Last week I sent out my regular flash fiction story to newsletter subscribers and, as always happens, people responded with: What happens next? Give us some closure. You’re killing me!
So this story has been on my mind since then. The elevator pitch: Naia, priestess of Poseidon, prophesies the fall of Atlantis and then sees an enormous wave rolling in towards the doomed island.
Sunday afternoon I found myself with some rare free time: the little one was visiting his grandfather, the husband was in his workshop. I wanted to continue with my WIP edits, but it was cold and the duvet and the couch called me. So instead, in the name of research, I binge watched a series I had recorded on the PVR months ago called “Legends of the Lost” presented by Megan Fox.
Okay, we won’t go into her presentation skills, scientific method or the validity of her conclusions, but I found the series entertaining nonetheless, and offering some interesting ideas. However, when I got to the episode entitled “America’s Lost Civilization”, I had to sit up and take notice.
My arms were covered with goose bumps when the scientist told the story of a girl they had found drowned deep at the bottom of the Yucatan peninsula. Her remains suggested that she was over 12 000 years old, and that she stems from humans that are genetically distinct but share some commonalities with the most ancient civilizations of our modern world, such as Native Americans, early Central Asians and the indigenous people of South America.
They named her Naia.
And I couldn’t help but wonder at the coincidence of a girl named Naia who stemmed from an ancient culture that genetically links First Nation peoples throughout the world, who had died in Mexican waters just off the Atlantic.
If you know anything about the stories surrounding legendary Atlantis, and about how survivors were dispersed all across the world, and you think about the twist of fate that made me choose that specific name for my character – then your mind should be blown right now too.
Do you believe the legends of Atlantis? What are some of your favourite myths and legends of lost civilizations?
