The Libraries of Smyrna-on-Neo-Aegea

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Dear Readers,

  It's been some time since I visited neo-Aegea with you, and I feel that it's time I returned.  It is one of my chief academic interests, and I feel almost as if I've cheated on it a little by avoiding it for so long.

  So it is time that I returned to my work on that little world.  There are some references in past posts that will help you get up to speed with their culture and technology, all under the neo-Aegea label.

   Today I want to talk to you about the neo-Aegean City Smyrna, a city-state known as a center of religious and cultural learning.  Smyrna's libraries will be renowned throughout neo-Aegea, both for books as well as the librarians.

  It is not my work specifically, but it is thought that the Librarians of Smyrna were a unique cult of Aphrodite that placed her as the queen of the nine Muses.  They chose young men and women from among the commoners to rise to their rank.  This concept mixed several of the stranger parts of neo-Aegean society, and I warn readers who proceed that this will push some cultural boundaries for you.

  Still, though, the short narrative that appears below should be enlightening as to just how different neo-Aegea will really be from the world that you are used to.  This one is a diary entry (primary source!) from a newly initiated male Librarian of Smyrna, from the morning after the ritual.  After the jump.

  Always,

  Dr. John Skylar
  Chairman
  Department of Anachronism
  University of Constantinople

"I, Flax, am inducted as Flax the Librarian of Smyrna.

Monday Muse: Tunnel Tunes

Dear Readers,

Image via Wikipedia

  Monday is always a good day for music, like the fine people over on Twitter have figured out.  For my part in that fun, on Mondays I take a poetic or musical source from a time stream of my choice and publish it here for you.

  Now, of course, musical sources are really not my area of expertise, but they are incredibly valuable in how they connect an Anachronist with the culture he or she studies.  So, to some degree, Monday Muse is where you are on an even playing field with me as we discover some musical sources together.

  Unfortunately, augury data rarely, if ever, contains comprehensible audio.  We often need to find screenplays just to interpret the videos that we pull in, and this can be a tricky endeavor.  Therefore, music ends up almost exclusively as lyrics, and is in many ways difficult to distinguish from poetry.  The arbitrary nature of musical notation also complicates this; we can't be sure what conventions are relevant in a given time stream, so it becomes difficult to make conclusions.

  I've focused on neo-Aegea on this blog for some time now, but I'm not quite ready to give it a rest yet.  Today I'll provide a source from a set of popular songs.  Unlike last week's Martian song, this one may be originally a professional composition.  It should be easy to identify the cultural heritage that this song developed from, as it is another mutant of a song contemporary to you.  Additionally, it is a tribute to Civet, the famous storyteller whose work I've translated in the past.

  Always,

  Dr. John Skylar
  Chairman
  Department of Anachronism
  University of Constantinople

Oh, the shark, babe, has pretty teeth, dear
      And it shows them, pearly white.
      Just a Chesire-smile has old Civet, babe
      And he hides it, ah, in plain sight

When that shark bites, with his teeth, dear

      Scarlet billows, start to spread
      Fancy white lies, has Civet's tales, dear
      So you nevah, nevah know you've been conned

Now on the dock-ring, one sunny morning
    Crowds gather, oozin' cash.
    Someone's got them, in his palm dear
    Could he be...Civet the Storyteller?


A-there's a scaph-boat...down by the river dontcha know
    Where the tales flow from that old clown
    Oh that scaph's there, just to escape, dear
    Before long, 'ol Civet's, bum bum bum...leeeaaavin' town.


That's as far as my source goes.

Weekend Worlds: Jonas and the Metro, Part III

Dear Readers,

  Enjoy this final piece of Jonas and the Metro, translated by yours truly from the original neo-Aegean.

  When we last left the Engineer Jonas, his fellow bathyscaph metro passengers cast him into the waters in the metro tunnel.  From there, we continue.  Look for Parts I and II in the archives, or in the links.

  Always,

  Dr. John Skylar
  Chairman
  Department of Anachronism
  University of Constantintople

The journey out of the bathyscaph metro car plunged Jonas into a topsy-turvy world of tunnel seawater.  Buffeted from left to right, he got only the few minutes' air that an occaisional trip to airpockets at the tunnel ceiling offered him.

If he could have spoken, he might well have said, "Not only will I die, but I will be tortured!  I should never have doubted Athena!"

He struck his head against the ceiling, and descended into darkness with no knowledge whether he would ever return.  [this is a good point to request donations to hear the end of the story; attached to Jonas, your audience will now want to put in a few bits to see what happens to him here]

Jonas came to consciousness surrounded by selkies.  On land, the color and shape-changing creatures seemed more innocuous and innocent than he ever noticed before.  As his thoughts clambered through the fog to find coherence, he watched their young play and fight amongst each other.

"I'm in their nest," he spoke aloud.  The selkies would not care if he talked to himself.

Somehow, as the waters bounced him about, they deposited him in a selkie nest above the tunnel waterline.

"I can't believe it," Jonas said to himself again, and shook his head.

The selkies all turned to face him, and communally opened their mouths.

"Indeed, that is exactly the lesson we tried to teach you.  But you did not see it.  And so, we summoned our servants, these selkies, to save you from the water, so that you might see how we control this world."

Jonas sat dumbfounded, and then prostrated himself, "Athena?"

Back to neo-Aegea: Jonas and the Metro Part I

Dear Readers,

  Neo-Aegea remains a major focus of my research, and it also seems to build a large amount of reader response, so I thought that I would provide another primary source from the neo-Aegean dataset that I have.

  Like the things you've seen before, this source is a story from neo-Aegea.  Remember that neo-Aegea lacks the robust media that you are used to in your time stream, and so storytelling will be a more serious profession there.  These stories represent one of the main entertainment outlets for the Aegeans.  If you saw my post yesterday on Augury, you can imagine that this is why the stories come in with such a strong signal.

  The story today is once again by the Homerian "Civet the Storyteller," though I cannot say if it's an ancient oral story that Civet wrote down for the first time, or if it is something a little more original.  It clearly has a basis in several Judeo-Christian biblical stories, but of course mixed with Ancient Greek paganism and culture from your time stream.  Perhaps you can give me some insights to elements I do not understand about it.

Below, see my translation of the story's first part, after the jump, since I have finally gained the ability to add jumps.  Over your weekend, the second part will go up.  Once again, words in brackets are stage directions for a public performance by a storyteller.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism

University of Constantinople

    Athena, a major player in this myth.

Friday Seminar: Case Study #2, Emotional Undertones

Dear Readers,

It's time for my Friday Seminar again. This is a weekly feature, where I take you through part of the material in my introductory class, CHRN/AUG 100.

For the past two weeks of Seminar we've discussed the leap from emotive connotations in sources to conclusions about overall "zeitgeist," or spirit, of a given society in a given time stream. To review, we use the emotive undertones of a source to extrapolate what the driving passions of the culture that produced that source are. In principle, it's straightforward. In practice it can be tricky.

Since I featured neo-Aegea this week, I'll use the source I posted yesterday for our case study. My analysis of that source is by no means complete, so the conclusion I come to here are as new to me as they are to you.

The first steps in our analysis, as they have been since the beginning, are to establish a quick idea of the source type and a short critique of that source for us to keep in mind as we go forward.

What I posted yesterday is an easy source type. It was a myth, recorded for the purpose of public performance by a storyteller who hoped to earn money for his efforts. Therefore, I'll call it a mythic play, and leave it there.

What about our critique? That is a little more complicated. Let's keep in mind:

• This source is a myth. Myth typically describes any story with some religious tones that would be called "true" by the people who produced it, but doubted by people from virtually any other society. We have to keep in mind not that this source seems false to us, but that it is quite real to a neo-Aegean.
• This source is for commercial gain. Because it was meant to make money for the storyteller, there are places where clearly the events in the original myth are over-dramatized. It's possible that the original myth, even, is not as bombastic as this source. It's possible that the religious account has wild differences from this text. We need to keep that in mind as well.

While the downside of these two points is that we can't trust the source for much about the everyday life of an average Aegean, the upshot is that this source gives us a great idea of both the sorts of beliefs held by Aegeans as well as the kinds of entertainment that they sought out. Perfect for our emotive undertone analysis.

Let's look at some of the major emotional elements of this story:

• Engineers: Cadmus represents an active authority in his role as an adventurer, explorer and religious official. He is the "hero," and the fact that he is an "Engineer," which means a priest to an Aegean, tells us that religion is rather central to their society. Furthermore, the only entityies that Cadmus subordinates himself to are either gods, or another Engineer like Tiresias, with inspiration from the gods. Clearly, this society has a hierarchical view of the world, with religion at its apex.
• War: this myth is quite foreboding. The "sown men" are meant for war, as Athena warns us. The Storyteller is invited by the stage directions to advertise further stories of war, as well, and to increase the suspense just before the prediction of war is made. That tells us that stories of battle captivate the Aegean audience. These are not pacifists.
• Darkness: dark areas, caverns, and pitch-black oracular halls dominate this story. Aegea is a place full of darkness, and the contradiction presented by a blind seer in a dark room tells us more about Aegeans. Their need to "see" around them is more limited than societies that include greater description in their stories. This may have something to do with their sea floor life, or perhaps some the anti-curious drives that are prevalent in such a Dark Age society.
• Light: still, there is one very strong source of light in this story. The "Golden Bathyscaph" that Cadmus uses to travel, which you would probably call a "golden submarine," is a source of brightness and light. Through the Engineer, darkness is banished, light is produced, and preparations are made to defend from war. This kind of thing entertains the Aegean audience; again we see a centralizaation of the Engineers in their culture, as a source of light against the pervasive darkness.

So far, we have themes of subordination to religious order, in other words, submissiveness, as well as themes of violence, darkness, and light, again from the religious order. These emotive themse combine to paint a picture of at least part of Aegean society. In the era of this story's telling, it is a violent, dark place in most of its corners, with the stability and light sourced only from the powerful religious system. The rest of the people look to these Engineers for the goodness in their lives because of the darkness that surrounds them, both in terms of knowledge and literal currents of war and danger in the environment. And with that, we've reached an understanding of part of the zeitgeist, the driving spirit, of their Age. This understanding, gleaned also from other sources, inspired my "Day in the Life" post earlier this week.

Now, off to your weekend.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

Myth of the Spartoí

Dear Readers,

Earlier this week, in some of my explanations of neo-Aegean society, I discussed the development of different types of constructed soldiers in that time stream. One early type, which the local contemps will call spartoí, will essentially be clones made for warfare. In the original, spartoí means "sown men," and the name is based on an Ancient Greek myth.

In the original myth, Cadmus, future founder and King of Thebes, visits the Oracle at Delphi. Augury at the Orcale (though extremely rudimentary Augury) tells Cadmus to follow a cow until it stops, and then found a city there. During his attempt to do this, Cadmus and his men ran into a dragon, which Cadmus killed. Athena, who stopped by to have a look, took the dragon's teeth and gave half of them to Cadmus, and told him to plant them. She saved to other half for an adventure with Jason, of Argonaut fame, later on.

Unfortunately, this dragon was sacred to Ares. When Cadmus planted the teeth, men grew from them. These men were the spartoí. In some versions, Cadmus tricked them into fighting each other, and the five survivors helped him found Thebes. In other versions, only five arose to begin with. Either way, it made Ares angry, and Cadmus had to make up for this, but that's another story.

I tell you this background because today's myth, translated from my neo-Aegean Augury data, builds on the myth of the spartoí, though it is not an alternative myth of them. This story, as far as I can tell, is one of many stories that will be written by Civet the Storyteller, a neo-Aegean bard with similar fame to Ancient Greece's Homer, Spain's Lope de Vega, or England's William Shakespeare (the latter two, at least, in time streams where the Spanish Armada lost). Civet's writings, like most neo-Aegean myths, are a mixture of Ancient Greek stories and elements from across the cultural history of the humans of neo-Aegeea. From these references, I am able to surmise that the neo-Aegeans descend from your time stream, or something very close to it.

Story translated below. The manuscript is intended to be read aloud by a storyteller, from memory, and some performance notes appear italicized in brackets.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

Gather round, deck apes and Pilots alike! Hear the story of the Spartoí, from the greatest story-teller in all Aegea! [It is recommended that one compliment the audience at this point. Jokes also help your audience grow.]

In the days before the Clone War with Nemesis, the Great Engineer Cadmus lived in Aegea. he was so respected that all Cities begged him to serve as their Chief Engineer, but each he refused. Instead, he traveled all of Aegea in a Golden Bathyscaph, almost the size of a small colony in itself, in search of the greatest Oracle. While he possessed some skill with augury, everyone knows that you can never see your own future, and so he needed someone else to read his fate.

In those days, the City of Oz held the best augur-Engineers in the Ocean, and so Cadmus followed the rumors to their Machine Shop. There, he met Tiresias, the blind augur and Oracle of Oz. [Some storytellers tell this dialogue; that lacks style. Act it out!]

Cadmus entered Tiresias's Great Hall, shrouded in complete darkness. The seer preferred it that way. He also demanded that his guests remain silent until addressed.

After three days of waiting without food or water, Tiresias's voice boomed from the darkness, "A SUPPLICANT HERE HAS DARK HAIR AND GREEN EYES, LIKE A NOBLEMAN, BUT LIGHT SKIN, LIKE A PEASANT. HE IS CADMUS, THE GREAT ENGINEER. COME FORWARD, CADMUS."

Shocked that the blind seer could know his features in the dark, Cadmus walked forward several paces. His footsteps echoed through the cavernous chamber.

He began, "Great seer, I-"

"I KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE, CADMUS. YOU WISH TO FOUND YOUR OWN CITY, FOR YOUR SON, TUT, TO RULE. YOU WILL FOUND THIS CITY, CADMUS, AND YOU WILL NAME IT THEBES. WHEN YOU LEAVE HERE, YOU WILL FIND A SCHOOL OF SELKIES. ALL WILL CHANGE COLOR AS YOU APPROACH, SAVE ONE. FOLLOW THAT ONE TO THE ENDS OF AEGEA, AND THERE, FOUND YOUR CITY. NOW GO. I WILL FIND YOU WHEN YOUR CITY IS FOUNDED."

Cadmus, still in awe of the great seer, followed his instructions exactly, and departed as soon as he saw the selkie that did not change color. They followed it as it swam away. His bathyscaph traveled for forty-one days and forty-one nights, to the ends of Aegea itself, just as Tiresias predicted.

On the forty-second night, the selkie stopped in a deep cavern on the sea floor. Cadmus saw this and knew that they found the place to build his City. "Stop the bathyscaph, Thistle," he told his chiliarch, "We shall build it here. First, though, we must find petrol to burn this selkie as an offering to the gods who brought us to this place."

Thus, he and his men put on pressure suits and wandered out in search of a source of petrol for their offering. It was not to be so. Instead of petrol, they found a great beast that breathed like a Promethean Sling, and shot out fire that could burn even underwater. They called this beast Smog, for it choked out black clouds of charcoal and fire into the water around it.

From the moment they saw it, Smog killed hundreds of Cadmus's men with his fiery breath. Enraged, Cadmus pulled out a weapon that he built many years before, with Athena's help. A saber made of Aegis-light, it would kill anyone or anything which did not possess the Engineer's bloodline. He ran the beast Smog through with his saber, and though it tried to belch its flame upon him, the blade proved too much for the creature, and it instantly died.

When it fell, the sea floor rocked and petrol shot up from vents beneath. As the ground quaked, Cadmus and his men were knocked unconscious, and cast into a deep sleep. In dream, Athena visited Cadmus.

"You have come back to me, Cadmus," he glory and beauty were so strong, that she did not need to say these words. Cadmus merely looked upon the goddess, and knew her warm greeting.

Then she spoke, and the power of it almost killed him, "You will take Smog's teeth, and plant them near your City. From these teeth will grow men, the spartoí, who will become your soldiers. You can grow more, also. They can be copied, like any other men. You will need them for the times to come, or too many of your people will die in war. You have done something terrible, Cadmus."

"What have I done?" he wept before her. [This is the point of greatest suspense; your audience wants to know what will happen next! Make them pay you to hear it, since later, they will not feel so generous!]

"Smog was sacred to Ares, Cadmus, and you have slain this creature. The god of war does not forget, Cadmus. War will come, between the Engineers and the City of Nemesis, who do not follow the gods, but follow anger and hatred instead. This war will be called the Clone War, and it will be because of you. Prepare yourself!"

Cadmus awakened, the air in his suit almost empty. He gathered his men, and they returned to the Golden Bathyscaph. They returned to gather the dragon's teeth, and ust as Athena said, they grew into soldiers in just hours. These were the spartoí, the first grown soldiers of Aegea. The Thalassians you know today descended from these soldiers. Each of you might have known war in your lifetimes, if not for Cadmus, who invented the spartoí, so that men would not fight and die in war. [Here you may advertise that you will tell battle stories if your audience stays longer, or if they come back tomorrow.]

A Day in the Life: Cyzican Steamworks

Dear Readers,

This marks the second week that I provide a fictional narrative that represents a "slice of life" from a time stream that has captured my interest recently. Like everything else I've written this week, today's Day in the Life focuses on neo-Aegea.

Originally I thought I would write a story of one of Aegea's soldiers, but I decided instead to write about a slave in the vast steamworks and factories of Aegean industry. This one takes place in Cyzica, one of the more industrial of neo-Aegea's city-states.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

"Olive, you all right?" he heard his mother's voice yell from the other room.

He wanted to say, "No, I'm not all right. I'm coughing up black soot and snot into our tiny-ass sink, Mom, because I'm a slave in a weapons factory." Instead, he coughed up more of the charred mix into the steel basin, as the glowstrips above his head flickered at the end of their lives.

"Olive?" his mother yelled a little louder.

Olive looked at the grey mess he had made. That damned Prometheus Engine caused all this. He cursed his own blasphemy as soon as he thought it. Second Engineer Odysseus would no doubt prescribe a penance. There would be no Aegea without the titan Prometheus's fiery gifts and technology.

He coughed once more, and yelled in answer, "Yes, mother, I'm fine, just...tired from work, I guess." It came out raspier than he hoped. Maybe she would not notice.

In the sheet of polished plastic his family called a mirror, Olive looked at his pale face and tried to wipe away any collateral black streaks. He also tried to fix the places where sweat matted his dark hair. Both efforts were a little bit futile; everyone in Cyzica's dregs looked like that. Slaves could afford little else.

"Olive, we need to go to the Ceres Engine, come out of there." His mother again.

He sighed into the mirror. Dinnertime. He did feel colossal hunger, so he decided his hair would have to wait.

"Coming, mother!"

He opened the rickety metal hatchway and flopped over the threshold, into the other room of their quarters. Its dishevelled space served as bedroom, kitchen, sometimes hospital. Again, the lot of a slave. In the middle of the room, his mother, in her usual sackcloth, stood ready to leave. At twenty-nine, she might even have looked pretty with her copper hair. If she could afford to wash it.

"Let's go," Olive said.

She half-smiled and turned to leave. The Ceres Engine was a short walk from their quarters, though by this time there might be a long line, so they rushed there. Even so, about a hundred other slaves, just off of their day's work, waited ahead of them to receive their daily bread.

At the head of the line, two Brothers of the Gasket assisted the local parish Engineer, First Degree Artemis. They removed the bread from the Ceres Engine as she addressed the crowd, "Thank Ceres, the great goddess, that your food comes this day. Only by her magic does her Engine bring your portion into this world, and so only by her magic, do you live. Rejoice, slaves of Cyzica. The gods do not forget you!"

Olive tuned her out as she continued to preach the faith. As he neared age fourteen, he focused more on Artemis's extremely physical, exotic appearance and less on her words. He heard that speech every night, anyway.

"Don't stare, Olive, it's too dangerous." his mother chided him. He knew she was right. The gods forbade all non-Engineers from lustful stares on their chosen clergy. Slaves, especially, could be killed for leery gazes at young First Degree Engineers.

Still, as he stood in the line of dirty, broken slaves, Olive felt nothing fair in that rule. Everyone around him, just as worthless as he, saw not even a shred of anything holy or clean, save Artemis and the Brothers who supported her. Tomorrow, and every day after that, he would go back to his work in the steamy weapons factory, where much harsher Engineers, like the older Second Degree Odysseus would drive him to repair and feed the Hephaestus Engines. All to make more weapons for Cyzica and her allies' armies. He saw no justice in it, but then just was scarce this deep in the City's levels. Olive shrugged and returned his gaze to the back of the person ahead of him in line. At least he would have bread soon.

Theocracy or Technocracy?

Dear Readers,

I've decided that this week I'll continue to feature neo-Aegean society, since that is the focus of my work right now. Today: neo-Aegean religion, and its unique elements. Remember, of course, that most of what I write here on this subject is in the very early stages of understanding, so there may be inaccuracies or omissions.

Theology in Aegea (I will use this term interchangably with neo-Aegea for this article) is a rather complicated subject. As far as I am able to tell, the most powerful people in Aegean society are the priestly caste, forbidden from intermarriages with the rest of the population. Of course, that motif is rather common across a variety of eras and time streams.

What's peculiar about neo-Aegean society is that these priests seem also to have very tight control over the technology of their civilization. Knowledge, whether practical or philosophical is protected by this priesthood.

At its core, their religion is based on what you would call the "Ancient Greek" pantheon. This makes it remarkably easy to study. How or why this is possible is not something I really understand, but it seems that in the neo-Aegean time stream, this religion re-emerged even though in your time it is quite dormant. There are clear hallmarks, however, that the pantheon has expanded to include certain folk heroes and icons from the intervening time.

It's also curious that the neo-Aegeans seem to have reasonable Augury technology. That certainly raised an eyebrow. Their machinery still relies on the sacrifice of living things, however. Thankfully the University was able to do away with that particular practice.

So, to sum up: religion in Aegea is inspired by Ancient Greece, but with other cultural baggage. It maintains a tight grip on society, with control over much of the available technical knowledge. It has access to advanced Augury technology, unlike your society. And yet the entire society seems to have plunged into a largely faith-based dark age with little scientific advancement. This is a conundrum that I cannot explain at all.

Furthermore, I have some trouble translating the name for their priests. While I find it hard to believe, the linguistic evidence all points to the idea that they will be called something roughly akin to "Engineers." How interesting.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

So-called "Battle Studies"

Dear Readers,

When Twitter was up, an upcoming album by someone named John Mayer--all right, fine, I do remember him from when I was alive--made it onto the trending topics. This reminded me that I've been meaning to write something about battle strategies in neo-Aegea.

Of course, I really do not know that much about the society at the time this is written. I know that later I will write more, and become the preeminent scholar of that civilization and its time stream, but for now I do not have the expertise yet.

What I can tell you follows. First, neo-Aegea, or "Aegea" to its residents, is a place different from Earth. It exists in the future, from your perspective. Don't worry, I'm not giving you "spoilers" for reality. If you want your time to get there, you still have to figure out how.

Neo-Aegean society is also entirely underwater. This leads to interesting implications for warfare.

Neo-Aegea's inhabitants will have technology far beyond yours, including advanced weapons and genetic engineering. However, it's clear to me that for at least the first millenium of its existence, the civilization there will lose most understanding of its advances, and simply take them for granted. At least, I believe that is what will happen.

Part of this technnology appears to be robust, genetically engineered soldiers. It seems that they will be developed over time. It seems the first generation will be called Spartoí, and will not be much different than growth-accelerated clones. Their name, of course, betrays this society's heavy Greek cultural influence. I believe that this week, my "Day in the Life" post may focus on the rank and file lives of these early soldiers.

The second generation of soldiers I know far less about, except that they exist. During their time, however, I begin to hear more words relating to larger military organization. A hierarchical structure based on powers of two arises at this time. The Phalanx sits at the top of this military organizational pyramid, commanded by Admirals called Nauarchi.

We know much more about the third generation of soldiers, the Thalassians. Named for the goddess Thalassa, or so I suppose, they are a seamless marriage of human genetics and machine technology. How these Thalassians arose from a Dark Age is something that I do not yet understand, but I will endeavor to find the answer. For now, all I have is an image of massive, muscular, steel-blue amphibians swimming in clouds and descending on one another underwater, as harpoons and fiery fluids fly between the two sides. I can think of little more terrifying than these descriptions of Thalassians in battle.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

Words, Weapons, Weight

Dear Readers,

I am up late and translating neo-Aegean records. Their society is fascinating, and I hope I can eventually tell you more about them. Your time stream will find out about them sooner or later, but you might not. Fascinating people, really. So much more advanced than you as a society, but the individuals are so much more ignorant of things you would take for granted. But then, what is truth, really? Is it Zeus, or electricity?

In life, I wrote, and in this retake of life, I also write. Sometimes original things, like that fable, but more often translations, like my work on the neo-Aegean things. Translation is a funny business, especially when the original language is some offshoot without a clear dictionary and the people in Linguistics really do not know how to make head or tail of it. That's when it gets really interesting.

And the reason is, of course, that each polished user of language, that is to say, the people whose work gets most often detected by augury, picks words with painstaking care. Each word is a puzzle piece, a harmonious element, a sling, an arrow, a tender knife. Each has weight, weight that lifts you with butterflies above golden fields of poppies or drags down in the darkest, slimiest depths of neo-Aegea's globe-spanning ocean. When the language is poorly understood, it takes a stroke of genius to find the right translation. These strokes of genius do not happen all the time, unfortunately. I wish they did.

Back to work.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

A Primer on Neo-Aegean Society

Dear Readers,

My working life right now is consumed by study of these stories and myths from the neo-Aegean culture, and so in coming days you may expect to find more materials from that data set. Therefore, I thought you might like to hear a little of what we know so far.

Much remains unclear about this society. We can tell that it will be (I use the tense appropriate to your era) polytheistic and somewhat naive of science. Likewise, we're aware that it will not be on Earth, where your culture resides. From these details, I am willing to surmise that it will also have very different moral norms from the culture that you live in.

I place the dating for neo-Aegean culture more than a millennium into your future. This is not a precise figure, but it does give you a rough idea of how different their society will be. Furthermore, what evidence we have so far gives strong indication that their lifestyle and beliefs have roots in your Ancient Greek society. The University takes great interest in this, of course, because our Empire's forbears were Hellenistic, and so we may have found a resurgence of our ancestors, long in your future, around a distant star. I find this very exciting. The biggest question about them is: Why?

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople

Cross-cultural Evidence!

Dear Readers,

I report to you with excitement about the neo-Aegean data! I have found some references which indicate you are direct precursors of this society. It is truly beyond incredible to me that I can tell you something that may be in store for you. Of course, we've screened everything so no one may use it for their gain. And remember, just because the augur sees it, does not mean it shall definitely be so. Caveat emptor.

Below is a fragment of what seems to be a record of an oral story, from that data set. You will see immediately why I theorize that it originates from your culture.

"[beginning of tale is truncated] it was then that Mr. Bennett stared flatly at Heracles and said, "Sir, if your intentions toward my daughter are untoward in the least, you may find me capable of more than sitting in chairs and offering pithy comments."

Now, children, you know that gods, even demigods, do not often take well to criticism. However, in this case, Heracles respected Mr. Bennett as the worried father, and calmed his temper. He smiled widely, and gods'-fire could be seen arcing off of his teeth, "Mr. Bennett, I assure you that if anything ill should come to your daughter as a result of my advances, I will repay every damage to your family with an entire constellation of stars. I will work any labor you ask."

Mrs. Bennett giggled with delight, but the god could see that her husband was still less than pleased."

The manuscript ends there, however I suspect that somewhere in the rest of the data, I will find the end to this story. As soon as I can, I shall communicate it to you.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantintople

My Work of Late

Dear Readers,

I thought it might interest you to have an idea of the two projects I have going right now. They are exciting, and you are bound to see some fragments of them appear here over the next couple of weeks.
The first relates to a civilization you will not be familiar with: the neo-Aegeans. Our knowledge of their culture is very limited, but it seems they are a future offshoot of your timeline. Their culture will be rich and vibrant, as will their technology. Still, their understanding of that technology will be quite a bit more limited than the brief oasis of enlightened thought that you and your contemporaries enjoy. From their time, the augurs collected a wide variety of stories and myths meant as entertainment. The first of these, in translation, should appear here soon. Professor Petrarch, who is an expert on Dark Ages, is collaborating with me on this project.
My second major research area relates to a timeline that soon diverges from yours, and so to provide too many details would be untoward. Suffice it to say that it is a diary from a 21st century New York City in severe disarray. The diary follows an investment banker as he struggles to survive in a world that changes every moment. I may show you snippets of it from time to time, but I must be careful not to divulge too much. This project is more limited, and so it is a solo effort.
I hope this brings you a deeper understanding of the complexities of our work. It is an exciting thing, to look from my point of view and see what has been, could have been, and yet might be. I endeavor to impart this feeling onto you.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople