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gold plaques embossed with images of winged bee goddesses were found at camiros rhodes and have been dated to the 7th century bce source one of the unexpected perks of living in moscow 2002 2004 was visiting the honey fair my husband john described it very well for his online newspaper the exile each stand offered samples of their honeys and after a few tastings i could see there really is a range of taste and texture in the stuff it ranged from sandstone beige to molasses black with textures from wet sand to motor oil and the aftertastes were downright weird a lot of them were dung based but not unpleasantly so others were synthetic cologne like or close to menthol i could see being a honey critic more easily than a wine critic i wouldn t feel as fake more range the stalls were grouped by region altai honey was drawing big crowds as was kislovodsk and other caucasian towns there was also mountain honey forest honey and for the fence sitters mountain forest honey i ended up buying a kilo of tambov buckwheat honey which was four times as much as i meant to buy but i figured it was my mumbling or improperly declined numbers that caused the mix up it is interesting to speculate on the range of tastes in fifth century bc greece there are some clues in written sources in passage 22 from his history of animals for example aristotle writes that the taste of thyme honey is discernible at once from its peculiar sweetness and consistency he also mentions a variety of local differences in pontus are found bees exceedingly white in colour and these bees produce their honey twice a month the bees in themiscyra on the banks of the river thermodon build honeycombs in the ground and in hives and these honeycombs are furnished with very little wax but with honey of great consistency and the honeycomb by the way is smooth and level but this is not always the case with these bees but only in the winter season for in pontus the ivy is abundant and it flowers at this time of the year and it is from the ivy flower that they derive their honey a white and very consistent honey is brought down from the upper country to amisus which is deposited by bees on trees without the employment of honeycombs and this kind of honey is produced in other districts in pontus the greeks probably learned beekeeping from the minoans who took their bees very seriously in minoan crete the bee was an emblem of potnia the minoan mycenaean mistress also referred to as the pure mother bee her priestesses received the name of melissa bee later on in classical greece priestesses worshipping artemis and demeter were called bees the delphic priestess is also often referred to as a bee and pindar notes that she remained the delphic bee long after apollo had usurped the ancient oracle and shrine pindar s fourth pythian ode 60 the fermented honey drink mead was an old cretan intoxicant older than wine zeus made kronos intoxicated with honey for wine was not nonnus wrote in dionysiaca xiii 258 source intoxicants were often used in religious rituals as a means of acheiving an altered state which might be interpreted as the possession by a deity honey therefore conveyed prescience the delphic bee and in 1 samuel 14 jonathan put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand and dipped it in a honey comb and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes were enlightened so in the homeric hymn where apollo tells hermes the story of how he gained the gift of prophecy it is no surprise to find bees here three bee maidens who are usually identified with the thriae a trinity of pre hellenic aegean bee goddesses but i will tell you another thing son of all glorious maia and zeus who holds the aegis luck bringing genius of the gods there are certain holy ones sisters born three virgins gifted with wings their heads are besprinkled with white meal and they dwell under a ridge of parnassus these are teachers of divination apart from me the art which i practised while yet a boy following herds though my father paid no heed to it from their home they fly now here now there feeding on honey comb and bringing all things to pass and when they are inspired through eating yellow honey they are willing to speak truth but if they be deprived of the gods sweet food then they speak falsely as they swarm in and out together these then i give you enquire of them strictly and delight your heart and if you should teach any mortal so to do often will he hear your response if he have good fortune take these son of maia and tend the wild roving horned oxen and horses and patient mules honey s vatic uses may be why ancient greeks associated lips anointed with honey with the gift of eloquence achilles and pythagoras it was said had been fed on honey as infants and the lips of plato pindar and ambrose of milan were anointed with it the name merope seems to mean honey faced or honey mouthed in greek eloquent in classical times whether because of its divine properties or its delicious sweetness honey was a highly desirable item in ancient greece beekeeping was so popular that solon passed this law in 594 593 bc he who sets up hives of bees must put them 300 feet 100 m away from those already installed by another plutarch life of solon 23 what s more plato groused about mountains in attica which can now support nothing but bees but which were clothed not so very long ago with fine trees critias 111b d incidentally we aren t the only ones to like honey a honey pounding chimp notes melissa is also the name of one of my new sisters in law unaware of her name s provenance she attended a fancy dress party dressed as a bee no one finds this funny but me homeric hymn ll 550 568 the world history of hive beekeeping in ancient greece eva crane p 196 posted by katherine dolan at 7 25 pm 1 comment labels bees honey minoans prophecy friday june 12 2009 ancient mass grave found on olympics site by stefano ambrogi http ca news yahoo com s reuters 090612 odds odd_us_skeletons an ancient burial pit containing 45 severed skulls that could be a mass war grave dating back to roman times has been found under a road being built for the 2012 british olympics the grave site is close to maiden castle europe s largest iron age hill fort where local tribes are said to have staged a last stand against the roman legions after the invasion some historians believe the romans sacked the site butchering its population including women and children before burning it to the ground dig head david score of oxford archaeology said they had counted 45 skulls so far in the 6 meter wide pit together with a tangle of torsos arms and legs more could be found in the coming weeks most of the skulls were those of young men supporting the theory they could have been killed in battle or executed en masse posted by katherine dolan at 9 41 am no comments labels grave news roman tuesday june 9 2009 the lost library a statue taken from villa di papyri the villa di papyri 1 in 1752 an austrian general called prince d elboeuf purchased land near naples where in the process of digging a well in an apricot orchard workers had found some exceptional ancient artefacts further investigation revealed a luxurious villa and lots of lootable treasures among these were 2 000 priceless papyri that looked more like charcoal parsnips luckily someone noticed writing on one of them and they were duly saved from the excavation scrapheap 2 further digging revealed a grand house since named villa di papyri the ruins of which comprise a fraction of a town called herculaneum a seaside settlement between the foot of vesuvius and the bay of naples like pompeii herculaneum was buried when vesuvius erupted in a d 79 the villa di papyri is thought to have belonged to julius caesar s father in law lucius calpurnius piso who was known to be a lover of poetry for one thing the writings were mainly works by the epicurean greek philosopher philodemus who was part of piso s entourage 3 in march 1969 thanks largely to the efforts of a scholar named marcello gigante the international centre for the study of the herculaneum papyri was founded in 1979 the centre published a catalogue including relevant data and a bibliography the most recent supplement to this a multimedia catalogue χάρτης chartes was published in 2005 χάρτης comprised all the data of the preceding issues and offered much potential for research notably each papyrus is accompanied by a digital image which gives an idea of its script and of the condition of the roll 4 being charred and disfigured from a combination of rain damage carbonization and immersion in hot mud the papyri have been pretty much unreadable until the last few decades scientists who have worked on the project describe it like trying to unroll burnt 2 ply tissue in the last decade however technology such as multi spectral imaging and an x ray ct scanning system has helped researchers read the texts with minimum stress to the papyri 5 many classicists are eager to keep on digging in order to find more papyrii a lost library that could transform our picture of the ancient world contrarily and controversially the superintendant of both sites pietro giovanni guzzo has declared a moratorium on all further excavations of both sites arguing that conservation is the key issue at the moment 6 an independently funded society the herculaneum conservation project was conceived in the summer of 2000 its website states how it is trying to address conservation issues the most important challenges hcp now faces that of establishing basic infrastructure for the ancient city drains protective shelters site access for works etc and evolving successful models of continuous care to guarantee the site s long term survival they must be sustainable strategies for the public arm of the project to take forward after the private partner has gone since it was after all the failure of such routine maintenance programmes that led to the state of neglect that the site found itself in the 1990s 7 the last part of this quote is probably a veiled allusion to the fact that naples and its surrounding regions are or were under the thumb of the napolese mafia the deadly cammoro as recently as 2007 buying land to continue excavating was near impossible because it is a stronghold of the cammoro according to roberto saviano author of the book gommora now a film the mafia is virtually indistinguishable from local government in this part of italy saviano says the problem for authorities is that the camorra s criminal enterprises are so closely enmeshed with legitimate businesses they are practically unassailable the italian state and the european community are faced with a dilemma the organized crime in italy generates huge sums of money the three major mafias have a turnover of 100 billion euros a year the small business federation says organized crime is the biggest business in italy it accounts for 7 percent of gnp this means that in an area where no one invests organized crime is a major provider of jobs and controls votes saviano says this means that one third of italy is in the grips of organized crime and condemned to a permanent state of underdevelopment 8 an appropriate illustration of the comorra s toxic grip on campania was the recent rubbish crisis 9 mountains of garbage piled up on napolese streets as a result of the cammora controlling the waste industry the syndicate made money by offering waste disposal under the table at low prices they could afford to do this by employing children to drive toxic waste and skipping basic health and safety measures for example they mixed industrial waste with household garbage and held illegal burn offs that collectively lead to massive air and soil pollution 10 in 2008 berlusconi sent national guard into the area to clean up the garbage 11 in may 2009 the police have arrested 64 mafia suspects in a publicized attempt to break the cammora s stranglehold on the country 12 i hope it will happen if only for the sake of herculaneum 1 i learned of the villa di papyri reading the dazzling oneiric post modernist novel emo by jack ross pg 89 2 herculaneum info 3 times article 4 an interesting account of the history of the international centre for the study of the herculaneum papyri cispe 5 scroll technology 6 conservation 7 hcp 8 npr article 9 news item 10 comorra 11 summary 12 arrests image is public domain from here posted by katherine dolan at 5 04 pm no comments labels herculaneum library papyri friday may 29 2009 a day at the races phidippides in his sleep that s not fair philo drive your chariot straight i say strepsiades this is what is destroying me he raves about horses even in his sleep phidippides asleep how many times round the track is the race for the chariots of war strepsiades it s your own father you are driving to death to ruin come what debt comes next after that of pasias three minae to amynias for a chariot and its two wheels phidippides asleep give the horse a good roll in the dust and lead him home strepsiades ah wretched boy it s my money that you are making roll my creditors have distrained on my goods and here are others again who demand security for their interest the clouds by comic genius aristophanes 1 chariot racing was one of the most important events in the games see post below it was sort of like nascar an expensive extremely dangerous spectacle very popular with the public horses are an expensive business and that was especially true back in the day first you needed to actually purchase the beast from its native home of thessaly or argolis then you d need land and stables to keep them handlers to train and exercise them slaves to tend to their impossible feet gear for leading riding and grooming them and that s without all the other add ons such as cheek pieces for battle and pimped out chariots for cruising owning a horse and being part of the cavalry therefore was a sign that you belonged to the elite what s new the equestrii were rome s landed gentry medieval knights had special status chevalier is still an honorific and prince charles plays polo the connection between horses and kudos is clear in another quote from the clouds where strepsiades moans about how his status hungry wife is responsible for his son s hippomania w hen we had this boy what was to be his name it was the cause of much quarrelling with my loving wife she insisted on having some reference to a horse in his name that he should be called xanthippus charippus or callippides i wanted to name him phidonides after his grandfather we disputed long and finally agreed to style him phidippides she used to fondle and coax him saying oh what a joy it will be to me when you have grown up to see you like my father megacles clothed in purple and standing up straight in your chariot driving your steeds toward the town and i would say to him when like your father you will go dressed in a skin to fetch back your goats from phelleus alas he never listened to me and his mad...