Book recs - Hekatomboion

Hello everybody and happy (Attic) new year! Best of wishes to all of you

If you lurk around my profile, you'll see that I have monthly book and song recommendations that I (ideally) update every month; however, I never really explain why I recommend them so I'd like to start doing that. The focus of this post and every subsequent post on the topic will be on books because I feel like it's easier to explain why you like a book/what it's about than it is for a song, so here goes.

This month's book recs are: "Callirhoe" by Chariton of Aphrodisias (1st Century CE) and "The cult of Ra: sun-worship in Ancient Egypt" by Stephen Quirke (2001)

"Callirhoe" is a novel originally written in Ancient Greek by Charlton of Aphrodisias, and is one of the oldest (mostly) complete novels we have. It is a dramatic romance, starring the beautiful Callirhoe, her first and final husband Chaereas (kinda complicated), and to some extent her second husband Dionysius governor of Miletus. The main plot is about the tragic separation and heartwarming reunion of Callirhoe and Chaereas, and all the incredible obstacles in both of their way. It's kinda sorta like "the Odyssey" but with a pair of lovers in place of Odysseus, Aphrodite instead of Athena, and absolutely no monsters. The mundane obstacles and almost farcical depiction of Ancient Greek and Eastern Mediterranean culture make the book very engaging and fun to read, as the characters have relatable struggles like the heartache of separated lovers, the longing to make things right, worry about the future and sweet unadulterated love. It's a very sweet, (dare I say) timeless read that I'm glad made it all the way to our modern times, although some plot points can get pretty repetitive, especially on Callirhoe's side (no shade to my girl though I love her) which would be my main criticism of the novel. Overall, nice feel-good story, 9/10

"The Cult of Ra" is an academic novel written by Stephen Quirke. It is an overview and examination of the beliefs, ritual practices, and innovations that surrounded the worship of the sun god, mainly Ra, Amun-Ra and the Aten. It's a pretty good book to read if you want to learn more about Ancient Egyptian religion and I find the information pretty digestible so far (I'm not done reading it so my opinion might change.It also has illustrations from ancient monuments to make the information easier to understand, because Ancient Egypt possessed a developed visual as well as literary culture, especially among the elite and their monuments. I would recommend this book specifically to: Kemetic polytheists, people interested in the history of Ancient Egyptian religion, and people who just want to read something new. 8/10

These are my book recommendations of the month! Feel free to talk or ask questions about them in the comments. 

Thanks for reading! Remember to stay woke, stay beautiful, stay you, and stay awesome :)