The first half of a story in the voice of the ancient Sibyl of Cumae, who is caught in the margins of a book and slips into the body of an old woman who lives in the pine forest—as found in full in the 12th issue of Dark Mountain: Sanctum http://shop.dark-mountain.net/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=93

The Sibyl in the Book

This is the full chapter, "Wheel," from my novel Tatterdemalion, created around the paintings of the artist Rima Staines. https://www.bookdepository.com/Tatterdemalion-Sylvia-V-Linsteadt/9781783523290?ref=grid-view&qid=1513731092912&sr=1-1

Wheel, from Tatterdemalion

This is the first half of one of the short stories in my collection Our Lady of the Dark Country, told from the point of view of a priestess of Delphi at the time of Hellenic conquest. It is a retelling of the myth of Apollo's slaughter of the great Python, as well as the Daphne & Apollo tale. You can read the rest of the story, and the whole book, here: http://www.sylvialinsteadt.com/store?model_number=OLAD1

The Pythia

This is part one of my novella The Dark Country, set on the imagined, Greek-inspired island of Kefthyra. In it, a maiden, mother and crone call forth the old language, and the snakes that live in the Earth, to try to overthrow a colonial empire.  

I will be sharing the full novella in four or five parts over the coming weeks. May these words be seeds in this season, rising Earth's old language, and justice, through each of you.

Read the full novella in my collection Our Lady of the Dark Country. 
https://www.ptreyesbooks.com/book/9780999696606

PODCAST SOUND EDITING: Simon Linsteadt
PODCAST ART: Catherine Sieck
PODCAST MUSIC: Giannis Linardakis (Cretan lute, traditional)


ABOUT THE PODCAST:

Welcome to Kalliope's Sanctum, a biweekly story podcast hosted by writer Sylvia V. Linsteadt. This podcast is dedicated to Kalliope, primordial and first Muse of epic poetry and ecstatic song in ancient Greece. This podcast is a place of sanctuary for her oldest stories. It is a return to the wild garden, to the spring, to the ground of being & the source of inspiration in the Earth. Here, we honor Kalliope as Muse of Earth. Here, you will find some of the stories beneath the stories of Old Europe: short fictional/poetic pieces written and read by Sylvia that explore elements of indigenous Old European mythology, with a focus on pre-Hellenic (pre-Patriarchal) Greece.

Come sit with us in the honeyed light, among the ripe pomegranates, in Kalliope's sanctuary, where the stories that arise directly from the ground of being and lifeforce can still be safely told and celebrated. Come lean against the sun-warmed stones, with the fragrance of propolis & myrrh in the air, and the trees heavy with autumn quince. This is the garden before the fall, a sanctuary for all hearts in this time. Join us, and be revived.

ABOUT SYLVIA V. LINSTEADT:

Sylvia V. Linsteadt is a novelist, poet, scholar of ancient history, myth and ecology, and artist. She divides her time between California & Crete, where she is currently working on a novel set in Minoan times.

Her published fiction includes the middle grade children’s duology The Stargold Chronicles— The Wild Folk (Usborne, June 2018) and The Wild Folk Rising (Usborne, May 2019)— Our Lady of the Dark Country, a collection of short stories (January 2018) and Tatterdemalion (Unbound, Spring 2017); her works of nonfiction include The Wonderments of the East Bay (Heyday 2014), and Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area (Heyday, Spring 2017).

Website: www.sylvialinsteadt.com/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/sylvialinsteadt
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sylviavlinsteadt/
Newsletter: tinyletter.com/sylvialinsteadt

Sylvia Linsteadt

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