The Diomedeia

Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empire

De: Gregory Michael Nixon

Narrado por: Simon de Deney

A historically-based novel with authentic, legendary, and fictional characters interacting across the extraordinary panorama of the Bronze Age Collapse in the Hittite Empire between the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas. Diomedes, previously a hero of the Trojan War, and the polyglot Peoples of the Sea raid inland into the Hittite Empire during its final months. The tale is both a study of ancient mythic consciousness and an exciting adventure of love, character, destruction, desperate survival, and the lived mystery of pagan rituals. It was a time of such chaos, royalty was overthrown, palaces and temples were burnt, and the power of the gods was thrown into doubt, yet the ancient Great Goddess, who had been suppressed, began to regain her former dominance.

Diomedes, though prominent in Homer's Iliad—a warrior the equal of Hektor or Achilleus, a thinker as cunning as Odysseus and as wise as Nestor, and the only man who dared wound gods—has seldom, if ever, been the chief protagonist in literature. He is given his due within. His own wandering adventures and suffering after the destruction of Ilios are traced as far north as Kolkhis (Colchis) in the Black Sea, through involvement with the last Hittite royal family in Anatolia, and as far south as Alasiya (Cyprus) in the Mediterranean. He ascends the heights of glory but also must descend into the dark Underworld in the attempt to save the one he loves.

[In the upcoming sequel and completion of the tale, Diomedeia II: Return to Tiryns, Diomedes returns to the devastated mainland Greece to visit his home city of Tiryns and fight for ancient Pylos, one of only two palace states left standing. The other is Athens. He goes to Ithaca to meet Odysseus, his old friend who took the Palladion from him. Eventually, he makes his way to southern Italy where becomes a founder of cities rather than a destroyer of them].

©2022 Gregory Michael Nixon (P)2024 Gregory Michael Nixon

Impressively Researched, Entertaining Story

Very impressive story, not merely imping Homer or Virgil, but going in completely new directions with its narrative ideas. Clearly Gregory Michael Nixon has a huge interest in Bronze Age Collapse-era civilizations, as the story is dripping with detail on the various cultures, clothing, rituals and more.

At times you can detect the author finding a flimsy excuse to describe things tangential to the narrative, but I learned a lot so I didn’t mind. What I did mind was an incredibly gratuitous sex scene from of out of nowhere. I don’t mind a good sex scene now and then (and the others in this book are fine), but this one I’m referring to near the middle doesn’t really fit with the overall tone of the story, so it had me scratching my head.

I really enjoyed the historically-minded look at the ILIAD especially, and this story’s reconfiguring of events. The “multiple Trojan wars” theory is used to interesting effect here, splitting Achilles and “king” Paris from Agamemnon, Odysseus and Diomedes’ era. And I enjoyed the usage of the “Troy taken down by earthquake” theory too. The Diomedes of this book doesn’t necessarily resemble the slightly unhinged young buck of Homer, but maybe that’s the point. It was fun to see Robert Graves’ Triple Goddess idea on display too.

I think narrator de Deney does a good but not great job here, giving every sentence a strange lilt at the end, and also pronouncing the main character’s name wrong, calling him die-AH-meh-deez rather than die-oh-MEE-deez. This adds unintended humor when characters pronounce the name “wrong” in the narrative and he uses the right pronunciation to do it. But he gave a steady performance through a minefield of very difficult ancient names, so I have to respect that, and can’t complain too much.

Overall I’m very interested to read the next in this series. It’s nice to see ancient historical fiction that’s written with such intense care for actual history. [AUDIBLE]

めっちゃ面白い、すごい歴史研究よく見える。ディオメーデースはイリアスの同じキャラクターちょっと似てないけど彼だけについてじゃない、この話。思ったよりヒッタイト王国や不思議な海の民たくさんあった。僕よく教えてくれてよかった！