Issoire Lynx

In many respects, Alexandria was the Las Vegas of its day
“There is a certain stone so-called, which has a natural power to draw iron to itself. In Egyptian Alexandria in the Serapeion there was a mechanism of deceit and wickedness of this kind: having made a statue of bronze and nailing iron inside the head, they fixed this stone above in the coffers of the ceiling opposite. The statue being drawn by the natural force of the stone, for it was hung up in the air, by great mechanism and skill was held between the floor and the ceiling, causing great amazement and not at all pulled down.” – Suda s.v. Magnêtis

Last night while getting in the mood before the start of my oracular session, I did some browsing on YouTube for videos relating to Dionysos when I came across this little gem:



It's a fascinating bit of modern dance that explores themes of freedom, ecstasy, trance, and Dionysian mythology. Powerful stuff.

What is the most interesting language you know of and why? I'm bored and need some reading material.

bookfails
Planning to do your part to help boost the declining publishing industry this holiday? Better check here first. Sure, there are plenty of folks who post glowing reviews of their favorite books. But what about the epic fails? Compose and/or discuss snarky, incisive critiques on the books you despise most.

foundphotos
Ever stumble across a frayed photo in your grandmother's attic? How about a faded picture tucked in the sleeve of an old novel at a used book sale? This is the place to post them. An amazing, eclectic collection of photographs sure to delight anyone with a penchant for history or nostalgic memorabilia.

note_to_cat
Having trouble conveying the concept of accountability to your cat? Now you can share letters to your significant felines and give public witness to your declarations of love and domestic negotiations. Whether you want to publish an apology for falling short on your cat-nip obligations or you need to raise a delicate hygiene issue.

I've got a question about French that hopefully someone knows the answer to.


I know that both "encore" and "toujours" can be used to mean "still." Is there any difference as to when they are used though?

And if I wanted to say, "She is still here," would I say "Elle est encore ici" or "Elle est toujours ici?"

Merci!


EDIT: Found answers here and here.

( Why am I always hungry?! )
I interpret it as option one and don't anyone I know would differ, but because it's ambiguous I like to pretend it's option two. :D Interestingly enough I consider option two a very British expression and if the commercial featured the queen of England rather than just some black guy I think I would be much more inclined to interpret it as two.

Not a very novel topic but any thoughts?

A pagan holy man
"Heraiskos actually had a natural talent for distinguishing between religious statues that were animated and those that were not. For as soon as he looked at one his heart was struck by a sensation of the divine and he gave a start in his body and his soul, as though seized by the god. If he was not moved in such a fashion then the statue was soulless and had no share of divine inspiration. In this way he distinguished the secret statue of Aion which the Alexandrians worshipped as being possessed by the god, who was both Osiris and Adonis at the same time according to some mystical union. There was also something in Heraiskos' nature that rejected defilements of nature. For instance, if he heard any unclean woman speaking, no matter where or how, he immediately got a headache, and this was taken as a sign that she was menstruating. Thus while he lived there was always something godlike about him; and at his death, when Asklepiades was preparing to give the customary things to the priests, especially the garment of Osiris on his body, at once secret symbols shone with light on all parts of the fabric, and around them were seen kinds of appearances appropriate to a god, showing clearly with what great gods he had been a dinner-guest. Even his birth had something mystical about it: he is said to have issued from his mother holding the shushing finger up to his lips, just as the Egyptians tell the story about Horus and before Horus about Helios. As a result, since the finger was fused to his lips, he needed surgery, and he went through life with a scar on his lip, a clear sign for everyone to see of his marvelous birth. Hence his life also reached such a point that his soul always resided in hidden sanctuaries as he practiced not only his native rites in Egypt but also those of other nations, wherever there was something left of these. And Heraiskos became a Bakkhos, as a dream designated him. But Asklepiades devoting himself more to the Egyptian books was more precisely acquainted with their native theology, having investigated its origins and middle, and simply busying himself with the ignorance of the furthest limits, as it is possible to know clearly from the hymns which he composed to the gods of the Egyptians, and from the treatise which he undertook to write encompassing the harmony of all theologies. And he wrote a book encompassing lore of the primeval Egyptians not less than thirty thousand years but even a little more. Heraiskos was not only good and gentle, but he was inclined to anger at wickedness and manfully resisted the schemes of men, yet never transgressing the measure of justice." – Suda s.v. Hêraïskos

Martyrdom of a pagan priest
“At once my father made a sign to the borthers, ‘Seize him!’ But that unclean priest cried out, saying, ‘Great god Kothos, commander-in-chief of the air, the brother of Apollo, save me! I am your high priest.’ My father said to him, ‘I shall burn you alive, and also your god Kothos.’ And when we went into the village the multitude of the orthodox came out ahead of us singing psalms. Then he gave the command, and a fire was kindled. He threw Homer into it. He was burned along with the idols that had been found in his house. And of the rest of the pagans, some became Christians and received baptism. But others did not wish to receive it. Rather, they threw everything they owned into the depths of the cisterns and wells and fled with only their idols into the desert. And they counted the idols that had been destroyed that day and found them to number 306. As for those who fled, the Chistians dwelt in their houses.” – Apa Pinution to Dioscorus of Alexandria 5.10-11

[Note: This post makes up for my missing Saturday.]

I was reading a Wikipedia article today on the Mayurakshi River, which flows through West Bengal. Here's the clip from the article that I'm curious about:

Mayurakshi literally means the eye of a peacock (mayur/mor=peacock, akshi=eye).

That's cool, but it doesn't mention which language the translation comes from. Is it Bengali? I tried to use the Google detect-language option, but that told me it was English, so...fail language detection is fail. =P Does anyone here know?

Is there any appreciation for the American accent in other languages? I love to listen to non-native speakers speak English and I'm wondering if anyone loves hearing native American English speakers speak other languages. I hope I wrote that clearly.

I always feel pressure to mimic a language and try to have no influence whatsoever from my American accent. It's to the point that I become more focused on sounding "right" than actually speaking.

David Edwards from Datblygu has written an autobiography in Welsh. It's only available on the UK amazon or from the publishers, but amazon lets you order internationally anyway. If you're not familiar with David R. Edwards, he's the singer and lyricist of the Welsh language post-punk band Datblygu. They were one of John Peel's favourites, and known for their experimental sounds and clever literary lyrics filled with bilingual Welsh-English wordplay and complete scorn for patriotic nonsense. Dave Edwards worked as a school Welsh teacher and for the tourist board, had a few nervous breakdowns, became an alcoholic and recovered and all kinds of turmoil, so it looks like an interesting book.

Here's a cropped still from a Bones episode:



This is definitely not French. Is it some other Romance language or should it go to FailBlog? :)

UPD: Middle French. Thanks everyone.

Two passages from Samuel Beckett's Dante... Bruno. Vico.. Joyce, 1929:

1. Vico

Giambattista Vico was a practical roundheaded Neapolitan. It pleases Croce to consider him a mystic, essentially speculative, 'disdegnoso dell' empirismo'. It is a surprising interpretation, seeing that more than three-fifths of his Scienza Nuova is concerned with empirical investigation. Croce opposes him to the reformative materialistic school of Ugo Grozio, and absolves him from the utilitarian preoccupations of Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Bayle and Machiavelli. All this cannot be swallowed without protest. Vico defines Providence as: 'una mente spesso diversa ed alle volte tutta contraria e sempre superiore ad essi fini particolari che essi uomini si avevano proposti; dei quali fini ristretti fatti mezzi per servire a fini più ampi, gli ha sempre adoperati per conservare l'umana generazione in questa terra'. What could be more definitely utilitarianism? His treatment of the origin and functions of poetry, language and myth, as will appear later, is as far removed from the mystical as it is possible to imagine.

[I can guess that "disdegnoso dell' empirismo" means that Vico (according to Croce) disdained empirism, but I cannot divine the meaning of the bolded lines in the same way. Help?]

2. Dante

I find two well made caps in the 'Convivio', one to fit the collective noodle of the monodialectical arcadians whose fury is precipitated by a failure to discover "innocefree" in the Concise Oxford Dictionary and who qualify as the 'ravings of a Bedlamite' the formal structure raised by Mr. Joyce after years of patient and inspired labour: 'Questi sono da chiamare pecore e non uomini; chè se una pecora si gittasse da una ripa di mille passi, tutte l'altre le andrebbono dietro: e se una pecora per alcuna cagione al passare d'una strada salta, tutte le altre saltano, eziando nulla veggendo da saltare. E io ne vidi già molte in un pozzo saltare, per una che dentro vi salto, forse credendo di saltare un muro'. And the other for Mr. Joyce, biologist in words: 'Questo (formal innovation) sarà luce nuova, sole nuovo, il quale sorgerà ore l'usato tramonterà e darà luce a coloro che sono in tenebre e in oscurità per lo usato sole che a loro non luce.' And, lest he should pull it down over his eyes and laugh behind the peak, I translate 'in tenebre e in oscurità' by 'bored to extinction.'

Thanks in advance!

What are your opinions on the Voynich manuscript? I always wait for a news story saying it's been (at least partially) decoded, but it never comes...

My kind of place
“In Egypt a young man could find everything there is and will be: wealth, the wrestling arena, power, peace, renown, shows, philosophers, money, young men, the temple of the Sibling Gods, the king a good ruler, the Mouseion, wine, all the goods somebody may desire, and more women, by Hades’ wife Kore, than the sky boasts of stars, and beautiful like the goddesses who once came to Paris to let him judge their beauty.” – Herondas, Mimes l.26ff

I was listening to a British reporter on the radio today, who was in South Africa. He said he had learned an interesting thing about Afrikaans, i.e.that it was the only language in the world that had no English words. There was a special committee, and they decided on an Afrikaans equivalent for any English words they needed.

At first I was thinking, I don't believe that. The reporter doesn't speak Afrikaans and it sounds like an urban myth.

But as he spoke, it turned out he was talking only about Cricket. All the sports commentators apparantly have to use Afrikaans words for all the cricket terms, so a committee works out Afrikaans equivalents for things like 'follow on', 'maiden over', 'Night Watchman', etc. etc. etc.

That seems plausible, (think of L'Académie française! ... think of how TV news stations work out standards so all their news readers pronounce names in the same way) and if it's true it's very interesting.

Cambridgeshire, approx. 1570:

"Dr Tye was a peevish and humoursome man, especially in his latter dayes, and sometimes playing on ye Organ in ye chapel of qu. Elizabeth wh. contained much musick, but little of delight to the ear, she would send ye verger to tell him yt he play'd out of Tune: whereupon he sent word yt her ears were out of Tune"

Can anybody tell me what is meant by "yt"?

ETA: Problem solved, thanks all.

Yikes, it's rather late considering how much stuff I have to do tomorrow morning. Time completely got away from me. I'm not complaining, however, since I spent the bulk of the evening in a very enjoyable manner, tracking down obscure quotes related to the cult of Arsinoe Philadelphos. It's been a while since I've allowed myself to be so thoroughly consumed by a research project. I missed the thrill of the hunt.

I am rather excited, though. I have so much material I'll probably have to break the post up into four sections (or four separate posts) - 1) Sources related to her life 2) Information on her posthumous cultus 3) Purely mythological material and 4) Miscellaneous citations.

This is going to be so cool! (Even though I'm sure no one else is going to even read this, let alone care.) I may end up doing the same thing for the other Ptolemies I honor.

Which brings me to something else I've been pondering.

My religious life has been ... in flux of late. (When isn't it?)

Well, that's not entirely true. My relationship with Dionysos, Hermes, Spider, the Willamette and Nymphai, and the Ptolemies has been solid as ever - and in the case of Hermes has actually been getting stronger.

Unfortunately, I can't really say the same about the rest. Back around the trip to New England it seemed like things with Horus were going to pick up ... only to fall flat. I've had flickers from Seth and Apis, but very indirect. And as for Hathor, Aphrodite, Nephthys, Anubis, and Sobek ... complete dead air. From me, and apparently from them too.

Honestly, I'd be much more concerned about this if things weren't going so well with the first group. I dunno, maybe I should be, maybe it's time to put more energy and effort into building up those relationships. Or maybe I'm just kidding myself. Maybe they're only ever going to be peripheral deities, fading in and out of my life periodically and I should instead really work on things with my core gods and spirits. How far could I get if I applied myself fully with a narrower focus? (And in the case of the Ptolemies, I feel this urgent, insistent, and territorial (?) obligation to do something big for them. Big.) On the other hand, these are awesome gods whom I've had powerful experiences with in the past, and in some ways they are vitally important to the work I feel I'm supposed to be doing. But am I kidding myself? Looking for an easy way out? Missing some big piece of the puzzle?

Arrggh. I dunno. I go back and forth on this. Maybe the answer is that I don't need an answer, and I should just see how things develop naturally. As a Libra, that is, of course, the most appealing prospect. But is it the right one?