Diogenes, the Dog Philosopher

     Born sometime around 410 BC, in Sinope (modern day Turkey) lived the man called Diogenes. He was a famous philosopher, but he was perhaps better known for his eccentric nature. He was the father of the philosophers we call the "Cynics" and is well noted for opposing the views of Plato, who was one of his contemporaries. What is it about Diogenes that makes him interesting to us today though? I offer up a few examples below.

     The writers Plutarch and another man named Diogenes (Diogenes Laertus) are the primary sources for his life.  They tell the story of a man who willing lived homeless sleeping inside of a large ceramic jar.  He lived his life much like that of a dog. He begged, ate scraps, rarely bathed,  made no fuss of where to sleep and even relieved himself in public. According to the story, one time someone referred to him as a dog and so he played "a dog's trick" and urinated on his assaulter. As you can see the name dog in his title was aptly given. Diogenes however, instead of taking this as an insult made it part of his persona and began building up the virtues of the dog.  The writer Donald Dudley says it this way:

"There are four reasons why the Cynics are so named. First because of the indifference of their way of life, for they make a cult of indifference and, like dogs, eat, go barefoot, and sleep in tubs and at crossroads. The second reason is that the dog is a shameless animal, and they make a cult of shamelessness, not as being beneath modesty, but as superior to it. The third reason is that the dog is a good guard, and they guard the tenets of their philosophy. The fourth reason is that the dog is a discriminating animal which can distinguish between its friends and enemies. So do they recognize as friends those who are suited to philosophy, and receive them kindly, while those unfitted they drive away, like dogs, by barking at them"

Yes, you read that right, if they deemed you unfit to be there the Cynics would BARK at you! Is it really surprising however, that a school founded by a wildly eccentric character would found an eccentric school? Probably the most famous story of Diogenes is that while he lived in the city of Corinth he would walk the streets...during the daytime.....and when asked why, he would say he was looking for an honest man. Ouch! Well, maybe Corinth wasn't known for being the most well-reputed city in Greece, but still. Come on Diogenes! Don't kick a city full of men when they are down!

Diogenes was well known throughout Greece for his mad German Spotlight skills as seen above!

Finally for the witty moment of the day. Next time someone accuses you of being a cynic, tell them if you were a true cynic you would be peeing on their shoes!

-Jason

Anna Komnena: The Matriarch of Story

     Born in 1083 A.D. in Constantinople's famous Purple Room, Anna Komnena was the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Komnena. Anna is the writer of a book called The Alexiad, the tale of her father's life as the emperor. Alexius is most well known as the emperor who asked Pope Urban to send mercenaries to help fight the Turks. However, Urban decided this was a great opportunity to preach the spread of Christianity by the sword and single-handedly put the wheels of the first crusade into motion. The story of Alexius however was more than just the Crusade. He was an able general who kept his kingdom from falling to its many enemies and set up the empire to last over 300 more years.

A little known fact about Anna Komnena is that she was awesome! Here she is reading a passage from the Book of Armaments. See that cross in the bottom left corner...have you looked at the top of the Holy Hand Grenade lately?

     Anna is one of the first female writers we know about. While her gender is why she gets the title Matriarch of History for this blog entry, the quality of her work is what earns her mention. She was trained in a good literary and historical background knowing the writers the Byzantines considered prominent. She was also very devoted to both of her parents and wanted to make sure their story was preserved for all time.

Anna gives an explanation for why she wrote this book saying:

" The tale of history forms a very strong bulwark against the stream of time, and to some extent checks its irresistible flow, and, of all things done in it, as many as history has taken over, it secures and binds together, and does not allow them to slip away into the abyss of oblivion".

     Anna says that the stream of time wipes away the accounts of men both great and average. That time is unstoppable and the deeds of the past all end up forgotten. However, history is the dam that protects knowledge. When we engage in history we honor those of the past who helped change their world. We honor the achievements of our ancestors and show that history does not have to repeat itself.  Even more importantly in my opinion is understanding. Not only can we prevent bad things from happening again and again, but at a deeper level we can learn who we are. Only through the lenses of how other people think and the stories that they tell can we learn to craft our own stories. What makes us different? What do we have to contribute to the world?

    There is a reason that many writers say that people who are avid readers make the best writers. This is because when we understand what makes us different, we can understand what we have to offer.

-Jason

Stories or Questions?

        One of the long standing questions man has always asked is " how do we teach the next generation?" The importance of education is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago at the dawning of civilization. That question is in fact one that both Homer and Plato have a great influence on.  During the days of Ancient Greece, Homer's The Illiad, was so popular many people say it was the single most important book to the Greek world.  This book is filled with the tales of the fall of Troy and the gods and heroes who were there to see it all happen. It is a story driven work, where lessons of warrior ethics, honor, tradition, respect of the gods, etc. are taught. On the other hand we have the works of Plato.  Plato advised his readers to not look to these stories that taught bad moral lessons, such as war is good, throwing a temper tantrum like Achilles is okay, and rampant promiscuity ( Zeus style) is not a problem. 

     The question is more complicated than just which one is right however.  While it is easy to agree that promoting temper tantrums and promiscuity are bad,  Plato's side of the argument goes on to encourage the scrapping of books like The Illiad altogether as books used in education.   If you ever read stories from the Bible you will find that often there are bad things that happen. The writer's however, do not cut these out, but leave them in as examples of how NOT to behave!

     If we look at style we see that Homer is a writer of epic poetry. Tales that tell a really good story with morals included. We learn from the facts presented and draw the pre-determined conclusions. This style is  bit different from Plato's however, as he uses the Socratic Method, named after his teacher, Socrates.  This method is all about asking the student questions and over a period of time challenging their very views by allowing them to reach conclusions on their own. A.k.a. not being directly told all of the answers.

While Greeks love their Plato and Homer, most Americans prefer Play-Doh and the philosophy of Homey the Clown. What "Homey don't play that!"

This leads us to the end of this entry. Should we teach in stories like the days of old, or should we guard what is taught, and teach the students to think Socratically?  Alternatively, maybe there is a middle of the road route.....What do you think?
     
-Jason

How to Make a Good Story With Honey Part II

     A story by Xenophon. Xenophon, was an Athenian who lived right after the glory years of the "Golden Age of Athens." He was a friend and student of Socrates, noted for his generalship, horse-riding abilities and his works of history. While he was a soldier, he was part of a Greek mercenary band called, The Ten Thousand, who were hired to help a Persian prince named Cyrus the Younger (no relation to Cyrus the Great) over throw his brother's army and become king himself.  There was a great battle in modern day Iraq and Cyrus' forces, led by the Greeks won the day, but Cyrus was killed in the battle. With the mercenary pay master dead, the Greeks began a long march home that took them almost two years. This long and arduous journey is chronicled in Xenophon's book The Anabasis: The March of the Ten Thousand.

     The honey story occurs on this trip home in the modern day country of Turkey.   Here is Xenophon talking about what they found.

"Now for the most part there was nothing here which they really found strange; but the swarms of bees in the neighborhood were numerous, and the soldiers who ate of the honey all went off their heads, and suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, and not one of them could stand up, but those who had eaten a little were like people exceedingly drunk, while those who had eaten a great deal seemed like crazy, or even, in some cases, dying men.  So they lay there in great numbers as though the army had suffered a defeat, and great despondency prevailed. On the next day, however, no one had died, and at approximately the same hour as they had eaten the honey they began to come to their senses; and on the third or fourth day they got up, as if from a drugging".

     Apparently the soldiers had been poisoned by Grayanotoxins, a substance found in rhododendrons, azaleas and similar plants that do not bother the bees, but do bother humans. While they are not common, neither are they rare. The Black Sea area is probably one of the most well known areas where this is a problem and stories from the Greeks, Romans, and even much later are known to historians.  One such example comes from the late Roman Republic. There was a famous general known as Pompey, who led a Roman legion into a war versus a rival. This country was war-like, but far inferior to Rome and their king, Mithridates, knew it.  Mithridates kingdom was near the area where Xenophon's story had taken place and according to the story, Kateuas, one of Mithridates' advisers recalled the story of the Ten Thousand and convinced the king to retreat through this area, being careful not to eat the honey. This they did, but when Pompey and the Romans went through they decided to eat the honey and soon the whole army went into drunken convulsions.  While the Roman's lay paralyzed, Mithridates returned and massacred them.

It could be laced with poisonous honey!

     The last two posts have shown honey as medicine, as a metaphor, and as a poison.  However, honey is merely an example of how a writer can take the mundane and create rich patterns in their stories. It is fascinating to think that something as simple as this can be used in a multitude of ways to facilitate a better and more vibrant story arc....and let's be honest, isn't different and more creative what a writer should be striving after?

-Jason
  
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How to Make a Good Story With Honey Part I

  You don't think of the ancient world when you think about honey, but maybe you would if you knew some of its better stories.  Practically all early cultures used honey, whether for eating or ritual ceremonies. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and the Chinese all used this bee product quite liberally. Today, I would like to present a couple of accounts of honey in stories to show how something as mundane as this can be used to build up a good story.  First we will look at honey as a healing power and then we will look at honey as a metaphor.

     The Kalevala  by Elias Lonnrot, is considered by many as one of the greatest works of Finnish literature. It is a work of epic poetry composed in the the 1830's that tells of creation, magic and other things associated with Norse Epic Poetry.  One of the main figures in the poem is Wainamoinen, a hero figure who was probably a shaman. The following is a piece of the Kalevala dealing with honey.

There were nine diseases in Northland:
"Colic, Pleurisy and Fever,
Ulcer, Plague and dread Consumption,
Gout, Sterility and Cancer."
Wainamoinen, "the wise and wonderful enchanter", hastens to his people's rescue.
"Wainamoinen heats the bathrooms,
Heats the blocks of healing sandstone
With the magic wood of Northland
Gathered by the sacred river.
Then a honey heat he wakens,
Fills the rooms with healing vapors."
Then he prays to Ukko, the Great Spirit of Finland:
"On the heated blocks of sandstone
May the water turn to honey 
Laden with the balm of healing.
Send us mingled rain and honey,
Balsam from the great physician
To remove this plague of Northland."
The "eternal wise enchanter" then:
"Rubbed his sufferers with balsams
Rubbed the tissues, red and painful,
With the balm of healing flowers
Balsams made of herbs enchanted."
"The eternal wisdom singer
Thus expelled the nine diseases
Healed the tribes of Kalevala
Saved his people from destruction."

Here is a picture of Wainamoinen in despair because he was untimely born in the 1800's far too late for a good Norse Hero. Don't worry bud, you still get to save your people and dance in the rain that is mingled with honey!

     The poem above lets you see how honey is a primary emphasis of the  passage lending extra flavor to the text. That is the medicinal use, but let us now move on to the metaphor.

      The first Spanish Bible, published in 1569 is often called "The Bear Bible" because the image on the front is a bear reaching into a honey comb to get the sweet honey out. The image is a comparison of God's word being sweet like honey, encouraging the reader to reach in to pull out that sweetness.  That's number 2....a metaphor for digging deeper.  The thing that stands out in my mind is how multifaceted things we consider mundane can be when used properly.  The next entry, "How to Make a Good Story With Honey Part II" will be a Greek source that uses our favorite bee product in a third way.  Maybe the next time you get to write a story you can think of creative ways to use seemingly mundane topics to flavor your work.

-Jason

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The Venerable Bede

      There was a time when England was not called by that name. The people who inhabited that land were called the Britons and they had been part of the Roman Empire since the first century AD.  The problem came when Rome began to lose her grip on the empire.  Sometime around the year 410 Rome pulled all of her soldiers out of the island and despite the cries of protest from the Britons, that era was now over. The funny thing about leaving a large area completely unprotected is that other people decide to go there. Soon three groups of Germanic people (the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes) moved across the sea from Germany into Britain, bringing with them a culture we call Anglo-Saxon. Yes, the poor Jutes got snubbed.

    As civilization and writing began to dissipate across western Europe, there was one group who picked up the torch. This group was the Catholic Church; specifically the monastic communities of monks and nuns. Ireland and England became hot beds of learning within monasteries, and probably the prime example of an enlightened monk was the Venerable Bede. Some time around 731 A. D. Bede wrote the book The Ecclesiastical History of the English People which told the history of Britain from the invasion of Julius Caesar (54 B.C.) to his present day. This history was both political and religious, and is considered one of the finest historical works of the Middle Ages.  He is probably the most important source we have for early English history and so influences the way everyone thinks of the island.



Why did Bede leave us this large historical account? Let's look at his own words from the beginning of his book.
  
    "For if history records good things of good men, the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate what is good; or if it records evil of wicked men, the good, religious reader or listener is encouraged to avoid all that is sinful and perverse, and to follow what he knows to be good and pleasing to God."

     The reason Bede is a Patriarch of Story is because his influence is so wide, but the reason he wrote to begin with is because he believed history taught us how to behave.  He was a moralist, a man who thought history should be taught because it is a series of lessons on how to live our lives. Something Plutarch,  a Roman writer was famous for in his biographies of famous Greeks and Romans (who will probably get his own blog entry at some point.)

Why do they call me Venerable you ask? Because it sounds awesome!

     Bede however, was not totally boring as you would expect something called The Ecclesiastical History of the....Zzzzzzzzzz! Here is my gem of interesting for you today.


"No reptiles are found there (in Ireland), and no snake can live there; for, though snakes are often carried there out of Britain, as soon as the ship comes near the shore, and the scent of the air reaches them, they die. On the contrary almost all things in the island are effective against poison."

Many people know the story of St. Patrick driving snakes out of Ireland,  but according to Bede the air is so good there they just kill over! Every good history book needs things magically dieing from potent smell!....And that's my message for you aspiring writers out there. Put more stench in your story!

-Jason

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Sling For Your Supper

     One little mentioned aspect of the ancient world was a practice called slinging. The only story that I can even think of that most people would know is the story of David and Goliath. The shepherd boy versus the giant! Who will win? Well we know David chose his five stones and one of them found Goliath's head. However, is slinging just a shepherd weapon? A weapon archaic even for that period of time? If we are to properly explore slinging we must travel to the other side of the Mediterranean Sea to a little group of islands south of Spain called the Balearic Islands.

      The first large outside power to interact with the Balearic Islands was Phoenicia, the early sea-faring traders of the Mediterranean, inner sea world. Thus it comes as no surprise that when the Carthaginians (who were the successors of Phoenicia) went to war with Rome during the Punic Wars we would see the Balearic Slingers in the Carthaginian armies. 

     Strabo, a Greek geographer, who lived in the Roman Empire during the time of Emperor Augustus writes a little about them. "They went into battle ungirt, with only a small buckler, and a javelin burnt at the end, and in some cases tipped with a small iron point; but their effective weapons were their slings, of which each man carried three, wound round his head".

     Now some accounts have the three slings more evenly dispersed such as: one around the head, one around the body and one around the arm.  These slings would have been different sizes and used to launch stones to a large variety of distances.  Probably not the most stylish of outfits to say the least. Diadorus Sicilus, a Roman historian, tells us another great Balearic Islands story. He says that when a boy was old enough to use a sling, (think probably in the neighborhood of 5) his mother would take his food and place it on top of a pole high enough so the boy could not reach it. Then the boy would have to learn how to knock it off with  a sling if he wanted to eat. Tough love or way to cool of a story to be true? Isn't that always the question when it comes to history? When something is that cool, how can it be true? Well, the short answer is we can't know, but remember this is the ancient world where Spartans left their unwanted babies out in the cold, Carthaginians sacrificed their children to Baal, and being a soldier was a way of life for most men in most societies.  Okay I feel better now that I have had that tangent. Lets go back to the rocks.

     While stones were very effective, capable of bashing shields and helmets in; what was even more effective was lead bullets. Certain groups would use these chunks of lead in their slings to achieve even further reach than a bow would shoot, and reaching speeds of  around 60 miles an hour. While that is fascinating; maybe the most interesting thing about these bullets for modern people however, was the graffiti. Phrases like "Take that!" "This is Yours!" "Pain!" and references to impregnation and sexual innuendos have all been found written on these stones. Why kill a guy with a rock when you can kill him AND taunt his friend?

-Jason

I'm thinking my rock will say this. How about you? Time to think up your first Balearic Rock Taunt!

 

 

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Wouldn't You Like to Find Atlantis?

     When most people think of Plato they think philosophy. Maybe they think of his book The Republic or they think of him starting the Academy of Athens.  He was a brilliant intellect, a student of Socrates, and later a mentor to Aristotle. This guy had one nice pedigree! By the time of Plato, Athens was the intellectual capital of Greece if not the whole  Mediterranean world. How many other writers can claim the distinction of having multiple schools of thought named after him? ( Platonists, Middle-Platonists, and Neo-Platonists) Notice that I never said you have to be good at naming things to be a philosopher.  Yet despite these over-flowing accolades, there is still a group of people who are driven crazy by Plato....the archaeologists.

    You see, Plato was also the guy who first started talking about this "totally real place"  called Atlantis.  The thing is, while most people consider Atlantis to never have existed there is always that chance that it is true. If you are an archaeologist exploring the bottom of the ocean for instance, how could you not hope that you find something that says "Atlantis" on it?  The idea of finding a place that was previously considered mythological is the pipe dream of the archaeologist, historian, explorer etc. It really got started when Henrich Schliemann read Homer's The Illiad and decided that even though people thought Troy was not a real place, he was going to go find it. It turns out he did just that, and so the precedent was set. As another example, archaeologists have found ruins of the Hittite civilization that previously had only been mentioned in the Bible,once again showing the possibility of finding places we like to call "mythological."

The people of Atlantis always wondered what the dolphins were trying to tell them right before Atlantis went underwater, but it wasn't until a brilliant twentieth century writer named Douglas Adams that we figured out they were saying "So long and thanks for all of the fish!"

     It turns out that while Plato had a huge impact on the Ancient and Medieval worlds' thoughts and philosophies, it seems his biggest contribution to our society is to our sense of adventure, our sense of treasure hunting, and most importantly to our vocabulary.   After all,  how many words evoke as many images in our minds as "Atlantis?"

-Jason

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Was the Apostle Paul a Fan of Greek Poetry?

     When the Apostle Paul went out on his Second Missionary Journey the Lord brought him to Macedonia and to Greece.  While he was in Greece, he even went to Athens where he gave a famous speech that we call "The Men of Athens Speech" to the leaders of the city.  Paul begins by commenting on just how religious the people of Athens are and then he proceeds to talk about a strange altar he found.

   "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD' therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you." -Acts 17:23

     What Paul was doing in this speech was reaching back into the minds of his audience. The biographer Plutarch tells a story about a man from Crete called Epimenides, who in his day was considered a writer and a prophet.  According to the story, one of the leading families of Athens had fallen foul of the gods and so the gods had punished the entire city of Athens with a plague. The Athenians did everything in their power to placate all of the diverse gods in their pantheon, but nothing seemed to work. Finally they called in Epimenides to help them.  The prophet told them that they had actually angered a god whom they did not know and they should build this "unknown god" an altar and ask for his forgiveness. This the Athenians did and soon the plague ended. 

This was the story in the back of the minds of the Athenian leaders who heard Paul talk this way. Not long before this they were calling him an idle babbler and some one who was teaching strange deities, but suddenly he had just quoted from a story that was 100% Greek. Now the game had changed. Paul however, did not stop there. 

   "For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children'." -Acts 17:28

    Soon after his Epimenides reference he begins directly quoting the prophet. "For in him we live and move and exist" is straight out of his poem called Cretica. Apparently Paul had decided to go big or go home, and so he then quotes another Greek writer named Aratus.

 "For we also are His children" is from Aratus' poem called Phaenomena. A poem about constellations and weather. The beginning of this poem talks about how we are all God's children in a very Stoic philosophy style.  Now we begin to see an apostle who not only knows Jewish law, but also can talk Greek history and philosophy with the best philosophers in Athens. What is the point of this story? When you know the world view and the stories your audience tells themselves you can walk right in the front door! When you know the jargon, you have removed one of the biggest barriers to whatever point you are making, selling etc. There are tons of reasons you can fail at things, don't let your lack of homework be one of them!

Greek Poetry! A great read to bring with you on your next missionary journey!

-Jason

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William Golding Enjoys a Good Joke!

     Some of you may be familiar with the name William Golding. Some of you however, may be more aware of his best selling work entitled The Lord of the Flies.  Back in Old Testament times there was a famous group of gods called the Baals. These Baals were Canaanite gods, whose name literally translated into lord.There were also different Baals for different cities and  one particular town was called Zebul. The god of Zebul was naturally called Baal Zebul (alternatively spelled Bel Zebul) and the Hebrews who lived in the area began mocking him and calling him Bel Zebub, which means the Lord of the Flies.

    So it appears Mr. Golding had found himself enjoying a good Hebrew joke and voila!... the book title is born! Had Golding not known a little bit of Jewish history he may have come up with something much less catchy and perhaps we would have never heard of his book.

If you ever find yourself stranded on an island like in Lord of the Flies,  remember it could be worse.  Actually, no...that is pretty horrible!

-Jason

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Glycon the Snake God Puppet

     During the second century AD there was a Roman writer named Lucian of Samosata.  Lucian was mostly noted for his satires that he wrote, but he has one particular story he tells that is very interesting.  Sometime during that second century in Asia Minor (the Roman name for Turkey) there lived a man named Alexander of Abonutichus.  Now the people of this time often associated snakes with the god Asclepius  and so Alexander told them that Aesclepius was about to return as a new incarnation.  Then one day Alexander gathered the people of his village in the marketplace and pulled out a goose egg. He then split the egg open and out came a small serpent. He took it home and supposedly within one week it had grown  to the size of a man. Even stranger was that its face appeared to look like a man with long blond hair.  According to Lucian, Alexander was using a trained snake with a puppet head to create "Glycon" the snake god.

      Despite how weird and ridiculous this sounds the cult became very large in Asia Minor and Roman governors and even the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius payed homage to the god, who became known for protecting his followers from plagues.  Alexander of Abonutichus so changed the world he lived in that even the village he was from became an important town called Ionopolis. This snake cult lasted well over a hundred years and statutes and coins were dedicated to Glycon.  While I am not advocating deception or starting your own cult, it just goes to show you that those who speak their mind, are the ones that change things.

Hello children, Big Bird couldn't be here this week, but don't worry my name is Glycon the Plague Stopper!

-Jason

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The Monstrous Boar Hunt (Patriarchs of Story Pt 2)

     A long time ago in what we now call Turkey, there lived a wealthy and powerful king. This king was named Croesus, and he ruled a kingdom called Lydia.  Croesus was famous for his wealth and was known far and wide for it. He was so rich he thought that he was the happiest of men, and according to Herodotus this hubris (or arrogance) upset the gods to the point they decided to punish him. This is the story of Croesus' punishment.

    Croesus had a son named Atys, who was a very capable man. He fought in the army, and generally succeeded at whatever he decided to do. One day Croesus had a dream where Atys was wounded by an iron spear and shortly afterwards died. When the king awoke he immediately went about removing the iron spears from the palace, began taking away dangerous assignments from Atys and began looking for him a wife so he could settle down into a nice peaceful life.  All of this Croesus did with almost no problem and soon things were going well.

     A little while after Atys' wedding day, there came  a man named Adrastos, who had been banished from his home by his family after he accidentally killed his brother. Croesus however, knew his family and accepted him into his palace and placed him in high respect.

     Now let us listen to the words of Herodotus.  "And so Adrastos lived for some time at the court of Croesus. Meanwhile a monster of a boar appeared on Mt Olympus in Mysia (in northern Turkey) from which it would set out to ravage the fields of the people of Mysia. The people of Mysia went out to attack it, but could do it no harm and they suffered injuries from it instead."  So the people of Mysia sent a message to king Croesus begging him to send his son and a group of soldiers to help kill the monster of a boar. The king vehemently refused to send his son, but agreed to send soldiers and all was set to go off without a hitch, when Atys came to see his father.

     Atys accused his father of keeping him away from his former status as a good warrior. He said he could not handle being mocked by the people, and his wife was beginning to think he was a coward. The king now had to explain to his son the truth and he told him of his dream and how he would die of an iron spear and the king's great fear for his son.

    Atys replied " You said that in your dream I appeared to die by an iron spear. Well, what kind of hands does a boar have? Or what kind of spear could it use that you are so afraid?"

A boar with a spear? Did that guy just create a Ninja Turtles bad guy two millennium before the show came out?

     Seeing the reasoning of his son, the king agreed and also sent Adrastos, who was now indebted to the king because of his taking him in.  He solemnly vowed Adrastos to protect his son from any harm. Soon the party was off and they went to the mountain, found the boar and surrounded him. The party began throwing javelins at the boar and before the combat was done Adrastos' spear had found Atys and gave him a mortal blow.  The man sworn to protect him seemed to have permanent bad luck.  The party suceeded in killing the boar and they all returned home but with a heavy heart. Fortunately the king accepted Adrastos' apology, but still I wouldn't say the story ended happily.   Thus ends the Monstrous Boar Hunt by Herodotus...one fine story!

-Jason

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The Macedonians and the Whale (Patriarchs of Story Pt1)

      When Alexander the Great was out conquering the world, he came into contact with the Indian Ocean, this massive expanse that was virtually unknown to the Macedonians.  Alexander commissioned his naval commander, Nearchus to sail out into the ocean and begin exploring.  The primary writer we have for this story is Arrian, a Roman writer, so lets see what he says.

     "Large whales live in the outer ocean, and fishes much larger than those in our inland sea. Nearchus states that when they left Cyiza (the port), about daybreak they saw water being blown upwards from the sea as it might be shot upwards by the force of a waterspout. They were astonished, and asked the pilots of the convoy what it might be and how it was caused; they replied that these were whales that rove about the ocean spouting up the water to a great height."

     These whales so startled the crew because of their size and ability to shoot out water, that Nearchus had to cheer his men up and encourage them to even keep going.  Having achieved this, he decided to  have the ships give battle to the whales. They turned towards them as if they were going to ram the nearest whale and sped towards him blowing on their bugles and shouting with all their might.  This naturally frightened the whale and he dived under the water.

Back to Arrian  " Thereupon joyful applause welcomed this unexpected salvation, and much praise was showered on Nearchus for his courage and prudence."

But wait!  Oh no! Watch out Nearchus the whales are behind us now! How did they do that? Oh no! Run!

Surprise! Whales are Ninjas!

This ends the tale of the Macedonians and the Whale. As you can see stories like this are ripe for fiction writing. Plot twists and awesome literary encounters are yours for the taking.  A big thank you to Arrian for being a  Patriarch of Story.

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Introduction of the Patriarchs of Story

      The human race has long been interested in stories, in  fact stories existed before we had a way to write them down.  Poems were composed by bards, to tell stories that were considered so worth of passing on they were memorized in verse.   We often think the modern day we live in as the epitome of  literature, but in reality the fiction writers, the science fiction and even the fantasy we read today have their inspirations long ago in the ancient world. These early writers were in fact patriarchs of a tradition of story telling that we are the heirs of.  This is just the beginning of the tale written for writers, readers of good stories and students of how the world works.

     The Patriarchs of Story is obviously not something these writers would have ever heard of, it is merely a way to express an idea that connects these great literary figures who span the length of time.  These men (and sometimes women)  are the great writers whose work has influenced generation after generation of their successors and have changed the way we all think.  Today, if there had been no J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis the Fantasy genre would be dramatically different. On that same token however, if Tolkien had never read Beowulf and the Viking Sagas and some of the other works he read; his writings would have been totally different. The Patriarchs of Story are the writers whose work have changed the way we think about writing and the way we think about our world. The amazing thing about this is that we do not even have to have read their works, because these influential writers so changed their world that the trickle down effect influences even those who do not read them.

     Surely you have heard of Achilles right? Well you have been influenced by Homer.  Are you familiar with the Three Musketeers? Then your world has been changed by the French author, Alexander Dumas. Finally have you heard of Leonidas the King of Sparta? If you have then you been influenced by Herodotus,  a Greek writer who lived around 2,500 years ago.  Do you think these guys were thinking about writing to audiences  thousands of years in the future?  Of course not, but that is the glory of stories.  People who lived long ago can live on in our hearts and minds as long as we appreciate and value their words.

Patriarchs don't always look like this, this isn't some sort of religious thing!

  

      Now, to be clear from the start, a "story" does not imply true or false. It is not a  judgment on their credibility, but an appreciation of what the writer was trying to tell us.  For instance, in war there are always two sides and just because one side sees it one way, does not mean the other is wrong. Also in religion, it is impossible to say that all mythology can be true, because of the vast amounts of inconsistencies, but both of these types of stories tell us about the people who came up with them. We know the people who wrote about traveling to the Elysium Fields after they died, believed in an afterlife.

     Finally there is the question of quality. Can we really say that these stories by authors of long ago can hold a candle to our modern writing techniques and vast amounts of knowledge?  Please do not fall victim to the idea that people of long ago have nothing to contribute to the discussions we have about life. There stories are in fact so good, that often the very stories we love the most are based upon the works of these Patriarchs of Story. These intellectual giants have changed every generation who has read them, dared us all to think  and to dream.

     Writers, if you want to write, do not deprive yourself of reading these towering figures who stood before you and willingly guide us. Readers, pass up these rich resources only at your own peril; and students of our world, remember that even though the world of thousands of years ago and today seem so distant and foreign...people do not change and you will always see the same motivations driving humans from the dawn of time until its finale.

    This is what it means to be a Patriarch of Story....

-Jason

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