23 Aug 2024 Alexander the God By Mary Naples History & Tradition 0 It is no wonder that Alexander the Great (356 BC–323 BC) was often mistaken for a god; he modeled his life on nothing less. Instilled in him from an early age was the belief that he was the product of a union between his mother, Olympias, and the... Read More
09 Jun 2024 Hera and Her Pre-Hellenic Roots By Mary Naples History & Tradition 0 As queen to Zeus’s king, it is ironic that, Hera, the Olympian goddess of marriage, should herself be a miserable one. With a predilection for inciting vengeance against her husband’s innumerable paramours and their hapless offspring, a... Read More
28 Feb 2024 Cleopatra Selene, Serene Queen of Mauritania By Mary Naples History & Tradition 0 The only child of Cleopatra and Marc Antony’s to reach adulthood, Queen Cleopatra Selene (40 BC- 5 BC) of Mauretania was one of the most important women of the Augustan age— exceptional in and of itself considering the animosity in Rome against... Read More
09 Oct 2023 Greek Goddesses’ Temples Grace Paestum On The Italian Tyrrhenian Sea By Mary Naples Archaeology & Science 0 The ancient Greek city of Poseidonia, now Paestum, lies on the Italian coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Paestum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is famed for its well-preserved ruins. In fact, posterity owes a debt of gratitude to its swampy marshlands... Read More
17 May 2023 The Iliad: Overlapping Mycenaean Bronze Age And Dark Age Allegories By Mary Naples Archaeology & Science 1 Known as the “Age of Heroes,” the Mycenaean civilization (1600-1100 BC) was immortalized in the Homeric epics by such noteworthy characters as the imperious commander-in-chief “king of men” Agamemnon, the “swift-footed” war hero and... Read More
10 Apr 2023 Homeric Hymn to Demeter Or The Thesmophoria – Which Came First? By Mary Naples History & Tradition 0 Evoking early agrarian rituals which celebrated the primal mysteries of birth, death, and resurrection, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter has the distinction of being amongst humankind’s first literary compositions honoring agricultural renewal and the... Read More
12 Dec 2022 The Slaveholding City-State Of Sparta’s Liberated Women By Mary Naples History & Tradition 0 On the face of it, Spartans might have felt right at home living under the iron fist of the Third Reich given that this city-state—more than any other in the Greek world—- sacrificed individuality on the altar of authoritarianism. In addition... Read More
05 Sep 2022 Amazonomachy - Annihilation Of The Amazons By Mary Naples History & Tradition 0 It was love at first sight when Achilles locked eyes with the famed Amazon warrior queen, Penthesilea. Romance, however, was the last thing on his mind. Alas, poor Penthesilea—Achilles would realize his love for her only after driving a bronze... Read More
06 Apr 2022 Formidable Byzantine Roman Empress Theodora - Saint Or Sinner? By Mary Naples History & Tradition 0 The hooded gaze of an inscrutable Theodora (c.497- 548 AD) greets hundreds of thousands of visitors each year as they pay their respects to her mosaic at the Basilica of Saint Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. Encircled in glittering gold and bedecked in... Read More
07 Dec 2021 Fatally Disrupting The Thesmophoria: The Savagery Of Greece’s Citizen Wives By Mary Naples History & Tradition 0 A dominant paradigm of ancient Greece was turned on its head when subjugated women were made autonomous by participating in a feminine fertility festival known as the Thesmophoria. Devoted to human as well as crop fertility, the Thesmophoria... Read More