#In click baity titles where they ‘learn’ a language

[littlemizzlinguistics]

Me @ YouTube “polyglots”

[flowerphoenix]

The bull myth

I am sorry for bringing up the bull skin again, but the history/ archeology nerd part of me is crying a bit at some of the inaccuracies regarding the myth/legend and the origin that has popped up in the discussion. 

I am in no way an  expert. This is merley what I have been able to find within a few hours of research so if you have any corrections or links to sources discussing the topic they are more than welcome, as I am very eager to learn more. Unfortunately I have also had quite a few run in with paywalls when it comes to academic publications.

Apologies for funky grammar and spelling errors, English is not my native language.

Warning for discussion of tourture device.

Absolutely no salt to anyone, information and knowledge change all the time and its never easy to know what is ‘’true’’ (In the case of archeology what are the most likely scenarios, based on material findings and the current ideology of how they should be interpreted. Especially interpretations are ever changing)

So to start off with the part that inspired this.

The time period. 

In the post first touching upon the issue with the skin, on the Flameforger's announcement thread, the Brazen bull (In game skin name now Forged automaton) is referred to as a medieval tourture device. So far I have been unable to find a single text mentioning the brazen bull in medieval times. A few mentions of usage during ancient Rome, but all without sources to back them up.

The time period that I have seen mentioned in most texts credits its creation to somewhere before 450 BC in ancient Greece, this being around 1000 years (depending on where in Europe you are) before medieval times. 

Myth or truth 

So this just might be because of English being my secondary language, there might have been something I missed. But I feel like I have seen people stating this as a fact that they learned in history, that it actually existed. 

I have been unable to find a single piece of text referencing an actual material finding of any brazen bulls. 

Sensationall sells. Judging from how far the myth has spread online I feel like it is justified to say that it's already quite famous, and should a find be made the media coverage would likely be huge. Both as the find itself would be physically quite extrordinary and from one of the most popular time periods to study, when it comes to European history. As well as with the myth already sourounding it being so gruesome.

But as it stands, while I am able to find loads of both academic publications/papers and popular culture (articles, youtube videos etc) referencing or telling the myth of the brazen bull, not a single one seems to mention a find of a brazen bull being made. 

While myths can contain grains of truth, the myth of the brazen bull seems to have gone through quite a few retellings. It has been mentioned that the myth might have served as propaganda around the time when it first appeared and there is a huge problem with actually verifying what, if anything, is the truth.

To sum it up I have so far ben unable to find anything to suport the brazen bull being anything more than a myth.

To anyone that made it this far thank you.

 It is getting quite late so I will have to cut my ramblings short here.

I am very tempted to return to this topic with a better written text when it is not the middle of the night and I have had the time to read and compile more academic literature. There seems to be a lot of interesting stuff that popculture intrpretations miss.

For now links to some of the stuff that I did read in part or full within the limited time. I apologize for how few there are as parts of what I wrote was more taken from what was not presented in the material that I found. 

https://www.greecehighdefinition.com/blog/facts-about-the-brazen-bull (click baity title but summed up the main points of the myth that seems to pop up, lacks sources) 

https://arkeonews.net/the-worst-torture-device-in-history-brazen-bull/  (also sums up the main points of what i found, lacks sources)

https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/39415  (while the letters the text discusses are found to not be authentic I found it to be a good example of how the myth has been retold and the scraps of truth it may or may not hold)

[apenitentialprayer]

Hi, are there any catholic theology books you could recommend? I really want to dive deeper into my faith and be ready when somebody tries to bad mouth Catholicism or spread false information. I feel like I should know more than I do? Idk if that makes sense😅

I’m not sure how many books I can recommend that are straight up theology, but I’ll recommend a few, sure! I’m going to start with two that I haven’t actually read yet but have heard good things about; after that, I’ll talk about books I have read and can confirm. First, all of my siblings were given this book the years of their Confirmations; Joe Paprocki’s The Bible Blueprint: A Catholic’s Guide to Understanding and Embracing God’s Word, which is pretty much exactly what it says: a guidebook to learning how to read Scripture. It explains how Catholics view the Bible to be structured, explains different interpretive lenses Catholic theologians have used in analyzing the texts, and ways to quickly locate and reference passages. Likewise, I have heard good things about Matthew Kelly’s Rediscovering Catholicism: A Spiritual Guide to Living with Passion and Purpose, which attempts to bring the essentials of the faith into one easy to read book. I’m looking at the table of contents of my copy now, and among the subjects that the book covers is the basic philosophy of Catholicism, an attempt to describe how to live out an authentically Catholic life, and the practices that are the pillars of a Catholic’s spiritual life. As I have already said, I haven’t read this book, but I have read another of his (which I will recommend next), so I can confirm he is a clear writer. Onward to what I have read.... Matthew Kelly also wrote The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity: How Modern Culture is Robbing Billions of People of Happiness. A very click-baity title, I know. But the book nonetheless has what I thought was a life--changing idea; that as saints in the making, we shouldn’t be worried about the fact that our lives are not continuous streams of holiness. Rather, what makes a saint a saint is that they seize the chance to make moments holy as the opportunities present themselves. Kelly tries to explain how to find those moments where grace presents itself in our lives, and choose to act on those moments. Not so much theology as Christian living, but still, a good (and quick) read. Hilda Graef wrote two books that I am a huge fan of. The first is titled Adult Christianity, and its primary objective is to elaborate on a worldview beyond the “God is the king in the sky who rules all of creation” image. The book tackles the subjects of what it means to believe in a transcendent God, the use of symbolism in religious language, the significance of Christ and how we encounter Him spiritually and in the personhood of our neighbors, and suffering, death, and resurrection. The other one she wrote is The Commonsense Book of Catholic Prayer and Meditation, which talks about the nature of Catholic prayer, the pitfalls many Catholics fall into, and some suggestions concerning methods and guildelines, as well as elaborations upon Eucharistic theology, the cardinal virtues, and praying alongside the liturgical calendar. G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith isn’t really theology in the normal sense of the word, but it nonetheless represents a very important worldview in that it beautifully explains the sense of wonder faith can bring. As the title suggests, Chesterton saw faith primarily through the lens of romance and adventure, and so he emphasizes the fantastical, the paradoxical, the heroic, and the revolutionary elements of Christianity. This is less of an intellectual discussion on Christianity, but more about the mood that faith is capable of producing. Hilaire Belloc wrote a book called The Great Heresies; as the name gives away, it isn’t so much about Catholicism as many of the great movements that have challenged Catholicism (Arianism, Islam, Albigensianism, Protestantism, and Modernism). Nonetheless, what Belloc does is use the differences between Catholicism and these movements to talk about the philosophical underpinnings of these competing theologies. My biggest takeaway from this book is that even seemingly small theological differences can created profoundly different worldviews. I’m going to give you one more modern author before I take a step into the past; Caryll Houselander is the author of one of my favorite books, The Passion of the Infant Christ. This book is important for its concept of the inscape; essentially, the world is patterned after the Life of Christ, which itself is patterned after the Passion of Christ. It’s a good introduction to the concept of typology, but beyond that we have a book with a special reverence for the sacramental aspect of our faith, as well as some profound insights on the Eucharist and how each individual is a mother of the Christ-life. I don’t think I can overestimate how impactful this book was on me. Okay, so now books from the early Church Fathers, which you can find online. I’ll provide links for all of these. The first is one that literally everyone will recommend you; The Confessions of Augustine of Hippo. The book is structured as an autobiography, the story of how Augustine ultimately found the truth of and joined the Catholic faith. It talks about his experiments in philosophy and religion, his relationship with his mother, and the tensions he experienced in his attempts to find God while living a life of fornication. Interspersed throughout are his own observations and thoughts about the nature of God, humanity, sin, and salvation. (X) You might also be interested in his City of God, which is a massive door-stopper of a book that is part Biblical commentary, part history of the world as told through a theological lens, and part defense of Christianity against angry pagans. (x) After that, I’d recommend Athanasius of Alexandria’s On the Incarnation, which provides a short outline of the fall of humanity and its redemption through God’s decision to assume human nature. Athanasius talks about not only why the Incarnation happened, but also how this helps to solve the problem of sin and redemption, and argues against certain arguments made by detractors. (x) Justin Martyr’s First and Second Apologia are two short works that try to justify Christianity in the eyes of the pagan society that he was addressing. He tries to explain some of the similarities between Christian and ‘heathen’ mythology, attempts to show how the great pagan philosophers anticipated Christ in their writings, and provides arguments for how Christians have improved life in the Roman empire. (X, X)