Virgil’s Aeneid Contained Some Peculiar Nautical Sea Nymphs

(THE NYMPH ROSE FROM THE SEA AND BORE THE VEIL AWAY, by William Heath Robinson (1872-1944), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

Ancient origin myths and creation stories can be really strange. So, too, are many of the creatures and monsters found in mythology weird and bizarre. Therefore, it is not surprise that the origin stories of some mythological beings are especially odd.

A particular band of sea nymphs found in the poetic verse of The Aeneid by Virgil (70-19 BCE) perfectly illustrates how peculiarly some mythological entities were born. The epic poem about Aeneas follows a band of Trojan refugees journeying to make a new life in Italy, only to be constantly harrassed by the goddess Juno and the various peoples (Carthaginians and native Italians) she riled up against the homeless wanderers. Just like in The Illiad and The Odyssey, the gods choose sides and intervene on multiple occasions to help, or hinder, the characters of the story.

One of the stranger supernatural events of The Aeneid, however, is the birth of a group of sea nymphs. These nymphs were not brought about by the promiscuity of the gods, or curses or blessings placed on humans, as many other creatures of myth came into being. No, these particular nymphs from The Aeneid actually originated as the ships used by Aeneas and his Trojan companions. When the Trojan refugees and the Italian Latins mobilized their forces to make war against each other, the ships of the Trojans broke their mooring lines, transformed into nymphs and dove into the ocean. This is the passage that describes the transformation of ships into sea nymphs:

“And all at once,

each vessel snapping her cables free of the bank,

they dive like dolphins, plunging headlong beaks

to the bottom’s depths, then up they surface,

turned into lovely virgins—wondrous omen—

each a sea-nymph sweeping out to sea.”

• From The Aeneid by Virgil (Book Nine), translated by Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics edition), 2010.

The nymphs return to aid the Trojans later, where they give Aeneas an account of their birth:

“A troop of his comrades comes to meet him,

halfway home, the nymphs that kindly Cybebe told

to rule the sea in power, changing the ships

to sea-nymphs swimming abreast, cutting the waves,

as many as all the bronze prows berthed at anchor once.

They know their king far off, circling, dancing round him

and one, most eloquent of them all, Cymodocea swims in

on his wake and grips his stern with her right hand,

arching her back above the swells as her left hand

rows the silent waves, and she calls out to Aeneas,

lost to it all: “Awake Aeneas, son of the gods?

Wake up! Fling your sheets to the winds, sail free!

Here we are, the pines from the sacred ridge of Ida,

When traitorous Turnus forced us headlong on

with sword and torch, we burst your mooring lines,

we had no choice, and now we scour the seas

to find our captain. The Great Mother pitied us,

changed our shape, she made us goddesses, yes,

And so we pass our lives beneath the waves.”

• From The Aeneid by Virgil (Book Ten), translated by Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics edition), 2010.

Written by C. Keith Hansley 

Most Of The Names J. R. R. Tolkien Used For His Dwarves In His Books Were Actual Names Of Dwarves In Norse Mythology

(The Dwarves at Work, c. 1871, engraved by George Pearson (1850-1910), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

J. R. R. Tolkien’s books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, have inspired a new wave of fantasy novels that take place in a highly detailed, fantastical worlds. Though Tolkien had an incredibly imaginative and ingeniously creative mind, he drew his ideas heavily from Norse mythology. Not only did he find the concepts of elves, dwarves and magical rings from Nordic tales, but he also gathered names for his characters from Scandinavian mythology—especially the dwarves. For example, almost all the names of the J. R. R. Tokien’s dwarves in The Hobbit can be found in one passage from The Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson. The dwarves in The Hobbit are Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur and Thorin Oakenshield. You will find most of their names, and that of Gandalf, in the following excerpt from The Prose Edda:

“And these, says the prophetess, are the names of these dwarves:

Nyi, Nidi,

Nordri, Sudri,

Austri, Vestri,

Althjolf, Dvalin,

Nar, Nain,

Niping, Dain,

Bifur, Bafur,

Bombor, Nori,

Ori, Onar,

Oin, Modvitnir

Vig and Gandalf,

Vindalf, Thorin,

Fili, Kili,

Fundin, Vali,

Thror, Throin,

Thekk, Lit, Vitr,

Nyr, Nyrad,

Rekk, Radsvinn.

But these, too, are dwarves and they live in the rocks, whereas those mentioned before live in the ground:

Draupnir, Dolgthvari,

Haur, Hugstari,

Hledjolf, Gloin,

Dori, Ori,

Duf, Andvari,

Heptifili,

Har, Siar.”

• From The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse L. Byock (Penguin Classics edition). This passage is in chapter 14 of the Gylfaginning, within The Prose Edda.

Written by C. Keith Hansley 

The Groundbreaking Akkadian Priestess Enheduanna Is Mankind’s Oldest Known Author To Have Signed Her Work

She also may be the mother of hymns, poetry and verse, and likely influenced Homer and the authors of the holy texts of Abrahamic religions

(Calcite disc of Enheduanna discovered by Sir Leonard Wooley in 1927 depicting Enheduanna and her attendants, photographed by Mefman00 and cropped, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

Enheduanna was born in Akkad (thought to be within modern Iraq), the capital city of the Akkadian Empire, which may be the world’s first multi-ethnic empire. While dating the lives of people from earth’s most ancient civilizations is often unreliable, the scholars seem to be comfortable placing Enheduanna’s life between 2285 and 2250 BCE. Enheduanna was an incredibly bright princess, was the daughter of the empire’s equally brilliant king, Sargon I of Akkad (2334-2279 BCE), also known as Sargon the Great.

Sargon the Great recognized the competence and wisdom in his daughter, and decided to use Enheduanna to his own advantage. The king promoted her to be the high priestess at the temples of Uruk and Ur. Her position as high priestess of the moon god, Nanna (also known as Sin or Suen), in the city of Ur, was by far the highest religious office of her day. As high priestess, Enheduanna ruled effectively, cultivating support for her father and tying the Akkadian and Sumerian religions and cultures together. She also survived a period of exile, when a rebel forcibly removed her from her priesthood. Her nephew, to the priestess' relief, quickly crushed the rebellion and restored her to power. Enheduanna did not, however, spend her more than forty years as high priestess solely administrating—she managed to find time to write.

From what archeologists have discovered, Enheduanna wrote poems, hymns and prayers. Her writings are the oldest so far discovered to have been signed and claimed by a specific author. Enheduanna, as far as we know, also was the first person in history to use the first-person style of writing, describing her hopes, wishes and emotions from her own point of view in her poems and prayers. Though Enheduanna was a priestess of the moon god, Nanna, most of her works are devoted to Inanna, a Mesopotamian goddess of love that later cultures would compare to Ishtar and Aphrodite. Many of the priestess’ hymns have been recovered and translated including  “The Exhaltation of Inanna” (Nin-me-sara), “Inanna and Ebih” (In-nin me-hus-a) and “Lady of the Great Heart,” also known as Hymn to Inanna.

Enheduanna has much more of a legacy than being the oldest known author to claim her work with a signature. The relationship between herself, and her father, King Sargon the Great, began a precedent of royal princesses being placed as high priestesses in Mesopotamia. More importantly, Enheduanna’s hymns became widely used to train Mesopotamian scribes in proper, and beautiful, writing. Her hymns and poems, however, did not only influence Mesopotamia. Many think that Enheduanna’s work served as a major stylistic and structural inspiration for other literary behemoths such as Homer in Greece and the early biblical writers who wrote the oldest texts at the core of the Abrahamic religions. 

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources: 

• http://www.ancient.eu/Enheduanna/ 
• https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Enheduanna 
• http://www.ancient.eu/akkad/ 

In The Fourth Crusade (1201-1204), Christians Crusaded Against Christians

The Fourth Crusade Also Doomed One Of Christendom’s Mightiest Empires

(The Taking of Constantinople, painted by Palma Le Jeune (1544–1620), [Public Domain], via Creative Commons)

In 1201, the Europeans were, once again, riling themselves up for another crusade, when the emperor of Constantinople clearly decreed that no crusading army would be welcome in his lands. During previous crusades, Christian armies had ventured through Asia Minor and Anatolia to reach their targets in the Holy Land. The crusaders, however, turned out to be unruly and destructive guests, so when the Fourth Crusade was about to begin, the emperor of Constantinople barred the crusading armies from the borders of his empire.

Since they could not travel by land, the crusaders decided to voyage across the Mediterranean Sea. The soldiers turned to Venice for transportation. Venice had been a former ally of Constantinople, but by the Fourth Crusade, they were enemies. With a huge army delivered to their harbor, the Venetians began to manipulate the crusaders into pursuing a new target. The crusaders agreed to the plan, but Venice knew how to bargain—once the crusaders reached their bountiful destination, Venice would keep 3/4 of the loot, 3/8 of the captured territory and 1/2 of the positions on a council to choose the next ruler of the seized territory.

When the crusaders agreed to Venice’s terms in 1204, the army was packed onto ships and sent on their way. The crusaders, however, were no longer setting sail to the Holy Land, they were on course for Constantinople.

At the time, Constantinople was arguably the greatest Christian city of its day. Nevertheless, the crusaders caught the city, and its emperor, completely off guard. For around three days, the crusaders brutalized the city of Constantinople, killing its inhabitants, looting its wealth, and vandalizing its structures. With the emperor of Constantinople ousted, and the empire in disarray, the crusaders and Venice founded their own Latin Empire in Constantinople and Greece that lasted from 1204 to 1261.

Though the Crusaders were eventually driven from Constantinople, the empire never fully recovered. After the Fourth Crusade, it is estimated that the emperors of Constantinople could never raise more than 5,000 troops to fill their armies for imperial campaigns. The destabilization caused by the Fourth Crusade proved fatal for Constantinople as its enemies only continued to grow stronger. In 1453, Constantinople, and its empire, fell to Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Turks.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• The Byzantine Art of War by Michael J. Decker. Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing, 2013.
• Introduction to Medieval Europe, 300-1500 (Second Edition) by Wim Blockmans and Peter Hoppenbrouwers. New York: Routledge, 2014.

Giovanni Belzoni, The First Man To Popularize Egyptian Archaeology, Was A Horrible Archaeologist, At Least By Today’s Standards

(Portrait from Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, London, 1820, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

Giovanni Belzoni (1778-1823 CE) is a strange person to hold a title as one of the founding fathers of Egyptology. He had no background in archeology or history. Instead, his drive for adventure, and his passion for exploration, would lead him to discover pyramids, tombs, temples and obelisks that would reinvigorate western interest in the history and archeology of Egypt.

Giovanni Belzoni was born in Padua, Venice in 1778. Though he was born in Venice, he spent most of his developmental years in Rome. Once he reached his adult years, Belzoni began considering entering a monastic life, but he fled Rome (and thoughts of a cloistered life) in 1798 when Napoleon occupied the city. After leaving Italy, he made his way to the Netherlands, and from there, he found a new home in England.

In 1803, Belzoni married his English bride, Sarah Bane (or Banne). The newlywed couple pursued an interesting career path to sustain themselves in the great city of London—they joined the circus. For around ten years, Belzoni and his wife performed feats of strength wherever there were crowds looking for entertainment.

Around 1812, the circus act was retired and Belzoni began pursuing a new career in engineering. He met with an agent of Muhammad Alī Pasha  (the founder of modern Egypt) and received permission to showcase to the Egyptians a hydraulic engine of his own design. When Belzoni arrived at Egypt, however, he found that he enjoyed searching for, and excavating, old buried sites more than his hobby of engineering.

From around 1812 to 1819, Giovanni Belzoni and the British Consul General, Henry Salt, worked together to locate and excavate historical sites in Egypt. Unfortunately, many of Belzoni’s methods of excavation were destructive, and the purpose of his expeditions is now often described as looting.

Despite Giovanni Belzoni’s dubious motivation and method of excavation, he discovered numerous great archaeological finds. He journeyed to the Abu Simbel temple in Nubia and retrieved a large bust of Ramses II (the “Young Memnon”), approximately nine feet in height. In 1818, he was the first modern explorer to find the entrance and venture inside the pyramid of Khafre at Giza. Belzoni also discovered the tombs of King Ay (where he blasted through priceless, decorated walls), Prince Mentuhirkhopeshef, and Ramses I. The amateurish methods used to excavate some of these tombs would later cause water damage. He also discovered the city of Berenice, and removed an obelisk from the island of Philae (Jazīrat Aswān), but French rivals stole the obelisk before it could be sent to England.

Giovanni Belzoni recorded his near decade-long career as an explorer and amateur archeologist in Egypt within his book, Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia. Belzoni returned to England in 1819, and by 1820, his book was released to the public—it was a great success and is regarded as the first book in the English language in the field of Egyptology.

In 1823, Giovanni Belzoni set out for another expedition, this time to Timbuktu. He never arrived, however, because he caught dysentery in Gwato Village, Benin, and died before he could reach his destination.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Giovanni_Battista_Belzoni
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Battista-Belzoni

The Priests of the Magna Mater (Great Mother), Cybele, Were Eunuchs

It took balls to be a priest of Cybele

(Funerary relief of a priest of Magna Mater (gallus) from Lavinium. Rome, Capitoline Museums (mid-second century AD), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

Around 204 BCE, when Scipio Africanus was preparing his invasion of Africa during the Second Punic War, the cult of Cybele was invited into Rome’s pantheon of gods. The cult of Cybele was one of the strangest of Rome’s Mystery Religions, but nevertheless, the mysteries of the Magna Mater would become one of the empire’s more popular cults.

The Magna Mater's priests (known as Galli) did not adopt the traits of their goddess, Cybele, but of her lover, Attis. Unfortunately for the priests of Cybele, they were expected to reenact an uncomfortable myth of Attis. As the myth goes, Attis was a man who, in a craze instigated by Cybele, castrated himself. After Cybele revived him, Attis adopted a feminine personality and donned womanly dress. The Galli of Cybele underwent this ordeal of castration and adoption of a feminine demeanor to become priests of the Magna Mater’s cult.

Read our article, HERE, for a more in-depth look at the myth and cult of the ancient goddess, Cybele. Beware, some sections are graphic!

Source

• The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts edited by Marvin W. Meyer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.

Though Officially Neutral In WWII, Spain Sent A Division To Germany To Help Fight The USSR

(Replacements for the Spanish Blue Division march to their assignment, c. 1942, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

During World War Two, one of the most decorated divisions on the side of the Axis Powers was from Spain. The German 250^th Infantry Division (otherwise known as the Blue Division) began as a company of veterans from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Though Spain was officially neutral in WWII, the Spanish Generalissimo Francisco Franco would later send conscripted men to replenish the ranks of the Blue Division. Spain even sent the Blue Squadron, a group of Spanish airmen, to defend Germany against Soviet aircraft.

The initial Blue Division consisted of 18,000 volunteers, but at its greatest, it expanded to 50,000 Spanish troops. The Division would suffer around 16,000 casualties during the war. Approximately 4,500 died in combat. The Blue Division participated in twenty-one known major battles during WWII.

As the Allied Powers began to gain the advantage in WWII, they increasingly put pressure on Spain to recall the Spanish volunteers. In 1943, Franco reluctantly reduced his force in Germany—the Blue Division was demoted to a Blue Legion of around 3,000 men. The Blue Legion, too, was withdrawn back to Spain in 1944. Many Spanish troops, however, refused to leave. These stragglers were often adopted into Germany’s Waffen SS. There were still Spanish volunteers fighting in Berlin when the city fell.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources

• The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth Century Spain by Paul Preston. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
• Churchill and Spain: The Survival of the Franco Regime, 1940-1945, by Richard Wigg. Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2008.
• Franco: A Personal and Political Biography, by Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014.