I love this fascinating devise. Now someone has built on from Legos!
Showing posts with label mythology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mythology. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
Jason VS The Oil Spill
How would Jason of Greek mythology handle the Gulf Coast Oil spill? Here's an interesting post by Ellen Kanner at Huffington Post:
...Jason got the Golden Fleece, but was so ruthless, he managed to piss off people, gods and his metaphorical mother. Jason didn't honor the Argo, he didn't take care of it and it lay rotting -- and plotting -- in the sun. One day, Jason passed by and a piece of the prow fell off and beaned him on the head, killing him...We don't want the same fate. But we've been ruthless and greedy and will most likely continue to be. Most of us aren't going to row to work, give up our cars or even convert to clean energy any time soon. But rather than further risking the earth's wrath, one thing we can all do -- herbivores and omnivores alike -- is buy and eat food that's local and in season.
Some of the enemies of our Mother Earth are indeed as immense as the mythological challenges Jason faced. But Jason (like many heroes of Pagan mythology) often used his wits to overcome obstacles. Making the right choices in our lives (such as diet) can not only have health benefits, but has a disproportionally positive impact on the environment. Yet, as the article points out, we can't just rest on our laurels (heh!) Btw, there's a great recipe for "Braim" in the article...Yum!
(Thanx GreenGhost, for sending me this)
...Jason got the Golden Fleece, but was so ruthless, he managed to piss off people, gods and his metaphorical mother. Jason didn't honor the Argo, he didn't take care of it and it lay rotting -- and plotting -- in the sun. One day, Jason passed by and a piece of the prow fell off and beaned him on the head, killing him...We don't want the same fate. But we've been ruthless and greedy and will most likely continue to be. Most of us aren't going to row to work, give up our cars or even convert to clean energy any time soon. But rather than further risking the earth's wrath, one thing we can all do -- herbivores and omnivores alike -- is buy and eat food that's local and in season.
Some of the enemies of our Mother Earth are indeed as immense as the mythological challenges Jason faced. But Jason (like many heroes of Pagan mythology) often used his wits to overcome obstacles. Making the right choices in our lives (such as diet) can not only have health benefits, but has a disproportionally positive impact on the environment. Yet, as the article points out, we can't just rest on our laurels (heh!) Btw, there's a great recipe for "Braim" in the article...Yum!
(Thanx GreenGhost, for sending me this)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Clash of the Gods
Has anyone been watching "Clash of the Gods" on the History Channel? The show has been rather good. So far, episodes have covered Zeus, Hercules, Hades (the place and the God) and The Medusa. Most recently, 'Part I' of Odysseus aired. You can view some of the past episodes on the History channel website, above.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Mythical creature questions authority
A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors
Anyone having any doubt about the power of myth has not met the "grass-mud horse". This mythical creature has caused a sensation in China, presenting a headache for the country's heavy handed internet censors:
...A YouTube children’s song about the beast has drawn nearly 1.4 million viewers. A grass-mud horse cartoon has logged a quarter million more views. A nature documentary on its habits attracted 180,000 more...The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China’s authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that. It has also raised real questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet...
Oh Grass Mud Horse, we could have used you during the Bush years!
Anyone having any doubt about the power of myth has not met the "grass-mud horse". This mythical creature has caused a sensation in China, presenting a headache for the country's heavy handed internet censors:
...A YouTube children’s song about the beast has drawn nearly 1.4 million viewers. A grass-mud horse cartoon has logged a quarter million more views. A nature documentary on its habits attracted 180,000 more...The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China’s authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that. It has also raised real questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet...
Oh Grass Mud Horse, we could have used you during the Bush years!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Zeus, where were you when we needed you!
Charles H. Schneer, Sci-Fi Film Producer, Dies at 88
My favorite film director, Charles H. Schneer, has passed to SummerIsle:
...Charles H. Schneer, a noted film producer who for a quarter-century helped the Oscar-winning special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen lay waste to Washington, San Francisco, Rome and many other places, died on Wednesday in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 88...
With Schneer directing the live action, in close consultaion with Harryhausen animation work, we have some of the best Cult/Psychtronic/Mythic classics of all time, such as:
...“Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” (1956); the Sinbad trilogy, comprising “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad” (1958), “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” (1974) and “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger” (1977); and “The Three Worlds of Gulliver” (1960). Their last film together was “Clash of the Titans” (1981), which, despite a cast of titans including Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress, had a lukewarm reception...
Yes, perhaps 'lukewarm' reception, but to this day people come up to me relating their warm fuzzy feelings for "Clash of the Titans". Yet, for me the best film was "Jason and the Argonauts":
...Their most famous collaboration was “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963), a retelling of the Greek myth that featured an army of walking, swashbuckling skeletons, memorably animated by Mr. Harryhausen...
This part from the obit was pretty funny and interesting:
...A hands-on producer, Mr. Schneer contributed enthusiastically to the story lines of his films, Mr. Harryhausen said on Monday. He scoured the papers for accounts of the paranormal, of which there was no shortage in the 1950s. He accompanied his crews on location, and at least once helped stave off an embarrassing anachronism...The film was “Jason and the Argonauts,” shot on the Italian coast. In one scene, the script called for Jason’s ship, the Argo, to sail around a bluff and into view. But as the cameras rolled, to everyone’s astonishment, Sir Francis Drake’s galleon the Golden Hind sailed by instead. It had been launched by a British film crew also shooting in the area. As Mr. Harryhausen recalled in an article he wrote for The Guardian in 2003, Mr. Schneer rose to the occasion at once. “Get that ship out of here!” he cried. “You’re in the wrong century.”
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Antkythera Mechanism keeps rocking
Discovering How Greeks Computed In 100 B.C.
More and more is being deciphered about the amazing 'Antkythera Mechanism':
...After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games...Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument’s back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar...
More and more is being deciphered about the amazing 'Antkythera Mechanism':
...After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games...Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument’s back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar...
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Real Unicorn steps out of the forest
'Unicorn' deer is found in Italian preserve
A deer with a single horn grown straight out of its head has been observed and photographed in Italy:
"...This is fantasy becoming reality," Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, told The Associated Press. "The unicorn has always been a mythological animal..."
I've blogged before about mythical animals or cultures turning out to have a basis in reality (here,and here). It's always foolish to ridicule myth.
A deer with a single horn grown straight out of its head has been observed and photographed in Italy:
"...This is fantasy becoming reality," Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, told The Associated Press. "The unicorn has always been a mythological animal..."
I've blogged before about mythical animals or cultures turning out to have a basis in reality (here,and here). It's always foolish to ridicule myth.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Soft vs Hard
Isims and Schisms
Livia over at MagicHills has some interesting thoughts on "soft" vs "hard" polytheism:
...But I see all of that "all are one" stuff that I was bombarded with in my early studies as trite oversimplification that limited my perception and worship of the gods...Now that I've got a few years of study and practice under my belt I see that my past soft polytheism was really a hangover from my knowledge and experience of monotheism. I think soft polytheism made the transition from Christianity to neopaganism easier: one god, to one goddess, to a goddess and a god and now to many distinct deities...I see all gods as unique and distinct beings who are each worthy of study, reflection and worship. Hard polytheism isn't easy for me like soft polytheism was; I have to work harder, study more and think more. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
I agree with Livia that it's good to focus on individual gods and goddesses, and I like her distinction between the two types of polytheism. But those darn gods and goddesses have a hand in this as well. The characteristics of deities can mix and blend through time, and one can even absorb another. In addition, cultures can sometimes try to make sense of a complicated theology by simplifying it, such as the Greeks did when they tried to order and explain Egyptian mythology, in terms of the Greek pantheon and philosophy.
Livia over at MagicHills has some interesting thoughts on "soft" vs "hard" polytheism:
...But I see all of that "all are one" stuff that I was bombarded with in my early studies as trite oversimplification that limited my perception and worship of the gods...Now that I've got a few years of study and practice under my belt I see that my past soft polytheism was really a hangover from my knowledge and experience of monotheism. I think soft polytheism made the transition from Christianity to neopaganism easier: one god, to one goddess, to a goddess and a god and now to many distinct deities...I see all gods as unique and distinct beings who are each worthy of study, reflection and worship. Hard polytheism isn't easy for me like soft polytheism was; I have to work harder, study more and think more. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
I agree with Livia that it's good to focus on individual gods and goddesses, and I like her distinction between the two types of polytheism. But those darn gods and goddesses have a hand in this as well. The characteristics of deities can mix and blend through time, and one can even absorb another. In addition, cultures can sometimes try to make sense of a complicated theology by simplifying it, such as the Greeks did when they tried to order and explain Egyptian mythology, in terms of the Greek pantheon and philosophy.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Jason and the Argonauts
WINE, WORSHIP AND SACRIFICE: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani
Of course, the story of Jason and the Argonauts has some basis in fact:
...Ancient Greeks did sail across the sea — the Black Sea — to Colchis (modern-day Georgia), a land rich in gold and other precious metals. It seems the Colchians had a technique, involving sheepskins, for extracting gold dust from running water — hence, the Golden Fleece...
You'll learn even more about Colchis if you visit the exhibt at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, at 15 East 84th Street, in Manhattan:
...In two small galleries the exhibition presents more than 100 objects unearthed on the site of Vani, a major Colchian city founded in the eighth century B.C. There is beautiful, intricate gold jewelry that once adorned the bodies of luminaries in their graves, where they were buried with many possessions, including slaves and pets. Wine vessels were commonly found in graves, too, as wine production and consumption were central to the Colchian economy...
Of course, the story of Jason and the Argonauts has some basis in fact:
...Ancient Greeks did sail across the sea — the Black Sea — to Colchis (modern-day Georgia), a land rich in gold and other precious metals. It seems the Colchians had a technique, involving sheepskins, for extracting gold dust from running water — hence, the Golden Fleece...
You'll learn even more about Colchis if you visit the exhibt at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, at 15 East 84th Street, in Manhattan:
...In two small galleries the exhibition presents more than 100 objects unearthed on the site of Vani, a major Colchian city founded in the eighth century B.C. There is beautiful, intricate gold jewelry that once adorned the bodies of luminaries in their graves, where they were buried with many possessions, including slaves and pets. Wine vessels were commonly found in graves, too, as wine production and consumption were central to the Colchian economy...
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Krater flies home
Ciao to a Met Prize Returning to Italy
The other day I posted about the return of two Greek acroliths that had been acquired under dubious circumstances. Now another antiquity is returning home, this time one of considerable fame:
...In the coda to a long tug of war, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is bidding goodbye to the Euphronios krater, a 2,500-year-old vessel that has been a showpiece of its collection for more than three decades. Sunday is the last viewing day...
The Krater was prominently displayed at the MET, and had been a icon for art history students and Pagans for years. Just as life imitates myth depicted by acroliths, the Krater has the speedy messenger God Hermes depicted on one side. So the Krater returns home in good hands.
(Image from AncientWorlds, which has a good article on the Krater.)
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Greek Goddesses return home
U.Va. to Return Looted Greek Statues to Italy
It's always good hearing about the repatriation of treasured antiquities:
...The University of Virginia plans to return two ancient Greek sculptures to Italy nearly three decades after tomb raiders looted them from Sicily...The acroliths of the Greek goddesses were created about 525 B.C. out of cloth, wood and marble...The life-size statues were originally displayed inside a temple in Morgantina, an ancient Greek settlement near what is now the Italian city of Aidone. They are thought to represent Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture and grain, and her daughter Persephone, the queen of the underworld...
According to U.Va. art history professor Malcolm Bell, the return of the acroliths is especially appropriate because:
...the myths of Demeter and Persephone involved themes of traveling and returning. After Persephone is kidnapped and taken to the underworld, her mother searches for her across the Earth. Meanwhile, Persephone returns to Earth once a year, heralding spring and rebirth...
The Goddess must be very pleased! Additional article here.
___
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Garta: Weapon of Mythic Destruction
Rumors of Strange Creatures Abound in Basrah: Sightings Spread Horror, Conpiracy Theories Among Locals
...The animal is known locally as the Garta or ‘the muncher,’ and mothers in Basrah used to tell scary stories about the Garta to their children so they would not wander out alone at night. Old families in Basrah believe the animal brings bad luck because it is mostly found in cemeteries at night. The unusual phenomenon, however, is their sudden appearance in large numbers near the city and their increasingly aggressive behavior...
Since US and British forces have pretty much destroyed their country, it's no leap of logic who is getting the blame:
...The rumors led people to indulge in conspiracy theories, speculating that U.S. or British forces have dropped large numbers of this animal, or its “eggs,” around Basrah in order to spread chaos and instability, while others say the animal crossed over from neighboring Iran through the marshes...
Great! Maybe the Mythic creatures can fight the mythic terrorists.
...The animal is known locally as the Garta or ‘the muncher,’ and mothers in Basrah used to tell scary stories about the Garta to their children so they would not wander out alone at night. Old families in Basrah believe the animal brings bad luck because it is mostly found in cemeteries at night. The unusual phenomenon, however, is their sudden appearance in large numbers near the city and their increasingly aggressive behavior...
Since US and British forces have pretty much destroyed their country, it's no leap of logic who is getting the blame:
...The rumors led people to indulge in conspiracy theories, speculating that U.S. or British forces have dropped large numbers of this animal, or its “eggs,” around Basrah in order to spread chaos and instability, while others say the animal crossed over from neighboring Iran through the marshes...
Great! Maybe the Mythic creatures can fight the mythic terrorists.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Day at the Museum
I really enjoyed all the interpretations of Mermaids--it's remarkable how they are a nearly universal concept. The West Indian and African depiction's were the most interesting. One frequent interpretation of her has her Westernized (even with straight hair), holding a hand mirror and sporting a wrist watch! Hence, she was foreign (which meant she was well traveled and well to do, possessing knowledge of far-off places) and liked and coveted fine things. A person could encourage favor in the form of luck or material gain by presenting a gift to the Mermaid. One would wrap a comb or mirror in a fine bit of cloth, make a wish, then pitch this offering into the sea. If your gift was accepted, the Mermaid would send fortune your way. What a beautiful custom!
I also was impressed with the story of the 'Roc' (or Rukh), the giant mythical bird. The exhibit featured a snippet of text from Sir Richard Burton's translation of the epic "Tales from A Thousand and one Nights". I'm a big Burton fan, and picked up a copy of the book from the Museum Shop. Who would consider any other translation but Burton's! :)
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