Alexander the Great... Drag Queen - Ancient Light #4

In my studies if the Greek version of the Assyrian Queen Semiramis, I quickly found that most of her military exploits were simply borrowings from tales of Alexander the Great. I made a close study of Alexander’s recurring use of emulation and imitation of mythical gods and conquerors. I spent two years studying the Macedonian king in detail alongside other academic pursuits. There is my exposure to the histories and myths of Alexander the Great.

Fig. 1 Alexander the Great

As for drag queens, my exposure is decent enough. In my 20s I spent part of my time as a videographer. A friend told me the local gay bar was looking for someone to film their big Saturday event “Divas by Design.” So, for about two years I spent many Saturday nights filming drag queen monologues and lip sync performances. Those ladies were more on the professional end of the drag queen spectrum, it was not amateur night. At first the bar manager paid me in drinks. Eventually, he decided to pay in cash. Probably for good reason. I like cash more than long island iced teas, so this worked out nicely. Those were some fun times. I heard from at least two of the performers that they loved my camera work. This is what I did. Around the entire club and around the bar are these television screens, both large and small, which project everything I filmed. If you are consistently bad at panning and have a hard time finding nice appealing frames to display the action, then your bad work will be displayed on every wall and in various spots around the bar. I was good at filming the action, but the biggest problem was the time between performances, where all you are doing is filming the curtain. I quickly came up with tasteful shots for the ubiquitous monitors all over the club as everyone waited for the next performance, looking up from their drinks. One trick, I learned to zoom into the shiny spinning mirror ball, which would create an awesome effect throughout the room as the glare and glean of the disco ball shines brightly through every monitor. The trick the performers liked was when I would capture a great close up of the performer, or during a well framed pose and save it as a photograph or what videographers often call a still frame. As the drag queen would leave the stage I would fade up the still frame photo image. The audience would see the last performer on the screen instead of an empty stage. This helped showcase the last performer and gave my product a professional edge. The girls had tv monitors in the changing room, and raved about the still frame I would fade up as the performer disappeared off the stage.  There you have it two years studying Alexander the Great and two years observing the drag queen arts.

Fig. 2 Meme for Ancient Light episode #4

One might ask, who was history's first drag queen? The answer is, we will never know. One might think British comedians have a monopoly on the art in comedy, but we must look further.

Fig. 3 "Little Britain" David Walliams as Phyllis, with her spaniel, Mr. Doggy

Alexander the Great, I found, would dress up as various gods and heroes while hanging out with his friends. We would dress like Herakles (The Romans called him Hercules), you know the lion-head helmet, the tiger fur strapped around one shoulder and a big wooden club in his hand. What is realized, when reading the list of gods who were subject to Alexander’s imitation is that Alexander dressed up like Artemis. Artemis, as you might know is the sister of Apollo. She is often considered the protector of little girls and small animals. Alexander would dress up like her and ride a chariot shooting arrows. On classical pottery she is pictured with her skirt and bow. Sometimes she has a long woman’s robe, or female style breastplate armor.

Fig. 4 Artemis, sister of Apollo, protector of children and young animals. She is an expert with the bow.

One soon realizes that one of the greatest known conquerors of the ancient world, would indeed, fit the modern definition of a drag queen. Alexander was a man who dressed up like a woman while performing for an audience. Historians have been questioning Alexander’s more intimate orientations, but dressing up as Artemis is hardly the biggest red flag. Alternatively, not all drag queens are what you think. Some of them have wives at home, they just like to get really drunk and dance around in women’s clothes. This has some similarity with Alexander the Great. For example, Alexander was a Member of the Macedonian elite. The drunken and bawdy Greeks themselves considered the Macedonians in the North to be outrageous drinkers who consumed unmixed wine. While it has yet to be determined, I would venture to guess, that if the drag queen arts were to fall under the realm of one of the Olympian gods it would be the god of wine and dancing women, a favorite of Alexander and the Macedonian elite in particular, Dionysus. Alexander, in retrospect, would simply have been an earnest devotee of his god, as heavy intoxication was often equated with the invocation of the God of Wine. In conclusion, we do not know exactly everything that is implied when we read about Alexander the Great playing the role of a Drag Queen, we only know he must have been really great at it.

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"Origin of a Flower" Hyacinthus, Zephyr, & Apollo - Ancient Light #3

Wanna know the true honest-to-the-gods origin of the Hyacinth flower? The flower is both beautiful and unique. The color comes from what looks more like clusters of delicate hanging bells – I usually see them in a deep blue or purple.

Fig. 1 The Hyacinth flower (Greek: ὑακίνθινος, "Hua-kin-thi-nos" meaning "blue")

Botanists and evolutionary biologists would tell you the genetic story of the plant, but here you will learn the true tale of the flower. 

The eponymous demi-god, Hyacinthos, was the son of the goddess and the famous muse Klio and a king (the name changes depending on the version of the tale). The god Apollo, the great archer, soothsayer, whose symbol is often the sun, was his lover. Since, apparently, Hyacinthos was popular within the ancient LGBTQ community, he had other male lovers as well. One such beloved was the West Wind (Zephyr), who was jealous of the love between Hyacinthos and Apollo. In Amyclae, South of Sparta, was laid a statue of Apollo and Hyacinthos, most likely a “hometown” region from whence came the legend involving Hyacinthos.

Fig. 2 The Greek region of Lakonia the location of the towns of Sparta and Amyclae

The legends tell us that one day in Amyclae, Apollo and Hyacinthus were showing off their discus skills. Apollo, of course, must have had an amazing throw – the heavy disc must have hung in the air for an impressive amount of time. Ancient Greeks, when they saw a disc floating through the air, perhaps did not immediately think it was an alien aircraft like we do today, but that perhaps Apollo was practicing discus on the other side of the hill. It is said the West Wind saw a great opportunity in this moment. Now, I have never had a problem with the West Wind, and I mean no disrespect, I would not want to anger any of the wind family. I sometimes play disc golf, where one attempts to throw a lightweight disc 300 feet or so into a basket. It is like playing Frisbee, but with no friend to catch it and throw it back. A game where things like trees and wind often determine one’s fate.

Fig. 3 Apollo embraces the slain Hyacinthos. The disc can be seen on the ground. Do you see Zephyr the West Wind? 

It is at this time the West Wind is blamed for directing the disc, as it sailed through the air, into the skull of Hyacinthos, which promptly split open and spilled its contents onto the hillside. It is there where the Hyacinth flower first arose. Local priests of the Hyacinthos cult probably propagated the flower species within their temple grounds (temenos).

1876 Antique Botanical Print Hyacinth Purple Flower Plate Van Houtte

As a final note: One can only imagine the vast number of times the tragic story was retold to a youth as strollers walked past a patch of Hyacinth. You too, now, when you see the flower, might remind yourself of a homoerotic love triangle gone badly, and the demi-god who had his brains spilled for your landscaping pleasure.

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[Video] "Origin of a Flower" Ancient Light #3 live at SpoFest, Cafe Blackadder, Warrensburg, Mo., April 1, 2016.

The Proper Attic Wife - "Good Greek Wives Stay In The Attic" - Ancient Light #2

With the title “Good Greek Wives Stay in the Attic” someone familiar with classical scholarship or ancient geography might think I am making a joke by referencing the attic, as an allusion to the area of Attika, the region which contained the great city of Athens. 

Fig. 1 The region of Attica. 

This is only partially the case. I instead, want you to think of the architecture of the home. Many ancient Greek homes were similar in that the house would have a second floor. In the classical Greek home, the second floor often looked up into the exposed slope of the rooftop. Many peoples in many places, have this kind of home. 

Fig. 2 An Imagining of a Classical Greek Home

When I was very young my mother read the series of books written by Laura Ingalls wilder, a narrative of prairie life. I remember they had a home which had a second floor, more like an exposed attic, and a ladder which led up to it. This is where the children slept.

Fig. 3 Loft-style cabin late 19th century U.S. frontier

In the classical Greek home, the attic was not only the sleeping quarters, but also often referenced as the woman’s quarters. This is where the good Athenian wife would spend most of her day. As a result of the lack of sun, the good Attic wife had white arms, while the man was often depicted as dark or tan. 

Fig. 4 From left to right: Hermes, Apollo, Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares. Men in black, women in white. 

The good attic wife was not seen at the Marketplace, but she spent her time with her domestic slaves spinning thread, mainly from wool, and weaving fabric. She might go to a nearby rural spring to bring back water with her domestic slaves. Even the evil witch, Circe, in the Odyssey, was found weaving on her loom like a spider building a web, by rapidly weaving her thread back and forth across her loom. Circe’s magic, was pharmaceutical based, by the way, and so would be, the magic of a devious wife.  

Fig. 5 Circe at her loom, Odysseus standing

Looking further at the architecture of the Classical Greek home you will see the standard outdoor courtyard(Fig.2). The good Attic wife could get plenty of air and light without being seen by other men. She would probably avoid too much sunlight if she wanted to maintain her white-armed appearance. Perhaps she would cover herself when necessary to avoid the burning gaze of Helios, another man by the way. The Roman’s did this with their famous Vestal Virgins. The lived behind highly secure walls in the symbolic center of the city. You could hear them sing and play from the outside, but you could not steal away their state assets. If you did, as you can guess, you would be executed. 

Fig. 6 Vestal Virgins tend the immortal fire of the god Vesta

Within preserved Classical Greek court arguments we can see a Greek wife lure her lover to her own home when the husband was out of the house. This shows that it was perhaps less risky to have the secret lover visit the woman, rather than risk having the proper Attic wife seen roaming about the city unattended, which would be quite the red flag so to speak. I once won an ancient Greek style mock trial at the University of Missouri by making an argument, part of which explained why I would “honorably” visit local Athenian prostitutes rather than dirty myself with my enemy’s wife. You have to be a little familiar with the classical Athenian culture to understand why that argument would work. 

The second floor as the woman’s quarters is highly significant for functional reasons. First, the man of the house could have other men visit the main floor, which also connected to the courtyard, and it was expected that all the females stay upstairs while another man visits. Historians, of course, do not believe this rule was absolute. Second, there are references to locks on the door which can prevent escape and access to the women’s quarters. In modern homes, we often have either multiple accesses to the second floor, or often a stairway which is open at the top and difficult to block off. Similarly, we often have a large yard, but our fences do not prevent penetration, nor conversation or eye contact between your non-Attic wife and a wandering man. The Classical Athenian man had the advantage of marrying, often in his 30s to a wife who was much younger.

Fig. 7 From "The Black Adder" Ep. 4 BBC 1983. The young Princess Leia of Hungary marries the much older Prince Blackadder. 

It seems they wanted the “purity” of their wives safe and secure. Men often wanted many babies from their young wife, and this might bring her own death quite early. The Male Athenian citizen would then require a fresh Attic wife. An Attic wife would be expected to live among the children produced by her older husband and female slaves under the legally recognized institution of the man of the household breeding with one or more of his female slaves, which produced more slaves, not legitimate Athenian citizens. In retrospect, perhaps the wife of the household was an honorable enough position, and perhaps, it was better in some cases to not be the main target of her husband’s affections. You know with all the female slaves and legal prostitutes in the city proper to keep him busy. With some marriages, this might be helpful. Imagine, the husband comes home drunk and calls for his wife. The wife sends down a female slave… and goes back to bed. 

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[Video] "Good Greek Wives Stay in the Attic" Ancient Light #2 Live at SpoFest, Cafe Blackadder, Warrensburg, Missouri, U.S.

Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do for You - Ancient Light #1

Today we ask what our gods can do for us. We compare promised afterlives, we pray for help for both major and minor things. In ancient times, there was more of a balance between what a god could do for a mortal, and what a mortal could do for a god. We all know about the original idea of sacrifice. One might sacrifice a delicious calf or cow. The Archaic Greeks would wrap the bones of the sacrifice with fat and give it to the gods, while the assembled people would eat the aforementioned delicious meat. Make no mistake, the significant ingredient to offer the god and/or gods was the blood. The fat and bones were secondary. Even Homer or Homer/s spoke about the great power of blood to the dead. It gave them a taste of life again.

Fig. 1 Apulian Red-Figure Krater 4th cent. BC detail

Today we talk of personal sacrifice and the only thing we give to our gods are things like prayer, the signing of hymns, and dedicating your own meal to a god. I’m not going to go as far as say a tithe goes to the benefit of a god, as much as it is a donation made in a gods name. Those are merely the most well-known examples of how the ancients strove to please their gods. In several cases, an ancient Greek literary figure would promise to make regular sacrifices to a particular god for some sort of payment for help or seeking penance for a committed crime. Odysseus attempted to keep the god of the sun from killing his men for eating his prize cattle. Odysseus tempted the sun god Helios with regular sacrifices once he makes it back to Ithaca, somewhere in New York [This is a joke BTW]]. It makes one wonder what god-like endorphin was triggered by a mere sacrifice of livestock. 

Perhaps, at the end of the day, all the gods added up the spilled blood, burnt offerings, small cakes, and winding smoke gained by each god. If that is the case, the ancient mortals were merely appealing to the ego of a particular god. The Classical Greek Gods are often portrayed like extremely powerful teenagers.  
From my exposure to Greek and Latin Classics, one thing is evident when it comes to the gods: you can actively set out to give an unknown benefit to a specific god, by making a sacrifice in his or her name. My favorite example is the Roman ‘Evocatio.’ A general of an army stops the troops outside the walls of a hostile city somewhere in Gaul or Asia Minor perhaps, and addresses the main god of the peoples therein. The general makes a sacrifice and calls out to the god of the city. But what does he say to the god? Modern ears, upon hearing this for the first time might guess that the general will call out to the local god and denounce him or her, comparing the lesser known god to the mighty Gods of Rome. This would not be the case. The Roman mentality was much different. They wanted to make Rome the spiritual center of the conquered world by bringing all the gods to it. 

Fig. 2 "Evocation" Alexander Rothaug (1870 – 1946), Austrian

The Roman General proceeds to call the local god by name. He tells the god about Rome and how gods who move there experience much more glory and sacrificial gain then could be experienced in such a small city. The General then asks the god to abandon the temples of the hostile city and move to Rome. Of course, once the city was conquered, the people, one might assume, would be told where they can find their god. You know the phrase “all roads lead to Rome?” The roads are important, but what flows along those roads are much more than slaves, soldiers and trade.  

The moral of the prose: Ask not what your gods can do for you; rather, ask what you can do for your gods. 

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Ancient history themed podcast presented by Steve Dotson, history professor. 

Recorded Live at Cafe Blackadder in Warrensburg, Missouri during the SpoFest spoken word event, April 1, 2016.

A satirical and informative look at Greek and Roman views of sacrifice to a god or gods.

Ancient Light #1 "Ask Not What Your Gods Can Do For You," Recorded Live, April 2016, Cafe Blackadder, Warrensburg, Missouri.

A Message to Orphans & Bastards

Since the beginning of recorded civilization, gods and demigods have filled the earth with bastard children. This happens when a god or demigod breeds with a mortal. These children have existed within society often unnoticed. Some of these children did not become orphans, but were raised by a step-father. In reality most of the children would have been orphaned, killed, or left alone in nature (and act known as exposure). 

Zeus seduces Olympias, which leads to the conception of Alexander. Fresco by Giulio Romano c. 1526-1534, Palazzo del Te, Mantua, Italy.

Consider at the case of Alexander the Great. His mother, Olympias, claimed she was impregnated by a god who was disguised as a snake. Later, Alexander consulted the Oracle of Ammon and claimed the god told him he was his son. Alexander was a special case, he was able to claim he was the heir of the mortal Macedonian King Philip II while simultaneously claiming he was the son of Zeus-Ammon. Most of the children of a god and a mortal woman end up being raised by a single parent, who perhaps later marries, like Mary the mother of Jesus. Perseus was raised by his mortal mother (Fig. 1) and a fisherman step-father who was the brother of the king of the island of Serifos.

Gustav Klimt's Danaë, 1907. The mortal mother of Perseus.

The above illustrations are indicative of the stories we know from mythology. The rarity of such scenarios give one the impression that most orphans and bastards are unrelated to a deity. It is important to realize there are many demi-gods who produce mortal children. who go unmentioned. 

Nymphs are demi-gods who mate with gods and mortals alike, producing children from the many unions. We know of some of these children. Achilles was one of these. His father was a king who married the nymph Thetis – a rare family unit. What about the offspring from the numerous unmentioned transient unions of mortal man and female nymph? In the modern age, we never hear of the children of gods and mortal women. These days, bastards are told that their father is missing or are given the name of man who is not the biological father.

Fig. 2 The sea nymph, Thetis, dips her son, Achilles, into the river

Orphans are even more suspect. Records may indicate one parent, usually the mother. Many times the child is never given the name of either parent. Nymphs, likely the most guilty of creating orphans, are children of gods. The mortal son or daughter of a nymph is a grandchild of a god such as Zeus or Nereus. [Click here for my explanation of nymphs (coming soon)]

Here is my message to bastards and orphans: if you find yourself with one or more super-human abilities, please do not end up abusing your power. Achilles had the knowledge that he was the son of a demi-god. He shined on the battlefield. He was swift, with the highest kill rate of all the other Greeks. He knew he was powerful. His passion was too great for his own good and his rage doomed many of his allies. He was also a cry baby, sobbing on the beach after Agamemnon took his beloved slave girl. He was powerful, passionate, stubborn, deadly, and out of control. Alexander the Great, because of rage and stubbornness, shared a similar persona. Heavy drinking did not help reign in the passions of Alexander - overindulgence and power do not mix.

Demi-gods are capable of much more damage than the average human. Therefore, I have put together some simple rules to follow if you suspect you are an offspring of a god or demi-god.

1.       When you discover your abilities, learn to use them for the greatest good

2.       Control your emotions or they will destroy you.

3.     Overindulgence and power do not mix.

4.       Do not expect the gods to care if you are a related to them. There are many of you.

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Fig. 3 Thetis, nymph goddess, bringing armor to her son, Achilles, detail. Benjamin West 1806.



Famous Orphans & Bastards

Cyrus the Great: founder of the Persian Empire
Aristotle
Beowulf
Moses

Jesus
Muhammad

Romulus: legendary founder of Rome
Johannes Kepler
Bertrand Russell
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Possible offspring of musically inclined deities

Louis Armstrong
Johann Sebastian Bach
Ray Charles
Ella Fitzgerald
Faith Hill
John Lennon
Tina Turner

Mythological figures born from an immortal and a mortal

Herakles (Lt. Hercules)
Perseus
The Ammon-myth aspects of Alexander the Great
Achilles
Bellerophon
Theseus
Semiramis



Evolution of the Golem - From Golem to Robot

A Golem is a magical creature made from inanimate materials. He is usually summoned to perform a particular deed such as protect a city. The earliest extant text mentioning a golem is from the Jewish tradition. Many of the early traditions have the creature made from clay and dirt. Holy Hebrew letters and spellcraft provide the special formula to animate the humanoid shaped amalgamation. The ability to create a golem prior to the modern period belonged to the Rabbi.

Fig. 1 Der Golem 1915

The idea of the golem animated from a raw element remains in modern literature. The 1915 German expressionist film "Der Golem" featured the traditional creature, which was animated by a Rabbi. An episode of the TV series "Grimm" (2014) features a golem which was created by a Rabbi to protect his nephew.

Fig. 2 The Bride of Frankenstein 1935

As the age of scientific discovery emerged, a variation of the golem figure arose. Dr. Frankenstein's monster is not a base element empowered by magic, but a combination of human parts, animated by scientific means and the raw power of nature. Mary Shelley published her work in 1818, but the popular mind remembers the black and white film from 1931 or the 1974 Mel Brooks film "Young Frankenstein." Shelley's creature eventually became intelligent, but was given to grief and fits of rage because of his alienation from humanity. The Universal Studios film presents an unintelligent version of the monster. The film monster is less complex than the one in the book. "The Bride of Frankenstein" 1935 presented a second sci-golem who was able to view the original monster with horror. It was a duplication of a similar alienation present in the original.

Fig. 3 Fritz Lang's Metropolis 1927

In 1927 Fritz Lang released the film "Metropolis." This science golem, like Shelley's monster, was a robot disguised as a real woman. This begs the question: what is the difference between a golem and a robot?  The False Maria/Robot of "Metropolis" makes this overlap quite obvious: if we use science to create a golem, are we not just creating a type of robot or cyborg?

Fig. 4 The robot is made to look like Maria, becoming the "False Maria."

The False-Maria is designed to be a feminine disruptive force in the city of Metropolis. This is similar to the creation story of Smurfette in "The Smurfs." Click here to read an article about some of the symbols in "The Smurfs" comic and cartoon.

As the scientific age advanced, the golem connection was lost, but the robot became the new golem; science gradually replaced magic. The monster and robot alike often confront their own place in a society which rejects it or some other crisis of existence: Robocop, Chappie, Wall-E, The Iron Giant, and Bicentennial Man. Robocop is interesting in this comparison, he more than the others resembles Frankenstein's monster, made from a combination of human and non-human parts. It was Shelley who bridged the gap between magic and science to make this connection evident. It is not clear to me if Shelley's monster would be considered a robot or a cyborg. He was made from organic materials like a cyborg can be, but this is only a vessel. The False-Maria takes a step nearer the robot, made of metal parts, only a superficial layer gives the appearance of a real homosapien. A leftover device of the old golem, that of magic, can still be seen in Metropolis, unlike Shelley's creature. The house of the scientist who created the robot, was built long ago by someone known as the Magician. A large downward pentagram hangs on the wall above the chair of the False-Maria (Fig. 3) and an upright pentagram on the front door of the medieval style home. The original book 1925 was thick with occult references, many of which did not appear in the film. In the book, the Magician played a greater role. Nonetheless, occult and religious references abound in the film.

Looking at film history and the progression of the golem trope in this way shows a continuous thread from golem to robot. Alternatively, I think the robot existential crisis would have arisen in literature and film regardless of the golem tradition and Mary Shelley. The futurist and science fiction genres are in no way dependent on the golem tradition. The robot identity crisis idea naturally arises when we imagine robots who are self-aware.