The Trojan Wars

Cei

Wicca was suggested this week, but I think that will require a little more research than I want to devote while finishing off some other writing. I hope you will accept my substitute, the Trojan Wars.

Everyone knows about the Trojan War, either as written by Homer himself or through the reasonable movie facsimile done a few years ago. The romance of Paris and Helen, the foolish bravado of Achilles conflicting with the regal arrogance of Agamemnon, and the terrible situation Priam and Hector are forced into are all good storytelling.

The truth is that if a minion behaved as Achilles does toward Agamemnon, he would have had his throat slit as he slept. If he didn’t, his king would lose his hold over his other minions and himself be killed. The fact is that Odysseus is the real hero of The Iliad and Homer’s sequel The Odyssey. He enlists…

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Spanish Conquest messed around with Peru’s shoreline

So: human trash is altering the face of the earth since centuries? Seems familiar … but this study by Daniel F. Belknap and Daniel H. Sandweiss actually uncovered how the influence of onbrought sicknesses and relocation of whole populations, held the indegene back from covering the seashore ridges with mollusk shells and trash, and so the ocean began to tear down the century-old manmade shoreline.
It always amazes me, how the contact of two civilizations can impact the world around it in so many unforeseen ways.

Daniel Belknap/University of Maine, Orono

(link to the original thesis: here)

Pharmacy from the Past

In this article Joshua J. Mark shows us the mystic and complex world of mesopotamian health care. Just remember: whenever you feel sick, YOU HAVE SINNED!!!

Have a nice day!

De Materia Medica by Dioscorides, 1st century CE / Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York