Amazons and Athletes and Actors?

#amazons #actors #athletes #theatre #ceramics

Let's take a closer artifact at an artifact I showed you before!

I previously showed you this image as an example of a hybrid of Greek and Scythian clothing on an Amazon but I'ld like you to consider something else. This is a perfume / scented oil flask described as probably belonging to a young man for carrying to the gymnasium and applying after his workout.

BUT WHY AN AMAZON? 

Is it just possible some upper class women were experimenting with wearing non Athenian clothes say for horse or chariot riding. Could some Sarmatian or Scythian women actually have been wearing such outfits on the streets of Athens? Was this flask and other similar items actually sold to Athenian women who wondered about Amazons? Could there have been a women's gym in Athens? Perhaps attached to a woman only bath? Open to non Athenians if they were women temple guardians?

A final possibility is that this is the actual equivalent of "pinup" art. This could actually be a young male actor dressed as an Amazon from a play. While traditional dramas used masked actors perhaps sometimes the performers were unmasked for other types of theatre events?

PORNEIA

#porn #porneia #fornication #pornography #wordstudy

Last week I posted a list of what Jesus described as sins. as one was PORNEIA generally translated as fornication or sexual immorality but perhaps porneia covers a wider range of sin.

Consider what it and other related words are used to describe not just sexual immorality but usually profiting from or using sex workers and in Jesus' time many of those sex workers might have been slaves forced into brothels.

But in modern times how many other roles might be unethical because they involve creating using or profiting from work or products or posing with the primary goal of invoking not merely desire but lust the kind of lust that has no concern for the feelings or condition of whatever or whoever it uses?

Erotic art invoking healthy desire to be fulfilled with a willing partner 

Porn that's used to"stratch an itch"

Where is the boundary? Intent or Harm?

Maybe doing pinups is a sin?

Maybe defending the use of porn on ideological grounds is a sin?

But one thing for certain Jesus points out  (see Mark 7) the sin comes from us. 

Amazons are Classical !

With the JLA movie out now lets take a look at some Classical depictions of Amazons.

The Greeks seem to have kept changing their minds sometimes showing them as wearing male Greek armour and sometimes as Central Asian nomads or in blends of both.

The use of Scythians as city guardsmen in Athens and possibly other cities seems to have influenced this. I wonder if perhaps some of the men brought their sisters with them and the sisters wee employed as temple guardians.

Hellenistic historians firmly believed there were Amazons.

Here's an image from 500 BCE

Now One from 470bce

Note shes wearing  greek style torso armour over trousers and a shirt!

420 BCE the full scythian / sarmatian look !

300 BCE back to blended costumes.

I'll take a closer more detailed look at these works one by one over the next posts.

What Jesus said were sins

#biblestudy, #greeknewtestament, sins, what jesus said,

MARK 7 20-23.

Jesus said what/it comes out of a man this thing makes defiled/ unclean the man ,

from within for out of the heart of the man evil thoughts come, (also) fornication, thievings, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, the evil eye meaning malice or envy, slander, pride, folly.

Fornication Porneia is basically sexual immorality involving (ab)using sex workers, who were often slaves with no choice, and includes using or making pornography and being promiscuous.
Klopai is literally thievings plural so stealing and theft.
Phonoi murders slaughter homicide not just killing.
Moikheia is more specifically adultery.
Pleonexia is the longing the greed for more than your fair share of something.
Dolos is trickery that leads something into a trap.
Aselgeia is an odd compound of a- thus a word that may derive from thelgos or thelos?
The idea is undisciplined or perhaps even a delibarateness wilful choice to behave badly.
Note that Blaspheemia is bla - hurt injure plus speech but bla is also the stem of seed and sprout so again choicing to promote evil slander insults via speaking of another badly.

The Aphro in Aphrosune is generally said to come from aphroon however aphros could be foam or froth also but the general sense is a kind of delibarate ignorance or silliness.

Note the emphasis on our choice of to err.

Dialogismos is a reasoning or thought.
Porneia is sex that is not romance or philia.
Phonos is not violence on impulse but murder.

Sin hurts yourself and other people through making bad choices.

An evil deed and action comes from humans.

Justice League of ATHENS

#jla #athens #batman #wonderwoman #superman #justiceleague

WHAT IF the Justice League had had equivalents in Ancient Athens say at the peak of the Athenian empire?

BATMAN / Bruce Wayne would probably be the son of a doctor from a wealthy ship building/owning family.

Yes I know Wain means Wagon but the Waynes / Wains came from families with property and industrial investments and in Classical Athens a canny landowner / aristocrat would invest in ship building as an industry researching and implementing technology and with a steady market demand for the military and commerical usages.

Plus the port area down at Peiraeus was probably the major crime area.

As a wealthy Aristocrat Bruce who probably would be called Brisos or Broteas could have had a house in the port area as well as a country estate.

Probably no batcave though? Wrong geology?

He could have donned a black cape but probably used body paint or painted armour for his costume and given the Athenians did not have paint outer walls in dark colors or have multistorey structures much higher than three or four maximum the utility belt would still have pouches but no ropes or cables maybe climbing hooks.

Wonder Woman is easier.

There was a tradition of Scythians coming to from the areas adjacent to the north of the Black sea and serving as street police / city guards in Athens. Diana / Dione might be one of those or a temple guardian and maybe even not bother with a secret identity at all apart from saying she was the daughter of some Sarmatian tribal leader? She would probably just be called the Amazon and not Wonder Woman. No invisible plane but probably she would have horses.

Superman

Given the scarcity of Iron unless a certain spaceship landed in the dead of winter when everyone was indoors half the countryside would have shown up to see if the meteor had iron in it.

Given the lack of tractors or draught horses how the "Kents" managed to hide the ship ...?

Filling in the pit and building something over there? An Olive or Wine Press?

Clark probably would be called Kallias or maybe Glaukos for his blue eyes.

His hero name might not be Superman as that might be rahter too long in Greek  Hyperandreios ?

I could see him calling himself the Athenian or something like Democrates.

Cyborg. The Greeks had stories about automatons who served Hephaestus the Smith god.

Africans in Athens of that era would have been slaves or if free metics.

I could see Victor Nikias and his father as successful metic smiths who developed a special suit of armor including prosthetics working on spring or windup mechanisms maybe?

The Flash Hermias or Hermogenes the Swift One Takhon Thoas or Hyperpodookees?

Aquaman. People might refer to him as the Triton or the Atlantid.

We've had steampunk Batman, British and Chinese Superman and others.

If anyone wants to do a JLof Athens comic I'ld love to script and research it with you!

Greek Numbers One to Ten

#greeknumerals #greeknumbers Some revision today Basic Numbers #arithmoi
#eis #hen #mia #duo #treis #tria

ARITHMOI GREEK NUMBERS ONE TO TEN

Here are the Numbers One to TEN in Greek

1 ONE M. εἱς F. μία N. ἕν

(see the previous post for the full declension of the first 4 numbers).

2 TWO All genders follow this declension pattern

Nominative Accusative δύο Genitive Dative δυοῖν

3 THREE M. F. τρεῖς N. τρία

4 FOUR M. F. τέτταρες N. τέτταρα

5 FIVE πέντε

6 SIX ἕξ

7 SEVEN ἑπτά

8 EIGHT ὀκτώ

9 NINE ἐννέα

10 TEN δέκα

The modern Greek forms are ένα δύο τρία τέσσερα πέντε ἕξι ἑφτὰ ὀχτὼ ἐννιὰ δέκα

The number One is also used as the indefinite article in Modern Greek.

"WHITE" GREEKS ???

Before I move on to the next theme series take a look at this.

The Greeks didn't see themselves as "white" .

And yes the pigment son the page may have darkened over the centuries but the artist clearly intended to show these revered figures with a variety of skin tones.

Yes I know someone will say but its Byzantine but that still says something interesting about how the Byzantines saw their multi-ethnic empire ! 

AGAPE and NOMOS

#word study #greek #greeknewtestament #agape #nomos

Just a short post today.

AGAPE AND NOMOS 

LOVE AND LAW

I've been thinking about the differences between the Old and New Testament and I'm speculating if they can be summarized by two Greek words AGAPE and NOMOS.

NOMOS is Law but also ORDER and a case can be made the Old Testament describes the creation evolution and interactions of NOMOS as an ideal through myth and history and even in the Prophecy sections since there's an ongoing theme of flawed humans versus divine law? 

The New Testament even when its talking about SIN is about AGAPE the euaggelion the good message about LOVE overcoming SIN and leading to healing and forgiveness.

Something to bear in mind while you're doing weekend bible study? 

Maenad Seal Ring

#maenad #seal #ring

This object creates questions?!

WHO WOULD WEAR A RING WITH THIS IMAGE?

Seal rings like this were used to verify documents by making an impression in wax.
They were used by both the literate and illiterate since even if you could write your own name the seal impression created extra security.

So why a Maenad?
Was the owner a priest or temple official for a Dionysian cult?
Was the owner an actual female Maenad?