Monthly Archives: May 2013

Read the Introduction to the Mieza Book Club here
Thee previous minutes of the Mieza Book Club can be found here

Orestes: The Young Lion
by Laura Gill
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Chapter Six to Ten
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At 7pm sharp, the meeting was called to order by club president Seleucus. Members were asked if they had their copies of Orestes: The Young Lion with them. For the second week running, Amyntas of Pella and Amyntas of Aegae didn’t, so were voted by a show of hands to be tonight’s designated drivers. Amyntas of Pella sulked. Again.
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The original intention had been to discuss chapters six to fifteen; that we only made it up to chapter ten in the course of this meeting is a credit to Laura Gill’s penmanship. Or should that be penwomanship? Or even penpersonship? I expect that is what they say in the Labour Party. But it is not what we say in the MBC, which - if the members were with me as I write up the introduction - would probably be ‘Get on with the review of this book’. So let’s get (on with it).
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Meleagar “In the sixth chapter of the book Orestes barfs. I know it is a serious moment but it made me smile as it rather reminded me of my first year up. I attended a party in my tutor’s room, got a little tight, and threw up in the stairs. My sister saw me; frightfully embarrassing.”
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Seleucus “That was a dashed silly thing to do. Who was the tutor? Not Prissy Perkins, I hope.”
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Meleagar “Oh God no; Mrs Randall. Lovely creature.”
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A short discussion on members’ tutors followed. A vote was taken and they were all declared (with the exception of Professor Crutwell who is well known to be beastly) to be good eggs.
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Leonnatus “I am stil captivated by the knowledge of where the story is heading. I spoke about it to a fellow during the week who said, ‘But doesn’t it make the story dull knowing that Orestes and Elektra will one day kill Clytaemnestra?’ and I had to say, ‘no, old chap, no more than a car crash is less tense or shocking because you saw the two cars approaching each other’.
….. ”By retelling a well known story, Gill can’t make use of the suspense of the mystery, but it doesn’t matter because she is very good at capturing the suspense of the moment.”
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Seleucus “I say, that is an excellent turn of phrase, Leo’. ‘Suspense of mystery’ and ‘suspense of the moment’. I shall have to remember that.”
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Several members murmured ‘here, here’ to Seleucus’ response
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Alexander of Epirus “Last week my first comment was a rather flippant one so I shall make up for that with something a little earnest this time. It is on the issue of verisimilitude, which our dear leader mentioned last week; I simply love Ms Gill’s references to Mycenaean culture and life. Especially of the sword smith at work. I know they are secondary to the actual story but in a sense it is those moments that make the story. If that makes sense.”
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Harpalus “For someone with no practical ability at all, Alexander, I am surprised to hear you say that!”
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Laughter at Harpalus’ comment but there were nods of agreement around the table at what Alexander of Epirus said. The motion ‘This group approves of Laura Gill’s use of verisimilitude” was passed unanimously.
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Harpalus “Further to what Alexander said, and again, to go back to what I said last week, I was pleased to see the reference in Chapter Ten to Herakles as a real man. Philaretos says his father saw him.”
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Alexander of Epirus “He doesn’t exactly cut a heroic figure, though, does he. How does Ms Gill describe him? Here it is: “A great big man, with yellow teeth… bloodshot eyes, and wearing a lion skin smelling like goat piss”!
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Seleucus “We could accuse Ms Gill of being ever-so modern in bringing the gods down to our level but the fact is that in the ancient texts the Greek gods could be very human in their behaviour sometimes; for example, they got angry, hateful, and lustful just like we do.”
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Peucestas “The desire to reduce God or the gods to our level seems to me to be an enduring habit of human beings. For example, chaps at chapel who think less of Our Lord and more of My Mate.”
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Theban Al “I have two points to make. Firstly, I was struck in the tenth chapter how Orestes says he ate game - alright - and drunk wine. I have to admit I’m a little confused as to how old he is at this point - between 7 and 14? - but I was dashed impressed that he was drinking wine already. That may just be me; I didn’t start drinking alcohol until I was 16 or 17.”
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Seleucus “I was under the impression that Orestes is still seven or eight at that point. On the matter of the wine, don’t forget that wine in antiquity would - I believe - have been much weaker than ours, and much safer to drink than water for want of purifying plants.”
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Theban Al “I take your point. My second one was to commend another good turn of phrase by Ms Gill. Clytaemnestra asks Orestes if he would like to ‘wear a curse as [his] crown’. Very effective.”
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Murmurs of approval at this comment from the members. Pipes lit. Amyntas of Pella took money from the kitty to buy the next round of beers.
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Peucestas “I would like to nominate this week’s Scene of the Night. Like Alexander I enjoyed the sword smith scene; Kleitos ‘braining’ the poor hare was also quite a moment, but on a serious level, Orestes entering Agamemnon’s quarters and finding it to be in a state of desolation was brilliant. I was completely expecting him to walk into a grand, gold shining, silver burnished, jewelly chamber, but no - bird droppings, broken furniture and peeling walls. Bang went my expectations. First class.”
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Theban Al “I second that - the scene was powerful not just because it was surprising but for what it tells us about Clytaemnestra. I also liked the fact that it is not just a one-off moment; Orestes finds the pieces of pottery and sets about reconstructing it.”
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After Amyntas of Pella came back from the bar with our beers and his Coke Cola, we took a vote on the Scene of the Night; Orestes in his father’s room was selected against stiff opposition, it has to be said, from Orestes’ fight with Hippasos, which reminded several members of their school days. Further to this, the word of the night was ‘killkillkill!’ as being both funny and chilling.
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The Club President Writes:
“On behalf of the MBC I should like to thank Alexander’s Other Secretary for agreeing to publish these edited minutes. We don’t publish the full ones because our meetings generally last all evening and nearly always descend into ribald conversation later on that is really not fit for a blog.
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I should also like to thank Ms Gill for her comment after out first post, and clarification on her correct title.
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Last, but most certainly not least, thank you to you the reader for taking the time out of your day to read this. I hope you find our minutes interesting and entertaining.”
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Mieza. Where Aristotle taught and a collection of students found something better than football to talk about: books.

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• Orestes: The Young Lion is available to buy in various formats. Here it is at Amazon.
• If you know of a book that the Mieza Book Club should read, let us know in the comments box

For previous Mieza Book Club minutes click here

Orestes: The Young Lion
by Laura Gill
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Chapters One to Five
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At 7pm sharp, the meeting was called to order by club president Seleucus. Members were asked if they had copies of Orestes: The Young Lion. Amyntas of Pella and Amyntas of Aegae didn’t, so were voted by a show of hands to be tonight’s designated drivers. Amyntas of Pella sulked.
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It is traditional for the club president to give a short biographical account of the author before discussion of their book begins. “Unfortunately,” he said, standing up, “I know rather sod all about Miss Gill. She maybe a Mrs or even a Ms as she is American but who knows?”. Seleucus asked for the words ‘sod all’ to be replaced by ‘very little’ in the minutes but this request was shouted down.
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In lieu of any known facts (other than those presented at the back of the book) about the author, Seleucus gave way to Meleager who exercised his right as the chooser of the book to explain his reasons for doing so. “I have always been fascinated by the story of Orestes,” he said, “Or rather, Orestes in relation to his big sister, Elektra. It probably comes from having a big sister myself - one who wasn’t afraid to put me in my place when need be.” he added, rubbing his arm, meaningfully. Murmurs of sympathy went round the room, and several pipes were lit.
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Meleager sat down and the floor was declared open.
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Leonnatus ”I liked the tension between Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon at the beginning very much. Knowing what happens between them (Lysimachus shouted ‘No spoilers!’ but was being ironic) later it gave the opening scene a very threatening air that is only increased in the next few chapters every time either Clytaemnestra or Aegisthus appear on the page.”
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A brief discussion on Gill’s protrayal of Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus followed and it was agreed that she makes very good use of the limited space that she gives herself at the start of the book (22 pages cover the first five chapters). When the discussion began to degenerate into an analysis of ancient Greek sexual mores, Seleucus called the meeting to order.
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Alexander of Epirus ”I thought the ‘flute boy’ reference on the first page was funny as that is a euphemism for blow job.”
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Seleucus “Enough sex! I would like to say something about Iphigenia. My goodness, one minute she is there, and the next - dead! That was a horrible scene. So sudden.”
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Polemon “Dear boy, are you saying you would have preferred her death to have been written in greater detail?”
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Seleucus “Not at all; in fact, given how suddenly death can come upon us, I thought Gill pitched Iphigenia’s demise perfectly and in a sense most realistically. I tell you, though, it took me no few minutes to get to sleep on the evening I read it. Say what you want about the Coalition Government, at least they don’t have child sacrifices when it is not windy.”
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An unknown member then muttered he wouldn’t put it past the Government to announce such a thing as part of its austerity measures (“Fewer children, more money for the rest of us”). Red Amyntas demanded that this be put to a vote and the motion ‘We believe that David Cameron would sacrifice children to repair the British economy’ was passed by a majority vote. It is believed* (*hoped) that all members except Red Amyntas voted ironically or at least under the influence of wine.
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Theban Al “To go back to the business of Iphigenia, I must say I was very affected by the ‘appearance’ of the ghostly children. I thought Gill wrote that scene wonderfully well. It rather reminded me of Turn of the Screw. God, that book scared me. Especially since I read it when we lived in a vicarage which I am sure was haunted on the top floor.”
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Perdiccas “A haunted vicarage? I bet your father could not have been pleased by that. Rather damaging to the old theology, hm?”
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Theban Al “Oh well, of course, as far as he was concerned it wasn’t. He thought the scratching was probably rats.”
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Amyntas of Philippi “I agree with Theban Al. It was a wonderfully scary scene. What really made it work, though, was the way Timon told Orestes about it. His reluctance to do so and the tension of the scene really sucked me in; I completely felt like I was there with them. A great scene.”
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Perdiccas “Perhaps you and Theban Al were the ghostly children playing!”
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Perdiccas’ comment received much laughter, and he was declared a good show by all-and-sundry. The wine carafe was passed round the room and several pipes were relit.
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Harpalus “What I really want to know is - are the gods going to turn up later on? I really, really want them, to do so! Artemis is referred to in a way that suggests she is real but we don’t see the Olympians at the beginning. I need for this book to extinguish the memory of Troy in my mind.
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Harpalus was immediately called up on his use of the phrase ‘need for’; he agreed that it was a reprehensible Americanism and apologised before a vote could be taken to make him the next meeting’s designated driver. The meeting continued.
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Theban Al “The one thing I wasn’t sure about was the way in which the narrator spells the characters’ names one way, but when Orestes writes them down we see them written according to - I assume - how the Mycenaeans wrote them. For instance, Orestes became O-re-ta. That created a disconnection between the narrator’s voice and the voice of the character for me.”
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Seleucus “I rather liked that. For me it was a good piece of verisimilitude. On the matter of words, the only discordant note for me was when Elektra refers to Aegisthus’ ‘oily’ smile. While it is certainly an evocative word, it isn’t one that she would have used as the Mycenaeans didn’t know what oil was - or did they?”
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This question was put to the Club and no one knew so the meeting continued. It was then discovered that the word ‘oily’ appears in Chapter Six so we should not have even been talking about it.
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Harpalus “I should like to nominate word of the night ‘ostrakon’. It appears in chapter five. An ostrakon was a portsherd that the Greeks used to vote with. It’s one of those words that you see for the first time and it is like an old friend meeting you.”
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Amyntas of Pella “It sounds more like a heavy metal band to me.”
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Theban Al “Scene of the night - definitely Timon telling Orestes about the ghostly children. Narrowly beating the tale of how Atreus fed Thyestes’ children to him.”
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Peucestas “Did you ever watch Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café?“
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Amyntas of Pella ”DON’T read Medea!”
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Votes were taken on the Word and Scene of the Night and passed, as above. The formal discussion ended and the informal discussion (unminuted) began.
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Peucestas
(Club Secretary)

• Read the introduction to the Mieza Book Club here
• Orestes is available to buy in various formats, including here at Amazon
• If you know of a book that the Mieza Book Club should review do let us know in the comments box

The Israelites sat down by the rivers of Babylon and wept; we sat down in Mieza and discussed books. And drank wine. Lots.

Welcome to the first blog post of the Mieza Book Club. Founded on a cold night in the Greek countryside a few years ago by some travelling British students who got lost on their way to Naousa’s wine museum, the MBC is named after the village where Aristotle taught Alexander and his friends.
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The aim of the Mieza Book Club has always been to emulate the great philosopher’s love of knowledge through an in-depth discussion of a wide variety of texts from antiquity. We hope that you find our discussions in these posts both informative and entertaining, perhaps even worthy of citation in essays and at lectures.
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You will notice that in the reviews, the members’ identities remain hidden. The reason for this is that when the group of friends who would become the MBC left England, they agreed upon a policy of ‘what goes on tour, stays on tour’. Thus, the minutes of the first few meetings, carried out during the holiday, contain only pseudonyms. After the group’s return to England, the use of pseudonyms was continued, firstly for reasons of practicality, then later as a matter of tradition.
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Further to the above, I would add that originally, names were chosen from throughout Greek history - Mycenae to Cleopatra VII - before it was discovered that the Greeks (like the Romans) diluted their wine. Then, by a unanimous vote, it was decided that in future, names would be picked from known members of Alexander’s army - with the king himself being excluded out of respect for his divinity and greatness as a general.
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In concluding, I should like - on behalf of the MBC - to thank ‘Alexander’s Other Secretary’ for allowing us to present our reports on his blog. We hope that our presence here will be beneficially not only to the club but also to The Second Achilles itself.
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Peucestas
(Club Secretary)

• The above photograph comes from the Livius website
• For a list of Mieza Book Club minutes click here