The spin number for the latest Classics Club spin is #1. I didn’t think about this eventuality too seriously, and have spent today reading and posting on the first title of my list, so now what? Another challenge is required.
Any ideas, anyone?

Apologies for the delay in a new post – my library is going through a workplace change process and there is not as yet a clear outcome for me. Either I will have a whole lot more free time to read and post in the near future, or I will find myself in a new role which might require some time to adjust. Please bear with me.

This post is not about the Frank Herbert Dune family (sorry Geoff), but the various surviving Greek tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides which tell the story of the descendants of King Atreus of Mycenae. All these three Tragedians told various episodes of the story, which also interlace with Homer’s Iliad.

They can be read in the order they were written (chronologically) as I did, or within each playwright’s oeuvre. But if someone wanted to use them to read the history of the family in order (for those budding directors looking for a replacement for the Game of Thrones saga perhaps), it would look something like this, with inconsistencies within according to the author and the emphasis of the play. The way some characters such as Odysseus and Menelaus, Clytemnestra and Electra are portrayed is interesting to compare.

Iphigenia in Aulis (Euripides)

Philoctetes (Sophocles)

Rhesos (Euripides)

The Iliad (Homer)

The Women of Troy (Euripides)

Hecabe (Euripides)

Agamemnon (Aeschylus)

The Libation Bearers (Choephori)  (Aeschylus)  or  Electra  (Sophocles)

The Furies (Eumenides) (Aeschylus)

Iphigenia in Tauris (Euripides)

Helen (Euripides)

Electra (Euripides)

Andromache (Euripides)

Because Agamemnon and Menelaus came to their thrones via their father Atreus, who had previously ascended to the throne of Mycenae when King Eurystheus died fighting the Heracelidae, so the various Heracles plays could precede this series. Other sequels shooting off from The Iliad include the tales of Odysseus, told in Cyclops (Euripides) and The Odyssey (Homer), and the fate of Ajax in Sophocles’ Ajax.

To mark the successful anniversary of the Chronolit blog, I have spared no expense to bring you a post of unparalleled spectacle and glamour, as stars from the pages of classical literature and the all-important technical geniuses behind the scenes walk the red carpet, all hoping to take home a coveted Chronie award.

Tonight’s event will be hosted by those two larrikins of laughter, Aesop and Aristophanes. But first we have the stars arriving in chariots pulling up to the front of glorious Mount Olympus, the site of this glittering event. Walking the red carpet and receiving the amorous glances of many of the crowd are those delightful goddesses of stage and temple, Hera, Athena and of course Aphrodite, as well as the beautiful Helen, and the demure Sita wearing a stunning sari of gold and diamonds.

Votes for tonight’s awards have been carefully collated by the oracular firm of Cassandra and co., who of course knew the winners long before they are actually announced.

We can’t take you inside Mount Olympus of course but we have the results coming through now:

Best epic :       The Ramayana beats Homer’s heavily favoured The Iliad and sequel The Odyssey

Best tragedy  :     Medea by Euripides wins over a large field of contenders

Best comedy   :   The Thesmophoriazusae by Aristophanes

Best Costume Design : The Wasps, by Aristophanes, which also takes out the Chronie for Best Choreography

Best musical :      The Clouds by Aristophanes, featuring the hit song, Make me a winner (and you can have me for your dinner) by Strepsiades

Best special effects  :       The Ramayana outshines a strong contingent including the Mahabharata and the Book of Moses

Best battle scenes   :        The Mahabharata.

Worst read  :                       Theognis’ Elegies in a close run with The Book of Deuteronomy

Worst woman to scorn  : Medea inches past the Furies

Worst family curse : The Oedipus curse easily surpasses even the much-fancied Oresteians

Best drinking buddy  :      Enkidu, who unfortunately could not be with us here tonight, and his award is accepted by his good friend, King Gilgamesh

That’s all for this year. Please join us again for next year’s Chronies, to be held at the Colloseum, where it is rumoured a strong home-grown Latin contingent may sweep the field. Thank you all and good night!

While I am enjoying and valuing the connections I am making by reading classic literature in approximately chronological order, I do feel the occasional weakening of determination and the call of a favourite author from much later. Shakespeare winks and beckons from the shelves, foaming beer glass in hand. Austen blushes behind her fan, and shows a shapely ankle, while Dickens blusters, and Washington Irving, Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde nod and wave with a twinkling eye. Other, less familiar poets and playwrights : Coleridge and Wordsworth, Whitman, Chekhov and Shaw, smile and hint at as-yet unknown pleasures. Hugo and Dumas toast me from a Parisian sidewalk cafe. Travellers such as Chaucer, Marco Polo, John Muir and Jack Kerouac offer to share a campfire. Lovecraft and Lewis and King stand in front of heavy blood-red curtains, offering a peek inside, while Wells and Verne stand beside a huge telescope peering into the heavens.

So I am more encouraged than ever to make sure I finish with the Classical Greeks by year end, and earn my laurels. My Roman toga is back from the dry cleaners ready for 2017 when I will be invading Britain with Caesar and climbing the Alps on elephant back with Hannibal.