Ilium

What’s a country that’s at the top of your bucket list?

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The shores of ancient Troy dominate my thoughts at least once a day, and have done so for decades. It would be a dream come true to travel to Turkey and walk the streets of ancient Troy and truly merge reality with my imagination. To see the architecture, feel the stone beneath my feet, my fingers, breath the air. Stand where my heroes once stood.

My obsession with ancient Greece started with a general interest in mythology as a whole. I had been reading a lot of Celtic mythology after my best friend gifted me an anthology of Celtic myths one Christmas. I was so captivated that I decided to branch out and learn more about other mythologies. 

I purchased The Iliad, The Odyssey, and a Norse Mythology book at a Books-a-Million right after. I started with The Iliad and devoured it. I read the Odyssey next, and then went back to the bookstore for more ancient Greek mythology books, including Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. 

The Norse Mythology book remains unread to this day (I’ll get to it eventually, I promise lol)

In college, I decided to minor in Classics, and read the Aeneid, Medea, and various excerpts from Ovid, Euripedes, and other selected works from poets, playwrights, and historians both ancient and modern. My studies have not stopped and in my free time, I’ve read just about everything I can get my hands on regarding the heroes of prehistoric Greece, into the classical age and beyond, mostly non-fiction. 

My obsession has organically provided loads of research for my novel series Epic of Helinthia, a Greek myth inspired epic fantasy novel series. Daily life, ritual, government, warfare, even the language I use are carefully derived from my research on ancient Greece.

Despite this plethora of research fueling my muse, it is still a fantasy story, so I do take some creative liberties. I once had a reader leave me a 2 star rating and a research paper-level review (complete with sources cited and a bibliography at the end) detailing why my fantasy novel was neither ‘epic’ nor historically accurate lol. (I’m not making this up. The review is on goodreads if you would like to check it out).

I have been to Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Mystra, and they were everything I imagined they would be. I’ve also been to Ireland, and the prehistoric ruins there did not disappoint either!

Going to Turkey to see the ruins of Troy, Crete to see Knossos, Mycenae to see the citadel, and Delos to see the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis are all high priorities on my bucket list. 

Who knows, if I ever get the courage to fly across the pond again, maybe I will be able to visit all of them.

If you’ve been to any of these places, drop me a comment down below with your recommendations and must-sees!