Oracle

by Jackie French

  A ‘consenting sacrifice’ brought the best luck of all: an animal or human who didn’t try to escape from the knife. Sometimes in bad times like hard winters, a ‘scapegoat’ would be killed, or at least badly beaten or driven away from a village, to drive out the bad luck.

  Nikko and Thetis’s parents came from that culture, and their decision to sacrifice their children for the good of the village needs to be seen in that light. They were a people who were used to the concept of sacrifice.

  Most sacrifices, however, were animals or other offerings of food. Sometimes they were burned; at other times they might be eaten by the guardians of the shrine. Often their entrails would be examined to make sure they were healthy—healthy entrails meant that the sacrifice was a good one, and would be effective.

  There were many other ways, though, that ‘augurs’ attempted to forecast the future: watching the flight of birds, spitting seeds, looking at the pattern of rocks, wheat, barley or sticks split on the ground. Any major natural event, like an earthquake, a comet, an eclipse or a fire, was held to be a message from the gods, one which might herald something good, or a disaster. It was the augurs’ job to work out (tactfully) which.

  The Bronze Age

  Humans’ first tools were made of stone—often flint, that could be split into shards as sharp as most knives today, but nowhere near as durable. ‘Meteor glass’ or ‘sky iron’, molten metals from meteor strikes, was also used.

  After the ‘Stone Age’ came the ‘Bronze Age’, in which this story is set. But the name is a bit misleading, for there were five metals used about that time: gold, probably imported from Egypt, mostly for ornamentation and very valuable, silver, copper, tin and lead. Iron was known but very rare.

  Bronze—an amalgam of copper and tin—was hard, shiny and durable. It was also expensive, so in most poorer places stone would still have been used for knives and spear points.

  Mycenae

  As I said at the beginning of this note, most of what we know about the way people lived at Mycenae comes from excavations of the site, including its huge stone walls. Our information also comes from the pictures on walls, tiles and pots found at Mycenae and the other major Bronze Age Greek cities mentioned in this book, as well as from the grave goods in the giant tombs prepared for their kings. There were two written languages in Mycenae. Linear B has been mostly translated, and was used for tributes and trading accounts. Linear A is still undeciphered.

  Mycenae ruled both by force and by its trading wealth, bartering many fine types of cloth (mostly wool but also linen made from flax) for metal and luxuries. But Mycenae and Mycenaean culture dominated the Greek world for only about 200 years, 1400 BC to 1200 BC. It is most famous, perhaps, for the war against Troy—a rival trading nation—in which the Greek cities under the leadership of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, son of Atreus, destroyed Troy and burned it to the ground after a ten-year war, recorded in the ancient poems The Odyssey and The Iliad. For many years the city of Troy was regarded as a legend, until archaeologists dug down and found its ruins.

  The historical Atreus was murdered, not killed in an earthquake.

  For several hundred years after the fall of the great Mycenaean trading cities, Greece became a land of tribespeople, with camps of cattle herders and small villages, rather than a land of fortified towns dominated by grand palaces, trading with other nations. Even the skills of writing vanished.

  By about 800 BC writing was widespread throughout Greece again. But this was a different script, based on the Phoenician alphabet, probably developed by Greek merchants.

  By then much of Mycenaean history had been lost.

  Wool and Flax

  These days most sheep are white, as white fleece is easiest to dye, but there would also have been many dark and piebald sheep in Mycenaean times.

  First the wool was shorn from the sheep. Then it had to be combed, to get out bits of burr and dung, and make the fibres lay straight and almost separate. Several strands were then spun together over and over to make wool’s relatively short fibres into long threads, not with a spinning wheel but by hand, using a ‘distaff’, a small object often made of wood—which soon became polished by the lanolin in the wool—or even carved stone. The long threads could then be woven into cloth.

  Most spun wool was pretty chunky, but a skilled spinner could create a strong yet thin yarn that could be woven into the lightest of wool cloth. This skill was prized, and fine cloth very valuable.

  White wool could be dyed after being soaked in pots of urine to leech out the lanolin, or natural grease. The dyer would then boil leaves, bark, flowers, small snails, shellfish, lichen, saps or many other ingredients to give a variety of strong colours. They’d be cooked until the desired colour was reached, often with a ‘mordant’ like tin added to help the colour set fast, so it wouldn’t wash out when it rained or the cloth was washed. The dyeing materials would be strained out, and then the wool itself would be boiled and soaked in the coloured water. Thread was dyed, rather than raw wool, as the long boiling process could matt raw wool together to make felt—useful in its own right, but impossible to spin into thread.

  After dyeing, the thread would be woven on large looms or small hand ones for narrower widths of cloth. A good weaver could add complex patterns and a range of colours.

  Linen came from the flax plant. (The flaxes that may be in your garden are close relatives of the ones used to make cloth.) The leaves were soaked in water till the green stuff rotted. The long fibres left were then spun in much the same way wool was, then dyed and woven. Other fibrous plants, like nettles, were also used to make cloth, and sometimes wool and flax or other fibres from plants, goats, or even human hair might be woven together. Mycenae was known for its vast range of different cloths, possibly many more than we commonly use today, and the spinners, dyers and weavers must have been extraordinarily skilled.

  Food and Good Manners

  There were no forks back then, and possibly not even spoons were used at mealtimes. You hacked off your bread and meat with a knife and ate it or, in rich households, pointed to your choice and a servant or slave cut it for you.

  Greens were gathered from creeks and damp forest areas and mostly eaten raw, with bread and meat if you had it. Most meat was cooked on a spit over a fire, usually outside, though there were indoor fires, with a big hole above them in the roof instead of a chimney to carry away the smoke.

  A ‘posset’ of thickened barley or wheat meal would be drunk straight from the cup or bowl. Metal pots that food could be cooked in were known, but bronze was probably too precious to be used much for cooking. Bones would be left with herbs in a clay pot to steep by a fire to make broth, and grain was soaked in the same way to make a sort of porridge, sweetened with honey perhaps, or flavoured with onions or cheese. Food could also be cooked in a leather bag suspended over a low fire, with the water replenished as it seeped through the leather. But by and large the idea of boiling food came later.

  From the scenes painted on walls it seems likely that men ate first, and then women and children dined on what was left. Feasting was a male-only affair, apart from the girls there for entertainment.

  But, as in many societies, it was good manners—especially for a king—to make sure that his feast contained far more than his guests could eat. That way not only were the women and servants of his house fed on the leftovers, but any stranger arriving at the door would be given food too. One of the worst things you could say about a man was that he was selfish or niggardly with food, or that he turned a stranger away without food and shelter.

  Cooking with a Bread Stone

  Flour from emmer wheat—an ancient variety still available today—or barley was ground either in a small ‘quirn’, usually held between the knees while you pounded and ground the contents with a stone, or in a large three-legged quirn, where the woman stood to do the grinding—a much faster way to produce lots of flour.

  Wholemeal flour rots quickly in damp weather, much faste
r than dried grain, so most flour was cooked pretty soon after it was ground. Most women would spend part of their day grinding flour, often on their doorsteps in the sunlight, chatting with their daughters or their friends as they shared the task. The process is thousands of years old, and still takes place in parts of the world today. In 1978 I was invited to share the daily job of hand-grinding wheat in a stone quirn outside a farmhouse on the island of Crete.

  Bread made with yeast was probably known back in Mycenaean times, as they traded with Egypt where it had been known for about 2000 years. But in the time of this book only the very wealthy ate wheat bread. The poor ate barley bread. Barley flour doesn’t rise well with yeast, so their bread was probably heavy, dry inside and with a hard crust, and a bit gritty too.

  The Mycenaean palace may have had big open clay ovens in the Eygptian style. In these, a fire was lit and when the oven was hot, the coals shovelled out, and the bread sealed inside with a few handfuls of clay till it was cooked.

  Everyday bread, however, was made in small loaves or cakes, just barley flour mixed with water, and some honey, salt or fruit if you were lucky. It was placed on a flat rock or a tile, put on the warm hearthstone by the fire, then covered with a ‘bread rock’ or ‘bread tile’, hollowed out to fit over the bread. Hot coals were shovelled onto the bread tile to cook the bread, though if the fire was hot enough, and the hearthstone hot too, then the bread could cook more slowly just by the fire. Flatbreads were also cooked on the hot hearthstone, too.

  Barley Bread

  1 cup barley flour (from a health food shop, or use a blender to pulverise ordinary barley)

  1 cup water

  2 tbsp honey

  1/4 tsp salt

  Mix the ingredients into a ball, then divide into thumb-sized pieces pressed out as flat as you can (the thinner the better). Cook on a hot stone by the fire (make sure the stone is dry all the way through, or it may explode and kill or blind you), or, better still, fry over a low heat on a non-stick frypan till just brown on one side, then turn it over with a spatula and brown the other side. Eat hot, with more honey.

  Alternatively, if you have a campfire, take a clean (i.e., never-used and well-washed) ceramic flower pot. Oil both the inside of the pot and its saucer, so the bread won’t stick, then dust them with flour. Place the bread on the well-oiled saucer, cover it with the pot, then place it by the fire and shovel on coals, leaving the hole in the top of the flower pot free so that moist air can escape. NB: Wear gloves, boots, and long sleeves and trousers in case the coals roll onto you and burn you badly.

  This ‘flower pot’ bread can be extremely good, though it’s much better when made from wheat flour and yeast. You can also bake bread from either wheat or barley in a flower pot in the oven. Again, be warned the pot will be very hot, and use gloves and take care not to burn yourself.

  Cheese

  Cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses were eaten at this time—probably much more goat’s cheese than cow’s milk cheese, as cattle were more useful for pulling ploughs, and needed much more good grass to give milk. Goats, on the other hand, eat almost anything that grows.

  Things Not to Try at Home.

  Walking on a sword. This can be done, but takes years of practice—without a sharp sword—and a most experienced teacher. DO NOT TRY ANYTHING LIKE IT.

  Being thrown from catcher to catcher down a flight of stairs. Like the acrobats on a flying trapeze, this too is possible—with talent, experience and lots of practice. And even then it’s dangerous. AGAIN, DON’T TRY IT.

  Leaping onto a horse from behind—and all the rest of Euridice’s horse-riding tricks. Do not try these. You may end up dead or injured—and it’s not fair to the horse, either.

  Angering the king—or whoever else wields power in our world.

  We live in a democracy, governed by the rule of law. Theoretically we can criticise the powerful: politicians, business, multinational companies…

  But power can be used against you too.

  If you are reading this I hope you do have the courage, many times in your life, to stand up and give voice when the wrong things happen. But always be aware—as any ‘whistleblower’ will tell you—that telling a hidden truth almost always comes with a cost, to you and yours.

  Truth is a sharp weapon. It can hurt those who use it, as well those it’s aimed at. As Thetis in this book would tell you, truth is rarely simple, and the burden of speaking it is often hard to bear.

  About the Author

  Jackie French is a full-time writer and wombat negotiator. Jackie writes fiction and non-fiction for all ages, and has columns in the print media. Jackie is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. She writes across all genres—from picture books, humour and history to science fiction.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Other titles by Jackie French

  Historical

  Somewhere Around the Corner • Dancing with Ben Hall

  Soldier on the Hill • Daughter of the Regiment

  Hitler’s Daughter • Lady Dance • The White Ship

  How the Finnegans Saved the Ship • Valley of Gold

  Tom Appleby, Convict Boy

  They Came on Viking Ships • Macbeth and Son

  Pharaoh • The Goat who Sailed the World

  The Dog who Loved a Queen • A Rose for the Anzac Boys

  The Donkey who Carried the Wounded

  The Horse who Bit a Bushranger

  Fiction

  Rain Stones • Walking the Boundaries • The Secret Beach

  Summerland • Beyond the Boundaries

  A Wombat Named Bosco • The Book of Unicorns

  The Warrior – The Story of a Wombat

  Tajore Arkle • Missing You, Love Sara

  Dark Wind Blowing

  Ride the Wild Wind: The Golden Pony and Other Stories

  Non-fiction

  Seasons of Content

  How the Aliens from Alpha Centauri

  Invaded My Maths Class and Turned Me into a Writer

  How to Guzzle Your Garden • The Book of Challenges

  Stamp, Stomp, Whomp •

  The Fascinating History of Your Lunch

  Big Burps, Bare Bums and Other Bad-Mannered Blunders

  To the Moon and Back • Rocket Your Child into Reading

  The Secret World of Wombats

  How High Can a Kangaroo Hop?

  Outlands Trilogy

  In the Blood • Blood Moon • Flesh and Blood

  School for Heroes

  Lessons for a Werewolf Warrior

  Dance of the Deadly Dinosaurs

  Wacky Families Series

  1. My Dog the Dinosaur • 2. My Mum the Pirate

  3. My Dad the Dragon • 4. My Uncle Gus the Garden Gnome

  5. My Uncle Wal the Werewolf • 6. My Gran the Gorilla

  7. My Auntie Chook the Vampire Chicken

  8. My Pa the Polar Bear

  Phredde Series

  1. A Phaery Named Phredde

  2. Phredde and a Frog Named Bruce

  3. Phredde and the Zombie Librarian

  4. Phredde and the Temple of Gloom

  5. Phredde and the Leopard-Skin Librarian

  6. Phredde and the Purple Pyramid

  7. Phredde and the Vampire Footy Team

  8. Phredde and the Ghostly Underpants

  Picture Books

  Diary of a Wombat • Pete the Sheep

  Josephine Wants to Dance

  The Shaggy Gully Times • Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip

  Baby Wombat’s Week • Queen Victoria’s Underpants

  Copyright

  Angus&Robertson

  An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia

  First published in Australia in 2010

  This edition published in 2010

  by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited

  ABN 36 009 913 517

  www.harpe
rcollins.com.au

  Copyright © Jackie French 2010

  The right of Jackie French to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

  This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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