Myth and Magic in Popular Culture

This is Sparta!

2008-04-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

I confess. I find silly image macros absolutely hilarious.

Dante's Inferno

2007-02-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

Dante's Inferno has been kicking around the cultural playground for over 700 years. But it has never before been interpreted with exquisitely hand-drawn paper puppets, brought to life using purely hand-made special effects. Until now. Rediscover this literary classic, retold in a kind of apocalyptic graphic novel meets Victorian-era toy theater. Dante’s Hell is brought to lurid 3-dimensional, high-definition life in a darkly comedic travelogue of the underworld — set against an all-too-familiar urban backdrop of used car lots, gated communities, strip malls, and the U.S. Capitol. And populated with a contemporary cast of reprobates, including famous — and infamous — politicians, presidents, popes, pimps. And the Prince of Darkness himself.

Grrr. The movie seems interesting, but I can't get the web site to load. Anyway, IMDb has a trailer and some information, and if you're in San Francisco you can buy tickets at sf indiefest.

Hellboy and Hecate

2007-02-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

Indeed, Hecate shows up in the new animated Hellboy: Blood and Iron movie. Pop over to Hellboy Animated to see a picture and find out what Hellboy's weapon of choice is.

Hellboy: Blood and Iron airs on Cartoon Network, March 10.

Eros in a Speedo

2007-01-14T06:22:00.000-08:00

The costume designer outfitted the winged god Eros in a Speedo and made sure the other costumes didn't become see-through when the actors emerged from the water. She also gave one actor a pair of aqua socks to keep him from slipping on the wooden deck. (They were eventually abandoned because they made distracting slurpy noises.)

Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses is playing in Des Moines.

Penelopiad adapted for the stage

2006-12-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

Margaret Atwood is adapting her book, The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus, for the stage in a format that the producers are calling a "cabaret." The Penelopiad will premiere in July 2007 at Stratford-upon-Avon's Swan Theatre, then open the 2007-2008 season in English theatre at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa next September.

Full story at CBC.CA

Penelope

The goat must burn

2006-12-18T17:15:00.000-08:00

So what do you do when the damn Christmas goat in Gävle refuses to burn? You do what the keeper of the Honey House did, and arrange your own sacrifice.

Goat in flames

Uncle Al

2006-12-18T15:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm aware that I might have to rename this blog Myth, Magic, and Aleister Crowley in Popular Culture soon, but how could I possibly resist posting this mural from Bergen, Norway?

Uncle Al

The Golden Compass

2006-12-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

Somehow I missed this. The official web site for The Golden Compass, the first movie based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, is now online - and you can play with the alethiometer!

Food of the Gods

2006-12-16T17:43:00.000-08:00

Slashfood reports that Greek Gods are introducing some new yogurt flavors. The containers look spiffy, but the choice of flavors is rather ordinary. Whatever happened to nectar and ambrosia?

(Thanks to Donna for finding this!)

Poseidon

Jesus in a fried tortilla

2006-12-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

In 1977, a woman making burritos in Lake Arthur, N.M., saw the face of Jesus in the pattern of skillet burns on a tortilla. She built a shrine to house the Jesus tortilla, which was blessed by a priest, and thousands of people from across the country came to gaze and pray for its divine assistance in healing their ailments.

Los Angeles Times article about pareidolia, the perception of patterns where none are intended.

If this sort of thing entertains you, be sure to pay a visit to the Paredolia Project (and please leave a comment if you figure out why Allah is listed among the vegetables.)

Diana - princess or goddess?

2006-12-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

"In the case of Diana, Princess of Wales this was an obvious culmination. As her brother pointed out at her funeral, Diana — or Artemis, if we are going to stick to the Greeks — was the goddess of hunting, herself hunted to death.

Or you could say that, pursued by the Furies for much of her public life, those foul harpies finally got their girl. She could be Prometheus, stealing fire (or fame) from the gods (or the royal firm), and giving it to mortals for their own use; or Cassandra, predicting her own fate in a series of tapes and telephone calls; a female Narcissus, gazing doomed and entranced upon her own reflection in magazines."

India Knight makes some observations about the use of mythic imagery in discussing Princess Diana, insults Catholics, uses the strange construct half-Muslim, and gets the readers quite irate.

Diana

The Ascent of Dionysos

2006-12-15T15:17:00.000-08:00

Athena has consistently shown herself to be one of the most powerful Olympians, but was overthrown by Hades in the closest struggle for Mount Olympus to date. Defeated and ashamed, Athena steps down from Mount Olympus to make room for Dionysus.

Forget about getting the house cleaned in time for Christmas. I'm playing Mythos!

The Chemical Wedding

2006-12-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden is involved in the production of a movie inspired by Aleister Crowley.

The movie is reportedly about a professor in an English university, whom, after a failed experiment, becomes obsessed with Crowleys soul. Crowley himself was very much into redhaired women, and obviously the professor becomes enchanted by a very beautiful, red-haired student.

Read more at Maiden Norway.

Yes, obviously...

Aleister Crowley

Apocalyptic violence

2006-12-13T05:46:00.000-08:00

"The message? The end is near and the savior has come. Gibson's efforts at authenticity of location and language might, for some viewers, mask his blatantly colonial message that the Maya needed saving because they were rotten at the core. Using the decline of Classic urbanism as his backdrop, Gibson communicates that there was absolutely nothing redeemable about Maya culture, especially elite culture which is depicted as a disgusting feast of blood and excess."

Read Tracy Ardren's review at archaelogy.org.

So if Mel Gibson's new genre really is religious slasher flicks, what can we expect next? Something based on the writings of Adam von Bremen, maybe? I suspect that "the enlightened Christian describing the barbaric heathens" would be very much Gibson's thing.

Midvinterblot

Roasting the Christmas goat

2006-12-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. For 40 years it has been torched, vandalized, had its legs cut off and even been run over by a car. But officials in the Swedish city of Gävle are guaranteeing that this year's giant straw Christmas goat - the victim of Sweden's most violent yule tradition - will survive unscathed.

Officials think they have finally outsmarted the resourceful vandals by dousing the battered ram with flame-resistant chemicals normally used on airplanes.

Bah. Cheating. Why, oh why, do they have to ruin one of the funnest favorite Christmas traditions we have? Yes, there are those who get all worked up it and talk about vandalism, but most of us find the whole thing rather hilarious. I mean, last year the police were looking for Santa Claus and a gingerbread man, who were suspected of shooting burning arrows at the goat until it caught fire. In 2001 it was burned down by and American tourist who upon being arrested he had heard about the tradition at a party. Tell me that's not funny.

While the origins of the Christmas goat are unclear, the symbol is believed to date back to Norse mythology and the two goats that drew the carriage of Thor, the god of thunder.

Source: boston.com

I doubt that the connection to Norse mythology exists, but I suppose it might make the story more interesting. Personally I'd much rather draw inspiration from The Wicker Man and stick a crappy actor in the goat.

Artemis and Santa

2006-12-05T04:09:00.000-08:00

"There are several humorous cameos in this film, including an uncredited actress who plays the Greek Goddess Artemis working undercover on Earth as a gym teacher. This actress is gut-bustingly funny in a role that is far too brief when compared to the time spent on Heat-miser and Snowmiser. In fact, her role is part of the underlying, richer story about the role that myth and story plays in cultures, even modern ones."

Belinda Acosta reviews The Year Without Santa Claus

Sepulchre

2006-12-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

Despite finding Labyrinth terriby dull (like Dan Brown on tranquilizers, sort of) I might consider reading Kate Mosse's next novel, after all.

Having cracked the time-slip device with Labyrinth, Mosse's new work, Sepulchre - a time-slip adventure novel set in fin-de-siecle France and the present day - may well be even better. "It's about a woman writing a biography of Debussy, who was very interested in the occult, which was very popular in France at that time. Labyrinth was a Grail story. This one is the real Tarot."

Read the interview at The Sydney Morning Herald

Socrates: Lost in Olympia

2006-12-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

"SOCRATES: LOST IN OLYMPIA", the feature-length 3d animated English-language film, planned as a European & Chinese co-production, is in the initial phases of preproduction. Twelve fresh and exciting characters have been added to Socrates' group of friends and this time the mission is next to impossible: to save the planet and the Olympic Games. "SOCRATES" is scheduled for a 2007 theatrical release.

Read more at Dimitri Vorris' web site.

There should be some religious or mythological content in there, right?

Necropants!

2006-11-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's exactly as morbid as it sounds (though when I saw the headline I initially thought it was referring to those people who don't wash their jeans).

"Necropants are part of a complicated sorcery for gaining money,” Atlason explains. “The owner of necropants had to make a deal with a male friend while still alive about digging up his body after a natural cause of death, skinning it below the waste and wearing the skin as necropants."

Read about the Museum of Sorcery & Witchcraft in the Iceland Review.

Building the Trojan Horse

2006-11-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

Radio 4 airs Alick Rowe's The Horse, "an account of what might have happened during the construction of the Trojan Horse and what follows when it’s finally loaded up with twelve valiant Greeks". Listen to it on the BBC web site.

Also, don't miss this Neatorama post about a modern version of the horse.

Tiepolo's Trojan horse

Pow! Blam! Mazel Tov!

2006-11-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

"The uncanny coincidences continue: Kal-El, Superman’s given name, actually means “Voice of God” in Hebrew and, growing up, Shuster and Siegel, second-generation Jewish Americans, heard old folk tales of “flying rabbis,” although we’re pretty sure that they couldn’t fly as fast as Superman could. Unless, of course, they were late for shul."

Rabbi Simcha Wienstein, author of Up, Up, and Oy Vey! talks about Jewish themes in comics.

Magick TV

2006-11-23T14:38:00.000-08:00

If you feel that you haven't had your quota of revisionist history and outdated theories about pagan religions, pop over to Magick TV. I'm especially fond of The meaning of Hekate, where Krystel manages to get practically everything wrong without looking into the camera even once.

Nine Lives, Many Masters

2006-11-23T10:32:00.001-08:00

I finally took the time to read the web comic Nine Lives, Many Masters, which turned out to be mostly okay. It's not exactly a chuckle a page, but at least an occasional knowing smile - provided that you're somewhat familiar with modern Paganism. My favorite strip is the one where Grimalkin goes to the Summerland and meets Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente.

Gerald Gardner

Quilted legends

2006-11-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

Marilyn Belford is in the middle of her series on women of legends. This series stemmed from her work on biblical tales and now include women from mythology. She brought a work in progress on Medea, a women in Greek mythology who killed her two children.

Read more in The Citizen.

I thought quilting was something you did with boring old squares of leftover fabric. Silly me. Having visited Marilyn Belford's web site I now know better. Quilting is an art form. Don't miss the Women of Legend and Legends of the Bible galleries!

Circe by Marilyn Belford

The Ten Commandments

2006-11-18T18:23:00.000-08:00

Most of us remember Cecil B. DeMille's classic film for its vibrant visual effects and Charlton Heston doing things masculine-style as Moses. So who is it that fills the shoes of the great Moses this time around? Look no further than Val Kilmer! The former Batman portrayer sings and dances his way across the stage in topless Egyptian costumes, and colorful robes. The tough guy actor really proves his musical talent...sort of.

Dodd Alley is moderately impressed with the musical version of The Ten Commandments.

I'm thinking that it will make a perfect Christmas present for a young lady who watched The Prince of Egypt (in which Val Kilmer did Moses' voice, but not the singing) three times in a single day when she was six. It's more blessed to give than to receive - especially when I get to indulge my shameful musical habit without admitting I have a problem.

Mythical creatures exhibition

2006-11-18T15:17:00.000-08:00

Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids will feature preserved specimens from the Museum's collections, and fossils of prehistoric animals to investigate how they could have, through misidentification, speculation, and imagination, inspired the development of these legendary beasts. For example, visitors will discover how narwhal tusks introduced by northern European traders lent credence to the centuries-old belief in the unicorn (a beast that was probably originally a misunderstanding of a rhinoceros), and how dinosaur fossils uncovered by Scythian nomads may have been mistaken as the remains of living, breathing griffins.

Visit the American Museum of Natural History for more information.

Unicorn

Aleister Crowley, John Dee, and James Bond

2006-11-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

Several news articles have mentioned that Le Chiffre, the villain in the new James Bond movie Casino Royale, might be based on English occultist Aleister Crowley, but none have said anything about John Dee. Dee was a 16th century scholar and magus who may have acted as a spy for Elizabeth I. And how did he sign his letters to the queen? 007.

Source: Richard Kaczynski's excellent Crowley biography Perdurabo.

Nicolas Cage, holy men, and Voodoo

2006-11-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

Cage is to star in The Sadhu, the story of a soldier who travels to India during colonial times and becomes a spiritual warrior. The plot mixes action with mythology, and is meant as a starring vehicle for the US actor.

The movie is based on the Virgin comic with the same name. Sadhu was created by Gotham Chopra and will be adapted for the screen by his father, Deepak Chopra. Sounds positively trainwrecky to me, but hey, maybe a chakra alignment can improve Cage's acting abilities.

But wait, there's more...

Cage is developing a comic book for Virgin Comics entitled Enigma, with an eye to developing it into a film. Billed as a voodoo-laced thriller, Enigma deals with a murder investigation set in New Orleans.

Source: The Guardian

Voodoo, eh? Cage has mentioned his interest in Voodoo before, and said that "it's important to be respectful of all religions". I hope he respects it enough to do his research.

Sadhu

Goddess exhibition

2006-11-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

Goddess: Divine Energy is the first major exhibition in Australia to explore the many manifestations of the divine female in Hindu and Buddhist art. Over 150 exquisitely carved sculptures and delicately composed paintings from India, Tibet and Nepal, dating from about 2000 BCE through to the 20th century, have been gathered from collections around the world for display.

I'm often disappointed that museum web sites show so few works of art that it's hard to tell if any given exhibition is worth a visit. Not this time. I'm absolutely convinced that I would visit the the Art Gallery of New South Wales if only I lived a little closer.

If you're geographically challenged like me, you can still enjoy the Goddess: Divine Energy site (which requires Flash 8). It's a little heavy on the Love & Light, but the graphics are very, very pretty.

Kali

Aleister Crowley in the movies

2006-11-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

Set in a very different London is writer-director Hadi Hajaig's Puritan, a bizarre mixture of film noir and occult horror flick. Nick Moran plays Simon Puritan (the name suggests Simon 'The Saint' Templar), a sad alcoholic student of the paranormal who lives in Whitechapel in an early-18th-century house designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor where Aleister Crowley once raised the spirit of Satan. This sad hero believes in the existence of a fourth dimension and appears to be drifting through time and space as he encounters a femme fatale, a sinister capitalist (David Soul), Crowley and the devil himself. The movie might have been directed by someone called Midnight Charlatan or Goodnight Chameleon, but there are hints of real talent and style behind this addled piece.

Source: The Observer

Sounds promising! I wonder what happened to Revolt of the Magicians, though? The web site is half broken, and hasn't been updated in quite a while. I even tried writing Dominion Entertainment Group to ask what their plans are, but the email was returned because "there's no mailbox by that name". I'm guessing that this movie won't be happening. A shame, really.

Aleister Crowley

Spirituality in a handbag

2006-11-09T16:46:00.000-08:00

Some things are so silly that I simply cannot resist commenting.

Psychotherapeutic counselor Teresa Dane Marcel teaches women how to make handbags and understand their own feminine selves using exemples from Greek mythology.

“The Greek goddesses are fascinating, not as idols, but as aspects of ourselves. You can see characteristics of the goddesses in yourself and others. For instance, if you are a direct person, you may identify with Artemis, known for her ability to get straight to the point while remaining true to herself,” said Marcel.

"The myths and stories will inspire the group to ask what particular resources they always carry with them in their handbags," she continued.

Actually, Artemis is known for her ability to get straight to the point with her arrows, killing men who offend her - though using that fact as a source of inspiration when you decide what to carry in your handbag is probably not what Marcel has in mind.

Artemis and Actaeon

Hecate in skimpy costume?

2006-11-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

This is probably only moderately interesting to most of you, but I'm gathering information about depictions of Hekate (or Hecate) in popular culture and figured that I might as well post them here.

The Blue Room Theatre exposes the sexually perverted exploits of "Bluebeard," a deranged scientist on a mysterious island, in very graphic detail.

And I do mean graphic.

This melodrama by Charles Ludlam first appeared in a Manhattan bar in 1970. "Bluebeard" is based on H.G. Wells' "Island of Dr. Moreau" and an obscure fairy tale.

Read more...

At some point, Hecate pops up from down below and talks to Bluebeard. (The reviewers consistently refer to her as the "Goddess of Hell", but not having read the script I don't know if that's how she's described in the play.)

If anyone could point me to a picture from this production, or previous ones, I'd be eternally greatful for at least ten minutes.

Mahabharata becomes movie

2006-11-08T17:45:00.000-08:00

The Indian epic poem Mahabharata , regarded as one of the longest works in all of literature, is about to become one of the longest works in all of cinema. Veteran Bollywood producer-director Ravi Chopra has told Indian reporters that the film, reportedly budgeted at $28 million -- an extraordinary amount for an Indian production -- will run more than 6 hours. "It will be unjust to tell the most beautiful story of the world in three hours," he said. Chopra said that his plan is to screen the first three hours of the film on one week, then screen the final three hours a week later.

Source: contactmusic.com

The ouija pod

2006-11-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

Learn how to turn your iPod into a ouija board. Silly but fun. (My own iPod is broken. Perhaps it needs an exorcism?)

Golem, the musical

2006-11-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

You can learn unexpectedly useful things from reading your web site statistics. Last night I was looking through the logs, and discovered that someone in England had arrived here through searching Google for golem, musical and Prague. I did I similar search myself, and this is what I found.

The story of our musical takes place at the end of the 16th century in Prague. These were the days of the reign of Emperor Rudolf II who was known to like mysticism. In the Jewish quarter, the ghetto of Prague, lived Rabbi Leib, known as the Holy Maharal. The legend tells how the Rabbi succeeded to give life to a creature he formed from Vltava River mud by writing secret holy letters on the creature's forehead. This is the Golem. The Golem went out to fulfill special important missions that you will see throughout the play. And of course there is a love story, laughs and tears, and a lot of good music.

Unfortunately, I can't offer a better link than this.

Ramayana, the opera

2006-11-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

Thai composer Somtow Sucharitkul and Dutch director Hans Nieuwenhuis team up in an attempt to transform the epic tale of the 'Ramayana' into an opera.

Ayodhya, the latest creation of Bangkok Opera's founder and artistic director Somtow Sucharitkul, is the first opera to chronicle the entire Ramayana epic, from the abduction of Sita to her final reunion with Rama and their ascent to Mount Krilash.

Read more in the Bangkok Post or visit the Bangkok Opera web site.

Against the laws of reason

2006-11-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

Jason Pitzl-Waters writes that Donovan is making an album with pagan themes. Donovan is quoted as saying:

I'm kind of experimenting with an ancient pagan chant that I'm making up on the spot.

No comment necessary.

War Gods of Babylon & War Goddess

2006-11-05T16:46:00.000-08:00

Much of what I write about I get through Google Alerts, an indispensable tool that emails me every time a subject I'm interested in is mentioned in the news. I have been reading about Persian religion and mythology, and figured that I should add the name Zoroaster to my watch list. Had I not done that, I might have lived the rest of my life not knowing about these gems.

..after the queen is crowned, the Amazons go to meet a group of Greek soldiers for their annual mating. The king of the Greeks pretends to be a captain and has sex with the queen. Much to the queen's dismay, she quite enjoys having sex with a man...

Uh. I think I might give War Goddess a miss. War Gods of Babylon, on the other hand, sounds spectacularly awful in quite a different way, and may even be entertaining.

...a conflict exploited by the governor of conquered Babylon, Arbaces, who convinces Samos to make himself king of Babylon and rebel against the rule of Sardanapolos, with the support of his faithful friend Hammurabi. Betrayals ensue, climaxing in a special-effects extravaganza as the gods of Babylon wreak their vengeance upon Assyria...

Suddenly Troy and Alexander don't seem so bad anymore.

Life at Boleskine House

2006-11-03T14:13:00.000-08:00

"I arrived a total sceptic, to a degree I still am, but there are things at the house you can't explain. I'm aware that, compared with where I'm from in Surrey, there's more superstition in this part of the world. It all became a bit more real when I came here, but it never put me off.”

The Inverness Courier interviews Malcolm Dent, who lived at Boleskine for twenty years. Apparently, Aleister Crowley's old chair has a Will of its own.

Troy, the musical

2006-11-03T13:21:00.000-08:00

"The Trojan Musical is based on a lost Greek epic poem called the Little Iliad which was once part of the ‘epic cycle’ that told the story of the Trojan War. It covers events from the death of the great warrior Achilles, (in our play a reggae singing Rastafarian!) to the destruction of Troy by the Greeks and the escape of the Roman hero Aeneas (whose chances in our play are almost thwarted by the disappearance of the family hamster!)."

Read more here.

(Found through Glaukopidos.)

Jade Warrior

2006-11-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

"Do you love me?" asks Tommi Eronen on the big screen. Nothing new here – a Finnish man whining about his love again. But this time we are in ancient China, the actress is Zhang Jingchu, and the couple has just had a dance-like fantasy duel.

The film is called Jade Warrior. It is an ambitious combination of themes from the Finnish national Kalevala and Chinese mythology, and tells the story in the style of Wuxia – Chinese warrior films."

Read more in the Helsingin Sanomat or watch the Jade Warrior trailer.

(Actually, you should do both. And if you have seen the movie already, please leave a comment and let me know if you liked it.)

Sampo

The Gematriculator

2006-11-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

"The Gematriculator is a service that uses the infallible methods of Gematria developed by Mr. Ivan Panin to determine how good or evil a web site or a text passage is."

(Found through Technoccult.)

Cardiectomies all around

2006-11-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

"Oh man, it’s just awful what they did to one another, you know, chewing their fingers off, cutting your eyelids off and you lips, ripping your tongue out, hanging you up and stabbing you in the genitals, I mean, just horrific. Putting you up as a living target in the field like a firing range, firing arrows at you. At least we had our guys running when they were doing that. They used to just tie them up on boards and like, “hey, I think I can hit him right in the heart!” So they’d be doing target practice on real targets."

Mel Gibson talks about his new religious slasher flick, Apocalypto.

Ah Puch

You gotta know when to Golem

2006-11-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

Bart: Krusty, what's that monster?
Krusty: It's the Golem of Prague! Legendary defender of the Jewish people. Like Alan Dershwitz, but with a conscience. I kid, Alan, we're friends.

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XVII airs Sunday, Nov. 5th at 8 p.m. on FOX.

Thelemic torture? Bah.

2006-10-31T17:08:00.000-08:00

"But Alden's purpose is not merely sex: he is an adept of Aleister Crowley's early 20th-century occult faith of Thelema; and part of his research for a musical composition with which he hopes to attain enlightenment (and success on Radio 3) is based on recording Joan's physiological responses to sexual torture."

The book is Vocational Girl, the reviewers Kate Holden and Rowan Pelling. Pelling calls it "fearful tosh", which is probably the funniest expression I've heard in a long time. (Yes, I'm easily amused. And no, I don't plan to read it.)

Vocational Girl

Olympus on my mind

2006-10-31T15:29:00.000-08:00

Until I read this article about a community college production of Olympus on my Mind I had no idea that such a musical existed. You can read the synopsis here, or listen to some samples at Amazon. (Personally, I'm not impressed. It sounds very generic, somehow.)

Not just golems

2006-10-31T15:05:00.000-08:00

"So, if you are planning to attend someone else's Halloween party this year (should a Jew really be hosting his own?), a Jewish zombie is definitely an option; and its better then a run-of-the-mill zombie - they only groan, while you get to tell people off."

Rabbi Dennis shares some Jewish lore about the undead.

How many Greek gods can dance on the head of a pin?

2006-10-30T12:44:00.000-08:00

Visit micro sculptor Willard Wigan's site to find out. (Found through Neatorama.)

Argonautika

2006-10-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

"Mary Zimmerman brings us Argonautika. An older story and a stranger one than The Odyssey, Argonautika recounts the adventures of Jason and his crew aboard the Argo on a perilous mission to cross the forbidden ocean in their quest for the Golden Fleece. There is danger at every turn as they encounter sea-monsters and water nymphs, wicked and savage kings, a city of women and an army of warriors sprung from the earth. But no danger proves as great as the overwhelming love of a young sorceress named Medea. Join Jason and his crew aboard the Argo for the world's first sea voyage."

More at the Lookingglass Theatre Company web site.

Wiccan weight loss

2006-10-30T06:36:00.000-08:00

Of all the questions people have asked themselves, this has to be one of the strangest.

Can eating a wiccan diet actually help you lose weight?

The Mysteries Revisited

2006-10-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

It ought to be criminal, writing an article about a museum exhibition without including a single picture - especially when the exhibition in question is The Mysteries Revisited, inspired by the Villa dei Misteri outside Pompeii. (Okay, so I found a picture on the museum web site, but still. Criminal.)

Villa dei Misteri

Eos on wheels

2006-10-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

This is the new Volkswagen Eos, "named for the Greek goddess of the dawn who every morning rises of the eastern sea to bring daylight to the world". Well, yawn?

Eos

Mythos

2006-10-28T14:36:00.000-07:00

"Registration is now open for Age 6 of Mythos, the free online RPG/Strategy game based around Greek Mythology. Age 6 will actually start on Tuesday, October 31, 2006.

As always, several improvements have been made to the game for Age 6, such as the severe altering of the Plunder attack type to help out small cities, and the addition and change of several skills."

Visit www.MythicWars.com to join the world of Mythos!

Source: Multiplayer Online Games Directory

I'm sort of tempted to sign up, but knowing myself I'd become completely absorbed and cease having a life for the duration of the game. Must resist...

The Dark is Rising

2006-10-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

"David Cunningham (The Path to 9/11) has been tapped to direct The Dark Is Rising, a fantasy film based on Susan Cooper's book series, Variety reported. The film is being produced under the co-financing alliance between Walden Media (The Chronicles of Narnia) and 20th Century Fox reached in August.

The Dark Is Rising is part of Cooper's five-book series, focusing on a youth who discovers at age 11 that he's a Sign Seeker, the last of a group of immortals dedicated to fighting a growing presence of dark forces.

Cunningham has already headed to Romania, where he'll prep the film for an early 2007 start and a Sept. 28, 2007, release, the trade paper reported."

Source: SCI FI Wire

The divine Pez dispenser

2006-10-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

From Trying Neaira, page 106:

"The herm was a common form of statuary in Greece. With one obvious difference, it looked like a large Pez dispenser: a stone pillar topped by a bust, usually of the god Hermes, and sporting an erect phallus."

Debra Hamel explains what Greek statuary really looked like.

Herms

Geomythology?

2006-10-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

The Delphic oracle, whose possible methods of intoxication have been much debated recently, isn't alone in catching the attention of scientists. Next year the Geological Society of London will publish a set of peer reviewed papers discussing the geological reality behind some myths and legends. Steve Connor reports about the reality behind the folklore.

The Fall of Troy

2006-10-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

An archeologist arrives at Hissarlik, convinced that he has found the mythical Troy of the Iliad. He's determined to prove that the Trojan war was a historical reality, and he won't let anyone or anything get in his way.

Sound familiar? Heinrich Obermann, the protagonist of Peter Ackroyd's The Fall of Troy, is, of course, based on German amateur archeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Add some drama (hardly necessary!) and supernatural elements to the original story, and you have the reason I fear my book budget for November will be spent before October has ended.

Kabbalah for the masses?

2006-10-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

A historic forum will take place in San Diego, December 18-19, 2006, entitled "Kabbalah for the Masses? The Promise and Problems in Mainstreaming Jewish Mysticism." Tiferet Institute, dedicated to excellence in the study and teaching of Kabbalah, will convene eminent scholars and rabbis to deliberate on the popularization of Kabbalah and its impact on the future of Judaism, Christianity and the emerging globalization of spiritual culture.

Read the rest at PR Web.

They must have heard the recent news about Geri Halliwell's interest in Kabbalah, and decided that enough is enough.

The Zohar

Science as Icarus

2006-10-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

"Pope Benedict told scientists on Saturday that by believing only in "artificial intelligence" and technology they risked the fate of the mythical Icarus, whose home-made wings melted when he flew too close to the sun. "Letting yourself be seduced by discovery without paying attention to the criteria of a deeper vision could lead to the drama the myth speaks of," he told the Pontifical Lateranense University at the inauguration of a new academic year."

Story at Yahoo.

The Monastery

2006-10-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

In TLC's new reality show five men of varied backgrounds go off to live at a Benedictine monastery for forty days and forty nights. Producer Sarah Woodfort says that "The point has not been to create traps for hapless people to fall into. We're interested in exploring how people like us can live a good and purposeful life and what the 1,500-year-old monastic tradition can teach modern people."

I guess that means they're not excommunicating a participant at the end of each week.

Visit the Monastery.

Saint Benedict

Happy Satanic Halloween!

2006-10-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

"Devil worshippers who will gather in Brisbane for Halloween have promised to hold a series of "shock rituals", outraging church leaders and prompting police to step up patrols of cemeteries.

The Church of Satan has sent emails to members nationwide, urging them to attend a gathering at a secret "grotto" in the city on October 31. Details of the meeting emerged after a goat was beheaded on Friday the 13th this month at a church in Bellbowrie in western Brisbane."

Read more at Sunday Mail.

Two thoughts.

Firstly, the founder of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey, condemned the killing or harming of animals for ritual or magical purposes. He's been dead for nine years, but the church has not changed that policy, nor is it likely to.

Secondly, wouldn't Halloween be the worst night of the year for trying to shock people?

Pagan birds of the Summer Isles

2006-10-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

"An artist has created several new species of unsual birds after holidaying in the area which inspired the occult thriller The Wicker Man. Mr Summerton said: The history and mythologies surrounding the Summer Isles and its relation to the Wicker Man somehow leaked into the images I had worked with, hatching some strange breed of pagan birdlife."

See some of Edward Summerton's birds at BBC News.

Occult fashion report

2006-10-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

This winter's hottest accessory? The occult tome. (You don't actually have to read the book, just make sure you're seen holding it.)

"Pink is dressed in a straight black wig and plays a goth/vampire character who reads the mysteriously titled book A Suggestive Inquiry Into Hermetic Mystery, Mary A. Atwood's 1850 volume on the occult speculated that the goal of the dark arts is to reach spiritual perfection."

Read the rest of the story at VH1.

More mythological names

2006-10-20T07:51:00.001-07:00

"It’s no secret that Google has long replaced Open Source as Enemy Number 1 within Microsoft’s Redmond HQ and beyond. In their quest to thwart Google, and given their appetite for mythological names, maybe Messrs Gates and co should consider Nemesis - the Goddess of Retribution and Vengeance – as its new name for the long-awaited Microsoft adCenter. That’s if they ever get round to a full launch."

Linus Gregoriadis offers some (mostly) helpful advice in What digital giants can learn from Greek mythology.

What's in a name?

2006-10-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

There exists a dominatrix called Hera. This fact boggles my mind. Why a domme would name herself after the Greek goddess of marriage is beyond me. I mean, what does she do? Flog single men until they vow to marry? Whip married men until they promise to be faithful to their wives?

I understand the allure of using names from mythology, but the effect is completely ruined when you don't bother to read the myths and learn about their significance. Would you fly with Icarus Airlines? Yes, they really did exist.

On the other hand, sometimes a carefully selected name gives away too much of the game. I'm hardly the only one who watched the first season of HBO's Rome wondering what dreadful fate would befall the lovely Niobe. (No idea what I'm referring to? Read this Mythography entry that explains it all.)

Niobe

Gorgeous gorgons?

2006-10-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

I was surfing Amazon. Because I have purchased a number of books about Greek religion from them, all sorts of related products show up whenever I visit the site. Related, in some vague, barely comprehensible sense of the word. Example? Women who read Homer are expected to want to wear a Medusa costume for Halloween. If I had Medusa's power of turning people into stone I'd start with the guy who wrote the algorithm behind these inane recommendations.

Folding Medusa

2006-10-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

Origamiwolf's Medusa might be the most impressive origami creation I have ever seen.

Medusa

Starstruck

2006-10-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

This is probably only moderately interesting if you don't live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, but it made me happy so I'm posting it anyway. The University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh Science Outreach will present a show called “Monsters of the Sky” at the Buckstaff Planetarium Oct. 20, with shows at 7 and 8 p.m, telling the myths behind the constellations. More information is available at the Advance Titan.

So why did this make me happy? My introduction to Greek mythology was a children's show that told the myths of how Orion, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and various monsters and animals ended up in the sky. Twenty-four years later I'm still hooked.

Orion, courtesy of the U.S.
Naval Observatory Library

I don't watch CSI:NY...

2006-10-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

...but that might change. Being geographically challenged I'll have to wait a while for Hung out to dry, the episode shown the other day, but I hear Greek mythology played an important part, in the form of t-shirts with divine motifs and encoded messages.

The tees are made by edoc laundry, a clothing company that's part of the alternate reality gaming scene. From their web site:

"Woven into everything we make are hidden messages and codes most people can’t see. Edoc clothes break across the traditional categories of street, skate/surf, and classic by creating a new category that spans our entire line: Covert. Every piece of gear is a trapdoor into a hidden world. Check it out. We’ve got nothing to hide."

It does sound fairly entertaining, the t-shirts don't look bad at all, and solving a puzzle would give me something to do while I wait for Hung out to dry to reach this side of the pond and hopefully provide me with some snark material. The deities and monsters involved are Hades, Hypnos, Argus, and the hydra, meaning, of course, that the foobar potential is infinite.

The original hydra

Return of the Roman

2006-10-18T06:13:00.000-07:00

"Why are so many novelists in the modern age drawn to write about the ancient world, especially Rome but also, to a lesser extent, Greece? The line of those who have done so goes back at least to Edward Bulwer-Lytton and The Last Days of Pompeii, written at a time—the 1830s—when classical studies were central to education throughout western Europe. Some such genre novels are actually very "literary"—Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean, for example. But most, whatever their literary quality, aim to be popular, which is to say that they have a strong narrative, striking characters and richly dramatic scenes."

Allan Massie writes about historical fiction in the November issue of Prospect Magazine.

Julius Caesar

Ramayana

2006-10-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

Dadasaheb Phalke’s debut film Raja Harishchandra set the trend for mythological films in Bollywood. It was in 1913. In circa 2006, mythological and theological characters, particularly Gods and deities, are back in vogue. The similarities: stories are from religious texts and folklore, the difference: the budget and, of course, star cast.

In 2007, Rajkumar Santoshi will begin work on his magnum opus — Ramayana. With a budget of Rs 100 crore, he has roped in one of Bollywood’s most popular couple, Ajay Devgan and Kajol to play the part of Lord Rama and Sita.

Read more at Hindustan Times.

Ravana, king of Lanka

An offering to Psamathe

2006-09-30T02:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen a Trojan horse made out of sand?

The theme of this year's International Sand Sculpture Festival, FIESA 2006, was Mitologias - mythologies. Pop over to the galeria and prepare to be properly awed.

Trojan horse, standard edition

Professor sacrifices pineapple

2006-09-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

As they watched the sacrifice take place, the crowd of students chanted in Latin. "Volvere aestus volvere!" they said. Or, in English, "Roll, Tide, roll!"

The football season is about to begin, and Classics 222 is busy ensuring a victory for the Crimson Tide against Hawaii.

Before them is their leader and teacher: "Kirkules." The sacrifice for this weekend is a symbol of their enemies: a pineapple.

Read the article at The Crimson White.

Food for the Gods