Gods and Warriors (36 page)

We don’t know as much about Bronze Age Greece as we do about what came afterward, because its people left so few written records. However, we know something about the astonishing cultures that flourished at that time, and which we call the Mycenaeans and the Minoans. Theirs is the world of
Gods and Warriors.

Here I need to say a quick word about the place names in the story. What Hylas calls Akea (or Achaea, as it’s usually spelled) is the ancient name for mainland Greece; and Lykonia is my name for present-day Lakonia, in southwest
Greece; but I’ve kept the name Mycenae unaltered, as it’s so well known. Concerning Pirra’s people, I’ve adopted the name “Keftian” for the great Cretan civilization we call Minoan. However, it’s one of the mysteries of the ancient world that we don’t actually
know
what the people of that civilization called themselves; depending on which book you read, they may have called themselves Keftians, or that may just have been a name given to them by the ancient Egyptians. As for the Egyptians themselves, although the name “Egyptian” comes from the name given to them by the Greeks, I’ve used it in the story because, like Mycenae, it felt too awkward and artificial to change it.

In creating the world of Hylas and Pirra, I’ve studied the archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age, particularly its tombs and strongholds, artifacts and weapons. But to get an idea of how people thought and what they believed, I’ve also drawn on the beliefs of more recent peoples who still live in traditional ways, just as I did when I wrote about the Stone Age in
Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.
And even though people in Hylas’ time lived mostly by farming or fishing, rather than by hunting and gathering, as they did in the Stone Age, I’ve no doubt that many of the skills and beliefs of those earlier hunter-gatherers would have lingered on into the Bronze Age, particularly among the poorer and more isolated people, such as Hylas himself.

Concerning the geographical setting for the story, many people believe that Bronze Age Greece was a land of
scattered chieftaincies separated by great mountain ranges and forests. It’s also thought to have been wetter and greener than it is today, with far more wild animals both on land and in the Sea. In creating the Island of the Goddess, I didn’t have a specific Greek island in mind, but based it on my sojourns over the decades on the islands of Ithaka, Kephalonia, and Alonissos. More recently, and to gain inspiration for Lykonia, I visited Lakonia, including the Acropolis at Sparta, the Eurotas River, and the deserted and immensely evocative ruins of the nearby Menelaion. To get a feel for Hylas’ mountain home, I explored the Langada Gorge that winds through the Taÿgetos Mountains, and stayed for several days at the top of the Langada Pass. Wild boar still haunt the forests there; one morning, I had a slightly unnerving encounter with five piglets and their watchful mother.

To experience the caves in which Hylas and Pirra hide out, I explored the extensive, watery cave system of Vlychada, on the Bay of Diros in southwest Lakonia, as well as its small but highly informative local museum. There I learned of the dreadful fate of some of the cave’s earlier inhabitants, one of whose calcified remains sparked the idea for Pirra’s encounter with the Vanished Ones. To get a feel for Keftiu, I visited Crete, where the ruins at Knossos and Phaestos, as well as the museums of Iraklion and Archanes, provided much inspiration for Pirra’s homeland.

Spirit is, of course, one of the most important
characters in the story, and to get to know him better I swam with socialized dolphins in Florida, where one of them kindly gave me a fin-ride, as Spirit does for Hylas and Pirra. I then traveled to the mid-Atlantic islands of the Azores, where I spent days observing wild dolphins of different species: Striped, Atlantic Spotted, Common, Risso’s, and Spirit’s own kind, the Bottlenose. It was only when I saw wild dolphins in their natural habitat that I truly appreciated the mysterious synchronicity of their swimming. Snorkeling with them gave me a powerful sense of their otherworldliness, which made it easy to imagine how Hylas feels when he sees the dolphins swimming in the phosphorescence he calls “the blue fire.” Above all, watching those wild dolphins gave me an imaginative insight into how Spirit experiences life in his deep blue world.

I want to thank the people—too numerous to name—who gave me invaluable guidance and assistance while I was exploring Lakonia and Crete, as well as the marine biologists in Ponta Delgada in the Azores who helped me get as close to wild dolphins as was possible without disturbing them, and generously shared their insights on dolphin biology and behavior. I’m also extremely grateful to Todd Whitelaw, Professor of Aegean Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, for giving so generously of his time in answering some questions on the prehistoric Aegean. As always, I want
to thank my wonderful and indefatigable agent, Peter Cox, for his commitment and support; and my two hugely talented editors at Puffin Books, Elv Moody and Sarah Hughes, for their boundless enthusiasm and their vivid and imaginative responses to the story of Hylas and Pirra.

Michelle Paver, 2012