"A Most August Peace" Author's Notes: List of References · 2:32pm Oct 16th, 2017
As you might have noticed, I just released a new story, A Most August Peace. This story was an eleventh-hour entry into Ebon Quill's Dazzlings Contest, and was written in a 30-hour frenzy (with breaks to sleep and eat and other stuff, but still pretty frenzied nonetheless).
I had an absolute blast taking advantage of the premise to shove in as many mythological and historical references as I could, to the point where I'm pretty sure anyone who isn't a student Classical Studies wouldn't be able to get them all (I myself had to resort to copious amounts of Googling for everything). It doesn't help that I also took some creative liberties in the process and that partway through, I decided that using actual names seemed odd and started replacing everything with titles/descriptions, making it even harder to look stuff up.
As such, please find below a list of references made in the story. The source for everything is Wikipedia except for the part about the Iliad, which is from the Sparknotes summary of The Iliad. Massive spoilers to follow, of course.
"A Most August Peace" – Let's start with the title. A Most August Peace is a bit of a roundabout play-on-words. August, as an adjective, means something that is distinguished or respected. The word is derived from the Emperor Augustus, who is responsible for starting an extended period of peace within the Roman Empire that would later be known as the Pax Augustus, or alternatively the Pax Romana. So the title is a really roundabout way to refer to the Pax Romana, which itself is mentioned in the story and serves as a bit of a running backstory between the Sirens and The Nightmare.
"Once She Hears to Her Heart's Content, Sails On A Wiser Woman" – The chapter title is a modification of a quote from a translation of the Odyssey "Once he hears to his heart's content, sails on, a wiser man," which is a line sung by the Sirens to Odysseus telling him to stay and listen to their song so that he might become wiser before leaving. Of course, their words were empty and they sought only to lure him to his own demise. I found the quote to be delightfully ironic since in this story, it's Adagio who allows herself to hear The Nightmare's siren song, knowing that the other Dazzlings will help keep her from throwing herself off the side of the metaphorical ship.
"Seven bands of color, symbols for the Infinite Stars and the Crescent Moon, and the head of a healthy swine." – sacrifices to the gods in Ancient Greek were traditionally decorated in many colors and had to be from a healthy animal. Everything else about the offering is just made up for this story.
Phobetor – in Greek mythology, Phobetor was one of the Oneiroi, or dream gods. Specifically, he was the god of nightmares, and often took on the form of an animal, which seems like the kind of myth that Nightmare Moon might inspire.
Thelxiope – in some versions of the myth, one of the Sirens is named Thelxiope (or Thelxinoe), and was the daughter of Achelous (God of water or rivers) and Melpomene (The Muse of Tragedy).
"those Oracles you used to whisper to at the Navel of the World" – Delphi was known as the Navel (or Center) of the World, and the Oracle at Delphi was the most well-known soothsayer from Greek mythology.
"that Halcyon woman" – Alcyone was the wife of Ceyx, son of Eosphorus the Morning Star. They were very happily married until they pissed of Zeus, who killed Ceyx while he was at sea and sent Hypnos to invade Alcyone's dream and inform her of what had happened to her husband. In her grief, she killed herself, and the gods in their compassion transformed them into Halcyon birds, whose name derive from Alcyone's name. The term Halcyon Days comes from this myth, which was believed to be a period in the winter where no storms would occur because Alcyone was laying her eggs. In this story, the implication is that The Nightmare was the one to tell Alcyone of her husband's death and drive her to suicide.
"the time with that king who was invading the City of High Walls." – The city of Troy was described by Homer as having high walls, which, combined with being on a hill, made it nearly impenetrable. The king who's trying to invade is Agamemnon, who in the Iliad brought an army to Troy to reclaim Helen for his brother, Menelaus.
"Even after we visited his dreams, he insisted on some fool test to trick his troops into retreating. Had that cunning general not goaded his troops into battle, all would have been for naught." – In the Iliad, Zeus sends a false dream to Agamemnon to try and convince him to attack Troy. For some reason, this leads Agamemnon to test his troops' resolve by telling them that he's decided to give up on the war and go home. He's disappointed by the fact that his troops seem really eager to return to their ships. Hera then tells Athena to inspire Odysseus the Cunning into giving a grand speech to rally the troops. In this story, the Sirens were the one who got Odysseus to make that speech, in order to keep the war going.
"I even sent that general your way afterwards, even if you failed to seduce him with your charms./It's not my fault; he lashed himself to the ship." – After the Trojan war, Odysseus went on a grand journey (or Odyssey) to return home. Along the way, he passed by the isle of the Sirens. Knowing the danger they posed, he had all his men stuff their ears with wax so that they would not hear the Sirens' song. He himself wanted to hear it, so he had his men tie him to the ship's mast and ignore any orders he gave to release him. The cover image of this story is a depiction on pottery of the Sirens assailing Odysseus' ship.
"Just ask the Father of the Republic; after the City of High Walls fell, I granted unto him some mad vision of descending into the Underworld to divine his next course of action." – Aeneas was one of the survivors of the fall of Troy. He's sometimes referred to with the honorific "father," because he would later found the Roman Republic after traveling to the underworld to seek guidance, according to Virgil. Of course, in this story that journey was just a dream imparted by The Nightmare.
"Did you make him leave the First Queen of the Palms as well?" – Dido was the founder and first queen of Carthage (assuming she existed – historians are a bit fuzzy on that), which started out as a Phoenician colony (Phoenicia was known as the Land of the Palms). She had an affair with Aeneas and killed herself after he abandoned her and Carthage.
"We had a great time getting the Censor to salt the Land of the Palms." – Cato the Elder, also known as Cato the Censor, was famous for his intense hatred of Carthage, to the point of ending every speech he gave with the now-famous phrase "Carthago Delenda Est" ("Carthage Must Be Destroyed"), no matter what the speech was actually about. When the Romans finally conquered Carthage, they covered the ground in salt so that nothing would ever grow there again.
The Nutmeg Wars – Actually a thing that happened between England and the Dutch in the early 1600s. Spices were big business, and the Dutch East India Company didn't become famous by being nice about controlling their monopolies.
"It would not be the first time I helped turn a member of a triumvirate into an emperor, and this time I wouldn't even have to convince an entire Senate to do away with your predecessor." – After the Senate murdered Julius Caesar, control of the Roman Republic shifted over towards three men, known collectively as the Triumvirate: Octavian, Mark Antony, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Octavian would later become the first Emperor of Rome, taking on the name of Augustus Caesar. Nowadays, we use the word triumvirate to refer to any trio of powerful rulers.
"Or did you think I didn't know what you did with the gladiator, sweet Phrygia? You made quite the sight as the mourning bride, but I know better." – This is the one I took the most creative liberties with. In some accounts of the story of Spartacus, Phrygia is his wife and the slave who eventually spurs the gladiator into a rebellion against Rome. The part where I imply that Adagio is actually Phrygia and manipulated him into starting a rebellion before betraying him is purely fantasy on my part, and if Phrygia did exist, there's no evidence that she betrayed Spartacus. I probably could have come up with a better example of a betrayal from Classical history, but I was kind of pressed for time and didn't want to get bogged down on this. Also, in the ballet Spartacus, there's a song called "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia," which I found amusing given the name of my story's protagonist.
"I think I still have my old lyre. When this is all over, I'll burn down a city and play as I watch it fade to ashes, just for you." – According to some (likely false) accounts, the Emperor Nero set fire to Rome (in what is now called The Great Fire of Rome) and watched it burn while playing the lyre.
"The graves of many sailors can attest to that." – the Sirens' modus operandi was to lure sailors to their deaths with their enchanting song.
"It's a little trick I learned from my time with the Nyx" – This is a reference to the FIENDship is Magic MLP IDW comics, not the Greek personification of the night.
"Crisis of the Third Century" – The Pax Romana ultimately fell apart due to a combination of war, disease, and economic depression known as the Crisis of the Third Century, which eventually led to the fall of the Roman Empire. After all the work The Nightmare put in to create a stable government, from getting Agamemnon to invade Troy, to helping Aeneas found Rome with the survivors of the Trojan War, to making Augustus the first Emperor, all of it was ultimately undone by the Sirens sowing conflict in the Empire.
And there you have it! The result of my having way too much fun cramming references into my story coupled with that distinct lack of discretion that only exhaustion and a looming deadline can create. Still, I really enjoyed writing this story and I hope you enjoy reading it too.
I'll see you all in my next story, which should hopefully be the multi-chapter shipfic I've been working on for over a year, and may the muses watch over you and bless you with words of wisdom and beauty.
One could argue that Rome was an Empire before it had an Emperor.
History lesson and/or review! Yay!
(bookhorse approves)