Archive for the 'Religion' Category
Homer and astronomy
Constantino Baikouzis and Marcelo O. Magnasco have argued that the individual who described the killing of the suitors in the Odyssey (whom we know as Homer) has situated his story at a particular date, or rather at a specific moment in time, viz. a particular solar eclipse. I give you the authors’ abstract: ”Plutarch and Heraclitus believed a certain passage in [...]
Filed under: Archaeology, General, Greece, History, Religion | Leave a Comment
Continuity of worship
Underneath the church of Elst, Holland, which dates to the 15th century, there have been found the remains of a 8th-century church and of two Roman temples , dated to the 1st and 2nd c. A.D. It has always been thought that the 8th-c. church was built on what was considered at the time, and [...]
Filed under: Archaeology, Religion, Roman religion | Leave a Comment
Eleven elderly women were burned alive in Kenya because they were suspected of being witches. See the BBC news report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7413268.stm. Typical for Africa, you say? Where believe in magic lingers on? Certainly many of the news reports on this sad occurrence carried overtones of “Darkest Africa”.
In France some 15 graves are desecrated every day (!) by [...]
Filed under: General, History, Religion | 1 Comment
Obituary Albert Hofmann
This week Albert Hofmann died, the Swiss chemist who synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, the drug with extreme hallucinogenic properties. What was lacking in most news coverage was the fact that Albert Hofmann also had in interest in the history of drug use and of drug induced trances in a religious context, [...]
Filed under: Archaeology, Greek religion, Obituaries, Religion | Leave a Comment
Religion is free
A critical westernized inhabitant of Alexandria explained the successes of Islamic fundamentalists in his hometown by stressing the poverty of most of the inhabitants. Because religion is the one thing that is, supposedly of value, advertized as such, and free at the same time. That is quite like Barack Obama with his remark on poor embittered whites clinging [...]
Filed under: Religion | Leave a Comment
At the Annual Conference of the Classical Association there was, for the first time, room for poster presentations. As posters are rather ephemeral, I want to ask your attention for a very interesting poster (which won first price in the poster competition as well) by Diana Rodriguez of the University of Leon in Spain, on the [...]
Filed under: Greek religion, Religion | Leave a Comment
