Archive for the ‘Ancient Greece’ Category
By: The Scribe on January, 2008
Apparently, the ancient Greeks were concerned more concerned about cleanliness and bacteria that they’re given credit for! In ancient Greek mythology, the goddess Hygieia was the daughter of the god Asclepius – the god of medicine and healing – and was associated with preventing sickness and the preservation of good health. Essentially, she was the goddess of cleanliness, health, sanitation… and the moon, oddly enough.
It’s thought that Hygieia might have had her own cult as early as the 7th century BC, but it is more likely that during this period, the goddess Athena was associated with this title – in Plutarch’s writings, he mentions a bronze statue of ‘Athena Hygieia’. However, the early years of the cult were strictly local, and it was only after the ‘Cult of Hygieia’ was recognized by the Oracle of Delphi that the goddess’ worship began to spread.
It probably also helped that there were several critically devastating plagues in Athens in 429 and 427 BC, which was when the cult began to rise in prominence. Another plague at Rome in 293 BC also helped to secure her position there – the people were desperate for help in the face of such a dire situation, so naturally they turned to a goddess who was supposed to be in charge of health.
The largest temples and centers of worship for Hygieia were at Epidaurus, Corinth, Pergamon and Cos – and in these temples were statues of Hygieia to which suppliants would bring offerings. The Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias noted something very interesting about these statues – he noticed that in one Asclepion he visited, the statues of Hygieia were covered in women’s hair and piece of Babylonian clothes! According to inscriptions, the same types of offerings were also made on the Cycladic island of Paros.
Hygieia was a popular subject for artists from the 4th century until late in the Roman period. A Sicyonian artist named Ariphon, during the 4th century, even composed a hymn in celebration of the goddess, and a number of renowned ancient sculptors were responsible for creating statues in her image – including Scopas, Timotheus, and Bryaxis.
In terms of representation, she was often depicted as a young woman feeding a very large snake, which happened to be wrapped around her body. In a number of cases, the snake would be shown drinking out of a jar that she carried in her other hand – which is the origin for one of today’s modern symbols of pharmacy, the Bowl of Hygieia.
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard
By: The Scribe on December, 2007
We apologize for the lack of posts recently, I lost my best quill and had to search the markets for a replacement. Thank you for your patience - The Scribe
So… it turns out that the Classicists were wrong. Or at least, their sources were wrong. The belief that ancient Spartans ‘purged’ their population of weakness was a bit of an exaggeration, to say the least – apparently Spartans didn’t throw their babies off cliffs after all.
Archaeological digs in the area of ancient Sparta turned up plenty of human remains from a spot called ‘the pit’ – also called an ‘apothetes’ – that belonged to teenagers and adults ranging between the ages of 18 and 35, which would have been the prime fighting age range for men in ancient times.
The bones at the bottom of the pit were distinctly lacking in one feature – the inclusion of bones from newborn babies. It seems that even though the ancient Spartans didn’t throw their sickly or deformed babies off of cliffs, other ancient Greek writers made the decision to start the myth in order to demonstrate the intensity of Sparta’s military focus.
Instead, the bones in the pit came from approximately 46 different men who lived during the 6th and 5th centuries BC – confirming a different rumor that Spartans tended to throw criminals, prisoners, or traitors into the pit. It is known that during a war between Sparta and Messene – a city-state near Sparta – the Spartans defeated Messene’s hero Aristomenes and 50 of his warriors, and threw all of them into the pit.
As brutal as the Spartans may have been to their enemies, the discovery sets the record straight about how they treated the more sickly members of their own society – likely just as well as anyone else, probably setting them in service positions if they were too weak to serve in the military. Although for a Spartan that would have been shameful enough, but at least they were allowed to live. The unfounded rumor about baby-chucking was first begun by the historian Plutarch in the 1st century AD.
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard!
By: The Scribe on November, 2007
Often considered synonymous with ‘adventurer’ or someone who has exceptional sailing skills, the truth of the matter is: the Argonauts were not real people.
The Argonauts were a group of heroes from Greek mythology who, before the familiar story of the Trojan War apparently took place, accompanied the hero Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece in the kingdom of Colchis. These men were known as Argonauts simply because they sailed on a ship called the Argo, which was named for its builder, Argus. Literally, “Argonauts” translates as “argo sailors.”
During the period when the tale of Jason and the Argonauts was supposed to take place, a prehistoric tribe of people is known to have lived in the area, and thus when historians attempt to pinpoint exactly who the Argonauts would have been – if they were real – they will sometimes refer to the heroes as ‘Minyans’. The Minyans were real, the Argonauts weren’t – which tends to be where the confusion sets in.
The Argonauts consisted of approximately 50 men, and the team was supposedly assembled after an oracle was received by King Pelias. What many people don’t realize, however, is that the heroes who made up the group of Argonauts are not faceless characters – a relatively comprehensive list exists of all the men who were a part of Jason’s Argonauts, and among them? An extremely familiar individual: Hercules.
Hercules actually played quite a central role in the tale of the Argonauts, and it was his idea to appoint Jason to be their leader in the first place. However, Hercules did not complete the quest for the Golden Fleece with the rest of the Argonauts – after his companion Hylas was abducted by nymphs while the Argonauts were on land, Hercules was distraught and began searching for Hylas, unable to concentrate on anything else. Eventually, the Argonauts were forced to set sail without him, leaving Hercules behind to continue the search for his companion.
After the quest for the Golden Fleece, the remaining Argonauts either went back to their lives or onward to other journeys in future myths. Some familiar names from mythology who are typically counted among the Argonauts are: Admetus, Atalanta (though this is disputed, as she was female), Castor and Pollux, Laertes (the father of Odysseus from Trojan War fame), Philoctetes (who later fought in the Trojan War), Nestor (an old, wise leader during the Trojan War), and the famous figure who descended to the Underworld to find his dead wife – Orpheus.
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard
By: The Scribe on November, 2007
A 2,400-year-old shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island of Chios in the Aegean sea contained a rather tasty surprise – DNA testing on the insides of some of the amphorae yielded a recipe for Greek salad dressing! The shipwreck currently lies 70 meters deep, and is located about a kilometer away from Chios.
Scientists were able to obtain samples of the ancient dressing after sending several underwater robots down to the shipwreck to collect two of the jars. Amphorae were used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to transport liquids and other commodities – things like wine, oil, spices, grain, or olives – and are shaped like large cones. Since they’re made out of earthenware pottery, they have an incredible lifespan, preserving for hundreds of thousands of years, even underwater!
Studies on amphorae from shipwrecks often help to reveal the country of origin of the ship and how old it was, and it isn’t unusual for the jars to often still contain remains of their original contents – finds like this have helped to dramatically increase the amount of information available on trade in the ancient Mediterranean.
The DNA contents of the amphorae from this shipwreck revealed several common yet interesting ingredients: the jars contained olive oil mixed with oregano. This came as a bit of a surprise to archaeologists, since the island the ship had left from was a major exporter of fine wines – it had been assumed that any ship leaving Chios would have held plenty of amphorae full of wine.
While further investigations revealed that another amphora from the ship likely contained wine – which means there was probably plenty aboard – the oregano-flavored oil seems to have been the primary trade item on this vessel, making up at least two-thirds of the 350 amphorae found on the ship.
It’s likely that strong winds developed soon after the ship left port, causing it to capsize without warning. It is fairly common for the area around Chios to develop sudden storms or fluke winds that are exceedingly dangerous for sailing, however since they are unpredictable, sailors couldn’t simply not leave port for sake of potential trouble.
As a result, it turns out that not only did the ancient Greeks like their salad dressing, but the island of Chios was responsible for a more diverse agricultural program than previously assumed. These people certainly knew what they were doing, as well – in the rural areas of modern Greece, the older women are well aware that adding oregano and other spices to oil helps not only to increase the flavor, but also to preserve the life of the oil much longer.
By exporting flavored oil with an intentional longer lifespan, it’s possible that this ancient preservation method accidentally helped to preserve the oil’s DNA for archaeologists to find two thousand years later.
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Tomorrow: Baby Spears - but not the Britney kind.
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