I enjoyed this collection of poems and short stories set in ancient Greece. I am glad that i read A Day In Old Athens first. Thanks to that, i recognized many Greek customs referenced in these stories. Many of the stories involve homosexuality. I read in another review that the author isn't very skilled at code switching, so her writing of male characters is weak compared to her writing of females. Even if that were true, she more than made up for it with her immersive & beautiful writing.
The title comes from the last story, which is based on a story recorded by Plutarch titled "Plutarch, In A Letter, To His Brother Lamprias". In the Plutarch's story, 2000 slaves were promised freedom for fighting in battle along with the Spartans. The Spartans indeed freed these slaves, but it resulted in social unrest, both among those still enslaved and among Spartan citizens. Consequently, the Spartans plotted to kill all of the freed slaves. So "Black Sparta" refers to this Spartan treachery.
The table of contents includes the dates that the stories are set in. Several stories cameo the poet Pindar at various stages of his life. My favorite two stories were The Highbrow and The-Chosen-By-Lot.
The Highbrow features an enslaved Athenian warrior who served a wealthy Spartan family after first serving his time in the mines. It depicts veteran trauma response. While the warrior served respectfully and more ethically than his fellow slaves, the culture clash annoyed his owner. Yet his owner was under constraints because the enslaved warrior could be ransomed by his family in Athens.
The-Chosen-By-Lot cameos Sokrates, who asked plain questions that disturbed and upset a famous playwright and therefore Athenians at large. A friend of the playwright went to reckon with Sokrates and their conversation was simple yet deep. Just my style.
My favorite poem was the opening poem, which is a grandiose blessing from Chiron to the child Jason, wishing him all the excellence that life has to offer, and more, if he can bear it. This poem is included below.
And the Kentaur, dewily laughing,
Caught him up to his breast half-way,
Said: "Look, see, I am the craftsman!
"With a sight I shall make keener
Than the eagle's, on the wind leaning,
You shall see the plane leaves greenly
"Dancing against the sun; the brook below there
With its long snake's body every moment flowing,
The brook Anauros, hasting, slipping from the snow fields:
"Miles off the young heroes, your friends, coming from the
hunting:
The winter shapes of the oaks by chill winds stunted:
The shape of clouds before thunder.
"Your ears shall be certain of hearing
As, through her cropping, the deer's are,
That her ways in the dim wood may be fearless.
"You shall hear the dawn wind in the grass heads:
The lifting slim feet of the marsh birds:
And the stones slipping in the mountain passes.
"You shall smell as the fox does, questing:
Every fresh breeze winnowed and tested
For faint scents that may nest there:
"Earth scents and flower scents better
For heart's joy than feel of bright birds netted
And your own body in the sun sweating.
"I will make you taste as the bear does,
With long tongue and paws sleek and hairy
And the honey sweetness through his heart tearing:
"All pleasant things, hill sheep's haunches roasting,
Apples and cakes, spices that kings' ships boast of,
Hot wine, brightening speech, in the mouth mostly.
"I will teach you touch as a snake, harmless
And warm on its stone, stretched out with scarlet
Slit tiny tongue over the still dust flicking and darting,
"With all its length feels the rocks' ridges and hollows;
Or like a bare nymph with spread fingers lolling
Between cool, wing-filled air, and earth grassy and solid."
And the Kentaur, quiet and wary,
Smiled at the child staring:
"This too, if man can bear it:
"You shall see some day, my dreamer,
A sight real not seeming,
Phoibos Apollon and the lyre at his breast that gleams there.
You shall hear one morning in spring time,
As your head whirls and tingles,
The glade suddenly full of the Muses singing.
"As your heart checks and falters
You shall smell, and after, always,
The dark March violets through their bright hair falling.
"You shall taste, wisely and boldly,
That which, laughing, they hold t' you:
The nectar of the Gods in flat cups brimming and golden.
"You shall touch, not in pride nor folly,
But with bowed head, heart unsolaced,
The hair of the Muses and the still hands of Apollo."
So the Kentaur, secretly smiling,
Took the boy Jason, amazed and silent,
For all the days of his childhood.
author: Mitchison, Naomi, 1897-1999
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Naomi_Mitchison
title: Black Sparta