#we have papyrus to testify on that

[mask131]

Simple facts about Ancient Egypt (2)

Last time, we talked about generalities - history, geography, pharaohs, government... Today, let’s look at some of the main social classes and jobs in Ancient Egypt!

As I said before - warning, these are oversimplified and general facts for a short and easy introduction and comprehension to Ancient Egypt. These are not in-depths studies or analysis, and I might have gotten things wrong, so beware!

SCRIBES

# Scribes, from the Latin “scribere” (to write) were public writers: they were tasked with redacting administrative documents, with the job of accountants of the State, but they were also tasked with writing things such as letters, poems or fictional tales. The job of a scribe went from father to son, and every future scribe had to undergo a very strict and difficult apprenticeship. To be a scribe was a very envied position, for it was a privilege given only to boys – and to the wealthiest of boys! The material of the scribe was quite simple, all contained in a wooden case: there was just a reed pen, and two blocks of ink, one red and one black – to write, the scribe plunged the tip of his reed pen into water, and then rubbed it against either the black or red ink-block.

# Because ink was we know it today didn’t exist back then in Egypt – their “ink” was actually blocks of compact powder. Black ink was created with soot or crushed coal, whereas red ink was created with ochre. Similarly, the Ancient Egyptians did not write on paper but on papyrus – a type of material that shared its name with the type of Nile-reed it was created from. (Fun fact, the name “paper” does come from “papyrus”). Creating papyrus was done by cutting and peeling the papyrus-reed into thin slices, that were then gorged with water, placed in crosses layered on top of each other, and then brutally hit with a hammer until it became one uniformed page (the sap of the reed and the water fused together to form a sort of “glue” holding the stripes together). Finally, the page was thinned down, and smoothed with wooden items.

# Papyrus was however very costly. So, to not lose all of one’s money, Ancient Egyptians wrote for every day needs on pottery fragments or wooden planks covered in plaster. Pupils in schools for example wrote on broken pieces of bowls or vases. The papyrus, so precious, was kept exclusively for law texts and religious texts. To create 5 scrolls of papyrus, of roughly 10 meters each, a man had to work for a whole year!

# Most scribes worked for the government: one of their job was to do note down the state and quantity of the harvests each year before calculating the taxes based on the amount of harvest. They were also the accountants of the state, as well as the ones charged with writing down the laws and the orders of ministers. Other scribes rather worked for temples, where they engraved magical incantations on amulets ; and a third group acted as clerks in tribunals.

# Learning to become a scribe might look easy, since what you need to do was just copy texts all day long… But in truth it was a very hard thing! Our alphabet only has two dozen letters or so – the Egyptian scribes had to learn thousands of different signs to write down the texts, and they had to learn how to write them on every material possible. If you wanted to be a scribe, you had to go a “scribe school” – pupils usually went there are the age of ten, and left at fifteen. After these five years of studies, the scribes had to undergo an internship of five years in either the administration, in a temple or with a notary. After this internship, would-be-scribes had a final exam – and it was only then they could become certified and testified scribes, at twenty years old. Scribe school was notably a very harsh and unpleasant place – a common saying among scribe teachers was “Students have ears in the back, and these ears only listen when you hit them”. Yes, corporal punishment was a standard method of teaching in these schools – if students didn’t pay attention, spoke with each other instead of copying their texts, or wrote a hieroglyph wrong, they were immediately beaten up with a stick. In fact, to prevent the students of scribe schools from leaving unsupervised, the teachers attached to their ankles wooden blocks! Yes, just like the cartoon prisoner with the iron ball around their ankle!

# All scientists were scribes, but not all scribes were scientists (or scholars). You see, to become a scientist or a scholar you had to learn how to write and read – and to do that, you needed to become a scribe. But many scribes stopped there and did not pursue their studies further – only some decided to take on a specific field of expertise (medicine, architecture, astronomy) and thus became more than just “regular” scribes.

# Scribes wrote their text in a very specific way. They sat cross-legged on the ground, placed the papyrus they wrote on their loincloth – that was pushed by their knee very strongly on each side, so it would be a flat surface to write onto. Scribes also wrote with their pen standing up, very still – so that they wouldn’t do any stain or mess up a line, because their ink took a very long time to dry.

# Scribes were the object of admiration, but also jealousy, from the everyday ordinary Egyptian man, because scribes were very well paid AND were exempt of taxes. Plus, their work was a non-manual one, unlike the other Egyptian men who were peasants or craftsmen. This was notably why in Egyptian art scribes are always depicted with a potbelly or fat rolls – thanks to their wealth and effortless job that demanded them to sit around all day, they were the only inhabitants of Ancient Egypt who could easily become fat. In return, the scribes themselves were very proud of their position and status – and this often made them quite arrogant, according to the ancient texts. One of the favorite entertainments of the scribes was to mock other jobs or workforces of Egypt by telling funny stories or jokes about them.

PRIESTS

# Do not get things wrong: in Egyptian religion, only the pharaoh can act as an intermediary between the gods and men – he is the true voice and right hand of the gods. But then, you’ll ask, why are there priests? Well it is simply because the pharaoh is one human man, and cannot be everywhere in the country – so the pharaoh delegates his powers to the priests, who act in his name. This is something important to remember: Ancient Egypt was a form of theocracy, and the priests did not get their power from the gods but from the pharaoh. Though the priests’ role WAS to serve the gods. Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Egyptian gods had a deal worked out: the priests would tend to their need, and take care of them, through various festive celebrations and everyday rituals, and in exchanged from being tended to, the gods ensured the protection and wellness of the city/region/country they were worshiped in. As easy as that. But this explains why for example priests were not depicted on murals or paintings of temples: priests were not perceived as worthy of being depicted alongside the gods, because in the Egyptian mindset, priests are just servants – or rather some sort of religious bureaucrats. Only the pharaoh, the one and true emissary of the god, and himself equal to the gods, could be painted on the walls of temples.

# The role of priests, just like the one of scribe, usually was passed from father to son. Usually priests began their apprenticeship as children, studying at the school and at the library of the temple alongside scribes. Given being a priest was a very prestigious function (again, quite like scribes), some people rather could buy a priest job with a heavy sum of money, or it could be given by the pharaoh himself as a reward, to those that served him well and faithfully.

# In every great temple and religious center of Egypt there was, at the top of the priestly hierarchy, a great priest, or “first prophet”, named directly and personally by the pharaoh. This great priest held authority over all of the other priests, and also played a political role in the city he was in charge of. Below him came the “divine fathers”, important priests that took care of the rituals and walked in front of their god’s statue during processions. Finally, at the bottom of the hierarchy, there were the “purified ones”, whose job was to carry the god’s statue during procession, to clean up the temple every day, and to do all the chores. Speaking of cleanliness, being pure was a very big deal for Ancient Egyptian priests – they usually took four baths a day in the lake’s temple, or rather two baths during the day and two baths during the night. It was a way for them to stay “pure”.

# Priests had a LOT of work and so, to be able to rest and not die of exhaustion, there were “teams” of priests formed in temples. Each team was to work in the temple during one month while the other went to live into town, and after one month a new team went in. In smallest temple there were only two teams, each doing half of the year, but in the biggest temple, there could be up to four priest teams. And since the priests were to live in the town quite regularly, and couldn’t possibly live alone (for Egyptians a man couldn’t just live all on his own, it was not a good or healthy lifestyle), the priests were allowed and even encouraged to marry, so that when leaving the temple they could have a wife and children to return to – children that in turn would become priests once their father grew too old.

PEASANTS

# Peasants formed the bulk of the Egyptian population, and they were a key part in the wealth of the nation: without them and their constant toil, Egypt couldn’t have existed. But despite their immense utility, priests were very poor and not respected, forming the lower rank of the social hierarchy. Most of them acted like serfs, in service of great landowners, temples, or the ministers of the pharaoh. The comparison to serfs is quite relevant as, just like serfs, Egyptian peasants did not own their lands, and they could be sold just alongside the land they were dependent.

# The fields of the peasants were actually really small, roughly the size of a vegetable garden today. They were delimited by big and heavy rocks – every year, bureaucrats of the realm checked after each flood is these rocks hadn’t been move. The peasants also had to swear an oath to never move secretly the stones to augment their field – if they were caught doing that and lying about it, they had their two ears cut off!

# Scribes went three times a year into every peasant’s home. A first time to measure their field, a second time once the cereals ha d grown – to evaluate the harvest and calculate future taxes based on this hypothetical harvest – and a third time during the harvesting, to collect the taxes. Of course, on this third visit, scribes were escorted by armed soldiers. If a peasant refused to pay the taxes, he was beaten up, and/or his house and tools were taken away from him – sometimes he was even thrown into prison. According to some tales, the most extreme cases of punishment had peasants that did not pay their taxes being beaten up, tied with a rope, and thrown at the bottom of a well in front of his wife and children – who in turn were imprisoned in his place! Better pay the taxes the, you say? Well, the problem was that the taxes were calculated during January, two to three months before the actual harvest. If any sort of disaster happened, and they lost their harvest, they still had to pay the taxes as if they had a full harvest…

# No need to tell you that the peasants’ worst enemy (outside of the locust) was the hippopotamus! Hippopotami were considered a true disaster, since in a single night, a hungry hippo could eat up to sixty kilos of plants (132 pounds). If a small group of hippos came by a field in the night, in the morning nothing was left… So peasants hunted and killed hippos without pity or mercy.

CRAFTSMEN

# Craftsmen were the middle-class of Egypt, coming below the scribes and bureaucrats, but above peasants. Craftsmen worked numerous types of material: stone, wood, iron, precious metals (such as gold), leather, textiles and glass. Craftsmen never worked alone – they were always forming groups and teams, part of workshops financed by the government, or by a temple, or by a rich family. Each workshop gathered various specialists – a carpenter, a painter, a smith, a jeweler, a stone-sculptor…

# The quality of a furniture could be identified by the type of wood used: good quality furniture was done by sculpting cedar, a tree that was important from the Lebanon. High quality furniture was also often decorated with ivory or ebony. Lower quality furniture however, was usually sculpted in sycamore trees or palm trees – a wood so friable they were often covered in plaster to just be able to stand up and hold any kind of weight!

# The Egyptians discovered how to make class towards 1500 BCE. They created it with sand, salt, and they always colored their glass with metallic pigments – an Egyptian would have never created a transparent piece of glass. Egyptians loved colors, and so their glass work was always red, blue or yellow.

# Potters were considered to be “different” from other craftsmen. More specifically they were thought to practice a very “common” craft. Scribes liked to mock them by describing them as dirty, and always covered in mud. Potters did not work in the royally-sponsored workshops I described above – they rather worked all alone, for their own. They built most of everyday objects: vases, plates, cups, jars… Potters usually worked with the clay of the Nile, sculpted by hand (at first, then the potter’s wheel was invented), and then left to dry up in the sun before being “cooked” in an oven. Their other technique was to create a material by mixing sand with water, salt, ashes and lime – this substance was then placed inside molds, and placed in an ove.

# Pearls in Ancient Egypt are a fascinating thing, because Egyptians did not know about the existence of oysters – or if they did, they couldn’t access any of them. So, Egyptians created their own pearls, by polishing stones so much they were reduced to very small spheres, that were then pierced to be placed onto necklaces.

# All the gems and precious stones used by Egyptians (the red carnelian, the purple amethyst, the turquoise and the blue agate – plus gold of course) were extracted from mines located in the desert, and in which criminals and law-breakers were sent to work (because working in these mines often killed the miners). The favorite gem of the Egyptians, the lapis-lazuli, was rather important from where today’s Afghanistan is located. However, faience/earthenware was very common among Egyptians precisely because with its blue-green color it could look like emeralds or turquoises, while being much MUCH less costly. This is why there were a lot of faience jewels in Ancient Egypt – they were basically for those who wanted to look good without having the means to.

[the-white-soul]

Flowey: *He only shakes his head firmly.* If I leave, you're gonna start killing more people! I know from what we saw they were either angry or silent, but what if more people really did want to help monsters and were just scared to say so? You don't have to... Free everyone. Not in that manner. I know you mean well, but only the really really bad ones we should punish. How about you come with me to help Kara?

(Chara) "You are the only person I've met who's talked to me with love and care after doing what I've done since Papyrus. I love this challenge. You seem so much better to me than I could've ever dreamed. My dreams have crushed more than most others, and you understand that, in a way. I thought you didn't like pity, though. Maybe I'm the stupid one for projecting so much to you. You're right about many things. I don't need to do this. You don't understand. I didn't just lose my ability to be compassionate. I'd forgotten what compassion even felt like. I don't realize what a life is worth. To me, trading lives is easy, but to you, it's not. Started breaking down into tears. Who am I? Why am I? You know my mother used to starve me for days if I didn't do what she thought was right. I fled after a while and am glad to see her finally gone. For that, I give you one chance. I know that in 2 weeks, the humans are planning to testify against Asgore. It's supposed to be a secret, but they'll announce it soon. If you can prove to the humans there that Asgore is not guilty, I'll back off and might even join your cause. Fail, and I'll kill you all. Also, go back and save Kara. Not because I care about them just because they're interesting. See you soon. Burrows beneath the ground.

[topazshadowwolf]

Will Nightmare and Company ever join Horror in visiting Horrortale? I feel like that would be strange for Nightmare, as, at least in my mind, they would think of him as their savior. (Also, Horror explaining his situation with Aliza to Dust and Killer? That would be a painful conversation.) Plus, I feel like if Horror has some sort of fear-related power, (Or at least in my mind,) I bet he would boast about Nightmare's terrifying abilities.

I love when I get asked something that is likely supposed to be a short answer but ends up being a long essay. XD

This ask falls under “CHARACTER ANALYSIS,” which, anyone who has been here can testify, I love! And why is that? After all, is this not just a simple, “oh yeah, sure.” Or “Nope?” HAHA! Just like Dust giving a report to Nightmare, here’s an indecisive answer for you!

“Kinda, yeah?”

Behold, a cut! That means I have a lot more to say on this. It also means there are spoilers for my fic (and fics) so keep that in mind.

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So, we gotta ask ourselves, ‘would Horror invite the others over.’ I think we can find the answer in one of the fics I wrote during Soriel Week: The Bad Wingmen. While the fic is not canon to the story, the characters are canon for how they are reacting to the situations presented to them. In chapter two, Horror is considering an AU that he and Dust were investigating.

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What he has was special enough. But, he brushed it off to the others as he didn’t want the guys around his Toriel. After everything she’d been through, she gets anxious enough over small things and wouldn't do well having even Cross around.

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Meaning Horror knows that, despite how scary everyone in his AU is, the others would scare his Toriel… and others. And this will be true in fic, for at least most of it. He will allow Nightmare to visit though. 

YES! That is right! Boss can come to see his AU, and meet his friends and brother, but not the others. The answer to why was brushed on a few times before but highlighted in chapter 7 of HNBD.

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Someone new would be joining them after all. What would this new personality bring? Horror had adjusted to being around these two LV-heavy Sanses. He wasn’t sure he wanted another. Sure, Horror has earned their respect, and he knows he can intimidate them both. But Dust and Killer both scare Horror.

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He has adjusted to Killer and Dust, but that took time.

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Lately, he was seeing them more as just… lost souls. Perhaps this new one will be no different. Both Dust and Killer were kinder to Horror than each other. He half expected them to become aggressive towards anyone who dared to say a mean word to him.

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While his Papyrus would be okay with them, even Cross would be seen as scary by the terrifying residents of Horrortale. They have LV too, but nothing like those three. So Horror would be unlikely to bring them to his home as they would likely not be greeted warmly. The inhabitants of HorrorTale would either hide or react aggressively. Horror knew he had Nightmare backing him. That is the primary reason he was able to adjust so well. Well, that and the fact that Dust didn’t see him as a threat and (chapter 2):

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Killer was… something else. And that was putting it lightly. Far too energetic for Horror's liking and often looking for a fight. But with the food here, Horror just never took the bait. Surprisingly, Killer would then calm down and just sit and talk with Horror. It's like an odd switch got flipped. As if the other Sans' brain goes: "oh, so… we aren't going to fight? ok, well… how's it going?"

---

The inhabitants of HorrorTale might not see things the same way, and well, Horror would rather not risk it. Nothing against the others, but it just wouldn’t work out good without some sort of careful planning before.

Nightmare is different. He’s not only Horror’s boss. He also is a food supply as well as someone who can ease out any negative emotions that might cause issues. Toriel is too anxious? Not after shaking hands with Nightmare… seems like that anxiety just… faded away a bit…. He won’t take it all. Learning to sort out one's own emotions is important, after all, but keeping it at a manageable level? Totally.

Same with everyone else he meets… which is how far the food supply goes… Which does not cover the entire underground. (*cough* Horror didn’t want to share with a few certain people and Nightmare is fine with that since this is a major expense.)

But there you go. Will this happen in fic. High likelihood, but not definite as if it doesn’t add anything to the story then eh… it might just get mentioned.

[aimee-maroux]

Menstruation in the ancient World

Menstruation may seem to some an odd topic to write about on an erotica blog, but women do enjoy sex, erotica, and masturbation while bleeding. I know I do. That is why, when Serena sent me this tweet, I laughed, because I could totally relate:

When I forget I’m on my period and start masturbating https://t.co/7DMKDyX7nj

— 🥀 (@YeIIowbang)

October 16, 2018

I didn't laugh anymore when I read the comments beneath the tweet.

Maybe I grew up in a very niche environment, but none of the people in my life have been squeamish to talk about menstruation. As a teenager, a male friend even asked if he could see my (bloody) tampon, because he was curious. That is why people acting with such aversion to the subject always leave me open-mouthed.

On the other hand, there exist cute sayings like "a good captain isn't afraid to sail the red sea" or "menstronaut" (though shouldn't it be menstrunaut?) for men who are not bothered by a little blood and engage in sexual activity during menstruation.

Menstruation is surrounded by myths even to this day. And usually not the fun kind. Today, I want to take a look at the ancient world and how women back then dealt with their monthly bleeding.

Ancient Pads and Tampons

Isis Knot

Since some people - myself included before I got intimate with the ancient world - think tampons were an invention of the 20th century and invented by a man, I present to you the real inventors: Egyptian women!

It is generally assumed that ancient Egyptian women fashioned a kind of throw-away tampon probably from papyrus or other grass. As flax was cultivated and even exported to other countries, cheap linen could also qualify as a raw material and be used by even the poorer groups of people. During the Roman era, cotton probably took the place of these materials, which is also what modern tampons are made of today. Both, tampons and pads, were used in ancient Egypt, but it is not clear which was preferred.

The tyet or Isis knot, a stone carving portraying a cloth that has been rolled up and looped around itself, could represent such a menstrual tampon.

In Sumer, women also used menstrual pads made of rags, as this Sumerian proverb aptly testifies. Copied down as part of the scribal curriculum, the proverb features a lady so wealthy she can dispose of, rather than wash and reuse, her menstruation rags:

"I am a lady of amazing clothes. Let me cut up my menstruation rag."

The ancient Greek medical texts that came to be known as the ‘Hippocratic corpus', written primarily in the 5th and 4th century BCE, described another type of tampon, which was made of lint wrapped around lightweight wood.

This type of tampon, however, is used to staunch a wound. The physician should roll up lint in a rag or in thin Carthaginian leather (chosen because it is so soft) and insert this into a fractured nose.

Greek and Hebrew inscriptions describe the use of tampons for contraception, but did they use it for menstrual care too?

According to Helen King who wrote her PhD thesis on ancient Greek menstruation, women in ancient Greece used home-made pads of rags, rather than tampons.

Menstruation in Mythology

The name "Isis knot" for what is thought to be ancient Egyptian tampons, refers to the goddess Isis, who according to legend, used a tampon while pregnant with Horus. The god Seth had tried to destroy the baby in her womb many times, sometimes by causing premature bleeding. Seth killed Osiris, his brother and father of Horus and, failing to kill the baby, Seth would spend a lot of time trying to defend the throne of Egypt against the grown Horus. So Isis could be understood as the inventor of the first tampon if we presuppose that the Isis knot served as such an object.

The tyet or Isis knot was often used as a protector talisman.

Gaius Plinius Secundus Maior, in English Pliny the Elder, wrote a book on Natural History called Naturalis historia. What he recounts about menstruation is not mythology per se, but ancient Roman superstition. It gets pretty wild:

Must will get sour in the presence of a menstruating woman

Crops will become infertile by her touch

Mirrors will become dull if she looks at it

Iron will lose its sharpness and start rusting

Hail and storm can be averted by a menstruating woman exposing herself towards the lightning

Fucking a menstruating woman during a solar or lunar eclipse or during a new moon can end deadly for a man

All in all, it's pretty hard to discern real ancient mythology from wishful thinking or romanticisation. I found these 2 additional myths for which I did not find any reliable sources:

Thor, allegedly, had to travel a river of menstrual blood to reach a magic land of enlightenment. The source of the blood were giantesses. This myth does have similarities to a story in which Thor and Loki travel to Jotunheim and a giantess is peeing, so Thor throws a rock to block the flow from the giantess' urethra so he and Loki won't be swept away by the raging torrent.

Mothers dedicated richly woven textiles to Artemis after their daughters had successfully experienced menarche. The girls then passed on to the protection of Hera, who was the patron goddess of menstruation and women's fertility.

Hera or Hebe also serve nectar to the gods which, it seems, some people interpret as miraculous menstrual blood. The Greeks did think that menstrual blood would nourish a foetus during pregnancy. But if the gods were dependent on it for their immortality?

Menstruation and Sex

Performing cunnilingus on a menstruating woman was possibly the most obscene thing a man and a woman from ancient Greece or Rome could do in bed. That doesn't mean it never happened, but men giving cunnilingus were a subject of ridicule. The vagina was said to have a strong smell of salted fish and cunnilictors were accused of having bad breath and an impure mouth "in which women purged themselves" (in cuius ore feminae purgabantur). Cicero claims one Sextus Cloelius performed cunnilingus on menstruating women.

Ovid advises the lover who wants to fall out of love to observe the woman performing something "obscene," presumably waste elimination, especially menstruation. Menstrual blood was thought to be not only emotionally but also physically powerful, so strong it could dissolve the bitumen that clung to boats in the Dead Sea.

Sources

Hera Summary on theoi.com

10 ancient Egyptian Medical Practices we still use Today by Listverse

Menstruation, Menstrual Hygiene and Woman's Health in Ancient Egypt by Petra Habiger

The history of tampons in ancient Greece by Helen King

Dress, Gender and the Menstrual Culture of Ancient Greece by Amy Pence-Brown

Women's Health in ancient Mesopotamia Q&A by Dr. Moudhy Al-Rashid

Dress, Gender and the Menstrual Culture of Ancient Greece by Amy Pence-Brown

Naturalis historia by Gaius Plinius Secundus Maior (Pliny the Elder)

Sex in the ancient World from A-Z by John G. Younger

[chronicbatfictioner]

A Real Boy - Chapter 9

By breakfast, Bruce was not there. Dick had gone back to the city with Barbara, and Alfred said that Bruce has "some business to attend to in the city, Sir,"

Tim figured that he was just getting the hell out of dodge to prevent the awkward discomfort between he and Tim. But then again, he'd woken up at 9, and was about to let Alfred know that he wouldn't be needing breakfast when Jason walked in with a croissant in his mouth and an announcement that his "holy massive breakfast, Tim!" was ready.

"I wasn't about to be such a hassle, Alfred," he told Alfred. The old butler/daimon scoffed.

"No such thing, Master Tim. You are as much part of the household as Master Dick is." he said. Tim could swear that Alfred's eyes had twinkled when he told Jason, who was about to protest, "and you as much as a part of the household as Zitka, Master Jason. Albeit with less apples and more bacon."

"Glad to know you don't intend to provide only apples for me, Alfred, thank you." Jason declared, grinning charmingly as Alfred placed another plate of bacon and toast in front of Jason. Tim rolled his eyes. Absolutely unimpressed and partially wondering if Jason had been a common human, he would be as obnoxious. Unfortunately, Jason took that exact time to look at Tim and caught his eye-roll. "Hey, if you rich boy didn't get the lesson on how to be courteous, I can teach you some." he quipped.

"Oh, I did get that lesson, alright. I just skipped on the part where you blatantly kissed someone's feet to get more bacon." Tim retorted.

"Bacon is food of the gods, Timothy. If feet-kissing is all that is needed to get them, that I shall do." Jason replied haughtily. "Some had sold their souls for it."

"You've just made that one up," Tim cautiously remarked. Jason's deadpan face was not helping in deciding whether his remark had been a flat-out lie or truth. The only relief was Alfred, slightly smirking behind him.

Or maybe not. Alfred was, after all, an ancient being, too.

Tim wondered if it was a bad idea to bring two ancient, humanoid beings, under one roof.

The week passed with not much of a... drama, per sé. Sure, there were some strange creatures that appeared somewhere Downtown, suddenly deciding that they wanted to reside in Gotham and just have to create some ruckus to attract attention for themselves. Bruce and whatever squad he ran promptly vanquished such intentions and send those creatures back to where they had emanated from.

Some they had actually sent to Arkham Asylum, a containment place for the possessed. Supposedly, Arkham knew ways to un-possess them, exorcise the demons or whatever.

Operative word being 'whatever', because Tim knew that there were many who had left Arkham and still bearing the evilness they had possessed when they were thrown in.

Like Victor Szazs.

Szazs, once upon a time an heir of a major business - kind of like Tim - had lost his family business and fortune due to his own arrogance and gambling. Afterward, something snapped in him and he had started murdering people, claiming that each of the cut he'd made on his body to represent each kill would make him live longer.

"Uh, no." Jason actually cringed as he came up behind Tim and read Szazs' statement. Bruce had sent the case file to Tim, to see if he could figure out Szazs' possible next victim. "Demons would never make such a promise. If he said one had, he's lying or being lied-to."

Tim sighed. "Imagine how convenient our lives would be if ancients like you or Alfred or Zitka or other familiars are legally allowed to testify in court..." he groused.

Jason chuckled. "Yeeeah, some of us aren't quite so benevolent, either. We could lie and have no consequences of our lies. We don't subscribe to your deities, you know." he remarked. "shit, some of us were even your deities at some point in time."

Tim turned and glared at Jason contemplatively. "Would a familiar actually lead the magi to... like, do evil things?"

"No, at least not if they'd come to where I came from, right? More likely it's the magi who'd make his familiar do evil. The worst we could do is evil by silence." Jason replied. He thought for a moment, and then added, "or omission."

"Mmhmmm..." Tim hummed. "I understand omission. Your job is to protect me, after all." Jason placed his hand flat on Tim's head. "Right?" Tim pressed.

"Absolutely."

"I'd rather you don't omit any information for me, though, even if it could hurt me. I need all information before I can figure out what steps to take to handle something." Tim prompted.

"Sure," Jason replied. "it's not like you'll not jump from a ledge if I say it could kill you if you wanted to save somebody below, is it?"

"Absolutely," Tim echoed, grinning. "But I'll know how to make myself not dead if you could tell me things like, how far the distance is below, between ledges, how long of a rope I'd need... you know, things like that."

Jason sighed. "I'm a familiar, Tim, not an engineer." he said. "What I can and will do if you ever leap off a ledge is catch you and fly you out of there to safety. I cannot, however, go in advance and let you know of the dangers up ahead or stuff like that."

"Okay, that sounds good to me." Tim mused.

"I'd rather you don't put yourself in such a predicament, though, but I reckon I'll sound like a hypocrite." Jason added.

Tim looked at him curiously. "So allying myself with Bruce and Dick and Barbara and whatever crew they might have is and will be bringing danger to me. Why did you do it, anyway?" he asked.

"Okay, three reasons: First and foremost, you're untrained. It'll be more dangerous if you roam around on your own. They can train you, at least physically." Jason pointed out. "Magickally, that'll be my part. But stealth isn't exactly my forté, as you can probably tell..." Tim rolled his eyes, flashing back to the time when Jason first appeared. Other familiars would have slipped in quietly - a cat, a bird, anything. Even Zitka could slip in quietly and stealthily, probably, in spite of being an elephant. Jason just slammed into Tim's bedroom in all of his smokey glory.

"The next one: they are a formidable set of allies. Your goals align with theirs, which is to prevent the misuse of magick by... well, people like him--" Jason tapped on the laptop screen on Szazs' face. "and maybe one day have the natural creatures-- the ones called 'supernatural' by them layfolks, return and restore balance in the universe once again."

Jason was quiet for a good long while, that Tim had to turn again and looked at him. "What's the third?"

His eyes were a little blank, as if he was thinking of something else and was miles away from the question. So Tim snapped his fingers in front of Jason's face, only to have the latter caught his hand. "Don't. I heard you. The third is that they-- Bruce Wayne, that is; has a book that I haven't found yet. In it, there are many knowledge that even the All Caste didn't have in writing. They only have snippets of the knowledge that's generally useless, and if I can complete the snippets, it'll bring a massive change to the balance of power in the universe."

"And that should benefit me, how?" Tim wanted to know.

Jason glared back at him, seemed ambivalent at first, but then answered, "it'll give you all you ever wanted, Tim. Anything and everything. Even the dead."

It took nearly a whole minute before Tim spoke again, after battling and sorting the thousands of questions in his head. "Explain."

Jason shifted uneasily, turning to face Tim. "Remember the Pinocchio story, the tale about him being carved from enchanted wood? Not the sugared-up children's tale about him being 'blessed' by a fairy and come to life?"

"Yes, I have original fairy tales at home." Tim replied a little snarkily, because he did. His parents never thought of the children's version of fairy tales and instead would always give him the spooky, banal ones. "You would know of the nightmares I've had..." he added.

"Yeah, well, it's my duty to let you know that some of them are more like the kids' tales than the spooky ones. But anyway! Pinocchio. He was actually literally enchanted; fictional adventure notwithstanding. Now, said spell had been used to bring to life a lot of things--"

"Oh my god... Pinocchio was an effigy!" Tim suddenly caught on.

"Yeah, that. But effigies were not the only ones brought to life. Still, the spell was lost and my... 'school', so to speak, has been investigating the whereabout of the book since time immemorial; and concluded that it was lost in the hand of an unnamed warlock." Jason continued.

"Given that there are barely a handful of warlocks nowadays, and Bruce came from a long line of warlocks, you assumed it would've been in his ancestor's possession." Tim concluded.

"Exactly. Now, in the hands of a warlock - even someone like Bruce Wayne, the book is useless. But that would not prevent it from being acquired by a magickal person. Now..." Jason exhaled slowly. "...I can't postulate. But from what have been happening in the past... since I got to you, I have fears that the book could be in the wrong hands."

"Hence your insistence to find it. Did you ask Alfred?"

"Daimons didn't have the same views as familiars, Tim, Alfred could probably tell me where something is if I know what it looks like. Like, I could probably ask him for first editions Arthur Conan Doyle books, and he'll be able to point it to me. But this... book - I only call it book based on the ancient All Caste description of 'tome'. It could be in pieces, it could be a carved rock or pots or vases or papyrus..." Jason elaborated. "Alfred wouldn't care nor have curiosity of the contents of it, even if he could read it and/or are interested in modern age's literature..."

Tim sighed dejectedly. "Okay, I'll pinpoint this guy Szazs' next victim - I think I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Barbara can cross-check it later. And then I'll help you in finding this book or what? --just so we can go home afterward."

"I can't tell you what it looks like, alright? A second pair of eyes is handy, but I still can't tell your or show you what it looks like. It's just... if you see it, you'll know it."

"Thanks for the vagueness. Good thing my brain is pattern-based. See? Now I think I've got like, three possible next victim and hopefully Bruce can mobilize some protection before... whatever insanity Szasz is trying to do can actually--" Tim grumbled as he clicked the 'send' button. His report and analysis will be sent to Barbara, who would be assigning whoever she deemed necessary to protect the three-to-five probable victims. "Okay, let's--" Tim abruptly stood up, groaning as his muscles protested at the sudden movement. He stretched his entire body gently, getting a good yawn for good measure, and looked at Jason. "Let's?"

Jason hesitated for a long time before he nodded. "Alright. Let's go roam this obnoxiously massive mansion. Maybe we'll be able to go home before dark."

As daylight started to fade, Tim - and Jason - had to admit that looking for a 'tome' that defies description; may not look like an actual book; and likelyhidden by magick; in a mansion that is as big as several city blocks; was "an exercise in insanity," - according to Dick - who had returned at three p.m. from his errands - even after Alfred, Dick, and Zitka lent their literal and metaphorical hands.

"Exercise in insanity, indeed. But there is a benefit: I now know which parts of the house that are in dire needs of deep cleansing." Alfred commented mournfully, after observing the cobwebs on Tim's head. "Do not shake your head, Master Tim. Allow me." he added, and then a small dustpan and brush appeared out of nowhere as he brushed the cobweb off Tim's head.

Tim barely managed just not to shudder. "I think we'll need a shower..." he lamented.

"Bathrooms at the ready in your respective bedrooms, young sirs. And Master Dick, kindly utilize the showers and not the bathtubs. Otherwise you shall clean it yourself." Alfred remarked, glaring at Dick who was a little worse for wear than Tim - thanks to his insistence on looking at literal nooks and crannies above their heads, on the ceilings and thereabout.

DIck grinned unrepentantly at Alfred, and then glared daggers at Jason - who remained pristine. "There are times in life I wish I was a familiar... or has the ability to be dust-proof."

Jason snickered back at him. "There are times I wish I were something else, but in this right here time, I'm just happy at being dust-free."

"You two still thinking of going home?" Dick asked.

"Yeah, I gotta. I have early classes tomorrow." Tim replied.

Dick nodded. "Okay... I'll go with you. We'll get to town before Bruce gets back so I can hitch a ride with him."

"Dude, no need. It's not that dark, yet..." Tim protested. But Dick just gave him a blank glare.

"...and the city isn't exactly like, a few dozen miles away. Anyway! I have to get myself some stuff, anyway. Just... pretend you're giving me a lift if your pride is not happy." Dick replied.

"Okay, fine..." Tim sighed. "But you're not driving my car."

Dick gave him a mock gasp. "Oh nooo... what would I do now that I'm not allowed to drive you millennial's hybrid car!" he mourned. Tim grinned. Dick's car was a sportscar that cost about four times Tim's. Probably as much in fuel, as well.

"I'm sure you'll find some ways to keep yourself entertained..." Tim retorted. "So, fifteen minutes?"

"Good for me." Dick nodded, getting up to get to his own showers. "Might want to make a note on what you'll need from downtown, Alfred!"

It took nearly all the way back to town, where the city lights started to illuminate the horizon, that Tim realized that the atmosphere has indeed changed. The roads were not dark, yet there seemed to be spots where the darkness were... less diluted.

"Yeah, most of those spirits are just hangin' out, but some are... not." Dick explained. "The main reason why we prefer to go in pairs of humans. No offense to familiars. Just..."

"I get it. They... I can't protect you if you concede to their ways. And those aren't the kind who'd use physical violence, per sé." Jason huffed. "Like, if you see a baby deer in the middle of the road, not moving. What are you going to do?-- kind of thing."

"Good people would stop." Tim stated.

"Good people traveling alone will then be theirs. Especially if they're magis." Dick intoned.

"Oh," Tim exhaled. "How come I've never seen them before?"

"You didn't have a familiar before. They're aiming for those who already have a familiar." Dick paused. "I have no clue what they'd do to the familiar, if the magi is... like, converted or something. But you know, just to be on the safe side, let's not try to find out, yeah?"

"Right," Tim mumbled a reply while trying to ignore the questions in his mind. He decided right there and then that he wanted to know, just so he could figure out how to not fall prey to whatever lurked on the road from Wayne Manor to Gotham. From the passenger's side, Jason sighed heavily.

"I'll look for why, who, what, or how. Right now, I think we better concentrate on Gothamites' legendary road rage, so we can get home in one piece."

[insight-analysis]

All about Egypt

New Post has been published on https://theinsightanalysis.com/?p=1341

All about Egypt

The Arab Republic of Egypt, commonly known as Egypt is located primarily in North-Eastern Africa. 

It covers an area of about 1,020,000 square kilometers and includes the Sinai Peninsula, but the majority of the country is located in North Africa. It shares land boundaries to the west with Libya, to the south with Israel on the northeast. It is bordered by the Mediterranean and Red Seas. 

to the north and east 

The majority of Egypt’s population lives along the banks of the Nile River where the land is rich and fertile. However, a significant percentage of the land is part of the Sahara Desert and so has very few inhabitants. 

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world’s most stunning ancient monuments. The Pyramids at Giza, the Temple of Karnak and the Valley of the Kings attract many visitors. The southern city of Luxor contains an exceptionally large number of ancient artifacts. Today, Egypt is widely regarded as the main political and cultural center of the Arab and Middle Eastern regions.

Contents

1 Ancient Egypt

1.1 History of ancient Egypt: 

1.1.1 History of Greek and Roman Egypt: 332 BC to 639 AD

1.1.2 History of early Arab Egypt: 639 to 1517

1.1.3 History of Ottoman Egypt: 1517 to 1805

2 EGYPTOLOGY

3 Egyptian Art

3.1 Art

3.2 Architecture

3.3 Papyrus

3.4 Pottery

3.5 Statues

3.6 Hieroglyphs

3.7 Literature

3.8 Paintings

4 Egyptian Antiquities

4.1 Shabtis

4.2 Amulets

4.3 Cosmetics

4.4 Egyptian Museum

5 Ancient Egyptian Food

6 Egyptian Mythology

6.1 Egyptian Gods

6.2 Death

6.3 The monotheistic period

6.4 Temples

7 Egyptian Mysticism

8 Egyptian Pyramids

9 Mysteries of the Pyramids

9.1 Mastabas and Step Pyramids:

9.2 Bent Pyramid:

9.3 Smooth-sided pyramids:

Ancient Egypt

Egypt has the longest continuous history, as a unified state, of any country in the world. The need to have a single ruler to manage the waters of the Nile led to the creation of the world’s first state about 3000 BC. Its geography made it a difficult country to attack, and during the days of the pharaohs, Egypt was independent and self-contained. 

Once Egypt did succumb to foreign rule, however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 2,300 years Egypt was governed by a long list of foreign governments: Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and British.  

History of ancient Egypt: 

The history of Ancient Egypt proper started sometime around 3300 BC. As an independent state it lasted until about 1300 BC. Nevertheless, archaeological evidence indicates that there may have been an advanced Egyptian culture for a long time. A grain-grinding culture was replaced along the Nile in the 10th millennium BC by one of the hunters, fishermen and gathering peoples using stone tools. Research also testifies to human habitation in the southwest corner of Egypt, near the Sudan frontier, before 8000 BC.  

The changes in temperature and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC caused the drying out of Egypt’s fertile fields, finally creating the Sahara Desert around 2500 BC. Early tribes migrated naturally to the Nile where they established a prosperous agricultural economy and a more organized society. There is evidence of cereal production in the East Sahara during the 7th century BC. By 6000 BC, ancient Egyptians were herding cattle in the southwest corner of Egypt, and building large buildings using mortar by 4000 BC. 

The Dynastic Periods: 3000 BC to 332 BC

Egyptian history is broken into a number of different periods according to the dynasty of the ruling pharaoh.Egyptian chronology is in a constant transitional state, with most of the terms in question, and dates in disputeHere are the main dynastic periods:

Predynastic Period (Prior to 3100 BC)

Early Dynastic Period (1st–2nd Dynasties)

Old Kingdom (3rd–6th Dynasties)

First Intermediate Period (7th–11th Dynasties)

Middle Kingdom (12th–13th Dynasties)

Second Intermediate Period (14th–17th Dynasties)

New Kingdom (18th–20th Dynasties)

Third Intermediate Period (21st–25th Dynasties) (also known as the Libyan Period)

Late Period (26th–31st Dynasties) 

History of Greek and Roman Egypt: 332 BC to 639 AD

When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BC, Greek influence took root for the next 900 years. Then after 300 years, Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire and ruled first from Rome and then from Constantinople. In 639 AD, the Arabs took over.  

History of early Arab Egypt: 639 to 1517

From 639 to 1517 Egypt was part of the Arab world, ruled at first by governors acting in the name of the Umayyad Caliphs in Damascus. In 747 the Umayyads were overthrown and the unity of the Arab world was broken. Although Egypt remained under the Abbasid Caliphate, the Tulunids and the Ikhidis were able to establish semi-independent dynasties. Cairo was established as capital in 969 when Egypt was conquered by the Tunisian Ismaili Shia Fatimid dynasty. This dynasty lasted until 1174, when Egypt came under Saladin ‘s rule, the Ayyubid dynasty of which lasted until 1252. The Ayyubites were defeated by their Turkish bodyguards, known as the Mamluks, who ruled under the Abbasid Caliphs regime until 1517, when Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire. 

History of Ottoman Egypt: 1517 to 1805

Egypt was conquered by the Ottomans in 1517, but it was always a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control. It remained dominated by the semi-autonomous Mamluks until it was conquered by the French in 1798. After the French were expelled, Albanian Muhammad Ali of Egypt and his descendants pulled Egypt even further out of Ottoman control. It lasted until 1882 when the British invaded and Egypt became a colony of Britain. 

The reign of Mehemet Ali and his successors was a period of rapid reform and modernization. Egypt became one of the most developed states outside of Europe. Unfortunately, massive government expenditures led to bankruptcy, and Egypt fell under the control of the British. 

History of Modern Egypt: since 1882

The History of Modern Egypt is generally considered as beginning in 1882, from the time it became a British colony. In 1922, Egypt was officially granted independence, but British troops remained in the country and true self-rule did not occur until 1952 when Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser rose to power. Nasser’s one party state has seen many changes but has remained in place, firstly under Anwar Sadat, and until the present day, under Hosni Mubarak.

EGYPTOLOGY

Egyptology is the scientific study of Ancient Egypt. Someone who studies Ancient Egypt is an Egyptologist. Egyptology explores Ancient Egyptian culture – its language, literature, history, religion, art, economics, and ethics, from the 5th millennium BC up to the end of Roman rule in the 4th century AD. 

Modern Egyptology is generally thought of as beginning in the year 1822. That was when Jean-François Champollion first deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics. He used the Rosetta Stone, a dark granite stone which provided modern researchers with translations of ancient text. Since 1802, the stone has been kept in the British Museum since. 

Egyptian archeology is in a constant state of transition, with differences of opinion as to dating and terminology. Archeologists may suggest solutions to many of these questions; others may never be solved. 

Here are some of the questions that Egyptologists are trying to answer: 

Who were the first pharaohs of Egypt?

Where did the Egyptians come from?

Was the Pharaoh really seen as a god or was the position he held just viewed as divine?

What were the pyramids used for? How were the pyramids built?

Are the Pyramids of Giza lined up with stars?

How old is the Sphinx?

What was the purpose of the Sphinx?

Which pharaoh was the Sphinx meant to resemble?

Why did the Egyptians mummify their dead?

Is there a connection between Moses and Akhenaten?

Why did the Egyptians use hieroglyphs?

Why did Plato write about Atlantis?

Egyptian Art

Art

Ancient Egyptian art refers to two-dimensional and three-dimensional art produced from 3000 BC in Egypt and used until the 3rd century. It is the symbolism of the past expressed in paintings and sculptures.  

There was a strict set of rules about how to represent three-dimensional forms. More important to follow the rules than to make a pretty picture, the intention of most of the artwork was to provide company for the deceased in the Other World. An artist’s job was to paint everything of the present time as clearly and permanently as possible. Through these vivid works of art, we are able to experience vicariously the life and times of Egyptians who lived thousands of years ago. Over decades, the Egyptian way of portraying man, nature and the world remained much the same and a revered artist was who duplicated the most beloved styles of the past.

Architecture

Ancient Egyptian architects used bricks, fine sandstone, limestone, and granite, both sun-dried and kiln-baked. Wood was not used as a building material because there were very few trees available. Without the use of mortar, stones had to fit precisely together. As the height of the construction grew, ramps were necessary to move people and materials up. When the structure at the topwas completed, the artists decorated from the top down, removing the ramps as they descended. 

As the time passes, primitive structures of clay and reeds evolved into magnificent monumental structures of granite, with very thick walls. The massive sloping exterior walls of pyramids contained only a few small openings. Brilliantly colored hieroglyphs and carvings decorated the structures, and included many motifs, like the scarab, sacred beetle, the solar disk and the vulture. 

The belief in the existence of life beyond death resulted in a mammoth architectural style to house the mummified bodies. Construction of a burial monument was initiated as soon as a pharaoh was named, and it continued until he was deceased. The longer a pharaoh lived, the larger his tomb would be. King Tutankhamen’s tomb is fairly small – he died at a young age. Another amazing aspect of ancient Egyptian architecture is that there was no structural support, except the strength and balance of the structure itself. 

Papyrus

The word “paper” comes from “papyrus,” a plant cultivated in the ancient Nile delta. The papyrus plant processing produced sheets of paper which were up to 30 feet long. The papyrus crafting method has been lost over time, and then rediscovered by an Egyptologist in the 1940s.

On papyrus are depicted all facets of ancient Egyptian life, including literary, political, historical and administrative records.

Pottery

Ancient Egyptians used steatite or soapstone to carve small pieces for vases and amulets, as well as images of gods and animals. They also discovered how to cover pottery with enamel, which they also used on some stonework. 

Some pottery items represented interior parts of the body, and were deposited in burial chambers of the dead – the heart and lungs, liver and small intestines, which were removed before embalming. Smaller objects in enamel pottery in large number of were also deposited with the dead. They contained the names, titles, and offices of the deceased, as well as stories about them. 

Statues

The ancient Egyptian sculpture art evolved in physical form to represent the ancient Egyptian gods and pharaohs, the divine kings and queens.

Very strict rules were followed while crafting statues: male statues were darker than female ones; in seated statues, hands were required to be placed on knees and specific rules governed the appearance of every Egyptian god. For example, the sky god, Horus, was to be represented with a falcon’s head, the god of funeral rites, Anubis, was to be shown with a jackal’s head. Artistic works were ranked according to exact compliance with all the conventions, which were followed so strictly that over three thousand years, very little changed in the appearance of statutes. 

Hieroglyphs

A hieroglyphic script is made of a number of images and symbols. In Egyptian hieroglyphs, some symbols had independent meanings, and some were used in combination. In a similar fashion to the Roman alphabet, some hieroglyphs were used phonetically, or to convey multiple meanings. The script was composed in three ways: from top to bottom, left to right, and right to left. The ancient Egyptians continued to use this type of writing, from 3300 BC until the third century AD. Many of the period’s works of art contain hieroglyphs, and hereoglyphs themselves form an impressive part of ancient Egyptian art.

Literature

Ancient Egyptian art and literature were recorded on papyrus or on wall paintings.

Included, were subjects like hymns to the gods, mythological and magical texts, and mortuary texts. Biography, history, science, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and stories, also tied art and literature together. A number of such stories from ancient Egypt have survived thousands of years. The most famous is Rhodopis, the oldest version of the story we call “Cinderella” today. 

Paintings

We are fortunate to have Ancient Egyptian paintings which survived in the extremely dry climate. The purpose of the paintings was to make the afterlife of the deceased a pleasant place. Protective deities, introductions to the gods of the afterworld, beautiful scenes of life in the afterworld, were all subjects to be explored with paints and brushes.

Egyptian Antiquities

The history of Egypt is written in its artifacts. A timeframe of more than 3,000 years showcases diverse and detailed works of jewelry and sculpture. A variety of materials were used during different stages, from the polychrome (red, blue/green, yellow, black) decorations used on some shabtis (statuettes) around the end of l8th Dynasty and in the Ramesside Period, to the dark hard stone probably of the Middle Kingdom or 25th Dynasty,

Shabtis

The ancient Egyptians believed that for many, the afterlife would likely require them to labor in the fields. Those who could afford it, took funerary statues (shabtis, shawabtis and ushabtis) along to perform their tasks. In the Ramesside Period, the number of shabtis increased to include one for each day of the year, plus 36 overseers. Tutankhamun’s tomb had an additional 12 monthly overseers. 

Amulets

Some amulets held magical properties that could be conferred on the wearer. They would be taken along to the afterlife to provide assistance on the journey, or give protection.

An animal shaped amulet could inspire particular qualities or behaviors the wearer wished to possess. Or, if it were molded like part of the anatomy, it might give special related powers in that way. Amulets also portrayed symbols of power such as the pharaoh’s scepters. The eye of Horus was a very powerful Egyptian amulet, worn by both living and dead, which could protect everything behind it from evil. 

Amulets were made from a variety of materials including glass, semi-precious stones, bronze, gold, silver, and a ceramic composed of crushed sand or quartz called Egyptian faience. 

Cosmetics

Egyptians lived in a land of intense sun, where it was necessary to keep their skin oiled so it would not dry out. To prevent the sun from scorching their hair, it was treated with a lump of moisturizing cream that would gradually melt and give the wearer a pleasant fragrance. Many of the containers in which the oils and creams were stored can be found in museum collections. 

Egyptian Museum

In Cairo, Egypt, the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, generally known as the Egyptian Museum, is home to the world ‘s largest collection of pharaonic antiques. This has 136,000 items on display, with several hundreds of thousands more in the storerooms in its basement. 

The Egyptian Museum is an outgrowth of the effort by the Egyptian government to limit the looting of antiquities sites and artifacts, by establishing the Egyptian Antiquities Service in 1835. The museum opened in 1858 in an annex of the palace of Ismail Pasha of Giza, who had retained Auguste Mariette, the French archaeologist, to assemble the collection. In 1900 the museum moved to its present location, a neoclassical structure on Tahrir Square in Cairo’s city center. 

The highlight of the collection is often considered to be the tomb artifacts of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, whose almost intact tomb Howard Carter found in the Valley of the Kings in 1923. The Royal Mummy Room, containing 27 royal mummies, is also highly prized.

Ancient Egyptian Food

Egypt’s Ancient Land was one of the world’s most rich plains, so it housed one of the world’s strongest cultures. Rich soil, created by the annual floods of the canal, deposited dense silt over the land often supplying two, or sometimes three, harvests a year. Herodotus, a famous Greek historian, once wrote that Egypt was the Gift of the Nile.  

In most Egyptians, bread was the staple diet. The average kitchen was normally located on the back of the house, or on the roof. It was mostly outdoors but may have been partly shady. Egyptian food was cooked, using wooden utensils, in simple clay pots and stored in jars.

Beer became the popular beer, and made from barley as well. The Egyptians would add spices to improve the flavor and it has usually been preserved in labelled clay pots. The importance of beer to the ancient Egyptians should not be underestimated since it was so highly esteemed that it was regularly offered to the gods as a libation.  

The wine was made from nearby vineyards for the upper classes. The workers would stomp the grapes after the harvest had been processed, and the juice would have been extracted. They made other wines from pomegranates or plums.

Though Ancient Egypt’s people in poverty enjoyed a relatively balanced diet including vegetables , nuts, and fish. But it was just the bigger farms that were feeding the livestock, mostly because the ordinary farmer had to use his small land to grow crops. Poultry was grilled to the table for the most part, but meat remained the luxury of the wealthy. Contains seasoning: cinnamon, pepper, cumin , coriander, sesame, dill, fennel, fenugreek, seeds etc.  

All the great festivals of the year were religious and were organized by the priests of the temple. The biggest of these was the god Amun festival which lasted an entire month. The ritual parade would have followed songs, dancers, singers, acrobats, and jugglers. Much feasting and partying continued with the consumption of a lot of wine and beer. There would be; dancing, poetry, laughter and the visitors would dance to entertain the younger members of the party.

Even though the ancient people did not write down their recipes or use cook books, it is well known the ingredients required to produce most of the dishes, many of which are still used in Egypt today.

Egyptian Mythology

Egyptian mythology is how we describe the succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt until the coming of Christianity and Islam. For nearly three thousand years, the Egyptians were, for the most part, believers in many gods.

Egyptian Gods

The early beliefs can be split into 5 distinct localized belief groups:

* the Ennead of Heliopolis, whose chief god was Atum

* the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, where the chief god was Ra

* the Chnum-Satet-Anuket triad of Elephantine, where the chief god was Chnum

* the Amun-Mut-Chons triad of Thebes, where the chief god was Amun

* the Ptah-Sekhmet-Nefertem triad of Memphis, unusual in that the gods were unconnected before the triad was formalized, where the chief god was Ptah.

As the leaders of the different groups gained and lost power, so the major beliefs merged and mutated. First, Ra and Atum became Atum-Ra, with Ra the dominant of the two, and then Ra became absorbed in his turn by Horus and Ra-Herakty. Ptah, on the other hand, was absorbed into Osiris after he had become Ptah-Seker, becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. The goddesses fared no better, with Hathor absorbing the details of the other goddesses initially, but ultimately absorbed into Isis. Meanwhile, the villains similarly assimilated, with Set, who was initially a hero, absorbing all the aspects of the other evil gods, which he was doomed to do after having been chosen as the favored god of the Hyksos. 

By the time the Greeks influenced Egypt, all that remained was the trinity of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and their enemy, Set, as exemplified by the Legend of Osiris and Isis. The trinity had absorbed so many of the prior cults, that each had its own center of worship – Abydos for Osiris, Dendera for Isis, and Edfu for Horus. Even at this stage, the amalgamation was continuing, with Osiris all but an aspect of Horus (and vice-versa), and heading rapidly towards monotheism. Nevertheless, monotheism had briefly existed before, as, in the 13th century, Akhenaten had attempted to introduce the monotheistic worship of Aten, the sun-disc itself, although it was ultimately rejected. 

Death

Egyptians practiced embalming and mummification in order to preserve the individual’s identity in the afterlife. Originally, the dead were interred in reed caskets in the searing hot sand, which caused the remains to dry quickly, preventing decomposition. and were then buried. Later, wooden tombs were constructed, and the extensive process of mummification and associated burial rituals and rules began. 

Embalming was developed by the Egyptians around the 4th Dynasty. All soft tissues were removed, and the cavities washed and packed with natron, a white, crystalline mineral salt.Then the body outside was buried also in natron. Because it was a stoneable offence to harm the pharaoh ‘s body, even after death, the person who made the cut with a rock knife in the abdomen was chased away ceremonially and had rocks thrown at him.

After coming out of the natron, bodies were coated inside and out with resin to preserve them, then wrapped with linen bandages, embedded with religious amulets and talismans. Royalty was usually placed inside a series of nested coffins, the outermost of which was a stone sarcophagus. The intestines, lungs, liver, and stomach were separately preserved, and stored in canopic jars protected by Horus’ Four Sons. Other creatures were also mummified, usually the representations of the Gods. Ibis, crocodiles, cats, Nile perch and baboons can be found in perfect mummified forms. 

The Book of the Dead was a series of almost two hundred texts, songs and pictures written on papyrus and individually customized, which was buried alongside the body, or painted on the tomb walls, in order to ease passage into the underworld. One of the best examples of the Book of the Dead is The Papyrus of Ani, created around 1240 BC, which also contains many pictures of Ani and his wife on their journey through the land of the dead, in addition to the texts themselves.

Later on the belief emerged that the heart of the deceased’s soul would be weighed against a feather, and if found wanting in morality, would be eaten by the demon Ammit. 

The monotheistic period

During the reign of Akhenaten a brief period of monotheism (Atenism) existed, centered on the Egyptian sun god Aten. Akhenaten banned all other god’s worship, and founded a new capital (Amarna). The religious reform only lasted until Akhenaten ‘s son, Tutankhamun, died, and then soon returned. In addition, removals of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun from the Wall of Kings are likely to be linked to the drastic religious reform.

According to some Egyptologists, it is incorrect to regard this period as monotheistic. tThese researchers state that people did not worship the Aten but worshiped the royal family as a pantheon of gods who received their divine power from the Aten. It is critical to determine this time as monotheistic, according to other Egyptologists.. A recent alternative interpretation resulting from interpreting specific knowledge items relating to biblical and Egyptian history (by Ahmed Osman) suggests that Moses and Akhenaten were the same entity.

The original Egyptian pantheon survived more or less as the dominant faith after the fall of the Amarna dynasty, until the establishment of Coptic Christianity and later Islam, even though the Egyptians continued to have relations with other monotheistic cultures ( e.g. Hebrews). Egyptian mythology put up surprisingly little resistance to the spread of Christianity, sometimes claiming that Jesus was originally based primarily on Horus, with Isis representing Mary. 

Temples

Many temples are still standing today. Some remain in ruins with wear and tear, while some are completely destroyed. Pharaoh Ramses II was a particularly prolific builder of temples. 

Some known temples include:

* Abydos (Great Temple of Abydos) – Adoration of the early kings, whose cemetery, to which it forms a great funerary chapel, lies behind it.

* Karnak – Once part of the ancient capital of Egypt, Thebes.

Egyptian Mysticism

Egyptian Mysticism is a complex set of rituals and behaviors which looks for strength and guidance from a variety of otherworldly beings. These “gods” are the representations of human characteristics and qualities, and provide the practitioner with a way of understanding and living within the world. 

Ancient Egyptian Mysticism includes the “magic circle,” which is familiar to European Pagans, Hebraic Kabalists, Native Americans, and every other mystic. Participants stand in a circle to honor the four directions and the deities they worship, those of Egypt having been called, as a group, Neteru – to the East is Tuameteutev; to the South is Amset; to the West is Qeb Suv; and to the North is Hapi. 

There are three cradle gods – Shai, Renenet, or Meskhenet – which can be invoked to assist with good fortune, luck, or new life. 

Other rituals include efforts to integrate or resolve karmic issues brought from past lives or unconscious living. According to the Ancient Egyptians we live in nine dimensions, many so nebulous that we can only experience them during dreams. We can call forth an opportunity to learn and grow in this fashion. 

There are rites for assisting others to find their paths as well as one’s own. Totems play a very important role in the Egyptian Mystical practices. Totems are “composite creatures,” or archetypes, containing living elements of Nature embedded within our Psyches or Souls. In the American Indian tradition, there are many totems, such as bear, raven, frog, and eagle.  

The Egyptian list of totems is very extensive, and includes:

Heru, the Falcon of Spiritual Victory, is the totem for those who possess Christ-consciousness. Het-Heru, the Cow Goddess Of Spiritual Blessing, is for those who are deeply devoted to a life of blessing others.

Anpu, the Jackal of Soul-Guidance, looks over those who are natural-born counselors, therapists and Spiritual guides. Apis, the Bull of Fertility, is the symbol of security, wealth and fatherhood. Tehuti, the Ibis-headed Record-Keeper, is the one who keeps accurate records, who writes everything down. Amun, the Goat Of Everlasting Creativity, is profoundly connected to sexuality and creates solutions out of thin air. Nut, the Sky-Goddess, embodies everything revered about mothering and motherhood. Geb, the Earth-God, is the good and loyal husband. Ptah, the Great Designer, organizes and envisions great designs and is the patron of freemasonry. Bastet, who personifies the Maternal Instincts of the Cat, is the patroness of childhood and nursing. Ksheper, the Scarab-Beetle of Immortality, is the patron of inventors and creative writers. Nephthys, at the Altar Of Mercy, lovingly supports nuns, ministers, monks, and those who take care of our spiritual needs. Ra, the Eagle Of The Sun, represents the victory of light over darkness. 

There are certain gods of destruction – Set, Osiris, Isis, and many others- which should never be invoked, because they are associated with death and annihilation.

Egyptian Pyramids

The Egyptian Pyramids are some of the largest man-made constructions ever built. They are one of the most impressive and abiding symbols of Ancient Egyptian civilization. Although in an Egyptian pyramidno ancient Egyptian rulers have been found buried, most archaeologists generally accept that they were constructed as burial monuments. The majority were completed during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. Egyptian homes were built on the east bank of the Nile River, the land where the Sun rises. The pyramids were built on the west bank of the river, where the sun sets, because the Egyptians believed it was the land of the dead. 

Since antiquity, the pyramids at Giza are probably the world’s most popular tourist destination. They were popularized in Hellenistic times when the Great Pyramid was listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Today out of all, it is the only one of the ancient Wonders still in existence. 

Giza, lies on the southern outskirts of Cairo and is the location of the three most famous pyramids. The Pyramid of Khufu is known as the “Great Pyramid,” or the “Pyramid of Cheops.” The Pyramid of Khafre is somewhat smaller, as is the modest-sized Pyramid of Menkaure. This is also the location of a number of smaller “queens” pyramids, as well as the Great Sphinx.

Mysteries of the Pyramids

The pyramids of Egypt are considered to be the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world. No one can say for sure when they were built. At any given time many archaeologists are studying them to try and unlock their secrets. 

There are some who study the effects of pyramids on animate and inanimate objects. They postulate that the center of a pyramid has energy that affects whatever is held there. Razors stay sharper, foods stay fresh longer, even injuries heal more quickly. People who meditate claim that sitting in a pyramid while doing so, brings many benefits, from more energy to greater feelings of peace and tranquility. You can easily find plans to build your own pyramid. If you do, you will have the opportunity to see for yourself if these assertions are true.           

Since the late 1890s there have been people who believed that the Great Pyramid of Giza holds the secrets to understanding Biblical prophecy. John Taylor, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Martin Gardner, Robert Menzies, Madame Helena Blavatsky, Charles Taze Russell, Erik von Daniken, and Edgar Cayce, each had theories as to the purpose of the pyramids and how they were constructed.

Throughout history people have had special places to bury their dead. Caves and mounds were some of the earliest. Then in Egypt and elsewhere, larger structures appeared. We call them pyramids, and they take three distinctive shapes.

Mastabas and Step Pyramids:

The first large structures built in Egypt were called mastabas made of dried mud bricks that looked like raised flat beds. Most of them have crumbled. About 2650 B. C., Imhotep, an architect, physician, master sculpture, scribe, and astronomer, built the first known pyramid for King Zoser. It began as a simple mastaba, but was added to twice more to give it six layers. At a height of 200 feet, this step pyramid looked like a series of giant terraces. It took several design changes for it to take its final form. Today the Saqqara Pyramid still stands where the ancient city of Memphis was.

Bent Pyramid:

The second type of pyramid is called the Bent Pyramid. The builder of the Bent Pyramid is thought to have been the Pharaoh Snefru (2680-2565 BC), who was the first ruler of the 4th Dynasty.  

The unique feature of the Bent Pyramid is the angle change. The base of the Bent Pyramid rises at an angle of 52˚, but the upper half is changed to 43.5˚. No one knows for sure why, but it may have been that the builders wanted to reduce the volume and get finished faster. Or perhaps they realized that it would not be a safe structure. It was abandoned after being worked on for twenty years. The Bent pyramid is located in southern Saqqara among the pyramids of Dahshur.

Smooth-sided pyramids:

Smooth sided pyramids were built starting about 2600 B. C. The first, at Medum, began as a stepped pyramid. Later, the steps were filled in with loose rubble. Finally, the whole thing was encased in smooth limestone. This pyramid collapsed because the casing was not bonded strongly enough to the core. Medum lies approximately 40 miles south of Giza. 

The most famous pyramids are those at Giza. They stand on the west bank of the Nile River outside Cairo. The ten pyramids at Giza include those of Kings Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. 

Khufu’s pyramid is called the Great Pyramid and a study of it shows how these gigantic structures were built. Since the ancient Egyptians had no machinery or iron tools, they used copper chisels and saws to cut huge limestone blocks. The limestone came from nearby, as well as from across the Nile River, and other distant quarries. 

It took thousands of men to drag the blocks to the pyramid sites and begin the first layer. They built long ramps to drag the stones up to the next layer, until they reached the top. The whole thing was then covered with white casing stones laid so closely that the remarkable result was the look of a single white stone. Most of the coverings are gone now, but some remain at the bottom of the Great Pyramid.

[mathematicianadda]

Singing Euclid: the oral character of Greek geometry https://ift.tt/3erY1je

Greek geometry is written in a style adapted to oral teaching. Mathematicians memorised theorems the way bards memorised poems. Several oddities about how Euclid’s Elements is written can be explained this way.

Transcript

Greek geometry is oral geometry. Mathematicians memorised theorems the way bards memorised poems. Euclid’s Elements was almost like a song book or the script of a play: it was something the connoisseur was meant to memorise and internalise word for word. Actually we can see this most clearly in purely technical texts, believe it or not. It is the mathematical details of Euclid's proofs that testify to this cultural practice. That sounds almost paradoxical, but I’m sure I will convince you.

The surviving documentation about ancient Greek geometry consists almost entirely of formal treatises. Very stilted and dry texts. Definition, theorem, proof. Pedantically written. Highly standardised, formalised. Completely void of any kind of personality. Where is the flesh and blood, the hopes and dreams, the lived experience of the ancient geometer? It’s as if they were determined to erase any traces of all of those things, and leave only a logical skeleton.

But it’s not as hopeless as it seems. At first glance it looks as if these texts have been scrubbed of all humanity. But, in fact, if we read between the lines we can extract quite a bit of information. There are implicit clues in these texts that reveal more than the authors intended.

That’s our topic for today: How these seemingly purely logical texts actually say quite a lot about the social context in which they were produced.

One thing we learn this way is that we should think of the Greek geometrical tradition as spoken geometry, not written geometry. Today we think of written texts as the primary manifestation of mathematics. When mathematicians disseminate their ideas, the published article is the official, definitive, primary expression of those ideas. The mathematician crafts a written document with the expectation that reading the text on paper is going to be the primary way in which people will access this material.

Not so in antiquity. Oral transmission was considered the primary mode of explaining mathematics. Written documents were a last resort when personal contact was not possible. And the written document was not meant to be a primary exposition in its own right. Writing was merely the oral explanation put down on paper (or papyrus, rather).

At least it must have been like that in the early days. Many conventions of Greek mathematical writing only make sense from this point of view. They must have been formed in an oral mathematical culture. Probably in later antiquity the situation was not so clear cut. Writing probably gradually became more of a thing in its own right, rather than merely a record of oral exposition. But even then, the conventions of written mathematics remained largely fixed. Greek mathematics never liberated itself from these conventions that had been set in an oral culture. They lived on. Perhaps in part due to tradition and conservatism, but probably also because the oral element remained a significant part of mathematical culture, perhaps especially in teaching.

Here’s an example of this, which I have taken from Reviel Netz’s book The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics. Consider the equation A+B=C+D. Here’s how the Greeks expressed this in writing: THEAANDTHEBTAKENTOGETHERAREEQUALTOTHECANDTHED. This is written as one single string of all-caps letters. No punctuation, no spacing, no indication of where one word stops and the next one begins.

A Greek text is basically a tape recording. It records the sounds being spoken. There is a letter of the alphabet for each sound one makes when speaking. The scribe just stenographically puts them down one after the other. From this point of view there is no distinction between upper or lower case letters: a letter just stands for a sound and that’s it. And there is no punctuation or separation of words, because those are not spoken sounds. And of course no mathematical symbols such as plus or equal signs, because that also does not exist in spoken discourse.

The only way to understand a text like that is to read it out loud. You have to read it like a child who is just learning to read: you sound it out letter by letter, and then interpret the sounds, rather than interpret the writing directly.

So the Greeks had a very limited conception of writing. They thought of writing only as a way of recording speech. They completely missed the opportunities that writing provides when embraced as a primary medium in its own right. Writing is a better way of representing equations, for example, than speech. But the Greeks completely missed that opportunity because they were stuck with the limited notion of writing as merely recorded sounds.

I like to compare this with early movies. Think of those classic movies from, say, the 1950s or so. They are basically recorded stage plays. There are limitations inherent in the medium of theatre. The actors have to speak quite loudly, articulately, to be heard by the audience in the back of the theatre. And the scenery on stage cannot easily be changed or moved. In a play you better stick to one or two sets, such as the interior of a room. That you can set up carefully with furniture and all kind of stuff on the walls and so on. But because you can’t change it easily, you have to have to have large parts of the play take place in that single setting.

These technical limitations constrain the artistic freedom of the playwright. You have to come up with a story where all the various characters have some reason or other to come and go into a single room, and once there to have loud conversations that drive the plot. All emotional depth and so on must be conveyed in this particular form.

These things became second nature to writers. So when film came around they kept doing the same thing even though that was no longer necessary. Many treated film as simply a way of recording plays. So in early movies you still have a lot of these static scenes with a fixed camera at one end of a room, and characters coming and going, having loud conversations.

Film affords new artistic possibilities. You are no longer limited to a static camera showing a fixed set, the way the audience of a theatre would be looking through the “fourth wall” of a room. You have many more options to convey things visually, instead of being limited to strongly articulated stage dialogs as the only driver of the plot.

But many early movies didn’t take advantage of that. They just kept doing what they had always been doing at the theatre and just recorded that. They saw the new medium of film merely as a way of “bottling” existing practice. It’s just a storage medium. They didn’t consider that the new medium was in some ways better than the old one and enabled you to do completely new things.

It was the same with writing in antiquity. Writing was merely for storing speech. They failed to take advantage of the ways in which writing could not only preserve existing cognitive practice but in fact transform it and improve it. Such as working with equations symbolically.

Here is another consequence of this: the absence of cross-referencing. If a mathematical text is like a tape recording, you can’t easily access a particular place in the tape. The only way to make sense of the text is to “hit play,” so to speak, and translate it back into sounds. Only then can it be understood. You can “fast forward” and “rewind”—that is to say, start reading at any point in the manuscript. But you can’t turn to a particular place, such as Theorem 8.

Modern editions of Euclid’s Elements are full of cross-references. Each step of a proof is justified by a parenthetical reference to a previous theorem or definition or postulate. But that’s inserted by later editors.

There is no such thing in the original text. Because it’s a tape recording of a spoken explanation. Referring back to “Theorem 8” is only useful if the audience has a written document in front of them. If they are merely listening to a long lecture, or a tape recording of a lecture, then there is no use referring back to “Theorem 8”, because the audience has no way of going back specifically to that particular place in the exposition.

For this reason, oral mathematics involves committing a lot of material to memory. In the arts, people memorise poems and song lyrics. Actors memorise the dialogues of plays. Ancient mathematics was like that as well. You would learn to recite theorems the same way you learn to sing along to your favourite song.

This aspect of the oral culture thoroughly shaped the way ancient mathematical texts are written. Euclid’s Elements and many other texts follow a certain stylistic template that at first sight seems quite irrational, but which starts to make sense once we consider the oral context.

Consider for example Proposition 4 of Euclid’s Elements. This is the side-angle-side triangle congruence theorem. It’s completely typical, I’m just picking a theorem at random. Let’s look at the text of this proposition. First we have the statement of the theorem in purely verbal terms. It goes like this:

“If two triangles have two sides equal to two sides, respectively, and have the angle enclosed by the equal straight lines equal, then they will also have the base equal to the base, and the triangle will be equal to the triangle, and the remaining angles subtended by the equal sides will be equal to the corresponding remaining angles.”

Ok, so: two triangles have side-angle-side equal, the it follows that they also have all the other things equal. Namely the remaining side, the remaining angles, and the area. “The triangle will be equal to the triangle,” says Euclid: this is his way of saying that they have equal area.

After Euclid has stated this, he goes on to re-state the same thing, but now in terms the diagram. “Let ABC and DEF be two triangles having the two sides AB and AC equal to the two sides DE and DF, respectively. AB to DE, and AC to DF. And the angle BAC equal to the angle EDF. I say that the base BC is also equal to the base EF, and triangle ABC will be equal to triangle DEF, and the remaining angles subtended by the equal sides will be equal to the corresponding remaining angles. ABC to DEF, and ACB to DFE.”

This is exactly the same thing that he just said in words. But now he’s saying it with reference to the diagram. He always does this. He always has these two version of every proposition: the purely verbal one, and the one full of letters referring to the diagram.

For simple propositions you can understand the value of both formulations. But quite soon, when the material gets more technical, it often happens that the verbal version becomes so abstract that it’s quite impossible to follow. This happens quite soon already in Euclid. Ken Saito has a recent paper on this, “traces of oral teaching in Euclid’s Elements.” He takes as an example Proposition 37 from Book 3 of the Elements. I’ll read it to you just to convince you how convoluted and unnatural it is to state theorems in this purely verbal form. Here it is, Euclid’s statement of this proposition:

“If a point be taken outside a circle and from the point two straight lines fall on the circle, and if one of them cut the circle, and the other fall on it, and if further the rectangle contained by the whole of the straight line which cuts the circle and the straight line intercepted on it outside between the point and the convex circumference be equal to the square on the straight line which falls on the circle, the straight line which falls on it will touch the circle.”

That’s very difficult to follow. Of course, as always, Euclid immediately goes on to state the same thing, but in terms of the diagram. That part is much easier to follow, and it turns out to be a pretty straightforward claim. The theorem is a kind of formula for the length of a tangent; how far it is to the point of tangency from a given point outside the circle. But you would hardly know that by reading the verbal statement only.

For some reason the Greeks insisted that the verbal formulation should be one single, rambling sentence. No matter how complicated your theorem is, you have to cram all the conditions and all the consequences, everything you want to say, into one single sentence.

This is taken to absurd lengths in Apollonius for example. Let me read to you an example from the Conics of Apollonius. This is Proposition 15: one of the earliest. It only gets worse from there, but this is bad enough, I’m sure you will agree when I read it to you. The proposition is a kind of change-of-variables theorem for ellipses: it tells you the equation for an ellipse in a new coordinate system conjugate to the first. So it has to specify what the equation of the ellipse was in the first coordinate system and what the assumptions for that was, then how the change of coordinates is defined, and then what the equation of the ellipse is in the new coordinate system. And it has to do all of that purely verbally, and in one single sentence, one big “if ... then ...” statement. So you get this crazy monstrosity of a sentence, it goes like this:

“If in an ellipse a straight line, drawn ordinatewise from the midpoint of the diameter, is produced both ways to the section, and if it is contrived that as the produced straight line is to the diameter so is the diameter to some straight line, then any straight line which is drawn parallel to the diameter from the section to the produced straight line will equal in square the area which is applied to this third proportional and which has as breadth the produced straight line from the section to where the straight line drawn parallel to the diameter cuts it off, but such that this area is deficient by a figure similar to the rectangle contained by the produced straight line to which the straight lines are drawn and by the parameter.”

What’s going on with this crazy stuff? Were the Greeks some kind of aliens with brains that could understand that type of thing? No. When encountering a theorem like this, they surely did not try to parse a sentence like that in the abstract. Instead they would turn to the diagram explication for help. Just as Euclid always does, so also Apollonius always goes on to restate the theorem in terms of labelled point in a diagram. And this explanation is not one big crazy sentence, but nicely broken into small steps. Much easier to follow.

At a certain point you may ask yourself: Why even include the purely verbal formulation at all? It’s so abstract, so difficult to follow. Surely any reader or listener will be lost before you have even gotten halfway through a sentence like that. And since you’re going to restate the theorem immediately anyway, why bother? You might as well only do the diagram version of the theorem. That’s the one you are going to use for the proof anyway.

That’s something of a puzzle in itself, but here’s the real kicker though. Not only does Euclid insist on including the abstruse verbal formulation of every theorem, he actually includes it twice! This is because, at the end of the proof, his last sentence is always “therefore ...” and then he literally repeats the entire verbal statement of the theorem. It is literally the exact same statement, word for word, repeated verbatim. You say the exact same thing when you state the proposition and then again when you conclude the proof. Copy-paste. The exact same text just a few paragraphs apart.

Astonishing. What a waste of papyrus and scribal effort. This was an enormous cost back then. There were no printing presses. You had to copy all of this by hand. Writing materials were expensive, copying was expensive, preservation was expensive. They had every incentive to cut and keep things minimal, yet they included this massive redundancy of repeating the rambling verbal statement of every proposition twice in short succession.

You may recall that an important treatise by Archimedes was scrubbed off its parchment because the parchment itself was so valuable even when recycled. And medieval scribes were big on minimising writing. Think of “etc.”, “e.g.”, “i.e.”: we still use those shortened versions of Latin expressions. They were invented back when people were writing and copying manuscripts by hand. Very understandable.

Yet despite all of that, for some strange reason, including the entire verbal statement of the proposition twice was somehow found valuable enough to warrant the enormous cost.

In the case of the side-angle-side theorem for example, the verbal statement of the theorem takes up about 15% of the total text of the proposition and proof. And then another 15% for the redundant recapitulation. So that’s 30% of the total text that could simply be cut. The remaining 70% of the text would still contain the full statement of the theorem in its diagram form, and the complete proof.

You’d think the temptation would be great to cut at least those last 15% of pure recapitulation. Even the standard English edition of the Elements by Heath simply writes “therefore etc.” at the end of the proofs, instead of repeating the full statement like the original did.

So what was the value of this very expensive business of repeating the statement of the proposition? The oral tradition explains it. The verbal statement of the proposition is like the chorus of a song. It’s the key part, the key message, the most important part to memorise. It is repeated for the same reason the chorus of a song is repeated. It’s the sing-along part.

In a written culture you can refer back to propositions and expect the reader to have the text in front of them. Not so in an oral culture. You need to evoke the memory of the proposition to an audience who do not have a text in front of them but who have learned the propositions by heart, word by word, exactly as it was stated, the way you memorise a poem or song.

This is why, anytime Euclid uses a particular theorem at a particular point in a proof, he doesn’t says “this follows by Theorem 8” or anything like that. He doesn’t refer to earlier theorems by number or name. Instead he evokes the earlier theorem by mimicking its exact wording. Just as you just have to hear a few words of your favourite chorus and you can immediately fill in the rest. So also the reader, or listener, of a Euclidean proof would immediately recognise certain phrasings as corresponding word for word to particular earlier propositions. They would have memorised the earlier propositions not only in terms of content but in terms of the exact verbal phrasing, almost melodically, rhythmically. Just hearing the first few words of such a formula repeated would trigger the full memory to flow out naturally and unstoppably, like singing along to the chorus of a song you love.

You can see an example of this already in Euclid’s Proposition 5. We already discussed his Proposition 4, the side-angle-side triangle congruence theorem. Euclid applies this result twice in the course of the proof of Proposition 5. However, he really only needs part of the theorem. Remember that Proposition 4 concluded several things: that the remaining sides were equal, that the remaining angles were equal, and that the areas of the two triangles are equal. Areas are completely irrelevant to Proposition 5, which is a statement purely about angles. Yet each time Euclid applies the side-angle-side theorem he spells out the full conclusion. Including the needless remark that the areas are equal.

In one case it is even irrelevant that the remain sides are equal as well, but Euclid still needlessly remarks on this pointless information in the course of the proof of Proposition 5 even though it has no logical bearing on the proof. Go look up Euclid’s proof if you want to see this nonsense for yourself. Ask yourself why Euclid points out that “the base BC is common” to both triangles the second time he applies the side-angle-side theorem in the proof of Proposition 5. It’s completely redundant and worthless. He could have just omitted that remark, and it wouldn’t have affected the logic of the proof at all.

But from the oral point of view it makes sense. Applying a theorem is a kind of package deal. You get the whole thing whether you need it or not. Once you’ve triggered the memory of the previous theorem with the appropriate key phrases, then the whole conclusion comes blurting out. Once you’ve committed to singing the chorus there’s no going back. You can’t sing only the part of the chorus you need. The whole thing goes together. You have memorised it in one flow. Once you hit play on that memory you automatically run through the whole thing.

This is why Euclid is needlessly talking about areas in the proof of Proposition 5, even though that serves no logical function whatsoever. He is mimicking word for word the phrasing of the previous proposition, filling in the specifics of the case at hand as he goes along. You sing the “chorus” of the side-angle-side theorem and you “fill in the blanks” as it were. The purely verbal statement of the side-angle-side theorem spoke of sides and angles and so on in the abstract. To apply the theorem is to repeat that exact same phrasing, but inserting AB, BCF, and so on, into that formula to specify what the sides and angles are in the particular case at hand.

It’s like singing “happy birthday”: it has a fill-in-the-blank part. Just as you would go: “Happy birthday dear Euclid”, so also you would go: “If the side AB equals CD, then the angle is ...” and so on, something like that.

Here’s maybe another consequence of this: Euclid’s odd formulation of the side-side-side triangle congruence theorem. This is Euclid’s Proposition 8. As we saw, in the side-angle-side case, Euclid drew all the possible conclusion: about sides, about angles, about area. So the theorem became a mouthful, and led to the introduction of superfluous remarks any time the theorem is applied, because you have to repeat all the conclusions whether you need them or not.

To avoid this problem it might be tempting to state theorems in less general form. And this is exactly what Euclid does with the side-side-side theorem. He introduces an asymmetry in the statement of the theorem. Instead of three sides, he speaks of two sides and a base. And his statement of the conclusion is that one particular angle (the angle between the two “sides”) is equal in both triangles. Of course it is completely arbitrary which side you designate as the “base.” And of course you could just as well have concluded that the other angles too correspond to each other in these congruent triangles. Yet Euclid choses to arbitrarily limit the generality of his theorem, and introduce arbitrary specificity and asymmetry. You’d think that would be anathema to a mathematician.

But if we think of the downsides of the way he formulated the side-angle-side case, we can understand why he went with this non-general formulation in the side-side-side case. Any time you are going to apply the side-side-side theorem, you probably want to conclude something about a specific angle, not all three angles of a triangle. So if you formulated the theorem generally, then every time you applied it you couldn’t stop yourself of course from reciting the entire chorus and hence you would end up with one conclusion that you actually needed, about one angle, and then needless spelling out two other conclusions about the other two angles that you don’t want at all. So this way you will only clutter your proofs with needless and irrelevant remarks. So the strangely specific, non-general formulation of the side-side-side theorem is actually well chosen given this constraint that you have to repeat the full theorem verbatim any time you apply it.

It’s pretty fascinating, I think, how textual aspects that appear to be purely technical and mathematical, such as a few barely noticeable superfluous bits of information in the proof of Proposition 5, can open a window like this into an entire cultural practice. The oral tradition must have been there, and the best proof of this is hiding in the ABCDs of Euclid’s formal text. It’s the beauty of history that historical texts can be read on so many levels. They carry so much hidden information about the culture that produced them. You would think Euclid’s ultra-formalised proofs would be the last place to find such clues, but here they are. We’re just a few proposition into the Elements and from the smallest technical quirks we have already recreated a rich picture of the ancient singing geometers and the strange culture in which they worked.

from Intellectual Mathematics from Blogger https://ift.tt/2AWyWy3

[ilovearticlesoffaith-blog]

The Unrighteousness of Those Who Forget

… God is not unrighteous to forget …

Hebrews 6:10

1. PEOPLE WHO FORGET ARE UNRIGHTEOUS.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

Hebrews 6:10

Most people are conscious about the “big four” sins: lying, stealing, fornication and murder. If you were to ask people for a list of sins they are not likely to mention the sin of forgetting. But God’s Word is clear on the subject. Forgetting is unrighteousness! To forget, to fail to acknowledge, to fail to remember are sins before God.

Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

Jeremiah 2:32

It is incomprehensible to think of some of the things unrighteous people forget.

This classic Scripture on the subject of backsliding shows how a bride will not forget her wedding dress. The wedding dress is the most precious thing to a bride.

Many brides order their wedding dresses long before their weddings. In this Scripture, the absurdity of forgetting God is likened to the unfathomable possibility that a bride would forget her wedding dress.

People grow up and forgot who cared for them, who nurtured them and who loved them. They forget those who brought them to Christ, those who raised them in the Lord and those who put them in the ministry. Is it possible that people can forget the people who helped them at the most important crossroads of their lives? Can they turn around and attack the very people who raised them up? The answer is “Yes”! It happens all the time.

People forget God when they prosper. Europe has forsaken God because they have become the richest continent. But it is God who gave them what they have. People become atheists after they become millionaires. What a pathetic sin it is to forget the one who gave you everything! Indeed, it is unrighteousness that is worthy of the most terrible punishment.

2. PEOPLE WHO FORGET ARE UNRIGHTEOUS AND DO NOT HAVE THE NATURE OF GOD.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

Hebrews 6:10

God does not forget! Man forgets but God does not forget! People who forget do not have the nature of God! It is the manifestation of the fallen nature of wicked and depraved man to forget things that must never be forgotten.

A person who is controlled by the Word of God and the Spirit of God does not forget certain things.

The natural man does not like to remember those who helped him. The natural unsaved man does not like to remember where he came from. The natural man does not want anyone to know how he came to be who he is.

But that is not the nature of God. When Jesus walked the earth He constantly told us where He came from

He said He could do nothing of Himself.

He said He was only speaking the words that His father gave Him.

This is in sharp contrast to the proud man of iniquity. The proud and wicked man does not reveal his origins and beginnings. He believes he is self-made and thinks he came on the scene by his own power.

3. PEOPLE WHO FORGET ARE UNRIGHTEOUS AND ARE CURSED TO WITHER.

Doth the papyrus shoot up without mire? Doth the reed-grass grow without water? Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. So are the paths of all that forget God…

Job 8:11-13

People who forget are cursed to wither. So serious is the sin of forgetting that curses are rained on the lives of forgetful people. You don’t need to hear a curse spoken against you for forgetting important things. The Holy Scriptures has already declared that those that forget God shall wither. Be careful that you remember all the ways the Lord has brought you and all the things He has done for you.

4. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE ARE NOT CONSCIOUS OF THE DANGERS OF FORGETTING

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Psalms 137:1-6

You must begin to take remembrance very seriously. The psalmist knew that it would be a tragedy to forget Jerusalem. He placed a curse on himself if he did not remember where he came from. This is how serious the issue of remembrance is. You might as well stop living if you do not remember certain things. Your tongue will cleave to the roof of your mouth if you cannot remember where God raised you from. Your right hand will be unable to write cheques when you forget what God has done for you.

5. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FORGET GOD WHEN THEY ARE FULL, WHEN THEY HAVE HOUSES AND WHEN THEY ARE RICH.

Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

Deuteronomy 8:12-14

The unrighteousness of forgetting commonly affects people who are full! People who live in their own houses tend to forget God. Those who have multiplied all that they have also quickly forget God.

You must become the type of person who is rich and prosperous and yet mindful of where you came from. It is a sad fact that many rich people talk a lot but give little. People speak about the blessings God has given them but they do not honour God for what He has done.

6. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE WHO FORGET ARE OFTEN PROUD.

Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; “And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.”

Deuteronomy 8:12-14, 17

Pride is one of the principal causes of forgetting. People do not want to acknowledge that God helped them.

They don’t want to acknowledge that any human being helped them.

They actually think in their hearts that they are self-made and they want you to think same

These people do not acknowledge God and their hearts are lifted up.

People who do not pay tithes do not acknowledge God’s role in their prosperity. When people’s hearts are lifted up they say, “I worked hard to get what I have.”

The Modern Pagans of Europe

I once asked a rich European woman whether she believed in God. She looked at me in astonishment, almost amazed that I had asked such a “silly” question.

“Of course not,” she answered.

Pointing to her chest she said, “I believe in myself. Why should I believe in God?”

I have heard countless Europeans say that Africans believe in God because they don’t have solutions to their problems. Modern Europe, which once sent Christianity around the world, is drowned in unbelief and paganism. The hallmark of this demonic blight on Europe is the belief in self and the belief in hard work without God. Europe has fallen into unrighteousness and wickedness because they have forgotten God.

7. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE DO NOT REMEMBER ANYONE WHEN THEY BECOME WEALTHY.

When people become wealthy they very easily forget how they got that wealth. They sort of assume that the wealth came to them through their own efforts but not really through the grace of God.

Have you noticed that there are not many really wealthy people that attend church regularly? Few rich people pay tithes. Most of the tithe payers are salaried workers who do not earn very much.

The business tycoons think they earn “too much to pay tithes”. This is why a special warning to remember is given to people who have been given the power to get wealth.

But thou shalt remember the lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

And it shall be, if thou do at all FORGET the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish

Deuteronomy 8:18-19

8. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE DO NOT REMEMBER THEIR PAST SINS AND MISTAKES.

REMEMBER, and FORGET not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.

Deuteronomy 9:7

Why must you remember your sins and mistakes? Because remembrance of your sins and mistakes makes you recognize how much grace and mercy has been shown to you.

It also helps you to acknowledge that it is not by any works of righteousness that you are in His service.

A constant reminder of your past rebelliousness and sinfulness will keep you in an importantly humble state.

When you forget that you were rebellious you have no compassion for others who are at the stage you were at some years ago.

Remembrance of failings is powerful in its ability to induce humility.

The Broken Pastor

A broken-hearted pastor once said to me, “My wife divorced me some years ago.”

He continued, “Every time I get angry with my staff and begin to rebuke them, a voice tells me, ‘You better shut up because you couldn’t even keep your own wife’”.

I felt so sorry for him.

I had seen this man rebuking and correcting people a few years earlier. At that time, he seemed to have very little compassion or understanding for anyone.

But now after being abandoned by his wife he was a completely different person. As he himself said, every time he remembered his divorce, he softened his attitude towards other people..

I realized how much more humble he had become after his divorce.

Remembrance of your past failings is important to keep you on the path of righteousness. When you remember the mistakes you made in the past it will also keep you from going the same way again.

9. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE LIVE IN A LAND OF FORGETFULNESS WHICH IS A PLACE OF DEATH.

Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? Or thy faithfulness in destruction?

Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?”

Psalms 88:10-12

A minister who dwells in a world of forgetfulness will dwell in a land of death.

The Bible calls the land of forgetfulness the land of death and the grave.

Make sure that you do not dwell in a world where you do not remember important things.

There are ministers who do not remember their spiritual fathers. Such people dwell in the land of forgetfulness, which is a land of death. There are people who do not remember or acknowledge those who helped them. Indeed, you dwell in the midst of death when you forget.

To remember is to give life to your life! To remember is to practise righteousness! God commands us to remember! Remembrance is the will of God!

10. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FORGET THEIR HUMBLE BEGINNINGS.

And thou shalt REMEMBER that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.

Deuteronomy 15:15

The unrighteous man will forget that he was once a bondman. Remembering your humble beginnings is crucial in your fight against pride. Most great people have humble beginnings. Most great people have difficulties that they have risen out of. If people on earth were to remember where they came from, there would be a million times more love, understanding and compassion in the world. Indeed, there would be nicer bosses and kinder leaders everywhere.

11. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FORGET AFTER A SHORT WHILE.

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

Deuteronomy 4:9

Some things must never depart from your heart all the days of your life. It is important to remember some things for the rest of your life. When the Lord has done great things for you, you are not expected to remember it for only five years. Many people do not realize that they are indebted to God forever. It is not about remembering for a number of years. It is about remembering for the rest of your life. People remember their salvation for a few years and “mature” into a place where they never talk about salvation. How sad that is!

A young rebellious pastor once said about his spiritual father, “I don’t owe him anything. I’ve honoured him enough.” But he was making a mistake. He did owe him gratitude and honour for the rest of his life because what had been done for him had affected his whole life. Paul told Philemon, “You owe me your whole life.”

Another puffed up pastor said to me, “I’ve served you for five years. I don’t owe you anything.” In effect, he was asking, “Do you want me to be grateful forever?” The answer is, “Yes, you must be grateful forever.”

12. UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FORGET THEIR COVENANTS AND AGREEMENTS.

Everyone will make a number of covenants in his life. For example, you may make a covenant to follow Christ, a covenant of obedience or a covenant of marriage. Often, by the time one side of the agreement is fulfilled people forget to fulfil their obligations. That is why covenants are made.

As sin has increased in the world the ability to remember has also decreased. As time has gone by, the word of mouth has virtually lost its value and come to be replaced by written documents. Sinful man has become a covenant breaker (Romans 1:31).

Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.

Deuteronomy 4:23

13. BECAUSE UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FORGET GOD, GOD WILL FORGET THEIR CHILDREN.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

Hosea 4:6

There are many curses that follow people who forget God. What will happen if God forgets your children? They will be given over to the devil. Their hearts will not be touched to love God. They will become vagabonds, uprooted trees and wandering stars. They will be exposed to the wicked devices of Satan.

No parent is capable of totally controlling his children. It takes the grace of God. If God forgets your children there is no hope for them. Do not forget so that He will not forget your children!

14. BECAUSE UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FORGET GOD, GOD WILL SEND FIRE INTO THEIR LIVES.

For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

Hosea 8:14

Another curse that follows people who forget is fire! Fire speaks of trouble, destruction and damnation. Perhaps you have not considered how dangerous the sin of forgetfulness is. Forgetfulness attracts many a curse. May your life be delivered from the fire that devours men who lack remembrance!

15. BECAUSE UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FORGET GOD THEY WILL BE SENT TO HELL.

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God”

Psalm 9:17

People who forget God will be turned into Hell. Hell is a large lake of fire waiting to burn men who do not want to remember the most important person in this life – their maker.

The Scriptures are clear. God will throw out the people who have forgotten His name. You do not want to go to Hell. But Hell is reserved for those who forget God. Forgetting God is the ultimate unrighteousness of man.

Forgetting God is a more serious crime than we have wanted to believe.

by Dag Heward-Mills

[andeasariana-official]

Carrytale - Chapter 6: Snowdin and nowhere to run.

The party came upon an open patch of ground littered in snow poffs. Off to the side was a wooden dog house and standing beside it was an enormous dog in metal armour. The dog was holding a conversation at eye-line with a tall and slender skeleton, wearing an orange scarf. As soon as they noticed them they noticed the party. “Sans, there you are! I’ve been waiting here for you to come home for over an hour. your shift was long over”. The skeleton didn’t waste anytime before berating Sans even though there was a substantial distance between the two.

The skeleton approach, walking briskly, until he was about a metre away from Sans, looking down at him. He opened his mouth to berate Sans some more but then realized he was in the presence of complete strangers. Sans took that as his cue to speak out.

“Papyrus, this is Toriel, she is a distant cousin-in-law of ours from the capital. Also with her is her two children Frisk and Chara”. Papyrus’ eyes lit up but then he seemed confused, bringing his hand up to his chin. “Wait a minute... I only see one child!” proclaimed Papyrus “Chara is an invisible ghost, they use phones to talk to people” replied Sans. Papyrus’ eyes were ‘rekindled’ with that same excitement they had seen moments before as if his joy was simply put on pause. “Wowie Sans you should have said something sooner! Toriel, Frisk, Chara, it’s so wonderful to meet you; i’ll have to prepare dinner, oh my goodness this is so exciting!” Exclaimed Papyrus. “I think i’ll show these three the best of Snowdin while you’re cooking. We’ll ketchup later”  Papyrus’ joviality was all too jarringly spoiled, papyrus growled, exclaiming “oh my god Sans” Papyrus then turned around and marched off in the direction of Snowdin town without so much as a goodbye.

“Well Sans, your brother seems nice” said Toriel “I like him, I’ve never met another monster like him” joked Chara “I think he really like the idea of us being his family” gushed Frisk, feeling a lot more at home, feeling like they and papyrus would be good friends. Frisk caught Sans’ attention with the word ‘family’, he gave them a wink. “I’m glad you like him, I’m sure you’ll get on great together Frisk, Papyrus loves making new friends”.

With the Papyrus fanfare concluded they continued down the path. Sans gave a salute to the sentry dog as they passed and it dutifully reciprocated it. The next thing Frisk knew they were eyeing down the length of a rope bridge. The bridge in question connected Snowdin Forrest to the town of Snowdin which were otherwise separated by a fatally great chasm. Frisk asked Toriel to stop so they could catch the view of the cavern. The whole cavern was covered in a dizzyingly deep Forrest. The view took Frisk’s breath away, having never gotten far outside their hometown, they had not ever seen anything as incredible as this view. With the time taken to admire it, Frisk told Toriel to continue onward into Snowdin.

Snowdin was quite a minor settlement in comparison to the ruins yet it was much more lively. The buildings were adorned with Christmas lights and a Christmas tree stood in the town’s centre. The town had a pub, Inn and a library and was populated by all sorts of fuzzy monsters. The monsters they passed would wave and shout hello to Sans, however they looked at Toriel with confused expressions but Frisk wasn’t sure why.

Sans brought them to the farthest house from the bridge and went to open the front door. The house was adorned with Christmas lights and with a pirate flag. They followed Sans into the house, Toriel taking Frisk off their shoulders so that she could fit under the door. Papyrus could be heard calling out to them “Welcome to our home everyone, please come into the kitchen, I have prepared a table for us all to eat together”

moments later, Toriel, Frisk and Chara were seated at the dinner table.  “Hey Paps, the Spaghetti’s almost done right, how about you talk to them and i’ll top it off” suggested Sans. “That is a wonderful idea Sans!” replied Papyrus. Papyrus then Seated himself at the table across from Toriel.

“So Toriel, what do you do in the capital?” asked Papyrus. “Uhm.. I’m a teacher for small children.” “I see, and how are we related exactly?” Sans shouted back to Papyrus “She is uncle Roman’s grand-daughter in law, you wouldn’t have met before”. Toriel breathed a sigh of relief, she wasn’t as good at the lying game as Sans seemed to be. Frisk looked across to Sans an noticed that he was shoveling in spices and herbs even though the spaghetti was supposed to be nearly ready. Not a very good sign. “Whats the capital like these days Toriel? “Well I-its.. the capital is kind of lonely”. “Lonely?” said Papyrus, puzzled by the word choice. “Well, everyone is always busy and.. when they aren’t they are too tired to do much” Fibbed Toriel “I understand completely, it is terribly tragic” replied Papyrus

Thump, thump, thump. Three heavy bangs could be heard against the door, Sans went to answer the door. “We expecting anyone Paps?” The door flew open without another word being said. Sans stood frozen with the shock. “Hey Sans, Papyrus said you had family over so I came to say hi”. the voice sounded feminine, Toriel put a hand on Frisk’s shoulder in anticipation. “Oh hello Undyne, they are in here in the kitchen” cried Papyrus. “Undyne I don’t think you should go in there” implored Sans. Undyne came into the kitchen and scanned for the newcomers, as soon as she had done so, her big toothy smile dissipated. Undyne store deeply into Frisk’s eyes then into Toriel’s eyes. “Sans, what is this?” asked Undyne.

“Sans, I’ve always thought you were a sneaky guy but even I couldn’t have seen this coming.” Sans said nothing only choosing to stare into her eyes as she stared into his. Papyrus was wordless, the sight of Undyne and Sans at odd was the reason. “You come out of the Forrest with a human child and the queen of all monsters in tow and what? You thought nothing would come of it? You better not lie to me Sans because there are enough cameras and sentries between here and the ruins to testify to the truth.”

“Undyne. This doesn’t need to happen in front of Paps, does it?” argued Sans. “That depends, how long were you gonna pretend this was a family visit? What was even the point of this Sans? WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?” Undyne shouted, her voice continuing to rise. Sans said nothing, the tensions were building to a boil. Toriel interjected into the fight. “Excuse me, I haven’t been formally introduced, miss Undyne” Undyne straightened her back to match the gaze of the tall boss monster. “Undyne, Captain of the Royal guard. Right hand to the King; Asgore Dreemur. “Well captain Undyne, I’ll have you know, I asked Sans to accompany me on my journey. I’ve decided not to stand idly as innocents die, I’ve come to end the war between humans and monsters and bring Asgore to justice. You should know how child murder and cowardice are punished am I right captain?” Undyne was seething with anger, all her attention was now on Toriel. “What do you know about cowardice?! Asgore declared this war so we could be free! Asgore has given us hope in our countless hours of darkness and you want him punished for that? Centuries of waiting and now there is only one more soul needed! What is one soul worth when it could be used to free all of monsterkind!?” Toriel began losing her composure and was filled with more and more fury. “You speak of a war, but monsters like you and Asgore lost long ago when you made murder such a casual act. You’ve become the beasts humanity has always thought of us as. Monsters like you are the reason we are trapped underground at all. Undyne summoned a magical spear from the air and launched it at Toriel, despite being at point blank range the spear landed safely beside Toriel’s head. The room was momentarily quiet as the crash of the spear had silenced them. Sans grabbed undyne by the shirt scruff bringing her face to his. “We’ll talk later at your house. Now get out.” Undyne tore away From Sans and sauntered out the door.

[ameicanfreedom]

SURFACE (Pt. 5)

"That flower had the six human souls and every monster's in the Underground. That equaled to be the final soul. We don't know exactly how, but according to Frisk, the flower had a change of heart and destroyed the barrier. Ever since the flower attacked, though, everyone has hid and obviously doesn't know about the barrier being open," Undyne explained.

Mettaton could hardly believe it. He was spluttering and stammering. He couldn't string words together. Alphys looked at him worriedly. His eye caught sight of the human again, who was over by the large monitor that had footage of him.

"Hey, err... Frisk, is it?" Mettaton called. The human curiously and cautiously walked over to him, still holding his mother's hand.

"Yes..." Frisk replied hesitantly.

"Is the barrier really down? How did it happen? You must tell me, darling!" Mettaton urged.

"Um... It's a bit of a long story, and sadly, I don't remember most of it," Frisk lied. He remembered every moment that he battled Asriel and Flowey. For some reason, though, he refused to tell.

"Okay, but, what do you remember?"

"The flower used all the souls to attack me. He confused me for someone he knew years ago. When I finally was able to reason with him, he decided to use all the souls to open the barrier." Frisk started to feel woozy again. He was grateful for the large hand to steady him.

"An evil flower. Just like that?"

"Not evil, just lonely."

"And you guys saw for yourselves that the barrier had been destroyed?"

"Yes, Mettaton. I'd never lie to you," Alphys testified. "Now go a-and do your thing!"

Mettaton, with the final word from Alphys, ran and grabbed a microphone from upstairs. He set up one of Alphys's cameras and hooked it up quite easily since he knew his was around it by then. Alphys rushed over to her computer and helped Mettaton make sure every monster in the Underground would receive his broadcast. She then put Mettaton's image on camera up onto her giant monitor.

"How do I look?"

"Perfect, Mettaton," Alphys proclaimed. Frisk offered a thumbs up, and Toriel was still standing there dumbfounded. She didn't have a TV in her house in the Ruins, so this was a new experience. Plus, she had never seen a robot before, much less one as pink and as vain.

"And action!" Mettaton cued. The camera turned itself on, and Mettaton's video feed on the monitor said, "live" in the top right corner. After a nod from Alphys, the robot began his broadcast.

"Good evening beauties and gentlebeauties! This is your star Mettaton here with fabulous news: the barrier has been shattered! Everyone is free! So grab your Surface Kits and head on over to King Asgore's castle, but do not leave for the surface until the word is given. I will be there as soon as possible so you all may see me. Thank you very much, darlings, and get ready to start a new era!"

The broadcast ended.

"Are you sure everyone saw him?" Toriel asked.

"Absolutely. Even us."

"Oh my god... We're actually going to get to the surface," Undyne mumbled. She blinked a few times, started to stumble around, and told her friends she needed a place to sit. Alphys stood up out of her office chair so fast she got head rush, but eagerly helped Undyne to her chair nonetheless.

"Everything alright over here?" Papyrus asked as he sauntered over. "Hey, Undyne, are you okay?"

"I just... I can't believe it..."

"And why not? You had defeated some of the humans before, haven't you? You got us closer to crossing the barrier with your efforts," Papyrus reminded.

"Only one, and he was incredibly weak. Weaker than Frisk. I felt really bad afterwards. I'm tough, but I'm not a killer. I just put on a show to give people hope. Now that they don't need me, what am I going to do?"