The story of Sappho of Lesbos has been told and retold over the last 2,500 years, but across the millennia no one has ever told it quite like this. Breathtaking graphics and panoramic scope lovingly rendered in 3D illustration by storycrafter Pam Harrison tells a new side of the tale which is, as fantasy/science fiction legend Christie Golden puts it, “a serious Sappho story.” You are invited to enjoy this complimentary online issue of House of the Muses #1 for review.
Scholars have for centuries set aside one perplexing poem inexplicably written in Spartan dialect from the Ennead, the nine books authored by Sappho. Why Sappho kept this poem among her works has never been explained. Sappho had among her students a girl named Mnasidika, a Spartan name that means, 'In Remembrance of Justice'. Another translated restoration of a little-known poem of Sappho's, shredded by the early Church and left in fragments because of its ‘offensive' subject matter revealed a haunting tale of ‘immortal lovers'…both female.
House of the Muses: The Latter Days of Sappho of Lesbos introduces us to Mnasidika of Sparta, a girl with a stolen destiny, and how she made her journey to Lesbos. At the end of her adventures, she would write the one poem that the legendary Poetess of Mytilene would safeguard among her treasured works forever. Adapted more from the translated works of her notoriously gay childhood friend Alkaios than from the works of Sappho herself, his recounting of their early youth during the Civil War in Mytilene, the War with Athens, and the activities of the House of Penthilos bear more light on the youth of Sappho than her Church-ravaged works ever could. Many are unaware—or their understanding uncertain—about the part the Poetess of Mytilene played in the court intrigues, political upheavals and assassination plots of this time.
House of the Muses is a straightforward adventure story whose heroine only happens to be a lesbian. It touches some hard-hitting issues still extant today and proves beyond a doubt that so many of life's issues—coming out, finding love, dealing with pain and loss—are eternal and universal. A complex story with an almost universal reach, House of the Muses, a survivor's tale that explores themes of fate, destiny and finding a place to belong has developed an online fan following that crosses sex, gender and orientation barriers and has sold presale copies as far away as Moorooka and Sydney, Australia.
House of the Muses #2, because of its subject matter, will be dedicated to women who have been targeted by violence. Rebecca, an educator from Sydney, Australia, writes:
Hey, Pam. I think that it's a great idea to dedicate the second book as you have suggested. I feel that there can be healing in reading about certain things. Also, you are writing an historical fiction - you cannot shy away from certain things, if they are in the history about which you are writing, for fear of upsetting survivors...it would be like avoiding all mention of the holocaust in the history of Germany because you wouldn't want to offend any German or Jewish survivors.
House of the Muses is rated 17+/Mature. The first issue of the six-part miniseries will be available by October 31 st to LGBT readers (and yes...straight readers love it, too!) both locally at The Great Escape, 2433 Bardstown Rd. Louisville, KY and online at http://www.indyplanet.com.
