Dear Reader

Time to kick back and let your mind go… Back to ancient Greece!

The words came up from the magnificent figure on the stage below…came and went… “Fury, a high queen of strength even among immortal gods…and the undergods, and for humankind…life dimmed in tears, theirs the disposition.”

Susan, carried away by it, ‘Yes, and my disposition, my destiny too.' Her thoughts gone away, the words of Athene come and go as the tragedy plays out… “Goddesses, farewell… Go then, sped by majestic sacrifice…”

And now the Chorus taken up by women who have been forming as if for a procession, “Home, home, o high, o aspiring…with rights sacrificial bless them…” Susan, enthralled by the spectacle, “Zeus the all seeing met with destiny to confirm it. Singing all follow our footsteps…” The Chorus rising up and then fading in a low moan….

Susan blinked, and for a moment didn’t know where she was… Dionysus, Apollo, destiny, she thought, but now someone was nudging her, saying, “Time to go Helot, we follow our own footsteps back…” but she didn’t catch the rest as he shoved her out of the way.

In the foregoing scene from Thing BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, book two of The THING Trilogy we find Susan Lang, one of the main characters of the series, at Delphi, Greece, in 400 BC. She looks beyond the stage below upon the temple of Apollo aglow in the afternoon sun, the seat of the Pythia, the famous Oracle of Delphi. Her own hubris has sent her back in time. She follows her own destiny and finds herself unexpectedly seen as a helot, a slave, made to sit with others of her kind. She is now entangled in the time paradox and must follow where destiny leads. Will she follow Dionysus or Apollo as does Plato who she has come to find? Does she realize that her fate will be tied to the Pythia's prophesy? Does she realize that her destiny is now inextricably tied to human destiny?

How it might have looked to her then.

In the scene below we find ourselves looking down upon the Theatre of Dionysus from the south side of the Acropolis in Athens.

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​Apollo, the god of reason, order and harmony, and Dionysus, the god of ecstasy, chaos, and emotion, played major roles in ancient Greek life and were at the core of themes performed in their theatres. Profound tragedy, moral dilemma, the rational, struggle and destiny were Apollonian themes. Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility was the patron of Greek theatre whose themes embraced the irrational, excess and satire. Euripides' The Bacchae portrays very well the tension between Apollonian order and Dionysian chaos, the intermixture of god and mortal a major theme.

Friedrich Nietzsche, in The Birth of Tragedy and The Genealogy of Morals draws a distinction between the chorus in Greek tragedy and the audience...that the chorus transcended mortal existence and became one with the actors on the stage be they gods or mortals, hero's or villains. The audience was often also the chorus, participatory theatre that played to the psyches of those Greeks. Theatre certainly fulfilled a profound need.

Do not these themes play out today much as they did then...in Hollywood, in streaming video, virtual reality...fantasy, even on the news? Fulfilling some psychic need! Tragedy? 'If it bleeds it leads' say the copy editors. But are we the same audience...as they?

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My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Greece where the photos come from. We visited several ancient sites including Delphi, Mycenae, and the ancient Agora and Acropolis in Athens. It was a fascinating experience finding and being in the places that figure 'back in time' in The THING Trilogy. At times I felt myself there...watching the characters as the drama played out.

Below are some photos of a drama we found ourselves right in the middle of unexpectedly. It was next to the Greek Parliament in a place called Syntagma where violent riots had taken place the month before. The police were very much in evidence and for a while with the bullhorns and chanting it wasn't clear if things would remain peaceful, but we tagged along anyhow.

When we asked our Airbnb hosts what it was all about, they said, "Public employees demonstrating for higher wages...same today as it was 2000 years ago!"

How's that for irony?

Will share more Greek stuff from the trip at a later time, but please share your thoughts, what you're thinking, would like to see in future newsletters, maybe a book you read, a favorite post that might be relevant. This is about you as much as me. After all, we are on this thing, the human journey, together. Reach me anytime at: newsletter@kendallwilliamsauthor.com and follow me on social media.

And check out book one, Thing FIRST CONTACT: A Journey Through the Fabric of Time, and The THING Trilogy. And BTW, book three, Thing BEYOND REASON is done and now going through final editing and formatting. Roll out to be in April. Will keep you posted!

Quote from Democritus, Greek philosopher of the 5th century BC: "Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is just opinion."

Until next time, be well and safe journeys.

Sincerely,

Kendall Williams, Author

​kendallwilliamsauthor.com​

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