(urth) Essential Background Reading for Soldier Series

[Michael Straight]

On 11/30/06, thalassocrat at nym.hush.com <thalassocrat at nym.hush.com> wrote:

> Theseus was supposed to have kidnapped an Amazon & taken her as his
> wife. When the Amazons invaded Attica seeking revenge, Theseus
> defeated them.

Holy essential background reading, Batman!  I wish I'd known that ten years ago.

Now I'm wondering what else I need to have read.

Essential:

1.  Story of Spartans slaughtering their slaves under pretext of
making them citizens (I defy you to figure that one out just from
Wolfe's text.)

2.  Story of 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.

Less important, but helpful:

3.  Sisyphus.

4.  Demeter and Persephone.

5.  Cupid and Psyche.

(Lots more I'm forgetting)

What else?  Is there anything I'm going to definitely need to make
sense of Soldier of Sidon?

Rostrum