My Top Ten Posts for 2024
Aeneid, Iliad, Romans and Conan. And religious poetry.
I published 54 posts this year, including 1 post about reaching 101 subscribers, and one about LibertyCon, which I don’t include in my top ten, since they are not fiction, poetry, or essays. I ended my five months of publishing in 2023 with 28 subscribers, from 16 USA states and 5 countries as of December 29. As of December 30, 2024, I have 201 subscribers, from 39 USA states and 23 countries.
This has been a year of researching and experiments. I haven’t published anything new outside of substack, or had any new stories accepted in anthologies.
1: What He Didn’t Write: My poem and my process
February 1, 2024 Likes: 25 Views: 176
My most popular post, “What He Didn’t Write”, includes a physical source (a funeral inscription for a three year old child from first or second century AD Rome), my analysis of what that source may have indicated for the family involved, and then a poem of how the father may have felt. This is very close to how I normally approach things. I learn some new fact, analyze it, and then try to integrate it into the historical context I’m studying. Usually, I integrate it using poetry, fictional snippets, or an essay.
What He Didn’t Write: My poem and my process February 1, 2024
February 1, 2024 Likes: 25 Views: 176
What He Didn't Write
A Roman father in the first or second century AD mourns his three year old daughter. What he wrote. And what he didn’t write.
2: Hector says good-bye to his son: From Iliad Book VI
September 10, 2024 Likes: 17 Views: 187
This scene from the Iliad seemed like such an ordinary and timeless description of a soldier taking leave from his wife and child that I wrote my own version. It seemed to hit my readers the same way.
Hector says good-bye to his son
Hector is saying good-bye to his family. This is the scene in book VI where his wife, Andromache, begs him not to leave them. I know some of the story from the Aeneid. But the utterly ordinary interaction between father and son took me by surprise.
3: Bêlit and Conan: Eros: Bêlit from "Queen of the Black Coast" by Robert E. Howard
July 6, 2024 Likes: 15 Views: 163
I’ve been enjoying going through Howard’s Conan material. After several months of reading the Aeneid and now the Iliad, and going through related artwork, I’m discovering the obvious impact of those works on his world-building and portrayals. In looking at Conan’s love relationships, I think I see the influences of the various pre-Christian classical ideas of love.
Bêlit and Conan: Eros
The love between Bêlit and Conan is “eros,” divine desire, which includes but is more than just sexual love. And that is enough, because Conan’s and Bêlit’s desires naturally go in the same direction at this point in Conan’s life. It is his first real love.
4: A Woman Who Fights: Valeria in Red Nails
August 21, 2024 Likes: 14 Views: 226
This essay was supposed to represent “Philia,” but I found myself much more interested in how Howard uses Valeria to examine the abilities and the limits of a female warrior.
5: Terentianus: Looking for a Woman
August 28, 2024 Likes: 14 Views: 168
As I’ve been researching for my Roman WIP, I’ve been fascinated by the differences between the ancient Greeks and Romans on the concepts of marriage, concubinage, and slavery. This became further confused by the Augustan decree against conubium for rank and file Roman citizen soldiers. By complicating the ability of a soldier to appeal as a husband to a freeborn Roman woman during his time of service, “buying” a “wife” seems to have become a defacto path to family for the rank and file. I analyze what one of the letters from Terentianus may have indicated.
Terentianus
For #Warrior Wednesday, since I’ve been posting my Roman stuff there. If you don’t want to be tagged, please let me know and I’ll remove you from my template.
The big surprise this year was finding out people were interested in reading my translations / re-working of middle-English religious poetry. I did it just for fun because I subscribe to Peregrinus, who publishes a lot of that kind of poetry and imagery. I have enough German and French to be able to follow the middle-english rather well, with some help from his substack resources, and he answers my questions when I’m not sure. Two of my three translations turn out to be my sixth and seventh most popular posts.
6: Mary Magdalen’s Blush, by Robert Southwell
July 24, 2024 Likes: 13 Views: 127
My “translation” of a poem about the inner turmoil of sin
Mary Magdalen’s Blush, by Robert Southwell
I’ve cleaned up the spelling and modernized some of the words of the early modern English, while attempting to maintain the syllables per line and rhyme scheme. I know my replacements don’t always fit the style, even when they fit in rhyme and syllables. A link to the original, posted by
7: Jesus appeals to Man by the Wounds
October 19, 2024 Likes: 12 Views: 181
My “translation” of a poem from the fourteenth century
Jesus appeals to Man by the Wounds
As before, I’ve cleaned up the spelling and modernized some of the words of the middle English, while attempting to maintain the syllables per line and rhyme scheme. A link to the original, posted by Peregrinus, is included at the end.
8: Andromache from Book 3 of the Aeneid: After the end of Cloak and Stola
October 19, 2024 Likes: 12 Views: 181
A slice of life, where Sophie, his concubine, asks Procerus about parts of the Aeneid that make no sense to her, while they both deal with a three-month-old baby. They are trying to learn to read and write Latin using the Aeneid, which we have evidence that Roman legion soldiers actually did.
Andromache from Book 3 of the Aeneid
The evening meal was done, and Procerus was playing with his three-month-old daughter in front of the hearth of their apartment in Capernaum.
Andromache from Book 3 of the Aeneid
9: Less than the Dogs of the King: fanfic for Robert E Howard "The Hour of the Dragon"
January 25, 2024 Likes: 11 Views: 166
I wrote this fanfic after reading “The Hour of the Dragon” to try to make sense of Zenobia.
Less than the Dogs of the King
Goran and Odo are my creations. This is meant to be in line with canon, although I have only read the one book, so I likely have mistakes here.
Less than the Dogs of the King
10: Iliad Battle Scene (some gore): From Iliad Book IV
September 5, 2024 Likes: 11 Views: 134
I tried to write the battle scene using more modern day language, just to see if I could use it as a template for writing a battle.
Iliad Battle Scene (some gore)
Menelaus, husband of Helen, had agreed to fight Paris over her. Whoever won, would take Helen, and either way, Troy is left standing and the Argives go home, parting as friends, not enemies. But Paris was no match for Menelaus, and Aphrodite spirited Paris away (just as Juno will do for Turnus in the Aeneid) before he could be killed.
Iliad Battle Scene (some gore)
I enjoyed your posts very much, Ms. Mary. I'm looking forward to reading more in 2025. 🙂