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GUINEVERE: THE WAGES OF BEAUTY

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  By William Blake Richmond - NwFx7tib70X5aQ at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21878516 Beauty. Aurora. Snow White. Cinderella. More than just Disney Princesses, their stories originated hundreds of years ago. From an era even before the Dark Age Guinevere, whose time seems so shrouded in mist. A time when Mycenaean warriors launched a thousand ships to retrieve the wayward Helen. An earlier era that saw Eros defy his mother, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty, for the love of the mortal Psyche. And a still more ancient age, lost to time, when Adam forsook Eden for the wiles of the first known beauty, Eve. But was it truly beauty which so led men astray from ancient times to this? Or was it something more...? History has long been obsessed with beautiful women, but was it really beauty these ancient men sought? Helen of Troy appears to have been much more than just a pretty face: she was a wealthy heiress
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DEMETER’S CULT CENTERS:

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  By Mary Harrsch - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96137324 To preface this short section on the cult centers of Demeter, here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:   Major cults to Demeter are known at Eleusis in Attica, Hermion (in Crete), Megara, Celeae, Lerna, Aegila, Munychia, Corinth, Delos, Priene, Akragas, Iasos, Pergamon, Seli nus, Tegea, Thoricus, Dion (in Macedonia), Lykosoura, Mesembria, Enna (Sicily) and Samothrace.   An ancient Amphictyony, probably the earliest centred on the cult of Demeter at Anthele (Ἀνθήλη), which lay on the coast of Malis south of Thessaly. This was the locality of Thermopylae.   OK, so, Anthele was the most ancient cult center devoted to Demeter. That’s great, of course; but I had no idea where Anthele was when I read this, and the quote gives no idea of how old the cult center there was except to say, “probably the earliest”, so I went to the source That source is none other than the “Father of History”, H
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A MINOAN DEMETER?

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  Demeter and Metanira. Detail of the belly of an Apulian red-figure hydra, ca. 340 BC. By Varrese Painter - User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2008, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3839471 In the interest of hopping a little more briskly along this rabbit hole, I have decided to use the simple quote from John Chadwick – a noted Aegean scholar – that I found in Wikipedia and move on. Here it is:   The earliest recorded worship of a deity possibly equivalent to Demeter is found in Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of c. 1400-1200 BC found at Pylos. The tablets describe worship of the “two queens and the king”, which may be related to Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.   Apparently, the indicator is the name  i-da-ma-te , or  Demeter . And there is the date: 1400-1200 BC. That’s early, people. Real early. It indicates that Demeter was an established deity by no later than the Mycenaean period…and possibly earlier. On even earlier Linear A tablets, the same or a si
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HOW OLD WAS DEMETER?

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  A Greek fresco depicting the goddess Demeter, from Panticapaeum in the ancient Bosporan Kingdom (a client state of the Roman Empire), 1 st  century AD, Crimea. By Sovenok212 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21242584  I know you shouldn’t ask a woman’s age. (I live in southern California. Of  course , I know that). But I think that, in this case, I might be pardoned for asking: Just how old  was  Demeter? In answer, we know that Demeter was known to at least three ancient societies: the Minoans, the Egyptians, and the Arcadians. (Whoever  they  were. More on that later). So, if Demeter can be established as an integral part of those groups – that is, if they associated her with one of their goddesses, dedicated cult objects to her, and created cult centers for her – we can say that she belonged to those cultures and was very ancient, indeed. Let’s start with the Minoans and Mycenaeans. Demeter’s name is found in conjunction with both Linear A a
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POSEIDON AND DEMETER: HAPPY COUPLE, OR VIOLATOR AND VICTIM?

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By Alvesgaspar - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43569142 Although the above sculpture depicts the rape of Demeter’s beloved daughter, Persephone, or Proserpina, by Hades, God of the Underworld, in the myths of the ancient world there was another, earlier rape: that of the earth goddess, Demeter, herself. In Demeter’s case, the rapist was the god of earthquakes, water, and horses, as well as the Underworld: Poseidon. I chose to use Bernini’s  The Rape of Proserpine  as the illustration of this post because I felt it vividly depicted the shock and horror of this ancient outrage. The two stories might have been a “twinning”, i.e.: Persephone’s later rape by Hades may just possibly have been a retelling of the original violation of Demeter by Poseidon. Here’s the initial story:   When Demeter was wandering in search of her daughter [Persephone], she was followed, it is said, by Poseidon, who lusted after her. So, she turned, the story runs, into a m
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ACHILLES AND PENTHESILIA: NECROPHILIA, OR SACRED MARRIAGE?

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  By ArchaiOptix - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88625666 Rage. The great bard, Homer, employed wrath as the driving force behind the events of his  Iliad , including the deaths of his leading man, Achilles – the warrior-hero of the Greeks – and the Amazon Wonder Woman, Penthesilea. For, had the warrior woman not first killed one of her own, she would not have been compelled to find redemption in battle against the Greeks. Perhaps, she would instead have died somewhere on her native steppes, unremembered. Such a death – our loss, as well as that of Penthesilea and her people – would have been sad, indeed. Her name would have then been forever lost to time and anonymity. That ancient name conveyed some connotation of sadness:  penthos  meant “sorrow” in Ancient Greek. The second syllable of the warrior queen’s name is not so easy to decipher. Maybe, it came from the Latin verb for “silence”:  sileo . Or perhaps it was some Scythian derivative of
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PICTISH CAVALRY: THE “MOUNTING” EVIDENCE:

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By Fisher Fine Arts Library Image Database - Camp and audience scenes in late iron age rock drawings from Khawtsgait, MongoliaPD-Art: Non-creative photograph of a two-dimensional work of art in the Public Domain (1st century BCE -1st century BCE), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95087609      Copious evidence points to prominent horse cultures in Amazon, Scythian, and Pictish societies. The Amazons, depicted primarily through the eyes of the ancient Greeks, are painted as hard-riding warriors, fighting from horseback, and dying beneath the hooves of their steeds. Scythian gravemounds yield treasure troves of horse gear, as well as the bones of the horses themselves, and the bodies of their riders: Amazonian warrior women, knees bent in the riding position.      Pictish standing stones present the clearest picture. Their carven cartoons caricature a clear snapshot of Pictish riders – a few female – prancing in formation across a stone canvas, dogs dancin
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