Arpad's POV, Concluded

The Golden Slave, XIV.

(What is the significance of the title of this novel? Who is its titular character?)

The narrative stays with Arpad's point of view until the end of Chapter XIV. His crew rescue just two men and one woman from the foundering ship. They answer the descriptions of Eodan, Tjorr and Phryne. This confirms what we thought, that Eodan's wife, Hwicca, was killed when she intervened in the sword fight between Eodan and Flavius at the end of XIII, which in turn explains Eodan's temporary apathy. Phryne's dialogue further confirms that Hwicca is dead.

Chapter XV returns to Eodan's pov and resumes the wealth of place names and other local details that we will continue to document in the next post, probably tomorrow. Seven chapters remain and many dramatic events are yet to occur. Tjorr thinks that his hammer is lucky...

Many Realms

The Golden Slave, XIV.

Arpad travels in a penteconter. (See image.) What has become of Eodan and Tjorr in their stolen slave freighter? We must continue to read.

"They passed the Bosporus with no trouble, Byzantium having recently become subject to the Kingdom of Pontus." (p. 187)

Byzantium is on the Bosporus. We have been told that Arpad serves a King so is that the King of Pontus? There is a lot of information in these few pages.

"There was a halt at the Hellespont to show diplomatic passports, for that strait was controlled by the Bithynians, who favored Rome." (ibid.)

So Bithynia backs the Roman Republic whereas Arpad works for the Kingdom of Pontus? (We think.)

"But since Rome was still uneasily at peace with the Pontines, who dominated the Black Sea, Arpad was obsequiously sent on his way." (ibid.)

"Pontines" must refer to the people of Pontus who include Arpad, we think.

"Thereafter he bore south between the Aegean islands, pausing to admire an occasional temple crowning a high ridge, until he saw pirate-haunted Crete. Beyond lay open sea, but it was not excessively far to the Nile's mouth." (ibid.)

Of course we have heard of most of these places but I have formed the habit of googling place names and we do not know all the information that is disclosed in the Wikipedia articles.

I was told at school that, whereas we enter churches, Classical temples were primarily to be looked at.

So Crete was pirate-haunted? We recently considered some pirates of the Caribbean. See here.

Reading about Pontus, Bithynia etc, we gain a knowledge of their history, the kind of information that Anderson's various time-traveling characters would carry with them if they were to visit the period of the Roman Republic - which preceded the more familiar Empire.

We have been told that Arpad's job is to transport an ambassador and some dispatches to Egypt so the next occurrence is that:

"The Pharaoh of Egypt, who was a Macedonian by ancestry, received the captain from Pontus, who was half Persian and half Anatolian, graciously. Like all cultivated people, they spoke together in Attic Greek." (pp. 187-188)

OK. The term for this Andersonian text is "fact-packed."

We were told earlier that Arpad had picked for his crew men who would not become "...slack after a few weeks in the subtle stews of Alexandria." (p. 187) Can stews (brothels or slums) be subtle?

The city, we are told, swarms with philosophers, geographers, gods and prostitutes. The "...learned class..." (p. 188) want to meet the captain from exotic Pontus:

"...Graeco-Persian-Asiatic on the Black Seacoast, a source of timber, minerals, and the fantastically lovely murrhine glass." (ibid.)

It is known that the Pontine King, Mithridates Eupator:

was enthroned at the age of twelve;
but fled from a usurpation attempt by his mother and brother;
lived for years as a hunter in the mountains;
returned to regain his inheritance;
plotted and fought against Cappadocians, Galatians and Armenians;
captured Colchis of the Golden Fleece;
thus, gained lordship over the Greeks of the Cimmerian Bosporus, a kingdom on a peninsula stretching beyond Lake Maeotis with only barbarism and Ultima Thule beyond that.

The fleeing from usurpation and hiding in the mountains sounds like what Manse Everard of the Time Patrol describes as "...a typical hero myth...." when it is recounted of Mithridates' ancestor, Cyrus:

"Essentially the same yarn had been told about Moses, Romulus, Sigurd, a hundred great men. There was no reason to believe it held any fact..."
-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, The Guardians Of Time (New York, 1981 pp. 65-124 AT 4, p. 84.

However, the Wikipedia article confirms this story about Mithridates.

Arpad is asked:

What can he tell of Mithridates' Tauric provinces?
Are there relics of Jason's visit in Colchis?
What would war with Rome be like?

Apparently, the options for war are "to the death" or "civilized." (p. 188) The latter means adjusting boundaries and taking prisoners for the slave market. Civilized indeed.

Returning to Pontus, the penteconter encounters a gale sent by Ahriman according to some of the sailors. Avoiding being blown to Syria, Arpad decides to shelter at Rhodes. Then he sees another ship. Our two narratives are about to intersect...

That is just over two pages of Anderson's text.

Variety

It is too late at night to reread the dense text of the next chapter of Poul Anderson's historical novel, The Golden Slave. However, there is time to appreciate the variety of Anderson's works. In the past twenty four hours alone, we have discussed:

the history and geography of the ancient world;

the relationships between history and mythology and between different mythologies;

ancient and modern theology;

philosophical questions underlying theology;

the fictional cosmologies of two sf novels by Anderson, Tau Zero and Genesis;

the relationship between science and science fiction as shown in the works of Wells, Anderson and others;

passages in Anderson's Time Patrol series.

That in no way exhausts the diversity of Anderson's works but does more or less summarize what has come up since yesterday evening. 

Yet Another Turning Point

The Golden Slave, XIII-XIV.

Tjorr snores like thunder.

There is another mutiny. More men are killed. The conflict between Eodan and Flavius remains unresolved. The two ships part. One mutineer had told Phryne:

"'Farewell, girl. We'll meet beyond the Styx.'" (p. 185)

- but was killed by Tjorr before he could kill Phryne.

Chapter XIV begins:

"Arpad of Trapezus, who had served ably on the warships of the King..." (p. 187)

(There are two cities called "Trapezus" but each Wikipedia article links to the other.)

Which King? Chapter XIV broadens the perspective by presenting a new character with a new point of view and many new place names which I will google but not tonight.

Glory to Poul Anderson.

The Flavian Philosophy II

The Golden Slave, XIII.

See The Flavian Philosophy.

Flavius is at it again:

"'There are no free and unfree; we are all whirled on our way like dead leaves, from an unlikely beginning to a ludicrous end. I do not speak to you now; the sounds that come from my mouth are made by chance, flickering within the bounds of causation and natural law. Truly, we are all slaves. The sole difference lies between the noble and the ignoble.'" (p. 175)

We are whirled on our way. We are leaves with wings that can vary their course slightly but chance has decreed that some of us are motivated to change the direction of our flight whereas others are not. Of course he speaks to her. His words are intelligible and therefore are not random noises like the rustling of leaves in the wind.

CS Lewis argued that, if cerebral processes are caused, then mental processes cannot be reasoned. I discuss Lewis' arguments in section (7) here.

Poul Anderson's rich text combines philosophy, mythology and natural scenery.

Phryne swears "'Before Hades...'" (XI, p. 148)

When the freed slaves, now pirates, liberate wine casks from the captured Bona Dea, she thinks:

"This was going to be a night when Circe reigned." (p. 176)

Meanwhile:

"sundown blazed among restless clouds; the mast swayed back and forth in heaven." (ibid.)

Later, the revels are:

"...as though Pan the terrible had put to sea." (p. 178)

"...half a beast is the great god, Pan..." (See here)

Aesculapius And Hermes Psychopompos

The Golden Slave, XIII.

After the battle, Phryne tends the wounded:

"Twice she stopped - once to cast up at a certain sight and once to change her blood-stiffened gown for a tunic." (p. 172)

Cast up? Throw up?

"...now Aesculapius and Hermes Psychopompos must divide the souls as they would..." (ibid.)

Socrates' last words were that he owed a cock to Asclepius.

In the Time Patrol, Carl Farness tells Manse Everard that Wodan, equated with Mercury and Hermes, is the psychopomp. Eodan becomes Wodan/Odin.

Powerful ideas reflect and personify life and death.

Miserly Gods

The Golden Slave, XII.

The Time Patrol remains an endless source of quotations and comparisons. (See here.)

Eodan captures the Bona Dea but thinks:

"...the Powers which stole everything else from him gave him victory in war, a miser's payment..." (p. 166)

Manse Everard of the Time Patrol thinks:

"A man had to take whatever the gods offered him, and they were a miserly lot."
-Poul Anderson, "Brave To Be A King" IN Anderson, The Guardians Of Time (New York, 1981), pp. 65-124 AT 4, p. 85.

See Are The Gods Miserly Or Generous?

Odin is sometimes not just miserly but false. See Who To Pray To?

When God is believed to be one, omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent, then there is a Problem of Evil: why does He allow, indeed cause, suffering and injustice? - whereas, when the gods are believed to be many and finite, then there is no such problem. Life remains a mixture of good and bad, as it always was.

Dated Cosmic SF

Sf is outmoded either by scientific discoveries or by technological advances.

Reported on TV last night:

dark energy comprises 95% of the universe;

its nature is unknown, hence "dark";

it counteracts gravity;

therefore, the rate of cosmic expansion is increasing, not decreasing;

dark energy might come from another universe;

precise measurements of the movements of millions of galaxies will test theories of the nature of dark energy.

In Poul Anderson's Tau Zero:

the universe is composed only of observable mass-energy;
nothing counteracts gravity;
therefore, the universe cyclically expands and contracts.

Thus, Tau Zero is as dated as:

Wells' Selenites and Martians;
Heinlein's and others' inhabited Solar Systems;
EE Smith's idea that planets originate when stars pass close to each other;
the pre-1929 idea that our galaxy was the entire universe.

I do not know whether any sf was written on that pre-1929 premise but someone could now write a retro-novel.

Anderson's Genesis will not date quickly.

One last thought: Are there dark energy intelligences who do not notice our 5% of the universe - like having a biverse within our universe within maybe the multiverse?

Wine, Mysteries And The Good Goddess

The Golden Slave, XII.

A ship called the Bona Dea, the Good Goddess, carries wine from Puteoli to Miletus. Her captain wears a plumed casque.

When Eodan has ordered an attack on the Bona Dea, he sees that Hwicca and Phryne:

"...held each other's hands, unspeaking in that mystery of woe whose initiates are all womankind." (p. 161)

Initiates to mysteries, e.g., to the Mystery of Mithras, were members of mystery religions. The Catholic liturgy still refers to the celebration of "Sacred Mysteries." See here.

On the Bona Dea, a German attacks Eodan with a longsword which is also a glaive but Eodan, who has only a shortsword, nevertheless kills the German and appropriates his longsword.

Eodan's crew hesitate to board the Bona Dea but one runs up the boarding plank and the others pour after him. That is what I mean by a "leader": someone who has no power to coerce but who gives a lead which may or may not be followed. Every human society has leaders. Not every society needs rulers, let alone bureaucrats ("rulers from offices").

I want to reread the rest of this chapter about combat on the Good Goddess but am flaking out after an early start to drive Aileen and Yossi to Leighton Moss. (Scroll down.)

Laters.

Gods, Saints And Latin

The Golden Slave, XII.

Eodan says that he hopes to settle somewhere close to where he was born, maybe among the Goths or the Sueones. Hwicca responds by quoting a Roman saying that "'...nothing human is alien to them.'" (p. 156)

Elsewhere, Poul Anderson quotes Terence:

"'Homo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto.' I am a man; nothing human is alien to me."
-Poul Anderson, "The Discovery of the Past" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp. 182-206 AT p. 189.

Anderson places Terence "...in second-century Rome..." (ibid.) He must mean the second century BC because The Golden Slave is set BC and Terence's dates are BC.

Homo: man, a man, the man;
sum: I am -

- two Latin words for four English words.

puto: I think -

- thus, "I think nothing human alien to me," but with a different word order.

Also in "The Discovery of the Past":

"Some outlying parts of Brittany remained pagan until the seventeenth century, and everywhere many of the horde of local saints are ancient gods in disguise." (p. 183)

A paganism that survived until that recently should be easier to revive or, at least, to understand and interpret.

Economic Realities

The Golden Slave, XI.

(Maybe the unexpected corridor instead of a face can stand for the paradoxes of economics?)

"'...the free man is often just free to starve. An owner keeps his slaves fed, at least. Some of us is right unhappy about that. We don't know how to go about finding work in a strange land. We don't know the talk or customs or anything. The older of us are all too plainly slaves...'" (p. 144)

The freed slaves want to become not free workers but pirates or, more grandiloquently:

"'Free companions of the Midworld Sea.'" (p. 145)

That might be a fine title for a company of mercenaries but not for a gang of cutthroats.

However, the spokesman, Quintus from Saguntum in Spain, has an elementary grasp of economics. How free is a man who starves because he has been made redundant, has been laid off during a recession or has had to flee to a country where he knows neither the language nor the local ways of earning a living?

Tjorr And The Milky Way

The Golden Slave, XI.

Eodan sees:

"...Tjorr blocky against the Milky Way." (p. 150)

We have collected:

Andersonian descriptions of the Milky Way here;

objects seen against or across the Milky Way here.

To our editorial surprise, Tjorr now joins the latter list.

It feels as if we are getting right inside Poul Anderson's ways of thinking and perceiving. This passage links Tjorr to Aycharaych and to many other Andersonian characters who share a common galactic background. It is all one multiverse.

Night Wind And Winter Wind

A pagan and a time criminal might think similarly.

Eodan, a Cimbrian:

"'I would pull down the sky if I could... I would make a balefire for the world of all the world's gods, and kindle it, and howl while it burned. And I would tread heaven under my feet, and call up the dead from their graves to hunt stars with me, till nothing was left but the night wind."
-Poul Anderson, The Golden Slave, XI, p. 149.

Raor, an Exaltationist:

"'We would have made [the universe] what we chose, and unmade it and remade it, and stormed the stars as we warred for possession, with an entire reality the funeral pyre of each who fell and entire histories the funeral games, until the last god reigned alone.'
"Desire blew out of [Everard] on a winter wind."
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART TWO, 209 B. C., p. 118.

He would hunt stars; she would storm them. He ends with "...night wind." Raor's speech is followed by "...winter wind."

Based on this and earlier remarks, Eodan seems to regard the wind as the primordial force like the sea in the Bible. He anticipates the Ragnarok although, in that last battle, Loki will lead the dead against Odin.

Tjorr And Some Geography

The Golden Slave, XI.

Having killed once with his newly acquired, short-hafted, iron-headed, heavy hammer, Tjorr decides to keep it as a weapon. Just so.

His people, the Alans, have many tribes between the Dnieper and the Volga and trade with the Greeks on the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, Eodan's stolen ship is about to round Lilybaeum when further dramatic events occur. The action, like the wealth of information about the ancient world, is non-stop as we approach the mid-point of the novel. Having come so far, how far have Eodan and Tjorr yet to go?

In Poul Anderson's The Last Viking Trilogy, Harald Hardrada is doomed to die at Stamford Bridge. In Poul and Karen Anderson's The King Of Ys Tetralogy, Gratillonius will become an obscure legend. Eodan and Tjorr will become gods.

Pharos And Apollonia

The Golden Slave, VIII.

"There was just enough light from the sky and from a pharos in the outer harbor for Eodan to see a world of ships." (p. 107)

The image shows the Pharos of Alexandria which is appropriate first because Eodan sees a pharos, in the above passage, and secondly because he considers visiting Alexandria. See Quo Vadis?

XI.

Eodan on his stolen ship passes himself off as "...a Gaul out of Massilia for Apollonia..." (p. 140)

An annotated edition of a novel by Poul Anderson would be several times as long as the original text. Online, we can link to other relevant sites so maybe online publication is preferable to a printed edition. Or the two should be read in parallel? (Also, an audio edition to listen to while driving a car.)   

Some Nautical Terms

The Golden Slave, X.

Some writers, like Poul Anderson and Jerry Pournelle, are familiar with boats and nautical terms whereas many readers gather their vague understanding of the meanings of nautical terms from context:

"...a lookout in the bows..." (p. 135);
a steersman on the poop;
standbys under the taffrail;
Hwicca standing by the larboard rail (p. 136);
Eodan turning aft (p. 137).

I noticed one term, looked for more, found four and might have missed some: linguistic wealth that we usually rush past.

Further Details In The Golden Slave, Chapter X

The Golden Slave, X.

Tjorr's people, "'...the Rukh-Ansa, a confederation among the Alanic peoples...dwell on the western side of the Don River (see image), north of the Azov Sea.'" (p. 128)

Tjorr accepts Eodan as disa, chieftain, although I have not found "disa" anywhere else. The Cimmerian Greeks captured Tjorr in battle.

Throwing the dead overboard, the freed slaves, who include a black Ethiopian, promise Neptune a bull "...to pay for polluting his waters...'" (p. 134) Would Neptune not accept sailors killed in battle as human sacrifices? I think that Lir would. The bodies do not pollute the sea but feed its inhabitants.

The sun sets beyond the Pillars of Hercules. (p. 135)

Flavius had told Hwicca that:

"'...he would raise [her] up from all darkness of witches and gods, into a sunlit air where only men dwelt...'" (p. 138)

Are all gods dark? Some secularists see them as such. However, we can also value stories of light-bringing gods. See here.

Although not a sailor, Eodan is able to tell that the ship is on course by measuring the position of the North Star "...against the moonlit wake." (p. 139) How many moderns would be able to do that?

Quo Vadis?

The Golden Slave, X.

Having seized control of a ship, Eodan must decide where to go:

Narbonensis is too thickly settled;

most European Mediterranean coasts are Roman controlled;

Mauretania is too far west (dig the reference to "Mauri");

Numidia is too close to "'...Carthage, where Romans dwell.'" (p. 132);

Tripolis and Cyrenaica are mostly deserts;

they cannot sail around Gaul to Jutland because the Atlantic would be too rough for their ship;

Phyrne suggests the Nile delta or a small Egyptian harbor, from there to enter the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria by foot, then to travel east by ship or caravan, e.g., Eodan and Hwicca to return home via the Cimmerian Bosporus and the northern barbarian countries.

Eodan goes with Phryne's idea.

Weapons

The Golden Slave, X.

The freed slave with red hair and beard wraps a chain around his hand to use the bracket as a cestus.

An archer climbs toward the poop deck but Redbeard drops him with a thrown ax.

Hwicca wields a trident taken from the slaves' watchman.

Most of the fighting is with swords.

Redbeard grabs a short-handled maul from the carpenter and smashes his skull with it.

We knew whom Redbeard resembled even before he had identified himself as "'...Tjorr the Sarmatian...'" and added that he is "'...of the Rukh-Ansa...'" (p. 128) At last we realize the significance of Eodan's name.

On The Midworld Sea

The Golden Slave, IX.

The ship sets out on the Tyrrenhian Sea. On p. 113, its sailors include:

"...a hairy Pamphilian...";
"...a brown Libyan...";
"...a big-nosed Thracian...";
"...a brawny, red-faced Gaul...";

others, unrecognized by Eodan, "...swept from the many ports of the Midworld Sea."

Flavius escapes and calls on the captain who mobilizes the sailors so Eodan frees the slaves, no easy task because they have been cowed and intimidated. However, one booming voice responds. A mythical partnership begins although we do not know that yet. Beginning of battle, end of chapter. 

The Flavian Philosophy

The Golden Slave, IX.

Read the words of Flavius. When Eodan claims that a Power has been with him, Flavius responds:

"'So you may think. But what educated man can take seriously those overgrown children on Olympus?...
"'I myself do not believe in any Power except chance.'" (p. 110)

But there is a Temple of Fortuna in Rome!

"'There are blind moieties of matter, obeying blind laws; only the idiot hand of chance keeps each cycle of centuries from being the same.'" (pp. 110-111)

A modern man in the Roman Republic! We basically agree with him. By "we," I mean the editorial position of this blog, by which I mean, "I." But we would express ourselves differently. Blindness is a defect in a member of a normally sighted species but it is inappropriate to apply the adjective "blind" to inanimate matter - except as a way to affirm that the motions of such matter are not consciously directed, which is what Flavius is doing.

Although some human beings are seen to be "idiots" when compared with more intelligent persons, chance is not idiotic because there is no question of its being intelligent. However, we can again agree with Flavius' underlying thesis that matter is not intelligently directed. If the gods did exist, then they also would have emerged from "blind," "idiot" Chaos. At least, the Olympian's grandfather, Uranus, did whereas Odin's grandfather emerged from pre-cosmic ice.

The Golden Slave, Chapter VIII, Concluded

The Golden Slave, VIII.

The characters embark for Massilia which is Marseilles so here is an image of that city.

Before that:

"There was a clepsydra in the atrium." (p. 104)

Eodan shudders because:

"...this was trolldom, where each falling drop eked out another measure of a man's life." (ibid.)

By contrast, we think that precise measurement of time enables us to control our activities more effectively. However, the ticking of a clock is tolerable whereas:

"...drip, drip, drip..." (ibid.)

- must have been extremely irritating.

They travel in chariots along the Ostian Way to Ostia to embark for Massilia. The baggage chariots bear purses of auri. (Although maybe they are aurei?)

They board a slave freighter which will generate further plot developments but that is the end of a chapter and I must get some oxygen to the brain.

The Golden Slave, Chapter VIII

The Golden Slave, VIII.

In Gaul, Massilia is Roman controlled whereas Aquitania is beyond the border and free at least in 100 BC. There are Narbonesian Gauls.

Eodan and Phryne plan to escape from Rome with Hwicca by:

capturing their owner, Flavius;

forcing him to travel by ship to Massilia, accompanied by all three of them;

controlling Flavius by continually threatening him with a sword concealed under Eodan's cloak.

An implausible plan. Dominic Flandry does this with Lord Hauksberg except that the concealed weapon is a blaster instead of a sword. But I am sure that this improbable escape maneuver is used by at least one other Anderson hero. Which one?

Gods And Saints

Yesterday evening, we raised £250 for the hospice. This is relevant to recent blog discussion of gods and saints because St John is the patron of the hospice and Odin leads departed souls into the hereafter. Pagans, and imaginative authors like Poul Anderson, mix mythologies.

I liked a passage in The Long Ships when Vikings made offerings to Odin, Aegir and St John because the (stolen) bells of St John's Cathedral kept their fleet together in a fog. In another scene, a group waiting for a pagan priest to arrive to bless a field found that their prisoners included a Christian priest so they got him to perform a blessing on the ground that "These priests are all the same."

An alternative mythology in an alternative history might have saints in the Eddas. Poul Anderson's Time Patrol aborts a divergent timeline in which a goddess movement would have prevented the Christianization of Northern Europe. That movement might have generated myths about a war between the Goddess and an invasive God.

The Golden Slave, Chapter VII, Concluded

The Golden Slave, VII.

Eodan and Phryne are seen as plebeians. (p. 90)

Hwicca had thought that Eodan was dead. He wants her to see that he is "'...no nightwalker.'" (p. 92) But it turns out that she feels that she is dead.

Phyrne thinks that, when Flavius tires of Hwicca as a concubine, he will sell her to a brothel and she will wind up dead in the Tiber. (p. 96) (We know that Rome is on the Tiber but how much do we know about the Tiber?)

When it seems that Eodan will acquiesce to Hwicca's request to be left with Flavius, Phyrne consigns him, Eodan, to the Erinyes whom we met before as the Furies.

At the end of Chapter VII, we are a third of the way through the novel. Probably no posts tomoz.

The Golden Slave, Chapter VII

The Golden Slave, VII.

Eodan and Phryne enter Rome by the Esquiline Gate. Flavius' house is on Viminal Hill. The two escaped slaves are taken for Cisalpine Gauls. Roman coins include the sesterce and the as.

They approached Roman along the Latin Way. (See image.) Before that, they had killed the horses on which they escaped and sacrificed them to Hermes. See also Hermes Trismegitus and a recent post.

Eodan says:

"The night winds take you..." (p. 86)

- so he continues to regard the wind as an intervening force or "Power."

The Golden Slave, Chapter VI, Concluded

The Golden Slave, VI.

Phryne is awesome, like a vessel of Power. When she laughs, Eodan makes:

"...the sign against trolldom." (p. 82)

She reminds him of a newly initiated "...Cimbrian godwife..." (p. 80) I cannot find "godwife" anywhere else. A godwife is riven by Powers that she must rein and drive.

The word "darkling" occurs again, this time referring to an inner darkness:

"...the darkling Northern part of his soul..." (p. 82)

To disguise Phryne as a boy, Eodan cuts off her hair which she will sacrifice to Hecate. He himself dons a hat and a cloak, takes up a staff and begins to look like Odin although, as yet, this garb is a mere disguise. Phryne dyes his yellow hair black.

Paganism And Philosophy

As mentioned in the combox here, we are somewhat preoccupied for today and tomorrow. Meanwhile, contemplation of Eodan's pure paganism, as mentioned in the same post, generates philosophical questions that I address in a Cosmic Catechism which I thought belonged on the Religion and Philosophy blog rather than on Poul Anderson Appreciation.

The Golden Slave, Chapter VI

The Golden Slave, VI.

"'...the gates of Tartarus will be opened!'" (p. 74)

I am focusing on interesting words and phrases rather than on a plot summary. I hope that blog readers will read the novel. We probably have some idea of what "Tartarus" is but might also be interested to check the Wikipedia article.

Fleeing, Eodan would be expected to make for Helvetia (Switzerland). (p. 75)

Eodan is pure pagan. He would offer sacrifice if he knew which Power had helped him but he does not know the local gods and those of Cimberland are too far away even to have heard about his present problems. A later generation of slaves will be consoled by the belief that a single omnipresent god is always with them and that they have not left Him behind in their homeland.

"O my weird which I invoked, help me now! [Eodan] thought." (p. 78)

That is not all of this chapter but all that there is time for before going to the Gregson.

The Golden Slave, Chapter V

The Golden Slave, V.

"The shortest way to the atrium was through the roses." (p. 60)

"The plain white stola fell in severe folds..." (ibid.)

"'...there was a Power in that place...'" (p. 61)

What is a capitalized "Power"? Something like a depersonalized god?

Eodan frequently refers to the Bull worshiped by the Cimbri, e.g.:

"'I was driven by the Powers of earth; the Bull was within me that day, Phryne.'" (p. 62)

The Bull was before us in Chapter I:

"It was a heavy image, cast in bronze, with horns that seemed to threaten the stars." (p. 15)

Threatening the stars foreshadows Anderson's interstellar sf. "The Bull" also wakes in Gratillonius when he is King Of Ys. See also Mithras And The Bull and The Myth Of Mithras.

"'...we are all pursued by our private Furies.'" (p. 63)

This is true although the Furies are myths.

Phryne loved a young slave who was sold and sent to Egypt. Although the man is probably still alive, Eodan reflects that:

"His ghost will not let her look on another man." (pp. 63-64)

Here, "ghost" means a memory rather than a departed spirit.

Eodan, now running errands for Cordelia, carries a purse of denarii. She names him after Hercules, the son of Alcmeme. Another of her slaves is "'...a witch from Thrace...'" (p. 68) Eodan had captured Cordelia's husband, Flavius, at the Battle of Arausio.

Eodan says that he cannot help his wife, also enslaved, but:

"Suddenly it burst within him. As if the sun had taken him full in the eyes, he gasped and cried low, 'But I can!'" (p. 72)

One of Anderson's many moments of realization.

Lifting hands to the eastern light and speaking in Cimbrian, he calls day, dark, wind, sea "...and all the Powers of earth to witness his promise." (p. 72)

- an irrevocable promise to rescue Hwicca, his wife, from Flavius' house in Rome.

The Golden Slave, Chapter IV

The Golden Slave, IV.

The head groom is a Cappadocian. (p. 44)

Phryne regards Homer as "divine" (ibid.) and compares Eodan to two Homeric warriors, Diomedes and Ajax. We Andersonians recognize "Diomedes" as the name of a planet in the Technic History.

When Eodan comes from the villa and sees Phryne in the garden on p. 46, the point of view unexpectedly changes from hers to his. They speak Latin:

"'Ave,'" (p. 46) ("Hail");
"'Atque vale,'" (ibid.) ("And farewell").

Slaves learn to stretch work. What else would you do as a slave?

Phryne is from Plataea in Greece. (p. 48) She thanks Artemis that her situation is no worse. (. 49) She is a slave but has books, respect and security. She also invokes the Unknown God. (p. 51) See also here.

"The week of the Floralia was observed..." (p. 52)

Resenting Phryne, Eodan thinks:

"...the winds take her!" (p. 53)

Again, the winds play an active role, at least in the mind of Eodan.

Mopsus the gardener wonders why the Mistress has not invited any highborn guests. It is because she has plans for Eodan.

"They crossed an open peristyle, where the first stars mirrored themselves in a mosaic pool. Beyond was a door inlaid with ivory, a Venus twining arms about beautiful Adonis. A Nubian with a sword stood on guard." (p. 55)

In the Technic History, not eunuchs but aliens guard a harem.

Cordelia tells Eodan:

"'I meant to eat first...'" (p. 57)

This recalls Leonce's words to jack Havig. See A Comedy Of Meanings.

Genres And Media

A superheroes comic book maxi-series set in an alternative twentieth century and collected as a graphic novel had a comic books prequel and a feature film adaptation which now has a TV series sequel. The sequel is a different story with different characters but occasional references to the events of the film. Thus, to this extent at least, the TV series makes a good contribution to an alternative/future history series.

However, this serves to remind sf readers of how much better writers of prose sf do it. The planet Ythri is discovered and the planet Cynthia mentioned in Poul Anderson's "Wings of Victory," then both planets are mentioned in Anderson's excellent "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," showing domestic life on an urbanized Earth while interstellar travel is happening.

Thus, watching TV reminds some of us of Anderson.

The Golden Slave, Chapter III

The Golden Slave, III.

This is an extremely rich chapter and it will take some time to appreciate it fully. First, it is set:

"...on a Samnian latifundium..." (p. 34)

Flavius was Eodan's slave. Now these roles are reversed. Phryne, an educated Greek slave, thinks that this is:

"...a Euripidean situation." (p. 35)

When Phyrne hears that Eodan threw a bull, she exclaims:

"'Another Theseus!'" (p. 36)

Eodan, from Northern Europe, does not want to be thought of as "'...a Southlander...'" (p. 37) although he had hoped to become a Southlander by settling in Italy. Basically, we are all human beings.

"...the first Phryne had modeled for Praxiteles...'" (p. 38)

When Eodan says that he was a free man once:

"A gust of rain went over the tiled roof. The hearthfire leaped and spluttered; smoke caught Phryne's eyes, and she coughed and threw back her cloak." (p. 39)

The elements punctuate and underline dialogue and feelings.

Phryne says:

"'Hercules help me...'" (p. 40)

Hercules was not only a hero but also a demigod and maybe bestowed strength?

When Eodan says that Flavius took his wife:

"The wind mourned about the house, wailed in the portico and rubbed leafless branches together. Another rainburst pelted the roof." (p. 41)

Rain like tears? The wind is almost an Andersonian character. Here, it mourns and wails appropriately.

Phryne invokes the "...seaborn Cyprian..." (p. 42)

Far-shining Aphrodite, hear our prayer! Thou Laughter-loving Lady, Paphian,. Well-girded, Golden, Sea-born, Cyprian,. Companion, Tender-hearted, or howe'er.
-Hymn and Invocation of Aphrodite. (I googled but cannot open it.)

The mistress, Cordelia, is:

"...a tall woman of Etruscan stock, perhaps descended from Tarquin himself and some jewel of Tarquin's harem." (p. 42)

LARS PORSENA of Clusium,
By the Nine Gods he swore
That the great house of Tarquin
Should suffer wrong no more.
By the Nine Gods he swore it,	5
And named a trysting-day,
And bade his messengers ride forth,
East and west and south and north,
To summon his array.
East and west and south and north	10
The messengers ride fast,
And tower and town and cottage
Have heard the trumpet’s blast.
Shame on the false Etruscan
Who lingers in his home,	15
When Porsena of Clusium
Is on the march for Rome!

-copied from here.

Phryne compares Eodan to Perseus:

"Young Perseus had entered the Gorgon's lair and come back alive.
"She wondered why she felt like weeping." (p. 43)

There the chapter ends. 

The Chaos Of Battle

The Golden Slave, II.

"Even as he watched, Eodan saw Roman standards in the dust, a gleam, a rippling steely line, and the army of Marius came from chaos and fell upon the Cimbri!" (p. 27)

"The combat had passed over this area already. Death lay around Everard. He hurried behind the Roman force, toward the distant gleam of the eagles. Across helmets and corpses, he made out a banner that fluttered triumphant red and purple."
-Poul Anderson, "Delenda Est" IN Anderson, The Guardians Of Time (New York, 1981), 8, p. 238.

"Everard saw men on horseback, Roman officers. They held the eagles aloft and shouted, but nobody could hear them above the din."
-ibid., p. 239.

"Everard fled through chaos."
-ibid., p. 241.

"Man's works were so horribly impermanent; he thought with a sadness of the cities and civilizations he had seen rise and spend their little hour and sink back into the night and chaos of time."
-Poul Anderson, "Flight to Forever" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), CHAPTER THREE, p. 238.

Pulling back:

a Cimbrian at the Battle of Vercellae;
a Time Patrolman at the Battle of Ticinus;
a time traveler in the far future.

All three experience chaos.

Experience Of Combat

The Golden Slave, II.

Poul Anderson excels at accounts of combat on land, at sea or in space - maybe not so much in the air?

At the Battle of Vercellae (see image), Eodan quickly dispatches two antagonists:

"Two men slain for certain; it was not often you knew what a blow of yours had done." (p. 26)

Word War II combatants told me that they would be ordered to fire, e.g., into a wood and would not know whether they had hit anyone. One guy, marching with his platoon into some town in North Africa, looked up, saw a German, immediately fired and saw the man drop. Later, he went back and found the body. That was the only time that he knew he had killed anyone.

Another question I asked was, "Did you know anyone who was killed?" Of course. One young lad got married, went straight out to the war and was killed immediately. "And there was one officer who was such a bloody nuisance that we had to get rid of him ourselves!"

I lived in Sevenoaks in Kent and, one summer, worked in a nearby tile factory where I met a guy who had emigrated to Australia immediately after the war. Returning to England, he came to Sevenoaks because his best friend during the war had come from there. His friend's name was not on the town war memorial. However, hiring a car and visiting the outlying villages, he found the name on one of the village memorials.

Some Strange Places

Poul Anderson Appreciation takes us to some strange places. We have often discussed Latin, more recently Roman numerals because Anderson mentioned 52,300 Roman soldiers and 15,000 Cimbrian horses. I have tried to find the Belgian monument with the incorrect "CCCC" for 400. However, the monument in the above image gets it right: MDCCCXXXI = 1831.

15,000 would have to be 15 M's. 52,300 would have to be 52 M's followed by XXX but this just proves that it is getting very late at night. I keep typing the numbers wrong.

Roman Numerals

See:

Roman numerals (Wikipedia)

On The Raudian Plain and David Birr's comment.

It seems that the highest number that can be written in Roman numerals is 3999. Those of us who are more than two decades old have lived through 1999 which was MCMLXLIX, immediately followed by 2000, MM, so 3999 would be MMMCMLXLIX:

MMM = 3000
CM     =   900
L        =      50
XL     =      40
IX      =        9

- and, if you can make sense of that, you are a better man than I am. I got it wrong several times and hope that it is right now.

The rule is that:

you can't have IIII, although it is on some English clocks, but must have IV;
you can't have VIIII but must have IX;
you can't have XXXX but must have XL;
you can't have CCCC but must have CD;
you can't have MMMM but there is no numeral higher than M.

(We saw a stone inscription to King Leopold in Belgium that had too many C's in the date.)

On The Raudian Plain

The Golden Slave, II.

"The Cimbri met the joint forces of Marius and Catlus on the Raudian plain near the city of Vercellae." (p. 22)

"Catlus" should be "Catulus." See the Wikipedia article here.

"It was on the third day before the new moon in the month Sextilis, which is now called August." (ibid.)

The Romans did not just number the days of a month as we do but instead had a complicated system of days before or after the "Ides" or "Nones." See here. In Ys, this somehow led to Gratillonius' men attending the theater to see a comedy play on the wrong day - but enjoying the more serious play that they saw instead. In The Golden Slave, we are not told which day in August but instead are told the third day before the new moon in that month.

"The Romans numbered 52,300; no one had counted the Cimbri, but it is said each side of their army took up thirty furlongs and that they had 15,000 horses." (ibid.)

Thus, a major engagement - and the end of the Cimbri.

Ironically, we now use "Arabic" (really Indian) numerals and have no difficulty in understanding them. Is anyone out there able to translate "52,300" and "15,000" into Roman numerals?

A Hawk High Overhead

In the previous post, I wondered about the social class of Gratillonius' family. Sean suggested "curial." In order to answer this question, I am rereading Poul and Karen Anderson, The King Of Ys: Roma Mater (London, 1989), III, where I have found the following passage:

"Rooks and starlings darted above, blacker yet. A hawk high overhead disdained to stoop on them. Its wings shimmered golden." (p. 49)

We recently read here about a hawk wheeling in heaven. Five birds of prey with light on their wings are listed here.

Gratillonius refers to Time the Hunter and the groom refers to Epona. (p. 50)

The family is curial. (p. 53) Curials are "...landowners, merchants, producers, the moderately well-off..." (ibid.)

Romans

The Golden Slave, I.

The Cimbri defeated the consul, Catulus, at the Adige and must now fight the consul, Marius.

Eodan's Roman thrall, Flavius, is of the equestrian class. See also here. I have a feeling that, in Poul and Karen Anderson's Last King of Ys Tetralogy, Gratillonius' family is equestrian but will check this later.

See a previous post on Romans.

The Wandering Of The Cimbri II

The Golden Slave, I.

The Romans have already defeated the Teutones and Ambrones. (Displaced populations clash with the Terran Empire in Poul Anderson's Technic History.) The Roman general is Marius. For previous blog references, see here.

Eodan has grown to adulthood while the Cimbri have traveled:

through forests;
through rivers;
over mountains;
along the Danube for several years;
to Shar Dagh;
to Noreia, where they smote the Romans twelve years ago;
to the Adige, where, with other barbarians, they pushed a Roman army across;
to the Balkan spine;
to the Belgic plains;
to the orchards of Gaul;
to Spanish uplands -

- but never found a land empty enough for them to settle.

The older warrior, Ingwar, says that Eodan will:

"'...be aking or whatever they call it.'" (p. 13)

Does he mean "a king"?