Here is some background information about my work. I draw on real and imagined history, fables, books, myths, legends and more….
Alexander the Great
King of Macedon – Leader of the Greek confederation. Conqueror of the civilized world, Persia, Syria, Egypt, Babylon, and Susa. Founded the city of Alexandria in 331 B.C. Died at the age of 33 in 323 B.C.
Amyitis
Daughter of the King of Medes, married to the great Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II, who built the celebrated “Hanging Gardens” for her in Babylon.
Caius Octavius Augustus
First Emperor of Rome, grandnephew of Julius Caesar. Augustus was victorious against Brutus, Cassius, Mark Antony and Cleopatra. He was emperor for forty-four years. He died in 14 A.D.
Dido
Founder and Queen of Carthage. Dido fell in love with Aeneas after he and the Trojans were shipwrecked on her shores. She tried to persuade him to stay, but the gods forced Aeneas to abandon her, because his destiny was to found his own nation in Italy. After his departure Dido took her life by the sword and was cremated on a funeral pyre burning on the shore.
Darius
King of Persia, known as Darius the Great. He died in 486 B.C. He extended the boundaries of the Persian Empire and built an imposing capital at Persepolis.
Herodotus
Greek historian, “Father of History.” (480 – 425 B.C.) He was born in Halicarnassos in Asia Minor. He traveled through vast areas of the world known to the Greeks, such as Egypt, Italy, Sicily and Southern Russia.
Kublai Khan
Mongol Emperor of China and Khan of the Mongol Empire, grandson of Chengis Khan. Kublai Khan founded Beijing as his capital and introduced Buddhism as the state religion. He tried to invade Japan twice, but failed.
He died in 1294.
Monsieur Javert
Character from the novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Javert is the police agent who pursues Jean Valjean in this celebrated novel. He is obsessive and without any compassion.
Nastasya Filippovna
Character from the novel The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. She is the beautiful, proud and tormented woman who struggles with the memory of a painful event in her youth. At the end of the novel Nastasya is killed by her jealous lover Rogozhin.
Norma
Opera by Vincenzo Bellini. Norma was a high priestess of the Druids in Gaul, circa 50 B.C. Committed to devotion and chastity Norma betrayed her vows by loving the Roman Pro-Consul Pollione and bore him two children. The opera ends with Norma and Pollione dying on a pyre.
Montezuma
Aztec emperor. He was kidnapped and held hostage by the Spanish invaders under Hernando Cortez in 1519. During an Indian uprising he was struck on the head by a shower of stones, as he was addressing his subjects. He died a few days later.
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus unknowingly killed his father (King Laius of Thebes) and married is mother Queen Jocasta. Years later, when it was revealed that they were mother and son, Queen Jocasta committed suicide and Oedipus blinded himself.
Seer of Tollund
The well-preserved body of “Tollund Man” was found in a peat bog, near the village of Tollund (Denmark) in 1950. He lived about 2400 years ago. He wore a rope around his neck and a pointed leather cap on his head. He had either been strangled or hanged. Was he sacrificed as part of a ritual or was he punished for his beliefs or deeds?
Sobekneferu
The first female ruling Queen of Egypt at the end of the 12th Dynasty (1787-1783 B.C.) Sobekneferu was one of only five ruling queens in Egyptian history.
Sorghaghtani Beki
The mother of four of the greatest figures in Mongol history, including Kublai Khan, who became the Emperor of China. She died in 1252.