You’ve heard of Jason and the Argonauts, right? Fifty heroes of ancient Greek mythology who went on a quest for the Golden Fleece.
It’s a very exciting story but I won’t go into the plot, I don’t want to give away any spoilers.
But you’d make certain assumptions about what these heroes were good at, wouldn’t you? Being strong and brave, fighting monsters, that sort of thing.
I am currently reading a book by Stephen Fry called Heroes – Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures who points out a different sort of hero who was amongst their ranks:
A Sicilian king named Butes had been recruited solely for his prestigious skill with bees.
I appreciate that honey would make their rations taste better but I hadn’t realised that was such a priority to these adventurers. I would have thought they’d be happy roughing it but apparently not.
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The picture is an excellent piece of embroidery I got from Hexen Needles – no commission on this link but I think they’re great so you should check them out.
Odd Bits About Books 