Ancient Hellas – E.S. Kraay Online

Poetry

After I had completed at least three drafts of my first novel, The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas, my friend Steven Pressfield suggested, “You might want to get a copy of Noah Lukeman’s book The First Five Pages. I think you will find it helpful.” That is a typical understatement from a great author.

I had the book in my hands a week later, and – slow reader that I am – had finished reading its 200 pages in just a few days. I was devastated, tried and found guilty of every trap Mr. Lukeman advises writers to be cautious. I went back to ground zero and re-wrote The Olympian another three times. As The Olympian remains my best seller, I must have done something right, and I will forever thank Mr. Pressfield for his sage advice.

Over the years, people have come to me to discuss writing projects. One of the first things I tell them is to secure a copy of The First Five Pages. The pages in my copy have gone brown, the yellow highlights have faded, but the black ‘stars’ and underlines I’ve made over the years will remain forever.

While the book overflows with indispensable information, the exercise that has been most valuable to me is presented in Chapter 3, “Sound.” Mr. Lukeman writes,

“Take some time to read poetry. Spend weeks reading as many different poets as you can. By devoting all this attention to the individual word, phrase and stanza, you will learn a greater attention for language, and this attention will eventually show in your own work.”

I have read poetry daily since I read that paragraph in 2003.

Last week, I discovered a new poet, Amairgen, one of the mythological Milesian kings who conquered Ireland. As he approached the island and stepped ashore, Amairgen sang an invocation calling upon the spirit of Ireland that has come to be known as “The Song of Amairgen.” Irish tradition claims that Amairgen’s ode is the first poem ever composed in Ireland. I find great beauty and rhythm in “The Song of Amairgen,” and I think you will see, using this poem as an example, how poetry can inspire writers and improve their prose.

Listen to “The Song of Amairgen” while you read

I am the wind which breathes upon the sea,

I am the wave of the ocean,

I am the murmur of the billows,

I am the ox of the seven combats,

I am the vulture upon the rocks,

I am a beam of the sun,

I am the fairest of plants,

I am the wild boar in valour,

I am the salmon in the water,

I am a lake in the plain,

I am a world of knowledge,

I am the point of the lance of battle,

I am the God who created the fire in the head

The Olympian, Eighth and Final Movement

The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas. A film treatment in eight movements.

Eighth Movement – The Exile Welcomed Home: Simonides completes his narrative. The Thasians are humbled and now understand that it is indeed Theagenes and his statue that the Oracle refers to as “the exile that must be welcomed back.” A year has passed and the old man returns to the island, which has regained its beauty after the statue as been recovered from the sea. “Thasos is once again a beautiful place … Theagenes’ place in history will be preserved…”

The Olympian, Seventh Movement

The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas. A film treatment in eight movements.

Seventh Movement – The Grave: After Xerxes’ million-man army has moved on, Simonides and Theagenes descend the cliffs to the killing ground. Exhausted, Simonides cannot resist sleep. When he awakes, he finds that Theagenes has dug a trench “100 paces long.” Simonides is reminded of the 12 “Labors of Herakles” and thinks of this as “the 13^th Labor of Herakles.” Together, they carry the Spartan bodies to the grave Theo has created with his raw, bloodied hands using the remnants of a Spartan shield, his hands wrapped in rags like they were once wrapped in himantes, the boxing gloves of an Olympic champion. When they have buried the bodies, Theo sleeps. As he rests, the poet composes his famous epitaph “Go tell the Spartans …” and chisels it into a stone marker they place above the grave the next morning. “We embraced one another for the first and final time,” I wrote, “… he bowed respectfully, turned and walked east …”

The Olympian, Fifth Movement

The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas. A film treatment in eight movements.

Fifth Movement – The Olympic Games: Simonides tells his new friends what the games are like, the rituals, the ceremonies. He relates the stade, the opening race, a 200-meter sprint, but focuses on the pyx, the boxing competition. The Pyx is brutal and lasts the day. Theagenes meets the previous champion Euthymos in the final match. Theo destroys him in a brutal way. That night, Simonides encounters Theagenes as the boxer steals his olive crown. When confronted with his crime, Theo tells the poet that he will take the crown to Thermopylae where he will challenge Lampis to the fight Theo believes he was robbed of. “When I find him,” Theo says, “we will fight on his terms before the army he has fled to join.”

The Olympian, Second Movement

The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas. A film treatment in eight movements.

Second Movement – Divine Birth: As they prepare to rest on their second night in the forest, the eldest Thasian, Parmenides tells Simonides that he has reason to believe that Theagenes is indeed the physical son of Herakles, the divine hero and son of Zeus. He relates a story told to him by Theagenes’ grandfather who says he was witness to the impregnation of his daughter by the greatest of Greek heroes.

“Herakles came to my bed last night and together we conceived a child. I know it is so. He said but few words to me and only after the act had been completed. He said, ‘I give you my son.’ That was all he said, father, and I believe him.”

from The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas

The Olympian, First Movement

The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas. A film treatment in eight movements.

First Movement – On his annual pilgrimage to the Oracle of Delphi, the poet Simonides meets a contingent of travelers from the island of Thasos. This is their second visit to the Oracle where they hope to learn what they need to do so that the gods will lift the famine that has gripped their island. Simonides is convinced that the Oracle’s direction to “welcome back all exiles” makes direct reference to the fact that the Thasians have taken the statue they raised to their champion – the Olympic boxer Theagenes – and tossed it into the Aegean Sea. Simonides explains that if they return the statue to its proper place of prominence, the gods will show mercy and end the famine. The Thasians agree to let Simonides return to Thasos with them so that he can explain why the return of the statue is the only thing that satisfy the Pythia’s instructions to please the gods.

A Special Gift

Yesterday, I received an email from an old friend and teammate, gentleman Sean Riley. He just completed reading Gaspar, Another Tale of the Christ. When I get back home, I will add his comments to the “What They’re Saying” page. Sean recalled a few years back when I started writing Gaspar that I put the nativity sequence up on the website as a download. He asked for a copy so he could read it to his grandkids on Christmas Eve.

With thanks to all the people who have taken time to comment and review my work since The Olympian was published in 2008, I have to admit that Sean’s request means more to me than any I’ve received.

Every Christmas, I try to put up a free download on my websites as a gesture of my appreciation for the support and inspiration I get from readers and subscribers of my websites and of my novels. Two years ago, I put up the draft of the nativity sequence from Gaspar. I titled the nativity sequence The Star, which is the title of the chapter from which I take it. In December 2012, I wrote that I expected the book to be out by December 2013. I was only a year off!

This year, I have decided to offer the final version of the nativity sequence as it appears in the final version of the book published in August 2014. Sean’s email came when we had already made the decision to offer The Christmas Story from Gaspar as this year’s appreciation gift.

As I was preparing the short manuscript for download, I had another wild idea. I called my friend and business associate Alistair McKenzie in Los Angeles. Alistair produced the audio books for The Sixth Day, A 17,175-Word Novella About Creation and Prizefighting and The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas. He also wrote and performed the song We Pray for Light, which will undoubtedly be featured in The Sixth Day film – working title Third Man – if we get lucky and see it to fruition. I asked Alistair if he would consider reading the sequence and producing a short audio. He agreed. I pushed the envelope and asked him if he would consider writing a Christmas song to accompany the reading. Within a few days, he sent me his draft, an amazing original song tentatively titled We All Know.

The Sixth Day — Alistair McKenzie – actor, composer, playwright, screenwriter, producer, director

When I told my friend Father Paul Coury at the Redemptorist Center what I was up to, he encouraged me to ‘witness’ why I wrote Gaspar and to read the sequence and play Alistair’s song at all three Masses over Epiphany weekend, January 3 and 4, 2015. I thought about it and called Alistair to discuss it. With little hesitation, Alistair McKenzie agreed to come to Tucson and read The Christmas Story from Gaspar at Our Lady of the Desert Church at the Redemptorist Center over Epiphany weekend. More on that later.

This is my initial announcement that this special gift – a PDF download of Gaspar’s Christmas Story, Alistair’s audio production and accompanying Christmas song – will be available for download at no charge later this month. Please look for it and spread the ‘good news.’ As much as I want to say this is my gift to you, I know it is as much a product of Alistair McKenzie’s generous and creative heart. More to follow soon …..

A Kindle Discount

We have a poll running in which I invite you to participate. You can find it in the right sidebar.

The last full week in September 2014, we will run one E.S. Kraay Kindle edition [Excluding the West Point trivia book and The Sixth Day, A 17-175-Word Novella About Creation and Prizefighting] at a 50% discount … maybe more if the mood strikes me. I am asking you to help me decide which book to feature at a discounted rate. Please participate in the poll. Thanks for your continued support.

The Germination of Ideas

Ten years ago, I had completed my first manuscript, The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas and had placed it confidently in the hands of a prominent agent in NYC. The Olympian was not a retelling of the stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, but the incident plays prominently in the final chapters of the book.

With the battle concluded, Theagenes and Simonides watch the Persian host march through the pass from their hidden perch atop the cliffs.

“Midway through the third day, the last of the Persian host was gone, and a rag tag assemblage of carts followed that moved haphazardly and without the discipline and organization of the armed men who marched before it. Three days it took for the behemoth to pass through Thermopylae ….”

As I begin earnest research on my new project following the publication of my sixth novel, Gaspar, Another Tale of the Christ in August, I am reading The Extermination of the American Bison published in 1889 by William T. Hornaday, the Superintendent of the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. In his book, Hornaday recounts a personal letter he received from a Col. R.I. Doge who describes a vast herd of buffalo he saw on his travels west of the Mississippi River.

The whole country appeared one great mass of buffalo ....

”The whole country appeared one great mass of buffalo, moving slowly to the northward … The great herd on the Arkansas River was … not less than 25 miles wide, and from reports of hunters and others it was about five days in passing a given point, or not less than 50 miles deep. From the top of Pawnee Rock, I could see from six to 10 miles in almost every direction. This whole vast space was covered with buffalo…”

Hornaday continues,

The number seen on that day was in the neighborhood of 480,00 ....

“According to his [Dodge’s] recorded observation, the herd extended along the river for a distance of 25 miles … This gives a strip of country 2 miles wide by 25 long, or a total of 50 square miles covered with buffalo, averaging from fifteen to twenty to the acre. Taking the lesser number, in order to be below the truth rather than above it, we find that the number actually seen on that day by Colonel Dodge was in the neighborhood of 480,000, not counting the additional number taken in at the view from the top of Pawnee Rock, which, if added, would easily bring the total up to a round half million! … If the advancing multitude had been at all points 50 miles in length (as it was known to have been in some places at least) by 25 miles in width, and still averaged fifteen head to the acre of ground, it would have contained the enormous number of 12,000,000 head. But, judging from the general principles governing such migrations, it is almost certain that the moving mass advanced in the shape of a wedge, which would make it necessary to deduct about two-third from the grand total, which would leave 4,000,000 as our estimate of the actual number of buffaloes in this great herd, which I believe is more likely to be below the truth than above it.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus tells of the million-man army that the 300 Spartans faced. Multiply that by four and you get an idea of the vast number of buff E.S. Kraay alo in this single herd that graced the American landscape in the 19^th century before Euro-Americans determined that it was in the best interests of American Manifest Destiny to exterminate these beautiful creatures.

Driving with Simonides and Flapjack

As we approach vacation time in the northern hemisphere, think about those long, dreary and weary drives you are apt to face as you travel cross-country. WAIT! Here’s an idea. Check out The Olympian: A Tale of Ancient Hellas and The Sixth Day: A 17,175-Word Novella About Creation and Prizefighting at Audible or Amazon. At eight hours, The Olympian is good for an entire day for most folks. At 1.5 hours, The Sixth Day is so good, you’ll want to listen to it four times a day. Each is a special story in its own genre, and Alistair McKenzie brings both to fascinating life. Enter the world of the ancient Greeks, or come of age with Flapjack and his brothers. You’ll be glad you did. They are great company for that long drive [or those days when rush hour traffic becomes intolerable].