#Pagan Greek Houses Tour

[msclaritea]

You know this song has been running through my head, since all of this crap came up? I loved this song. How big a fan? I stood in line, to go meet Jasmine Guy, when I was young. That's how much I loved her, and did still, today.

But again, I will not hang on to anything false or someone I know is being used to lure young black people down the wrong path. Reminding people that Jasmine Guy knows Jada Pinkett Smith doesn't help, either. There's only so much nostalgia, you can hang onto. A Different World Tour IS being used to encourage kids to pledge, not simply attend the HBCU schools. Those Greek Houses are dangerous, secretive and Pagan.

[ochipi]

So I might’ve actually lectured my lecturer. He’s an archivist, but not a historian (in the broadest version of the word).

Previously mentioned: Roman archives, didn’t really survive because of wax tablets and papyri decaying but we know they wrote and archived. Sure.

After the disappearance of the Western Roman Empire (he was very safe with his word choices here), archiving or writing large amounts of texts wasn’t really a thing, until the Arabs came by the 12th century and Europe was archiving again.

HOLD THE FFING PHONE RIGHT THERE! And I did ask why he was reasoning this way. He didn’t really got me immediately so I provided him with examples.

Roman law didn’t disappear, it was held up and added upon. (Fine = income!) we know this because A) we have catholic additions on it making pagan elements in society illegal, B) we have written versions of the Lex Salica as old as the 8th century, C) Carolingian Minuskel is a thing, learned how to read it at previous Uni.

They just continued copying/translating Greek to Latin to f.e. Diets.

Laws are only useful when you have an institute that has them, can check on them and execute them. All those laws are stored somewhere (= archived).

Handy for cloisters to know how many properties they have and what they provide in income and how much they cost.

Roman law became regional, the Goths, Salic Franks, Anglians all had written law. The Catholic Church even invited Irish monks over to baptize Europeans and they introduced the space in written language in the process to make it easier for them. Writing… archiving…

The Catholic Church was very keen on making martyrs immediate saints. Their stories were recorded (!) into hagiographies. We still have those. They were kept (archived!) in churches and cloisters.

They like their heroes. Tales like Beowulf are 8th century. The church wrote their hymns down so they could hand it out to their singers. The church provided education. The male elite could write…

Gregorius of Tours wrote his Historia Francorum. He wrote the history of the Francs, while they were still around! That’s archiving!

Yeah sure, they wrote how the Vikings were invaders and so on and on. But they wrote it down in the cloister archives!

I mean I can continue. But these were the things I mentioned in class.

To clarify, the Arabs did not re-introduce the production of archiving material and archives themself. They were just never gone. What the Arabs did do was re-introduced science! (Scream it out loud for the people in the back!). While Charlemagne was busy killing Slavs, the Arabs had libraries (Baghdad House of Wisdom) and research institutes and were good mathematicians and astronomers (many stars in our night sky have Arab names to this day). Europe owes a ton of stuff thanks to the Islamic Golden Age. But not really recording and archiving.

On the other hand, I was later informed that the lecturer started panicking because i apparently cornered him good. I just took the one time I get to prove that the last five years of me working around the Early Middle Ages wasn’t for nothing. I don’t want to apologise

[concerthopperblog]

North American Tour: 1000mods & The Well Live @ Bogg's Social & Supply

1000mods is a doom/heavy/stoner metal band from Chilimodi, Greece that formed in 2006, 1000mods consists of Dani G. (vocals/bass), Giannis S. (guitar), Labros G. (drums), and Giorgos T. (guitar). They have released four (4) LPs (Youth of Dissent being the latest release), three (3) EPs, two (2) singles, and one (1) split. If you are a fan of bands like Kyuss, Truckfighters, or Fu Manchu, then 1000mods is the band for your musical tastes.

On July 18, 2023 (just a few days after my birthday), 1000mods announced more dates for their North American Tour 2023 with opening support from Freedom Hawk, Valley of the Sun, Wizzerd, and The Well. For their Atlanta date, The Well (Austin) would be the opening support. What makes this tour very special for me is not only do I get to see a Greek band that I have been wanting to see for ages and who does not tour often in North America.

But I also get to see The Well who I have missed the last few years when they have played Atlanta, but the stars were finally aligned for me in 2023. I feel rather fortunate this year to have witnessed some amazing tours such as this one featuring 1000mods and The Well. Having the opportunity to cross two bands off your “must-see” list is special, especially in such an intimate venue as Bogg’s Social & Supply.

Check out this wicked setlist from 1000mods at Bogg’s Social & Supply below:

· “Road to Burn”

· “Pearl”

· “Electric Carve”

· “Warped”

· “Low”

· “Mirrors”

· “Into the Spell”

· “Vidage”

· “Super Van Vacation”

Check out 1000mods official Bandcamp page or their official webstore today and give my dudes some love!

The Well is a psychedelic doom/proto-metal power trio from Austin, Texas that formed in 2011. The Well has released three (3) LPs, two (2) EPs, one (1) split, and three (3) singles. The Well consists of Lisa Alley (bass/vocals), Ian Graham (guitar/vocals), and Jason Sullivan (drums). I randomly found The Well scrolling through Bandcamp artists sometime after the release of Pagan Science (2016).

The Well’s sound was like a mixture of Black Sabbath, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, and Acid King. The Well’s doomy sound had me hooked after my first listen to Pagan Science. Samsara (2014) and Death and Consolation (2019) are also incredible albums that you can listen to and not skip a single track. Now I finally get to witness The Well perform live and what a venue to accomplish this achievement in.

Head over to The Well’s Official Bandcamp page today and show them some support!

You can still catch 1000mods on tour in the United States on the following dates:

October 26th Levitation: Dead Meadow/Ecstatic Vision/1000mods Austin, TX

October 27th The Freedom Boom Boom Room Lafayette, LA

Curious about Concerthopper? You can find more music-related articles, interviews, various photo galleries, indie music reviews, our ‘Bars & Bites’ section, our exclusive “She Said, She Said” column, or become a Concerthopper at www.concerthopper.com. Sign up for our monthly newsletter by following this link: The Setlist! Please ‘Like’ our page on Facebook and follow us on Instagram to stay up to date in 2023, on all music-related events/festivals such as This Wild Life live at Montage Music Hall, Blackout Tour Part 1: From Ashes to New w/ The Word Alive, Catch Your Breath, and Ekoh @ Rapids Theatre, Kiss of Death Tour ’23: In This Moment & Ice Nine Kills w/ Avatar and New Years Day Live at Hertz Arena, It Still Moves Anniversary Show: My Morning Jacket @ Fox Theatre, 10 Years of Wage War: House of Blues (Orlando), Nth America Tour: Wolfmother @ The Eastern, Zakk Sabbath w/ The Native Howl: Live at The Masquerade, and Crypta Live at The Masquerade by following us on all social media formats: Concerthopper on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  You can also follow my concert hopping on Facebook and Instagram for even more photos not available on Concerthopper.com.

[sylvinuk-turkey]

Today was another long day but a good one!

We spent the night at our family friend Mehmet’s house, which we could tell the inside was lovely, but could only imagine what outside looked like in the dark when we arrived last night. In the morning, looking out the window and off the terrace of our 2nd floor room it was a beautiful property.

PS. Mehmet knows my nonno (Italian grandfather). They met Mehmet’s first year in grad school at university of Philadelphia where my grandfather was his “mean” academic advisor. I say mean because as Mehmet tells the story, he came to nonno after a month or so into the first semester saying “I have too much on my plate, too many hours. Why did you let me take so many?” And my nonno replied something like, “so many of you international students come thinking you’re so smart, you had to learn for yourself.”

Anyway, they had prepared a lovely Turkish breakfast on the lower terrace which I promptly forgot to take photos of. But like normal Turkish breakfast included a mixed fruit plate (pears and orange slices), a mixed veggie plate (cucumbers, tomatoes and long peppers which are a specialty here in Turkey), cheese, simit and bread, scrambled eggs and of course Turkish tea.

After our leisurely breakfast and great conversation, about Mehmet’s companies and how he’s doing some user research of all things, we started our drive towards Efes (aka Ephesus in English). On our way out of town we saw many wineries, turns out Urla and the surrounding area is known for its wineries. Mehmet said more are being built every day, sadly at the expense of the local surrounding forest.

We were meeting up with Allan and Frank at 1:30p. Reminder, we met up with Allan in Istanbul at the start of their trip, and they’ve since also gone to Cappadocia and on a boat trip. This was the trip my parents were going to take with them, but we’re sadly not able to. Gokay’s parents ended up taking my parents spot on the boat and the four of them had a lovely time.

Anyway, Frank and Allen were coming from the boat (Gokay’s parents went back to Selimiye), and we’re meeting us at Efes for a guided tour. Mehmet, Julia (his wife), Gokay and I were arriving a little early and decided to stop at the “Virgin Mary House” which is about a 10 min drive up the hill from the Efes “upper entrance” where we were meeting them and the guide.

The Virgin Mary house was a quick visit. It’s a 2-3 room stone “hovel” that had been turned into a church honoring the Virgin Mary. You go in one door and out the other in a minute or two. Honestly, the walk from the parking lot to the site was longer (and longer on the way back because it was up hill). Then we drove back down the hill and waited ~10 minutes at the touristy cafe across from the upper entrance eating an ice cream bar.

Once they arrived we used the restroom, added more sunscreen and we were off. It was a 2 hour tour from the upper gate to the lower gate. Such a large city of incredible ruins, and we haven’t even uncovered half of it! The guide said they’re actually doing that on purpose as things are much better preserved and secure underground. The ruins spanned from 3000 BC to 300AD (ish). It went from a pagan site, to Greek, to Roman, to Christianity. So there are pegan temples turned churches, the theater is Greco-Roman (Greek because they had to build up a hillside, roman because they didn’t think people would pay attention with a view so they put a building backdrop). One statue, or what was left of one (photo above) showed they knew the world was round, but that information was lost. They had a library, which we took a picture in front of. They also had plumbing and heating including inside these 7 incredible “terrace houses” they’ve uncovered (photo below). It was amazing!

Once we finished we had a little snack at a local shop near the street bazar, since it was Saturday. Then Gokay and I had a van bus to catch, while Allen and Frank made their way to Izmir for their last day in Turkey. So we said quick goodbyes and went our separate ways.

Our van bus went to Aydin, where we had to wait an hour to take a different bus to Marmaris at 7:30p. We stopped in 3 places on the way plus two police stops, so we didn’t get to the Marmaris bus station (otogar in Turkish) until 10:20ish. Then we had to take a taxi to pick up a rental car. Then Gokay drove the manual transmission car 45 minutes through the dark curvy mountain roads to Selimiye. We arrived around 11:45p, after having taken 6 types of transportation today!!! Phew!

His parents were so sweet to stay awake but we all were in bed around 12:15a or so.

[groovy-lady]

My Selfship Things!!

Charles Xavier (X-Men movie franchise) (this uses the headcanon that Charles has a spinal disability that causes pain in his legs; aka the bullet piercing his spine doesn’t happen)

*Charles is 5’ 7” and I’m 5’ 1”, so when we hug my head rests on his chest when he is standing and when he is in his wheelchair, my head rests on his shoulder. Charles says I give the best hugs in the world! I think Charles gives wonderfully loving hugs!

*Charles and I have mostly similar interests in literature, movies, and tv shows; though I like a few more horror/ghost stories and movies or shows than Charles does. Charles’ favorite books are Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen, the Tanakh, science/academic books, Tolkien, As You Like It by William Shakespeare, and the Winnie the Pooh stories by A. A. Milne. My favorite books are The Rose Bride by Nancy Holder, Greek mythology, the Tanakh, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Norse mythology, fairy tales, Edgar Allen Poe, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Winnie the Pooh stories by A. A. Milne, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

*Charles and I both love poetry, antique shopping, old-fashioned clothing, the language of flowers, old-fashioned romance, chocolate, singing together or to each other, dancing, baking and cooking together, reading our favorite books to each other or reading the same book, and discussing books. Charles is Roman Catholic and I am spiritual (I had an interfaith upbringing of both Catholicism and Judaism, but self-converted to paganism), so we go to a non denominational church (or sometimes a Catholic church) that has a wheelchair ramp with railings (which is great for when Charles needs his wheelchair) so we can spend time together while engaging in our respective faiths together. Charles also comes with me to group pagan rituals. We discuss religion and philosophy frequently. We also socialize with the students and staff at Charles’ school.

*Charles and I enjoy writing letters to each other, especially when we are apart if I’m visiting my parents or my friends out of town, if Charles is on a lecture tour, or if I’m busy with running my bakery that’s in a town near Westchester, NY. We also write notes to each other and hide them in books or somewhere in the mansion for the other to find. When I return home before Charles does, I surprise him with baked goods (my powers are healing with food; my powers manifest in a pumpkin orange mist) and his favorite flowers (a bouquet of pink peonies, orange tulips, and pink roses with sprigs of lavender and rosemary). When Charles returns home before I do, he surprises me with a new book and my favorite flowers (a bouquet of red roses, pink peonies, and white roses with sprigs of lavender and sage).

*Like any couple does, we have our disagreements sometimes. We do try to keep our words civil despite the emotions we’re feeling so we don’t hurt the other’s feelings. If we do hurt the other’s feelings, we part to calm ourselves and come back to each other later to apologize and resolve the disagreement. We do our best to better ourselves and keep our relationship strong.

*Charles and I are both Autistic so we love infodumping about our respective special interests to each other as well as to our friends. Charles and I also stim freely around each other and we help each other find or continue using healthy coping mechanism for dealing with our sensory issues.

[flyingcarpettours]

Kom Ombo and Edfu Temple Tours from Aswan

Get a ravishing tour to explore two of the most famous temples in Egypt through Kom Ombo and Edfu Temples Tour from Aswan where you will visit Kom Ombo Temple which was built in the early second century by Ptolemy VI Philometor and consists of two Temples Haroeris Temple as well as Sobek Temple and Edfu Temple which was dedicated to Horus, the bird god of protection and considered one of the well preserved temples in Egypt. Scout Kom Ombo temple, which Standing on a promontory at a bend in the Nile, where in ancient times sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the riverbank, is the Temple of Kom Ombo, one of the Nile Valley's most beautifully sited temples. Unique in Egypt, it is dedicated to two gods; the local crocodile god Sobek, and Haroeris, meaning Horus the Elder. The temple's twin dedication is reflected in its plan: perfectly symmetrical along the main axis of the temple, there are twin entrances, two linked hypostyle halls with carvings of the two gods on either side, or twin sanctuaries. It is assumed that there were also two priesthoods. The left (western) side of the temple was dedicated to the god Haroeris, and the right (eastern) half to Sobek. Reused blocks suggest an earlier temple from the Middle Kingdom period, but the main temple was built by Ptolemy VI Philometor, and most of its decoration was completed by Cleopatra VII’s father, Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos. The temple’s spectacular riverside setting has resulted in the erosion of some of its partly Roman forecourt and outer sections, but much of the complex has survived and is very similar in layout to the Ptolemaic temples of Edfu and Dendara, albeit smaller. Then visit Edfu Temple, this Ptolemaic temple, built between 237 and 57 BC, is one of the best-preserved ancient monuments in Egypt. Preserved by desert sand, which filled the place after the pagan cult was banned, the temple is dedicated to Horus, the avenging son of Isis and Osiris. With its roof intact, it is also one of the most atmospheric of ancient buildings. Edfu was a settlement and cemetery site from around 3000 BC onward. It was the 'home' and cult centre of the falcon god Horus of Behdet (the ancient name for Edfu), although the Temple of Horus as it exists today is Ptolemaic. Started by Ptolemy III (246–221 BC) on 23 August 237 BC, on the site of an earlier and smaller New Kingdom structure, the sandstone temple was completed some 180 years later by Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos, Cleopatra VII’s father. In conception and design it follows the general plan, scale, ornamentation and traditions of Pharaonic architecture, right down to the Egyptian attire worn by Greek pharaohs depicted in the temple’s reliefs. Although it is much newer than cult temples at Luxor or Abydos, its excellent state of preservation helps to fill in many historical gaps; it is, in effect, a 2000-year-old example of an architectural style that was already archaic during Ptolemaic times. Two hundred years ago the temple was buried by sand, rubble and part of the village of Edfu, which had spread over the roof. Excavation was begun by Auguste Mariette in the mid-19th century. Today the temple is entered via a long row of shops selling tourist tat, and a new visitors centre that houses the ticket office, clean toilets, a cafeteria and a room for showing a 15-minute film on the history of the temple in English. Try Kom Ombo and Edfu Temple Tours from Aswan Flying Carpet Tours Guide will escort you early in the morning to a fancy excursion to Kom Ombo from Aswan, where you’ll visit the Temple of Kom Ombo, which was dedicated to The Crocodile God Sobek, That temple was built in the early second century by Ptolemy VI Philometor, the temple consists of two Temples Haroeris Temple as well as Sobek Temple, watch the pillars at the main hall which has drawing pharaohs at the columns, it contains some remains of the pharaohs, also you will discover beside Kom Ombo Village some tombs belong to the old Kingdom, then continue driving to Edfu Temple which was dedicated to Horus, it is considered one of the best temples in ancient Egypt, it is the second largest temple after Karnak, once you enter the temple beguile your eyes with the pillars located in the hall with its photos for Hathor God as well as Horus God, finally flying carpet tours guide will escort you back to your hotel in Aswan. Included • Pick up and drop off to your hotel in Aswan • Excursion to Kom Ombo and Edfu Temples as mentioned at the above program • Entrance fees to the above mentioned sites • English speaking guide to the sites mentioned above • Bottle of Mineral Water during the Excursion • All transfers by air-conditioned Van • All service charges and taxes Excluded • Visa to Egypt • Any optional tours required • Tipping For more info about Kom Ombo and Edfu Temple Tours from Aswan: E-mail: sales@flyingcarpettours.com Website: www.flyingcarpettours.com Tel.: +201099906242

[reaper-royalty]

Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani)

The entrance is in Viale Vaticano near Piazza Risorgimento. There is also a regular free bus service from Piazza S.Pietro (on the left of Bernini's Colonnades as you face the Basilica). 

The Vatican houses one of the world's great art collections. Its 7km of exhibits will daunt even the most energetic tourist. So if you only have limited time plan to take in what interests you most - and hurry past the rest. 

A oneway system operates for security reasons, so work out in advance what you wish to miss - you cannot go back for example to the Stanze di Rafaello after visiting the Capella Sistina (Sistine Chapel). Remember also that the Sistine chapel is a long walk - about 400m from the entrance along many corridors and staircases.

Popes have been collecting antique art for at least 500 years and today the Vatican contains the largest number of Greek and Roman statues, reliefs, mosaics and inscriptions of any museum in the world. 

The Museo Pio Clementino takes its name from two 18th-century Popes who tried to put some order among the large number of pieces of classical statuary littering the Vatican gardens and palaces.

Note the splendid 4th-century porphyry sarcophagi in the Sala a Croce Greca (hall in the shape of a Greek cross), also a sculpted head (no. 567) that is most likely a portrait of Cleopatra.

In the octagonal courtyard of the Belvedere Palace, which was the creation of one of the main founders of the Vatican collection, Pope Julius II, you can see one of the most famous sculptures of ancient Greece, the Laocoon, a marble group of the 2nd century bc dug up on the Esquiline hill in 1506 (from Domus Aurea). Laocoon, a priest of Apollo, and his sons were suffocated by serpents as a punishment by the gods. Opposite is the Apollo del Belvedere a fine Roman copy of a famous 4th-century bc Greek bronze.

Nearby in the Atrio del Torso is the famous Torso del Belvedere a fragment of a naked figure seated on the skin of a wild animal. The hidden power in this much damaged piece of marble is reputed to have impressed even Michelangelo.

The Braccio Nuovo (New Wing) a 19th-century addition, contains a telling portrait of Augustus (No. 14) at about the age of 40, and a colossal statue of the Nile river god surrounded by sphinxes and crocodiles.

You now penetrate into part of the Vatican Library. In the Sala Sistina is a strange wooden device which was used to fix the Papal seal or 'bollo' on important Papal documents or 'Bulls' as they were called in English. The central reading room is laid out with various valuable codices, or handwritten versions of the Bible, some written on papyrus. 

The Library contains over 70,000 codices, manuscripts and early printed books. On display are a set of love letters from King Henry VIII to Ann Boleyn (evidence used against the sovereign in excommunication proceedings), an illustrated book on falconry by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and autograph letters of Michelangelo and Raphael.

The Capella Sistina (now undergoing its first major cleaning and restoration) is perhaps the most famous and overwhelming of all Rome's art treasures. The chapel, built by Pope Sixtus IV at the end of the 15th century, was decorated by some of the greatest artists of the day, including Botticelli, Signorelli, and Pinturicchio. But it was Michelangelo's painting of the huge ceiling between 1508 and 1512 and his masterpiece, the LastJudgement painted on the main altar wall 23 years later that set the seal of greatness on the building. 

Michelangelo was at first reluctant to carry out Pope Julius I’s commission to paint the events of the Creation, and had great difficulty in getting paid for his tour deforce. Refusing all assistance, he locked himself away for years, lying on his back suspended from scaffolding in order to paint over 3000sq m 10,000sq ft of ceiling. It is a feat that still takes away the breath of the visitors who pass through the chapel every day.

If the Creation breathes the very spirit of the Renaissance at its height, the Last Judgement is in very different mood. Terribilitd (terribleness) was the quality in Michelangelo's art that most impressed his contemporaries, and here with Christ standing in final judgement over humanity (including many actual portrait's of the artist's friends and enemies), you feel Michelangelo is making his final statement on life and death, honour and ambition, love and hate. 

The Last Judgement did not meet with universal approval. Prudish Popes ordered trousers or loin cloths to be painted on some of the nudes. (They were later removed.) The Sistine Chapel is today used for the election of a new Pope on the death of the Roman Pontiff, and for solemn assemblies of the College of Cardinals.

While Michelangelo was labouring alone on his great ceiling, his rival and fellow artist Raphael was working (with plenty of assistants) on the decoration of the nearby Stanze di Rafaello. (Raphael Rooms). This was the private apartment of Pope Julius II who did not want to live in the Borgia Apartment below, because of its unpleasant historical associations. Two of the rooms, the Stanza della Segnatura, the Pope's study and library, and the Stanza di Eliodoro, his bedroom, are mostly by Raphael's own hand. 

Truth, beauty and goodness are the subjects of the frescoes in the first room. The Disputation of the Sacrament and the School of Athens represent respectively religious and philosophical truth, while Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus represent beauty. Goodness is portrayed by the cardinal virtues, prudence, temperance and strength. The second room contains three superb frescoes; the Expulsion of Heliodorusfrom the Temple in Jerusalem, Pope Leo Stopping the Invasion of Attila the Hun, and the Miracle of Bolsena.

The Museo Gregoriano Etrusco should not be missed as it -contains the Etruscan treasure discovered in 1837 in a tomb at Cerveteri (then part of the Pope's earthly domain).

 The three occupants of the tomb were buried with gold, silver, jewels, and richly decorated table ware. The Museo Profano and the Museo Cristiano (Profane and Christian Museums) used to be housed in the Lateran Palace and were transferred here into a new building in 1970. 

They contain Roman sculpture, inscriptions and sarcophagi dating from the lst-4th centuries ad. The 4th-century statue of the Good Shepherd is an excellent example of the continuity of Mediterranean art forms - the inspiration is clearly pagan and ancient Greek.

If you are not too exhausted, the Pinacoteca or Vatican Picture Gallery contains further riches. It is particularly well endowed with Primitives and 15th century Italian artists.

 The Giotto polyptych in Room II and the Melozzo da Forli Angels in Room IV are worth more than a passing glance. In Room VIII there is a Raphael feast. The Transfiguration, Raphael's last work (it was hung above his bier as he lay in state) has been cleaned recently, revealing unexpected new details. Also on view is a set of tapestries woven from Raphael's cartoons for the Capella Sistina, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Coronation of the Virgin was the first work of Raphael's maturity - he was 20 years old when he painted it.

[barberwitch]

Witch Tip Wednesday 10.16.18

Corn Dolls for Fall

For me, I grew up making them in fall and winter because that’s when my family made tamales. Hojas, or corn husks were an integral part of the process and without them, no tamales. So we always had more than we needed. Better to have more masa than meat. And better to have more hojas than both.

Here’s a little corn doll you can make as a gift, a fetish, a poppet or whatever your tradition holds. It’s not my business what there for, but here’s how I make them.

So I went a little crazy writing again and still pulled myself back, so history of corn dolls is below the tutorial 😅 Based on requests, I’ll be focusing on ways to make these poppets instead of spirit dolls (though I may make another post for the spirit component at a later date). As a poppet, these will last as long as you need them to, they will dry completely within a day and keep indefinitely. Once you’re done or you want to end the working, these poppets burn rather easily.

Materials: scissors, string, and corn husks. Optional, use the corn husks instead of string, either cut thinly, or braided....and water. Super simple.

Step 1: soak the corn husks (about 6) in warm water for at least 5 minutes to make them pliable. You may need to weigh down the husks to keep them submerged...I only had a pomegranate on hand since I’m at work.

You can add ritual oils, dyes, herbs, or whatever you need to imbue to whole thing with your purpose. I used an oil blend for protection.

Step 2: take the husks out and pat them dry with paper towels to get off excess moisture.

Step 3: gather the thinnest points of the triangular husks and tie them off about an inch from tip.

Step 4: fold the lengths over the tied off end.

Before folding over, you can add a taglock to the tied off edges because folding them over will encase the taglock and form the head of the doll. For reference, add the taglock to the right of the twine in the above picture.

Step 5: Once all the lengths have flipped over the taglock and tied off section, tie string around the folded part to create the head.

You can introduce knot magic or color magic with the string. If doing baneful magic, you may want to make this into a noose.

Step 6: take one corn husk, and fold in half. Tightly roll and tie off the ends. Trim the edges. This is also a section where in folk practice, the arms may be braided instead.

If your tag lock was too large, or you want to include a sigil, written spell or other component, roll it into the arms. Whatever is at the most central point will sit where the heart is.

Step 7: separate the “dress” portion of the doll, and place the arms just beneath the neck. Once in place, tie off below the arms, this forms the waist.

Step 8: This section will vary doll to doll. You can leave it as is and make a dress. Or you can cut straight down the middle and make legs. I left a front and back section uncut to make this into a robe, covering the legs.

Step 9: Optional, but you can split a section and drape it over the shoulders, tying it off and creating an X, sealing the intent into the doll.

From there, do whatever you need to do with the doll to continue the spell you’ve done. You can toss it in a jar and label honey over it and other spices for a sweetening spell. Put it in a box with nasty things for a curse. Completely tie it off for a binding, or give t encouragement for some sympathetic magic/mood boosting to tour target.

You can also dress them in fabric or make adornments out of husks to further their likeness to the intended. The very first picture is a witch, capped in a hat and broom, so get creative!

🦇Cheers, Barberwitch

Show support for the blog, anything helps!

Corn Dollys is one popular way of referring to these small creations made out of the husks of corn. The greek word for apparition, or spirit is “eidolon”. This root word then became shortened to “idol” and it’s been referenced that the term “dolly” is a bastardization of that root word referring to spirits. 

There are many different traditions surrounding the use of grains, or corn and their pieces to make either gifts, or spiritual houses for the spirits of the land, or the crops harvested. In europe, these Corn Dollies are sometimes referred to as Corn Mothers and are made of differing grains and straws into artistic shapes out of the last sheaf of wheat or other cereal crops. The thought being that the spirit of the grain would no longer have a home after the final harvest, and as a thanks for protecting these crops, they would make a home for it to inhabit until the next planting season. There are interesting requirements in certain folk practice, like it must be made out of the last ear of corn, or the last sheaf of wheat gathered, carried onto the last wagon back home. In 7th century Germany, they called these grain dolls vetula from the latin for “old woman”. In Ireland, these were referred to as “Cailleach” meaning witch.

While most Americans may immediately think of the faceless people shaped dolls, that’s in large part because of settlers adopting Native American traditions of making dolls out of corn, stalks, husks and animal fur. They adapted that tradition with their own regarding making offerings and symbols of the previous harvest out of European cereal crops. These offerings and spirit fetishes were used to thank the land, the grain spirits or as a tool for rain and weather magic, or a charm for a prosperous next year and amulet against a harsh winter.

Across the world, there is some sort of decoration or figure made from the plants that sustain us usually made during the final harvest. From Ancient Greece, across Europe, the americas and Africa as well. There is a parallel between agriculture and thanks given before, during or after the harvest.

The Goddes Ceres in Ancient Greece and then Rome was referred to as the Corn Mother, and the term “Cereal” is derived from her name. Even in modern times, there is a statue of Ceres, faceless on top of the Chicago Board of Trade.

In pagan tradition, the people shaped dolls are made during Lammas. But in different locations they’re made in different shapes: deities, people, animals, geometric design etc.

I could honestly go on and on about human’s obsession with finding reflections of themselves in nature: the alraun(e), poppets carved from roots and branches, dolls for children and for spirits. There is an innate connection between us and nature and creating a space for spirit has been a part of that as well. I hope you enjoy making these, and following in the footsteps of countless generations and cultures before you in this tradition.

Original content of this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attributution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license

References: The Golden Bough by J. G. Frazer

Putting Out The Hare, Putting on The Harvest Knots

[allisonscola]

The Temple of Concordia is one of seven ancient Greek houses of worship you can discover at Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. It was named for a Latin inscription that was found on a dedication marker unearthed in the vicinity of the archaeological site–i.e., a marker not associated with the temple; however, spirited archaeologists took the text on the marker that said something to the effect of “dedicated to the harmony of the people of Agrigento.” It’s a beautiful sentiment knowing the conflicts ancient Greeks experienced with their Carthaginian neighbors and eventual Roman conquerors. The Doric-style building was erected between 440-430 BC. At the end of the 6th century AD, it was consecrated by the Christian Church–an effort to clean it of pagan demons–in the name of Saints Peter and Paul. As a result, the ancient temple was transformed into a Byzantine-style basilica. You'll see Concordia up close with an archeologist during all of our small-group Experience Sicily tours in 2020. Which one will you be a part of? Learn more at https://experiencesicily.com. Link in bio. #concordia #valledeitempli #valleyofthetemples #agrigento #ancientgreek #ancientRome #ancientgreece #doric #temple #magnagrecia #experiencesicily #sicily #sicilia #siciliabedda #italy #italia #sicilyvacation #sicilians_world #ig_sicily #igerssicilia #instasicilia #gf_italy #siculamenteDoc #sicily_tricolors #ig_visitsicily #Sicilia_PhotoGroup #smallgrouptours #traveltogether #authenticsicily #smallgrouptoursitaly (at Valley of the Temples, Agrigento, Sicily, Italia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B63FGKAl5Dn/?igshid=v1s8xf2ex88e

[bgtraveldays]

Greek and even Latin Christendom

Left to their own devices, these leaders of the Academy would have been an interesting and important center of speculation and analysis in later ages for Greek and even Latin Christendom to hear and refute or hear and heed. They were not to be left to their own devices. The religion of Justinian not only expected and promoted conformity but demanded it, and set out to uproot all rivals. Justinian’s hostility against surviving pockets of what he interpreted as paganism exceeded even the hostility he showed toward Christians whose thought differed from his own. With other Christians he at least attempted diplomacy before preferring suppression.

Anti-paganism had reached Athens in the fifth century; the old shrine of Asclepius on the southern slope of the Acropolis was destroyed and replaced by a church by the year 500. The replacement was strategic, for the church was built so as to take over and efface completely the traces not only of the temple itself but of the sacred spring, the porch where the sick had lain to wait for divine healing, and the shelter where visitors stayed. At the same time, the cult statues were removed from the temples of the Acropolis, and we must imagine how that striking outcrop of rock loomed over the city, dramatic then as now because of the astonishing Parthenon—but then with the hilltop dark and silent, vaguely threatening (at least to some) as the ancient home of demons.

Officially sanctioned Christian

Damascius didn’t think highly of these officially sanctioned Christian vandals who were cleaning up the town. He described them in his Life of Isidorus: “A race dissolved by every passion, destroyed by uncontrolled self-indulgence, cringing and womanish in its thinking, close to cowardice, wallowing in all swinishness, debased, content with servitude in security, such is the life of those who belong to the present generation.”15

What exactly happened next at Athens is disputed to this day. In the year 529, shortly after taking the throne in his own name, Justinian went on the warpath against paganism. In Constantinople, his purge amounted to what one scholar has called a “reign of terror” against traditionalists in many walks of life:16 not just professors and sophists, but lawyers, bureaucrats, and noblemen, of whom many were jailed and many others tortured. The same steps taken in the provinces had the effect of forcing the teachers of Athens to abandon their school and their ways. “Closing the university at Athens” is the melodramatic description that moderns use for this event, and it makes a milestone for those plotting the fall of an ancient pre-Christian culture. Nothing quite so simple happened, for Justinian’s actions did not directly attack the schools but rather attacked the religious practices of traditionalists who continued the old ways. Here is one version of his decree from a historian of the time:

During the consulship of Decius, the emperor issued a decree and sent it to Athens ordering that no one should teach philosophy nor interpret astronomy nor in any city should there be lots cast using dice; for some who cast dice had been discovered in Byzantium indulging themselves in dreadful blasphemies. Their hands were cut off and they were paraded around on camels private tour bulgaria.

Archaeologists

If the schools at Athens were well populated with such people, whose astronomy was astrological and whose dice playing was fortune-telling, then the schools were affected. Archaeologists have excavated the largest house on the Areopagus, between the ancient agora and the towering symbol of the Acropolis. During the 530 s, the house underwent renovation with religious overtones. The decoration was Christianized by removing old statues and putting a cross in the handsome mosaic floor. Outside the house, archaeologists discovered a well containing seven unambiguously traditional religious statues, all carefully preserved—and probably hidden in fear of Justinian’s enforcers.

Whatever the sequence of events, the teachers of the school, many of them having come from homes in Syria and Palestine, left Athens and moved east. In such a scattering, people landed in many places, but the group whose fate we hear about went all the way to the Persian border, there to seek refuge. The story has it that Khusro at Ctesiphon welcomed them and made them feel at home. The Christian storyteller suggests with amusement that they thought they would find the ideal Platonic state there. Disillusioned or homesick, they retreated soon afterward to more familiar territory, and in particular to the long-resistant religious traditionalism of Carrhae (or Harran), on the Roman side of the border. Damascius, their most sophisticated thinker, was still in his native Syria a few years later, writing poetry.

[biserarose]

Greek and even Latin Christendom

Left to their own devices, these leaders of the Academy would have been an interesting and important center of speculation and analysis in later ages for Greek and even Latin Christendom to hear and refute or hear and heed. They were not to be left to their own devices. The religion of Justinian not only expected and promoted conformity but demanded it, and set out to uproot all rivals. Justinian’s hostility against surviving pockets of what he interpreted as paganism exceeded even the hostility he showed toward Christians whose thought differed from his own. With other Christians he at least attempted diplomacy before preferring suppression.

Anti-paganism had reached Athens in the fifth century; the old shrine of Asclepius on the southern slope of the Acropolis was destroyed and replaced by a church by the year 500. The replacement was strategic, for the church was built so as to take over and efface completely the traces not only of the temple itself but of the sacred spring, the porch where the sick had lain to wait for divine healing, and the shelter where visitors stayed. At the same time, the cult statues were removed from the temples of the Acropolis, and we must imagine how that striking outcrop of rock loomed over the city, dramatic then as now because of the astonishing Parthenon—but then with the hilltop dark and silent, vaguely threatening (at least to some) as the ancient home of demons.

Officially sanctioned Christian

Damascius didn’t think highly of these officially sanctioned Christian vandals who were cleaning up the town. He described them in his Life of Isidorus: “A race dissolved by every passion, destroyed by uncontrolled self-indulgence, cringing and womanish in its thinking, close to cowardice, wallowing in all swinishness, debased, content with servitude in security, such is the life of those who belong to the present generation.”15

What exactly happened next at Athens is disputed to this day. In the year 529, shortly after taking the throne in his own name, Justinian went on the warpath against paganism. In Constantinople, his purge amounted to what one scholar has called a “reign of terror” against traditionalists in many walks of life:16 not just professors and sophists, but lawyers, bureaucrats, and noblemen, of whom many were jailed and many others tortured. The same steps taken in the provinces had the effect of forcing the teachers of Athens to abandon their school and their ways. “Closing the university at Athens” is the melodramatic description that moderns use for this event, and it makes a milestone for those plotting the fall of an ancient pre-Christian culture. Nothing quite so simple happened, for Justinian’s actions did not directly attack the schools but rather attacked the religious practices of traditionalists who continued the old ways. Here is one version of his decree from a historian of the time:

During the consulship of Decius, the emperor issued a decree and sent it to Athens ordering that no one should teach philosophy nor interpret astronomy nor in any city should there be lots cast using dice; for some who cast dice had been discovered in Byzantium indulging themselves in dreadful blasphemies. Their hands were cut off and they were paraded around on camels private tour bulgaria.

Archaeologists

If the schools at Athens were well populated with such people, whose astronomy was astrological and whose dice playing was fortune-telling, then the schools were affected. Archaeologists have excavated the largest house on the Areopagus, between the ancient agora and the towering symbol of the Acropolis. During the 530 s, the house underwent renovation with religious overtones. The decoration was Christianized by removing old statues and putting a cross in the handsome mosaic floor. Outside the house, archaeologists discovered a well containing seven unambiguously traditional religious statues, all carefully preserved—and probably hidden in fear of Justinian’s enforcers.

Whatever the sequence of events, the teachers of the school, many of them having come from homes in Syria and Palestine, left Athens and moved east. In such a scattering, people landed in many places, but the group whose fate we hear about went all the way to the Persian border, there to seek refuge. The story has it that Khusro at Ctesiphon welcomed them and made them feel at home. The Christian storyteller suggests with amusement that they thought they would find the ideal Platonic state there. Disillusioned or homesick, they retreated soon afterward to more familiar territory, and in particular to the long-resistant religious traditionalism of Carrhae (or Harran), on the Roman side of the border. Damascius, their most sophisticated thinker, was still in his native Syria a few years later, writing poetry.

[mahsed]

New Post has been published on

Greek and even Latin Christendom

Left to their own devices, these leaders of the Academy would have been an interesting and important center of speculation and analysis in later ages for Greek and even Latin Christendom to hear and refute or hear and heed. They were not to be left to their own devices. The religion of Justinian not only expected and promoted conformity but demanded it, and set out to uproot all rivals. Justinian’s hostility against surviving pockets of what he interpreted as paganism exceeded even the hostility he showed toward Christians whose thought differed from his own. With other Christians he at least attempted diplomacy before preferring suppression.

Anti-paganism had reached Athens in the fifth century; the old shrine of Asclepius on the southern slope of the Acropolis was destroyed and replaced by a church by the year 500. The replacement was strategic, for the church was built so as to take over and efface completely the traces not only of the temple itself but of the sacred spring, the porch where the sick had lain to wait for divine healing, and the shelter where visitors stayed. At the same time, the cult statues were removed from the temples of the Acropolis, and we must imagine how that striking outcrop of rock loomed over the city, dramatic then as now because of the astonishing Parthenon—but then with the hilltop dark and silent, vaguely threatening (at least to some) as the ancient home of demons.

Officially sanctioned Christian

Damascius didn’t think highly of these officially sanctioned Christian vandals who were cleaning up the town. He described them in his Life of Isidorus: “A race dissolved by every passion, destroyed by uncontrolled self-indulgence, cringing and womanish in its thinking, close to cowardice, wallowing in all swinishness, debased, content with servitude in security, such is the life of those who belong to the present generation.”15

What exactly happened next at Athens is disputed to this day. In the year 529, shortly after taking the throne in his own name, Justinian went on the warpath against paganism. In Constantinople, his purge amounted to what one scholar has called a “reign of terror” against traditionalists in many walks of life:16 not just professors and sophists, but lawyers, bureaucrats, and noblemen, of whom many were jailed and many others tortured. The same steps taken in the provinces had the effect of forcing the teachers of Athens to abandon their school and their ways. “Closing the university at Athens” is the melodramatic description that moderns use for this event, and it makes a milestone for those plotting the fall of an ancient pre-Christian culture. Nothing quite so simple happened, for Justinian’s actions did not directly attack the schools but rather attacked the religious practices of traditionalists who continued the old ways. Here is one version of his decree from a historian of the time:

During the consulship of Decius, the emperor issued a decree and sent it to Athens ordering that no one should teach philosophy nor interpret astronomy nor in any city should there be lots cast using dice; for some who cast dice had been discovered in Byzantium indulging themselves in dreadful blasphemies. Their hands were cut off and they were paraded around on camels private tour bulgaria.

Archaeologists

If the schools at Athens were well populated with such people, whose astronomy was astrological and whose dice playing was fortune-telling, then the schools were affected. Archaeologists have excavated the largest house on the Areopagus, between the ancient agora and the towering symbol of the Acropolis. During the 530 s, the house underwent renovation with religious overtones. The decoration was Christianized by removing old statues and putting a cross in the handsome mosaic floor. Outside the house, archaeologists discovered a well containing seven unambiguously traditional religious statues, all carefully preserved—and probably hidden in fear of Justinian’s enforcers.

Whatever the sequence of events, the teachers of the school, many of them having come from homes in Syria and Palestine, left Athens and moved east. In such a scattering, people landed in many places, but the group whose fate we hear about went all the way to the Persian border, there to seek refuge. The story has it that Khusro at Ctesiphon welcomed them and made them feel at home. The Christian storyteller suggests with amusement that they thought they would find the ideal Platonic state there. Disillusioned or homesick, they retreated soon afterward to more familiar territory, and in particular to the long-resistant religious traditionalism of Carrhae (or Harran), on the Roman side of the border. Damascius, their most sophisticated thinker, was still in his native Syria a few years later, writing poetry.

[socialmgame]

Greek and even Latin Christendom

Left to their own devices, these leaders of the Academy would have been an interesting and important center of speculation and analysis in later ages for Greek and even Latin Christendom to hear and refute or hear and heed. They were not to be left to their own devices. The religion of Justinian not only expected and promoted conformity but demanded it, and set out to uproot all rivals. Justinian’s hostility against surviving pockets of what he interpreted as paganism exceeded even the hostility he showed toward Christians whose thought differed from his own. With other Christians he at least attempted diplomacy before preferring suppression.

Anti-paganism had reached Athens in the fifth century; the old shrine of Asclepius on the southern slope of the Acropolis was destroyed and replaced by a church by the year 500. The replacement was strategic, for the church was built so as to take over and efface completely the traces not only of the temple itself but of the sacred spring, the porch where the sick had lain to wait for divine healing, and the shelter where visitors stayed. At the same time, the cult statues were removed from the temples of the Acropolis, and we must imagine how that striking outcrop of rock loomed over the city, dramatic then as now because of the astonishing Parthenon—but then with the hilltop dark and silent, vaguely threatening (at least to some) as the ancient home of demons.

Officially sanctioned Christian

Damascius didn’t think highly of these officially sanctioned Christian vandals who were cleaning up the town. He described them in his Life of Isidorus: “A race dissolved by every passion, destroyed by uncontrolled self-indulgence, cringing and womanish in its thinking, close to cowardice, wallowing in all swinishness, debased, content with servitude in security, such is the life of those who belong to the present generation.”15

What exactly happened next at Athens is disputed to this day. In the year 529, shortly after taking the throne in his own name, Justinian went on the warpath against paganism. In Constantinople, his purge amounted to what one scholar has called a “reign of terror” against traditionalists in many walks of life:16 not just professors and sophists, but lawyers, bureaucrats, and noblemen, of whom many were jailed and many others tortured. The same steps taken in the provinces had the effect of forcing the teachers of Athens to abandon their school and their ways. “Closing the university at Athens” is the melodramatic description that moderns use for this event, and it makes a milestone for those plotting the fall of an ancient pre-Christian culture. Nothing quite so simple happened, for Justinian’s actions did not directly attack the schools but rather attacked the religious practices of traditionalists who continued the old ways. Here is one version of his decree from a historian of the time:

During the consulship of Decius, the emperor issued a decree and sent it to Athens ordering that no one should teach philosophy nor interpret astronomy nor in any city should there be lots cast using dice; for some who cast dice had been discovered in Byzantium indulging themselves in dreadful blasphemies. Their hands were cut off and they were paraded around on camels private tour bulgaria.

Archaeologists

If the schools at Athens were well populated with such people, whose astronomy was astrological and whose dice playing was fortune-telling, then the schools were affected. Archaeologists have excavated the largest house on the Areopagus, between the ancient agora and the towering symbol of the Acropolis. During the 530 s, the house underwent renovation with religious overtones. The decoration was Christianized by removing old statues and putting a cross in the handsome mosaic floor. Outside the house, archaeologists discovered a well containing seven unambiguously traditional religious statues, all carefully preserved—and probably hidden in fear of Justinian’s enforcers.

Whatever the sequence of events, the teachers of the school, many of them having come from homes in Syria and Palestine, left Athens and moved east. In such a scattering, people landed in many places, but the group whose fate we hear about went all the way to the Persian border, there to seek refuge. The story has it that Khusro at Ctesiphon welcomed them and made them feel at home. The Christian storyteller suggests with amusement that they thought they would find the ideal Platonic state there. Disillusioned or homesick, they retreated soon afterward to more familiar territory, and in particular to the long-resistant religious traditionalism of Carrhae (or Harran), on the Roman side of the border. Damascius, their most sophisticated thinker, was still in his native Syria a few years later, writing poetry.

[paradisesc]

MYOPIA

The glory of the ancient world, we are regularly told, is the emergence of the critical tradition of Greek philosophy. What is fundamentally “western” about us goes back to Athens, as our educational tradition has long assured us and sought to demonstrate.

Justinian, the man who would restore the Roman empire, did not agree. The overpowering force of his Christianity and the thinness of his own educational attainments made him blind to the traditions in his own backyard.

The traditions of classical Athens remained vibrant as late as the reigns of Anastasius and Justin. Plato’s Academy, almost 900 years old, was still alive and well, doing business on its original site at the foot of the Acropo¬lis. Where once the neighborhood had echoed with the debates of many philosophical schools—Academics, Peripatetics, Cynics, Stoics, and Epicureans chief among them—the teachings of Plato had won the day.

Why should Justinian know or care about Athens, after all? No city beyond the walls of the only one he ever knew meant anything to him. When Justinian took the throne, the cities of northern Syria were in the midst of their period of greatest prosperity. Farther south, the Ten Cities of northern Palestine, between Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee, were building and prospering, as was Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. Did the emperor know? Could he respect such prosperity and think creatively about how to protect and extend it? Harder still, could he see the way such prosperity, near a desert border with another empire, might be a way to reduce tension and build a community of interest across that border? Not likely.

Athens and its glories

His ignorance of Athens and its glories, however, is inexcusable.

Athens, the ancient capital of Greek culture, had kept its place in Hellenistic and Roman times as a citadel for philosophers. The names and reputations of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and their successors and rivals had survived in formal philosophical schools visited over the centuries by Roman senators such as Cicero and future emperors such as Julian. Like any cultural center, it had periods of obscurity, but it never lost its place, and by the fifth century it came back into its own as one of the two centers of philosophical argument and disputation in the Roman world. Athens remained untouched, moreover, by Christianity, at least in its philosophy— in contrast to Alexandria, whose long history of inclusiveness, going back to the days of Philo the Jew and others, made it a place where traditionalist philosophy was still carried on with sometimes disconcerting Christian overtones and even melodies. Cosmas’s rival John Philoponus was in the sixth century the most distinguished practitioner of that line of thought private tour bulgaria.

Even long after the emperors had become churchgoing Christians, listening to monks and building houses of worship, Athens and its school flourished. Students came from all over the Greek world, proudly wearing the distinctively flamboyant student’s gown of the city. Early in the fifth century, the leading teacher, Leontius, sent his daughter to Constantinople to be the bride of the young emperor Theodosius II, changing her name from Athenais to a Christianized Eudocia.

Proclus, the most profound and prolific leader of the Platonic school that flourished there in the fifth century, wrote inexhaustibly, and his Elements of Theology survive as a handbook of the core of philosophic doctrine in his school. His successor wrote Proclus’s life story as the tale of a paragon of “pagan” piety. We are told he observed all the holy days of peoples and nations, undergoing purification rites of the Great Mother, of Orphism, and of the Chaldeans. He wrote hymns and worked wonders: he could end a drought or cure a child by praying to Asclepius.

The school was quite sure that it was the authentic and direct descendant of Plato’s Academy. Proclus’s successors were not up to his standard, but they were professional and passionate. Proclus’s immediate successor, Marinus the Samaritan, left behind the stiff-necked monotheism of his origins and wrote commentaries on Plato’s Philebus and Parmenides, but his books were refuted and rejected by his own successors. Hegias, the leader of the school in the years immediately after 500, conducted frankly non-Christian religious rites, but philosophically the school was not at its strongest.

Damascius

In 515, the school fell under the leadership of a more impressive figure, Damascius (“the Damascan”). He had studied under the great Ammonius at Alexandria, emphasizing astronomy and Platonism, and he taught rhetoric there as well before moving to Athens, where he completed his education in the other disciplines. He wrote commentaries on Plato and also on the mystical Chaldean oracles that formed the link between late antique neo Platonism and traditional religion.

One later writer even attributes to him a collection of 572 “tales of the supernatural,” religio-mystical stories implicitly criticizing the prevailing Christian interpretation. This collection must have included the story he told elsewhere of the man who could infallibly tell which statues of the gods were divinely inhabited and which were not, dropping into an ecstatic trance when he encountered the real thing. Two of the students Damascius recruited capture the ambiguities of the moment: Epiphanius and Euprepius were both born in Christian households in Alexandria, but the first had become a priest of Osiris and the second a priest of Mithras, before turning to the work of academic philosophy in this environment suffused with traditional religion.

[livelifesofia]

Greek and even Latin Christendom

Left to their own devices, these leaders of the Academy would have been an interesting and important center of speculation and analysis in later ages for Greek and even Latin Christendom to hear and refute or hear and heed. They were not to be left to their own devices. The religion of Justinian not only expected and promoted conformity but demanded it, and set out to uproot all rivals. Justinian’s hostility against surviving pockets of what he interpreted as paganism exceeded even the hostility he showed toward Christians whose thought differed from his own. With other Christians he at least attempted diplomacy before preferring suppression.

Anti-paganism had reached Athens in the fifth century; the old shrine of Asclepius on the southern slope of the Acropolis was destroyed and replaced by a church by the year 500. The replacement was strategic, for the church was built so as to take over and efface completely the traces not only of the temple itself but of the sacred spring, the porch where the sick had lain to wait for divine healing, and the shelter where visitors stayed. At the same time, the cult statues were removed from the temples of the Acropolis, and we must imagine how that striking outcrop of rock loomed over the city, dramatic then as now because of the astonishing Parthenon—but then with the hilltop dark and silent, vaguely threatening (at least to some) as the ancient home of demons.

Officially sanctioned Christian

Damascius didn’t think highly of these officially sanctioned Christian vandals who were cleaning up the town. He described them in his Life of Isidorus: “A race dissolved by every passion, destroyed by uncontrolled self-indulgence, cringing and womanish in its thinking, close to cowardice, wallowing in all swinishness, debased, content with servitude in security, such is the life of those who belong to the present generation.”15

What exactly happened next at Athens is disputed to this day. In the year 529, shortly after taking the throne in his own name, Justinian went on the warpath against paganism. In Constantinople, his purge amounted to what one scholar has called a “reign of terror” against traditionalists in many walks of life:16 not just professors and sophists, but lawyers, bureaucrats, and noblemen, of whom many were jailed and many others tortured. The same steps taken in the provinces had the effect of forcing the teachers of Athens to abandon their school and their ways. “Closing the university at Athens” is the melodramatic description that moderns use for this event, and it makes a milestone for those plotting the fall of an ancient pre-Christian culture. Nothing quite so simple happened, for Justinian’s actions did not directly attack the schools but rather attacked the religious practices of traditionalists who continued the old ways. Here is one version of his decree from a historian of the time:

During the consulship of Decius, the emperor issued a decree and sent it to Athens ordering that no one should teach philosophy nor interpret astronomy nor in any city should there be lots cast using dice; for some who cast dice had been discovered in Byzantium indulging themselves in dreadful blasphemies. Their hands were cut off and they were paraded around on camels private tour bulgaria.

Archaeologists

If the schools at Athens were well populated with such people, whose astronomy was astrological and whose dice playing was fortune-telling, then the schools were affected. Archaeologists have excavated the largest house on the Areopagus, between the ancient agora and the towering symbol of the Acropolis. During the 530 s, the house underwent renovation with religious overtones. The decoration was Christianized by removing old statues and putting a cross in the handsome mosaic floor. Outside the house, archaeologists discovered a well containing seven unambiguously traditional religious statues, all carefully preserved—and probably hidden in fear of Justinian’s enforcers.

Whatever the sequence of events, the teachers of the school, many of them having come from homes in Syria and Palestine, left Athens and moved east. In such a scattering, people landed in many places, but the group whose fate we hear about went all the way to the Persian border, there to seek refuge. The story has it that Khusro at Ctesiphon welcomed them and made them feel at home. The Christian storyteller suggests with amusement that they thought they would find the ideal Platonic state there. Disillusioned or homesick, they retreated soon afterward to more familiar territory, and in particular to the long-resistant religious traditionalism of Carrhae (or Harran), on the Roman side of the border. Damascius, their most sophisticated thinker, was still in his native Syria a few years later, writing poetry.

[worldtravell]

Greek and even Latin Christendom

Left to their own devices, these leaders of the Academy would have been an interesting and important center of speculation and analysis in later ages for Greek and even Latin Christendom to hear and refute or hear and heed. They were not to be left to their own devices. The religion of Justinian not only expected and promoted conformity but demanded it, and set out to uproot all rivals. Justinian’s hostility against surviving pockets of what he interpreted as paganism exceeded even the hostility he showed toward Christians whose thought differed from his own. With other Christians he at least attempted diplomacy before preferring suppression.

Anti-paganism had reached Athens in the fifth century; the old shrine of Asclepius on the southern slope of the Acropolis was destroyed and replaced by a church by the year 500. The replacement was strategic, for the church was built so as to take over and efface completely the traces not only of the temple itself but of the sacred spring, the porch where the sick had lain to wait for divine healing, and the shelter where visitors stayed. At the same time, the cult statues were removed from the temples of the Acropolis, and we must imagine how that striking outcrop of rock loomed over the city, dramatic then as now because of the astonishing Parthenon—but then with the hilltop dark and silent, vaguely threatening (at least to some) as the ancient home of demons.

Officially sanctioned Christian

Damascius didn’t think highly of these officially sanctioned Christian vandals who were cleaning up the town. He described them in his Life of Isidorus: “A race dissolved by every passion, destroyed by uncontrolled self-indulgence, cringing and womanish in its thinking, close to cowardice, wallowing in all swinishness, debased, content with servitude in security, such is the life of those who belong to the present generation.”15

What exactly happened next at Athens is disputed to this day. In the year 529, shortly after taking the throne in his own name, Justinian went on the warpath against paganism. In Constantinople, his purge amounted to what one scholar has called a “reign of terror” against traditionalists in many walks of life:16 not just professors and sophists, but lawyers, bureaucrats, and noblemen, of whom many were jailed and many others tortured. The same steps taken in the provinces had the effect of forcing the teachers of Athens to abandon their school and their ways. “Closing the university at Athens” is the melodramatic description that moderns use for this event, and it makes a milestone for those plotting the fall of an ancient pre-Christian culture. Nothing quite so simple happened, for Justinian’s actions did not directly attack the schools but rather attacked the religious practices of traditionalists who continued the old ways. Here is one version of his decree from a historian of the time:

During the consulship of Decius, the emperor issued a decree and sent it to Athens ordering that no one should teach philosophy nor interpret astronomy nor in any city should there be lots cast using dice; for some who cast dice had been discovered in Byzantium indulging themselves in dreadful blasphemies. Their hands were cut off and they were paraded around on camels private tour bulgaria.

Archaeologists

If the schools at Athens were well populated with such people, whose astronomy was astrological and whose dice playing was fortune-telling, then the schools were affected. Archaeologists have excavated the largest house on the Areopagus, between the ancient agora and the towering symbol of the Acropolis. During the 530 s, the house underwent renovation with religious overtones. The decoration was Christianized by removing old statues and putting a cross in the handsome mosaic floor. Outside the house, archaeologists discovered a well containing seven unambiguously traditional religious statues, all carefully preserved—and probably hidden in fear of Justinian’s enforcers.

Whatever the sequence of events, the teachers of the school, many of them having come from homes in Syria and Palestine, left Athens and moved east. In such a scattering, people landed in many places, but the group whose fate we hear about went all the way to the Persian border, there to seek refuge. The story has it that Khusro at Ctesiphon welcomed them and made them feel at home. The Christian storyteller suggests with amusement that they thought they would find the ideal Platonic state there. Disillusioned or homesick, they retreated soon afterward to more familiar territory, and in particular to the long-resistant religious traditionalism of Carrhae (or Harran), on the Roman side of the border. Damascius, their most sophisticated thinker, was still in his native Syria a few years later, writing poetry.