The Dionysus Cup

#dionysus #cup #ClassicalGreekArt

NEW THEME #Dionysus

The Dionysus Cup is one of the most famous #Greekceramics

It shows part of the story of Dionysus and the pirates with the transformed pirates swimming around the ship and grape vines growing up and over the mast as Dionysus asserts his divine powers.

Note that this is Dionysus before it became fashionable to show him as a beardless effeminate youth.

This Dionysus us a partying Aristocrat with an embroidered robe and styled hair reclining at leisure!

Join me for more works featuring Dionysus next week!

Winged Goddess

Eek I skipped the mid week post so ...

another winged goddess before I move onto a new theme

Iris the Rainbow Messenger Goddess.

I wonder what colors the ancient Greeks would have used for her robe and wings if they had access to the modern variety of under and over glazes and enamels ?

Light not to be hidden

#biblestudy #greeknewtestament
Matthew 4:21-22

and he said to them
not comes the lamp so that under the bushel measure/container it is to be placed
nor under the bed and not (does one not) upon the lampstand it is to be placed ?
not for is hidden unless not so that translate as but rather (placed ) to be seen
nor made / become secret but so that comes into visibility

Meeti is emphatic
a modiov is a container or measure of a bushel of dry goods
Mark uses tethee an aorist subjunctive passive whereas Luke uses titheesin
phanerootheei is another aorist subjunctive

So the two verses are a linked rhetorical question

A lamp is (surely) not brought to be placed under a basket/container or a bed
 and not upon a lampstand!?
Some scholars think this is a reference to hanukkah lights?
for not is a thing hidden unless / rather to be revealed
and nothing is secret but to be made seen!

Basically Don't Hide your light use it! 

See Matthew 5:15-16 and Luke 8:16 and 11:33-36

I Thessalonians 5 - 21

Given the same sex marriage equality campaigning fore and against there are lots of people quoting Paul on immorality and lust and other verses and no I am not going to debate those verses

I'm going to draw your attention to this verse

One Thessalonians Chapter 5 Verse 21

TEST EVERYTHING

 TO THE GOOD HOLD FAST

AWAY FROM ALL FORMS OF EVIL ABSTAIN

panta  dokimazete 

to kalon katekhete

apo pantos eidous poneerou apekhesthe 

 Panta Dokimazete

Do not be swayed by propaganda from either side 

but think and decide for yourselves.

Winged Victory NOT NIKE

Winged Victory from Ephesus.

The famous wingless and headless Nike is not the only surviving Winged Victory sculpture from the Classical Era. The proportions seem a little "off" but this is not being displayed in its original location. It was probably above ground and part of a podium over a doorway and only in direct sunlight for part of the day.

Doing good on a Sunday

#greeknewtestament #biblestudy #sabbath

Mark 3:4
 parallel verses Matthew 12:12 and Luke 6:9

It is lawful / permitted (on / in regard to the Sabbath (days implied by plural usage) to do good or  evil to do, lives / souls to save or to destroy / kill ?

exesti tois sabbasin agatho(n)  poieesai ee kakopoieesau ee psukheen soosai ee apokteinai/apolesai

The only difference between the 3 versions is apolesia versus apokteinai  and agathon separate from the verb

in modern English

 Is it permitted on the Sabbath 

to do good or do evil, to save lives or kill?

The Old Testament commands us to keep the Sabbath day holy and rest on it.

Some Jews took this so literally starting fires and cooking was banned.

Jesus partied with friends and followers, feed the hungry, forgive sins and healed people, as well as preaching on a Sunday.

A special blessing on all those rescue and emergency workers over in the Caribbean and the USA prepping or dealing with the aftermath of Irma.

As for those people safely outside of the storm's path crying out about the storm as a punishment for sins perhaps they should consider what the Pharisees response was to Jesus' rebuke.

 hoi de sioopoon and they were silent 

Erte's Hera

#Erte #Hera #ArtDeco #illustration

Classical Inspiration for a Modern Design?

Erte's depiction of Hera is very stylized but the costuming is fairly accurate in that a Queen Mortal or Olympian could have had such ornate robes. Remember the Greeks often depicted the gods with the embroidered robes and jewellery of aristocrats and painted their statues and while Erte to my knowledge never went to Greece he lived in Paris and had access to museums there featuring both Archaic and Classical Greek art.

Sinners or Sick? "kakws exontes"

#greeknewtestament #biblestudy

Matthew 9:12 , Mark 2:17, and Luke 5:31 have parallel passages that all use the phrase

"hoi kakoos ekhontes" 

word for word this reads those (who) badly having but it means something like those who are in a continual bad condition. This condition can be one of health or sin and a colloquial translation might be  "those who are in a bad way" and its used in contrast to the term iskhontes those who are fit and strong or healthy in Luke who uses hugiaiontes. 

This has lead to the word being translated as sick or sinners.

So which to use ? 

In the following verse Jesus does use the word sinners however I also suspect this is yet another example of Jesus teasing the scribes and other religious authorities by using a phrase he knew had a double meaning and it is also a comment on the popular belief that sin caused disease.

Sick or Sinner? 

The dilemna is how to explain both? 

It has however got to be your choice how to explain this.

I hope my notes will be useful for your ministry?

STATS and SHARING and STUFF

Hey people just been looking at my STATS for the blog 

PLEASE

 let other people know about 

#Metousia 

by SHARING

 as well as liking and visiting 

OKAY? 

HISTORY IS FRAGILE

#historywars #statues #history

A Hellenist's perspective on the latest rounds of the History Wars

On Social Media I'm seeing a lot of accusations and verbiage flying from right to left and between  traditionalists and conservatives and liberals and progressives and other factions on the theme of

You re trying to REWRITE / ERASE HISTORY !

The plain sad truth is that History is FRAGILE!

History has been rewritten or erased or lost for centuries.

Greek history is a good example of this.

We have writings by Herodotos and Polybius and Plutarch and various Hellenistic and Roman and Byzantine era historians who mention dozens of  historians biographers and chroniclers whose works no longer survive:

EPHOROS TIMAEUS ACUSILAUS THEOPOMPOS HELLANICOS and many more!

So what are we fighting about?

A silly kids cartoon version of history and about how diverse Roman Britain was or whether or not certain American statues of Lee and Columbus should be pulled down or elsewhere if statues of Captain Cook or Lenin or Lee or Governor Macquarie should be moved or destroyed.

Meanwhile I see libraries replacing print classics with ebooks or etexts regardless of whether or not readers have internet access or replacing older classics with whatever is on the current bestseller list instead of trying to have a balance of both.

One of my local libraries has taken their entire set of LOEBS off the main shelving and moved them to STACK (Shame on you #CHATSWOOD library) and we fight about cartoons and third rate statues instead of protecting primary sources whether they be artifacts archives or text.

Holy Muses will people spend less time arguing and reading political interpretations and more time actually reading primary sources?

In Greek or English read Herodotos and other historians!

If you're defending Robert E.Lee cos he was a "christian gentleman" ( well compared to some of his worse behaved contemporaries) read also first hand accounts of what it was like to be a slave !

If you defend Columbus statues do not do it by showing disdain for Amerind culture.

If you think Captain Cook statues should not be vandalized (personally I think simply changing the inscriptions would be a better action) remember in the past people have vandalized local Koori rock art and think how people of Aboriginal descent feel about that?

Don't want history broken?

Define PRIMARY SOURCES

Get people to visit and fund museums and libraries

and READ history
so we debate using facts not ideology and interpretations!

PLEASE