"Alexandros Kochliaridis, the first man to stumble upon the ruins of the Amphipolis [Kasta] tomb, talks about the famed Kasta grave and the ancient treasures hidden in the heart of Alexander the Great’s Macedonia." Source: Greek Reporter (2018).
"The area became famous a few years ago when the Kasta tomb was uncovered leading many to think — wishfully — that it was Alexander the Great’s burial site. Although there are still different unconfirmed theories on who was inside the tomb – Kochliaridis has his own, Amphipolis is full of archaeological treasures described as early as in Thoycydides texts in 4th century BC."
Note: The Kasta Tomb dropped out of the news several years ago around the time of the Greek financial crisis. According to Alexander scholar Andrew Chugg, the Greek government was thwarting all progress on the tomb for political reasons. I'm not sure what happened since then -- I don't know much about Greek politics -- but it looks like things have gotten back on track, more or less. The site has been under restoration and the work is apparently finished:
"...The ministry adds that work carried out on three of the four sites of the monument have already reveled the 'architecture, size, scale, sculptures and inscriptions of the brilliant ancient construction'."
"Τhe Museum of Amphipolis houses the material remains of the ancient city of Amphipolis, covering a time span from the prehistoric times down to the Byzantine period. Findings brought to light during recent archaeological excavations are housed in its storage areas, and studied, classified and restored in its workshops." Source: Greek Travel Pages.
When the Greek philosopher Epicurus died in 270 BC, he left his house and garden in Athens to one of his disciples, Hermarchus of Mytilene. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), "[Hermarchus] and his followers lived together, secluding themselves from the affairs of the city and maintaining a modest and even austere standard of living, in accordance with the Master's teaching. They included slaves and women."
Their community was called the Epicurean School or "The Garden" after the house's garden. According to the OCD, "the school was much libeled in antiquity and later, perhaps because of its determined privacy and because of Epicurus' professed hedonism. The qualifications that brought this hedonism close to asceticism were ignored, and members of rival schools accused the Epicureans of many kinds of profligacy."
"In Christian times, Epicureanism was anathema because it taught that man is mortal, that the cosmos is the result of accident, that there is no providential god, and that the criterion for the good life is pleasure." (OCD)
According to Epicurus.net, "Epicurus's philosophy combines a physics based on an atomistic materialism with a rational hedonistic ethics that emphasizes moderation of desires and cultivation of friendships. His world-view is an optimistic one that stresses that philosophy can liberate one from fears of death and the supernatural, and can teach us how to find happiness in almost any situation."
"The philosophy of Epicurus (341–270 B.C.E.) was a complete and interdependent system, involving a view of the goal of human life (happiness, resulting from absence of physical pain and mental disturbance), an empiricist theory of knowledge (sensations, together with the perception of pleasure and pain, are infallible criteria), a description of nature based on atomistic materialism, and a naturalistic account of evolution, from the formation of the world to the emergence of human societies." Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Comment: Epicureanism sounds reasonable to me. It's not surprising that Christians would have attacked it so vehemently.
"Significant finds were brought to light by excavations on the islet of Vryokastraki, opposite Vryokastron, the ancient city of Kythnos. These included an extensive Early Byzantine settlement with part of the coastal wall and gate, an Early Christian basilica, as well as monumental structures belonging to an important ancient sanctuary." Source: Archaeology News Network.
"...Human activity [on Kythnos] in the Early Byzantine period was intense and the earlier buildings have been greatly disturbed. Numerous walls and ample spaces partially utilized the somewhat ruined ancient structures. Later pottery dates to the end of the 6th and first half of the 7th century AD. After this period the city of Kythnos appears to have been abandoned and its inhabitants moved to the Castle of Oria [?], the island’s medieval capital."
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."
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."
Comment: 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. Considering its 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 must have been spectacular.
"Priapos was the rustic god of the bounty of the vegetable garden. He was also honoured as the protector of sheep, goats, bees, the vine and of all garden produce." Source: Theoi Greek Mythology.
Notes: Priapus was the John Holmes of ancient Greek deities. "He was represented in a caricature of the human form, grotesquely misshapen, with an enormous phallus," according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. "The ass was sacrificed in his honour, probably because the ass symbolized lecherousness and was associated with the god’s sexual potency. In Greek mythology his father was Dionysus, the wine god; his mother was either a local nymph or Aphrodite, the goddess of love."
The Roman god Mutunus Tuturus was a phallic marriage deity closely associated with Priapus. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), Priapus was "an ithyphallic god most familiar from the sportively obscene short poems called Priape; in these he typically threatens to punish by penetration any male or female intruder into the garden of which he is guardian."
Though I be wooden Priapus (as thou see'st), With wooden sickle and a prickle of wood, Yet will I seize thee, girl! and hold thee seized And This, however gross, withouten fraud Stiffer than lyre-string or than twisted rope I'll thrust and bury to thy seventh rib.
Offerings were made to statues of Priapus, which were usually set up in gardens. "A minor and disreputable god," he preferred the "lustful ass" as a sacrificial victim, but would also accept "animal sacrifice of the more normal type or, very commonly, offerings of fruit, flowers, vegetables (and fish)." (OCD)
This is the temple of Apollo at the Ionian sanctuary of Didyma in Turkey. The oracular shrine of Apollo "was administered by a priestly clan, the Brnachidae, and rose to great prominence in the 6th cent. BC," according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised). The fate of the sanctuary "seems to have been sealed by an oracle given in AD 303, advising Diocletian to initiate his empire-wide persecution of the Christian church. Constantine I closed the oracle, and executed the priests; it appears not to have functioned thereafter."
In other words, the oracle was shut down in retaliation for its advice to Diocletian.
"Ancient sailors courted adventure and risked death on the Aegean Sea. And now divers have discovered five of their approximately 2,000-year-old shipwrecks and a giant, granite anchor pole near the tiny Greek island of Levitha." Source: Live Science.
"These ships were laden with goods — largely amphorae, which are ancient jugs with slender handles and narrow necks that usually held valuable liquids, such as oil and wine. The amphorae came from the cities of Knidos, Kos, Rhodes, Phoenicia and Carthage, according to the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
"Dating to just before the middle of the third century B.C., the goods were made during a time when the Ptolemaic and Hellenistic Antigonid dynasties ruled maritime trade in the Aegean, the ministry reported."
Notes: Cybele may have evolved from an even older fertility goddess in the proto-city of Catalhoyuk (7500-5700 BC), also located in ancient Anatolia. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), Cybele was "the great mother-goddess of Anatolia, associated in myth, and later at least in cult, with her youthful lover Attis. Pessinus in Phyrgia was her chief sanctuary, and the cult appears at an early date in Lydia."
According to Theoi Greek Mythology, "Kybele (Cybele) was the ancient Phrygian Mother of the Gods, a primal nature goddess worshiped with orgiastic rites in the mountains of central and western Anatolia. The Greeks identified her with their own mother of the gods--the Titaness Rhea."
The cult of Cybele was apparently introduced fairly early (3rd cent. BC) in Rome. "Thanks to its official status and early naturalization in Rome and in Ostia, the cult spread rapidly through the provinces, especially in Gaul and Africa, and was readily accepted as a municipal cult. Its agrarian character made it more popular with the fixed populations than with the soldiers, and it was especially favored by women." (OCD)
Cybele was also known as the Magna Mater or Great Mother (1). According to The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Ancient Texts, edited by Marvin W. Meyer (p.113), "she was honored as the mother goddess of fertility, but her particular power was evidenced in the wilds of the untamed forests and mountains." After Cybele entered the official Roman pantheon, "she was to function practically as a Roman national goddess" and enjoyed great favor with the emperors starting with Claudius in the first century.
(1) Several other goddesses were also referred to as "Great Mother."
"The most well-known Roman festival in honor of the Anatolian deities [Cybele and her consort Attis] was celebrated in the spring, during March," according to The Ancient Mysteries (p.114). These rites were associated with violent religious frenzy. "March 24 was aptly named The Day of Blood. On this day some of the fanatical celebrants flogged themselves until they bled and sprinkled their blood upon the image and altars in the sanctuary, while others are said to have imitated Attis by castrating themselves." (Ibid) Bulls were also sacrificed in honor of the Great Mother of the Gods.
Several Roman historians and poets described the cult of Cybele in detail. Livy, for instance, described how the cult was first brought to Rome in his History of Rome (Book 29.10-14):
"About this time a sudden wave of superstition swept over Rome. The Sibylline Books had been consulted because it had rained stones that year more than usual [!], and in the Books a prophecy was found that if ever a foreign enemy should invade Italy, he could be defeated and driven out if Cybele, The Idaean Mother of the Gods, were brought from Pessinus to Rome." (Ibid, p. 121).
Christian writers denounced the cult of Cybele and the church banned it altogether when they gained the secular power required to force their intolerant monotheism on the pagan world, but the tradition of the Great Mother still survives in the figure of the Virgin Mary.
"Various authorities, both ancient and modern (starting with Herodotus) have sought links with Egypt to explain the origins of certain medical practices, especially surgery in the Greek world. Others have found links with the near east, and with Babylonian medicine in particular, although these have proved very difficult to prove. Some argue that the Hellenistic doctors working in Alexandria continued to be influenced by Egyptian traditional medicine in the 4th and 3rd cents. BC. In the 5th cent. BC, when Herodotus told the story of Darius' Greek physician, Democedes of Croton, the really surprising feature of his career -- apart from its conspicuous success -- was Democedes' technical superiority over the Egyptian doctors." Source: Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised).
According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia (1), "the Egyptian Imhotep (2667 - 2648 BCE) is the first physician in history known by name. The earliest known surgery in Egypt was performed in Egypt around 2750 BCE. TheKahun Gynaecological Papyrus treats women's complaints, including problems with conception. Thirty four cases detailing diagnosis and treatment survive, some of them fragmentarily. Dating to 1800 BCE, it is the oldest surviving medical text of any kind. Medical institutions, referred to as Houses of Life are known to have been established in ancient Egypt as early as the 1st Dynasty."
(1) This quote is taken from an article which no longer exists. The Ancient History Encyclopedia apparently reorganized their entries for ancient medicine, dividing the subject into various categories which can be found here.
Notes: "For almost a decade, Alexander the Great and his army swept across Western Asia and into Egypt, defeating King Darius III and the Persians at the battles of River Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela. Next, despite the objections of the loyal army who had been with him since leaving Macedonia in 334 BCE, he turned his attention southward towards India. It was there, in 326 BCE, that he would achieve what many would consider as his last major victory, the Battle of Hydaspes (in modern Pakistan)." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia. (In the next video, Alexander's forces are in blue. The red circles represent war elephants).
The invasion was brutal. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), "Alexander moved into India at the invitation of the local dynasts of the Kabul Valley and Punjab. He was nothing loath to reaffirm the traditional Achaemenid [Persian] claims to the Indus lands. Resistance was treated as rebellion, and his progress through Bajaur and Swat was marked by massacre and destruction ... Even the remote rock-fortress of Aornus (Pir-sar) was reduced by siege at the cost of prodigious hardship, to demonstrate that there was no escape from his dominion."
At the time of Alexander's invasion, very little was known about the Indian subcontinent. According to the OCD, the country "remained a land of fable and wonders; it was believed to lie in the farthest east, yet Indians were confused with Ethiopians." Alexander pushed his army too far when he decided to add India to his already gigantic empire and a mutiny forced him to abandon the effort. He lost a lot of men crossing the Gedrosian desert and finally made it back to Babylon, where he either died from disease or was poisoned.
Alexander's empire quickly fell apart after his death, but his invasion of India increased the West's knowledge of that mysterious country. According to the OCD, "The conquests of Alexander the Great brought more accurate knowledge of NW India as far as the river Hyphasis (Beas) and vague information about the Ganges valley and Sri Lanka; and the voyage of Nearchus [the navarch commanding Alexander's fleet during the return] reopened a sea connection with the Persian Gulf."