids. No real relationship. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Xk9ibVO2x3kC8SvtMdd0iTzzu_CJo3UToM9WenbP0BGCSmWgRHwMhz98xVCUiWDVBwr0CGbwcLTBQGI5Wdp-4QaBv_eSC7p7JtTS9go1NyJNPOBFGA67ioTRl1jMCUH8xUFAzbH8n2m9/s1600/family+scene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Xk9ibVO2x3kC8SvtMdd0iTzzu_CJo3UToM9WenbP0BGCSmWgRHwMhz98xVCUiWDVBwr0CGbwcLTBQGI5Wdp-4QaBv_eSC7p7JtTS9go1NyJNPOBFGA67ioTRl1jMCUH8xUFAzbH8n2m9/s320/family+scene.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maybe not an average father</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">To keep that danger at bay the husband went to dinner
parties with male friends where slave girls offered entertainment and more or
he kept a slave girl himself to entertain friends and keep himself amused. And
there were always the brothels. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Generally, husband and wife slept on different floors of the
house not just different rooms. Who could blame a teenage wife who responded to
the blandishments of a handsome young fella met at a funeral? </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UOIi1EgeUuVngW7xcapu2CA7wufmujqwdLJLDQg-q0fljPCTfWBVWiGg4mWZL9Gu6zwt_WWvoBF9Slp9xDEdaLFxRCiZ1FkdkaprRjgtyIeIDVSK18SrnHRO_PCrARt14AAQvmJVsePy/s1600/courting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7UOIi1EgeUuVngW7xcapu2CA7wufmujqwdLJLDQg-q0fljPCTfWBVWiGg4mWZL9Gu6zwt_WWvoBF9Slp9xDEdaLFxRCiZ1FkdkaprRjgtyIeIDVSK18SrnHRO_PCrARt14AAQvmJVsePy/s320/courting.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So who allowed this to happen?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">What were they really afraid of? I think it was fear of
losing control. Fear of acting irrationally, of excessive emotion that might
lead them to do something they would regret. Rationality, thinking things
through and acting on the conclusions, that is what we prize about our
inheritance from ancient <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
But it can’t have been much of a life for the women. Like Philia in my novel
Death Come by Amphora which is available on Amazon kindle with this handsome new design.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5FYjZGCaj67vE8EVKMbyCcwt9esxy3Q2kzvFEBY0hYL_ri160rOUtLuCOHxtQ8YVkKC1u-Wg_pWw_TqPjzqsnrjTKiKAvbGIJqJbvzsGcN8qe8lWwTMBc64wLJhCnncItTBxfjTiip-om/s1600/trident+coverF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5FYjZGCaj67vE8EVKMbyCcwt9esxy3Q2kzvFEBY0hYL_ri160rOUtLuCOHxtQ8YVkKC1u-Wg_pWw_TqPjzqsnrjTKiKAvbGIJqJbvzsGcN8qe8lWwTMBc64wLJhCnncItTBxfjTiip-om/s320/trident+coverF.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PH6PVT2/ref=cm_sw_su_dp">Amazon.com</a><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PH6PVT2">Amazon.co.uk</a></b></span></div>
</div>
Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-50460433189159026282015-11-27T15:28:00.002-08:002018-02-08T09:38:21.436-08:00WHY ANCIENT ATHENS?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9EcjCnFXK132Qt1gbwZ8xXO4fNOFkxJ0PMCV0TtPdFJ64x30nh0V8l02NOY2gvXHnjvIEvOqDj3xVGvIxYiR9WSAuN6Qm-Q0PA6lAiXD0GyNFjntgF7jqrnQt6827cLp0hKRxcANuNImN/s1600/amphora+cover+2+jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9EcjCnFXK132Qt1gbwZ8xXO4fNOFkxJ0PMCV0TtPdFJ64x30nh0V8l02NOY2gvXHnjvIEvOqDj3xVGvIxYiR9WSAuN6Qm-Q0PA6lAiXD0GyNFjntgF7jqrnQt6827cLp0hKRxcANuNImN/s400/amphora+cover+2+jpg.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">People ask me, “Why Ancient Athens?” and “Why 461BC?” </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, that’s easy. I studied Ancient History at secondary school and got fascinated at mention of an Athenian politician called Ephialtes.
He, it seemed, had brought in the reforms that led to the direct democracy of one man one vote of all male citizens. And that made possible the Golden Age of Athens led by Pericles or, as they would have spelt it, Perikles. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So an important guy. But this Ephialtes was then promptly assassinated ‘under cover of night’ and that’s all we were told.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What was going on here? Were the historians covering something up?, I wondered. It stuck in my head, so researching the novel was an opportunity to check it out for myself. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The answer was simple. Very little is actually known about Ephialtes. Apart from a tombstone indicating a state funeral, no mention of him before Aristotle’s <i>Constitution of Athens</i> , written some 130 years after the man died, and Plutarch’s <i>Life of Pericles</i> another 320 years after that and neither telling us very much.
All the more reason for exploring what happened and what better place than a novel.
Especially as lots more exciting stuff happened at about the same time. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWaYz6TbGVyFaFkRyB4mxvGvFy-OMf-Fxs1aUYYCg5Fjy99ku6-eBXOyS4SrWbWBi13p8ndJPSTotKGH6FuZ3M2RnvFJZtGtY90yylg8LS_XkCMk835fn4A-C7MlCCGapXAjeWQn8iCt9f/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWaYz6TbGVyFaFkRyB4mxvGvFy-OMf-Fxs1aUYYCg5Fjy99ku6-eBXOyS4SrWbWBi13p8ndJPSTotKGH6FuZ3M2RnvFJZtGtY90yylg8LS_XkCMk835fn4A-C7MlCCGapXAjeWQn8iCt9f/s320/6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ephialites’ reforms took power from the wealthy aristocrats and handed it to the poorer classes of shopkeepers, craftsmen and farmers – that sounds like a revolution in anybody’s language and revolutions are usually pretty fraught times. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Add that the top general and leader of the aristocrats General Kimon was voted into exile and that majority made possible by someone preventing four thousand aristocrats getting back from war in time for the vote. The danger of civil war must have been intense. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fRwVWvGWSm74ZBqoLWkIw2S_m-Xml_I8RCc76CklDm3Q5blvq0olTc7saht8RHx2p99Yj72kh0VxcoutWKyZGtqTi1BizUJJjK7BXpPiwVkhfsc8qX0T4jQL-ek3kOY7gVWCRf1Tw28Q/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fRwVWvGWSm74ZBqoLWkIw2S_m-Xml_I8RCc76CklDm3Q5blvq0olTc7saht8RHx2p99Yj72kh0VxcoutWKyZGtqTi1BizUJJjK7BXpPiwVkhfsc8qX0T4jQL-ek3kOY7gVWCRf1Tw28Q/s320/3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What would it be like to be in Athens then with your loyalties divided between both sides, aristocrats and workers, especially if you’re nosing around looking for the murderer of your rich uncle? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii8k_bSDx7v6mV1gxVS71oY-B4LN71sHoZcuptn5Bb_rtJ-6n7mVOCSsTD3nnaYf7x9F1N025eSyOK3ahld_E8H7rzrcjR0LBXtPHtkLK2axrbAVJmDRpXPxKoG9S3RMwGoidlc9l2yd63/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii8k_bSDx7v6mV1gxVS71oY-B4LN71sHoZcuptn5Bb_rtJ-6n7mVOCSsTD3nnaYf7x9F1N025eSyOK3ahld_E8H7rzrcjR0LBXtPHtkLK2axrbAVJmDRpXPxKoG9S3RMwGoidlc9l2yd63/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So look for a hero who is in that position – enter Lysanias, heir to that murdered rich uncle but brought up as an artisan and just 18.
A bit young so give him an elderly slave and advisor – that’s Sindron. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A very segregated society, so how can these two investigate what the women are up to? If young Lysanias has to marry his uncle’s teenage widow, maybe she can look after that angle. So that’s my detective team. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Where did ideas for the plot come from? More about that in a later blog.
</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-15592486639258115382015-09-12T05:49:00.001-07:002018-02-08T10:44:35.543-08:00THREE CLUES TO A MYSTERY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0ZLNKMstet2eXG5V2JJZFXj2LbO-Bpn0Mq3msuAS-ALUcoxcy7WYHbVYh_NOy9mXBCZ32QPJLOhsghMTnlZhaqn8wq0-G15LKoXO-wHfvsX-Y_7MOu16wWL56QPbIO-fScqU4v6uSdoM/s1600/amphora+cover+2+jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0ZLNKMstet2eXG5V2JJZFXj2LbO-Bpn0Mq3msuAS-ALUcoxcy7WYHbVYh_NOy9mXBCZ32QPJLOhsghMTnlZhaqn8wq0-G15LKoXO-wHfvsX-Y_7MOu16wWL56QPbIO-fScqU4v6uSdoM/s320/amphora+cover+2+jpg.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">So why these three images on the new cover? I suppose the funeral procession at the bottom is obvious. It helped me a lot to envisage the scene of Klereides’ funeral in Chapter 6.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The image on the left? Well, I had registered that there must have been plenty of merchant ships carrying supplies to and from big cities like Athens of timber, grain, wine, pottery, olive oil and more and, of course, passengers like my heroes Lysanias and Sindron.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They and crews would need water on the journey and I worked out what the big vessels for holding this, supported in harnesses of rope or leather to prevent spillage, would have looked like, even before I came across this picture. The multiple handles would take the harness. Something like this became the murder weapon in my novel and the ‘amphora’ of the title.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And the blacksmiths at the top? It seemed to me that the taking of power from the aristocrats in 461BC must be seen as tantamount to a revolution. And I knew that similar times in later history had resulted in interest by artists in depicting ordinary people and work situations.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVtm9I6morImxDUsqUC0gQs0_c-OVKnLLbqZDNJBQ6tJOvILCegMn8k3bSuncjbSY6AYpnmkobD4QKvF863pcu5SvUyfw-ppNPD6wg9VYwiVIn2aGQLcRMW7z3NMtWk3yd2BiADQjR2PR/s1600/greek_blacksmith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1240" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVtm9I6morImxDUsqUC0gQs0_c-OVKnLLbqZDNJBQ6tJOvILCegMn8k3bSuncjbSY6AYpnmkobD4QKvF863pcu5SvUyfw-ppNPD6wg9VYwiVIn2aGQLcRMW7z3NMtWk3yd2BiADQjR2PR/s400/greek_blacksmith.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Greek Blacksmiths at work</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">When I came across it, this bas relief scene of blacksmiths at work seemed just such a piece and it gave me the inspiration for a dramatic incident at the funeral party also in Chapter 6. Incidentally, the muscular arms and hammers suggested the working class violence that the aristocrats may have feared at the time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Put them together and what have you got? A new cover but also an indication of the thinking behind at least some of the novel.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-91301870878803952942015-09-08T06:14:00.001-07:002018-02-08T07:51:19.366-08:00RE-ACTIVATION<span style="font-size: large;">Time to re-activate my blog after a long break when other things got in the way. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Why now? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Because my novel Death Comes by Amphora is now under my own control and available from Amazon in a Kindle edition as well as in print, both with a brand new cover design. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PH6PVT2/ref=cm_sw_su_dp">Amazon.com</a></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PH6PVT2"><span style="font-size: large;">Amazon.co.uk</span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On top of that, next week (from 16th) will see it at a special low price, so why not check it out on Amazon. Watch out for more posts. </span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-51620143219381165732010-11-28T05:49:00.000-08:002018-02-08T09:36:29.300-08:00BOUCHERCON IN SAN FRANCISCO<span style="font-size: large;">Bouchercon 2010. Wow! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Over 1400 people, a third of them authors. Staggering. How does one get to meet and chat with anyone in a crowd like that? Well, you do, I discovered. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For authors that one knows, either from past conventions or from online chat-groups, the fallback is making contact before or after panels they are on (or they with you), if you haven’t bumped into them before then in the bar or the very excellent hospitality room with its endless supplies. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That’s how it was with Rhys Bowen, Carola Dunn, Nancy Means Wright, Jeri Westerson, Colin Campbell, Laurie King, Adrian Magson, Ken Isaacson, Ali Karim, Kelli Stanley and my heroes Steven Saylor, Lindsay Davis and John Maddox Roberts, the first and greatest Romans of them all and all three of them on the same panel. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">All achieved, except for Sunny Frazier, who I had wanted to thank personally, like some of the others, for helpful pre-convention advice. Thanks, Sunny. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As she suggested, I dutifully topped up every day my small piles of bookmarks and flyers on tables in common areas, which must have contributed to the very respectable book sales and to the packed and enthusiastic audience, including 20 standing round the walls, for the enjoyable and entertaining panel I was on titled “Bitter Wine” where I swapped opinions and anecdotes with Rebecca Cabntrell, Candace Robb, Caroline and Charles Todd and moderator Oline Cogdill. But that’s nothing to the massive Grand Ballroom packed solid for the Lee Child interview.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I'd like to have seen historical crime getting more attention - only three panels dedicated and those not all easy to identify, though they were all excellent - but crime is a big field to cover.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Otherwise, yes, contacts were pretty random, though wouldn’t it be helpful if authors and fans name-tags were colour-coded in some way to differentiate them, maybe agents and publishers too? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, opportunities were many, starting with the Newbies Breakfast on the first morning, where flyers and bookmarks immediately came into play, to the parties and publishers’ receptions whose animated conversations flowed over into nearby restaurants and bars. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Most unexpected occasion was the meeting of the Scowrers and Molly Maguires, the local Sherlock Holmes association, held in a German restaurant which served a surprisingly respectable pint of Guinness (I am from Ireland) with very elderly members who recalled their memories of the group’s founder, the ubiquitous Anthony Boucher. I felt justified in attending as Shots magazine had compared my own heroes Lysanias and Sindron to Holmes and Watson, though I’m not sure which would be which.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I also met my personal nemesis Gary Corby, the young Australian author whose series just launched is set in exactly my own time period in Ancient Athens, with Perikles (though spelt Pericles) as a significant character. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We agreed not to read one another’s work to avoid cross influence, as, apparently, do Davis, Saylor and Roberts, the last two of whom also landed in the same Roman period and have written books around the same historical incidents. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Gary is a nice guy and, with a respected and active publisher, it looks as though his book "The Pericles Commission" is doing well. Does it mean interest in Ancient Athens as a fiction location is growing? Let’s hope. Now to complete my own No.2. It is going well but illness and the problems of real life have been interfering.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">An amazing convention and incredibly well-organised and run by the many enthusiastic volunteers. A bonus for me was the opportunity after it ended to visit North Beach, old stamping ground of Kerouac and Ginsberg, to browse the Beat Museum and Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Bookstore, and read my poems at an Open Mic in the Caffe Greco. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The whole six days a succession of highs, not least coming out of my modest hotel every morning and setting off into a San Francisco immediately familiar from Hollywood crime movies walking from Chinatown down the hill complete with cable car towards the concrete and glass towers of the Financial District and the convention hotel. Memorable!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Apologies for lateness of report but it's been a tough time since. Bouchercon was 14-17 October.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-39422001485320398602010-10-08T08:49:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:35:39.293-08:00AND SO TO BOUCHERCON<span style="font-size: large;">Book launches over and successfully with many thanks to friends who helped. The poetry book looking good, everyone very appreciative. Now it’s off to Bouchercon next Wednesday. The big event of the crime fiction year, this absolutely massive convention is this year in San Francisco with over 2,000 attendees, a quarter of them authors. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Imagine all those authors vying for attention! But other authors tell me they thoroughly enjoy it and it is productive for them, with the aim not so much to sell books at it but to catch the attention of potential readers in the expectation that they will buy when they get home.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It’s a packed schedule with five streams of panels going at the same time over four days plus authors in continuous conversation, one-author statements and interviews and activities in the craft room. Add to that social events in the evenings. It threatens to be utterly exhausting on top of the jetlag and biological clock disorientation of longhaul flights but also very exciting.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The panel I am on is called Bitter Wine at 3pm on the Friday in Room Seacliff C. It is about the need for historical accuracy in historical mystery novels among other aspects. With me are Candace Robb, Rebecca Cantrell and Caroline and Charles Todd so we range from Ancient Greece through the English Middle Ages to 20th century Europe. Sounds like a great panel and great discussion. Moderator is Oline Cogdill.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What I wasn’t prepared for is to find another author siting their novel in precisely my time and place yet there he is. Australian author Gary Corby is launching “The Pericles Commission” at Bouchercon and appearing on a panel with Steven Saylor, Lindsay Davis and John Maddox Roberts all with famous series in Ancient Rome. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Gary’s novel sets off from the assassination of Ephialtes in Ancient Athens in 461BC and features Pericles just like me. Good to know someone else is as keen on this bit of history as me. It will be interesting to see how he has handled it and what he has come up with to fill the many gaps in the historical record, one of the most difficult aspects of writing historical fiction. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I’m looking forward to meeting lots of new people and making new friends, all enthusiastic about the same things I am. Can’t wait. I’ll let you know how it goes.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-52505690827910947152010-09-10T02:02:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:35:13.210-08:00HIJACKED BY POETRY<span style="font-size: large;">Loads of time lately devoted to organising and publicising and sending out invites for the book-launch in Drogheda of my new poetry collection from Lapwing Publications of Belfast - probably the only poetry publisher around would take on my long poems (some here up to 5 and 7 pages). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It's called <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/lapwingpublications.com/lapwing-store/roger-hudson">GREYBELL WOOD AND BEYOND</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">55 pages of quirky and idiosyncratic stuff offering snapshots and mini-dramas from my life experiences and observations and my first solo run at poetry. I now have copies - looks good. On the cover is the black-and-white photo taken by my dad long years ago of my mum, sister and me sitting on a fallen tree in a bluebell wood. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It's what prompted the title poem "Greybell Wood", which started as a fairly short nostalgia piece but grew over successive revises into a study of the way memory works and the power of photographs to trigger emotions and other cogitations. Strange where the creative process takes you. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The same could be said of other poems including "Reunion" which follows my year at college through their lives and careers over 50 years - now there's ambitious for you! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The book-launch is on 21st September followed by one in Dublin on October 5th. Otherwise, nail-biting time waiting to hear if I'm on a panel at Bouchercon 2010, the big crime fiction convention in San Francisco I'm going to in October.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-16047040476330540362010-08-24T08:01:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:34:25.814-08:00OF ANCIENT POLITICS AND THE DOUBLE LIFE<span style="font-size: large;">Lets look at what I’ve been reading lately and why. I tend to avoid reading books very close to my period. Well, yes, because of the risk I might find myself plagiarising unintentionally but also because, on the one occasion I broke this rule, I suddenly found I was confusing the reality from my own research with the other author’s fiction – which may have been based on sound research or invented. Best to stay clear.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But I found the politics of 5th century Athens becoming more and more important in my sequel, so I became keen to see how other authors deal with this. Then I registered that Robert Harris’ series about Cicero’s life – Imperium and Lustrum, were straight historicals rather than histmysts so little risk of pollution. So far I’ve read only Imperium and exciting it is. Raw power politics with menace and not much else but very compelling, a real page turner. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The same author’s Pompeii I hadn’t liked at all. Uninteresting cardboard characters, unbelievable plot sequences, solid undigested lumps of Pliny the Younger (and Elder) plonked on the page, little real understanding of how such a town would work – no thanks. Now here was the real thing – Republican Rome red in tooth and claw. Fascinating. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But could I learn anything from it? Maybe not. As a histmyst writer, any political background has to serve and be integrated with the crimes the hero has to solve, though some of these may have a political motive. But the pace and excitement? Can I achieve that? Lets see. But, for now, I’m dying to get into Lustrum.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then, by chance, I came across a bargain price copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, a novel I had never read before. Apart from the glowing quality of the writing and gradually tiring of Wilde’s epigrams and aphorisms in the mouth of Sir Henry Wotton, what’s fascinating here is Dorian’s double life and the way it reflected Wilde’s own and the whole novel almost forecasts Wilde’s own future life and downfall. Lets stick to the double life for now. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My hero, Lysanias, inherits the estate of his uncle, a wealthy aristocrat in ancient Athens, and all the social expectations that implies yet he has been brought up his father in a distant colony as an artisan, a carpenter, and developed sympathies with craftsmen and workers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now that’s very convenient for me as author (indeed why I invented the device) for Athens is split politically between the aristocrats and the radical people’s party and to be able to investigate his uncle’s death, Lysanias needs to be able to talk to individuals on both sides and get answers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So I invented it for story reasons but did it occur to me because my own life carries elements of similarity? Times when I have worked for a PR agency promoting the cause of, say, property developers while, in my spare time active in community organisations campaigning against specific projects of such people or even involved in plays attacking their whole ethos. Whether that was a cause, obviously it must have helped me to write effectively what it feels like to have that ambivalence, having to balance two different ways of thinking and understanding. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That was fine in No.1. How does it work now when there are people on both sides who know of his connections with their opponents? That’s what I’m working out at the moment.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-70206793614975281742010-08-23T02:54:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:32:46.680-08:00CLASSICS, CRIME AND LOADS OF CHAT<span style="font-size: large;">I attended the excellent Summer School of the Classical Association of Ireland at Trinity College this weekend. Two really fascinating talks by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill about how the ruins of Herculaneum (the other Roman town buried by Vesuvius at the same time as Pompeii) were discovered and at least partially unearthed over succeeding centuries and about how the parts so far exposed are being restored and preserved. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The problems here are that the volcanic material that overtook the town and flowed into all spaces solidified into rock which is difficult to drill out plus that a modern town was built on top, which doesn’t make the archaeologists’ work easy. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Some beautiful and revealing photographs and interesting old newsreel material of archaeological teams at work in the first half of the 20th. century. Useful titbits garnered as well from other talks about ancient Greek houses and temples. Individuals among this gathering of very friendly people – teachers, academics and enthusiasts - showed interest in my novel and there was much congenial conversation. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Launch of my new collection of poems Bluebell Wood and Beyond comes next in late September and early October in Drogheda and Dublin and then, in mid-November, the big adventure of attending Bouchercon in San Francisco, perhaps the most heavily attended of all the crime fiction conventions. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It sounds very exciting. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With luck I get to meet my heroes – Steven Saylor and Lindsey Davis whose series of novels in their different styles about Ancient Roman detectives Gordianus and Falco defined the genre and laid down the high standard to be aimed for.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-16557059012038728622010-07-30T07:39:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:32:18.663-08:00GARDEN AND GUESTS<span style="font-size: large;">A strange year in the garden. First nothing started growing till very late because the ice and snow and then continuing cold temperatures in the early months – not your normal Irish weather by any means. Then it all spurted up and was delayed again by very erratic rainfall. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The apple trees masses of fruit but not enough rain to make them swell. The runner beans starting off well but running out of energy and hardly making it halfway up their canes. The radishes going to seed before they had swelled enough to be eatable. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But there have been enough sunny days for us to sit out under the trees and have meals there, sometimes with guests, something that hardly happened at all last year, so no complaints. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Just pleased to have our long thin garden, bounded by trellis and mature shrubs, up a flight of steps from the back door so exposed to the sun at all times of the day, as a relaxing and visually enchanting resource.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-71328238519350871932010-07-20T02:51:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:31:22.773-08:00THE NOT SO PETTY CRIMINALS OF ANCIENT ATHENS<span style="font-size: large;">It seems that petty crime was no rare thing in Ancient Athens. There was even a section of the market area called ‘Thieves’ Market’. It may have been what we would call a flea market, where second-hand clothing and other goods are sold but one that also forms a channel for getting money for stolen goods. I bought a bicycle in one such in Dublin some years back, no questions asked. Of course, no bikes in ancient times, so what forms of theft were there?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You could be mugged, of course. If you weren’t carrying money or things you’d just bought in the market, they’d take your clothes and leave you to go home naked. They might even make you spit out any small change you had tucked away in your cheek (yes, that was normal in a time before the invention of pockets). On the longer routes to other towns and villages in Attica, these would be highway robbers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If you went to the baths or the gym, as the wealthier men did frequently, you paid someone to keep an eye on your clothes, if you had sense, or a ‘cloakstripper’ would be rummaging them for any money or valuables you might have left with them. And, doubtless, if you carried your money in a purse or satchel on a strap over your shoulder, that could be grabbed and made off with by any number of street urchins. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">No use reporting it to the police – there weren’t any. The Scythian guards patrolled the central areas to keep order and might nab any blatant wrongdoer they spotted but, in the narrow lanes between market stalls, they couldn’t be everywhere. Law rested really on victims grabbing (arresting) the thief before he got away and taking him to the authorities. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Not much hope of that if the mugger was threatening you in a deserted alley with a club or a knife and there were two of him. Mind you, if you came upon a burglar on your own property, you could take action even to killing him and be seen as justified – that’s if it’s at night: by day, you could only kill him if he resisted. Always, villains had to be caught in the act or such crimes were difficult to prove.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But, if wealthy houses had no ground floor windows and the street door was guarded by a porter with a dog, how did burglars gain access? Simple. They dug a hole through the wall. Either from a lane beside or from inside an adjoining house. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the main, houses were built of sun-baked mud bricks, so not too difficult to chisel away at them when folks are all out, say, at a big religious festival or maybe all asleep. Over the relatively low rooftops and down into a courtyard may have been another way in but not such as easy way out.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, it wasn’t only the professional criminal that indulged in illegalities. The number of laws and inspectors relating to weights and measure, false coinage, and quality of foodstuffs gives a pretty good idea that such offences were rife. But there are always ways round these things, like two sets of weights, one for when the inspectors are around, the other when they’re not. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You only have to look at the non-round shapes of coins that have been unearthed by archaeologists to realise how much clipping of the metal at the edges must have gone on even though value of a coin was determined by its weight. If a customer had doubts, there was a public slave stationed in the market place specifically to test coins and weights. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What punishments did culprits face? Well, stallholders faced a fine but, as today, probably not high enough to be a real deterrent. It’s possible there was an equivalent of the medieval stocks and also a wooden device round the ankles that hobbled a culprit in the hope that the public ridicule that went with these would be enough to put people off. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the case of more serious theft, it was the death penalty. In Athens, that meant being shackled to a board somewhere outside the city gates and being left to starve to death. Pretty grim.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-14375248712072151462010-07-14T14:01:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:30:22.727-08:00WE WUZ ROBBED<span style="font-size: large;">Everybody's fuming in Drogheda and in County Louth generally. The smallest county in Ireland and 50 years since it won the Leinster region final of the gaelic football championship and this year it reached that final and was winning until the final minutes of injury time. Then, in a melee in front of the Louth goal, the ball trickled across the line. However, no-one had 'played' it to that end which, under the rules, makes it invalid. But the referee awarded a goal to Meath, the other side, and hence victory in the match. He later admitted he had made the wrong decision and it was an invalid goal but too late. Fans invaded the pitch and punched him to great outcry. The governing body said there was nothing they could do. The Meath management committee debated requesting a replay but decided against. The decision stands. Hence the inevitable feeling of "We wuz robbed!" </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On a quite different tack. I recently read Robert Harris' "Imperium". I had previously disliked his "Pompeii" immensely with its boring cardboard characters, unexciting style and regurgitated chunks of Pliny the Younger sometimes as straight quotes not to mention major implausibilities. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This account of the early career of Cicero was completely different. Naked power politics with menace, so exciting I could hardly put it down to go to bed. The battle for power between dynamic and ambitious individuals and factions with real historical characters who came to life as totally real. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Whether all the incidents actually happened is another matter - if they did Cicero must have been an incredibly brave man to have said some of those things in the those places - but it reads as completely plausible. I can hardly wait to read the next instalment "Lustrum".</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I have been very erratic in maintaining this blog so far, so lets hope I can make a fresh start now.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-50397860009403483582010-06-11T06:30:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:29:57.769-08:00JUNE UPDATE<span style="font-size: large;">The bad news? Dublin lost its one dedicated crime fiction bookshop with the demise of Murder Ink on Dawson Street. Enthusiast Michael forced to close down last month due to ill-health and decline of business in the recession. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A great loss to readers and writers (he was very supportive of Irish crime writers and had racks solely for Historical Crime books including American titles not available elsewhere in Dublin). Following the loss of Murder One in London last year, this leaves only Alibis in Belfast struggling on.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The other bad news is that the Irish gangster/film Noir movie “Trafficked” which my son Simon and I released in Ireland last month came out on the hottest and sunniest weekend in May that anyone remembers when only an eejit (as we call them here) would dream of going to the cinema – and it turned out there weren’t many eejits around. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So a very short cinema life for the film. A great shame as it’s a very powerful little film, brilliantly acted by Ruth Negga, Karl Shiels and the rest of the cast, a strong story exploring an important issue. Lets hope it develops a big following on DVD.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This also slowed down my blog booktour but there is a recent addition which appeared 31st. May. It’s about Ancient Greek Cookery and titled Titillating Ancient Tastebuds (with just a flavour of poison). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You can find it at <a href="http://damesofdialogue.wordpress.com/2010/05/">http://damesofdialogue.wordpress.com/2010/05/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> Thanks for having me Maggie. More are promised, some written, but no dates fixed yet. I’ll let you know.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-62240491028157404482010-05-15T23:28:00.000-07:002018-02-08T07:35:26.361-08:00WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS<span style="font-size: large;">Growing withdrawal symptoms at missing Crimefest in Bristol this year and so will not meet again the author friends I have made there in previous years. Apologies guys!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The reason, of course, is the release in selected cinemas in Ireland of Irish film Noir gangster movie "Trafficked" on Friday with Gala Premiere on Wednesday. Hectic time. Lots of media attention at the Press Screening and interview days, so looks as though it could do OK despite the general reluctance of Irish audiences to go to Irish movies. Fingers crossed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Garden looking good. Bluebells, Aquilegia and Apple Blossom out and managing to get some vegetables sown - late, but then nature herself is running late this year due to the ultra-cold and over-long winter. No sign yet of may blossom in the hedgerows that are normally a mass of white by now.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Once the movie release is out of the way hopefully posts on this blog will get more regular. Lysanias considering whether he wants to adopt the fancy new gents hairstyle or not.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-54723815514739707082010-05-02T11:00:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:29:19.410-08:00POETRY SLAMS AND MOVIES<span style="font-size: large;">The Great Drogheda Poetry Slam which I hosted on Friday went great - by delaying start time in traditional Irish fashion number grew to 45 with 20 competitors in two categories. An enjoyable evening was had by all with an amazing variety of poems. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Part of the Drogheda Fringe which, together with the official Arts Festival, has brought quite a buzz to the town this bank holiday weekend. I also had a few of my photomontages exhibited in Urb Exchange an interaction experiment in an empty shop space which has been arousing interest.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Next up is release of Irish gangster movie Trafficked with Ruth Negga and Karl Shiels directed by Ciaran O'Connor. It hits screens in Dublin, Cork and Galway on May 21st - not long to go - look out for it. It's a stunning little movie. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">More at <a href="http://www.traffickedthemovie.com/">www.traffickedthemovie.com</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It's distributed by Simon and my company Stoney Road Films.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Otherwise haven't managed to get the garden sorted, though it is finally looking really green with leaves out and blossom emerging on the apple trees. And these things seem to have blotted out significant writing which is not a good thing.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-14030058820589464542010-04-23T11:48:00.000-07:002018-02-08T10:36:31.304-08:00THE GREAT PERFUMERY CON TRICK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzqFALub9wahK9h2brdxyifHAj7q4_PHGCvD_nmtiNhttQtcX4BZ-2nwQnxO7jBRenoxfUNbNH5cWEOECOSvPlsN5T9Phhf-yu46VCEXIzjPm-zb8-2j3RfdmJhm5F6SAalNl_C6zEhAd/s1600/4+perfumery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1330" data-original-width="1362" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzqFALub9wahK9h2brdxyifHAj7q4_PHGCvD_nmtiNhttQtcX4BZ-2nwQnxO7jBRenoxfUNbNH5cWEOECOSvPlsN5T9Phhf-yu46VCEXIzjPm-zb8-2j3RfdmJhm5F6SAalNl_C6zEhAd/s320/4+perfumery.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-1d937820-75dd-8ab8-a1ad-02693e142c61" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-1d937820-75dd-8ab8-a1ad-02693e142c61" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; font-size: large; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He must have been a sitter for any conman (or conwoman) – our lovesick hero – let’s call him Eubolides. He has fallen in love with a slave boy who works in the scent shop where he buys his perfumes (Athenian gents liked to smell nice). </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; font-size: large; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Can I pay you to give him his freedom,” he asks Athenogenes the owner. “Sorry, not on, replies Athenogenes, “he won’t go without his brother and his father Midas, who runs this highly profitable business for me.” </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV1T8OZAz4I8_G9S7T-eA_mKXoyZeQ8v2st-CGpjYLxa51BZ7NiTqAFFyyXb5RXneOh-VtHLNy-29aGDMb3gxqrRjVOJyJFN9OHDZ5WL-8LYziKYMQMdFtmTAMObW4DwB76EIMb5HCjyyq/s1600/ancient_greece_market.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="554" height="568" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV1T8OZAz4I8_G9S7T-eA_mKXoyZeQ8v2st-CGpjYLxa51BZ7NiTqAFFyyXb5RXneOh-VtHLNy-29aGDMb3gxqrRjVOJyJFN9OHDZ5WL-8LYziKYMQMdFtmTAMObW4DwB76EIMb5HCjyyq/s640/ancient_greece_market.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Depiction of Agora in Athens</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eubolides is distraught and desperate to get the lad into his bed. Enter Antigona, beautiful ex-courtesan, now ageing but respected pimp-about-town. Knowing them both, she offers to mediate. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I think, if you offer to buy or free all three slaves, you’d have a deal,” she says and names a sum, not cheap but do-able. Eubolides hustles round, raises the money by borrowing from friends and a meeting is arranged. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now what Eubolides doesn’t know is that Athenogenes has given Midas full responsibility for operating the shop and the slave has run up massive debts by borrowing for which his owner is responsible. So, surprise, surprise, looking worried, Athenogenes agrees to the deal but then says, as though trying to be helpful, “Look, have you thought, if you buy the freedom of the three slaves, it’ll just be money down the Great Drain. Why don’t you just buy the business? </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That way, you own the slaves and can do what you want with the boy and they could continue to work and earn a profit for you. If they go, I’ve either got to close it down or buy new slaves to run it. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, you’d have to take over the liabilities as well as assets. There are debts to Pankalos and Prokles but they’re not much - the stock in the shop more than covers that - and maybe a few more. I’ll let you have it for the same amount.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, the fact that the price was the same should have been enough to warn Eubolides but, as I say, he’s lovesick and doesn’t spot any trickery. Antigona chips in encouragingly, “Sounds a good deal to me. It’ll give you a regular income.” </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So he falls for it and signs, or rather applies his seal on the spot for – another surprise – Athenogenes just happens to have the contract, already drawn up, tucked in his cloak.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Athenogenes hasn’t actually lied, just implied the debts were a lot lower than they really are. More important for him, debts are formally mentioned in the contract and that Eubolides takes responsibility for them.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now proud possessor of his love object and a perfumery business, Eubolides suddenly finds creditors banging on his door, chasing him for their money, and himself saddled with a massive debt on top of his own borrowings. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He approaches Athenogenes, now freed of a heavy burden and looking flush. “You didn’t tell me about all these other debts,” he whines. “Sorry, old chap, business is business. You should have read the contract more carefully.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eubolides takes Athenogenes to court for damages and it is from his speech to the jury (written for him by expensive speechwriter Hypereides) that we know this. However, as Athenogenes and Antigona doubtless calculated, he hasn’t a leg to stand on. The law clearly states that contracts freely entered into between two citizens are binding. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU464uyAWoKoc6Pl9kkzBgzj0h-Oe3lnQR5GhT27xnksUEFdiZl_IkZ8tazuhv7gA_n6Js-gXmvjwYkpyS3JOfwJxvH2vHIeHjbxxX8fOMU1kvPKzihzWFo4TVAzXFU7Fzm1t7yJBC0gyN/s1600/Hypereides.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU464uyAWoKoc6Pl9kkzBgzj0h-Oe3lnQR5GhT27xnksUEFdiZl_IkZ8tazuhv7gA_n6Js-gXmvjwYkpyS3JOfwJxvH2vHIeHjbxxX8fOMU1kvPKzihzWFo4TVAzXFU7Fzm1t7yJBC0gyN/s1600/Hypereides.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hypereides</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; font-size: large; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But that’s only ‘fair’ contracts,” he argues. “This contract isn’t fair.” And he cites instances in other areas of law where fair and unfair are differentiated. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #474b4e; font-size: large; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Did the jury listen to him? We don’t know. But doubtless Athenogenes’ speechwriter will have found convincing counter arguments. Looks as though Eubolides is bankrupt.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And even now he doesn’t spot, even though he knows that the bigger debts are fairly recent, that Midas has probably been encouraged to take these loans specifically for the con, with Athenogenes pocketing (sorry, no pockets in a cloak – or were there?) after giving Antigona her cut – could it have been her idea? Eubolidesa is even more miffed that he slipped her 300 drachmas for her help. Talk about one born every minute!</span><span style="color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: #474b4e; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="color: #474b4e; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Deduced from a speech written by Hypereides on a papyrus rescued from the sands of Egypt – collections of legal speeches certainly had a wide circulation.</span></span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-17832750669304899482010-04-01T23:47:00.000-07:002018-02-08T09:26:41.838-08:00BLOGTOUR MOVES ON<span style="font-size: large;">BOOK TOUR MOVES ON</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Five down on my blog book tour – breath sigh of relief. Tougher than you might think. Offering to guest-blog, negotiating the blog-sites and dates, writing the pieces sometimes needing extra research, sending it off, checking it’s all OK, visiting and replying to any comments, letting people know… Quite exciting though. Scroll down a bit for my blog with actual dates and links – you may have to go to Archive for relevant month for some. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Next date is April 8th on Nan Hawthorne’s Booking History with Stories Behind the Statues – a peak into the Athenian fashion at <a href="http://nanhawthorne.blogspot.com/">nanhawthorne.blogspot.com/</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then probably a bit of a break from it till May 31st with one on ancient cookery.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Busy week. I’ve been finalising the running order of poems in my new collection from Lapwing for one. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then there’s setting up a poetry slam on April 30th as a major event in the Drogheda Fringe attached to the Drogheda Arts Festival. And liaising with my son over release of Irish gangster movie Trafficking which is lining up for May 21st. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Plus writing, email correspondence, keeping up with discussion groups, a bit of accounts and some PR. And getting distracted by fascinating inbox arrivals.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The bank holiday weekend was looking like a good opportunity to do a little gardening but, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the garden and having dared a short haircut, another cold spell arrives. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Should I, shouldn’t I? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But there are daffodils and daisies out, catkins on the big tree, leaves appearing on the rhubarb, and the grass is growing – well, there has to be a downside as the mowing chore rears it’s ugly head once again as a belated spring arrives. Great to hear the birds singing so joyfully again, though.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-63317347339796369782010-03-14T00:45:00.001-08:002018-02-08T09:25:00.950-08:00MY BLOG BOOKTOUR SCHEDULE<span style="font-size: large;">About time I brought everyone up to date on my blog book-tour. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For anyone who hasn’t come across them, they’re something authors do in this electronic age as a form of indirect self-promotion. Instead of trekking round to make personal appearances at bookstores, libraries and other places to promote a new book, they arrange to supply guest blogs on topics related to writing, or to the world of their novels, or aspects of life generally to a succession of blog-sites of other authors in the genre or groups. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then the hope is that readers and browsers will tag along from site to site, become a follower and maybe buy your book. It's proving quite hard work but very exciting. Not only the arranging, liaising and writing, there's the extra research sometimes needed and replying to comments (yes, I am getting some). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here’s the plan so far, if anyone wants to come along for the ride:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">12th March: Julie Lomoe's Musings Mysterioso at <a href="http://julielomoe.wordpress.com/">http://julielomoe.wordpress.com</a> where my blog on the importance of historical plausibility is now up. There's a competition in front of it, so please scroll down. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">18th. March: Kadi Easley's kdwrites at <a href="http://kdblog.kdwrites.com/">http://kdblog.kdwrites.com</a> with The Magic of Historical Research.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">22nd. March: Julia Buckley's Mysterious Musings - Interview at <a href="http://juliabuckley.blogspot.com/">http://juliabuckley.blogspot.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">24th March: Susan Higginbotham’s Medieval Woman with What Makes a Good </span><span style="font-size: large;">Historical Mystery at <a href="http://susandhigginbotham.blogspot.com/">susandhigginbotham.blogspot.com/</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">31st. March: Sarah Johnson’s Reading the Past with Human Realities Behind the Relics at <a href="http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/">readingthepast.blogspot.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">8th. April: Nan Hawthorne’s Booking History with Stories behind the Statues at <a href="http://nanhawthorne.blogspot.com/">nanhawthorne.blogspot.com/</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">31 May Dames of Dialogue with Titillating Ancient Tastebuds (ancient Greek cookery with just a flavour of poison) at <a href="http://damesofdialogue.wordpress.com/">damesofdialogue.wordpress.com/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">An interview on Novel Journey will following later in the year, which will be more about writing </span><span style="font-size: large;">and more to be announced all supplemented by stuff on this blog-site where you’ll have seen that my series on ancient crime and criminals has now started.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, I’d like to express my thanks to all these lovely people for being so eager to host me. Have fun.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-16832377346118845112010-03-13T23:17:00.000-08:002018-02-08T10:19:21.540-08:00True Crimes 2- POISONOUS WOMEN<span style="font-size: large;">As a way of causing death with the hope of not being found out, poisoning seems to have been quite popular in Ancient Athens as it has in many subsequent eras. It was also likely to be suspected in any situation where the cause of death was not clear. This is so in a case where we don’t have the principal names. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here a young man, who has waited till he is of age to speak in the courts, accuses his stepmother of having contrived the death of his father several years earlier. It appears his father had a lodger, Philomenos, who had a concubine, a slave, who was worried that he had gone off her and would sell her into a brothel. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The stepmother sympathised and said she too was losing the affections of her husband. A love potion was suggested as the answer to both problems and the concubine was persuaded to give it to the two men in a drink at a dinner well away from the house. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjImXczB8QjB7-a9yHO6Vm-leBS_i21nbVmGrM1zTLxgfMsDzW1Jj-k4HgjayZ90fcGer5wtn1qpg0Uovzflj1PLyXK-mBMiyclR2sZ5C6kKBJAgBkbmmi3ste7gCFW4FcVcICjfrjmD8DD/s1600/ancient_greece_court.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="1114" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjImXczB8QjB7-a9yHO6Vm-leBS_i21nbVmGrM1zTLxgfMsDzW1Jj-k4HgjayZ90fcGer5wtn1qpg0Uovzflj1PLyXK-mBMiyclR2sZ5C6kKBJAgBkbmmi3ste7gCFW4FcVcICjfrjmD8DD/s400/ancient_greece_court.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Book Antiqua;">Francesco Hayez </span></b><span style="color: grey; font-family: Book Antiqua; font-size: small;"><b>, </b></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><b style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: grey; font-family: Book Antiqua;"><i><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Ulysses at the court of Alcinoo</span></span></i><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"> , 1814-16, oil on canvas 380 x 580 cm. </span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Naples, National Gallery of Capodimonte</span></span></span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">However, rather than splitting the potion equally, she gave more to Philomenos. He died on the spot, she was immediately suspected, tortured to the point of confession and executed. The father fell ill and died twenty days later. Believing he had been poisoned, he asked his young son to pursue his killer, which he was now doing some years later, using the speech by Antiphon which is our only record.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If the stepmother is guilty, then it was quite a neat piece of work. Her accomplice is dead, having confessed to the poisoning of Philomenos only, possibly because the father, not yet being dead, the officials had not put that question to her during the torturing. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The accuser brings no evidence of the confession anyway, nor of his stepmother having access to poison nor from the doctor who treated the father that the symptoms were those of poison rather than, say, food poisoning. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">His only hope of a stronger case (and the stepmother’s only danger) is that one or more of the household slaves might have known of the plot and revealed it under torture – for a slave’s testimony was admissible in court only if given after torture. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwKTypYlJwPZtY0lD7NXpTReC0JOOUyQAuY4gL1B9pAnTEgGhUjVK-AFeeqW42aPkj1Upl2LHSoOO-xnFnHS4IyAW89lkcYpXPHo3H0qJWyhBL0YkoauQ7ZnUm7sXyd-pcSdX40_sBlTr/s1600/Women-of-Athens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="650" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwKTypYlJwPZtY0lD7NXpTReC0JOOUyQAuY4gL1B9pAnTEgGhUjVK-AFeeqW42aPkj1Upl2LHSoOO-xnFnHS4IyAW89lkcYpXPHo3H0qJWyhBL0YkoauQ7ZnUm7sXyd-pcSdX40_sBlTr/s400/Women-of-Athens.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Women of Athens</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">But his stepbrother, who it would seem has control of the estate, has refused this request. Understandable really, for who wants their property (slaves) damaged by torture whatever confession might result – and who doesn’t confess if tortured enough? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Result: not enough evidence to support his case and she gets away with it, unless the large jury of citizen males is swayed by the fear that Athenian men seem to have had that their wives will betray them. Perhaps that is why he refers to his stepmother as ‘a Clytemnestra’, the queen who murdered her husband Agamemnon. We have no record of the actual verdict.</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4213742600429062661.post-38982879185031368452010-03-03T05:45:00.000-08:002018-02-08T10:07:59.968-08:00WHAT MAKES A CHARACTER ‘HISTORICAL’? (Take 1)<span style="font-size: large;">Well, what does make a character ‘historical’? As opposed to a character with all the concerns of any individual of today in human relationships and survival, that is, who happens to wear a different costume from us, a modern man or woman in fancy dress. Lets look at that.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikVwlSr4P-NJVERq7LC9zDkXRqHrzrhyphenhyphenCftnZASNGSK5eMpJgWvUhjD0g0lAW-WlRRiF_qhdJAve93w3uXETek_bCsh4C1yLA0CB9u7garqIQMF59BMthoi_h6Mk9cGpX6NKUD1oWq4JX9/s1600/middle_ages_devil_demons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="1024" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikVwlSr4P-NJVERq7LC9zDkXRqHrzrhyphenhyphenCftnZASNGSK5eMpJgWvUhjD0g0lAW-WlRRiF_qhdJAve93w3uXETek_bCsh4C1yLA0CB9u7garqIQMF59BMthoi_h6Mk9cGpX6NKUD1oWq4JX9/s400/middle_ages_devil_demons.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Demons From The Livre de la vigne nostre Seigneur 1450 - 70</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">In reality, an ordinary person from the Middle Ages or from many ages in the past could be almost paralysed from any out of the ordinary action by fear of retribution from God, the gods (of which there were many, all looking out for their own interests) and one’s social superiors or of seduction by the Devil and his demons, which made many scared to go to sleep for fear of dreams, which, of course, were the Devil attempting to do just that. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Life was constantly interrupted by religious observances at different times of the day, by religious festivals and feast days which were compulsory, by the Sabbath when, at certain times, anything resembling work and even travel was not allowed. Questioning the behaviour of one’s social superiors was definitely not a good idea.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTwGqLVH8XLpzsk1ZIeWtAjNkuBrfBAZlP2VLBsFjmOIm49w4RH7MzcdI4CLuST6qguyG6Jys0VW__CYXDn8wEIPEOxyUXoFhaCud5HjSnoOCUVwYlpoGeFuVVcheNtjrAgouJOu4nHuWL/s1600/middle_ages_festival.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="550" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTwGqLVH8XLpzsk1ZIeWtAjNkuBrfBAZlP2VLBsFjmOIm49w4RH7MzcdI4CLuST6qguyG6Jys0VW__CYXDn8wEIPEOxyUXoFhaCud5HjSnoOCUVwYlpoGeFuVVcheNtjrAgouJOu4nHuWL/s400/middle_ages_festival.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="assembly-caption" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 5px; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Peasants dance at a celebration in a medieval village.</span><div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic;">© The Granger Collection, New York</span></div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now that is not very conducive to effective detective work on a timescale that would be acceptable to the normal novel reader. So we historical crime writers have to find ways round it. We either fudge and make our characters say a guilty prayer when they infringe some rule or other or we make sure they have a mandate or dispensation from a monarch or bishop or other high authority. Or we choose one of the more liberal eras or more rule-breaking figures as our detective.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But beyond those extremes, they should ideally think within the mental frame of the age, accepting most of the received wisdom and attitudes to slaves, serfs, servants, women, children, foreigners, people of other religions, lords and ladies, and religious dignitaries. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now, if we went all the way with that, especially in our lead characters, they would not be very acceptable to many readers in our politically conscious age. So again, we are likely to fudge and nod in these directions while finding reasons why their attitudes are just that bit more liberal than their fellows.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And often we do this subconsciously because we ourselves have the need to create characters we can empathise with. After all, we have to live with them in our heads for even longer than the reader while each novel is evolving.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">PS: I’ll aim to develop these ideas further maybe in some other place and time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Reminder: My first guestblog goes up at Julie Lomoe’s Musings Mysterios tomorrow March 5th</span>Roger Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11004329333686279569noreply@blogger.com0