Category: Uncategorized
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Poseidon in the Punjab: The Greeks in India
This week I thought I’d give everyone a break from the Romans and Egyptians, and move back to Arsinoë’s other people: the Greeks. Specifically, the centuries-long presence of the Greeks where perhaps they would be somewhat unexpected: India. As I allude to in The God’s Wife, Alexander the Great’s (356 BC – 323 BC) conquests…
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Roman Holiday: Festivals of the Augustan Empire
Nil adsuetudine maius (Nothing is more powerful than custom) – Ovid, Ars Amatoria, Book II, line 345 As we enter the Labor Day weekend, I thought that the holiday presents an excellent excuse to discuss Roman festivals (fasti), ancient and (relatively) new-fangled. Caught between a modern gaze that sees them either as strait-laced orators in…
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Togs and Togas: Dress in the World of The God’s Wife
I’ve been pushing all of you around with political history and poetics for the past couple of weeks, so I thought here I’d go back to something a little more basic. Let’s talk about period clothing and turn this into a temporary fashion blog! The foundational garment in the world of The God’s Wife and…
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India’s Iliad and Rome’s Odyssey: The Mahabharata and the Aeneid
We sing of arms and the men… This week we’re going to get a little less historical and a little more literary with a dive into two primordial works of world poetry (I know, I can hear you all groaning from here), the Hindu epic the Mahabharata and Virgil’s Aeneid. Partly because they’re interesting, but…
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Octavius’ Room Where It Happens: The First Settlement
The breaking of so great a thing should make/ A greater crack [Octavius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra, Act V, scene i] This week I thought I’d talk about some background history that sets the stage for what’s coming next in the sequel. Mainly, about Octavius and what is generally referred to as the First Settlement. …
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A Roman By Any Other Name
I know last week we got into narrative and genre discussions, so this week I thought I’d write about something a little more basic: namely, names. When I was writing The God’s Wife, I inevitably had to come to grips with the plethora of duplicate names involved in my story, the most obvious and vexing…
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The Set Paradox and Historical Fiction
But what is truth? … We both have truths, are mine the same as yours? [Pontius Pilate, Jesus Christ Superstar] I confess I was a bit at a loss as to what to start off with here, particularly because I feel I’m very much in danger of completely spoiling the rest of The God’s Wife…
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A New Beginning
Howdy, folks. Yes, I know, I know. I’ve left you all hanging on the promise of an author blog for over a year, and now I’m only making a post with more promises of things to come in the future. I’m still working out what to do with an online blog that isn’t full of…
Sarah Holz 