THE ARROW OF APOLLO CHARACTERS: IULUS

 CHARACTERS
The Arrow of Apollo by Philip Womack

IULUS

Iulus is also known as Ascanius; he is the first son of Aeneas, by his Trojan wife, Creusa. In myth, he is led out of Troy by his father. All sorts of things happen to Iulus: in Virgil's Aeneid, he is largely the cause of the war between the Latins and the Trojans, when he shoots a pet stag belonging to one of the Latins.

He's also meant to be the original founder of the line of the Julians, which of course continues on into Julius Caesar and his great-nephew Augustus, hence endowing the Julio-Claudians with divine heritage (as Venus is Aeneas' mother) and with a direct link to their mythical past. It is rather like our own Queen Elizabeth II, who is, naturally, descended from the god Woden.

In The Arrow of Apollo, Iulus is Silvius's elder brother: rather arrogant, he teases his little brother, and has been given his own town of Alba Longa to rule.

HELP FUND THE ARROW OF APOLLO ON UNBOUND

An Update on THE ARROW OF APOLLO by Philip Womack

Here's an update on the funding progress of THE ARROW OF APOLLO by Philip Womack.

Interview with Maz Evans for Books for Keeps

I've interviewed Maz Evans, author of Who Let the Gods Out, for Books for Keeps. Read it here.

THE ARROW OF APOLLO: CHARACTERS: Lavinia

Latinus offerring Lavinia to Aeneas

The Arrow of Apollo by Philip Womack

2. LAVINIA

The second wife of Aeneas (his first, Creusa, having perished at Troy), Lavinia was the daughter of King Latinus, a native Italian. She was betrothed to Turnus, a local chieftain; but there was a prophecy which stated that Lavinia should marry a stranger. Hence, when Aeneas arrived, Latinus gave his daughter to the settler. Naturally, there was trouble, and the second half of the Aeneid deals with the war between Aeneas and Turnus. The poem ends with Aeneas killing Turnus (as the Iliad ends with Achilles killing Hector); there were various continuations of the story in later times,  including a 13th book of the Aeneid in which Lavinia and Aeneas get married;  but there is very little in the texts about Lavinia herself.

Virgil describes her as blonde; she is also the subject of an omen, when her hair catches fire, promising future glory. The late, lamented Ursula Le Guin wrote an interesting account of her, Lavinia, in which Virgil is projected backwards in time and sees his subject - he’d got her hair colour wrong, of course.

In THE ARROW OF APOLLO, Lavinia is fleshed out. She is the proud queen of a new, bustling city; she is a healer; she has privileged contacts with divine creatures. She advises Aeneas, being a diplomatic bridge between the new settlers and the original inhabitants,  and runs the palace household - including her stepson, Iulus; her son, Silvius; and his friend, the half-Carthaginian Elissa. 

HELP FUND THE ARROW OF APOLLO ON UNBOUND

Literary Review Children's Book Round Up April 2018

I've rounded up some of the latest children's books for Literary Review. The piece is available here.

The books reviewed are: Landscape with Invisible Hand by M T Anderson
The Ice Garden by Guy Jones
Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy
The Invasion by Peadar O'Guilin
Hari and His Electric Feet by Alexander McCall Smith (illustrated by Sam Usher)
A Lion is a Lion by Polly Dunbar.