Podcasts about mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2025

A Walk In the Park & Aya's Finest Hour.Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.Professional, conscript, or volunteer, they all have run away from battle.A Note on terminology and the metaphor of Cael's WorldThe terms Weave of Fate and 'Weave ' are interchangeable. Weave expresses the intersection ~ the sieve that all the possible futures entered to create what we perceive as this 'now'. Fate is the keeper of the sieve. The Present is what is happening right now. It is that infinitesimal which we interpret as Reality.The Legend is what happens when the present is pulled back through the weave and becomes the past. It is called the Legend because, as the former presents fade into the past, they blur; each becomes less precise and more open to interpretations. (It is as if you were looking at one thing through a prism; as you shift your stance, what you see appears to change.) Within the Legend exist mystic creatures, divinities, demons, spirits, all the Paradises and Hells.The Endless Black Sands is the final resting place for all failed legends. It is the place where all is forgotten until even former realities break down into the Black Sands. That Alal found a way to cheat this doom and retrieved Shammuramat, was truly remarkable; even though Fate 'balanced accounts' with him by sending Ajax and his war band along that path as well.If you wonder how that was a balancing, consider this:The only people Alal cares for (in his own brutal fashion) are Shammy, now Sakura, and his only true offspring in 5,000 years, Cáel.Fate sent Ajax.With Ajax available to test Cáel, how could Alal resist the temptation to place one of the planet's greatest killer on a collision course with both of his loves in order to test Cáel?The Veil is a function of the Weave that protects sentient perception from perceiving the Weave and disguises the otherness of creatures of legend, unless they willingly allow themselves to be seen, which they usually do only so they can 'physically' interact with the Present. Some sentient minds, through horrific trauma such as the Augurs' self- poisonings, through the quirks of Fate via Holy Men, Mad Prophets and Doomsayers such as Temujin, or through the touch of legends such as Ishara, can sense the fluctuations in the Veil and the things behind it. Cáel, in truth, has been shaped by all three vehicles (Ishara, the Augurs and Temujin's legend.)Oblivion is what awaits Reality if the Weave ever fails beyond its ability to heal itself. This threat is what keeps the creatures of legend from constantly traversing the Weave. They have to weaken the Weave to do so or to use powers in Reality, the greater the distortion they create, the greater the weakening that occurs.End Note(Two days ago, with thirty days left)"That was fantastic, Lady Yum-Yum," I sighed."What did you just call me?" she panted softly. We were naked in one of our Task Force bedrooms that was actually used for sleeping, and now sex. I was still pressed against her reposed body, despite our recent exertions. She was on her stomach, arms stretched down her sides.She was sweaty and short of breath. She still had her wits about her and an awareness of our situation: victory sex, me still aroused and her fingernails scratching my thighs and buttocks. My equally sticky body was pressing down on her, even though I supported my weight with outstretched hands placed on either side of her shoulders."Lady Yum-Yum," I mumbled as I kissed the back of her head. "That was the first thing that sprang to mind when you introduced yourself." I could see her working that through her highly complex mind."When writing your memoirs, please remember to me refer to me that way," she began to flex her thighs and abdominal muscles, so that her ass was pumping against my hips."Only if this helps persuade you to give me a repeat performance.""I'll consider,," she purred, then paused to catch her breathe. "You are in phenomenal shape, young man. Do any of your other lady-loves have pet names?""Nope," I grunted as I withdrew.She had teased me with anal sex hints repeatedly, yet never delivered. She liked the game and the power she wielded. My body being on top of hers was only an illusion of a tactical advantage. She knew me pretty well already. I wasn't the kind of guy who would use physical strength to overwhelm her vulnerable position. This being so, a cerebral skirmish only excited her more.We waged a war that was based on intakes of breath, the shimmying of muscles and the trembling of fatigued flesh. The prize for me was the winning. Lady Fathom Worthington-Burke played tricky-clever, but I was better. And at times like this, she admitted it. She gave me what I wanted. I rolled her.Straight, face-to-face fucking. The Lady's pulsar gaze trapped my vision. She smiled, grudgingly at first, then more and more sensually as my glans returned to her g-spot that it had scouted out earlier. This was 'surrender by the Fathom method'. She gave me what I wanted, so I took what I wanted, and pleasured her at the same time."Mmm, you are a bad, bad boy," she lapsed into her trashy West-End Londoner accent. It was perfect and an erotic whiplash when added to her native, refined manner of speech. This wasn't a trick this time, it was a treat. It was a gift, reciprocated. The tactile sensation of her cervix becoming a soft, spongey chalice for my final penetrations was icing on an all-so-luscious cake.I tendered her a tribute worthy of my first love, Dr. Kimberly Geisler. It was strange to find a woman like her. Outside of Kimberly, I had found only one other woman who graciously offered her ultimate pleasure paean to the hundreds of lovers who had become before. That other woman, it still floored me, was Buffy Du, no, Buffy Ishara, First of my House."Oh!" and several heartbeats later, "Cáel!" several hissed series of breathes and then, "Goddess! You are better than good!"Two thoughts collided within me:A) I had never seen a more controlled orgasmic explosion in my life. I was going to have to tell Buffy about this, once we were safely in bed. If it was office talk, she'd punch me through a window and that would make Aya cry. I couldn't have that.B) Goddess? I thought she was Anglican. This needed further study. This treatment was really nice. I leaned in, kissed her. Lady Yum-Yum smiled. "Take me to the shower. Play time is over, Cáel," and she was back to all business."You are treating me like a fleshy vibrator," I pointed out."But you are a very finely-trained, fleshy vibrator, you wonderful boy," she stroked my cheek. "Shower! Now!" So, like a Good Boy, International Merchant of Death and Chosen Son of a Divine Amazon Goddess, I slid off her, then cradled her in my arms as I rose from our totally trashed mattress.I didn't smile when it was confirmed that I wasn't carrying her out of any romantic after-coitus gesture. She couldn't walk. Woot! It took a bit of effort to get us into the walk-in shower and to get the water just perfect, all while keeping her cradled. She helped out by keeping her arms tightly around my neck."Cheeky bastard," she whispered in my ear. "You are gloating." Then she nibbled on my earlobe for good measure."Damn right," I did gloat as I let her slide down to her feet. "You are pretty sweet for an Old Chick." She wasn't angry, oh no."If you were trying to get me to say, 'I'll get you next time," she licked, nipped and sucked on my nipple as if I was the one with the mammaries in this relationship, "it worked." Double-Woot! I was going to get that damn four-way! I did coax a vigorous shower-quickie out of my Lady. Afterward, she shifted herself so she could get under one of the steaming showerheads."Cáel, why didn't you use a condom," she mused. Gak!"You aren't on Birth Control?" I panicked. She laughed at me."No. I've never been a fan of hormones replacement. I like the way I am. Do you expect the women to do all the anti-pregnancy measures?""No," I gulped."Don't' be so worried," she laughed. "We had unprotected sex one time. The odds are astronomical that an 'oops' happened, right?" Yes, it was a single sexual encounter, but included three firings of the one-eyed hydra, sigh."You are asking a man who has five children on the way, Fathom," I cautioned her."Oh, I'll update my files and make an appointment to seen a local, reliable O B G Y N," she slipped back into her unflappable British resolve. "Get along. I need to get cleaned up," she cupped my scrotum, ", again. So scoot." I scooted.I had updated my condom supply despite the forbiddance Dot Ishara, my Matron Goddess, beamed to me from the Other Side. She could only complain so much. I'd upped my selection of fortune cookies and added a fresh raisin chocolate brownie for my next visit with her. I had to get over to the other side of the floor to get a fresh shirt, and boxers.Yum-Yum had ripped off my shirt (a little kinky) and boxers (a little painful). I wasn't going commando, so I decided to quick step it before something important happened that required me to yank yet another solution out of my sexually-fueled creative imagination.How Lady Yum-Yum and I ended up in bedThe Secret Societies' long awaited war had begun in Africa and in India. The Amazons couldn't effectively reinforce these two homeland regions. No, my people's edge came from my stupid stunts (e.g., the fight outside that club in Chicago), the judicious application of a few kind words and a whole lot of targeted killing on my part along with that of my Amazons.Those actions convinced the Booth-gan (aka the Thuggee, but we no longer say that because it irritates them) and the Coils of the Serpent to toss in their lot with their local Amazons. They did the whole 'hostage exchange' thing as well. Two children from each side. That was a no-brainer on my part. All three concerned parties were willing to let their adults die if necessary. Their children were another matter.In Asia, the Seven Pillars had made only minimal progress. We now suspected the 7P had planned to roll over the three of the 9 Clans that were in their Sphere of Influence, the now 6 Ninja Families, the Black Lotus and the Booth-gan in rapid succession. A preemptive strike against both the Khanate and the Ninja were supposed to cripple those two factions.Against the Khanate, that had been a dismal failure. In Nippon, the Ninja were in dire straits and would be decades recovering from the original 7P blitz. But the combination of US black ops help and the infusion of Amazons and Okinawans had staved off extinction for the moment. Strategically, these failed actions were tying down 7P resources that the largest Secret Society had planned to move elsewhere.In China, the Black Lotus exhibited the same resilience and deceptiveness they'd shown in combating the Seven Pillars by themselves for the past 65 years. The chaos gripping the PRC was a blessing from the Ancestors, the four sacred spirits (lung/dragons, phoenix, unicorn and tortoise), and the nine entities (I now really had to know this stuff.) Word that a 'dragon' had appeared in the West had only heightened their desire to aid in our new alliance.Those factors meant a reprieve for India. As the 7 Pillars began ramping up their operations; increasing racial tensions, minor terrorist action and military and industrial sabotage; the Booth-gan and Amazon united resources and purpose. The Booth-gan would assassinate 7P operatives and pawns while the Amazons would hit 7P front companies and businesses based out of the People's Republic of China. (This activity also helped ratchet up India-PRC tensions and anti-PRC public sentiment in India.)In Africa, the Condotteiri had squandered precious hours reallocating resources before launching their assaults. Like everyone but the 7P, they had been caught flat-footed by the renewal of the Secret War. The Coils of the Serpent had never been overly antagonistic toward the Condos, since their interests rarely collided. The same went for the Coils and the Amazons.Two factors inspired a deep Amazon-Coil bond. They were both groups with deep African roots and a shared Central-Western African spirituality. Added to that was the growing power of the Coils of the Serpent in the past fifty years. Their main opponents had been the Illuminati who had a Eurocentric view. Pan-Africanism was in the Coil's best interest, but ran contrary to European economic interests.Long term, allying with the African Amazons was a good investment for the Coils. The 9 Clans relationships had already proved to be advantageous on multiple occasions in the past. The leaders of the Coils knew their power was rising with the fortunes of Sub-Saharan Africa. To them, the rise of the PRC and the Seven Pillars was a looming threat in the East.They had been handed a golden opportunity to deal with this enemy before the enemy was ready to deal with them. They had been 'gifted' with over 2000 highly-skilled, fanatical Amazon warriors as stealthy muscle to add to their own, more subtle arsenal. For the Amazons, it was access to continent wide clandestine intelligence network that could unmask their enemies' hiding places.The Condotteiri wiped out an Amazon freehold in Cameroon and a few Coils safe houses in Lagos, Nigeria. In the Republic of Mali, over 250 Condo mercenaries were slaughtered at a 'secret' installation and their armory was looted. Ebola kept breaking out in the West. The dominant regional powers, the Republic of the Congo and Nigeria, were tottering as a result of decades of economic mismanagement, civic, ethnic, tribal and religious strife, corruption and unreliable militaries.The scene was ripe for a secret conflict as well as public carnage. For the Joint International Khanate Interim Taskforce (JIKIT), this presented a dilemma. They were involved with a growing global struggle that went far beyond the Khanate and Central Asia. Their secret society allies strenuously objected to bringing any more 'outsider' people into the group.Handing over covert intelligence to other governmental agencies in the US and UK, then telling them they wouldn't divulge their sources went over like scuba diving with cement goulashes. Explaining to upper level bigwigs that they had a 'trust-based' team went nowhere. Those officials didn't care about a bunch of domestic/international criminals' sensibilities.They wanted names and faces. They wanted addresses, phone taps and bank account numbers. It would all be 'Secret', 'Top Secret', or 'Eyes Only'. It would all be vulnerable to all kinds of governmental subpoenas too. No threats were made from 'my' side. They'd killed more people than the Black Death and the lives of a few thousand bureaucrats (and their families) in London and Washington D.C. didn't mean shit to them.Selena did offer to kidnap some family members to get the message across. Javiera put her hands over her ears and began singing 'la-la-la' as she stormed out of the room. Lady Fathom suggested that we arrange a private meeting with the UK Prime Minister and the US President. It took a few seconds for Mehmet and Javiera to realize she wasn't kidding.That was a nearly impossible task, which on this taskforce meant we had to give it a shot. Let's just say that the US Attorney General, Eric Holder and Chairman John Jay of the British Joint Intelligence Committee thought their respective representative had lost her God-damn mind. I went to the Khanate for help.Twenty-four hours later Azerbaijan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Armenia and Georgia (yes, two tiny Christian nations) joined the Khanate. The integration of the first two nations had been in the works since the formation of the Turkic Council in 2009. For me, Temujin upped the time table strictly for our benefit. Turkey and Azerbaijan became the two newest states within the Khanate.The third, Tajikistan was different and the shakiest addition. The unoccupied title of 'Khwarazm Shah' was created, suggesting the Iranian Tajiks had a special status inside the Khanate. 'Khwarazm' referenced the Khwarazmian dynasty that ruled the last of the great, Persian-led, Iranian Super-States and dated back to the 13th century AD. 'Shah' was Persian for King.The announced status of Armenia and Georgia was quite a bit different. They become 'Protectorates', i.e., semi-autonomous states within the Khanate who were 'vassal' states, responsible only to the Great Khan and his personal representative in the region (ah, that would be me.)So, the first three entries made sense, strong geographic, ethnic and/or religious ties, plus this was part of the Khanate's agenda anyway. But Armenia and Georgia? That was the doing of the other regional secret society, the Hashashin.The Caucasus Mountains were the backyard of the Hashashin. They knew who to blackmail, pinch and kill to make the 'take-over' possible. The main stumbling block was the long Khanate-Hashashin history: the Mongols had destroyed the historical stronghold of the Hashashin, Alamut, in 1256 CE. In a way, that disaster had transformed the sect, making it move away from their strict Nizārī Ismaili roots and into a more ethnically and religiously diverse group that was centered in the Caucasus region.Temujin made it clear to this group that he was making a deal under my auspices. Both Armenia and, Georgia (as well as the future Kurdistan, his plans for the creation of that last state were told to me under condition of secrecy) would be part of my palatinate principality (along with Hungary, if we ever got there). Riki Martin defined the terms for me: I was the voice of those three regions in the Khan's court.They wouldn't have to deal with Muslim Khanate officials. They would deal with me and 'my officials'. If the Khanate had a problem with my principality, they came to me to resolve the issue. That translated to me giving a nod to the existing regimes ruling in Armenia and Georgia (along with the infusion of a few Hashashin supporters.)Publically the future of those three political and ethnic entities would be confirmed later. The existing governments knew three things.1) I was that madman who had led the charge in Romania, clearly a man of bravery and humility. The odds were good that I was going to be a man they could rely on to adequately represent their interests with the government that currently mattered the most (aka The Khanate.)2) The Great Khan thought the world of me and in this nascent New World Order that meant way more than membership in NATO, or begging the United Nations to apply sanctions of dubious value.3) There would be a change of leadership by about 2040. Children of excellent ethnic parentage would succeed me in this ceremonial role in the region. These new princes and princesses would be the scions of the line of Nyilas and representatives of the various states (translation: I was going to be sexing it up with Georgian, Armenian and Kurdish members of the Hashashin).That would establish the three 'cadet' branches of House Ishara (Nyilas) (which I've listed because all three alphabets are so freaking beautiful) that could weave the Amazons, 9 Clans and the varying ethnic identities into a quilt that could stand together as a force in the Great Khan's inner circle. This new spate of aristocratic, 'Archer'-themed lineages would be:1. Moisari, in Georgia.2. Aġeġnajig, in Armenia.3. Ram- alsham, in Kurdistan.This fiction made the key named entities happy. The combination of all these events applied another jolt to the heart of the global power structure (after all, Turkey was in NATO) and made the US and UK governments back off.By tidying up the world map, we'd brought our governmental chiefs to the chilling revelation that their sole conduit for insider information regarding the ongoing global calamity had reacted to their intransience by simply letting them be blind-sided by events. After the fact, Javiera and Lady Fathom relayed that message very clearly.

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Cáel Leads the Amazon Empire, Book 2: Part 15

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2025

After Romania, one night in Rome.By FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.When our ancestor committed the first murder, was it rage, or fear that drove them to the deed?(Evening near the Metropole, Roma, Italia)"I think you've done well," Riki congratulated me as she terminated her phone call. Word had come down that her replacement was on the way. Our profile had been updated back at State and they clearly wanted to bring in the 'real professionals'. There also had been a miscommunication. I was far too stressed to be reasonable now.Some undeserving smuck was about to be at the receiving end of my wrath for no better reason than I was at my limit of accepting any further alterations to my life. In hindsight, I was being totally irrational. At that moment in time, I didn't care whose day I was ruining. Sometimes I can be a jerk and an idiot at the same time.The US State Department apparently thought I couldn't dictate who was, or wasn't, a member of 'Unit L', we now had our own designation within Javiera's expanding task-force. The government had a random name generator for this shit and we got the letter 'L'. Maybe that device didn't think we were going to last long enough to matter. Anyway, I took the phone and hit redial. Riki gave me an 'I'm puzzled' look."Who am I talking to?" I inquired."Ms, who are you?" he demanded, since my caller ID said Riki and, unless I used my high, squeaky voice, I obviously sounded like a guy."I'm Cáel Nyilas. Who is this?" I replied."I'm Bill A. Miller, Director of the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service. What seems to be the problem, Mr. Nyilas?" He was rather uptight about the call-back."Since we are working together, why don't you call me Cáel?" I politely requested. "I'll call you Willy.""My name is Bill, but you can call me Director Miller," he corrected me. "The reason for your call is?""It is Willy, or Dick; your choice," I countered. "I don't call my boss 'Director' and I worship the ground she walks on. You are not even in her league. Also, I've had bad experiences with guys named Bill which are too painful to explain right now."That was true. One was friend taking a shower and leaving me alone with his mother. The other was early on in my career when I confused a girl named Bonnie with her real name 'Bill'. I was my own personal 'The Crying Game'. I didn't handle that episode well."Besides, I didn't call to discuss name-calling. I want to know how many agents work for you.""What does that have to do with anything?" he grumbled."You are quick with the questions while painfully bereft of answers," I snorted. "Don't make me Google this too.""Over two thousand," he stopped being a total ass. "Is there anything else I can tell you that Miss Martin should have been able to tell you?" Ooops, Back to being an ass."Riki's being physically restrained from taking her phone back by some of my educationally-challenged, illegal alien, unskilled labor force of questionable loyalty," I outrageously lied. It was an odious habit of mine that I'd cultivated vigorously over the past few weeks. "Two thousand humans, thanks. Is Riki's replacement a guy, or a girl? Wait, who cares? Just send their picture and I'll let you know where to send their replacement.""Are you threatening my people?" he simmered."No. That would make me an uncooperative and nefarious nuisance," I evaded. "Of course, when a person sticks their hand into a functioning garbage disposal, you don't blame the device. You blame the moron who stuck their hand in." From the perspective of our relationship, I was the garbage disposal."That definitely sounds like a threat," he responded. He was going to stick his hand in anyway."Your inability to comprehend the nuances possible with the English language is not why I called and not something I feel I can educate you about, given my current time constraints. Just have one of your insipid flunkies send me the picture. I need to purchase duct tape and an out-of-the-way storage space," I informed him."By the way, in the spirit of legal chicanery, could you tell me how long it will take for Riki Martin's name to come back up in the rotation? Let's figure 36 hours between each hot-shot leaving DC and their eventual inability to return phone calls," I wanted to make sure he knew I was taunting his pompous self. (Me being pompous and unhelpful didn't cross my mind at that moment.)"Let me make myself clear, Mr. Nyilas," he repeated. "Not only can you not dictate terms to the US government, you are not even the team's designated leader." I wasn't? Fuck him. I had tons of useless members of the Alphabet Mafia in front of my name, all loudly proclaiming my numerous accolades.Of everyone on the team, I had the most: NOHIO (Number One House Ishara Official), HCIESI-NDI, (Havenstone Commercial Investments Executive Services' Intern -- New Directive Initiative, I didn't make that one up, I swear), MEH (Magyarorszag es Erdely Hercege) and UHAUL (Unpaid Honcho Assigned to Unit L). I liked that last one, so that was how I was going to sign off on all my reports now."First off, I AM in charge, Willy. Without me, there is no Unit L. I quit, and then what? In case you missed it, I can't be drafted or threatened by you. If you think you can replace me, please do so right now and let me get back to my life -- you know, the thing that actually puts money in my pocket.Besides, I am not refusing to take anyone you see fit to put on MY team. I'm just not going to tell you where I'm going to take them to. I suspect they are adults and can find their way home, eventually, Willy.""Mr. Nyilas, you are an unbelievably fortunate amateur and novice intellectual in a situation that demands experience and professionalism. It is time for you to step back and let the people who know what they are doing take over. Just play your part and we'll make sure you get due credit for following orders and behaving," he unleashed his fair-smelling bile."I am following your orders; your procedures dictate that a member of the State Department will be on this team," I kept my calm. "As one of the people who actually has experience with this situation, I'm letting you know how things work in the field. Every person you send will be misplaced, thus you will have to send someone else. Alerting you to the need to stay on top of your job -- sending someone else -- sounds to me like common sense advice in this circumstance.""That is not going to happen, Nyilas. If something happens, " he got out."Willy, duct tape is plentiful and cheap. Kidnapping -- thus hostage keeping -- is virtually a religion in Southern Italy. And though I am already wired into the local criminal underground, I'm just not going to be able to help you, or them. I'll make up some implausible excuses as the need arises. So now you know the score. The next move is yours," I smiled."The next words out of your mouth had better be 'I'll behave', or the State Department will revoke your passport and have stern words with the Republic of Ireland over your diplomatic status," Willy warned me."I'll behave," I fibbed. Riki snatched the phone out of my hand."Sir -- Director Miller, I want you to know I had nothing to do with Mr. Nyilas' tirade," Riki apologized. "He stole my phone.""I did." and "oww!" I hollered in the background. "She ground her heel into my instep. the fiery little minx." I was propping up her excuse because I owed her for verbally taking a dump on her boss, the ass-heap back in Romania. Riki punched me."Ms. Martin, do we need to reconsider your employment, or can we rely on you to re-organize Unit L before Ms. McCauley (her replacement) arrives?" Willy lectured."Director Miller, ""Call him Big Willy," I whispered to her. "He loves that 'Big Willy' style."This time she hit me in the thigh. My ballistic vest had gotten in the way of her first hit, but she was a quick learner."How can you know a song from 1997, yet not know that Russia invaded Georgia in 2008?" Riki put her hand over the phone and hissed at me."Ah," Pamela teased. "Somebody is a Will Smith fan." Riki looked away.I wasn't sure what to make of the Will Smith -- Ricky Martin combo forming in my mind. Will was one of my manly icons. Hey, he was a stud, scored numerous hotties in his film career and married Jada Pinkett Smith. What's not to love? Growing up, I wanted to be like Will Smith. When/if I ever finished growing up, I wanted to be like George Clooney."Director Miller," Riki tried again. "He's lying. From my personal observations and with supporting personality profiles provided by other members of the task force, I can guarantee you that Mr. Nyilas is unreliable and untrustworthy. Sir, I've watched Romani males hide their wallets and their daughters when he walks by." Okay, wasn't that last bit a lie?"that last bit a lie?es hide their wallets and their daughters when he walks by. provided by other members However, unless she has been cross-trained as a waitress at a gang-affiliated nightclub, a day-care worker for the criminally insane, plus consistently wins at Texas hold 'em, she's going to be out of her element here.""No sir, but Mr. Nyilas likes me, I'm not sure why," she glared at me. I poked her in the boob to help clarify the matter. Riki slapped my hand. Virginia punched me in the shoulder. I decided to poke Virginia in her ballistic-covered breast, hoping she was jealous for the attention. I was wrong. They both hit me again.Had this been sexual harassment, they would have hated this job and despised me. Since this was me being my painfully childish self, well, I was still annoying, but also adorable. Put it this way: if a woman could not only pepper spray a man making cat-calls at her, and was even encouraged to do so, wouldn't that de-stress the situation?"Director Miller, I don't want to stay on this assignment, yet I'd be remiss if I didn't explain some of the numerous pitfalls of working with Unit L. Every one of them is comfortable being a walking arsenal. I'm on my way to have a ballistic vest tailored for me because I'm the only one in the unit without one. I have no doubt that any of them could kill me with their bare hands in less than 5 seconds if they so desired," she explained."You would think they would want a more effective combatant with them," Miller grew icy, suspecting duplicity on Riki's part -- moron. She looked at me over the phone."Sir, I think they like me because I know I don't belong in a firefight. They can count on me to cower behind cover while the bullets are flying. That allows the rest to kill unimpeded by having to keep an eye on me," she said.Pause."One of them did show me how to recognize and start various grenades. She said if I was ever the last one alive, it would give me 'options'."Pause."Ms. Martin, don't cancel your flight back to DC yet. I'm going to give Ms. Castello a call to see what her assessment of the situation is," Willy allowed. "Good-bye.""I can't believe I talked him into making me stay with you people," Riki moaned.Our little caravan was slowing to a stop outside the Metropole Hotel. It was Hana's choice for a Roman meeting location. A restaurant and a hotel room, all in one location. Rachel and Wiesława were ahead of us, checking things out. Hana had informed us that the Illuminati had two people watching her. This was going to be my last bit of time with Rachel for a while.(Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch, )Two new members of House Ishara were on their way to Rome. They'd be joined by two members of the House Guard of Andraste from Britain. The two Isharans were the first members of the House Guard of Ishara in over a thousand years. I didn't expect them to be the martial equals of Rachel, or Charlotte. Not yet. And anyway, that didn't matter. What mattered to me was that they'd volunteered for the task and Buffy felt they were the best we had.Another nomadic pack of House Hylonome Amazons had taken in the traumatized Zola. She had to stay in Romanian until the authorities finished up her part of the investigation. A mixed group from House Živa and Ishara (led by Helena) would handle security for Professor Loma, his family and the Lovasz sisters during their trip to New York.Aliz, his wife, was officially in House Ishara's custody. That was my best play at making sure she avoided summary justice for her 'betrayal' of House Hylonome. The whole group would be handed over to House Epona as soon as the Romanians cleared them for foreign travel. It helped my case that Aliz appreciated my warnings about the danger that both families were in from House Illuyankamunus.The occult nitpicking that allowed me to leverage this maneuver was accomplished by me doing yet another rarely done feat. In the name of Alkonyka Lovasz, House Ishara was sponsoring a new Amazon house. I could testify to the existence and matronage of the Goddess SzélAnya (without her permission), which was one of the stepping stones for acceptance.Vincent was going to stay in Germany for two days, then he was off to his home and daughters in Arlington Virginia, with a long convalescence and a rumored promotion. Mona and Tiger Lily were already on their way to New York as honor guard for Charlotte's body, courtesy of the US Air Force. The Amazons needed the USAF to do it because that was the only way we could get the Romanians to release her body.The Hylonome dead, they would be buried in a private plot after all the autopsies were done. I was absolutely sure the Hylonome would steal the bodies in due time and give them a 'proper' burial. Of the Mycenaeans, Red and one of his buddies still remained at large. Of Ajax's half-brother, Teucer, and the other previously wounded Greek warrior, there was no sign. Kwen and the other POWs remained in Romania to face a laundry list of charges. Her fate was unknown to me.My bodyguard was reduced, yet no one minded. The twin reasoning was that the Black Hand in Italy would provide some protection for me. The other was that I was in the birthplace of the Condottieri. Selena's sources strongly suspected that their HQ was close to Rome itself. I could have had more security by recruiting among the 'natives'.Various sources, some inside Italy, had suggested that the Carabinieri, Italy's military police force, had 'offered' to provide some protection. That was prompted by events surrounding my visits to Budapest and Mindszent, Hungary and the 'action' south of Miercurea Ciuc, Romania (no one wanted to call it a battle, even though the fight involved over 1000 Romanian Land Forces troops and half a squadron of the Romanian Air Force).My refusal of the offer caused a 'disruption'. This was a polite way of saying the Italians did not want me to enter their country. I wasn't being a jerk this time. Selena and Aunt Briana were both of the opinion that the Condo's recruited heavily from European military and paramilitary units -- particularly Western Europe. And that not all their 'new hires' had left active duty either.A peculiar circumstance then developed. The pretext for denying me entry was undercut by Hungary and Romania erasing me from their official investigation. I wasn't a threat (despite the burnt landscape and tombstones sprouting up in my wake.) Romania didn't want me to stay, Hungary decided they didn't want me back -- at the moment -- and the US/UK/Ireland were telling the Italians that I was a peach, or whatever implied that in diplomatic speech.There was a compromise finally reached by Riki and shadow forces that I couldn't put names to. I could come to Italy as long as my itinerary was relayed to Carabinieri. We could keep our side arms in holsters and our big guns as long as they weren't on our persons. I could go around without a Carabinieri bodyguard as long as I ignored them floating around me at a discreet distance. A liaison officer would meet me at the hotel to maintain the illusion that I was just a paranoid tourist.Delilah had to touch base with the British again, probably for the same reasons that the US wanted to replace Riki. While both Delilah and Chaz were military and seconded to MI-6, they weren't considered Intelligence Experts by the people at the helm. For that matter, they weren't even sure how Delilah had ended up at my side, killing multi-national terrorists in three separate countries inside of one month. That was very cinematic, not realistic. The idea of governments with shadow operatives 'sanctioning' people was not something that anyone in the 'know' wanted to talk about.Whether it was before the media, a US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, or a UK Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee this wasn't what these Department Heads wanted to discuss. Less anyone forget, my Congress and my President didn't, umm, get along.In my favor, I was an orphan from New Hampshire, both my US Senators were women and I'd worked on their campaigns or dated some of their volunteers. It might do me some good to call Dr. Kimberly Geisler at Bolingbrook to see what she could do politically. All that could wait.(Finishing Up)Selena Jovanović had the first of our two dark blue Alfa Romeo 159s, the one that disgorged Rachel and Wiesława. She, Saku and Odette would circle the block in case there was any trouble. Pamela had the driver's seat in my car. No one wanted me or Odette to drive because we didn't understand urban Italian street etiquette. It was Virginia, me and Riki in the backseat with Chaz up front with Pamela.Rachel gave the preliminary order to disembark. That meant the lobby was partially clear -- there were armed types about that seemed to be either Carabinieri, or understandable private security. Rome wasn't as dangerous as Mexico City (kidnap-wise), but events in London, Budapest and the Hungarian and Romanian countryside were putting people on edge. And those with enough money could buy some emotional comfort in the form of armed private contractors.Chaz took his H and K UMP-45, stock folded, out of the bag at his feet and secured it inside the right-side of his jacket. Three spare clips went inside a harness on his left. It was dreamlike as Virginia and I went through a similar, less heavily armed process. For FBI Girl, it was a 'carry-on' with flash-bang, concussion and smoke grenades, plus a few extra clips/mags for everyone.For me, it was a tomahawk, a second Gloc-22 and a bullet for everyone in the hotel, if that became necessary. As the car came to a stop in front of the main doors, I worked my way over Riki so that I would be the second person to exit the car. Chaz would be the first. Virginia got out on her side. Pamela would stay at the wheel -- Riki had an appointment with a tailor to keep.I felt it then, that sympathetic spiritual harmony I was one-third of. I looked up into the 'clear' Rome night. There she was, Bellatrix, the Amazon star in the Constellation of Orion. According to the Egyptian Rite, the Weave of Fate was nearly invisible by day, but by night, you could make out its strands in the motion of the stars. That was not something Alal had ever truly mastered. Still,I had a new phone since the charred remains of my old one were in some evidence locker in Budapest by now. That didn't mean I wanted to use it. I was getting squirrely about people I didn't want finding me, finding me. Chaz was in the lead, I was in the middle and Virginia covered my back. Rachel caught sight of us, gave a quick nod, and then she and Wiesława went for the elevators.Rachel would want to check out Hana's room before I got there -- if I got there. I called Odette."Hey Babe," Odette beamed excitement my way. She was in Rome and we had a guaranteed 24 hour layover. For a girl who thought her great adventure in life was going to end up being a high school trip to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell, she was in Nirvana."Hey to you too, Odette. I need a favor," I began."Sure," she chirped."In five minutes from, right now make sure Sakuniyas comes to see me and Hana in the restaurant by herself," I requested. Odette hesitated, taking in her knowledge of 'Cáel-speak'."No problemo Jeffe," she answered. She knew I was in some undefined trouble. We both knew that her body language would convey that unease to Saku, which was what I needed. See, I had a plan. I tapped Chaz, slowing him and thus allowing Virginia to bunch up with us."Do either one of you remember the movie

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Cáel Leads the Amazon Empire, Book 2: Part 13

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2025

The UnconqueredBy FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.Politically, this was manna from Heaven. Putin couldn't strong arm both the Ukraine and the PRC. His priorities had switched, so now NATO could jump into the Ukraine which would appease their democratic constituencies.There were also larger economic/political issues to look at. Europe had constantly been threatened by Russia's interference with the oil and natural gas pipelines that first pass through Russia before crossing the Ukraine and Belarus and heading off to Central and Western Europe. A great deal of that fuel originated in what was now the Khanate.If the Khanate survived, and viewed the US and UK favorably, the 'oil and natural gas' boot would be on the other foot. If Russia threatened the European Democracies' petrochemical supplies, the Khanate could threaten to cut off Russia as well. The old Republic of Kazakhstan never had the will to confront Russia. The Khanate was turning out to be a very different beast.Because the world didn't need any more ominous rumblings, catastrophe and madness collided in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea was an energy exporter, with most of its power coming from coal-fired plants and hydro-electric facilities. The problem was you can't run armored vehicles and combat aircraft on electric power. You needed oil.North Korea's oil came from China, Liaoning province to be precise, and Liaoning was getting hammered around the clock by the Khanate. The oil pipeline had ruptured and it would be months before it was fixed. In that situation, a sane nation would have shopped around for other avenue of imported oil. But we were talking about North Korea here.Kim Jung-un was looking down the barrels of another famine (trucks and tractors need petrol too) as well as the far more important reduction in the Korean People's Army's readiness. He saw himself possessing the World's 4th largest military and it was in danger of running out of fuel, and Liaoning province was sitting right across the Yalu River, all helpless-like.End World News Behind the Scenes ReportIn the annals of martial history, the bloodiest, costliest battles are when elites face elites. As corny and melodramatic as it sounds, the truth is that neither has 'surrender' in their creed. They attack, defend, ambush, shoot, stab and kill one another until one side loses the capacity to carry on the struggle. It is a grapple to the death.All of Ajax's men were hardened killers, ten year veterans of the Trojan Wars every; one of them. The ranks of the 22nd Mountain Troops Battalion were filled with numerous combat-tested soldiers of the Afghan War. These Romanians were some of the finest combatants produced by the Romanian Army. The two companies earmarked for sealing off the road as a retreat route were about to find out what the price of being elite really was.They were fighting for their homeland, avenging their slain (technically, the slaughtered Amazons were Romanians) and had generations of their own warriors, dating back to the First World War, whose legacy of ferocity they had to maintain. Ajax had the advantage in technology and surprise. The Romanians had numbers, experience with the terrain and the advantage of multi-dimensional warfare.The lead vehicles of the 22nd had rounded the hilly terrain to the East of the Castle of Seven Skulls when they collided with Ajax's team rolling away from those ruins. The Mountain Troops were fast, Ajax's team was faster. One soldier stepped out of his still-braking Eagle transport.He snap-shot a Panzerfaust 3, a light anti-tank weapon, blowing up the first Romanian Piranha IIIc. Two Eagles further down the column, a second team member put another Panzerfaust into the follow-up 22nd MLVN (armored personal carrier). That was as good as it got. The third vehicle, another MLVN swung partially around its burning brethren and poured automatic fire into Ajax's lead Eagle, turning huge chunks of that 'Hummer on Steroids' transport into shrapnel.Trading vehicle for vehicle wasn't something Ajax could afford. For the Romanians, they couldn't race past the blocked road without incurring horrendous losses themselves. Besides, by holding their ground and keeping the enemy focused on them, they were fulfilling their part of the plan. The Mountain Troops disgorged from their MLVN's, spreading out into the meadow on either side of the path and were quickly bounding forward by fire.Ajax reacted quickly. His heavy weapons would allow him to attrition the enemy in front of him, yet he'd be a fool to think they were alone. He knew he was facing army troops, not police. That spelled serious trouble. He ordered his column to reverse course back into the wood cover. He lost his second Eagle to intensive fire.The warriors in the main column bailed out once they reached the shelter of the trees. Machineguns came forward and established a withering cover fire. The two survivors at the first Eagle were badly wounded. With fatalistic resolve, they lashed the advancing Romanians with grenades and their assault rifles until they were both silenced. The second Eagle's demise was much harder.Three of the four crew were alive and unharmed. Their fate was decided by 25 meters of open ground between them and their compatriots. Ajax's gunners kept firing, but the Romanians refused to be suppressed. Worse, that second MLVN was proving impossible to kill. Its driver had parked it so that barely the front of his vehicle body and turret were exposed.Two more of Ajax's precious anti-tank rockets failed to connect, though one did knock the first destroyed IFV into that troublesome vehicle. These were Ajax's brothers-in-arms, yet he knew their situation was hopeless. He cursed that his opposition wasn't made up of raw conscripts. Despite their losses, they were not wavering. Their morale remained solid.The Romanians had spread out to the north and south. They were leap-frogging their machineguns forward and it was clear he was facing over 200 men. The 22nds advance was relentless. Soon they'd be right on top of his trapped men. As a final ploy he dropped two smoke grenades around the endangered trio and every other grenade launcher dropped their payloads onto the aggressive Romanians.The three men ran for it. Their enemy were nobody's fool and sprayed their retreat path with bullets. Only one made it to safety.For the Romanian battalion's commander in his command IFV, this was its own kind of Hell. His boys were getting murdered out there. He hadn't really believed the sketchy intelligence analysis that described his expected foes as the finest trained mercenaries the world has ever seen. Now he was a believer. His opponents reacted like an organic unit. Their weapons were incredibly lethal and their discipline was chilling. Ajax's snipers picked off anyone who seemed to be in charge. One Captain fell, as did two lieutenants. One section lost all its non-commissioned officers.Despite that, individual initiative kept the 'leaderless' men of the 22nd advancing. Their snipers came into play by targeting the opposing machineguns. One gunner went down, then the other. To get one man back, Ajax had lost five dead, or seriously wounded. Ajax ordered the remaining Eagles back to the castle. The rest of the Warband would have to make a fighting retreat.He'd killed or wounded a third of the Romanians out there, yet they were still coming. Even as he pulled out, he got two more pieces of bad:First, his scouts had reported hearing helicopters as they returned toward the castle; this latest enemy was somewhere behind him, to the east.Second, two Mig-21's dropped out of the sky and raked his area with rockets and auto-cannon fire; eight more men gone.Ajax may not have been the greatest military mind of all time, but wasn't a fool. He was being boxed in. Since it was highly unlikely the Hylonome Amazons had sacrificed themselves, this was an ad hoc plan to take him out. Instead of hunting down that male Amazon as he wanted, Ajax had let the Condottieri side-track him on this mission. Now, it was proving far too costly.A whistle, a few traded hand signals and the Mycenaeans started sprinting back upslope toward the castle ruins. It wasn't a rout. His men maintained their élan and cohesion. Ajax was trading space for time and the Romanians wouldn't chase his men as fast as the Mycenaeans were moving because there was always the threat of ambush. Or, they wouldn't have if an An-30 Reconnaissance Aircraft hadn't been tracking his progress from high above.Just coming on-line, it identified the heat signatures of the Greeks and let the soldiers of the 22nd know that their enemies were trying to put some distance between them. The battalion commander knew his men had been mangled, yet believed they were still more than willing carry the fight to the enemy. Right as the 'pursuit' order went out, the promised company from the 24th Mountain troops rolled up, with the 61st Brigade's 385th artillery battalion. 'Now things were really going to get hot for those bastards', he thought.(The Seven Skulls, Cáel)I was true to my nature. I sent off my plan, Operation Funhouse, to the Russians via their attaché (a hot looking, curvaceous blonde Major) and to the Khanate through the offices of the US and UK. Only after that was done, did I ask for my favor. I wasn't going to bargain with the fate of Temujin's people. I couldn't.My only chip to play was that people in strange places thought well of me. I wasn't so naïve to believe that I got what I wanted because I'd forged emotional bonds that superseded personal ambitions or national loyalties. No, I was now on my own self-inflicted 'Ride of the Valkyries' because people in authority felt I could still be useful and they were willing to risk the lives a few hundred Romanian soldiers to pander to my eccentricities.Our intelligence came from Google Maps, a woman's recollections from twenty-five years ago and the frighteningly precise memories of a battle-scarred 11 year old girl. For the 24th Mountain Troops battalion intelligence officer, it was a stunning introduction to Amazons. The girl was one year away from her Rite of Passage and she'd been raised to take in the terrain and the sounds of battle.Several times, he tried to trick her, altering information she had provided minutes earlier, but the girl corrected him every time. Seventeen minutes and the man relayed to his battalion commander his belief that the girl's story was solid. The men and women of the 24th may not have known the specific of the valley we were going to, yet this was their backyard.They knew the rocks, trees and bushes. They knew the ground was crinkled and what marsh soil looked like, without stepping into it. They could do this, attack a rogue mercenary band threatening their native land. They were going to do this and do it quick. Me and mine coming along was problematic. But Me being one of the first ones in, I had to play my trump card."I am Magyarorszag es Erdely Hercege," I proclaimed. "I have returned to my people in their hour of need. Besides, I'm the only one who can kill their leader.""You can kill Ajax?" Riki snorted in disbelief. "Ajax from the Trojan Wars? That Ajax?""Don't sweat it," I put my arm around her shoulder. "I got this covered. Get me close and I can make him dead.""You've lost your mind," Rachel muttered."I love you to," I grinned. To the Captain of the first company to rappel next to the ruins, "I'm your Prince. Let's do this.""Do you have any combat experience?" he shook his head."There are a whole bunch of dead Chinese who think so," I assured him."Let him go," Sakuniyas stated regally. "He is the Scion of Alal. He is invincible in battle." Hey, I liked that. Someone believed in me."Do you believe that?" Pamela asked Saku."Of course not, but if he's about to die, he should be allowed to feel good about himself," she told Pamela. Shit, I wish I hadn't heard that part."Oh, in that case, I agree. Let him go," Pamela added her preference to the final decision. The real weight in that Captain's final call was the small, well-armed group of supporters who seemed rather insistent that I get a chance at Valhalla.He took it well. The officer even announced to the entire battalion that their feudal overlord was leading them into the fight. My codename was 'Prince'. I hope I didn't turn out like the singer, I had no aspirations for being Machiavelli's 'hero', but being remember as someone like Prince Harry wouldn't be so bad.What I did know was this was my choice of actions and I couldn't send others into the madness I had inspired. I didn't blame myself for the deaths. Those were inevitable if Ajax was going to die. I didn't blame myself for Ajax, that was the Weave of Fate being a bastardly bitch. No, I had to kill Ajax because I was an idiot, and I loved my companions, and if it wasn't me making the attempt and possibly dying, it would be one of them. Not on my watch.Our IAR 330 Puma Helicopter lifted off into the sky. Our two companion birds, another troop carrier and an assault variant of the Puma, followed suit and soon we linked up with the rest of the company that was going to rappel into the clearing next to the ruins. Could I rappel? Sure, I lied. Hey, I'd made it to the top of the rope in gym class at the end of my senior year. That had to count for something.I was even lucky to have the lynchpin of my master plan sitting next to me. One in sixteen, what were the odds? "You, what's your name?" I asked the soldier barely older than me. "Master Corporal Menner," he grinned. Maybe he sensed my insanity. "Székely?" I asked. He nodded. "Do you believe I am your Prince?""Either that, or you are crazy," he kept grinning. I leaned over and after some helmet shuffling, I whispered my request in his ear. I didn't demand that he agree, only that if he didn't, he wouldn't turn me in. Our eyes met."Why?" he was now filled with disbelief. I had passed beyond the realm of comedian to the land where all crazy ideas go off to die."It is the only way. Trust me, I don't love this plan either, but it is the only way I can think of to keep as many of you alive as possible," I explained. "He's a monster.""How will this help?" he was still confused, even if he was being swept away with my intensity."I don't have time to explain. All I can tell you is that I'm not crazy and I don't want to die, but this is the only thing I can think of to keep my people alive," I remained firm and confident in my beliefs."I will have to think about it," he conceded. At least he wasn't insisting I be forcibly committed to a mental institution. I did annoy one of the two crewmen in the back with the rest of us combatants when I stood up and looked out the side window. I glimpsed it, her, flowing through the forest beneath us. After I sat back down, the Captain flagged me.I had forgotten to cut on my communications rig on. "First Force (the two companies of the 22nd) has encountered the enemy before they could exit into the flatlands," he paused, somewhat shocked. "They are taking heavy casualties. It is just like you warned us. These foes are exceedingly lethal." "Don't worry about it," I overflowed with charisma. "Just follow me and we'll be fine." "But, I thought you said you didn't know anything about the compound?" the Captain looked at me funny."I don't. I'm relying on luck," I pumped my eyebrows. The Captain knew enough English to groan."I have a sudden desire to club a baby seal," Rachel stared at me intently. Who, me? "Let me and my men take the point," the Captain insisted. "Captain, either I'm diving headfirst out of our ride, or you are letting me rappel down in the first wave, either way, my boots are the first on the ground," I demanded. "No," the Captain shook his head. "You are a civilian." "Captain," I leaned forward. "Everyone else is fighting and dying because I made a judgment call. You can't ask me to hold back now."That shone through. Over his battalion frequency, he could hear the confusion and chaos chiseling away at his brethren in the 22nd. He could tell by my countenance that I both knew the enemy he was going to fight and that I wasn't ruled by guilt, or a death wish. I wanted to go first because I thought I could make the difference between someone else's life and death. "Who are the other three with you?" he stated. Four could rappel down at a time. "Rachel, Chaz and Master Corporal Menner here," I indicated. Rachel didn't freak, the Colour Sergeant looked my way and gave his acknowledgement, as did Menner. "I'll go down with you, Captain," Pamela spoke up.Of my group, Delilah, Wiesława and Virginia had stayed behind to guard Odette, Riki, the Lovasz sisters and the Loma family. Two troopers of the 24th joined them to provide extra security if needed. Vincent had pulled seniority to be the sole American going. With Chaz and Delilah, there hadn't been a real discussion about it. Chaz was the professional ground-pounder.Selena had volunteered to go even though this wasn't really her fight. She claimed the right of revenge for Ajax's attempt to kill the Vizsla, but I thought it was something else, some desire to step forward and make the point that the Black Hand were invested in this global struggle. There had been no doubt that Rachel and her team plus Sakuniyas and Pamela would be joining me.In my estimation, we were over the target area way too fast. I hadn't thought of a good reason to talk myself out of this harebrained scheme of mine. The side doors of the Puma opened. Rachel would be going down on my side."Look and see what Rachel does and do the same thing," Pamela yelled to me over the roar of the engines."And don't lock your knees or you'll sprain your ankles," she added. It was just another day of 'on the job' training at Havenstone Commercial Investments, I rationalized. I was scared, which was also a good indicator that I was still marginally sane. Rachel made her movements slow and steady.I went down a second later, barely remembering to avoid rope burn through my gloves and not bust my feet when I hit bottom. Rachel crouched. She was waiting for follow up troops before advancing. Me, I ran straight toward the ruins. Why? It was Alal once more. From the relayed chatter from the 22nd and whatever spy plane the Romanians had above, I 'knew' that Ajax hadn't made it back to the fortifications yet.If we hurried, we could beat him there. Then we would be ambushing his ass for a change. It almost worked. Whatever Chaz and Menner thought of my actions, they kept it to themselves. I didn't have to be a psychic to realize Rachel wasn't a fan. I leapt over the first Amazon corpse. The second one I passed was sitting with her back to the tree, hands tied around the trunk and had been tortured before she died.I believed that was when the momentum shifted. This was barbarism and the three following me knew it. Menner relayed our findings to his Captain even as the first helicopter was pulling away. My mind was picking up the details and processing somewhere in the back of my mind so as not to distracting me from the task of staying alive.A pile of bodies lumped too close together, they had been executed. A small girl, three, or four, with a close-contact wound to the temple. The smell of burnt flesh, more torture. Whatever Code of Military Conduct the Mycenaeans had, it wasn't the rules we, their opponents, fought by today. We were outraged and help was coming.We were running in from the northeast. Three meter from what had once been a doorway, I broke free of the underbrush and saw the closest Greek and the row of vehicles behind him. He was to my east, maybe ten meters away. I wasn't stopping. The terrain had funneled us down so that we weren't coming directly from the helicopter's noise.That must have been the reason he wasn't staring at us when we appeared. I didn't stop. Chaz and Menner were right behind me. Rachel only slowed enough to fire her P-90 at full-auto at the man as she ran. She killed him. The three of us ran across the open-aired, ruined room until we found the doorway to the other side of the building. From there, we had a good view of Ajax's remaining Eagles and the eight remaining men with them."I'm going for higher ground," Chaz growled before he took off."Rachel, go back and secure the corner we came in by," I shouted. She grimaced but obeyed. Menner had his own ideas. He fired off his first rocket-propelled grenade from his AG-7 at the farthest Eagle he could clearly see, blowing it to smithereens. I added the

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Cáel Leads the Amazon Empire, Book 2: Part 10

Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2025

A day in the life of rural Hungary.By FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.'Here be Dragons' wasn't always a tourist gimmick."I didn't say you could have a drink," the Vizsla commented."Oh, my apologies," I shrugged. I put the stein on a nearby table and waited."Have a seat," she directed. I came up to her table and examined the three empty chairs. I held back until she pointed to the chair opposite her. I sat down, but didn't make eye contact. Instead, I examined the various paintings and photographs on the walls. It was an old place."You killed Matthias, even though you knew he worked for me," she uttered."I can confirm that information to be correct," I looked her way. That, wasn't what she expected."Why?""Why what?" I countered. There was a method to my madness; this was going to be a lesson in competence, and what happens when you don't respect it."Why did you kill Matthias?""I needed a reason?" I tried to look pensive. "Maybe I didn't like the cut of his facial hair?""Do you think this is a joke?" she replied dryly. "The Black Hand always avenge our own.""Damn," I looked perplexed. "No one told me that when I arrived. Can we call Matthias's extermination a 50/50 bad call, both ways?""Matthias was my cousin," the Vizsla continued."My condolences," I sighed. "The next Black Hand douche-bag the Amazons waste, I'll have them ask if he's related to you first. How's that?""You are so not likely to have that opportunity," she pointed out."Oh," I laughed, "you are so wrong about that.""You are far stupider than I had been informed," the Vizsla's eyes narrowed."Nope. You and your cast of 'Dumb and Dumber' have been treating us like idiots since we touched down at Ferenc Liszt International, so I'm pretending to be that simpleton sock-puppet just for you, Vizsla. You've added to that by heaping disrespect and derision on my people," I grinned."You tried to have me and my entourage murdered and Matthias paid the price for that. Everyone knows I'm here. And after your bungled attempt to have me killed, no one is going to believe you did anything but murder me, if I don't show up eventually. Now do you prefer the stupid me, or the brighter than normal me?""If you think acting like a smart-ass is somehow endearing, you are mistaken," she let me know."Whatever," I shrugged. "You called this meeting. What do you want?""Beyond killing one of my lieutenants, I wanted to know what you are doing here?" she studied me."I would like to leave now. I'm wasting my time here," I responded."I want answers," she pressed."You have been given the answers to both your talking points, Matthias died because of your orders and I am here looking for three lost Amazon bloodlines," I replied."That seems bizarre," the Vizsla expressed her doubts."Bizarre? You are talking to the sole male Amazon House Head in three thousand years," I reminded her. "Besides, you only just now finished telling me how the Black Hand look after their own. The Amazons are the same way; we have lost kin who need to be made aware of their background.""What do we do about Matthias?" the Vizsla asked."In all honesty, had he not personally threatened to stab a member of my team, I would have settled for kicking the crap out of him. He put a knife to Ms. Martin's throat. That assured his death sentence. I think the Host will be willing to accept my hypothesis that Matthias was acting on his own initiative, which should settle the matter."And just like that, the expediency of the Black Hand shown forth. The truth of the matter was that he had acted on the Vizsla's orders. Unfortunately, that would have meant my side would have come after the Vizsla and she would have had to avenge his death, lots of needless bloodshed. So Matthias posthumously became a rabid dog gone rogue and one who ended up crossing the wrong people. No vengeance required by anyone. We could get back to business."That is settled. So, what do you want from your new allies?" the Vizsla inquired. A certain level of cold-blooded ruthlessness had been required to achieve her spot in the Black Hand. Likewise, honesty was the best policy when dealing with casually lethal people. They didn't like self-important asses wasting their time."I need to find an individual named 'Branko'. He has kidnapped a young lady who is one of our lost Amazons. We don't require any aid, but if you could leave Selena with us, it would be appreciated," I requested."What are you going to do when you catch up with this 'Branko'?" she questioned."I'd like to say I am going to buy her back, but I think we both know that is a pipe-dream. He's not going to like me interfering in his business, so I'm going to kill him, and any other bastards who are in close proximity," I confessed. She studied me for over a minute."Do you wish a piece of advice?" the Vizsla said."Of course," I nodded. It cost me nothing to acknowledge her vastly superior experience."Take a step back," she advised. Seeing that I didn't understand, "If you recall every single death by your hand, you will go mad. You don't possess the detachment of a true killer, Cáel. Not every member of the Black Hand is an assassin.Your driver, Josef, is from a long line of Black Hand members. He doesn't have what it takes to get close and personal in order to kill a human being, so he drives and provides security. He still matters and serves a necessary function." That was almost nice of her. The advice was based on her decision to keep me around as a useful tool. Going nuts would derail that."There is the life we wish to lead, and the life we must lead, Vizsla," I recalled. There was so much there, whirling around in my skull, it took me all this time to find the link I was looking for. Recall every single death by my hand, "On January 26th, 1847, the Black Hand Chapter House of the Wolf in Verona was wiped out, there were no survivors.""If you say so," she regarded me oddly."Yeah, look into it. Then come back to me when you have the right questions," I stood up. "And 'Branko'?""I will relay information on this individual to Selena. We should have something by the time you get back to Buda," she got out before one of the bodyguards came running our way.He had his H and K MP5 out and was in deep conversation with his ear piece."Our two spotters failed to respond correctly," he told the Vizsla in Hungarian. She gave me another quick once over."My people?" I rose slowly.The Vizsla gave the man a subtle hand gesture. Seconds later, pushing Alkonyka ahead of them, Pamela, Selena and Josef came running through the door. Pamela and Selena had our duffels. Two more Black Hand materialized from a back room.The Black Hand was actually a small outfit. Each Chapter had two or three houses, each with four or five true assassins and maybe six times that in support personnel/recruits in each location. That meant the entire Black Hand organization numbered less than 1000. They had several thousand peripheral contacts across their sphere of Europe and they could purchase some sort of private security given time. But their best protection was their hidden nature and small size. That also meant what we had was what we had. There was no Black Hand SWAT team on the way.Working with hand gestures alone, the Vizsla was directing us to a trap door behind the bar. Josef's phone rang. He hesitantly answered."It is for you," he offered it to our host. She took it. Halfway through the caller's diatribe, she shot me a suspicious look."Why don't you ask him?" she stated, then handed me the phone."Hello Nyilas. Do you know who this is?" the man on the other end stated, in Mycenean Greek."Yes, I do. What do you want? I'm kind of busy here?" I grinned. It was laughing at death all over again."I can relieve you of your pressing schedule. You and the other Amazon step outside and I'll make it quick.""No can-do Studly," I smirked. "If I go out there, it is going to take a while.""I sincerely doubt that.""Don't sell yourself short," I jibed. "I figure clipping off those bull-sized testicles of yours is going to take some work. But I do promise that after I make you a eunuch, I'll use a condom when I bend you over and make you my bitch too. Was there anything else you wanted to know?""No. I think we have a mutual understanding," he laughed. "I'll be seeing you soon." He hung up."Who was that?" Vizsla inquired. She wasn't alone in her curiosity."Ajax," I beamed confidence. I was confident my tenure on this Earth was ending real soon."I think we should be leaving," Vizsla suggested."Selena, help Alkonyka get her sister back," I requested. "I'll catch up when I can. Pamela, you do what you feel you need to do. Vizsla, they are after me, so I'm going to keep them busy while you get away," I explained.No useless 'you don't have to do this' nonsense. She knew the score, I wasn't a member of her outfit and she wanted to live. She did do me one favor. She gave another hand movement. Selena slit Josef's throat in a surprise motion.He didn't die right away. Selena's slash made bleeding out inevitable, but he'd be a while in dying. Odds were, that only Vizsla and Josef knew in advance where we were meeting. Whatever payoff the Condottieri had put in his bank account wasn't going to do him any good. Selena bent over his still-thrashing body and removed his pistol."I will bring you Angyalka Lovasz," Selena pledged. Pamela and I were gearing up. Ajax and his buddies were going to be coming for me any second now. Alkonyka gave me one more worried look before she vanished into the secret basement. "Don't be late," was the last thing Selena said before going down into the darkness. Pamela made sure the trap door was covered up.Lust and Bullets"We've used Butch and Sundance," Pamela checked her L42 Enfield Sniper Rifle. It was the weapon Pamela had trained with and used for longer than I'd been alive, old yet very effective even today."Heat?" I offered up. "You can be De Niro and I can be Kilmer.""Nice. Michael Mann really had a way of killing people," Pamela grinned, then pumped her eyebrows. "Too bad I end up dead in this one.""We'll avoid airports, you should be safe," I joked. Three explosions rocked the building, shooting glass throughout the place. Fortunately, Pamela and I were hiding behind the bar."Let's go," she whispered over the din. Charging out the front door seemed pretty suicidal to me, but Pamela's copious battle lore was something I had the utmost faith in. I respected her judgment and followed along. There was a method to her madness. Two 40 mm grenades had taken out the two cars parked in front. A third launched grenade had blown open the door.The petrol in the cars equated to flaming wreckage and a huge smoke screen. It was broad daylight, no night vision goggles. The flames made IR useless and the smoke temporarily obscured regular vision. The machineguns going off around us scared the crap out of me. It was my old buddy, suppression fire: they weren't shooting directly at us.Metaphysically, Ishara was dueling with Ares. There was a low stone wall, a little over a meter high, that separated an adjacent field from the inn's gravel parking lot. Right as we got to our side of it, three of Ajax's boys came up on the other. Pamela and I remained perfectly still, crouching tightly against our shelter.Two knelt and fired several bursts from their H and K HK416 (Wow! Germany's newest killing machine, they looked slick) into the closest open windows while the third one fired a grenade in. Again, we remained perfectly still. We were about two meters from those three. The drab color of our hastily donned dusters, the congested air and our stillness combined to save us from their notice.The second after that grenade went off, the three vaulted the wall and rushed the building. From the cacophony of the battle, they were storming the building from several directions at once."Quick, go find that guy with the machinegun," Pamela whispered over a feral grin. How was I going to do that?The old fashioned way, I leapt over the wall and ran away from all the flames, explosions and the continuous widespread fusillade of assault weapons fire. I was partially bent over as I ran. I'm still a big guy though. The machine gunner was in a shallow dip in the meadow 30 meters away, on the edge of the woods.He saw me, shifted his MG4 (fuck Ajax and his crew for having the best Bang-Bangs) minutely and unleashed hell my way. In hindsight, the 1st round flattened against my duster as it impacted my upper left thigh. Round #2 hit the duster again, coming below my vest, but hitting my belt (every bit of leather helps).The #3 556 mm slug hit my vest due south of my belly button (Fuck!), # 4 landed a few centimeters up and to the right, taking in both the duster and my ballistic vest. The #5 round clipped my lower side of my right ribcage. The resulting force sent me spinning back and to my right.Honestly, as I landed hard on my back (no rolling with the blow this time), I thought a midget mule team had kicked me in the guts. Apparently, I made a convincing mortally wounded human being. He stopped shooting and Pamela got pissed.I learned a few things at that moment: you do not get used to being shot; you can never appreciate the value of good body amour enough; you can never understand the true value of a sniper until your life is totally in their hands; and damn, Pamela was exceptional. Pamela put a bullet through his nasal cavity in that split second between him exposing himself with his muzzle flashes and deciding to put a few more bullets into my prone form.Pain dictated that I lie where I was. Survival instincts overrode that. I went to my side, pushed up and resumed my crouched stance. Then I was running once more until I could throw myself beside his corpse. I was stunningly calm. Machineguns, snipers, I had to cover Pamela's run across the meadow. I didn't stay by the dead gunner.I grabbed his weapon, some spare ammo and quick-stepped it to the wood line. I rapidly assessed the best spot that could provide cover from each flank. That was where I went down, cradled the device and started shooting at any muzzle flash I could see. The moment I opened fire, Pamela began her own sprint.Unlike my mad dash, Pamela took evasive maneuvers, serpentine, which worked out well when one sniper figured out she wasn't one of them. He/she had two shots at her before she dove past me. Her mien was one of intense, emptiness? She gave me a quick pat-down to make sure I wasn't gushing blood, took a deep breath and then smirked."Come on, Dummy!" she laughed. "We still have a shot at a sequel.""Shot, sequel, you are a laugh riot," I wheezed as I stood, abandoned the MG4 and joined her as we both ran deeper into the woods. A few shots zinged past us before Ajax's crew realized we were in full-on flight mode. They weren't going to waste the bullets.This was the point where archaic and modern warfare diverged. In the olden (pre-Pamela, ow! How did she know what I was thinking?) days, when your enemy broke and ran, it was relatively easy to run them down and slaughter them in their panic. If a few men tried to stem the tide, they would be quickly overwhelmed.After the invention of rapid-fire rifles, that changed. Suddenly, headlong pursuit could be incredibly costly. All it took was a small, resolute band to find some sort of hard cover and they could buy minutes, or even hours, for their retreating brethren. Sure, if you were willing to pay the butcher's bill, you could storm their position.But you had to understand, each defender could fire and work the bolt action in under three seconds. You reloaded your magazine with a prepared clip ~ maybe five more seconds. Ten men could put 150 bullets down range per minute as long as their ammo held out. Sending men into that kind of firepower was murder; very few troops could sustain their attack under those conditions.Ajax's resurrected Mycenaean's were tough enough to do it. Ajax's problem was their finite number. Despite catching Ajax off-guard with Pamela's mad plan, her ungodly skills and a great deal of my pain, we had only managed to kill one so far. The great unknowns were terrain (we didn't know where we were,) and my luck.As Pamela and I ran through the forest at a good clip, we began to make out a specific background noise. It was a river. Not a creek, stream, waterfall, or dam, a river."Did you pack your jet ski?" Pamela snorted."I left it in the car. You said it was so '1990's'," I panted back. A few more footsteps and,

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In Search of Indo-Europeans in 2024: of Catacombs and Corded Ware

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2025 35:36

On this episode of Unsuperivsed Learning reviews what we know about Indo-Europeans as 2024 comes to a close. This is prompted by a new preprint Ancient genomics support deep divergence between Eastern and Western Mediterranean Indo-European languages, which finally establishes that populations in Northern and Southwestern Europe derived from a different steppe-origin population than the Greeks and Ilyrians of the Balkans, as well as Armenians. Razib talks about how ancient DNA is resolving long-standing disputes in historical linguistics, and coming down on the side of very particular sets of hypotheses. He discusses Peter Bellwood's First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies, and its models about the origins of Indo-European languages, and how they have been falsified by paleogenomics. Razib also steps through the relationship of particular Indo-European groups to ancestral archaeological cultures like the Corded Ware, Bell Beaker and Catacomb Cultures. He also talks about the connections between charioteers and the early Mycenaeans, and looks at Robert Drews' ideas in Coming of the Greeks. Finally, he addresses outliers in the ancient DNA data that indicate connections between locales as disparate as Scandinavia and Cyprus 4,000 years ago.

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Ep54 “The Rise And Fall of Great Societies: Lessons from History” with Victor Davis Hanson

All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 15, 2025 29:55

History shows that as societies rise to greatness, the scales eventually tip back and those societies fall. But what leads to that fall and are we heading toward one? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen speak with historian Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who specializes in classics and military history. The conversation explores the complexities and fragilities of successful societies like the Mycenaeans, Romans, and Byzantines, how specialization can lead to higher living standards but also increased vulnerability, and our existential worries about the future. Find All Else Equal on the web: https://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/allelse/All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of the UPenn Wharton Lauder Institute through University FM.

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Explaining the Bronze Age Collapse

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2025 94:03

In this episode of History 102, 'WhatIfAltHist' creator Rudyard Lynch and co-host Austin Padgett explore how an interconnected world of chariot-riding elites, complex trade networks, and temple bureaucracies imploded within a single generation. From mysterious Sea Peoples to the rise of iron weapons, they unpack how this collapse birthed a new heroic age that gave us the Greeks, Jews, and Persians. --

Chthonic Mysteries of Greece: Gods and Goddesses of Death (Part 3) - TPM 09

The Archaeology Podcast Network Feed

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 7, 2025 54:16

In this episode, we uncover the Mycenaean roots of Ancient Greek deities and beliefs about death and the afterlife. The Mycenaeans controlled much of Greece and the Aegean Sea starting about 1700 BCE until about 1200 BE, when the Late Bronze Age collapse led to hundreds of years of political, social, and climate upheaval for the entire region. But through their monumental architecture, art, and stories they left behind, Classical Greek mythology was born. Discover the origins of deities like Dionysus, Poseidon, and Hermes and their original underworld associations. Journey into sacred sites the Greeks inherited from the Mycenaeans, like the Sanctuary of Poseidon with caverns that have been associated with sacred burials and the underworld as far back as the Neolithic. Then we'll take a look at Hades and several less famous Greek goddesses, gods, and monsters of death and the underworld.Transcripts For transcripts of this episode head over to: https://archpodnet.com/tpm/09Links See photos related to episode topics on Instagram Loving the macabre lore? Treat your host to a coffee!ArchPodNet APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet Tee Public Store: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/archaeology-podcast-network?ref_id=5724Affiliates Motion

Cáel and the Manhattan Amazons: Part 25

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2024

Promises To Keep. In 25 parts, edited from the works of FinalStand. Listen and subscribe to the ► Podcast at Connected.. Note to readers: There is a bit of mangling of the Iliad going on. My apologies to Homer and the countless singers before him who carried the Iliad down through the dark centuries until the Greeks figured out how writing works. “Never judge a friend by what they give, but of how much of themselves they give.” (From the floor of Katrina's office) First thoughts, I was on the floor where I had fallen, surrounded and being manhandled in the tenderest way. That was a romantic means of relating to my mummification. Those little Band-Aids that had been applied when I woke up from my coma had failed the 'Cáel is a Smeckle-head' test. All the crud they had pumped into my system and amperage they had channeled through my muscles was not the same as eating and exercise. Having a sexual romp with two ladies? My Goddess made plans for my body that my caloric bank account couldn't afford, thus me passing out. Unlike my time with Miyako and Estere, I had a feeling my two sofa-buddies were ovulating. Fatherhood was on the way. How my infant would survive the continuous poisonous assault on the augur's lymphatic system was beyond me. Her guardian, let's just say I dealt with sneaky bitches/Dot on a regular basis and leave it at that. "He is awake," Tadêfi alerted the room. "You must leave so I can deliver my message to him in the privacy he requested." "I am almost done," a different Amazon voice stated. She was the medico dealing with my wounds. By the aroma, she had slathered on two coats of the healing goo that was becoming as comfortable to my nostrils as my soap-on-a-rope. A few more rounds of adhesive tape and the exodus from the room began. I hadn't opened my eyes because I was unprepared for the looks of anger, disappointment and concern surely leveled my way. The door shut and my eyes opened. "The Conqueror, the Champion, the Friendless and the Foe have all escaped the Land of the Endless Black Sands and returned to the Sunlit Realm," Tadêfi whispered upon my lips. Huh? That was it? Seriously, four freaking titles without, And here came the rest, faces. Faces with eyes and eyes with a purpose. Names, not names I wanted to hear at the moment. Bad fucking news all around. It couldn't be something helpful like the identity of the next High Priestess, No, that would be good fucking news. Okay, time to turn this frown upside down. I could make this work for me. How, I wasn't sure. "Thank you," I responded to Tadêfi's plea of understanding. Outside of having impregnating sex with me, the Sex-Master, Timothy was going to Nerf-shoot me for that, she'd endured spiritual, mental and physical grief and torment to be with me here today. She waited, kneeling beside my head. "Kiss me," I requested. It was a moist act, full of compassion and understanding. I racked my mind for the names and their importance. "Who was Shammuramat?" "I don't know, but this helps, right?" Tadêfi expressed her need to make the reward for the sacrifices to make sense. Five dead sister-augurs. They had to find that son-of-a-bitch! "Tadêfi, we are back in the fight," I grinned. "You and your sisters have given the Host a mighty weapon in the upcoming struggle." I knew that to be true because I knew who and where the Conqueror was, I knew he wasn't ready to be revealed, his enemies were closing in and he was ignorant of that fact. I was going to have to rain on his parade to save his life. The five augurs hadn't died futilely. The Weave of Fate had shielded the man and it took the augers' fanatical devotion to cut the threads and expose the truth the Host needed most. The Champion, hell, I knew who he was. I chuckled. Tadêfi was confused. The Champion was coming to kill me, me and a bunch of other Amazons, because blood feuds tend to run both ways. The Foe. He was easy enough. Granddad. The Bastard just wouldn't stay dead. I had a clue to what was going on now. I wasn't sure how useful that knowledge would be. Still, knowledge is knowledge. That thing crawling around inside my brain? No help there. That left Shammuramat. That name was familiar. Even when I finally placed it, I didn't understand her role in things. Why her? "Krasimira," I called out. I struggled to sit up and with Tadêfi's help, I did so. The Keeper and two guardians entered as well. One, Sikia, hovered over her companion/augur. "What is the link between Shammuramat and the Host?" I inquired. I saw no recognition in the Keeper's eyes. "She was the first ever "independent" queen of a nation-state, Assyria." Krasimira sat on the sofa and retrieved her tablet from inside her robes. She began working with the electronic history of the Amazon race. "9th Century BCE," I added. Slowly others migrated back into the room. Buffy, Katrina (not good and not happy), Elsa (really not good) and Desiree. Pamela leaned against the door sill, neither in nor out. Katrina sat behind her desk. The phone came out and whispered conversations began in earnest. I had shoved us straight into a war which looked like a free for all at the moment. No one trusted anyone. No one could afford to. I had to change that. The only saving grace was that it appeared no Secret Society had planned for the Protocols to abruptly end a week and a half ago. "Ah, I found it," Krasimira spoke up. Because I'm me, it was at that moment I finally realized that someone had put me in my biking shorts in an effort to provide me a modicum of modesty, with the benefit of blood being smeared on the inside. "She abandoned the Host, she was put under a death sentence for killing her twin sister who was chosen to lead House Anat over her." "Anat?" I queried. "The other dead First House," Krasimira sighed. "They were renowned for their berserkers. Some would drape themselves in the entrails of their enemies in the midst of battle to increase their ferocious appearance." "Oh, how sweet, what was Ishara known for?" I was surprised I'd never asked. "Ishara were the emissaries of the Host," Krasimira informed me. With the Amazon practice of killing embassies sent their way, the extinction of my house made much more sense. "What does this mean?" Desiree took charge of matters since Katrina was still busy on the phone. In a few short weeks, Desiree's prestige had definitely increased. Katrina was her sister in more than name now. "Where to begin, Fine, why don't we refer to the Mycenaeans by their proper Amazon name?" Everyone but Buffy was glancing about nervously. "You used the name, didn't you?" Elsa rubbed the bridge of her nose, dreading the response. "Yes, " I answered. "Because no one warns him of shit," Pamela huffed. "You assume an Amazon education with no basis in reality. You act like he grew up with our fairy tales and phantasmal histories. Everyone in this room, but Buffy," she acknowledge my First, "knew he spoke our language and the accompanying risk. Still, no one warned him." "You didn't warn him," Desiree skewered Pamela with a glance. "Not my job, Buttons," Pamela chuckled. "I relish the rest of you being made to look like idiots too much to be useful to Cáel unless it really matters. So he invoked an ancient malediction. What is the worst that could happen?" "I'm going to make a huge deductive leap, am I the reason the Achaean hero Ajax and his boys are back from the dead and coming after us for some Ako-level vengeance?" I groaned. (That's the 47 Ronin for us Westerners) Silence. "That's not your fault, Sport," Pamela snorted. "Mano-man, was I a dumbass for doing nothing. I'll take the blame for that one ladies. Damn Cáel, you would have to pick the Unconquered One, wouldn't you?" "Who is this guy and why does he hate us?" Buffy interjected. Pause. "Our ancestors poisoned his wine so that, in his angry haze, he mistook his own men for his enemies and slaughtered them all, back during the Trojan War. Afterwards, he committed suicide in anguish over his crime, Death opened his eyes at the last, he saw our treachery and managed to curse us as he died," Krasimira informed the lot of us. "And my using that word brought him back? That sounds, weak," I grunted. "The word would not have been enough," Tadêfi comforted me. "There must have been some sort of rift in the curtain of Reality that allowed the others to slip through. I don't understand how, oh no," she gasped as the pieces came together. "I'm willing to believe that was the price of doing business," I petted Tadêfi's cheek. "Please enlighten us," Elsa grumbled. "I need to find the Earth and Sky ambassador and set up a new meeting. Using what Tadêfi has gifted me with and the sacrifice of her fellow augurs, I can secure an alliance for us if only I can make up for the whole stunt Troika played," I grinned. "Any ideas?" "We could call them," Pamela produced my phone. "Seems some lady named Hana Sulkanen has been trying for days to get in touch with you. She hunted down the owner of the necklace, they talked about your current physical state, courtesy of Odette, and the owner of the necklace has expressed a continued interest in meeting you, and only you. It would appear that they really don't trust the rest of our merry little band since your first disappearance." Hana, and here I had killed her step-brother, the one she despised. An unexpected benefit of civil discourse, my People's chance of survival had doubled. Pamela lobbed my phone and I caught it. "What of the other two?" Tadêfi pushed down on my euphoria. "Was the Foe dead as well?" A quick look at Pamela told me she knew the answer to that. "The Foe is complicated," I lied. "His return was an inevitability, so we count that as a draw. The Champion, bad news. Let's put Shammy in the 'maybe' column and the Conqueror is a win for our side." A Berserker Queen, fresh from the Underworld, who we were honor-bound to kill, or the 'other lost heir to a dead House' that was going to make us cobble together some nonsense to bring her back into the fold. If I wasn't the male leader of a spiritually significant All-Girls social club/paramilitary outfit, I might have been daunted by my prospects of achieving the latter. "The thing going on inside your head?" Elsa asked. That explained her presence. My mental capacity was still suspect. Was I still me? Could I flip out with no warning? "It is still there. I still have no idea what happened to me, or what the results might be. This means I'm going into battle wounded and that's that," I stated. "Are you acting in the best interest of the Host," Elsa studied me. "I am not sure," I confessed after half a minute's introspection. "So many of you are fuck-nuts; I'm not sure what acting responsible is for this set," I added jokingly. "As it stand, you lack the authority to pass judgment on me, Elsa. I promise you that if I feel I'm losing control, I will turn myself in." "Saint Marie would feel better if you stayed here," Elsa insisted. "Is the SD declaring war on House Ishara?" Buffy rose to the challenge. "We (by that she meant my fellow Isharans) have discussed the matter and talked to our best neuroscientist. She cannot definitively tell us Cáel isn't Cáel, so there is no reason to constrain him." Whoa. In our best prospect's educated opinion I was not-not me. Legions of English teachers weren't going to like that. "I have the answer for that," Katrina spoke up. "I owe Cáel and I would pay that debt now. He expressed a desire to see my niece, Aya. Do you still wish that Cáel Ishara?" "More than ever, but the Council is meeting," I sighed. "Buffy is your (dead word spoken), your apprentice," Katrina suggested. "Appoint someone to stand with her." That was more than good advice. Buffy was a woman and, to those who knew of her, as fierce an Amazon as ever lived. That was what Katrina was telling me without telling me. "I choose Daphne Pile, if she will accept, to stand by Buffy's side," I announced. Buffy would need someone who was passionate for my cause and who spoke Old Kingdom Hittite. Buffy still didn't, and the chance of the Council speaking English on her behalf was non-existent. "That is Daphne of House Cotyttia," Pamela corrected me. Who Cotyttia was? I had no idea. I was stupid to think Daphne's actual Amazon surname was Pile. Daphne wasn't even around. Executive Services was functioning fine without me and that meant Daphne had a work queue. "The Thracian Goddess of Sex, Orgies, War and Slaughter," Krasimira gracefully filled in my ignorance. Another whoa, why wasn't she my matron goddess? Tadêfi hauled off and slapped me. The action seemed to take everyone, Tadêfi included, by surprise. "I don't know why I did that," Tadêfi wailed out in despair. I did. It didn't take telepathy to figure out what I had been thinking. To prove my point, Pamela laughed. I cupped Tadêfi's jaw. "Worry not," I cooed. "I had that coming, Dot Ishara," I dodged another one, "isn't happy with me right now." Recall, Tadêfi was hooked up to an old-fashioned party line with the Beyond. "Animaniacs," Pamela snorted. "I so love you. It is my deep and abiding pleasure to have you as my Grandson." "I'm not your grandson," I countered. "Well, I say you are. Now be quiet and accept the shame," Pamela's eyes danced with amusement. "That makes me, Daphne and Brielle incest," I pointed out. "Amazons don't have an incest taboo," Pamela retorted. Duh. They are all women, no chance of seven fingered, Cyclops babies. "Ah, women, misunderstanding and pain, Buffy, would you check out Quebec and see if I'm still wanted in that province for bestiality. It could be important later," I commanded. "Bestiality?" only one woman failed to mutter, sputter or exclaimed. "The complainant in question is not that pissed at you anymore," Katrina's rolodex mind kicked in. "I believe she expressed a desire to question you about some missing accoutrements though." My splitting headache meant I had to think about that, ah yes, her dress uniform. It was/had been Canada Day, thus her having an official function and thus me cheating with the girl from across the hall in the Mountie's bed. I'm an idiot alright and my ability to keep an eye on the clock needs improvement. My last image of her, frothing at the mouth (she was a tad more possessive than I had anticipated) as she screamed out insults in Quebecois French concerning my lineage, personality failings and the treasured parts of my anatomy. She punctuated various parts of that deranged episode by hurling articles of her clothing over the border at me as I turned (once I had good Ole US soil/pavement under my feet) and tried to get us back together. Yes, I had them, just not in my Box of Failed Romances. Acting on hopes of reconciliation, I had the uniform dry cleaned, placed in a dress bag, and the boots polished; both currently occupying space in my closet. At least the Alburgh-Noyan Crossing guards (it is a dual Canadian-American post) appreciated me evading/begging forgiveness long enough for them to see her in only her bra and panties. I imagine they didn't normally get much excitement there. "Katrina, " I began. "Yes, Maya forgives you too, though she scored an 'At Risk' for reliability. Anais sounded genuine," Katrina related. Anais was the Mountie. Maya was the Guyane Française university student from across the hall, the one I was caught cheating with. I had told her I was Anais's brother. Maya was also a super-exceptional cook. "Cáel Ishara, who are these women we are talking about?" Sikia demanded. 'We', that didn't take long. We were now a 'we', which in Amazon meant 'male, you're my property'. "I have a sideline job as an Amway distributor," I replied. "I give crappy customer service." "You give awesome customer service," Katrina riposted. "That's the problem." "Sikia, you are not the first Amazon Cáel has stuck his dick into. You are probably not the tenth," Elsa dripped with frustration. Quick count: Rhada, Buffy, Oneida and Gael, I was only going to count the penile-vaginal penetrations. "They are only numbers five and six, thank you very much," I defended myself. "So much for your 'intern, no sex' policy," Desiree muttered. "Cut me some slack, I work with stone-cold, Olympic level athlete foxes 24/7," I griped. "I am a sexual being too, I have needs." "What about the 'End of Internship' hunting shindig?" Desiree pulled a flawless 'Katrina'. "Oh, it is still on. With my 'do or die' learning curve, it is going to be so much more fun," I grinned. "And, okay, no more Amazon sex until then, sorry Rachel." "Except for house members," Buffy insisted. "No exceptions," Elsa demanded. "I'll keep an eye on him," Pamela resolved the issue. "No more Amazon boinking for him." She was such a liar. She was also a highly accomplished liar because everyone bought it. On with my life. Stage one: exit Katrina's office. Done deal, no problems. Stage two: set up meeting with the Earth and Sky. They wanted to meet on their ground. Since I was the uncertain factor in these negotiations, I agreed. I was bringing one, Pamela raised four fingers, four people with me. Who? Outside of Pamela, I had no idea. Stage three: going to medical and putting on my business suit, it was a new one and very, very nice. I was moving up into serious majestic magnate territory. I also picked up buddy number two, FBI Special Agent Virginia Maddox. Why had I chosen a federal agent to accompany me to a meeting between two secret societies? I hadn't a clue. Sometimes you have to roll with these things. In the lobby, I picked up number three, Delilah, Mom's MI-6 operative/baby-sitter. Compassionate, caring people were surrounding me all the time. It gave me this sensation of a 'down home' environment no matter where I went, if down home was Gaza, or Donetsk. I think my entourage/lifestyle observation teams had grown to encompass six cars. I was in no condition for riding my bike, so that recourse was denied me. Taxi? One, most were hard-working stiffs like my family who didn't deserve to be caught in a noontime, drive-by assassination attempt. Besides, with my luck I'd meet the guy from Qatar again, the one with the sister with cute eyes. That reminded me, I gave Nicole a call. "How are you doing?" she quickly inquired. "Good," I lied to a past master of shattering perjury. Pause. "I'm surrounded by girls with guns, tailed by your clients, some part of a Federal Task force and some people who I don't know yet. Hold on." I put my hand over my phone. "Delilah, are you packing heat?" I asked softly. She opened her jacket revealing paired revolvers in shoulder holsters. I didn't recognize them so the Brit gave me the 4-1-1. "Ruger Alaskans," she grinned. Bing! Now I recalled them. The girl who taught me to shoot once read some reviews of that beast on her laptop while I gave her a slow, passionate screw from behind. She became all hot and bothered, wiggling, squirming and generally having a grandiose time with my cock deep within. I repeat, this girl really loved guns, a huge cerebral G-spot for her. Oh yeah, the Ruger Alaskan is what you get if you are worried about Grizzly bears popping their heads through the tent flaps late at night. Delilah was probably packing 4 80's. Her guns would turn 250 kilograms of pissed off ursine into an excellent throw-rug in about two shots. In an urban environment, well, maybe she thought the New York Giants were actually giants, or something like that. Two were overkill, unless you expected someone needing to borrow one. "Just checked. I remain the only one unarmed in my personal carnival of carnage, " my words trailed up to an unintelligible mumble. I was mumbling because suddenly four handguns were casually offered up for my use (Tiger Lily was holding one over her shoulder as she drove), in the same way you'd offer up some Nicorette to a man jonesing for a smoke. Rachel was kind enough to hand me my familiar Glock-22 and Ruger 38 caliber with their accompanying holsters. Two spare clips followed, then I stashed the lot. I scratched my calf. It took me a second to realize I was reaching for my pistol. No, not the one at my hip, or my ankle, but the one, in my boot? "Now that you've been handed firearms of dubious origin, can I get back to questioning you," the FBI agent intruded upon my ruminations. "We were discussing that list of people that are visiting a morgue instead of a court room. What can you tell me?" "Bye Nicole. Miss you. Being interrogated by a blonde FBI lady with a whips scar on her eyebrow and eyes that could scare a badger back into its hole. Later," I cut of my lawyer's fierce demand that I keep my mouth shut. "Nothing useful that wouldn't implicate myself and others in a criminal conspiracy," I answered her. "There is no way I'd name anyone else I suspect of involvement. I feel no guilt over what has happened, so no remorseful confession, and that is based on my belief that cosmic justice has been achieved." "You can't create lists of people for execution," Maddox persisted. "That negates the whole justice system and the principle of innocent until proven guilty." Wow! Except for the two of us, every other person in the car snorted their derision of Maddox's presumptive naiveté. "Do you even believe the tripe spilling from your pie-hole?" Delilah mocked Maddox. "I'm in law enforcement. That means I enforce the laws, not interpret them, or choose which ones I want to obey and which ones to ignore," Virginia fought back. "Love, that's crap and you know it. You are an agent of the US government. You bomb, drone-strike, overthrow lawfully elected governments and assassinate in your nation's best interests," Delilah countered. "You selectively enforce your Constitution when it suits you." "I'm law enforcement, not the military or foreign affairs. Know the difference," Maddox glared. "The pay master is the same, you willingly collect your thirty pieces of silver; get off your high horse because you are in the shat now, Agent Maddox. I haven't known this crowd an hour and I know for a fact that you are the only US citizen onboard," Delilah chortled. "I don't know their bleeding nationality, but I doubt it is on the UN Charter." Maddox turned to me. "That was succinct and rather accurate," I murmured. "Special Agent Maddox, I have the sneaking suspicion that you are with us because FP (federal prosecutor) Castello feels you can handle this, Umm, unusual set of circumstance. I promise you this, it is going to get worse." "Why don't we test this quaint theory?" FBI Lass challenged us. "Jail, bail, and I'm waking up in Rio de Janeiro in two days," I sighed. "I have a few thousand in the bank, live in a hole and own my father's home, when it clears probate. Only you know I'm flight risk. A dozen people will vouch/lie about my character and that's that. All you've succeeding in doing is making enemies when you need friends." "There is still a matter of multiple people dead under suspicious circumstance," she said. "Imagine for a second that Cáel admits to creating a hit list," Pamela began. "He would never give up the names of the other people involved. He didn't kill anyone, or say 'kill them'. Now what? You still have an abysmal case to put before a judge. Add to that, the mitigating factor of a raped girl. You get to break her down until she's a cooperating witness because she's the only one who can provide you with Cáel's motive," my mentor continued. "Good for you and your team. She gets to betray the man who tried to save her. Cáel promised horrific retribution if any of those in the now-dead crowd hurt her. That is rather unlike him, he normally forgives when given the least excuse. I don't give a damn about women's rights, or the rights of rape victims. I really could give a shit about human rights for that matter. Wronging me is the surest way to early retirement. It is not a matter of strong versus weak, or right versus wrong. What matters to me is who I can trust. I don't know you, thus I don't trust you. I trust your government to be so much chicken shit. I base this on the lack of public torture and execution. I want the families of dying criminals paraded in front of those cock-suckers before the condemned finally perish in agony. I want to see thieves get their forearms hacked off, trial by combat, and respect for your elders. I want to see public officials being sacrificed upon the altar of Jehovah when they leave office. I want to see a system of justice with a soul, not law books thicker than an aircraft carrier's hull. A government 'of the People, by the People, for the People' should be the sole guiding force for your culture and we both know that's never going to happen. I admire your soldiers; not because they are brave and combat effective, they are. I admire them because they are fighting and dying for elected officials and a population that can't locate Afghanistan, or Iraq on a map, can't tell the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim, and thinks 'Pashtun' is an exotic piece of furniture. I admire them because they are better human beings despite you, not because of you," Pamela was coming to her crescendo. "Basically you people, by that I mean most of the human race, are dangerous in your idiocy, arrogance and pride in your ignorance. Not one of you should be allowed to use weapons, or play with fire. For you, unrestricted voting is a crime right up there with inventing, disease prevention, bilingualism and anything that perpetuates your educational system." "Lady, why are you so angry with the world?" Maddox studied Pamela intensely. I wished her luck with divining and then unwrapping that lady's mind. "I hold dear to my heart anyone's hunger to learn, honesty when it hurts and love no matter what the cost, so I find myself alone most of the time," Pamela grinned. "Above even those, I adore humor in the face of ridicule, condemnation and adversity. You can dodge bullets and parry knives. Humor always strikes home," she finished. "It is the perfect weapon." "Liar," I smiled. "You like high performance automobiles too." Did she? I didn't know. "Only with a 2X4 pressing the accelerator as it races toward the lip of a canyon," Pamela bantered back, "with Ursula K. Le Guin strapped in the back seat." "Who?" I inquired. "She's an author. I take exception to some of her work and unwillingness to appreciate the fusion of exceptional feminine characteristics with power positions," Pamela answered. "And your critique of her life's work is an exploding car at the bottom of a cliff?" I smiled. "Starting uncontrolled wildfires and littering, two of my favorite activities," she laughed. "I'll stick with blondes and brunettes, and red- and raven-haired, bald has its own appeal, green and purple have their own kink going on, " I joked. "Wait! We were talking about people being murdered and you two are cracking jokes?" Maddox rumbled. "I had a dream about tying them together with nylon cord and tossing them off the back ramp of a transport aircraft, and watching them fall, and fall," Rachel sighed dreamily. "Atta girl," I play-punched Rachel's shoulder. "What is your part in all of this?" Maddox turned to Rachel. "I'm the head of his bodyguard detail," Rachel gave her confession of the damned. "And you want to kill him, " Virginia struggled to keep up. "Given time, you will too," Rachel promised. "According to his pre-employment records, only one woman he's had a sexual relationship with hasn't wanted to at least hurt him," glaring at me, "badly." "The nun doesn't want me dead!" I vocally protested. "It is so wrong that you are proud that of over 200 women you've slept with, TWO have not, at some point in knowing you, wanted to maul you and one of those is in the 'forgiving' business," Rachel chastised me. Virginia had an answer for my madness. Her phone came out and she hit speed-dial, work. "Ms. Castello, this is Special Agent Maddox, do you have a moment?" Virginia calmly asked when she finally wrangled my current-favorite fed's attention. "You do now? Thank you. I'd like to know what the fuck have you done to me? This assignment is nuts. Either I'm part of some elaborate prank, or I'm in an S U V with escapees from the looney bin." Ten seconds later Maddox gave me the phone. "Stop it. I've upheld my end of the bargain, so behave," Javiera ordered. Man, she'd shot me straight to the core and we hadn't even slept together yet. Clever, clever girl. "Yes Ma'am," I swore. "I'll do my best to buffer Special Agent Maddox from the truth." "I'll have to accept that," Javiera conceded. "Give Maddox the phone back." A brief conversation later and Maddox was no better off than when she started. Thankfully we parked in front of the Kazakhstan Consulate in New York, giving us all an excuse to face facts. Maddox was feeling compelled to ask questions she didn't want the answers to, and that we didn't want to answer. Saved by work. "Kazakhstan Consulate? Why are we here?" both Virginia and Rachel asked. "Oh! This is going to be good," Pamela leaned forward excitedly. "Change the course of human history," I answered with a great deal of confidence I didn't feel. See, I had knowledge critical to the Earth and Sky. That knowledge was also something they wanted kept compartmentalized, so they might take exception to it being possessed by an outsider. Oh, so that's why Pamela earlier insisted on four ladies being with me, so we could shoot our way out if things turned ugly. I hugged my mentor. "Thank you, Pamela." "You are coming along nicely, Mr. Potter," Pamela patted my cheek. "Your praise leaves me suspicious, Professor Snape. Besides, if I'm going to die, it helps me to know you'll go first ." "That was uncalled for," Pamela chided me. It was the 'Snape' role she rejected. "Snape gave up his life for Harry, Dumbledore died for Draco," I countered. "Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that," Pamela shone with joy and pride. "You act like I have a choice," I sighed. "Touché," Pamela nodded. "I see what you mean about these two," Maddox addressed Rachel. "Oh my God," Delilah laughed. "You wove Harry Potter into a life and death conversation and it made sense. I am probably going to die, but I'll die knowing I have lived." "Not you too?" Maddox glared at Delilah. Rachel just shook her head. We exited the car, settled ourselves out. Rachel took point, Delilah took one flank while Pamela took the other. By happenstance, I ended up in the middle, yeah right, with Virginia covering my back. "You stay here," Pamela put a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "You'll need to lead the team in if someone 'pumps up the volume'." Interesting euphemism for 'when people start killing people'. "What are we doing today?" Miyako 'appeared'. She'd been walking down the sidewalk toward us, the Kazak Consulate was a townhouse, but her presence hadn't registered. "I require your pledge of silence on what is to transpire. No death is intended," I stated calmly to Miyako. "I didn't know you were versed in ninja contracts, much less spoke Japanese?" Miyako responded. Blink. "I didn't know I spoke it either, " I mumbled. "No sweat," Pamela tried to hustle us along. "He's a quick study." Yeah. I didn't feel it apropos to point out I hadn't heard myself speaking Japanese, or understood that my words had some secret meaning. "How important is this to my people?" Miyako asked. Now that I was paying attention to it, I could make out that she was speaking in her native tongue. "If they don't think we can be trusted to not speak of what is to transpire for a week, they are going to kill us," I related my suspicions. "My mind and heart are joined in this decision." "I give you my pledge," Miyako nodded. She looped her arm in mine. "Does anyone care to enlighten me?" Maddox prodded. Whoa. It seemed that, beside me and Miyako, only Pamela spoke Japanese. "Special Agent Maddox, no matter what, don't give up your gun, when we say run, run, and shoot to kill because they will be trying to kill us," I informed her. "Does the term 'extraterritoriality' mean anything to anyone here?" Maddox snapped. Her nervousness was totally understandable. I stopped at the top of the steps, looking over my shoulder. I nodded. Pamela, Delilah and Miyako nodded as well. "Hold on, I can't believe I'm saying this. Does anyone have a back-up I can use?" Maddox groaned. Rachel quick-stepped forward and handed over a 22 automatic pistol then a spare clip with a smooth, practiced motion that suggested that SD swapped weapons all the time. Maddox didn't miss the casualness of the gesture. The firearm and magazine disappeared. "Fine, we will never discuss the laws we just butchered, ever, and if I die and any of you make it out alive, I will seek revenge at whatever cost FROM WHEREVER I AM," FBI girl growled. "One of us," Pamela smirked at me as I touched the doorbell. It opened promptly. We weren't on a crowded street, we were on their stoop and a security camera was pointed right at us. We were invited in and two rather Caucasian-looking gentlemen (Kazaks are a mixed bag of Turks and Cumans) were waiting with the doorman. They looked tough in that they took personality lessons from saddle leather. "You will place your weapons there," the more charismatic of the two spoke up. He was pointing to a side table that looked large enough for the task. "No," was the most courteous response I could muster. He didn't look surprised. He didn't look much like he was breathing, or blinking either. "Go," he pointed to the door. I looked to Pamela. "Well, that didn't take long," I grinned. I felt out the necklace under my shirt and pulled it over my head. "Please return this to its owner in the spirit it was given." He took it. The doorman opened the door and out we went. Rachel was back in our GL550, using the door as possible cover. She said we could take our seats and away we rolled. Maddox looked apoplectic. She had prepared herself for the Wild, Wild West, not a doe-see-doe at the door. In her mind, I had wound her up for nothing. My phone rang. "Cáel Ishara, there seems to have been a diplomatic miscommunication," a male native Turkish-speaker said in heavily accented English. "The person you are meeting must be approached in the spirit of peace." "No, I understood you perfectly," I assured him. "We aren't the Brownies, or the Girl Scouts, Buddy. I don't know, or trust you and you don't know, or trust me, yet. I will compromise though. I will respect your traditions. I will enter your home unarmed. In turn, everyone in the building will line up outside on the street except for the person I'm supposed to meet. Is that acceptable?" Pause. "Do you hate these people, or like them?" Maddox grumbled. "With you, I can't quite tell." "That would not be acceptable," the man finally responded. "Perhaps an alternative. You come in, alone yet armed." "Nope. Due to the efforts of people far smarter than me, I know pretty much who I am meeting, so I am either very rude, insane, or bear a message that is worth my life," I countered. "Your personal safety is guaranteed," was the counter-offer. "That is a false promise, not because you lack honor, or respect for me, but because you are from a wise and noble lineage with a historical propensity of cutting to the heart of any problem." By that, I meant they'd cut my heart out. "What I expect is for every one of you to hold the future of the Earth and Sky above any such concepts as personal promises, hospitality, and honor. I am even putting my faith in your willingness to put the survival of the Earth and Sky over your own well-being," I riposted. "If the message is so crucial, you should be willing to come alone," back at me. "It isn't important to me," I stated. "Listen, a war is about to break out. Unless we both want to be found all alone in the outhouse masturbating when the headsman comes, one of us has to blink. Today, it is you. Tomorrow you may be able to return the favor and mess with my head." Pause. "Your koumiss is getting warm." "We'll be right there. We apologize for the delay. Traffic is murder these days, or a close facsimile thereof," I gave a little back in the humility department. "Tiger Lily, " "On it, Ishara, Wakko Ishara. I've been circling the block," Tiger Lily had anticipated my antics. Sure, I acted like I had no game plan, but I never wasted people's time. Maybe if I developed an actual game plan I could do even better. "Wakko Ishara?" it was Delilah's and Maddox's turn to share a 'what the?' moment. "May I explain the sacred names?" Rachel requested of me. "I have a feeling these two might become a fixture." "By all means, Rachel. Our trust runs deep," I trusted Rachel with more than my life; I trusted her with my future. "Wakko, as in you're the nutty one?" Delilah made a stab at our arcane nomenclature. If you use small words does that make it gnomenclature? Pamela winked at me, psychic twin grandmother powers activate! "We need complementary rings," Pamela remarked. Sweet! "Cáel Ishara is differentiated as Wakko Ishara, Ishara, first of House Ishara, is Yakko Ishara, and, " Rachel began. "The Animaniacs? Your code names are the Warner Brothers and their sister Dot?" Maddox gasped. "You are beyond nuts." "And the Goddess Ishara is named, by House Ishara and House Ishara alone," Rachel made some warding appeal against divine punishment, "as Dot Ishara." Maddox's face shown with disbelief. "Following Cáel Ishara into battle has been one of my greatest pleasures," Rachel stared at Maddox. "I never knew insanity could be so liberating, or that laughing at death could be such an aphrodisiac." "When did you two go into battle?" Delilah wondered. "In a morgue, fighting to retrieve the body of his fallen father so that our enemies could not desecrate it," Rachel explained. Ah, the walls of Troy, fighting over the spoils of the dead. "You mean when I face-planted?" I grinned at Rachel. "Even without a weapon, your instincts were good, forcing our enemy to commit to multiple angles of coverage even though your efforts were foiled by a footing failure. Your rushing their leader was even more heroic in that you were unarmed and using your body as a decoy, knowing your enemy's superior skill would stop him from shooting you," Rachel smiled my way, sex. "Let me get this straight," Miyako finally spoke up. "You charged an enemy unarmed then stumbled and failed. They were armed?" "Yes, with a 3 57 Magnum revolver and a 10 gauge sawed-off automatic shotgun, in tight confines and close range, oh, and no cover." Maddox replied, then to me, "I read the report." "Then you repeated the action a few minutes," Miyako. "Less than a minute later," Maddox clarified. "A minute later, wow! You are as fearless as we've heard. Please don't die before we have a baby," Miyako gave me a quick hug. If you cover a zeppelin with uranium paint, can it still fly, or does it sink to the center of the Earth? Ninja babies, We had returned to the stairs at the Consulate. This time the door swung open upon our approach. "Is there some drug you are all taking to bask in this shared fantasy life?" Maddox mumbled. "One of us," Pamela retorted. "One of us." "One of us," I joined in. It helped cut the tension. The bodyguards were present right where we'd them last time. They ushered us up the stairs to a second floor sitting room that ate up half the floor. There were two men there; radiating that subtle assurance that a half-dozen killers were close by. The man standing was Iskender, the E and S emissary from Dad's funeral. I broke all decorum, strode to the man, locked arms, hugged him tight and patted him on the back. "Thank the spirits you are here," I whispered, "all this lack of dick is making me a bit stir-crazy." "Ah, yes, it is good to see you again too," Iskender imparted as we broke our embrace. His boss, the guy on the sofa, shot me and my Kyrgyz buddy a sharp look. The Main Man was clearly Mongolian and must have thought blank, white walls exhibited too much empathy. "Koumiss," the boss offered. I sipped it from a simple, yet regal drinking mug that probably hit the kiln 200 years ago. "Mare, or yak?" I inquired as I handed the cup around. Iskender came first, but it was clearly my intention that we all partake. It was more a matter of the host's pledge of sanctuary than me wanting to share the koumiss. It tasted like thin, lightly chilled, bitter beer with a vanilla-almond milk shake-chaser. "Mare, of course. Please sit," he offered. He defined the suggestion by slipping off the sofa onto the layered carpet rug. He was semi-reclined, so we followed suit. "We should pray for the protection of the spirits," was the suggestion that wasn't a suggestion. It was his itinerary. He clapped his hands and from beyond a curtained partition came this really sensual Mongolian chick carrying a large brass bowl. She flicked her eyes at me and an instant connection was formed. She liked to bark like a dog under the full moon, okay, I'm not sure where that came from. "Nice woman," I told the leader. "She looks like she has seen many winters." Whoa! Where the fuck did that come from? I got a shocked reaction from Iskender. The Leader looked pissed, if a flake of paint on the white wall indicated anger. The girl blushed like what I said was an incredible turn on. "She is my daughter," the Leader pointed out. Way past swallowing my foot. My ankle was tasty. "My name is Oyuun Tömörbaatar. My faithful Iskender, you know. This is my daughter T. Sarangerel. She is studying at N Y U and is not entertaining marriage proposals at this time," he slapped down his boundaries. Somehow 'I only want to sleep with her' didn't sound like the right response. Wait! Saying his 'daughter had many winters' was a marriage bargaining opening move. What the fuck! "What I meant was that surely many men have died trying to come before you," I back-pedaled. More happy looks from the daughter. More paint peeling from the dad. Pamela made sure more koumiss was going around. Getting drunk could hardly hurt at this juncture. Sarangeral placed the bowl between us. It was filled with clear, cold water undoubtedly collected from a mountain-fed glacier. "Let us cleanse our hands in the water so that we may speak with clarity," O. Tömörbaatar said. We dipped our fingers and, for a second, I saw him. Not 'O', but HIM. "It is good to finally meet you Ferko Ishara Cáel Nyilas," the man said. My Spidey senses told me he was feeling less 'good' about this meeting every second. "How can your people and mine better get along?" 'Let me impregnate your daughter', would probably get my skull split open. "No time for that," I replied. "I know where HE is. The Seven Pillars have found a way to search the Weave and are closing in. You must act with haste." Whether it was disbelief, or old schooled Ku Chun in the art of gambling, the older man gave no outward reaction. "Where is he?" O. Tömörbaatar asked in a gentle tone. "I can do you one better," I steeled myself for the unknown forces I was invoking. I put my hands on the bowl's lip and looked in. Several seconds later, he did as well. For a moment, nothing. It was like a ripple in reverse. The first earth tremor I barely noticed. The ripples grew and grew until I felt the whole row of townhouses would come crashing down. Wind snapped the locks on the windows, flinging them wide open and tearing at the curtains like streamers in a hurricane. Then we saw HIM clearly. HE stopped driving this old, beat-up Peugeot and was pulling to the side of a desolate stretch of highway. HE could sense something yet couldn't pinpoint the source of his unease. We definitely got the impression this wasn't his first taste of this experience, the Seven Pillars. He was young, maybe my age. He looked like an educated man turned vagabond/boundless traveler. HIS eyes, his eyes had a depth that were a microcosm of what I'd glimpsed in Ishara, Dot Ishara's unshielded glance when we first met. All lingering doubts vanished in my mind. "I know that place," O T muttered, his eyes fixated on the only feature in the vacant expanse, a road sign, in Chinese. Yikes. "I know that place." The image faded. Our meeting venue was intact. Whatever I felt transpire, I had shared with O. Tömörbaatar alone. "You have work to do," I stated as I cleared my throat. "I will leave you to it." I stood. "What do you wish for this gift?" O T reached out and touched my sleeve. "When the time comes, maybe you can help us," I replied. "A man who asks for nothing can expect anything," O T smiled for the first time. "Go." I did not take a fear-free breath until the cars started up and we pulled away. He'd let us live. Even with that priceless piece of magical insight, he'd let us live. "I'm still stunned we got out alive," I sighed. "I wasn't really sure he'd take the news as well as he did." No one said anything for a minute. "Why would he have killed us?" Delilah inquired. "You, I understand. I don't know what you communicated to that young lady, but the old guy wasn't happy about it. He was going to kill us over that?" Pause. "What did the rest of you see and hear?" I looked around the cabin. Pamela appeared worried. "I didn't know you spoke Chagatai," Miyako smiled at me. "You are full of surprise. I only caught a word, or two, and none of it made sense." "MRI," I groaned. "Magnetoencephalography," Pamela said in the same breath. "Mine is better, Boyo." "What is going on?" Rachel upped her alertness level. "We need to take Cáel to a hospital that has a Magnetoencephalography device," Pamela insisted. "He's spontaneously speaking languages he didn't know moments earlier, " Maddox put things together first. The rest nodded at her assessment. "We'll need to have his records from Havenstone sent over as a baseline." Poor Virginia, the absurdity of my life was sucking her in. "I'll call Katrina," Rachel informed us. I was a mental case once more. At least my input was still being solicited. "How many guns do you have on you?" Pamela zinged me. The answer was obvious, two. My Glock and my back-up. That didn't seem right. "Ah, two?" I responded. "Yeah, something is happening to your muscle memory as well," Pamela shook her head. "What exactly does that mean, and what's wrong with Cáel's brain?" Delilah studied the group. "It means he could spontaneously pull out his gun and start shooting us?" Pamela confessed her uncertainty. "I don't know. We'd better figure out which impulses are his guiding light right now before that happens." "I don't even know how to begin reporting this," Maddox muttered. "Cheer up. Our Cáel is still currently in charge. Did you appreciate how he lured in that young Mongolian girl? That's classic Cáel," Pamela comforted the crowd. I was saved from a straightjacket because I was a 'Playa'. (Meadowlands Medical Center in far off New Jersey) I'm not political. For me, that means I am completely and utterly dedicated to whatever doctrine that the cutest political campaigner in front of me endorses. Fifteen minutes on the internet and you can fake it like a pro. Be careful to be with the winning team when the results come in. Nothing makes a political chick go wild like sneaking into the candidate's office and screwing her on the newly elected/re-elected figure's desk. Let her scream out her idol's name. Odds are neither of you will be welcomed back afterwards anyway. Why politics now? Javiera called some people. I had a sneaking suspicion that someone I knew and trusted got in touch with my 'Aunts' as well. All I knew for sure was the Hospital's Administrator's phone began ringing off the hook and I'd become the hospital's number one priority. The hospital staff was visibly irritated with the clout raining down on their heads for about an hour. Once they digested my Havenstone records, all of that changed. Holy 'Published in The New England Journal of Medicine', someone had drilled a micro-surgical hole in my skull in the middle of a wrestling match with no resulting cerebral scarring. THEN this unknown device shot into my skull with pinpoint accuracy and pumped a ghastly amount of energy into my cerebrum. They were fascinated. They were so fascinated I heard two medical technicians mutter about where the Zombie Survival Guide could be found. They triple checked my vital signs, again. I was still as much alive as when I checked myself in. There was a rumor that a fire ax disappeared from a stairwell close by, but not one confessed to the deed. I was speaking in languages I had no reason to know? They were surprised I could contain my mouth drool. It was somewhat disheartening to hear three seasoned physicians discuss what probable scenarios could explain me still being in a non-vegetative state, or alive for that matter. Some poor nurse had to ask. "Do you feel an unnatural, interest in human brains?" she whispered when she though no one was close by. "I'm not sure what you mean," I whispered back. "I always respect a woman's intelligence. Sex is a cerebral passion. What's the point if you can't communicate with your partner?" Pamela slapped me upside my head. That disturbed just about everybody else in the vicinity and my mentor was promptly exiled from the room. I was curious about what havoc she was perpetrating on this establishment. My condition had gotten her past all the heavy security and I knew without seeing that someone high ranking had misplaced their ID badge. Maybe Pamela was the love-child of Batman and Cat woman. Before you think that's comic fanboy talk, recall what my life was like at that moment. Tests ensued. The staff decided that Havenstone employed a bunch of quacks and snake charmers. Two hours later, they found out they were wrong. Larger battery of tests, same results. I was the second coming of Christ, back from the dead, or a zombie living in a convincing state of denial. Some folks wouldn't let that go. Pamela had proved to be prophetic. Her pet gizmo finally provided a new picture of what my neural pathways were up to. If there is any doubt, 'I've never seen that before' is not what you want to hear one of North America's experts in the field of neuroscience say. The first educated opinion was that I suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, that meant I was hit in the head a lot. Normally that diagnosis comes in the midst of an autopsy. I was having paralytic seizures. They had me juggle a squeeze-ball, then two and finally three. My perfect performance frustrated them. Women find relatively simple carnival tricks to be seductive. Pluck a card from a girl's bra gets you both to some dark corner, hungrily looking for the rest of the deck, I speak from experience. Next up at bat: 'I was possessed', I shit you not. Holistic medicine was right on board with the team. Was I influenced by a supernatural power? Yes I was. So claimed the majority of people on Earth. Did I receive specific instructions? Yes, and so did practitioners of Voodoo/Vodun on three continents. I added that I attempted to evade said instructions when I could. Did I have 'evil' impulses to hurt myself, or others? Huh? For starters, my matron goddess was more of a 'fucker' than a 'fighter' and her instructions were always suitably vague, the same way a Philosophy professor would give you a ten word pointless sentence on Friday and expect you to have a 250 page doctrine on Monday morning. That hit home. Too many normally smart people take a philosophy class in college hoping for an easy-A. Some teachers love dissolving those delusion, sitting back and watching your hopes and dreams of task-free weekends go down the drain. The more obscure the discipline, the more perverse the desire. That is why you always pick a teacher of the opposite gender (if in doubt, use a gay/lesbian test) and keep 'sex for grades' on the menu. Was I suffering from optical illusions, or phantom noises? Straight to the point, yes, I saw and talked with ghosts. So did the Long Island Medium, the casts of Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Witness plus George Anderson and Chip Coffey. To my credit, I didn't do it for profit, or in order to influence people. Was I seeing ghosts now? I was in hospital, so odds weren't bad. I had every non-ghost raise their left hand. No ghosts. Was my paranormal dementia pre- or post-brain trauma? Did seeing a college student being called before his class and successfully accused of plagiarism on his senior thesis, turning him into one of the Restless Dead count? No? My 'disputed' abilities were all post-college employment, thank you very much. Did the ghosts possess me/tell me to do things? I was not possessed and, discounting sexual bondage and my current work venue, had never been possessed. From my limited exposure, ghosts wanted to not be alone in the afterlife, to be guided to a final resting place with others of their kind/family/friends. None had taught me languages, asked me to steal something, or kill anyone. Had any done so, I would have denied them. Such actions were immoral and I could still freely differentiate between right and wrong. I preferred to commit wrong on my own initiative and making me do good was a chore most sane people abandoned after a few days. I took a Rorschach test. The results were predictable because I had taken old 'R' several times before. Just like every other time, I'd mixed up sexual innuendo with a psychological test to seduce the test-giver, everything reminded me of intercourse. I changed it up with this girl. I gave her numbers. Sometime after I was long gone, they were going to figure out the ink blots were numbered after whichever erotic positions from the Kama Sutra I was reminded of at the time. I knew that wasn't being helpful and I was certain I wasn't a brain specialist. I also knew Rorschach wasn't the key to solving my woes. Final remaining hypothesis, I was utilizing 30 % of my brain capacity with three independent patterns emerging, not the usual 5 %. For that to work, my brain had to be oozing out my ears because brains generate a terrific amount of heat. My temperature was a steady 37.3 C (99 F) and my ear channels were free of obstruction. Hey man, cleaning your ears is quick and easy. Don't risk turning off a date with misfortunately located ear-hair and wax. How was my brain shedding the heat? Their solution, let's do a Spinal Tap. No way. I'd seen that band and they were all extremely fucked up, even for old guys. I wasn't going down that road. They insisted. I suggested that I consent to the procedure with the condition that I received no pain killers/sedatives of any kind and I got to grab and hold onto the testicles of my two, current, least favorite doctors. When they realized I was deadly serious and immovable on the issue, they came up with a new plan, no Spinal Tap. Gutless sissies. Into this vacuum of information, a brainstorm emerged (besides my inexplicable one). They would talk to me, no more interrogations, an actual verbal exchange. They couldn't come over and start flapping their gums like some punk rock band with no talent. They were suddenly worried about 'concerning' me and 'agitating my unstable state'. I pray to Goddess Ishara that one day soon they play back the tapes of their early hours working on me and pay close attention to my facial expressions of shock, horror, fear and depression as they clearly and openly talked about me as if I was the Fiji Mermaid. But hey, a few of them were kinda cute, so in the final analysis all that emotional trauma worked its way out. Hospital highlights: (Understand, I was lying on a table while various specialists prodded and talked about me as if I wasn't there. To strike back at reality, I throbbed my penis every time this cute Parasitologist looked at it. Finally ) Female Chief of Neurosurgery: "Did anyone think to study changes in is body's nervous system?" (Guilty looks all around) Neuro Surgeon: "What are all these needle marks?" Havenstone Medico, "Those are muscle stimuli insertion sites. They kept his musculature from atrophying while he was in a coma." Neuro Surgeon: "Let me get this straight. This man had a lightning bolt go off in his head and part of your healthcare regimen was to run a constant current of electricity throughout the rest of his body." (Scathing looks at the Medico from everyone else, jackals) HM: "He has retained excellent muscle tone." Neuro Surgeon: "Have you even taken the Hippocratic Oath?" HM: (offended) "Of course not, he's Greek." Neuro Surgeon: "What does my patient being Greek have to do with anything?" HM: "Not him (pointing at me). Hippocrates, he was a Greek. Cáel is Magyar/Irish Gaelic." Neuro Surgeon: "Helpful, that's not. He seems to have a great deal of bruises and scarring, some of it certainly received over an extensive period of time. Is this your work?" HM: (in a positive note) "No. It has not been my pleasure to spar with Cáel yet." Neuro Surgeon: "Isn't he a bit, big for you?" &

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Cáel and the Manhattan Amazons: Part 20

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2024

Of Funerals and Families; Part One In 25 parts, edited from the works of FinalStand. Listen and subscribe to the ► Podcast at Connected.. “Victory is neither pointless, fleeting, nor soon forgotten. It is yours.” I have been warned that my Uncle wants me dead. My Aunts want me for; other things." "What do they want?" E asked. It was the whole 'men as a true asset' problem for her. "The whole repository of nefariousness;” Pamela started to explain, but then, "Double Word Score!" Pamela and I exclaimed excitedly then 'high-fived'. Yes, you spiteful Cosmos, I had found my soul-mate and she was a near-octogenarian with a macabre sense of humor; who also had a telepathic ability to know my mind. E looked totally lost in the exchange. "Yes; the whole repository of nefariousness was created to be sterile," Pamela picked up the conversation. "Which makes the very existence of Cáel here very noteworthy; virtually inexplicable," she mused. "What have the labs at Havenstone think of this?" Rachel worried. "I refused to go back in for any more tests," I met her gaze. "But it could be important," E joined in. "I will make it easy on you both; I'm a horrible person. I'm the Head of House Ishara and I elect to not put my fate in the hands of the same people who leaked my very existence to the Illuminati during the first set of tests," I stated. "Which is why I'm here in Chicago burying my Father, in case any of you missed it." "Certainly knowing what is going on is more important than the risk of further exposure," E persisted. She got kudos for sticking to her guns. "Esmeralda, I work for Katrina Love, Head of Executive Services," I responded. "By that I mean I have this nifty little glass table in a corner of her office. Me stressing over my genetics isn't really important. Katrina is on the case and I haven't been out of college for two months yet. If the difference between Havenstone getting in a fight with the Illuminati and keeping the truce is my blood sample, she'll let me know," I added. "As far as Ishara is concerned, Havenstone had an information leak that got a house member killed." "Do you have other family?" E inquired hesitantly. "Blood kin? Not in this country and certainly not anyone I could name," I sighed. "I case you are wondering, there are a grand total of three members on Ishara's roster." "Is the rest of your family safe?" E was trying to sound upbeat. "Safe? Of course they are not safe. They both work for Executive Services, Esmeralda. They were 'Runners' who I inducted into Ishara. They are Amazons of the Host and that means never being safe this side of the cliffs. Friday morning I presented them to our ancestors and they were welcomed as equals; as sisters to those who have the blood of Mycenaeans on their hands," I turned to look out the window. "What was it like?" Tiger Lily inquired. "The induction." "If you are looking for a vision of a stone hall with thousands of war-like Amazons holding me in judgment, you'll be disappointed," I recalled. "I had to create the ceremony from scratch; ash, tears and blood. "I felt strong enough about that instinct I let Desiree slap me until I cried enough tears. With Desiree's knife, I cut myself, they cut themselves and our blood mixed," I finished. "That is not how it is done," Rachel corrected me. "No," I stopped. "It is not how you do it. House Ishara has come back from the void that waits for all those who are dead and have no one living to recall them," I explained. "We are not the other Houses. We are both Love and Oaths and there is a lack of respect for each of those virtues in this World." "I never considered Amazons as overly romantic, but we are true to our oaths," Esmeralda was starting to bask in the openness of the exchange. "I do not doubt the integrity of anyone in this vehicle, except for me," I gave her a weary grin. "The failure of oaths is mine. Ishara was bound by an Oath and has failed in her pledge. You are wrong about the romance and I am sure you have misunderstood my definition. I live for the day when no sons are sent to the cliffs as newborns; Love, Esmeralda. Love." The hush pressed upon us until Tiger Lily pulled up in front of the Hotel Burnham. Rachel, E, Charlotte (from the second GL) and I went in. I wave the others back as I went to the desk. Rachel and Charlotte had grey duffel bags with 'stuff' inside. E had my minimal kit. "Cáel Nyilas with Havenstone," I introduced myself. Yes, I was in 'prison' gear. "Director Nyilas; welcome to the Burnham," he recovered quickly. "Which rooms do you wish to use?" Thank you, Helena, no I'm a damn Director. He twisted the screen so I could see the list. Eleven doubles and a Lakeview Executive Suite with two adjoining Deluxe Suites. "We'll use those," I indicated the Executive/Deluxe/Deluxe. "Very good, Sir," he nodded. "Will you be ordering room service? I'm afraid the Atwood restaurant has closed for the evening." "Sounds like a plan," I looked at his name tag, "Steve, or do you prefer Mr. McCabe?" "Steve will do fine, Director;” Steve started. "I will make it easy on you Steve," I sighed. "Call me Cáel. All this Director crap is for the benefit of people I barely know. I am here, in my hometown, to bury my Father; who was murdered yesterday." Steve paled. "The FBI gave me these spiffy duds. If any law enforcement shows up asking for me, give me a ring first." "Nyilas; from Burnham? I read about that," Steve seemed bemused. "The day shift Assistant Manager is from Burnham too." How wonderful, I thought sarcastically. Steven sensed my waning interest. "Your keycards, Sir; Cáel and my sympathy for your loss." "Steve, never miss a chance to tell your loved ones how you feel," I took the cards. "That is my biggest regret with my Dad. I didn't think about it the last time we talked." Steve gave a final nod. I rejoined my group and headed for the elevator. The rest was a tired blur. The rest of the group showed up, including Pamela. I called Nicole to tell her the situation then called Timothy despite the late hour to make sure he was okay. Timothy informed me that two 'psycho-chicks' stopped by as a kind of 'meet and greet'. I hit the small hotel fitness center with Mona, the fourth member of Rachel's team. It helped. What helped more was the constant reminder that I worked with smart people. Mona's mother was dead as well, killed on an undisclosed mission with the SD when she was ten. She could understand my sense of grief and confusion. We didn't cry and hug. It wasn't something she could do with a man. Give a decade, or two and she might come around. Instead, "Thank you for Constanza," Mona said quietly to me as we exited the center. "I measure a person's life in the lives we save; as well as the ones we take," I enlightened her. Before that moment, I didn't really consider killing people to be all that praiseworthy an endeavor. Today I had been in a situation where my life had been in immediate danger. I was glad the other guy ended up dead. Since I was prepared to keep acting stupidly, I was grateful for those who would murder people so that I could remain both noble of purpose and alive. "She is close to me; she helped me grow up after Mom was gone," Mona opened up a tiny bit. "Aren't you a bit angry with me?" I asked. "Initially, I was very angry. Then I heard your words and I knew you spoke the truth of the matter," Mona exhaled. "She should have died. She deserved death for what she said." "No one;” I started to comfort Mona. "For a member of a Faith that exults in the harshness of martial conflict, you spend an inordinate amount of energy struggling to keep people alive," Mona noted. "I'm glad I helped deal with those Latin Kings now. It was a mission worth doing." "What?" I stumbled. "Didn't Buffy tell you?" Mona regarded me. She smirked. "Yeah, we hunted them down late Sunday night and into early Monday morning. I doubt the few who escaped will ever be back." "Why haven't I; anybody heard about this?" I worried. Mona looked at me somewhat perplexed. "Cáel of Ishara, we always take the bodies of murder victims, cut them up, place them in large drums of acid and ship them to Canada," Mona informed me. "Ah; thanks for telling me that. Let's both agree to not let Buffy know that I know, okay?" I requested. "She'll get an inordinate thrill thinking she knows something I don't." "As you wish, Cáel of Ishara," Mona nodded gravely. (Tuesday Morning) Sexual addiction is somewhat like military service. It requires you to be alert to your surroundings, think on your feet, follow procedures and; most crucial to me; shows you how to remain functional with minimal sleep. In this case, five hours sufficed to clear out my cobwebs and make me incredibly horny. All of that was despite the layers of upsetting news being placed before me. Executive Services had gone over the feed from the four SD members. Inadvertently, Dad had fought on the 'right' side. The team leader died first. Her back-up put two men in the grave and wounded a third before they tossed a grenade on her. I looked at Charlotte as she gave me the news. We both had a 'what the' expression on our faces. Grenade? I kept doing my calisthenics. The second two-Amazon group killed three attackers on their side of the building then charged the back door. I wondered if Mom's Garden Dragon was okay. It was like a Garden Gnome, except it was a Dragon. Mom was odd that way. The attacking group had blown the front door and entered the first floor. The Amazons in the back decided to shoot out the lock instead. While transiting the kitchen moving forward, the second group took fire; from a Zastava M 21. I was confused. "It is a modern Serbian weapon," Charlotte filled in the blanks. "Dad was killed by Serbians?" I muttered. "No," Charlotte sighed. "No he wasn't." Another look from me as I started my standing push-ups. "That team member was wounded. The shooter was taken down by both of our teammates. At this point, three other attackers moved from your front room to the dining room, pinning our team down. That was when your father broke cover and assaulted the attackers. He had this large lamp and cracked it over the right shoulder of the closest man," Charlotte stated. I knew that light fixture Charlotte was talking about. It was a floor lamp, nearly two meters tall, made of glass and bronze. My physique was from my Father; broad shoulders and powerful arms. That 'large lamp' weighed over 30 kg and, powered by my father's upper body strength, I was betting the guy who was on the receiving end had have some of his bones snapped. "The man screamed in Bulgarian, his two companions turned to see what was happening and the Amazons advanced by fire toward your father," Charlotte continued. "Your father swung again," she looked at me, "connecting with the man's chest. In response, the other two shot him three times. He fell. The second team pressed forward, killing the man your Father wounded and wounding another. The last unhurt Amazon was killed trying to get to your Father while the survivor was concussed by the use of a second grenade. We don't have the video of what happened in the interim. When the last Amazon began moving again, the two remaining attackers had dragged your father out the front door. She pursued and fired. She wounded the undamaged attacker; and one of her bullets ended your Father's life. She was wounded in this last exchange of fire. The two men helped each other to a vehicle and left." I kept working out as I made an acceptable collage of my misery. "Does she know?" I whispered. "Does she; the Amazon? Her name is Sabina. I don't think she's been informed yet," Charlotte answered. "Unless it becomes necessary, don't tell her that her bullet killed my Father," I sighed. "The only thing that is important to me; to Ishara; is that she gave her all as did her sisters. My Father was killed by the men who first shot him. Had they escaped with my Father, they weren't taking him to a hospital, so he was as good as dead anyway. That is all that matters." "Yes Ishara," Charlotte responded with quiet reverence. Knowing nothing of Security Detail's procedure and tradition, I had tossed out an excuse to spare a valiant woman a terrible piece of news. Charlotte's demeanor suggested to me that it would be a kindness conveyed. A few minutes later, Rachel and Tiger Lily came in from their suite. Mona had been my guardian while I slept so she slept now. This was our signal to shower and put on some clothes before the group went downstairs for breakfast. Pamela presented herself as I was getting dressed. Esmeralda's arrival signaled our migration to the ground floor Atwood restaurant. As everyone glided into the elevator, I had a nostalgic moment for Odette. A normal, non-lethal, happy young lady. This all-encompassing seriousness around me was crimping my efforts to find the silver lining in this personal calamity. Ten seconds after exiting the elevator, Nicole angled toward us then we proceeded to breakfast. It took a little jockeying and refereeing by me to get the seating arrangements set. Nicole was on my left then Pamela. Rachel and E were on my right. Charlotte and Tiger Lily were across from me as orders were taken. "How are you holding up, Cáel?" Nicole put a hand on my lap. I had no immediate reply. "Lonely. Sad. Alone. Bereft of anger; it is pointless. I want to scream, rage, tear things up, throw things across the room and hear them shatter; but not really," I confessed. Suddenly, a strange essence infused my core. "No, that's wrong. I am not alone. We have suffered more, lived through worse and never wavered even in the face of death," I said in a ghostly whisper. That was really the last thing I wanted to say. Its origin was from an enigmatic corner of my mind I was resisting venturing into. 'Taking oneself to the cliffs' made a whole lot more sense suddenly. The Amazon prepared her daughters and granddaughters for her absence. She volunteered to make that trek. In her heart, she called out to her Ancestors to prepare them to accompany her on that final journey. That all sounded like comfortable spiritual mumbo-jumbo, safely quoted by a rational man under duress. The abyssal rift in that psycho-babble, makeshift patch over my emotional pain was I felt Vranus and Ishara standing at my shoulders. Vranus because his seemingly endless quest was finally resolved and he and his descendants would at last be welcomed into the halls of their kin. With me, he had succeeded and brought his people home. There was still the matter of the rest; the three sons of Arinniti and the elder warrior. Holy Crap; they were still out there, waiting to be shown the path home. My 'Evenly Holier Crap' moment was feeling the weight of the eyes of Ishara upon me. Not Ishara, the matron goddess of this; my House, but that ancient Amazon who had surrendered her personal name to oblivion to give her followers a sense of unity. No female was solely 'her' daughter; all the women of the house were equal in birth and station. It was that Ishara who stood at my shoulder and, beyond some perverse desire to look behind me to see how sexy she was, I felt I had her; not approval; her mandate. We had to be held to our oaths and would die to a woman (and man) for them. We were to give the Host a second chance to make things right. There would be no retreat. It was not in the Amazon psyche to fight the relentless, remorseless and bloody battle; to risk everything on victory with no thought of failure. It was not something guys were accustomed to, but had been the doom of men down through the ages. Whether too romantic, too stubborn, or too bound to our brother's in arms, men had embraced hopeless causes before; mostly perishing without fanfare yet with the exceptional impossible victory to give us hope. From time immemorial, male kin of the flesh and spirit had piled their corpses one upon the other, refusing the verdict of combat for the sake of brotherhood and every imaginable ideal. It was hardly a trait worth sharing with the sisters. They would understand the pieces; not the result. My lack of political ability would not be disability. I simply had to learn to fight; a lot better than I did at that moment. The echoes of this message inside my head, the chilled air that filled my lungs and balance restored to my heart was bizarrely unfrightening. It would be an affirmation of the 'first directive' oaths all the houses had sworn. It wasn't my place to raise all the 'Runners', or even a single one. It was my duty to initiate the 'Worthy', no matter their number. My actions were mine. I would not shame the other houses. I would not consider their prestige at all. It was not my place in the same way it was not their place to tell me what I could and couldn't do. It was a divine 'Go get 'em' and it felt pretty, freaking awesome. "Cáel, are you okay?" Nicole asked in a worried tone. She squeezed my thigh. I looked down at my hands. I was okay. "Nicole, I have the blood of Ahhiyawa champions on my hands. I feel it's sticky, sickening ichor and smell the copper-laden, metallic odor," I smiled. "I think I'm going to be just fine." "Who?" Nicole was even more concerned. "Someone who screwed with me a long, long time ago. They are all dead, but don't worry about the bodies showing up to bother anyone," I grinned. All the full-blooded Amazons had been very still. The word 'Ahhiyawa' appeared to scare them even more than my haunting actions. To the Amazons, the Ahhiyawa were the Mycenaeans in the time of the Iliad. The problem seemed to be that I had never heard any member of the Host use that term and I was suddenly curious as to why. "You seemed to have went away for a few seconds," Nicole joked lightly. "You do appear better rested, which is good. What is on the agenda for today?" "Get my Father's body, prepare for his cremation, arrange for the last Roman Catholic Church we attended to send somebody to the service and prepare my parent's plot," I ran down. "I imagine the police and feds will want to contact me again," I piled it on. "I want to see my home if the forensic guys let me. What do you think will be aimed at me?" "We'll check up on any family attorney you may have had along with probating your father's Will, if he had one," Nicole assured me. "As for the authorities, let's see what kind of warrants they are asking for before we move beyond a 'denial' defense." "Denial, as in me claiming I didn't do anything because, ya know, I didn't do anything," I gave her a sleepy smile. "How about we eat first?" We ordered, drank our coffee, tea and juices while remaining largely non-communicative. It wasn't until the food began arriving did I realize I'd 'misplaced' Pamela once more. As I tore into a big slab of ham, I looked over my surroundings for the first time. I gave myself a mental pat on the back when I spotted Pamela then the 'big picture' kicked me in the nuts. Pamela was dressed as a server, coasting about the room, filling drinks, getting appetizer and performing the tedious little chores that waiters and waitresses had to pull off flawlessly. The other wait-staff noticed Pamela, but since she was making their jobs easier and not taking their gratuities, they ignored her. They probably thought she was some industry expert. The plates were being cleared away when Pamela returned, back in normal clothing. She dumped a pile of ID's on the table. Nicole picked them up. "Chicago PD; Organized Crime Taskforce," Nicole read off then glanced to Pamela. "ATF, Homeland Security, FBI, FBI, Chicago PD; Homicide, Federal Marshall and Federal Marshall." "What?" Pamela said between bites of her veggie omelet. "I took their identification, not their wallets. Do you want me to go back for those too; and their keys?" "No. We have risked Mr. Nyilas' freedom enough for one meal," Nicole shot back. She took Tiger Lily's empty plate, dumped the ID's on it then covered the pile with her handkerchief. "Hello," this officious young lady greeted us. I'd been distracted by Nicole's malfeasance so I missed the hotel's new Assistant Manager's approach. It was turning out to be a great morning for visitations from my past. This ghost was much younger than the last ones. Our eyes met. It was easy to see that I was the man in charge being the only man at the table. "Director Nyilas, I hope everything is going well for you and your staff this morning," she smiled. "I would also like to convey the Hotel Burnham's condolences at the passing of your father. I too was born and raised in Burnham." I already knew where she'd lived most of her life. Most critically, I very strongly recalled where she'd gone to school; all 12 grades plus K. "Cameron Sanders," I stood and extended my hand across the table. "You look familiar." Of course she looked familiar. Cameron had publically ground my soul into the grit that ants stepped upon. Her verbal rejection had been a pivotal moment in my life. After that day, I had taken responsibility for my life both anatomically and academically. Recall how I had said I was once a 'nobody'. Here was living proof. Cameron and I had gone to the same schools from Kindergarten through our senior years. We'd even shared classes and it wasn't like I could be confused with all the other 'Cáels' we'd gone to school with; because there weren't any. The same goes for 'Nyilas'. I'd been shifting the boner in my pants for three solid years because of Cameron. She had been hot in high school and she was even better looking now; Brooke hot. For a second, my confidence wavered. In that heartbeat, I realized she was just another woman and I was no longer that guy. "Where you an upperclassman at Thornton Fractional North High School?" she queried. "Hmm; do you recall Jenny Forrester?" I countered. Cameron knew her African-American rival, no doubt. The tweak in her smile said as much. "I'm going out on a limb; you look like a DePaul girl." Cameron's eyes twinkled. Her eyes flitted down to where her class ring normally held court. She had taken it off for work neutrality. "How did you guess?" Cameron tilted her hip suggestively. Sex. "So I'm right?" I reposed. I had 'guessed' right because Cameron crowed about her decision to go to DePaul over all her other offers. "I have some family business to take care of, Cameron," I nodded. "Can we catch up later today and figure out where we've intersected before this morning?" Translation: I'm going to screw you. Not 'I want to', but 'I will'. I could normally figure out a woman in an evening. I had a three year backlog of data on poor Cameron. My Pivotal Goddess was an 'upfront' girl. Her façade was bravado backed by the fear of not measuring up; not being good enough. My mistake in High School was approaching her, hat in hand. Cameron felt best when someone took the tough choices away from her. If she didn't lead, she couldn't fail by her way of thinking. Dad had stood by me that night when he came home from work. I was a broken wreck of a teenage boy. Dad hadn't told me to toughen up and he hadn't been sympathetic. All he wanted to know was what I was going to do about it. What was 'I' going to do, as if I could be the master of my own fate. That was my Dad. The next day I started working out, eating better and taking better care of myself. He was dead; still dead yet my feelings over that had evolved. He was with my ancestors now, waiting for me and my sons and daughters. Looking at it that way, he wasn't really gone at all. "I'll see what can be done," Cameron smiled. I was going to eat her up. "Oh yeah, this plate was mistakenly delivered to my table," I indicated Pamela's illegal haul. "Could you see that it gets where it needs to go after we are gone?" Cameron shot me a sultry smile without even giving her task a casual glance. A hideous tip (kudos to Odette) was added to our over-priced bill and the ladies and I retired to our rooms. It was routine heading to our room. Mona waved us to silence. Then the 'bug hunt' began. Like every Amazon persecution of opposing 'life forms', they didn't play fair. The Amazons had placed electronic surveillance in the room before they left so when unwelcomed guests showed up while we ate and Mona 'slept' we could watch where they placed their goodies in our rooms. This was not a matter of throwing a fit and tossing the electronic devices down the garbage disposal. Oh no, not in Amazon battle lore. They found out what frequency your device was broadcasting on and backtracked it. According to Tiger Lily you can use a source point and a handheld device to triangulate the receiver. Then the fun begins. First, keep the original signal going. Put a subroutine of; oh, all kinds of credit card fraud in this case with the video file then call the appropriate law enforcement agency to bust the place. The subroutine would have no point of origin, so the Amazons would be safe. The spying agency would have a headache on their hands. Credit card fraud would require them to confiscate all the equipment because the threat posed was real, even if the tip was now suspect. This was the Amazon equivalent of fixating the enemy at one point; surveillance; while making their real move on another; the funeral. The average Amazon funeral was a private affair. My Security Detail was modifying plans for an Amazon dignitary's attendance of another Society member's funerary rites. Halfway through the deception plan, Special Agents Brock and John showed up at our door. With two law firms (Pratt's and Nicole's) dancing on their foreheads, they were being polite today and inviting me down to be questioned. I asked for Detective Lisa and Investigator Horace to be there. One: I didn't dictate who investigated me. Two: they were under Internal Affairs review. I agreed with 'one'; I would say 'nothing' to any number of highly qualified law enforcement operatives. I might give answers to the two I had mentioned. 'Two' was none of my affair. They could hope for some answers when they chose the review would be over. I was more than happy spending a lifetime not talking to them. Legalize was tossed around to the point Nicole yawned, pointed out none of them were attorney's with the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois; damn, that's some letterhead, and they could make no deals, grant no immunities, on their own. There was no talking to be done except for the ass-reaming the Court of Appeals was going to give both the Federal attorney who applied for the surveillance warrant and the judge who signed it. Low and behold, phones began ringing. As a patrol unit was making a raid on a room three floors down, a series of shots rang out. A gun battle ensued between the three armed men in the room, the two patrolmen (women actually) and the entire misfortunate event was caught on NBC Channel Five news. Occasionally I forget I work for fundamentally viciously sick fucks. My 'team' had sent the cops and the news crew to the spot and even supplied the ignorant housekeeper with the room card-key for the cops to break in with; a hotel room is not a private dwelling. Cops break in, do their 'freeze, we are the police' thing, but before the three feds in the room could reply, 'their' computer audio equipment let off a sound of bullets firing and ricochets echoing across the room. Nature took its course after that. The feds drew and both sides began shooting. No one died, but one ATF guy was going off to surgery. They would have all earned Purple Hearts if they had been in the military and a commendation no matter what; had two law enforcement agencies not shot each other up. The chase was on for the news crew who was desperately trying to get their station to show the footage before the feds grabbed the memory cards. Despite having had no part in that fiasco, Nicole immediately clued in that the moment our two feds ran off to help their comrades it was our time to leave. Did we go to the vehicles we came in? No. That would have exhibited a lack of paranoia my guardians would have found appalling. Two new car waited a block away. Had I been better at this game, I would have noticed the lack of functioning traffic cameras around us. Instead, I went begging to the local diocese of the Catholic Church. I plead my case. Mom and Dad were devout, raised me to be a devout Catholic yet when my Mother died, my father had never gotten over the trauma and me, being a young man, hadn't explored my spirituality yet; but I promised I'd get right on it when I returned to New York. The priest who handled the end of life stuff for the Church was sympathetic. He gave me the name of a local priest near my home I could talk to on my return. He also told me that he'd received a moving letter from a nun in Uganda about a deeply spiritual moment she had shared with me years ago, so he was onboard with giving my Dad a Catholic send-off. I wasn't sure if that was a sign to never touch a wannabe Nun again, or a reminder that nun's gave incredibly positive feedback on their sexual misadventures. I went with the latter. A few more calls, the choosing of the proper crematorium and I was through with the first part of that ordeal. Next came the funeral notification and invites. The Union would send some of Dad's closest co-workers and several neighbors said they'd show up as well. Flowers, clothes, wake; well, it couldn't be in my family home. The forensic team was gone and it was free for me to wander through, but the bullet holes and blood might put a damper on the ambience. In the midst of my worries, I got a call. A polite man named Winchell Sokolowsky offered me the Marshal Fields Jr. Mansion for my personal use. If there is any doubt, Chicago is Not the city of good Samaritans, the overly polite, or even the casually kind. Chicagoans pride themselves on being tough. We have plenty of good people who help out, volunteer and try to make life easier for their fellow man. That does not encompass giving a random stranger use of a multi-million dollar mansion. If I hadn't already been living in fantasy land, I'd have been busy figuring out which one of my few male friends was pulling this prank of on me, but no. "Can I inquire about the source of this largesse, Mr. Sokolowsky? Take in mind the incredible likelihood of a government agency most foul listening in," I cautioned him. "A family friend," he responded with an amused snort. Yeah, cause my Father's funeral was all chuckles for me. Since crab-women weren't likely to know owners of mansions, this had to be my aunts. Woot. "Thank you sir. My security people will be over to sweep the place before the city, state, or federal governments can crank out another search warrant. Thank you again." "That is not unexpected," Sokolowsky replied. "Until then." Rachel looked at me as if I'd done something absurd. She may have been right. "Did you just accept shelter from an individual we do not know; except that he is certainly part of the Protocols?" she stared at me. "Come on now," I chastised her. "It's for a funerary wake. I'm not taking three hundred of the lads out for a stroll, chasing savages up the Little Big Horn, or an Irishman deciding that Oliver Cromwell is a man of his word." I leaned in and winked to Rachel. "Besides Charlie; I got an angle." Pamela, who just happened to be walking by, gave me another high-five. Rachel was really learning to hate/dread those moments of synergy between Pamela and I. "I am not allowed to kill you and I am afraid I can't kill Pamela, but please don't think I don't want to do both," Rachel ratcheted up her displeasure. "Torn into itsy-bitsy pieces;” Pamela started. "And buried alive!" I finished. Another high-five. "You two are both insane," Rachel despaired. "That's the spirit," Pamela and my comeback to Rachel was in synch once again. To prove I wasn't heartless, I hugged Rachel. She froze, arms at her side, caught between warring impulses. I maneuvered her arms around until her hands rested on the back of my hips then rested mine on the small of her back. "Rachel, I cannot go back to a safe, faceless existence," I whispered as I planted tender kisses on her forehead. "To do so would be a betrayal of; me; Ishara." Rachel let go of her emotions and rested her head against my shoulder. "Why couldn't I be tasked to do something sane; like fight drug cartels, Maoist insurgence, or corporate hit squads in the Amazon?" she sighed. I moved my hands to her ass and gave them a nice fondle making sure to slowly grind her waist against my hips. Humping her would have been a mistake. That was sexual. I was giving her a bit of physical appreciation and nothing more. Rachel tilted her head up, I brought mine down until we were nose to nose. "Promise me you will try to stay alive, Cáel," she sounded almost mournful. "I will make a deal with you," I stated. "If I make it back to New York alive, you will consent to have sex with me." Rachel was confused, suspicious yet aroused. "None of this 'one hour' in some dormitory, or nunnery cell. I want everything; a light meal, some quality touching time and a minimum of two rounds of orgasmic sex." "Ah; not a scratch," Rachel counter-offered. I nodded, kissed her nose and she felt as if she'd won something. Rachel got ready to take us to our next stop. Pamela slipped past me. "Like shooting fish in a barrel," she whispered. I had never used that term out loud before. "That's what I would say," she clarified. She was my evil psychic twin grandmother. It was through a tireless group effort that I made it back to the Hotel Burnham at 4 p.m. Cameron made a show of being busy when I first came back. I was willing to be patient. While she puttered around, I flirted with the desk clerk and one of the baggage attendants; pale skin, blonde hair with freckles and light brown skin, black hair in a Nubian weave. This was the 'professional' lure. By presenting myself as a 'Man's Man' and garnering female adoration, I was clearly not (yet) that into her. The pressure was on her and Cameron didn't like pressure because pressure equated to the possibility of failure. Her advantages which were obvious to every other observer were not certainties to her. Contest time. "Director Cáel Nyilas," Cameron interrupted my joke to the two ladies, "I'm finished up for the day." I gave a quick smile to the women I was about to leave then turned on my personal demon. "Should I wait in the lounge until you change?" "No," I waved off her objections. "You can come up to my suite and then we can go to your domicile for you to change for a night out." Quick visual clue update: she lived at home with her parents yet dated enough that it wouldn't be awkward. It also showed me that she was uncomfortable about going to my room. She wasn't so enchanted she would do something stupid. I had the answer to that. I had made it a public declaration. Not only did my hovering troop had the news, so did her front desk. Nothing bad could happen to her if everyone knew where she was; right? On the elevator ride up it was just me, Cameron, Pamela and Esmeralda. The rest travelled on ahead. She took one rear corner so I took the other. I then let my leather-soled shoes slide down the carpet, lowering my overall height compared to Cameron. At some point, I began back-spinning my feet, pretending to be on the edge of falling on my ass. I smiled at Cameron and her eyes sparkled at the vaudevillian gesture. Know your prey and I knew way more about Cameron than was healthy for any girl. For instance, she loved Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton; more of a Keaton girl. She giggled then came to my rescue. She was wrapping me up in her arms while mine stayed safely away. "You are a bit of a joker," she teased me. "Your beautiful smile makes all that effort worthwhile," I truthfully pledged to Cameron. She sighed so contentedly. Behind her back, Pamela was loading a two-barreled hunting device, aiming at some surface-based, above ground structure with an open top and gave it both barrels while avoiding the imaginary back-splash. 'Looks like herring for dinner,' she mouthed with a wicked grin. Esmeralda was soaking it in. Hadn't I pounced on Rachel a few hours earlier? I was definitely hooking Cameron and reeling her in for some sexual deviant purpose; and Pamela was mocking the whole situation. E turned and faced the doors. "You seem like a really nice guy," Cameron murmured. "I mean that in a good way." "I can't see you as any way, but truthful and kind," I met her cherished countenance. "I imagine even harsh lessons are difficult for you to deliver." There; she had one last chance to figure out the poor schlub she'd crushed at the start of our senior year was me. "Being a leader can be very tough," she moped as she pressed into me. My mumbled offerings of affection and her savage reprisal had never registered with her. I was going to eat her alive. "How about I take care of you tonight?" I requested. She hesitated, not out of fear, but confusion. "Completely relax and I'll make the decisions for this one night. Your mind will be free to enjoy and discard at your pleasure." On most levels, Cameron was seeing this as a date. She was a 'dating' girl. She didn't give up the goodies until date three, if I was exceptionally good; date four, or five otherwise. I was about to dispose of that with a clever case of role reversal. My two staffers vanished as I entered my lakeside executive suite. A splendid view I thought I'd never be able to afford the last day; The 28th of December. I had enough money for a flight and a date picking me up at the airport. Bolingbrook had an inordinate amount of students stay the holidays and, by tradition, the graduating class hosted a New Year's Eve party for those students and the staff. I had told Dad about Havenstone and my infinitesimal chances of that kind of job. That was it. He patted me on the shoulder. There was no pressure to come back to Burnham after graduation if I didn't have a job lined up. It was my home if I needed it. So much was unspoken between us. I could tell he was proud; college; good grades; popular; happy. I shouldn't have taken for granted we'd get a chance to talk later. Back to the joy at hand. "So, what's it like working with your Dad?" I dropped into our causal conversation. I was in the bedroom, door open; really? Why do they put doors on those things? The 'Daddy' question could be taken two ways and I trusted Cameron to take it the worse way; and to be pissed. "My Father didn't get me the job here!" Cameron stormed in and insisted with a nice spirited mare stomp of the foot as emphasis. I 'just happened' to be naked, half turned away and a nice, highly suggestive pair of men's underwear in my hands. "What do you mean?" I was clearly confused. I turned a bit more toward her. Now she could almost see everything. "You; you have scars all over your body," she moaned. "I am a warrior, Cameron. This is the kind of man I am," I gave her a fierce, dominating gaze. "I fight for what I want and I brutally defend that which is mine. Who did you think I was?" Had Cameron been a fighter, that would have been the point she left the room. She was all up-front, bravado and a superior façade over an insecure, parentally driven trophy for their mantel place. My anger faded. It wasn't her fault I couldn't read her signs four years ago. I was still going to fuck her to the afterlife and back, but this time I'd be doing it as an informative journey. "I don't know anymore," Cameron tried to rally some sort of coherent rampart. "Come here," I beckoned her with one hand (the one without the underwear). Cameron shook her head. "Cameron, please believe me, there are things my staff would let me get away with; rape is not one of them. I won't touch you anywhere unless you give me permission." If you are a girl in the room at this point, you are toast. I just made it safe to touch my naked body. Sure, you have clothes on; for now, but not for long. Why? Women desire sex about as much as men do. Unless you are a vapid fashion model with substance abuse issues, men with non-disfiguring scars are an aphrodisiac. Add to that a hard-forged physique and men, sex is there for the taking. "I; uh;” she kept taking baby-steps forward. "I; Pam; Pamela is it?" "Yo," Pamela answered in a bored manner, knife in hand, then, "Whoa now!" she pointed her knife at my equipment. "Sheath that, young man. Put it under wraps right now." "I'm grown man, Pamela," I griped. I also put on my underwear. "Pluck the freaking pebble out of my hand, bitch, and then I'll call you an adult," Pamela sneered. Looking to Cameron, "Anything else Miss?" "No, thank you; no, wait. What do you do for Mr. Nyilas?" Cameron asked. "I'm his psychic medium," was Pamela's sage reply. That supernatural bogusness made Cameron happy. It shouldn't have. "Yeah, I kill his enemies then interrogate their souls," Pamela added with a nod. "It is highly rewarding work." Cameron's mouth gaped. "How about I shut the door and give you two kids some privacy." "What does she really do?" Cameron whispered to me. Part of me wanted to say 'she told you'. "She's my masseuse," I lied. I started putting my pants on (forgetting my socks) then fell/sat on the bed. Cameron came to my bedside. I rolled on my back and highly exaggerated the effort it took to pull them up. Cameron began giggling. "Hey, these are my 'skinny' slacks. I wouldn't laugh at you if our positions were switched." "Really?" she teased me. I laughed and she laughed along. "Cameron, think about it. I'm shirtless and definitely bra-less. I'm pretty sure I'd be too distracted by a multitude of your other assets to snicker," I countered. Cameron blushed and smiled. Ah, the visual image in Cameron's head was her, with jeans, racy panties and nothing else on while I hovered over her, relishing her attempts to conceal her charms. I shuffled back on the bed and resumed pulling my slacks up. Cameron followed, right into the danger zone. "Wait;” she put a hand on my abdomen. "What caused that scar?" So I told her. Okay, I gave her an abridged version of the truth. Fine, I lied like a big dog. I had the amazing habit of stumbling across women in need of saving. I bled for their virtue and honor, racked with intense pain before a violent victory was seized by my masculine hands. I was sure that Pamela and Rachel were hiding just outside the door, retching into waste baskets over the layers upon layers of my tripe. Around wound twelve, I was sure if I had asked Cameron to wear little lamb ears and a bell around her neck, she would have; had one been handy. To be fair, I wasn't fighting off legions of Green Beret. I was doing one better. I was using thinly-veiled caricatures of her High School enemies and nemeses. I was revealing their wickedness and pummeling them for their evil ways. There is a precious look a woman has when she miraculously discovers she is going to have the intercourse she's wanted yet somehow not recognized that need for until that moment. Cameron had that look, straddling me, skirt hiked up to her waist and vulva riding my cock (two layers intervening). We were out of wounds. "The rest are covered up," I explained in a predatory voice. Yes, Cameron was going to have sex and she had no control of events whatsoever and I hadn't even laid a hand on her yet. "Where?" she was suddenly baffled. "Pants," I kept it short and to the point. Cameron looked over her shoulder She reluctantly started to dismount so she could get to them so I made my move. I grabbed her hips in mid-dismount and rotated her around to reverse-cowgirl. Cameron began tugging off my pants with my legs raised high. My stomach crunches kicked in and I leveraged my torso up as well. I deftly moved her skirt up and went straight to the ass massage. Cameron's head shot around, eyes fearful. I had broken my word to not touch her without permission. Yes, I had lied to a girl; Now, I kissed her right on the lips, expertly delivered a delving French kiss and moved one hand to her right breast for an aggressive fondle. Cameron was really getting into it. Her nipples were highly sensitive. Her ass was humping like an over-eager sorority girl pole-dancing on Amateur Night. On cue, Cameron broke free and flew off the bed. "What; you; I thought we were going out?" she whined. She was horny as hell and didn't want to be held accountable at it. "Why are you running away?" I reclined back, solely in my underwear now. I was using my 'I'm disappointed in you' voice. Yes, I was 'guilting' a girl into having sex. Duh. I would never coerce a woman, or take one not in her right mind; that's using forces beyond her control. Guilt? Guilt has a foundation squarely in a woman's mind, just like humor, romance, common interests (feigned or not) and horniness. Girls can control guilt just like any other psychological trigger. It is called being shameless and I ought to know. Remember guys, it cuts both ways. Don't think so? You've had a girlfriend three whole months to the point she's staying over a night or two a week. One night, after your (hopefully) second round, you both discover it is that time of the month. 'Babe (or whatever pet name she has saddled you with), can you run to the store and get me some tampons and pads?' That, by the way, was not a question. She, for hygiene reasons, can't put her clothes on and go out herself. So, you go out to the Quick-Mart at 2 a.m. praying to God that none of your buddies are on a late night beer run and see you with your; stuff. You are not doing this for sex. She's not feeling 100% at the moment. Why are you? Guilt. She was at your place, making your Baloney Pony happy and this happened. You could send her out to the store. Not only is she not the only woman out there, many women understand guys getting freaked out about menstrual products. No, you feel guilty and risk the ridicule of your peers because it is your fault and you are not a dick-wad. And why did she ask you to do something that has nothing to do with you? Women are equally aware that guilt works, Baby. Back to our tale; "I'm not running away," sounded empty coming out of her mouth. "You said; touching." "I think you gave that option up when you crawled on top of me," I leered. "I clearly want to be with you, Cameron. You have given every indication you want to be with me, so I ask you again, why are you suddenly running away?" I kept after her. "I don't want to have sex; right now," again, she sounded weak. "Whatever happens, I go back to New York in two days," I met her shaky gaze. "You can set a time table if you like. The actuality of my life is relentless. I have things to get back to. If you are going to go, then go. I'll head out alone tonight, get a few drinks, come back early and grab some shut-eye," I shrugged. I went searching for my pants. See, she wasn't some random fuck. I wasn't leaving to replace her; making her a failure. I was hemming her in. I had the timeline. I had made my desires clear. There was no negotiation so while she appeared to have choices, she didn't and she knew it. For a girl who had spent so much effort working hard to not disappoint the main masculine figure in her life there was only one thing to do. "I don't want you to think I ever do anything like this," she propped up her morals while stutter-stepping back to the bed. "I feel I have a connection with you." Ah; the 'I have a connection with you' excuse. It would have been so appropriate if she actually remembered me. I pulled her onto the bed, went through the obligatory trying to push me off then we were back to the kissing and humping. Cameron turned out to be a 'use me' girl. That does Not mean abuse, it means she gets off being a responder to her partner's sexual directions. Caress her cheek, jaw and throat and she'd cup my chin, or massage my chest. Cameron was smart and a quick-learner. Her problem was a lack of a sense of adventure and an aversion to taking the lead. With the phantom applause of a hundred other male 'losers' who went to Fractional North High School, I ‘did' the queen who had been beyond us all only four years ago. The erotic twist to all that was with every sense of triumph and pleasure, Cameron mimicked me. Certainly we were both having a memorable time. I had to touch, lick, knead, and fondle every inch of Cameron's body. We both explored our nipple fetish, sixty-nined and engaged in some anal play; no penetration. I completed my first sojourn with the removal of the condom and the blowjob that had been the fantasy of countless hours in my home's upstairs bathroom. Cameron didn't just swallow; she savored and looked like she wanted more. Normally I cuddle beside my partner post-coitus. With Cameron, I lay on top of her at eye level. I put enough weight on her to let her feel pinned without real discomfort. "I have a confession," I gave her a sweaty-faced grin. "What?" she asked then gave me a peck on the lips. "We went to school together; same grade and everything," I enlightened her. "We even talked once." Cameron didn't know what to make of that. "I'll put that in perspective though. Do you believe that if you do something you do your best? Do you believe in craftsmanship?" "Cáel, you are scaring me," Cameron frowned. "Fifteen seconds and you can go," I conveyed with as much calm as I could. "Answer my question." "Okay; yes, I believe in doing your best. I believe in craftsmanship," Cameron played along. "Your words; 'never in a million years'." I related and waited. First there was the uncertainty and fear of the odd course our relationship had taken. It took a few seconds because so few pieces of the puzzle fit. "Cáel Nyilas; it was you; start of senior year; I had been," she muttered. Then came the real fear. "You must hate me." "I thought about it," I said, "but that isn't really me. See, you helped create me. Truth be told, you were only the catalyst. I did all the work." "A great many women helped. They were never a replacement for you. I was taught better than that by my first lover," I continued. "Still, I would be totally different if you hadn't casually annihilated my self-worth that September day." Pause. "Do you like the results?" "You really don't hate me;” Cameron was coming around. "It was high school. We all screw up in high school. According to a few studies, if you don't make a mess of high school, you are destined for failure," I related some real information. "You are getting hard again," Cameron gasped back to being okay with things between us. "Perhaps I should have warned you," I grinned wickedly. "I'm a sex addict." "Hey, Sex Addict!" Pamela shouted into the room. "There are some people out here to see you." "Good people, or bad people?" I shouted back. "Worse," Pamela replied. "The kind of people that want something from you." That was vaguely unpromising. "Cameron, take a shower and we'll talk about dinner when you get out. I think I need to take care of this," I sighed. Off went Cameron to the shower and on went my robe. In the main room, with a variety of levels of sexual tension, were sixteen women I didn't know. The Hotel Burnham has very nice suites, but they are not ballrooms. The room was pretty crowded, with not enough chairs and wall space getting sparse. They were all Havenstone women and I was willing to bet the average age was thirty-five; not my normal crowd. At least I knew why they were all there. Pamela suspected. Rachel and her team were clueless. "Hi, I am known as Cáel Nyilas," I greeted them. "A short history lesson and things will make a great deal more sense, so please be patient." The crowd was not pleased. I was a male and to a woman, the ladies had repudiated the world of men. They were all 'Runners'. It was the presence of Rachel's group that was keeping them civil at this point. "Twenty-five hundred years ago, as the Second Betrayal was ending, there was a small group of males who had proven themselves to the Amazon Host, taken into houses and their names were written on the Amazon Rolls," I started off. "Two of those males and three male children of one of the houses survived the massacre the female Amazons inflicted on their kin." That bought me a moment. Slaughtering your own babies, even male babies, wasn't something they would shrug off. "Well, if you know your Amazon politics, you know that the children of an Amazon who dies while in service of the Host becomes a member of the Host; so on and so on." The implications were sinking in as was the nervousness. "One of those men was a young warrior named Vranus of House Ishara. I am the sole surviving heir of Vranus. We are also here for the burial of my Father, who was murdered Sunday night. The next bit of Amazon politics. House Ishara was an extinct First House," I continued. "Oh shit," was uttered from half-dozen lips as they moved to the next, obvious step. "The succession to the Head of House for any House is elevation by your peers, accepted ritual combat and; the oldest surviving member of the House," I added. "By the Seven Martial Goddess; don't you have to be female? I mean; We are Amazons!" one of the 'Runners' yelled in disbelief. "Do you plan to add more males to your House?" one of the senior members growled. "Two things; it should not bother you one way, or another, and it is not MY House. It is the House of my Ancestor, Ishara. If this is going to be a problem, you are in the wrong room," I met her hostile glare ember for ember. That one headed for the door. "Wait," a fellow 'Runner' grabbed her arm. "You can't be going along with this Marsha?" the departing Amazon snapped. "I don't know this one, but I trust Buffy," Marsha countered. "Ok ladies, so that we are clear," Pamela sighed. "The next one of you to insult the Head of House Ishara, I am going to drag into the other room, kill you and cut you up into giblets for room service to take away," Pamela sounded positively disinterested. "I am not afraid of you," the departing one glared. "That would be a serious mistake," Rachel interjected quietly. Deep breath from me. "Listen, this is a highly improbable incident. I am not asking anyone to embrace the society you have rejected. In fact, I admire you for the strength it took to transition. I also ask you to accept the fact that I DO NOT want to be here, doing this, with any of you," I made one last effort. "Quite frankly, you man-haters scare me; being a man and all. You seem to think I have a choice in any of this. I don't. I am the heir of Vranus. I am the last known living descendant of the Amazon who chose the name Ishara for the sake of her house's unity," I stated. "I don't want to do this, but I'm not the kind of human being who runs away from my responsibilities." "Okay; Cáel of Ishara, why are we here?" Marsha said as she kept the other one from leaving. "Sixty years ago, the Amazon Houses swore an oath to the women who joined their cause. They lied to you. They have not kept up their side of the bargain. They have refused virtually all of you entry into the status as true, full-blooded Amazons," I explained. "And now you are going to rectify that; injustice?" the senior one kept mocking me. "Fine; you and me; one last chance," I sighed. "Look around you. Who do you see? The prettiest, the most pliable, the most power-hungry? If you can point out one woman in this room that doesn't deserve to be a Full-Blooded Amazon, leave now." "You didn't choose any of us," she responded. "Exactly!" I shouted. "I didn't choose any of you to be in House Ishara. Buffy Ishara and Helena Ishara did. Why? Because I don't know any of you, or your sacrifices and worth to Havenstone. I gave that duty to the two; and only two; member of House Ishara who would know who was the most worthy to be in a First House." "We are here to be inducted," one of the silent Amazons voiced with a dream-like quality. "Yes. Barring being rejected by Ishara, you will be inducted at my Father's graveside tomorrow morning," I stated clearly. "How many?" Senior questioned. "This time; twenty," I answered. "I have no agenda and no set number of 'Runners' to be inducted into House Ishara. It doesn't work

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Cáel and the Manhattan Amazons: Part 8

Alenative History - Die Geschichte des Antiken Griechenlands

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2024

Cáel's tombstone: For the love of women, women put him here.In 25 parts, edited from the works of FinalStand.Listen and subscribe to the ► Podcast at Connected..

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charging grandparents glasses casper yahweh fucking fiscal appeals newark planned parenthood grandfather adultery acquisitions belarus nypd state department pole aunt murdered rude bibles heavens central park ancestors holy grail libertarians breach fuego mister anal wisely santa fe winds plea nsa boy scouts momma patagonia feds bordeaux device ballet bounce sasquatch converting rope south koreans administrators lemonade shore estonia 401k monday night atm mano puerto rican meth sir bastards predators dwellings rockies clever underworld menace knees hungarian torn apologize promising protocols warner brothers slaughter naples cpr diaspora tend laden tender slayer south asian unable cape bitches cargo scandinavian jaguar lay immortal homicide tibet technically underwear condoms cheerleaders copper refer pd lacking asians guarding al qaeda devo stevenson appalachian esquire virtually ambitious larger ro benjamin franklin automatic nile life insurance sunday night mare fist summer camp 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nikita kinky green beret democratic republic defy interpol charlie chaplin trojan virginity cheetahs bce freemasons big one angelic hamptons kill bill oak pity ear missing link parasites mccabe jason statham year one behave nutcracker futurama thrilling irrelevant george carlin convincing mothering vessels white christmas eastside depaul yugoslavia al capone secret societies yum yummy slight neanderthals ran serbian central asia cha extensive grizzly cougar pinnacle vulcans storming sweaty liking whore tragically lesbians sikh morons chinese communist party reminding triple crown great wall magnum exiting heavily airborne osama grappling obama administration pleased savor u s missing person state fairs dispelling generals man up stud pocahontas bulgarian deep south caucasians emergency rooms lawless state senators gf madi nipple obtain suffice canada day shampoo inuit turks tandem erotica maldives sensing goddesses brownies speeding soviets archery purple heart strangely cambodians sob fp rising sun spinal tap atf fdic oh god nerf marshal mmm anthrax helium god almighty hostility weave lk renfield ghost hunters mongolian apologizing comforting federal court moor holy cross princess leia ncis old world cyclops trojans cicero grandson oaths restraint barnum rasputin good guy reload oh my god assyria brewster grenades sop roman catholic church sz collar new england journal east asian kurdish referring ade creeping amazonian jason voorhees janus my dad jonestown special agents ish dg braille horace belles jokers fraternity third reich ballroom medical center carmichael diplomatic tad stalkers federal bureau eurasia christmas holiday taser seti messina timer feinstein legalize genghis khan winslow sub saharan africa soaking spirit world arabian laguardia farsi animaniacs hecklers goddamn wiccans patriot act pla district court nimrod carnegie mellon testicles directive slavic iliad stasi peeling peugeot bohemia poo luxemburg chalmers columbian endo chicagoans truce equestrian catholic school orgies modernism home loans village voice recount faults kurdistan clans kneel harmonious sipping glock team lead my mother high priestess invading resonate draco lcd precinct ancestor keyes lombard donetsk foe emergency services burnham coroner krav maga forc celts bushido magna carta hubby rhodes scholar rorschach penetration assyrian violating congolese grace kelly fabiola asc bolivian frat snape ako atwood second language mah enrique iglesias darwinian blush friday morning medico ancient world umm prc germanic i won big boss buster keaton hippocrates pinhead woot eurasian world domination snapping kama sutra bum ishtar swiss alps dumbass coal mine holy crap life plans tigger armory holy shit prick improper my son sizzling appoint beg hunting season holy cow four days coughing castello amusement neapolitan speedo park rangers vassar college athleticism orphan black central africa felicit omniscient his house eharmony timothy leary wha hadrian great pumpkin amazonia father daughter naughty list alphas pandering little sister finnes propelled ursula k le guin infighting birthed umami pluck timur magyar us navy seals chuckles solar plexus amway evasion hittites eek geisha intensive care barring my house legions motherfuckers danube cowardly mongoose hilton head restraining orders western united states evil empire black forest zen masters brainiac iron age intercourse yakima silky acp ow vietnamese american disrespecting trust funds bacchus bad girl assistant manager abed internal affairs kindergarten cop taunting mein kampf cavemen trojan war padawan 3f canadian american anat mesoamerican old spice shotguns hellas lumpy crouching tiger ramses consulate top shot last place medical examiners patching hittite oliver cromwell boohoo chicago pd intensive care units east river crewe cunt scathing your father hippocratic oath constanza imhotep rolling thunder sick leave saturday afternoon dominicans groan scythians ash ketchum deyoung developing world northern district octopussy fuckers flatbush fifth amendment laughable evian jacking atta voa maoist tasmanian devils ssr aerospace engineer nonviolent girls gone wild wonder twins bbc america troika hidden dragon khmer ruger firemen huns vassar surrogates exceptionally every member soe arwen security services insulted big wheels saint james chicago police department ace hardware incan extermination granddad gibbon writ wies good hope united states district court sterile bravado alternating humping nubian cunnilingus littering ohio valley little bighorn ragged ngozi sex addicts first house sparing united states attorney seven pillars colonial america ravine witness protection baring iridium clearinghouse cleverly other half flailing bitchy central european invariably overt sky blue mafioso holy mother hic international finance black hand sapphic tigerlily braulio inadvertently oink moorish azerbaijani brawling your mother other' errands bouncers murmurs mmmmmm pharos moose jaw 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Die Bronzezeit - Das Ende der Mykener & (Drogen-)Handel | Teil V

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2024 48:18

Um 1200 v.Chr. wird nicht nur das Ende der mykenischen Kultur datiert, sondern auch das anderer bronzezeitlicher Kulturen. Doch warum kollabierten ihre Systeme? Waren es die berüchtigten Seevölker? Was wissen wir über sie? Woher kamen sie? Und... waren sie wirklich der einzige Grund für den Untergang der Mykener? Quellen: Arnaud/Gonnet, Textes syriens de l'âge du Bronze récent (…), 1991 Astour, Aegean Place-Names in an Egyptian Inscription, 1966 Bartonek, Handbuch des Mykenischen, 2002 Baykal, Stürmische Zeiten, 2010 Bennet, The Geography of the Mycenaean Kingdoms, 2011 Bertemes/Bork/Meller/Risc, 1600 - Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs? (….), 2011 Budin, The Ancient Greeks (…), 2009 Castleden, The Mycenaeans, 2005 Cline, Rethinking Mycenaean International Trade with Egypt and the Near East, 2007 Ebd., Der erste Untergang der Zivilisation, 2015 Ebd., 1177 B.C. (…), 2014 Cockburn, Bronze Age saw flourishing drug trade, opium discovered in Ancient vase reaveals, 2021 Drake, The Influence of Climatic Change on the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Greek Dark Ages, 2012 Drews, The End of the Bronze Age, 1993 Edel/Görg, Die Ortsnamenlisten im nördlichen Säulenhof des Totentempels Amenophis III, 2005 Evian, They were thr on land, others at sea…, (…) 2015 Falkenstein, Eine Katastrophen-Theorie zum Beginn der Urnenfeldkultur (….), 1997 Feuer, Mycenaean Civilization (…), 2004 Freeman, Egypt, Greece and Rome (…), 2014 Henderson Gardiner, The Kadesh inscription of Ramses II, 1960 Husemann, Das Große beben (…), 2014 Iakovidis, Gla and the Kopais in the 13th century B.C., 2001 Kaniewski/Paulissen/an Campo/weitere, Middle East coastal ecosystem response to middle-to-late Holocene abrupt climate changes, 2008 Ebd., Late second–early first millennium BC abrupt climate changes in coastal Syria and their possible significance for the history of the Eastern Mediterranean, 2010 Kelder, The Kingdom of Mycenae (…), 2010 Kilian, Ausgrabungen in Tyrins 1977, 1979 Kopanias: The Late Bronze Age Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from Thebes (Greece) and their historical implications, 2008 Lehmann, Umbrüche und Zäsuren im östlichen Mittelmeerraum und Vordereasien zur Zeit der “Seevölker”-Invasionen um und nach 1200 v.Chr. (…), 1996 Milek, Seevölker (….) in: Spektrum der Wissenschaft (…), 2016 Murray/Runnels, Greece before History (…), 2001 Noort, Die Seevölker in Palästina, 1994 Nur/Cline, Poseidon's Horses (…), 2000 Peruzzi, Mycenaeans in Early Latium, 1980 Ridgway, The First Western Greeks, 1992 Scarre, The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World (…), 1999 Schofield, The Mycenaens, 2007 Silberman/Gitin/Mazar/Stern (Hrsg.): The Sea Peoples, the Victorians, and Us, 1998 Sommer, Der 21.Januar 1192 v.Chr.: Der Untergang Ugarits?, 2015 Sternberg-el Hotabi, Der Kampf der Seevölker gegen Pharaoh Ramses III (…), 2012 Tartaron, Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World, 2013 Vianello, Late Bronze Age Mycenaean and Italic Products (….), 2005 Woudhuizen, The Ethnicity of the sea people (…), 2006 Yasur-Landau, The Philistines and Aegean Migration at the End of the Late Bronze Age, 2014 Zangger, Naturkatastrophen in der ägäischen Bronzezeit (…), 1996 Freising, Sechs durchbohrte Bernsteinstücke in Bayerische Vorgeschichtsblätter, 1999 CBS, Ancient Druf Trade Unearthed, 2002 (2024) Boston University - The Historical Society University of York, Traces of opiates found in Cypriot vessel, 2018 (2024) Universität Köln Pressemitteilung: https://web.archive.org/web/20180714193158/https://www.portal.uni-koeln.de/9015.html?&tx_news_pi1[news]=4871&tx_news_pi1[controller]=News&tx_news_pi1[action]=detail&cHash=4ec8fe1cf3d8b095a07f3559ce486982 Ethnicity of Sea People: https://repub.eur.nl/pub/7686 Unesco : https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/941 Music by Pixabay (ArizonaGuide)

From Perseus to Trojan War: 7 strange myths of Mycenae that changed ancient Greece

Hooked on Art Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 2, 2024 15:23

Mycenae is the ancient archeological site near Mykines in Argolis, Greece. It's a fascinating place to visit when you learn about its connection to the ancient Greek history. 16th century BC to be exact. It's a place of one of the oldest known cultures in the world- the Mycenaeans. They wrote in Linear B text, […]

greek strange myths greece bc ancient greece perseus trojan war mycenae linearb mycenaeans

Birth of the Iron Age

The Ancients

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2024 62:28

It's the end of the 12th century BC, and a once remarkable Near eastern world lay in ruin. Drought, warfare, famine, earthquakes, plague - all had combined to brutally devastate ancient civilisations stretching from Mesopotamia to Egypt to mainland Greece. It was a catastrophe unlike anything else - a Bronze Age collapse. But that's only half the story. What happened next? Would these people adapt to this new age of chaos?Dr Eric Cline joins Tristan Hughes to discuss the dawn of the Iron Age. They're talking Egyptians, Hittites, Mycenaeans, Cypriots, Phoenicians and many more.Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited by Joseph Knight. The producer is Joseph Knight, the senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original TV documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off your first 3 months using code ‘ANCIENTS'. https://historyhit.com/subscriptionVote for The Ancients in the Listeners Choice category of British Podcast Awards here.You can take part in our listener survey here.

Under the Shadow of Agamemnon, the Real Bronze Age Mycenae

Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! Greek & Roman Mythology Retold

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2024 42:48 Transcription Available

Continuing on with the Bronze Age history of Greece, a look at the famed Mycenaeans, the historical origins behind the mythic heroes of Homer. Help keep LTAMB going by subscribing to Liv's Patreon for bonus content! CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing. Sources: The Landmark Thucydides edited by Robert B. Strassler, translated by Richard Crawley; The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean edited by Eric H. Cline; Rodney Castleden's Mycenaeans; Alkestis Papadimitriou and Elsi Spathari's Mycenae: A journey in the World of Agamemnon. Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

world greek shadow greece homer bronze age oxford handbook agamemnon attributions cw tw mycenae mycenaeans eric h cline

Die Bronzezeit in Griechenland - Die Mykener: Krieger und Eroberer | Teil I

Alenative History - Die Geschichte des Antiken Griechenlands

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2024 51:01

Die mykenische Kultur. Eine Kultur, wo wir legendäre Figuren wie Agamemnon und Achilles finden. Eine Kultur, die vielleicht die Erzählung der Ilias durch ihre eigene kriegerische Natur und Konflikt beeinflusst haben könnte? Erkunden wir das Grab eines mykenischen Kriegers wie auch Beschwerden über einen Kriegsführer, der sich mit den mächtigen Hethitern angelegt hat. In der ersten Episode über die mykenische Kultur werden wir den Aspekt ihrer Kultur betrachten, wie sie mit uns meistens bereits in Berührung gekommen sind bisher: Das Militär und Kriegsführung. Quellen: Homer, Ilias “Gla” in livius.org “Greifenkrieger” in griffinwarrior.org Beckman/ Bryce/ Cline, The Ahhiyawa Texts, (= Writing from the Ancient World), 2011 Bryce, The Kingdom of Hittites, 2005 Castleden, The Mycenaeans, 2005 Chadwick, Die Mykenische Welt, 1979 Cline, The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean, 2012 D'Amato/Salimbeti, Bronze Age Greek Warrior 1600-1100, 2011 Davis/Stocker, The Lord of the Gold Rings (…), 2016 Deger-Jalkotzy, Mykenische Herrschaftsformen ohne Paläste und die griechische Poleis, 1995 Eder, Überlegungen zur politischen Geographie der mykenischen Welz (…), 2009 Feuer, Mycenaean Civilization (…), 2004 Fields, Bronze Age War Chariots, 2006 Ebd., Mycenaean Citadels c. 1360–1200 BC, 2004 Grguric, The Mycenaeans c. 1650–1100, 2010 Iakovidis, Late helladic citadels on mainland Greece, 1983 Ebd., Gla and the Kopais in the 13th Century BC, 2011 Howard, Bronze Age Military Equipment, 2011 Hume/Labropoulou, 3500 year-old treasure trove unearthed from grave of Greek warrior-king, 2017 Kelder, The Kingdom of Mycenae (…), 2010 Lawler, Rare Unlooted Grave of Wealthy Warrior Uncovered in Greece, 2015 Lehmann, Die “politischen-historischen” Beziehungen der Ägäis-Welt des 15.-13.Jhs.v.Chr. (…), 1991 Mann, Militär und Kriegsführung in der Antike, 2013 Mark, Homeric Seafaring, 2005 Palaima, Mycenean Militarism from a Textual Perspective, 1999 Schofield, The Mycenaeans, 2006 Shelton, Mainland Greece, 2012 Starr, This Prehistoric “Masterpiece” Could Rewrite The History of Ancient Greek Art, 2017 Tartaron, Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World, 2013 Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, 2013

Archeology and the Bible – Part 9 - As Old As the Bible

Anchored by Truth from Crystal Sea Books - a 30 minute show exploring the grand Biblical saga of creation, fall, and redempti

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024 30:00

Episode 254 – Archeology and the Bible – Part 9 – As Old As the Bible Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: The LORD possessed me [wisdom] at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. Proverbs, Chapter 8, verses 22 and 23, English Standard Version ******** VK: Greetings. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. This is our 9th episode in a series that we are doing on archeology and the Bible. We’re 9 episodes into this brief overview of just a few of the thousands of archeological discoveries that support the accuracy of the Bible’s text. So often today we hear critics attempt to label the Bible as a book that has little connection to the real world. But when reviewed objectively it is obvious that the Bible is a book that is firmly set in time and place. And as a book set in time and place it is demonstrable that the human history that the Bible chooses to report is accurate. And archeology is very supportive of the Bible’s historical trustworthiness. That’s why we wanted to do this series. To help us continue to explore this topic, in the studio today we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, today you said you wanted to begin to wrap up the series. So, what do you want listeners to begin to think about as we think about the series as a whole? RD: Well, before we begin our summary I’d also like to greet everyone and welcome them to Anchored by Truth. As we have stressed throughout this series archeology is the study of the past. And the vast majority of archeological interest pertains to times and dates that occurred long before anyone currently living was alive. This means that anyone attempting to glean information about the past from archeological finds and artifacts is always looking at evidence that is available in the present and interpreting it. This is going to be true whether the person making the interpretation is a Christian or non-Christian. This means that it is likely and reasonable for similarly qualified experts to disagree on what a particular find means or tells us. In other words, we cannot obtain the same degree of certainty about past events from archeological science that we can from branches of operational science where the replication of results is possible. This certainly doesn’t mean that rigor and discipline aren’t possible in archeology. They are. And it doesn’t mean that we can’t rule certain possible explanations in or out based on the application of evidence and reason. But it does mean that alternative explanations are possible in many situations and we must therefore be prepared to sort among those explanations. VK: What you’re saying is that as Christians we must always be aware that – no matter how convincing a Biblical explanation may be for a find, artifact, or site – that we must be aware that other explanations for that same evidence are possible. And we must be prepared to deal with those alternative non-Biblical explanations because the world is going to consider those explanations. Because if we can’t intelligently discuss why the Christian explanation is at least as reasonable as the non-Christian alternative we will be far less effective in our witness for Christ in the public arena. In other words, we have to know what “the other side” believes and we must be prepared to engage their arguments – kindly, compassionately, and sensibly – but firmly. RD: Right. The old saying is that “there are two sides to every story.” But, while the saying has some truth to it that does not mean that each side is equally credible or reasonable. So, one of the things we need to talk about as we wrap up our series is to give a couple of examples where there are competing explanations for archeological sites that are the subject of Biblical accounts. VK: Where do you want to start? RD: Well, we spent the last couple of episodes of Anchored by Truth talking about the city of Jericho especially about God’s miraculous intervention in the Hebrews’ conquest of it at the end of their wilderness wanderings. VK: This is the well-known story found in the book of Joshua, chapter 6. The Hebrews encountered Jericho just after crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Militarily the Hebrews needed to conquer Jericho but it was a walled and heavily fortified town. And the Hebrews did not have the kind of siege equipment necessary to breach those kind of walls – at least not quickly. But, fortunately they didn’t have to. As God directed, they marched around the walls once a day for 6 days. Then, on the 7th day they marched around the walls 7 times, shouted, and the walls fell down. And, while we won’t go over the evidence that supports that account again – because we covered it in our two previous episodes – we will note that there is substantial archeological evidence that supports the Biblical account. RD: Yes. There’s an abundance of archeological evidence that Jericho was located where the Bible says it was, at one time had large and imposing walls, and that the walls did in fact “fall down flat” as the English Standard Version puts it. Several excavators have determined that most of the walls collapsed flat likely due to an earthquake. But even though these facts are well known one topic that is hotly debated is when the walls fell down. There are various dating options for when the Exodus occurred and therefore when Jericho fell to Joshua. We don’t have time to go into all the options but there are two that often talked about – to so-called late date for the exodus and the early date for the exodus. VK: So, the most commonly accepted date for the exodus in scholarly circles is the late date. That’s the dating theory that was used in Cecil B. Demille’s famous movie, The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses. What time period is in view for the late date? RD: Around 1290 BC. This would be referred to as early in the 13th century BC. VK: And what time period is in view for the early date? RD: Around 1445 or 1446 BC – about a hundred years earlier. This is the date that is arrived at by calculating the time periods that are referenced in the Bible in verses such as 1 Kings, chapter 6, verse 1. VK: That verse in the English Standard Version reads: “In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the … the second month, [Solomon] began to build the house of the LORD.” RD: Yes. We know that Solomon’s reign as king of Israel began in 970 BC. That means his 4th year would have been 966 BC. That means that 480 years earlier would have been 1446 BC. But let’s remember that the Hebrew calendar is not the same as the Gregorian calendar that we use today. So, they didn’t use a January to December year. Also, in the Bible some numbers may have been rounded off. So, allowing for those factors orthodox, conservative Christian scholars have usually placed the date for the start of the exodus between 1447 BC and 1442 BC. It’s common to refer to Joshua’s conquest of Jericho as taking place late in the 15th century BC. VK: The 15th century BC began in the year 1500 BC and ended in the year 1401 BC. RD: Right. So, while there may be agreement on the fact that at some time around in the distant past the walls of Jericho did collapse as the Bible describes, there is a very clear division of opinion on exactly when the walls fell down. VK: So, a Bible critic may acknowledge that there is archeological evidence that is consistent with major portions of chapter 6 of the book of Joshua but then immediately turn around and say the Bible still isn’t trustworthy because it got dates wrong. And as we started out saying, all any present day investigator can do is look at the available evidence and then interpret what that says about things like ancient dates. It’s not as though anybody 3,300 or 3,400 years ago chiseled dates into the sides of buildings to make it easier to assign precise dates. RD: No, they didn’t. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have some tools that can help us resolve our dating dilemma. And while we don’t have time to discuss all the ways dating is accomplished for archeological sites let’s just mention a couple. First, we can look to see what information can be gleaned from artifacts that are found at a site. Often, even if there aren’t written records that contain helpful references there may be jewelry, coins, or other decorative items that provide clues as to when that item was being used. This is particularly true with pottery pieces or even shards. It has been common throughout human history to decorate items even ones used for practical purposes like jars or lamps. And, just as today, decorative styles come and go. And since pottery is a lot more durable that items made out of cloth or paper pottery is often present at a site even hundreds or thousands of years after it was in use. In the case of excavations at the city of Jericho over 100,000 pottery fragments have been unearthed. VK: So, what do the pottery fragments found at Jericho tell us? RD: The pottery fragments favor the early date theory. This is because there is almost no pottery fragments at Jericho that are what would be labeled Mycenaean. As we mentioned in other episodes of Anchored by Truth Mycenae is another name for the region we think of as Greece. The Mycenaeans were a sea faring people and traveled widely including to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean which is where Israel is. As a consequence their pottery is found all over the Mediterranean coastal lands. And it began to appear in Palestine from about 1400 BC onward. Therefore, if the conquest of Jericho had been around 1290 BC as the late date theory posits then there should have been plenty of Mycenaean pottery fragments present. But there aren’t. The early date theory explains this absence easily. The Hebrews conquered Jericho before Mycenaean pottery became commonplace in Palestine. By 1290 Mycenaean pottery would had been circulating in Palestine for over 100 years. So, its absence at Jericho is hard to reconcile with the late date theory. VK: How about other artifacts found at Jericho? What do they tell us about whether the late date theory or the early date theory is most likely to be correct? RD: There are other archeological findings that point strongly to the early date. For instance, Palestine in the 15th century BC was connected to Egypt. Remember that at this time Egypt was the dominant power in that region. The Egyptians had mines and other economic interests in Palestine. Trade between the two regions was extensive. One common item that circulated in those days was scarabs. VK: According to the Wikipedia entry “Scarabs are beetle-shaped amulets and impression seals which were widely popular throughout ancient Egypt. They still survive in large numbers today. Through their inscriptions and typology, they prove to be an important source of information for archaeologists and historians of the ancient world, and represent a significant body of ancient Egyptian art.” In other words, scarabs were like modern jewelry pieces. They were valuable and therefore were not thrown away or destroyed. They are frequently found in graves with their owners. Like some modern jewelry items they often contained images of royalty. Think about things like commemorative lockets made for the various milestones of Queen Elizabeth’s long reign. So, as the Wikipedia quote states, by looking at the images contained on scarabs we can get an idea about when they were produced and in circulation. What do the scarabs found at Jericho tell us? RD: One of the best known archeologists who did extensive excavations at Jericho is John Garstang. After years after his excavations of a cemetery at Jericho not a single scarab was found that could be dated later than the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III who reigned from 1412 BC to 1376 BC. VK: We probably should remind our listeners that in the time before the birth of Jesus the years are frequently labeled “BC” which simply means “before Christ.” Since these yearly designations get smaller as you approach the birth of Jesus the larger numbers are actually farther back in time. This is the opposite of how we assign annual dates today where it’s the smaller numbers that are older. So, for the years before Christ 1412 BC is older than 1376 BC. It can be easy to get confused. RD: That’s a good note. So, Pharaoh Amenhotep III began his reign in 1412 BC and it lasted for 36 years. That’s plenty of time in which his cartouche would have put on decorative items. VK: A cartouche is just a common graphic symbol. It’s an oval with a line at one end and it indicates that the name that is found within the oval is a royal name. RD: Right. So, the absence of any scarabs with the cartouches of any pharaohs later than Amenhotep III means that later pharaohs weren’t known or represented at that site. That would be very strange if the late date theory was correct. The late date theory says that the pharaoh at the time of the exodus was Ramses II and there were a lot of pharaohs between Amenhotep III and Ramses II. This is a strong indicator that the early date theory about the date of the exodus and the destruction of Jericho by Joshua is correct. VK: So, the really big point that we want to make by this discussion is that there may be competing explanations about how to correctly date events from the past. And even though no one living was present then we can look at the evidence available in the present and make reasoned determinations about which explanation is most likely to be true. And one way to do that is look at finds and artifacts and see what they tell us about what was going on in the world at that time. Who was in power? What trade was occurring? What building techniques were available and in use? Are there any written records from the period? Information can be gleaned from any sources. And, of course, some people will say that scientific measurements such radiocarbon dating can be helpful. Well, how about radiocarbon dating? Isn’t it frequently used to assign dates to ancient sites and artifacts? RD: It is, but there are a lot of problems with radiocarbon dating which are well known in the scientific community. Radiocarbon dating depends on determining the ratio present in a specimen between carbon-14, which is radioactive, and carbon-12 which is not. We don’t have time today to go into all of the details of how carbon-14 is formed but here are a couple of big points. Radiocarbon dating can only be used on organic residue such as wooden artifacts because it must be absorbed by a living entity to be present at all. Next, radiocarbon dating depends on certain baseline assumptions which are unprovable. Third, the rate of formation of carbon-14 is affected by the strength of the earth’s magnetic shield which is known to decline through time. As such, the farther back in time we go – especially as we get closer to the flood of Noah – the more adjustments are necessary to compensate for the stronger magnetic shield. The net result of these issues – and there are others – is that, as you said, radiocarbon dates are assigned not measured. Radiocarbon dating can be a useful tool for certain things like determining relative dates but it has limitations in assigning absolute dates. VK: In other words we simply don’t possess all of the information that would be necessary to precisely calculate a date by measuring the ratio of one substance and compare it to another. We can never be sure what the starting ratio was unless somebody had been there who reported it – which is never going to happen with archeology. We can never be sure about whether assumed formation rates are accurate or whether contamination occurred at some point. Dates assigned by measuring ratios of various elements often differ by tens of thousands or even millions of years. In such cases the scientists will often dismiss dates that don’t conform to their expectations but this just amounts to selecting data that reinforces an original hypothesis or bias. RD: Right. Radiocarbon dating can be helpful for certain purposes but it is sometimes offered as if it settles all dating questions of ancient finds. It doesn’t and can’t. It rests on unprovable assumptions. This doesn’t mean it must be dismissed. It means we should bear its limitations in mind when it is used to offer evidence. The point that we want to drive home today is Christians must be prepared to hear explanations for archeological finds that the world will tell us “disprove the Bible.” But we need not accept such claims on face value. Certainly one of the best known explorers who did excavation at Jericho was an archeologist named Kathleen Kenyon. She disagreed with Garstang’s findings about the correct dating of the ruins at Tell-el-Sultan which is normally agreed to be the site of ancient Jericho. One reason she disagreed with Garstang was that she said the pottery shards she found in the collapsed wall that is believed to belong to the Joshua conquest were not from the mid-15th century BC. VK: In ancient times, and even today, when builders are building walls they will throw scraps of unusable building material as part of fill. The builder knows the fill won’t be seen. So, it doesn’t matter whether its broken concrete, metal scraps, or old pieces of pottery. That’s a common building practice today and it was in ancient times. So, we can derive some dating information about when a structure was built if we find scraps that have some identifying information. Someone who tore down a fireplace and found a coin that had fallen into the cement would know the latest date the fireplace was built. But it seems to mean that Kenyon’s conclusion doesn’t necessarily follow her observation. There are houses in America that date from the Revolutionary War period that are still standing today 250 years later than they were built. If one of those houses fell over today it’s walls are still going to be composed of building material from 1776. The fact that the walls fell in the 21st century doesn’t change that the fallen material was from 250 years ago. RD: That’s a very good observation. And it illustrates that we have to think carefully through the conclusions that are drawn from evidence. The evidence may be consistent with multiple and varying conclusions. Then we will have to look at other evidence to see if we can determine which of those conclusions is most accurate. VK: And you say we need to be particularly vigilant when we examine conclusions about the dating of ancient ruins or artifacts. RD: Right. Here’s a simple example. If you do an internet search on the oldest buildings in the world you will find that are a few buildings dated by secular science to be several thousand years older than the date the Bible tells us the great flood occurred. Often the reason the ruins are dated older is by using radiocarbon dating. But as we just discussed radiocarbon dating has real problems for assigning absolute (not relative) dates. So, if we step back from the radiocarbon dates we find that it is at least as likely, if not more likely, that all of the ruins that are assigned these pre-flood dates were actually built after the flood. VK: In other words the question that occurs is whether the evidence from these sites is just as consistent with being built after the flood as before. RD: Yes. So, let’s think about this for a second. Some of these sites display a remarkable degree of mathematical precision in their layout and construction. Yet, conventional science says that the people at that time were all hunter-gatherers. Why would people living off hunting game and gathering food from plants that grow wild all of a sudden divert a great deal of effort into building large structures that had no relevance to how they stayed alive. Isn’t it at least just as probable that these structures were built by people who had descended from a family that possessed a sophisticated knowledge of building techniques and who were now occupying land that was completely free of groups or tribes? VK: Noah built a huge ark that survived a great flood. And we know from the Bible that Adam’s earliest descendants founded cities, worked with metal, and even made musical instruments. Said differently, rather than human beings having to learn everything by trial-and-error the human race was started with the kind of knowledge to build sophisticated structures. RD: Yes. And then there’s the whole question of why – if the modern human race had been in existence for hundreds of thousands of years – all of a sudden one day they began building these complicated buildings and complexes. Remember there is absolutely no evidence in the world of human sites that existed tens of thousands of years ago. Dinosaur bones supposedly survived intact for millions of years. So, even if humans 20,000 or 50,000 years ago had built homes or communities it seems probable that some evidence would have survived. The evidence from the most ancient structures we know about on earth fits in very well with a Biblical narrative but runs into some significant difficulties with the secular explanation. VK: And that is why we all need to know a little bit about archeology. There’s an old saying that “you better teach your kids about faith. Otherwise the only faith they will know will be what comes from the world.” Archeology may or may not interest us as a subject. But we must know enough to be able to help our kids understand and avoid the pits the world will put in their path. Knowing a little bit about archeology can help with this greater goal. God has given us ample evidence that His word is true. But He expects us to exercise our minds and wills to become familiar with the evidence and to incorporate into our lives and faith. This sounds like a time to go to God in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer for our nation. The Bible tells us that we are to be good citizens of the nation in which we find ourselves. And certainly part of doing that is to work for the common good, pray for our communities and states, and encourage everyone to grow in godliness. Only a Godly people will persevere and prevail in a fallen creation. ---- PRAYER FOR THE NATION VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Bible Quote from the English Standard Version) Proverbs, Chapter 8, verses 22 and 23, English Standard Version Göbekli Tepe shows evidence of geometric planning (creation.com)

From Memphis to Mycenae (Ancient Egyptians & Early Greeks)

The History of Egypt Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2024 124:38

In New Kingdom Egypt (c.1500 - 1150 BCE), the pharaohs and their agents had many dealings with people of the Mediterranean. These include the ancient Cretans (the "Keftiu" or Minoans) and the Mycenaeans (the "Danae" or "Danaeans"). And from the time of Amunhotep III (c. 1400--1362 BCE), we have tentative evidence for Egyptian embassies visiting these islands. From Memphis to Mycenae, Karnak to Crete, we go in search of international relations. Compilation of previously released material. Logo image: Bull-leaper "taureadors" from an Egyptian palace, fresco fragments excavated at Tell el-Dab'a (ancient Avaris) in the Nile Delta. Image adapted from M. Bietak et al., Taureador Scenes in Tell El-Dab'a (Avaris) and Knossos (2007). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Sudden End of the Bronze Age, Part 2

The Loins of History

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 29, 2024 56:11

Dive into the intriguing world of ancient history with our latest podcast episode, This episode offers an insightful exploration of the enigmatic Bronze Age Collapse, delving into the roles of the mysterious Sea Peoples, their impact on civilizations like the Hittites, Minoans, and Mycenaeans, and connections to storied Greek epics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. Join us as we connect these ancient events to biblical narratives like the Exodus, offering a comprehensive analysis that blends archaeology, history, and mythology. Perfect for enthusiasts of ancient civilizations, historical mysteries, and the evolution of warfare, this episode provides a rich, detailed journey through one of history's most fascinating eras. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theloinsofhistory/support

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Exploring Mycenaean Greece – Culture, Kingdoms and the Historical Context of the Trojan War

History with Cy

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2024 90:33 Very Popular

In this video we'll journey back to the late Bronze Age and explore Mycenaean Civilization in Greece and the wider Aegean world. We'll also delve into the historical events that may have led to armed conflicts between Mycenaeans and Hittites and that may have ultimately served as the basis for Homer's great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Contents:00:00 Contents and Introduction02:43 Helladic Chronology Explained03:42 Discovery of Mycenaean Culture05:35 Geography of Greece07:28 Early Mycenaeans10:58 “Mycenae, Rich in Gold”13:32 Linear B16:54 Mycenaean Society and Material Culture21:21 Mycenaean Palatial Centers and Major Kingdoms23:39 Orchomenos25:30 Gla26:00 Thebes27:00 Athens29:10 Tiryns29:49 Pylos31:15 Daily Life, Food and Economy 36:41 Importance of Bronze38:08 Warfare and Weapons40:25 Hunting and Horses41:47 Roads42:26 Religion45:28 Minoans and Maritime Trade48:07 Earthquake on Thera49:26 Mycenaeans on Crete52:22 Mycenaean Political Unity?53:31 Ahhiyawa and the Hittites55:31 Attarissiya of Ahhiya57:55 The Assuwan Confederacy 1:00:10 Piyamaradu and the Tawagalawa Letter1:05:16 Alaksandu of Wilusa (Troy)1:08:29 Ahhiyawa and Tudhaliya IV1:11:20 Are Mycenaean Greece and Ahhiyawa the Same?1:13:07 Mycenaean Trade with the World1:15:08 The Uluburun Shipwreck1:18:01 Fear and Dread1:23:15 Desperate Times, Desperate Measures1:25:53 Possible Theories for the Fall of Mycenaean Civilization1:27:24 End of an Era1:28:54 Thank You and PatronsSupport the show

The Origins of Gaza

The Ancients

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2023 39:55

Throughout history, the area today known as Gaza has often been a contentious site. Its historical significance is a history that spans nearly 3 millennia, and archaeological evidence shows us that it was an international hub frequented by the Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Hittites and more.In this episode, Tristan welcomes Professor Louise Steel to the podcast to talk both about about her team's excavations of Gaza and what the archaeology can tell us. Together, they look at Gaza's transition into the Bronze Age, the early Egyptian discoveries, and assess Gaza's significance in the ancient world.Don't miss out on the best offer in history! Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 for 3 months with code ANCIENT1 sign up now for your 14-day free trial here.You can take part in our listener survey here.

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Giving Goliath his Due: Mycenaeans and Philistines, Part II (Ad Navseam, Episode 129)

Ad Navseam

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2023 72:17

It's time for Jeff and Dave to finish off their brief foray into all things Philistine and Mycenaean. This week we wrap up our look at Neal Bierling's short but deep monograph on the state of excavation in Palestine. After a quick review of inscriptional and ceramic evidence, the Phaistos Disc, anthropoid coffins, and more, the conversation takes us on to the different eras in Philistine history: Judges to David, David to Solomon, Solomon to Hezekiah, and finally to the eventual dissolution or absorption of the Philistine people at the time of Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar's devastating invasion. Things get a little testy in the vomitorium when it comes to the trickster archetype, Jungian analogues, and the exact relationship between Samson and Hercules (and Paul Bunyan?) So tune in for what we hope was a careful thinking through the issues, some silly laughs and (on Dave's part) horrible puns, and a big announcement from one of our sponsors, RatioCoffee.

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Giving Goliath his Due: Mycenaeans and Philistines, Part I (Ad Navseam, Episode 128)

Ad Navseam

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2023 64:51

Does the name Neal Bierling mean anything to you, dear listener? No? Well it will after this episode. Bierling's 1992 monograph Giving Goliath his Due is our theme this week and next, and it's a thorough, exhaustively researched look at the close connection between the Mycenaeans of Atreus and Agamemnon and those inveterate opponents of the biblical Israelites known as the Philistines. In this first half, we look at the evidence of archaeology and epigraphy, including Egyptian steles and anthropoid burial objects, olive-oil production, feather headdresses, and Goliath's bronze-age armor. Along the way, learn of the Mice-smasher Apollo Smintheus, the Philistine's desperate attempt to return their war trophy the Ark of the Covenant, and the overwhelming, almost ironclad (get it?) evidence that the Mycenaeans who fought at Troy became the Philistines of the pentapolis (Gaza, Ashdod, Ekron, etc.) Don't miss the startling similarity between Iliad I and I Samuel 4-6.

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Engines of Our Ingenuity 2800: 2800 Years Ago

Engines of Our Ingenuity

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 28, 2023 3:49

Episode: 2800 Two information revolutions: 2800 years ago, and surrounding the 2800th Episode. Today, 2800 years ago.

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Oldest Genesis Myth in the World is SHOCKING | DOCUMENTARY

Nickel City Chronicles - Young American Dialogue

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2023 22:35

https://www.patreon.com/GnosticInformant Please Consider joining my Patreon to help finding scholars to bring on. Any amount helps me. Thank you existing Patrons. The ancient Pelasgians mentioned by the Greek poet Homer were a mysterious and enigmatic people who played a significant role in early Greek mythology and history. Homer described them as a prehistoric civilization, often associated with the region of Thessaly and the city of Argos. However, the exact origins and characteristics of the Pelasgians remain a subject of debate among historians and scholars. According to Homer, the Pelasgians were a people who lived in the time before the Trojan War and were associated with the construction of massive structures, such as the walls of Mycenae. They were considered skilled builders and were often depicted as a semi-divine or legendary group. Some ancient Greek writers even suggested that the Pelasgians were the original inhabitants of Greece, predating other Greek-speaking tribes. The historical reality of the Pelasgians is complex and elusive, as they appear in various ancient Greek texts with different interpretations. Some scholars argue that they were a distinct ethnic group, while others propose that the term "Pelasgians" was used to refer to various indigenous populations of the Aegean region. Ultimately, the true identity and nature of the Pelasgians remain shrouded in the mists of antiquity, leaving us with fragments of mythology and historical accounts that continue to intrigue and fascinate to this day. The proto-Indo-European ancestors of the Greeks in and around the Black Sea region are generally believed to be the people known as the Proto-Greeks or the Mycenaean Greeks. The Mycenaean civilization, which flourished from around the 16th to the 12th century BCE, is considered an important precursor to classical Greek civilization. The Mycenaeans were part of a broader group of Indo-European speakers who migrated into the Balkans and Anatolia during the Bronze Age. These migrations are often associated with the expansion of the Indo-European language family, which includes Greek as one of its branches. The exact origins of the Proto-Greeks are still a subject of ongoing research and debate among historians and linguists. The Mycenaeans established a powerful civilization centered around the southern part of mainland Greece, with major centers such as Mycenae, Pylos, and Tiryns. They were skilled warriors, traders, and builders, known for their impressive palaces and fortifications. Their culture and language laid the foundation for the later development of ancient Greek civilization. It's important to note that while the Mycenaeans and their language are considered a significant part of the proto-Indo-European ancestry of the Greeks, the complex history of ancient migrations and cultural interactions in the region makes it difficult to attribute the Greek population exclusively to a single ancestral group. Civilization around the Black Sea region has a long and rich history, dating back thousands of years. The area has been inhabited by various cultures and civilizations since ancient times. The earliest evidence of human habitation in the region can be traced back to the Paleolithic era, around 45,000 to 12,000 years ago. In terms of more complex civilizations, one of the notable early cultures in the region was the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, which flourished from approximately 5500 to 2750 BCE. This Neolithic culture was known for its advanced agriculture, pottery, and sizable settlements. Moving forward in time, the Black Sea region saw the rise and fall of various ancient civilizations. The ancient Greeks established numerous colonies along the coast of the Black Sea from the 8th century BCE onward, fostering trade and cultural exchange in the region. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NealSendlak1 Discord: https://discord.com/invite/uWBZkxd4UX#gnosticinformant #oldest #documentary --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gnosticinformant/message

The Ancient Uluburun Shipwreck

Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2023 92:33

An interview with renowned archaeologist Dr. Eric Cline, author of 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Dr. Cline and Rich Napolitano discuss the Bronze Age shipwreck at Uluburun, dating back to 1300 BCE. The vessel was carrying vast amount of riches and valuable items that can be traced to kingdoms all over the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Near East Asia. The cargo found on the ship has changed what we knew about the Late Bronze Age and the trade relationships between the Mycenaeans, Minoans, Egyptians, Cypriots, Canaanites, Hittites, and Mitanni.For images, links, and sources, please visit www.shipwrecksandseadogs.com.

The History of the World podcast Magazine - 10th July 2023

magazine hannibal alps world podcast history of the world minoans mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2023 56:17

In this episode, we'll be looking back at the paleoanthropologist Eugene Dubois; the relationship between the Mycenaeans and the Minoans; the incredible journey of Hannibal across the Alps; and the rise and fall of the Macedonian Empire.

Life As A New Hire: part 19

Steamy Stories Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2022

Being known by the company you keep.By FinalStand. Listen and subscribe to the podcast at Steamy Stories.Life exists in both seconds and years. Don’t ignore one for the other.I would like to thank the phone operator and Chief of the Burnham, Illinois Police Department for answering my questions, despite their bizarre nature.(Monday Night)I should have known to not have too good a time. My karma was wacky enough as it was. It was about to get worse in a way I should have foreseen. Ain’t hindsight grand?Inside of five seconds I knew how much sharing Libra and Brooke did; a lot. On the plus side, it gave me some wiggle room with Libra where sex with Brooke was concerned. On the super-plus side, Brooke was looking forward to ratcheting up our sex play. I took her to Libra’s experiences with all the extra bells and whistles.In this case it meant adding a blindfold and ball-gag to the hand restraints. Brooke handed me a high level of trust unexpected at this early moment in our sexcapade. With a quick empathic insight, I pulled her ball-gag down as her orgasm erupted. She rejoiced in the sound of her rapture echoing around my bedroom.I deceived her into her next climax by whispering a promise to release her then hammering her instead. The whole specter of powerlessness tore her up inside. Best of all, even as she spasmed beneath me, I released her cuffs then pulled up her mask. Her fingernails dug into my trapezius muscles. For over a minute, she clung to me with a deep hunger to feel my heat and sweat against her body.“My turn,” she rasped. I pressed my shoulders and head up so I could look into her eyes. She was waiting for this opportunity since she’d talked with Libra. Without question, she’d never been tied down before, or tied a man down and had her way with him. She’d manipulated men most of her life; that was old hat.This was primal, physical and forbidden. She was taking complete control of my person. God, I thought she’d orgasmed when she finished cuffing me to the headboard. Taunting, teasing and hot body contact followed as she put the ball-gag in. Sizzling lips sealed my fate as the blindfold was slipped in place.Having invested so much time using all my senses soaking up the hungry beast that Brooke possessed right beneath her urbane surface, losing my eyesight wasn’t a major drawback. For Brooke, this had all the benefits of anonymous sex in a blacked-out room with the bonus of her having the lights on for her use alone. My bet was she had studied stuff on-line.From being sure she wasn’t going to have sex with me when she first met, she had graduated to running naked across my living room for what turned out to be lemon slices. The ‘fumph’ of the Nerf gun made me assume Timothy shot her in the buttocks as she raced into my room. By the yip from Brooke, I knew Timothy’s aim remained frighteningly accurate.Lemon juice and cuts don’t mix, or, Brooke enjoyed watching my body jolt as said juice interacted with said 'workplace’ mistakes. Was I angry? Nah. Every hiss of pain was followed by lavished kisses, licks and hair lashings. I loved her long black hair draped over my body, flicked around whisk-like and tickling my nose.Brooke was learning my keystone technique; figure out what your partner wants and give them a quick sample. Don’t use any one thing too much; make it a treat and they’ll appreciate the taste they get even more. When Brooke finally sated us both, it was my turn again. We talked a while. She invited me to a friend’s place in the Hamptons which suggested to me the destination was more than some made-up place on TV.I promised to think about it. Brooke took that to mean she needed to work harder to convince me. I honestly had little desire to be trotted around as Brooke’s boy toy. Hoping that wouldn’t be the case relied a lot on faith. I wasn’t sure what I would have in common with any of that crowd, which guided me back to being a stuck up snob for treating a people as a social class and not as human beings.I took out my social anxiety on Brooke. Poor girl; three holes, ten positions and I’m not sure how many times I took her from frenzied peak to frenzied peak. All I knew was when she’d passed all points of previous primeval ecstasy, I finally released her. Brooke curled into a semi-fetal ball and began burrowing into me.“Happy?” I asked as I stroked her sweat-drenched hair. She nodded happily against my chest. “Are you glad you came over?” I continued. Brooke bit me because she knew I was teasing her. “Ow,” I grumbled. “I think we have a misunderstanding who is whose sex toy here.”“Do I need to bite you again?” Brooke mumbled into my chest.“Point taken,” I conceded. Brooke snuggled in even tighter. We wrestled out of bed, stumbled into the shower and took some time off with Timothy. He looked at us and smirked.“Cáel is going to be my boyfriend,” Brooke tossed out there. Huh?“What in God’s green earth makes you want to do that?” Timothy chuckled.“He’s been there when I needed him. Cáel is a real man and it has taken me having a really tough spill to realize that it doesn’t matter which alumni your Daddy belongs to, but what you put on the line for your friends that really matters,” Brooke enlightened us both.“Seriously Dude,” Timothy looked at me with pity.“Cut down on the awesome dicking until somehow polygamy becomes legal,” he added, but then, “Brooke, you know he’s seeing about a dozen different ladies, right?”“Cáel is looking for a serious relationship,” Brooke insisted. Timothy chortled because he knew the likelihood of me settling down was right up there with us sharing a White Christmas in the Bahamas.“Let’s go back to bed, Babe,” I redirected things to safer waters. “It is your turn to be on top.” Brooke, wearing one of my fresh t-shirts and nothing else, hopped off the sofa and let me lead her back to the bedroom for another round of 'not thinking about any other part of my fucked up life except the beautiful woman with me right now’ sex.Twenty minutes later, Brooke had encased my rod in her wanton elixirs, was gyrating her hips as she stroked my rod inside her vagina while keeping me bound, blind and muffled. My phone rang.“Should I get that?” Brooke teased me. She moved enough to seize my cellular device.“The number is unlisted,” she mused. “Who could it be?” I gave a muffled response. She removed the ball-gag enough for me to speak.“Work,” I repeated. “It might be work. I’m on-call 24/7.”“Damn,” Brooke undoubtedly pouted (still blindfolded). She answered the call then placed the phone to my ear.“Cáel, a Security Detail detachment is on their way to your quarters as we speak. You will recognized the code they will use,” Katrina’s icy calm voice informed me.“Katrina, what is wrong?” I inquired. Normally, I wouldn’t get an answer. Katrina’s tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.“There has been an incident at your Father’s home in Chicago. We do not have clear intelligence at this time. I may have more when you get in,” she related.“Understood,” I replied. My passionate storm abated and I felt empty inside. Dad.“Cáel?” Brooke sounded worried.“We need to get dressed,” I murmured. I had to let Timothy know something was truly wrong. I needed to get Brooke home safely. I…I needed to know more than I did right then. Brooke uncuffed me quickly. I barely had my boxers on when there was a light series of raps on the door. I sprang up, opened my bedroom door, surprising Odette.She must have come back to work a few minutes earlier and was unwinding with some low-volume TV and some sofa time. Timothy was asleep already.“Odette, go back to Timothy’s room and warn him something bad may have happened. Go!” I warned. Odette scampered back. Brooke was at my back, trying to move into the main room.“Brooke, stay here. If something unusual happens, hide in the bedroom and don’t come out until the police get here. Do you understand?” I met her confusion with an iron stare. She nodded. There was another, more insistent, rapping at my apartment door. I crept up to the portal and gave a counter-knock.“Crab Fisher-woman,” a female voice said from the other side.“My Father’s Sister,” I responded. It was an imperfect code, but effective given the circumstances. I double checked through the spy hole, unlocked the door and let three SD Amazons inside. How bad was it? I doubted these ladies would know more than I did.“[OKH] Ishara,” the leader said, “we have orders to escort you to Havenstone immediately.”They weren’t blindly expecting me to follow instructions. They had a directive they were following to the best of their ability.“[OKH] Will a team be watching my domicile?” I asked. The leader nodded. “We need to take a female I have been with tonight to her dwelling before going on to Havenstone.”The SD team leader nodded again. There was no condescension, or argument. They were following orders as if it was my right to issue them. That was how bad things were. Time to get back to English.“Brooke, finish getting dressed. I’m taking you home,” I called out.Quite frankly, along with my desire to see Brooke back home safely was my instinct to not split up my guardians. Better a longer trip than two smaller, more vulnerable groups. I was in the process of getting dressed in the living room when Timothy and Odette came out.“Bro?” Timothy asked.“My Father’s home was attacked. I have no other details right now,” I explained with a sinking feeling in my heart. Timothy read my soul, came up and engulfed me in his mighty arms. Odette added herself to the heart-felt love-pile.“Do you want me to take Odette and head back to Queens for a while?” Timothy asked.He sensed we had limited time.“They,” and by 'they’ he knew I meant Havenstone, “will have a team watching this place. There are not enough resources to go back and forth to work. I wish I could tell what would keep you safe, but I don’t know anymore.”“We’ll stay put,” Timothy declared. Odette nodded. “We’ll be here for you when you get back. If any of these psycho-broads want to stop by from time to time, I won’t say no.” I shot a look to the security team leader and she gave a curt 'okay’.“You’ll need an overnight bag!” Odette squeaked. Off she went.Brooke finished getting dressed and came to my side. To your average Lothario, what she did might seem odd. To me, it was the normal refrain; Brooke shoved her panties into my jean’s pocket. That was a not so subtle 'Call Me’ for when I got back.“Three minutes, Ish; Cáel,” the leader updated me.My amateur guess was this was the team from across the street. They had back-up vehicles and personnel streaking down from Havenstone to provide extra security for my move.“Velma,” she gave me her name. A quick description was in order. The three Amazons all had Bluetooth devices, shooting glasses and steel-gray long coats that had to be uncomfortable in this upper seventies evening heat.Underneath, they had on light ballistic body armor on their torsos, arms, and legs. Even their dull grey, all-terrain boots looked armored. They had a hip holstered sidearm, most likely a back-up pistol at the small of their backs and a deadly blade, or three. Their main deterrence was their H&K UMP-40; my second favorite Amazon killing device.Timothy snuck off to get my toiletries, returning around the same time Odette trundled out with an overnight (or three) bag. There was a final round of hugs then Velma indicated it was time to leave. The fourth member of the team was stationed at the top of the third floor stairs. That gave her a good view of my hallway as well as the passage going up and down.Two SD’s to the front, Velma and the fourth watching our backs and Brooke caught between giddy and freaking terrified. Things got even more exciting when we hit the bottom of the stairs. Two more ladies were waiting. They put a trench coat on Brooke and she nearly collapsed. The freed up Amazon took my bag while the second put a trench coat on me.I grunted as well. This bitch had to weigh 25 kg. That was some serious ballistic and blast protection. The closest newcomer began attaching my pistol with hip holster on my side while Brooke was 'buttoned up’. I was slipped a few spare clips then was buttoned up as well.“I’m not sure I can walk in this thing,” Brooke gave me a weak smile.“Don’t worry,” I smiled, “I’ll carry you.” I slipped my arm around Brooke’s waist and, on Velma’s signal, we rushed out to the middle of three Mercedes Armored GL550s. The doors had barely shut before we were racing away from my favorite home. I walked Brooke up to her apartment, we hugged, kissed and she insisted I go to the Hamptons with her this weekend.I left with that promise unanswered. I didn’t ask the Security Detail to do anything else outrageous and they didn’t give me any crap about Brooke. Their vigilance didn’t end at Havenstone either. No; they formed a tight knot of outward hostility until we marched into Katrina’s office. Even then, they spread out over the Executive Services offices as an extended perimeter.Katrina’s office was another step up on the unsettling meter. It was Katrina, Saint Marie, Buffy, Helena, and a woman I didn’t know yet seemed to belong.“Excuse me?” Saint Marie shot a hostile look my way; actually right behind me.“Don’t mind me,” Pamela snorted. She was in the process of sneaking into the room.“I’m here for moral support,” she concluded then took a seat.“Cáel?” Katrina queried, as if I could somehow exile Pamela from the room.“What’s going on?” I began the meeting instead.“Your Father is dead,” Katrina reported. If someone ever asked me what it felt like to have an arm cut off, I could truthfully answer them 'Yes’. Dad.“From what we have been able to gather from the video and audio gear the four Amazon Security Detail team assigned to watch over him transmitted, the team was setting up a perimeter when three vehicles with ten men stopped on the juncture of Janus and Kerr streets and approached the house. The team leader made formal recognition and was attacked,” Katrina told me.“Are they okay?” I mumbled. I didn’t want to know how my Dad died. Had he been in pain? Which side had killed him? Would knowing make a damn bit of difference?“Three of the four members were killed,” Saint Marie interjected. “The team commander was killed instantly. The second died defending that corner of your Father’s domicile.The third member was killed attempting to rescue your Father. The surviving member stopped the enemy from escaping with your Father’s body, but was too badly injured to extricate herself and is now in police custody.”“What are we going to do about this?” I inquired. Pamela was a lying bitch.She’d lied to Brianna because the truth would have gotten me and Dad killed. Dad had still died, but Pamela had kept me alive.“There is nothing we can do,” the stranger spoke up. “Troika of House Šauška.”“You are joking, right?” I stared at her.“He was a male, not of…” Troika began to state.“You do know your Amazon law, correct?” I countered. She gave a curt tilt of the head. “Recount the means of succession to the Head of a House then please explain to the room how my Father, the descendant of Vranus, fits into all that.”Cha-ching!“Oh, by the Seven Goddesses!” Saint Marie jumped up. “They murdered the Head of House Ishara!” Katrina was already back on top; ahead of the game.“But what does that make him?” Troika pointed at me.“It confirms him as the Head of House Ishara. We can sugar-coat it and say Cáel, being the only 'active’ member of Havenstone 'represented’ the Head of House Ishara. By our traditions though, Ferko Nyilas was the lawful head of a 'First’ House. Certainly four days were not enough time to settle the manner in an acceptable way,” Katrina said.“At the very least, House Ishara would have been given 28 days to resolve any matters of succession internally,” Katrina pointed out. “There was no deception. Cáel worked for Havenstone, so was our active member. The existence of his Father was known. It is in his basic file. It was highly unlikely that ANY House wanted to bring another male into the mix so the matter of his ascension was left unquestioned.”“This is Casus Belli,” Troika stood up and declared in a firm voice. “I will inform Hayden. We must know the perpetrators of this act, Katrina. I will prepare to relate this breach of the Protocols to the other Signatories.”“To make sure I have this straight, I can defend any member of my family, no matter who they are, without violating the Protocols?” I questioned. “Can I kill them?”“That is correct,” Troika appeared confused. “Other Signatories cannot harm, or detain your family in any way.” I gave a bitter, hollow laugh. Dad…Dad wouldn’t have understood, but Mom would have, no doubt.“Troika…hell, everyone but Pamela and Katrina, I am Cáel Nyilas, grandson of THE Cáel O'Shea and those people who murdered my Dad very well may have been my family,” I felt like crying.That was good because I was crying. I had talked to Dad early Monday morning. I had been so nervous about not leaving any trace of Mom behind that I couldn’t recall if I said 'I love you’ to him. I’d never get the chance to make up for that oversight. As I began to take in the faces around me, I realized Ishara had gifted me with a respite. No one else knew who Cáel O'Shea was; yet.“Troika,” I started out. I could tell she was still having difficulty with the 'Man as someone worthy of stating an opinion’ moment. “When the Council decides that the Illuminati have breached the Protocols, do I have a deciding vote on what we do; since Dad was my family?”“No,” Troika clarified, “and what makes you think it was the Illuminati?” Pamela laughed at her.“Because I killed Cáel’s Grandfather when that man was head of the Illuminati; slit his throat and rendered him incapable of resuscitation. The rest of that twisted clan have only now discovered that there is a successor, genetically, to the Old Man and you are looking at him,” Pamela related in an amused tone.“Perhaps; just perhaps; they were interested in what happened to Cáel’s Mother and the man she mated with to produce Cáel…who also happened to be the Head of House Ishara and now leaves this man (me) as the last of his kind; coming and going,” Pamela finished, “for both the Amazons and the O'Shea family/the Illuminati.”Troika was having problems fitting all the puzzle pieces. Saint Marie cut to the heart of the matter because she listens to me.“If you go to war against the O'Shea’s you are being forced to fight your own family,” the Golden Mare stared at me in shock.“Let me get this straight,” Troika stood up, waving for silence. “When the O'Shea’s killed Ferko Nyilas, they murdered the Head of a First House. They also murdered a member of their own family by way of marriage.” She seemed totally flummoxed. Everyone agreed about how fucked up everything was. Breach? No Breach?“Welcome to life working with Cáel Nyilas,” Katrina declared. There was a pause.“I’ll let the professionals figure out the finer points of diplomacy. I have to go,” I said.“Were do you think you are going?” Buffy popped up. Until this moment, she’d had no role in affairs. My safety though…“I am going home to bury my Father, Buffy,” I announced. This was not a discussion.“Shouldn’t we take his body to the cliffs?” Troika suggested.“My Father will face the Afterlife with my Mother at his side. It was his wish and I’m not going to start dictating to my Ancestors now,” I sighed.I was trying to make light of my pain. By the looks on their faces, I was failing. I had barely exited the office, Buffy, Helena and Pamela in tow. The security team was closing in and my phone rang.“Cáel Nyilas,” I answered sadly.“Mr. Nyilas, this is Investigator Brewster of the Burnham Police Department. I need a few moments of your time,” a man’s voice requested. I hesitated. I looked at my watch.“Yes…Dad?” I finally spoke.“Mr. Nyilas, your father seems to have been murdered late this evening in a bungled attempted burglary,” he lied. It was a good lie.If he really believed a bungled robbery consisted of two heavily armed groups shooting a small residential home to pieces he was…nah, he was lying.“I’m on the next flight to Chicago,” was the response I chose. I had so many 'loser’ replies to choose from.“That would be helpful, Mr. Nyilas,” he told me. “Do you know when I can expect you?”“Ah…I have no idea when the next plane from New York to Chicago is, but if I can buy a ticket on it, I’m there,” I countered. Admittedly, me having a plane ticket for home would have been damn suspicious.“One last thing, Mr. Nyilas, do you have any idea why someone would want to murder your father? Anything you could tell us could be of great assistance,” he pressed.“Yes, I have a clue who murdered my Father and I’ll point you to the dead bodies when I’m done,” I snapped; quite literally and mentally snapped. Pause.“Mr. Nyilas, I understand you are upset, but do not do anything rash. Now, could your father have been murdered for anything you might have done, or are doing?” Det. Brewster kept is game face on.“We’ll have this chat when I get to Chicago. Until then, take care,” I said before hanging up.“Smooth,” Pamela gently chastised me.“I actually liked him going all 'Mafia Don’ on that cop,” Buffy countered.“I’ll arrange for Havenstone to get us transportation to Chicago,” Helena added.“No,” I countermanded her. “You two stay here and finish up business. Join me late Tuesday night, or early Wednesday morning.”By the looks Buffy and Helena gave me they were surprised…and proud. I was keeping to my 'Runner’ induction time table. My family would not be diminished by this tragedy. It would grow. Come Wednesday morning, we would add twenty new voices to Ishara’s war cry.“I’ll take the first commercial flight available,” I continued.“We cannot protect you on a civilian aircraft, Ishara,” Velma warned me.“They; the authorities are expecting me to show up at O'Hare, so I’m showing up at O'Hare, like a normal person,” I reminded her. “I’ll also need to know at what hospital they are keeping our sister.” Our sister; the sole surviving Amazon who nearly gave her life for Dad.The SD picked up on that immediately. Another leap had been made. I wasn’t a masculine monster, raging against a female warrior who had failed. By the tone of my voice, they knew I was in grief yet not overcome by it. She was the last member of the Host to see my Father alive and she might hold the closure I needed.“It will be done,” Velma decided. “We will have your team meet you at O'Hare.”“My team?” I asked.“Rachel; her team,” Velma clarified. That was enough good for me.“Oh, and get Pamela a ticket as well. I’d hate to have her mug another passenger and take theirs,” I sighed. Pamela patted me on the back; an 'atta boy’.(Monday Noon)(The hospital)That was not the first time I wondered about how fatal Pamela had been in her prime. In fact, I wasn’t sure that post-60 wasn’t her best time yet. The only mistake the police officer guarding the Amazon’s hospital room made was to sit in a chair. Pamela had long ago mastered the peon-craft that Rosetta had started to teach me.The policeman looked up, stared right through her then looked the other way. His gaze never swept back in my direction. She jabbed him quickly underneath both arms, paralyzing them for a few seconds. That was all she needed. Hers hand clamped over his eyes and on his throat, cutting off the blood flow to the brain before his hands could recover.He appeared to the outside world to have taken a nap. According to Pamela, we had roughly three minutes before he came around. Pamela kept walking down the hall as if nothing happened. I came ten steps behind, guarded by a gun-less Rachel as I entered the Intensive Care Unit. A few of the staff looked our way, but no one impeded our progress.According to the Duty Nurse, the Amazon had exited surgery barely an hour ago. Her eyes opened to slits as I approached her beside.“We stand before the Eye of the World,” I whispered. That meant surveillance. “I cannot tell you what is in my heart. My name is Cáel Nyilas. Does that name mean anything to you?”Her hand flopped. I put two fingers into her feeble gasp. One squeeze; yes. “I am grateful for your prowess and I share in your sorrow for those who will no longer fight in this life. Please heal and grow strong for this is the start, not the finish,” I completed. She squeezed my fingers once more. I stepped aside, letting Rachel take my place.They didn’t exchange words but communicated volumes. We slipped out of the room while the guard was still groggy. Pamela was nowhere to be seen. That proved to be pre-sentient when a group of people with the propensity to flash IDs caught up to me at the ground floor.Had the backdrop of this fiasco not been the death of my Father, I might have enjoyed the twitching/counter-twitching going on between Rachel, who desperately wanted any one of her guns, and the cops who were picking up on that desire.“Mr. Nyilas, I am…” and the introductions came pouring in.I had Theodora Chumwell and Brock Miklos, Special Agents of the FBI, John Rios, Special Agent with the ATF, Investigator Horace Brewster from the Burnham PD and Homicide Detective Lisa Capella from the Chicago PD.“We would like to talk with you,” Theodora took charge.“Can I ask a question first?” I raised my hand. That appeared to set them off their game plan.“Of course,” Theodora allowed.“Okay; FBI, ATF, a homicide detective from Chicago and the only law enforcement official who has any business being here,” I finished with Brewster.“I may not be a Rhodes Scholar, but this seems a bit extreme for the burglary/murder of a long-time employee of Illinois Power and Light. Does anyone care to fill me on what the hell is going on?” I looked over the group. “Oh, and thank you Investigator Brewster for your call. I know I didn’t take the news well.”“Was that the part where you said you would point to the dead bodies?” Theodora took charge.“Yes, I think that was the gaff I was referring to,” I agreed.“Why are you here, Mr. Nyilas?” Lisa Capella jumped in. She had decided to not go along with the FBI playbook.“I came to see the woman found alive in my family home,” I replied smoothly.“She is probably still in surgery,” Lisa gave a twist of the lips; sex.“Oh, she got out an hour ago,” I enlightened them.“Let’s take this conversation to FBI Headquarters,” Theodora 'suggested’; you know, in the way that really wasn’t a suggestion.“Have you gone to see that woman?” Lisa wouldn’t let up; good for her. It was upsetting Theodora and I’d already decided that Brewster was my go-to guy on this investigation.“Yes,” I responded to Lisa.“Isn’t she under police protection?” Lisa and Theodora blurted out together.“There was a policeman at her door,” I shrugged. “We went in and I talked to her.”“What did she say?” Theodora brushed Lisa aside.“Nothing. She had one of those tubes down her throat. Whatever I said…well, I was emotional,” I evaded. “She was barely conscious.”Lisa was urgently contacting her guy who was supposed to be watching the only person in custody they had. He claimed to have 'blacked out’. He couldn’t remember anyone coming in to see the woman and swore he hadn’t been unconscious for any length of time. He went in, checked up on the Amazon and she was fine; for someone who had been shot six times.“We should go to the FBI offices,” Theodora repeated.“I’m going home,” I sighed sadly. “I want to go home.”“It is still an active crime scene,” John told me. “There won’t be any civilian access for some time.” Translation: until they decided to give me the carrot instead of the stick.“Please, come with us,” FBI Special Agent Brock added his weight.“No. I’m going with Burnham PD,” I countered. “You can find me there.”“That’s not how it works,” Theodora upped her authority meter. Lisa had fallen back, trying to take in the bigger picture.Brewster was clearly trying to recall if he had ANY history with me, or my Dad, that would make me trust him over the others.“I may be a liberal arts major from northern New England, but I know how a larynx works,” I regarded Theodora. “Unless I choose to make a sound, it does nothing. Nothing is about to be all we have left to do and say.”“Don’t you want to help solve your Father’s murder?” Brock tried to sound both sympathetic and threatening at the same time. I was suddenly bombarded with the taste of Lime Sherbet and Jalapenos Ice Cream.“Really? Fine; I’m going to hang out with the only person in this room I know is working on my Father’s murder, not on their career,” I reposed.“We are all trying to…” Lisa got out.“You maybe,” I gave Lisa that much. “My Father made around $70,000 a year after twenty-six years for Illinois P&L. He had almost paid off the colossal debt built up by my Mother’s illness and my college expenses.”“As far as I know, he took out one loan his entire life; from a bank; and he paid it off,” I continued. “He was a lapsed Catholic, a member of the IBEW; Local 9, and he jogged. He barely used e-mail and had no close friends I am aware of. The only woman he loved was my Mother and he mourned her to the day he died.”“What about your activity?” Theodora inquired. We weren’t running off to her playground; yet. Handcuffing a grieving son would look bad and, by my attitude, wouldn’t make me talkative in the least.“I have the unfortunate habit of sleeping with every woman I meet,” I began.“So that’s over 200 erotic encounters. I get annoyed with people throwing their weight around,” I continued, “which is why you and I are getting off on the wrong foot, Special Agent Theodora Chumwell. I work for Havenstone Commercial Investments, getting paid an insane amount to fetch laundry and keep secrets. Good enough?”“No, it is not…” Theodora simmered.“How did you know about the existence of the woman upstairs and how did you know to come here?” Lisa interrupted.“I grew up in that house, know the neighbors and know this is the closest EMS center to home,” I lied convincingly.“Who are you?” Brewster decided that I wasn’t exiting the hospital gracefully so turned on Rachel. She didn’t speak, choosing to be creepy and brandishing a wallet instead. I kept forgetting that most full-blooded Amazons had minimal socialization with outsiders. Having graduated elementary school, everyone else knew this was a bizarre reaction.“Rachel Louis,” Brewster read off the license in the wallet. A normal person would have acknowledged that somehow; not Rachel. “You are Rachel Louis, aren’t you?”“Yes, she is,” I intervened. “Rachel is a co-worker at Havenstone and she is misanthropic misandrist.”There was a pregnant pause. The confusion wasn’t with 'misanthropic’. It was a grown-up word in usage with colorful police-types. It was 'misandrist’ that had them stumped.“Rachel is an unsociable man-hater,” I explained. “Standing at my side in this hospital is ten kinds of Hell for her.”“What kind of piece do you normal carry?” Rios asked her. Unsocial didn’t mean stupid.“I use a Glock-22 and Rachel carries a STI Perfect 10,” I answered. “We have been experiencing quite a gopher problem around the office.” I could have done better; I should have done better. I was just too tired inside to create an inventive lie.“Do have gun licenses for those weapons?” Mr. ATF kept prodding at our cover story.“It seems Ms. Louis; is it Ms. Ms. Louis?” Brewster continued. I flashed Rachel a look which she interpreted correctly.“Yes, my name is Ms. Rachel Louis,” Rachel replied. To me, “I find this distraction to be annoying. We should go.”“It would seem Ms. Louis has all kinds of…” Brewster got out before Rachel snatched the wallet from his grip with the speed of a Peregrine Falcon. Brewster had this stunned look familiar to crows, doves and starlings the world over as one of their kin passed into the next life in a flash. A combination of 'No you didn’t!’ with 'what the flock?’“Ah…” Brewster got out.“On that note, I think we will be going,” I shrugged. To Rachel, “You do not get out enough.”“Can I see your wallet again?” Brewster was still confused by Rachel’s rudeness. He was a cop for the love of God. People not wanting to go to jail do not snatch things from a cop’s hands.“I gave you my wallet. I am not to blame if you used its time in your possession unwisely,” Rachel counterattacked. “Unless there is a legal technicality, we shall be leaving. If there is a legal issue, here,” she produced a business card with a flourish, “is the contact information for our legal department.” Theodora took the card gingerly then read it.“Havenstone again,” she mused. “Are you sure this is the path you wish to take, Mr. Nyilas?”“Are you insane?” I trembled with emotion. “I want to be back in New York, working my queue and thinking about what my date and I will be doing tonight. I want my Dad to be alive. I don’t want to be thinking that the last time we talked I forgot to tell him I loved him.”“Path, you IDIOT!” I screamed at Theodora. Fuck it, I was crying again. “Not a damn thing any of you can do will bring my Dad back to me; so fuck off!” In a strange way, that was what they had been looking for. Not my wounded soul, but my rage and pain toward a World suddenly found to be cruel and pointless.Behind my crumbling façade was another worry. Outside in the parking lot were three Amazons with weapons ready to rush to my aid. It wasn’t that the Host was rash, or reckless, by nature. I was one of the fifty-six most important people in their society. Three other SD members had died in the defense of House Ishara already and they were damn sure those women would not have died in vain.I wasn’t leaving in federal custody willingly and if I walked out in restraints, I wasn’t sure if they would decide offing some law enforcement agents and staging my kidnapping was the best course of action. Remember, I wanted to bury my Father. They wanted to keep me alive. If those two goals collided, they would apologize after the fact.“Mr. Nyilas, I really believe we should…” Theodora got out then I brushed past her. It was a delicate moment and the chemistry between Rachel and I wasn’t lost on most of them. She was a bodyguard yet my servant too. It was professional tribalism; two words that don’t normally get along. Rios picked up on the other undercurrent.He recoiled from Rachel, retreating to buy space when/if Rachel attacked. Unlike the rest, he sensed that aggression by law enforcement would be met with lethal force. The Amazon didn’t care about the badge and the legions of fellow officers backing it up. She was fearless. Things weren’t over yet.“Mr. Nyilas, were are you going next?” Detective Lisa came after us.“I…I don’t know,” I muttered. “Where is my Father’s body? I know he wanted to be cremated and buried beside Mom…I guess.” Brewster came hurrying along.“He is at the Medical Examiner’s Office,” Lisa informed me. “Come with me.”“Why don’t you give me the address?” I sighed.“Do you and your buddy know your way around Chicago, Hometown Boy?” Lisa kept it up. She was hitting on me and lining me up at the same time.“How about we cut to the chase?” I looked at her with tear-soaked eyes.“We’ll take my cars; cars with an ’s’,” I offered. “I am a hometown boy. I’ve never had a reason to locate the Medical Examiner before. Since I have a boatload of angry women with guns who will not fit into your sedan and leaving them behind isn’t an option, mine is the only means of travel that makes sense.”Low and behold, the two cops looked at each other then followed Rachel and I to our little caravan. We were too close for the officers to have missed Rachel snapping off some quick, coded instructions to her team; most likely to hide the seriously illegal firearms. To say the Amazons were not pleased with my decisions spoke volumes to their concern for me and lack of police experience.Pamela, who had beaten us back to the cars, seemed privately entertained as always. Rachel was reluctantly sitting up front. Lisa, Brewster and I were in the second row and Pamela sat in back. Not only did the two not get a good look at Pamela, she was perfectly placed to do all kinds of mischief unseen.“So the woman upstairs works with you?” Lisa asked as we pulled out.“Where to?” Tiger Lily (I still wasn’t used to that name) requested of our Police 'buddies’. Lisa popped off the address. It was 'I’ll scratch your back, you’ll scratch mine’. Tiger Lily entered the data into the onboard computer and off we went.“No. She does not work for me, or my boss, directly. She was at my Father’s on my behalf though I was unaware of it,” I related.“Are you going to tell us what the hell happened?” Brewster prodded.“That I don’t know. I am not personally aware of anyone who would want to kill my Father, or me,” I answered.“Anyone who would want to get at me would come at me, not Dad,” I continued. “I don’t live in a fortress. It is a hardly spacious apartment near the East River. I share the place with my roommate, Timothy Denver, and a…companion by the name of Odette Sievert.”“Companion? Is she…a working girl?” Lisa went searching.“No, I use the term companion to indicate she’s too nice a girl for me. She’s sweet, conscientious and giving. My only wish for Odette is that she finds a guy who can appreciate her a hell of a lot more than I do,” I explained. “Timothy is my gay, body-building tattoo artist best friend. I’ve gotten the feeling he’s busted some heads in his time. Hardly anything noteworthy.”“Mr. Nyilas, have you ever considered that you live a very messy life?” Brewster pondered.“One does not 'consider’ what one knows to be true. One knows it to be true and moves on,” I grumbled. “Yes, I know I live a screwed up life.”“What about your friends here?” Lisa indicated the other three women in the vehicle. This elicited another groan from me.“Investigator Brewster; Horace and Detective Capella; Lisa, please call me Cáel. This is the point I accept that I am exhausted and not in any shape to make good decisions. I’ll plead the Fifth,” I confessed.“We already know you were in New York when your father was murdered, Mister…Cáel,” Brewster stated.“Everyone we’ve talked to says you and your father were very close. Barring some expensive Life Insurance policy being taken out on him, we have no reason to suspect you had a direct hand in his death. Not being a suspect, that implies you have no Fifth Amendment, or Miranda Rights to hide behind; just so we are clear,” Brewster schooled me.“I can make this game of footsy easy on all of you,” Pamela whispered. The officers jolted in their seats. “Cáel cannot talk to you for the very reason the Fifth Amendment exists.”“You are not like the rest of this menagerie,” Lisa noted.“Nah, I kill people for a living. The rest of the group has some code of conduct that keeps you two alive,” Pamela smiled.Those two didn’t know what to make of Pamela’s statement because it was so sincere yet incredible.“If Cáel tells you anything else he will be admitting to his involvement in a criminal conspiracy. Said conspiracy is why Ferko Nyilas is dead, but Cáel had nothing to do with it,” Pamela enlightened them.Fact digestion time for the two law dogs. Brewster recovered faster.“But why was Ferko Nyilas murdered?” he asked.“The men didn’t come to kill him,” Pamela kept talking about the tea and crumpets. “They probably showed up to escort him to a place where some far more important scumbags could talk with him.”“The all-girl squad was there and Ferko was caught in the crossfire,” Lisa mumbled. “Why was there a firefight if his life was in danger and both sides wanted him alive?”“Stupidity,” Pamela replied. “Give any group of people guns and then surprise them, stupid shit happens; I apologize Cáel.”“I don’t buy that,” Brewster said. “They simply started shooting at each other; no.”“Okay Horace, let me break it down for you. The ladies were told to go there and guard the guy without being told why. The men who showed up were most likely told to grab Ferko without knowing why either.”“That makes no sense,” Lisa protested.“Congratulations. That is why Cáel can’t talk to you anymore,” Pamela smirked. “This is the sort of crap he has inadvertently been caught up with; no fault of his own. If he did any of this on purpose, I’d kill him myself.”“He is some poor schmuck who only wanted a 7-5 job, to make tons of money and bedding a different girl every night,” Pamela teased me. “He’s no criminal mastermind, or even a convincing criminal. If he has a failing it is that he tends to merely beat up people who deserve to have their spleens ripped out instead. I’m training him to be smarter than that.”“Who are you?” Brewster gawked. Pamela gave a sinister smile. Lisa looked at me.“I’ve fought a woman with a twelve foot stick with a pointy bit of metal at the end with little thought to my personal safety. This lady (Pamela) scares me. She is with me because I have no means of stopping her and I put saving others a great deal of pain and suffering over my own unsettled nerves.”“Do you really think you are that good?” Lisa half-turned around to face Pamela.“Do you want your gun back?” Pamela offered up a police issue Glock-22, grip first. My kind of gun. How sad. I was too depressed to seduce Officer Lisa. Brewster reached around to check is firearm. It was still there, much to his relief.“How did you do that?” Lisa wondered as she retrieved and inspected her weapon. Pamela tapped Brewster’s shoulder with the man’s magazine. Brewster was aghast. She’d stolen his gun, taken out the ammo and returned it without him noticing.“I found it on the floor. The truth is a bit more expensive than you are willing to pay at the moment, believe me,” Pamela grinned.Why had Pamela showboated? She was buying me some mental respite. She was also exhibiting to the two police folks that there might be some truth to her outlandish tale of criminal conspiracies. Unlike the other Amazons, Pamela knew we had to maintain friendly relations with some part of law enforcement if I was going to bury my Father.(The Medical Examiner’s Office)So much happens in life we rarely put the timespan of events in context. Talking with a person in line who turns out to make your day better/worse, become a friend and/or a date. In a matter of a few seconds your life has been altered. Two minutes later and you would have missed getting the concert tickets where you meet your future; whomever.Two minutes sooner and you get caught in the 'speed trap’ instead of the other poor sap who you drive past as they sit on the side of the road keeping the patrol officer company. His/her insurance rate goes up while you have that extra money for later. Had we arrived two minutes earlier to the morgue; disaster aborted. Two minutes later would have equated to a frustrating mystery.Life was not so kind. It was the same group as before; Detective Lisa, Investigator Horace, Rachel and I. We had just added an Assistant Medical Examiner who was going over information garnered from the autopsy with the two cops. Pamela was 'checking things out’, whatever that meant. The key to it all was Rachel being Rachel.Security Detail are more than simply elite fighting-women. They are also bodyguards, security specialist and normally stack a third specialty into the mix. When Rachel spotted five armed people in the hallway right outside the Medical Examiner’s autopsy room, her alertness spiked. Only one was a uniformed police officer. Rachel was still gun-less.The two EMS personnel rolling an occupied body bag out on a gurney shouldn’t have had on their heavy jackets on a late June afternoon. The other two men were chatting about something. That wasn’t unusual. Where they were standing was; to Lisa’s experienced eye. Rachel’s heightened anxiety made Lisa double-check everything.Horace didn’t know what was wrong yet when Lisa’s hand came to rest on her piece, he put his hand on his Ruger SR45.“Excuse me,” Lisa called out. No one stopped moving. “Excuse me,” Lisa demanded in a louder voice. “I am Detective Lisa Capella, Chicago Police Department; Homicide Division. What is going on?”That was a reach. Bodies exit the morgue all the time. The two people with the body made sense. The two 'odd’ fellows weren’t breaking any law. In cop-talk, this was called 'gut instinct’. She produced her badge. There was a quick look by the two ambulance folk to the farther of the two 'talking’ men.That group were rather competent, just not competent conmen. The two EMS guys turned and tried to give Lisa a causal look.“What can we do for you, officer?” the designated diplomat asked nonchalantly.“Whose body is that?” Lisa inquired.“I’m not sure; all we do is pick 'em up and take them to the appropriate funeral home,” he shrugged.“Take ten seconds and show me the release order,” Lisa gave a chilly command. The cop at the far end of the hall; the one with the door that lead to the loading/unloading area, was starting to clue in that something wasn’t right.“Oh, by the Great Pumpkin, this is bad,” Brewster muttered under his breath like a thousand other fathers who engaged in the daily struggle to not curse at work so they wouldn’t curse around their children.“Of course, Detective Capella,” the diplomat nodded. “Is there a problem?” He carefully pulled out his smart phone and handed it over.Lisa wasn’t born yesterday. She handed the phone to me instead of looking at it herself. She was keeping her eyes on the guys with guns. They really did have an order to transfer my Father to a mortuary. Apparently I had requested this be done; without my knowledge.“Cáel Nyilas requested his father be taken to the Green Meadows mortuary in Cicero,” I informed Lisa, Rachel and Horace.“I need to talk to Mr. Nyilas,” Lisa informed them. “If I can’t talk to him, I can’t let the body leave this building. This is an ongoing investigation.” The 'diplomat’ was worried yet Lisa had given him an out. After I returned his phone, he called his off-site boss, who gave him a number which the diplomat gave to Lisa. Lisa called 'me’ without my phone ringing.Even so, 'I’ confirmed the authorization. The four gunmen relaxed as Lisa hung up.“One more question,” Lisa pulled a 'Columbo’, “was this a rush job, or are you all 'not ready for prime time players’?” The 'diplomat’ made one last lunge at deception.“Detective Capella, our work order is legitimate,” he shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what you mean?”“Funeral homes have their own uniforms; they do not dress as EMS,” Lisa deconstructed their illusions. “The bodies of murder victim are not released by the Medical Examiner until a cause of death is known and that information is released to the homicide detective assigned to the case; that would be me, if there was any doubt.Your two buddies down the hall could have read and critiqued the Magna Carta in the time it has taken for you to do your 'song and dance’,” Lisa pointed out. “Oh, and the real Cáel Nyilas is standing next to me. Whoever talked with me on the phone is going to jail too. Now I suggest the four of you face the wall, put your hands over your head, palms against the wall and no one will get hurt.”Darwin check time; they drew their guns. Of course they drew their guns. Why would they not draw their guns considering the farthest enemy was all of 4 meters away and the only immediately cover was my Dad’s horizontal corpse? Gurneys tend to be lightweight and mostly empty space.The quickest on the draw was one of the two 'talkers’. He whipped out a .357 Magnum revolver and popped two shots into the police officer next to him; right in the center mass at less than 2 meters; ouch. Rachel was next, making a diving front roll between the two cops, toward the two fake EMS guys. I was right behind her, except my plan was to vault Dad’s body and get at the second talker. I was not acting sanely.The second talker went in the next split second. He had brought a sawed-off automatic shotgun to the fight. His first salvo blew a chunk out of the wall next to Lisa’s hip. She was less than an eye-blink behind as she put two slugs into the 'diplomat’s’ armored chest. He was kind enough to drop his Mac-11 from his twitching fingers and into Rachel’s hands.Less than a single heartbeat later, the 'diplomat’s EMS buddy revealed his own Mac-11. His mistake was not shooting his first target; Brewster. He was tracking Rachel and me instead, hoping to catch us together in a spray of lead. The general feeling was that, for all his law enforcement experience, Investigator Brewster had never actually shot at anyone before.His cop instincts kicked into overdrive. The perpetrators appeared to be wearing body armor and possessed a small arsenal of illegal weapons. His aim tweaked up, he pulled the trigger and a .45 ACP round effectively decapitated his target; our first confirmed casualty. My encounter with the Latin Kings had been a lesson in poor tactical flexibility.This time, by unspoken agreement, the two talkers were exercising their tactical acumen as they began withdrawing toward the exit. With the short range, width of the hall and lack of cover, being shot at by a shotgun, or a .357 didn’t make much difference. I was trying to jump onto the gurney and launch myself at the two when my toe caught on the bottom of Dad’s body, turning my heroic rush into a face-plant on Father.The men’s cover fire worked on Lisa and Horace. Lisa, being more exposed, had to dive flat. Horace crouch-ran to Rachel. Rachel, with her submachine gun, was firing a steady stream of bullets from between the gurney’s top surface and bottom shelf. Her shots shattered shotgun guy’s shins and blasted off his knee caps.As that bastard screamed and toppled forward, Rachel emptied the magazine into both his thighs and his right hip. By the copious nature of the blood spray, an artery had been clipped, if not severed. Horace grabbed the back of my jacket and yanked me off the gurney, down to his side. Lisa fired off a few shots at the vanishing leader, but he was already out the door.Rachel was rifling the closest EMS’s headless body, looking for a fresh clip for the M-11.“Don’t,” Horace cautioned her. Lisa was running to the door.“Rachel, leave the gun and follow me,” I commanded.“Wait,” Horace called out. He was in an impossible situation. The bold Assistant ME began looking for any survivors, starting with the diplomat.Detective Capella was chasing after a possible cop-killer. I was already running after Lisa and Horace couldn’t ride herd on Rachel, catch me and support Lisa all at once. Rachel muttered [OKH] 'dirty goat’ at my fleeting form. I was sure its true meaning was far nastier.“Da-darn it,” Horace grimaced as he started rushing after the three of us.I doubted it was any consolation to Horace that Lisa shot me an evil look when I caught up to her at the loading dock. T

god tv love new york director amazon time head canada world father chicago english house mother work hell passion story ms office local guns safe dad mom chief police african americans fbi fantasy poor drugs standing catholic romance queens daddy cops council mac new england lust male sister hang federal intimacy attorney sexuality bodies fuck twenty congratulations eleven excuse uncle virgin shut bahamas afterlife rios washington state hoping terrorists nah affair cosmos smooth lemon translation oral illuminati companion bro babe sd libra peter pan bluetooth grandfather ancestors breach mister anal feds monday night sir protocols underwear life insurance runners kerr ems pratt my father erotic underneath stupidity understood ids experimentation hamptons mccabe fantasies white christmas cha magnum speeding atf nerf sensuality oaths brewster sop janus special agents ish horace patriot act recount glock precinct emergency services burnham new hires magna carta rhodes scholar holy shit sizzling great pumpkin coupling barring brainiac intercourse yakima acp ow descriptive taunting medical examiners boohoo chicago pd intensive care units constanza groan fifth amendment troika security services littering first house tigerlily tryst miranda rights shoshone jaywalking latin kings ibew cael peregrine falcon lothario fbi headquarters lurid literotica mycenaeans daniel burnham green meadows homicide division katrina love

Life As A New Hire: part 19

Steamy Stories

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2022

Being known by the company you keep.By FinalStand. Listen and subscribe to the podcast at Steamy Stories.Life exists in both seconds and years. Don’t ignore one for the other.I would like to thank the phone operator and Chief of the Burnham, Illinois Police Department for answering my questions, despite their bizarre nature.(Monday Night)I should have known to not have too good a time. My karma was wacky enough as it was. It was about to get worse in a way I should have foreseen. Ain’t hindsight grand?Inside of five seconds I knew how much sharing Libra and Brooke did; a lot. On the plus side, it gave me some wiggle room with Libra where sex with Brooke was concerned. On the super-plus side, Brooke was looking forward to ratcheting up our sex play. I took her to Libra’s experiences with all the extra bells and whistles.In this case it meant adding a blindfold and ball-gag to the hand restraints. Brooke handed me a high level of trust unexpected at this early moment in our sexcapade. With a quick empathic insight, I pulled her ball-gag down as her orgasm erupted. She rejoiced in the sound of her rapture echoing around my bedroom.I deceived her into her next climax by whispering a promise to release her then hammering her instead. The whole specter of powerlessness tore her up inside. Best of all, even as she spasmed beneath me, I released her cuffs then pulled up her mask. Her fingernails dug into my trapezius muscles. For over a minute, she clung to me with a deep hunger to feel my heat and sweat against her body.“My turn,” she rasped. I pressed my shoulders and head up so I could look into her eyes. She was waiting for this opportunity since she’d talked with Libra. Without question, she’d never been tied down before, or tied a man down and had her way with him. She’d manipulated men most of her life; that was old hat.This was primal, physical and forbidden. She was taking complete control of my person. God, I thought she’d orgasmed when she finished cuffing me to the headboard. Taunting, teasing and hot body contact followed as she put the ball-gag in. Sizzling lips sealed my fate as the blindfold was slipped in place.Having invested so much time using all my senses soaking up the hungry beast that Brooke possessed right beneath her urbane surface, losing my eyesight wasn’t a major drawback. For Brooke, this had all the benefits of anonymous sex in a blacked-out room with the bonus of her having the lights on for her use alone. My bet was she had studied stuff on-line.From being sure she wasn’t going to have sex with me when she first met, she had graduated to running naked across my living room for what turned out to be lemon slices. The ‘fumph’ of the Nerf gun made me assume Timothy shot her in the buttocks as she raced into my room. By the yip from Brooke, I knew Timothy’s aim remained frighteningly accurate.Lemon juice and cuts don’t mix, or, Brooke enjoyed watching my body jolt as said juice interacted with said 'workplace’ mistakes. Was I angry? Nah. Every hiss of pain was followed by lavished kisses, licks and hair lashings. I loved her long black hair draped over my body, flicked around whisk-like and tickling my nose.Brooke was learning my keystone technique; figure out what your partner wants and give them a quick sample. Don’t use any one thing too much; make it a treat and they’ll appreciate the taste they get even more. When Brooke finally sated us both, it was my turn again. We talked a while. She invited me to a friend’s place in the Hamptons which suggested to me the destination was more than some made-up place on TV.I promised to think about it. Brooke took that to mean she needed to work harder to convince me. I honestly had little desire to be trotted around as Brooke’s boy toy. Hoping that wouldn’t be the case relied a lot on faith. I wasn’t sure what I would have in common with any of that crowd, which guided me back to being a stuck up snob for treating a people as a social class and not as human beings.I took out my social anxiety on Brooke. Poor girl; three holes, ten positions and I’m not sure how many times I took her from frenzied peak to frenzied peak. All I knew was when she’d passed all points of previous primeval ecstasy, I finally released her. Brooke curled into a semi-fetal ball and began burrowing into me.“Happy?” I asked as I stroked her sweat-drenched hair. She nodded happily against my chest. “Are you glad you came over?” I continued. Brooke bit me because she knew I was teasing her. “Ow,” I grumbled. “I think we have a misunderstanding who is whose sex toy here.”“Do I need to bite you again?” Brooke mumbled into my chest.“Point taken,” I conceded. Brooke snuggled in even tighter. We wrestled out of bed, stumbled into the shower and took some time off with Timothy. He looked at us and smirked.“Cáel is going to be my boyfriend,” Brooke tossed out there. Huh?“What in God’s green earth makes you want to do that?” Timothy chuckled.“He’s been there when I needed him. Cáel is a real man and it has taken me having a really tough spill to realize that it doesn’t matter which alumni your Daddy belongs to, but what you put on the line for your friends that really matters,” Brooke enlightened us both.“Seriously Dude,” Timothy looked at me with pity.“Cut down on the awesome dicking until somehow polygamy becomes legal,” he added, but then, “Brooke, you know he’s seeing about a dozen different ladies, right?”“Cáel is looking for a serious relationship,” Brooke insisted. Timothy chortled because he knew the likelihood of me settling down was right up there with us sharing a White Christmas in the Bahamas.“Let’s go back to bed, Babe,” I redirected things to safer waters. “It is your turn to be on top.” Brooke, wearing one of my fresh t-shirts and nothing else, hopped off the sofa and let me lead her back to the bedroom for another round of 'not thinking about any other part of my fucked up life except the beautiful woman with me right now’ sex.Twenty minutes later, Brooke had encased my rod in her wanton elixirs, was gyrating her hips as she stroked my rod inside her vagina while keeping me bound, blind and muffled. My phone rang.“Should I get that?” Brooke teased me. She moved enough to seize my cellular device.“The number is unlisted,” she mused. “Who could it be?” I gave a muffled response. She removed the ball-gag enough for me to speak.“Work,” I repeated. “It might be work. I’m on-call 24/7.”“Damn,” Brooke undoubtedly pouted (still blindfolded). She answered the call then placed the phone to my ear.“Cáel, a Security Detail detachment is on their way to your quarters as we speak. You will recognized the code they will use,” Katrina’s icy calm voice informed me.“Katrina, what is wrong?” I inquired. Normally, I wouldn’t get an answer. Katrina’s tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.“There has been an incident at your Father’s home in Chicago. We do not have clear intelligence at this time. I may have more when you get in,” she related.“Understood,” I replied. My passionate storm abated and I felt empty inside. Dad.“Cáel?” Brooke sounded worried.“We need to get dressed,” I murmured. I had to let Timothy know something was truly wrong. I needed to get Brooke home safely. I…I needed to know more than I did right then. Brooke uncuffed me quickly. I barely had my boxers on when there was a light series of raps on the door. I sprang up, opened my bedroom door, surprising Odette.She must have come back to work a few minutes earlier and was unwinding with some low-volume TV and some sofa time. Timothy was asleep already.“Odette, go back to Timothy’s room and warn him something bad may have happened. Go!” I warned. Odette scampered back. Brooke was at my back, trying to move into the main room.“Brooke, stay here. If something unusual happens, hide in the bedroom and don’t come out until the police get here. Do you understand?” I met her confusion with an iron stare. She nodded. There was another, more insistent, rapping at my apartment door. I crept up to the portal and gave a counter-knock.“Crab Fisher-woman,” a female voice said from the other side.“My Father’s Sister,” I responded. It was an imperfect code, but effective given the circumstances. I double checked through the spy hole, unlocked the door and let three SD Amazons inside. How bad was it? I doubted these ladies would know more than I did.“[OKH] Ishara,” the leader said, “we have orders to escort you to Havenstone immediately.”They weren’t blindly expecting me to follow instructions. They had a directive they were following to the best of their ability.“[OKH] Will a team be watching my domicile?” I asked. The leader nodded. “We need to take a female I have been with tonight to her dwelling before going on to Havenstone.”The SD team leader nodded again. There was no condescension, or argument. They were following orders as if it was my right to issue them. That was how bad things were. Time to get back to English.“Brooke, finish getting dressed. I’m taking you home,” I called out.Quite frankly, along with my desire to see Brooke back home safely was my instinct to not split up my guardians. Better a longer trip than two smaller, more vulnerable groups. I was in the process of getting dressed in the living room when Timothy and Odette came out.“Bro?” Timothy asked.“My Father’s home was attacked. I have no other details right now,” I explained with a sinking feeling in my heart. Timothy read my soul, came up and engulfed me in his mighty arms. Odette added herself to the heart-felt love-pile.“Do you want me to take Odette and head back to Queens for a while?” Timothy asked.He sensed we had limited time.“They,” and by 'they’ he knew I meant Havenstone, “will have a team watching this place. There are not enough resources to go back and forth to work. I wish I could tell what would keep you safe, but I don’t know anymore.”“We’ll stay put,” Timothy declared. Odette nodded. “We’ll be here for you when you get back. If any of these psycho-broads want to stop by from time to time, I won’t say no.” I shot a look to the security team leader and she gave a curt 'okay’.“You’ll need an overnight bag!” Odette squeaked. Off she went.Brooke finished getting dressed and came to my side. To your average Lothario, what she did might seem odd. To me, it was the normal refrain; Brooke shoved her panties into my jean’s pocket. That was a not so subtle 'Call Me’ for when I got back.“Three minutes, Ish; Cáel,” the leader updated me.My amateur guess was this was the team from across the street. They had back-up vehicles and personnel streaking down from Havenstone to provide extra security for my move.“Velma,” she gave me her name. A quick description was in order. The three Amazons all had Bluetooth devices, shooting glasses and steel-gray long coats that had to be uncomfortable in this upper seventies evening heat.Underneath, they had on light ballistic body armor on their torsos, arms, and legs. Even their dull grey, all-terrain boots looked armored. They had a hip holstered sidearm, most likely a back-up pistol at the small of their backs and a deadly blade, or three. Their main deterrence was their H&K UMP-40; my second favorite Amazon killing device.Timothy snuck off to get my toiletries, returning around the same time Odette trundled out with an overnight (or three) bag. There was a final round of hugs then Velma indicated it was time to leave. The fourth member of the team was stationed at the top of the third floor stairs. That gave her a good view of my hallway as well as the passage going up and down.Two SD’s to the front, Velma and the fourth watching our backs and Brooke caught between giddy and freaking terrified. Things got even more exciting when we hit the bottom of the stairs. Two more ladies were waiting. They put a trench coat on Brooke and she nearly collapsed. The freed up Amazon took my bag while the second put a trench coat on me.I grunted as well. This bitch had to weigh 25 kg. That was some serious ballistic and blast protection. The closest newcomer began attaching my pistol with hip holster on my side while Brooke was 'buttoned up’. I was slipped a few spare clips then was buttoned up as well.“I’m not sure I can walk in this thing,” Brooke gave me a weak smile.“Don’t worry,” I smiled, “I’ll carry you.” I slipped my arm around Brooke’s waist and, on Velma’s signal, we rushed out to the middle of three Mercedes Armored GL550s. The doors had barely shut before we were racing away from my favorite home. I walked Brooke up to her apartment, we hugged, kissed and she insisted I go to the Hamptons with her this weekend.I left with that promise unanswered. I didn’t ask the Security Detail to do anything else outrageous and they didn’t give me any crap about Brooke. Their vigilance didn’t end at Havenstone either. No; they formed a tight knot of outward hostility until we marched into Katrina’s office. Even then, they spread out over the Executive Services offices as an extended perimeter.Katrina’s office was another step up on the unsettling meter. It was Katrina, Saint Marie, Buffy, Helena, and a woman I didn’t know yet seemed to belong.“Excuse me?” Saint Marie shot a hostile look my way; actually right behind me.“Don’t mind me,” Pamela snorted. She was in the process of sneaking into the room.“I’m here for moral support,” she concluded then took a seat.“Cáel?” Katrina queried, as if I could somehow exile Pamela from the room.“What’s going on?” I began the meeting instead.“Your Father is dead,” Katrina reported. If someone ever asked me what it felt like to have an arm cut off, I could truthfully answer them 'Yes’. Dad.“From what we have been able to gather from the video and audio gear the four Amazon Security Detail team assigned to watch over him transmitted, the team was setting up a perimeter when three vehicles with ten men stopped on the juncture of Janus and Kerr streets and approached the house. The team leader made formal recognition and was attacked,” Katrina told me.“Are they okay?” I mumbled. I didn’t want to know how my Dad died. Had he been in pain? Which side had killed him? Would knowing make a damn bit of difference?“Three of the four members were killed,” Saint Marie interjected. “The team commander was killed instantly. The second died defending that corner of your Father’s domicile.The third member was killed attempting to rescue your Father. The surviving member stopped the enemy from escaping with your Father’s body, but was too badly injured to extricate herself and is now in police custody.”“What are we going to do about this?” I inquired. Pamela was a lying bitch.She’d lied to Brianna because the truth would have gotten me and Dad killed. Dad had still died, but Pamela had kept me alive.“There is nothing we can do,” the stranger spoke up. “Troika of House Šauška.”“You are joking, right?” I stared at her.“He was a male, not of…” Troika began to state.“You do know your Amazon law, correct?” I countered. She gave a curt tilt of the head. “Recount the means of succession to the Head of a House then please explain to the room how my Father, the descendant of Vranus, fits into all that.”Cha-ching!“Oh, by the Seven Goddesses!” Saint Marie jumped up. “They murdered the Head of House Ishara!” Katrina was already back on top; ahead of the game.“But what does that make him?” Troika pointed at me.“It confirms him as the Head of House Ishara. We can sugar-coat it and say Cáel, being the only 'active’ member of Havenstone 'represented’ the Head of House Ishara. By our traditions though, Ferko Nyilas was the lawful head of a 'First’ House. Certainly four days were not enough time to settle the manner in an acceptable way,” Katrina said.“At the very least, House Ishara would have been given 28 days to resolve any matters of succession internally,” Katrina pointed out. “There was no deception. Cáel worked for Havenstone, so was our active member. The existence of his Father was known. It is in his basic file. It was highly unlikely that ANY House wanted to bring another male into the mix so the matter of his ascension was left unquestioned.”“This is Casus Belli,” Troika stood up and declared in a firm voice. “I will inform Hayden. We must know the perpetrators of this act, Katrina. I will prepare to relate this breach of the Protocols to the other Signatories.”“To make sure I have this straight, I can defend any member of my family, no matter who they are, without violating the Protocols?” I questioned. “Can I kill them?”“That is correct,” Troika appeared confused. “Other Signatories cannot harm, or detain your family in any way.” I gave a bitter, hollow laugh. Dad…Dad wouldn’t have understood, but Mom would have, no doubt.“Troika…hell, everyone but Pamela and Katrina, I am Cáel Nyilas, grandson of THE Cáel O'Shea and those people who murdered my Dad very well may have been my family,” I felt like crying.That was good because I was crying. I had talked to Dad early Monday morning. I had been so nervous about not leaving any trace of Mom behind that I couldn’t recall if I said 'I love you’ to him. I’d never get the chance to make up for that oversight. As I began to take in the faces around me, I realized Ishara had gifted me with a respite. No one else knew who Cáel O'Shea was; yet.“Troika,” I started out. I could tell she was still having difficulty with the 'Man as someone worthy of stating an opinion’ moment. “When the Council decides that the Illuminati have breached the Protocols, do I have a deciding vote on what we do; since Dad was my family?”“No,” Troika clarified, “and what makes you think it was the Illuminati?” Pamela laughed at her.“Because I killed Cáel’s Grandfather when that man was head of the Illuminati; slit his throat and rendered him incapable of resuscitation. The rest of that twisted clan have only now discovered that there is a successor, genetically, to the Old Man and you are looking at him,” Pamela related in an amused tone.“Perhaps; just perhaps; they were interested in what happened to Cáel’s Mother and the man she mated with to produce Cáel…who also happened to be the Head of House Ishara and now leaves this man (me) as the last of his kind; coming and going,” Pamela finished, “for both the Amazons and the O'Shea family/the Illuminati.”Troika was having problems fitting all the puzzle pieces. Saint Marie cut to the heart of the matter because she listens to me.“If you go to war against the O'Shea’s you are being forced to fight your own family,” the Golden Mare stared at me in shock.“Let me get this straight,” Troika stood up, waving for silence. “When the O'Shea’s killed Ferko Nyilas, they murdered the Head of a First House. They also murdered a member of their own family by way of marriage.” She seemed totally flummoxed. Everyone agreed about how fucked up everything was. Breach? No Breach?“Welcome to life working with Cáel Nyilas,” Katrina declared. There was a pause.“I’ll let the professionals figure out the finer points of diplomacy. I have to go,” I said.“Were do you think you are going?” Buffy popped up. Until this moment, she’d had no role in affairs. My safety though…“I am going home to bury my Father, Buffy,” I announced. This was not a discussion.“Shouldn’t we take his body to the cliffs?” Troika suggested.“My Father will face the Afterlife with my Mother at his side. It was his wish and I’m not going to start dictating to my Ancestors now,” I sighed.I was trying to make light of my pain. By the looks on their faces, I was failing. I had barely exited the office, Buffy, Helena and Pamela in tow. The security team was closing in and my phone rang.“Cáel Nyilas,” I answered sadly.“Mr. Nyilas, this is Investigator Brewster of the Burnham Police Department. I need a few moments of your time,” a man’s voice requested. I hesitated. I looked at my watch.“Yes…Dad?” I finally spoke.“Mr. Nyilas, your father seems to have been murdered late this evening in a bungled attempted burglary,” he lied. It was a good lie.If he really believed a bungled robbery consisted of two heavily armed groups shooting a small residential home to pieces he was…nah, he was lying.“I’m on the next flight to Chicago,” was the response I chose. I had so many 'loser’ replies to choose from.“That would be helpful, Mr. Nyilas,” he told me. “Do you know when I can expect you?”“Ah…I have no idea when the next plane from New York to Chicago is, but if I can buy a ticket on it, I’m there,” I countered. Admittedly, me having a plane ticket for home would have been damn suspicious.“One last thing, Mr. Nyilas, do you have any idea why someone would want to murder your father? Anything you could tell us could be of great assistance,” he pressed.“Yes, I have a clue who murdered my Father and I’ll point you to the dead bodies when I’m done,” I snapped; quite literally and mentally snapped. Pause.“Mr. Nyilas, I understand you are upset, but do not do anything rash. Now, could your father have been murdered for anything you might have done, or are doing?” Det. Brewster kept is game face on.“We’ll have this chat when I get to Chicago. Until then, take care,” I said before hanging up.“Smooth,” Pamela gently chastised me.“I actually liked him going all 'Mafia Don’ on that cop,” Buffy countered.“I’ll arrange for Havenstone to get us transportation to Chicago,” Helena added.“No,” I countermanded her. “You two stay here and finish up business. Join me late Tuesday night, or early Wednesday morning.”By the looks Buffy and Helena gave me they were surprised…and proud. I was keeping to my 'Runner’ induction time table. My family would not be diminished by this tragedy. It would grow. Come Wednesday morning, we would add twenty new voices to Ishara’s war cry.“I’ll take the first commercial flight available,” I continued.“We cannot protect you on a civilian aircraft, Ishara,” Velma warned me.“They; the authorities are expecting me to show up at O'Hare, so I’m showing up at O'Hare, like a normal person,” I reminded her. “I’ll also need to know at what hospital they are keeping our sister.” Our sister; the sole surviving Amazon who nearly gave her life for Dad.The SD picked up on that immediately. Another leap had been made. I wasn’t a masculine monster, raging against a female warrior who had failed. By the tone of my voice, they knew I was in grief yet not overcome by it. She was the last member of the Host to see my Father alive and she might hold the closure I needed.“It will be done,” Velma decided. “We will have your team meet you at O'Hare.”“My team?” I asked.“Rachel; her team,” Velma clarified. That was enough good for me.“Oh, and get Pamela a ticket as well. I’d hate to have her mug another passenger and take theirs,” I sighed. Pamela patted me on the back; an 'atta boy’.(Monday Noon)(The hospital)That was not the first time I wondered about how fatal Pamela had been in her prime. In fact, I wasn’t sure that post-60 wasn’t her best time yet. The only mistake the police officer guarding the Amazon’s hospital room made was to sit in a chair. Pamela had long ago mastered the peon-craft that Rosetta had started to teach me.The policeman looked up, stared right through her then looked the other way. His gaze never swept back in my direction. She jabbed him quickly underneath both arms, paralyzing them for a few seconds. That was all she needed. Hers hand clamped over his eyes and on his throat, cutting off the blood flow to the brain before his hands could recover.He appeared to the outside world to have taken a nap. According to Pamela, we had roughly three minutes before he came around. Pamela kept walking down the hall as if nothing happened. I came ten steps behind, guarded by a gun-less Rachel as I entered the Intensive Care Unit. A few of the staff looked our way, but no one impeded our progress.According to the Duty Nurse, the Amazon had exited surgery barely an hour ago. Her eyes opened to slits as I approached her beside.“We stand before the Eye of the World,” I whispered. That meant surveillance. “I cannot tell you what is in my heart. My name is Cáel Nyilas. Does that name mean anything to you?”Her hand flopped. I put two fingers into her feeble gasp. One squeeze; yes. “I am grateful for your prowess and I share in your sorrow for those who will no longer fight in this life. Please heal and grow strong for this is the start, not the finish,” I completed. She squeezed my fingers once more. I stepped aside, letting Rachel take my place.They didn’t exchange words but communicated volumes. We slipped out of the room while the guard was still groggy. Pamela was nowhere to be seen. That proved to be pre-sentient when a group of people with the propensity to flash IDs caught up to me at the ground floor.Had the backdrop of this fiasco not been the death of my Father, I might have enjoyed the twitching/counter-twitching going on between Rachel, who desperately wanted any one of her guns, and the cops who were picking up on that desire.“Mr. Nyilas, I am…” and the introductions came pouring in.I had Theodora Chumwell and Brock Miklos, Special Agents of the FBI, John Rios, Special Agent with the ATF, Investigator Horace Brewster from the Burnham PD and Homicide Detective Lisa Capella from the Chicago PD.“We would like to talk with you,” Theodora took charge.“Can I ask a question first?” I raised my hand. That appeared to set them off their game plan.“Of course,” Theodora allowed.“Okay; FBI, ATF, a homicide detective from Chicago and the only law enforcement official who has any business being here,” I finished with Brewster.“I may not be a Rhodes Scholar, but this seems a bit extreme for the burglary/murder of a long-time employee of Illinois Power and Light. Does anyone care to fill me on what the hell is going on?” I looked over the group. “Oh, and thank you Investigator Brewster for your call. I know I didn’t take the news well.”“Was that the part where you said you would point to the dead bodies?” Theodora took charge.“Yes, I think that was the gaff I was referring to,” I agreed.“Why are you here, Mr. Nyilas?” Lisa Capella jumped in. She had decided to not go along with the FBI playbook.“I came to see the woman found alive in my family home,” I replied smoothly.“She is probably still in surgery,” Lisa gave a twist of the lips; sex.“Oh, she got out an hour ago,” I enlightened them.“Let’s take this conversation to FBI Headquarters,” Theodora 'suggested’; you know, in the way that really wasn’t a suggestion.“Have you gone to see that woman?” Lisa wouldn’t let up; good for her. It was upsetting Theodora and I’d already decided that Brewster was my go-to guy on this investigation.“Yes,” I responded to Lisa.“Isn’t she under police protection?” Lisa and Theodora blurted out together.“There was a policeman at her door,” I shrugged. “We went in and I talked to her.”“What did she say?” Theodora brushed Lisa aside.“Nothing. She had one of those tubes down her throat. Whatever I said…well, I was emotional,” I evaded. “She was barely conscious.”Lisa was urgently contacting her guy who was supposed to be watching the only person in custody they had. He claimed to have 'blacked out’. He couldn’t remember anyone coming in to see the woman and swore he hadn’t been unconscious for any length of time. He went in, checked up on the Amazon and she was fine; for someone who had been shot six times.“We should go to the FBI offices,” Theodora repeated.“I’m going home,” I sighed sadly. “I want to go home.”“It is still an active crime scene,” John told me. “There won’t be any civilian access for some time.” Translation: until they decided to give me the carrot instead of the stick.“Please, come with us,” FBI Special Agent Brock added his weight.“No. I’m going with Burnham PD,” I countered. “You can find me there.”“That’s not how it works,” Theodora upped her authority meter. Lisa had fallen back, trying to take in the bigger picture.Brewster was clearly trying to recall if he had ANY history with me, or my Dad, that would make me trust him over the others.“I may be a liberal arts major from northern New England, but I know how a larynx works,” I regarded Theodora. “Unless I choose to make a sound, it does nothing. Nothing is about to be all we have left to do and say.”“Don’t you want to help solve your Father’s murder?” Brock tried to sound both sympathetic and threatening at the same time. I was suddenly bombarded with the taste of Lime Sherbet and Jalapenos Ice Cream.“Really? Fine; I’m going to hang out with the only person in this room I know is working on my Father’s murder, not on their career,” I reposed.“We are all trying to…” Lisa got out.“You maybe,” I gave Lisa that much. “My Father made around $70,000 a year after twenty-six years for Illinois P&L. He had almost paid off the colossal debt built up by my Mother’s illness and my college expenses.”“As far as I know, he took out one loan his entire life; from a bank; and he paid it off,” I continued. “He was a lapsed Catholic, a member of the IBEW; Local 9, and he jogged. He barely used e-mail and had no close friends I am aware of. The only woman he loved was my Mother and he mourned her to the day he died.”“What about your activity?” Theodora inquired. We weren’t running off to her playground; yet. Handcuffing a grieving son would look bad and, by my attitude, wouldn’t make me talkative in the least.“I have the unfortunate habit of sleeping with every woman I meet,” I began.“So that’s over 200 erotic encounters. I get annoyed with people throwing their weight around,” I continued, “which is why you and I are getting off on the wrong foot, Special Agent Theodora Chumwell. I work for Havenstone Commercial Investments, getting paid an insane amount to fetch laundry and keep secrets. Good enough?”“No, it is not…” Theodora simmered.“How did you know about the existence of the woman upstairs and how did you know to come here?” Lisa interrupted.“I grew up in that house, know the neighbors and know this is the closest EMS center to home,” I lied convincingly.“Who are you?” Brewster decided that I wasn’t exiting the hospital gracefully so turned on Rachel. She didn’t speak, choosing to be creepy and brandishing a wallet instead. I kept forgetting that most full-blooded Amazons had minimal socialization with outsiders. Having graduated elementary school, everyone else knew this was a bizarre reaction.“Rachel Louis,” Brewster read off the license in the wallet. A normal person would have acknowledged that somehow; not Rachel. “You are Rachel Louis, aren’t you?”“Yes, she is,” I intervened. “Rachel is a co-worker at Havenstone and she is misanthropic misandrist.”There was a pregnant pause. The confusion wasn’t with 'misanthropic’. It was a grown-up word in usage with colorful police-types. It was 'misandrist’ that had them stumped.“Rachel is an unsociable man-hater,” I explained. “Standing at my side in this hospital is ten kinds of Hell for her.”“What kind of piece do you normal carry?” Rios asked her. Unsocial didn’t mean stupid.“I use a Glock-22 and Rachel carries a STI Perfect 10,” I answered. “We have been experiencing quite a gopher problem around the office.” I could have done better; I should have done better. I was just too tired inside to create an inventive lie.“Do have gun licenses for those weapons?” Mr. ATF kept prodding at our cover story.“It seems Ms. Louis; is it Ms. Ms. Louis?” Brewster continued. I flashed Rachel a look which she interpreted correctly.“Yes, my name is Ms. Rachel Louis,” Rachel replied. To me, “I find this distraction to be annoying. We should go.”“It would seem Ms. Louis has all kinds of…” Brewster got out before Rachel snatched the wallet from his grip with the speed of a Peregrine Falcon. Brewster had this stunned look familiar to crows, doves and starlings the world over as one of their kin passed into the next life in a flash. A combination of 'No you didn’t!’ with 'what the flock?’“Ah…” Brewster got out.“On that note, I think we will be going,” I shrugged. To Rachel, “You do not get out enough.”“Can I see your wallet again?” Brewster was still confused by Rachel’s rudeness. He was a cop for the love of God. People not wanting to go to jail do not snatch things from a cop’s hands.“I gave you my wallet. I am not to blame if you used its time in your possession unwisely,” Rachel counterattacked. “Unless there is a legal technicality, we shall be leaving. If there is a legal issue, here,” she produced a business card with a flourish, “is the contact information for our legal department.” Theodora took the card gingerly then read it.“Havenstone again,” she mused. “Are you sure this is the path you wish to take, Mr. Nyilas?”“Are you insane?” I trembled with emotion. “I want to be back in New York, working my queue and thinking about what my date and I will be doing tonight. I want my Dad to be alive. I don’t want to be thinking that the last time we talked I forgot to tell him I loved him.”“Path, you IDIOT!” I screamed at Theodora. Fuck it, I was crying again. “Not a damn thing any of you can do will bring my Dad back to me; so fuck off!” In a strange way, that was what they had been looking for. Not my wounded soul, but my rage and pain toward a World suddenly found to be cruel and pointless.Behind my crumbling façade was another worry. Outside in the parking lot were three Amazons with weapons ready to rush to my aid. It wasn’t that the Host was rash, or reckless, by nature. I was one of the fifty-six most important people in their society. Three other SD members had died in the defense of House Ishara already and they were damn sure those women would not have died in vain.I wasn’t leaving in federal custody willingly and if I walked out in restraints, I wasn’t sure if they would decide offing some law enforcement agents and staging my kidnapping was the best course of action. Remember, I wanted to bury my Father. They wanted to keep me alive. If those two goals collided, they would apologize after the fact.“Mr. Nyilas, I really believe we should…” Theodora got out then I brushed past her. It was a delicate moment and the chemistry between Rachel and I wasn’t lost on most of them. She was a bodyguard yet my servant too. It was professional tribalism; two words that don’t normally get along. Rios picked up on the other undercurrent.He recoiled from Rachel, retreating to buy space when/if Rachel attacked. Unlike the rest, he sensed that aggression by law enforcement would be met with lethal force. The Amazon didn’t care about the badge and the legions of fellow officers backing it up. She was fearless. Things weren’t over yet.“Mr. Nyilas, were are you going next?” Detective Lisa came after us.“I…I don’t know,” I muttered. “Where is my Father’s body? I know he wanted to be cremated and buried beside Mom…I guess.” Brewster came hurrying along.“He is at the Medical Examiner’s Office,” Lisa informed me. “Come with me.”“Why don’t you give me the address?” I sighed.“Do you and your buddy know your way around Chicago, Hometown Boy?” Lisa kept it up. She was hitting on me and lining me up at the same time.“How about we cut to the chase?” I looked at her with tear-soaked eyes.“We’ll take my cars; cars with an ’s’,” I offered. “I am a hometown boy. I’ve never had a reason to locate the Medical Examiner before. Since I have a boatload of angry women with guns who will not fit into your sedan and leaving them behind isn’t an option, mine is the only means of travel that makes sense.”Low and behold, the two cops looked at each other then followed Rachel and I to our little caravan. We were too close for the officers to have missed Rachel snapping off some quick, coded instructions to her team; most likely to hide the seriously illegal firearms. To say the Amazons were not pleased with my decisions spoke volumes to their concern for me and lack of police experience.Pamela, who had beaten us back to the cars, seemed privately entertained as always. Rachel was reluctantly sitting up front. Lisa, Brewster and I were in the second row and Pamela sat in back. Not only did the two not get a good look at Pamela, she was perfectly placed to do all kinds of mischief unseen.“So the woman upstairs works with you?” Lisa asked as we pulled out.“Where to?” Tiger Lily (I still wasn’t used to that name) requested of our Police 'buddies’. Lisa popped off the address. It was 'I’ll scratch your back, you’ll scratch mine’. Tiger Lily entered the data into the onboard computer and off we went.“No. She does not work for me, or my boss, directly. She was at my Father’s on my behalf though I was unaware of it,” I related.“Are you going to tell us what the hell happened?” Brewster prodded.“That I don’t know. I am not personally aware of anyone who would want to kill my Father, or me,” I answered.“Anyone who would want to get at me would come at me, not Dad,” I continued. “I don’t live in a fortress. It is a hardly spacious apartment near the East River. I share the place with my roommate, Timothy Denver, and a…companion by the name of Odette Sievert.”“Companion? Is she…a working girl?” Lisa went searching.“No, I use the term companion to indicate she’s too nice a girl for me. She’s sweet, conscientious and giving. My only wish for Odette is that she finds a guy who can appreciate her a hell of a lot more than I do,” I explained. “Timothy is my gay, body-building tattoo artist best friend. I’ve gotten the feeling he’s busted some heads in his time. Hardly anything noteworthy.”“Mr. Nyilas, have you ever considered that you live a very messy life?” Brewster pondered.“One does not 'consider’ what one knows to be true. One knows it to be true and moves on,” I grumbled. “Yes, I know I live a screwed up life.”“What about your friends here?” Lisa indicated the other three women in the vehicle. This elicited another groan from me.“Investigator Brewster; Horace and Detective Capella; Lisa, please call me Cáel. This is the point I accept that I am exhausted and not in any shape to make good decisions. I’ll plead the Fifth,” I confessed.“We already know you were in New York when your father was murdered, Mister…Cáel,” Brewster stated.“Everyone we’ve talked to says you and your father were very close. Barring some expensive Life Insurance policy being taken out on him, we have no reason to suspect you had a direct hand in his death. Not being a suspect, that implies you have no Fifth Amendment, or Miranda Rights to hide behind; just so we are clear,” Brewster schooled me.“I can make this game of footsy easy on all of you,” Pamela whispered. The officers jolted in their seats. “Cáel cannot talk to you for the very reason the Fifth Amendment exists.”“You are not like the rest of this menagerie,” Lisa noted.“Nah, I kill people for a living. The rest of the group has some code of conduct that keeps you two alive,” Pamela smiled.Those two didn’t know what to make of Pamela’s statement because it was so sincere yet incredible.“If Cáel tells you anything else he will be admitting to his involvement in a criminal conspiracy. Said conspiracy is why Ferko Nyilas is dead, but Cáel had nothing to do with it,” Pamela enlightened them.Fact digestion time for the two law dogs. Brewster recovered faster.“But why was Ferko Nyilas murdered?” he asked.“The men didn’t come to kill him,” Pamela kept talking about the tea and crumpets. “They probably showed up to escort him to a place where some far more important scumbags could talk with him.”“The all-girl squad was there and Ferko was caught in the crossfire,” Lisa mumbled. “Why was there a firefight if his life was in danger and both sides wanted him alive?”“Stupidity,” Pamela replied. “Give any group of people guns and then surprise them, stupid shit happens; I apologize Cáel.”“I don’t buy that,” Brewster said. “They simply started shooting at each other; no.”“Okay Horace, let me break it down for you. The ladies were told to go there and guard the guy without being told why. The men who showed up were most likely told to grab Ferko without knowing why either.”“That makes no sense,” Lisa protested.“Congratulations. That is why Cáel can’t talk to you anymore,” Pamela smirked. “This is the sort of crap he has inadvertently been caught up with; no fault of his own. If he did any of this on purpose, I’d kill him myself.”“He is some poor schmuck who only wanted a 7-5 job, to make tons of money and bedding a different girl every night,” Pamela teased me. “He’s no criminal mastermind, or even a convincing criminal. If he has a failing it is that he tends to merely beat up people who deserve to have their spleens ripped out instead. I’m training him to be smarter than that.”“Who are you?” Brewster gawked. Pamela gave a sinister smile. Lisa looked at me.“I’ve fought a woman with a twelve foot stick with a pointy bit of metal at the end with little thought to my personal safety. This lady (Pamela) scares me. She is with me because I have no means of stopping her and I put saving others a great deal of pain and suffering over my own unsettled nerves.”“Do you really think you are that good?” Lisa half-turned around to face Pamela.“Do you want your gun back?” Pamela offered up a police issue Glock-22, grip first. My kind of gun. How sad. I was too depressed to seduce Officer Lisa. Brewster reached around to check is firearm. It was still there, much to his relief.“How did you do that?” Lisa wondered as she retrieved and inspected her weapon. Pamela tapped Brewster’s shoulder with the man’s magazine. Brewster was aghast. She’d stolen his gun, taken out the ammo and returned it without him noticing.“I found it on the floor. The truth is a bit more expensive than you are willing to pay at the moment, believe me,” Pamela grinned.Why had Pamela showboated? She was buying me some mental respite. She was also exhibiting to the two police folks that there might be some truth to her outlandish tale of criminal conspiracies. Unlike the other Amazons, Pamela knew we had to maintain friendly relations with some part of law enforcement if I was going to bury my Father.(The Medical Examiner’s Office)So much happens in life we rarely put the timespan of events in context. Talking with a person in line who turns out to make your day better/worse, become a friend and/or a date. In a matter of a few seconds your life has been altered. Two minutes later and you would have missed getting the concert tickets where you meet your future; whomever.Two minutes sooner and you get caught in the 'speed trap’ instead of the other poor sap who you drive past as they sit on the side of the road keeping the patrol officer company. His/her insurance rate goes up while you have that extra money for later. Had we arrived two minutes earlier to the morgue; disaster aborted. Two minutes later would have equated to a frustrating mystery.Life was not so kind. It was the same group as before; Detective Lisa, Investigator Horace, Rachel and I. We had just added an Assistant Medical Examiner who was going over information garnered from the autopsy with the two cops. Pamela was 'checking things out’, whatever that meant. The key to it all was Rachel being Rachel.Security Detail are more than simply elite fighting-women. They are also bodyguards, security specialist and normally stack a third specialty into the mix. When Rachel spotted five armed people in the hallway right outside the Medical Examiner’s autopsy room, her alertness spiked. Only one was a uniformed police officer. Rachel was still gun-less.The two EMS personnel rolling an occupied body bag out on a gurney shouldn’t have had on their heavy jackets on a late June afternoon. The other two men were chatting about something. That wasn’t unusual. Where they were standing was; to Lisa’s experienced eye. Rachel’s heightened anxiety made Lisa double-check everything.Horace didn’t know what was wrong yet when Lisa’s hand came to rest on her piece, he put his hand on his Ruger SR45.“Excuse me,” Lisa called out. No one stopped moving. “Excuse me,” Lisa demanded in a louder voice. “I am Detective Lisa Capella, Chicago Police Department; Homicide Division. What is going on?”That was a reach. Bodies exit the morgue all the time. The two people with the body made sense. The two 'odd’ fellows weren’t breaking any law. In cop-talk, this was called 'gut instinct’. She produced her badge. There was a quick look by the two ambulance folk to the farther of the two 'talking’ men.That group were rather competent, just not competent conmen. The two EMS guys turned and tried to give Lisa a causal look.“What can we do for you, officer?” the designated diplomat asked nonchalantly.“Whose body is that?” Lisa inquired.“I’m not sure; all we do is pick 'em up and take them to the appropriate funeral home,” he shrugged.“Take ten seconds and show me the release order,” Lisa gave a chilly command. The cop at the far end of the hall; the one with the door that lead to the loading/unloading area, was starting to clue in that something wasn’t right.“Oh, by the Great Pumpkin, this is bad,” Brewster muttered under his breath like a thousand other fathers who engaged in the daily struggle to not curse at work so they wouldn’t curse around their children.“Of course, Detective Capella,” the diplomat nodded. “Is there a problem?” He carefully pulled out his smart phone and handed it over.Lisa wasn’t born yesterday. She handed the phone to me instead of looking at it herself. She was keeping her eyes on the guys with guns. They really did have an order to transfer my Father to a mortuary. Apparently I had requested this be done; without my knowledge.“Cáel Nyilas requested his father be taken to the Green Meadows mortuary in Cicero,” I informed Lisa, Rachel and Horace.“I need to talk to Mr. Nyilas,” Lisa informed them. “If I can’t talk to him, I can’t let the body leave this building. This is an ongoing investigation.” The 'diplomat’ was worried yet Lisa had given him an out. After I returned his phone, he called his off-site boss, who gave him a number which the diplomat gave to Lisa. Lisa called 'me’ without my phone ringing.Even so, 'I’ confirmed the authorization. The four gunmen relaxed as Lisa hung up.“One more question,” Lisa pulled a 'Columbo’, “was this a rush job, or are you all 'not ready for prime time players’?” The 'diplomat’ made one last lunge at deception.“Detective Capella, our work order is legitimate,” he shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what you mean?”“Funeral homes have their own uniforms; they do not dress as EMS,” Lisa deconstructed their illusions. “The bodies of murder victim are not released by the Medical Examiner until a cause of death is known and that information is released to the homicide detective assigned to the case; that would be me, if there was any doubt.Your two buddies down the hall could have read and critiqued the Magna Carta in the time it has taken for you to do your 'song and dance’,” Lisa pointed out. “Oh, and the real Cáel Nyilas is standing next to me. Whoever talked with me on the phone is going to jail too. Now I suggest the four of you face the wall, put your hands over your head, palms against the wall and no one will get hurt.”Darwin check time; they drew their guns. Of course they drew their guns. Why would they not draw their guns considering the farthest enemy was all of 4 meters away and the only immediately cover was my Dad’s horizontal corpse? Gurneys tend to be lightweight and mostly empty space.The quickest on the draw was one of the two 'talkers’. He whipped out a .357 Magnum revolver and popped two shots into the police officer next to him; right in the center mass at less than 2 meters; ouch. Rachel was next, making a diving front roll between the two cops, toward the two fake EMS guys. I was right behind her, except my plan was to vault Dad’s body and get at the second talker. I was not acting sanely.The second talker went in the next split second. He had brought a sawed-off automatic shotgun to the fight. His first salvo blew a chunk out of the wall next to Lisa’s hip. She was less than an eye-blink behind as she put two slugs into the 'diplomat’s’ armored chest. He was kind enough to drop his Mac-11 from his twitching fingers and into Rachel’s hands.Less than a single heartbeat later, the 'diplomat’s EMS buddy revealed his own Mac-11. His mistake was not shooting his first target; Brewster. He was tracking Rachel and me instead, hoping to catch us together in a spray of lead. The general feeling was that, for all his law enforcement experience, Investigator Brewster had never actually shot at anyone before.His cop instincts kicked into overdrive. The perpetrators appeared to be wearing body armor and possessed a small arsenal of illegal weapons. His aim tweaked up, he pulled the trigger and a .45 ACP round effectively decapitated his target; our first confirmed casualty. My encounter with the Latin Kings had been a lesson in poor tactical flexibility.This time, by unspoken agreement, the two talkers were exercising their tactical acumen as they began withdrawing toward the exit. With the short range, width of the hall and lack of cover, being shot at by a shotgun, or a .357 didn’t make much difference. I was trying to jump onto the gurney and launch myself at the two when my toe caught on the bottom of Dad’s body, turning my heroic rush into a face-plant on Father.The men’s cover fire worked on Lisa and Horace. Lisa, being more exposed, had to dive flat. Horace crouch-ran to Rachel. Rachel, with her submachine gun, was firing a steady stream of bullets from between the gurney’s top surface and bottom shelf. Her shots shattered shotgun guy’s shins and blasted off his knee caps.As that bastard screamed and toppled forward, Rachel emptied the magazine into both his thighs and his right hip. By the copious nature of the blood spray, an artery had been clipped, if not severed. Horace grabbed the back of my jacket and yanked me off the gurney, down to his side. Lisa fired off a few shots at the vanishing leader, but he was already out the door.Rachel was rifling the closest EMS’s headless body, looking for a fresh clip for the M-11.“Don’t,” Horace cautioned her. Lisa was running to the door.“Rachel, leave the gun and follow me,” I commanded.“Wait,” Horace called out. He was in an impossible situation. The bold Assistant ME began looking for any survivors, starting with the diplomat.Detective Capella was chasing after a possible cop-killer. I was already running after Lisa and Horace couldn’t ride herd on Rachel, catch me and support Lisa all at once. Rachel muttered [OKH] 'dirty goat’ at my fleeting form. I was sure its true meaning was far nastier.“Da-darn it,” Horace grimaced as he started rushing after the three of us.I doubted it was any consolation to Horace that Lisa shot me an evil look when I caught up to her at the loading dock. T

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SPECIAL - The History of Crete

history romans greece mediterranean bce crete venetian ottomans nazi germans minoans mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 22, 2022 65:09

5330000 BCE - today - We condense the history of the Mediterranean island of Crete into one episode, plotting the ages of the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Etocretans, Romans, Aghlabids, Venetians, Ottomans and Nazi Germans, as well as the ultimate mother culture of Greece itself.

OSPod Episode 46: Space Horror, Mycenaeans, and Indigo's War with a Clock

Overly Sarcastic Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2022 62:57 Very Popular

Indigo and Blue are off to Vidcon, so we met up early to try and predict what you, yes you, the audience would think of Space Horror and the Mycenaeans. We learned Indigo is an old man, Xenomorphs could stand to be more kawaii, and Red may have a mocha problem!Our podcast, like our videos, sometimes touches on the violence, assaults, and murders your English required reading list loves (also we curse sometimes). Treat us like a TV-14 show.Aurora:https://comicaurora.com/Rolling with Difficulty:RSS Feed: https://rollingwithdifficultypod.transistor.fm/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RollingwithDifficultyOSP has new videos every Friday:https://www.youtube.com/c/OverlySarcasticProductionsChannelQuestion for the Podcast? Head to the #ask-ospod discord channel:https://discord.gg/OSPMerch:https://www.redbubble.com/people/ospyoutube/shopFollow Us:Patreon.com/OSPTwitter.com/OSPyoutubeTwitter.com/sophie_kay_★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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Healing Part 1: The Return of the Maggots

Down the Wormhole

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2022 61:18 Transcription Available

Episode 105 Maggots! Bloodletting! Graverobbers! Decapitated ducks! Cornflakes! This episode has it all! Join us on this wild ride through the history of Western Medicine as we look at the breakthroughs, setbacks, prejudices, and methodology behind it. Support this podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/DowntheWormholepodcast More information at https://www.downthewormhole.com/ produced by Zack Jackson music by Zack Jackson and Barton Willis Transcript This transcript was automatically generated by www.otter.ai, and as such contains errors (especially when multiple people are talking). As the AI learns our voices, the transcripts will improve. We hope it is helpful even with the errors. Zack Jackson 00:04 You are listening to the down the wormhole podcast exploring the strange and fascinating relationship between science and religion. This week our hosts are Kendra Holt-Moore 00:14 Kendra Holt-Moore, assistant professor of religion at Bethany College, and my most recent ailment was a concussion from a snowboarding fall, Zack Jackson 00:28 Zack Jackson, UCC pasture and Reading, Pennsylvania, and my most recent ailment was COVID. Rachael Jackson 00:36 Rachel Jackson, Rabbi Agoudas, Israel congregation Hendersonville, North Carolina, my most recent ailment is real, pretty bland, but irritating nonetheless. It's just a headache. But it was one of those headaches that I couldn't get rid of a headache for no reason. And I felt like oh my god, I'm just old, I now just get headaches. Ian Binns 01:01 And Ben's Associate Professor of elementary science education at UNC Charlotte. And my most recent ailment is arthritis in my right hand, where this part is where the thumb comes down and connects to the wrist. It is definitely confirmed no longer early onset arthritis. So yeah, that was fun. 01:26 Why did you why did you ask her this question? Ian Binns 01:29 For two reasons. One, because we just passed your birthday, Rachel. So celebration. Rachael Jackson 01:38 Your old everything hurts. Just adding the parenthetical aside, Everybody Hurts from REM is an amazing song from 1992. And it's younger than Ian Binns 01:50 I am interested. No, yeah, no, that was out before? No. When were you born again, Kendra. 1991. See, so 01:58 nothing hurt, then. I was fresh. Ian Binns 02:05 The second reason that we're asking this question is because we're starting our new mini series, our next mini series on healing. So for today, I'm gonna give a just a very quick crash course, in kind of the history of healing from a science perspective. And I will let our listeners know that my background and understanding this is definitely more than the western science. So please, if anyone hears this and says, hey, you've left out some cultures, historical cultures that I do apologize for that. But as I said, this is gonna be very brief. So we could do several episodes just on the history of medicine. But so anyway, so I kind of wanted to just give some general, interesting things that have occurred over time. And then we wanted us to be able to get into a conversation about, like medical treatments, for different ailments, as well. But some of our understanding of the history of medicine goes all the way back to prehistoric times. And this is where I think it will come into play throughout our series as well, of how different cultures used to attribute different types of magic or religion to ailments, you know, maybe it was something to do with evil spirits or something like that. But you know, supernatural origin versus more of a natural origin of reason for different ailments. But one of the things that we know from the discovery of different prehistoric skulls is that they would actually drill a hole into the skull of the victim, because they believe that that the speculation is and then we actually see this occurred in more recent human history that it would release the disease. And so that was one thanks, you mean patient? Did I sit victim, you get saved. Because you know, if Zack Jackson 03:54 you're going to your show, and your hands Ian Binns 03:56 are gonna drill during prehistoric times, and you're gonna knock a hole into the person's skull, they may end up being the victim. Right? So, so yeah, there you go. And then now we were going to jump ahead to ancient Egypt, when we start actually seeing some evidence of written evidence of different types of treatments and medicine. One examples from the what was called the Smith Papyrus, written in 1600 BCE, right around there. But it was actually we believe it was a copy of a text from much earlier, so roughly 3000 BCE, but in that particular Papyrus, that's now I think, in New York. It contained 48 case studies. There was no theory for anything, but it was an observation and kind of a recording of what it is that they knew. So the case studies were all written, same way, the title, the examination, so what they're observing, and then the diagnosis, and then the treatment, and then they will have a glossary for terms. But again, they were still be speculation about what role Old Evil forces or spirits play in the cause of diseases. And then we're gonna jump ahead more to ancient Greece. And this is where many people may have heard of Hippocrates, of Coase Brahm, circa BCE, or for 20 BC, he was one of the first people who kind of focused on natural explanations trying to move away from supernatural explanations. And he was one of the people who came up with the idea of the four humors, which those are blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. And if you are healthy, that means the four humors are in balance, if you were not healthy, that means something was off, one of the humors was off. And so this is where we start getting the idea of bloodletting. So for example, if someone had a fever, it was due to an abundance of blood. And so they would do bloodletting as a way to cure the fever. But still, at this time, and again, I'm skipping over a lot of people. They learned different things with anatomy, but they were only allowed to dissect animals, because at the time, it was illegal to dissect humans. At which time, still 420 BCE. So this is still the BCE era, ancient, Zack Jackson 06:13 ancient really, that sounds more like a Christian hang up than agree. Yeah. Well, and actually to Ian Binns 06:17 this, and trying to prepare for today's episode, I did see in some of the more ancient eastern cultures of like Hinduism, and from the early early stages of that, that they were also not allowed to cut into the human body and dissect human bodies either. So this is not just in that area. But yeah, you're right, because, Zack, as you just said, that we see that all the way up into the 1500s that they weren't supposed to be dissecting humans in in Europe, for example, but they did not necessarily figure out the reason or the causes of the different parts of the body that they were removing from the body. So when it came to anatomy, who the Egyptians from my from my understanding, or my off on that, which I find that's Zack Jackson 07:01 fine, it depends. The the Ebers papyrus and again, all these papyrus papyrus papyrus Pappa Ria, I don't know if the plural is. The Papyrus is they are named after the the hippopotami Yes, sorry. They're all happy to discover they're all named there. No, not the Discover. They're named after the white guys who bought it at auction and then brought it back to their country. So, you know, all of Egyptian treasures are in Europe or America somewhere instead of where they belong. But anyway, Ian Binns 07:35 yeah, the Smith Paul Bader is probably wasn't named for a guy named Smith all that back then. Zack Jackson 07:40 Right now Pharaoh Smith. No, that's not really an Egyptian name. But the Ebers papyrus was in 1550 BCE, and it had a really detailed explanation of the heart and the entire circulatory system. It was a bit wrong in some of the ways in that they thought that the the heart pumps all fluids. So that includes urine and semen as well as as blood, but they understood the purpose of of the blood going through the muscles and the veins and the arteries and all of that they actually also had some psychiatric conditions that were tied up in conditions of the heart. And they mentioned like dementia and depression, which were problems of the heart because they would dissect people after they died and look at the quality of their ventricles and all of that. So they didn't know what the brain was. They thought that was garbage. But the heart was the center of Ian Binns 08:37 all thank you for correcting me, Zack, I forgot about that Papyrus. Papyrus? popularized by Bob Yes, go ahead, Rachel. Zack Jackson 08:46 Papyrus hippopotami Rachael Jackson 08:47 I was just going to add that because things are because things are so ancient, we tend to forget that there was we say Egyptian. We're looking at 1000s and 1000s of years when we say Ancient Egypt, so 1500 BCE is kind of the middle right? Middle late kingdom, right? This is the these are the new kingdoms. Were this is not, these are not the ones that built those giant pyramids. That's 1000 years earlier that they did that. So I think when we when we talk about that we should do a little bit of justice and say, hey, it would sort of be like saying, hey, all Englanders life for all time, right? Well, that's just been 2000 years like it's at some point. So just to add to that piece and same thing with the the Greek piece or the ancient Greek has been around for a very long time. That's that's the history not the Zack Jackson 09:45 speaking of the history piece to in about in the 1200s or so BCE, there was this mysterious Bronze Age collapse in which these massive societies, the ancient Egyptians, the Mycenaeans, all the the the Hittite They just they just collapsed. And we're not entirely sure why possibly the sea peoples possibly climate change, possibly a million other things, aliens, if you watch the History Channel, but all of these amazing societies, the Minoans, another one, they all just disappeared. And so you see later Greek society and later Egyptian society, then trying to make sense of the fact that there are these ancient ruins that are massive, and they just assume that ancient heroes built them, which is where a lot of the mythology comes from. But so like this sort of understanding of anatomy and health was probably somewhat lost in going into the period that now you're talking about where people aren't allowed to dissect. So we see them now because we found the papyrus, but they may not have had them Ian Binns 10:46 as well. So Zach, you mentioned, you know, of that massive loss of civilization around that timeframe? And you mentioned your seafaring people to a man, are you talking about Atlantis there, buddy? Zack Jackson 11:01 I am actually the Minoans. We're probably the source of the Atlantean myth as far as Ian Binns 11:07 because wasn't Plato, one of the first ones to talk about it. Plato was the first one to write right about that we have documentation. Zack Jackson 11:14 It's an Egyptian story that Plato heard and wrote about that there's this island nation that was super advanced in technology and in society, and then they angered Poseidon, right, and then they were wiped out by the sea for their iniquities. And so that lines up really nicely with the Minoan people who were on Crete, who at the time, I mean, we're talking 1500 BCE. Further back had like three storey buildings with hot and cold running water, and indoor plumbing. They had amazing art and architecture. They were they they were doing things that 1000s of years later, people hadn't discovered. And then they were just they were hit by this massive tsunami after the oh, what's that, that place in Greece that everyone goes on vacation with the beautiful blue waters of Santorini the volcano there exploded and caused caused dust it caused tsunamis and basically wiped out their society and in the Mycenaeans conquered them, and then the Bronze Age collapse. So we forgot all about them for 1000s of years, but they were probably the inspiration of Atlantis. It's not aliens, sorry. It's probably just Minoans. It's a bummer. Yeah, well, this has been Zach ruins mythology for you. Kendra Holt-Moore 12:31 A new segment? I love that. Yeah, exactly. Ian Binns 12:33 You could just splice this out and move it to the end. So let's get back to because I think while we're doing this to it's interesting, you all I am going to be focusing mostly on how we start to see more of a focus on natural phenomena, natural explanations and a scientific approach to medicine, that you still do see, you know, and like Apocrypha as being one of the individuals again from 420 BCE, trying to move away from Supernatural that even with the work of Hippocrates, that it did not drive out, like the rivals, you know, long that more traditional forms of healing up to that point, those those are traditional forms of healing belief and practice that those still existed. So it's not like when his work and and his contemporaries, you know, and then actually, there's speculation that Hippocrates was multiple people. It was not one. And so, just because of that, though, it did not drive out this the more traditional ways of belief and practices all say, so then I'm going to jump ahead roughly 500 years to Rome, and Galen. So Galen was a individuals from 129, to circa 200 CE. And he really started getting into this notion of we need to rely on the world of our senses. And but he still accepted the idea of the four humors that was originally proposed by Hippocrates. He recognized the arteries contain blood and not merely air, he also showed how the heart sets blood in motion, but he did not have an idea about the whole notion of circulation, blood circulation, but he was he did start figuring out that, you know, the heart did move things at least a little bit. We definitely see evidence with control experimentation with Galen key focus on on anatomy, but again, at the timeframe, dissection of humans was illegal. And so his work was focusing on animals, their section of animals, and it's his work. That actually kind of stayed when you think about Western culture and Western medicine, kind of was the prevailing view of how things were done until the 1500s. was actually the reason why I remember that so much is with that part, because his work was occurring rather right around the time of Ptolemy, when he talked about astronomy, and that stayed around for roughly the same Not a time till you know, Copernicus work. So it was kind of all those things started happening right around the same time. So now again, you know, my apologies for leaving out multiple cultures that I want to jump ahead again now to Medieval and Renaissance Europe. And so as I said galas, views kind of held strong until roughly the 1500s. And this is when we see Andreas alias, emerge. And yes, there were others before him, but he was one of the first ones to really get into dissection of humans. I think he had he was a person who had students who were grave robbers, because it was still illegal at the time. But he realized that we needed for anatomy, we needed a better understanding and body so he would have his students would become grave robbers and steal the bodies, and then they would do special dissections, you know, for like a show. I mean, there were many, many people watching, but they would have lookouts to make sure that they weren't doing anything, they wouldn't get caught. Zack Jackson 15:58 Do you put them back? I don't know that after you're done? No. 16:02 I would hope so. Yeah, Ian Binns 16:03 you think so? Rachael Jackson 16:04 I would think so. Not just think so. Ian Binns 16:08 Yeah. Then apparently he was a very skilled Dissector. And he felt like you know, it was they had to move away from Galen and his views. And don't forget, you know, I said, you know, we're jumping time. This was 1400 years later. So Galen, his views held strong for a long time. But he did a lot of dissection of humans. And his scientific observations and methods, with these facilities show that Galen can no longer be regarded as the final authority. And so that's when we start to see and again, this is also aligned with the time of the Renaissance. That's when we start seeing movement away from more ancient understandings when it comes to science, to medicine, for example, he believed in the importance of empirical knowledge, independent observation and experimentation. So this alias is really into those types of things. I don't know if he was ever caught. I have to look into that one. Yeah, Zack Jackson 17:04 well, now he Oh, yeah. You blew his cover, man. Ian Binns 17:07 Sorry, sorry, everybody. But what's interesting is even when that was occurring, we were also still seeing some people who were holding on to the idea that, you know, while experimentation is important that we still need to Paracelsus was one of them. I think I'm saying that correct. He presents the idea that humans are the ultimate ends of God's creation. So the ultimate form he held on is something called a chemical philosophy, which is a Christian philosophy. But it was not very widely accepted at the time, because as I've already said, this is the time of the Renaissance. So we're trying to move away from those types of explanations. And so he was still around, but he was trying to blend the two, between experimentation, but also to hold into the importance of God and humans kind of being the ultimate form. And then the next person I want to talk about before we start really going into different types of ailments stuff, just because of, as I said, the history as William Harvey, he was 15, seven 816 57. So he advanced medicine even further, because of careful observation, experimentation, he really focused on collecting more evidence. And this is when we really start to see what we now think of as experimentations. So, you know, control experimentation manipulate in nature, so he can see something that normally would not be seen, he came up with the theory of the circulation of blood of blood. So we started trying to have a better understanding how blood circulated throughout the body. And again, you know, he still was someone who did believe in the impact of a designer, but he really focused on the more natural explanations. Zack Jackson 18:46 It's interesting that you say that he he discovered the circulation of the blood when we just said that 3000 years earlier, the Egyptians knew about the circuit. Oh, you're right. Ian Binns 18:56 Yeah. Yeah, and plumbing, and plumbing, 19:02 plumbing, our own and in the world, but it Ian Binns 19:05 is fascinating historical texts still hold us like William Harvey is one of the people who really did that. Zack Jackson 19:11 Well, God forbid, they credited an African for exactly discovering yessing. Ian Binns 19:17 And so just because of, you know, because I really want us to get into conversations around like different types of treatments we see throughout history for different ailments. You know, this was the time of the Renaissance. When you start moving past that. I mean, you as we've seen, we've discussed throughout on this show, in the past about the history of science and how scientific advancements just took off during this timeframe. Incredibly fast, right. And it was the same for medical medical advancements, too. And so we continue to see lots of different changes over time to the point where we are to our today, but what I really want to focus on unless someone wants to talk more about other history is getting into these treatments that we see throughout history. If we can Zack Jackson 19:59 Yeah, That's absolutely yeah, you're chomping at the bit over there. You want to talk about about some some trees. Ian Binns 20:05 So because one of my hat, like asthma, so asthma used to be treated, it was treated by smoking. Zack Jackson 20:16 Oh, yes, smoking pipe of Ian Binns 20:19 tobacco or cigar has the power of relieving a fit of asthma, especially in those not accustomed to it, Zack Jackson 20:26 which I thought was really amazing custom to tobacco. Ian Binns 20:29 That was this. That was the argument being presented is amazing. Yeah. There's an when when ish was this it was more like the 1800s. 20:39 Oh, recent. Zack Jackson 20:40 Yeah. Well, counterpoint. No, that is not don't don't smoke, if you have so please Ian Binns 20:47 understand that these are old, not accurate. There's a another thing with the whole idea of smoking. Yeah. For Your Health. This is. Back in the late 19th, early 20th century, I found a site talks about these different types of treatments out there smoking, for your health, asthma cigarettes. Yeah. So and they were this is an advertisement, not recommended for children under six. That was nice. But they were actually called asthma cigarettes. And they effectively treat asthma hay fever, foul breath, all diseases of throat, head colds, canker sores, bronchial irritations. So yeah, so that was a good thing. Zack Jackson 21:30 Well, so when you're talking 19th, and 20th century, and these are like some crazy, wacky solutions for things like when they would give cocaine to children for their cough, and all of that. That's not entirely like saying that the ancient Romans used electric eels to cure hemorrhoids. Which, which is real? Well, when we're in the 19th and 20th centuries, a lot of these are the companies understood the awful things that their, their their products did to people, but they made marketing false advertisements to sell these addictive things to people. You know, the Bayer Corporation knew all about the addictive qualities of cocaine and still pushed it as a as a simple pain reliever, because they could get people addicted to it. And like those sorts of predatory capitalism has existed for the past couple of 100 years with with pharmaceuticals, and we are paying that price now with the opioid epidemic. So when the smoking industry in the 1800s, they didn't understand that it gave cancer, obviously, but they knew it wasn't good. Yeah, no, those advertisements are intentionally misleading, because there was no oversight. Ian Binns 22:49 Well, and earlier, I referred to bloodletting. And, you know, was talking about, you know, ancient, ancient Greece, you know, and for 400 BCE, bloodletting did not just end then, bloodletting was something that was continued for a very long time, for centuries. And Rachael Jackson 23:06 right, and I believe, and I have not fact check this. So someone else has please correct me or collaborate, whichever it might be. I said, No, we're doing stuff about presidents. And a little factoid that I heard was that George Washington got a fever, just like you're saying in and at that time. It's George Washington, early, early 19th century, and he got a fever. And so they decided to do bloodletting. And they did bloodletting twice on him. So much, so that he died. Oh, good. I have not, I have not double checked that fact. But I also haven't seen anything to contradict it. So yeah, take that with a grain of salt as it may. But that was, it was all the way up until George Washington is when they were really still using this as a technique to cure people from things like fevers, which are very, very dangerous, but unless you have something to just take down the fever, you're either gonna live it or you're like, or you're not. Zack Jackson 24:12 Yeah, the Constitution Center. Constitution. center.org says that that process of bloodletting probably let about 40% of his blood supply, right. So you can't really make it through a sickness with 40% of your blood supply. Rachael Jackson 24:28 Right. So imagine I mean, think about when you donate blood do the three of you donate blood any on a regular or at all ever works. I Ian Binns 24:37 grew up in Europe. Right? Yeah, Mad Cow Disease just because people don't know. Rachael Jackson 24:43 Yeah. Yeah. Zack, do you ever Zack Jackson 24:48 know I don't I don't I mostly have issues with needles. Yeah, exactly. What me not to Rachael Jackson 24:53 Yeah, don't do that. better for everybody that you don't go to the hospital for donating blood. Kendra Holt-Moore 24:58 Drive was can So I think because of a COVID related thing, but I would like to, but I haven't. Rachael Jackson 25:06 Yeah, yeah, it's one of those like really simple, really useful things that if a person is healthy and no guilt, no judgment. For anyone that does or doesn't, you can do it every 56 days, and they take about a leader. And generally speaking, people, adults have five to six leaders. And they say, Okay, you're gonna feel queasy, don't do any weightlifting, don't do anything strenuous for a minimum of 24 hours. Like, you've got to just take it real easy, and you have to be healthy when you donate, because your body needs every blood cell that it has when it's healthy, or when it's sick. And when it's healthy. Yeah, we've got an extra 20%. So let's give it away. But if you take more than that, you're not going to survive very well. And then if you take more than that, and you're sick, your body has no ability to fight off the diseases, right? We talk about blood cells all the time, and the white blood cell counts and red blood cells. And how do we think we were just talking about the circulation system? Right, the circulatory? How do you think all of those good anti me when your immune system actually gets to these infections through your bloodstream? And if you don't have a good flowing bloodstream? Right, if this is August, after a rough summer, it's not happening. Zack Jackson 26:29 So I know that in modern medicine, they still do use leeches, there are medical legions, and they're usually used to drain excess blood or like, you know, pooling of blood and hematoma hematomas. Is that the thing? Because it's, it's sanitary. And it's easier. And if people are willing to have a leech on him for a while, then it's great. But like, historically, bloodletting has been around for very Ian Binns 26:56 long, 1000s and 1000s. Like, Zack Jackson 27:00 it must have worked at least a little bit, or else they wouldn't have kept doing it. Right. Rachael Jackson 27:06 But don't you think correlation and causation comes into play here. But people get people get better, regardless of what we tried to do them. And so just because someone got better doesn't mean that what we did to them made them better? Well, so Zack Jackson 27:23 like, there's an old remedy, in which if you got bit by a snake, you would take a duck and put its butt on the wound, and then cut its head off. And then while the bite is on the wound, and the thought was that it would suck out the poison, Ian Binns 27:37 the dung Would Suck out the poison. Zack Jackson 27:40 Yes, yes. Yes. Everyone knows this wanted Ian Binns 27:42 to make that claim. I'm quite excited about that. Zack Jackson 27:47 Like that. That didn't stick. Yeah. But like draining people have their a painful procedure that is gross, and makes me feel queasy thinking about that stuck around for 1000s of years where like, is there any kind of medical benefit? Like even in obviously not in Washington's case, like if you have an infection, don't get rid of your blood? But like, what that stimulates SIBO antibodies to then like go to the wound, or like adrenaline to help boost the system? What? Are any of you familiar with any positives of blood lead? I Kendra Holt-Moore 28:28 not? I'm not answering this question to like, describe physiological processes, but the placebo effect is extremely powerful. Like in just the study of medicine, like contemporary researchers, there are some who have done a lot of really interesting work on placebo effects. And obviously, like, we don't have the same kind of data to, like, you know, like double, double blind study results of placebo effects for like, ancient practices, ancient cultures, but I think, you know, cross culturally, all human societies, we all do things that, you know, as Rachel said, we can't really like tie a causation thread between those practices and healing in a definitive way, but a lot of what we do, we do for like cultural or, you know, comfort reasons. And even that is like different than placebo, which, in a lot of cases, like the placebo effect does actually change. Like it does lead to physiological changes. And it's kind of like weird and mysterious, but I think that I think that's not something to take for granted or under appreciate. Because, you know, I think even like early psychological studies showing, you know, if you're in a situation shift where you're around like comforting, familiar people and a comforting, familiar environment, you just fare better. Like even if we're not talking about injury, you fare better in terms of your, like mental health, mental well being, which translates to sometimes like physical well being. And that, you know, those are, those are things that are, I think, often considered, like, non essential pieces of the healing process. But, but yet, we we all, you know, like there are studies to show that people care about a doctor's bedside manner. People care about having, you know, chaplains come into hospital settings to, to support people and that that, that does facilitate something real in terms of healing. But it's it's just not, there's not like a clear, like, hard scientific way of describing that necessarily, but I that it's not to say that it's like not important also. Rachael Jackson 31:04 Yeah, I would, I would add that, you know, you were just talking to Kendra about hospitals. But also previous to that you were saying, in places where people are surrounded and around things that they're comfortable with, the best healing happens when you're not in a hospital. Right. Hospital is no place for a sick person. I mean, and I mean, that my dad, my dad, was now a doctor said that, to me, it's like, that makes perfect sense. Because to really, unless you're really sick, and you can't be at home, being at home is your best chance of getting better. And I'm using that word intentionally, right, getting closer to a cure and your sense of normal, faster than being in a hospital, and that hospitals are there for the very, very sick people who cannot be at home for whatever reason. So it's one of those other reasons like stay away from a hospital. Also, they just have a lot of germs still stay away from a hospital. Unless, again, you have no other alternative. And so, you know, to answer Zach's question there too, I think the idea of Zack, you were kind of recoiling from the achiness of leeches. And I wonder, are the bloodletting perspective? I wonder if part of the causation and the correlation might be, you're now treating a person differently. You're giving them advantages. Maybe you're giving them more soup, maybe you're giving them more fluids? Maybe you're treating them differently, because Oh, it's so serious that we have to call a doctor in or whoever, whatever their title was, whoever was giving the leeches, the priests perhaps, right, that now they're so different that their everydayness is being being treated differently. You give them the extra blanket, you give them the soup, you take them outside, like whatever it is, that that's really what's happening. And so yes, the leeches are helping but only as a secondary issue. Zack Jackson 33:08 That reminds me of the correlation causation argument around the increased health of religious people. We've heard that those numbers thrown around a lot that people who regularly are connected to religious communities are healthier live longer than people that don't. Right. Yeah. And the argument from the religious perspective is that well, faithful people have God, and God heals you. And prayer works. And so prayer prayer for people are healthy people. When the opposite argument is then yeah, the opposite argument is that, well, you're connected to a religious community, you've got people that care for you, you've got people that come by There's comfort, there's there's connection, there's soup delivered to your door every day. And those intangibles are what caused the the health and the healing. Yeah, Kendra Holt-Moore 33:58 and the direction of the correlation is not always clear, if you're looking at like study results. So if you're healthy and able bodied, to like get to your church, or synagogue or whatever, then you can, you can do that. But you were already healthy from the starting point. Whereas if you're like chronically ill and unable to get out of bed, then maybe you don't go to a religious service, because you're not able to but the starting point, the kind of direction of behavior was influenced by the status of your health rather than, like the status of your religiosity. And that that whole like body of literature is like, really, really vast. And it is really interesting, but it's a good, good examples to bring up when we're talking about correlation. Ian Binns 34:48 Yeah. But Zack, you asked earlier about, you know, why did bloodletting last for so long? I mean, there is, you know, I just started remembering that there are certain Um, chronic diseases, blood diseases that people will have, or blood cancers that will have where it will produce too much either iron and their blood or too much red blood cells. And the way they do that, the way that one of the treatments for that is a phlebotomy and so, which is the removal of amount, a specific amount of blood, it's more than just going in and doing a donation, for example. And so I and that is done for medical purposes, like my dad used to have to do that, because of a blood disease that he had. And so, I saw I started very quickly looking at what is the difference between bloodletting and phlebotomy? And some of this is just saying that bloodletting was a therapeutic practice that started in antiquity, but that there still flub a lot. Phlebotomy is another way of saying bloodletting 35:57 is, when you go rolled, it's phlebotomist. Correct? It's the person that takes Ian Binns 36:01 control now than it used to be. Right. Yeah. 36:03 Or at least, we think it's Ian Binns 36:07 yes. Zack Jackson 36:08 Yeah. So one of the things I wanted, so I want to be cautious about to when we talk about old, older treatments, you know, the cutting off the duck's head and how ridiculous it is, or the how they used to use urine to whiten their teeth. You know, stuff, stuff like that, where we can easily look back at those folksy unintelligent people and say, My goodness, aren't we so intelligent? Today, we have science and science has given us all the answers. And those of you who might be listening at home or have people in your lives, who you've talked to about sorts of things, well, then, you know, get kind of, rightly upset at the sort of hubris of that, that there's there's medicine, and then there's alternative medicine, and alternative medicine is based just on placebo and fantasies and dreams. And real medicine is based on science and truth. And I think Modern medicine is wonderful. And it has given us so much more trust in the process and understanding the why of things work. But that a lot of what we have in modern medicine is based on traditional medicine. You know, the ancient Ancient Egyptians knew that if you had pain, or inflammation or fever that you could chew on birch bark, and it would reduce those things. And it wasn't until much later that that's how we got aspirin now, or I think of penicillin just comes from what mold. And how many of like indigenous cultures will watch the way that nature interacts with itself. And then we'll gain lessons from that, you know, watching what this animal eats when they eat it. And then using that and applying that and finding that those things work. And only much, much, much, much later do we discover the scientific rationale for it. And we're seeing sort of a resurgence in the past couple of decades of people taking indigenous medicines seriously and looking for like the whys of why these things have stuck around for so long. And lots of times discovering that there is there is wisdom behind these traditions. And the whole colonial Western mindset of it's our way, or it's just fantasy is not all that helpful. Rachael Jackson 38:36 Thank you for that perspective, I think we do need to, you know, recognize our own bias. And also recognize, you know, as we're sort of talking about the with the tobacco industry, that there's a lot of push with marketing, and there's a lot of issues in those ways that we're all very susceptible to that came out of this trusting of the scientific process. And just because it's old, doesn't mean it is old and unscientific doesn't mean that it's not also helpful. Right. So putting that caveat also, Zack Jackson 39:10 sometimes they are awful. Do the old things, you know, like we if you have syphilis at home, do not inject mercury into your urethra, because that does not work. Right, despite the fact that Blackbeard did it. And 39:27 well, and I think too, are there other are there other? Oh, sorry. Yeah. Well, Ian Binns 39:31 just real quick, you know, you talk about this, and I think this will be, you know, what you're just discussing, Zach, you know, and wanting to be respectful. And one of the people I hope to get on the show sometime is David distinto, who wrote the book, how God works. And in this particular book, I mean, he is talking in some situations about healing, you know, and says early on, I'm not finished yet but you know, it's says I realized that the surprise of my colleagues and I felt when we saw evidence of religions benefits was a sign of our hubris. Born of a common notion among scientists, all of religion was superstition, and therefore could have little practical benefit is that learned and as this book shows, spiritual leaders often understood in ways that we can now scientifically confirm how to help people live better lives. And so that he is someone I really, you know, reach out to him see if we can get him on the show, because I think that's some interesting research he's done to show. You know, what is it we're learning now? And how it's applicable to helping others but another one I wanted to bring up was the notion of maggot therapy. 40:44 Oh, yes, yeah. Which I've done a little bit Ian Binns 40:47 here, but if you know more, please, but Zack Jackson 40:51 which I now say it Rachel hates bugs. 40:57 I do leeches all day long. But maggots. Zack Jackson 40:59 I got this don't talk about Ian Binns 41:01 this great book called strange science, wonderful. All these cool things in here, but one of them is pages on maggot therapy. And it says it sounds like something from a horror film fat cream colored maggots eating their way through infected sores and wounds. It's not its medicine. Rachel, says Rachel right there. Since it's so sad since ancient times, doctors have used Magus to prevent wounds from getting infected, and the 1940s Antibiotics replace maggots. But bacteria adapted and started to become resistant to antibiotics. And now we get the return of the maggots. Maggots work by secreting digestive enzymes that feed on dead tissue. Those enzymes also killed bacteria and a wound and speed up healing. Doctors are placed between 203 100 maggots on a wound then cover it maggots and all with mesh beneath the mesh the maggots feed for 48 to 72 hours. When they're done, the doctors remove them. wounds that haven't healed for months even years often respond quickly to maggot medicine. And I really am hopeful this is a video clip we need to share of the wonderful reactions we're seeing from both Rachel and Kendra Rachael Jackson 42:25 I'm just gonna be real public about this. If I'm ever in a situation where I'd not have a wound that heals and the only thing that could cure me is Maga therapy. Just put me out of my misery. Just don't Zack Jackson 42:38 just go to Rachael Jackson 42:42 the blog, the blog and I'm like, kill the maggots like don't even just all amputate or that's I respect people that go through that so much. I'm not one of them. I think that never having that issue. Kendra Holt-Moore 42:54 You can put the maggots on me but then also punch me in the face and knock me out. 43:02 Alright, so I'll be dead and Kendra will be unconscious. Yeah. And South could be loving every minute. Zack Jackson 43:09 As well of bugs. Sorry. Yeah. 43:11 All right, Ian, where are you? Where do you fall on this this highly nutritious Zack Jackson 43:14 to after they're done? Yeah, he's just you can just kill them and dry them and then eat them and then you get all your personal flesh. Then you get the nutrients back. Well should you 43:28 cook in your body, Zack Jackson 43:34 because they know either way you deal with with insects. You take the insects you suffocate them in a box of carbon dioxide so you don't squish them or anything. Then you take them out and you dehydrate them and then you crush them into a powder and add that into your food. That's the best Ian Binns 43:50 way to by any chance interview all seasons we're talking about maggots. Zack Jackson 43:55 Can we continue for the rest of the episode? Rachel? Ian Binns 44:00 Yes, that's another video clip needs to be shared of Rachel doing the gagging reflex each time I talk about maggots. She's like well Kendra Holt-Moore 44:09 I feel bad for Rachel. 44:11 Like I don't I'm not queasy, but now I guess I Ian Binns 44:15 will. So let's let's get into another discussion. Then. Kellogg's cornflakes. Now I'd found a very Kendra Holt-Moore 44:21 good transition away from dear listener. Zack Jackson 44:27 Now that's a segue Ian Binns 44:28 dear listener. So when I mentioned Kellogg's cornflakes prior to recording, both Rachael and Kendra have perked up and seemed to know more information about this than I did. And so I will only share the very little bit of information I have but please reach and Kindle Kendra jump in and tell us what you know about the Kellogg's cornflakes but from what I have read is that Jay is Kellogg one of the people who developed Kellogg's cornflakes he was a medical doctor and health activist and he created the cornflakes. He was one of the people who created any hope that they would prevent sexual urges or more specifically to inhibit the urge to masturbate. And so Rachel, Kendra, you reacted earlier what what did you know? Because this took me by complete surprise because it didn't work. So Kendra Holt-Moore 45:14 I was gonna say, Rachel, you go because I have to go it's like noon. I don't really have that much to add, either. I just I know that that is a statement. Ian Binns 45:26 Do we not want to then talk about the very last one about hysteria before Kendra leaves? Rachael Jackson 45:29 We can keep talking about it. I think she's she's got it. Yeah, I Kendra Holt-Moore 45:32 mean, I'm gonna say Good. Might have to, like 30 seconds thing Ian Binns 45:35 for anyone to tell us about hysteria. Kendra. Wow. Zack Jackson 45:36 Don't eat cornflakes. Just stick with Cheerios. Cheerios make you horny. So you know that's Ian Binns 45:44 the science apparently Kendra Holt-Moore 45:45 bowl of cereal if you feel nothing. Zack Jackson 45:50 Just cereal? If you want to feel nothing at all. Kendra Holt-Moore 45:55 Land bland, bland cereal for a bland, bland sex life. That's Sorry. All right, see you later. 46:06 Cool. J cereal. Zack Jackson 46:09 So what kind of what kind of like sexy breakfast? Was he trying to? Ian Binns 46:13 I don't know. Rachel, can you help us out? Rachael Jackson 46:16 So I think I'm in the same same boat of it was a factoid that I very much knew and held on to. But beyond that, I don't have a whole lot of information. I mean, the idea is, you know, everyone has breakfast. And so to prevent those urges in the morning, which and also just let's just clarify something here. When they say masturbation, they really mean men. Yeah, I'm sorry. Nobody, nobody. Yeah. Right. And so basically throughout time, and this was a religious issue. And so it wasn't a doctor issue. It was a religious issue of male masturbation is against God, going all the way back to some genesis of Don't spill your seed and, and Leviticus and stuff like that. But it's bad idea to spill your seed and that got translated into don't masturbate. And so as a religious idea, and if you look at men, generally speaking, I think we were talking about this maybe a couple of weeks ago to in the morning, men generally have more of how to say this, erect penises based on what was going on in the evenings, and the dreams and their inability to regulate their own erections. And so if that's the first thing you do in the morning to stop that have cold, dry cereal. Well, something that's bland, Zack Jackson 47:56 and I will, let's also say, Kellogg, as a human, Mr. Kellogg himself was a bit of an anti sex fanatic, that the man was married, and still never had sex, and wrote books about how he and his wife never had sex. And they lived in separate bedrooms, and they adopted their children. And that sex pollutes the body. And it's the worst thing in the world. And so, like, this guy was afraid of his body, right? And again, not want anyone else's body. Yeah, he Rachael Jackson 48:28 did this in a religious context. He didn't do it just because he was asexual and thought everyone else shouldn't be too. Yeah, I'm not a sexual anti-sex. So Ian Binns 48:37 I will say this. And so I did look it up. And so and, you know, this is now I'm getting this from Snopes. And you know, there could be good or bad things getting things. So but according to snopes.com, so the claim, what is the you know, the Kellogg's cornflakes were originally created an effort to discourage American consumers from masturbating. And as you said, Rachel, it's male, actually, so it should say that the rating is mostly false. And so what this they're saying what is true is that the creation of cornflakes was part of JH Kellogg's broader advocacy for a plain bland diet without referring to cornflakes in particular, Kellogg elsewhere recommended a plain bland diet as one of several methods to discourage masturbation. So can I guess that was a people just put that together? Zack Jackson 49:34 Can I just read a little quote from one of his books, please do other way. So he talks about onanism, which Rachel alluded to is a story of Odin from where we're in Scripture, are we? That is that is where he's supposed to consummate this. 49:55 So this is the story of this is in Genesis in Judah Genesis. Yeah. This is Zack Jackson 50:01 and where he's supposed to impregnate his brother's widow, and then spills the seed on the ground because Rachael Jackson 50:08 he doesn't want to because he wants the child to be his own and not be his brother's his dead brother's wife's son, and therefore all the dead brother's property goes to him and he doesn't then have a son. So instead of doing that, they just like, Zack Jackson 50:26 so then God knocks him out. Right, so, so he talks about onanism. So when he talks about onanism, he's talking about masturbation. He says neither plague nor war nor smallpox have produced results so disastrous to humanity as the pernicious habit of onanism. Such a victim dies literally by his own hand. Yeah, such a victim dies literally by his own answer. You must have been so happy with that line. Can you imagine him writing that out? And he's like, Oh, this is a killer. This is good. This is good. This is good. He dies by his own hand. Oh, I gotta show this to someone. Rachael Jackson 51:04 Yeah. Also, let's just add to who this person was. He spent 30 years of his life dedicated to promoting eugenics. Ian Binns 51:15 Yes, he did. So near the end of his life, Rachael Jackson 51:18 whether or not there was the direct cornflakes is for masturbation, it was promoted by a person who was anti sexual and pro eugenic to donate. You know, that's the history Zack Jackson 51:33 of cornflakes. Yeah. Meanwhile, recent research has found that for most people, sex is actually super healthy. For a person's like continued health and well, being mentally, physically, emotionally, releases all kinds of amazing hormones and good things into your body. And like a lot of religions throughout history have have have recognized that have seen, like Judaism, spiritual ecstasy, like orgasm is like spiritual ecstasy. That's like the moment of connection to the divine. This breaking forth between the natural and the the supernatural. And this thin place and spirituality have, like, celebrated that. And I think we're coming back around to that. That's a good thing. Right? Oh, Christianity is still lagging far, far, far behind. Thank you some combination of Plato and Augustine, but we're getting there. You know, Rachael Jackson 52:37 maybe it's kind of like Plumbing. Right? They had an ancient Egypt, and then it took like, one or 2000 years to come back. Yeah. Zack Jackson 52:48 Yeah. Yeah. So Rachael Jackson 52:49 you know, your plumbing. Yeah. Not quite, not quite that way. But no, my Jewish comment, my Jewish comment was that Judaism sees, and by Judaism, big broad stroke brush using right here, normative ancient orthodoxy style, Judaism saw sex only within a marital heterosexual concept. But inside those boundaries, yay, more of it. Also, it's a double mitzvah, it's a doubly good thing to do on Shabbat, the day that we're supposed to be the highest connected to God. And this was one of the ways to be even more connected to the Divine was through sex with your spouse. And I was thinking, as you're talking about Kellogg to how they didn't have sex, even though they were married. One of the things in an ancient Catawba marriage document, given it to the wife was written that if the husband doesn't fulfill his side of the contract, because, well, he doesn't or he's dead, then she gets XY and Z things, you know, 50 chickens, a sheep or whatever. Depends on what she's worth old widows and or excuse me, old, divorcees are worth nothing. But beyond that. One of the stipulations in there is how often they have to have sex, how often the husband must provide sex to his wife, not the other way around. And it listed how frequent so a day trader was like, once a week at a minimum, right, but a merchant, every three to say they had a donkey driver that was once a month and then a camel driver was once every three months because they recognize that if your camel driver, you're you're gone for a very long time, so don't punish them. And then they had like, and then because these are scholars writing this and I don't know what their problem was, they just want to have sex with each other instead of their wives. They said, Oh, like every seven years. Is all your seven years. Yeah, like it was ridiculous, how often or how not often they had To have sex so that they could go to the go to their rabbi's house and study with him for years on end, and then just come back once every few years have sex with the wife and then go again. So yeah, so having, like having sex in the religious concept again, and that very narrow first understanding of sis heterosexual marriages, has kind of made sex positive in Judea. Yeah. Yeah. Ian Binns 55:30 So I know because you know, we are approaching the hour. But I do want to at least because, you know, we talked about before recording. And it's a chance for me to get all my giggles out around this idea of hysteria. Your giggles out most of my giggles. But this was something that I do remember hearing about, you know, at one point about female hysteria. And there's different articles that I have found that talk about, you know, because even there were films about it, or there was a film about it, and play. And so the idea was that, and thankfully, I'm gonna keep fumbling this. But Rachel introduced us to a really cool person, I want to do a shout out for sigh babe on Facebook. does some really interesting stuff. I'm really excited about Reading more about her. But what's interesting is that the argument is, is that hold on, let me pull my thing up, and just be easier. It was believed or this is the argument that in the Victorian era, doctors treated women diagnosed with hysteria, which is no longer a diagnosis, by the way, by genital stimulation to induce an orgasm. This hysteria was supposed to be a buildup of fluid in the woman's womb. And doctors assumed that since men and Jackie lated, and felt better that it stood to reason this would work for when women. Apparently, you know, there was multiple, you know, ideas of what was it that the different symptoms that people would have, obviously, if they were experiencing hysteria, and so this was the way to go was this manual massage. But a text came out in 1999. From and I believe that toss are doing more research for this this episode. A historian wrote this book that came out in 1989. And in that she argued that this was the reason why the vibrator was invented, was to make it so that it was easier for the doctors having to treat women for hysteria. I'm just saying that Oh, nice. But you know. So, yeah, and found out that that actually is not accurate. A more recent paper from last couple years has come out showing that this is actually inaccurate, that there is no evidence whatsoever suggests that women are treated for hysteria, by doctors bringing them to orgasm in their offices. So, or that this was the reason why vibrators were invented. But again, a medical treatment. That was something that took off based on one historians perspective, and or book, and then others kind of pushed back on it was fascinating. And we can share these in show notes or something. But in Reading about this particular ailment, and this suppose a treatment Amad. Yes. And suppose the treatment, there was interesting to read about how this particular historian of technology kind of has backpedal a little bit. And so well, no, I didn't mean I meant it more as a hypothesis, not a yes, this is the way it was. But then, you know, when you actually look at the writing shows, that's not actually how it was presented in the text itself. But it still took off, right? Because it was, I mean, when you think about it, this sounds kind of funny. And so it took off, people listen to it and Rachael Jackson 59:13 right, because also, you know, God forbid, somebody creates something for women's pleasure, simply for women's pleasure, Ian Binns 59:21 right? And that's actually there's no reason at the very beginning. It's a disturbing insight, implying that vibrators succeeded not because they advance you know, pleasure, but because they saved labor for male physicians. Rachael Jackson 59:35 Right? So again, yeah, simply for women that has nothing to do with the man right gets co opted into a story of oh, those poor men, just poor, poor doctors, or in a really awful way of the abuse, the potential abuse of Doc Just taking advantage of their women patience, and showing that it's okay. None of this is ever okay. Ian Binns 1:00:11 But even there, I mean, you can easily go online and find 1:00:17 trying to find their, you know, articles Ian Binns 1:00:18 to support that this will that it was used for this as as recent 2019. Right. Yeah. Rachael Jackson 1:00:28 So no, no your sources correct. And use some good thinking. And if you're going to Google things, feel free to use private browsing. Yes. Zack Jackson 1:00:39 And if your interest the scientific method, you know, and you're feeling a little hysterical, just want to try it out. See if it works for you. That's in your hypothesis. Thank you. Science is just messing around and taking notes right so. 1:01:04 Wash your hands first. Ian Binns 1:01:05 And after. Okay, that's all I got. Zack Jackson 1:01:13 Thank you, doctor. Doctor, doctor.

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Mini: Amarna International (Part II)

The History of Egypt Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2022 25:06

Mediterranean, Aegean, Pirates. In the 14th Century BCE, records from Egypt hint at piracy and raiding across the sea. And artistic images even show Mycenaeans(?) at the pharaoh's court. All of this may reflect the history behind great stories like the Odyssey...Date: c.1400 - 1300 BCE. Music: Michael Levy, "Odysseus and the Sirens," www.ancientlyre.com. Audio editing by www.yourpodcastpal.com. See the "Mycenaean Papyrus" at the British Museum website. Mycenaean pottery from Amarna, at the Petrie Museum University College London. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Teaser: The Recovery of Writing (Patreon)

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2022 7:33

This is a teaser of the bonus episode, The Recovery of Writing found over on Patreon.In this bonus episode we look deeper into the re-emergence of writing in Greek lands as the region was transitioning from the Dark Ages and into the Archaic Age. Writing was not a new invention in Greek lands, the Mycenaeans of the Bronze Age used a scripted known as Linear B for administrative purposes. Though, with the Bronze Age collapse, the Mycenaeans, along with Linear B would disappear. What would emerge in Greece as the land began to recover would be a new script borrowed from the Phoenicians, but altered by the Greeks to become the Greek alphabet. If you would like to hear more and support the series click on the Patreon link at the bottom of the page or you can head to my website to discover other ways to support the series, HereNew bonus episodes and series updates come out in the first week of every month, Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

45: The Greek Periphery, Anatolia

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Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2022 38:40

45: The Greek Periphery, AnatoliaWe now arrive to the east of Greek lands in what would become one of the most influential regions to Greek history on its periphery. Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor would have a history of human habitation stretching back over 1 million years, with other sites dotted throughout the region pointing to its continued habitation for the hundreds of thousands of years following.As the world was coming out of the Ice Age some 12000 years ago, it would enter the Neolithic Age. Hunter-gatherers were seen to have been the only groups to have occupied all the inhabited areas of the world. Though, recent discoveries in Anatolia would start to question the long-held views of hunter-gather societies. The Sites of Çatalhöyük and Göbekli Tepe would suggest these groups were able to organise themselves on a far grander scale than previously thought.As the Millennia passed distinct cultures would start to form with most settling into a sedentary way of life. This would see civilisations form around powerful centres ushering in the Bronze Age and the rise of empires. One of the greatest to emerge in Anatolia would be the Hittites, also developing through Indo-European migrations from the north. Much around the Hittites remains mysterious, though in more recent years, steady progress on translating the many Hittites text found at its capitol Hattusa is starting to give us a glimpse into the empire's workings.Though, Anatolia would also feel the effects of the Bronze Age collapse with the Hittite Empire vanishing from history, with only traces of its culture found amounts some of the fragmented kingdoms that would scatter the region. With the collapse would see a number of new comers to the region, one of these would be the Greeks, decedents of the Mycenaeans, who would dot the western coast with many of their cities.Casting Through Ancient Greece WebsiteFollow on TwitterFollow on FacebookSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

A History of Esports

The History of Computing

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2022 22:34

It's human nature to make everything we do competitive. I've played football, ran track at times, competed in hacking competitions at Def Con, and even participated in various gaming competitions like Halo tournaments. I always get annihilated by kids who had voices that were cracking, but I played! Humans have been competing in sports for thousands of years. The Lascaux in France shows people sprinting over 15,000 years ago. The Egyptians were bowling in the 5,000s BCE. The Sumerians were wrestling 5,000 years ago. Mesopotamian art shows boxing in the second or third millennium BCE. The Olmecs in Mesoamerican societies were playing games with balls around the same time. Egyptian monuments show a number of individual sports being practiced in Egypt as far back as 2,000 BCE. The Greeks evolved the games first with the Minoans and Mycenaeans between 1,500 BCE and 1,000BCE and then they first recorded their Olympic games in 776 BCE, although historians seem to agree the games were practiced at least 500 years before that evolving potentially from funeral games. Sports competitions began as ways to showcase an individuals physical prowess. Weight lifting, discus, whether individual or team sports, sports rely on physical strength, coordination, repetitive action, or some other feat that allows one person or team to stand out. Organized team sports first appeared in ancient times. The Olmecs in Mesoamerica but Hurling supposedly evolved past 1000 BCE, although written records of that only begin around the 16th century and it could be that was borrowed through the Greek game harpaston when the Romans evolved it into the game harpastum and it spread with Roman conquests. But the exact rules and timelines of all of these are lost to written history. Instead, written records back up that western civilization team sports began with polo appearing about 2,500 years ago in Persia. The Chinese gave us a form of kickball they called cuju, around 200 BCE. Football, or soccer for the American listeners, started in 9th century England but evolved into the game we think of today in the 1850s, then a couple of decades later to American football. Meanwhile, cricket came around in the 16th century and then hockey and baseball came along in the mid 1800s with basketball arriving in the 1890s. That's also around the same time the modern darts game was born, although that started in the Middle Ages when troops threw arrows or crossbow bolts at wine barrels turned on their sides or sections of tree trunks. Many of these sports are big business today, netting multi-billion dollar contracts for media rights to show and stream games, naming rights to stadiums for hundreds of millions, and players signing contracts for hundreds of millions across all major sports. There's been a sharp increase in sports contracts since the roaring 1920s, rising steadily until the television started to show up in homes around the world until ESPN solidified a new status in our lives when it was created in 1979. Then came the Internet and the money got crazy town. All that money leads the occasional entrepreneurial minded sports enthusiast to try something new. We got the World Wrestling Body in the 1950s, which evolved out of Jim McMahon's father's boxing promotions put him working with Toots Mondt on what they called Western Style Wrestling. Beating people up has been around since the dawn of life but became an official sport when UFC 1 was launched in 1993. We got the XFL in 1999. So it's no surprise that we would take a sport that requires hand-eye coordination and turn that into a team endeavor. That's been around for a long time, but we call it Esports today. Video Game Competitions Competing in video games is as almost as old as, well, video games. Spacewar! was written in 1962 and students from MIT competed with one another for dominance of deep space, dogfighting little ships, which we call sprites today, into oblivion. The game spread to campuses and companies as the PDP minicomputers spread. Countless hours spent playing and by 1972, there were enough players that they held the first Esports competition, appropriately called the Intergalactic Spacewar! Olympics. Of course, Steward Brand would report on that for Rolling Stone, having helped Mouse inventor Doug Englebart with the “Mother of All Demos” just four years before. Pinball had been around since the 1930s, or 1940s with flippers. They could be found around the world by the 1970s and 1972 was also the first year there was a Pinball World Champion. So game leagues were nothing new. But Brand and others, like Atari founder Nolan Bushnell knew that video games were about to get huge. Tennis was invented in the 1870s in England and went back to 11th century France. Tennis on a screen would make loads of sense as well when Tennis For Two debuted in 1958. So when Pong came along in 1972, the world (and the ability to mass produce technology) was ready for the first video game hit. So when people flowed into bars first in the San Francisco Bay Area, then around the country to play Pong, it's no surprise that people would eventually compete in the game. From competing in billiards to a big game console just made sense. Now it was a quarter a game instead of just a dart board hanging in the corner. And so when Pong went to home consoles of course people competed there as well. Then came Space Invaders in 1978. By 1980 we got the first statewide Space Invaders competition, and 10,000 players showed up. The next year there was a Donkey Kong tournament and Billy Mitchell set the record for the game at 874,300 that stood for 18 years. We got the US National Video Game Team in 1983 and competitions for arcade games sprung up around the world. A syndicated television show called Starcade even ran to show competitions, which now we might call streaming. And Tron came in 1982. Then came the video game crash of 1983. But games never left us. The next generation of consoles and arcade games gave us competitions and tournaments for Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat then first-person game like Goldeneye and other first-person shooters later in the decade, paving the way for games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Then in 1998 a legendary StarCraft 2 tournament was held and 50 million people around the world tuned in on the Internet. That's a lot of eyeballs. Team options were also on the rise. Netter had been written to play over the Internet by 16 players at once. Within a few years, massive multiplayers could have hundreds of players duking it out in larger battle scenes. Some were recorded and posted to web pages. There was appetite for tracking scores for games and competing and even watching games, which we've all done over the shoulders of friends since the arcades and consoles of old. Esports and Twitch As the 2000s came, Esports grew in popularity. Esports is short for the term electronic sports, and refers to competitive video gaming, which includes tournaments and leagues. Let's set aside the earlier gaming tournaments and think of those as classic video games. Let's reserve the term Esports for events held after 2001. That's because the World Cyber Games was founded in 2000 and initially held in 2001, in Seoul, Korea (although there was a smaller competition in 2000). The haul was $300,000 and events continue on through the current day, having been held in San Francisco, Italy, Singapore, and China. Hundreds of people play today. That started a movement. Major League Gaming (MLG) came along in 2002 and is now regarded as one of the most significant Esports hosts in the world. The Electronic Sports World Cup came in 2003 were the first tournaments, which were followed by the introduction of ESL Intel Extreme Master in 2007 and many others. The USA Network broadcast their first Halo 2 tournament in 2006. We've gone from 10 major tournaments held in 2000 to an incalculable number today. That means more teams. Most Esports companies are founded by former competitors, like Cloud9, 100 Thieves, and FaZeClan. Team SoloMid is the most valuable Esports organization. Launched by League of Legends star Dan Dinh and his brother in 2009, and is now worth over $400 million and has fielded teams like ZeRo for Super Smash Brothers, Excelerate Gaming for Rainbow Six Seige, Team Dignitas for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and even chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. The analog counterpart would be sports franchises. Most of those were started by athletic clubs or people from the business community. Gaming has much lower startup costs and thus far has been more democratic in the ability to start a team with higher valuations. Teams play in competitions held by leagues, of which There seems to be new ones all the time. The NBA 2K League and the Overwatch League are two new leagues that have had early success. One reason for teams and leagues like this is naming and advertising rights. Another is events like The International 2021, with a purse of over $40M. The inaugural League of Legends World Championship took place in 2011. In 2013 another tournament was held in the Staples Center in Los Angeles (close to their US offices). Tickets for the event sold out within minutes. The purse for that was originally $100,000 and has since risen to over $7M. But others are even larger. Arena of Valor tournament Honor of Kings World Champion Cup is $7.7M and Fortnite World Cup Finals has gone as high as $15M. One reason for the leagues and teams is that companies that make games want to promote their games. The video game business is almost an 86 billion dollar industry. Another is that people started watching other people play on YouTube. But then YouTube wasn't really purpose-built for gaming. Streamers made due using cameras to stream images of themselves in a picture-in-picture frame but that still wasn't optimal. Esports had been broadcast (the original form of streaming) before but streaming wasn't all that commercially successful until the birth of Twitch in 2011. YouTube had come along in 2005 and Justin Kan and Emmett Shear created Justin.tv in 2007 as a place for people to broadcast video, or stream, online. They started with just one channel: Justin's life. Like 24 by 7 life. They did Y Combinator and managed to land an $8M seed round. Justin had a camera mounted to his hat, and left that outside the bathroom since it wasn't that kind of site. They made a video chat system and not only was he streaming, but he was interacting with people on the other side of the stream. It was like the Truman Show, but for reals. A few more people joined up, but then came other sites to provide this live streaming option. They added forums, headlines, comments, likes, featured categories of channels, and other features but just weren't hitting it. One aspect was doing really well: gaming. They moved that to a new site in 2011 and called that Twitch. This platform allowed players to stream themselves and their games. And they could interact with their viewers, which gave the entire experience a new interactive paradigm. And it grew fast with the whole thing being rebranded as Twitch in 2014. Amazon bought Twitch in 2014 for $1B. They made $2.3 Billion in 2020 with an average of nearly 3 million concurrent viewers watching nearly 19 billion hours of content provided monthly by nearly 9 million streamers. Other services like Youtube Gaming have come and gone but Twitch remains the main way people watch others game. ESPN and others still have channels for Esports, but Twitch is purpose-built for gaming. And watching others play games is no different than Greeks showing up for the Olympics or watching someone play pool or watching Liverpool play Man City. In fact, the money they make is catching up. Platforms like Twitch allow professional gamers and those who announce the games to to become their own unique class of celebrities. The highest paid players have made between three and six million dollars, with the top 10 living outside the US and making their hauls from Dota 2. Others have made over a million playing games like Counter-Strike, Fortnite, League of Legends, and Call of Duty. None are likely to hold a record for any of those games for 18 years. But they are likely to diversify their sources of income. Add a YouTube channel, Twitch stream, product placements, and appearances - and a gamer could be looking at doubling what they bring in from competitions. Esports has come far but has far further to go. The total Esports market was just shy of $1B in 2020 and expected tor each $2.5B in 2025 (which the pandemic may push even faster). Not quite the 100 million that watch the Super Bowl every year or the half billion that tune into the World Cup finals but growing at a faster rate than the Super Bowl, which has actually declined in the past few years. And the International Olympic Committee recognized the tremendous popularity of Esports throughout the world in 2017 and left open the prospect of Esports becoming an Olympic sport in the future (although with the number of vendors involved that's hard to imagine happening). Perhaps some day when archaeologists dig up what we've left behind, they'll find some Egyptian Obelisk or gravestone with a controller and a high score. Although they'll probably just scoff at the high score, since they already annihilated that when they first got their neural implants and have since moved on to far better games! Twitch is young in the context of the decades of history in computing. However, the impact has been fast and along with Esports shows us a windows into how computing has reshaped entire ways we week not only entertainment, but also how we make a living. In fact, the US Government recognized League of Legends as a sport as early as 2013, allowing people to get Visas to come into the US and play. And where there's money to be made, there's betting and abuse. 2010 saw SaviOr and some of the best Starcraft players to ever play embroiled in a match-fixing scandal. That almost destroyed the Esports gaming industry. And yet as with the Video Game Crash of 1983, the industry has always bounced back, at magnitudes larger than before.

american amazon history china internet los angeles mother france england sports olympic games super bowl san francisco football chinese italy international mit romans team twitch greek espn gaming savior humans world cup weight ufc singapore tickets billion rolling stones liverpool korea egyptian fortnite arena halo tennis beating mortal kombat call of duty esports hundreds thieves mouse valor platforms manchester city launched xfl seoul san francisco bay area street fighter organized world of warcraft persia atari league of legends us government 1b middle ages tournaments goldeneye y combinator donkey kong bce 8m truman show streamers pong 5b visas starcraft pinball counter strike dota usa network defcon staples center 7m 15m international olympic committee 40m space invaders mesopotamian overwatch league cloud9 mesoamerican billy mitchell mesoamerica pdp hurling dota2 super smash brothers sumerians jim mcmahon lascaux nolan bushnell netter nba 2k league spacewar counter strike global offensive starcade justin kan minoans olmecs hikaru nakamura video game crash mycenaeans rainbow six seige all demos team solomid team dignitas

Teaser: Mycenaean Aftermath (Patreon)

greek aftermath mediterranean bronze age mycenaean mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 4, 2021 9:05

This is a teaser of the bonus episode, Mycenaean Aftermath found over on Patreon.Having looked at some of the explanations for the Mycenaeans collapse at the end of the Bronze Age, we now turn to questions around what happened to them and where did they go. We look at what was taking place in Greek lands in the wake of the collapse, while also turning to areas across the Mediterranean. If you would like to hear more and support the series click on the Patreon link at the bottom of the page or you can head to my website to discover other ways to support the series, HereNew bonus episodes and series updates come out in the first week of every month, Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

94 - A.K. 47 - Self-Indulgent Bonus Episode of Doom - Mycenaeans, Cancer, and the Omicron Variant

A.K. 47 - Selections from the Works of Alexandra Kollontai

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2021 15:18

In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee attempts to read the last part of Alexandra Kollontai's 1918 essay, "New Woman," but fails. Instead, she reflects on the sudden appearance of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the end of the Mycenaean civilization and the Greek dark ages, and some bad news about a good friend back home. Mentioned in this episode are the books: Everything was Forever, Until it Was No More by Alexei Yurchak and Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney.

forever cancer greek doom omicron variant omicron variant sally rooney beautiful world new woman self indulgent alexandra kollontai mycenaean kristen ghodsee mycenaeans

Episode 8 - The Persian Wars

A Short Walk through Our Long History

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2021 23:27

Episode 8 - The Persian WarsHi, my name is Clayton Mills. Welcome to ‘A Short Walk through our Long History' - a podcast where we look at the events of history, and try to see how those events shaped our modern world. Welcome to Episode 8 - The Persian Wars. We're talking today about the ancient wars between Greece and Persia. I've mentioned that Greece has had an important impact on the western world, but did you know that ancient Greece was almost wiped out? A couple of times? Greece was a small country, but they tangled with the biggest empire of their time: The Persians. The battles between these two countries will become legendary, and will give us a couple of the best quotes of all time. Also, Pheidippides! And his famous last words. Lots of good quotes in this episode. We've mentioned the days of the Mycenaeans, and the Greek dark ages, and how the beginning of the end of the Greek dark ages was when Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, which was sometime around 800 BC. Now we're getting to the real beginning of recorded history, and from this point on, we can almost always date what one culture says is going on against the records of other cultures. In other words, we're finally at the point where we have a unified timeline, and we can fit events to very specific dates on the timeline. Before this, we always had to say ‘sometime around 800 BC,' but after this, we're getting to the point where we can say ‘on September 27th, 480 BC, this happened.' That's the date, by the way, of the Battle of Salamis, which was the Ancient Greek version of the Battle of Midway. Well, with less dive-bombers. So, around 550 BC (ok, I'm still using ‘around' in a few places). Around 550 BC, the Persians, who were a tribe from what is now Iran, began to expand. They conquered the Medes, who had been the biggest kingdom in the region, and then continued to expand. Their king was Darius, and he built up the largest empire the world had seen to that point. The Persian empire stretched from the Persian gulf in the south, to what is now Kazahkstan in the east, up to the middle of the Black Sea in the north, and in the west, they began to expand into Greek-held lands in what is now Turkey. This area of Turkey was called Ionia, and at first the Ionian cities did not resist the Persians. They didn't have the strength. But in 499 BC, the Ionians tried to rebel. They were supported by two cities from mainland Greece, Eritria and Athens. Together, they destroyed a Persian city, Sardis, and then the Eritrians and Athenians went back home. Well of course the Persians quickly came back and re-conquered Ionia. And the Persians did not forget that the Athenians and Eritreans had helped in the revolt. So the Persians are thinking about the cities of Eritrea and Athens. And they aren't happy. This set up 50 years of fighting, known to the Greeks as the Persian Wars. Ok, now we are getting to one of the most famous battles of all time, the battle of Marathon. This battle is carefully recorded by the Greek historian, Herodotus, who wrote about it only 50 years after it happened. In 490 BC, Darius came back to Greece with a massive army and a massive navy. He landed first at Eritrea, and destroyed the city. Darius and the army then got back in their boats, and sailed to Marathon, a small town just northeast of Athens. The Athenians sent their best messenger, a runner, a guy named Pheidippides, to run to Sparta, and ask for help. It's about 150 miles from Athen to Sparta. Lots of hills. Herodotus mentions our friend Pheidippides. Supposedly, Pheidippides ran that 150 miles just in 2 days. For scale, that's about the distance from Houston to Austin. The MS 150 is a BICYCLE race from Houston to Austin, and it takes 2 days. Supposedly Phidippedes ran that whole thing, and then asked the Spartans for help.Normally the Spartans would have been all over this request, since they were maybe the most war-loving city in all of history. But they were in the midst of an important city festival, and the elders said they couldn't come fight until the festival was over. No, we can't come defend Greece. We have this party, see? It's kind of a big deal, so we'll come when the party is over. OK? So Pheidippides ran back to Athens with the bad news. And then the Athenians sent him on to the front at Marathon with army. The Greek army had about 10,000 soldiers. Kind Darius and the Persians had at least 30,000. Some estimates are higher. When they began the battle, the Greeks intentionally let the center of their line collapse, and then the phalanxes on the Greek wings turned in and crushed the Persians. We'll talk more about the Phalanxes and what they are in a separate episode. The Persians, sensing that they were being beaten, fell apart and ran, and the Greeks chased them and cut them down, chasing them all the way to their ships. The Persians lost as many as half of their men, which was a stunning defeat. The ones who survived sailed back across the Aegean Sea to regroup. Back on the field at Marathon, the Greeks sent our runnin' friend Phidippedes to run back to Athens, and tell then what had happened. The distance from Marathon to Athens is just about 25 miles, which is where we get the distance for a modern marathons. Phidippedes runs up to Athens, and says to the elders, ‘Nicómen!', which means, ‘We won!'. And then he died, right there, right in front of the elders. As last words go, though, those are pretty good. Right?So we have a historic victory for the Greeks, and and a heroic effort from Phidippedes, and the Persians retreating across the Aegean Sea to Ionia and points farther east. Not long after that, King Darius dies, but the memory of what happened in Greece does not. Darius's son, Xerxes (one of the cooler names in all of history, btw), succeeds him. Xerxes wants to out-do his father, and wants to expand the Persian empire even farther. So he decides he's going to bring an even bigger army to Greece, and show them what's what. So in 480 BC, 10 years after Marathon, he sets out, with an army of between 150 thousand and million men. Accounts vary on the size, Herodotus says a million, but it's quite probable this was the biggest army ever, up to this point in history. Xerxes also has a huge navy, to try to fight the Greek navy, and keep them from sailing up the coast and flanking his army. But instead of sailing most of his army to Greece, he marches them. There's a stretch of water they have to cross, in what is now Istanbul, called the Hellespont. Xerxes has his engineers build a bridge there, using 600 ships, which is an enormous number of ships, by the way, and planks and even dirt on the planks, so his army can march on a road. It apparently took the army seven days to cross, the army was so large. Once they were across, they had to march over to the main part of the Greek peninsula. And they had to march through some mountains to get to the peninsula. But there waiting for them in the mountain pass, near the town of Thermopylae, was a group of about 7000 Greeks, including 300 Spartans led by their king, Leonidas. You know where this is going, don't you? The battle at Thermopylae is one of the most famous battles in all of history. Leonidas and the Greeks had the advantage of good position, but Xerxes had almost unlimited men. So sometime in late July or early August of 480 BC (see, we're getting more specific. I told you we would), Xerxes begins to attack the Greeks.Leonidas and the Greeks held the pass for 7 days, including 3 full days of fighting, against the vastly larger Persian army. Now we're getting to the great quotes from this battle. When the Persians sent an envoy to tell the Greeks that they should surrender, the Greeks refused. The envoy said, ‘We will darken the sky with our arrows!' Which they could easily do, with that many men. But A Greek soldier, named Dienekes, reportedly said, ‘Good. Then we will fight in the shade.' That, is one of the best battle quotes of all time. But the best is still to come. The Persian envoy rather forcefully told King Leonidas to surrender all his weapons. And Leonidas said, ‘Come and get them.' In all the history of battle quotes, that, is the most bad-ass. ‘Come and get them.' So the Persians eventually attacked, and the Greeks held them off for 3 days, until a local resident told Xerxes about a small mountain pass and led some of the Persians back behind the Greek lines. Leonidas, realizing what was happening, let most of the Greeks go, to head back to Athens. The 300 Spartans, and maybe 700 other Greeks stayed to hold the pass. Almost all of the Greeks who stayed to hold off the main Persian army ended up fighting to the death. The Battle of Thermopylae was technically a Greek defeat, but it wasn't really a Persian victory. The Greek and Spartan warriors had bought the rest of Greece more than a week to prepare, and they had badly dented the morale of the Persians. But the Persians did eventually break through the mountain pass at Thermopylae, and marched on to Athens. But when they got there, they found the city deserted. Now we get to the real victory, and the battle that just doesn't get as much attention as Marathon or Thermopylae, even though it's the one that really matters. Salamis. Salamis is an island off the coast of Greece, and it was the site of one of the largest naval battles in all of history. Again, the Greeks were outnumbered, but again, the Greeks were better sailors than the Persians, and had the advantage of location. According to Herodotus, there were about 370 Greek ships, against about 1200 Persian ships. That's more than 3 to 1. But the Greeks lured the Persians into a narrow straight between two islands, where the huge number of Persian ships actually worked against them, as they were too crowded and couldn't maneuver. The Greeks thoroughly routed the Persian navy, and killed their admiral, who was one of Xerxes' brothers. Xerxes himself supposedly watched the battle from a mountainside near the shore, and realized that the Persian fleet had been destroyed. Xerxes took most of his army and marched back to Asia. He left behind a sizable force, though, under one of his generals, Mardonius. Eventually, in 479 BC, the Greeks defeated Mardonius and the Persians at the battle of Plataea, ending the wars between the Greeks and the Persians. The Persians never came back and attacked the Greeks. Eventually though the Greeks will grow strong enough to attack the Persians, but that won't happen until Alexander the Great comes on the scene. The Greeks were still a bit bitter about all these attacks, and wanted a bit of revenge. But the defeat of the Persians in 479 BC begins what is known as the Golden Age of Greece, which is one of the most intellectually productive times in western history. We'll look at this in upcoming episodes.So how do these battles between the Greeks and the Persians influence our modern world? Well, as I've said, Greece is one of the most influential cultures in the history of the western world, and it wouldn't have been that if it had been beaten by the Persians. Maybe we would then be talking about how influential Persia was on western history, but hey, Thermopolyae. Salamis. Greece won. The most influential thinkers in Greece show up soon after these battles. Because the Greeks had bought themselves some time and some peace, they had a time of prosperity, where they were not spending their time fighting external enemies. And in that time they developed some of the greatest thinkers the world has seen. We'll look at those guys in upcoming episodes. Another way that these battles influenced the modern world is that the western world, and especially western military units, have essentially inherited some of the values of the ancient Greeks who strove to defend their homelands. Courage in the face of overwhelming odds, self-sacrifice, teamwork, leaders who are part of the battle, the importance of choosing your battleground, and the right to defend yourself against tyrants - all of these are important values in the western world. In the end, this is what the Greek defense against Persia was all about - the Greeks were defending their right to rule themselves, rather than to be ruled by Persia. And they were willing to take up arms and fight to the death, rather than let someone else rule them against their will. There are echoes of this spirit in the American Revolution, in the American Civil War, in the Reformation, in the English Civil war, The Scots fighting against the invading British, the Zulus fighting against the invading British, OK, anyone fighting against the invading British, and in many of the great battles of western history. The idea that some foreign power can come in and take over your land, then tell you to pay tribute to them - that is tyranny. And though some people have said, ‘ok, we'll submit, that's better than fighting, don't hurt us,' other peoples have said instead, ‘no, I'm not going to lie down and let that happen.' That's the spirit of Patrick Henry's famous quote, ‘Give me Liberty, or give me death.' One last thought on how that matters in our modern world. It might just be that our current world is moving in the direction of tyranny again. The history of the world is an ongoing struggle between tyrants who want to control everything, and people defending their rights to self-determination and liberty. When a government begins to curtail the rights of its people to determine their own destiny, whether it is your own government or the government of a country that wants to take yours over, the time comes when people must choose to either submit, or to fight back. History does not remember those who submitted. History remembers those who have said, ‘come and take them.' History remembers those who have said, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” We'll look at that document in a much later episode.In the next episode we will look at the development of Athenian democracy, something that clearly had a big effect on the western world. But before that episode, we will take another quick side episode, to look at something that I find fascinating - Greek military and naval advancements, and how it was that they won these amazing battles against much larger forces.

Episode 7 - The Kingdom of Israel

A Short Walk through Our Long History

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2021 24:29

Episode 7 - The Kingdom of IsraelHi, my name is Clayton Mills. Welcome to ‘A Short Walk through our Long History' - a podcast where we look at the events of history, and try to see how those events shaped our modern world. Welcome to Episode 7 - The Kingdom of Israel. Back in Episode 5, I mentioned that Israel had an outsized influence on the history of the Western world, considering its size and significance in Ancient history. If you were able to go back in time to the ancient world, and gone to visit someone in some other part of the Mediterranean, like Greece, and asked them about Israel, they would have said, ‘Who?'Israel was really pretty insignificant in the ancient world, to be honest. It only really matters to the affairs of the great nations because it's occasionally in the way, kind of like my small dog Chipper is often in the way when I'm trying to go to the kitchen. Assyria wants to attack Egypt, and on their way to the kitchen, I mean to Egypt, they have to go through Israel. Later Babylon comes, and again, on their way to Egypt, Israel is in the way. Despite being tiny, and weak, and strategically not that important, and not having a lot of resources or people, Israel manages to survive, when a lot of the other nations around them do not. Moab? Gone. Edom? Gone. Philistine? Gone. But Israel manages to stay around, and is still alive and kicking when it's conquered by Rome in 63 BC. We will come back to that conquering in a bit, but for now, let's take a look at what might have been the Golden Age of Israel: the Kingdom of David and Solomon. After the exodus from Egypt, Israel had been a loose collection of tribes, living in land that they had taken from other tribes. Two things to mention here: First, territory and land ownership were really different back in the ancient days. Today, we kind of see ownership as this cut-and-dried thing: I own the land at this address, marked off by this fence, and it's my land (once I pay off the bank). But land ownership in the ancient world was much less specific. It was much more like: our tribe has been on this land, from that palm tree over there, to the dry river bed over by that hill, and down to the edge of that line of small bushes. That has been our land. But there were huge areas of land where ‘who's land is this?' Was not a clear thing. And once your sheep had been grazing on a patch of land for a while, it was kind of seen as your land. Second, ownership itself (especially before writing was invented) was much less clear, and there wasn't quite the same concept we have today of ‘this is mine, and that is yours.' You squat on some unoccupied land, and after a while, it's yours. Sort of. And lots and lots of land was unoccupied. So if you're not ‘occupying' the land, it's hard to say, ‘Hey, that's my land.' Anyway, Israel takes over a lot of land that is sort of bordered this way. On the west edge, the Jordan River (though there were a couple of tribes across the Jordan). On the north, the sea of Galilee. On the south, the desert south of the Dead Sea. And on the east, the edge was the end of the territory that was controlled by the Philistines. There's a sort of line of hills that delineates what the Philistines controlled, but again, it wasn't all that clear. The Philistines controlled the coast, and had built several large cites there on the shore of the Mediterranean. For several generations, the Israelites are just this loose group of tribes, and they have consistent trouble from the other tribes around them. The Moabites, the Edomites, and the Philistines consistently raid Israelite territory, but a series of Judges lead Israel to defend themselves. Eventually, the Israelites decide that they want a king, and they choose a really tall guy named Saul to be their king. Saul organizes the tribes, and creates an army to fight the Philistines. The war with the Philistines goes on for several years, with raiding in both directions. The Philistines are a much better army, though, and have much greater resources, including chariots and iron weapons. They chase Saul's army around for a while, and then at one point, both armies are camped on the hills with a valley between them. The Philistines send out their biggest guy, a huge guy named Goliath, expect tall Saul to come out and fight him. But Saul hesitates. Goliath comes out each day and yells challenges and insults at the Israelites.According to 1 Kings, a shepherd boy, whose brothers are in Saul's army, comes to the Israelite camp, and sees what is happening. And he utters what is one of the best lines in battle history: ‘Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? This shepherd is named David, and he goes on to fight Goliath with just a slingshot. Goliath reportedly says to him, ‘Am I dog, that you come to me with staves?' And David retorts, ‘Thou comest to me with a sword and a spear and a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, who thou hast defied. This day the Lord will deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.' David was good at taunts. And good with a slingshot, apparently. He kills Goliath, and becomes a hero. Eventually, he becomes the king after Saul. And this begins the real kingdom, and the sort of golden age, of Israel. The tribes of Israel are united under David, he defeats a lot of the neighboring tribes, and captures the city of Jerusalem. He makes it his capital, and embarks upon a building campaign that included a palace. He also establishes a kingly dynasty, at least for part of the nation. David seems to be the first Israelite that is historically recorded outside of the Bible. There's a stone inscription from about the ninth century AD (that is, 800 BC), that records a victory by an Aramean king over the king of the ‘house of David.' Outside of the Bible, that's the oldest record of someone who is mentioned in the Bible. Just for context, David's reign is about 200 years before Homer writes the Iliad and the Odyssey. He lived during the Greek dark ages. Again, the Philistines might have been descendants of the Mycenaeans who left Greece during those dark ages. Anyway, David consolidates his power in Jerusalem, and it becomes the center of the nation of Israel. There are ongoing archeological digs in Jerusalem today, and they seem to have uncovered David's palace, though there is some dispute about this. David reigned as king from about 1000 BC to about 962 BC, so not quite 40 years. That's a pretty long reign by ancient near eastern standards. David apparently had several wives, and a lot of children. According to the Bible, there was a lot of palace intrigue and scandal. David also apparently was a gifted poet, and wrote many of the psalms. Many of the psalms start with the line, ‘A psalm of David.' So early on, those who gathered up the collection of psalms recognized that David's were important. David is also recognized in a unique way in the Hebrew Scriptures: he's the only character that is described as ‘a man after God's own heart.' He is described that way several times, despite his many failings as a king and father. In some ways, he's the third most important character of the Old Testament, after Abraham and Moses. He's portrayed as the ideal king, even more so than his son Solomon, who is in some ways more successful than David. But David is described, despite his flaws, as kind of the ideal king. It's again interesting that the chroniclers who wrote about David are pretty blunt about describing his flaw and failures. He comes off as a real person, who did some great things, and tried to follow his God, but also made some really substantial mistakes. When he dies, he leaves the kingdom to one of his sons, Solomon. According to the Bible, when Solomon inherits the kingdom, he is visited by God, who says he will grant Solomon whatever he asks for. So Solomon wisely asks for wisdom. The rest of the biblical depiction of Solomon is a description of his wisdom, and also of the greatness of the kingdom he reigns over. A lot of the Psalms are attributed to David, but most of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are attributed to Solomon.Another major thing is attributed to Solomon: the first temple. In the Mosaic books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, a lot of text is given to the construction, layout, and worship rituals of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a huge tent that the camp of Israel camped around while it was wandering in the wilderness. It was the center of worship of Yahweh, and the place where the priests performed all the rituals that were described in the books of Moses. The tabernacle moved around for years, but it had eventually settled down more or less permanently at Shiloh, which is a bit north of Jerusalem, and kind of in the center of the Promised Land. David starts the process of creating a permanent temple for God in Jerusalem, but it's Solomon who actually builds it. The temple of Solomon was built around 957 BC. It was built on a high place within Jerusalem. There is strong archeological evidence of the existence of a temple from Solomon's time in the spot where the Dome of the Rock now stands. There's no doubt that a temple was built there by Herod just before Jesus' time, and there's evidence of another temple, possibly the re-built temple of Nehemiah, in between. The Bible records that Solomon's temple was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in about 587 BC, so it stood for almost 400 years. I said that David was the third most important character in the Old Testament. It's not a stretch to say that the temple is the 4th most important character. Having a permanent temple for their God is a HUGE deal to the Israelites. It's one of the central themes of the whole rest of the Old Testament, and it clearly is of huge importance in the day of Jesus. In addition to building the temple of God, Solomon also brings peace, riches, and expansion to the kingdom. It's fair to say that the days of David and Solomon are the high point of the nation of Israel, or maybe its Golden Age. After Solomon dies, though, the kingdom splits. David and Solomon's descendants rule in the south, and the other tribes of Israel break off in the north and create their own kingdom. So the kingdoms become known as Israel in the north, and Judah in the south. The southern kingdom is still known as Judah when the Romans get there. The Romans called it the province of Judea. After the kingdom of David and Solomon, Israel was never again an important force in the area. There's a stone inscription from the reign of Shalmaneser III, one of the kings of Assyria, that mentions King Jehu of Israel, and has an image of Jehu prostrating himself before Shalmaneser. Neither the northern kingdom of Israel nor the southern kingdom of Judah would rise again to prominence in the region. The Northern kingdom was eventually conquered completely by Assyria. The Assyrians were not kind to the lands they conquered. They tended to either kill or enslave all the conquered peoples, and then to populate their lands with native Assyrians. This is one of the reasons for the hostility we see in the New Testament between Jews and Samaritans. The Jews were descendants of Judah (hence the name Jew). The Samaritans were descendants of both the Israelites, who had split from Judah, and also the Assyrians who had settled there. So the Jews saw them as traitors and half-bloods. The kingdom of Judah, in the south, continued for several more generations after Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians. But then, in 586 BC, Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, who destroyed Solomon's temple, and took away all the ritual objects of the temple. The Babylonians took many of the Jews away to Babylon, though they let them keep some of their own ethnic identity. The Jews held on to their identity during the 70 years they were captive in Babylon. They call this time the Exile, and they saw it as God's punishment for the nation turning away from God. Eventually Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia. We'll come back around to that in a while, because those same Persians had some epic run-ins with our friends the Greeks, which we will be talking about in upcoming episodes. But for now, it's enough to point out that Cyrus let many of the peoples who had been conquered by Babylon return to their homelands. This included the Jews, and they began to come back around 538 BC. As part of their return, they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, and also rebuilt the temple, though it was not anywhere as glorious as Solomon's temple had been. Still, it was a big deal to them to have their temple back, and they took the temple rituals and the Law much more seriously from then on. Until the Romans, of course. As I said earlier, for being such a small nation, and being relatively unimportant on the world stage, Israel has an outsized influence on western history. That is due in large part because of the influence of the Bible on the history of the west, and since the Bible was, for a long time, the best preserved historical record of the ancient world, the history of Israel was well-known. From the fall of Rome until the 1800's, there was very little known in the west about the history of the ancient near east. In the 1800's, European archaeologists began to unearth ancient cities, and eventually ancient texts, that shed new light on ancient history. There was, for a long time, a strong bias among the 19th century academics that the Bible was all myth. They actually thought this about the Trojan war, too. But more and more archaeological excavations supported the stories of the Bible, and the Iliad, and so today, there is a grudging acceptance among even anti-bible academics that the Bible does preserve a valid history of the nation of Israel. One other reason that the tiny nation of Israel has had so much influence in the west is that the Jews have always managed to survive, and to maintain their identity, even in very hostile situations. Eventually, after the Romans destroyed Judah in 70 AD, the Jews were dispersed all over the Mediterranean and also Europe. There were Jewish communities in all the major cities of Europe by the Middle Ages. And despite pograms, exiles, and a holocaust, the Jews managed to survive and keep their identity. So they have been a part of western society for quite a long time, and they have been spread throughout western society quite thoroughly, because they settled in so many different places, and have been successful in business, academia, science, and politics. So, despite their small size and humble beginnings, the people of Israel have made a big impact on the western world, an impact that needs to be considered alongside much more prominent empires, like the Greeks and the Romans. Speaking of the Greeks, in the next episode, we'll look at some of the most famous battles in all of history, and two of the most bad-ass battle quotes of all time, when we look at the wars between the Greeks and the Persians. History of the Ancient World, Susan Wise Bauerhttps://www.timesofisrael.com/archaeologists-say-one-of-king-davids-palaces-found/https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/the-tel-dan-inscription-the-first-historical-evidence-of-the-king-david-bible-story/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-first-temple-solomon-s-templehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon%27s_Templehttps://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Shiloh_(Bible)https://www.britannica.com/event/Babylonian-Captivity

Teaser: Collapse of the Mycenaeans (Patreon)

collapse bronze age mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2021 7:59

This is a teaser of the bonus episode, The Mycenaeans Trojan War found over on Patreon.We now zoom in a little bit closer on the Mycenaeans now that we have arrived at the Bronze Age collapse. Here we will look at what evidence seems to be showing of possible reasons that would lead to the collapse of the Mycenaeans. This would see their civilisation fade into the past while taking place in the context of the wider Bronze Age world collapse.If you would like to hear more and support the series click on the Patreon link at the bottom of the page or you can head to my website to discover other ways to support the series, HereNew bonus episodes and series updates come out in the first week of every month, Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

Space Crabs

SG-1 Event Horizon

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2021 64:32

Katherine Powers, what are you doing to us? First "Emancipation", then "Thor's Hammer", and now this? Are you trying to tell us something or were you cleaning up someone else's messes? Silvana and Tegan summarize and review Season 1, Episode 8 "Brief Candle". In short, Jack is date raped by a 30 day old. Yes, that is the plot. How does this culture survive when every only lives one hundred days? What are space crabs? Will divorce skyrocket when these Mycenaeans live a normal life span? Episode Links: 1. Ladyknightthebrave Stargate retrospective 2. Gate World interview with Vaitiare Hirshon (Sha're) 3. Pop Culture Detective, Sexual Assault of Men Played for Laughs 4. Period Repair Manual by Lara Briden, ND 5. Behind the Bastards podcast, Rush Limbaugh 6. Pop Culture Detective, Born Sexy Yesterday

space sci fi thor hammer tapping laughs atlantis sexual assault candle bastards syfy stargate rush limbaugh crabs tegan o'neil lara briden period repair manual sg1 brief candle mycenaeans pop culture detective born sexy yesterday

Episode 5 - Early Greece and the first City-states

A Short Walk through Our Long History

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 23, 2021 16:55

Welcome to Episode 5 - Early Greece and the first City-States. Last time, we looked at one of the great civilizations of the ancient world - Egypt. Our modern culture was not all that directly influenced by Egypt, though you could say our modern culture was very influenced by the Israelites that came out from Egypt. It's interesting to me that a small, relatively powerless, backwater nation as Israel was for most of its existence, had such a profound effect on the western world. One could argue that it was one of the 3 most influential ancient cultures, at least as far as influencing the modern world. One of the others, not surprisingly, was Rome. We will get to Rome in due time. The other major influence on the western world was Ancient Greece. It's hard to overstate how important ancient Greece was in terms of influencing the western world. Art, government and politics, literature, philosophy, athletics, math, architecture, and worldview - all of these were hugely influenced by ancient Greece. Who is the most influential philosopher of all time? Well, it's either Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle. They were all Greek. Where did democracy originate? Greece. You could maybe argue that Rome was more influential for a longer period, but you could also argue that Rome was simply spreading Greek learning and values. Rome had its own valuable contributions, as we will see, but Greece was incredibly influential to the western world. So let's take a quick look at how it got that way. Do you where the first civilization in Europe started? It was on the island of Crete - one of the islands of the Greek archipelago. A civilization known as the Minoans began to arise there, around 2000 BC. This is just a little before Abram makes his journey out of Ur, and also just a bit before King Hammurabi of Babylon. Not much is known about the Minoan civilization, but archaeologists have found large cities, lots of fresco paintings, and lots of pottery. Archeologists have also found Minoan writing, including hieroglyphs, and a system of script writing called ‘Linear A.' So far, no one has been able to translate any of the Minoan writing, which is one reason we don't know too much about the Minoan culture. The Minoan culture seems to have begun to decline around 1600 BC, which is just about the same time that we begin to see civilization develop on mainland Greece. [recorded to here] The earliest civilization on the mainland of Greece was known as the Mycenaeans. This culture is named after one of their important cities, Mycenae. Mycenaean culture is important for a couple of reasons. Big reasons, actually. The Mycenaeans developed a culture of city-states. Why did their culture develop this way? Some of it has to do with geography.There are two distinctive features to the geography of Greece that influenced its development. First, it is a peninsula, surrounded by water on three sides, and with thousands of small islands all around it. So it was natural that the Greeks would become sailors, explorers, and traders. The inland parts of Greece, however, are rocky and mountainous, and so it was harder to develop a continuous, connected civilization. Each region developed its own government, usually centered around a main port city. These regions were called city-states. A city-state is a small nation, centered around a main central city. Each city ruled the region around it, and developed its own type of government and culture. Some of the major city-states, besides Mycenae, were Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Argos. Each city-state had its own way of doing things, but all the Greek city-states did have some things in common: They all spoke the same language, worshipped the same gods (though each city had its patron god), and they usually banded together to fight off outsiders. They also fought each other at times.This fighting is the other reason that the Myceneans are important. One of the most famous books of all time tells the story of a great Mycenean battle. You might have heard of this one: It's called the Iliad. We're going to look at that story next time, but for now, I'll just mention that the king of Mycenaea plays a big role in that story. That was King Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army. The Mycenaean culture was a very well-developed culture, with large cities, art, and their own form of writing. The Myceneans, in addition to being famous soldiers, were also great sailors, and their trading ships travelled all around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. They established colonies and trading posts in what is now Turkey, Lebanon, Crete, Sicily, and Italy. They were the first pan-mediterranean trading culture. In other words, they travelled all over the Mediterranean. Why is this important? They Mycenaeans were the first culture that really had contact with a lot of other cultures. They traded with cultures in Europe, including even Scandinavian cultures; they traded with Egypt, with other African cultures, with several different cultures in Asia, and maybe even Babylon. It was the beginning of all of these cultures being aware of each other, and establishing regular trade between them. But around 1200 BC, things started to fall apart. There was a long period of poor harvests, which led to famine and starvation. As the Mycenaeans got more and more desperate, they began to raid other places. There are Egyptian records of migrations and raids from a group called the Sea People. We don't know exactly who these Sea People were, but migrating Mycenaeans are the leading suspects. It's also possible that the migrating Mycenaeans became the Philistines, who ruled a sea-side culture on the coast east and north of the kingdom of Israel. In any case, Mycenaean culture seems to have petered out about 1100 BC. Many of their cities were abandoned, including Mycenaea. From about 1100 BC until about 800 BC, Greek culture went through a period where very little of written records, artifacts, or history was preserved. This is known as the Greek Dark Ages, but after about 800 BC, Greece begins a monumental comeback, which will produce one of the richest, most influential cultures of all time, and some of the most famous people the world has ever known. Next time, in episode 6, we will look more closely at the Iliad, and the story of the Trojan war.1. Usborne encyclopedia of the ancient world

Teaser: The Mycenaeans Trojan War (Patreon)

bronze age archaeological trojan war hittite mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2021 6:47

This is a teaser of the bonus episode, The Mycenaeans Trojan War found over on Patreon.We continue our look through the Bronze Age arriving at the question, was the Trojan War a historical event. In this bonus episode we explore this question by looking at what has been uncovered in the Archaeological record and turn to the Hittite texts that have been translated.If you would like to hear more and support the series click on the Patreon link at the bottom of the page or you can head to my website to discover other ways to support the series, HereNew bonus episodes and series updates come out in the first week of every month, Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

Mycenaean Greece and Minoan Crete

Tides of History

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2021 52:40

The Late Bronze Age was a remarkable time in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. An interconnected world sprang up, tying together the lands from Greece and Crete in the west all the way to Mesopotamia in the east and the Nile cataracts in the south. Let's explore the Aegean during this time, looking at how palaces on Crete continued to grow and how Minoan civilization reached an apex of sophistication and reach. And on the Greek mainland, a new people - the Mycenaeans - emerged, building their own palaces and society, the foundations of the Greek world that would later encompass so much of the Mediterranean and beyond.Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here. Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory.Indeed - Get started a $75 credit at indeed.com/TIDESRex MD - Now offering starter packs of generic Viagra for new customers. Visit rexmd.com/TIDES to get started.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

38: The Greek Periphery, Sicily

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2021 39:14

Todays episodes sponsor is Hello FreshHead to Hello Fresh here to receive $80 Discount ($50 - $20 - $10) Including Free Shipping on your First Box! with the code HFAFF80Todays book recommendation is, Sicily, A short History from the ancient Greeks to Cosa Nostra38: The Greek Periphery, SicilyThe prehistory of Sicily, well before the Greeks arrived is still to this day shrouded in some mystery. We are left with a written tradition from a number of Greek writer but they were writing about a past some thousand years before their time. Modern attempts at understanding this period are even debated, which leaves us with our best guesses based off of what is found in modern research and what the ancients say.The Island of Sicily west of Greek lands would come into the Greek periphery as the Mediterranean was emerging out of the Dark Ages. Trade would once again begin to flow from the west as it had done during the Bronze Age to the Mycenaeans. Though, with the collapse of the Bronze Age much of this trade would be disrupted as various civilisations went into decline or disappeared completely.Though, as trade began increasing, more Greek cities would have been setting up their own trading connections at Sicily. Eventually, the various Greek city states would send out expeditions to found colonies on the island. This would provide relief with the over population problem that was beginning to occur in some of the larger cities, while also opening up more markets to the Greek mainland.The Greeks were not the only people present on Sicily, with it home to three separate indigenous cultures according to the written tradition. Also present was that of the Phoenicians, a civilisation originating in the Levant and the founders of the famous city of Carthage. They were also engaging in trade and establishing their own colonies. All these different peoples would for the most past during the 8th century BC, co-exist peacefully, but as time went on and more colonies emerged, interests would start to be encroached upon. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

Teaser: Mycenaean International Connections (Patreon)

international greek connections mycenaean mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2021 5:39

This is a teaser of the bonus episode, Mycenaean International Connections found over on Patreon.We now continue with our focus on the Mycenaeans, this time looking closer at their relations with other lands. We will first look at their trading activities, with what they were importing from other civilisations. Then we will turn to what they were exporting along the numerous trade routes. Finally we will look at other foreign contacts that we get glimpses of, though as with most matters around the Mycenaeans, the picture we get is fragmentary at best.If you would like to hear more and support the series click on the Patreon link at the bottom of the page or you can head to my website to discover other ways to support the series, HereNew bonus episodes and series updates come out in the first week of every month, our next bonus episode to come out on Patreon will be; Mycenaeans, the coming of the Greeks.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

Linear B w. Dr. Dimitri Nakassis

university professor classics linear dimitri colorado boulder late bronze age linearb mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2021 50:06

Linear B is the writing system that was used by the civilization(s) known as the Mycenaeans. Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Colorado Boulder, Dr. Dimitri Nakassis, joins the show to discuss this Late Bronze Age writing system.

Mycenaeans on Crete During the Bronze Age w. Dr Louise Hitchcock

university melbourne hitchcock bce crete bronze age knossos mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2021 50:28

In the 14th century BCE, the Mycenaeans gained dominion of at least Knossos on Crete, and possibly, the entire island. Professor Louise Hitchcock, The University of Melbourne, makes a fifth appearance on the show to explore the topic.

Mycenaean Settlements on Mainland Greece w. Dr. Kim Shelton

university california greek greece shelton bronze age settlements mainland mycenaean mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2021 51:25

The Mycenaeans were a group of prehistoric Greek people. Dr. Kim Shelton, University of California, Berkley, joins the show to share what's known about their settlements on mainland Greece and how the settlements would have been used in the Bronze Age.

Teaser: The Coming of the Greeks

greek bronze age aegean mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2021 7:56

This is a teaser of the bonus episode over on Patreon, the coming of the Greeks.In this bonus episode we move to looking at the next Bronze Age civilisation in the Aegean, the Mycenaeans. Here we will focus in on the notion that they were the ancestors of the Classical Greeks. This theory only being accepted in the last 70 years due to evidence through archaeology and linguistics coming to light. For the full version of the episode plus many more you can head to Casting Through Ancient Greece Patreon pageOr head to the Casting Through Ancient Greece website to discover other ways to support the series.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

Episode 7: Greek Tales of Ancient Nights & Days

The Song of Urania

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2021 53:12

As we start to examine the astronomy of Ancient Greece we hear of the myth cycles of Theseus and Perseus, episodes from both of which appear in the night sky. These myth cycles help us to understand the conception the ancient Greeks had to the civilizations that came before them, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans and prepare us for the early cosmology of ancient Greece.

tales greek greece ancient nights ancient greece theseus perseus minoans mycenaeans

Teaser: Atlantis Minoan Connection

history greek atlantis plato ancient greece civilisation bronze age minoan minoans mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2021 11:20

This is a teaser of the bonus episode, The Atlantis Minoan Connection found over on Patreon.Over on Patroen I had a little fun with the latest bonus episode looking at the connections between the tale of Atlantis to the Bronze Age civilisation of the Minoans. I also look into the areas that don't support these connections, other areas that have been put forward, as well as the view this was all Plato's invention, with no historical context.If you would like to hear more and support the series click on the Patreon link at the bottom of the page or you can head to my website to discover other ways to support the series, HereNew bonus episodes and series updates come out in the first week of every month, our next bonus episode to come out on Patreon will be; Mycenaeans, the coming of the Greeks.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/castingthroughancientgreece)

Aegean Trade in Egypt During the Late Bronze Age w. Dr. Uroš Matić

trade communities sciences mati aegean minoans late bronze age austrian academy mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2021 47:11

Communities from the Aegean, including the Minoans and Mycenaeans, conducted trade in Egypt. Dr. Uroš Matić, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Archaeological Institute, joins the show to discuss.

Donald Rumsfeld (pictured), Menelik Shabazz, Elizabeth French

Last Word

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2021 27:37

Matthew Bannister on Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defense who challenged the military bureaucracy, advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was blamed for many of the failings of that operation. Menelik Shabazz, the pioneering film director who supported the careers of many other black film makers. Elizabeth French, the archaeologist who was a leading expert on the pottery of the ancient Greek city of Mycenae. Producer: Neil George Interviewed guest: Justin Webb Interviewed guest: Andrew Cockburn Interviewed guest: Joy Francis Interviewed guest: David Somerset Interviewed guest: John Bennett Archive clips used: C-SPAN 19/03/2003; CNN 02/12/2002; AP 13/05/2004; Step Forward Youth 1977 by Menelik Shabazz; Burning an Illusion 1981 by Menelik Shabazz; Blood Ah Go Run 1981 by Menelik Shabazz; Autumn Breeze Movies, Mycenaean War and Peace 24/05/2010; Introduction to Mycenaeans and Mycenaean Culture, History with Cy 21/06/2019; History Victorum, The Citadel of Mycenae 04/06/2020.

history peace french greek defense cnn iraq burning illusion citadel c span us secretary cy donald rumsfeld pictured shabazz menelik mycenae mycenaeans

Max Dashu - Helen of Troy and Women of the Trojan War

34 Circe Salon -- Make Matriarchy Great Again -- Disrupting History

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2021 72:25

“Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,And burnt the topless towers of Ilium--Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.--"So wrote Christopher Marlowe of one of the most famous names in history: Helen of Troy. But who was Helen and what was life like for women of that era?" Join us as we talk to again with Max Dashu, noted scholar of women in history, about Helen of Troy and women in that portion of the Bronze Age. Were there still strands of matriarchy in these highly phallo-centric cultures? How did women express their power in the time of the Trojan War? What about Cassandra and Antigone and the other women immortalized in the Epic Cycle of the Trojan War? Of course, at the center of it all is the question: Who was this Helen, the woman whose faced launched a thousand ships?Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host.

Max Dashu - Helen of Troy and Women of the Trojan War

34 Circe Salon -- The Parallax

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2021 72:25

“Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,And burnt the topless towers of Ilium--Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.--"So wrote Christopher Marlowe of one of the most famous names in history: Helen of Troy. But who was Helen and what was life like for women of that era?" Join us as we talk to again with Max Dashu, noted scholar of women in history, about Helen of Troy and women in that portion of the Bronze Age. Were there still strands of matriarchy in these highly phallo-centric cultures? How did women express their power in the time of the Trojan War? What about Cassandra and Antigone and the other women immortalized in the Epic Cycle of the Trojan War? Of course, at the center of it all is the question: Who was this Helen, the woman whose faced launched a thousand ships?Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host.

The Philosophy of Foundation with Nathaniel Goldberg

Seldon Crisis â€“ The Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2021 53:55

Acknowledgements:Jeremy MacKinnon, Video Editing and Podcast Support (Linkedin | Twitter)Tom Barnes, Theme OrchestrationMike Topping, Graphics (Despotica)Inspiration:Trojan War the PodcastOdyssey the PodcastLiterature and History PodcastPlanet and Sky, the Deeper Story (my first audio-drama podcast)Tobias Cabrol - New Eyes review (Goodreads)Listener Resources:Foundation Era - Asimov Future Timeline (Youtube)William Woolard - Asimov Chronology ProjectInterview callouts:Isaac Asimov - Nightfall (Wikipedia)Isaac Asimov - The Last Question (Youtube)Eric Cline - 1177 B.C., Revised Edition (Amazon)David Deutsch - After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up (Youtube)Mike Flynn - In the Country of the Blind review (Goodreads)Transcript:[music intro with voiceover by Nathaniel Goldberg:“Philosophy and Science-fiction have this particular thing in common and that is that they're both really good at thought experiments”“The Galactic Empire is falling… so here's a thought experiment... civilization is falling, what do we do?”]Welcome to a very special episode of Seldon Crisis – The Podcast! We won't be diving in to the first chapter of Foundation and Empire, The General quite yet, so I am sorry to disappoint you on that front. Instead, we have something of an entirely different order – an actual guest appearance by someone very familiar with Foundation and Asimov who has studied the core trilogy in depth and has some special insights to offer (without breaking our no spoiler rule). Before introducing our guest, however, I want to briefly thank some of the people who have made this podcast a success beyond my wildest dreams in only a few months.First, I want to thank someone in my own family who's contributed more than anyone else, my own son Jeremy MacKinnon. When I started re-reading the Foundation series last summer I felt I had to share it with someone and was thrilled to find an accomplice in the joy of reading it in someone under my own roof. He started reading it before I'd even finished and read all seven volumes to my complete delight. He became a big fan of the idea of creating a podcast and lent his talents as a video editor in producing the video trailer for season 1 and designed and produced each of the mini-preview videos I've been posting on the Seldon Crisis video channel. He's also been a great sounding board for podcast ideas and offers much needed constructive criticism of each episode. I hope to be able to leverage his creative talents throughout the series.Another wonderful collaborator has been a friend I've known since high school and a long time musical companion named Tom Barnes. I came up with a simple melody idea for the theme music and shared it with him last fall and he enthusiastically transformed it into the evocative and magical theme music that begins and ends each show along with variations to use to link the sections together. It wouldn't have the same feel without his excellent work and I look forward to more from him in future seasons if I can maintain his interest in contributing his efforts. I am extremely grateful for all he's done.A creative effort like this needs visual representation, and I knew I needed something special to honor the power of Isaac Asimov's vision. Who better to create such a look than someone who had demonstrated success in the past? I reached out to the artist who had created book covers for all but one of the seven Foundation novels and all four novels in the Robots series, a guy named Mike Topping and asked him if he could create an original logo for the series. I asked him if he could incorporate a raven into the graphic to represent Hari Seldon and somehow imply the magic and mystery of the galactic empire and the Foundation all in one graphic and boy did he deliver! I've been thrilled to post his graphics dozens of times and never get tired of seeing it. Mike can be found online at despotica.com if you would like to engage his services.Lastly, I want to thank all of the listeners and dear supporters who have made it possible to continue this series. I love doing it and get a lot of joy from it, but especially love hearing from all of you out there who appreciate the effort. There's one guy in particular I want to call out by name. I had the pleasure of virtually meeting this writer of vibrant and super futuristic science fiction named Tobias Cabral in the past year and read a couple of his works, including a gripping tale called New Eyes filled with nail-biting action sequences and featuring romance crossing the boundaries of cybernetic and biological lifeforms. You can find my review on Goodreads and I'll add a link in the show notes. Tobias is a wonderful guy and - though I've never met him in person - he's one I can call a true friend. He lent his enthusiastic backing of my intentions to make this podcast and I am very grateful for his support. Without further ado, let me introduce another friend and supporter of the show who I had the privilege of meeting online even before the first episode dropped. Let's meet our distinguished guest for this episode.[musical break]Joel McKinnon: My guest today is Nathaniel Goldberg. Nathaniel is a professor of philosophy at a university in Virginia. Besides more traditional classes, he teaches a special-topics course on philosophy and science fiction, in which he has his students read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy against the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato's most famous work, The Republic. Welcome, Nathaniel!Nathaniel Goldberg: Thank you, Joel. It's a pleasure to meet you and to be here on your podcast? JM: Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself, including your introduction to Asimov? NG: Sure, it would also be my pleasure. So I first discovered Asimov when I was a teenager, I was visiting my grandmother in New York. I've got that little bit in common with the good doctor, we're both New Yorkers, deep down.And she had in her bedroom, a book anthology collection. Golden age science fiction, short stories. I later learned it was my aunt's. She had done a science fiction class in college, and lo and behold, as I started reading through it, I came upon this short story called Nightfall by this author named Isaac Asimov.And it was years later. Years later when I was in high school my high school 10th grade English teacher happened to have sets of the Foundation trilogy. And I talked to him and he lent them to me. And the rest is galactic history. JM: So yeah, I'll tell you how I found it. I guess, you know, since you've listened to the podcast. As a teenager, I just discovered science fiction ‘cause my dad was into it and my dad had lots of science fiction on our bookshelves at home. So I read as much of that as I could. And I'm not sure what the first Asimov I read was - it wasn't Foundation. But when I found Foundation that changed my life. NG: Well, I remember when I was reading Nightfall, learning that as Asimov had written it, I think when he was 19 or so, he published it when he was 21.And at the time I was 13 or 14 and I thought, no worries. I've got years to be that successful because the golf from 13 to 19 is like eternal when you're a 13 year old. And then as I creep closer and closer in time, time started running short. I'm now in a spot where I teach college students who are roughly Asomov's age when he wrote that story and I liked to needle them a little bit – like what have you done with your life? Have you written a world changing science fiction short story that's the segue to a world changing trilogy or haven't you? And you know, they look at me and think that I'm goofy, but they usually think that anyway. So some more Asimov in my background.JM: I'm really curious about your class and would love to hear you talk more about it. Because I would have loved to have taken that class when I was in college. So I'm really curious what the students, how they respond to it, to the syllabus. NG: Sure. So, uh, I guess to fill in a little bit beyond my, the Asimov part of my life, I wound up getting a PhD in philosophy, and then I ended up teaching at three different universities. I started in Maryland and then I was in Ohio and now I'm in Virginia, and where I currently am I was encouraged to do a special topics course. We all are asked occasionally to do something like this. So as you said in your kind intro, I'm doing one called Philosophy and Science Fiction. And the idea was each time I taught it, to pair a different work of philosophy with a different work of science fiction.But Joel, I've got to tell you, the first pairing of Asimov and Plato just stuck because it just works so well. JM: Hard to beat that one.NG: Yeah, for both reasons. And I don't want to say too much about it because the course relies on having read the whole trilogy and your listeners, including myself since I'm a listener too, have so far only got through the first book in the trilogy with you. But that was the connection and the motivation. JM: How did they react to this? We have to read this Asimov guy. I mean, I would think, like really? I get to read Asimov? Not sure how how students react to that now. NG: Asimov is somewhat dated. The trilogy, as you mentioned, was composed of short stories that were written, I guess, in the forties, at least initially. Is that right? Joel? Am I getting that chronology right?JM: Yeah, he wrote them in the mid to late forties, I believe. NG: And even though the trilogy was so influential and it's hard once you read it and not to recognize its influences, it does come across somewhat stilted sometimes to students, or at least they wouldn't have heard of him, but like you I'm really excited about the Apple TV dramatization or interpretation of the trilogy to get more people interested in it.JM: Yeah. But we also have our misgivings about what we might find, how they might treat the subject matter. NG: Well, we, we absolutely do. In fact, if I can share an anecdote between the two of us on, I forget what social media platform, but on one of them I've for years used the alias Gaal Dornick. I don't even remember where, but I commented on your podcast after you and I had already met, but I used the pseudonym Gaal Dornick and you replied something like, uh, well thank you for commenting Gaal, you're one to know or something like that. So yeah, I've used that for years and I was excited to learn that I'm a woman in the new trailer and in the Apple TV, because we all should learn to walk in other people's shoes. But at the same time I was reminded, and you asked how did my students react to the trilogy?They do wind up really liking it. They really do by the end. One of their criticisms though, is that there are so few women in it, and I'm glad that a relatively minor character like Dornick, it doesn't really matter what gender, but that's one of the criticisms of Asimov that my students have. So, I feel like I've talked a bit now about philosophy and Asimov, and of some of the pros and cons and reactions of my students, at least on that subject.I really appreciated when you had talked a couple episodes ago about Asimov's handling of women and his sort of background and how that influenced or didn't influence his portrayal of them. So I'm curious, and maybe your listeners are too, if you could say a little bit more.JM: I'm glad you brought this up because I wrote that part a few months ago, that I read off on a podcast a couple of episodes ago about his treatment of women and his lack of women in Foundation up to that point and complete lack. And I wondered about it and I hadn't really done my homework enough to know why he was the way he was in that area. But since then, I've really plunged into his autobiography called I, Asimov, which is a pretty thick tome and covers a lot of the feelings about how he felt about himself and how he related to different people. He was definitely aware that he had shortcomings in the area of dealing with women, and a lot of it was that when he was young, his parents had a candy store and he had to work there from dawn to dusk. He never got to meet women much. He never got to date. He went to boys schools, and his first date with a woman was a double blind date and he ended up falling in love with the woman he was set up with, and that was Gertrude. He said she looked like Olivia de' Haviliand, she was so gorgeous – and he fell in love with her. She never really reciprocated the love he was feeling for her, he thought, so he always kind of had a chip on his shoulder about it, I guess.NG: And he did, he did marry her. Isn't that right? JM: Yes, he married her and he lived with her for 24 years, which was quite a while for what felt in the autobio like a mismatch. They were very different. And she actually resented one of his major character traits, which was that he just loved to write and write and write all the time.He didn't like to travel. He didn't like to socialize. He just liked to write and write and write and she felt neglected, you know? And you can tell from the bio that he felt that he neglected her. And also his family. He once asked his daughter (Robyn), who he just obviously adored, he said, have I been a good father? And she said, you've been a busy father. And that really stuck with him. He realized something from that.NG: That reminds me of a description I read once of Frank Herbert. So his son, Brian, was asked about his father and maybe you know this, that Brian and Kevin J. Anderson had written prequels and sequels to the Dune saga. So he, Brian, was once asked about his father and he described him in somewhat similar terms. He said that he remembers his father not spending time with him as much as he would like, and he remembers his father working on Dune, at least Brian didn't know at the time. Then when he finished the first draft, he just locked himself in his room for a couple of days and slept. And that makes me wonder if there's something about passionate people and passionate writing. JM: Well, you were just referring to your feelings of when are you going to be able to catch up with Asimov when you were young? And I probably had that same feeling and sometimes I've thought, wow, I'm such a slacker compared to people like Asimov. When I think about it in these terms, you know, at least my wife and son don't feel completely neglected by me, constantly writing and doing something other than being with them.I do travel and spend time with them. So, you know, being a real human being, it has its place. NG: I endorse that. My wife's glad I'm a real human being too.JM: I can't say I'm a perfectly real human being. Sometimes I'm too much like Asimov in my own self obsession. Like having a podcast and spending a lot of time working on it.NG: Well, speaking of obsessions in a way, this lets me answer or continue to answer an earlier question you asked me, actually the first one about me and my introduction to Asimov, and I can say a word about philosophy and Asimov too. So one of my obsessions, surprise surprise, is thinking or overthinking or over-analyzing sometimes to my detriment, and I discovered relatively early in life, probably the time when I started reading Asimov, that it was a more productive use of my time to explore – I can't resist to explore – strange new worlds and thoughts rather than obsessive about actually things in real life. So there's that bumper sticker something like reality is for those people who can't handle science fiction.JM: Yeah, I always liked that one. NG: Yeah, and I found philosophy too, because they're both intellectual exercises. And one ding that philosophers always get is that it's only intellectual and to some extent that's fair. To some extent, it's not – that is – there are applications. There are ethics boards at hospitals, and there are philosophers who basically invented logic.And once upon a time everybody, Isaac Newton, called himself a philosopher. So there are connections that are practical at the same time, philosophy and science fiction have this particular thing in common. And that is, they're both really good at thought experiments. So a thought experiment is like a lab experiment where you have a control, you have an environment where you're trying to tweak just one thing and keep everything else the same.Then you see what happens if you tweak that one thing, you know, increase the pressure, add radiation, you know, deprive the bacteria of sunlight, whatever it is, you don't do everything. You do one thing. And I found that science fiction, at least good science fiction usually does things like that as well.So Asimov had a thought experiment, well he's got lots in the foundation trilogy, but the big one, I suppose, is the Galactic Empire is falling. So here's a thought experiment. Civilization is ending. What do we do? And then of course he proposes and he proposes more than just a simple straightforward thing to do.There's the founding of the First Foundation. There's the mysterious Second Foundation we'll find out about. There's the working through of this thing called psychohistory, but in a way, these are all sort of thought experiments that work together for making a really engaging story. So it's that kind of thing that I had my students think about as well. So I think it's a pretty good fit. JM: Do you learn much from your students and their reports? Do they sometimes give you insights that you hadn't expected? NG: I do. I do. Well first, it's always good as a, I guess as they say, I've got a face for radio or for podcast. JM: I know the feeling.NG: Yeah, well maybe your listeners can figure out I'm a guy like you are and it's always great to have women react because I learn different perspectives. Which is why I always knew that Asimov had very few female characters – he has some, but I always knew he didn't have many. But it wasn't until I started teaching this that I realized how that makes it harder for female students to get into the story, because they don't really have characters that they can identify with.So I learned that, particular things in the story, there's some things that come up later in the books, so I won't mention them now, but there are just certain passages I had never read a certain way and that they did. And you know I think they're right.JM: I know that there are female fans of Foundation, I've heard from them already and it's really nice to hear of that. For any out there who have listened to the first five episodes and don't know what's coming, there are definitely more engaging female characters to come, and I'm horrified that I have to voice them to stay with my pattern – unless anybody out there wants to sign up and be my female character voice, that would be wonderful. NG: But on a, on a more uplifting note, something else I've learned about them or that they've reminded me is, as you were saying, just how prolific Asimov was. Students, at least the better ones, are inquisitive. So they would google around, and “google around,” basically, is our word for consult the Encyclopedic Galactica. And they would look up the Asimov entry and then they'd be all spoiled and pretend not to be. But before that happened, they would see that the guy wrote on what is it, every topic under the Dewey decimal system. Philosophy and history and literature and the Bible. So yeah, I wanted to ask you Joel, since you're recently reading his autobiography, what's your take on that? JM: I definitely have a take on that because in a lot of ways, that's how I felt I bonded with him because I felt we have so much in common, and the main thing is the boundless curiosity and everything. Yeah, every direction, what they now call ADHD, I believe, and he may very well have been diagnosed with that if that was a thing back then, and they probably would have stuck him on Ritalin or something, and it might've changed completely who he was. He might've been a successful lab scientist, suffering with not doing what he wanted to really do. And I'm really glad that he did what he did. What I think about this is that he needed a release for those mental wanderings and writing was just what he needed.He was never a drinker. He didn't do drugs when he needed therapy, when he was depressed or anxious, he wrote. He said this often happened in, that there were plenty of times when he would run into something just horrific in his life and some terrible pressure. And all he would do is sit down and write and he said that was great therapy. So I think that's really nice. That's a nice example of how to treat things instead of taking drugs and drinking. Podcasting makes me feel better – doing anything creative makes me feel better. It had a downside, obviously, this pattern, and we talked about it a little bit about how I think it really ruined his first marriage to Gertrude. He talked about her asking why don't you just spend some time traveling? When you're on your deathbed you're going to be horrified with all the things you didn't do. And he just kind of trolled her and responded by saying that when I'm on my deathbed all I'm going to be thinking is, why didn't I write more? And that's Asimov. NG: Yeah. I know there's also a connection that Asimov had with a different area that I know almost nothing about, so I can go on and on to some extent about his interest in history. So Joel, maybe you or your listeners know that he, at one point had contemplated getting a second PhD, one in History. His PhD was in chemistry, but he had contemplated it. YJM: I know he had regretted not getting a PhD in history. A couple of times he thought that was, that would have been better for him. NG: In fact, that's something else that my students, I hope you'll forgive me if I'm weaving around a bit in answering, but something else that I've learned from my students, I've had classics majors and history majors who filled me in on the actual parallels that as an office drawing on. So, we know, or at least some of us know that Asimov loved Edward Gibbon's decline and fall of the Roman empire, all upteen volumes of it. JM: Read it twice. NG: Yeah. Read it twice. And I've actually looked at it. I haven't read it other than I read, like the first paragraph and, you know, spoilers the last paragraph… it's not a spoiler if it's in the title, right. Um, Rome falls. There, I gave it away. Hope you don't get too much hate mail for this. But what I did appreciate was it's really well-written and it's got these big overarching themes. And Asimov was approaching his writing, trying to model some of his writing on the decline and fall. And there were some… well, I don't want to say too much, but your very next episode on Belriose, the general apparently was modeled on a historic Roman general, and Cleo II, the Emperor, was modeled after a historic Roman emperor. So these kinds of things I just didn't know. I do want to say one other thing on that history context that was really interesting to me. I know you're a history buff and in my misbegotten youth, I was a history major before I saw the light. But somehow I had missed this entire historical epic called the Greek dark ages or the Bronze Age collapse. It's just a story. JM: Amazing!NG: It's amazing. So maybe I'll stop babbling if you want to describe…JM: I do want to call out a great book on the Bronze Age collapse, by Eric Cline, it's called, 1177 BC. I hope I got that year right. That book was awesome to me. It really brought to life what an amazing era it was. Just a couple of hundred years before then was the most cosmopolitan era humanity had ever experienced, with trade crossing the Mediterranean in all directions and major empires interacting with Egypt and the Hittites to the north and the Mycenaeans to the west and Crete fell a little bit earlier.The Minoans... some amazing stories that we'll never know out of that period, because the collapse was so total and so much happened so quickly. So much of it was just so devastating. Entire cities just burned to the ground. And an ironic thing is that how we know some of what we know is from those cities burning to the ground because when clay tablets get exposed to extreme heat, it makes them harder and they become more durable and we would have forgotten a lot of that stuff if it hadn't been for them burning down. So some of the most disastrous sites are where we get our knowledge. You know, the ones who succeeded didn't give us the knowledge. NG: So that's the silver lining, but the cloud is that it was a complete collapse of Mediterranean civilization that set, set them back centuries.JM: And I'm sure as they were approaching that collapse, they thought it was unthinkable. NG: Exactly what I was going to say. I don't know the specifics, but I had a classics major student who's getting a PhD, I think, at Oxford in classics. So he knew the material better than I did, but he would say things like there were whole sorts of industries or techniques that were just lost. People forgot how to do X, Y, or Z, whatever that is. They forgot how to make this kind of pottery or they forgot this. There were whole things that were lost and something I try to impress upon my students is, yeah, it might seem like Asimov, you know, the decline and fall of the Galactic Empire is far-fetched – it's science fiction after all, you know, emphasis on the fiction and yeah, there was this decline and fall of the Roman empire, but there were Roman states and then there was the rise of early modern Europe. And depending upon how you want to read the middle ages, they maybe weren't so-called dark because there was still progress and advancement.In fact, the dark ages is a term obviously retroactively applied to it. So my students sometimes think, yeah, the Asimov story thing, that can't happen. And then, then we do talk. Well, actually the Roman fall was serious and even potentially more serious was the Bronze Age collapse and Asimov is focused not just on, on those historical examples, but on the possibility that this could always happen, that there could always be a fall. And what do we do? So, one reason that I have them read the short story Nightfall is that it's about that. It's about the fall of civilization and that is the fall of night, the literal and the metaphorical.And then I have them read that right before we start the Foundation trilogy. So they think as they start reading the trilogy, the Encyclopedia, it's the very first part of book one I think. I see... I see this is how we started the fall of civilization. You know, the Bronze Age collapse and the Roman fall and Nightfall and, you know, in his short story, we just gathered lots of smart people and have them write books.Because that seemed to be after all, they think that's what's lost. Right? We lose libraries... the Library of Alexandria later, but we lose libraries. We lose information. Science turns into religion Asimov talks about in Nightfall. He doesn't disparage religion, but he says it's a repository where people don't always know what it's a repository of, but still it's a way to hold onto some knowledge.So, yes. Wonderful! Seldon has these encyclopedists. Right? These however many families, you know, they're the men with their, you know, those women and children. There's another case where Asimov could have had women encyclopedists too. But anyway, they're writing an encyclopedia. So you asked me, you know, whether I have any anecdotes, that's maybe the biggest anecdote, just how gung ho you know, three cheers for Encyclopedia Galactica they are are until they get to the very end of the Encyclopedists and they learn that it was all a lie. JM: Yeah. That's a great turn and that's only one of the first of many great twists that Asimov delivers, going forward and coming up in future volumes for anyone listening to the podcast who hasn't read it. Foundation and Empire has some amazing twists.But going back to what you were just saying, Asimov also was a huge history buff. Going back to the Greeks, going back to further, he wrote an entire history of the Bible, old and new Testament two complete volumes, and I read them just not that long ago. Finally got around to it and found them in the library, just brilliant stuff, and it's so much more readable than the Bible. He doesn't do it in a contentious, you know, anti-religious state of mind. He doesn't say, listen to these silly people thinking this or that, you know, he puts it in the cultural context and he's really just trying to get at the real stories that were going on behind all that.And it's obvious that the residents of that area, the Hebrews were able to write their history so eloquently, was enormously powerful and that's driven so much of what's happened to the current time. He really respected that. And I think there is a lot he respects in religion without being a believer and that comes up again and again in the subtext of the Foundation. But then another thing I wanted to mention related to that is in his love of history, he also came to love theater and he saw history as just an endless succession of very entertaining stories and very entertaining characters and the rise and fall of power was always a huge part of that. And that's what Foundation is built on. You know, it's taking that history of human sociology and the waxing and waning of power and the kinds of temperaments that leaders and megalomaniacs have and putting that 20,000 years in the future. Nothing's really changed. NG: Yeah. Well, that's one of the beauties of science fiction going back to the thought experiment idea instead of talking about, well, for him, maybe it was World War II Europe, and then cold war Europe, right? It's the era during his formative life. Instead of talking about the Axis and the Allies or the communists and the so-called free west, he talked about emperors on distant planets in the distant future who controlled countless stars and countless star systems. So it was a way to explore these issues with them, without the nitty-gritty, you know, politicking of what was going on around him.Now, I'm not saying he was exploring the cold war issues in the original trilogy though maybe some of that comes up in the later books where he seems to return to the themes of freewill and the right way of organizing our government. Just for him, the government's the size of the galaxy, but it's still the same kind of questions it's still playing in thought, instead of playing in act, right?.JM: Do you know anything about David Deutsch? NG: I don't.JM: Oh, you should look into him. I just discovered him just recently. I saw a YouTube video where he talks about the great monotony in cosmology, which is the time starting after the Big Bang, which was the most significant moment of innovation in cosmic history, and what came right after it with the development of the first stars and the first galaxies. But that once that was finished, for the next 14 billion years nothing much was new. It was just a replication of those things. Very simple patterns that just replicated on this colossal time and distance scale until a few hundred million years ago, when multicellular life appeared on this planet – actually even before that, when the first photosynthesis started and the planet changed dramatically based on life.And he claims that now humans are the first species to develop explanatory power and explanatory power. He thinks is a mechanism by which humans can change the galaxy and eventually move, move out into the entire galaxy and become a dominating powerful force and modifying what is going on there.NG: The first species we know of. I'm still hoping. JM: Yeah, and he qualifies with as we know of through the whole thing. But it's a really fascinating topic. NG: Right, well it's got shades of Carl Sagan who would talk about how, with the dawn of intelligence, the universe finally came to know itself. As reality created or gave rise to the sort of thing that can know reality, whether we call it explanation or self knowledge. And that also reminds me of the short story that I end my Plato-Asimov class with. For almost the whole class we're reading the foundation trilogy, we start with Nightfall because that primes students to worry about what happens when things fall. And then we get the response and the trilogy, you know, spoilers because we're not done on your podcast with it, but we get Asimov's answer. And then I end the class with the story I've shared with you called The Last Question where the last question asked is basically what happens when entropy increases, when the universe, when disorder takes reigns over order and the universe comes to an end and I'm not going to give it away either, but the way I read Asimov…JM: It's a short story that everybody should read…NG: And google it, it might be public domain at this point.JM: There's a YouTube version of it that's very nicely narrated. I found it but haven't watched it yet. I've been meaning to. I've read it a while back and want to re-experience it.NG: Yeah, it's a great story. So, sort of the meta question that I ask in my class is, what do we do with these cycles of history? So in, in Nightfall the short story it seems like they're inevitable and then in the Foundation trilogy, hey, we've got psychohistory that can help predict the future, and hey, we have the Foundation that can help limit the interregnum between decline and fall. And hey, as we're going to see, we've got some other things that may prevent future declines and falls, right? That comes up in the book called the second foundation and it involves the entity known as the Second Foundation.But then by the time we get to the last question, Well, I'm not sure, I'll let your listeners find that for themselves. We're a ways off from that. JM: I hope I have the endurance to make it through podcasting out seven novels, because there are two sequels and two prequels, which I hadn't read until the last summer and I was really blown away by them because they're different in that he wrote them 40 years later. He took a long break from science fiction and wrote mostly fiction nonfiction for most of the middle of his life, with a few exceptions but he got back to it eventually, and I'm so glad he did because, he realized, I think, that the story wasn't complete in terms of it was supposed to last a thousand years and it didn't go that long. And also that he wasn't entirely satisfied with how he'd wrapped it up, and that it didn't feel right to him.He spent the last few novels really pondering how it should have wrapped up and I think it's a fascinating introspection that he takes us on in those last novels. If you read them, they're quite something. And after the sequels, you get the prequels and you get the backstory on Hari Seldon and the beginning of the story, which turns out there's a ton of material.NG: Yeah, there is. But, but maybe some of my final thoughts as I'm privileged to be talking to you, but I don't want to overstay my welcome too much is just to say the special place that the original trilogy has for me personally, I take it for you personally, for the whole genre of science fiction.So, I can share an anecdote, not from my students, but I've got a colleague who teaches English literature, and his particular research area. It's really interesting, is the effect or the influence of the decline and fall of the Roman empire on English literature. So there were many authors who took it, got the idea of decline and fall and worked it into their novels. And I can't name too many of them, but I can name two. One is Isaac Asimov. And one is J.R.R. Tolkien. There are others as well. Well, but they both have... those two have the decline and fall, Frank Herbert has it or other people have it, but as, as my colleague pointed out... So does Star Wars, right? The empire is falling and what's going to follow it.JM: Yeah, yeah.NG: Yeah, but there was one particular line that really fit, just clinched it for me in the prequel trilogy, in Revenge of the Sith. That moment when the Republic does fall in the Empire is announced in his book. Right. Shortly before Darth Vader manifests his suit, maybe you or your listeners know the moment I have in mind and Chancellor Palpatine is at the head of the Galactic Senate and he declares before everyone that the Republic will be reorganized as... do you remember what he says, Joel? JM: I do not. I've watched it, but it's been a while.NG: As... the first galactic empire. And my colleagues said to me, why the heck would he say the first? Right, when Geroge Washington and so on became, I don't know when Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence, he didn't say, oh, I'm now signing the first declaration of independence. Right? I mean, when I don't know, the United States chose Washington, DC or struck the Washington monument and built it. They didn't say aha. Here's the first Washington monument. So why would he say the first galactic empire? And my colleagues' response is, because he'd read Asimov! Because everybody had in the back of their minds, if they're into science fiction and the idea of galactic empires, that of course there was a first and then there was going to be a second. So you have to say the first, because it just became part of the parlance of sci-fi. JM: Right, and he was just such a powerful influence on…NG: Such a powerful influence.JM: Yeah. One thing I want to add before we go, this just occurred to me. You were talking about names and such in the book and… Cleon the First, the emperor, the last or the second to last emperor, I believe, that we know about – then there were some unnamed ones in the fall, but I read another book on psychohistory that was placed in the mid 19th century. And the idea -– it's by Michael Flynn and it's called In the Country of the Blind, but the premise is fascinating. It's basically Charles Babbage, came up with the design of the first computer,, early 19th century and never built it. But the premise of the book is he did build it or it was built and somebody got ahold of it. And basically they became psychohistorians and they became the driving forces behind the modern world. By knowing what was happening and guiding the evolution of things. And they have splinter groups that break off and they fight against each other and that's going on into the modern day.So it was really interesting, but the point I was going to make about Cleon the First is the science of psychohistory was called Cleology from the Latin, which is the study of history. NG: Right, because Cleo was the Greek muse of history, I think. JM: Yeah, I believe you're right. So I'm thinking Cleon was not entirely a coincidence.NG: Oh goodness. There's so many names once you start thinking in the trilogy. JM: I love his names.NG: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that makes one of us. I think they're, I think they're kind of clunky, but here's why here's one I'll share because I listened to your podcasts... JM: Maybe it's because I have to be all those names!NG: That's true., that's true. But, do you remember Joel you just mentioned it in, in your most recent episode, who was person who was the high priest of the church who was at the same time, the head of the…JM: Publis Manlio?NG: No, the generation before that.JM: Oh, you mean Poly Verisof.NG: Right. Do you know what Poly Verisof means? JM: Uh... many truths?NG: Many truths. That's what he was. JM: I didn't really think about that. NG: He spoke, we need the truth, right? Yeah. JM: That's right. Yeah. I imagine that you could probably analyze a lot of his names and figure out what…NG: Some of them, I haven't figured out. Some of them, I think he just made up.JM: He seemed to like these two syllable first and last names. Hober Mallow, Salvor Hardin, Hari Seldon. Most of them are like that, but I don't know where he came up with them, but they worked for me. All right. Well, uh, anything else that we need to talk about or are we just gonna move on or I think maybe we should save some things for later after we finish another season of Seldon crisis. Maybe we can come back and talk again?NG: I'd love to, as I said, in my initial email to you, which you kindly read aloud, I'm happy. I'm flattered to participate. There's nothing like the trilogy, but if a way to help you is to be quiet and never bother you again, Joel, that's okay, too. So I would love to come back. I'm at your discretion.However you think I would be interesting for your listeners. JM: Well, thank you very much for taking part in this and letting our listeners know about this amazing course you teach and your insights that I think are really powerful and really fascinating. So, thanks for being a part of this change of pace between seasons and before we get back to just me reading.NG: My pleasure Joel, and thank you.Well, I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did! I'm very grateful and honored to have Nathaniel on the show and I hope I can have him back for similar appearances later on when he can more freely discuss some of the philosophical implications of the later volumes of this series.Before wrapping up, I want to acknowledge a couple of podcasts that I have found hugely inspirational and would encourage my listeners to sample. First, as a big fan of ancient history, I've been entranced by some of the earliest stories humankind has produced. Some of the most epic story cycles came down to us from the works of the mysterious author or authors known as Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey - the first of which tells the tale of the semi-mythical Trojan War some thousand or so years BCE. If you like stories like that, you'll love Trojan War – the Podcast as well as the later Odyssey – the Podcast. Jeff Wright is an amazing storyteller and I modeled some of my approach to the re-telling of Foundation off of his wonderfully dramatic recreation of these ancient tales including a lot of the backstory with expert analysis. They're both really fun shows and I encourage my listeners to dive in.My favorite podcast, however, without a doubt is Literature and History, hosted by Doug Metzger. No one in podcasting works harder than Doug at putting together extremely polished productions covering the history of anglophone literature starting with the earliest tales of the ancient near east up through the works of classic Greece and Rome and including some twenty episodes on the most influential work ever produced, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and many of the apocryphal works. Besides being a master storyteller and analyst, Doug is also an amazingly talented and creative musician. He composes and produces all of the background music for his show and includes a fun comedy song at the end of almost every episode. I was extremely fortunate to engage Doug's awesome narrative talents with my very own first podcast, Planet and Sky, the deeper story.Oh, did I forget to tell you about Planet and Sky? I guess I did. This was a podcast version of a rock opera I composed and performed in – a cosmic love story between a planet and its atmosphere told in a science fiction context. Yeah, it's a little weird, but it came to me and I had to tell the story. The music is available online credited to the Max Wyvern Band, a group headed by my alter ego from my days playing bass in a band called Jupiter Sheep. I'll add links in the show notes for this as well. The podcast is a deeper exploration of the story than the lyrics of the songs provide, and Doug graciously contributed his prodigious talents in editing and narrating my story.Back to Foundation, and a couple of items directly related to Asimov. I want to mention a couple of great resources you'll want to know about that might be helpful in understanding Asimov's literary history and the future history timeline he created. A guy named Luigi Dimeglio has produced an amazing series of videos at his YouTube channel Foundation Era focused mostly on previewing the upcoming Apple TV+ series on Foundation. He does an amazing job of deconstructing the limited hints available in the official teaser trailer and a recent sizzle reel unveiled at Apple's WWDC conference. A recent video, however, covers Asimov's future timeline in detail, including books outside of the Foundation series, notably the Robots and Empire series that mostly coexist in the same universe as Foundation. I'll link to this video in the show notes, but I encourage listeners to enjoy all of Luigi's excellent videos.Lastly, a listener named William Woolard emailed me recently and shared a very cool resource he's put together; a google sheet listing every book Asimov wrote in chronological order to assist him with his very modest aspiration of reading every single thing the great master has written! This might be just a little too ambitious for most of us - it certainly is for me - but the doc is a great guide to what is available and a wonderful view into Asimov's prodigious output. He's given me permission to post it publicly, and I'll share this link in the show notes as well. William also blew my mind recently by taking Mike Topping's artwork and applying it in the video game Gran Turismo to show a car rolling around the globe emblazoned with gigantic Seldon Crisis logos. He surely knows how to tickle a podcasters heart! By the way - this also inspired me to order some Seldon Crisis stickers, so email me at joel@seldoncrisis.com if you want one.Hopefully I've given you all a few distractions to indulge in while I prepare the second season of Seldon Crisis for release in just a few weeks. When we return, we'll be back to the standard format as we launch into the amazing Foundation and Empire, and meet another classic batch of Asimovian characters including Ducem Barr - the surviving son of Onum Barr described in his sad tale in The Merchant Princes, the heroic Foundation trader Lathan Devers, and the man who will pose the greatest existential threat to the growing Foundation yet in the Imperial General BelRiose. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to be sure to be informed when the next episode drops, and if you can, please review the show on Apple Podcasts to help spread the word. Until then, perhaps read a little Asimov![music outro]

united states new york history europe english apple science bible washington star wars phd ohio foundation dc podcasting greek robots students rome philosophy maryland empire revenge adhd planet blind hebrews golden oxford greece new testament falling in love latin dune library sci fi bc republic literature apple tv entire science fiction mediterranean odyssey emperor allies tolkien luigi darth vader plato testament goldberg homer big bang civilization new yorkers thomas jefferson sith axis goodreads wwdc encyclopedia gran turismo bce dewey frank herbert crete carl sagan ancient greeks isaac asimov michael flynn isaac newton iliad bronze age asimov ritalin nightfall video editing hittites trojan war galactic empire new eyes gaal his phd kevin j anderson charles babbage david deutsch seldon jeff wright edward gibbon cleon minoans eric cline chancellor palpatine galactic senate mycenaeans hari seldon tom barnes world war ii europe foundation trilogy salvor hardin

AWA149 - What do we know about the formations and tactics of the late bronze age?

Ancient Warfare Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 7, 2021 11:05

Murray answers this question from one of our patrons, Mythic Lore; 'What is known / reasonably theorised about the formations and tactics used during the late bronze age (Mycenaeans, Hittites, Luwians - Trojan War, etc)?' Like the podcast? Why not become a patron? https://www.patreon.com/ancientwarfarepodcast

war rome tactics formations military history hittites late bronze age mycenaeans

Mycenaean Civilization

Ancient History Encyclopedia

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2021 11:44

The Mycenaean civilization (c. 1700-1100 BCE) flourished in the Late Bronze Age, reaching its peak from the 15th to the 13th century BCE when it extended its influence not only throughout the Peloponnese in Greece but also across the Aegean, in particular, on Crete and the Cycladic islands. The Mycenaeans, named after their chief city of Mycenae in the Argolid of the northeast Peloponnese, were influenced by the earlier Minoan civilization (2000-1450 BCE) which had spread from its origins at Knossos, Crete to include the wider Aegean. Architecture, art and religious practices were assimilated and adapted to better express the perhaps more militaristic and austere Mycenaean culture. The Mycenaeans came to dominate most of mainland Greece and several islands, extending trade relations to other Bronze Age cultures in such places as Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt. The culture made a lasting impression on later Greeks in the Archaic and Classical periods, most tangibly in their myths of Bronze Age heroes like Achilles and Odysseus and their exploits in the Trojan War. Mycenaean Civilization written by Mark Cartwright and narrated by Kelly Macquire: https://www.worldhistory.org/Mycenaean_Civilization/ Find our video on the Mycenaean Civilization on YouTube here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZioHxDVCGE&t=137s If you like our audio articles, please support us by becoming a member or donating to our non-profit company: - www.worldhistory.org/membership/ - www.worldhistory.org/donate/ - www.worldhistory.org/patreon - www.worldhistory.store/ The music used in this recording is the intellectual copyright of Michael Levy, a prolific composer for the recreated lyres of antiquity, and used with the creator's permission. Michael Levy's music is available to stream at all the major digital music platforms. Find out more on: www.ancientlyre.com open.spotify.com/artist/7Dx2vFEg8…IH9CRieFNGXRUyJ9 www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ1X6F7lGMEadnNETSzTv8A

The Spread of Science And Culture From The Stone Age to the Bronze Age

The History of Computing

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2020 31:35

Humanity realized we could do more with stone tools some two and a half million years ago. We made stone hammers and cutting implements made by flaking stone, sharpening deer bone, and sticks, sometimes sharpened into spears. It took 750,000 years, but we figured out we could attach those to sticks to make hand axes and other cutting tools about 1.75 million years ago. Humanity had discovered the first of six simple machines, the wedge. During this period we also learned to harness fire. Because fire frightened off animals that liked to cart humans off in the night the population increased, we began to cook food, and the mortality rate increased. More humans. We learned to build rafts and began to cross larger bodies of water. We spread. Out of Africa, into the Levant, up into modern Germany, France, into Asia, Spain, and up to the British isles by 700,000 years ago. And these humanoid ancestors traded. Food, shell beads, bone tools, even arrows. By 380,000-250,000 years ago we got the first anatomically modern humans. The oldest of those remains has been found in modern day Morocco in Northern Africa. We also have evidence of that spread from the African Rift to Turkey in Western Asia to the Horn of Africa in Ethiopia, Eritraea, across the Red Sea and then down into Israel, South Africa, the Sudan, the UAE, Oman, into China, Indonesia, and the Philopenes. 200,000 years ago we had cored stone on spears, awls, and in the late Stone Age saw the emergence of craftsmanship and cultural identity. This might be cave paintings or art made of stone. We got clothing around 170,000 years ago, when the area of the Sahara Desert was still fertile ground and as people migrated out of there we got the first structures of sandstone blocks at the border of Egypt and modern Sudan. As societies grew, we started to decorate, first with seashell beads around 80,000, with the final wave of humans leaving Africa just in time for the Toba Volcano supereruption to devastate human populations 75,000 years ago. And still we persisted, with cave art arriving 70,000 years ago. And our populations grew. Around 50,000 years ago we got the first carved art and the first baby boom. We began to bury our dead and so got the first religions. In the millennia that followed we settled in Australia, Europe, Japan, Siberia, the Arctic Circle, and even into the Americas. This time period was known as the Great Leap Forward and we got microliths, or small geometric blades shaped into different forms. This is when the oldest settlements have been found from Egypt, the Italian peninsula, up to Germany, Great Britain, out to Romania, Russia, Tibet, and France. We got needles and deep sea fishing. Tuna sashimi anyone? By 40,000 years ago the neanderthals went extinct and modern humans were left to forge our destiny in the world. The first aboriginal Australians settled the areas we now call Sydney and Melbourne. We started to domesticate dogs and create more intricate figurines, often of a Venus. We made ivory beads, and even flutes of bone. We slowly spread. Nomadic peoples, looking for good hunting and gathering spots. In the Pavolv Hills in the modern Czech Republic they started weaving and firing figurines from clay. We began to cremate our dead. Cultures like the Kebaran spread, to just south of Haifa. But as those tribes grew, there was strength in numbers. The Bhimbetka rock shelters began in the heart of modern-day India, with nearly 800 shelters spread across 8 square miles from 30,000 years ago to well into the Bronze Age. Here, we see elephants, deer, hunters, arrows, battles with swords, and even horses. A snapshot into the lives of of generation after generation. Other cave systems have been found throughout the world including Belum in India but also Germany, France, and most other areas humans settled. As we found good places to settle, we learned that we could do more than forage and hunt for our food. Our needs became more complex. Over those next ten thousand years we built ovens and began using fibers, twisting some into rope, making clothing out of others, and fishing with nets. We got our first semi-permanent settlements, such as Dolce Vestonice in the modern day Czech Republic, where they had a kiln that could be used to fire clay, such as the Venus statue found there - and a wolf bone possibly used as a counting stick. The people there had woven cloth, a boundary made of mammoth bones, useful to keep animals out - and a communal bonfire in the center of the village. A similar settlement in modern Siberia shows a 24,000 year old village. Except the homes were a bit more subterranean. Most parts of the world began to cultivate agriculture between 20,000 and 15,000 years ago according to location. During this period we solved the age old problem of food supplies, which introduced new needs. And so we saw the beginnings of pottery and textiles. Many of the cultures for the next 15,000 years are now often referred to based on the types of pottery they would make. These cultures settled close to the water, surrounding seas or rivers. And we built large burial mounds. Tools from this time have been found throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and in modern Mumbai in India. Some cultures were starting to become sedentary, such as the Natufian culture we collected grains, started making bread, cultivating cereals like rye, we got more complex socioeconomics, and these villages were growing to support upwards of 150 people. The Paleolithic time of living in caves and huts, which began some two and a half million years ago was ending. By 10,000 BCE, Stone Age technology evolved to include axes, chisels, and gouges. This is a time many parts of the world entered the Mesolithic period. The earth was warming and people were building settlements. Some were used between cycles of hunting. As the plants we left in those settlements grew more plentiful, people started to stay there more, some becoming permanent inhabitants. Settlements like in Nanzhuangtou, China. Where we saw dogs and stones used to grind and the cultivation of seed grasses. The mesolithic period is when we saw a lot of cave paintings and engraving. And we started to see a division of labor. A greater amount of resources led to further innovation. Some of the inventions would then have been made in multiple times and places again and again until we go them right. One of those was agriculture. The practice of domesticating barley, grains, and wheat began in the millennia leading up to 10,000 BCE and spread up from Northeast Africa and into Western Asia and throughout. There was enough of a surplus that we got the first granary by 9500 BCE. This is roughly the time we saw the first calendar circles emerge. Tracking time would be done first with rocks used to form early megalithic structures. Domestication then spread to animals with sheep coming in around the same time, then cattle, all of which could be done in a pastoral or somewhat nomadic lifestyle. Humans then began to domesticate goats and pigs by 8000 BCE, in the Middle East and China. Something else started to appear in the eight millennium BCE: a copper pendant was found in Iraq. Which brings us to the Neolithic Age. And people were settling along the Indus River, forming larger complexes such as Mehrgarh, also from 7000 BCE. The first known dentistry dates back to this time, showing drilled molars. People in the Timna Valley, located in modern Israel also started to mine copper. This led us to the second real crafting specialists after pottery. Metallurgy was born. Those specialists sought to improve their works. Potters started using wheels, although we wouldn't think to use them vertically to pull a cart until somewhere between 6000 BCE and 4000 BCE. Again, there are six simple machines. The next is the wheel and axle. Humans were nomadic, or mostly nomadic, up until this point but settlements and those who lived in them were growing. We starting to settle in places like Lake Nasser and along the river banks from there, up the Nile to modern day Egypt. Nomadic people settled into areas along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers with Maghzaliyah being another village supporting 150 people. They began to building using packed earth, or clay, for walls and stone for foundations. This is where one of the earliest copper axes has been found. And from those early beginnings, copper and so metallurgy spread for nearly 5,000 years. Cultures like the Yangshao culture in modern China first began with slash and burn cultivation, or plant a crop until the soil stops producing and move on. They built rammed earth homes with thatched, or wattle, roofs. They were the first to show dragons in artwork. In short, with our bellies full, we could turn our attention to the crafts and increasing our standard of living. And those discoveries were passed from complex to complex in trade, and then in trade networks. Still, people gotta' eat. Those who hadn't settled would raid these small villages, if only out of hunger. And so the cultural complexes grew so neolithic people could protect one another. Strength in numbers. Like a force multiplier. By 6000 BCE we got predynastic cultures flourishing in Egypt. With the final remnants of the ice age retreating, raiders moved in on the young civilization complexes from the spreading desert in search of food. The area from the Nile Valley in northern Egypt, up the coast of the Mediterranean and into the Tigris and Euphrates is now known as the Fertile Crescent - and given the agriculture and then pottery found there, known as the cradle of civilization. Here, we got farming. We weren't haphazardly putting crops we liked in the grounds but we started to irrigate and learn to cultivate. Generations passed down information about when to plant various crops was handed down. Time was kept by the season and the movement of the stars. People began settling into larger groups in various parts of the world. Small settlements at first. Rice was cultivated in China, along the Yangtze River. This led to the rise of the Beifudi and Peiligang cultures, with the first site at Jaihu with over 45 homes and between 250 and 800 people. Here, we see raised altars, carved pottery, and even ceramics. We also saw the rise of the Houli culture in Neolithic China. Similar to other sites from the time, we see hunting, fishing, early rice and millet production and semi-subterranean housing. But we also see cooked rice, jade artifacts, and enough similarities to show technology transfer between Chinese settlements and so trade. Around 5300 BCE we saw them followed by the Beixin culture, netting fish, harvesting hemp seeds, building burial sites away from settlements, burying the dead with tools and weapons. The foods included fruits, chicken and eggs, and lives began getting longer with more nutritious diets. Cultures were mingling. Trading. Horses started to be tamed, spreading from around 5000 BCE in Kazakstan. The first use of the third simple machine came around 5000 BCE when the lever was used first, although it wouldn't truly be understood until Archimedes. Polished stone axes emerged in Denmark and England. Suddenly people could clear out larger and larger amounts of forest and settlements could grow. Larger settlements meant more to hunt, gather, or farm food - and more specialists to foster innovation. In todays Southern Iraq this led to the growth of a city called Eridu. Eridu was the city of the first Sumerian kings. The bay on the Persian Gulf allowed trading and being situated at the mouth of the Euphrates it was at the heart of the cradle of civilization. The original neolithic Sumerians had been tribal fishers and told stories of kings from before the floods, tens of thousands of years before the era. They were joined by the Samarra culture, which dates back to 5,700 BCE, to the north who brought knowledge of irrigation and nomadic herders coming up from lands we would think of today as the Middle East. The intermixing of skills and strengths allowed the earliest villages to be settled in 5,300 BCE and grow into an urban center we would consider a city today. This was the beginning of the Sumerian Empire Going back to 5300, houses had been made of mud bricks and reed. But they would build temples, ziggurats, and grow to cover over 25 acres with over 4,000 people. As the people moved north and gradually merged with other cultural complexes, the civilization grew. Uruk grew to over 50,000 people and is the etymological source of the name Iraq. And the population of all those cities and the surrounding areas that became Sumer is said to have grown to over a million people. They carved anthropomorphic furniture. They made jewelry of gold and created crude copper plates. They made music with flutes and stringed instruments, like the lyre. They used saws and drills. They went to war with arrows and spears and daggers. They used tablets for writing, using a system we now call cuneiform. Perhaps they wrote to indicate lunar months as they were the first known people to use 12 29-30 day months. They could sign writings with seals, which they are also credited with. How many months would it be before Abraham of Ur would become the central figure of the Old Testament in the Bible? With scale they needed better instruments to keep track of people, stock, and other calculations. The Sumerian abacus - later used by the Egyptians and then the device we know of as an abacus today entered widespread use in the sixth century in the Persian empire. More and more humans were learning larger precision counting and numbering systems. They didn't just irrigate their fields; they built levees to control floodwaters and canals to channel river water into irrigation networks. Because water was so critical to their way of life, the Sumerian city-states would war and so built armies. Writing and arithmetic don't learn themselves. The Sumerians also developed the concept of going to school for twelve years. This allowed someone to be a scribe or writer, which were prestigious as they were as necessary in early civilizations as they are today. In the meantime, metallurgy saw gold appear in 4,000 BCE. Silver and lead in 3,000 BCE, and then copper alloys. Eventually with a little tin added to the copper. By 3000 BCE this ushered in the Bronze Age. And the need for different resources to grow a city or empire moved centers of power to where those resources could be found. The Mesopotamian region also saw a number of other empires rise and fall. The Akkadians, Babylonians (where Hammurabi would eventually give the first written set of laws), Chaldeans, Assyrians, Hebrews, Phoenicians, and one of the greatest empires in history, the Persians, who came out of villages in Modern Iran that went back past 10,000 BCE to rule much of the known world at the time. The Persians were able to inherit all of the advances of the Sumerians, but also the other cultures of Mesopotamia and those they traded with. One of their trading partners that the Persians conquered later in the life of the empire, was Egypt. Long before the Persians and then Alexander conquered Egypt they were a great empire. Wadi Halfa had been inhabited going back 100,000 years ago. Industries, complexes, and cultures came and went. Some would die out but most would merge with other cultures. There is not much archaeological evidence of what happened from 9,000 to 6,000 BCE but around this time many from the Levant and Fertile Crescent migrated into the area bringing agriculture, pottery, then metallurgy. These were the Nabta then Tasian then Badarian then Naqada then Amratian and in around 3500 BCE we got the Gerzean who set the foundation for what we may think of as Ancient Egypt today with a drop in rain and suddenly people moved more quickly from the desert like lands around the Nile into the mincreasingly metropolitan centers. Cities grew and with trade routes between Egypt and Mesopotamia they frequently mimicked the larger culture. From 3200 BCE to 3000 BCE we saw irrigation begin in protodynastic Egypt. We saw them importing obsidian from Ethiopia, cedar from Lebanon, and grow. The Canaanites traded with them and often through those types of trading partners, Mesopotamian know-how infused the empire. As did trade with the Nubians to the south, who had pioneered astrological devices. At this point we got Scorpion, Iry-Hor, Ka, Scorpion II, Double Falcon. This represented the confederation of tribes who under Narmer would unite Egypt and he would become the first Pharaoh. They would all be buried in Umm El Qa'ab, along with kings of the first dynasty who went from a confederation to a state to an empire. The Egyptians would develop their own written language, using hieroglyphs. They took writing to the next level, using ink on papyrus. They took geometry and mathematics. They invented toothpaste. They built locked doors. They took the calendar to the next level as well, giving us 364 day years and three seasons. They'd of added a fourth if they'd of ever visited Minnesota, don'tchaknow. And many of those Obelisks raided by the Romans and then everyone else that occupied Egypt - those were often used as sun clocks. They drank wine, which is traced in its earliest form to China. Imhotep was arguably one of the first great engineers and philosophers. Not only was he the architect of the first pyramid, but he supposedly wrote a number of great wisdom texts, was a high priest of Ra, and acted as a physician. And for his work in the 27th century BCE, he was made a deity, one of the few outside of the royal family of Egypt to receive such an honor. Egyptians used a screw cut of wood around 2500 BCE, the fourth simple machine. They used it to press olives and make wine. They used the fifth to build pyramids, the inclined plane. And they helped bring us the last of the simple machines, the pulley. And those pyramids. Where the Mesopotamians built Ziggurats, the Egyptians built more than 130 pyramids from 2700 BCE to 1700 BCE. And the Great Pyramid of Giza would remain the largest building in the world for 3,800 years. It is built out of 2.3 million blocks, some of which weigh as much as 80 tonnes. Can you imagine 100,000 people building a grave for you? The sundial emerged in 1,500 BCE, presumably in Egypt - and so while humans had always had limited lifespans, our lives could then be divided up into increments of time. The Chinese cultural complexes grew as well. Technology and evolving social structures allowed the first recorded unification of all those neolithic peoples when You the Great and his father brought flood control, That family, as the Pharos had, claimed direct heritage to the gods, in this case, the Yellow Emperor. The Xia Dynasty began in China in 2070 BCE. They would flourish until 1600 BCE when they were overthrown by the Shang who lasted until 1046 when they were overthrown by the Zhou - the last ancient Chinese dynasty before Imperial China. Greek civilizations began to grow as well. Minoan civilization from 1600 to 1400 BCE grew to house up to 80,000 people in Knossos. Crete is a large island a little less than half way from Greece to Egypt. There are sites throughout the islands south of Greece that show a strong Aegean and Anatolian Cycladic culture emerging from 4,000 BCE but given the location, Crete became the seat of the Minoans, first an agricultural community and then merchants, facilitating trade with Egypt and throughout the Mediterranean. The population went from less than 2,000 people in 2500 BCE to up to 100,000 in 1600 BCE. They were one of the first to be able to import knowledge, in the form of papyrus from Egypt. The Mycenaeans in mainland Greece, along with earthquakes that destroyed a number of the buildings on Crete, contributed to the fall of the Minoan civilization and alongside the Hittites, Assyrians, Egyptians, and Babylonians, we got the rise of the first mainland European empire: Mycenaean Greece. Sparta would rise, Athens, Corinth, Thebes. After conquering Troy in the Trojan War the empire went into decline with the Bronze Age collapse. We can read about the war in the Iliad and the return home in the Odyssey, written by Homer nearly 400 years later. The Bronze Age ended in around 1,200 BCE - as various early empires outgrew the ability to rule ancient metropolises and lands effectively, as climate change forced increasingly urbanized centers to de-urbanize, as the source of tin dried up, and as smaller empires banded together to attack larger empires. Many of these empires became dependent on trade. Trade spread ideas and technology and science. But tribalism and warfare disrupted trade routes and fractured societies. We had to get better at re-using copper to build new things. The fall of cultures caused refugees, as we see today. It's likely a conflagration of changing cultures and what we now call Sea People caused the collapse. These Sea People include refugees, foreign warlords, and mercenaries used by existing empires. These could have been the former Philistines, Minoans, warriors coming down from the Black Sea, the Italians, people escaping a famine on the Anatolian peninsula, the Mycenaeans as they fled the Dorian invasion, Sardinians, Sicilians, or even Hittites after the fall of that empire. The likely story is a little bit of each of these. But the Neo-Assyrians were weakened in order to take Mesopotamia and then the Neo-Babylonians were. And finally the Persian Empire would ultimately be the biggest winners. But at the end of the Bronze Age, we had all the components for the birth of the Iron Age. Humans had writing, were formally educating our young, we'd codified laws, we mined, we had metallurgy, we tamed nature with animal husbandry, we developed dense agriculture, we architected, we warred, we destroyed, we rebuilt, we healed, and we began to explain the universe. We started to harness multiple of the six simple machines to do something more in the world. We had epics that taught the next generation to identify places in the stars and pass on important knowledge to the next generation. And precision was becoming more important. Like being able to predict an eclipse. This led Chaldean astronomers to establish Saros, a period of 223 synodic months to predict the eclipse cycle. And instead of humans computing those times, within just a few hundred years, Archimedes would document the use of and begin putting math behind many of the six simple devices so we could take interdisciplinary approaches to leveraging compound and complex machines to build devices like the Antikythera mechanism. We were computing. We also see that precision in the way buildings were created. After the collapse of the Bronze Age there would be a time of strife. Warfare, famines, disrupted trade. The great works of the Pharaohs, Mycenaeans and other world powers of the time would be put on hold until a new world order started to form. As those empires grew, the impacts would be lasting and the reach would be greater than ever. We'll add a link to the episode that looks at these, taking us from the Bronze Age to antiquity. But humanity slowly woke up to proto-technology. And certain aspects of our lives have been inherited over so many generations from then.

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Democracy is 100% Uncivilized History Proves it-White men False Dominance Fraud.

Caribbean Radio Show Crs Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2020 186:00

In certified world history, [democracy] is superisingly, 100% uncivilized. Defined as system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Who invented it and when. The term "democracy" first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. The word comes from demos, "common people" and kratos, "strength". Led by Cleisthenes, Athenians established what is generally held as the first democracy in 508–507 BC. The First Greeks. Two major groups of people, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, were the first to populate the Greek peninsula. Not much is known about either of these groups because they did not leave an abundance of written or physical evidence to provide clues about their civilization. From about 2000 B.C.E. to 800 B.C.E., most Greek city-states were ruled by monarchs—usually kings (the Greeks did not allow women to have power). At first, the Greek kings were chosen by the people of the city-state. ... By 800 B.C.E., most of the Greek city-states were no longer ruled by kings.Sep

history greek democracy false fraud bc led athens defined dominance proves white men athenians uncivilized mycenaeans

Ad Navseam Episode 6: SCHLIEMANN!

Ad Navseam

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 13, 2020 64:17

In this episode Dave and Jeff make their way through the life and (mis)adventures of Heinrich Schliemann, the German polyglot, tycoon, and romantic who was instrumental in the discovery of the sites of ancient Troy and Mycenae. Who was this man? Was he a legitimate archaeologist? A mad genius? A grave robber? Charlatan? All of the above? Come along as we dig up Priam's Treasure, death masks that resemble puffer fish, as well as tackle weighty questions such as "Did the Mycenaeans tweak their handle-bar moustaches with some sort of ancient Brylcreem?". And fellas: don't miss some hot tips for finding that special lady who exudes an "Homeric Spirit".

german charlatans heinrich schliemann schliemann priam mycenae mycenaeans brylcreem

002: Mycenaean Greeks

History of Modern Greece

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2020 29:55

During the height of the Bronze Age, a tribe of Greeks known as the Mycenaeans dominated the Trade in the Aegean Sea. They were wealthy and powerful, but like most civilizations, in the Bronze Age, they did not survive the Collapse.The History of Modern Greece covers the events of the Greek People from the fall of Constantinople in 1453, to the Greek War of Independence in 1821-1832, all the way through to the Greco-Turkish War from 1919 to 1922.Website: www.moderngreecepodcast.comMusic by Mark Jungerman: www.marcjungermann.com

history greek trade independence collapse commusic constantinople bronze age aegean sea mycenaean mycenaeans

149 - Dr Eric Cline: The Exodus, Sea Peoples and The Trojan War

The Amish Inquisition Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2020 120:33

Hey Eavesdroppers, this week we are joined by Dr Eric Cline. Eric is Professor of Classics and Anthropology, former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the current Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at George Washington University. Eric is an active field archaeologist with more than 30 seasons of excavation and survey experience in some of the most prestigious sites across Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete and the United States. He is also the author of 20 books including 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. We had a great time talking with Eric, it's a real privilege to be able to tap the knowledge of such an experienced scholar and we are sure you will find his insights interesting and entertaining. Remember the Mycenaeans!!!!!!!!!! Please check out Eric's website here ehcline.com His Amazon Author page is here Dr Eric Cline Amazon Author Page Social links Twitter: @digkabri Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ehcline Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digkabri/?hl=en During the debrief we sorted the Housekeeping, went over some of the latest Covid News and a bit of silly stuff in the usual way. Producer Credits for episode 149: Gav Scott, Talulah Tait, Night Ninja, Creature 145, Diogenes of Sinope, Jaimie Carter, Tamborista 2020. Message us here....follow, like, subscribe and share. (comments, corrections, future topics etc). We read out itunes reviews if you leave them. Email Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Find out how to become a Producer here... Become a Producer! The Amish Inquisition is 100% supported by YOU. NO Ads, NO Sponsorship, NO Paywalls. We really don't want to suckle at the teat of some faceless corporate overlord. But that is only avoidable with your help! Join your fellow producers by donating to The Amish Inquisition via the PayPal button on our website, simply donate whatever you think the show is worth to you. If you find the podcast valuable, please consider returning some value to us and help keep the show free and honest.

Episode 6: The Elms Revisited and Lost Roanoke and other Cultures

Family Plot

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2020 58:09

The Episode begins with a brief revisit to the Ellms Hotel and Spa after Dean's conversation with Hotel Manager John Mormino divulged some new spooktacular tales, then after a brief visit from Tamara Til The Break of Dawn, Dean and Krysta discuss Roanoke, a LOT of Josh Gates, the Marvel Comic 1602, Comedian Dale Hilton and his love of Whitesnake as well as other lost cultures including the Olmecs, the Anasazi, the Mound builders of Cuyahoga Illinois, the Indus Valley people and the Minoans, the Mycenaeans and more!--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/familyplot/support

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23: Vol 3 Ep 23 - SUMMARY - Ancient Greece, Part One

ancient greece mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2020 41:28

1200 - 336 BCE - From the fall of the Mycenaeans, to the rise of Alexander the Great, and everything else in between.

Episode 6: An Age of Darkness

history darkness greek ancient greece civilisation bronze age dark age archaeological iron age mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2020 25:32

The collapse of the Bronze Age world saw darkness descend onto the Greek world. The great palaces of the Mycenaeans lay in ruins. A period of regression and depopulation makes itself known in the Archaeological record. Though, over time progress can also be seen, which would lead the Greek world out of this period and back into the light.

Episode 4: The Mycenaeans

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Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2020 30:28

In this episode we will look at our second Bronze Age Civilisation, the Mycenaeans. They would supplant the Minoans in the Aegean to become the dominant civilisation, there and on the Greek mainland. Many of the Greek stories in Mythology and epic poetry can be seen to look back into the period of time the Mycenaeans occupied.

24: Vol 2 Ep 24 - Mycenaean Greece

greek greece mycenaean mycenaeans

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2019 50:34

1600 - 1070 BCE - Mythology and archaeology are the ingredients of a good ancient period story and the Mycenaeans are no exception. The rise and fall of the first civilised mainland Greeks.

1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline

Oriental Institute Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2019 52:19

1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline Professor of Classics and Anthropology Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations; Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at The George Washington University, in Washington D.C. For more than three hundred years during the Late Bronze Age, from about 1500 BC to 1200 BC, the Mediterranean region played host to a complex international world in which Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Minoans, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Cypriots, and Canaanites all interacted, creating a cosmopolitan and globalized world-system such as has only rarely been seen before the current day. It may have been this very internationalism that contributed to the apocalyptic disaster that ended the Bronze Age. When the end came, as it did after centuries of cultural and technological evolution, the civilized and international world of the Mediterranean regions came to a dramatic halt in a vast area stretching from Greece and Italy in the west to Egypt, Canaan, and Mesopotamia in the east. Large empires and small kingdoms, that had taken centuries to evolve, collapsed rapidly. With their end came the world’s first recorded Dark Ages. It was not until centuries later that a new cultural renaissance emerged in Greece and the other affected areas, setting the stage for the evolution of Western society as we know it today. Blame for the end of the Late Bronze Age is usually laid squarely at the feet of the so-called Sea Peoples, known to us from the records of the Egyptian pharaohs Merneptah and Ramses III. However, as was the case with the fall of the Roman Empire, the end of the Bronze Age empires in this region was not the result of a single invasion, but of multiple causes. The Sea Peoples may well have been responsible for some of the destruction that occurred at the end of the Late Bronze Age, but it is much more likely that a concatenation of events, both human and natural — including earthquake storms, droughts, rebellions, and systems collapse — coalesced to create a “perfect storm” that brought the age to an end. This audio recording was originally presented as an illustrated lecture on February 25, 2015. The video of this lecture is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/hyry8mgXiTk Our lectures are free and available to the public thanks to the generous support of our members. To become a member, please visit: http://bit.ly/2AWGgF7

Ancient History: Chapter 40

The Dunce Caps

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2017 17:19

Rob and Chris learn about the dark age of Greece when the Doreans attempt to takeover the Mycenaeans. TLDR: We're due for a dragon infestation.

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Agamemnon's Mycenae

The History Fangirl Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2017 39:46

Most of us have read Homer's “Iliad” either in high school or college, but few are likely to remember the details of the characters and places it mentions. It may seem surprising to you that I'd be talking about Homer on a history podcast. The reason I am is that Homer used real historical figures as characters in his writing which leads us to the place in the world I'm covering on this episode: Mycenae, or as it's often referred to, “Agamemnon's Mycenae.” In this episode, my guest is John Bennet, director of the British School at Athens. We discuss the historical Agamemnon from literature, the discovery of his mask and tomb, and how the historic Mycenaean people compare to their portrayal in literature. It's a fascinating conversation so I hope you'll join me. Agamemnon's Mycenae was a leading city and military stronghold. Mycenae is not a city that had to be discovered in order for it to be researched. Its location has been known right up until the modern era. Archeological work has revealed that it was a leading city of Greece in its day. It was clearly a military stronghold, including a citadel and town. John Bennet has spent a good deal of time at the site and is a wealth of information when it comes to what we know about the city and its inhabitants. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with him and discovered some fascinating facts about its history as well as the history of the people involved in its excavation. You'll enjoy our conversation. A Greek city for the elite, including a palace and ancestral tombs. The city of Mycenae is still quite impressive to this day, even though it's only ruins. From all that can be known it is fairly clear that the city was one of the largest cities in mainland Greece at the time, only eclipsed by Thebes (and not by much). It was a city for the elite, with a palace and many elaborate ancestral tombs. There are still remains of less impressive but still elaborate households surrounding the main structures of the city. Cities like this give a glimpse into what it must have been like to be a citizen of the Greek empire at its height. John Bennet knows these sites as well as anyone so I encourage you to hear his description of the history, people, and culture of what is known as Agamemnon's Mycenae. By 1200 B.C. Mycenae was no longer renewed as a military stronghold. It's clear from history that the city of Mycenae continued to be inhabited even after it's military stronghold was no longer in use. Though the population dwindled considerably the city remained a city-state in the same ways as places like Athens and Sparta were - all the way to 468 B.C. Mycenae was even included in the cities that opposed the Persians when they invaded in 468 B.C. John shares a good deal on this episode about the way of life in the city from its founding until it was no longer inhabited. It's a very interesting part of Greek history. What happened to make Mycenae uninhabited? It's always curious why a city that was once as palatial and large as Mycenae becomes uninhabited. Surely, with the rise and fall of empires, there are many possibilities. John says that there is evidence that around 1250 B.C. there was some kind of wide-spread burning that happened in the city, possibly the result of an earthquake. The city was then refortified and around 1200 B.C. some other sort of destruction happened. By 1100 B.C. Mycenae was a very small site and few people were living in palaces or inside of walls. In 468 B.C. it was destroyed by neighbors from the city of Argos, at which time it became a ruin. John and I talked more about the city, including what it's like today as an archeological site and what you should be certain to see if you visit. Outline of This Episode [0:11] My introduction to John Bennet, director of the British School at Athens [1:20] How John has worked to understand Mycenae and how he became interested in Greecian archeology. [4:00] The appearance of the Mycenaeans in Homer's Iliad and what we know about them from history. [7:13] What do we know about the way of life and details of Mycenae? [14:10] Why the city became uninhabited over time and the history of archeological excavations. [21:01] The role Howard Schliemann played in our understanding of Mycenae. [26:32] What we know about the real history of Agamemnon's mask and tomb. [28:51] The events at the site since 1999 and what's happening now. [33:26] How Mycenae has proven to be significant to Greek history and modern Greeks. [34:51] Things to make sure you see if you travel to Mycenae. [37:03] John's favorite spots in Mycenae. Resources & People Mentioned The British School at Athens University of Sheffield John Chadwick Michael Ventris BOOK: The Modern Scholar: History of Ancient Greece BOOK: The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides Hotels in Nafplio Howard Schliemann This Episode's Giveaway: The prize for this week is a $20 Amazon gift card. To enter, simply be a newsletter subscriber and leave a comment on this blog post. Giveaway ends Sunday, September 10, 2017 and midnight EST. This episode's sponsor: Click the add on the right column (bottom on mobile) to get this week's Audible offer. Connect With Stephanie stephanie@historyfangirl.com https://historyfangirl.com

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Ancient History: Chapter 31

The Dunce Caps

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2017 18:12

Rob and Chris learn about the Mycenaeans of Greece. This is a weird and short one. TLDR: Greek style.

greece ancient history mycenaeans

The Prime Ordeal

Mythunderstood : A Greek Mythology Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2017 32:22

Paul introduces Sarah to Ancient Greece, The Minoans, Mycenaeans, The Eruption of Thera, severed genitals, and way too many primordial Gods. Visit www.dragonwagonshop.com for awesome Mythunderstood shirts and mugs! Mythunderstood is a part of the Dragon Wagon Radio independent podcast network. Learn more at www.dragonwagonradio.com

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02 Bronze Age Apocalypse 1177BC w/ Eric Cline

Ancient Greece Declassified

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2016 48:46

Archaeologist Eric Cline on what caused the simultaneous collapse of the Mycenaeans, Hittites, and most other major civilizations at the end of the second millennium BC, thus ushering in the world's first dark ages. Hint: it wasn't just the Sea Peoples.

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5 - Rise of Greek Civilization

The European History Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2016 28:47

Minoans, Mycenaeans, the Middle/Dark Ages, Greek values, the Polis, and the Hoplite Phalanx. Credit: The Western Heritage. 10th Ed. Kagan, Donald. 2010.

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Eric H. Cline, “1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed” (Princeton University Press, 2014)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2015 87:32

It quickly sold out in hardback, and then, within a matter of days, sold out in paperback. Available again as a 2nd edition hardback, and soon in the 10th edition paperback with a new Afterword by the author, Eric H. Cline‘s 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press, 2015) is THE must have, must read book of 2014, and 2015. Why? Because it’s serious archaeology, history and anthropology, but it reads like a mystery novel. The prose is superb; so good that it’s hard to put down. Homer wrote about the Age of Olympians: Zeus and Apollo, Odysseus, Achilles and Hector. Cline writes about the Minoans and Mycenaeans, the Trojans and the Egyptians, Hittites and Babylonians. And both epics, one mythology and one history, are about the same extraordinary time. Cline recreates the late Bronze Age in fascinating detail and then describes its utter and complete destruction. City after city, empire after empire, civilization after civilization: annihilated to extinction, one right after another, and in a shockingly short amount of time. What caused a catastrophe so extreme that the First Dark Age descended over the world: a mysterious invading culture–the Sea People, plague and pestilence, earthquake, climate change, all of the above? 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed discusses each possibility in turn. A great interview with a world-class researcher–it easily could have gone for three-hours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Eric H. Cline, “1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed” (Princeton University Press, 2014)

New Books in Anthropology

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2015 87:32

It quickly sold out in hardback, and then, within a matter of days, sold out in paperback. Available again as a 2nd edition hardback, and soon in the 10th edition paperback with a new Afterword by the author, Eric H. Cline‘s 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press, 2015) is THE must have, must read book of 2014, and 2015. Why? Because it’s serious archaeology, history and anthropology, but it reads like a mystery novel. The prose is superb; so good that it’s hard to put down. Homer wrote about the Age of Olympians: Zeus and Apollo, Odysseus, Achilles and Hector. Cline writes about the Minoans and Mycenaeans, the Trojans and the Egyptians, Hittites and Babylonians. And both epics, one mythology and one history, are about the same extraordinary time. Cline recreates the late Bronze Age in fascinating detail and then describes its utter and complete destruction. City after city, empire after empire, civilization after civilization: annihilated to extinction, one right after another, and in a shockingly short amount of time. What caused a catastrophe so extreme that the First Dark Age descended over the world: a mysterious invading culture–the Sea People, plague and pestilence, earthquake, climate change, all of the above? 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed discusses each possibility in turn. A great interview with a world-class researcher–it easily could have gone for three-hours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

egyptian apollo homer civilization cline babylonians erich trojans odysseus bronze age collapsed princeton university press hittites afterword sea peoples minoans mycenaeans eric h cline

Eric H. Cline, “1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed” (Princeton University Press, 2014)

New Books in History

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2015 87:32

It quickly sold out in hardback, and then, within a matter of days, sold out in paperback. Available again as a 2nd edition hardback, and soon in the 10th edition paperback with a new Afterword by the author, Eric H. Cline‘s 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press, 2015) is THE must have, must read book of 2014, and 2015. Why? Because it’s serious archaeology, history and anthropology, but it reads like a mystery novel. The prose is superb; so good that it’s hard to put down. Homer wrote about the Age of Olympians: Zeus and Apollo, Odysseus, Achilles and Hector. Cline writes about the Minoans and Mycenaeans, the Trojans and the Egyptians, Hittites and Babylonians. And both epics, one mythology and one history, are about the same extraordinary time. Cline recreates the late Bronze Age in fascinating detail and then describes its utter and complete destruction. City after city, empire after empire, civilization after civilization: annihilated to extinction, one right after another, and in a shockingly short amount of time. What caused a catastrophe so extreme that the First Dark Age descended over the world: a mysterious invading culture–the Sea People, plague and pestilence, earthquake, climate change, all of the above? 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed discusses each possibility in turn. A great interview with a world-class researcher–it easily could have gone for three-hours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

egyptian apollo homer civilization cline babylonians erich trojans odysseus bronze age collapsed princeton university press hittites afterword sea peoples minoans mycenaeans eric h cline

S02E12: The Mycenaeans-The First Greeks

WARTIME: A History Series

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2014 43:06

Considered by many to be the first Greeks, the Mycenaean elevated their culture through the conquest of others. Located primarily on the Greek mainland, this power would come to rule over thousands of people before setting their sites on their Minoan neighbors to the south. With the island of Crete only a short distance away, the Mycenaean conquered the Minoan people and ended their way of life. Although a complete victory, it was only then that the Myceneans truly flourished as their adopted and adapted Minoan civilization to make themselves the most powerful force in the region. On this episode we discuss the rise and fall of the Mycenaeans, the first Greeks.

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1249 BC: The Bronze Age Collapse

Message to Kings - A Biblical History of Man

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2014 22:24

In this episode, we are going to discuss the collapse of empires, specifically the Mycenaeans and Hittites and cover the time period called the Bronze Age Collapse or Ancient Dark Ages. It is a fascinating time when civilizations vanished from history. We will discuss possible historical reasons and add in biblical history and some Jewish traditional stories to round out the account.

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Chapter Twenty Seven: In the Beginning (Again)

Myths and History of Greece and Rome

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2013 20:13

Ancient Greek history began a very long time ago! In this first history chapter we look at the pre-history of Greece and at the bronze age peoples that populated the area. Step forward the Minoans and the Mycenaeans!

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Mycenae, Greece: Ancient and Mysterious

Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2012 4:10

Mycenae, a hilltop fortress located on the Peloponnesian Peninsula SW of Athens was the hub of a mighty civilization that dominated the Greek world between 1600 and 1200 B.C., a thousand years before Athens' Golden Age. The Mycenaeans were as distant and mysterious to the Golden Age Greeks as Plato and Socrates are to us today. Mycenae lay unappreciated until the 19th century when a treasure trove of gold was unearthed in the necropolis. Today, those treasures, including the so-called "Mask of Agamemnon" are the star attractions in Athens' National Archaeological Museum. This discovery affirmed the archeologists' theory that Mycenae was Homer's fabled city "rich in gold." For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

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Mycenae, Greece: Ancient and Mysterious

Play Episode Listen Later May 16, 2012 4:10

Mycenae, a hilltop fortress located on the Peloponnesian Peninsula SW of Athens was the hub of a mighty civilization that dominated the Greek world between 1600 and 1200 B.C., a thousand years before Athens' Golden Age. The Mycenaeans were as distant and mysterious to the Golden Age Greeks as Plato and Socrates are to us today. Mycenae lay unappreciated until the 19th century when a treasure trove of gold was unearthed in the necropolis. Today, those treasures, including the so-called "Mask of Agamemnon" are the star attractions in Athens' National Archaeological Museum. This discovery affirmed the archeologists' theory that Mycenae was Homer's fabled city "rich in gold." For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

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Athens, Greece: Museum Traces the Sweep of Greek History

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 8, 2012 4:20

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is the single best place on earth to see ancient Greek artifacts. Strolling through the chronologically displayed collection — from 7,000 B.C. to A.D. 500 — is like watching a time-lapse movie of the evolution of art. You’ll go from the stylized figurines of the Cycladic Islands, to the golden artifacts of the Mycenaeans, to the stiff, stoic kouros statues of the Archaic age. For more information on the Rick Steves' Europe TV series — including episode descriptions, scripts, participating stations, travel information on destinations and more — visit www.ricksteves.com.

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Athens, Greece: Museum Traces the Sweep of Greek History