Herodotus Chapter One

This is a VERY ROUGH of the beginning of the book. In this new age of twitter, blogs and torrents, authors need to try to use these tools. The following is still owned & copyrights of Sean Michael Carter. I would love feedback on what I post, and discussions.

Chapter 1 - Clio

This story starts in a place once known as Lacedaemonia, today we know it as Sparta. The first community of true warriors. This is a story of a man named at birth - Heros. He who would later be called Herodotus. This is not the Herodotus of historical significance, but he did once meet the man. Our Heros was nothing in greater significance than his fellow Spartans, not until he went to war in Thermopylae. That was when every thing changed.

The night Heros was born, his mother felt incredible pains rock thru her body. She had almost died a year ago giving birth, but survived that ordeal. This gave her strength that she would survive tonight. Her body was wracked with pain and sorrow that night, as the Gerousia came in and looked at the wine soaked baby in her husbands arms. The baby didn’t cry, it looked weak and sickly. The elders deemed him unworthy, and so he was placed in the Kaiada to face the elements. He would be dead by the morning and would never know what life had to offer. Tonight she was afraid that the same may happen again. She didn’t fear her own death, nothing would be more honorable than to die giving birth to a Spartan soldier for the state, but she couldn’t bear the shame that another weak youth would mean for her. The shame would be more physically harmful than the overwhelming pain that coursed thru her well built frame. Most soldiers in her village had never bared as much pain as she was suffering thru.

This went on for over an hour, as she tried in vain to stifle as much of her want to scream. Finally she stopped, her eyes were clinched for a moment and then she fell back. Her body went limp and she heard the loudest cry ever. The baby sounded strong, he sounded proud. The midwife was holding him and they began to separate the cord from him. The baby was covered in blood and other birthing agents. The mother gathered her strength and stood. She reached for the child, full aware this child would one day bear a round hoplite shield with pride and honor. She took him to a table and cleaned his body with fresh red wine. The blood red of the wine stained his body as it cleaned other fragments off him.

The husband entered the room with a blood red cloth and wrapped the wine soaked baby in it. He took the baby away from the mother, as helots came in and helped her to clean off her body. He carefully took the baby to the Gerousia for approval. He didn’t want this babe to join his long dead brother in the Kaiada, but knew if the state didn’t approve of his strength that was the only option. He also knew that one of the elders may vote against his children regardless, due to his personal feelings towards himself. He hoped this time the elder would place the state over his own personal pride. For the past year, the husband had tried to make up for a past misgiving with the elder and he really hoped it might have helped pave the way for today. Today would be the beginning of a new soldier for the state.

Introduction

I've been working on this story idea for a long time now. I have done a lot of research into the subject manner, and I have a very rough outline and some chapters already written. I will be setting up the site at: Herodotus the Warrior Site, I have also started a Facebook Page. Twitter for Herodotus.

Become a fan, and keep up on the progress.