HOME AUTHOR DIONUSYS MASKS TULLIUS-WORLD LABYRINTH NEW-WORK
LORNA'S LABYRINTH ARIADNE GODDESS OF THE LABYRINTH |
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SOCIETY--The
Actor King is set in the Eastern Mediterranean, an area that had only been
recently occupied by the Romans. The indigenous cultures had survived, although
greatly modified by the presence of Greek thought and social orginization
that had followed on the heels of Alexander's conquest of the region. The
Romans provided yet another layer of cultural affect, and they controlled
the areas through a stringent legal system and their ever present armies.
Tullius travels through ancient Judea and Egypt both of which had very distinctive
characters. Their
goal, Alexandria, was an extraodinary city for any era, with its brilliant
intellectual historystill alive in 117 C.E. the period when our tale opens.
In Egypt, women had many legal rights that they lacked in other places. see Egypt After the Phaoaohs by Bowman and Religion in
Roman Egypt by Frankfurter |
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THEATER--Mercurius
and his troupe of actors represent an unusual group in so far as they were trying
tt carry on the "old" forms of theater in an age that valued sensational
violence and seemed to have a very short attention span! Greek drama was the
bedrock of ancient theater and Mercurius directed his troupe back into the rich
layers of that heritage. Alexandria had a long theatrical tradition from the
age of the early Ptolomies that included the worship of Dionysis. That god was
conflated with Osirus, the powerful Egyptian god, husband to Isis. This was
fertile soil for a continued understanding of the tranformational nature of
theater. see--Greek
and Roman Actors ed. Easterling and Hall |
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LITERATURE--Not
only did our era have a treasure of writing in Greek and other languages from
the preceeding generations, but it had the rich thought contributed by Roman
writers like Ovid, Virgil and Horace. One of our troupe, Megadorus, is the bibliophyle
who only wishes to live out his days reading in a garden. This is an open era
for intellectuals. They could debate the nature of life and the reality, or
not, of the gods. They knew about the diversity of religions, the vastness of
the universe and the beauty of mathmatics. Like the statues that had been taken
from their temple settings and set out in the gardens of the wealthy, the vision
of literature as artifice, as an elegant part of "the good life" was
intrinsic to the time. |
| TRAVEL--On
the one hand, people travelled from Britain all the way to Damascus or to
Lybia along the extensive roads and in the widespread shipping vessels, but
by modern standards, it was very slow and difficult, especially for the poorer
people who did not have the benefit of friends or contacts to put them up
in every city. In The Actor King
our prople had to carry along their own supplies and even provide their own
tents on shipboard. Check out-- Pagan Holiday by
Perrottet and Travel in the Ancient World by Casson |
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