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?

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!

The Hills of Athens

When you're building city walls in a pre artillery culture and don't have to worry about cannon fire from heights having mountains and hills around your city can be useful .

Athens had the advantage of a range of hills to the west that could be used as wall foundations, the Pynx, the Museion, the Areopagus, Kolonos, with the Acroplis rising in the midst of the city and the low rise of Ardettos which may have had a spring of water.

Lycabettos was outsid eof the city walls in ancient times.

Further to the south west Piraeus once a island was built around two hills then linked to the city by the Long Walls.

If you read the previous post you know Attica as a whole was protected by mountains.

Once again think about how geography and history are linked.

Think about environment as well as artifacts.

The Mountains of Attica

Have a look at this map of Attica.

Geography does effect history. This map doesnt show all of the small foothills within Athens city walls. If all the foothills were included the city would look like it was surrounded by a shape more like a triangle than a rectangle.

There's only two major passes from Boeotia and the road to Corinth is coastal so any invasion force arriving by land would be quite visible. The Athenians wisely built a series of hill forts and watch towers.

Consider also that you need flat land for cereal crops.

The Athenians had an abundance of hills and sloping sites. No wonder they turned to olive cultivation and imported grain and had military forces dominated by hoplite infantry and the navy.

Been to modern Greece. Some coastal plains under cultivation NOW were swamps lakes or wetlands in the past or had irregular rainfall.

Geography and history are linked.

Next the Hills of Athens.