#Orpheus Flint

[n1ghtpers0n15]

Was originally gonna draw something of Bats or Ollie but I was stumped and then bored…

So I drew Orpheus!

I don’t really have an explanation, other than, I’d think he’d would and it’d work

[heycarrots]

Black Sails Nation!! We’re back!

Reading Between the Lines Podcasts returns with a guest narrator, this time! @jaynovz joins me once again, this time narrating Chapter one of her own fic, Did The Twin Flame Bruise Paint You Blue, colloquially known as the Breakup AU.

The title and the story are inspired by the 10 minute version of Taylor Swift’s All Too Well and in our interview, we discuss those parallels, the depth of the SilverFlint tragedy, the art of audio narration, and how best to approach scenes of intimacy from a narrating perspective. Jay and I also discover that we’ve made nearly identical choices for voicing Flint and Silver. This is a jam-packed interview, folks! So buckle up for this ride!

Once again, this episode has incredible cover art, commissioned from @magicbubblepipe

The art is inspired by the a painting of Orpheus and Eurydice, referenced in the fic, itself. Thank you so much, Kelsey! You’re absolutely brilliant!

[chainsawmochi]

Hello, I have written a new fic! :D This time I'm torturing Graham and Flint.

[blocksgame]

Orpheus rates DSMP Doomsday prep inventories

(Thanks @irrealisms for screenshots and encouragement!)

Tommy - 9/10. Weapons, ammo, good armor, tactical Lore Fish, enderpearls, food, blocks, trident… you go, funky little man. Could use potions and an e-chest.

Jack Manifold - 7/10. Like he's not tryharding, or he's not tryharding well, but he did bring the important things. The bow looks unenchanted which which 8 arrows is pretty cringe. The shield durability is also cringe but he does have the supplies to make more. Good work, Jack!

Technoblade - 10/10. Who am I to criticize Technoblade's PVP loadout.

Niki - 4/10. Look at her! She made an effort! Good for her. (She wasn't planning on getting in the fighting much, which does help.)

Tubbo - 4/10. He also made an effort! I think the enchanted shield is a nice touch.

Phil - 10/10. Good for him.

Ranboo (+ full enchanted netherite) - 6/10. Most of his points are for bringing weapons and good armor. If he brought anything else useful, he will not be able to find it.

Puffy - 3/10. What are you doing, Puffy. (Apparently she was explicitly not bringing her good armor to the fight, which is sensible and fair enough.)

Ghostbur - 2/10. One point has been awarded for Blue. After haranguing, one additional point has been awarded for Charm.

I know he didn't know there was a war on, but the thing is, this is also a garbage inventory for anything at all, including building or hanging out. I don't think you tried at all, Ghostbur. I love you.

Fundy - 6/10 if the bow doesn't have infinity, 7/10 if it does.

Eret (+ iirc full netherite armor) - 8/10. Yeah you thought this one through! Go Eret!

Quackity - 8/10. Now he could use armor. But he has a boat and waterbucket for clutches, some food, gold he can trade to piglins if he finds someone else's crafting bench, one potion which I'm sure has a useful tactical effect, a bed to reset his spawn, blocks to tower with, magma blocks and flint & steel for tactical juking moves, AND the stuff to make furnaces and make decent food if he finds someone else's crafting bench, and burns the boat and his bow in the furnace. Now that's a professional minecrafter.

[takiki16]

There is something so uniquely heartbreaking, about Flint and Silver and Madi at the very end. They had it all. WE had it all. The perfect, resonant union of all of their private arcs, of the overall triumphant revolutionary arc, the culmination of both interpersonal love and friendship and defiant solidarity. We had Flint’s ruthless resolve, Madi’s brilliant courage, Silver’s supernatural ability to find a way for them both in the secret places of the human heart and mind. IT WAS ALL IN OUR HANDS. ORPHEUS WAS WALKING OUT OF HADES WITH EURYDICE BEHIND HIM.

[runawaymarbles]

20 questions for fic writers!

tagged by @chubsthehamster- thanks!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

32, unless you count the book covers. I've got 106 book covers

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

487,170

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Whatever I get stuck on at any given moment. My most recent ones are 9-1-1, Inception, ATS and Hawkeye, but my repeat fandoms are Spn, X-Men, The Old Guard and Black Sails.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I'm copying chubs and doing my personal favorites, because my top four kudos'd fic are all for the same fandom (The Old Guard) and written within like three weeks of each other.

The Scroll of Saint Barnabas (9-1-1, Buddie, 15k): recency bias, but I had a lot of fun with this one. I also probably drove my girlfriend*and cousin insane during the writing process. Sorry about that. The basic premise is: we all know how time loop fics go, but what if after the loop is broken the character has PTSD from all the things that nobody else remembers? And also what if you get a knotted dildo hooked onto your permanent retainer? *though we've now established consent and parameters for whether we can have sex if one of us is stuck in a time loop. It's always important to have these conversations in advance!!!

What The Moon Was Saying (Spn, destiel, 16k.) It's about Dean rescuing Cas from the Empty, technically, but it's also about Dean working through things he refuses to think about directly, and it's also about the perspective of dead characters who aren't all-knowing and have no clue what happened after they died, and it's also about Inanna's Descent into the Underworld and how many jokes about Sumerian mythology I could fit in there that probably nobody else is going to think are funny but I think are funny, and it's also about what issues Orpheus would have had if he'd succeeded. The central thesis statement is that Margaritaville is thee Dean Winchester Mental State song.

The Mixtape, Or: Six Things You Learn in Thursday School (Spn, destiel, 6k.) I always had this idea that I was going to write a fantasy book of some kind, where the first part would be about the founding of a religion and then the following parts would jump ahead a few hundred years and see how that religion and that original story change in the telling. Instead of writing that book I wrote 6,000 words about a post-apocalyptic religion whose foundational text was the Winchester Gospels, except they don't actually have the Winchester Gospels, so they're relying on collected ephemera and thirdhand accounts. It is also about both academic and online discourse.

The House on Graymalkin Lane (X-Men, background cherik, 92k.) My nice little outsider-POV x-men haunted house fic. It started out as "the x-mansion would be a bonkers haunted house" and then it turned into a love letter to the original timeline (we barely knew ye). It's about the mortifying ordeal of being in high school and also about how all my grandparents died at once and I had a lot of complicated feelings about that.

The Ill-Made Knight (X-Men, cherik, 1.5k) OK so you know that trope that's like "if anyone is going to kill me I want it to be you"?? it's that, but instead of being used as a statement of everlasting love and devotion, it's being used as psychological warfare. And also kind of a statement of everlasting love. But in a fucked up sort of way. Because Cherik.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I didn't used to but I do now because I always like it when people reply to mine. Sometimes I miss them and respond years later but like... I got there eventually?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

the whole estate of mortal man. (Black Sails, silverflint, 40k.) Silver is immortal but has a very impermanent self. Flint is mortal and has a very permanent self. There was only one way that was ever going to end and I stand by it.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Of recent ones, I guess The Most Fun A Girl Can Have? (Kate/Yelena, 8k.) They're having a pretty good time for most of it.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Not since like, high school.

9. Do you write smut?

Nope. Hats off to smut writers, you're doing God's work. It's very difficult.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven't, unless you count every Marvel fic being a crossover. And Good Omens show/book. But that seems like a cop-out.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Some very kind people translated The Punishment of Sisyphus (Black Sails crackfic) and Antebellum (Black Sails, Anne & Eleanor fic) into Russian, Stalefish (Old Guard, Nile-centric) into Polish, and Kidnapping for Dummies (Old Guard, Joe shenanigans) into Spanish. I can only read the Spanish one.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yessss. The #ImmortalHusbands Conspiracy (The Old Guard social media fic) with @phoenix-acid. That was very fun.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Why would you ask me this. This is cruel. I can barely pick a top 5.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

The Marvel pirate AU, probably. It's almost a complete story on its own as it stands. There's about half a next chapter written and I could probably us that to tie things up, if I cut out a bunch of things, but I'd have to reread all my research. I did way too much research for that.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Character voices? I hope it's character voices. I watch a lot of youtube compilations before writing anyone to try and get a handle on how they talk.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

The actual romance part of a romance. What do you mean they have to get together after I've set everything up so that they get together? Ridiculous.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've never done it before, but I respect people who can pull it off. I do really hate that trope though where a multilingual character calls their love interest pet names in their mother-tongue, when they are never shown using it that way (or mixing that language and English in a conversation) in canon.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

....percy jackson and the olympians.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Since I listed five favorites up there I'm switching this with the kudos question. Fic with the most kudos is Kidnapping for Dummies (The Old Guard, 3.5k)

Tagging @monstrous-femme @thegeminisage @bomberqueen17 @ellelans @annerbhp @significanceofmoths and anyone else who wants to do it. say i tagged you. nobody will ever check to find out.

[waitinqroom]

my 2023 reads 💌

(this year i’ve decided to include individual poems, articles, short stories, and more!)

mad girl’s love song by sylvia plath (1/02)

red by ted hughes (1/02)

the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe by cs lewis (1/01-1/03)

someday i’ll love ocean vuong by ocean vuong (1/04)

you think it, i’ll say it by curtis sittenfeld (1/01-1/04)

no exit by taylor adams (1/04-1/08)

the drinking water crisis on tribal lands and how the federal government is finally stepping up by marianne goodland (1/09)

the unfinished business of flint’s water crisis by anna clark (1/09)

do not go gentle into that good night by dylan thomas (1/09)

susan sontag on writing by maria popova (1/15)

dark they were, and golden eyed by ray bradbury (1/16)

we were dreamers by simu liu (1/08-1/19)

on photography by susan sontag (1/15-2/03)

diversity vs. fairness by david leonhardt (2/15)

an act of love by tommye blount (2/15)

the horse and his boy by cs lewis (2/11-2/15)

dept. of speculation by jenny offill (2/13-2/18)

sonnets to orpheus by rainer maria rilke (2/20-2/22)

prince caspian by cs lewis (2/18-2/22)

the summer i turned pretty by jenny han (2/26-3/02)

it’s not summer without you by jenny han (3/02-3/04)

we’ll always have summer by jenny han (3/04)

a history of performance (edition: hamlet) by david bevington (3/04)

hamlet by william shakespeare (1/31-3/23)

1984 by george orwell (1/29-3/28)

gone girl by gillian flynn (4/03-4/07)

the joy luck club by amy tan (5/06-6/04)

alexander hamilton by ron chernow (5/14-6/14)

letters to a young poet by rainer maria rilke (6/30)

animal farm by george orwell (6/30-7/02)

the bell jar by sylvia plath (7/02-7/15)

twelfth night by william shakespeare (7/16-7/30)

sappho: a new translation by sappho, translated by mary barnard (8/21)

the scarlet ibis by james hurst (8/22)

marigolds by eugenia collier (8/23)

the monkey’s paw by w.w. jacobs (8/23)

the open boat by stephen crane (8/24)

korean through english by sang-oak lee (2/20-8/24)

the lady or the tiger? by frank r. stockton (8/26)

the minister's black veil by nathaniel hawthorne (8/29)

an occurrence at owl creek bridge by ambrose bierce (8/29)

korean social emotions: han (한 恨), heung (흥 興), and jeong (정 情) by iljoon park (8/30)

the cask of amontillado by edgar allan poe (8/30)

the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman (8/30)

beautiful world, where are you by sally rooney (7/02-8/30)

daisy jones & the six by taylor jenkins reid (8/30-9/3)

the chalice of the gods by rick riordan (10/08-10/12)

the beatrice letters by lemony snicket (10/14) - reread

yellowface by rf kuang (11/03)

diper overlode by jeff kinney (11/03-11/05)

[desos-records]

Anthony Lockwood Aesthetic Playlist

Lockwood & Co Playlist

Lucy Carlyle Playlist

George Karim Playlist

Locklyle Playlist

From The Ritz To The Rubble (Arctic Monkeys) / Get Better (Frank Turner) / I'm Still Here (Johnny Rzeznik) / I Need Some Sleep (Eels) / Stay Alive (Jose Gonzalez) / The Parting Glass (The Wailin' Jennys) / The Yawning Grave (Lord Huron) / Beekeeper (Keaton Henson) / I Won't Back Down (Tom Petty) / Ghost Towns (Radical Face) / Smile Like You Mean It (The Killers) / There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths) / Hollow (Eddie Flint) / Suit and Jacket (Judah & the Lion) / Tongues & Teeth (The Crane Wives) / Goner (Twenty One Pilots) / Never Love an Anchor (The Crane Wives) / A Lack of Color (Death Cab for Cutie) / Jessica (Regina Spektor) / River Thames (MOSES) / Our Swords (Band of Horses) / Bloody Shirt (To Kill A King) / Seen It All (Jake Bugg) / All Those Friendly People (Funeral Suits) / Secrets - Cellar Door (Radical Face) / Who Are You, Really? (Mikky Ekko) / Hello My Old Heart (The Oh Hellos) / Orpheus (Vincent Lima) / Ghost Stories - The Narcissist Cookbook

[hawksredrobe]

“Look at me,” Silver murmurs. “Keep looking at me until we’re done.”

Flint draws a shuddering breath. He cannot, will not succumb to the power of Silver’s magic words. Not when it comes to treasure, to leadership, to the men they both fight to command. But here, in the sanctity of Silver’s arms, alone and away from prying ears…he can afford to be swept away in the sweet things Silver says.

this fic is finally finished!! chapter 2 went up yesterday! featuring silver soft domming flint, some homoerotic wound tending, a remix of the shark date, and silver reading Orpheus and Eurydice. enjoy!

[darkzeusbacon]

My first post, here we have some of my Neon Dragon Citizens (with decent Refs), or how i call them NDCitizens for short they are a group of citizens with love of fashion with Neon colors, a dangerous city which are full of criminals if you ask me~ all characters belong to me~!! here are their names~

Mayor Orpheus, Veronika and Carter

Xoulfur and Zlayer

Doctor Sahael, Qhari-Coalt and RS-01

NovaSpace, Athanasios Rimon (known as athans) Dr. Ezra T. Gore and Snowstorm B.

SwiftStrike, Akoltik and Lawrence Von Schrecken

Barim and Nikolas

Smoky Flint

[little-engineer-who-cant]

Ao3 Master List

Running master list of my Ao3 fics that are currently posted.

Never In My Wildest Dreams - Following the scandal of her aborted wedding to Anthony Bridgerton, Edwina Sharma wants to have a quiet Season. The world has different plans for her.

look into the eyes of damnation and bare your teeth - The adventures of Alla Stoneshield in Skyrim, featuring custom followers

Act I: Into the Breach

Act II: Rising Until Our Souls Shatter in the Sky

sirens scream names forgotten by tomorrow, laid to rest in infinity - DC Comics and Percy Jackson and the Olympians crossover AU, following Jason Todd and Silena Beauregard in Gotham City (Complete)

Under the Red Hood Lies Jason Todd’s Shattered Dreams

Our First Date was a Walk in the Park

There’s a Waystation in Gotham

The Water Under the Bridge to Elysium is Still the River Styx

Orpheus, Don’t Turn Around (i know you will, you always do)

Screaming Past the Limit, Never to Slow Down Again

I Needed a Shovel to Love You (and now i’m digging up your grave)

Fallen Angels Holding onto Demon Collars

The Garden of Eden, Built in Sunwarm Sheets

Screaming to Delphi for Salvation

Robins' Nest

Fighting for the Light You Drowned Long Ago - Part 1 of Injustice

Are You Coming to the (Hanging) Tree? - One shot Canon Divergence where Abigail Ashe  joins the pirates and Charles Vane teaches her how to survive them

You’re the Torch I’ll Use to Burn this World Down - Pre-canon Black Sails AU featuring a chance meeting between Charles Vane and Miranda Barlow. What if they talk? Written for the Built On Sand Creative Event

Dead Doesn't Mean Gone - A short rumination on Leon Kennedy's infection post-Resident Evil 4

Down Into the Sea and Back Out Again - Piers Nivans survives Lanshiang. An ongoing collections of vignettes about the consequences

Duty-Bound for Hell, So We Make this World Our Heaven - Dreamsharing AU featuring Myrcella Baratheon and Aemond Targaryen. Written for a dear friend

What If I Knew Of You? - PoTC and Black Sails crossover where James Norrington ruminates on Captain Flint

[n1ghtpers0n15]

SORRY IM A LIL LATE!!!

💖🐉Happy Valentine’s Day🐉💖

Drew the Flint family as alien space noodles (Nate being a still egg-cubating noodle) I know the designs of their dragon looks look a lil wonky, sorry I kinda came up with it on the spot and Phoebe’s (purple one) colors where being really difficult at the time 😅

Also wanted to use let y’all know I DID finish a good chunk the Flint’s parent’s lore, it goes from their separate childhoods to when they met, and there will be more to it I’m just designing them again, mostly just the clothes and their alien anatomy (the heads are being difficult again 😭), it’s taking a bit of time to figure these two out but when I get their designs the way I like em, I’ll post them separately first to attach their childhood lore dump to them and post them together for a height comparison

So yeah, I didn’t give up on em, just taking time and letting bits of their lore to steep like tea

Can’t promise I’ll post art or writing again too soon, but I can promise it’ll see y’all again eventually

SEE YA’LL!!

(Also if anyone’s still curious about the drawing above Orpheus is the blue one, Phoebe’s the purple one and Nathaniel’s a snug lil bean wrapped by very much stolen comfy material, he’s currently the safest lil bean in the etherium here)

[kcrabb88]

orpheus, flint and raoul for the new fuck marry kill format (sorry)

1 (Knead like dough): I think Orpheus for this one. It could be like a massage maybe, and he deserves that, he's been through a lot and also can't afford to GO to HAVE a proper massage so this will have to do.

2 (hold from the ankles and shake till coins and miscellaneous items drop out their clothes): definitely Flint. Both because I think he would have interesting things like weapons and coins and god knows what in his pockets, but also because sometimes someone NEEDS to shake him. I'm here for the cause my dude, but sailing straight into a ship killer storm was, perhaps, not a great idea.

3 (put in the washing machine and clip onto a line when they’re soggy): Raoul for this one, because maybe being tossed around in the wash and being nicely hung out to dry in the sun will cure his Erik-induced PTSD.

[airaglub]

Galin Jordanov

The aim of this booklet is simple: one who has no time to read vast works can, by these few dozens of pages, get in touch with the most important events that took place during the past two millennia on the territory south of the river Danube and west of the Black Sea – the land that bears the name Bulgaria…

Galin Jordanov

A land like a human palm…

A bigger land I don’t require.

I’m glad your mountains are flint-hard And that your blood has Southern fire.

Taken from Georgi Djagarov’s “Bulgaria”, translated by Peter Tempest

From Prehistoric Times to The Forming Of A Nation

Thracians, Greeks and Romans

Archaeological excavations had shown in an indisputable way the existence of primitive man earlier than hundreds of thousands of years in the lands inhabited today by Bulgarians. Impressing collections of Hint, bone and horn tools as well as earthenware and ceramics used during the Copper and Stone Age can be seen in most Bulgarian museums. Works of idol plastic arts reveal the diverse and unique spiritual life that took place in these lands Private Tours Balkan.

However, the earliest inhabitants of the Bulgarian lands were recognized to be the Thracians – mentioned by Herodotus as “one of the most multitudinous peoples” of the Ancient world and referred to as the “horse bridlers” in Homer’s Iliad. Five thousand years ago numerous tribes of them inhabited not only the Balkan Peninsula – south of the Danube, along the river Maritza and the south-western parts of present- day Bulgaria – but also Asia Minor and some of the islands in the Aegean Sea. Thracians were of Indo- European origin and certainly represent the ethnical basis that served later as on of the genetic ingredients for the forming of the Bulgarian nation.

They were acquainted with the ways of producing iron tools and dealt well with farming or animal breeding. Thracian kings minted coins and had at their disposal skilled goldsmiths for which testimonies are the famous Thracian silver and golden treasures – such as the Rogozen or the Panagyurishte treasures – found in our lands and exposed in many countries of the world. But along with that some ancient historians admit that part of their tribes have shown themselves as good sailors who rivalled in experience the rulers of the marine expanse, the Greeks, and sometimes acted even like pirates…

Thracian culture of that period was strongly influenced by the Greek colonization of the Black Sea coastline after the 7th century B. C. as the multiple settlers of the Greek city- states established economic and cultural exchange with the Thracian lands. So was initiated the processes of Hellenization of a part of the Thracian ethnos and the mighty Greek civilization this way enriched the Thracian culture. Thracian religion took notions from the Greek divinities and, on their part, the Greeks paid tribute to the legendary Thracian singer and musician Orpheus, who had an important position in Thracian mythology.

[bulgariant]

Galin Jordanov

The aim of this booklet is simple: one who has no time to read vast works can, by these few dozens of pages, get in touch with the most important events that took place during the past two millennia on the territory south of the river Danube and west of the Black Sea – the land that bears the name Bulgaria…

Galin Jordanov

A land like a human palm…

A bigger land I don’t require.

I’m glad your mountains are flint-hard And that your blood has Southern fire.

Taken from Georgi Djagarov’s “Bulgaria”, translated by Peter Tempest

From Prehistoric Times to The Forming Of A Nation

Thracians, Greeks and Romans

Archaeological excavations had shown in an indisputable way the existence of primitive man earlier than hundreds of thousands of years in the lands inhabited today by Bulgarians. Impressing collections of Hint, bone and horn tools as well as earthenware and ceramics used during the Copper and Stone Age can be seen in most Bulgarian museums. Works of idol plastic arts reveal the diverse and unique spiritual life that took place in these lands Private Tours Balkan.

However, the earliest inhabitants of the Bulgarian lands were recognized to be the Thracians – mentioned by Herodotus as “one of the most multitudinous peoples” of the Ancient world and referred to as the “horse bridlers” in Homer’s Iliad. Five thousand years ago numerous tribes of them inhabited not only the Balkan Peninsula – south of the Danube, along the river Maritza and the south-western parts of present- day Bulgaria – but also Asia Minor and some of the islands in the Aegean Sea. Thracians were of Indo- European origin and certainly represent the ethnical basis that served later as on of the genetic ingredients for the forming of the Bulgarian nation.

They were acquainted with the ways of producing iron tools and dealt well with farming or animal breeding. Thracian kings minted coins and had at their disposal skilled goldsmiths for which testimonies are the famous Thracian silver and golden treasures – such as the Rogozen or the Panagyurishte treasures – found in our lands and exposed in many countries of the world. But along with that some ancient historians admit that part of their tribes have shown themselves as good sailors who rivalled in experience the rulers of the marine expanse, the Greeks, and sometimes acted even like pirates…

Thracian culture of that period was strongly influenced by the Greek colonization of the Black Sea coastline after the 7th century B. C. as the multiple settlers of the Greek city- states established economic and cultural exchange with the Thracian lands. So was initiated the processes of Hellenization of a part of the Thracian ethnos and the mighty Greek civilization this way enriched the Thracian culture. Thracian religion took notions from the Greek divinities and, on their part, the Greeks paid tribute to the legendary Thracian singer and musician Orpheus, who had an important position in Thracian mythology.

[paradisesc]

Galin Jordanov

The aim of this booklet is simple: one who has no time to read vast works can, by these few dozens of pages, get in touch with the most important events that took place during the past two millennia on the territory south of the river Danube and west of the Black Sea – the land that bears the name Bulgaria…

Galin Jordanov

A land like a human palm…

A bigger land I don’t require.

I’m glad your mountains are flint-hard And that your blood has Southern fire.

Taken from Georgi Djagarov’s “Bulgaria”, translated by Peter Tempest

From Prehistoric Times to The Forming Of A Nation

Thracians, Greeks and Romans

Archaeological excavations had shown in an indisputable way the existence of primitive man earlier than hundreds of thousands of years in the lands inhabited today by Bulgarians. Impressing collections of Hint, bone and horn tools as well as earthenware and ceramics used during the Copper and Stone Age can be seen in most Bulgarian museums. Works of idol plastic arts reveal the diverse and unique spiritual life that took place in these lands Private Tours Balkan.

However, the earliest inhabitants of the Bulgarian lands were recognized to be the Thracians – mentioned by Herodotus as “one of the most multitudinous peoples” of the Ancient world and referred to as the “horse bridlers” in Homer’s Iliad. Five thousand years ago numerous tribes of them inhabited not only the Balkan Peninsula – south of the Danube, along the river Maritza and the south-western parts of present- day Bulgaria – but also Asia Minor and some of the islands in the Aegean Sea. Thracians were of Indo- European origin and certainly represent the ethnical basis that served later as on of the genetic ingredients for the forming of the Bulgarian nation.

They were acquainted with the ways of producing iron tools and dealt well with farming or animal breeding. Thracian kings minted coins and had at their disposal skilled goldsmiths for which testimonies are the famous Thracian silver and golden treasures – such as the Rogozen or the Panagyurishte treasures – found in our lands and exposed in many countries of the world. But along with that some ancient historians admit that part of their tribes have shown themselves as good sailors who rivalled in experience the rulers of the marine expanse, the Greeks, and sometimes acted even like pirates…

Thracian culture of that period was strongly influenced by the Greek colonization of the Black Sea coastline after the 7th century B. C. as the multiple settlers of the Greek city- states established economic and cultural exchange with the Thracian lands. So was initiated the processes of Hellenization of a part of the Thracian ethnos and the mighty Greek civilization this way enriched the Thracian culture. Thracian religion took notions from the Greek divinities and, on their part, the Greeks paid tribute to the legendary Thracian singer and musician Orpheus, who had an important position in Thracian mythology.