Exodus and Bibliography

Exodus:

And so, we leave our story at a turning point, an ending, though not a definitive one.

Many questions have been answered since the beginning, haven't they? But this is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg, as some would say. But while the future looms so distant and indecipherable for the immortals, the past and its "present" become easier for you to understand.

So let's pick up where we left off with the doubts I raised. I have already told you about the legend of Icarus. Let's imagine, for a moment, that a man managed to soar through the skies with heavy wax wings.

Without a doubt, he would have felt magnificent for a simple being like him, to rise in flight and reach where no human had ever reached before: the heavens, the dominion of Zeus and Uranus.

Completely ignoring that what he was witnessing was only a fraction of the planet, and the Earth is also just a tiny speck in the vastness of the void.

In the same way, his longing could only go as far as his limitations took him. For, what are mortals but the sum of their weaknesses?

Sad and pathetic mortals. Instead of being content with what they have, they decide to want more. I almost pity them. Zenodulos, without a doubt, has gone further than any mortal. He has become the supreme being of one empire, and then another; and his story, as well as his ambition, will not end there.

But the man who decided to condemn his companions to the curse that my gift entailed does not realize that he is ignorant of so many things. For with his divine pretensions, he can only be happy on his golden thrones. That is to say, flying with his wax wings, reaching further than other mortals, but unable to get close to me.

And just as his aspirations of led him to march with his troops to conquer the territories that his "ancestors" had years ago, Demosthenes waited for the opportune moment to escape.

Apart from the two of them, there were the other immortals. What happened to them after that couple left Athens? Kharma stayed by the side of her former companion in slavery, while Callisto and Auxentius... well, their paths would cross again with the protagonists of this story.

What I do want to reveal to you is that far away, in those lands where centuries ago, warrior tribes were subjugated, a girl awakens from her lethargy.

In the midst of an underground place, her green eyes watched on those ruined stone constructions. Her mind, already attentive to some of the changes that had happened while she slept, could only ask one question:

— Where am I?

...

..

.

Bibliography

My main source for the period of 5th century BC Athens and the Greco-Persian wars was Tom Holland's "Persian Fire" and Herodotus' "Histories." I would also like to thank Elizabeth Ann Robertson for her thesis "Growing up Greek: The differing journeys through childhood in ancient Athens and Sparta" and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones for his book "Aphrodite's Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Ancient Greece."

My main sources for the extensive world that are Greek weddings in classical times were "Old Stones, New Temples" by Drew Campbell and " Música y matrimonio en la antigua Grecia " by María I. Rodríguez López.

For the Roman period of Caligula's rule, the life of Claudius, and various aspects of Roman society, my main sources were "I, Claudius" and its sequel: "Claudius, the God, and His Wife Messalina," both by Robert Graves.

I also based myself on a documentary that I saw many years ago on the History Channel that I no longer remember its name where they argued that Caligula was not really crazy and season 3 of the Netflix documentary series "Roman Empire".

To better describe the Praetorian camp, I based myself on "The Structure and Phases of the Castra Praetoria in Rome: Scenes from Ancient Rome, Volume 3" by Elizabeth Legge.

In addition I consulted a variety of online resources…