Wine and Society

Dionysos: God of wine
Marble head and torso
Roman copy after Praxitelean work of the 4th Century B.C.

His appearance matches descriptions in classical literature:

"A magical enchanter..., his bond hair smelling of perfume
his cheeks flushed with charms of Aphrodite in his eyes"
Euripedes, Bacchae 192-194

[The above description is from the information plaque beneath the sculpture at the Royal Ontario Musuem, in Toronto]
[Photo by Kidist P. Asrat]

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It looks like I've beaten the great Camille Paglia to the punch regarding oenology matters. I'm sure Paglia has written about wine before, but I haven't read her exclusive treatise on the beverage. Here is how I associated wine, culture and society in a couple of posts I did last year: Nectar for a Goddess and The God of Wine. In a third post, Dionysus' Fury, I discuss the lost culture of wine where Dionysus raises his fury through me at the ignorance of culture-bereft waitresses. Also in The God of Wine, I discuss the wine and the Eucharist.

I also write about beer, a beverage assumed to be less sophisticated than wine, but I raise its status to The Nectar for the Gods.

Below are some excerpts from Paglia's April 23, 2014 Time Magazine article: The Drinking Age is Past its Prime.

- On the refined cultures of France and Germany, who teach their children how to drink beer and wine, where Paglia associates "learning how to drink" with "growing up":

Learning how to drink responsibly is a basic lesson in growing up - as it is in wine-drinking France or in Germany, with its family-oriented beer gardens and festivals. Wine was built into my own Italian-American upbringing, where children were given sips of my grandfather’s homemade wine. This civilized practice descends from antiquity.

- On the "truth" that wine was associated with in ancient Greece and Rome, which is a precursor to the truth of the Eucharist in Christianity:

...wine was identified with the life force in Greece and Rome: In vino veritas (In wine, truth).. Wine as a sacred symbol of unity and regeneration remains in the Christian Communion service. Virginia Woolf wrote that wine with a fine meal lights a “subtle and subterranean glow, which is the rich yellow flame of rational intercourse.”

- About Dionysus:

Exhilaration, ecstasy and communal vision are the gifts of Dionysus, god of wine.

The article has the usual gems of Paglian Wisdom, but then we also get the erratic jumps of ideas and beliefs that make her works readable and entertaining, i.e. not to be taken seriously all of the time.

E.g.:

As a libertarian, I support the decriminalization of marijuana, but there are many problems with pot. From my observation, pot may be great for jazz musicians and Beat poets, but it saps energy and willpower and can produce physiological feminization in men.

Yes, Camille. And how about the pot-head on the road, in pursuit of that Kerouacian line of poetry?

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Our Journey To Truth

In our most recent email exchange, Kristor (who sent me images and his impressions on the Philadelphia City Hall capitals, which I posted here), writes this:

Your post had a photo of Leonidas lying pierced on a bed of shields. It was the custom in ancient times to pile shields of the vanquished at the foot of the trophaeum. Here’s a photo of a relief from Trajan’s Column – NB, a column, covered with depictions of war – that shows a Roman trophaeum, from the Dacian Wars.

Here is the accompanying image:


Relief on Trajan's Column showing
the piled shields of the vanquished

Here's what Wikipedia says about Trajan's Column:

Trajan's Column (Italian: Colonna Traiana) is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum. Completed in AD 113, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which artistically describes the epic wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern.

The structure is about 30 metres (98 ft) in height, 35 metres (125 ft) including its large pedestal. The shaft is made from a series of 20 colossal Carrara marble drums, each weighing about 32 tons, with a diameter of 3.7 metres (11 ft). The 190-metre (625 ft) frieze winds around the shaft 23 times. Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 stairs provides access to a viewing platform at the top. The capital block of Trajan's Column weighs 53.3 tons, which had to be lifted to a height of c. 34 m.

Ancient coins indicate preliminary plans to top the column with a statue of a bird, probably an eagle, but after construction, a statue of Trajan was put in place; this statue disappeared in the Middle Ages. On December 4, 1587, the top was crowned by Pope Sixtus V with a bronze figure of St. Peter, which remains to this day.

As I wrote in my previous post:

The ancients influence us, through their own type of wisdom, and their own journies towards truth, our truth (which is that of Christianity).

Pope Sixtus V crowned this Roman column into a Christian monument, replacing the figure of Trajan with that of St. Peter in 1587. St. Peter reaches out to the gates of heavens with his keys and his judgement, atop this tall column.

Matthew 16:19:
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Trajan's Column in Rome, with St. Peter at the top
More on the history of the Trajan Column here


Top of the Trajan Column with St. Peter's figure

As part of the extensive rebuilding of Rome, Pope Sixtus V capped the Trajan's Column with a large bronze statue of St Peter in 1587. The artist for the statue, Leonardo Sormani, was part of a stable of artists and architects whom Sixtus used for his numerous projects...

Sormani's muscular St Peter has an active striding pose, the figure turning on axis as he extends his keys into space. The exaggerated facial features, perhaps necessitated by the great height of the figure from the ground, recall those of earlier papal images.

[Text Source: Web Gallery of Art]

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Trophy

Philadelphia City Hall: European Capital
Sculpture by Alexander Milne Calder, 1873-93
[Images sent by Kristor]

Kristor, who writes for the Orthosphere, sent the following email:

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The capital [on the Philadelphia City Hall] is rendered all the more evocative by the consideration that columns in ancient temples were taken by the First Architects to be evocations of the trees of the sacred groves, where victims were sacrificed on altars (much of classical architecture has sacrificial signification). Sometimes the altars were at the feet of the sacred trees, sometimes they were the trees themselves. The bodies of the victims, or whatever remained of them after the feast, were hung on the trees (a trope familiar not just from the Cross, but from the Druid rite of human sacrifice, wherein the body of the victim was hung on an oak). The trees of the sacred grove were thus richly adorned with bones, skulls, etc.; often also, in the case of human sacrifice, with the armor and weapons the victims had been wearing when captured in battle. Over the years, the trees would grow around and engulf the bones and weapons, so that the victims would be entombed, in and of the trees. So in the vernacular of ancient architecture, it isn’t just that columns were trees, they were also the bodies of consecrated victims. The sacrifice upheld the order of the world – cf. Atlas, and the Caryatids of the Acropolis, and also the columns of the Temple, and the pillars Jachin and Boaz that stood at its portal.

That’s why the capital struck me so. Here’s a link (Preview) to a photo of all four columns.

The Greeks used to plant a tropaion on each battlefield, at the point where the battle had turned (“trope” is “turn;” this is why a trope is a turn of phrase: a turn of the word, a turn of the Word, a turn of the Logos, of the Tao of history: the trope of cosmic history occurs when the Word vertically intersects its horizontal course, thereby turning it) in their favor. The tropaion was a cross, adorned with the armor of the vanquished. Soldiers who died in battle were considered consecrated victims, martyrs to the cause of their people; the glory of the martyred sacrificial victim, his literal glorification in the heavens as a demi-god (cf. Valhalla), was one of the main motivations for ancient warriors. So the trophy on the battlefield was a sacred object, its locus an outdoor temple; and sacrifices were poured out at their feet. They often became destinations of pilgrimage and locations of regular sacrificial rites, commemorating the victory. This is why they so often became crossroads; and it is why churches are so often at the very center of villages (when they are not on hilltops, surrounded by fortifications).

Eventually, the tropaion was also carried back to the polis in the victory parade; that’s how it was done with the trophaeum at Rome. The captured enemy, now slaves (Latin “servus,” slave, meant “saved from death,” conserved), were paraded in chains, together with wains bearing spoils and trophaea bearing armor. The trophies were set up in temples.

Interestingly, there seems to have been a trophaeum at the East end of the Temple in Jerusalem at one time, clothed in vestments – perhaps armor – of shining bronze, to which the Israelites rendered homage; the trophaeum being, obviously, a sign of the victim (who was in very ancient times the King or the High Priest), who had been consecrated to God, and had therefore put on the whole armor of God, becoming an angel, a star. Something I just now realized: the three crosses at Golgotha are a type, a quotation, of the three pillars of the Temple Mount: Jachin and Boaz on either hand, and the Temple with its trophaeum in the center. Or, perhaps, it’s the other way round: the trophaeum and pillars of the Temple are a type and quotation of the crosses at Golgotha. I suppose the signification works both ways.

One of the bandits objects to his defeat by the Roman conqueror, and his sacrifice on the pillar; the other embraces it, and attains martyrdom, and is glorified.

[End]

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The images below were triggered by Kristor's phrase from the email: "So in the vernacular of ancient architecture, it isn’t just that columns were trees, they were also the bodies of consecrated victims."


Leonidas, standing in front of "The Tree of the Dead" in the film 300,
"resembling the converted Roman soldier at the Hill of Calvary, later martyred."

The quote above is from my article: Channeling the Great Artistic Themes of Christianity in the Movie 300.

Leonidas is later martyred, and appears in the film pierced by a multitude of arrows on a sheath of shields. See below historian Helena P. Schrader discuss his "proto-Christian" martyrdom.

There are several St. Leonidas' (or martyred men called Leonidas - read here for more clarity), but I don't think they refer, in any way, to the Leonidas of Sparta.



Leonidas, played by Gerard Butler in the movie 300, is stretched out on a sheath of shields, and like Saint Sebastian, his body is pierced with arrows.


St. Sebastian,
Andrea Mantegna, 1480,
Musée du Louvre, Paris

St. Sebastian stands bound to a column, as though onto a tree.

Here is a historian and author Helena P. Schrader who argues that Leonidas, although he lived 500 years before Christ, was a "proto-Christian."

Leonidas lived roughly 500 years before the birth of Christ and did not benefit from his teachings or example. Yet, while working on my three-part biography of Leonidas of Sparta, I came to realize that Leonidas fascinates us to this day not because of his historical role (he lost a battle) but as a moral figure. It was Leonidas’ conscious decision to sacrifice himself for his fellow Greeks that made him such an appealing historical figure. Leonidas attracts us not because he was a Spartan king, but because he was prepared to defy impossible odds for the sake of freedom.

Critical to the appeal of Leonidas is that he died fighting a defensive – not an aggressive – battle. Equally important is the fact that he faced death consciously; Leonidas knew he was going to die, but that did not deter or even dishearten him. Most important of all, Leonidas did not die, like Achilles or Hektor, for the sake of his own glory and even for honor, but for the lives and freedom of others.

Leonidas’ conscious decision to die in order to save Sparta from destruction was proto-Christian. His example is morally up-lifting, and his story inspirational. These, not a fascination with Ancient Sparta, are what make his story worth telling and make his story worth reading.

The ancients influence us, through their own type of wisdom, and their own journies towards truth, our truth (which is that of Christianity). I got this idea from reading Edith Hamilton's wonderful survey Mythology (recommended to me by Lawrence Auster).

(Here is our email communication, in 2011:

KPA: Hi Larry,

I've read your posts on Lattimore's translation of Homer's The Iliad. I've tried to get a copy of the book, but several bookstores have to order it in (!), and it takes a couple of weeks. But Lattimore's translation of Homer's The Odyssey is available at a couple. Do you think this is a good place to start until I get The Iliad?

LA: First, have you read any other version of the Iliad, like a prose translation?

Are you familiar with the story, from other reading? Yes, the Lattimore translation has a lengthy introduction, but I would say, before plunging into Homer, to familiarize yourself with the story, because Homer famously begins in the middle of the Trojan War (actually late in the war), and only obliquely refers to how the war began, because the war is not his main subject, but the anger of Achilles, which is an episode of several weeks in the middle of the war.

A marvelous telling of / introduction to the Trojan War is in Edith Hamilton's Mythology. That will prepare you for reading the Iliad.

As for the reading the Odyssey first, I would say no. The Odyssey is completely different from the Iliad, and also the events it tells take place after the Iliad. The Iliad should be read first. Also, the Iliad is far superior.)

Modern Statue of Leonidas, erected in 1968 in Sparta, Greece

The script at the top is attributed to Leonidas' "Come and get them" referring to the Persian army:

A Persian emissary was sent by Xerxes to negotiate with Leonidas. The Greeks were offered their freedom and the title "Friends of the Persian People," moreover they would be re-settled on land better than that they possessed. When these terms were refused by Leonidas the ambassador asked him more forcefully to lay down his weapons. Leonidas' famous response was for the Persians to "Come and take them" (Μολὼν λαβέ). A more famous response was from his general. When Leonidas refused to back down the messenger told him, "Our arrows will block out the sun." To this Leonidas' general replied, "Then we shall have our battle in the shade!" With the Persian embassy returning empty-handed battle became inevitable. Xerxes delayed for four days, waiting for the Greeks to disperse, before sending troops to attack them.
[Source: Wikipedia].

I don't know what the Greek below that says, but I would think it is a description of the statue.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Book Project: The Sturdy Periwinkle at the Cloisters: Linking the New World with the Old

I will develop this essay outline for the Nature chapter, under Gardens, or in Chapter Four's Culture and Society . Some of the information is at this blog post from February 2013 in Reclaiming Beauty.


The Trie Garden in the Cloisters
Discussed in: Garden Guide: New York City pp. 33-37
Cloisters Flowers
[Photo by Kidist P. Asrat, August 2012]

The Cloisters show the us the New World's medieval, European historical and cultural inheritance. Yet, although the Cloisters seem to take us that far back in time, the Hudson River below, and the George Washington Bridge in the distance soon brings us to the present, to New York and to the New World. In New York, we have a New World city that has a historical link going further back than medieval Europe to ancient Greece and Rome, as medieval Europe inherited its culture and history from ancient Greece and Rome. Thus, the history of New York, like the history of America, is tied to Antiquity, which is the root of Western civilization. Historians and anthropologists have tried to expand America's cultural and historical inheritance to cover the breadth of the world. "America," they tell us "is multicultural." By that they mean that since contemporary America appears to accommodate every race and culture of the world, then America is an amalgam of the world's histories and cultures: Chinese, Indian, African, Southern European, South American.

By virtue of having landed on her shores, anyone can become an American, bringing with him a piece of himself which becomes ingrained in this multicultural fabric. But nothing could be further than the truth.

The earliest arrivals, admittedly are the non-Europeans Indians, who crossed the span of the country securing some kind of territorial possession. Yet, we cannot allocate land to anyone who put up a post (and often temporary), and lived in dispersed and often warring communities. The Indians did not form a cohesive society or culture that could have built up the vast land the occupied in clumps of tribes, leaving vast spaces empty, uninhabited and uncultivated. That was the accomplishment of the later arrivals, the Europeans. The Bible tells us, and we should dutifully listen, that God rewards those who bring back more than they were give.

14 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.

15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.

16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents.

17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.

18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.

19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

20 "So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.'

21 His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'

22 He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.'

23 His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'

24 "Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.'

26 "But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.

27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.

28 Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

29 'For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.

30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'[Matthew 25: 14-30]

And how do we tackle the multiculturalists, who insist that America is for everyone? It is time that Western, European Americans claim their culture. John D. Rockefeller and George Grey Barnard brought back bricks from ancient castles in France to build the American Cloisters. They traveled to Europe to accumulated the treasures that fill up the museum.

Much of the sculpture at The Cloisters was acquired by George Grey Barnard (1863–1938), a prominent American sculptor and an avid collector of medieval art. Barnard opened his original cloisters on Fort Washington Avenue to the public in 1914; through the generosity of philanthropist and collector John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960), the Museum acquired the cloisters and all of their contents in 1925. By 1927, it was clear that a new, larger building would be needed to display the collection in a more scholarly fashion. In addition to financing the conversion of 66.5 acres of land just north of Barnard’s museum into a public park, which would house the new museum, Rockefeller donated 700 additional acres across the Hudson River to the state of New Jersey to ensure that no developments on the property would spoil the view from The Cloisters. In addition to providing the grounds and building to house the Barnard collection, Rockefeller contributed works of art from his own collection—including the celebrated Unicorn Tapestries—and established an endowment for operations and future acquisitions [source: The Cloisters Museum and Gardens].

They made a concerted effort to make the American link an European one, and not Indian (native or continental), Chinese, African or South American. The non-Western's interest in America is not to build this American culture, but to try and leave his own cultural mark. But, that isn't working, since where-ever that happens, the result is destruction. There is no Chinese haute cuisine; there are no Indian cathedrals; there is no African classical art; there is no Mexican architecture. And these multiculturalists know this, since once at the shores of America, they immediately start delineating their boundaries: this is my Indian food, these are my Chinese children, here is my African holiday. Yet, they cannot ignore the beauty and the sophistication of the European culture, and in fact that is why they made the journies across oceans: to bask in the good life of handsome homes, abundant food, erudite teachers, and safe and civilized neighborhoods, many of the things they couldn't get (or get at a price) in the countries they left behind. And still, they insist on maintaining their old beliefs. Mostly because they wouldn't know what to do with the culture that awaits them, but also because their own cultures are like an old sweater which comfort them amidst all this alienness. Material comfort only goes so far. There are also spiritual and psychological comforts to appease.

Their existence is like the last servant in the parable who said: "And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground," and incurred the wrath of God. Their talent may work in their own lands, and they may indeed double it, but in this continent, they don't know what to do with it, and they let it waste. Their lack of productivity, over time, becomes destructive. Nothing new gets built, and what they live off is what came before them, which diminishes with time. That is where the anger of God came from, not just the wastefulness and laziness of the last servant, but also his lack of imagination and daring in creating less than what he was given.

As I was looking through my files and notes on the Cloisters, mainly to find an appropriate image for the front cover of my proposed book, I found the above photo I took of the garden. I was struck by a tiny flower, the periwinkle (also known as the myrtle).


Periwinkles in the Cloisters
Discussed in Garden Guide: New York City pp. 33-37
Periwinkle Label:
Common Periwinkle, Myrtle
Vinca minor
[Photo by Kidist P. Asrat, August 2012]

The periwinkle, which grows in the gardens of the New York, New World, Cloisters, originated in Europe, and was brought over to North America in the 1700s.

The Trie Cloister Garden is home to a collection of plants native to the meadows, woodlands, and stream banks of Europe. Planted as a single filed of herbs and flowers, the garden evokes the verdant grounds of medieval millefleurs tapestries, in which a myriad species are shown blooming simultaneously. Many of the plants gorwing in the garden can be found in the tapestries on display in the galleries, but they bloom here in their proper season.

The European flora is dominated by spring-blooming plants, and the garden is bright with blossoms in early spring, when hellebores, snowdrops, periwinkles, narcissus, violets, wild pansies and English daisies abound, followed by bluebells, columbine, dame's rocket, and iris in May. Foxglove, clary, meadowsweet and ox-eye daisies bloom well into summer. In July the flowering begins to subside, and the Trie becomes a green garden, in which plants chosen for their form and foliage predominate. Acanthus, royal fern, and flag provide a foil for the lesser number of summer-blooming flowers.

Small shrubs like myrtle and sweet gale give structure to the garden, and are repeated throughout to create a pleasing symmetry. In late summer, the cloister becomes a cool refuge, where the air is perfumed by the pots of poet's jasmine that line the parapets. Water splashes from the fountain at the center, and small birds come to drink from the spouts. [Notes from the information booklet]

In ancient Rome, Pliny wrote in The Natural History of Pliny:

Sprigs of myrtle, if carried by a person when travelling on foot, are found to be very refreshing, on a long journey.

- The information plaque by the periwinkle bed in the Cloisters describes the flower as a medieval cancer treatment:

Annual periwinkles have been used for centuries for folk medicine, especially for treating diabetes, and are the source of several cancer drugs.

- And from this site, on the meaning of the flower's name:

The Latin name of periwinkle's genus, Vinca, is derived from a word meaning "to overcome."

- In Christian symbolism, the periwinkle represents Gentiles converted to Christ.

Such a small flower, with such a sturdy name! And it embodies the spirit of the Western civilization in America: overcoming the odds to arrive on the continent from a distant Europe, and to survive and flourish in America; containing healing and life-prolonging properties; maintaining the spiritual and religious link; and whose presence and benefits are known since Antiquity.

This tiny flower is also featured in art, which the American inheritors have transplanted to their New World shores, in order to link them with their European heritage.


Window with Grisaille Decoration
Date: ca. 1325
Geography: Made in Rouen, France Culture: French
Medium: Pot metal glass, colorless glass, silver stain, and vitreous paint
Dimensions: Overall: 28 1/4 x 23 1/2 in.
The Cloisters Collection

In this fourteenth-century panel, the vibrant color and robust lines of thirteenth-century stained glass were jettisoned in favor of colorless glass painted with leafy vines growing on a trellis. The three foliate designs, each of which is remarkable for its delicacy and refinement, are identifiable not only by their botanical species but also as patterns known to have originated at Saint-Ouen. The two lower panels display the periwinkle flower; the third panel represents the leaf of the strawberry plant; and the top two depict geranium foliage. The colored borders incorporate buttercup leaves with red and green quarries, and the center bosses are composed of whorls of artemisia leaves entwined with knotted ribbons of color. [Notes from theMetropolitan Museum of Art]

The plant forms in this detail are too highly stylized to be botanically identified, with the exception of the grisaille flowering vine with silver stain blossoms. This may be tentatively identified as a species of periwinkle, either Vinca major or V. minor, but it is not a botanically accurate representation. Periwinkle flowers are blue, not yellow or gold, but form is more important in the identification of plants in medieval art than color. Even botanically recognizable plants are represented in color forms other than those found in nature. [Notes from theMetropolitan Museum of Art]

Detail of the top square panel of the grisaille window, with stylized yellow periwinkles, from
stained glass window in the Cloisters' Gothic Hall

The five panels of this lancet window once decorated three different windows in the radiating chapels of the abbey church of Saint-Ouen at Rouen, in Normandy. As reassembled here, the lancet is only one-third its original height. Grisaille glass, which is colorless and translucent, was a popular glazing device in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It not only allows more light into the interior than color-saturated pot-metal glass, grisaille also functions as an unobtrusive background for ornamental motifs painted with fine brush lines. Our glass panels are decorated with stylized yet recognizable plants such as periwinkle, strawberry, and artemisia, forming an elegant network of foliate motifs. The central bosses of the panels are richly colored with deep blue, red, yellow, and green. The bosses would have echoed the brilliantly hued horizontal bands once located at the windows' midpoints, which contained scenes from the life of the saint to whom the chapel was dedicated.

The Early Gothic Hall, Closters

The Early Gothic Hall houses works from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The three thirteenth-century limestone windows overlooking the Hudson River are filled with Gothic stained-glass panels from the cathedrals of Canterbury, Rouen, Soissons, and other sites. Also on view are French, Spanish, and Italian sculptures of the period, as well as an altarpiece depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds painted by the Sienese artist Bartolo di Fredi about 1374. [Notes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art]

This surprising flower is an apt symbol for perseverance and persistence.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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The Ancients and Their Chiding Message

Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825)
Oath Of The Horatii
Oil on Canvas, 10' 10" x 13' 11""
1784
Musée du Louvre at Paris

I watched two films yesterday.

One was Spartacus, by Stanley Kubrick, a fictional recounting of the supposed slave rebellion in Rome. I don't know much about the historical accuracy of the film, but this historian says:

Perhaps the most surprising thing is that the Kubrick film isn't complete fiction, but offers some historical truth. The truth is that Spartacus really was a slave and a gladiator in Capua, Italy, and he really did lead a revolt. As the movie shows, it started in the kitchen of the gladiatorial barracks with the men using basic kitchen utensils to fight the guards and break out. And it's even true that Spartacus had a ladylove as he did in the movie. But there are some real differences as well. The movie Spartacus was born a slave and was the son and grandson of slaves, but the real Spartacus was born free. He came from Thrace, roughly equivalent with today's Bulgaria. And far from being a lifelong opponent of Rome, he started out as an allied soldier in the Roman army. He fought for Rome. His fate, ending up as a slave and gladiator, was quite unexpected and quite unjust. The Romans themselves admitted that Spartacus was forced to become a gladiator even though he was innocent. (The historian is Barry Strauss, and here is his link at Cornell University)

The other was My Life in Ruins, a silly film with Nia Vardalos (who was in the mildly funny and somewhat successful film My Big Fat Greek Wedding). My Life in Ruins is about a Greek-American academic (Vardalos - highly unlikely as an NYU professor) who goes to Greece as a tour guide (much more likely) to share her erudition with annoying tourists.

Spartacus is by far the superior film. It takes us back to a formal, civilized Rome. The Romans' strategic and methodical fighting plans are deeply contrasted with the thousands of men that Spartacus has amassed, who swarm across the plains towards the Romans during an epic (in the film at least) battle. The Romans, in their beautiful crimson capes, riding their multicolored horses (white for the leaders), with the footmen carrying steely shields, shine against the slaves in their tattered rags of grays and browns. Even in war (especially in war?), the Romans took care with their appearances. Red for blood, red for war, and the crimson red for beauty.

But My Life in Ruins, despite its silliness and its clever title, takes us to ancient Greece. It is hard to imagine that the pretty Greek villages that the tour bus drives by are on the same land as the civilization which built the Parthenon almost 3,000 years ago.

One of the most memorable scenes in the film was when the tour guide takes her motley crew to a ruins site. We see one pillar standing. It is part of the Temple of Zeus at Olympus. As the camera pulls out, we see the rest of the ruins, with scrambling tourists stepping all over the sacred stones.

The effect of the lone pillar, filmed separately from the human rabble, was strong. It was as though these ancient peoples had left behind a god buried deep in the pillar, who was watching over them (their remnants) as well as gently warning these swarming modern humans who they are.

Later on, the tour guide takes her group to the Acropolis at night. Approaching it, we realize why. It is lit up, on the low hill. A regal, gentle presence. I don't think this lighting is out of place. The Greeks would have found a way to light their beautiful monument, with candles and torches, so that it glows for miles around, to admire and to be in awe of.


The Temple of Zeus After Restoration Works

The Temple of Zeus was burnt by order of [the Byzantine Emperor] Theodosius II in AD 426. Badly damaged by the fire, it was finally thrown down by the earthquakes of AD 551 and 552. Excavations at the temple began by the French in 1829, and were completed by the German School. Parts of the sculptural decoration have been restored and are now on display in the Olympia Archaeological Museum, while the metopes removed by the French expedition of 1829 are in the Louvre. Conservation and cleaning of the monument are currently in progress. [Source]

And more information below:

Since the 1870s, the excavation and preservation of Ancient Olympia has been the responsibility of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens. The first major excavation of Olympia began in 1875, funded by the German government. [Archaeologists] excavated the central part of the sanctuary including the Temple of Zeus, Temple of Hera, Metroon, Bouleuterion, Philipeion, Echo Stoa, Treasuries and Palaestra. Important finds included sculptures from the Temple of Zeus, the Nike of Paeonius, the Hermes of Praxiteles and many bronzes. In total 14,000 objects were recorded. The finds were displayed in a museum on the site.

Excavation was continued in a more limited way...between 1908 and 1929 but a new systematic excavation was begun in 1936 on the occasion of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin under... [The] excavation focus was on the area to the south of the stadium, the South stoa, bath complex and gymnasion.

Between 1952 and 1966, [archaeologists] excavated Pheidias' workshop, the Leonidaion and the north wall of the stadium. They also excavated the southeast section of the sanctuary and out of approximately 140 debris pits found many bronze and ceramic objects along with terracotta roof tiles.

[E]xcavations between 1972 and 1984 reveal[ed] important dating evidence for the stadium, graves, and the location of the Prytaneion. From 1984 to 1996...the focus shifted to the earlier history of the sanctuary with excavation of the Prytaneion and Pelopion.[Source: 1000 years of the Olympic Games: Treasures of Ancient Greece - pdf file]