(urth) Soldier Of The Mist: first reading (mit spoilers)

[John Smith]

--- On Tue, 1/26/10, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org> wrote:

From: Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
Subject: Re: (urth) Soldier Of The Mist: first reading (mit spoilers)
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 5:35 PM


>> Why Latro is so favored by the gods is not clear to me, nor is why he
>> can
>>touch the Gods and make them visible to others.  (I'm certainly not well
>>versed in Greek Myth, so these are my best guesses)
>
> Well, he’s not merely *favored* by the Gods. He’s cursed by Demeter
> because his part of the Persian army desecrated the grove near her
> Temple. This IIRC was listed as a reason for the Persian’s defeat,
> particularly by the Spartan 300 (where Latro was wounded).

I vaguely remember something about a desecrated grove. Do you remember
what scene or chapter that was.
thanks. ~witz



At the beginning of Chapter 1, Latro is told that he had been wounded "near the shrine of the Earth Mother, where the Great King's army fought the army of Thought and the Rope Makers."
I don't remember if Wolfe says anything about the desecration of the grove, but Herodotus does.   The Persian navy sailed to the sanctuary of Demeter.  "There they beached their ships.  They cut down cultivated trees, surrounded the ships with a stockade of stone and wood, and fixed stakes in the ground around the stockade."    (The Histories, trans Robin Waterfield, Oxford World's Classics, p. 580.)

Best wishes,Jack

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