I was inspired to write this short story from John William Waterhouse’s photo above which influenced me to write about my character Alethea and her life. I had written this narrative for my Major assignment, for my Writing Capstone unit in Semester 2, 2012.
Here is the link to read my short story:
http://thequarryjournal.com/helike-claire-catacouzinos/
This short story was also published in December 2013 in Macquarie University’s MC2 Magazine. The magazine presents an anthology of outstanding writing by undergraduate students enrolled in the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University, Sydney. I wrote a blog post about the Magazine here.
I wanted to write about the story of the destruction of Helike, but also the message of how history is in the past, people’s stories are lost throughout time. However, they can be remembered by sparking people to think about ancient people by discoveries and archaeological excavations. Literacy in the ancient world was not very common, so those people who did not have their life written down for them, their story embedded or scratched on a piece of papyrus, paper or stone can at least be remembered by archaeological evidence. Whether that be a building, statues, jewellery, tombstones, pots, plates or even coins. People now can at least think about them, and that’s what I want my short story to portray. To get modern people to think and reflect about the past, because without the ancients, we wouldn’t be here today.
My short story has also been linked onto The Helike Project.
The Helike Society is based in Aigion, Achaea in Greece, they are the principal scientific non-profit organization which promotes and supports scientific research to reveal and develop the site of Ancient Helike. They were founded in Aigion in 1982 at the initiative of Dora Katsonopoulou, archaeologist, and other personalities from the city of Aigion. Since 2000, archaeological excavations of the Helike Project in the area of Helike are conducted under the auspices of the Department of Geology, the University of Patras and the Helike Society under a permit from the Greek Ministry of Culture.
I was able to contact the Director and President of the Helike Project, Professor Dora Katsonopoulou, and asked if she could place my short story on their website to help promote their work and the awareness of Ancient Helike to the public.
This short story was also read by the actress, Gianna Stefanatou, accompanied by a pianist, on the 4th of October 2013 for the Opening Ceremony of The Helike V Conference in 2013 at the University of Patras in Greece. I’m very excited to know that my writing will be a part of the Ancient History and Archaeology community – putting two passions of mine together.
Claire Catacouzinos | Writer & Editor 