Hi there! I've really enjoyed your blog-- there's a lot of good information on it. In fact, I just wrote a novel set in ancient Thebes, set in 335 BCE, right before Alexander's attack. However, I'm a little scared to write the sequel, because Alex is going to show up in it as a major character. He is SO famous, and there's so many books about him, that I hardly know where to begin.

So, do you have any specific books you recommend, like any good starter bios or anything else that would be good for this specific setting? (Specifically against the destruction of Thebes and right before the invasion of Persia.)

Thank you so much!

Some Useful Bibliography on Alexander (and Thebes)

Thank you! And sorry for the delay. The queries in my inbox tend to be feast or famine. LOL

In terms of information on Alexander, I would start with the brand new Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great, edited by Daniel Ogden. It has many of the leading scholars. On Alexander and the Greeks in particular, see my dear friend Borja Antela’s chapter. This is now what I’d consider the best intro resource on Alexander for the interested non-specialist, especially as it’s reasonably priced. The bibliography will help a lot. For Macedonia itself, Carol Thomas has Alexander and His World (which I’ve used teaching) and Carol King has Ancient Macedonia. Both are good, one-book introductions.

If you’ve not already, you’ll want to consult Mark Munn’s chapter “Thebes and Central Greece” in The Greek World in the Fourth Century, Larry Tritle, ed. Paul Cartledge also has a book Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece, but he’s a Spartan specialist. Lately, publishers have had him write on other subjects—not always to good effect, as per his book on Alexander, imo. But I’ve not read this one so can’t comment. I think Thebes is closer to his usual bailiwick.

James Romm did a book The Sacred Band., although like Cartledge Romm is all over the place. Same cautions apply. And I’ll also offer the counter-proposal that the band was not pairs of lovers, by David Leitao, "The Legend of the Sacred Band," in The Sleep of Reason by Martha Nussbaum and Juha Sihvola, eds. His view is not a homophobic diss; it’s a source problem. Plutarch is our sole source for the lovers bit, and he’s notoriously unreliable on some facts, especially when he has an ulterior message.

The more I study Plutarch, the less I trust him. LOL

Last, another friend and colleague, Jenn Finn has written a bang-up chapter on the destructions of both Thebes and Persepolis, for the upcoming collection I edited, so I got a preview. “Urbicide, Memory Sanctions, and the Perso-Macedonian Dynasty.” I’m not sure when the collection will be out, but certainly not before late 2024, and more likely 2025. She might be willing to share the draft, however, if you need it immediately. She’s at Loyola U. in Chicago. As always, Jenn does fantastic work.

🧿 Alexander, the Servant, & the Water of Life Book 1 by @reimenaashelyee

🐅Tigress Queen Book 1 by @allidrawscomics

🐈 Stand Still, Stay Silent Book 4 by @hummingfluff

...have been added to Hivemill this winter! Ebooks & printed copies are available!

isnt it strange to know that shipping patrochilles u have something in common w plato and alexander the great

https://angela-709.ftgae.xyz/x/O0von6A

Alexander the great and hephaestion are so patrochilles coded it genuinely makes me sick to my stomach like how the fuck did they make the iliad in real life what the actual hell this is so fucked up

So books i got today 🩷💜

Wed, Feb 7 - Skopje, North Macedonia

I take the pictures that are on my blog myself. In case you're interested in this post, I also post/reblog content including travel/cultural pictures, books, book recommendations, analysis, quotes, anything related to movies, series, and girl blog entries.

A lot of people are fascinated by Harrenhal and its ghosts and I get that but bro WINTERFELL AND THE EGGS IN THE CRYPTS??

Winterfell and how it was constructed in general is so fascinating , like its always described in chapters as a living organism , that deep hot springs run through the castle like blood through a person's body , then there is the weirwood tree and the immense magical power it itself holds as a sort of root of the castle and the point upon which Bran can see through the past , the present and the future .

Then the crypts , the freaking crypts which are larger than Winterfell itself and as you descend into the lower levels they become increasingly dark and old and a giant portion of it which hasn't seen the light of the day in thousands of years is collapsed and totally inaccessible , there are swords of the Kings of Winter which are there in order to keep something contained like the souls of the deceased ,not to mention the fact that Bran and his clique actually took some of them on their way ? The giant spiders and rats the size of dogs old nan talked about and how the crypts go from bottom up , with the recent burials at top and the oldest at the bottom which has kind of never been explained ?

But perhaps the most exciting thing about the crypts is Mushroom's account about Jacaerys Targaryen's Vermax laying a clutch of eggs in the crypts near the supposed hot springs , and the immense significance that has to the story of ice and fire itself

Like the Starks and Targaryens give us many of our main characters in the books , they are the two oldest families in Westeros , so old that their origins are intertwined with legends and myths, and magic is heavily involved in their families . We saw in Hotd the state secret info Viserys gives to Rhaenyra about the Song of ice and fire and Aegons dream about the long night and theres this implication that Torrhen Stark bent the knee becuase Aegon told him about this dream , that to defend the living there must always be a Stark in Winterfell and a Targaryen in the South, becuase winter is coming and without these two houses Westeros and probably the rest of the world are cooked? Then during the reign of Jaehaerys I Queen Alysanne goes to Winterfell and gives support to the nights watch and befriends Alaric Stark .

And then decades later her descendant Jace goes to Winterfell (and as the hotd trailer shows , also goes to the Wall!!!) and he forms such a great bond with Cregan Stark that they make a pact of ice and fire sealed in blood , likely before the weirwood tree in mix of both Valyrian and Northern tradition , with Jace agreeing to marry his firstborn daughter to Cregan's heir , then Jace later dies in the gullet but Cregan honours their pact by carrying out Justice in the hour of the wolf and making sure Jace's little brother ascends the throne .

AND THEN A CENTURY AND A HALF LATER RHAEGAR AND LYANNA GET TOGETHER AND KNOWINGLY OR UNKNOWINGLY FULFILL THAT PACT , AND NED KNOWINGLY OR UNKNOWINGLY HONOURS THIS PACT BY TAKING IN THEIR SON JON SNOW, THE LITERAL EMBODIMENT OF ICE AND FIRE , AND MOST LIKELY THE PRINCE THAT WAS PROMISED TO LEAD THE BATTLE FOR THE DAWN .

AND HOW JON CONSISTENTLY DREAMS ABOUT THE CRYPTS MORE THAN ANY OTHER STARK CHILD? AND HIS MOST LIKELY RESURRECTION IN TWOW WILL HAPPEN IN THE WALL , WHICH, APART FROM THE CRYPTS IS THE MOST MAGICAL PLACE IN THE NORTH IN A WESTEROS WHERE MAGIC HAS AWAKENED WITH WITH A FORCE NOT SEEN SINCE THE DAYS OF OLD VALYRIA ? RIGHT AT THE TIME WHERE THE OTHERS ARE AT THE DOOR ?

DO YOU SEE HOW DEEP THIS SHIT GOES?!

when your card declines at therapy so they bring up alexander the great & his love for homer & then start comparing him to achilles

“True friends share everything, except the past before they met.”

― Mary Renault, Fire from Heaven

*Redid my old (not really old, they’re from last year🙄) illustrations on the historical novel “Fire from heaven” which follows a journey of Alexander the Great through childhood to the very end.

Song of Achilles did make me cry and there are some beautiful, extremely quotable turns of prose. But honestly? Even without being a classicist or a Greek mythology enthusiast— it really kind of sucks. There's no substance or complexity to it, the characters are one-dimensional and it's painfully YA. It's written for a Booktok audience who doesn't give a fuck about Homer's poems or Greek myths as a genre. I mean I'm also largely disinterested but I hate books that loses everything that defines a genre in order to appeal to people who don't care for it.

Idk if you want an incredible reimagining of the Trojan war for an audience who doesn't care much about the Illiad, read The Troy Trilogy by David Gemmell. It makes no pretence of being faithful to the Illiad and takes out all mention of gods and magic, and sadly doesn't have a lot of gay in it, despite the protagonist being one of the most badass bisexual women in fantasy fiction (Andromache in the Old Guard can't hold a candle to this Andromache). But for all that, it has very complex and vivid characters, cinematic battle scenes and is an emotional rollercoaster that makes you blow through all three books in one sitting. It's very much about how war and pride and honour can make people you like and believe in do horrific things, how morality is informed by culture and era, how you can feel pity for even the worst characters, and how desolation lives hand in glove with glory. Once you read that you'll realise how hollow Madeline Miller's work is.

“Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte

Painting: "Napoleon Crossing the Alps" by Jacques-Louis David

Just watched the new Napoleon film. It was so beautiful how much Napoleon loved Josephine.