" As between Marob and Sparta or Alexandria, it is very doubtful whether, at a distance of more than two thousand years, one can ever get near to the minds of, or even to the details of the actions, of the people one is writing about, although they are in a way nearer to one than one's living friends; it is scarcely possible that Kleomenes of Sparta was really at all like the Kleomenes I have made, though I doubt whether, in the present state of knowledge, anyone else's idea is inherently more probable -- it is all a game of hide-and-seek in the dark and if, in the game, one touches a hand or a face, it is all chance; so Marob is just as likely, or as unlikely, as the rest of the world. "

― Naomi Mitchison , The Corn King and the Spring Queen (The Hera Series)