Adrestia is the Greek goddess of vengeance, often pictured with or synonymous with Nemesis. Alicia is my own imaginary construct, a person who serves her. Alicia's intruder did something very nasty to a girl named Tiffany in the past--perhaps something along the lines of getting her pregnant and then abandoning her. Tiffany prayed to Adrestia, and was probably more successful than she could've ever hoped for. Her young Romeo will now suffer for years on end, and her face will be there at every turn and twist of the path to torment him with his mistake.
A bit obscure, huh? I was trying for something with the Halloween spirit, combined with my own love for Greek mythology. I thought I had made enough of the backstory clear from context, but perhaps I made the reader work too hard.
Alicia is in her seventies, right? I had some confusion over that because Tiffany and Alicia are more modern names than ones used 70 yrs ago. I don't know why I got hung up on that.
Actually, Alicia's probably older than that, unless the goddess started using her fresh out of the cradle. *grin* I looked at Greek names for Alicia's character, but admit that I picked that one just because I liked the way it sounded.
Tiffany, like Alicia's intruder, is from modern times, so her name should be fine.
I've got to say I didn't think Alicia was necessarily a modern name at all. So I looked it up, and it's the Latinized form of Alice, which is a Germanic name, via Old French, via Old High German, none of which are terribly modern languages.
Tiffany was a name popularly given in Old French and Middle English -- languages spoken in the early Middle Ages -- to girls born on Epiphany Day (Tiffany being related to the Latin Theophany, another word for "epiphany").
So even if the names were chosen at random, they're not anachronistic :)
Well, not quite at random, I gave the wrong impression there. I actually spent a fair bit of time looking at Greek names and their meanings, and eventually narrowed it down to either Aleta or Alicia. It could've gone either way, but I eventually chose Alicia just because I liked it more.
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A bit obscure, huh? I was trying for something with the Halloween spirit, combined with my own love for Greek mythology. I thought I had made enough of the backstory clear from context, but perhaps I made the reader work too hard.
Dan
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And where did he run off to, only to come back scratched and bleeding, and with a broken arm?
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She looks exactly like Tiffany, but he obviously knows it can't be her.
"And where did he run off to, only to come back scratched and bleeding, and with a broken arm?"
In a larger sense, it doesn't really matter. Regardless of where they are on the planet, he can't possibly hide from Adrestia.
Dan
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Tiffany, like Alicia's intruder, is from modern times, so her name should be fine.
Thanks so much for reading.
Dan
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Tiffany was a name popularly given in Old French and Middle English -- languages spoken in the early Middle Ages -- to girls born on Epiphany Day (Tiffany being related to the Latin Theophany, another word for "epiphany").
So even if the names were chosen at random, they're not anachronistic :)
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Dan
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