Ancient World Review

Medusa And The Gorgons

"In Greek mythology, a Gorgon ... is a mythical creature portrayed in ancient literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus." (Wikipedia)

Related: Ancient World Monsters in the Museums and Monuments of Rome.

From Clash of the Titans, 1981.

Note: The depiction of Medusa's death in Clash of the Titans deviates from the traditional story:

"According to the canonical version of the [Gorgo/Medusa] myth, Perseus was ordered to fetch the head of Medusa, the mortal sister of Sthenno and Euryale; through their horrific appearance these Gorgons turned to stone anyone who looked at them. With the help of Athena, Hermes and nymphs, who had supplied him with winged sandals, Hades' cap of invisibility, and a sickle Perseus managed to behead Medusa in her sleep; from her head sprang Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus [according to Wikipedia, Medusa foaled Pegasus when she died]. Although pursued by Medusa's sisters, Perseus escaped and, eventually, turned his enemy Polydectes [1] to stone by means of Medusa's head." Source: Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised)

[1] Polydectes, king of the island of Seriphos, is said to have fallen in love with Perseus' mother, Danae, but the protective Perseus wouldn't let the king anywhere near her. In order to get her meddlesome son out of the way, Polydectes sent Perseus on a suicidal mission to bring him Medusa's head.

When Perseus returned, he discovered that the king had been threatening and abusing his mother in his absence. Polydectes, less than pleased to see Perseus still alive, demanded to know if he had succeeded in his mission and Perseus held up the gorgon's severed head, turning the king and all his advisors into stone.

Note: "Petrifaction, or petrification as defined as turning people to stone, is a common theme in folklore and mythology, as well as in some works of modern literature." (Wikipedia)

One classic example of the use of petrifaction in modern fiction can be found in the great story Out of the Aeons by H.P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald. One of the best of Lovecraft's collaborations, this is a truly dark and frightening story about a museum which obtains a mysterious mummy that turns out to be the petrified remains of a man who confronted the ancient god Ghatanothoa, a gorgon-like entity so horrible that anyone who looks at it is instantly turned to stone while their brain remains alive and conscious for all eternity. Highly recommended.

Cambridge Museum To Install Signs Explaining "Whiteness" Of Greek & Roman Plaster Statues

Video from Aug. 25, 2021.

"A new anti-racism strategy at Cambridge University’s classical archaeology museum has been labelled 'shameless pandering' after revealing that signs will be added to explain the 'whiteness' of its Roman and Greek sculpture casts." Source: RT.

"In an action plan published last month, the university’s classics faculty noted that the plaster casts on display in the museum and lecture rooms give the 'misleading impression' of an 'absence of diversity' in the ancient world. The faculty apparently decided to 'turn the problem into an opportunity.'"

Video from Aug. 23, 2021. Closed-captions helpful.

"According to the action plan, the faculty will provide 'improved information' to 'draw attention to the diversity figured in the casts,' and to 'the ways in which colour has been lost and can be restored,' as well as to the 'role of classical sculpture in the history of racism.'

"Noting that students have been recruited to write 'new labels and other materials,' the new information panels will go on display later this year. The plan also noted that discussion to this effect had begun in 2020."

Comment: The ideological subversion of elite British universities has been going on for some time now. Back in 2018, for instance, columnist Geoff Norcott pointed out in the Independent that Cambridge students don't need to take drugs because "they get off their nut by banning or prohibiting stuff." And the great James Dellingpole said in an interview last year (next video) that British universities are "madrassas of woke stupidity."

In the case of these hideously white statues, I have to wonder how long it will take for the woke idiots at Cambridge to realize that ancient Greece and Rome were slave societies and start clamoring to take the statues down or smash them into a million pieces. Don't think that couldn't happen, either. Last year, for example, some students at Brown University called for the removal, relocation or "re-contextualization" of "white supremacist" statues of Augustus and Marcus Aurelius on the campus. A statue of Julius Caesar was vandalized in Belgium, apparently by BLM "protestors," and the British Museum recently removed a bust of its own founder because he owned slaves. The way things are going, it won't be long before the culture-wreckers start demanding that museums get rid of their Greek and Roman exhibitions altogether.

Related:

Cambridge University With Growing Cancel Culture Named One Of The Worst For Free Speech

How the Woke Inquisition Broke Cambridge

Cambridge University Rejects Proposal It Be "Respectful" of all Views

Cambridge's Plunge Into Wokedom

The Aphrodite Of Knidos

The Aphrodite of Knidos is the "first monumental female nude in classical sculpture," according to the University of Chicago. The Amores, a Greek dialog attributed to the rhetorician and satirist Lucian [~125-180 AD], but probably written by someone else, describes a visit to view the statue in its temple at Knidos:

"...we entered the temple. In the midst thereof sits the goddess -- she's a most beautiful statue of Parian marble -- arrogantly smiling a little as a grin parts her lips. Draped by no garment, all her beauty is uncovered and revealed, except in so far as she unobtrusively uses one hand to hide her private parts. So great was the power of the craftsman's art that the hard unyielding marble did justice to every limb....The temple had a door on both sides for the benefit of those also who wish to have a good view of the goddess from behind, so that no part of her be left unadmired. It's easy therefore for people to enter by the other door and survey the beauty of her back. And so we decided to see all of the goddess and went round to the back of the precinct. Then, when the door had been opened by the woman responsible for keeping the keys, we were filled with an immediate wonder for the beauty we beheld."-- Amores, Pseudo-Lucian.

Comment: I'm surprised that the woke mob hasn't called for the Aphrodite of Knidos to be removed or destroyed. After all, she objectifies women, presenting an unobtainable and no-doubt misogynistic view of the ideal female form, and she's a symbol of white supremacy.

The Book Of Revelation (Updated)

The Book of Revelation is thought to have been written during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (81-96 AD). Many Christians believe the author was the apostle John, but the consensus among scholars is that the book was written by an unknown author they call John of Patmos, who either lived on the Greek island of Patmos or was exiled there during one of Domitian's alleged persecutions of the early Christians.

Note: According to Christian sources, Domitian carried out several harsh persecutions, especially towards the end of his reign, but "some historians ... have maintained that there was little or no anti-Christian activity during Domitian's time." (Wikipedia) "The lack of consensus by historians about the extent of persecution during the reign of Domitian derives from the fact that while accounts of persecution exist, these accounts are very cursory or their reliability is debated." (That's a polite way of saying that a lot of the Christian stories about how they were persecuted in the ancient world are myths.)

It's commonly believed that the Book of Revelation describes Armageddon, the end of the world, but it seems more likely that its author was prophesying the fall of the hated Roman empire:

"Many people look to the Book of Revelations for signs of the apocalypse," according to a now-defunct source I found a while ago. "This event represents the cumulative battle between good and evil, ends the world, ushers in the Age of God. The Book of Revelations was written during a trying time in Christian and Jewish history. The book’s target was not necessarily Satan, but Rome. As a result, the final battle and victory of God over Satan was actually predicting the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity."

A classic example of the apocalyptic literature of the period, the Book of Revelation was probably written in response to the spread of the Roman imperial cult under the Flavian emperors:

According to biblical scholar L. Michael White, "most scholars now think that the issue revolved around the inauguration of the Flavian imperial cult in Ephesus ... Our clearest indication of how this is reflected in Revelation is seen in the description of the two 'beasts' from Rev. 13. The first is called 'the beast from the sea' who is given his power by Satan himself. He is described as having 'seven heads and ten horns,' and people worshiped him (Rev. 13.1-4). Then there is a second, 'the beast from the land' who makes everyone worship the first beast and its 'image' (Rev. 13.11-18). The 'image' (13.14-15) and the mysterious number '666' (13.18) refer to statues and coins or inscriptions with the emperor's image and titles. The 'beast from the land' probably referred to either the provincial governor of Asia or to the high priest of the imperial cult, who jointly would have overseen the temple and its festivals in Ephesus at just this time."

In other words, the apocalypse predicted by the Book of Revelation actually refers to the hoped-for collapse of Rome. If this view is correct, then all the millennial cults and end-times Christians who are waiting for Armageddon based on their reading of Revelation are actually waiting for an event which happened almost 1500 years ago. But the strange truth of all of this is that the Roman empire was already Christian when it collapsed in the west. Gibbon was at least partially right when he blamed the fall of Rome (partly) on "barbarians and Christianity."

The Cave of the Apocalypse, Patmos Island.

It's strange and revealing that the New Testament, a collection of books about peace, love and redemption, should end with the apocalyptic bloodbath of Revelation. One minute, you have Jesus blessing the little children and talking about forgiving your enemies, then, the next minute, a beast with seven heads is slaughtering millions of sinners in a river of blood. That's quite a story arc, to say the least.

Revelation has always been my favorite book in the Bible because of its hallucinatory weirdness. This is one thing I share with Hunter Thompson:

"I have stolen more quotes and thoughts and purely elegant little starbursts of writing from the Book of Revelation than anything else in the English language-and it is not because I am a biblical scholar, or because of any religious faith, but because I love the wild power of the language and purity of the madness that governs it and makes it music." -- Generation of Swine, Introduction, Hunter S. Thompson.

Considering the Book of Revelation's surrealistic content, I've always wondered if John -- assuming that was his real name -- happened to stumble across some funny plants or mushrooms during his exile on Patmos, which, incidentally, was listed by Forbes (in 2014) as "modern Europe's most idyllic place to live." This has probably changed dramatically with the "refugee" invasion of the Greek islands, which has been an absolute disaster. The island probably wasn't that idyllic back in John's day, either, but the views, at least, must have been spectacular.

Note: The Monastery of St. John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse on Patmos are now World Heritage Sites.

The Argonautica By Apollonius Of Rhodes

Note: The rest of this 5-part series can be found here. Scroll down to "Uploads" section.

"The Voyage of Argo," aka The Argonautica, by Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd cent. BC) is one of my favorite books from the ancient world. The story of Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece is one of the greatest adventure stories ever told and reading its descriptions of battles and monsters and sacrificial rites is like traveling thousands of years back in time. If you're interested in this classic story, I can recommend the Penguin Classics edition (1959,1971), translated by E.V. Rieu, which is particularly clear and easy to follow. The book is full of luminous scenes like this one where the Argonauts, having just landed on the island of Thynia after passing through the Clashing Rocks, see Apollo pass to the north:

"But at that time of day when heavenly light has not yet come, nor is there utter darkness, but the faint glimmer that we call twilight spreads over the night and wakes us, they ran into the harbour of the lonely isle of  Thynias and went ashore exhausted by their labours. Here they had a vision of Apollo on his way from Lycia to visit the remote and teeming peoples of the North. The golden locks streamed down his cheeks in clusters as he moved; he had a silver bow in his left hand and a quiver slung on his back; the island quaked beneath his feet and the sea ran high on the shore. They were awe-struck at the sight and no one dared to face the god and meet his lovely eyes. They stood there with bowed heads while he, aloof, passed through the air on his way across the sea." -- The Voyage of Argo, Book II, pp. 89-90.

Another great scene describes the Argonauts conducting an animal sacrifice to Triton, the son of Poseidon and the messenger of the sea:

"They urged Jason to kill the best of their sheep and hold it out to the god with words of praise. Jason hastily selected one, lifted it up and killed it over the stern, praying in these words: 'God of the sea, you that appeared to us on the shore of these waters, whether the Ladies of the Brine [Nereids?] know you as that sea-wonder  Triton, or as Phorcys, or as Nereus, be gracious and grant us the happy return that we desire.

"As he prayed he slit the victim's throat and threw it into the water from the stern. Whereupon the god emerged from the depths, no longer in disguise but in his own true form, and grasping the stem of their hollow ship drew her on towards the open sea."

Great stuff. Highly recommended. The 1963 movie with stop-motion effects by Harry Harryhausen is a classic. The scene where Talos wakes gave me the shivers when I first saw it as a kid.

Restoration Of Ancient Laodikea's Theatre Completed

Video from 2017. The state of the theater before it was restored can be seen starting at 0:52.

"Restoration works on the 2,200-year-old theatre in the ancient city of Laodikea, located in southwestern Turkey, have been completed." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"Laodikea was a largely unknown archaeological site before 2003, but the city was brought to light after excavation works were initiated by the Denizli Museum. A team of Turkish archaeologists, led by Professor Celal Simsek from Pamukkale University, has been working in Laodikea continuously since 2003."

Note: Laodikea was built in 261-253 BC on the site of an older town called Diospolis ("City of Zeus"). Greek and then Roman, the city is of interest to Christians since it was later home to one of the seven churches of Asia mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

Monumental Stone Platform Discovered In Selinunte

Selinunte, an ancient Greek city in Sicily. Video from 2018.

"Students and archaeologists from New York University (NYU) and the University of Milan (UniMi) brought to light new evidence of ancient life with four discoveries at Temple R in Selinunte." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"The mission led by professors Clemente Marconi, Rosalia Pumo and Andrew Ward brought the discovery of part of a monumental platform on two levels that was likely used to house the main altar of Temple R, the oldest in the city, dated archaeologically to 570 BC."

I have no idea how accurate this digital reconstruction is.

Note: "Selinunte was an ancient Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy ... The archaeological site contains five temples centered on an acropolis. Of the five temples, only the Temple of Hera, also known as 'Temple E', has been re-erected. At its peak before 409 BC the city may have contained up to 30,000 people, excluding slaves."

This 2020 video taken by a drone over Selinunte shows Temple E, the Temple of Hera, I think. This video has better views of the whole area. Mute the idiotic music.

The Joy Of Sexus: Lust, Love & Longing In The Ancient World (2013)

"'Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians had erotic preferences and sexual taboos we’ve seldom heard about,' says California author and historical detective Vicki León in her [2013] book The Joy of Sexus: Lust, Love, & Longing in the Ancient World. Her book's topics range from orgasm to the long-ago fear of hermaphrodites, from circumcision to the wide acceptance of a variety of gay relationships. With Tip Sheet, she shared some carnal curiosities and extraordinary stories of sex and love, encountered while researching The Joy of Sexus." Source: Publisher's Weekly (2013)

Comment: I haven't read this book but it sounds like it's pretty entertaining and based on original sources (for what they're worth). Nero, Caligula and Tiberius are described as "sexually twisted," of course, echoing the slanders of ancient historians looking to tarnish the emperors' reputations and portray them as monsters. Maybe they were that deranged, but I really doubt it.

The ancients, especially the Greeks and Romans, are usually described in the mass media as a bunch of perverts, but even if all the stories about orgies and weird sex practices are true it's hard to know how widespread this type of stuff was back then. I don't know if the Romans really thought that "wandering wombs" caused hysteria or if Romans in Spain washed their teeth with urine, but when it comes to the human animal nothing surprises me anymore.

The ancients were probably just as sex-crazed as people have always been throughout history. They had prostitution and adultery and buggery and so on, just like we do today, but if you ask me they were nowhere near as depraved as modern societies. They didn't have a multi-billion sesterce porn industry, for instance, and the Roman masses probably weren't bombarded on a daily basis with stories about bugchasers,  52-year-old men who abandoned their families to live their lives as a 6-year-old girl, men who have sex with their cars, or how a baby was born to a man who used to be a woman and got impregnated by a man who is now a woman.

The modern world is not only a million times more deranged than the ancient world; it's also a lot more ridiculous.

The Legacy Of Alexander The Great In Afghanistan

Video from 2011.

Afghanistan has been called the graveyard of empires, a fitting (though not technically accurate) name considering the fiasco we are now witnessing as the US withdraws from the country after a 20-year occupation that was doomed from the start.

"During the history of Afghanistan, several superpowers had attempted to invade Afghanistan without maintaining a stable, permanent rule. Modern examples included the British Empire during the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919), the Soviet Union in the Soviet–Afghan War (1979 – 1989) and the United States in the War in Afghanistan (2001 – 2021). Some had attributed ancient empires to the narrative, including the Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks and Mongols. The difficulty in invading Afghanistan was attributed to the prevalence of fortress-like qalats, the deserts, the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, its severe winter and its "impregnable clan loyalties." (Wikipedia)

Alexander the Great is frequently included in the list of foreign invaders who failed to subdue Afghanistan, but this isn't really accurate since the Greeks under various leaders managed to hold on to their territory in Afghanistan for centuries.

To sum it up briefly, Alexander invaded what is now Afghanistan in 329-330 BC during his wider war against the Persian Empire. He fought hard battles against local tribes, renamed his territory Bactria, and settled some of his veterans in cities which he founded there. Then he moved on to invade the Indus River Basin in what is now India. Faced with a mutiny by his troops -- which he managed to contain -- he was forced to return to his base in Babylon where he died from unknown causes, possibly murdered.

"Following the death of Alexander and the partition of his kingdom, the Province of Bactria was under the rule of Alexander's former general, Seleucus, who now formed the Seleucid Dynasty, with its capital in Babylon. But the Greek soldiers in Bactria, based on the remoteness of their territory, declared independence, defeated Seleucid armies sent to reconquer them, and founded the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, which lasted for more than three centuries in Afghanistan, and western India." (Wikipedia)

These Greco-Bactrians "left a legacy of coinage, architecture, and Buddhist art, which comprised the Ghandara culture, especially the Greco-Buddhist Art affecting all of East Asia to this day. The last Greek Kingdom in Afghanistan was conquered by the Kushan invaders in the first century AD, a full three centuries after Alexander. But Greek language continued to be used by the Kushans in their coinage for the next several centuries."

The claim that Alexander failed to conquer Afghanistan isn't historically accurate. He did conquer the country -- part of it, anyway -- and the Greeks occupied the region for centuries until they were finally conquered by another invading force. The Kushans defeated the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and went on to occupy most of Afghanistan for a couple more centuries until they, in turn, were defeated by yet another outside invasion:

"The Kushan Empire fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century AD, which fell to the Sasanians invading from the west, establishing the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom in the areas of Sogdiana, Bactria and Gandhara. In the 4th century, the Guptas, an Indian dynasty also pressed from the east. The last of the Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian kingdoms were eventually overwhelmed by invaders from the north, known as the Kidarites, and then the Hephthalites." (Wikipedia)

And on and on it has gone in Afghanistan, a tumultuous history of conquest and re-conquest which has led up to the predictable disaster we are watching unfold right now. Afghanistan may not be the graveyard of the American Empire, but this really mind-boggling failure will definitely be a major milestone in the continuing decline of the United States.

Report from August 15, 2021. Also see Afghanistan, Lost (NBC, same day). By the time this post appears, the Taliban may be in control of the entire country.

The legacy of "coinage, architecture, and Buddhist art" left behind by Alexander and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom still survives in the British Museum and other museums. Some have condemned these collections for being a "theft of cultural heritage" and so on, but these priceless artifacts will be far safer in Britain and elsewhere than they would be in Afghanistan, which will soon -- very soon -- fall under the total control of the same Taliban fanatics who destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan back in 2001. An attempt was launched to reconstruct the Buddha statues after the Taliban was driven out, but now that they're back in power I'm sure that work will be discontinued immediately.

2000-Yr-Old Banquet Hall Discovered In Nea Paphos

Video from 2017.

"A team of researchers from Poland and France has been studying the southern part of the Fabrika hill in the area of the ancient city of Nea Paphos since 2017. It was an area with a sacred character. The discovery of the site of ancient banquets in honour of the gods occurred right next to the highest point of the hill, where the remains of an ancient temple are located. These are simple outlines carved in the rock - its walls have not survived to our times. The square-shaped temple was preceded by a courtyard on a rock platform, in front of which, a few metres away, there was a monumental altar, also carved from the rock. The body of the building did not resemble typical Greek temples flanked by soaring columns." Source: Archaeology News Network.

The Paphos Archaeological Park. Video from 2015.

Note: "Paphos ... is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and New Paphos." (Wikipedia)

Field work at Nea Paphos. 2020.

According to its founding myth, Nea Paphos "was said to have been founded by Agapenor, chief of the Arcadians at the siege of Troy, who, after the capture of the city, was driven out by the storm that separated the Greek fleet onto the coast of Cyprus." Herodotus wrote that there was an Arcadian colony on Cypress.

"In reality, [the city] was probably founded by Nicocles (d. 306 BC), the last king of Palaepaphos [1], based on an inscription recording his founding of the temple of Artemis Agrotera at Nea Paphos. The inhabitants of Marion were probably also transferred to this new city after its destruction in 312 BC by Ptolemy."

[1] Palaepaphos, aka Old Paphos, now Koukila, "has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. It was a centre for Aphrodite's cult. Aphrodite's mythical birthplace was on the island. The founding myth [of Palaepaphos] is interwoven with the goddess such that Old Paphos became the most famous and important place for worshiping Aphrodite in the ancient world."

Video from 2015.

Four Roman villas have been discovered in the Paphos Archaeological Park. The video directly above shows the Paphos necropolis known as the Tombs of the Kings. According to Wikipedia, "The underground tombs, many of which date back to the 4th century BC, are carved out of solid rock, and are thought to have been the burial sites of Paphitic aristocrats and high officials up to the third century AD (the name comes from the magnificence of the tombs; no kings were in fact buried here)."

Paphos had several Greek or Archaic-Hellenistic temples to Aphrodite. Nothing remains of these structures, according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, but a sanctuary complex was apparently built in 100 AD to replace one that was destroyed in an earthquake that occurred in 76-77 AD.