View allAll Photos Tagged Misunderstanding,
Mary took this shot..on the WASG, Western Australian Speleological Group, trip with my 35mm Pentax SV
I still have the hat and the carbide lamp! The beard is longer!
Replaced by C:\Users\Bill Crowle\Pictures\Other Pictures\Slides\Box3 1966-68 1500dpi 1872 Y axis 20-08-23
B3R45-37Bill Portrait copy Buddy icon now I use it for my addiction here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr#Accounts
Old WASG and CRC speleo from Exmouth www.flickr.com/photos/kth_friend/4076895501/
search here by using Ctrl+F for key words you are looking for..
Reference metadata copyright.. www.controlledvocabulary.com/socialmedia/
flickr testbed image www.flickr.com/photos/15731269@N00/4143198617/
spreadsheet on-line showing results of uploading metadata....
spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tceeIYNw8ZDC0N52UgRcgnA&a...
Copyright link www.sciencealert.com.au/opinions/20122702-23165-2.html
Copyright discussion on Old Photos not taken by you! www.flickr.com/groups/historicandoldphotos/discuss/721576...
Copyright discussion..
We receive a large number of enquiries and these often highlight a number of common misconceptions and misunderstandings about copyright law. The following attempts to dispel the ‘top 10’ copyright myths.
www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/copyright_myths
More discussion, informed and maybe ill-informed on copyright law and if flickr cares...
www.flickr.com/groups/historicandoldphotos/discuss/721576...
An article on the status and future of Flickr, are we worried?? I am, when I think about the time and effort we have put into creating our photo databases, with all the links and comments. I really hope Flickr survives me!
www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/technology/31flickr.html?_r=1
Other than the recent support on Twitter, Yahoo’s top executives have barely mentioned Flickr publicly for some time. Few top executives actually have a public Flickr account.
No one questions Flickr’s appeal to photographers who post, admire and comment on a wealth of artistic images, many of which are magazine quality. Where Flickr is faltering is with people who want to store and share more mundane snapshots.
A Blog on what Flickr can do for you..
planetbotch.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/flickr-vs-photo-blog-...
Convenient for sharing with friends, Facebook offers free unlimited storage and an increasingly competitive product..... But a pain for photos and ease of adding comments, and no searching for MetaData.
How much data should I ....keep or delete
To see if you have managed to be on Explore, on the Flickr home page, use this link.
Scout bighuge explore bighugelabs.com/scout.php?username=spelio&sort=date&a...
Just found this App www.flickr.com/groups/1160997@N20/?added=3 from a shot by
Sidath Senanayake aka haelio who developed fluidr.
www.flickr.com/people/sidaths/
This app allows you to select a date for Explore images, and if it has a higher enough number it should appear without too much scrolling!
This page contains many tips to myself
flickr now has 6,000,000,000 images 6 Billion!
blog.flickr.net/en/2011/08/04/6000000000/
See a discussion on the explore algorithm and gaming explore..
www.flickr.com/help/forum/100608/?search=Flickr+central
See from a link below..
I don't understand why Flickr tech group hasn't introduced human computation concepts to its tagging strategy. Name comes to mind and starts with a "C" and ends with a "APCHA" and how Google used this to tag images in search. No offence, but images are binary data and you are trying to apply computation learning - which is nowhere near accurate, despite any AI models. Anyway, combination of human computational game theory into image identification and using our mushy brains for something that silicon cannot in the same fashion. Cognitive learning, man. You are so behind the learning curve.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrhAbZGkW8k
Preserve Flickr/SmugMug for ever....
www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157720519776877/
When Flickr was acquired by SmugMug in 2018, it was a mission of preservation: our tens of billions of photos, hundreds of millions of photographers, and millions of thriving communities were coming dangerously close to not existing online, and that was unacceptable. So we joined forces with SmugMug, and we’re all the stronger for it.
Today we’re announcing some upcoming changes to our Terms of Service that will help us continue to preserve the art, expression, history, stories, and memories of all Flickr members for the next hundred years. These changes fall into two distinct buckets, and will affect Flickr free members. The first change relates to restricted and moderate content. (You might call it NSFW, or explicit, or other terms, but we’ve gone ahead and defined them for Flickr here... www.flickr.org/
Artist/maker: George Nelson
Culture: Kwakwaka'wakw
Materials: Cedar wood. Paint, Iron metal. Adhesive
Subjects:
Slaves, Killer whales
Date Made: c. 1906
Date Acquired: 1956
How Acquired: Transferred
Measurements: Part d: 4 m x 1.1 m
Place made: Canada: British Columbia, Quatsino; Xwatis
Location: Great Hall / Crossroads
Object Number: A50009 d
Museum of Anthropology
University of British Columbia
About this object
History of use
The beams and figures stood as part of a house frame, and acted as structural supports. Figures represented on house frames were supernatural beings which the family living in the house had the right, through their history and origins, to represent.
Narrative
Klix’ken Gukwdzi, or Sea-Lion House, was built sometime around 1906. Like other houses in the village it had a modern exterior with milled-lumber front and windows. Yet it also featured carved sea-lion posts supporting the boardwalk, and inside, a monumental post-and-beam structure with carved and painted house posts, beams, and other symbols of the family’s history. Klix’ken House was the last old-style dwelling erected in Xwatis as a home for an extended family or lineage—and probably one of the last built on the entire coast.
Cultural context
Status
Iconographic meaning
Slaves were captured members of other Northwest Coast groups.
Physical description
Part of interior house frame (also see records a-c and g-h). The large wooden human figure (part d) is carved in high relief in a seated position. It is painted with a killer whale on its chest and broken coppers on both arms. In between his hands and below the killer whale is a small white face. The head is large, has a protruding nose and mouth, large carved eyes and is heavily decorated with yellow, white and black Northwest Coast stylized designs. Before the figure stands a wooden platform or seat supported by two kneeling slave figures (parts e-f), with unusual grimacing faces. Both figures have their outside arm rested on the ground while the other is turned backwards as if to support the seat that rests on their backs. Their eyes and bared teeth are carved in shallow relief while the rest of their face is carved in high relief. Their arms and upper body are painted green with black rings around the wrist and forearm. Their faces are painted green, white and black with Northwest Coast stylized designs.
Museum photos: collection-online.moa.ubc.ca/search/item?keywords=a50009&...
Slavery
This monumental house post was part of the internal frame of Sea-Lion House, the last traditional-style lineage dwelling built in the village of Xwatis, around 1906. The central seated figure—painted with crest imagery including a killer whale and broken coppers—rests above a platform supported by two crouching slave figures. Their exaggerated grimaces, twisted limbs, and burdened posture reflect the brutal social reality of hereditary slavery on the Northwest Coast. This is not symbolic—it is literal social commentary carved in wood.
Slavery in Kwakwaka’wakw and neighboring Indigenous societies—Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth—was an ancient, normalized institution. It dates back at least 2,500 years, likely much earlier, and was interwoven into kinship, economy, and status systems. The boundaries of the tradition extended along the entire Northwest Coast from the Columbia River to Southeast Alaska, including the coastlines and islands of British Columbia and parts of Washington State.
Slaves were captives taken during warfare or raiding, often from rival groups farther inland or up and down the coast. Over time, their status became hereditary: the children of slaves were born into bondage. Estimates vary, but 10–25% of the population in some Northwest Coast societies may have been enslaved—a figure comparable to or even exceeding that of classical Greece or the American South before emancipation.
Slaves were traded among high-ranking families, given as gifts, or redistributed in potlatch ceremonies, where public displays of wealth and hierarchy were enacted. Though not the primary economic engine, slave labor was integral to building houses, gathering food, processing materials, and assisting in ceremonial life.
There is evidence of ritual human sacrifice, particularly during high-ranking funerals and potlatches, where slaves might be killed to accompany a chief to the spirit world, or as offerings to supernatural beings. Such acts, though rare, reinforced the sacred and absolute authority of lineage heads. A notable recorded case describes the slow killing of a slave during the carving of a canoe, to transfer spiritual power to the object.
This post, made in the early 20th century, reflects a moment of cultural persistence under increasing colonial pressure. Though slavery had been outlawed by British and later Canadian authorities in the mid-19th century, the memory and meaning of the institution endured in ceremonial and artistic contexts. The figures here are not satirical. They are assertions of hereditary status and power, preserved in wood even as the old social order began to erode.
The reality of slavery among Indigenous societies—especially in the Pacific Northwest—poses a significant challenge to the sentimental or romanticized myth of pre-contact North America as a peaceful, egalitarian Eden undone solely by European colonialism.
This myth—promoted most often by well-meaning non-Indigenous individuals in settler or progressive circles—paints Indigenous peoples as spiritually superior, ecologically harmonious, and socially just in all respects. While this impulse may stem from guilt, admiration, or a desire to offer reparative narrative space, it too often flattens the complexities of Indigenous cultures and replaces one form of distortion with another.
🌿 The Problem with the "Noble Savage" Redux
This myth echoes the old "noble savage" trope, just updated for modern political sensibilities. In this version:
European colonists bring hierarchy, violence, gender inequality, greed, and ecological destruction;
Indigenous societies are cast as egalitarian, peaceful, and wise stewards of the land, free from coercion, patriarchy, or internal violence;
The existence of practices like slavery, ritual killing, raiding, and class stratification complicate or outright contradict that image.
In the Pacific Northwest, many Indigenous groups—particularly the Kwakwaka’wakw, Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian—developed complex, hierarchical, and materially affluent societies long before contact. These societies included:
Hereditary slavery on a large scale;
Social classes (nobility, commoners, slaves);
Warfare and raiding for captives and territory;
Ritual violence, including human sacrifice in some elite funerary and potlatch contexts;
Accumulation and symbolic destruction of wealth (e.g., coppers, blankets) as forms of status display and social competition.
None of this diminishes the brilliance or richness of these cultures—it simply acknowledges that power, exploitation, and inequality are human universals, not colonial inventions.
⚖️ The Danger of Utopianism
Romanticizing Indigenous societies erases:
The real ethical complexity of their histories;
The agency Indigenous people have always exercised—even when that included perpetuating internal systems of dominance;
The lived reality of Indigenous descendants of slaves, who still exist and whose identities complicate claims of cultural unity or purity.
It also distorts the moral landscape: if Indigenous cultures are idealized as perfect, then their suffering at colonial hands is treated not as a tragedy affecting real societies, but as the shattering of a fantasy. That is its own form of erasure.
What the House Post Tells Us
The 1906 house post you shared is not just an artwork—it’s a memory structure. It remembers lineage power, supernatural legitimacy, and a society where enslavement was normalized and ritually inscribed.
To take that seriously is not to diminish the culture—it’s to respect it enough not to lie about it.
🔎 1. Are descendants of slaves aware of their status?
Yes—in many cases, they are. Within some families and communities, ancestry linked to slavery is remembered, sometimes as oral history, sometimes as an open secret, and occasionally as a source of intra-community stigma that lingers to this day.
Slavery on the Northwest Coast was hereditary, and although it was officially abolished in the 19th century under colonial law, its social residues persisted, including in marriage eligibility, ceremonial roles, and internal status hierarchies.
In the words of several Indigenous scholars and community members, some descendants of enslaved people were, and sometimes still are, considered "lesser" or outside full hereditary status, particularly in contexts where lineage and clan descent remain important.
This creates a difficult legacy: some descendants of slaves are aware of that heritage, but there is also silence and discomfort, both due to shame and due to the fact that this internal history challenges the dominant narrative of Indigenous solidarity and external victimization.
2. Is there a movement to atone for or reckon with slavery?
There is no widespread, organized movement for atonement within Pacific Northwest Indigenous communities on the scale of, say, post-apartheid truth commissions or American university reckonings with slavery. However, there are pockets of discussion and acknowledgment emerging, especially among:
Younger Indigenous scholars, artists, and historians who are asking questions about internal power structures, the legacy of hereditary hierarchy, and the place of descendants of slaves within modern tribal identity;
Cultural revitalization movements, particularly those tied to potlatch, crest rights, and clan inheritance, where these histories must be confronted in order to authentically revive ceremonial practices;
Anthropological and museum settings, where Indigenous curators and collaborators are being forthright about what carvings (like the house post you showed) actually depict and how they should be interpreted.
That said, this is still a difficult conversation. In many communities, talking openly about historical slavery is seen as divisive, and in some cases, as airing internal matters to settler audiences, which carries a risk of misunderstanding or co-option.
️Indigenous Voices on the Topic
A few Indigenous scholars and thinkers who have touched on or addressed this history include:
Dr. Sarah Hunt (Tłaliłila’ogwa, Kwagu’ł) – who has written about Indigenous belonging, hierarchy, and the limits of unity narratives.
Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace – whose ethnohistorical work includes accounts of social hierarchy and enslaved peoples among the Secwépemc and other Interior and coastal nations.
Chief Robert Joseph (Kwakwaka’wakw) – while not focused on slavery per se, has spoken of the importance of truth-telling and internal healing in reconciliation.
⚖️ Final Thought
There’s no denying the power and beauty of Northwest Coast Indigenous cultures, but part of respecting them is recognizing that they, like all human cultures, contain contradictions, hierarchies, and histories of internal injustice. The story of slavery—its memory, its erasure, and its unresolved legacies—is one of those.
So while no formal atonement movement exists, the conversation has begun—and will likely deepen as Indigenous communities continue the work of cultural truth-telling on their own terms.
While slavery in the PNW and in the American South involved human bondage, PNW slavery was status-based, limited in scale, and embedded in kinship and prestige economies, whereas Southern slavery was racialized, industrialized, and ideologically justified for economic exploitation. The psychological, economic, and political aftershocks of American chattel slavery have been far more profound and enduring.
This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT.
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
~ Albert Schweitzer
I made these ice lanterns using an ice lantern star mold from Lee Valley Tools. I simply fill them with water and leave them outside to freeze (they can also be made in a freezer), unmold them and put tea-lights in them to create some winter magic in the evenings. They last as long as the weather stays cold enough to keep them frozen.
"Did you ever think, when you were a child, what fun it would be if your toys could come to life? Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. It would involve turning the tin into flesh. And suppose the tin soldier did not like it. He is not interested in flesh; all he sees is that the tin is being spoilt. He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything he can to prevent you. He will not be made into a man if he can help it. What you have done about that tin soldier I do not know. But what God did about us was this: The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself... And because the whole difficulty for us is that the natural life has to be, in a sense, "killed," He chose an earthly career which involved the killing of His human desires at every turn - poverty, misunderstanding from His own family, betrayal by one of His intimate friends, being jeered at and manhandled by the police, and execution by torture. And then, after being thus killed - killed every day in a sense - the human creature in Him, because it was united to the divine Son, came to life again. The Man in Christ rose again: not only the God. That is the whole point, for the first time we saw a real man. One tin soldier - real tin, just like the rest - had come fully and splendidly alive."
- C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity
Hippolytus – Euripides – Ancient Greece – Classical Literature
(Tragedy, Greek, 428 BCE, 1,466 lines)
“Hippolytus” (Gr: “Hippolytos”) is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, first produced at the Athens City Dionysia in 428 BCE, where it won first prize (as part of a trilogy). It is based on the myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus, and how a series of misunderstandings and the meddling of the gods result in his death and that of his step-mother, Phaedra.
The play is set in Troezen, a coastal town in the northeastern Peloponnese, where King Theseus of Athens is serving a year’s voluntary exile after having murdered a local king and his sons. Hippolytus, Theseus‘ illegitimate son with the Amazon Hippolyta, has lived and trained in Troezen since his early childhood, under the protection of Pittheus, the king of Troezen.
At the start of the play, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, explains that Hippolytus has sworn a vow of chastity and now refuses to revere her, instead honouring Artemis, the chaste goddess of the hunt. Hippolytus is warned about his overt disdain for Aphrodite, but he refuses to listen. As an act of vengeance for Hippolytus‘ snub, Aphrodite has caused Phaedra, Theseus‘ wife and Hippolytus‘ stepmother, to fall madly in love with him.
The Chorus of young married women of Troezen describe how Phaedra is not eating or sleeping, and Phaedra finally shocks the Chorus and her nurse by reluctantly admitting that she is sick with love for Hippolytus, and that she plans to starve herself in order to die with her honour intact.
Since the secret is out, Phaedra believes she is ruined and, after making the Chorus swear secrecy, she goes inside and hangs herself. Theseus then returns and discovers his wife’s dead body, along with a letter which seems to clearly place the blame for her death on Hippolytus. Misinterpreting this to mean that Hippolytus had raped Phaedra, the enraged Theseus curses his son to death or at least exile, calling on his father Poseidon to enforce the curse. Hippolytus protests his innocence, but cannot tell the whole truth because of the binding oath he previously swore to the nurse. As the Chorus sings a lament, Hippolytus goes off into exile.
However, a messenger appears shortly to report how, as Hippolytus got into his chariot to leave the kingdom, a sea-monster sent by Poseidon (at Aphrodites’ request) frightened his horses and dragged Hippolytus along the rocks. Hippolytus lies dying, but Theseus still refuses to believe the messenger’s protests that Hippolytus was innocent, revelling in Hippolytus‘ suffering.
Artemis then appears and tells him the truth, explaining that his son was innocent and that it was the dead Phaedra who had lied, although she also explains that the ultimate blame must lie with Aphrodite. As Hippolytus is carried in, barely alive, Artemis vows revenge on Aphrodite, promising to kill any man that Aphrodite holds dearest in the world. With his final breaths, Hippolytus absolves his father of his death, and finally dies.
Let me take you down
cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone
but it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me
Let me take you down
cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever
No one I think is in my tree
I mean it must be high or low
That is you can't, you know, tune in
but it's all right
That is I think it's not too bad
Let me take you down
cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever
Always no sometimes think it's me
But you know I know when it's a dream
I think I know I mean, ah yes
but it's all wrong
that is I think I disagree
Let me take you down
cause I'm going to strawberry fields
Nothing is real
and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry fields forever
Strawberry fields forever
strawberry fields forever
El Jinete de Bronce (en ruso, Медный всадник, literalmente "Caballero de Cobre") es una escultura ecuestre de Pedro el Grande, hecha en bronce por Étienne-Maurice Falconet en San Petersburgo, Rusia. Recibe este nombre por la influencia del poema homónimo de Aleksandr Pushkin, uno de los más grandes poemas del idioma ruso. Ahora es un símbolo de San Petersburgo, como la Estatua de la Libertad es un símbolo de Nueva York.
El bloque sobre el que se yergue la estatua es conocido como Piedra de Trueno, y se dice que es la roca más grande que ha movido el hombre. En efecto, la roca no solo es enorme, sino que fue transportada seis kilómetros hasta la costa del Golfo de Finlandia sólo por la fuerza del hombre, sin animales ni máquinas.
Se yergue todavía en la orilla del Nevá. El efecto causado por la estatua es tan original como grandioso: la escultura no descansa sobre un pedestal arquitectónico, sino que el caballo se encabrita sobre la roca granítica; el Zar carece de espada; su figura altiva, que parece designar con la mano la nueva capital y marcar un camino a su pueblo, no evoca al guerrero, sino al legislador y al civilizador.
La estatua ecuestre de Pedro el Grande se encuentra en la Plaza del Senado de San Petersburgo, Rusia. Catalina la Grande, una princesa alemana casada dentro de la línea de los Románov, al no tener derecho legal al trono, estaba ansiosa de ser relacionada con Pedro el Grande, para obtener legitimidad a los ojos del pueblo. Por esta razón, ordenó la construcción de la estatua, y mandó que se inscribiera "Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII" en Latín y "Петру первому Екатерина вторая, лето 1782" en Ruso, ambas frases con un mismo significado "Catalina Segunda a Pedro Primero, 1782"; una expresión de la actitud de Catalina hacia su predecesor y de la opinión que tenía de sí misma dentro del linaje de los grandes gobernantes rusos.
Catalina mantenía correspondencia con Denis Diderot, que fue quien le recomendó a su amigo Étienne Maurice Falconet, un escultor francés, como candidato para la construcción de la estatua que dedicaría a Pedro el Grande. La emperatriz siguió el consejo de Diderot y Falconet llegó a Rusia en 1776.
La construcción de la estatua se inició en 1775, con la correspondiente fundición y colado del bronce necesario para realizar la escultura, tarea que fue supervisada por Yemelyán Jailov. Durante el colado de la escultura se rompió el molde sobre el que se estaba vertiendo el metal, salpicando los alrededores con bronce fundido, hecho que originó un incendio en las instalaciones. Todos los trabajadores huyeron excepto Jailov, quien arriesgó su vida para salvar el colado de bronce. Llevó 12 años desde 1770 hasta 1782 y realizar dos veces el proceso de fundido y colado el poder terminar la estatua, incluyendo el pedestal, caballo y jinete.
La cara del Zar, lo que da identidad al Caballero de Bronce como Pedro el Grande, es obra de Marie-Anne Collot, que en el momento de realizar tan detallado trabajo, tenía tan sólo 18 años de edad y era una estudiante de Falconet y Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Collot hizo el viaje a Rusia con Falconet en calidad de aprendiz y realizó su contribución a la escultura recopilando información sobre las facciones de Pedro el Grande, tanto de su máscara mortuoria como de los diferentes retratos que pudo encontrar en San Petersburgo. Gracias al trabajo en la faz del Caballero de Bronce se ganó por parte de Diderot el sobrenombre de "Mademoiselle Victoire" (Señorita Victoria).
El 9 de agosto de 1782, catorce años después de que se iniciara la excavación del pedestal, fue descubierta la estatua terminada en una ceremonia con miles de invitados. Brilló por su ausencia Falconet, quien se vio obligado a salir de Rusia cuatro años antes de que el proyecto estuviera terminado, debido a que un malentendido con la emperatriz se convirtió en un conflicto mayor. Catalina rápidamente se olvidó de él, y empezó a ver al Caballero de Bronce como obra propia.
La estatua muestra a Pedro el Grande sentado heroicamente sobre su caballo, con su brazo extendido apuntando hacia el río Nevá en el Oeste. El escultor deseaba capturar el momento exacto en que su caballo se encontraba erguido sobre sus patas traseras al borde de un espectacular acantilado. Se puede ver a su caballo pisoteando a una serpiente, que puede representar los numerosos males o enemigos que tuvieron que enfrentar Pedro y sus reformas. La estatua mide 6 metros de alto, más 7 metros para el pedestal, o sea un total de unos 13 metros.
Para elaborar el pedestal, se utilizó un monolito descomunal conocido como Piedra de Trueno (del ruso Камень-Гром) que fue encontrada en Lajta a seis kilómetros tierra adentro del Golfo de Finlandia en 1768. Esta roca se hizo acreedora al apelativo de "piedra de Trueno" debido a una leyenda local, según la cual un rayo le había desprendido un fragmento. Falconet quería trabajar la roca en su emplazamiento original, pero debido a un capricho de la emperatriz, tuvo que ser trasladada hasta San Petersburgo, en su forma primitiva como un gran logro para Rusia. Sin embargo, y debido a que la mitad de su volumen estaba hundida bajo terreno pantanoso, fue necesario crear mecanismos para extraerla antes de trasladarla. Un italiano, Main Carburi teniente coronel del ejército ruso, se ofreció para supervisar el proyecto.
Después de esperar a que transcurriese el invierno, durante el cual el terreno se encontraba congelado, la piedra fue arrastrada hasta la costa. Esto fue logrado mediante un trineo metálico que se apoyaba sobre esferas de bronce de 13,5 cm. de diámetro esparcidas a lo largo de una pista, usando un principio similar al del funcionamiento de un rodamiento de bolas, de invención posterior. Lo que hizo la tarea más impresionante es que fue llevada a cabo únicamente por humanos; ni animales ni tracción mecánica fueron usados en trasportar la piedra desde su emplazamiento original hasta la Plaza del Senado. Una vez que se ideó la forma de moverla, fueron necesarios cuatrocientos hombres y nueve meses para trasladar la piedra, tiempo durante el que varios escultores trabajaron de forma continua para dar forma al enorme monolito de granito. Catalina visitaba periódicamente la piedra, para verificar su progreso. De accionar las manivelas se encargaban treinta y dos hombres, que proporcionaban una mínima velocidad de avance a la roca. Otra de las complicaciones consistía en el hecho de que sólo existiesen cien metros de pista de deslizamiento para las esferas, de modo que ésta tenía que ser constantemente desmontada y reubicada. Sin embargo, los trabajadores conseguían cerca de 150 metros de avance por día en terreno plano. Después, cuando se llegó al mar, se construyó una enorme barcaza exclusivamente para la Piedra de Trueno, que tenía que ser asegurada por los dos lados por sendos buques de guerra. Después de un pequeño viaje por mar, la roca llegó a su destino en 1770, cerca de dos años después de que los esfuerzos por moverla comenzaran. Se creó una medalla para conmemorar su llegada, con la leyenda 'Demasiado Audaz'
Se ha llegado a asegurar que La Piedra de Trueno es "La piedra más grande jamás, movida por el hombre". Debido al gran tamaño de la roca, la forma más fácil de medir su masa es calcularla. Sus dimensiones antes de ser cortada, de acuerdo con la publicación de otoño de 1882 de La Nature son 7 x 14 x 9 m. Basados en la densidad del granito, la masa de la roca fue determinada alrededor de las 1500 toneladas. Falconet hizo cortarla hasta dejarla con su forma actual que es parecida a una ola, y dejó el estilizado pedestal con un peso ligeramente menor. Sin embargo, sigue ocupando el primer puesto por tamaño cuando se le compara con otras esculturas…
Existe una leyenda del siglo XIX que afirma que mientras el Caballero de Bronce permanezca en el centro de San Petersburgo, ninguna fuerza enemiga será capaz de tomar la ciudad. Durante los 900 días del Sitio de Leningrado durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial (Leningrado fue el nombre de la ciudad entre 1924 y 1991) la estatua no fue derribada, pero sí cubierta con sacos de arena y una estructura de madera. La protección funcionó tan bien que el Caballero de Bronce sobrevivió virtualmente intacto a 900 días de bombardeo y artillería. En honor a la leyenda, San Petersburgo nunca ha sido tomado.
El Caballero de Bronce es también el título de un poema escrito por Aleksandr Pushkin en 1833, ampliamente considerado como uno de los más importantes trabajos de la literatura de Rusia. La estatua llegó a ser conocida como "El caballero de bronce", gracias a la popularidad del poema. El principal tema del poema, es el conflicto entre las necesidades del estado y las necesidades de los ciudadanos ordinarios.
En el poema que da nombre al monumento, Pushkin describe la suerte del pobre joven Yevgueni y sus allegados durante una inundación en la que el río Nevá se desbordó. Yevgueni maldice la estatua, furioso contra Pedro el Grande por construir la ciudad en un lugar tan inseguro y hacer pasar a su familia aquellas penalidades. La estatua cobra vida y lo persigue a través de toda la ciudad. Posteriormente Yevgueni trata a la estatua con reverencia y respeto.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caballero_de_Bronce
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_jinete_de_bronce
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_I_de_Rusia
The Bronze Horseman (Russian: Медный всадник, literally "copper horseman") is an equestrian statue of Peter the Great in the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Commissioned by Catherine the Great, it was created by the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet. The name comes from an 1833 poem of the same name by Aleksander Pushkin, which is widely considered one of the most significant works of Russian literature. The statue is now one of the symbols of Saint Petersburg.
The statue's pedestal is the enormous Thunder Stone, the largest stone ever moved by humans. The stone originally weighed about 1500 tonnes, but was carved down during transportation to its current size.
The equestrian statue of Peter the Great is situated in the Senate Square (formerly the Decembrists Square), in Saint Petersburg. Catherine the Great, a German princess who married into the Romanov line, was anxious to connect herself to Peter the Great to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people. She ordered its construction, and had it inscribed with the phrase Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII in Latin and Петру перьвому Екатерина вторая, лѣта 1782 in Russian, both meaning 'Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782', an expression of her admiration for her predecessor and her view of her own place in the line of great Russian rulers. Having gained her position through a palace coup, Catherine had no legal claim to the throne and wanted to represent herself as Peter's rightful heir.
In correspondence with Catherine the Great, Denis Diderot suggested French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet, a friend of his, for the commission. The empress followed his advice and Falconet arrived in Russia in 1766.
In 1775 the casting of the statue began, supervised by caster Emelyan Khailov. At one point during the casting, the mould broke, releasing molten bronze that started several fires. All the workers ran except Khailov, who risked his life to salvage the casting. After being remelted and recast, the statue was later finished. It took 12 years, from 1770 to 1782, to create the Bronze Horseman, including pedestal, horse and rider.
The tsar's face is the work of the young Marie-Anne Collot, then only 18 years old. She had accompanied Falconet as an apprentice on his trip to Russia in 1766. A student of Falconet and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Collot was called Mademoiselle Victoire (Miss Victory) by Diderot. She modelled Peter the Great's face on his death mask and numerous portraits she found in Saint Petersburg. The right hand of the statue was modelled from a Roman bronze hand, found in 1771 in Voorburg in the Netherlands at the site of the ancient Roman town Forum Hadriani.
On 7 August 1782, fourteen years after excavation of the pedestal began, the finished statue was unveiled in a ceremony with thousands in attendance. Conspicuously absent was Falconet, as a misunderstanding between him and the empress turned into a serious conflict. As a result, he was forced to leave Russia four years before the project was completed. Catherine largely forgot about him afterwards, and came to see the Bronze Horseman as her own oeuvre.
The statue portrays Peter the Great sitting heroically on his horse, his outstretched arm pointing towards the River Neva. The sculptor wished to capture the exact moment of his horse rearing at the edge of a dramatic cliff. His horse can be seen trampling a serpent, variously interpreted to represent treachery, evil, or the enemies of Peter and his reforms. The statue itself is about 6 m (20 feet) tall, while the pedestal is another 7 m (25 feet) tall, for a total of approximately 13 m (45 feet).
For the pedestal, an enormous rapakivi granite monolith boulder known as the Thunder Stone (Russian: Гром-камень) was found at Lakhta, 6 km (3.7 mi) inland from the Gulf of Finland in 1768. The Thunder Stone gained its name from a local legend that thunder split a piece off the stone. Falconet wanted to work on shaping the stone in its original location, but Catherine ordered it be moved before being cut. As it was embedded to half its depth in the ground and the area was marshy terrain, the Russians had to develop new methods to dig up and transport the colossal stone. Marinos Carburis (Μαρίνος Χαρμπούρης), a Greek from the Island of Kefallonia and serving as lieutenant-colonel in the Russian Army, offered to undertake the project. Carburis had studied engineering in Vienna and is considered to be the first Greek to hold a diploma in engineering.
Carburis directed workmen to wait for winter, when the ground was frozen, and then had them drag the large stone over the frozen ground to the sea for shipment and transport to the city. He developed a metallic sledge that slid over bronze spheres about 13.5 cm (6 inches) in diameter, over a track. The process worked in a way similar to the later invention of ball bearings. Making the feat even more impressive was that the labour was done entirely by humans; no animals or machines were used in bringing the stone from the original site to the Senate Square. After Carburis devised the method, it took 400 men nine months to move the stone, during which time master stonecutters continuously shaped the enormous granite monolith. Catherine periodically visited the effort to oversee their progress. The larger capstan was turned by 32 men, this just barely moving the rock. A further complication was the availability of only 100 m of track, which had to be constantly disassembled and relaid. Nevertheless, the workers made over 150 m of progress a day while on level ground. Upon arrival at the sea an enormous barge was constructed exclusively for the Thunder Stone. The vessel had to be supported on either side by two full-size warships. After a short voyage, the stone reached its destination in 1770, after nearly two years of work. A medal was issued to commemorate its arrival, with the legend "Close to Daring".
According to the fall 1882 edition of La Nature, the stone's dimensions before being cut were 7 × 14 × 9 m. Based on the density of granite, its weight was determined to be around 1500 tonnes. Falconet had some of this cut away shaping it into a base, so the finished pedestal weighs considerably less.
A 19th-century legend states that while the Bronze Horseman stands in the middle of Saint Petersburg, enemy forces will not be able to conquer the city. During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad by the invading Germans during the Second World War (Leningrad being the city's name from 1924–1991), the statue was covered with sandbags and a wooden shelter. Thus protected it survived 900 days of bombing and artillery virtually untouched. True to the legend, Leningrad was never taken.
The Bronze Horseman is the title of a poem written by Aleksandr Pushkin in 1833, widely considered to be one of the most significant works of Russian literature. Due to the popularity of his work, the statue came to be called the "Bronze Horseman". A major theme of the poem is conflict between the needs of the state and the needs of ordinary citizens.
In the poem, Pushkin describes the fates of the poor man Evgenii and his beloved Parasha during a severe flood of the Neva. Evgenii curses the statue, furious at Peter the Great for founding a city in such an unsuitable location and indirectly causing the death of his beloved. Coming to life, the horseman chases Evgenii through the city. The poem closes with the discovery of the young man's corpse in a ruined hut floating at the edge of the river.
In 1903 the artist Alexandre Benois published an edition of the poem with his illustrations, creating what was considered a masterwork of Art Nouveau.
The poem has inspired works in other genres: Reinhold Glière choreographed a ballet based on it, and Nikolai Myaskovsky's 10th Symphony (1926–7) was inspired by the poem. The statue itself has been seen as the inspiration or model for a similar statue which appears in Joseph Conrad’s 1904 political novel Nostromo, thus implicitly linking the political events in Nostromo with Conrad’s 1905 essay “Autocracy and War” on the subject of Russia and his eventual 1912 novel Under Western Eyes (and also with the Pushkin poem and with the political issue of Poland).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Horseman
El Jinete de Bronce (en ruso, Медный всадник, literalmente "Caballero de Cobre") es una escultura ecuestre de Pedro el Grande, hecha en bronce por Étienne-Maurice Falconet en San Petersburgo, Rusia. Recibe este nombre por la influencia del poema homónimo de Aleksandr Pushkin, uno de los más grandes poemas del idioma ruso. Ahora es un símbolo de San Petersburgo, como la Estatua de la Libertad es un símbolo de Nueva York.
El bloque sobre el que se yergue la estatua es conocido como Piedra de Trueno, y se dice que es la roca más grande que ha movido el hombre. En efecto, la roca no solo es enorme, sino que fue transportada seis kilómetros hasta la costa del Golfo de Finlandia sólo por la fuerza del hombre, sin animales ni máquinas.
Se yergue todavía en la orilla del Nevá. El efecto causado por la estatua es tan original como grandioso: la escultura no descansa sobre un pedestal arquitectónico, sino que el caballo se encabrita sobre la roca granítica; el Zar carece de espada; su figura altiva, que parece designar con la mano la nueva capital y marcar un camino a su pueblo, no evoca al guerrero, sino al legislador y al civilizador.
La estatua ecuestre de Pedro el Grande se encuentra en la Plaza del Senado de San Petersburgo, Rusia. Catalina la Grande, una princesa alemana casada dentro de la línea de los Románov, al no tener derecho legal al trono, estaba ansiosa de ser relacionada con Pedro el Grande, para obtener legitimidad a los ojos del pueblo. Por esta razón, ordenó la construcción de la estatua, y mandó que se inscribiera "Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII" en Latín y "Петру первому Екатерина вторая, лето 1782" en Ruso, ambas frases con un mismo significado "Catalina Segunda a Pedro Primero, 1782"; una expresión de la actitud de Catalina hacia su predecesor y de la opinión que tenía de sí misma dentro del linaje de los grandes gobernantes rusos.
Catalina mantenía correspondencia con Denis Diderot, que fue quien le recomendó a su amigo Étienne Maurice Falconet, un escultor francés, como candidato para la construcción de la estatua que dedicaría a Pedro el Grande. La emperatriz siguió el consejo de Diderot y Falconet llegó a Rusia en 1776.
La construcción de la estatua se inició en 1775, con la correspondiente fundición y colado del bronce necesario para realizar la escultura, tarea que fue supervisada por Yemelyán Jailov. Durante el colado de la escultura se rompió el molde sobre el que se estaba vertiendo el metal, salpicando los alrededores con bronce fundido, hecho que originó un incendio en las instalaciones. Todos los trabajadores huyeron excepto Jailov, quien arriesgó su vida para salvar el colado de bronce. Llevó 12 años desde 1770 hasta 1782 y realizar dos veces el proceso de fundido y colado el poder terminar la estatua, incluyendo el pedestal, caballo y jinete.
La cara del Zar, lo que da identidad al Caballero de Bronce como Pedro el Grande, es obra de Marie-Anne Collot, que en el momento de realizar tan detallado trabajo, tenía tan sólo 18 años de edad y era una estudiante de Falconet y Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Collot hizo el viaje a Rusia con Falconet en calidad de aprendiz y realizó su contribución a la escultura recopilando información sobre las facciones de Pedro el Grande, tanto de su máscara mortuoria como de los diferentes retratos que pudo encontrar en San Petersburgo. Gracias al trabajo en la faz del Caballero de Bronce se ganó por parte de Diderot el sobrenombre de "Mademoiselle Victoire" (Señorita Victoria).
El 9 de agosto de 1782, catorce años después de que se iniciara la excavación del pedestal, fue descubierta la estatua terminada en una ceremonia con miles de invitados. Brilló por su ausencia Falconet, quien se vio obligado a salir de Rusia cuatro años antes de que el proyecto estuviera terminado, debido a que un malentendido con la emperatriz se convirtió en un conflicto mayor. Catalina rápidamente se olvidó de él, y empezó a ver al Caballero de Bronce como obra propia.
La estatua muestra a Pedro el Grande sentado heroicamente sobre su caballo, con su brazo extendido apuntando hacia el río Nevá en el Oeste. El escultor deseaba capturar el momento exacto en que su caballo se encontraba erguido sobre sus patas traseras al borde de un espectacular acantilado. Se puede ver a su caballo pisoteando a una serpiente, que puede representar los numerosos males o enemigos que tuvieron que enfrentar Pedro y sus reformas. La estatua mide 6 metros de alto, más 7 metros para el pedestal, o sea un total de unos 13 metros.
Para elaborar el pedestal, se utilizó un monolito descomunal conocido como Piedra de Trueno (del ruso Камень-Гром) que fue encontrada en Lajta a seis kilómetros tierra adentro del Golfo de Finlandia en 1768. Esta roca se hizo acreedora al apelativo de "piedra de Trueno" debido a una leyenda local, según la cual un rayo le había desprendido un fragmento. Falconet quería trabajar la roca en su emplazamiento original, pero debido a un capricho de la emperatriz, tuvo que ser trasladada hasta San Petersburgo, en su forma primitiva como un gran logro para Rusia. Sin embargo, y debido a que la mitad de su volumen estaba hundida bajo terreno pantanoso, fue necesario crear mecanismos para extraerla antes de trasladarla. Un italiano, Main Carburi teniente coronel del ejército ruso, se ofreció para supervisar el proyecto.
Después de esperar a que transcurriese el invierno, durante el cual el terreno se encontraba congelado, la piedra fue arrastrada hasta la costa. Esto fue logrado mediante un trineo metálico que se apoyaba sobre esferas de bronce de 13,5 cm. de diámetro esparcidas a lo largo de una pista, usando un principio similar al del funcionamiento de un rodamiento de bolas, de invención posterior. Lo que hizo la tarea más impresionante es que fue llevada a cabo únicamente por humanos; ni animales ni tracción mecánica fueron usados en trasportar la piedra desde su emplazamiento original hasta la Plaza del Senado. Una vez que se ideó la forma de moverla, fueron necesarios cuatrocientos hombres y nueve meses para trasladar la piedra, tiempo durante el que varios escultores trabajaron de forma continua para dar forma al enorme monolito de granito. Catalina visitaba periódicamente la piedra, para verificar su progreso. De accionar las manivelas se encargaban treinta y dos hombres, que proporcionaban una mínima velocidad de avance a la roca. Otra de las complicaciones consistía en el hecho de que sólo existiesen cien metros de pista de deslizamiento para las esferas, de modo que ésta tenía que ser constantemente desmontada y reubicada. Sin embargo, los trabajadores conseguían cerca de 150 metros de avance por día en terreno plano. Después, cuando se llegó al mar, se construyó una enorme barcaza exclusivamente para la Piedra de Trueno, que tenía que ser asegurada por los dos lados por sendos buques de guerra. Después de un pequeño viaje por mar, la roca llegó a su destino en 1770, cerca de dos años después de que los esfuerzos por moverla comenzaran. Se creó una medalla para conmemorar su llegada, con la leyenda 'Demasiado Audaz'
Se ha llegado a asegurar que La Piedra de Trueno es "La piedra más grande jamás, movida por el hombre". Debido al gran tamaño de la roca, la forma más fácil de medir su masa es calcularla. Sus dimensiones antes de ser cortada, de acuerdo con la publicación de otoño de 1882 de La Nature son 7 x 14 x 9 m. Basados en la densidad del granito, la masa de la roca fue determinada alrededor de las 1500 toneladas. Falconet hizo cortarla hasta dejarla con su forma actual que es parecida a una ola, y dejó el estilizado pedestal con un peso ligeramente menor. Sin embargo, sigue ocupando el primer puesto por tamaño cuando se le compara con otras esculturas…
Existe una leyenda del siglo XIX que afirma que mientras el Caballero de Bronce permanezca en el centro de San Petersburgo, ninguna fuerza enemiga será capaz de tomar la ciudad. Durante los 900 días del Sitio de Leningrado durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial (Leningrado fue el nombre de la ciudad entre 1924 y 1991) la estatua no fue derribada, pero sí cubierta con sacos de arena y una estructura de madera. La protección funcionó tan bien que el Caballero de Bronce sobrevivió virtualmente intacto a 900 días de bombardeo y artillería. En honor a la leyenda, San Petersburgo nunca ha sido tomado.
El Caballero de Bronce es también el título de un poema escrito por Aleksandr Pushkin en 1833, ampliamente considerado como uno de los más importantes trabajos de la literatura de Rusia. La estatua llegó a ser conocida como "El caballero de bronce", gracias a la popularidad del poema. El principal tema del poema, es el conflicto entre las necesidades del estado y las necesidades de los ciudadanos ordinarios.
En el poema que da nombre al monumento, Pushkin describe la suerte del pobre joven Yevgueni y sus allegados durante una inundación en la que el río Nevá se desbordó. Yevgueni maldice la estatua, furioso contra Pedro el Grande por construir la ciudad en un lugar tan inseguro y hacer pasar a su familia aquellas penalidades. La estatua cobra vida y lo persigue a través de toda la ciudad. Posteriormente Yevgueni trata a la estatua con reverencia y respeto.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caballero_de_Bronce
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_jinete_de_bronce
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_I_de_Rusia
The Bronze Horseman (Russian: Медный всадник, literally "copper horseman") is an equestrian statue of Peter the Great in the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Commissioned by Catherine the Great, it was created by the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet. The name comes from an 1833 poem of the same name by Aleksander Pushkin, which is widely considered one of the most significant works of Russian literature. The statue is now one of the symbols of Saint Petersburg.
The statue's pedestal is the enormous Thunder Stone, the largest stone ever moved by humans. The stone originally weighed about 1500 tonnes, but was carved down during transportation to its current size.
The equestrian statue of Peter the Great is situated in the Senate Square (formerly the Decembrists Square), in Saint Petersburg. Catherine the Great, a German princess who married into the Romanov line, was anxious to connect herself to Peter the Great to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people. She ordered its construction, and had it inscribed with the phrase Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII in Latin and Петру перьвому Екатерина вторая, лѣта 1782 in Russian, both meaning 'Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782', an expression of her admiration for her predecessor and her view of her own place in the line of great Russian rulers. Having gained her position through a palace coup, Catherine had no legal claim to the throne and wanted to represent herself as Peter's rightful heir.
In correspondence with Catherine the Great, Denis Diderot suggested French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet, a friend of his, for the commission. The empress followed his advice and Falconet arrived in Russia in 1766.
In 1775 the casting of the statue began, supervised by caster Emelyan Khailov. At one point during the casting, the mould broke, releasing molten bronze that started several fires. All the workers ran except Khailov, who risked his life to salvage the casting. After being remelted and recast, the statue was later finished. It took 12 years, from 1770 to 1782, to create the Bronze Horseman, including pedestal, horse and rider.
The tsar's face is the work of the young Marie-Anne Collot, then only 18 years old. She had accompanied Falconet as an apprentice on his trip to Russia in 1766. A student of Falconet and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Collot was called Mademoiselle Victoire (Miss Victory) by Diderot. She modelled Peter the Great's face on his death mask and numerous portraits she found in Saint Petersburg. The right hand of the statue was modelled from a Roman bronze hand, found in 1771 in Voorburg in the Netherlands at the site of the ancient Roman town Forum Hadriani.
On 7 August 1782, fourteen years after excavation of the pedestal began, the finished statue was unveiled in a ceremony with thousands in attendance. Conspicuously absent was Falconet, as a misunderstanding between him and the empress turned into a serious conflict. As a result, he was forced to leave Russia four years before the project was completed. Catherine largely forgot about him afterwards, and came to see the Bronze Horseman as her own oeuvre.
The statue portrays Peter the Great sitting heroically on his horse, his outstretched arm pointing towards the River Neva. The sculptor wished to capture the exact moment of his horse rearing at the edge of a dramatic cliff. His horse can be seen trampling a serpent, variously interpreted to represent treachery, evil, or the enemies of Peter and his reforms. The statue itself is about 6 m (20 feet) tall, while the pedestal is another 7 m (25 feet) tall, for a total of approximately 13 m (45 feet).
For the pedestal, an enormous rapakivi granite monolith boulder known as the Thunder Stone (Russian: Гром-камень) was found at Lakhta, 6 km (3.7 mi) inland from the Gulf of Finland in 1768. The Thunder Stone gained its name from a local legend that thunder split a piece off the stone. Falconet wanted to work on shaping the stone in its original location, but Catherine ordered it be moved before being cut. As it was embedded to half its depth in the ground and the area was marshy terrain, the Russians had to develop new methods to dig up and transport the colossal stone. Marinos Carburis (Μαρίνος Χαρμπούρης), a Greek from the Island of Kefallonia and serving as lieutenant-colonel in the Russian Army, offered to undertake the project. Carburis had studied engineering in Vienna and is considered to be the first Greek to hold a diploma in engineering.
Carburis directed workmen to wait for winter, when the ground was frozen, and then had them drag the large stone over the frozen ground to the sea for shipment and transport to the city. He developed a metallic sledge that slid over bronze spheres about 13.5 cm (6 inches) in diameter, over a track. The process worked in a way similar to the later invention of ball bearings. Making the feat even more impressive was that the labour was done entirely by humans; no animals or machines were used in bringing the stone from the original site to the Senate Square. After Carburis devised the method, it took 400 men nine months to move the stone, during which time master stonecutters continuously shaped the enormous granite monolith. Catherine periodically visited the effort to oversee their progress. The larger capstan was turned by 32 men, this just barely moving the rock. A further complication was the availability of only 100 m of track, which had to be constantly disassembled and relaid. Nevertheless, the workers made over 150 m of progress a day while on level ground. Upon arrival at the sea an enormous barge was constructed exclusively for the Thunder Stone. The vessel had to be supported on either side by two full-size warships. After a short voyage, the stone reached its destination in 1770, after nearly two years of work. A medal was issued to commemorate its arrival, with the legend "Close to Daring".
According to the fall 1882 edition of La Nature, the stone's dimensions before being cut were 7 × 14 × 9 m. Based on the density of granite, its weight was determined to be around 1500 tonnes. Falconet had some of this cut away shaping it into a base, so the finished pedestal weighs considerably less.
A 19th-century legend states that while the Bronze Horseman stands in the middle of Saint Petersburg, enemy forces will not be able to conquer the city. During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad by the invading Germans during the Second World War (Leningrad being the city's name from 1924–1991), the statue was covered with sandbags and a wooden shelter. Thus protected it survived 900 days of bombing and artillery virtually untouched. True to the legend, Leningrad was never taken.
The Bronze Horseman is the title of a poem written by Aleksandr Pushkin in 1833, widely considered to be one of the most significant works of Russian literature. Due to the popularity of his work, the statue came to be called the "Bronze Horseman". A major theme of the poem is conflict between the needs of the state and the needs of ordinary citizens.
In the poem, Pushkin describes the fates of the poor man Evgenii and his beloved Parasha during a severe flood of the Neva. Evgenii curses the statue, furious at Peter the Great for founding a city in such an unsuitable location and indirectly causing the death of his beloved. Coming to life, the horseman chases Evgenii through the city. The poem closes with the discovery of the young man's corpse in a ruined hut floating at the edge of the river.
In 1903 the artist Alexandre Benois published an edition of the poem with his illustrations, creating what was considered a masterwork of Art Nouveau.
The poem has inspired works in other genres: Reinhold Glière choreographed a ballet based on it, and Nikolai Myaskovsky's 10th Symphony (1926–7) was inspired by the poem. The statue itself has been seen as the inspiration or model for a similar statue which appears in Joseph Conrad’s 1904 political novel Nostromo, thus implicitly linking the political events in Nostromo with Conrad’s 1905 essay “Autocracy and War” on the subject of Russia and his eventual 1912 novel Under Western Eyes (and also with the Pushkin poem and with the political issue of Poland).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Horseman
I misunderstood the theme for We're Here! today. But I think my misunderstanding was awesome. 195/365
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy team during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" (by Hollywood composer T. Marvin Hatley) was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats.
Prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established film careers. Laurel had acted in over 50 films, and worked as a writer and director, while Hardy was in more than 250 productions. Both had appeared in The Lucky Dog (1921), but were not teamed at the time. They first appeared together in a short film in 1926, when they signed separate contracts with the Hal Roach film studio. They officially became a team in 1927 when they appeared in the silent short Putting Pants on Philip. They remained with Roach until 1940, and then appeared in eight B movie comedies for 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1941 to 1945. After finishing their film commitments at the end of 1944, they concentrated on performing stage shows, and embarked on a music hall tour of England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. They made their last film in 1950, a French–Italian co-production called Atoll K.
They appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. They also made 12 guest or cameo appearances, including in the Galaxy of Stars promotional film of 1936. On December 1, 1954, they made their sole American television appearance, when they were surprised and interviewed by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program This Is Your Life. Since the 1930s, their works have been released in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals, 8-mm and 16-mm home movies, feature-film compilations, and home videos. In 2005, they were voted the seventh-greatest comedy act of all time by a UK poll of professional comedians. The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is The Sons of the Desert, after a fictional fraternal society in the film of the same name.
History as Laurel and Hardy
Hal Roach
Hal Roach recounted how Laurel and Hardy became a team: Hardy was already working for Roach (and others) when Roach hired Laurel, whom he had seen in vaudeville. Laurel had very light blue eyes, and Roach discovered that, due to the technology of film at that time, Laurel's eyes wouldn't photograph properly—blue photographed as white. This problem is apparent in their first silent film together, The Lucky Dog, where an attempt was made to compensate for the problem by applying heavy makeup to Laurel's eyes. For about a year, Roach had Laurel work at the studio as a writer. Then panchromatic film was developed; they tested Laurel, and found the problem was solved. Laurel and Hardy were then put together in a film, and they seemed to complement each other. Comedy teams were usually composed of a straight man and a funny man, but these two were both comedians; however, each knew how to play the straight man when the script required it. Roach said, "You could always cut to a close-up of either one, and their reaction was good for another laugh."
Style of comedy and characterizations
The humor of Laurel and Hardy was highly visual, with slapstick used for emphasis. They often had physical arguments (in character) which were quite complex and involved a cartoonish style of violence. Their ineptitude and misfortune precluded them from making any real progress, even in the simplest endeavors. Much of their comedy involves "milking" a joke, where a simple idea provides a basis for multiple, ongoing gags without following a defined narrative.
Stan Laurel was of average height and weight, but appeared comparatively small and slight next to Oliver Hardy, who was 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) and weighed about 280 lb (127 kg; 20 st 0 lb) in his prime. Details of their hair and clothing were used to enhance this natural contrast. Laurel kept his hair short on the sides and back, growing it long on top to create a natural "fright wig". Typically, at times of shock, he simultaneously screwed up his face to appear as if crying while pulling up his hair. In contrast, Hardy's thinning hair was pasted on his forehead in spit curls and he sported a toothbrush moustache. To achieve a flat-footed walk, Laurel removed the heels from his shoes. Both wore bowler hats, with Laurel's being narrower than Hardy's, and with a flattened brim. The characters' normal attire called for wing collar shirts, with Hardy wearing a necktie which he would twiddle when he was particularly self-conscious; and Laurel, a bow tie. Hardy's sports jacket was a little small and done up with one straining button, whereas Laurel's double-breasted jacket was loose-fitting.
A popular routine was a "tit for tat" fight with an adversary. It could be with their wives—often played by Mae Busch, Anita Garvin, or Daphne Pollard—or with a neighbor, often played by Charlie Hall or James Finlayson. Laurel and Hardy would accidentally damage someone's property, and the injured party would retaliate by ruining something belonging to Laurel or Hardy. After calmly surveying the damage, one or the other of the "offended" parties found something else to vandalize, and the conflict escalated until both sides were simultaneously destroying items in front of each other. An early example of the routine occurs in their classic short Big Business (1929), which was added to the National Film Registry in 1992. Another short film which revolves around such an altercation was titled Tit for Tat (1935).
One of their best-remembered dialogue devices was the "Tell me that again" routine. Laurel would tell Hardy a genuinely smart idea he came up with, and Hardy would reply, "Tell me that again." Laurel would then try to repeat the idea, but, having instantly forgotten it, babble utter nonsense. Hardy, who had difficulty understanding Laurel's idea when expressed clearly, would then understand the jumbled version perfectly. While much of their comedy remained visual, humorous dialogue often occurred in Laurel and Hardy's talking films as well. Examples include:
"You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be led." (Laurel, Brats)
"I was dreaming I was awake, but I woke up and found meself asleep." (Laurel, Oliver the Eighth)
"A lot of weather we've been having lately." (Hardy, Way Out West)
In some cases, their comedy bordered on the surreal, in a style Laurel called "white magic". For example, in the 1937 film Way Out West, Laurel flicks his thumb upward as if working a lighter. His thumb ignites and he matter-of-factly lights Hardy's pipe. Amazed at seeing this, Hardy unsuccessfully attempts to duplicate it throughout the film. Much later he finally succeeds, only to be terrified when his thumb catches fire. Laurel expands the joke in the 1938 film Block-Heads by pouring tobacco into his clenched fist and smoking it as though it were a pipe, again to Hardy's bemusement. This time, the joke ends when a match Laurel was using relights itself, Hardy throws it into the fireplace, and it explodes with a loud bang.
Rather than showing Hardy suffering the pain of misfortunes, such as falling down stairs or being beaten by a thug, banging and crashing sound effects were often used so the audience could visualize the mayhem. The 1927 film Sailors, Beware! was a significant one for Hardy because two of his enduring trademarks were developed. The first was his "tie twiddle" to demonstrate embarrassment. Hardy, while acting, had received a pail of water in the face. He said, "I had been expecting it, but I didn't expect it at that particular moment. It threw me mentally and I couldn't think what to do next, so I waved the tie in a kind of tiddly-widdly fashion to show embarrassment while trying to look friendly." His second trademark was the "camera look", where he breaks the fourth wall and, in frustration, stares directly at the audience. Hardy said: "I had to become exasperated, so I just stared right into the camera and registered my disgust." Offscreen, Laurel and Hardy were quite the opposite of their movie characters: Laurel was the industrious "idea man", while Hardy was more easygoing.
Catchphrases
Laurel and Hardy's best-known catchphrase is, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" It was earlier used by W. S. Gilbert in both The Mikado (1885) and The Grand Duke (1896). It was first used by Hardy in The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case in 1930. In popular culture, the catchphrase is often misquoted as "Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into", which was never spoken by Hardy—a misunderstanding that stems from the title of their film Another Fine Mess. When Hardy said the phrase, Laurel's frequent, iconic response was to start to cry, pull his hair up, exclaim "Well, I couldn't help it...", then whimper and speak gibberish.
Some variations on the phrase occurred. For example, in Chickens Come Home, Ollie impatiently says to Stan, "Well...", and Stan continues for him: "Here's another nice mess I've gotten you into." The films Thicker than Water and The Fixer Uppers use the phrase "Well, here's another nice kettle of fish you've pickled me in!" In Saps at Sea, the phrase becomes "Well, here's another nice bucket of suds you've gotten me into!" The catchphrase, in its original form, was used as the last line of dialogue in the duo's last film, Atoll K (1951).
In moments of particular distress or frustration, Hardy often exclaims, "Why don't you do something to help me?", as Laurel stands helplessly by.
"OH!" (or drawn out as "Ohhhhh-OH!") was another catchphrase used by Hardy. He uses the expression in the duo's first sound film, Unaccustomed As We Are (1929) when his character's wife smashes a record over his head.
Mustachioed Scottish actor James Finlayson, who appeared in 33 Laurel and Hardy films, used a variation: "D'oh!" The phrase, expressing surprise, impatience, or incredulity, inspired the trademark "D'oh!" of character Homer Simpson (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) in the long-running animated comedy The Simpsons.
Films
Laurel's and Hardy's first film pairing, although as separate performers, was in the silent The Lucky Dog. Its production details have not survived, but film historian Bo Berglund has placed it between September 1920 and January 1921. According to interviews they gave in the 1930s, the pair's acquaintance at the time was casual, and both had forgotten their initial film entirely. The plot sees Laurel's character befriended by a stray dog which, after some lucky escapes, saves him from being blown up by dynamite. Hardy's character is a mugger attempting to rob Laurel. They later signed separate contracts with the Hal Roach Studios, and next appeared in the 1926 film 45 Minutes From Hollywood.
Hal Roach is considered the most important person in the development of Laurel's and Hardy's film careers. He brought them together, and they worked for Roach for almost 20 years. Director Charley Rogers, who worked closely with the three men for many years, said, "It could not have happened if Laurel, Hardy, and Roach had not met at the right place and the right time." Their first "official" film together was Putting Pants on Philip, released December 3, 1927. The plot involves Laurel as Philip, a young Scotsman who arrives in the United States in full kilted splendor, and suffers mishaps involving the kilts. His uncle, played by Hardy, tries to put trousers on him. Also in 1927, the pair starred in The Battle of the Century, a classic pie-throwing short involving over 3,000 real pies; only a fragment of the film was known to exist until the first half resurfaced in the 1970s; a more complete print was discovered in 2015 by historian Jon Mirsalis.
Laurel said to the duo's biographer John McCabe: "Of all the questions we're asked, the most frequent is, how did we come together? I always explain that we came together naturally." Laurel and Hardy were joined by accident and grew by indirection. In 1926, both were part of the Roach Comedy All Stars, a stock company of actors who took part in a series of films. Laurel's and Hardy's parts gradually grew larger, while those of their fellow stars diminished, because Laurel and Hardy had superior pantomime skills. Their teaming was suggested by Leo McCarey, their supervising director from 1927 and 1930. During that period, McCarey and Laurel jointly devised the team's format. McCarey also influenced the slowing of their comedy action from the silent era's typically frantic pace to a more natural one. The formula worked so well that Laurel and Hardy played the same characters for the next 30 years.
Although Roach employed writers and directors such as H. M. Walker, Leo McCarey, James Parrott, and James W. Horne on the Laurel and Hardy films, Laurel, who had a considerable background in comedy writing, often rewrote entire sequences and scripts. He also encouraged the cast and crew to improvise, then meticulously reviewed the footage during editing. By 1929, he was the pair's head writer, and it was reported that the writing sessions were gleefully chaotic. Stan had three or four writers who competed with him in a perpetual game of 'Can You Top This?' Hardy was quite happy to leave the writing to his partner. He said, "After all, just doing the gags was hard enough work, especially if you have taken as many falls and been dumped in as many mudholes as I have. I think I earned my money." Laurel eventually became so involved in their films' productions, many film historians and aficionados consider him an uncredited director. He ran the Laurel and Hardy set, no matter who was in the director's chair, but never asserted his authority. Roach remarked: "Laurel bossed the production. With any director, if Laurel said 'I don't like this idea,' the director didn't say 'Well, you're going to do it anyway.' That was understood." As Laurel made so many suggestions, there was not much left for the credited director to do.
Their 1929 silent Big Business is by far the most critically acclaimed. Laurel and Hardy are Christmas tree salesmen who are drawn into a classic tit-for-tat battle, with a character played by James Finlayson, that eventually destroys his house and their car. Big Business was added to the United States National Film Registry as a national treasure in 1992.
Sound films
In 1929 the silent era of film was coming to an end. Many silent-film actors failed to make the transition to "talkies"—some, because they felt sound was irrelevant to their craft of conveying stories with body language; and others, because their spoken voices were considered inadequate for the new medium. However, the addition of spoken dialogue only enhanced Laurel's and Hardy's performances; both had extensive theatrical experience, and could use their voices to great comic effect. Their films also continued to feature much visual comedy. In these ways, they made a seamless transition to their first sound film, Unaccustomed As We Are (1929) (whose title was a play on the familiar phrase, "Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking"). In the opening dialogue, Laurel and Hardy began by spoofing the slow and self-conscious speech of the early talking actors which became a routine they would use regularly.
The Music Box (1932), with the pair delivering a piano up a long flight of steps, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject. The Music Box remains one of the duo's most widely known films.
Laurel and Hardy were favorites around the world, and Hal Roach catered to international audiences by filming many of their early talkies in other languages. They spoke their dialogue phonetically, in Spanish, Italian, French, or German. The plots remained similar to the English versions, although the supporting actors were often changed to those who were fluent in the native language. Pardon Us (1931) was reshot in all four foreign languages. Blotto, Hog Wild and Be Big! were remade in French and Spanish versions. Night Owls was remade in both Spanish and Italian, and Below Zero and Chickens Come Home in Spanish.
Feature films
Just as Laurel and Hardy's teaming was accidental, so was their entry into the field of feature films. In the words of biographer John McCabe, "Roach planned to use the MGM set [built for The Big House] for a simple prison-break two-reeler but MGM suddenly added a proviso: Laurel and Hardy would have to do a picture for them in exchange. Roach would not agree so he built his own prison set, a very expensive item for a two-reeler. So expensive was it indeed that he added four more reels to bring it into the feature category and, it was hoped, the bigger market." The experiment was successful, and the team continued to make features along with their established short subjects until 1935, when they converted to features exclusively.
Sons of the Desert (1933) is often cited as Laurel and Hardy's best feature-length film. The situation-comedy script by actor-playwright Frank Craven and screenwriter Byron Morgan is stronger than usual for a Laurel & Hardy comedy. Stan and Ollie are henpecked husbands who want to attend a convention held by the Sons of the Desert fraternal lodge. They tell their wives that Ollie requires an ocean voyage to Honolulu for his health, and they sneak off to the convention. They are unaware that the Honolulu-bound ship they were supposedly aboard is sinking, and the wives confront their errant husbands when they get home.
Babes in Toyland (1934) remains a perennial on American television during the Christmas season. When interviewed, Hal Roach spoke scathingly about the film and Laurel's behavior. Roach himself had written a treatment detailing the characters and storyline, only to find that Laurel considered Roach's effort totally unsuitable. Roach, affronted, tried to argue in favor of his treatment, but Laurel was adamant. Roach angrily gave up and allowed Laurel to make the film his way. The rift damaged Roach-Laurel relations to the point that Roach said that after Toyland, he didn't want to produce for Laurel and Hardy. Although their association continued for another six years, Roach no longer took an active hand in Laurel and Hardy films.
Way Out West (1937) was a personal favorite of both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. A satire of the Gene Autry musical westerns sweeping America at the time, the film combines Laurel and Hardy's slapstick routines with songs and dances performed by the stars.
It appeared that the team would split permanently in 1938. Hal Roach had become dissatisfied with his distribution arrangement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and had begun releasing his films through United Artists. He still owed MGM one last feature, and made the Laurel and Hardy comedy Block-Heads, with the announcement that this would be Laurel and Hardy's farewell film. Stan Laurel's contract with Roach then expired, and Roach did not renew it. Oliver Hardy's contract was still in force, however, and Roach starred Hardy solo in the antebellum comedy Zenobia (1939), with Harry Langdon as Hardy's comic foil. This fueled rumors that Laurel and Hardy had split on bad terms.
After Zenobia, Laurel rejoined Hardy and the team signed with independent producer Boris Morros for the comedy feature The Flying Deuces (1939). Meanwhile, Hal Roach wanted to demonstrate his new idea of making four-reel, 40-minute featurettes—twice the length of standard two-reel, 20-minute comedies—which Roach felt could fit more conveniently into double-feature programs. He referred to these extended films as "streamliners". To test his theory, Roach rehired Laurel and Hardy. The resulting films, A Chump at Oxford and Saps at Sea (both 1940), were prepared as featurettes. United Artists overruled Roach and insisted that they be released as full-length features.
Hoping for greater artistic freedom, Laurel and Hardy split with Roach, and signed with 20th Century-Fox in 1941 and MGM in 1942. However, their working conditions were now completely different: they were simply hired actors, relegated to both studios’ B-film units, and not initially allowed to contribute to the scripts or improvise, as they had always done. When their films proved popular, the studios allowed them more input, and they starred in eight features until the end of 1944. These films, while far from their best work, were still very successful. Budgeted between $300,000 and $450,000 each, they earned millions at the box office for Fox and MGM. The Fox films were so profitable that the studio kept making Laurel and Hardy comedies after it discontinued its other "B" series films.
The busy team decided to take a rest during 1946, but 1947 saw their first European tour in 15 years. A film based in the charters of "Robin Hood" was planned during the tour, but not realized. In 1947, Laurel and Hardy famously attended the reopening of the Dungeness loop of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, where they performed improvised routines with a steam locomotive for the benefit of local crowds and dignitaries.
In 1948, on the team's return to America, Laurel was sidelined by illness and temporarily unable to work. He encouraged Hardy to take movie roles on his own. Hardy's friend John Wayne hired him to co-star in The Fighting Kentuckian for Republic Pictures, and Bing Crosby got him a small part in Frank Capra's Riding High.
In 1950–51, Laurel and Hardy made their final feature-length film together, Atoll K. A French-Italian co-production directed by Léo Joannon, it was plagued by problems with language barriers, production issues, and both actors' serious health issues. When Laurel received the script's final draft, he felt its heavy political content overshadowed the comedy. He quickly rewrote it, with screen comic Monte Collins contributing visual gags, and hired old friend Alfred Goulding to direct the Laurel and Hardy scenes. During filming, Hardy developed an irregular heartbeat, while Laurel experienced painful prostate complications that caused his weight to drop to 114 pounds. Critics were disappointed with the storyline, English dubbing, and Laurel's sickly physical appearance. The film was not commercially successful on its first release, and brought an end to Laurel and Hardy's film careers. Atoll K did finally turn a profit when it was rereleased in other countries. In 1954, an American distributor removed 18 minutes of footage and released it as Utopia; widely released on film and video, it is the film's best-known version.
After Atoll K wrapped in April 1951, Laurel and Hardy returned to America and used the remainder of the year to rest. Stan appeared, in character, in a silent TV newsreel, Swim Meet, judging a local California swimming contest.
Most Laurel and Hardy films have survived and are still in circulation. Only three of their 107 films are considered lost and have not been seen in complete form since the 1930s. The silent film Hats Off from 1927 has vanished completely. The first half of Now I'll Tell One (1927) is lost, and the second half has yet to be released on video. The Battle of the Century (1927), after years of obscurity, is now almost complete but a few minutes are missing. In the 1930 operatic Technicolor musical The Rogue Song, Laurel and Hardy appeared as comedy relief in 10 sequences; only one exists. The complete soundtrack has survived.
Radio
Laurel and Hardy made at least two audition recordings for radio, a half-hour NBC series, based on the skit, Driver’s License, and a 1944 NBC pilot for "The Laurel and Hardy Show," casting Stan and Ollie in different occupations each episode. The surviving audition record, "Mr. Slater's Poultry Market," has Stan and Ollie as meat-market butchers mistaken for vicious gangsters. A third attempt was commissioned by BBC Radio in 1953: "Laurel and Hardy Go to the Moon," a series of science-fiction comedies. A sample script was written by Tony Hawes and Denis Gifford, and the comedians staged a read-through, which was not recorded. The team was forced to withdraw due to Hardy's declining health, and the project was abandoned.
Final years
Following the making of Atoll K, Laurel and Hardy took some months off to deal with health issues. On their return to the European stage in 1952, they undertook a well-received series of public appearances, performing a short Laurel-written sketch, "A Spot of Trouble". The following year, Laurel wrote a routine entitled "Birds of a Feather". On September 9, 1953, their boat arrived in Cobh in Ireland. Laurel recounted their reception:
The love and affection we found that day at Cobh was simply unbelievable. There were hundreds of boats blowing whistles and mobs and mobs of people screaming on the docks. We just couldn't understand what it was all about. And then something happened that I can never forget. All the church bells in Cobh started to ring out our theme song "Dance of the Cuckoos" and Babe (Oliver Hardy) looked at me and we cried. I'll never forget that day. Never.
On May 17, 1954, Laurel and Hardy made their last live stage performance in Plymouth, UK at the Palace Theatre. On December 1, 1954, they made their only American television appearance when they were surprised and interviewed by Ralph Edwards on his live NBC-TV program This Is Your Life. Lured to the Knickerbocker Hotel under the pretense of a business meeting with producer Bernard Delfont, the doors opened to their suite, #205, flooding the room with light and Edwards' voice. The telecast was preserved on a kinescope and later released on home video. Partly due to the broadcast's positive response, the team began renegotiating with Hal Roach Jr. for a series of color NBC Television specials, to be called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables. However, the plans had to be shelved as the aging comedians continued to suffer from declining health. In 1955, America's magazine TV Guide ran a color spread on the team with current photos. That year, they made their final public appearance together while taking part in This Is Music Hall, a BBC Television program about the Grand Order of Water Rats, a British variety organization. Laurel and Hardy provided a filmed insert where they reminisced about their friends in British variety. They made their final appearance on camera in 1956 in a private home movie, shot by a family friend at the Reseda, California home of Stan Laurel's daughter, Lois. The three-minute film has no audio.
In 1956, while following his doctor's orders to improve his health due to a heart condition, Hardy lost over 100 pounds (45 kg; 7.1 st), but nonetheless suffered several strokes causing reduced mobility and speech. Despite his long and successful career, Hardy's home was sold to help cover his medical expenses. He died of a stroke on August 7, 1957, and longtime friend Bob Chatterton said Hardy weighed just 138 pounds (63 kg; 9.9 st) at the time of his death. Hardy was laid to rest at Pierce Brothers' Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood. Following Hardy's death, scenes from Laurel and Hardy's early films were seen once again in theaters, featured in Robert Youngson's silent-film compilation The Golden Age of Comedy.
For the remaining eight years of his life, Stan Laurel refused to perform, and declined Stanley Kramer's offer of a cameo in his landmark 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In 1960, Laurel was given a special Academy Award for his contributions to film comedy, but was unable to attend the ceremony due to poor health. Actor Danny Kaye accepted the award on his behalf. Despite not appearing on screen after Hardy's death, Laurel did contribute gags to several comedy filmmakers. His favorite TV comedy was Leonard B. Stern's I'm Dickens, He's Fenster, co-starring John Astin and Marty Ingels as carpenters. Laurel enjoyed the Astin-Ingels chemistry and sent two-man gags to Stern.
During this period, most of his communication was in the form of written correspondence, and he insisted on personally answering every fan letter. Late in life, he welcomed visitors from the new generation of comedians and celebrities, including Dick Cavett, Jerry Lewis, Peter Sellers, Marcel Marceau, Johnny Carson, and Dick Van Dyke. Jerry Lewis offered Laurel a job as consultant, but he chose to help only on Lewis's 1960 feature The Bellboy.[citation needed]
Dick Van Dyke was a longtime fan, and based his comedy and dancing styles on Laurel's. When he discovered Laurel's home number in the phone book and called him, Laurel invited him over for the afternoon. Van Dyke hosted a television tribute to Stan Laurel the year he died.
Laurel lived to see the duo's work rediscovered through television and classic film revivals. He died on February 23, 1965, in Santa Monica and is buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.
Supporting cast members
Laurel and Hardy's films included a supporting cast of comic actors, some of whom appeared regularly:
Harry Bernard (former vaudeville partner of Charley Chase) played supporting roles as a waiter, bartender, or policeman.
Mae Busch often played the formidable Mrs. Hardy and other characters, particularly sultry femmes fatales.
Charley Chase, the Hal Roach film star and brother of James Parrott, a writer/director of several Laurel and Hardy films, made four appearances.
Dorothy Coburn appeared in nearly a dozen early silent shorts.
Baldwin Cooke (former vaudeville partner of Stan Laurel) played supporting roles as a waiter, colleague, or neighbor.
Richard Cramer appeared as a scowling, menacing villain or opponent.
Peter Cushing, well before becoming a star in Hammer Horror films, played one of the students in A Chump at Oxford.
Bobby Dunn appeared as a cross-eyed bartender and telegram messenger, as well as the genial shoplifter in Tit for Tat.
Eddie Dunn made several appearances, notably as the belligerent taxi driver in Me and My Pal.
James Finlayson, a balding, mustachioed Scotsman known for displays of indignation and squinting, pop-eyed "double takes," made 33 appearances and is perhaps their most celebrated foil.
Anita Garvin appeared in a number of Laurel and Hardy films, often cast as Mrs. Laurel.
Billy Gilbert made many appearances, most notably as bombastic, blustery characters such as those in The Music Box (1932) and Block-Heads.
Charlie Hall, who usually played angry, diminutive adversaries, appeared nearly 50 times.
Jean Harlow had a small role in the silent short Double Whoopee (1929) and two other films in the early part of her career.
Arthur Housman made several appearances as a comic drunk.
Isabelle Keith was the only actress to appear as wife to both Laurel and Hardy (in Perfect Day and Be Big!, respectively).
Edgar Kennedy, master of the "slow burn," often appeared as a cop, a hostile neighbor, or a relative.
Walter Long played grizzled, unshaven, physically threatening villains.
Sam Lufkin appeared several times, usually as a husky authority figure.
Charles Middleton made a handful of appearances, usually as a sourpuss adversary.
James C. Morton appeared as a bartender or exasperated policeman.
Vivien Oakland appeared in several early silent films, and later talkies including Scram! and Way Out West.
Blanche Payson, a former policewoman, was featured in several sound shorts, including Oliver's formidable wife in Helpmates.
Daphne Pollard was featured as Oliver's diminutive but daunting wife.
Viola Richard appeared in several early silent films, most notably as the beautiful cave girl in Flying Elephants (1928).
Charley Rogers, an English actor and gag writer, appeared several times.
Tiny Sandford was a tall, burly, physically imposing character actor who played authority figures, usually policemen.
Thelma Todd appeared several times before her own career as a comic leading lady.
Ben Turpin, the cross-eyed Mack Sennett comedy star, made two memorable appearances.
Ellinor Vanderveer made many appearances as a dowager, high society matron, or posh party guest.
Music
The duo's famous signature tune, known variously as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku" or "The Dance of the Cuckoos", was composed by Roach musical director Marvin Hatley as the on-the-hour chime for KFVD, the Roach studio's radio station. Laurel heard the tune on the station and asked Hatley if they could use it as the Laurel and Hardy theme song. The original theme, recorded by two clarinets in 1930, was recorded again with a full orchestra in 1935. Leroy Shield composed the majority of the music used in the Laurel and Hardy short sound films. A compilation of songs from their films, titled Trail of the Lonesome Pine, was released in 1975. The title track was released as a single in the UK and reached #2 in the charts.
Influence and legacy
Laurel and Hardy's influence over a very broad range of comedy and other genres has been considerable. Lou Costello of the famed duo of Abbott and Costello, stated "They were the funniest comedy team in the world." Most critics and film scholars throughout the years have agreed with this assessment; writers, artists, and performers as diverse as Samuel Beckett, Jerry Lewis, Peter Sellers, Marcel Marceau Steve Martin, John Cleese, Harold Pinter, Alec Guinness, J. D. Salinger, René Magritte and Kurt Vonnegut among many others, have acknowledged an artistic debt. Starting in the 1960s, the exposure on television of (especially) their short films has ensured a continued influence on generations of comedians and fans.
Posthumous revivals and popular culture
Since the 1930s, the works of Laurel and Hardy have been released again in numerous theatrical reissues, television revivals (broadcast, especially public television and cable), 16 mm and 8 mm home movies, feature-film compilations and home video. After Stan Laurel's death in 1965, there were two major motion-picture tributes: Laurel and Hardy's Laughing '20s was Robert Youngson's compilation of the team's silent-film highlights, and The Great Race was a large-scale salute to slapstick that director Blake Edwards dedicated to "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy". For many years the duo were impersonated by Jim MacGeorge (as Laurel) and Chuck McCann (as Hardy) in children's TV shows and television commercials for various products.
Numerous colorized versions of Laurel and Hardy features and shorts have been reproduced by several studios. The process was introduced in 1983 by Colorization, Inc. in partnership with Hal Roach Studios, then a Canadian concern licensing its name and films from Hal Roach. Early efforts were the famous Laurel & Hardy films Helpmates, Way Out West, and The Music Box, which were released to television and issued on VHS videocassettes. Most of the Laurel & Hardy sound shorts were ultimately colorized for distribution in Europe; The pixel-based color process and the conversion from the American NTSC system to the European PAL system often affected the sharpness of the image, so since 2011 video distributors have issued the original, more accurately rendered black-and-white editions.
There are three Laurel and Hardy museums. One is in Laurel's birthplace of Ulverston, England and another is in Hardy's birthplace of Harlem, Georgia, United States. The third is located in Solingen, Germany. Maurice Sendak showed three identical Oliver Hardy figures as bakers preparing cakes for the morning in his award-winning 1970 children's book In the Night Kitchen. This is treated as a clear example of "interpretative illustration" wherein the comedians' inclusion harked back to the author's childhood. The Beatles used cut-outs of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the cutout celebrity crowd for the cover of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A 2005 poll by fellow comedians and comedy insiders of the top 50 comedians for The Comedian's Comedian, a TV documentary broadcast on UK's Channel 4, voted the duo the seventh-greatest comedy act ever, making them the top double act on the list.
Merchandiser Larry Harmon claimed ownership of Laurel's and Hardy's likenesses and has issued Laurel and Hardy toys and coloring books. He also co-produced a series of Laurel and Hardy cartoons in 1966 with Hanna-Barbera Productions. His animated versions of Laurel and Hardy guest-starred in a 1972 episode of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies. In 1999, Harmon produced a direct-to-video feature live-action comedy entitled The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy in For Love or Mummy. Actors Bronson Pinchot and Gailard Sartain were cast playing the lookalike nephews of Laurel and Hardy named Stanley Thinneus Laurel and Oliver Fatteus Hardy.
Currently, the North American rights to a majority of the Laurel & Hardy library are owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, successor-in-interest to the companies that previously held such rights (Cabin Fever, RHI, Hallmark, and Sonar), while the CCA owns international rights, and Larry Harmon's estate owns the likenesses and trademarks to Laurel & Hardy.
The Indian comedy duo Ghory and Dixit was known as the Indian Laurel and Hardy. In 2011 the German/French TV station Arte released in co-production with the German TV station ZDF the 90-minute documentary Laurel & Hardy: Their Lives and Magic. The film, titled in the original German Laurel and Hardy: Die komische Liebesgeschichte von "Dick & Doof", was written and directed by German film-maker Andreas Baum. It includes many movie clips, rare and unpublished photographs, interviews with family, fans, friends, showbiz pals and newly recovered footage. Laurel's daughter Lois Laurel Hawes said of the film: "The best documentary about Laurel and Hardy I have ever seen!". It has also been released as a Director's Cut with a length of 105 minutes, plus 70 minutes of bonus materials on DVD.
Appreciation society
Main article: The Sons of the Desert
The official Laurel and Hardy appreciation society is known as The Sons of the Desert, after a fraternal society in their film of the same name (1933). It was established in New York City in 1965 by Laurel and Hardy biographer John McCabe, with Orson Bean, Al Kilgore, Chuck McCann, and John Municino as founding members, with the sanction of Stan Laurel. Since the group's inception, well over 150 chapters of the organization have formed across North America, Europe, and Australia. An Emmy-winning film documentary about the group, Revenge of the Sons of the Desert, has been released on DVD as part of The Laurel and Hardy Collection, Vol. 1.
Around the world
Laurel and Hardy are popular around the world but are known under different names in various countries and languages.
CountryNickname
Poland"Flip i Flap" (Flip and Flap)
Germany"Dick und Doof" (Fat and Dumb)
Brazil"O Gordo e o Magro" (The Fat One and the Skinny One)
Sweden"Helan och Halvan" (The Whole and the Half)
Norway"Helan og Halvan" (The Whole and the Half)
Spanish-speaking countries"El Gordo y el Flaco" (The Fat One and the Skinny One)
Italy"Stanlio e Ollio" also as "Cric e Croc" up to the 1970s
Hungary"Stan és Pan" (Stan and Pan)
Romania"Stan și Bran" (Stan and Bran)
The Netherlands, Flemish Belgium"Laurel en Hardy", "Stan en Ollie", "De Dikke en de Dunne" (The Fat [One] and the Skinny [One])
Denmark"Gøg og Gokke" (Roughly translates to Wacky and Pompous)
Portugal"O Bucha e o Estica" (The Fat One and the Skinny One)
Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Montenegro"Stanlio i Olio" (Cyrillic: Станлио и Олио)
Slovenia"Stan in Olio"
Greece"Hondros kai Lignos" (Χοντρός και Λιγνός) (Fat and Skinny)
India (Marathi)"जाड्या आणि रड्या" (Fatso and the Crybaby)
India (Punjabi)"Moota Paatla" (Laurel and Hardy) (Fat and Skinny)
India (Telugu)"Lamboo Jamboo" (లంబూ జంబూ) (Laurel and Hardy) (Fat and Skinny)
FinlandOhukainen ja Paksukainen (Thin one and Thick one)
Iceland"Steini og Olli"
Israel"השמן והרזה" (ha-Shamen ve ha-Raze, The Fat and the Skinny)
Vietnam (South)"Mập – Ốm" (The Fat and the Skinny)
Korea (South)"뚱뚱이와 홀쭉이" (The Fat and the Skinny)
Malta"L-Oħxon u l-Irqiq" ("The Fat and the Thin One")
Thailand"อ้วนผอมจอมยุ่ง" ("The Clumsy Fat and Thin")
Biopic
A biographical film titled Stan & Ollie directed by Jon S. Baird and starring Steve Coogan as Stan and John C. Reilly as Oliver was released in 2018 and chronicled the duo's 1953 tour of Great Britain and Ireland. The film received positive reviews from critics, garnering a 94% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For their performances, Reilly and Coogan were nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award respectively.
Ivatans are beautiful people. Aside from their vaunted self-reliance and industry, they are gentle, peaceful and accommodating. There is almost zero crime rate in the islands. Misunderstandings that transpire don't easily go to the courts and are rather forgiven or settled familially.
Strangers sincerely greet you with "good morning" or "evening" when you meet them on the streets, in English no less. The province has probably the highest rate of education attainment in the country. It also has the lowest incidence of poverty. I was impressed- there really were no beggars throughout the islands.
at Savidug, Sabtang island, the Batanes archipelago, Northern Philippines
life remains simple in the stone houses of Savidug, Batanes in colloidfarl.blogspot.com/
Ryōan-ji (龍安寺 o 竜安寺 El templo del dragón tranquilo y pacífico) es un templo Zen situado en Kioto, Japón. Forma parte del conjunto de Monumentos históricos de la antigua Kioto (ciudades de Kioto, Uji y Otsu) declarados Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la Unesco en el año 1994. El templo fue creado por la escuela Myoshinji de los Rinzai, pertenecientes al Budismo Zen.
Dentro de este templo existe uno de los karesansui (jardines secos) más famosos del mundo, construido a finales del siglo XV, en torno al 1488. El creador de este jardín no dejó ninguna explicación sobre su significado, por lo que durante siglos ha sido un misterio descubrir el verdadero sentido o el porqué de su gran belleza.
Se trata de un jardín rectangular construido frente al edificio principal. La composición utiliza arena rastrillada, musgo y rocas. Existe un predominio de formas alargadas colocadas en paralelo a la posición del edificio.
Los tres lados restantes están cerrados por muros, lo que -junto a la línea inferior de la plataforma desde la que se debe contemplar el edificio- permite acotar la visión del jardín en un marco longitudinal.
Durante muchos años se pensó que la mejor interpretación del sentido de la disposición de las piedras en el jardín era el de una especie de "Tigre cruzando un río". En el 2002, unos científicos de la Universidad de Kioto utilizaron ordenadores para buscar formas usando la disposición de las zonas vacías del jardín en vez de la disposición de las piedras y encontraron el patrón de un árbol escondido dentro de la estructura del jardín. Dicen que por eso es tan placentero presenciar el jardín, nuestro subconsiciente capta el patrón del árbol sin que lo notemos.
El mismo equipo de investigación probó moviendo algunas piedras de forma aleatoria y vieron que enseguida se perdía la armonía de la configuración inicial. Por ello creen que la construcción del jardín está muy bien pensada y no es un acto de la casualidad.
Aunque el jardín de rocas es el más conocido de Ryōan-ji, el templo también tiene un jardín acuático; el estanque Kyoyochi, construido en el siglo XII como parte de la finca Fujiwara. Recientemente se han plantado cerezos al noroeste del estanque.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%8Dan-ji
japonismo.com/blog/viajar-japon-el-templo-ryoanji-de-kioto
Ryōan-ji (Shinjitai: 竜安寺, Kyūjitai: 龍安寺, The Temple of the Dragon at Peace) is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. It belongs to the Myōshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism. The Ryōan-ji garden is considered one of the finest surviving examples of kare-sansui ("dry landscape"), a refined type of Japanese Zen temple garden design generally featuring distinctive larger rock formations arranged amidst a sweep of smooth pebbles (small, carefully selected polished river rocks) raked into linear patterns that facilitate meditation. The temple and its gardens are listed as one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, and as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There is controversy over who built the garden and when. Most sources date it to the second half of the 15th century. The conclusive history, though, based on documentary sources, is as follows: Hosokawa Katsumoto (1430–1473), deputy to the shōgun, founded in 1450 the Ryōan-ji temple, but the complex was burnt down during the Ōnin War. His son Masamoto rebuilt the temple at the very end of the same century. It is not clear whether any garden was constructed at that time facing the main hall. First descriptions of a garden, clearly describing one in front of the main hall, date from 1680–1682. It is described as a composition of nine big stones laid out to represent Tiger Cubs Crossing the Water. As the garden has fifteen stones at present, it was clearly different from the garden that we see today. A great fire destroyed the buildings in 1779, and rubble of the burnt buildings was dumped in the garden. Garden writer and specialist Akisato Rito (died c. 1830) redid the garden completely on top of the rubble at the end of the eighteenth century and published a picture of his garden in his Celebrated Gardens and Sights of Kyoto (Miyako rinsen meisho zue) of 1799, showing the garden as it looks today. One big stone at the back was buried partly; it has two first names carved in it, probably names of untouchable stone workers, so called kawaramono. There is no evidence of Zen monks having worked on the garden, apart from the raking of the sand.
The temple's name is synonymous with the temple's famous Zen garden, the karesansui (dry landscape) rock garden, thought to have been built in the late 15th century.
The garden is a rectangle of 248 square meters (2,670 square feet), twenty-five meters by ten meters. Placed within it are fifteen stones of different sizes, carefully composed in five groups; one group of five stones, two groups of three, and two groups of two stones. The stones are surrounded by white gravel, which is carefully raked each day by the monks. The only vegetation in the garden is some moss around the stones.
The garden is meant to be viewed from a seated position on the veranda of the hōjō, the residence of the abbot of the monastery. The stones are placed so that the entire composition cannot be seen at once from the veranda. They are also arranged so that when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder.
The wall behind the garden is an important element of the garden. It is made of clay, which has been stained by age with subtle brown and orange tones. In 1977, the tile roof of the wall was restored with tree bark to its original appearance. When the garden was rebuilt in 1799, it came up higher than before and a view over the wall to the mountain scenery behind came about. At present this view is blocked by trees.
Like any work of art, the artistic garden of Ryōan-ji is also open to interpretation or research into possible meanings. Many different theories have been put forward inside and outside Japan about what the garden is supposed to represent, from islands in a stream, a tiger family crossing a river, mountain peaks, to theories about secrets of geometry or the rules of equilibrium of odd numbers. Garden historian Gunter Nitschke wrote: "The garden at Ryōan-ji does not symbolize anything, or more precisely, to avoid any misunderstanding, the garden of Ryōan-ji does not symbolize, nor does it have the value of reproducing a natural beauty that one can find in the real or mythical world. I consider it to be an abstract composition of 'natural' objects in space, a composition whose function is to incite meditation."
In an article published by the science journal Nature, Gert van Tonder and Michael Lyons analyze the rock garden by generating a model of shape analysis (medial axis) in early visual processing.
Using this model, they show that the empty space of the garden is implicitly structured, and is aligned with the temple's architecture. According to the researchers, one critical axis of symmetry passes close to the centre of the main hall, which is the traditionally preferred viewing point. In essence, viewing the placement of the stones from a sightline along this point brings a shape from nature (a dichotomously branched tree with a mean branch length decreasing monotonically from the trunk to the tertiary level) in relief.
The researchers propose that the implicit structure of the garden is designed to appeal to the viewer's unconscious visual sensitivity to axial-symmetry skeletons of stimulus shapes. In support of their findings, they found that imposing a random perturbation of the locations of individual rock features destroyed the special characteristics.
While the rock garden is the best-known garden of Ryōan-ji, the temple also has a water garden; the Kyoyochi Pond, built in the 12th century as part of the Fujiwara estate. Cherry trees have recently been planted northwest of the pond.
John McDouall Stuart, an explorer and leader of men: he was Commander of The South Australian Great Northern Expedition 1861–62.
Stuart migrated to South Australia in 1839: suffering ill health he returned to England where he died in June 1866.
McDOUALL STUART STATUE UNVEILING CEREMONY. SURVIVORS OF STUART'S EXPEDITION ABSENT
All tramcar and other traffic in the vicinity of the statue was temporarily held up, so that the guests of the society and the public generally might witness the proceedings in comfort. Immediately at the base of the statue which stands in a niche of Victoria square at the intersection of King William and Flinders Street, a platform was erected for the accommodation of those who were to take a prominent part in the ceremony. King William road was spanned by a string of flags and further colour was imparted to the scene by the gorgeous kilts of the Scottish Company, who paraded under Capt Smeaton and Lieuts Sutherland and Clark. The soldiers surrounded the barrier, within which the holders of invitation cards were admitted.
Every window of the Government offices in the vicinity framed a head or a camera, and there was a good attendance of the public, whom the Piper's Band, under Pipe-Mjr McLennan, entertained at intervals.
Altogether, from a spectacular point of view, the ceremony was a fitting one, but in other respects there were distinct draw-backs. The seat of honour, covered by a Union Jack, was empty. In other words, the survivors of Stuart's party were conspicuous by their absence. No member of the Government attended, while no members of the South Australian Branch of the Royal Geographical Society were present in a representative capacity.
Among those on the platform were members of the council of the Caledonian Society and the statue committee, members of the Adelaide Corporation, including the Mayor: Sir Charles Todd, who directed the construction of the overland telegraph line: Sir Edwin Smith, Mr John Darling sen (Past Chief), Mr John Darling jun MP (Leader of the Opposition), the Hon J H Howe MLC (Past Chief), Mr G Fowler Stewart (Past Chief), and Mr H T Morris (a pioneer of 1836), Mr A J McLachlan (Chairman of the statue committee).
The matter of a statue was taken up in 1896 and money was raised. For years nothing was done.
In May, 1901, the Caledonian Society were approached, and ultimately decided to take the matter in hand, provided the subscriptions already collected were handed over, and the society given an absolutely free hand in the management of the movement. This was done, and late in July 1901, the society formally took over the funds.
The society got together a sum of £800 altogether, exclusive of the amount received from the old committee. The consummation of the work was then well within their view.
A design submitted by William Maxwell of Adelaide was chosen. Funds were given by the state government and members of the public.
William Maxwell died in 1903, so his design was executed over six months by several men, led by James White of Sydney.
Messrs Davies & Rutt, architects, superintended the erection of the pedestal.
Mr Walter C Torode was contractor for the whole work of erection.
Despite some dissension and misunderstandings within the Adelaide community Stuart’s statue was finally unveiled by Mr A L McLachan (Chairman of the Statue Committee.
None of the four surviving members of Stuart’s final expedition attended the ceremony. They had written to the Caledonian Society protesting against the selection of Maxwell’s design, arguing that it bore no resemblance to the man, that it represented Stuart ‘from a mere artistic point’. They wrote: ‘for the public and posterity we would like Stuart to appear as the typical bushman he undoubtedly was’.
John McDouall Stuart 1815–1866, explorer, was born 7 September at Dysart, Fife, Scotland, fifth son of William Stuart an army captain and his wife Mary, nee McDouall.
Educated at the Scottish Naval and Military Academy, Edinburgh, in 1838 he decided to migrate to South Australia. He arrived in the ‘Indus’ in January 1839 and joined a surveying party. Having had a taste of the outback, in 1844 he accepted Charles Sturt’s offer to join a party exploring the centre of the continent: he became familiar with the topography of the centre.
In 1846–58 Stuart practised as a surveyor, had an estate agency and spent time at Port Lincoln. With financial help from William Finke, Stuart set out 14 May 1858 with an assistant, an Aboriginal tracker and provisions for four weeks to explore beyond Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner and to look for grazing land. He travelled to Coober Pedy before turning south and then west.
The Aboriginal left them 3 August and with supplies and water almost exhausted and the horses lame they struggled into T M Gibson’s outstation at Streaky Bay on 22 August. After ten days rest Stuart returned to Adelaide to an enthusiastic welcome. He had covered 40,000 sq miles (104,600 km²) of possible sheep country at minimal cost.
Stuart gave his diary and maps to the South Australian government and was granted a lease of 1000 sq miles (2590 km²) of the new country.
In 1859 Finke and James Chambers financed another expedition. Stuart, with four others, travelled 500 miles blazing a trail with sufficient water for a permanent route north. November fourth saw him (third expedition) surveying new runs.
In the Davenport Range he found signs of gold, and after unsuccessful prospecting his men rebelled and the party returned to Chambers Creek where all but William Kekwick were paid off.
2 March 1860 Stuart set off again with two men and thirteen horses. Most of their provisions were spoiled by floods. When the party reached the freshwater creek that Stuart named after Finke 4 April, they were suffering from scurvy and he had lost the sight of his right eye. They followed the Finke to the mountains Stuart name after Governor MacDonnell and headed north again, naming Anna’s Reservoir after Chambers’ youngest daughter. 22 april he camped where he calculated the centre of the continent to be He named Central Mount Sturt (later Stuart) and planted a flag. In May they travelled north to Tennant’s Creek. Proceeding to Kekwick Ponds Stuart tried to penetrate the nearby scrub but on 26 June was forced back. Two months later the party staggered into Chambers Creek.
On his return to Adelaide Stuart was feted at a public banquet and at Government House.
At the end of 1860 the South Australian Government voted £2500 to equip a large expedition to be led by Stuart. On 1 January 1861 he left Chambers Creek with eleven men and reached Attack Creek late in April: with two others he found a way through the scrub that had defeated him before, to Sturt’s Plain. After failing to pass the plains, with their provisions low Stuart gave in and returned to Adelaide 23 September. He received the 1861 gold medal of the Royal Geographic Society from the governor.
Stuart was still convinced he could cross the continent. Shopkeepers gave him supplies for a fresh party, Chambers provided the horses and saddlery, government gave him £200 and instructed him to take a botanist, Frederick George Waterhouse .
They left Adelaide at the end of October 1861 but Stuart was delayed for five weeks by an accident: he joined the party at Moolooloo Station were one of the men left after a quarrel.
The party reached the centre on 12 March 1862, Attack Creek on the 28th and Sturt’s Plain on 15 April where they were blocked and turned to the scrub. They arrived Daly Waters, named after the new governor, 28 May and made camp for two weeks. On 24 July they forced their way through a thick belt of scrub and came upon the Indian Ocean.
Many of the horses were so weak they had to be abandoned on the way back. Ill with scurvy and nearly blind, Stuart had to be carried on a stretcher slung between two horses, recovering sufficiently to ride by the time they reached Mount Margaret on 26 November.
At Burra, on 16 December 1862, from the Kooringa Post and Telegraph Station Stuart sent the following telegram to Hon Commissioner of Crown Lands “Through you I beg to inform His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief and the Government that I have accomplished the object of expedition. Party behind all well. I will be in by the evening train tomorrow.”
And so ended The South Australian Great Northern Expedition 1861–62.
References:-
Deidre Morris. Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University: Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, (Melbourne University Press), 1976.
Burra, South Australia. John McDouall Stuart Society commemoration plaque on Kooringa Post & Telegraph office wall.
Register (Adelaide) Monday 6 June 1904.
Jude Elton and Mandy Paul History Trust of South Australia
"Domestic violence isn't just men abusing women, it can be women abusing men, but also in LGBT relationships." "Intimate partner violence, dating violence — it takes on a lot of faces."
Violence against men, or gender-based violence, consists of violent acts that are disproportionately or exclusively committed against men. Men are overrepresented as both victims and perpetrators of violence. Sexual violence against men is treated differently in any given society from that committed against women, and may be unrecognized by international law.
Violence by women against men is widespread and underreported. The official figure in the United Kingdom, for example, is about 50% of the number of acts of violence by men against women, but there are indications that only about 10% of male victims of female violence report the incidents to the authorities, mainly due to taboos and fears of misunderstanding created by a culture of masculine expectations.
A report from Canada even found men to be more than 22% more likely to be victims of spousal violence than women. Sexual violence by women against men is even more taboo and even less studied or recognised.
1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men in the United States have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.
Domestic Violence in Louisiana
www.ncadv.org/files/Louisiana.pdf
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Candid street shot New Orleans, USA
I wonder where the real joint lines are on this facade. I suspect the bas relief is on more than once piece of stone. If so, the masons did a good job of concealing the joints on the carving.
Wikipedia says:
The caduceus is the traditional symbol of Hermes and features two snakes winding around an often winged staff. It is often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine instead of the Rod of Asclepius, especially in the United States. The adoption, in 1902, of the caduceus for US Army medical officer uniforms popularized the erroneous use of the symbol throughout the medical field in the United States.
The two-snake caduceus design has ancient and consistent associations with trade, eloquence, negotiation, alchemy, wisdom, and controversially, thievery, lying, and the passage into the underworld.
The modern use of the caduceus as a symbol of medicine became established in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century as a result of documented mistakes, misunderstandings and confusion.
One of the things that annoys me to no end is the misunderstanding, even among gun owners, of the second amendment. The right to keep and bear arms was not guaranteed in the US Constitution to preserve a heritage of hunting. The second amendment was written to provide the citizenery of the United States with the means to resist tyranny. Subsequent letters and statements by the founding fathers make this conclusion inescapable.
"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good."
~ George Washington
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
~ Thomas Jefferson
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
~ Alexander Hamilton
"We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists."
~ Patrick Henry
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
~ Benjamin Franklin
"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
~ Samuel Adams
"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments,to which the people are attached, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of."
~ John Adams
"To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character."
~ Alexander Hamilton
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."
The Dalai Lama
Fear not the gun, and keep a watchful eye on the governments who seek to deprive their citizens of the means to protect themselves.
The Rogue Players: I am _____, hear me _____!
Strobist: AlienBee 800 with HOBD-W camera left. LP120 with snoot camera right. Reflector at 6:00. Triggered by Cybersync.
I like this sign. It notifies the public of what to expect.
If this driver's "in a mood," I assume he reverses the sign and you will know to approach with caution.
Come to think of it, life is so full of misunderstandings, maybe we should all have mood labels which could be readily adjusted for our emotional state. It would make it so much easier to know what we're dealing with when we need to interact with someone.
African bush elephant
Afrikanischer Elefant
Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 km2 (7,523 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 km (220 mi) from north to south and 65 km (40 mi) from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.
To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.
The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere an area designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere").
The park has nine main gates allowing entrance to the different camps.
(Wikipedia)
Name
African Elephant or African Bush Elephant [Loxodonta africana]
Introduction
The Elephant is the world's largest land mammal, and weighs up to 7 tonnes and reaches heights of 3.3 m at the shoulder. Elephants can live to a potential age of 70 years. The massive tusks of older bulls can weigh up to 50 or 60 kilograms, but tusks weighing up to 90 kilograms have been recorded.
Appearance
What is the trunk and what is it used for?
The Elephant's trunk is a modified nose which is very sensitive and can even detect water under ground. There are as many as 50 000 muscles in an Elephant trunk. The sensitive finger-like appendages at the tip of the trunk enables them to pick the smallest twig or flower, pull the toughest reed of grass or even pick out a thorn from their feet.
Do elephants have knees or elbows?
The joints that are perceived as 'knees', are in fact wrists. This is a common misunderstanding due to the belief that a leg joint that bends between the foot and the body must be a knee. The main difference between us and the elephants is that our foot bones and hand bones are separate, whereas those of the elephant are one in the same, and have evolved to suit this four-legged mammal.
Why do elephants have tusks?
The tusks are used for obtaining food, fighting (amongst males) and for self defence. They are actually their upper incisors, and grow continuously until they die at around 60 years old. Although their skin is up to 3cm (1 inch) thick, it is quite sensitive.
Diet
Elephants are voracious feeders which in a day consume up to 272 kg (600 pounds) of grass, tender shoots and bark from trees. An adult Elephant can drink up to 200 litres of water in a single session. A single Elephant deposits up to 150kg (330 pounds) of dung every day - about one dollop every 15 minutes!
Breeding
African Elephant are not seasonal breeders. Generally they produce one calf every 3 to 4 years. The gestation period is about 22 months. At birth calves weigh about 100 kg (220 pounds) and are fully weaned between 18-24 months. An orphaned calf will usually be adopted by one of the family's lactating females or suckled by various females. Elephants are very attentive mothers, and because most Elephant behavior has to be learned, they keep their offspring with them for many years. Tusks erupt at 16 months but do not show externally until 30 months. Once weaned, usually at age 4 or 5, the calf still remains in the maternal group. Females mature at about 11 years and stay in the group, while the males, which mature between 12 and 15, are usually expelled from the maternal herd. Even though these young males are sexually mature, they do not breed until they are in their mid, or late 20s or even older and have moved up in the social hierarchy.
Behaviour
Mature males form bachelor groups and become solitary bulls. Elephant form strong family units of cows, calves and young offspring. Such herds are always led by an old female. Apart from drinking large quantities of water they also love wading or swimming in it. Elephants clearly relish mud baths.
It was once thought that family groups were led by old bull elephants, but these males are most often solitary. The female family groups are often visited by mature males checking for females in oestrus. Several interrelated family groups may inhabit an area and know each other well.
How do you tell an elephant's mock charge from a serious one?
It is imperative to keep in mind that Elephant are extremely intelligent, and each individual has a distinct character. Although there will be exceptions to the rules, the common signs of a mock charge are bush-bashing, dust-throwing, trumpeting and other vocalizations, open ears and an intimidating presence, can be considered a mock-display. Aggressive or startled elephants usually make sudden headshakes and flap their large ears against their head. Serious charges usually occur after all attempts to intimidate have failed, and the Elephant feels threatened. The ears are pinned back and head and trunk are lowered. Ultimately, the key lies in the intelligence of the animal and how they will react to the 'target' and unfamiliar actions, and a conscious decision is made.
Why do elephants rhythmically flap their ears?
Contrary to common belief, it is not an expression of anger. Being an animal of such a large size, with no sweat glands and a dark body colour, elephants flap their ears to cool the body and rid themselves of irritating insects.
Where are they found?
Once ranging across most of Africa the Elephant population has declined dramatically across the continent. In South Africa the Addo Elephant and Kruger National Park protect large herds. Due to rigorous conservation measures the Elephant population in South Africa has grown from a estimated 120 in 1920 in 4 locations, to 10 000 at 40 locations to date.
Notes
The African Elephant has recently been classified into two separate species, the more common African Bush Elephant [Loxodonta Africana] and the smaller African Forest Elephant [Loxodonta cyclotis] of the rainforest of Central Africa.
(krugerpark.co.za)
Der Kruger-Nationalpark (deutsch häufig falsch Krüger-Nationalpark) ist das größte Wildschutzgebiet Südafrikas. Er liegt im Nordosten des Landes in der Landschaft des Lowveld auf dem Gebiet der Provinz Limpopo sowie des östlichen Abschnitts von Mpumalanga. Seine Fläche erstreckt sich vom Crocodile-River im Süden bis zum Limpopo, dem Grenzfluss zu Simbabwe, im Norden. Die Nord-Süd-Ausdehnung beträgt etwa 350 km, in Ost-West-Richtung ist der Park durchschnittlich 54 km breit und umfasst eine Fläche von rund 20.000 Quadratkilometern. Damit gehört er zu den größten Nationalparks in Afrika.
Das Schutzgebiet wurde am 26. März 1898 unter dem Präsidenten Paul Kruger als Sabie Game Reserve zum Schutz der Wildnis gegründet. 1926 erhielt das Gebiet den Status Nationalpark und wurde in seinen heutigen Namen umbenannt. Im Park leben 147 Säugetierarten inklusive der „Big Five“, außerdem etwa 507 Vogelarten und 114 Reptilienarten, 49 Fischarten und 34 Amphibienarten.
(Wikipedia)
Der Afrikanische Elefant (Loxodonta africana), auch Afrikanischer Steppenelefant oder Afrikanischer Buschelefant, ist eine Art aus der Familie der Elefanten. Er ist das größte gegenwärtig lebende Landsäugetier und gleichzeitig das größte rezente landbewohnende Tier der Erde. Herausragende Kennzeichen sind neben den Stoßzähnen und dem markanten Rüssel die großen Ohren und die säulenförmigen Beine. In zahlreichen morphologischen und anatomischen Merkmalen unterscheidet sich der Afrikanische Elefant von seinen etwas kleineren Verwandten, dem Waldelefanten und dem Asiatischen Elefanten. Das Verbreitungsgebiet umfasst heute große Teile von Afrika südlich der Sahara. Die Tiere haben sich dort an zahlreiche unterschiedliche Lebensräume angepasst, die von geschlossenen Wäldern über offene Savannenlandschaften bis hin zu Sumpfgebieten und wüstenartigen Regionen reichen. Insgesamt ist das Vorkommen aber stark fragmentiert.
Die Lebensweise des Afrikanischen Elefanten ist durch intensive Studien gut erforscht. Sie wird durch einen stark sozialen Charakter geprägt. Weibliche Tiere und ihr Nachwuchs leben in Familienverbänden (Herden). Diese formieren sich wiederum zu einem enger verwandten Clan. Die einzelnen Herden treffen sich zu bestimmten Gelegenheiten und trennen sich danach wieder. Die männlichen Tiere bilden Junggesellengruppen. Die verschiedenen Verbände nutzen Aktionsräume, in denen sie teils im Jahreszyklus herumwandern. Für die Kommunikation untereinander nutzen die Tiere verschiedene Töne im niedrigen Frequenzbereich. Anhand der Lautgebung, aber auch durch bestimmte chemische Signale können sich die einzelnen Individuen untereinander erkennen. Darüber hinaus besteht ein umfangreiches Repertoire an Gesten. Hervorzuheben sind auch die kognitiven Fähigkeiten des Afrikanischen Elefanten.
Die Nahrung besteht sowohl aus weicher wie auch harter Pflanzenkost. Die genaue Zusammensetzung variiert dabei regional und jahreszeitlich. Generell verbringt der Afrikanische Elefant einen großen Teil seiner Tagesaktivitäten mit der Nahrungsaufnahme. Die Fortpflanzung erfolgt ganzjährig, regional gibt es Tendenzen zu einer stärkeren Saisonalisierung. Bullen kommen einmal jährlich in die Musth, während deren sie auf Wanderung zur Suche nach fortpflanzungswilligen Kühen gehen. Während der Musth ist die Aggressivität gesteigert, es finden dann auch Rivalenkämpfe statt. Der Sexualzyklus der Kühe dauert vergleichsweise lange und weist einen für Säugetiere untypischen Verlauf auf. Nach erfolgter Geburt setzt er in der Regel mehrere Jahre aus. Zumeist wird nach fast zweijähriger Tragzeit ein Jungtier geboren, das in der mütterlichen Herde aufwächst. Junge weibliche Tiere verbleiben später in der Herde, die jungen männlichen verlassen diese.
Die wissenschaftliche Erstbeschreibung des Afrikanischen Elefanten erfolgte im Jahr 1797 mit einer formalen artlichen Trennung des Afrikanischen vom Asiatischen Elefanten. Der heute gebräuchliche Gattungsname Loxodonta wurde offiziell erst dreißig Jahre später eingeführt. Die Bezeichnung bezieht sich auf markante Zahnunterschiede zwischen den asiatischen und den afrikanischen Elefanten. Im Verlauf des 20. Jahrhunderts wurden mehrere Unterarten unterschieden, darunter auch der Waldelefant des zentralen Afrikas. Letzterer gilt heute genetischen Untersuchungen zufolge als eigenständige Art, die weiteren Unterarten sind nicht anerkannt. Stammesgeschichtlich lässt sich der Afrikanische Elefant erstmals im beginnenden Mittleren Pleistozän belegen. Der Gesamtbestand gilt als gefährdet. Ursachen hierfür sind hauptsächlich die Jagd nach Elfenbein und Lebensraumverlust durch die zunehmend wachsende menschliche Bevölkerung. Der Afrikanische Elefant zählt zu den sogenannten „Big Five“ von Großwildjagd und Safari.
(Wikipedia)
So many words are still unspoken
Just keep them all in a song:)
I'll keep them all, though they're misunderstandings... I dont care
---
I'll go without worrying of being replaced, coz I know there're always 2 big families waiting for me, loving and caring about me:X
---
Keep in till the end, then what comes will come:)
Deux femmes que je croise souvent dans les rues de bayonne. Ce jour la elle avaient une discussion aussi intense que les difficultees qu elles ent rencontre dans leur vie.
Sacred mysteries are the areas of supernatural phenomena associated with a divinity or a religious ideology. Sacred mysteries may be either:
Religious beliefs, rituals or practices which are kept secret from non-believers, or lower levels of believers, who have not had an initiation into the higher levels of belief (the concealed knowledge may be called esoteric).
Beliefs of the religion which are public knowledge but cannot be easily explained by normal rational or scientific means.
Although the term "mystery" is not often used in anthropology, access by initiation or rite of passage to otherwise secret beliefs is an extremely common feature of indigenous religions all over the world.
A mystagogue or hierophant is a holder and teacher of secret knowledge in the former sense above. Whereas, mysticism may be defined as an area of philosophical or religious thought which focuses on mysteries in the latter sense above.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_mysteries
A. E. Waite wrote that the Hierophant:
...symbolizes also all things that are righteous and sacred on the manifest side. As such, he is the channel of grace belonging to the world of institution as distinct from that of Nature, and he is the leader of salvation for the human race at large. He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which is the reflection of another and greater hierarchic order; but it may so happen that the pontiff forgets the significance of his symbolic state and acts as if he contained within his proper measures all that his sign signifies or his symbol seeks to shew [sp] forth. He is not, as it has been thought, philosophy—except on the theological side; he is not inspiration; and his is not religion, although he is a mode of its expression.[3]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierophant#Rider_Waite_tarot
A mystagogue (from Greek: μυσταγωγός, mystagogos, "person who initiates into mysteries") is a person who initiates others into mystic beliefs, and an educator or person who has knowledge of the sacred mysteries of a belief system. Another word for mystagogue is hierophant.
Contents
1Origins
2Typologies
3See also
4References
Origins
In ancient mystery religions, a mystagogue would be responsible for leading an initiate into the secret teachings and rituals of a cultus. The initiate would often be blindfolded, and the mystagogue would literally "guide" him into the sacred space.
In the early Christian church, this same concept was used to describe role of the bishop, who was responsible for seeing to it that the catechumens were properly prepared for baptism. Mystagogical homilies, or homilies that dealt with the Church's sacraments, were given to those in the last stages of preparation for full Church membership. Sometimes these mystagogical instructions were not given until after the catechumen had been baptized. The most famous of these mystagogical works are the "Mystagogical Homilies" of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, and the work, "On the Mysteries" by St. Ambrose of Milan.
Typologies
In various organizations, it is the role of the mystagogue to "mystify" pledges. The term is sometimes used to refer to a person who guides people through religious sites, such as churches, and explains the various artifacts. This branch of theology is at times called mystagogy.
In the United States versions of mystagogical legends predate European contact. Early Native American tribes around the Great Lakes region, taught that the mystagogue was a spiritual leader, and upon death would transform into a beast with many heads. The mystagogue would reappear in his beastly form and feed on those who strayed from the tribe if it was not in keeping with their religious customs.[1]
The historical tradition of the mystagogue has carried on today in one way through the fraternity system in American universities, that have historically held a position for a mystagogue at either the chapter or the national level.[2] The mystagogue is a person of great respect, and his knowledge concerning both the physical and spiritual matters of the organization is not questioned. In a way similar to that of some Native American traditions, the mystagogue in the fraternity system has the power to shut down parts of the fraternity which are not in keeping with customs or tradition.
Max Weber, considered to be one of the founders of the modern study of sociology, described the mystagogue as part magician and part prophet, and as one who dispensed "magical actions that contain the boons of salvation."[3]
According to Roy Wallis: "The primary criterion that Weber had in mind in distinguishing the prophet from the mystagogue was that the latter offers a largely magical means of salvation rather than proclaiming a radical religious ethic or an example to be followed."[4]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystagogue
Phaethon (/ˈfeɪ.əθən/; Ancient Greek: Φαέθων, romanized: Phaéthōn, pronounced [pʰa.é.tʰɔːn]), also spelled as Phaëthon, was the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the sun god Helios in Greek mythology. His name was also used by the Ancient Greeks as an alternative name for the planet Jupiter,[1] the motions and cycles of which were personified in poetry and myth.
Contents
1Mythology
1.1Plato's Timaeus
1.2Ovid's version
1.3Clement of Alexandria
1.4Suetonius
1.5Other ancient writers
2Post-classical works
3Shared name
4See also
5Notes
6References
7External links
Mythology
Phaethon was said to be the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the sun god Helios.[2][3] Alternatively, less common genealogies make him a son of Clymenus by Oceanid Merope,[4] of Helios and Rhodos (thus a full brother of the Heliadae)[5] or of Helios and Prote.[6]
Phaethon, challenged by Epaphus and his playmates, sought assurance from his mother that his father was the sun god Helios. She gave him the requested assurance and told him to turn to his father for confirmation. He asked his father for some proof that would demonstrate his relationship with the sun. When the god promised to grant him whatever he wanted, he insisted on being allowed to drive the sun chariot for a day.[7][8] According to some accounts Helios tried to dissuade Phaethon, telling him that even Zeus was not strong enough to steer these horses, but reluctantly kept his promise.[9] Placed in charge of the chariot, Phaethon was unable to control the horses. In some versions, the Earth first froze when the horses climbed too high, but when the chariot then scorched the Earth by swinging too near, Zeus decided to prevent disaster by striking it down with a thunderbolt.[10] Phaethon fell to earth and was killed in the process.[11]
Phaethon was the good friend or lover of Cycnus of Liguria, who profoundly mourned his death and was turned into a swan.[12] Phaethon's seven sisters, the Heliades, also mourned his loss, keeping vigil where Phaethon fell to Earth until the gods turned the sisters into poplar trees, and their tears into amber.[13]
Plato's Timaeus
In Plato's Timaeus, Critias tells the story of Atlantis as recounted to Solon by an Egyptian priest, who prefaced the story by saying:
"There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story that even you [Greeks] have preserved, that once upon a time, Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals."[14]
The Fall of Phaëthon on a Roman sarcophagus (Hermitage Museum)
Ovid's version
In the version of the myth told by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, Phaethon ascends into heaven, the home of his suspected father. His mother Clymene had boasted that his father was the Sun-God or Phoebus. Phaethon went to his father who swore by the river Styx to give Phaethon anything he would ask for in order to prove his divine sonship. Phaethon wanted to drive the chariot of the sun for a day. Phoebus tried to talk him out of it by telling him that not even Jupiter (the king of the gods) would dare to drive it, as the chariot was fiery hot and the horses breathed out flames. He said:
"The first part of the track is steep, and one that my fresh horses at dawn can hardly climb. In mid-heaven it is highest, where to look down on earth and sea often alarms even me and makes my heart tremble with awesome fear. The last part of the track is downwards and needs sure control. Then even Tethys herself, who receives me in her submissive waves, is accustomed to fear that I might dive headlong. Moreover, the rushing sky is constantly turning, and drags along the remote stars, and whirls them in rapid orbits. I move the opposite way, and its momentum does not overcome me as it does all other things, and I ride contrary to its swift rotation. Suppose you are given the chariot. What will you do? Will you be able to counter the turning poles so that the swiftness of the skies does not carry you away? Perhaps you conceive in imagination that there are groves there and cities of the gods and temples with rich gifts. The way runs through the ambush, and apparitions of wild beasts! Even if you keep your course, and do not steer awry, you must still avoid the horns of Taurus the Bull, Sagittarius the Haemonian Archer, raging Leo and Lion's jaw, Scorpio's cruel pincers sweeping out to encircle you from one side, and Cancer's crab-claws reaching out from the other. You will not easily rule those proud horses, breathing out through mouth and nostrils the fires burning in their chests. They scarcely tolerate my control when their fierce spirits are hot, and their necks resist the reins. Beware, my boy, that I am not the source of a gift fatal to you, while something can still be done to set right your request!"[15]
The fall of Phaethon by Adolphe Pierre Sunaert
Phaethon was adamant. When the day came, the fierce horses that drew the chariot felt that it was empty because of the lack of the sun-god's weight and went out of control. Terrified, Phaethon dropped the reins. The horses veered from their course, scorching the earth, burning the vegetation, bringing the blood of the Ethiopians to the surface of their skin and so turning it black, changing much of Africa into a desert, drying up rivers and lakes and shrinking the sea. Earth cried out to Jupiter who was forced to intervene by striking Phaethon with a lightning bolt. Like a falling star, Phaethon plunged blazing into the river Eridanos.
The epitaph on his tomb was:
Here Phaethon lies who in the sun-god's chariot fared. And though greatly he failed, more greatly he dared.[16]
Phoebus, stricken with grief at his son's death, at first refused to resume his work of driving his chariot, but at the appeal of the other gods, including Jupiter, returned to his task.
Clement of Alexandria
According to Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata, "...in the time of Crotopus occurred the burning of Phaethon, and the deluges of Deucalion.[17]
Suetonius
In The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius attributes to the emperor Tiberius the following repeated remark about the future emperor Gaius Caligula: "That to allow Gaius to live would prove the ruin of himself and of all men, and that he was raising a viper for the Roman people and a Phaethon for the world".[18]
Other ancient writers
Phaethon, by Gustave Moreau
Fragments of Euripides' tragedy on this subject suggest that, in his account, Phaethon survives. In reconstructing the lost play and discussing the fragments, James Diggle has discussed the treatment of the Phaethon myth (Diggle 2004).
In the True History by the satirical Greek writer Lucian, Phaëthon is the king of the sun and is at war with the moon.
Post-classical works
Dante refers to the episode in the Inferno, in "Purgatorio" Canto IV and Paradiso Canto XVII of his Divine Comedy.
William Shakespeare uses the story of Phaethon in four places, most famously as an allegory in his play Richard II. He also makes Juliet wish "Phaëthon would whip [Apollo's horses] to the west" as she waits for Romeo in Romeo and Juliet 3.2.3.[19] It also appears briefly in The Two Gentlemen of Verona 3.1.154, and twice in Henry VI, Part 3 (1.4.33 and 2.6.12)[20]
John Marston includes reference to Phaeton in The Malcontent whereby Mendoza's monologue describes the '...sparkling glances (of women), ardent as those flames that singed the world by heedless Phaeton!' - Act 1, Scene 5
Jean-Baptiste Lully wrote a musical tragedy, Phaëton, in which he referred indirectly to the fate of Nicolas Fouquet, whose ambitions to imitate Louis XIV—The Sun King—brought about his downfall. This opera is also used in the second version of Paul Hindemith’s opera Cardillac (1952).
Camille Saint-Saëns wrote a symphonic poem entitled Phaéton in 1873.
Niccolò Jommelli wrote an opera Fetonte to an Italian-language libretto by Mattia Verazi using various sources, principally Ovid, for the myth of Phaeton. It was first performed at the Ducal Theatre, Ludwigsburg in February, 1768, where Duke Karl-Eugen of Württemberg maintained an opera troupe.
Wilhelm Waiblinger’s epistolary novel Phaëthon amalgamates the Phaethon myth with Goethe’s Werther as well as Hölderlin’s Hyperion.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe published a poetic reconstruction of Euripides’ fragmented tragedy in Kunst und Altertum (1823), which served as a basis for various full-scale dramatic adaptations such as Marie Wernicke’s Phaethons Sturz (1893), Karl Wilhelm Geißler’s Phaëthon (1889) and Arnold Beer’s Phaeton (1875).
Gerhart Hauptmann’s long poem Helios und Phaethon (1936) omits the cosmic disaster in order to focus on the relationship between godly father and mortal son.
In Otakar Theer's symbolist tragedy Faëthón (1916), the hero epitomizes man's revolt against the world order ("the gods") and against human destiny. The tragedy was adapted in 1962 into a celebrated eponymous radio play by Miloslav Jareš (director) and Jaromír Ptáček (dramaturge).[21]
Paul Goodman’s early Phaëthon, Myth (1934) juxtaposes the Phaethon myth with a grotesque version of a Christological narrative.
Benjamin Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for oboe, first performed at the Aldeburgh Festival on 14 June 1951, include the short piece Phaeton, which as a solo piece seems to focus on the individual lost in space rather than the furious effects emphasised by earlier instrumental renditions of the myth.
In Ayn Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, an in-universe opera is composed by the character of Richard Halley where Phaeton succeeds in his attempt to control the chariot of the sun, as an allegory for the power of mankind and individualism.
Donald Cotton wrote a comedy radio play 'The Tragedy of Phaethon' broadcast on BBC Network 3 on 10 February 1965.[22]
Angus Wilson’s novel Setting the World on Fire (1980) opens with the description of a Phaethon painting which proves pivotal to the protagonist’s emerging self-conception, leading up to his production of Lully’s Phaëton.
John C. Wright's The Golden Oecumene Trilogy (2002) features a protagonist named Phaethon, whose father's name is Helion. Mythical references abound.[23]
In 2002, Volkswagen introduced the VW Phaeton.
In 2012, former Disco Inferno frontman Ian Crause adapted the story of Phaethon as The Song of Phaethon for his first musical release in over a decade. Crause used the story as an analogy for Britain's entry into the Second Gulf War.[24]
in 2016 Taffety Punk Theatre premiered Michael Milligan's play "Phaeton" in Washington, DC.[25]
Shared name
The name "Phaethon", which means "Shining One",[26] was given also to Phaethon of Syria, to one of the horses of Eos (the Dawn), the Sun, the constellation Auriga, and the planet Jupiter, while as an adjective it was used to describe the sun and the moon.[27] In some accounts the planet referred to by this name is not Jupiter but Saturn.[28]
When 1 Ceres and 2 Pallas–the first asteroids–were discovered, astronomer Heinrich Olbers suggested that they were fragments of a much larger planet which was later named for Phaethon. However, the Phaeton hypothesis has been superseded by the accretion model, in which the asteroid belt represented the remainder of the protoplanetary disk that never formed a planet due to the gravity of Jupiter. However, fringe theorists still consider the Phaeton hypothesis likely.
In modern times, an asteroid whose orbit brings it close to the sun has been named "3200 Phaethon" after the mythological Phaethon.
The French form of the name "Phaethon" is "Phaéton". This form of the word is applied to a kind of carriage and automobile.[29][30]
An order, family, and genus of birds bear the name Phaethon in their taxonomic nomenclature, the tropicbirds.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaethon
Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (yazata) Mithra, the Roman Mithras is linked to a new and distinctive imagery, with the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice debated.[a] The mysteries were popular among the Imperial Roman army from about the 1st to the 4th century ce.[2]
Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake".[b] They met in underground temples, now called mithraea (singular mithraeum), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome,[3] and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far north as Roman Britain,[4](pp 26–27) and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east.[3]
Mithraism is viewed as a rival of early Christianity.[5](p 147) In the 4th century, Mithraists faced persecution from Christians and the religion was subsequently suppressed and eliminated in the Roman empire by the end of the century.[6]
Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire.[7] The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene (tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments.[4](p xxi) It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in the city of Rome.[8][full citation needed] No written narratives or theology from the religion survive; limited information can be derived from the inscriptions and brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested.[c]
Contents
1Name
1.1Etymology of Mithras
2Iconography
2.1Bull-slaying scene
2.2Banquet
2.3Birth from a rock
2.4Lion-headed figure
3Rituals and worship
3.1Mithraeum
3.2Degrees of initiation
3.3Ritual re-enactments
3.4Membership
3.5Ethics
4History and development
4.1Mithras before the Roman Mysteries
4.2Beginnings of Roman Mithraism
4.2.1Earliest archaeology
4.2.2Earliest cult locations
4.3Classical literature about Mithras and the Mysteries
4.3.1Statius
4.3.2Justin Martyr
4.3.3Plutarch
4.3.4Dio Cassius
4.3.5Porphyry
4.3.6Mithras Liturgy
4.4Modern debate about origins
4.4.1Cumont's hypothesis: from Persian state religion
4.4.2Criticisms and reassessments of Cumont
4.4.3Modern theories
4.5Later history
4.6Persecution and Christianization
5Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene
6Mithras and other gods
6.1Mithraism and Christianity
7See also
8Notes
9References
10Further reading
11External links
Name
The term "Mithraism" is a modern convention. Writers of the Roman era referred to it by phrases such as "Mithraic mysteries", "mysteries of Mithras" or "mysteries of the Persians".[1][10] Modern sources sometimes refer to the Greco-Roman religion as Roman Mithraism or Western Mithraism to distinguish it from Persian worship of Mithra.[1][11][12]
Etymology of Mithras
Main article: Mithras (name)
Bas-relief of the tauroctony of the mysteries, Metz, France.
The name Mithras (Latin, equivalent to Greek "Μίθρας"[13]) is a form of Mithra, the name of an old, pre-Zoroastrian, and, later on, Zoroastrian, god[d][14] — a relationship understood by Mithraic scholars since the days of Franz Cumont.[e] An early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th century bce work by Xenophon, the Cyropaedia, which is a biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great.[15]
The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of declension. There is archaeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god's name as "Mithras". However, in Porphyry's Greek text De Abstinentia (Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων), there is a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name "Mithra" as an indeclinable foreign word.[16]
Related deity-names in other languages include
Vedic Sanskrit Mitra, the name of a god praised in the Rigveda.[17][18][19] In Sanskrit, mitra means "friend" or "friendship".[20]
the form mi-it-ra-, found in an inscribed peace treaty between the Hittites and the kingdom of Mitanni, from about 1400 bce.[20][21]
Iranian Mithra and Sanskrit Mitra are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Iranian/mitrás:mitrás, meaning "contract, agreement, covenant".[22]
Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity worshipped in several different religions.[23] On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st century bce, and to whom an old name was applied.[f]
Mary Boyce, a researcher of ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than historians used to think, nonetheless "as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance".[24]
Iconography
Relief of Mithras as bull-slayer from Neuenheim near Heidelberg, framed by scenes from Mithras' life.
Much about the cult of Mithras is only known from reliefs and sculptures. There have been many attempts to interpret this material.
Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. Other images of Mithras are found in the Roman temples, for instance Mithras banqueting with Sol, and depictions of the birth of Mithras from a rock. But the image of bull-slaying (tauroctony) is always in the central niche.[9](p 6) Textual sources for a reconstruction of the theology behind this iconography are very rare.[25] (See section Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene below.)
The practice of depicting the god slaying a bull seems to be specific to Roman Mithraism. According to David Ulansey, this is "perhaps the most important example" of evident difference between Iranian and Roman traditions: "... there is no evidence that the Iranian god Mithra ever had anything to do with killing a bull."[9](p 8)
Bull-slaying scene
See also: Tauroctony
In every mithraeum the centrepiece was a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull, an act called the tauroctony.[g][h] The image may be a relief, or free-standing, and side details may be present or omitted. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap; who is kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils[4](p 77) with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol. A dog and a snake reach up towards the blood. A scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. A raven is flying around or is sitting on the bull. One or three ears of wheat are seen coming out from the bull’s tail, sometimes from the wound. The bull was often white. The god is sitting on the bull in an unnatural way with his right leg constraining the bull's hoof and the left leg is bent and resting on the bull's back or flank.[i] The two torch-bearers are on either side are dressed like Mithras: Cautes with his torch pointing up, and Cautopates with his torch pointing down.[4](p 98–99) An image search for tauroctony will show many examples of the variations.[27] Sometimes Cautes and Cautopates carry shepherds' crooks instead of torches.[28]
A Roman tauroctony relief from Aquileia (c. 175 CE; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)
The event takes place in a cavern, into which Mithras has carried the bull, after having hunted it, ridden it and overwhelmed its strength.[4](p 74) Sometimes the cavern is surrounded by a circle, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac appear. Outside the cavern, top left, is Sol the sun, with his flaming crown, often driving a quadriga. A ray of light often reaches down to touch Mithras. At the top right is Luna, with her crescent moon, who may be depicted driving a biga.[29]
In some depictions, the central tauroctony is framed by a series of subsidiary scenes to the left, top and right, illustrating events in the Mithras narrative; Mithras being born from the rock, the water miracle, the hunting and riding of the bull, meeting Sol who kneels to him, shaking hands with Sol and sharing a meal of bull-parts with him, and ascending to the heavens in a chariot.[29] In some instances, as is the case in the stucco icon at Santa Prisca Mithraeum in Rome, the god is shown heroically nude.[j] Some of these reliefs were constructed so that they could be turned on an axis. On the back side was another, more elaborate feasting scene. This indicates that the bull killing scene was used in the first part of the celebration, then the relief was turned, and the second scene was used in the second part of the celebration.[31] Besides the main cult icon, a number of mithraea had several secondary tauroctonies, and some small portable versions, probably meant for private devotion, have also been found.[32]
Banquet
The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene.[33] The banquet scene features Mithras and Sol Invictus banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull.[33] On the specific banquet scene on the Fiano Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a caduceus towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of Mercury, and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a psychopomp, the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter.[34] Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: The blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.[34]
Birth from a rock
Mithras rising from the rock (National Museum of Romanian History)
Mithras born from the rock (c. 186 CE; Baths of Diocletian)
Mithras is depicted as being born from a rock. He is shown as emerging from a rock, already in his youth, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He is nude, standing with his legs together, and is wearing a Phrygian cap.[35]
However, there are variations. Sometimes he is shown as coming out of the rock as a child, and in one instance he has a globe in one hand; sometimes a thunderbolt is seen. There are also depictions in which flames are shooting from the rock and also from Mithras' cap. One statue had its base perforated so that it could serve as a fountain, and the base of another has the mask of the water god. Sometimes Mithras also has other weapons such as bows and arrows, and there are also animals such as dogs, serpents, dolphins, eagles, other birds, lions, crocodiles, lobsters and snails around. On some reliefs, there is a bearded figure identified as Oceanus, the water god, and on some there are the gods of the four winds. In these reliefs, the four elements could be invoked together. Sometimes Victoria, Luna, Sol, and Saturn also seem to play a role. Saturn in particular is often seen handing over the dagger or short sword to Mithras, used later in the tauroctony.[35]
In some depictions, Cautes and Cautopates are also present; sometimes they are depicted as shepherds.[36]
On some occasions, an amphora is seen, and a few instances show variations like an egg birth or a tree birth. Some interpretations show that the birth of Mithras was celebrated by lighting torches or candles.[35][37]
Lion-headed figure
Main article: Arimanius
Drawing of the leontocephaline found at a mithraeum in Ostia Antica, Italy (190 CE; CIMRM 312)
Lion-headed figure from the Sidon Mithraeum (500 CE; CIMRM 78 & 79; Louvre)
One of the most characteristic and poorly-understood features of the Mysteries is the naked lion-headed figure often found in Mithraic temples, named by the modern scholars with descriptive terms such as leontocephaline (lion-headed) or leontocephalus (lion-head).
His body is a naked man's, entwined by a serpent (or two serpents, like a caduceus), with the snake's head often resting on the lion's head. The lion's mouth is often open. He is usually represented as having four wings, two keys (sometimes a single key), and a sceptre in his hand. Sometimes the figure is standing on a globe inscribed with a diagonal cross. On the figure from the Ostia Antica Mithraeum (left, CIMRM 312), the four wings carry the symbols of the four seasons, and a thunderbolt is engraved on his chest. At the base of the statue are the hammer and tongs of Vulcan and Mercury's cock and wand (caduceus). A rare variation of the same figure is also found with a human head and a lion's head emerging from its chest.[38][39]
Although animal-headed figures are prevalent in contemporary Egyptian and Gnostic mythological representations, no exact parallel to the Mithraic leontocephaline figure has been found.[38]
Based on dedicatory inscriptions for altars,[k] the name of the figure is conjectured to be Arimanius, a Latinized form of the name Ahriman – a demonic figure in the Zoroastrian pantheon. Arimanius is known from inscriptions to have been a god in the Mithraic cult as seen, for example, in images from the Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae (CIMRM) such as CIMRM 222 from Ostia, CIMRM 369 from Rome, and CIMRM 1773 and 1775 from Pannonia.[40]
Some scholars identify the lion-man as Aion, or Zurvan, or Cronus, or Chronos, while others assert that it is a version of the Zoroastrian Ahriman or Vedic Aryaman.[41] Although the exact identity of the lion-headed figure is debated by scholars, it is largely agreed that the god is associated with time and seasonal change.[42]
Rituals and worship
According to M.J. Vermaseren and C.C. van Essen, the Mithraic New Year and the birthday of Mithras was on December 25.[l][m] However, Beck disagrees strongly.[45] Clauss states:
"the Mithraic Mysteries had no public ceremonies of its own. The festival of Natalis Invicti, held on 25 December, was a general festival of the Sun, and by no means specific to the Mysteries of Mithras."[46]
Mithraic initiates were required to swear an oath of secrecy and dedication,[47] and some grade rituals involved the recital of a catechism, wherein the initiate was asked a series of questions pertaining to the initiation symbolism and had to reply with specific answers. An example of such a catechism, apparently pertaining to the Leo grade, was discovered in a fragmentary Egyptian papyrus (Papyrus Berolinensis 21196),[47][48] and reads:
Verso
[…] He will say: 'Where […]?'
'[…] is he at a loss there?' Say: '[…]'
[…] Say: 'Night'. He will say: 'Where […]?'
[…] Say: 'All things […]'
'[…] are you called?' Say: 'Because of the summery […]'
[…] having become […] he/it has the fiery ones
'[…] did you receive?' Say: 'In a pit'. He will say: 'Where is your […]?'
'[…] [in the] Leonteion.' He will say: 'Will you gird […]?'
'[…] death'. He will say: 'Why, having girded yourself, […]?'
[…] this [has?] four tassels.
Recto
Very sharp and […]
[…] much. He will say: '[…]?'
'[…] of the hot and cold'. He will say: '[…]?'
'[…] red […] linen'. He will say: 'Why?' Say:
[…] red border; the linen, however, […]
'[…] has been wrapped?' Say: 'The savior's […]'
He will say: 'Who is the father?' Say: 'The one who [begets] everything […]'
[He will say: 'How] did you become a Leo?' Say: 'By the […] of the father […]'
Say: 'Drink and food'. He will say: '[…]?'
[…] in the seven-[…]
Mithraic relief with original colors (reconstitution), c. 140 ce–160 ce; from Argentoratum. Strasbourg Archaeological Museum.
Almost no Mithraic scripture or first-hand account of its highly secret rituals survives;[25] with the exception of the aforementioned oath and catechism, and the document known as the Mithras Liturgy, from 4th century Egypt, whose status as a Mithraist text has been questioned by scholars including Franz Cumont.[n][49] The walls of mithraea were commonly whitewashed, and where this survives it tends to carry extensive repositories of graffiti; and these, together with inscriptions on Mithraic monuments, form the main source for Mithraic texts.[50]
Nevertheless, it is clear from the archaeology of numerous mithraea that most rituals were associated with feasting – as eating utensils and food residues are almost invariably found. These tend to include both animal bones and also very large quantities of fruit residues.[4](p 115) The presence of large amounts of cherry-stones in particular would tend to confirm mid-summer (late June, early July) as a season especially associated with Mithraic festivities. The Virunum album, in the form of an inscribed bronze plaque, records a Mithraic festival of commemoration as taking place on 26 June 184. Beck argues that religious celebrations on this date are indicative of special significance being given to the summer solstice; but this time of the year coincides with ancient recognition of the solar maximum at midsummer, whilst iconographically identical holidays such as Litha, Saint John's Eve, and Jāņi are observed also.
For their feasts, Mithraic initiates reclined on stone benches arranged along the longer sides of the mithraeum – typically there might be room for 15 to 30 diners, but very rarely many more than 40 men.[4](p 43) Counterpart dining rooms, or triclinia, were to be found above ground in the precincts of almost any temple or religious sanctuary in the Roman empire, and such rooms were commonly used for their regular feasts by Roman 'clubs', or collegia. Mithraic feasts probably performed a very similar function for Mithraists as the collegia did for those entitled to join them; indeed, since qualification for Roman collegia tended to be restricted to particular families, localities or traditional trades, Mithraism may have functioned in part as providing clubs for the unclubbed.[51] However, the size of the mithraeum is not necessarily an indication of the size of the congregation.[30](pp 12, 36)
Each mithraeum had several altars at the further end, underneath the representation of the tauroctony, and also commonly contained considerable numbers of subsidiary altars, both in the main mithraeum chamber and in the ante-chamber or narthex.[4](p 49) These altars, which are of the standard Roman pattern, each carry a named dedicatory inscription from a particular initiate, who dedicated the altar to Mithras "in fulfillment of his vow", in gratitude for favours received. Burned residues of animal entrails are commonly found on the main altars indicating regular sacrificial use. However, mithraea do not commonly appear to have been provided with facilities for ritual slaughter of sacrificial animals (a highly specialised function in Roman religion), and it may be presumed that a mithraeum would have made arrangements for this service to be provided for them in co-operation with the professional victimarius[52] of the civic cult. Prayers were addressed to the Sun three times a day, and Sunday was especially sacred.[53]
It is doubtful whether Mithraism had a monolithic and internally consistent doctrine.[54] It may have varied from location to location.[55] However, the iconography is relatively coherent.[29] It had no predominant sanctuary or cultic centre; and, although each mithraeum had its own officers and functionaries, there was no central supervisory authority. In some mithraea, such as that at Dura Europos, wall paintings depict prophets carrying scrolls,[56] but no named Mithraic sages are known, nor does any reference give the title of any Mithraic scripture or teaching. It is known that initiates could transfer with their grades from one Mithraeum to another.[4](p 139)
Mithraeum
See also: Mithraeum
A mithraeum found in the ruins of Ostia Antica, Italy.
Temples of Mithras are sunk below ground, windowless, and very distinctive. In cities, the basement of an apartment block might be converted; elsewhere they might be excavated and vaulted over, or converted from a natural cave. Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier, while being somewhat less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria.[4](pp 26–27) According to Walter Burkert, the secret character of Mithraic rituals meant that Mithraism could only be practiced within a Mithraeum.[57] Some new finds at Tienen show evidence of large-scale feasting and suggest that the mystery religion may not have been as secretive as was generally believed.[o]
For the most part, mithraea tend to be small, externally undistinguished, and cheaply constructed; the cult generally preferring to create a new centre rather than expand an existing one. The mithraeum represented the cave to which Mithras carried and then killed the bull; and where stone vaulting could not be afforded, the effect would be imitated with lath and plaster. They are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure.[4](p 73) There is usually a narthex or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. Mithraeum is a modern coinage and mithraists referred to their sacred structures as speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space).[p]
In their basic form, mithraea were entirely different from the temples and shrines of other cults. In the standard pattern of Roman religious precincts, the temple building functioned as a house for the god, who was intended to be able to view, through the opened doors and columnar portico, sacrificial worship being offered on an altar set in an open courtyard—potentially accessible not only to initiates of the cult, but also to colitores or non-initiated worshippers.[58] Mithraea were the antithesis of this.[59]
Degrees of initiation
In the Suda under the entry Mithras, it states that “No one was permitted to be initiated into them (the mysteries of Mithras), until he should show himself holy and steadfast by undergoing several graduated tests.”[60] Gregory Nazianzen refers to the “tests in the mysteries of Mithras”.[61]
There were seven grades of initiation into Mithraism, which are listed by St. Jerome.[62] Manfred Clauss states that the number of grades, seven, must be connected to the planets. A mosaic in the Mithraeum of Felicissimus, Ostia Antica depicts these grades, with symbolic emblems that are connected either to the grades or are symbols of the planets. The grades also have an inscription beside them commending each grade into the protection of the different planetary gods.[4](pp 132–133) In ascending order of importance, the initiatory grades were:[4](pp 133–138)
GradeNameSymbolsPlanet or
tutelary
deity
1st
Corax, Corux, or Corvex
(raven or crow)Beaker, caduceusMercury
2nd
Nymphus, Nymphobus
(bridegroom)Lamp, hand bell, veil, circlet or diademVenus
3rd
Miles
(soldier)Pouch, helmet, lance, drum, belt, breastplateMars
4th
Leo
(lion)Batillum, sistrum, laurel wreath, thunderboltsJupiter
5th
Perses
(Persian)Hooked sword, Phrygian cap, sickle,
crescent moon, stars, sling, pouchLuna
6th
Heliodromus
(sun-runner)Torch, images of Helios, whip, robesSol
7th
Pater
(father)Patera, mitre, shepherd's staff, garnet or
ruby ring, chasuble or cape, elaborate jewel-
encrusted robes, with metallic threadsSaturn
Spade, sistrum, lightning bolt
Sword, crescent moon, star, sickle
Torch, crown, whip
Patera, rod, Phrygian cap, sickle
Elsewhere, as at Dura-Europos, Mithraic graffiti survive giving membership lists, in which initiates of a mithraeum are named with their Mithraic grades. At Virunum, the membership list or album sacratorum was maintained as an inscribed plaque, updated year by year as new members were initiated. By cross-referencing these lists it is possible to track some initiates from one mithraeum to another; and also speculatively to identify Mithraic initiates with persons on other contemporary lists such as military service rolls and lists of devotees of non-Mithraic religious sanctuaries. Names of initiates are also found in the dedication inscriptions of altars and other cult objects. Clauss noted in 1990 that overall, only about 14% of Mithraic names inscribed before 250 ce identify the initiate's grade – and hence questioned the traditional view that all initiates belonged to one of the seven grades.[63] Clauss argues that the grades represented a distinct class of priests, sacerdotes. Gordon maintains the former theory of Merkelbach and others, especially noting such examples as Dura where all names are associated with a Mithraic grade. Some scholars maintain that practice may have differed over time, or from one Mithraeum to another.
The highest grade, pater, is by far the most common one found on dedications and inscriptions – and it would appear not to have been unusual for a mithraeum to have several men with this grade. The form pater patrum (father of fathers) is often found, which appears to indicate the pater with primary status. There are several examples of persons, commonly those of higher social status, joining a mithraeum with the status pater – especially in Rome during the 'pagan revival' of the 4th century. It has been suggested that some mithraea may have awarded honorary pater status to sympathetic dignitaries.[64]
The initiate into each grade appears to have been required to undertake a specific ordeal or test,[4](p 103) involving exposure to heat, cold or threatened peril. An 'ordeal pit', dating to the early 3rd century, has been identified in the mithraeum at Carrawburgh. Accounts of the cruelty of the emperor Commodus describes his amusing himself by enacting Mithraic initiation ordeals in homicidal form. By the later 3rd century, the enacted trials appear to have been abated in rigor, as 'ordeal pits' were floored over.
Admission into the community was completed with a handshake with the pater, just as Mithras and Sol shook hands. The initiates were thus referred to as syndexioi (those united by the handshake). The term is used in an inscription by Proficentius[b] and derided by Firmicus Maternus in De errore profanarum religionum,[65] a 4th century Christian work attacking paganism.[66] In ancient Iran, taking the right hand was the traditional way of concluding a treaty or signifying some solemn understanding between two parties.[67]
Ritual re-enactments
Reconstruction of a mithraeum with a mosaic depicting the grades of initiation
Activities of the most prominent deities in Mithraic scenes, Sol and Mithras, were imitated in rituals by the two most senior officers in the cult's hierarchy, the Pater and the Heliodromus.[68] The initiates held a sacramental banquet, replicating the feast of Mithras and Sol.[68]
Reliefs on a cup found in Mainz[69][70] appear to depict a Mithraic initiation. On the cup, the initiate is depicted as being led into a location where a Pater would be seated in the guise of Mithras with a drawn bow. Accompanying the initiate is a mystagogue, who explains the symbolism and theology to the initiate. The Rite is thought to re-enact what has come to be called the ‘Water Miracle’, in which Mithras fires a bolt into a rock, and from the rock now spouts water.
Roger Beck has hypothesized a third processional Mithraic ritual, based on the Mainz cup and Porphyrys. This scene, called ‘Procession of the Sun-Runner’, shows the Heliodromus escorted by two figures representing Cautes and Cautopates (see below) and preceded by an initiate of the grade Miles leading a ritual enactment of the solar journey around the mithraeum, which was intended to represent the cosmos.[71]
Consequently, it has been argued that most Mithraic rituals involved a re-enactment by the initiates of episodes in the Mithras narrative,[4](pp 62–101) a narrative whose main elements were: birth from the rock, striking water from stone with an arrow shot, the killing of the bull, Sol's submission to Mithras, Mithras and Sol feasting on the bull, the ascent of Mithras to heaven in a chariot. A noticeable feature of this narrative (and of its regular depiction in surviving sets of relief carvings) is the absence of female personages (the sole exception being Luna watching the tauroctony in the upper corner opposite Helios).[4](p 33)
Membership
Another dedication to Mithras by legionaries of Legio II Herculia has been excavated at Sitifis (modern Setif in Algeria), so the unit or a subunit must have been transferred at least once.
Only male names appear in surviving inscribed membership lists. Historians including Cumont and Richard Gordon have concluded that the cult was for men only.[72][73]
The ancient scholar Porphyry refers to female initiates in Mithraic rites.[2] However, the early 20th-century historian A. S. Geden writes that this may be due to a misunderstanding.[2] According to Geden, while the participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, the predominant military influence in Mithraism makes it unlikely in this instance.[2] It has recently been suggested by David Jonathan that "Women were involved with Mithraic groups in at least some locations of the empire."[74]
Soldiers were strongly represented amongst Mithraists, and also merchants, customs officials and minor bureaucrats. Few, if any, initiates came from leading aristocratic or senatorial families until the 'pagan revival' of the mid-4th century; but there were always considerable numbers of freedmen and slaves.[4](p 39)
Ethics
Clauss suggests that a statement by Porphyry, that people initiated into the Lion grade must keep their hands pure from everything that brings pain and harm and is impure, means that moral demands were made upon members of congregations.[75] A passage in the Caesares of Julian the Apostate refers to "commandments of Mithras".[76] Tertullian, in his treatise "On the Military Crown" records that Mithraists in the army were officially excused from wearing celebratory coronets on the basis of the Mithraic initiation ritual that included refusing a proffered crown, because "their only crown was Mithras".[77]
History and development
Mithras before the Roman Mysteries
Mithras-Helios, with solar rays and in Iranian dress,[78] with Antiochus I of Commagene. (Mt. Nemrut, 1st Century bce)
According to the archaeologist Maarten Vermaseren, 1st century bce evidence from Commagene demonstrates the "reverence paid to Mithras" but does not refer to "the mysteries".[q] In the colossal statuary erected by King Antiochus I (69–34 BCE) at Mount Nemrut, Mithras is shown beardless, wearing a Phrygian cap[3][80] (or the similar headdress, Persian tiara), in Iranian (Parthian) clothing,[78] and was originally seated on a throne alongside other deities and the king himself.[81] On the back of the thrones there is an inscription in Greek, which includes the name Apollo Mithras Helios in the genitive case (Ἀπόλλωνος Μίθρου Ἡλίου).[82] Vermaseren also reports about a Mithras cult in 3rd century bce. Fayum.[83] R.D. Barnett has argued that the royal seal of King Saussatar of Mitanni from c. 1450 bce. depicts a tauroctonous Mithras.[84]
Beginnings of Roman Mithraism
The origins and spread of the Mysteries have been intensely debated among scholars and there are radically differing views on these issues.[85] According to Clauss, mysteries of Mithras were not practiced until the 1st century ce.[4] According to Ulansey, the earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the 1st century bce: The historian Plutarch says that in 67 bce the pirates of Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras.[86] However, according to Daniels, whether any of this relates to the origins of the mysteries is unclear.[r] The unique underground temples or mithraea appear suddenly in the archaeology in the last quarter of the 1st century ce.[88]
Earliest archaeology
Inscriptions and monuments related to the Mithraic Mysteries are catalogued in a two volume work by Maarten J. Vermaseren, the Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae (or CIMRM).[89] The earliest monument showing Mithras slaying the bull is thought to be CIMRM 593, found in Rome. There is no date, but the inscription tells us that it was dedicated by a certain Alcimus, steward of T. Claudius Livianus. Vermaseren and Gordon believe that this Livianus is a certain Livianus who was commander of the Praetorian guard in 101 ce, which would give an earliest date of 98–99 ce.[90]
Votive altar from Alba Iulia in present-day Romania, dedicated to Invicto Mythrae in fulfillment of a vow (votum)
Five small terracotta plaques of a figure holding a knife over a bull have been excavated near Kerch in the Crimea, dated by Beskow and Clauss to the second half of the 1st century bce,[91] and by Beck to 50 bce–50 ce. These may be the earliest tauroctonies, if they are accepted to be a depiction of Mithras.[s] The bull-slaying figure wears a Phrygian cap, but is described by Beck and Beskow as otherwise unlike standard depictions of the tauroctony. Another reason for not connecting these artifacts with the Mithraic Mysteries is that the first of these plaques was found in a woman's tomb.[t]
An altar or block from near SS. Pietro e Marcellino on the Esquiline in Rome was inscribed with a bilingual inscription by an Imperial freedman named T. Flavius Hyginus, probably between 80–100 ce. It is dedicated to Sol Invictus Mithras.[u]
CIMRM 2268 is a broken base or altar from Novae/Steklen in Moesia Inferior, dated 100 ce, showing Cautes and Cautopates.
Other early archaeology includes the Greek inscription from Venosia by Sagaris actor probably from 100–150 ce; the Sidon cippus dedicated by Theodotus priest of Mithras to Asclepius, 140–141 ce; and the earliest military inscription, by C. Sacidius Barbarus, centurion of XV Apollinaris, from the bank of the Danube at Carnuntum, probably before 114 ce.[95]
According to C.M.Daniels, the Carnuntum inscription is the earliest Mithraic dedication from the Danube region, which along with Italy is one of the two regions where Mithraism first struck root.[v] The earliest dateable mithraeum outside Rome dates from 148 ce.[w] The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima is the only one in Palestine and the date is inferred.[x]
Earliest cult locations
According to Roger Beck, the attested locations of the Roman cult in the earliest phase (c. 80-120 ce) are as follows:[99]
Mithraea datable from pottery
Nida/Heddemheim III (Germania Sup.)
Mogontiacum (Germania Sup.)
Pons Aeni (Noricum)
Caesarea Maritima (Judaea)
Datable dedications
Nida/Heddernheim I (Germania Sup.) (CIMRM 1091/2, 1098)
Carnuntum III (Pannonia Sup.) (CIMRM 1718)
Novae (Moesia Inf.) (CIMRM 2268/9)
Oescus (Moesia Inf.)(CIMRM 2250)
Rome(CIMRM 362, 593/4)
Classical literature about Mithras and the Mysteries
Mithras and the Bull: This fresco from the mithraeum at Marino, Italy (third century) shows the tauroctony and the celestial lining of Mithras' cape.
According to Boyce, the earliest literary references to the mysteries are by the Latin poet Statius, about 80 ce, and Plutarch (c. 100 CE).[100]
Statius
The Thebaid (c. 80 ce[9](p 29) ) an epic poem by Statius, pictures Mithras in a cave, wrestling with something that has horns.[101] The context is a prayer to the god Phoebus.[102] The cave is described as persei, which in this context is usually translated Persian; however, according to the translator J. H. Mozley it literally means Persean, referring to Perses, the son of Perseus and Andromeda,[9](p 29) this Perses being the ancestor of the Persians according to Greek legend.[9](pp 27–29)
Justin Martyr
Writing in approximately 145 ce, the early Christian apologist Justin Martyr charges the cult of Mithras with imitating the Christian communion,
Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same things to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed, with certain incantations, in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.[103]
Plutarch
The Greek biographer Plutarch (46–127 ce) says that "secret mysteries ... of Mithras" were practiced by the pirates of Cilicia, the coastal province in the southeast of Anatolia, who were active in the 1st century bce: "They likewise offered strange sacrifices; those of Olympus I mean; and they celebrated certain secret mysteries, among which those of Mithras continue to this day, being originally instituted by them."[104] He mentions that the pirates were especially active during the Mithridatic wars (between the Roman Republic and King Mithridates VI of Pontus) in which they supported the king.[104] The association between Mithridates and the pirates is also mentioned by the ancient historian Appian.[105] The 4th century commentary on Vergil by Servius says that Pompey settled some of these pirates in Calabria in southern Italy.[106]
Dio Cassius
The historian Dio Cassius (2nd to 3rd century ce) tells how the name of Mithras was spoken during the state visit to Rome of Tiridates I of Armenia, during the reign of Nero. (Tiridates was the son of Vonones II of Parthia, and his coronation by Nero in 66 ce confirmed the end of a war between Parthia and Rome.) Dio Cassius writes that Tiridates, as he was about to receive his crown, told the Roman emperor that he revered him "as Mithras".[107] Roger Beck thinks it possible that this episode contributed to the emergence of Mithraism as a popular religion in Rome.[108]
Porphyry
Mosaic (1st century ce) depicting Mithras emerging from his cave and flanked by Cautes and Cautopates (Walters Art Museum)
The philosopher Porphyry (3rd–4th century ce) gives an account of the origins of the Mysteries in his work De antro nympharum (The Cave of the Nymphs).[109] Citing Eubulus as his source, Porphyry writes that the original temple of Mithras was a natural cave, containing fountains, which Zoroaster found in the mountains of Persia. To Zoroaster, this cave was an image of the whole world, so he consecrated it to Mithras, the creator of the world. Later in the same work, Porphyry links Mithras and the bull with planets and star-signs: Mithras himself is associated with the sign of Aries and the planet Mars, while the bull is associated with Venus.[110]
Porphyry is writing close to the demise of the cult, and Robert Turcan has challenged the idea that Porphyry's statements about Mithraism are accurate. His case is that far from representing what Mithraists believed, they are merely representations by the Neoplatonists of what it suited them in the late 4th century to read into the mysteries.[111] However, Merkelbach and Beck believe that Porphyry’s work "is in fact thoroughly coloured with the doctrines of the Mysteries".[112] Beck holds that classical scholars have neglected Porphyry’s evidence and have taken an unnecessarily skeptical view of Porphyry.[113] According to Beck, Porphyry's De antro is the only clear text from antiquity which tells us about the intent of the Mithraic Mysteries and how that intent was realized.[114] David Ulansey finds it important that Porphyry "confirms ... that astral conceptions played an important role in Mithraism."[9](p 18)
Mithras Liturgy
In later antiquity, the Greek name of Mithras (Μίθρας ) occurs in the text known as the "Mithras Liturgy", a part of the Paris Greek Magical Papyrus (Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Suppl. gr. 574); here Mithras is given the epithet "the great god", and is identified with the sun god Helios.[115][116] There have been different views among scholars as to whether this text is an expression of Mithraism as such. Franz Cumont argued that it isn’t;[117] Marvin Meyer thinks it is;[118] while Hans Dieter Betz sees it as a synthesis of Greek, Egyptian, and Mithraic traditions.[119][120]
Modern debate about origins
Cumont's hypothesis: from Persian state religion
Augustan-era intaglio depicting a tauroctony (Walters Art Museum)
4th-century relief of the investiture of the Sasanian king Ardashir II. Mithra stands on a lotus flower on the left holding a barsom.[78]
Scholarship on Mithras begins with Franz Cumont, who published a two volume collection of source texts and images of monuments in French in 1894-1900, Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra [French: Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra].[121] An English translation of part of this work was published in 1903, with the title The Mysteries of Mithra.[122] Cumont’s hypothesis, as the author summarizes it in the first 32 pages of his book, was that the Roman religion was "the Roman form of Mazdaism",[123] the Persian state religion, disseminated from the East. He identified the ancient Aryan deity who appears in Persian literature as Mithras with the Hindu god Mitra of the Vedic hymns.[124] According to Cumont, the god Mithra came to Rome "accompanied by a large representation of the Mazdean Pantheon".[125] Cumont considers that while the tradition "underwent some modification in the Occident ... the alterations that it suffered were largely superficial".[126]
Criticisms and reassessments of Cumont
Cumont's theories came in for severe criticism from John R. Hinnells and R.L. Gordon at the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies held in 1971.[y] John Hinnells was unwilling to reject entirely the idea of Iranian origin,[127] but wrote: "we must now conclude that his reconstruction simply will not stand. It receives no support from the Iranian material and is in fact in conflict with the ideas of that tradition as they are represented in the extant texts. Above all, it is a theoretical reconstruction which does not accord with the actual Roman iconography."[z] He discussed Cumont’s reconstruction of the bull-slaying scene and stated "that the portrayal of Mithras given by Cumont is not merely unsupported by Iranian texts but is actually in serious conflict with known Iranian theology."[aa] Another paper by R.L. Gordon argued that Cumont severely distorted the available evidence by forcing the material to conform to his predetermined model of Zoroastrian origins. Gordon suggested that the theory of Persian origins was completely invalid and that the Mithraic mysteries in the West were an entirely new creation.[129]
A similar view has been expressed by Luther H. Martin: "Apart from the name of the god himself, in other words, Mithraism seems to have developed largely in and is, therefore, best understood from the context of Roman culture."[130](p xiv)
However, according to Hopfe, "All theories of the origin of Mithraism acknowledge a connection, however vague, to the Mithra/Mitra figure of ancient Aryan religion."[19] Reporting on the Second International Congress of Mithraic Studies, 1975, Ugo Bianchi says that although he welcomes "the tendency to question in historical terms the relations between Eastern and Western Mithraism", it "should not mean obliterating what was clear to the Romans themselves, that Mithras was a 'Persian' (in wider perspective: an Indo-Iranian) god."[131]
Boyce states that "no satisfactory evidence has yet been adduced to show that, before Zoroaster, the concept of a supreme god existed among the Iranians, or that among them Mithra – or any other divinity – ever enjoyed a separate cult of his or her own outside either their ancient or their Zoroastrian pantheons."[132] However, she also says that although recent studies have minimized the Iranizing aspects of the self-consciously Persian religion "at least in the form which it attained under the Roman Empire", the name Mithras is enough to show "that this aspect is of some importance". She also says that "the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary references to them."[24]
Beck tells us that since the 1970s scholars have generally rejected Cumont, but adds that recent theories about how Zoroastrianism was during the period bce now make some new form of Cumont's east-west transfer possible.[133] He says that
... an indubitable residuum of things Persian in the Mysteries and a better knowledge of what constituted actual Mazdaism have allowed modern scholars to postulate for Roman Mithraism a continuing Iranian theology. This indeed is the main line of Mithraic scholarship, the Cumontian model which subsequent scholars accept, modify, or reject. For the transmission of Iranian doctrine from East to West, Cumont postulated a plausible, if hypothetical, intermediary: the Magusaeans of the Iranian diaspora in Anatolia. More problematic – and never properly addressed by Cumont or his successors – is how real-life Roman Mithraists subsequently maintained a quite complex and sophisticated Iranian theology behind an occidental facade. Other than the images at Dura of the two 'magi' with scrolls, there is no direct and explicit evidence for the carriers of such doctrines. ... Up to a point, Cumont’s Iranian paradigm, especially in Turcan’s modified form, is certainly plausible.[134][135][136]
He also says that "the old Cumontian model of formation in, and diffusion from, Anatolia ... is by no means dead – nor should it be."[137]
Let's talk a little bit about stereotypes and attitudes.
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Many people drive themselves into a rigid framework, refuse to achieve their own goals in order to please everyone and not offend anyone, choose someone else's opinion, live by principles imposed from the outside that do not suit them at all, but only create obstacles and limit ...
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Sometimes we don't even think about whether they are in tune with our inner world, our life position… Some stereotypes can be useful, and some do not always reflect reality and can lead to misunderstanding, discrimination, injustice
...
And what do you think about this? Do you know how to separate useful stereotypes about those that hinder development? Write comments, give examples.
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#portraitMoscow #photodayMoscow #familyphotosessionMoscow #photocenter #NikonD850 #safronoviv_photo
These are the series of illustrations to newest story – The flight of the swan telling about Dannee’s struggle with keeping peace between her friend and one of her romantic flashbacks in the past.
Even while Skyrim being at state of fragile peace Dannee learns that not all fights are tied with something epic as she tries to out some order and peace between two of her closest friends who had big misunderstanding along with nasty quarrel. In attempt to make her friend Serana see things from her perspective Dannee dwells in her own past as well as helping Serana deal with terrible but unseen wounds of her darkest memories…
The first part – www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/images/433485/?
The second part of the story – www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/images/433486/?
Swiss / British / German postcard by News Productions, Baulmes & Stroud / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede, no. 56514. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Maria Casarès in Orphée/Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950).
Spanish-born French actress María Casares (1922-1996) was one of the most distinguished stars of the French stage and cinema. She was credited in France as Maria Casarès.
Maria Casarès was born María Victoria Casares y Pérez in A Coruña, Galicia, in 1922. She was the daughter of Santiago Casares Quiroga, a minister in Manuel Azaña's government and Prime Minister of Spain, and of Gloria Pérez. At 14, Maria was already a volunteer in Madrid hospitals. Her father was a member of the Republican government so at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936), the family was forced to flee Spain. Her father went to London, but she and her mother sought refuge in Paris. There, María attended the Victor Duruy school, where she learned French and was befriended by a teacher and his Spanish wife, who inspired her to go into the theatre. After graduation, she took voice classes with René Simon. She enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire, where she won First Prize for tragedy and Second Prize for comedy. In 1942, she auditioned for Marcel Herrand who engaged her for his Théâtre des Mathurins. There, over the course of the next three years, she appeared in several plays including, 'Deirdre of the Sorrows' by J. M. Synge, 'The Master Builder' by Ibsen, 'Le Malentendu' (The Misunderstanding) by Albert Camus, with whom she would later have a passionate affair, and an especially important premiere, 'Fédérico', after Prosper Mérimée, with Gérard Philipe.
Maria Casarès began to appear in films. Her debut was in Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du paradis/Children of Paradise (1945), one of the great classics of French cinema. The romantic drama was produced under war conditions in 1943, 1944, and early 1945 in both Vichy France and Occupied France. Set in the theatrical world of 1830s Paris, it tells the story of a courtesan (Arletty) and four men — a mime, an actor, a criminal and an aristocrat — who love her in entirely different ways. Casares also made Les dames du Bois de Boulogne/The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson, 1945), and the historical drama La Chartreuse de Parme/The Charterhouse of Parma (Christian-Jaque, 1948) with Gérard Philipe. It was the most popular French film at the French box office in 1948. For Jean Cocteau, she played Death in his Orphée/Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950) with Jean Marais and François Périer and in his Testament d'Orphée/Testament of Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1960). John Calder in his obituary in the Independent: "Although she made many films and her electrifying presence, with its dark beauty, innate smouldering passion and controlled violence - and most unforgettably of all her expressive eyes - made her an instant star, ideally suited to the cinema, she was happier and more at home in the theatre. No one could portray evil, especially evil destiny, better than she - Medea and Lady Macbeth were only two of the parts that gave her such opportunities."
Maria Casarès joined the Festival d'Avignon, the Comédie-Française and the Théâtre National Populaire under the leadership of Jean Vilar. Before her, no one actor or actress of foreign origin had ever played at Comédie-Française. She toured extensively throughout the world, appearing in the great classics of French theatre, including, in 1958, Corneille's 'Le Cid', Victor Hugo's 'Marie Tudor' and Marivaux' 'Le Triomphe de l'Amour' (The Triumph of Love) on Broadway. Casares took French nationality in 1975 and three years later, she married André Schlesser, an actor known professionally as Dade, who had been her longtime companion and theatrical co-star. In 1980, she published her autobiography, 'Résidente privilégiée' (Privileged Resident) in which she described her 16-year affair with Albert Camus. The couple never married, but their extensive correspondence, first published in France in late 2017, lasted from 1944, with a five-year break to 1949 when they again had a chance meeting when their passion was rekindled until the end of Camus' life in 1960. She starred in a number of Albert Camus's plays and often threatened to end their stormy affair over his refusal to leave Francine Faure. In 1989, she was nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actress in the film La Lectrice/The Reader (Michel Deville, 1988) starring Miou-Miou. Casares died in 1996 of colon cancer at her country house, Château de La Vergne, in the village of Alloue in Poitou-Charentes, on the day after her 74th birthday. She bequeathed the property to the village. Today, the Domaine de la Vergne is a residence for artists and a setting for performances.
Sources: John Calder (The Independent), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Kindness has the power to bridge divides and heal wounds that words alone cannot reach. It is a quiet, yet transformative force that reminds us of our shared humanity, even in moments of conflict or misunderstanding.
By choosing kindness, we create ripples of hope and connection that extend far beyond what we may ever see, leaving the world just a little brighter for everyone.
Love to you all! ❤️
© 2025 Lorrie Agapi – All rights reserved.
**My heart, my words. Please respect them.**
Dear reader,
These words you are reading right now, whether it's a poem, a short story, or a thought is a piece of my soul. I write with passion, each word flowing from my heart, deeply connected to me. My writings are not just words, they are alive, carrying my emotions and essence within them.
If you plan to take them without my permission, know this: you are also taking a piece of my soul. And with every stolen word, I will always be present within the lines you use.
So be mindful… You never know what lies hidden between the lines, for words hold a power that goes far beyond the visible.💫
Having recently had a misunderstanding with a family member, texting back and forth, I now officially consider texting as 'flat words'. It's almost impossible to 'know' what someone is 'thinking' from a simple text statement. People have become nonverbal, devoid of feelings, quick to jump to wrong conclusions....just 'flat words'.
St Michael's Mount (Cornish: Karrek Loos yn Koos, meaning "hoar rock in woodland") is a tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The island is a civil parish and is linked to the town of Marazion by a causeway of granite setts, passable (as is the beach) between mid-tide and low water. It is managed by the National Trust, and the castle and chapel have been the home of the St Aubyn family since around 1650.
Historically, St Michael's Mount was an English counterpart of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France, which is also a tidal island, and has a similar conical shape, though Mont-Saint-Michel is much taller.
St Michael's Mount is one of 43 unbridged tidal islands to which you can walk from mainland Britain. Part of the island was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1995 for its geology. Sea height can vary by up to around 5 metres between low and high tide.
There is evidence of people living in the area during the Neolithic between around 4000 and 2500 BC. The key discovery was of a leaf-shaped flint arrowhead in a shallow pit on the lower eastern slope, now part of the gardens. Other pieces of flint have been found, and at least two could be Mesolithic (about 8000 to 3500 BC). During the Mesolithic, Britain was still attached to mainland Europe via Doggerland, and archaeologist and prehistorian Caroline Malone noted that during the Late Mesolithic the British Isles were something of a "technological backwater" in European terms, still living as a hunter-gatherer society whilst most of southern Europe had already taken up agriculture and sedentary living. The mount was then probably an area of dry ground surrounded by a marshy forest. Any Neolithic or Mesolithic camps are likely to have been destroyed by the later extensive building operations, but it is reasonable to expect the mount to have supported a seasonal or short-term camp.
None of the flints so far recovered can be positively dated to the Bronze Age (c. 2500 to 800 BC), although any summit cairns would have most likely been destroyed when building the castle. Radiocarbon dating established the submerging of the hazel wood at about 1700 BC. A hoard of copper weapons, once thought to have been found on the mount, are now thought to have been found on nearby Marazion Marsh. Defensive stony banks on the north-eastern slopes are likely to date to the early 1st millennium BC, and are considered to be a cliff castle. The mount is one of several candidates for the island of Ictis, described as a tin trading centre in the Bibliotheca historica of the Sicilian-Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BC.
St Michael's Mount may have been the site of a monastery from the 8th to the early 11th centuries. Edward the Confessor gave the site to the Benedictine order of Mont-Saint-Michel and it was a priory of that abbey until the dissolution of the alien houses as a side-effect of the war in France by Henry V. Subsequently, it ceased to be a priory, but was reduced to being a secular chapel which was given to the Abbess and Convent of Syon at Isleworth, Middlesex, in 1424. Thus ended its association with Mont-Saint-Michel, and any connection with Looe Island (dedicated to the Archangel Michael). It was a destination for pilgrims, whose devotions were encouraged by an indulgence granted by Pope Gregory in the 11th century. The earliest buildings on the summit, including a castle, date to the 12th century.
Sir Henry de la Pomeroy captured the Mount in 1193, on behalf of Prince John, in the reign of King Richard I, the leader of the previous occupants having 'died of fright' upon learning rumours of Richard's release from captivity. The monastic buildings were built during the 12th century. Various sources state that the earthquake of 1275 destroyed the original Priory Church, although this may be a misunderstanding of the term "St Michael's on the Mount" which referred to the church of St Michael atop Glastonbury Tor. Syon Abbey, a monastery of the Bridgettine Order, acquired the Mount in 1424. Some 20 years later the Mount was granted by Henry VI to King's College, Cambridge on its foundation. However, when Edward IV took the throne during the Wars of the Roses the Mount was returned to the Syon Abbey in 1462.
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, seized and held it during a siege of 23 weeks against 6,000 of Edward IV's troops in 1473–74. Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the English throne, occupied the Mount in 1497. Sir Humphrey Arundell, Governor of St Michael's Mount, led the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it was given to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, by whose son it was sold to Sir Francis Bassett. During the Civil War, Sir Arthur Bassett, brother of Sir Francis, held the Mount against the Parliament until July 1646.
The Mount was sold in 1659 to Colonel John St Aubyn. As of 2021 his descendants, the Lords St Levan, remain seated at St Michael's Mount.
Little is known about the village before the beginning of the 18th century, save that there were a few fishermen's cottages and monastic cottages. After improvements to the harbour in 1727, St Michael's Mount became a flourishing seaport.
In 1755, the Lisbon earthquake caused a tsunami to strike the Cornish coast over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) away. The sea rose six feet (2 m) in 10 minutes at St Michael's Mount, ebbed at the same rate, and continued to rise and fall for five hours. The 19th-century French writer Arnold Boscowitz claimed that "great loss of life and property occurred upon the coasts of Cornwall."
By 1811, there were 53 houses and four streets. The pier was extended in 1821 and the population peaked in the same year, when the island had 221 people. There were three schools, a Wesleyan chapel, and three public houses, mostly used by visiting sailors. Following major improvements to nearby Penzance harbour, and the extension of the railway to Penzance in 1852, the village went into decline, and many of the houses and other buildings were demolished.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the structure of the castle was romanticised. In the late 19th century, the remains of an anchorite were discovered in a tomb within the domestic chapel.
Due to a wedding invitation, Photographic Assistant and I found ourselves back in the South of France for the 2nd time in space of four months. Visiting a few of the towns in the area, there were a plethora of fantastic portrait backdrops, but with the language issue and the fact we were on holiday meant that stranger activity never got going. On the 4th day of our visit we spent a day in St. Tropez. Another town with great portrait locations, I kept an eye open for any potential opportunities. Then we saw Julia and Valeria walking through the town. I looked at my Photographic Assistant and said "shall we?" Having agreed we would approach, I stopped and asked the girls for a portrait. Softly spoken, the two girls looked at each other and kindly allowed me to take a portrait. As St. Tropez was still busy at the tail end of summer season, I went for the most conveniently located backdrop, a plain painted wall in shade. At first, I took a portrait of the pair together, then Julia and Valeria individually. We never found out too much about Julia and Valeria, my guess is that they could have been brand ambassadors. Part of the reason our conversation was limited, not because of language, as they spoke English, but other tourists hijacking our shoot and asking for pictures with them. I'm pretty sure other people were only doing so, as they saw us taking a portrait. In my head, I'm thinking I am trying to do 100 Strangers and keep seeing random strangers appear in my shots! Anyhow, amidst all the confusion, we did manage to confirm the names of the two girls, with my misunderstanding on the spelling of Valeria, making the two girls laugh.
Thank you to Valeria for agreeing to participate
Technical Details: Natural Light, no modifier
This picture is 019 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographs at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
These are the series of illustrations to newest story – The flight of the swan telling about Dannee’s struggle with keeping peace between her friend and one of her romantic flashbacks in the past.
Even while Skyrim being at state of fragile peace Dannee learns that not all fights are tied with something epic as she tries to out some order and peace between two of her closest friends who had big misunderstanding along with nasty quarrel. In attempt to make her friend Serana see things from her perspective Dannee dwells in her own past as well as helping Serana deal with terrible but unseen wounds of her darkest memories…
The first part – www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/images/433485/?
The second part of the story – www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/images/433486/?
Fam. Asparagaceae Juss. 1789
Subfam. Agavoideae Herb. 1837
Probably a 'short-day' plant, it begins to bloom usually until September / October, never in the period from May to July! This year these starts to bloom very early! An flower initiation at this Yucca I never observed if was a day length 15 hours or a night length of less than 9 hours.
Yucca x vomerensis C. Sprenger in Cat., 1901
In his "Mitteilungen über meine Yucca-Hibriden und -Formen" (Mitt. Deutsch. Dendrol. Ges. Nr. 29: 119. 1920) he wrote:.
"Yucca aloifolia x gloriosa gave me a large number of seedlings, but among themselves mostly very consistent, so that one could call them without further ado, one and all as 'vomerensis'."
Yucca x glorifolia nom. nud.
(not an valid name, and there can be misunderstandings because also used for Y. gloriosa x recurvifolia hybrids)
In the Botany of the Bermudas by H. B. Small, 1913, is listed
Similar forms are also called Yucca gloriosa 'aloifolia form'.
Living is easy with eyes closed,
Misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone,
But it all works out;
It doesn't matter much to me ♫
The Beatles
I'm trying to organize my life, when it happens I will answer your (lovely) comments. Thanks for still comment here, even when I don't uptade new photos for a long time. You're are amazing. Thanks a lot!
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Estou tentanto organizar a minha vida, quando isso acontecer responderei os comentários (encantadores) de vocês. Obrigada por ainda comentarem aqui, mesmo quando fico sem atualizar minha galeria por muito tempo. Vocês são incríveis. Muito obrigada!
Ah, tem post novo no meu blog! Visitem :)
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Spider-Man: Now look here, before... Wow, you're big. Thundra big.
Wonder Woman: ...
Spider-Man: Tell you what, you're not wearing very villainous colors, you're obviously on the side of law and order, so why don't we just skip to the part where we say this was a big misunderstanding and I buy you a burger?
Wonder Woman: ...
Spider-Man (thinking): She's just waiting for my move... that's one cold look she's giving me... I did knock out her Mom... okay webs to her face and I get out of here as fast as I can.
like Michael, i lost my Dad. for me it was a little over 6 years ago and it still feels like yesterday.
When i saw todays challange, this was the only shot that felt right, the first shot i thought of.
When we are kids we see the love of our parents but also see the injustices too. When we are teens all we can see, a lot of the time, are the injustices and we feel persicuted sometimes. i suppose it helps us to find our own path and purpose.
For me, becoming a parent, was a revalation. there are many things i thought my dad did wrong... once upon a time... but as each day passes, that changes. i experience the trials and tribulations that parenthood throws my way and experience the fear, laughter, love and uncertainty that most parents feel, that i now understand what my father must've felt.
i love him, i miss him and a lot of the times i belive he can see and understand me now and know that i understand him.
mostly i feel desperately sad (especially after a bottle of red wine... emotional stuff) that i cannot look him in the eyes and tell him that i am sorry for ever misunderstanding his love and intentions and that i pushed away so many hugs.
like michael, i dedicate this to my father... the best man i've ever known!
i hope you'll all forgive if the edit isn't perfect, i was a bit limited on photo choices of my dad... much thanks to my little bro!
Sadness-ODC2
Do above image really deserve the No.1 overall championship or worthy for another second look?
Lets share this little outstanding lucky winner looking back at the after effect story" .
Since after the competition, a long silent months had tickle pass everyone shoulder unnotice. For some who know or don't know, this image will somehow carry sceptics reaction n may also create visionary familiar yet uncertainty to some new or newer contacts n close friends .....!
Yes indeed, with reserve intention, I prolong to disclose this little merry winning news with spontaneous mix sentiment and some apology after recent approach by few complaints emails from several concern people u suppose to know who u r......lol! n closer friends reproaching why i didnt take effort or fail to sincerely sharing such instant news for their proceeding good wishes n letting their remarks of congratulation express, clearing doubts n misunderstanding is my primary apology why i decidedly not sharing with a simple straight attachment of this actual winning photo till date as suppose due to some practical valid concern.
However, this image had total resemblance to be identically mistaken as the winning one, 2012 overall Top winning competition for Marina Bay countdown held by URA Singapore and Marina Bay Sands recently, with just minor spotless different but definetly more attractive with impact to my personal own believe.
With random concern n no intention wishing to submit for competition instead, Ironically, with time stood testification, a stastitc real figure to support, it had hilariously overshines and generate incredible credit amount n receive far better attention with fantastic returns than the actual selected winning image it suppose to get, that's nevertheless remain shameful with lesser attention returns follow lesser viewers as comparison to the similar shot above.
Does it worth a second look to discuss how does those respective assign panel of judges make decision calling for final winning choice? Well, there must be a significant believed of common agreed elements like good strong criteria's of merits found in the overall winner's work as understood but most contestants still remain puzzle with stage of disbelieve arguments. Ultimately, we or I do respect and observe judges standard professionalism as final with no doubts but still affected some mind with contradict question-marks swirling for a while how pro judges eliminated n make criteria category decision for winning so on....?
However, the facts that the above image had totally trash, in terms of sales figure from Getty stocks images n interest from major publication company request n still the on n off occasional editor email enquiry. also another crazy hit was the number visitors rate shot up faster within days after upload, thus strongly proven as substantial superior without doubts from my self observation study.
Recall back month's ago, I uploaded both look similar image leaving as it both untouched, wanting to know the authentic winning shot to make real life comparison, to reassure my small interesting research was correct n satisfy, today, I decided to re upload just modification of newer date to double confirm how favouritism from viewers n numbers of favourite differs will score.
The moral of the story to summarise....., do not despaired over the final verdict or over confident with what we strongly possess from those short term merits or title of fame, as time passes by, power of nature will reveal the best effort of one remains and ultimately harvest with solid testimonial return .
So my little thought share "Never give up, Work hard n be persistence smart"!
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Basic Photography equipments I rely on : -
Canon EOS 5D Mark2 (a full frame ideal for interpolating landscape image).
Canon 24-105mm F4L Lens @24mm (My only wide n versatile walk-about standard lens).
Tripod (Budget tripod below $120)
Release cable (Budget item)
"Paris, May 15, 1908: After several incidents with robbers and uninvited visitors, several jewellers and hotels have decided to use guardian robots for their and their guests' safety. Please cooperate with the guardians in order to avoid misunderstandings."
A series of AI-generated pictures of guardian robots, in different art styles.
To be continued.
Pictures made with Midjourney.
I'm always happy to accept invites to groups as long as I can see their content. Should I see "this group is not available to you", my pictures won't be made available to that group. Thanks for your understanding.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
- Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (9 Nov 1934-1996)
African bush elephant
Afrikanischer Elefant
Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 km2 (7,523 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 km (220 mi) from north to south and 65 km (40 mi) from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.
To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.
The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere an area designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere").
The park has nine main gates allowing entrance to the different camps.
(Wikipedia)
Name
African Elephant or African Bush Elephant [Loxodonta africana]
Introduction
The Elephant is the world's largest land mammal, and weighs up to 7 tonnes and reaches heights of 3.3 m at the shoulder. Elephants can live to a potential age of 70 years. The massive tusks of older bulls can weigh up to 50 or 60 kilograms, but tusks weighing up to 90 kilograms have been recorded.
Appearance
What is the trunk and what is it used for?
The Elephant's trunk is a modified nose which is very sensitive and can even detect water under ground. There are as many as 50 000 muscles in an Elephant trunk. The sensitive finger-like appendages at the tip of the trunk enables them to pick the smallest twig or flower, pull the toughest reed of grass or even pick out a thorn from their feet.
Do elephants have knees or elbows?
The joints that are perceived as 'knees', are in fact wrists. This is a common misunderstanding due to the belief that a leg joint that bends between the foot and the body must be a knee. The main difference between us and the elephants is that our foot bones and hand bones are separate, whereas those of the elephant are one in the same, and have evolved to suit this four-legged mammal.
Why do elephants have tusks?
The tusks are used for obtaining food, fighting (amongst males) and for self defence. They are actually their upper incisors, and grow continuously until they die at around 60 years old. Although their skin is up to 3cm (1 inch) thick, it is quite sensitive.
Diet
Elephants are voracious feeders which in a day consume up to 272 kg (600 pounds) of grass, tender shoots and bark from trees. An adult Elephant can drink up to 200 litres of water in a single session. A single Elephant deposits up to 150kg (330 pounds) of dung every day - about one dollop every 15 minutes!
Breeding
African Elephant are not seasonal breeders. Generally they produce one calf every 3 to 4 years. The gestation period is about 22 months. At birth calves weigh about 100 kg (220 pounds) and are fully weaned between 18-24 months. An orphaned calf will usually be adopted by one of the family's lactating females or suckled by various females. Elephants are very attentive mothers, and because most Elephant behavior has to be learned, they keep their offspring with them for many years. Tusks erupt at 16 months but do not show externally until 30 months. Once weaned, usually at age 4 or 5, the calf still remains in the maternal group. Females mature at about 11 years and stay in the group, while the males, which mature between 12 and 15, are usually expelled from the maternal herd. Even though these young males are sexually mature, they do not breed until they are in their mid, or late 20s or even older and have moved up in the social hierarchy.
Behaviour
Mature males form bachelor groups and become solitary bulls. Elephant form strong family units of cows, calves and young offspring. Such herds are always led by an old female. Apart from drinking large quantities of water they also love wading or swimming in it. Elephants clearly relish mud baths.
It was once thought that family groups were led by old bull elephants, but these males are most often solitary. The female family groups are often visited by mature males checking for females in oestrus. Several interrelated family groups may inhabit an area and know each other well.
How do you tell an elephant's mock charge from a serious one?
It is imperative to keep in mind that Elephant are extremely intelligent, and each individual has a distinct character. Although there will be exceptions to the rules, the common signs of a mock charge are bush-bashing, dust-throwing, trumpeting and other vocalizations, open ears and an intimidating presence, can be considered a mock-display. Aggressive or startled elephants usually make sudden headshakes and flap their large ears against their head. Serious charges usually occur after all attempts to intimidate have failed, and the Elephant feels threatened. The ears are pinned back and head and trunk are lowered. Ultimately, the key lies in the intelligence of the animal and how they will react to the 'target' and unfamiliar actions, and a conscious decision is made.
Why do elephants rhythmically flap their ears?
Contrary to common belief, it is not an expression of anger. Being an animal of such a large size, with no sweat glands and a dark body colour, elephants flap their ears to cool the body and rid themselves of irritating insects.
Where are they found?
Once ranging across most of Africa the Elephant population has declined dramatically across the continent. In South Africa the Addo Elephant and Kruger National Park protect large herds. Due to rigorous conservation measures the Elephant population in South Africa has grown from a estimated 120 in 1920 in 4 locations, to 10 000 at 40 locations to date.
Notes
The African Elephant has recently been classified into two separate species, the more common African Bush Elephant [Loxodonta Africana] and the smaller African Forest Elephant [Loxodonta cyclotis] of the rainforest of Central Africa.
(krugerpark.co.za)
Der Kruger-Nationalpark (deutsch häufig falsch Krüger-Nationalpark) ist das größte Wildschutzgebiet Südafrikas. Er liegt im Nordosten des Landes in der Landschaft des Lowveld auf dem Gebiet der Provinz Limpopo sowie des östlichen Abschnitts von Mpumalanga. Seine Fläche erstreckt sich vom Crocodile-River im Süden bis zum Limpopo, dem Grenzfluss zu Simbabwe, im Norden. Die Nord-Süd-Ausdehnung beträgt etwa 350 km, in Ost-West-Richtung ist der Park durchschnittlich 54 km breit und umfasst eine Fläche von rund 20.000 Quadratkilometern. Damit gehört er zu den größten Nationalparks in Afrika.
Das Schutzgebiet wurde am 26. März 1898 unter dem Präsidenten Paul Kruger als Sabie Game Reserve zum Schutz der Wildnis gegründet. 1926 erhielt das Gebiet den Status Nationalpark und wurde in seinen heutigen Namen umbenannt. Im Park leben 147 Säugetierarten inklusive der „Big Five“, außerdem etwa 507 Vogelarten und 114 Reptilienarten, 49 Fischarten und 34 Amphibienarten.
(Wikipedia)
Der Afrikanische Elefant (Loxodonta africana), auch Afrikanischer Steppenelefant oder Afrikanischer Buschelefant, ist eine Art aus der Familie der Elefanten. Er ist das größte gegenwärtig lebende Landsäugetier und gleichzeitig das größte rezente landbewohnende Tier der Erde. Herausragende Kennzeichen sind neben den Stoßzähnen und dem markanten Rüssel die großen Ohren und die säulenförmigen Beine. In zahlreichen morphologischen und anatomischen Merkmalen unterscheidet sich der Afrikanische Elefant von seinen etwas kleineren Verwandten, dem Waldelefanten und dem Asiatischen Elefanten. Das Verbreitungsgebiet umfasst heute große Teile von Afrika südlich der Sahara. Die Tiere haben sich dort an zahlreiche unterschiedliche Lebensräume angepasst, die von geschlossenen Wäldern über offene Savannenlandschaften bis hin zu Sumpfgebieten und wüstenartigen Regionen reichen. Insgesamt ist das Vorkommen aber stark fragmentiert.
Die Lebensweise des Afrikanischen Elefanten ist durch intensive Studien gut erforscht. Sie wird durch einen stark sozialen Charakter geprägt. Weibliche Tiere und ihr Nachwuchs leben in Familienverbänden (Herden). Diese formieren sich wiederum zu einem enger verwandten Clan. Die einzelnen Herden treffen sich zu bestimmten Gelegenheiten und trennen sich danach wieder. Die männlichen Tiere bilden Junggesellengruppen. Die verschiedenen Verbände nutzen Aktionsräume, in denen sie teils im Jahreszyklus herumwandern. Für die Kommunikation untereinander nutzen die Tiere verschiedene Töne im niedrigen Frequenzbereich. Anhand der Lautgebung, aber auch durch bestimmte chemische Signale können sich die einzelnen Individuen untereinander erkennen. Darüber hinaus besteht ein umfangreiches Repertoire an Gesten. Hervorzuheben sind auch die kognitiven Fähigkeiten des Afrikanischen Elefanten.
Die Nahrung besteht sowohl aus weicher wie auch harter Pflanzenkost. Die genaue Zusammensetzung variiert dabei regional und jahreszeitlich. Generell verbringt der Afrikanische Elefant einen großen Teil seiner Tagesaktivitäten mit der Nahrungsaufnahme. Die Fortpflanzung erfolgt ganzjährig, regional gibt es Tendenzen zu einer stärkeren Saisonalisierung. Bullen kommen einmal jährlich in die Musth, während deren sie auf Wanderung zur Suche nach fortpflanzungswilligen Kühen gehen. Während der Musth ist die Aggressivität gesteigert, es finden dann auch Rivalenkämpfe statt. Der Sexualzyklus der Kühe dauert vergleichsweise lange und weist einen für Säugetiere untypischen Verlauf auf. Nach erfolgter Geburt setzt er in der Regel mehrere Jahre aus. Zumeist wird nach fast zweijähriger Tragzeit ein Jungtier geboren, das in der mütterlichen Herde aufwächst. Junge weibliche Tiere verbleiben später in der Herde, die jungen männlichen verlassen diese.
Die wissenschaftliche Erstbeschreibung des Afrikanischen Elefanten erfolgte im Jahr 1797 mit einer formalen artlichen Trennung des Afrikanischen vom Asiatischen Elefanten. Der heute gebräuchliche Gattungsname Loxodonta wurde offiziell erst dreißig Jahre später eingeführt. Die Bezeichnung bezieht sich auf markante Zahnunterschiede zwischen den asiatischen und den afrikanischen Elefanten. Im Verlauf des 20. Jahrhunderts wurden mehrere Unterarten unterschieden, darunter auch der Waldelefant des zentralen Afrikas. Letzterer gilt heute genetischen Untersuchungen zufolge als eigenständige Art, die weiteren Unterarten sind nicht anerkannt. Stammesgeschichtlich lässt sich der Afrikanische Elefant erstmals im beginnenden Mittleren Pleistozän belegen. Der Gesamtbestand gilt als gefährdet. Ursachen hierfür sind hauptsächlich die Jagd nach Elfenbein und Lebensraumverlust durch die zunehmend wachsende menschliche Bevölkerung. Der Afrikanische Elefant zählt zu den sogenannten „Big Five“ von Großwildjagd und Safari.
(Wikipedia)
The Black Dinner A.D. 1440
One of the glories of Edinburgh Castle to-day (c.1910) is the restored Banqueting Hall, which, through the patriotic liberality of the late Mr W. Nelson, after long years of neglect, is now seen again in something like its early beauty. Its memories are many; and among them is one which no guide ever omits to mention, however brief his exposition may be. "This is the Hall," he says, "where the famous Black Dinner was given to the Earl of Douglas, and there, near the doorway, is the opening from the buttery by which the black bull's head was handed in." This reference is to the most shameful tragedy ever enacted within the Castle walls, that befell on the twenty-third day of November 1440.
Scotland was then suffering from a misfortune but too common in her history a boy-king. James II had only reached the age of seven when the cruel murder of his father called him to the perilous throne, and during his minority the government of the country was entrusted by the Scottish Estates to the hands of two Regents, Sir William Crichton and Sir Alexander Livingstone. Neither of them was of the first rank among the nobility, which, indeed, was one of the chief reasons for their being selected. They were not dangerous to the reigning house, as a more prominent noble might have been. But it was far from a happy arrangement. The possession of power whetted the ambition of both, and as the public importance of each depended largely on the degree of his proximity to the little King, repeated cases of "king-stealing" took place, which to-day seem humorous, but which then were serious and greatly unsettled the life of the country. It required the presence of a common danger to make the Regents lay aside their rivalry, and this was supplied by the growing power and assumptions of the great house of Douglas.
No other family in Scotland had a record of national service or territorial importance equal to that of this noble house. From the days of Bruce the Earls of Douglas were Scotland's foremost fighters, and had long been the trusted guardians of the Border. Over-lords of practically the whole of the southern district, they had wealth and influence at least equal to the King, and in addition to their Scottish dignities they held an honourable place in the wider European world as possessors of the great Duchy of Touraine. But what, above all else, made the presence of so powerful a family a threatening danger to the throne, was that the Douglas blood was nearly as 'royal' as the blood of the King himself. It was this that caused the Regents to regard with constant suspicion and dread every defiant word and act of the great Earl Archibald, and from one who disdained to regard the Regents as his equals there came many such words and acts. But when, in 1439, the bold Earl Archibald died and was succeeded by his son William, a boy of sixteen years of age, the Regents breathed freely and thought they had found deliverance.
Boys, however, in these days were often marvellously like men. The stern nature of the times forced their growth, and this 'boy' Earl soon gave signs of being as dangerous as his father. With a retinue of a thousand armed men he moved about the country; claiming a sovereign's privilege he despatched an embassy to the King of France to arrange for his succession to the Dukedom of Touraine; in his style of living he far outshone the King; and when summoned to take his place in the Scottish Parliament he disdained to obey. If this was the ‘boy’ what would the 'man' become?
Crichton and Livingstone decided there should be no man. Douglas must die. But how was he to be got into their power? Only by stratagem could it be done, and strategy of the vilest and most dishonourable kind was employed. To the young Earl there went a letter, courteous and flattering, regretting that, through misunderstandings, the State had hitherto been deprived of his services, and inviting him to come to Edinburgh to help in "advising for the good of the realm." With surprising readiness, the boy took the bait, which flattered his vanity by its recognition of his importance, and in company with his younger and only brother David, and a small but gallant following, he rode off to the help of the State. A fool-hardy chivalry led him not only to dispense with his usual numerous escort of fighting men, but even, as says an old ballad, to discard his armour. He would make plain to all men his trust in his Sovereign's honour, and his own fearlessness of his foes.
For two days they halted at Castle Crichton, twelve miles south of Edinburgh, where their subtle host entertained them with every honour and kindness which he could devise, and then in high spirits over their reception they moved on to the capital. Older heads among the Earl's followers were wiser than was their impulsive leader, and preached caution. At least, they urged upon him, let him leave his younger brother David behind, and not risk placing the whole family in hands whose friendliness was doubtful. But the boy was a boy then and not a man, and refused to listen to words of prudence which cast a doubt on the honour of his entertainer. Nor was the younger brother a whit behind the elder in chivalrous trust; so together the lads rode up the Castle Hill, and accompanied by Crichton, Livingstone, and others, entered the grim fortress which they were never more to leave.
The prey was snared; but for a little longer the loops of the snare were not pulled tight, and the sad pitiful farce of friendliness went on. The little King was there, waiting to receive his guests, and, boy-like, the three fraternised well together, proceeding by and bye in company to the great Banqueting Hall, where a royal feast was ready. And still the farce continued; the hearty laugh went round, and every thought of danger seemed a shame in the midst of so great friendliness. But now the farce ends and tragedy begins. Suddenly Crichton throws off the mask, and in harsh, stern words upbraids' the young Earl for the sins of the house of Douglas, their lawless doings, and their disloyalty to the throne; and while he is still speaking there is carried up the long hall and placed upon the table right in front of the startled boy, a Black Bull's Head! It is the symbol of death the "black cap" of those old days and the doomed boy knows its meaning. Springing to his feet he finds that he is encircled by enemies, and, in spite of brave resistance, he and his brother are seized, and bound, and dragged away. To the little King, sitting there on the seat of honour, the whole scene is one of horror poor boy, he is only ten years old and, "weeping sorely," he appeals first to Crichton and then to Livingstone to have mercy on the lads. He might as well speak to a stone. "Either you or they must die," Crichton roughly tells him, "for the kingdom of Scotland cannot hold both a Stuart and a Douglas." No time is lost in completing the tragedy. A Summary trial is held, at which the child-King is compelled to preside; the death sentence is passed, and the two victims, hurried out from this travesty of justice, are led to the western courtyard of the Castle and there beheaded.
It was a foul and shameful act, and its memory still stirs the heart to a vain protest, though four (nearly six now!) centuries have gone, nor can any plea of political necessity excuse its foulness or wipe away its shame. It may, indeed, be pleaded that in those fierce days deeds of blood were common; which is sadly true. But not such deeds as this, where the gross treachery of the murderers and the tender youth of the murdered boys intensify the guilt and gloom of tragedy. Of this black deed the judgment of our countrymen has always been exceptionally severe and justly so.
Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.
American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.
Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.
Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.
Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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Italian postcard. Photo by Badodi, Milano, No. 380.
Dora Menichelli, also known as Dora Menichelli Migliari or Dora Migliari (Monteleone Calabro, 13 February 1892 - Milan, 25 August 1993), was an Italian actress and singer. She was the younger sister of Pina Menichelli, one of the divas of Italian silent cinema.
Dora Menichelli started acting at the beginning of 1910 as a young dramatic actress, with a good voice, and was also engaged in various operetta companies. After the First World War she was in the company of Armando Falconi and then Aristide Baghetti, at that time she met a colleague of hers, Armando Migliari, whom she married shortly afterwards, and formed a theatre company with him. In 1930 she was in the company of the Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan, directed by Nera Grossi Carlini, working alongside Anna Magnani, Rina Franchetti and Cesarina Gheraldi. At the beginning of the thirties she was engaged by EIAR to perform as a singer in some shows, accompanied by the maestro Tito Petralia, one of her most successful songs was "Cosa hai fatto del mio cuor?", also recorded on a record, in the same period she took part in several radio comedies and radio plays.
Dora Menichelli only acted in 8 films. She made her debut in silent films in late 1914, directed by Ubaldo Pittei in the film Complice azzurro, produced by Latium Film. In 1915 she played opposite Silvia Malinverni, Armando Migliari and Claudio Ermelli in Silvio e lo stradivarius by Ugo Falena. In 1916 she acted in Cura da baci by Emiliano Graziani-Walter, which, in addition to the lead by Armando Falconi, had a range of famous names from the stage including Armando Migliari, Enzo Biliotti, Luigi Cimara, Cia Fornaroli, and even composer Giacomo Puccini acting as himself. In 1917 Menichelli was reunited with the same group in Graziani-Walter's I fioretti di San Francisco, while in the same year she acted opposite Polidor and others in Edoardo Bencivenga's Pazzia contagiosa. Menichelli's last silent film was La moglie scacciata (1919) by Giuseppe Pinto, with e.g. Guido Trento and Armando Migliari. Menichelli had the lead here as the woman chased away from home by her husband (Migliari) because he suspects her of adultery with another man (Trento) , but it is all a misunderstanding. Critics were not mild about the film, especially about the old hat storyline, which may have been reason for Menichelli to halt her film career. She would only return to the sets during the sound era for supporting parts in two more films, È tornato carnevale (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1937), starring Armando Falconi and scripted by Aldo De Benedetti and Aldo Vergano, and Apparizione (Jean de Limur, 1943) with Amedeo Nazzari, Massimo Girotti and Alida Valli.
Sources: IMDb, Italian Wikipedia.
Superman: Queen Hippolyta, it's good to see you again. I see there was a misunderstanding but I'll vouch for Spider-Man. He's definitely a good guy.
Spider-Man: Well, thank you, large heroic person. And we know each other from where?
Superman: Sorry, I'm Superman. We met in 1976 when our universes crossed. An enemy of mine, Lex Luthor, fell in with one of your foes, Doctor Octavius. Because it was a time anomaly it may have disappeared from your memory but, because Paprihaven is a nexus, I think you'll remember it soon.
Spider-Man: Okay... well I'm just glad I'm not getting pummeled any more. Wonder Woman, is it? No hard feelings?
Wonder Woman: ...
Spider-Man: Okay.
Queen Hippolyta (thinking): All these men! And this one, always around my daughter, calling himself Superman of all things! With his strong arms and blue eyes... And captivating voice... Well if she insists on being in man's world, I must admit he seems suitable for my Diana...
Leaving school, the most valuable thing I will take with me is the memories and I want to thank every person for playing a part in them, to my friends, you have gone beyond the limits of what one has to do for another, my life will be forever richer and more beautiful because you were a part of it, I love you with all my heart, to those who were my slap in the face, to the close-minded or misunderstanding, to those who broke my heart, you all changed me to become the person I wanted to be, I am stronger because of the trials you have put my through and no matter what you have done to me, you have unknowingly done so much for me, to every person who inspired me by the way they lived their life, to those who were my shoulder to cry on, to those I found myself with in my moments of pure joy, to those who have understood me, to the people I share inside jokes with, to anyone who has held my hand, or for that matter, held my hair back after a night of partying, to those I laughed with until I cried, to my crushes, to everyone I stayed up talking to until the early morning hours, thank you for the wisdom, happiness, and experience you've brought into my life, I will cherish these times forever, I wish you all the best...
This grey wolf lives in a small pack at Colchester Zoo in Essex.
Keen senses, large canine teeth, powerful jaws, and the ability to pursue prey at 37 mph (60 km/h) equip the grey wolf well for a predatory way of life. A typical northern male may be about 6 ft. 6 in. (2 m) long, including the bushy 19 in.(0.5 m) long tail. Standing 76 cm (30 in. (76 cm) tall at the shoulder, it weighs about 100 lb. (45.5 kg), but weight ranges from 31 to 143 lb. (14 to 65 kg), depending on the geographic area. Females average about 20 percent smaller than males. The largest wolves are found in west-central Canada, Alaska, and across northern Asia. The smallest tend to be near the southern end of their distribution, Middle East, Arabia, and India. Fur on the upper body, though usually grey, may be brown, reddish, black, or whitish, while the underparts and legs are usually yellow-white. Light-coloured wolves are common in Arctic regions.
Grey wolves can live in packs of up to two dozen individuals, although packs numbering 6 to 10 are most common. A pack is basically a family group consisting of an adult breeding pair, the alpha male and alpha female, and their offspring of various ages. The ability of wolves to form strong social bonds with one another is what makes the wolf pack possible. A dominance hierarchy is established within the pack, which helps maintain order. The alpha male and alpha female continually assert themselves over their subordinates, and they guide the activities of the group. The female predominates in roles such as care and defence of pups, whereas the male predominates in foraging and food provisioning and in travels associated with those activities. Both sexes are very active in attacking and killing prey, but during the summer hunts are often conducted alone.
A pack’s territory can be 31 to 1,200 square miles (80 to 3,000 km2), depending on prey abundance, and it is vigorously defended against neighbouring packs. Wolves communicate with one another by facial expression, body position, tail position, vocalizations, and scent marking. Howling helps the pack stay in contact and also seems to strengthen social bonds among pack members. Along with howling, scent marking lets neighbouring packs know they should not intrude. Intruders are often killed by resident packs, yet in some circumstances they are accepted.
Breeding occurs between February and April, and a litter of usually five or six pups are born in the spring after a gestation period of about two months. The young are usually born in a den consisting of a natural hole or a burrow, often in a hillside. A rock crevice, hollow log, overturned stump, or abandoned beaver lodge may be used as a den, and even a depression beneath the lower branches of a conifer will sometimes suffice. All members of the pack care for the young. After being weaned from their mother’s milk at six to nine weeks, they are fed a diet of regurgitated meat. Throughout spring and summer the pups are the centre of attention as well as the geographic focus of the pack’s activities. After a few weeks the pups are usually moved from the den to an aboveground site where they play and sleep while adults hunt. The pups grow rapidly and are moved farther and more often as summer comes to an end. In autumn the pack starts to travel again within its territory, and the pups must keep up. Most pups are almost adult size by October or November.
After two or more years in the pack, many leave to search for a mate, establish a new territory, and possibly even start their own pack. Those who stay with the pack may eventually replace a parent to become a alpha animal. Large packs seem to result from fewer young wolves’ leaving the group and from litters’ being produced by more than one female. Wolves that leave their packs are known to have travelled as far as 550 miles (885 km).
Grey wolves move and hunt mostly at night, especially in areas populated by humans and during warm weather. The main prey are large herbivores such as deer, elk, moose, bison, bighorn sheep, caribou, and musk oxen, which they chase, seize, and pull to the ground. Beavers and hares are eaten when available, and wolves in western Canada even fish for Pacific salmon. A large percentage of the animals that wolves kill are young, old, or in poor condition. After making a kill, the pack gorges, consuming some 7 to 20 lb. (3 to 9 kg) per animal and then lingers, often reducing the carcass to hair and a few bones before moving on to look for another meal.
Biologists still disagree on the effect wolves have on the size of prey populations. Wolves may kill livestock and dogs when they have the opportunity, yet many wolves that live near livestock rarely, if ever, kill them. The number of stock killed in North America is small but increasing as wolves expand their range. By 2018, wolves were thought to be responsible for the losses of hundreds of heads of cattle and other livestock per year in the U.S. To ameliorate the concerns of livestock owners and dampen the potential backlash against wolves, several states have programs that compensate livestock owners for the losses to their herds when there is evidence of wolf attacks on their animals. During the 1990s average annual losses to wolves in Minnesota were 72 cattle, 33 sheep, and 648 turkeys, plus a few individuals of other types of livestock. Stock losses are higher in Eurasia. In some areas wolves survive only by killing livestock and eating livestock carrion and human rubbish. Nonetheless, wolves usually avoid contact with humans. There have been few substantiated wolf attacks on humans in North America. Such attacks are unusual but have occurred in Eurasia and India and sometimes have resulted in death.
Wolves have few natural enemies other than humans. They can live up to 13 years in the wild, but most die long before that age. Diseases and parasites that can affect wolves include canine parvovirus, distemper, rabies, blastomycosis, Lyme disease, lice, mange, and heartworm. In most areas of the world, humans are the leading cause of death for wolves. In areas of high wolf density and declining prey populations, the major causes of death are killing by other wolves and starvation.
Pervasive in human mythology, folklore, and language, the grey wolf has had an impact on the human imagination and been the victim of levels of misunderstanding that few animals have shared. Early human societies that hunted for survival admired the wolf and tried to imitate its habits, but in recent centuries the wolf has been widely viewed as an evil creature, a danger to humans, especially in Eurasia, a competitor for big game animals, and a threat to livestock. Depredation of livestock was the primary justification for eradicating the wolf from virtually all of the United States, Mexico, and most of Europe and several subspecies are thought to have become extinct. Wolves in the United States were killed by every method imaginable in the 19th. and early 20th. centuries, and by 1950 they remained only in the north-eastern corner of Minnesota. In the late 20th. century and early 21st. century, greater tolerance, legal protection, and other factors allowed their range to expand in portions of North America and Europe.
Wolves are probably more popular with the public now than at any other time in recorded history. In 1995 wolves from Canada were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho, and captive-reared Mexican wolves, a subspecies, were released to their former range in eastern Arizona beginning in 1998. At the beginning of the 21st. century, an estimated 65,000 to 78,000 wolves inhabited North America. Canada had by far the largest population, although the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island had no wolves, followed by Alaska and Minnesota. Canadian wolves are protected only within national parks, whereas all wolves in the United States receive some level of legal protection by federal and state governments. Populations in southern Europe and Scandinavia are relatively small but are increasing. The Eurasian population probably exceeds 150,000 and is stable or increasing in most countries, and most afford the wolf some degree of legal protection. Worldwide, wolves still occupy about two-thirds of their former range, but they remain viable and have been classified as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources since 1996. Although often thought of as wilderness animals, wolves can and do thrive close to people when they are not excessively persecuted and food is available.
Taking one step forward puts me at the threshold. Misunderstandings can be the threshold to anger or something better depending on which direction you decide to step.
Taken for our daily challenge - Threshold.
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[continuation of Anticipation Party, Pt. 1]
[during the party Christie & Barbie get together to talk]
C. --- I was just really hurt when you didn't want me to be a part of the So In Style line.
B. --- What are you talking about. I wanted you to be a part of it.
C. --- What?
B. --- I talked to Raquelle, cause she was your personal stylist at the time and she said you weren't interested.
C. --- What?
B. --- I had to get someone else, so I asked Grace.
C. --- Why didn't you ask me directly?
B. --- You were on vacation in Australia with Summer at the time.
C. --- So it's been one big misunderstanding all along.
[Raquelle spots Christie & Barbie talking and immediately makes her way over to them]
_____
Part 3 is up!
Big Jack: "What is your problem, girl!?
Derry Daring: "I can't seem to break my hammer! So I'm going try it on you!"
Big Jack: "Wait, I got a call comin in! Hello? Shaolin White Crane? Locked and ready to go! Girl, you better drop that hammer or I will go all Daniel LaRusso on your Derry Derrière!"
Derry Daring: "How do you know my name!? You're some weird stalker! A stranger trying to run me down in the desert!"*
Big Jack: "Run you down?? I was following you cause I didn't know exactly where Big Jim's place was out here! You was slinging rocks at me the whole way!"
"Hold on, you two! This is a misunderstanding."
Derry Daring: "Who??"
═════════════════════════════════════
Derry Daring
Trick Cycle
1975, Ideal
Big Jim
Big Jack
1976, Mattel
Big Jim
Big Jim's Kung Fu Studio
1974, Mattel
Big Jim
Moto Honda Elsinore
No.7373
1976, Mattel
* This seemed to be the case as seen in episode 16!