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The first in an action-packed debut middle grade fantasy duology about a Cuban American girl who discovers that she’s one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology. Perfect for fans of The Serpent’s Secret, the Aru Shah series, and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Callie Martinez-Silva didn’t mean to turn her best friend into a pop star. But when a simple pep talk leads to miraculous results, Callie learns she’s the newest muse of epic poetry, one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology tasked with protecting humanity’s fate in secret. Whisked away to Muse Headquarters, she joins three recruits her age, who call themselves the Muse Squad. Together, the junior muses are tasked with using their magic to inspire and empower—not an easy feat when you’re eleven and still figuring out the goddess within. When their first assignment turns out to be Callie’s exceptionally nerdy classmate, Maya Rivero, the squad comes to Miami to stay with Callie and her Cuban family. There, they discover that Maya doesn’t just need inspiration, she needs saving from vicious Sirens out to unleash a curse that will corrupt her destiny. As chaos erupts, will the Muse Squad be able to master their newfound powers in time to thwart the Cassandra Curse . . . or will it undo them all?
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the fifth century BC (c.484 - 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative. The Histories-his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced-is a record of his "inquiry", being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. The Histories, were divided into nine books, named after the nine Muses: the "Muse of History", Clio, representing the first book, then Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope for books 2 to 9, respectively.
Giving Western literature and art many of its most enduring themes and archetypes, Greek mythology and the gods and goddesses at its core are a fundamental part of the popular imagination. At the heart of Greek mythology are exciting stories of drama, action, and adventure featuring gods and goddesses, who, while physically superior to humans, share many of their weaknesses. Readers will be introduced to the many figures once believed to populate Mount Olympus as well as related concepts and facts about the Greek mythological tradition.
"The book consists of interconnected poems concerned with various modes of time and its relation to personal and historical events"--Provided by publisher.
Spanning eight decades and chronicling the wild ride of a Greek-American family through the vicissitudes of the twentieth century, Jeffrey Eugenides’ witty, exuberant novel on one level tells a traditional story about three generations of a fantastic, absurd, lovable immigrant family -- blessed and cursed with generous doses of tragedy and high comedy. But there’s a provocative twist. Cal, the narrator -- also Callie -- is a hermaphrodite. And the explanation for this takes us spooling back in time, through a breathtaking review of the twentieth century, to 1922, when the Turks sacked Smyrna and Callie’s grandparents fled for their lives. Back to a tiny village in Asia Minor where two lovers, and one rare genetic mutation, set our narrator’s life in motion. Middlesex is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire. It’s a brilliant exploration of divided people, divided families, divided cities and nations -- the connected halves that make up ourselves and our world.
Calliope is a literary novel. In its simplest form, it is the story of a man longing to become the young, idealistic person he once was when the world seemed completely open to promise. It is the desire to re-experience life with all the naiveté and hope of romantic youth. In its allegorical form, the story explores such themes as purpose, morality, social convention, materialism and happiness.When the protagonist meets an orange-haired girl, his life is forever altered. Her name is Calliope, and what occurs throughout the rest of the novel is a wild, episodic fugue. The flight becomes a frenetic interlacing through wilderness and civilization, this being an allusion to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality. The wilderness comes to represent a path back to the primal self, while civilization is more dubious representing both the potential for corruption, as well as the great heights of artistic and rational endeavors. Yet while on the journey, the protagonist is forced to look at life anew in part due to the somewhat unscrupulous efforts of Calliope. Morality is examined through the eyes of Calliope, who is by all intensive purposes Greek, which means pre-Christian. Her moral code is not affected by the guilt of Christianity. Her nakedness throughout the novel in part symbolizes a complete lack of shame. As for her beliefs, an understanding of Friedrich Nietzsche's perspectivism best represents her values. This allows the protagonist an opportunity to erase everything that he has learned. All custom, all forms of etiquette, religious belief, habit and convention must be forgotten in order to re-experience the world with the sense of wonderment he so eagerly longs for. With no ties to the world, he embarks upon an epic voyage of silliness and profound examination. Lured along by this electric, orange-haired muse, he becomes convinced that she is either bent upon his supreme salvation or utter damnation. What is so amazing about the entire journey is where they both end up—a location which seems to be the last place the protagonist was in complete control of his destiny. Therefore, a true chance to begin again is perhaps realized.
Homer the Preclassic considers the development of the Homeric poems-in particular the Iliad and Odyssey-during the time when they were still part of the oral tradition. Gregory Nagy traces the evolution of rival “Homers” and the different versions of Homeric poetry in this pretextual period, reconstructed over a time frame extending back from the sixth century BCE to the Bronze Age. Accurate in their linguistic detail and surprising in their implications, Nagy's insights conjure the Greeks' nostalgia for the imagined “epic space” of Troy and for the resonances and distortions this mythic past provided to the various Greek constituencies for whom the Homeric poems were so central and definitive.
