Black Ships

by Jo Graham

  Rutoli: Etruscan tribe living north of modern-day Rome

  Sais: city on the westernmost branch of the Nile

  Scylla: Sicily, especially the rocky coast near the Straits of Messina

  Sekhmet: Egyptian lion-headed goddess of war

  Seven Sisters: Aeneas’ ship, named after the constellation of the Pleiades, known as the seven sisters. She has the stars painted on her prow

  Shardan: people from an island in the Western Mediterranean, probably Sardinia or Corsica

  Silvius (Prince): son of Neas and Lavinia, half brother of Wilos

  Sothis: Sirius, the dog star. In Minoan mythology, it was known as Iakchos, the son of Persephone and Hades. The heliacal rising of Sirius is right after the summer solstice

  Swift: one of Neas’ warships, painted with the silhouette of a Pallid Swift, a small, quick bird native to the Mediterranean

  Sybil: the title given to Pythia by the Wilusans, an oracle

  Tamiat: Egyptian port, modern-day Damietta

  Thoth: Egyptian god of writing, learning, speech, and knowledge, usually portrayed as an ibis or an ibis-headed man

  Tia: Kos’ sister, a young girl taken as a slave in the fall of the city. Mother of Kianna

  Triotes: an Achaian, Gull’s mother’s lover

  Ugarit: city on the coast of modern-day Syria destroyed by raiders around 1200 BCE

  Wilos: Ilios or Iulus, the son of Neas, also known in mythology as Ascanius, who escaped the fall of Wilusa and his mother’s death. Grandson of Anchises and Lysisippa

  Wilusa: A city mentioned in the Hittite diplomatic archives that is probably the Arzawan name for Ilios (Troy). Also Uilusia in Hittite

  Winged Night: one of Neas’ warships, its sails painted with black wings

  Xandros: Captain of Dolphin, and Neas’ closest friend. His full name is Alexandros, a very common name in Wilusa, which means “guardsman.” He was married and had two daughters before the fall of the city, when his entire family was killed

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  There are many people without whom Black Ships would never have been written, beginning with two wonderful teachers, Janet Frederick Rhodes, who kindled in me a love of the ancient world and who always believed I would write novels, and Judy Arnette, who endured me through four books of Virgil’s Aeneid, most of Caesar, and a smattering of Catullus in high school. The seeds of Black Ships come from them, and from my parents and their love of history. I also must thank my sister, Elizabeth Thompson, who remembers the first version of this story from our early teens as the Tale of Aldith and the Sea People.

  I am deeply grateful to all the people who read Black Ships in progress and encouraged me at every step of the way. At the head of that list stands Tanja Kinkel, without whom I would never have finished the first draft.

  I also must thank Lesley Arnold, Danielle D’Onofrio, Lynn Foster, Stephanie Grant, Mari Harju, Nathan Jensen, Gretchen Lang, Jessica Lee, Kris Lee, Kathryn McCulley, Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, Naomi Novik, Anna Sitniakowsky, Jeff Tan, and Robert Waters, for their friendship, their wonderful feedback, and occasional hard criticism.

  I am most especially grateful to Amy Vincent, who not only thought it was good enough to publish, but who took the manuscript to an agent!

  I have no gratitude deep enough for my wonderful agent, Diana Fox, who decided that she was going to sell Black Ships, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, and whose thoughtful comments improved the manuscript immensely; as well as Robin Rue of Writer’s House. Likewise, I owe a debt of gratitude to Devi Pillai, who decided to take a gamble on an unknown author and to whom I will be forever thankful.

  Last, in this, as in everything else I do, I would be lost without my wonderful partner, Amy, who makes every step in life an enchanted journey across a wide ocean.

  extras

  meet the author

  JO GRAHAM lives in Maryland with her family, and has worked in politics for many years. Black Ships is her debut novel.

  interview

  What kind of research did you do for Black Ships?

  I’ve been interested in the period of the Trojan War since I was in high school, when I read The Aeneid in Latin and fell in love with Virgil and his storytelling. The thing about initially reading a book in a foreign language is that you have to go very slowly. The story really sinks in when you’re doing thirty lines a day. I already knew at the time that it wasn’t possible for Aeneas to actually visit Carthage, because Carthage didn’t exist yet. So in my mind I mentally transported the action to Egypt.

  Long before I started writing Black Ships I was reading about the period, and so the actual research was more brushing up on things and checking dates here and there.

  If you could have dinner with one of your characters, who would it be?

  Xandros, without a doubt. He can cook! And also I think it would be wonderful to spend time with him. He’s genuinely a nice person, and also interesting and intelligent.

  What interests you about this period in history?

  It’s a period of change. It’s a crisis. Up until this point, things have been improving for a lot of people—more food, more sanitation, more trade. But something’s wrong, and the world is crashing down.

  Historians and archaeologists are debating endlessly what caused the crisis around 1200 BCE, and nobody knows for certain. Was it a chain of events set off by earthquakes and the eruption of Santorini? Certainly that didn’t help, but it seems unlikely to be the cause of economic disruption hundreds of miles away. Was it technology? Crop failures? Migrations of peoples in response to climate change? We don’t know, any more than Gull does. But it happened, and it’s fascinating to look at how people coped with that.

  How long did it take you to write Black Ships?

  A year. I started just before Christmas in 2004 and finished on New Year’s Day, 2006.

  What were other titles you considered for Black Ships?

  Interestingly enough, I never had any others. My publisher debated a few, but it was Black Ships to me from the first chapter. It’s from the haunting tablets from Ugarit, the last words of that doomed city. “The fleet is away. Black ships have been sighted...” That was an image that struck me and that came long before I started writing—looking toward the sea from a high place (the mountain road), looking toward the sea and seeing the black ships in the slanting dawn light and knowing what that meant.

  What do you do to keep yourself inspired and motivated while working on a long project?

  When I need to put it down, I do. I’ve found that pushing myself to work on it when I’m not ready just produces terrible work. So I go back and read original source material. Or I read or watch things that connect in some way in my head. Or listen to music that connects to the story for me. For Black Ships, the song that is absolutely Gull to me is Enya’s “Book of Days.” Go listen and see if you don’t hear Gull there! And more than that, the entire tone of the book.

  What was the first story you ever wrote?

  A Star Wars fanfic about Han Solo as a child. I wrote it while waiting for my dance class when I was nine.

  What do you hope readers will take away from your stories? What is it that you want them to think about?

  That realism and enchantment are not mutually exclusive. That the world is a numinous place.

  That said, that there are different kinds of heroics—Gull’s quiet faith and courage, Neas’ physical bravery and determination to do the right thing, Xandros’ solid, generous doing what he has to without bitterness. And that all of them are within reach of real people. That we don’t have to be the victims of big things happening around us in the world—we can overcome them and build something new out of even the most dreadful tragedy.

  In what important ways is the era in which Black Ships is set different than our own? In what ways is it like our own?

  It’s different in many obvious ways, technology, etc., but it’s similar in some very important ways.

  Politically, the Mediterranean
has had a number of very developed civilizations with a balance of power—the Hittites, the Minoans, the Mycenaeans, the Egyptians, etc.—who have had various conflicts over the past couple of centuries without a great deal of territory changing hands. And then, in the past hundred years, one after another major player has fallen into ruin. Egypt is left as the only superpower, an incredibly rich nation where there hasn’t been a war on Egyptian soil for three hundred years. It’s a volatile situation. And one that can’t last.

  What’s on your bookshelf? What are the books you’ve read over and over?

  Oh great question! There are so many! But I suppose these are the ones I reread just about every year.

  Flying Colours by C. S. Forester

  Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey

  The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

  Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr

  Tales of the South Pacific by James Mitchener

  The Roads of Heaven by Melissa Scott

  The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

  The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault

  The Eagle and the Nightingale by Juliette Benzoni

  Imperial Woman by Pearl Buck

  The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

  Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz

  Which other writers do you think had an influence on your work and whose was the most important?

  The obvious first answer is Mary Renault, whose books about the ancient world inspire me. I think also Judith Tarr, Mika Waltari, and Pearl Buck are obvious influences. In terms of my approach, I would have to say Marion Zimmer Bradley is a big influence, and also Katherine Kurtz.

  Which of the main conflicts in the book is the one you are most interested in and why?

  One of the things I find most interesting is Neas’ conflict between being the person he feels he ought to be, the son of Anchises, and the person who can get everyone through this, someone with less rigid honor and more faith. Faith is not exactly a virtue of the Homeric hero. And neither are flexibility, kindness, or mercy. He really doesn’t know what to do, for example, when he marries Lavinia. Kindness to his young bride is not something anyone has ever taught him was important, and yet he wants her to not hate him and he wants to not scar someone as badly as Basetamon was scarred. He’s a better person than his time teaches him to be.

  What first interested you about ancient history?

  I can’t remember when I wasn’t interested in ancient history! The first thing I remember being wildly interested in was when I was five. My mother watched the Elizabeth Taylor version of Cleopatra on broadcast television after my bedtime, and I snuck downstairs and sat on the steps and watched. Total love! My mother really encouraged my interest—it’s an interest of hers, and we’ve always enjoyed talking about it.

  What texts did you use for research/inspiration?

  The one I recommend wholeheartedly for people who don’t know a lot about the time but are interested is Michael Wood’s In Search of the Trojan War. It really inspired me to see how to put the story together and how to place it in the context of the crisis around 1200 BCE. And that’s where I first encountered the tablets from Pylos, listing the women who are flax slaves, including “the woman of Troy, the servant of the god.”

  Who or what influenced your characters?

  I see the characters in the context of the entire story I’m telling, from the Trojan War to the modern day—the same major characters, weaving in and out of events, working together or against one another in different constellations. (Neas was telling the truth when he said he’d remember!)

  So sometimes I look at something ahead and work backward. What are the things that would need to have happened for this person to have reacted this way?

  reading group guide

  1. Thoughout Black Ships, Gull often has to make her decisions based on the situation at hand rather than the strictures that She Who Was Pythia taught her to abide by. What are a few examples of this, and how do you think they helped to shape Gull’s complex character?

  2. Does Jo Graham intend for us to believe that Gull has supernatural powers? Or could there be other explanations for her ability to see what others cannot?

  3. In Black Ships, we constantly see the Wilusans trying to start over. How do we see their societal structure change over the course of their journey?

  4. When the Wilusans arrive in Egypt, they are confronted with a society that does not adhere to the same social taboos to which they are accustomed. How do the two societies compare?

  5. Basetamon, though quite beautiful and powerful, is a very troubled character. How much is she responsible for her actions regarding Neas? Is his response to her behavior appropriate or should he have been more understanding?

  6. When Xandros goes after Ashterah in the Underworld, what do you think is the impetus for his return? What does this say about his character’s evolution in the novel?

  7. Although Gull constantly worked in the realm of Death, she becomes utterly grief-stricken when Xandros and her son are taken from her. What do you think this says about her humanity versus her duty as Death’s handmaiden?

  8. In the final scene, do you think Neas’ and Gull’s relationship has developed beyond friendship (although his wife is still alive), or is it just a friendship that has naturally deepened with time?

  9. Black Ships offers a number of parallels to our modern world. Gull comes from a world in which war has become a part of life. This is in sharp contrast to what the Wilusans see in Egypt: a society in which weapons are rarely needed and professional soldiers do the fighting. How is Gull’s world like and unlike ours? Do we have societies today where war is part of life and societies where it’s an extraordinary experience that most people never face?

  introducing

  If you enjoyed BLACK SHIPS look out for

  HAND OF ISIS

  by Jo Graham

  Once, in a palace by the sea, there were three sisters born in the same year.

  The eldest was born in the season of planting, when the waters of the Nile had receded once more and the land lay rich and fertile, warm and muddy and waiting for the sun to quicken everything to life. She was born in one of the small rooms behind the Court of Birds, and her mother was a serving woman who cooked and cleaned, but who one day had caught Ptolemy Auletes’ eye. Her skin was honey, her eyes dark as the rich floodwaters. Her name was Iras.

  The second sister was born under the clear stars of winter, while the land greened and grain ripened in the fields, when fig and peach trees nodded laden in the starry night. She was born in a great bedchamber with wide windows open to the sea, and five Greek physicians in attendance, for she was the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes’ queen, and her name was Cleopatra.

  The youngest sister was born as the earth died, as the stubble of the harvest withered in the fields beneath the scorching sun. She was born beside the fountain in the Court of Birds, because her mother was a blond slave girl from Thrace, and that was where her pains took her. Water fell from the sky and misted her tiny upturned face. Her hair was the color of tarnished bronze, and her eyes were blue as the endless Egyptian sky. Her name was Charmian.

  Once, in a palace by the sea, there were three sisters. All the stories begin so.

  My mother was a Thracian slave girl who died when I was born, so I do not remember her. Doubtless I would have died too, as unwanted children will, had Iras’ mother not intervened. Asetnefer was from Elephantine, where the Nile comes out of Nubia at the great gorges, and enters Egypt. Her own daughter was five months old when I was born, and she took me to her breast beside Iras, a pale scrap of a newborn beside my foster sister. She had attended at the birth, and took it hard when my mother died.

  I do not know if they were exactly friends. I heard it said later that Pharaoh had often called for them together, liking the contrast between them, the beauty of my mother’s golden hair against Asetnefer’s ebony skin. Perhaps it was true, and perhaps not. Not every story told at cour
t is true.

  Whatever her reasons, Asetnefer nursed me as though I were a second child of her own, and she is the mother I remember, and Iras my twin. She had borne a son some years before Iras, but he had drowned when he was three years old, before my sister and I were born. It is this tragedy that colored our young lives more than anything else, I believe, though we did not mourn for him, having never known him. Asetnefer was careful of us. We should not play out of sight of people; we should not stray from her while she worked. She carried us both, one on each hip in a sling of cloth, Iras to the left and me to the right, until we grew too heavy and had to go on our feet like big children. She was freeborn, and there was doubtless some story of how she had come to be a slave in Alexandria by the sea, but I in my innocence never asked what it was.