A quick weekend reminder that not only is The Flame Before Us now available, but there’s a countdown offer on Scenes From a Life for the next few days (UK and US Amazon stores only). Prices began at £0.99 / $0.99 and rise periodically through the course of a week to their normal values.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scenes-Life-Richard-Abbott-ebook/dp/B00H8Y0F7E/
http://www.amazon.com/Scenes-Life-Richard-Abbott-ebook/dp/B00H8Y0F7E/
Well, today’s the day for three announcements. The first is that The Flame Before Us is now available on Amazon stores world-wide in both Kindle and soft cover format. Some of the links are
Along with that, I have put Scenes from a Life on a special promotional “countdown” deal (UK and US only). The current Kindle price is £0.99/$0.99, rising back to the regular price in a week.
Finally, it is time to unveil the relocated blog, right here. This holds back copies of all previously posted articles and comments. I will continue to maintain the original one (http://richardabbott.authorsxpress.com/) for some time to come. The main reason is technical – the previous location has become very slow and erratic, with some periods of unexplained down time. Trying to get technical support and explanation has been frustrating.
The new location is with the same technical providers as the main Kephrath site, who have repeatedly proved themselves to be skilled and responsive at handling such things. So hopefully things will be more stable from now on!
That’s it for today – enjoy all that’s on offer!
This week sees the release of The Flame Before Us in Kindle and softcover versions – preorder is available now and delivery will be shortly after.
I have already posted various snippets from the story, so today I thought I would bring these together into the four strands which make up the whole.
These four groups start with very little reason to know of or feel empathy for one another. The changing situation throws these groups into contact with each other several times as they all head south to the city of Shalem (Jerusalem). There, the city governor arranges an encounter which will decide all of their futures.
Not long to wait now…
April 16th is the Kindle release date for The Flame Before Us. The soft-cover version passed its last physical proofing check and will be going live at such time as CreateSpace can process it. It will be round about the same time but I have not tracked down a way to synchronise both, so cannot be sure it will be the exact same date. All very exciting…
Preorder links are:
To celebrate, I shall also be making Scenes from a Life available on the Kindle Countdown scheme from April 16th for a week, starting at £0.99, $0.99 or equivalent, and slowly rising through the week. Your opportunity to get both at the same time!
Here’s the start of The Flame Before Us:
“But father will be back from the north before we have to leave?”
Anilat looked carefully at her mother, hoping to see some sign of the truth of the matter. But the old face, schooled in a great many years of diplomacy, was giving nothing away, and the old voice did not directly answer her.
“You will be leaving as he instructed, a half-month from now. I will wait for his return and follow on after. He has been called to attend to the wishes of the King of the North even now.”
The last was, surely, a simple guess, perhaps even a needy wish. Anilat nodded slowly, wondering if, after all, her mother had no more information than she had already shared. All that she herself knew came from the brief report delivered by the weary rider as he passed by the envoy’s house on his way to the royal palace of Ikaret.
Not long after his arrival, the city gates had been closed, and the priests were called out from the temple to bless and prepare the few city guardsmen who remained. Most of the army had already been sent north to join the collected forces of the great King of the North, assembling somewhere in the vassal territories along the coast. As well as force of numbers and weapons, they had taken wagon loads of supplies, honouring the requirements of the treaty.
The army had travelled by land, along the great Sea Road that ran all the way from the southern sedge lands of the Mitsriy up to the rugged hills in the north. But Ikaret had grown up facing the sea, and the sea still brought most of the wealth to the people. Although the hinterlands were fair, and the overland trade routes reliable, it was the port that gave life to the city. There were so few good harbours north or south along this coast.
For a time the royal family of Ikaret had offered allegiance to the Mitsriy, but no longer, not for many generations. Their loyalty had turned away when the ruler of the Khatti-lands, the great King of the North, had started to expand his sway. He was much closer to them in both distance and culture.
The Mitsriy protests were in vain; the city was simply too far north from their homeland to be retained. It was too far for an effective campaign of retaliation to be considered, even from the unruly collection of Kinahny vassal lands they controlled. Even the most warlike among the Mitsriy kings had never been able to secure their conquests this far along the coast. It suited Ikaret to have her ties of allegiance holding her to the north. The huge flocks of wading birds that feasted in the shallow waters around the bay, emblematic of Ikaret herself, had enjoyed prosperity and comparative peace for a very long time.
A little over two years ago, the first stories of raiding groups harrying the fringes of the settled lands had reached the city. A long way north and west of Ikaret, they mostly struck at island settlements, or very remote coastal towns which could not be easily reinforced. Rumours of troop losses had spread, and the great king had been swift to silence the more vocal of his critics. But the reports were still carried, by traders and officials more concerned about the immediate risk to their life and livelihood than the king’s displeasure. Then there had been a lull for a while, and it seemed that peace had returned.
But as the weather turned colder, and winter drew close this year, forlorn and homeless groups had started to come down the Sea Road. The first few dozen of these were treated with kindness and a spirit of welcome. But dozens swelled to hundreds, and generosity could only stretch so far. Some of them stopped around the outskirts of the city, clustering in great tented pools around the streams and wells. Others moved on again, southwards, hoping to find better favour among the Fenku, or even the Mitsriy. They would have a long journey southward, along the Sea Road, but perhaps the effort would be worth while.
“Are the children ready to leave? Yours and your brother’s?”
As readers will know, much of my time recently has been put into getting The Flame Before Us ready for publication. It is now available for Kindle pre order at Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Amazon India, and elsewhere. The softcover version is going through the last stages of production and will be available at round about the same time.
But outside that I have been involved with a range of other things. One that I was particularly pleased to take part in was a contribution to Suzanne Adair’s “Relevant History” blog. Entitled Stamped on these Lifeless Things, it was an exploration of early writing. A lot of fun to write, and judging from the comments, readers enjoyed it too. One lucky reader got a free copy of In a Milk and Honeyed Land which at the time of writing has just successfully made its way across the Atlantic.
There are a few reviews which have appeared on other sites recently –
Historical Novel Society
The last two had a lot of points of similarity, setting personal cross-cultural friendship in contrast to a background of social prejudice.
The Review Group
All of the above reviews are live at the sites indicated, and will be making their way onto Amazon and elsewhere shortly.
Other books – reviews planned but not yet written –
Plenty of excitement there…
Well, here’s some great news about The Flame Before Us – both Kindle and soft-cover versions are now queued up for full distribution. The Kindle version can now be preordered at
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00V2JVRGO
or
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V2JVRGO,
but the physical version will take a little longer to become available. Both should be accessible for purchase from mid April.
To celebrate, here is the final, full cover image:
And here is the cover blurb:
Conflict and commitment in the shadow of a city’s downfall
The raiding ships have come before, but this time it is different. This time the attackers are coming to stay, and defensive walls will not hold them back. Nowhere is safe. One by one, the great kings and their vassal cities collapse as the newcomers advance.
The land is already a patchwork of many different peoples, bound together in a fragile web of traditional alliances and rivalries. How will political and personal promises change with the arrival of the new clans? Is war inevitable, or can a different answer be found?
Walk with refugees, migrants, and defenders of the land alike, as they struggle to create a different way of life beside the ruins of the old. Can alliance, commitment and love survive the turmoil?
(Cover artwork © Copyright Ian Grainger www.iangrainger.co.uk)
Today I am delighted to welcome Paula Lofting to the blog, who has kindly answered a number of interview questions. Some while ago now I reviewed Sons of the Wolf, but as you read on you will find out lots of other things about Paula.
Q. Hi Paula, could you first give us a little introduction to yourself.
A. Yes, indeed, well my name is Paula Wilcox, but I use my maiden name of Lofting as my author’s name. I decided to use it because I didn’t want people thinking that the actress Paula Wilcox was writing my books lol, plus there is an old famous author called Hugh Lofting of Dr Dolittle fame and I am a distant cousin, so it seems appropriate to use it – *laughs.
I am a psychiatric nurse by day and in my spare time I love to write. I’m working on my second novel at the moment but time is at a premium, especially as I help run The Review blog and also re-enact Dark Age history. So finishing a book takes me a lot of time as I have to fit my writing into my daily life where I can.
Q. I first came across you via a copy of Sons of the Wolf. This was your debut novel, I believe. What first gave you the inspiration for writing this book?
A. There are a lot of factors that inspired that book. These are just some: a visit to an English Heritage re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings at Battle Abbey for one, the book 1066-The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth and a desire to know more about the Anglo Saxons and why Harold took the throne from the so-called rightful heir. I thought about writing about the story of Hastings from the point of view of the two protagonists, Harold and William, but that has been done a few times now, so I had this idea from reading David Howarth’s book. He shows the events of that year through the eyes of a village and its inhabitants. It was the major factor that spurred me on to write the story.
I found David Howarth’s little gem 1066 The Year Of The Conquest at a medieval fare. He tells the story of 1066 from the standpoint of a Sussex village. He chose Little Horsted, a tiny village near Uckfield, as it was his own home and describes the holding as it was in the Domesday Book. I already had the basis of a story that I wanted to write, I just needed a character. I had thought to invent my own village and my own thegn but here was Wulfhere, Thegn of Horstede, according to the Domesday Book, just waiting for me to find him.
A blood feud between Wulfhere and his neighbour Helghi, forms the basis of the story which also encapsulates the politics and historical events of the time, drawing on what primary sources are available. So it’s a mixture of facts and fiction, and because the sources for this time are scarce in their entirety, it is an author’s dream to fill in the gaps with plausible possibilities. The novel has a large cast which includes fictional and historical characters which I had fun playing around with. Don’t you just love torturing the bodies and minds of your characters?
Q. I gather you have participated in historical reconstruction events, a level of research that few of us have braved. Indeed, your Amazon author page photo shows you taking part in such an event. Can you tell us a little about that? Does it feed directly into your writing or indirectly? Which came first – the writing or the participation?
A. Well, once I had decided I wanted to write this novel, I contacted Regia Anglorum (www.regia.org) after finding them on the internet and applied to join. I had always been interested in this kind of hobby but I had never been in a place where I felt confident enough or in the right time. It was the same with the writing. It had been a childhood dream to write a book, now I was at a time and place in my life where I was able to do both and because I wanted to write my story as authentically as possible, I thought it would be an enjoyable way to gain the knowledge needed to enhance my writing, for example, those little details you struggle with are often the simple things, like what they ate, how they made their food, how did a village community function, what did they wear and what did they NOT wear, and it is so important for this period I believe, that one gets it right.
I’m a bit of a stickler where clothing is concerned. It’s very annoying to read about women running around with their hair tumbling over their shoulders in public instead of wearing head coverings, or men wearing breeches instead of trousers or mantles instead of cloaks. I thought in the beginning that I probably would stick around Regia for as long as I needed to learn stuff but I enjoyed it so much, that I’ve stayed there ever since and am now in my 8th year of being a member. I am so grateful to the society for the stuff I’ve learned which I feel has given me the gift of insight into life in those days – it’s not a perfect tool, because there is still a lot of research that is being done at the moment and some things just have to be interpreted because there isn’t enough evidence. But long days standing around in wet wool under shelters that pour water on you because of the rain, or days sitting in the hot sun, getting smoke in your eyes and up your nose have been so worth it, because I can actually feel what I am writing, especially when I am doing battle scenes.
When I first joined I wondered what could re-enactment do for my writing, nowadays it’s more like what can my writing do for my re-enactment?
Q. Some authors prefer to specialise while others spread themselves between several periods. Which is it for you? Do you see yourself as firmly wedded to that particular place and time for writing?
A. That’s a really good question, because I have toyed with ideas. I can see myself writing about the Last Days of Roman Britain or just after. I’ve always loved that time – Arthur and Ambrosius have always intrigued me and I have some ideas scooting around in my head. I also long to write a story for Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians and am also interested in a 1st WW novel and a Victorian Gothic horror and a modern day psychological thriller. If I could ever find the time to write them it would be so cool!
Q. Many people will meet you online through the Facebook Review Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/398549953570025/ or http://thereview2014.blogspot.co.uk/) and its associated links. Tell us a little about the group, your dreams for it, and how far along the road it has reached. What prompted you to put time and energy into this?
A. I just had this thought one day that I wanted a group where authors and readers could come together to celebrate books using the forum of reviews. I had been in a lot of groups where people posted their buy links several times a week, rarely interacted with each other, nor did they share each other’s stuff. It just seemed so impersonal and I just thought, I want people to have fun, to share each other’s stuff, to interact and have discussions and support each other. I wanted people to share the reviews that they believed enticed them to read a book, to share their favourite reviews that their readers had written about their book, or share reviews they’d written themselves for others. So I came up with this idea that I would start a facebook group where the aim was to create a forum where we could do all of those things and invited some friends to help me admin it. As time went by, we came up with a Do list as opposed to a Don’t list because we decided that to keep it spam free, we would need some boundaries, such as no posting buy links and that links to reviews should be posted and not just copied and pasted. We all became experts in posting permalinks form Amazon lol! Then we added two days a week to share blog posts and so we grew like that until we created our own blog which you have linked above, to review books. We also recruited a reading team and found some more admins.
My vision for the blog was for us to produce high quality reviews of high quality books and I had this principle that we would never post a bad review. We had some guidelines where the reader was supposed to stop reading a book if they didn’t like it, but it was really difficult for them to adhere to that but gradually we weeded out the teething problems and came up with an idea that in order to not have to give good reviews to sub standard books, we would have a submissions process so that the admins team could preview the books and if approved, we sent them out for reviewing to our reading team. Those that don’t make the grade are nicely and respectfully let down, and given a brief overview of what our findings are and they have the opportunity to resubmit if they make changes.
So, what we aim for now on The Review is more of a showcasing rather than a review. We like to be analytical and give examples of what it was about the book that we enjoyed so much. We share, tweet, promote and support the book for around a week or so and this really gets the book out there to a wide variety of readers. All we ask from the author in return is a copy to giveaway to a lucky winner. Some authors have been very generous and it is to their advantage as we get a lot more draws to the post if we have a giveaway attached than if we don’t.
But it all hasn’t ended there, because in January this year, we launched our Book of the Month awards for Independent and self published authors. This has been a real exciting extension of what we do on The Review and it has been so well received. As for what’s next for The Review – I have some ideas, however our main joy and our main aim is to support and help authors of any type, whether they are indie, self published or traditional.
Q. You must have built up some great friendships through The Review and related activities. How important do you think online connections are in comparison with real-world ones? Do you get different kinds of input from online friends as opposed to those close at hand? Do you entertain thoughts of actually meeting some of your online friends for real one day?
A. I am very good friends with all of my admins, reviewers and members, however, I have met up with lovely Louise Rule who lives about an hour and a half’s drive from me, and Jayne Smith who lives nearby and there are loads of people I’d love to meet up with. The friends I have that have been in my life before I started writing and joined the literary world are not really booky people, well not in the same sense and not to the degree that I am involved. However, I am so lucky that in June of this year, I shall be travelling out to Alaska to meet with the person I call my ‘other head’ Lisl Zlitni, who works with me and our other head, Louise Rule. We call ourselves Three Heads on One body! I am absolutely stoked to be going to Anchorage to meet up. This is such an amazing opportunity and I am so grateful to have been given this chance to meet up with my friends in such an awesomely intriguing place.
Q. I’m aware that there is a sequel The Wolf Banner coming towards release. How much would you like to tell us about this? Do you think there will be others following on in the series or is this a conclusion?
A. Well, The Wolf Banner follows on from Sons of the Wolf, checking in with what is going on for Wulfhere’s family in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy that occurs as a result of the blood feud between the two main families. We also see new threads entering the story and cameo characters from Sons are further developed and drawn deeper into the story. Sons of the Wolf covers the years from 1054-55 and The Wolf Banner 1056-59 and so there will be another two or three books at least as we have yet to reach The Battle of Hastings, which will be a devastating turning point for Wulfhere’s family and the other characters. Then I plan to take the story beyond the Battle of Hastings to the rebellions that arose in the wake of the invasion. And who knows, after that, I may even go backwards from the first book!
Q. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us before we finish…
A. Well, I hope to have The Wolf Banner ready for publication later this year and then I shall be revising Sons of the Wolf as it is currently out of print due to me breaking ties with my assisted publishing company. However you can obtain a signed paperback or a kindle copy through my website, www.paulalofting.com . All you have to do is go to the My Books section of my site and click on the paypal buttons.
I would also like to take this opportunity that myself and my Review colleagues Lisl Zlitni and Louise Rule will be exploring Book Marketing packages which we are hoping to get off the ground in conjunction with The Review at some point.
Thank you Richard for this opportunity to talk about my books and The Review. It has been a lot of fun talking to you!
The pleasure is mine, Paula! Find out more about Paula through the following links…
Today it is time for another look at a cover element of The Flame Before Us, and another extract to go with that. Like my other cover designs, this has been put together by Ian Grainger (www.iangrainger.co.uk), whose skills with photography and image manipulation have been essential. Ian’s site is well worth a look.
So, the cover piece today is the third individual element of the whole, being an oil lamp nicely lit. Ian and I had a lot of fun tracking down a suitable lamp and working out how to get a good flame with olive oil. Other than being manufactured within the last year or so, this is a pretty good match to an oil lamp of the era described in the story.
Today’s extract is from near to the end of the book. In the extract, we have been following Anilat, her daughter Haleyna, and their nurse Damatiria throughout the book. Damariel and Nepheret are priests: readers of earlier books in the series will recognise them.
Some time later, they stood at what had been the gateway of a walled area. Wild grasses and bright flowers straggled between the buildings. It had indeed been a short distance, but the old couple moved only at a slow pace. They had headed south from the city, away from the house near the city wall, away from the area containing Anilat’s new home, past the scattering of dwellings starting to spill outside the old boundary.
The spring sun shone on the holy place. It was deserted now, the buildings of the interior lying empty. Anilat recognised the design from places that her mother had spoken of. Beside her, just outside the walls, was a guardhouse. Ahead of her was the main shrine, stripped now of everything valuable. Over to one side were halls where the women would have eaten, sung, and slept. On the other side was a low stone enclosure wall. The priest, Damariel, led them towards it.
The track they walked on curved around behind the wall, and then stopped at a flight of steps going down. Anilat realised that they led underground, under the walled area. The stone flags of the steps were still neat, but trailing thorns and briars were starting to encroach. The bottom of the stairs lay in a pool of shadow. Nepheret struck fire from a stone and lit a small clay lamp.
They went down the stairs in a group. The two priests were first, with Anilat following closely. Haleyna was on her right, and Damatiria on her left, and all three women had linked arms. As they descended the steps into the shadows, the flame in Nepheret’s hand cast ever darker shadows behind them. Little rustling sounds came from crevices in the rocks.
At the bottom of the stairs they stood on a bare earth floor. Rock pillars, decorated with twisting painted vines and lotus flowers, supported the vaulted ceiling. The air was a little damp, and the patterns on the pillars were already starting to fade. The lamplight was lost in the curves of the roof, but Anilat could see that the dark expanse above them was sprinkled with stars. Damariel took Anilat by the hand and stepped confidently across the floor away from the daylight, then turned to his right through a narrow arch into a second room.
Pillars leaned out of the gloom like tree trunks. Here, the darkness was thick, silent. The little flame cast only a small puddle of light. They approached the end wall.
A great figure of the Lady Nut stretched from side to side. Her feet were arched, with her toes on the ground to their left, her body stretched over their heads, and her fingertips touched the earth again on their right. Her naked body was speckled with the stars of the heavens, and her eye gazed at them without blinking. She was glorious, magnificent, life-affirming.
The wall itself was pierced with little alcoves and pockets. Small jars and pots rested in some of them, but most were empty. Damariel gestured towards them, the shadow of his hand ranging across the wall as the flame bowed and danced. His voice sounded hollow in the chamber.
To find out who is being laid to rest here, you will have to be patient… the release date for The Flame Before Us is set as mid-April, probably 15th for the Kindle version and a few days later for the paperback to become available.
Right, time to catch up with the Versatile Blog award passed on to me by Helen Hollick (http://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.co.uk/). The guidelines for this are:
Now, trying to think of fifteen blogs I regularly follow is not easy. Still less when you cross out the ones who have already joined in this. So, I am going to lean heavily on the “up to” qualifier…
Seven interesting things
Well, I decided this didn’t have to be seven things nobody knew, which would be either extremely difficult or overly exposing! Here we go… some of these may already be familiar to you.
I have enjoyed watching birds since childhood, and at one time owned some old vinyl records with birdsong on them. I was also a junior member of the RSPB, and had a beautiful card game with pictures of British birds. Our garden in north London is a great place to see birds, and I am perpetually surprised at the range of visitors (both regular and occasional) we get.OK, now for some blog links. At the time of writing this I have no idea who will want to take up this opportunity, but here are some of the blogs I enjoy on a regular basis.
That’s it for today. I’ll be emailing the next group of bloggers to see who wants to join in… Look out for the next cover portion for The Flame Before Us before too many days have passed!
Before I get started on the blog post itself, I should briefly mention that I was nominated by Helen Hollick (http://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.co.uk/) for the Versatile Blog award. My explanatory post for that will follow in a few days.
So, today’s post explores theories about the original home of the Sea Peoples. These appear in The Flame Before Us in the form of a small clan of Sherden, travelling in ox carts south through the province of Canaan looking for a new home. The story, and the history behind it, has the Sherden as one group among many, and it seems that the Sea Peoples as a whole consisted of a collection of tribes linked loosely together. We know the names of many of these groups, though not their inter-relationships – as well as Sherden, we have Lukka, Tursha, Peleset, Danuna, Peleset, Tjekker, Weshwesh, Shekelesh and so on.
The various ancient literary sources do not give enough information about these people to be sure of their original homeland. Their names appear first as small groups of fighters allied to larger powers, with the suggestion that they served as mercenaries. Earlier texts describe them in north Africa, forming part of a Libyan army. Later ones place them on the move south through the Levant, this time in larger numbers and with family groups. It is not clear whether their journey from the north was voluntary migration, or if they were forced out by pressure of events.
The Egyptians, from whom we get the term “Sea Peoples”, recorded where they met various groups, and not their ultimate point of origin. One Egyptian word used of them is, unfortunately, ambiguous: it can be applied to either islands or coastal regions. The Hebrew Bible focuses on one group, the Philistines, (identified with Egyptian prst) as they moved south and settled in the coastal plain. We are told that the Philistines arrived from Caphtor (Crete), but, this is generally viewed in the same way as the Egyptian material – it tells us an immediate embarkation point rather than an original homeland.
So, research has largely focused around a few areas to give indirect information. The most popular one has been to look at place names around the Mediterranean, and decide if these give clues. Other people have looked at language relics, or archaeological links from their later settlement in the five cities in Canaan given by Egypt to different possible starting points.
Four major theories have emerged:
1. Various Mediterranean islands, with the links supplied by name – Sherden from Sardinia, Shekelesh from Sicily, and so on. This theory arose in the 19th century, and is probably the idea most commonly encountered.
2. Various places in Asia Minor, or more specifically southern Turkey, with name links such as Sherden from Sardes, Shekelesh from Sagalassos, etc. This theory was proposed by the Egyptologist Maspero, and is occasionally revisited. However, it has never really gained a great following, perhaps because it does not tackle the question of their relationships with the Hittites.
3. Various locations in the Balkan peninsula, along either the Aegean or Adriatic coasts. For example, Pliny lists Sardeates and Siculi as people-groups in this area, which recent scholars have linked to Sherden and Shekelesh respectively.
4. Various Mycenaean Greek locations. Although various name correspondences with the writings of Homer have been suggested, such as prst from Pylos, the main argument here is in fact archaeological. The twelfth century BC bichrome pottery from south-west Palestine known as Philistine Ware is considered similar to Aegean Late Helladic IIIC, suggesting that a travelling people brought their pottery techniques and designs with them.
In The Flame Before Us, I have gone along with the fourth of these. This is partly because I think that basing the link only on a correspondence of names is quite weak, and – clearly from the above list – open to multiple different possibilities. But in terms of the story, this also allows me to make links between the Greek participants in the Trojan War, and the Sherden of the story.
It seems to me that the destructive pattern attributed to the Sea Peoples is best seen as an extension of the Trojan War recounted in the Iliad and elsewhere. That war, stripped to a basic historical core, tells how Mycenaean Greeks travelled in ships to plunder a city on the western edge of the Hittite world. Seen in this way, the fall of Troy is simply the first episode in a chain of events that rippled around the eastern Mediterranean, encompassing Ugarit and Hatsor among many other cities.
At the end of the day the historical homeland of the Sea Peoples remains obscure, but in story-telling terms I am proposing a way for early Greek ideas and culture to enter into the Levant.