Stealing Fire (30 page)
Authors: Jo Graham
Nysa
—a town in the Punjab where Lydias was stationed during Alexander's Indian campaign.
Olympias
—Queen of Macedon and Alexander's mother. She was often at odds with her husband, Phillip II, and with the Regent in Macedon, Antipatros.
Osiris
—Egyptian god of the dead, husband of Isis and father of Horus. He is the ruler of Amenti, the Uttermost West where the dead dwell.
Oxathres
—younger half brother of Darius III, a Persian noble who became one of Alexander's Companions.
Pelousion
—an ancient Egyptian port and fortress near modern-day Port Said, at the easternmost edge of the Nile Delta.
Perdiccas
—one of the Companions. He was a close friend of Alexander and a supporter of his later policies of assimilation with conquered peoples. After Hephaistion's death, Perdiccas was named Chiliarch, or Grand Vizier, in his place, though not given Hephaistion's full army commands, which were split between him and Krateros. Upon Alexander's death he emerged as the Regent, and the closest ally of Alexander's wife Roxane.
Persepolis
—the Persian capital city, the palace of which was partially burned by Alexander at the urging of Thais the Athenian.
Perseus
—Lydias’ horse.
phalanx
—an infantry formation consisting of men marching and drilling in close order, in the Hellenistic period usually using sarissas as their primary weapon.
Phillip II of Macedon
—born in
382 BCE
, and one of the most successful kings of Macedon. During his twenty-three-year reign expanded the kingdom through a series of military campaigns, including the defeat of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338. He had several wives, including Olympias, the Epirote princess who was the mother of his heir, Alexander the Great. He was assassinated shortly before his planned campaign against the Persian Empire was to begin, in 336.
Polemon
—a Companion and cavalry veteran loyal to Perdiccas.
Ptolemy (Ptolemy I Soter)
—a general and Companion of Alexander the Great, later Satrap of Egypt and then the first Pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty. He may or may not have been the illegitimate son of Phillip II of Macedon, and hence Alexander's half brother. He lived into his eighties, and founded the most stable and lasting of the Successor states. He was also known in ancient times for his memoirs, which were one of the primary sources concerning the campaigns of Alexander.
Puru, Raja
—known in Greek as King Porus, king of an Indian state in the Punjab, with his capital near present-day Lahore. He fought against Alexander the Great and Raja Ambhi at the Battle of the Hydaspes River (Jhelum River) and was defeated, but was pardoned by Alexander and became an ally. He was killed in 317
BCE
defending Chandragupta Maurya during an assassination attempt.
Rania
—an Indian woman who is the second wife of Artashir.
Red Land
—the part of Egypt not touched by the yearly Inundation or by irrigation; the desert.
Roxane
—the daughter of a Sogdian chieftain in what is now Uzebekistan. She became Alexander the Great's first wife and the mother of his heir, Alexander IV.
Royal Road
—one of the highways across the Persian Empire maintained by the Great King for the use of his armies and commerce.
Saqqara
—a hillside district west of Memphis, site of several Old Kingdom pyramids as well as an extensive temple and tomb complex, including the tombs of the Apis bulls.
sarissa
—the pike used by hoplite infantry in phalanx, roughly thirteen feet long in Alexander's day, and topped with a sharp spear point. A phalanx armed with sarissas was considered unstoppable; however, drill was vitally important for maneuver and combat.
Sati
—Lydias’ wife, who was killed in Gedrosia with their son Sikander.
satrap
—the Persian title for the governor of a province, adopted by Alexander the Great for his regional governors.
Seleucus
—a Companion who supported Perdiccas after Alexander's death.
Sikander
—Lydias’ son, killed in Gedrosia at the age of ten months.
Silver Shields
—a crack infantry phalanx of Alexander's, made up of veterans.
Sisygambis
—the queen mother of Persia, mother of Darius III.
Siwah
—an oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert where the Oracle of Amon dwells. It was consulted by Alexander the Great when he was in Egypt and held in high esteem by the King.
Sobek
—Egyptian crocodile god, ruling over, among other things, justice on earth.
Sothis
—Sirius, the dog star. Its heliacal rising marked the beginning of the Inundation in Egypt.
Stateira
—the elder daughter of Darius III, wife and queen of Alexander the Great. She was murdered following her husband's death.
Tehwaz
—a merchant and horse trader of Miletus who was Jio's master.
Thais the Athenian
—a hetaira of renowned beauty. She was Ptolemy's companion for many years, traveling with him on Alexander's campaigns. She is best known for inciting Alexander to burn the palace at Persepolis during a banquet there in revenge for the Persian burning of the acropolis at Athens in the previous century. Thais and Ptolemy had at least three children who grew to adulthood.
Thebes
—a former capital of Egypt, in Upper Egypt south of Memphis.
Thoth
—the Egyptian god of knowledge and lore.
uraeus
—the Egyptian symbol of kingship, a rearing cobra head, usually worn on the front of a headdress or crown.
Zephyr
—Hephaistion's warhorse.
Many excellent books have been written about Alexander the Great and his times. He has been the subject of exhaustive study from his own lifetime until the present day, a subject of intense fascination to ancient and modern writers alike. Unfortunately, not one single contemporary source survives out of all the old soldiers who wrote memoirs, detractors who wrote polemics, and historians who attempted to record events they were part of.
Of the ancient sources written after Alexander's lifetime, I have leaned most heavily on Arrian's
Campaigns of Alexander
. Though Arrian was a Roman writing several centuries after Alexander's death, he used the memoirs of Ptolemy as his primary source, who is of course one of my main characters and whose attitudes about Alexander and his Companions would be closest to those of Lydias. I have also leaned on the ancient biographies of Alexander supplied by Plutarch, Diodorus, and Quintus Curtius Rufus. They, like Arrian, are available in several excellent modern translations.
The modern biographies of Alexander are myriad. Unfortunately, most of them end with Alexander's death and do little to illuminate the period immediately after, which is the subject of
Stealing Fire
. Therefore I found the following books most useful.
Ptolemy of Egypt
by Walter Ellis (London; Routledge, 1994) is the only English-language biography of Ptolemy, and as such was invaluable.
The Successors of Alexander the Great: Ptolemy I, Pyrrhus of Epirus, Hiero of Syracuse and Antiochus
by C. A. Kincaid (Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1985) was also extremely helpful. For the tale of the theft of Alexander's body and its subsequent adventures, I am indebted to Nicholas J. Saunders’
Alexander's Tomb
(New York: Basic Books, 2006).
Egypt as Ptolemy found it is a fascinating subject, and again there are many excellent resources. I would especially point out Karol Mysliwiec's
The Twilight of Ancient Egypt
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000). For the tombs of the Apis bulls, including an excellent map of the catacombs, I recommend
Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt
, edited by Salima Ikram (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005).
I am also indebted to the inspiration of some online resources, most notably “Hephaistion Philalexandros,” which can be found at
http://myweb.unomaha.edu/~mreames/Hephaistion/hephaistion.html
, and
www.neosalexandria.org
.
There are a number of people without whom this book would not have been written. Foremost on that list must be Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, who decided it had to be a book when I wrote my first short story with Lydias, and who has unfailingly encouraged me at every step of the way. She is very much the godmother of this book!
I am also deeply appreciative to Suzanne Griswold, who helped me with Lydias’ horsemanship. All errors, of course, are mine.
There are many others whose help I am deeply grateful for in the writing of
Stealing Fire
: Lesley Arnold, Gretchen Brinkerhoff, Katy Catlin, Mary Day, Danielle D'Onofrio, Phoebe Duncan, Lynn Foster, Imogen Hardy, Nathan Jensen, Tanja Kinkel, Anna Kiwiel, Wanda Lybarger, Kathryn McCulley, Anjali Salvador, Melissa Scott, Erin Simonich, Lena Strid, Jeff Tan, Casimira Walker-Smith, and Robert Waters.
I am also grateful to my editor, Devi Pillai, who once again decided to take a chance on a strange journey with me, and my agent, Robin Rue.
Most of all, I must thank my wonderful partner, Amy, who has spent a great deal of time with Lydias recently!
J
O
G
RAHAM
lives in North Carolina with her family and worked in politics for many years. To learn more about the author, visit her website at
http://jo-graham.livejournal.com/
.
Why did you decide to write a book about the death of Alexander the Great and its aftermath?
I've been interested in the story of Alexander for a long time, at least since I read Mary Renault's
Fire from Heaven
when I was in high school. But the story of Alexander has been done and done, and it's been tackled by some of my favorite authors both living and dead, so I hesitated to cover the same ground. It's a fabulous subject, and of course the recent Oliver Stone movie sparked a lot of interest from people who had never been familiar with Alexander before.
I thought it would be interesting to do something different —instead of talking about Alexander and speculating on his character and feelings, to talk instead about the world he created. In many ways, our modern world is the product of his life, of the ideas and the cross-cultural pollination that began with Alexander and his Successors. I wanted to write about the beginnings of that world, of our world.
Your two previous books have women narrators. What was different about writing with a man as the narrator?
The biggest thing is that there could be a lot more action! I've had a challenge in the last two books writing around the battle scenes for the most part, because there was no good reason for Gull or Charmian to be in the thick of the action. Lydias not only could be, but could lead it. He's a warrior.
Also this time there are no childbirth scenes! Lydias can see more of one side of life, and less of another, because he has no good reason to be part of that aspect of things. If I had chosen Thais as the narrator it would have been very different.
You've said that you greatly admire the work of Mary Renault. How did you feel about writing some of her most iconic historical characters, Alexander, Hephaistion, and Bagoas?
That was my biggest hesitation in starting
Stealing Fire
, but fortunately I had my partner, Amy, and my friends Anne-Elisabeth and Tanja to urge me forward. To write the same historical figures that Mary Renault did is a huge challenge. I had to try very hard to find my own vision of them, to find a different interpretation of some things. For example, what is Bagoas like after Alexander's death? What is he going to do with the rest of his life? He's not but about twenty-five at the time. And so the story of Bagoas searching for a way to reinvent himself outside of being Alexander's favorite became an important part of the story.
What other authors who have written Alexander do you admire?
Many authors have done a wonderful job with Alexander, but there are a few that really stand out to me besides Mary Renault. I am a huge fan of Judith Tarr, and her
Lord of the Two Lands
is one of my very favorite Alexanders. I also love Melissa Scott's Alexander in
A Choice of Destinies
. I'm also very fond of the not-quite-Alexander, Demetrios Asterius, in Jacqueline Carey's
Kushiel's Chosen
.
You've talked before about being inspired by various songs, that you have a “playlist” that goes with each of your books. What's your Lydias playlist?
I have quite a few songs on my Lydias playlist! Elton John's “The One” is the first, because it so sums up Lydias at the end of the book, but his “Original Sin” is pretty much the ultimate Lydias song, though I think you'd have to twist it around to Hephaistion's point of view! Other things on the list include the Rolling Stones’ “Continental Drift,” Grateful Dead's “Touch of Grey,” and Sting's “A Thousand Years.” The last one may be the most important, as I think it encapsulates Lydias perfectly!
Lydias has several important relationships in his life—with Sati, Hephaistion, and now Bagoas. Do you see any conflicts in his having relationships with both men and women?
Not a bit! We tend to see sexual orientation as an on/off switch—you're straight or you're gay. But these are new concepts and a way of looking at things that are by no means universal. This idea is peculiar to our culture and would have been utterly meaningless to Lydias, as it would be to most people in the history of the world! In Lydias’ culture, male bisexuality is the norm. Men are supposed to like sex, and the gender of the partner is really beside the point. The point is the social role that one is playing.
In Stealing Fire there's a lot of horsemanship, training, and cavalry tactics. Did you make that up? Where did it come from?
Fortunately, we have a manual of horsemanship, which, while not quite contemporary with Lydias, is in the same culture and within the same time frame! Xenophon, an Athenian soldier and general, wrote a fascinating book called
On Horsemanship
about a hundred years earlier, when the warhorse was just becoming an important part of Greek culture. He talks about buying and training a horse, about the maneuvers, about tack and conformation—everything Lydias would need to know! It's a wonderful resource.
Also, I was fortunate to have Suzanne Griswold, a professional equestrian, look over the book for me and correct various bits of horsemanship. All the errors, of course, are mine.
How long did it take you to write Stealing Fire? What are some of your writing habits?
Six months, from July 2008 to December 2008, but I had done much of the research beforehand, while I was working on
Hand of Isis
and before. I work every day, though how much I get done varies. When I'm really rolling I can do five-thousand words a day. I've done twenty-five thousand words a week at my best, when I know what the story is and I'm almost possessed by it. But then I don't really eat or sleep or do anything else! I have to be patient, though, because for every week like that there are three when I stumble through a couple of thousand words and just can't seem to catch the flow of it. When that happens I have to try to chill out and realize that it will break loose again when I'm ready.
In your last book, Hand of Isis, Charmian remembers her past life as Lydias. Did you plan this book before you wrote Hand of Isis? How did all that work?
Yes, to a certain extent. I already knew who Lydias was and what the bones of his adventures were before I started
Hand of Isis
. I already knew before I started
Black Ships
, for that matter. I have twenty or more stories in my head, all the places this soul has been and all the things Lydias/Charmian/Gull has done, and I've only begun to explore them. There are a couple of additional books written that have not been bought yet, and more where I've played with it and done some scenes and short stories. I hope I have the opportunity to do them all!
It's really necessary for internal consistency that I know all the stories. The things that happen to these people in each life have lasting impact on everything down the line, so I have to know what already happened even if the reader doesn't yet. For example, in
Hand of Isis
the relationship between Charmian and Agrippa is seriously influenced by what passed between Lydias and Hephaistion, even if neither Charmian nor Agrippa is really aware of it. There's a scene in that book, a dream sequence with Charmian and Agrippa in dream Ecbatana where she says, “I was nothing but a pretty face to you,” and he says, “Never only that.” Yes, they're talking about what happened in Egypt between Charmian and Agrippa, but also what happened between Lydias and Hephaistion.
And of course when Charmian calls Caesar “by his bones in Alexandria” this is lent power because Lydias stole those bones, stole Alexander's body, and is partially responsible for the fact that Alexander lies in Alexandria!
So I have to know how all the pieces fit. I think it's safe to say that there are a lot of “dangling strings” right now that attach to things! I hope you'll come along with me in the rest of my travels through the Numinous World.