According to the Biblical narrative, Cain moved to the land of Nod, and settled there, and had a son with his wife. Before this mention of his wife, Eve was the only woman the Bible mentions.

Where did Cain’s wife come from? Who was she? Were there more people other than Adam and Eve created by God? Did God create other women? Or did Cain commit incest with a sister, which the Bible forbids? These are questions deserving of answers, so let’s work through them.

Did God Create Other People Besides Adam and Eve?

One possible answer to the Cain’s wife dilemma is that God created other people besides Adam and Eve. If so, Cain could have married one of these people; the myth of Lilith may support this possibility.

Jewish folklore surrounding Lilith is not well known among Christians. According to lore, Eve was not the first woman—Lillith was. Unlike Eve, God created Lilith “of dust from the ground” (Gen 2:7), just like Adam. The story goes that Lilith was unwilling to submit to Adam for she was created just like him and regarded herself as on equal footing with him. She left Eden and had relations with the archangel Samael and refused to return to Eden.

This story is a much later development in Jewish culture, and scholars have recognized possible links between it and other Near Eastern traditions that relate to spirits and demons. The account of Lilith and her escapades feature in works from late antiquity, such as the Babylonian Talmud and the Zohar, which refers to Lilith as “a hot fiery female who first cohabited with man.”

In the Bible, however, the term lilit (lilith) is a hapax legomenon, which means the term appears only once in the whole book and no other references cast light on its use and meaning of the word. In Isaiah 34, which deals with the fate of Edom, the word lilit has been translated as “screech owl” (KJV), “night bird” (ESV), “night-monster” (ASV), “night-spirit” (BBE), and “night creature” (WEB), in various Bible translations. None of these are positive reflections on the nature of the being. There is no basis for the Lilith-myth in the Bible narrative itself.

So, why mention Lilith in search of Cain’s wife? Well, it shows as some have suggested that God created more people than just Adam and Eve. So, is it possible that God created other women and that one of them became Cain’s wife?

Biblically speaking, no. The Bible emphatically states: “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” The Hebrew word Eve means “lifegiver.” So, if all human life after the creation of Adam and Eve comes from Eve, no other woman could have been created and given Cain a son.

Furthermore, the genealogies in the Bible trace the beginning of humanity to Adam, never to some other person (see Genesis 4, Genesis 5). Enoch, the seventh in a line from Adam through Cain, was the first person to take more than one wife, so we know that Adam never had another wife. It is safe to conclude that God did not create any other women, so she was the mother of all human descendants.

Did Cain Commit Incest?

If Eve is the mother of all human descendants, that would imply that Cain had to marry a sister or a niece. But that would mean Cain committed incest, would it not? Was marrying sisters or nieces even allowed? If so, why were these other people not mentioned? Let us consider these issues.

There are references to patriarchs who married their sisters before the exodus from Egypt. Abraham, for instance, tells his wife Sarai to tell Pharaoh that she is his sister, which is not a lie, but he omits that she is his wife too (Genesis 12:11-13). Abraham later describes his relationship with his wife, saying: “she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife” (Genesis 20:12). So, Abraham and his wife were half-siblings.

The union between Abraham and Sarah carried God’s blessing, for He said: “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her” (Genesis 17:15-16).

Abraham’s son Isaac also married a close relation of his, Rebekah, on God’s direction (Genesis 24) and later he even claimed that she was his sister (Genesis 26).  The idea of a marriage between brother and sister, or close relations such as nephews and nieces being incestuous or taboo, came many years after Isaac’s time.

A marriage between siblings, half-siblings, or nephews and nieces, like the ones discussed thus far, was expressly forbidden in Leviticus 18:9 after the exodus of Israel from Egypt. The new law indicates a significant change from earlier times. Leviticus 18 details which relations were too close for intercourse, and by implication, marriage. God cursed those relations in Deuteronomy 27:22, and the nation of Israel had to expel people who engaged in incest, according to Leviticus 20:17.

God gave these laws to Israel while many of the nations that surrounded them continued with the practice. In fact, marriages we consider incestuous today were common among many nations for thousands of years after Israel received these Levitical laws. The Egyptians present a notable example. Cleopatra married a brother twice, though it is unclear whether these were merely ceremonial marriages to resemble Isis and Osiris. Many of the gods in ancient pantheons married their siblings, which seems to have set the example for their worshippers.

The Motivation For a Law Against Incest

It is a scientific fact that the problem with siblings marrying and procreating is one of genetics. When close relatives have children together, some genes are identical and are likely to cause defects in the offspring, such as blindness, physical abnormalities, mental deficiencies, and a compromised immune system, among many other effects.

So, how does Christianity deal with the problem of full siblings procreating? In general, two approaches prevail. First, many Theologians believe that Genesis 1-11 is a myth. None of the content therefore needs to make scientific sense or needs to conform to scientific principles. This applies to the creation narrative, the ages of men detailed in the genealogies, the worldwide flood, and the idea of procreation between siblings.

The second is a creationist approach. Creationists believe Genesis 1-11 relates historical events. They do not base their argument about procreation between siblings on science, but rather on a creationist viewpoint. From creation to the fall, the world was free from any defect, and no disease or death existed. Adam and Eve had no genetic defects that carried over to their children. It would, therefore, not be a problem for their sons and daughters to marry. Furthermore, Adam and Eve’s children would have had no choice but to marry their siblings.

The creationist argument continues that, as genes deteriorated, genetic defects developed over time. According to this narrative, as soon as genetics became a problem, God intervened and forbade such relations. After all, with many generations, there was a larger gene pool and many more options, so marrying siblings or kin was no longer the only option.

According to Genesis 5:4, Adam lived for 800 years after he had his third son, Seth, and had many more sons and daughters. Cain would, therefore, have had several sisters and likely many nieces to choose from. The lists detailing genealogy in Genesis 4 and 5 seldom mention women, and it is likely that Adam and Eve had daughters even before Seth was born. In the Bible narrative, Cain could have married a sister or close relation, like a niece, without genetics presenting a problem. The Bible, however, does not specify whether he took a sister or a niece as his wife.

The Bible also does not detail how much time passed between Cain’s leaving his original home to live in Nod and having a child with his wife. Considering that at least one, and likely several decades, passed between Genesis 4:1-2 and verse 3, several decades could have passed between Cain’s moving to Nod and starting a family. It would not be impossible that Cain did not marry one of his sisters but a niece instead. The Bible does not provide enough information to make a definitive determination. The only logical conclusion would be that whether or not it was a sister or a niece, Cain married his kin.

It is imperative to recognize that the Bible presents a narrative unencumbered by contemporary science. It is not written to be read from a scientific perspective. It is a book of faith, not a scientific handbook. The supernatural and miraculous are taken in stride and where conflicts between science and the Biblical narrative are identified, it is explained from a position of faith, not science. The conflict between faith and science has been ongoing for many centuries and is not likely to be solved any time soon.

Conclusion: The Fate of Cain

Sticking to the Biblical narrative, it is impossible that Cain married a woman who was not a descendant of his mother, Eve. As such, he must have married a sister or a niece. At that time, marrying a relative was the only option because everybody was somehow related. It does not pose a challenge for Creationists, however, who believe that the genes of earlier generations were pure. Later, when genes became a problem, God set a law for Israel that prohibited marriage among kin, and the idea of incestuous relations came into being. It did not exist in Cain’s day.

The Lilith myth is a late development in Jewish culture and does not present a true reflection of the Biblical narrative. As a hapax legomenon there is no grounds for reading the Lilith myth into the Biblical text. Scholars have traced it to related terms in ancient Near Eastern tradition that refer to spirits and demons.

Many Christians strongly object to believers getting tattoos. They believe the Bible forbids it and reference Leviticus 19:28 to support their view. On the other hand, some believers point to the very same verse to justify their support for getting tattoos. So, how is it possible that both groups use the same verse to support their perspective when their views are mutually exclusive? Let’s investigate.

The Use of Tattoos Around the Globe

The practice of tattooing has been known to many cultures across the globe for thousands of years. Tattooed mummies have been found in North and South America where the practice was prevalent among native tribes. The long tradition of tattooing can be traced from Siberia, through Mongolia to Western China, and as far East as Japan. It is also practiced among many Island nations as well as many African tribes.

Among the Greeks and the Romans, it was traditional to tattoo criminals, prisoners of war, and slaves. In many instances, such as in Egypt and Syria, tattoos were part of the faith practice of these cultures. It was primarily Egyptian women who had tattoos, with Amunet, a mummified priestess of Hathor, being a prime example. The author of the book of Leviticus was writing in the time of the Exodus from Egypt, and we should read the reference it makes to tattoos in that context.

Leviticus 19:28 (ESV) says: “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.” The word translated as “tattoos” in the Bible is actually two Hebrew words: nâthan kethôbeth, which means “print” and “mark” respectively. The word tattoo only entered the English language to represent the practice of printing a mark on the skin in the 1700s.

Those in favor of tattoos argue that this verse speaks to tattoos that somehow commemorate the dead, perhaps as a way of mourning. They claim that because they do not tattoo for that purpose, the verse does not apply to them.

Firstly, there is no evidence of the practice of commemorating or mourning the dead by tattooing in ancient Egyptian culture, or any other Near Eastern culture for that matter. Secondly, several verses in Exodus and Leviticus deal with two different, unrelated issues in one verse (see verse 26 as an example). It is an assumption to claim that this verse speaks of tattooing in direct relation to the dead.

Ancient language scholar John Huehnergard and ancient-Israel expert Harold Liebowitz both argue that Leviticus 19:28 deals with two distinct issues: a) cutting your body for the dead and b) tattooing. The cutting of the flesh in this verse has a direct bearing on the dead in this verse. There is evidence of ritualistic scarification in Near Eastern religions (1 Kings 18:28) which may or may not have occurred in the context of mourning. There is no evidence to support ritualistic tattooing to mourn or commemorate the dead in Ancient Near Eastern cultures.

Is This Evidence of an Injunction Against Tattoos in the Bible?

No. The principle of tota scriptura, or plenary inspiration, asks us to consider the totality of what the scripture has to say about a subject before reaching a conclusion on what the Bible teaches about any subject. The word “tattoo” appears only once in the ESV and the alternative phrase “print any marks” appears only once in the KJV. Though the exact word or phrase does not appear again, several references to writing on the body appear in both the Old and New Testaments. We must consider all these references to remain true to the tota scriptura principle.

Does Revelation Address Tattoos?

In Revelation 14:1 we read about a group of “144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.” This group was faithful through great times of tribulation and was redeemed from the earth, and now appears before the throne of God. They are undoubtedly saints.

Revelation 17:5 also references a woman who had the words “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations” written on her forehead. She rides a scarlet beast and is associated with the Antichrist. There can be little doubt that she represents the epitome of evil among mankind.

In Revelation 19:16 Christ is seen with the name “King of kings and Lord of lords” written on his thigh. This scene depicts him as the leader of the heavenly host of angels on their way to destroy their enemies: the beast, the false prophet, and their minions.

None of the references from Revelation expressly stated that the writing was permanent or a tattoo, though writing on the body is in view. The marks are also not exclusive to the saintly, the satanic, or the Savior. So, how do these references contribute to our search for insight?

Due to the nature of the book of Revelation, which is highly symbolic, it would be irresponsible to interpret these references to writing on various body parts as literal writing, whether it refers to tattoos or not. It is better to understand it in the same sense as verses like Jeremiah 17:1, Proverbs 3:3, and Proverbs 3:7 that reference writing on the heart. It serves as a metaphor and does not reflect actual writing. It can, therefore, not cast light on our endeavor.

Insight from Isaiah

Isaiah 44:5 says: “This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.” The phrase “write on” is a translation of the Hebrew word kâthab, which is rendered as epigraphō in Greek, meaning “to write in.” The King James Version incorrectly translates this verse as “and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD.” The original language states that the writing is on/in the hand, not with the hand.

What is significant about this verse is that it presents the writing on/in the hand as a positive action, showing that the person belongs to the Lord. It is a similar practice to that of the Egyptians inscribing the names of their gods on slaves to denote ownership. In this instance, it is not done by force but rather as a self-expression of submission to God.

A couple of things should be noted here. First, Isaiah 44:5 should not be construed as an instruction or obligation to get tattoos, just like Leviticus 19:28 should not be considered an outright ban. On the contrary, Isaiah 44:5 presents the different ways in which people express their faith with one choosing a different method to the next. In essence, it reflects the “each to his own” principle. Thirdly, this verse shows that there is no taboo on tattoos in the Bible. A tattoo could even serve as a conversation piece that invites discussion and provides the opportunity to act as witnesses of the faith. It could even serve as a witness in and of itself.

Reconciling Leviticus 19:28 with Isaiah 44:5

So, how do we reconcile Leviticus 19:28 with Isaiah 44:5?

The context of Leviticus 19 is Hebrew release from slavery in Egypt, where tattooing was part and parcel of the religious practice of their Egyptian masters and a symbol of their slavery. Egyptians often had the names of their gods or of Pharaoh, who was considered a god, tattooed on the bodies of their slaves. It was a sign of ownership by the master and the gods. In that context, it would make sense to ban tattoos in the Bible because it was a symbol of servitude and because of the dedication to pagan deities.

From time to time, verses such as 1 Peter 3:3–4 that address outward adornment, or 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19–20, which speaks to the body being a temple of the Holy Spirit, are employed to argue against tattoos as well. Applying biblical principles should be done consistently. Why would tattoos be considered an outward adornment but make-up, fashionable clothing, wearing jewelry, styling hair, or getting piercings not be?

Tattoos in the Bible: In Conclusion

It would be understandable if Christians objected to a tattoo that is offensive to, or violates, Christian teachings or principles, but claims that there is evidence of a ban on tattoos in the Bible cannot be sustained after evaluating the evidence. The source of the animus against tattoos should be considered a prejudice that leads to judgment. Here, again, tota scriptura should be employed. Matthew 7:1-2 comes to mind: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”

A treasure trove of more than 900 artefacts have been discovered within a pair of ancient shipwrecks 5,000 feet under the South China Sea, which date back to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The discovery was announced by the Chinese National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) last week. This project was carried out by a team from the National Center for Archaeology, the Chinese Academy of Science, and a museum in Hainan. Guan Qiang, deputy head of the NCHA says, “The discovery provides evidence that Chinese ancestors developed, utilized and traveled to and from the South China Sea, with the two shipwrecks serving as important witnesses to trade and cultural exchanges along the ancient Maritime Silk Road.”

The Excavation

The ships were found a mile deep in water on the northwest slope of the ocean, separated from one another by around 10 nautical miles. Archaeologists carried out the excavation of the two ships over the course of a year, using a series of submersibles including one known as ‘Deep Sea Warrior’, which features a robotic claw for gathering items from the ocean floor. Around 890 objects were gathered from the first vessel, including coins, pottery, and porcelain, while 38 further items from the second ship included logs, shells and deer antlers, and even more items gathered from the surrounding area. The team also made detailed documentation of the site using underwater cameras and a 3D laser scanner.

Historical Importance: The Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty was a fruitful period of expansion in Chinese history, spanning from the 14th to the 17th century. During this time the population of China doubled, while the country established important trade deals and cultural relationships with the wider world. China also developed its own distinctive and desirable exports as the arts and culture flourished, including distinctive Ming China and silk, which are highly sought after and valuable today.

Archaeologists have suggested the two ships date from different periods during the Ming dynasty, and each was transporting their own goods within China before they sank. Researchers believe the ship containing porcelain dates from roughly the Zhengde period (1505-1521), and was travelling from Jingdezhen in China, while the ship containing logs may date further back, to the time of Emperior Hongzhi (1487-1505).

Political Significance

There are six different countries with claims to parts of the South China Sea where the two shipwrecks were found – China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia. Millions of dollars worth of trade make their way through this stretch of ocean today, and vast reserves of oil lie below the sea, making it one of the most sought after parts of the world. However, this recent discovery of Ming artefacts reinforces China’s historical and territorial hold over the area.

If you have read stories from Norse mythology, then you have probably heard of the battles between the gods and the giants and will be familiar with at least one giant, the trickster Loki. But if you go back and read the original stories, you will not encounter the word giant. Instead, you will meet the Jotun.

While the word giant is commonly used in modern retellings of these old stories, it is problematic since the jotun were rarely large in stature. Rather, they seem to be a group of supernatural beings very similar to the gods themselves. So similar, that there are many examples of gods and jotun mating. While the jotun are described as the ancient enemies of the gods, they seem very friendly in most of the surviving stories about them.

Creation of the Jotun

The jotun are some of the oldest beings in the Norse cosmos, even older than the gods themselves. According to the Norse creation myth, at the beginning of time, there was a giant void called the Ginnungagap in which nothing existed. But at the far reaches of the void, at the very top, was a source of heat and fire known as Muspell. At the very bottom of the void was a source of ice and mist.

Over a great period, the heat and mist seeped into the Ginnungagap and mixed to create a primordial goop. It was from this goop that life emerged. The first two creatures were a primordial cow called Audumbla and the very first jotun, Ymir.

The Jotun sustained himself by drinking Audumbla’s milk, while she sustained herself by licking at salt rocks that also emerged from the primordial goop. After three days of feeding, she licked the first of the gods, Buri, from this salt rock.

Both Ymir and Buri went on to procreate and they were the progenitors of all the jotun and the gods. Ymir is described as giving birth asexually, with many jotun jumping from his skin as he sweats. While most are “humanoid,” described as men and women, Ymir also gave birth to some monstrous-looking jotun, including a six-headed being that sprung forth from one of his legs.

Meanwhile, both Buri and Ymir’s jotun offspring seem to have given birth “the old-fashioned way.” While we do not know exactly how Buri had his son, Bor, we do know that his son mated with the jotun Bestla and had three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve.

This part of the Norse creation myth provides a few pieces of important information. First, the jotun came into existence before the gods. Second, that the jotun and the gods aren’t that different since they were able to have children together. But they are not the same. In the Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda, Odin, in the guise of High, assures King Gylfi that Ymir is no god, but a monstrous jotun like all his offspring. Nevertheless, Odin and his brothers are never described or considered “half jotun,” they are always simply gods.

Destruction of Ymir

While the gods and lesser jotun were mating and procreating, more jotun continued to spring forth from Ymir. This meant that the jotun quickly outnumbered the gods. While the creation myth does not list any crimes or problems caused by the jotun, we are perhaps meant to infer from their very nature that they were causing chaos in the universe. Whatever their justification, Odin and his brothers decided to kill Ymir.

When they killed the primordial jotun, they decided to use his immense body to shape the world. This is one of the few references to the jotun as “giant” in stature, and Ymir does seem to be a special case.

They took Ymir’s body to the middle of the Ginnungagap and used it to fashion the earth and used his gushing blood to create the lakes and seas. His bones and teeth became rocks and stones. They took his skull and hung it over their new earth to create the sky.

This new earth seems to have encompassed two of the nine worlds of the Norse cosmos. The earth they created was a circular disk, and they gave the outskirts of the land to the jotun. It became their homeland, Jotunheim. They then used Ymir’s eyelashes to separate Jotunheim from the inner land, which they called Midgard. The gods also created mankind to populate it.

It was probably at this time that the gods separated some of the other worlds. They decided to build their home world of Asgard separate from their new creation but they also built the Rainbow Bifrost Bridge to give them access to Midgard.

At this time, they also seem to have closed off the Muspell, creating a world called Muspelheim. Some jotun, led by a fire jotun called Surtr, were also trapped in this world when it was closed off. They are called fire jotun to distinguish them from the other jotun, who are sometimes called frost jotun in popular culture, although this term is not common in the surviving myths.

The gods may have done something similar with the world of cold and mist and created Niflheim. While the gods could travel to Niflheim, as we know that Odin often visited Mimir there at the Well of Wisdom, the underworld of Helheim was also placed there. Crossing into the realm of the dead was challenging and treacherous. How the other worlds of the Norse cosmos were created is unclear. What is clear is that the Vikings believed they lived in a world fashioned from the corpse of a jotun.

The Realm of Jotunheim

According to descriptions in the surviving sources, Jotunheim is a grim and harsh realm with dark forests and barren mountains. There is no fertile land to cultivate, so the jotun rely on hunting and fishing.

Jotunheim is also sometimes called Utgard, which means “world beyond the fence.” While this must refer to the fence that Odin created, it is also a general term for communities that exist beyond the boundaries of established civilization. This is another way in which Jotunheim is different from Midgard and Asgard, which are “gards” specifically within the law and protection of the gods.

This aligns with how Jotunheim is described in the story of Thor visiting the hall of Utgard-Loki recorded by Snorri Sturluson. From his arrival, until he leaves, everything seems impossible. There are jotun with skulls that cannot be crushed, cats that are too heavy to be lifted, and bottomless drinking flasks. In the end, everything turns out to be an illusion. But it seems that this story was meant to be a fairytale, rather than a faithful description of the realm.

Other stories describe Jotunheim as much more like the realm of men, with strong leaders ruling from great halls. Asgard is also described in the same way, with each of the gods having a great hall. This suggests that all worlds were considered a reflection of the human world.

For example, when the jotun Thrym steals Thor’s hammer, he will only return it in exchange for the hand of Freyja in marriage. While she refuses, Thor dresses up as Freyja and goes undercover as the bride to get his hammer back. He attends a great feast, where there is to be a traditional wedding ceremony, which is disrupted when Thor snatches his hammer and kills all the jotun.

The jotun also seem similar to the gods in terms of their stature, strength, and what they are capable of. They are usually described as “humanoid,” like men and the gods, but not always. We know that Ymir gave birth to at least one six-headed beast, and this was not the only monstrous jotun. The jotun witch Angrboda is described as living in the Ironwood and running with wolf packs. She can become a wolf herself and many of her children are wolves. Moreover, she had three children with the jotun Loki. She had a great wolf called Fenrir, a giant serpent called Jormungandr, and a half-living and half-dead daughter called Hel. While not typical, these offspring were also jotun.

Enemies of the Gods

The jotun are generally described as the ancient enemies of the gods. Thor, as the strongest of the gods, is charged with protecting both Asgard and Midgard from the jotun, which he does with his hammer Mjolnir. But in most surviving stories, the jotun and the gods seem cozy.

Take the jotun Loki. He is allowed to live in Asgard among the gods because of a pact between himself and Odin. He is treated as one of the gods, attending their meetings and giving advice. For example, he helps the gods trick a builder into building the fortifications of Asgard for no pay. In the end they discover that the builder is a jotun and kill him for that reason alone. Nevertheless, Loki could take a goddess for a wife, Sigyn.

Loki makes some trouble, but it is usually just pranks, such as when he removed the hair of Thor’s wife Sif. This resulted in Loki having to procure something to replace it, which also saw him procure other treasures such as Thor’s hammer. Loki sometimes gets in more serious trouble, such as when he helped the jotun Thjazi kidnap the goddess Idun. But again, he also helped the gods solve the problem later.

Loki only fell out with the gods when he plotted and caused the death of Balder, the son of Odin and Sif. After this, the gods no longer accepted him, leading to the famous Lokasenna dinner story in which Loki insults most of the gods and reveals some cryptic secrets about each. In the end, they decided to imprison him. They shackled him to a stone and hung a venomous snake over him to drip poison onto his body.

But Loki is not the only jotun who gets pretty cozy with the gods. Many gods mate with Jotun women. Odin had Thor with the jotun Jord, Thor had his two sons with the jotun Jarnsaxa, and Freyr married the jotun Gerd, to name just a few.

Other jotun were also welcome in Asgard. The jotun Skadi showed up in Asgard seeking justice after the gods killed her father Thjazi. They offered to pay her for the death, and this payment included letting her marry one of the gods. The catch was that she had to choose her husband by looking only at their feet.

While Skadi wanted to marry the beautiful god Balder, she instead chose the sea god Njord. The marriage didn’t last long as the two were just too different, but Skadi continued to be accepted in Asgard. She even became one of Odin’s lovers. Plus, in the story of the punishment of Loki, it is Skadi who procures the serpent and hangs it over Loki’s head.

In return, the gods also seem to have been welcome on most of their trips to Jotunheim. In another story, Thor goes to visit the jotun Hymir, who is described as the father of the god Tyr. He is there to borrow a cauldron to brew enough mead for a big party that the gods are planning in the hall of Aegir, another jotun.

While Thor annoys his host by eating everything in sight and trying to catch the great serpent Jormungandr on his fishing line, he is treated as a welcome guest. This atmosphere of mutual acceptance characterizes most stories of interactions between the gods and jotun.

The Jotun at Ragnarök

Despite these cordial relations, Ragnarök, the Norse apocalypse, is described as a battle until mutual destruction between the gods and the jotun. So, what happens? The specific cause we are given in the sources is the falling out between the gods and Loki. Even before the death of Balder, things may have been strained. When the gods learned about the children of Loki and Angrboda, they deemed them too dangerous to run free and decided to deal with them, much as they had previously with Ymir.

Rather than kill the children, they placed each somewhere they could do the least harm. They chained up Fenrir, threw Jormungandr into the waters surrounding Midgard, and sent Hel to be the mistress of the underworld. While it is not stated in the surviving sources, Loki’s determination to kill Balder may have been motivated by the treatment of his own children.

The death of Balder is then the final straw, with the gods fully turning on Loki. This drives a wedge between the gods and at least one jotun family. When Ragnarök comes, it is then no surprise that it is Loki and his children who are leading the charge.

The other main Jotun player in Ragnarök is the fire jotun, Surtr, who seems to have been imprisoned with others of his kind in Muspelheim since the creation of Midgard. Ragnarök also allows him to break out of his prison and seek revenge.

In the end, Odin is killed by Fenrir, who is in turn killed by Odin’s son Vidarr. Thor kills Jormungandr but dies shortly after from the snake’s venom. Loki and Heimdall kill one another. Freyr and Surtr kill one another. The battle causes so much destruction that the realms created by Odin and his brothers following their murder of Ymir are destroyed.

Carl Gustav Jung was a psychiatrist and psychologist from Switzerland who founded the school of analytic psychology. Although Jung started his journey by building on Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis, he found his own intellectual path in the course of his unique and enigmatic exploration of the human psyche.

Childhood

Carl Gustav Jung was born in 1875 in Kesswil, Switzerland. His father, Johann Jung, was a clergyman at the Swiss Reformed Church, and his mother, Emilie Preiswek, came from a rigid religious background. Jung had an unhappy childhood. His siblings died at a young age, and his mother suffered from severe mental illness. Jung grew up in loneliness and isolation. He played alone without wanting to be disturbed. He referred to the influence that his parents had on him during childhood as “the handicap I started with” (Jung, 1963). Although depressing in nature, Jung’s upbringing is what planted in him the seeds of inquiry, which would later guide his research into the labyrinth of the human psyche and distinguish him as one of the most influential psychologists in history. 

Education

Jung didn’t have better luck in his school life. When he was 12 years old, Jung reported experiencing a traumatic bullying incident at school where he was pushed to the floor by a classmate and lost consciousness. Jung stayed for the following six months at home because he fainted whenever he tried to go to school or do his homework. His condition persisted until he overheard his father’s financial anxieties about his future. Jung soon realized that he couldn’t afford academic failure as he would eventually have to support himself. Ever since, Jung took his studies very seriously. Despite facing familial pressure to walk in his father’s footsteps in the Church, his interest in philosophy during his late teens drove him away from religious traditionalism. Instead, Jung decided in 1895 to study psychiatry and medicine at the University of Basel.

Early Career

Jung graduated in 1900 with an MD. His interest in the interrelation of spirituality and psychology was evident in his dissertation, published in 1903, where he tried to offer a nuanced non-dismissive psychological explanation of paranormal phenomena. After graduation, Jung moved to Zurich to work under psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler at the Burgholzi asylum. Bleuler introduced Jung to the works of Sigmund Freud and asked him to write a review on Freud’s The Interpretations of Dreams. Jung was fascinated by psychoanalysis, which led him to conduct experiments on word association. In 1906, Jung published Studies in Word Association and sent a copy to Sigmund Freud, marking the beginning of their friendship and collaboration.

Collaboration with Freud

Freud was not only impressed by Jung’s work but considered him the heir of his psychoanalysis legacy. The two collaborated for six years where Jung joined Freud on his overseas lectures and published works in psychoanalysis. Freud nominated him as the lifelong president of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) in 1910, but two years later the tension between them grew as Jung deemphasized the role of the libido in The Psychology of the Unconscious. Jung disagreed with Freud’s model of psychosexual development and argued that his theory of the unconscious is “incomplete and unnecessarily negative”. Through his personal experience and private clinical practice, Jung discovered that there are universal dream themes and symbols (archetypes) that surpassed personal experience. He thus argued that the personal unconscious is connected to a collective unconscious.

Developing Analytical Psychology

After the end of his collaboration with Freud, Jung suddenly found himself abandoned by almost all his entourage as they refused to accept his findings. Jung described this period of his life as a frightening “confrontation with the unconscious” where he experienced a “menacing psychosis” (Jung, 1962). He used his personal experience as raw material for his psychological investigation and dedicated the next 16 years of his life to writing illustrated journals that were published posthumously as The Red Book and The Black Books. Jung fully divorced himself from psychoanalysis, effectively founding his school of analytic psychology. In 1921, he became internationally recognized after the publication of Psychological Types. He traveled extensively to lecture and published many works that intertwined psychology, anthropology, mythology, and religion. Jung received numerous awards and honorary degrees from Oxford and Harvard universities.

For millennia, different religions have proposed ideas of holiness that are similar in structure. These range from ritual purity to moral codes of behavior to special objects or places set aside from common use. Rudolf Otto analyzed the substance behind these forms and found them to originate in a unique mental state that overwhelms the subject. He called this experience “the numinous” and he deconstructed it into its different parts. He also looked for parallels between religions, and looked at non-religious phenomena. His ideas have impacted many academic disciplines.

Who was Rudolf Otto?

Rudolf Otto was a German theologian who was born near Hanover in 1869. He was a Lutheran by denomination and wrote his university dissertation on Luther’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Otto became a professor in 1917 at the Divinity School of the University of Marburg. He held this position until his retirement in 1929 and died in 1937 from pneumonia.

There are a few details about Otto’s life that help shed light on his work. Although Otto was a theologian, he conducted original research on philosophers such as Descartes and especially the transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant. Perhaps more importantly, Otto conducted an extensive international trip from 1911 to 1912. It took him to India, China, and Japan, as well as Palestine and North Africa. Otto would credit a visit to a Moroccan synagogue during this period as formative in the development of his idea of the holy.

What is “The Idea of the Holy?”

The full title of Otto’s 1917 book is The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and its Relation to the Rational. The main title shows that Otto’s primary objective was to explore the concept of holiness as it was experienced through different religions. But he would employ an experimental approach that described holiness as an essential structure of all true religious experience—one that was incomparable, irreducible, and overwhelming.

The subtitle is important in understanding the course Otto was attempting to plot in his book. The task he set himself was to steer a middle course between two extremes. Otto drew a distinction between the irrational and the rational. Irrational views of holiness were “extravagant and fantastic” but purely rational analysis fails to capture the true feeling of holiness when scholars apply the concept to so many different phenomena. Otto claimed that holiness was non-rational rather than irrational: Beyond reason but not against it.

Traditional Interpretations of Holiness

To understand this non-rational view of holiness, Otto held it was vital to introduce new terminology that was not so loose or indeterminate as to prove useless. Traditional definitions of holiness tended to follow one of two paths. Either they focus on basic religious rites that make or keep an adherent holy (often associated with washing and eating), or holiness can take on the moral meaning of someone or something that is “completely good” in its ethical character.

Instead of these two interpretations of the holy, Otto provides a new word to describe it and a new area for its application. The new term he uses is the “numinous,” adapted from the Latin numen, which means divinity, or by extension, the divine presence and power. In general terms, Otto described it as a mental state. More specifically, he described it as a “creature-feeling” or creature-consciousness.

“It is the emotion of a creature, submerged and overwhelmed by its own nothingness in contrast to that which is supreme above all creatures…All that this new term, ‘creature-feeling,’ can express, is the note of submergence into nothingness before an overpowering, absolute might of some kind.”

This metaphysical meaning of holiness provides a better explanation than ritual or ethical meanings. It explains how the quality and value of holiness can be transferred to objects, times, people, and places.

What is “the Numinous?”

Otto helpfully encapsulated his entire vision of the numinous into a single Latin phrase: mysterium tremendum et fascinans. It is a mystery that is both fearful and fascinating at the same time, in the same experience. These elements make up a “harmony of contrasts” by which the holy both pushes us away and pulls us toward it. The most important chapters of his book are built around an explanation of what this phrase means.

Chapter Four analyzes the fearfulness (“tremendum”) of the numinous. Otto breaks this down into three feelings: awfulness (especially divine wrath and jealousy), overpoweringness (majestas or majesty), and urgency or energy. Chapter Five is an analysis of the mystery element of the “Wholly Other” (ganz andere in German, totaliter aliter in Latin). Some modern theologians like Karl Barth have used this as a designation for God. Chapter Six explains the element of fascination. The numinous fills us with wonder and entrances us, even to the level of a Dionysian sense of “dizzy intoxication.”

Concepts Related to the Numinous

One of the most interesting sections of the book is Chapter Seven, in which Otto looks at analogies and associated feelings for the numinous in everyday experience. Throughout the book, Otto has argued that the feeling of the numinous is sui generis: unique and in a class by itself. But he does find parallels in other categories, such as the demonic, the sublime, the mystic or ecstatic, and even the erotic.

There are several modern concepts and phrases that can help us grasp what Otto meant by the numinous. While not exactly equivalent, they are at least analogous. For example, “sense of wonder” is a positive phrase often associated with science fiction for a similar feeling, while “the uncanny” represents the negative version. So-called “weird”’ fiction—a subcategory of pulp fiction that is often associated with the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft—often tries to capture this sense of the supermundane and eldritch. Interestingly, these are all words that Otto discusses in his book, along with “alien” and “horror”—all of which make parts of the book read like it was written much more recently.

The Bible and the Numinous

Although Otto exhibits a great interest in comparative religion and freely quotes from different holy scriptures throughout his book, he remains a Christian theologian. Otto’s use of different Bible stories and verses to illustrate his points is extremely insightful. Key among his favorite texts for encapsulating the sense of the numinous from the Bible include: Abraham interceding for Sodom (Genesis 18), Jacob at Bethel (Genesis 28), Moses and Isaiah receiving their commissions (Exodus 3; Isaiah 6), and Job receiving his answer from God (Job 38).

There are two more sets of texts used by Otto that are worth mentioning for different reasons. One is an often-overlooked verse towards the end of Mark (16:32) in which Jesus, towards the end of his life, predicts his death and resurrection to his disciples, whose reaction is one of stupor and tremor at the mysterium. The second is Otto’s unique translation of two Old Testament texts that give them a new and spectral sense:

Yahweh haunts His holy temple. (Habakkuk 2:20)

LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the places haunted by Thy majesty. (Psalm 26:8)

The Lasting Impact of Rudolf Otto

Otto’s book was one of the most successful theological books of the twentieth century. Its influence on modern continental theologians like Karl Barth and Paul Tillich is well known. Perhaps more unexpected is his impact on CS Lewis.

Lewis discussed the numinous in The Problem of Pain (1940). He conducted a thought experiment in which the reader was in a room but in the next room was a succession of different beings: a tiger, then a ghost, and finally a “mighty spirit.” The first would produce fear; the second, an uncanny dread. And the third?

“Your feelings would then be even less like the mere fear of danger: but the disturbance would be profound. You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking — a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant and of prostration before it…This feeling may be described as awe, and the object which excites it as the Numinous.”

Otto’s concept of the numinous had a large impact on subjects outside theology too. This is hardly surprising since his book is available in twenty languages and has never been out of print. Historian of religion Mircea Eliade used Otto in his seminal 1954 book The Sacred and the Profane. Otto also influenced thinkers as significant as psychologist Carl Jung and philosopher Martin Heidegger. The mythologist Joseph Campbell—whose “hero’s journey” model was used by Geroge Lucas in the Star Wars franchise and by scriptwriters ever since—spoke in Otto’s language throughout his works, including The Power of Myth:

“They [mythic images – AB] are speaking about the deep mystery of yourself and everything else. It is a mysterium, a mystery, tremendum et fascinans – tremendous, horrific, because it smashes all of your fixed notions of things, and at the same time utterly fascinating, because it’s of your own nature and being… You play your part, not withdrawing from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but seeing that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder: a mysterium tremendum et fascinans.”

During his reign, Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BCE) transformed Macedonia from a weak backwater state into the most powerful military and political force in the Greek world. This brought him into conflict with Thebes, which was the previous hegemonic power in Greece. A brutal Macedonian victory at the battle of Chaeronea 338 BCE, broke Theban power and led to the city being garrisoned by Macedonian troops. However, Philip was unable to enjoy the fruits of his victory for long as he was assassinated in 336 BCE. Macedon’s vassals seized the opportunity to revolt, forcing Alexander the Great to embark on an arduous campaign against them. Leading up to the Battle of Thebes, the time to drive out the hated Macedonians appeared to be at hand.

Before the Battle of Thebes: The Balkan Revolt

News of Philip’s death caused many of Macedon’s erstwhile vassals and allies to revolt. During his reign, Philip had made himself the hegemon of Greece and much of the Balkans through numerous military campaigns. With his death, many city-states, tribes, and kingdoms saw an opportunity to reclaim their former independence.

To make matters worse for the Macedonians, prior to his death, Philip had already dispatched a sizable force to Anatolia led by some of his most experienced generals. However, Alexander was not one to give into despair and he immediately sprung into action. With a picked force of 3,000 cavalrymen, he rode south through Thessaly and Greece as far as Corinth. This show of force overwhelmed the Greeks, and they agreed to return to the Macedonian fold.

In the north, the situation was potentially more dangerous. The Thracian and Illyrian tribes, traditional enemies of Macedon, saw Philip’s death as an opportunity to invade. The northern regions were a source of great wealth and manpower for Macedon, as well as being critical to the safety of the kingdom. As such, in the spring of 335 BCE, Alexander marched north with his army into the Balkans.

The fighting was difficult, but Alexander led the Macedonians to victory after victory. However, news of Alexander’s progress was slow to reach the Greeks in the south. When it did come, it was distorted, leading them to believe that Alexander had died of the wounds he received at the siege of Pelium. This news was the spark that set in motion the battle of Thebes.

Athenian Antagonisms 

One of the most dedicated opponents of Philip and Alexander was Demosthenes of Athens (384-322 BCE). A skilled orator and statesman, he spent his career urging opposition and resistance to Macedon. His goal, however, was to replace Macedonian hegemony with Athenian hegemony.

To further his goals, Demosthenes presented a man to the Athenian assembly who claimed to have witnessed Alexander’s death at Pelium. Demosthenes’ efforts were aided in part by Darius III, king of Persia. In order to forestall Alexander’s invasion of Anatolia, he had been distributing large sums of money to any Greek state willing to resist the Macedonians. These machinations were enough to convince a band of Theban exiles in Athens to return home and lead an uprising against the city’s Macedonian garrison.

The Thebans received a large sum of Achaemenid money to aid them in their efforts. Then as now, war was an expensive undertaking. Demosthenes also received a large payment from the grateful Achaemenids. However, rather than pocketing it for himself he used it to purchase weapons and supplies which he gave to the Thebans to aid them in their fight. He also used his considerable political influence to convince his fellow Athenians to sign up to a defensive alliance with Thebes that was aimed at the Macedonians.

It should be noted that Athens, Thebes, and Persia were not particularly fond of each other, and that they were, more often than not, bitter rivals. Their support of each other in this instance, had less to do with any newfound affection and more to do with the cold calculation that they could use each other against the hated Macedonians.

Thebes Revolts

With this support the Thebans declared their independence and killed a pair of Macedonian officers who had been roaming about the city. However, they failed to eject the Macedonian garrison at large from the Cadmaea, the citadel at the center of the city. Having failed to take the Cadmaea, the Thebans set up a blockade.

Along with the Theban uprising, other cities in Greece renounced their allegiance to Macedon. In Athens, Demosthenes again denounced Macedon and voted for more weapons and supplies to be sent to the Athenians. The Athenians, however, refrained from sending any troops to Thebes, preferring to await further developments. The Spartans, long hostile to the Macedonians, marched their army to the isthmus of Corinth and then encamped. They would not leave the Peloponnese despite their hatred of the Macedonians.

Despite their hatred of the Macedonian hegemony over Greece, none of the Greek city-states were willing to commit themselves fully to supporting Thebes. Nor had the Thebans yet succeeded in completely retaking their city from the Macedonians. The start of the revolt had so far met with mixed if not disappointing results. There was still hope, however, as more and more city-states positioned themselves to support the Thebans. Moreover, the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmaea was not expecting trouble and had, therefore, not prepared for a siege. It was only a matter of time before they would be forced to surrender. Should that happen, support from the other Greek city-states, especially Athens and Sparta, was likely to increase.

Alexander Marches on Thebes

Alexander, was of course at this point still very much alive and well. When he learned of the events at Thebes, he became greatly concerned. At the beginning of his reign, he had secured Greece through a show of military force. Now, there was no comparable Macedonian army on the ground in Greece. Moreover, there was a real chance that more and more Greek city-states would rally to the Theban cause. With his characteristic decisiveness, Alexander raced south with his army. Time and speed were of the essence if Alexander was to contain the situation.

Alexander and his Macedonians set a blistering pace. After seven days of marching, they reached Thessaly, and before long they were outside the territory of Thebes. The Macedonians had marched over 300 miles in just under two weeks’ time. It was an astonishing speed for armies of the period. The Macedonians moved so fast that they had not even been detected when they passed through the pass at Thermopylae.

So quickly had the Macedonians arrived that at first, the Thebans refused to believe that it was Alexander at the head of the army.  At first, they believed that it must be the Macedonian general Antipater, whose smaller army was in Macedonia. Yet it soon became apparent to all that it was indeed Alexander who had arrived. With Alexander’s arrival, the tide began to shift against the Thebans. Many smaller city-states began to abandon the Thebans and offer their allegiance to Alexander.

The Siege of Thebes

Alexander offered the Thebans extraordinarily lenient terms given the situation; all he demanded was the two ringleaders of the revolt. Despite having been abandoned by their allies, the Theban council enthusiastically voted for war. They, in turn, demanded Alexander hand over two of his generals to them. The Macedonian garrison was still ensconced in the Cadmaea, the citadel of Thebes, which was surrounded by siege works. The Thebans had also surrounded the exterior of the city in a palisade which, if stoutly defended, would make any attack difficult. Rather than immediately attacking, Alexander rested and prepared his army for three days, giving his men additional time to recover from their march.

In preparation for the imminent Macedonian assault, the Thebans freed their slaves and placed them under arms to defend the city. They drew up their infantry and cavalry within the palisades and placed their women and children on the walls and in the temples.

Alexander divided his army into three columns. The first column assaulted the palisades but began to lose momentum after breaking through. They were relieved by the second column which pushed through and drove the Thebans into the city before being briefly repulsed. It was at this point that Alexander brought forward the rest of the troops. With the Thebans in retreat the Macedonian garrison came out of the Cadmaea, which effectively ended any organized Theban resistance.

Thebes Laid Waste

With the city now at his mercy, Alexander was not inclined to treat the Thebans with mercy. Alexander’s troops, especially his allied Greeks, slaughtered the Thebans wherever they could lay hands on them. Attempts to surrender were ignored, and neither women nor children were spared. The extent of the slaughter was such that it horrified the contemporary Greeks. Once the Macedonians and their allies had sated their thirst for blood, they turned their attention to the city itself, and the surviving Thebans. Alexander wanted to send a message to the Greeks, in order to deter any future thoughts of rebellion.

All the survivors—men, women, and children—were enslaved. While some 6,000 were killed in the fighting and subsequent slaughter, it is estimated that around 30,000 were afterward enslaved. Only the priests, priestesses, and guest friends of Philip and Alexander were spared this fate. All of Thebes’ territory (which consisted of some of the best lands in central Greece) was then broken up and distributed to Macedon’s Greek allies.

All of the buildings in the city were razed to the ground, with a few exceptions. The pious or superstitious Greeks spared the temples, along with the strategically important Cadmaea, and Alexander himself spared the home of the famed poet Pindar (b.518 BCE).

Aftermath

The sudden revolt, fall, and destruction of Thebes sent shockwaves across the Greek world. Those who revolted or had otherwise shown support to the Thebans now quickly moved to reconcile with Alexander and offer their allegiance. Many executed the leaders of the anti-Macedonian factions within their own cities.

The only remaining matter for Alexander at this point was Athens and Demosthenes. At first, Alexander demanded that Demosthenes and his supporters be handed over for punishment. But the Athenians were reluctant to accede to, despite the risk. Eventually, Alexander allowed himself to be persuaded to accept more lenient terms and only exiled one of the Athenian ringleaders. Demosthenes would, in fact, outlive Alexander.

Alexander the Great’s capture and destruction of Thebes won him the acquiescence and fear of the Greeks, but not their love and support. It did prevent most city-states from considering rebellion when he embarked on his long campaign against the Achaemenid Empire. Without having to worry about a threat to his rear, or his long supply lines or communications with Macedon, Alexander could focus his full attention on his conquests. Thebes never fully recovered from its destruction at the hands of Alexander. In 315 BCE the city was re-founded with the help of other Greek city-states, including Athens, which rebuilt its walls.

America has a record of religious revivals that spans its history. The earliest of these is known as the First Great Awakening. Although its most famous preacher was the English Methodist Geroge Whitefield, the American Puritan Jonathan Edwards preached the most famous sermon. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God brought fear to those who originally heard it and has brought fascination to the religious and literary worlds ever since. But what is the secret of its power to scare the hell out of people?

The Puritans and Their Passions

Puritanism was originally a movement within the Church of England that pushed for greater “purity” and further reformation, from within. Negatively, this meant an additional cleansing from the Church of every element they still considered to have Roman Catholic or “Papist” roots. They saw their Anglican Church as a compromised, middle path between Catholicism and the Radical Reformation. Puritans wanted to move their Church more in the direction of Calvin’s model in Geneva—with simpler worship, stricter morals, and stronger theology, set within an entire socio-economic worldview.

This might give the impression that Puritans were a cold, undemonstrative people. But the truth is more complex. On the one hand, Puritan theologians produced rigid theological systems and doctrinal creeds. Their preachers were quick to denounce showiness in church and sloth in life. But, on the other hand, Puritans were keen to promote what Jonathan Edwards called “the sense of the heart”—an internal apprehension of God’s excellence and beauty that moved their religious affections to fresh heights. Remember that Calvin’s own seal was a flaming heart on an outstretched hand offered to God.

It is important to appreciate the tension in Puritanism between a reverent and restricted external life and a passionate and personally pious interior world. Sometimes, the first tendency would win out: in individuals, congregations, and regions. Often, a backlash would break out against such a formal and nominal faith. Religious reactions of this kind are known as revivals, and the First Great Awakening was a perfect example of one.

The First Great Awakening

According to historians, there have been four Great Awakenings in the United States. These Awakenings shared many similarities, such as subsequent social reforms. For instance, the Second Great Awakening impacted the abolition of alcohol and slavery.

However, the First Great Awakening was different from its subsequent namesakes in a vital way. While later awakenings took place among those outside the church, bringing them into church life and membership, the First Great Awakening was a revival among the churchgoing and the orthodox. Those who it “awakened” were already part of the Christian community.

The period assigned to the First Great Awakening is somewhat elastic, although usually delineated as 1730 to 1755. Its sparks were initially ignited under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards’ grandfather Solomon Stoddard, related by marriage to Cotton Mather. But those embers were fanned into a flame by the arrival in the new world of George Whitefield—possibly the world’s first celebrity—who was a founding member of the Methodist movement in England. Whitefield arrived at the colony of Georgia in December 1737. On a later trip, in 1740, Whitefield preached in Northampton at Edwards’ invitation. Whitefield’s preaching moved Edwards to tears.

Who Was Jonathan Edwards?

Just like the Puritan school to which he belonged, Jonathan Edwards was a complex character, a person of many parts. He was a brilliant scholar who greedily consumed the works of Enlightenment thinkers as a young man, especially the ideas of John Locke and the “natural philosophy” of Isaac Newton. From Locke’s empiricism, Edwards independently anticipated philosophical ideas now associated with George Berkeley. Edwards’ own most substantial intellectual contribution to the world was his treatise on The Freedom of the Will (1754). Before his death from a smallpox vaccination in 1758, Princeton University (then called the College of New Jersey) had just appointed Edwards President.

But Edwards was a child of the Reformation as well as the Enlightenment, of the old world and the new. He spent most of his career in the role of preacher and pastor rather than academic or professor. His chief concern was for the souls of his congregation, not the brains of his students. He communicated his thoughts to the world and about the world through sermons, not studies or academic papers. And it is for one sermon that he is now chiefly remembered.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Edwards preached this famous sermon twice in 1741. In pamphlets that were made from the sermon, Amos 9:2-3 was printed on a front page. While these verses provide an accurate sense of the sermon’s tone and tenets, the sermon itself was based on another Old Testament text.

To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

Deuteronomy 32:35

It would be easy to classify this content as a typical example of a “fire and brimstone” type sermon with a message to unbelievers of eternal damnation in hell after death. But there is more to it than that. Edwards does not focus on the life hereafter but on the here and now. The substance of the sermon is that unbelievers are in immediate danger, under current condemnation, and will experience imminent punishments. They do not have to wait to travel down to hell—hell is already reaching up to snatch them!

For example, Edwards asserted that God may cast sinners into hell at any moment and there is nothing to prevent him now from doing so. The wicked, at this very instant, he said, suffer under God’s condemnation to hell. Satan stands ready right now to fall upon the wicked and seize them as his own. Edwards even argued that “the wicked, on earth—at this very moment—suffer a sample of the torments of Hell.” The purpose of Edwards’ sermons was to make the doctrine of hell a current reality, and it seems he largely succeeded in this intent.

The Congregation’s Response

In many accounts of the impact of the sermon on the congregations, there are extreme and intense descriptions. For example, it is often said that some church members clutched onto the seats of their pews because they felt they were sliding into hell. So tightly did they hold on to their seats, it is said, that they left fingernail marks that were still observable sometime after. However, it is difficult to find reliable primary sources to authenticate this report.

What historians cannot deny is the firsthand testimony of Reverend Stephen Williams, who attended one of the occasions the sermon was preached. He recorded in his diary how the sermon affected those who heard it. Even before Edwards completed his sermon, Williams wrote that:

“…there was a great moaning and crying out through the whole house — ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ ‘Oh, I am going to hell!’ ‘Oh what shall I do for a Christ?’ and so forth — so that the minister was obliged to desist.”

He also records that the “shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing.” Edwards had to wait until the congregation became still again before he could descend from the pulpit.  But it was not all horror. Williams noted “the cheerfulness and pleasantness of their countenances that received comfort.”

Lockean Empiricism and Newtonian Mechanics

There have been many attempts to deconstruct the sermon and locate the source of its power. Some have analysed it in terms of the images of colonial life it contains. Others focus on the sermon’s logical structure, grammatical tense and deictic shifts, or its rhythmic beat. However, linking it with Edwards’ academic interests and background yields some fascinating results.

John Locke founded a philosophy built on the primacy of the senses over purely rational and innate ideas–Empiricism rather than Rationalism. Edwards makes some use of Locke’s secondary qualities in his sermon, those things that have a subjective element—like loudness and bitterness. But he employs Locke’s primary qualities more—properties that are inherent in objects, like motion. Edwards frequently speaks of rest and ease, for example, and contrasts them with the downward direction and movement of the wicked.

This links with the influence of Newtonian mechanics on the sermon, especially the theories of gravity and motion. Throughout the sermon, Edwards repeats the idea that a sinner “needs nothing but his own Weight to throw him down.” When their time comes, sinners “shall be left to fall as they are inclined by their own Weight.” He combined this with other forces in Physics, in one place speaking of “Weight and Pressure” and in another of “Weight and Power.”

With the force of gravity comes the falling of the object, and falling is one of the most used figures in the sermon.

“If God should withdraw his Hand, [health and prudence] would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin Air to hold up a Person that is suspended in it. Your Wickedness makes you as it were heavy as Lead, and to tend downwards… your Righteousness, would have no more Influence to uphold you and keep you out of Hell, than a Spider’s Web would have to stop a falling Rock.”

The Religious and Literary Aftermath

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is still studied today by historians as a prime example of a First Great Awakening pulpit oratory. The preaching of it was one of the defining moments of the Great Awakening and it—along with reactions to it—became a model for those revivals that followed. It may even be considered the United States’ most famous sermon, preached by the nation’s most famous theologian. Contemporary revivalist and fundamentalist preachers still refer to it today, even if they have never studied it academically.

At a more general level, editors and publishers often include the sermon in anthologies of American literature and teachers cover it in classes on the same topic. Although the Gothic strain in American literature is usually traced back to Charles Brockden Brown’s 1798 novel Wieland, Edwards’ sermon predates it as a literary work. Puritanism with its concepts of hell and hereditary guilt played a large part in the stories of nineteenth-century authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Finally, it is worth remembering that HP Lovecraft was a child of New England, just like Jonathan Edwards.

Lovecraft mentioned the strangeness of the New England landscape in several of his stories, including The Picture in the House (1920) and The Colour Out of Space (1927). But it was in a Letter to Elizabeth Toldridge (9 October 1931) that he makes the explicit connection to Puritanism and the infamous witch trials.

“As for New England as a seat of weirdness — a little historic reflection will show why it is more naturally redolent of the bizarre & the sinister than any other part of America. It was here that the most gloomy-minded of all the colonists settled; & here that the dark moods & cryptic hills pressed closest. An abnormal Puritan psychology led to all kinds of repression, furtiveness, & grotesque hidden crime, while the long winters & backwoods isolation fostered monstrous secrets which never came to light. To me there is nothing more fraught with mystery & terror than a remote Massachusetts farmhouse against a lonely hill. Where else could an outbreak like the Salem witchcraft have occurred?”

Selected Letters III, 1929-1931, Edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, p. 423

Now a ubiquitous symbol of wartime propaganda adorning posters, mugs, tea towels and more, the ‘keep calm and carry on’ slogan has become a firm fixture in British culture. Only a handful of the posters were actually printed following the outbreak of World War II, and many of them were destroyed, making the few that remain all the more valuable and sought after. Three of these original posters in different sizes are coming up for auction with Anderson and Garland, an auctioneer based in Newcastle in the United Kingdom on the 4th of July. Estimates suggest they will sell for between £1,200 ($1522) and £3,000 ($3805) each.

Fred Wyrley-Birch, director for Anderson and Garland says the posters, “… encapsulate a pivotal moment in British history and stand as an inspiring message from the past.”

Wartime Propaganda

The famed ‘keep calm’ poster was part of a series produced by the UK’s Ministry of Information in 1939, along with two other posters featuring similar, inspirational slogans aimed at keeping up the public’s moral during the most challenging of times. The other posters read “your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory,” and “freedom is in peril / Defend it with all your might.” However, of the three, the ‘keep calm’ poster series never officially made its way into the public eye during the war. Instead, the British government kept it in reserve in case of German air attacks.

After the war the poster fell into obscurity. It became widespread and popular many years later, after being sold in Barter Books in Alnwick, UK, in the early aughts. The poster’s popularity hit a record high in 2008 during the 2007-8 credit crisis, and reached the United States and beyond during the Great Recession of 2008-9. Today it has become as much a parody of the British ‘stiff upper lip’ as a symbol of what writer Owen Hatherley calls “austerity nostalgia” in his book The Ministry of Nostalgia (2016). He describes this as a phenomenon in which “our past is being resold in order to defend the indefensible.”

Previous Auctions

Around 2.45 million posters featuring the ‘keep calm’ slogan were printed during the war, but most of them were pulped and recycled in 1940 in order to aid the British raw material shortage crisis during a period of extreme austerity. This means only a small number of the first posters still exist today, and they tend to reach significant prices when they do rarely come up for sale at auction. In 2016 the Olympia Art Fair in London sold a copy of the poster for £21,250 ($28,700), while in 2023 RR Auctions in New Hampshire sold another for $11,000; further international auction results prove that the poster is equally as well-known and sought after around the world as it is in the UK.

Different Sizes

Approximately 11 different sizes of the ‘keep calm’ posters were printed in 1939, from the smallest at 15 x 10 inches, to the full 48 sheet 20 x 30 feet. Three different sizes of the poster will come up for auction at Anderson and Garland next month, with the smallest expected to sell for £1,200 ($1522), the middle at £2,000 ($2536), and the biggest for around £3,000 ($3805). This trio of posters formerly belonged to a police officer based in Suffolk at the end of World War II. Wyrley-Birch says this auction in July is a rare opportunity for the budding collector, given it is the first time ever that a “complete set” of three originals will go on sale together.

Although the ethics of the Bible condemn the use of magic, many of its stories contain references to individuals who are described as magicians. Some of these magic users are portrayed in ambiguous and even positive terms, as prophets and wise men. Others have become bywords for evil or terrifying future manifestations of it. It seems the biblical viewpoint on magic is more complex and interesting than many might assume.

Magical Customs, Medical Practices

The ethical code of the Old Testament condemns witchcraft (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27 etc.), and yet there are many magical practices described throughout the Bible. For example, the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel condemned women who sowed magic charms on their clothing (Ezekiel 13:18), and kings who tried to read the future by shaking arrows and examining liver (21:21). There’s also an even older story about the matriarch Rachel, who wanted to use mandrake root in an aphrodisiac potion (Genesis 30).

Perhaps the most famous magic user in the Bible is the so-called Witch of Endor, a medium who helped King Saul contact the dead prophet Samuel for advice (1 Samuel 28). This story is riddled with ambiguities, from what it was the witch called up, to the nature of her powers. In the New Testament, there’s another fascinating story of magic in Roman times. Paul had an encounter with a slave girl at Philippi who possessed a “Python spirit” that enabled her to tell fortunes and futures (Acts 16:16).

But beyond these accounts of folk superstition and occult practices, there are also some magicians mentioned by name in the Bible. Further, there are other magicians that are given a mysterious or indirect name that functions as more of a title. So, who are they and what did they do?

Jannes and Jambres: Magicians from Ancient Egypt

Magic played a major role in ancient Egypt at the highest levels of government. Jannes and Jambres were the names of the court sorcerers employed by Pharaoh to mimic the miracles performed by Moses.  They are described both as wise men and magicians (Exodus 7:11). The background story is that God told Moses to act as his representative, with his brother Aaron as his prophet, to demand the release of the Hebrew slaves. God predicted that Pharaoh would ask to see a miraculous sign as proof. Aaron was then to throw down the shepherd staff of Moses on the ground, so that it would transform into a snake.

When this happened, Pharaoh called on his magic users to do the same. They could transmute their staffs into snakes using enchantments and secret arts, but the snake of Moses ate theirs up (Exodus 7:12), in a display of dominance. They could also repeat the first two of the ten plagues of Egypt — turning water into blood and producing a frog invasion from the Nile (7:22; 8:7). But after the first two plagues, they were unable to imitate Moses any more, and confessed that the other plagues were performed by “the finger of God” (8:18). Their names are only given in the New Testament (2 Timothy 3:8), possibly taken from an apocryphal book.

Balaam: Renegade Prophet or Pagan Enchanter?

Balaam is an ambiguous character in the Old Testament who is often described as a renegade or mercenary miracle worker. We know little of his origins although we are told about his death, where he is described somewhat derisorily as a soothsayer or fortune-teller (Joshua 13:22). He was hired by the leaders of Moab and Midian to place a curse on the Israelites, to prevent the newly liberated Hebrews from conquering the land. But he was forced to pronounce a blessing instead, multiple times. He is also noted for his involvement in the only occasion in which the Bible speaks of a talking animal (Numbers 22:28)!

The reason for the ambiguity about Balaam is the mixed messages in the text about what exactly Balaam was and the status of his magical work. Some count him as a prophet rather than a magician, albeit a false prophet in the end. For example, Peter describes him as a mad, mercenary prophet (2 Peter 2:15-16). But there are clear indicators in the story that he was a sorcerer. The money paid to him is called “the fees of divination” (Numbers 22:7).

After his failure to curse Israel, Balaam admits that he could cast “no spell” or “enchantment” against them (23:23). In his final attempt at cursing, he “did not resort to sorcery as on previous occasions” (24:1). All New Testament references to Balaam are strongly negative (Jude 1:11; Revelation 2:14). The Qur’an continues the Old Testament’s more nuanced perspective on Balaam’s prophethood.

Daniel and Manasseh: Magicians of Jewish Royalty

The prophet Daniel was a member of the royal family in Judah who was taken captive as a young man by the Babylonian god-emperor Nebuchadnezzar II. Daniel was educated in Babylon in the language, literature, and science of his day to prepare him for state service. Some might consider it unfair to place the righteous prophet Daniel in this list of magic users. But it is interesting that from the perspective of King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel—whom he called Belteshazzar—was one of a number of “the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers” that he called to interpret his dreams (Daniel 4:9).

In fact, not only was Daniel a member of a governmental department, Nebuchadnezzar made him the head of this branch of royal advisors (5:11). As Chief Magician, Daniel didn’t perform magic feats, unless you count shutting the mouths of lions—an act Daniel ascribed to an angel, not to his own powers (6:22). Rather, Daniel’s specialty was “interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas” (5:12). An example of this is when he interpreted the famous writing on the wall during Belshazzar’s feast (chapter 5).

The character of King Manasseh of Judah contrasts starkly with that of Daniel. He was the worst monarch that the southern kingdom of Judea ever had. Not only was he an idolator and devil worshiper (2 Chronicles 33:3), and sacrificed his own children by burning them alive (33:6), he also “practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists.” After he was taken captive by the king of Assyria, he repented and was delivered (33:10-13).

The Magi: Wise Men From the East

The Magi are the famous “Three Wise Men” of Christmas nativity fame. Only they didn’t come to Christ’s birth, there is no evidence they were kings, and there probably weren’t three of them! In the New Testament, they are described as “Magi,” which can mean oriental astronomer or scientist, as well as sorcerer, magician, or wizard. Or, it could mean simply a wise man, in the sense of a scholar, teacher, or even physician. The astrological interpretation might be more accurate here, since they were led by a star (Matthew 2:1).

The actual Greek word is magos, the plural of which is magoi or magi. The word appears to be Persian in origin, and refers to the religious or priestly caste into which Zoroaster was born, founder of the Zoroastrian religion. It seems to be the case that this priestly caste paid particular attention to the stars in their training and rituals. Apparently, they gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science and—along with the Babylonians—laid the foundation for modern astronomy.

Simon and Elymas: New Testament Sorcerers

During the period that marked the birth of the Christian church, the people of Samaria were under the spell of a sorcerer called Simon. He had used his magic arts for some time to astonish them and make them listen to his words. But he became a Christian under the preaching of Philip, mostly because he was amazed at the miracles that Philip performed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then, when the apostles arrived, he offered them money for power to give others the Holy Spirit. Peter refused and rebuked him (Acts 8:20-23). His final destiny is unknown. It is from Simon that we get the word “simony:” the buying of church roles or sacred positions.

Later, when Saint Paul sailed to Salamis in Cyprus on one of his missionary journeys, he met and spoke with the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, described as an intelligent man, who wanted to learn more about this new faith. But Paul was opposed by Elymas the sorcerer, also called a false prophet, who tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Paul confronted him and cursed him with temporary blindness (Acts 13:9-11). The proconsul went on to become a believer.

Antichrist and False Prophet: Wonder Workers of the Apocalypse

Before the prophesied return of Christ, the New Testament speaks of the rise of an evil person known as “the Lawless One.” He will possess the power to perform counterfeit miracles and deceptive wonders. Chrisitan commentators usually identify this person as the Antichrist, or, in the words of Revelation, “the Beast.”

“And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

2 Thessalonians 2:8-9

Jesus himself predicted that in the end times, many false Christs and false prophets would appear with the power to perform great signs and wonders (Matthew 24:24). But just as there would be one final Antichrist, so there would be one final False Prophet. This False Prophet (also called the Second Beast or the beast from the earth) would perform astounding miracles, “even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of the people” (Revelation 13:13). But finally, both the Beast and the False Prophet will be captured and thrown alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (19:20), along with the devil himself (21:10), to be tormented day and night, forever and ever.

“The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world’s important people. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.”

Revelation 18:23

Think of the word Impressionism today and the art of French, late 19th century painters Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (and many more) will most likely come immediately to mind. The term seems perfectly suited to the radical and rebellious painters whose art sought to capture the fleeting impression of nature by painting en plein air, with swift, feathery brushstrokes and light, bright, airy colours. But do you know how the movement actually got its name? While the painters are now firmly rooted in the canon of art history, their name was in fact the result of a disparaging review, which criticised their sketchy and non-academic approach to making art. We delve into the history of the term Impressionism to find out more.

Monet’s Impression: Sunrise

Monet’s early career painting Impression: Sunrise, 1872, is often cited as the source of the name ‘Impressionism.’ Its title made reference to the painting’s intention – to capture the essence, or the impression of the sunrise he saw before him, rather than a detailed, topographical view. The painting marked a significant departure from the traditional, carefully painted art of the Academie Des Beaux Arts and the Parisian Salon that the public were accustomed to seeing. As such its loosely rendered depiction of fading sunlight falling across water attracted a great deal of derision from art critics and viewers who first came to see it on display in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874 in Paris, held in the studio of the photographer Felix Nadar. 

The exhibition was organized by a collective of artists who called themselves The Anonymous Society of Artists, Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, Etcetera, a collective who were united by a desire to move beyond the strict academia of French art establishments. It featured around 200 paintings of varying styles and approaches by a wide pool of artists.

Louis Leroy: A Scathing Review

One such critic who came to visit the first Impressionist exhibition and responded with great disdain was Louis Leroy. Building on the title of Monet’s painting, he scoffed, “Impression! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished!” In his disparaging review, he referred to the exhibiting artists as the ‘Impressionists’, attacking them for producing sketchy and unfinished ‘impressions’ of the real world, which he regarded as puerile, pointless, and lacking in skill. However, his words did little to discourage the group from pursuing their practices, and continuing to exhibit together over the following decade in order to push forward their agenda. 

The Impressionists Adopted the Name

The group of artists first ridiculed by Leroy (and a great many others) in 1874 went on host a further eight exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. It wasn’t until the third (and arguably the most ‘impressionistic’) exhibition, curated by Gustave Caillebotte, that they officially adopted the name of the Impressionists, and in the years that followed the name became widely recognized and accepted amongst art circles and eventually the wider public. 

The first few Impressionist exhibitions were poorly attended and attracted widespread ridicule, costing the artists more money than they actually earned. But by the later exhibitions they had begun to attract much larger audiences which reached into the thousands, even though many of them still struggled to actually sell their art. Yet the determination the artists displayed in the face of adversity, their inclination to take on the art establishment, and their willingness to adopt what was intended as a disparaging moniker, set a precedent into the next century, paving the way for modernity, the avant-garde, and the plethora of rebellious and boundary-pushing art -isms that followed.

Candomblé is a religion practiced in South America, especially Brazil, that mixes traditional Yoruba, Bantu, and Fon religions brought over by Africans, with Roman Catholicism. Central to the religion is the veneration of the Orixas, divine energies associated with different elements of nature. Individuals are believed to identify with one of the Orixas as their tutelary spirit.

What is Candomblé?

Candomblé is a uniquely South American religion that was created when beliefs brought over by the various African peoples transported to Brazil (mainly Yoruba, Bantu, and Fon beliefs) were mixed with Roman Catholic ideas in the New World. Candomblé is strongest in Bahia, Brazil, which was a major port for arriving African slaves. The first Candomblé temple was built there in the 19th century after the abolition of slavery. The religion is also practiced around South America, including in Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Candomblé appears in various forms in different regions.

Candomblé is an initiate religion with knowledge passed from elders to new members, so not all its secrets can be known to outsiders. But one element of Candomblé that is popular in South American culture among practitioners and non-practitioners alike is veneration of the Orixás.

Candomblé, which means “dance of the gods,” teaches that there is one all-powerful being, called Olorun or Olodumare. But it also states that this god created many Orixás, lesser divinities, that act as intermediaries between the human and the divine. Following the bidding of the great god, these Orixás created the world and mankind and they embody the various natural elements within the world.

The Orixás are invoked by practitioners using dances that embody the characteristics of the specific Orixá, to create an ecstatic connection. The Orixás are also celebrated at festivals. For example, in Bahia, Iemanja, the Orixá of the sea, is celebrated with street festivals on February 2nd, to thank her for the bounty of fish that she provided for the hungry new arrivals when they landed in Brazil.

Orixás as Tutelary Deities

It is believed that every individual has their own Orixá as a kind of tutelary deity that helps them fulfill their destiny. In Candomblé, Iwa is the essence of what it is to be human, and it is what separates humans from animals. Before the birth of an Iwa, the soul chooses an Odu, which is a personal fate. When the person is born, they then have an Ori, which is considered a personal Orixá that is unique to that individual. This Ori must then cooperate with the tutelary Orixá of the individual to help them fully realize their destiny, called Odi. A soul is only healthy when their Ori is in harmony with their Orix.

There are various ways to identify your tutelary Orixá. Some people believe it can be done numerologically by your date of birth, or that it is determined by the day of the week that you were born. But the most traditional way is to go to a Candomblé leader and participate in a ritual that lets you connect with your Egum, your ancestor spirit. This ritual reveals your Orixá.

Practitioners then honor their Orixá by doing things such as wearing their colors, particularly on their day of the week, greeting them with a special word, and learning their unique dance. Men will almost always have a male Orixá and women a female Orixá and they are called sons and daughters. The list of Orixás in Candomblé varies slightly depending on the region, but the nine listed below are the most popular.

Oxalá

Oxalá is said to have been created by God to create the world and mankind, making him the most important of the Orixás. He is sometimes called the father of the Orixás. He is depicted as a frail old man with an elaborate scepter that he uses as a walking stick.

Oxalá is associated with pure, clean, fresh water and is also linked through marriage with both Nana and Iemanja, who are also linked with water. He is the Orixá of creation, procreation, purification, and peace.

The sons of Oxalá often have a fragile constitution and may be marked by birth defects. They tend to be delicate and easily affected by their surroundings. They are known for their tranquility, morality, and perfectionism, but can also be cold in their relationships with others. While they are not aggressive, they never forgive offenses and will cut people out of their lives when they transgress. Oxalá always wears white, as do his children, and his day of the week is Friday. He is greeted with the words “Eba Baba.”

Xangô

Xangô is considered the patron Orixá of Brazil and he is linked with justice and conquest. He is also the Orixá of the natural elements of lightning and thunder. His symbol is an ax.

Xangô is a conquering warrior who never accepts defeat and is also a vengeful god who represents furious divine justice. He does not like to be alone and feeds off the energy of being around others and leading.

The sons of Xangô tend to be intense and temperamental people who are always passionate and ambitious. They have a naturally heavy and robust body, which can lean towards obesity since they love to eat and drink. While they are often unfaithful themselves, their pride and arrogance lead them to be jealous and vengeful. While they are often great leaders, they also tend to be very attached to their mothers.

Xangô’s day of the week is Thursday and he and his sons wear red and white. His dance is fast and furious, representing his strong and aggressive nature. His greeting is “Kawo Kabiyesile.”

Iemanjá

Iemanjá is the female Orixá of the ocean and the most adored Orixá in Brazil. She represents the violence and unpredictability of the sea, but also its giving and cleansing nature. She is worshiped wherever salt water is.

Iemanjá is a mother to all and is especially kind to those in need. She is the protector of sailors, slaves, and the hungry. Desperate men often turn to her for guidance because she keeps all secrets. She is the overall embodiment of feminine power.

The daughters of Iemanjá are tall and robust, with a calm and dignified nature. Nevertheless, she is naturally sensual. But she can also be vain, combative, and unpredictable. She is an energetic and caring partner and mother, even to children who are not hers, but she can be jealous and possessive. While she is a lover, she is also very independent from the men in her life.

Iemanjá’s dance imitates the movement of the waves, and it is traditional to offer her flowers. Her day of the week is Saturday, and her colors are translucent white and blue. Her greeting is “Ode Iye.”

Ogum 

Ogum is a male Orixá linked with battle and iron, and he is often depicted with a machete and a round shield. He represents the vital energy that is needed to constantly transform to meet new challenges and win battles.

Ogum is associated with ideas of evolution, whether that be human evolution, personal transformation, or technological development. When something is transforming, it is in a state of Ogum.

The sons of Ogum are athletic and virile, which can make them full of pride and aggression. While they appear strong, extroverted, and efficient, they are highly emotional, susceptible to bouts of anger, and can be impatient and intolerant. They tend to act before they think.

Ogum’s day of the week is Tuesday and he and his sons wear blue and green. His dance imitates battle.

Oxóssi 

Oxóssi is a male Orixá and is linked with hunting and the forest. As an extension of this, he is also associated with good nutrition and fulfilling your essential needs to live a good life. Oxóssi is known for his strategic planning and thinking and is often called upon when it is time to step back and evaluate a course of action.

The sons of Oxóssi are often considered the most attractive men, slender and agile, but also explosive and irrational. They can be curious, introverted, and observant, which fuels creativity and sensitivity. They are often kind and polite and highly respected in social groups but with a hidden fickle and unstable side.

Oxóssi’s colors are light blue and green, and his day of the week is Thursday. His greeting is “Oke Aro.”

Oxum 

Oxum is the female Orixá of love and beauty and is the only female Orixá believed to have participated in the creation of the world. She overlaps with many of the other Orixá, with dominion over fresh water, fish, mermaids, and butterflies.

She embodies the natural energy of fresh water and is usually invoked close to water sources. But she is also linked with the liquid blood that flows in the veins of all life. She is linked with the art of divination and ideas of good luck and abundance.

The daughters of Oxum tend to be delicate and beautiful with a natural gentleness, innocence, and bright eyes. They are naturally sensual and express feminine emotions, so they are considered inconstant and frivolous. They are naturally caring and love children and small animals. They often know how to get other people to do things for them.

When Oxum’s dance is performed, the dancer will imitate looking vainly in a mirror at her own beauty. Her color is yellow-gold, and her greeting is “Ore Yeye.”

Iansã

Iansã is a female Orixá associated with wind and fire. She is a relentless force that can overcome any barrier or obstacle. There is no place that she cannot enter, including the realm of the dead. She has an intense sexual energy and is considered the owner of herself. She is subordinate to no man.

The daughters of Iansã tend to wear bold colors and designs and they are highly sexual. They know how to conquer and dominate. When they are in love, they are very dedicated, but they can be very jealous and cannot stand being deceived. They don’t tend to have much patience for children because they lack patience in general, and they are always ready for a fight.

Wednesday is Iansã’s day, and she wears red, from bright to earth tones. Her dance tends to look like the blowing of the wind and is flirty. Her greeting is “Epi Hei Iansa.”

Oxumarê

Oxumarê is unique in that he is both male and female. As an extension of that, he represents opposites, between the genders, between stability and transition, and between beginnings and endings.

According to legend, he had an affair with Oxum, but she was with Xangô, and he almost killed Oxumarê in vengeance. Rather than killing him, Xangô drove him away from the earth and back into the sky. He secretly returns to earth via a rainbow, and his symbols are the serpent and the rainbow.

Oxumarê’s children are marked by incredible beauty, but they can be frail, and they can have nervous temperaments and age prematurely. They are intelligent, eloquent, curious, and dynamic, all of which make them highly alluring. They appreciate art and beauty and aren’t afraid to break social norms. Oxumarê’s colors are yellow or green and black and his greeting is “AroMoboi.”

Nanã

Nanã is the female Orixá of rain. She is also considered the very oldest of the Orixás and is often called the oldest of the elderly. She dwells in swamps and in muddy areas. She may have made the bodies of men from clay, ready for life to be breathed into them. She is considered responsible for linking the spiritual and material elements of a person when they are born and separating them again when they die.

The daughters of Nanã are rarely considered beautiful, and they are not afflicted with vanity. They are often gifted with great physical strength. They don’t tend to be sexual and get along best without men in their lives. They always work hard and cannot tolerate laziness.

Nanã dances in a dignified manner and carries an ibiri, which is like a cornucopia, which symbolizes her relationship with birth and death. Her day of the week is Monday, and she wears dark blue, lilac, and white. Her greeting is “Saluba.”

Hasidic Judaism, a vibrant branch of the Jewish faith, holds a distinctive place in the mosaic of religious traditions. Its rich tapestry of beliefs and practices is woven from centuries of spiritual inquiry and devotion, rising from the ashes of persecution to reach great heights of wisdom and inspiration.

The Origins and Evolution of Hasidism

Hasidic Judaism emerged in the 18th century in Eastern Europe, a time marked by social upheaval and religious fervor. Judaism had undergone great disappointments including the rise and fall of the false messiah Sabbatai Zevi, and the religion had become legalistic and uninspiring.

Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, is regarded as the founder of Hasidism, bringing back verve and religious fervor to Jewish people across Europe and Eurasia. His teachings emphasized the accessibility of spirituality to all, irrespective of scholarly attainment or social status. He emphasized a personal, joyous, and authentic connection to God (HaShem).

The Baal Shem Tov’s disciples, known as the tzaddikim, spread his teachings across Eastern Europe, establishing Hasidic communities that became centers of religious fervor and communal solidarity. Over time, different Hasidic dynasties formed, each led by a revered tzaddik who served as a spiritual guide and leader.

Despite facing opposition from more traditionalist elements within Judaism, Hasidism continued to thrive, attracting a diverse array of followers drawn to its emphasis on joyous worship, mystical insights, and devotion to tzaddikim. Today, major centers of Hasidic life exist in Israel, the United States, Canada, and Europe, with smaller communities scattered across other countries. Current estimates suggest that there are several hundred thousand Hasidic Jews globally, with the largest concentrations found in urban centers such as New York City, Jerusalem, and London.

Sects and Denominations of Hasidism

Hasidic Judaism encompasses a diverse array of sects, each with its own customs, practices, and spiritual leaders. Major Hasidic dynasties include Satmar, Chabad-Lubavitch, Breslov, Ger, Belz, and Bobov, among others. These sects often differ in their approach to religious observance, their interpretation of Hasidic teachings, and their engagement with the broader world.

Hasidic communities typically have large families, with many adherents sticking to traditional gender roles and family structures. Marriage at a young age and high fertility rates have contributed to population growth within these communities. Additionally, close-knit family networks and communal support systems play a significant role in shaping social and demographic dynamics which are based on a traditional, conservative understanding of families, sexuality, and morality.

Education holds a central place in Hasidic communities, with a strong emphasis on religious study and Torah learning from a young age. Hasidic children typically attend yeshivas (religious schools) that prioritize Jewish religious and cultural education. While some members of the community pursue higher education and enter professional fields, many opt for occupations within their own communities, such as teaching, rabbinical leadership, or entrepreneurship in collaboration with fellow Hasidim (Hasidic people).

Hasidic Beliefs and Values

1. Divine Presence and Everyday Life

Central to Hasidic belief is the concept of the Shekhinah, the divine presence that permeates all aspects of existence. Hasidim believe that every moment and action offers an opportunity for spiritual connection and elevation.

Through prayer, study, and righteous deeds, adherents seek to cultivate awareness of the Divine in their daily lives. The practice of mindfulness, (“hitbodedut”) involves seeking solitude to commune with God and reflect on one’s spiritual journey. This intimate connection with the Divine infuses everyday activities with sacred significance, fostering a deeper sense of purpose and meaning.

2. Joyful Worship and Celebration

Hasidic Judaism emphasizes the importance of joyous worship and celebration as expressions of love for the Divine. Through music, dance, and communal gatherings, adherents engage in spirited expressions of devotion and gratitude.

Niggunim, wordless melodies sung with fervor and emotion, are a hallmark of Hasidic worship, serving as vehicles for transcendent experiences and spiritual connection. High-energy dancing, particularly during festive occasions such as weddings and holidays, symbolizes the soul‘s yearning for reunion with the Divine.

3. Reverence for the Wisdom and Insights from the Kabbalah

Rooted in the mystical teachings of Kabbalah, Hasidic thought delves into esoteric interpretations of Jewish scripture and tradition. Adherents believe in the interconnectedness of all existence and seek to uncover deeper spiritual truths through contemplation and study of sacred texts.

The teachings of Kabbalah provide a framework for understanding the nature of the Divine and the workings of the universe. Hasidic masters expound upon these mystical concepts, offering insights into the soul’s journey, the nature of God’s providence, and the significance of the mitzvot (commandments) for spiritual growth.

4. The Power and Importance of Prayer and Devotion

Prayer occupies a central role in the spiritual life of Hasidic Jews, serving as a means of establishing a direct connection with the Divine. Through fervent supplication and heartfelt devotion, adherents seek to deepen their relationship with God and align their will with Divine purpose in preparation for the coming of the Moshiach (messiah).

Daily prayer services, conducted with meticulous attention to tradition and intentionality, provide opportunities for communal worship and spiritual upliftment. Personal prayer, (hitbodedut) can be done in many places including out in nature, allowing individuals to pour out their hearts to God in moments of solitude, seeking solace, guidance, and forgiveness.

5. Tikkun Olam and the Reparation of the World

Hasidic Judaism places great emphasis on the concept of tikkun olam—“repairing the world”—through acts of loving-kindness and improvement of the community. Adherents are called to embody compassion and righteousness in their interactions with others, working towards the betterment of society and the alleviation of suffering.

The pursuit of tikkun olam extends beyond individual acts of charity to encompass systemic change and advocacy on behalf of the marginalized and oppressed. Hasidic communities are active participants in efforts to address social issues such as poverty, hunger, and injustice, motivated by a commitment to uphold the dignity and worth of every human being.

6. Reverence for Spiritual Elders and Tzaddikim

Hasidic communities hold their tzaddikim in high esteem, viewing them as channels of divine wisdom and guidance. These righteous leaders are believed to possess a heightened spiritual awareness, enabling them to offer insight and assistance to their followers on their spiritual paths.

The relationship between a tzaddik and their followers is characterized by mutual respect and devotion. Hasidim turn to their tzaddikim for counsel, blessings, and intercession in times of need, trusting in their ability to serve as mediators between the earthly realm and the Divine.

It is not only the tzaddikim’s guidance in the here and now that is valued but also the contributions and words of tzaddikim and great rabbis of the past.

7. Veneration of the Words of the Tzaddikim

Hasidim revere the words of their great rabbis and leaders who have guided them through the ages, starting with their founder Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760). As the founder of Hasidic Judaism, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, also known as the Besht, articulated foundational principles that continue to resonate with Hasidic adherents today.

He emphasized the importance of simplicity, sincerity, and joy in serving God, teaching that every action, no matter how mundane, can be imbued with holiness. As he said: “Forgetfulness leads to exile, while remembrance is the secret of redemption.”

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was the great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov and was renowned for his profound teachings on faith, joy, and spiritual resilience. He emphasized the power of prayer, personal introspection, and unwavering trust in God’s providence as pathways to inner peace and enlightenment, saying “…the whole world is a very narrow bridge, and the main thing is not to be afraid at all.”

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (1740-1809) was known for his passionate advocacy on behalf of the Jewish people. He embodied the spirit of compassion and intercession. He taught that every individual possesses intrinsic worth and dignity in the eyes of God, and encouraged his followers to cultivate empathy and loving-kindness towards all.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859), also known as the Kotzker Rebbe, challenged his followers to confront the illusions and pretensions of the ego in their quest for spiritual authenticity. He emphasized the importance of self-awareness, intellectual rigor, and uncompromising honesty in the pursuit of truth. As he advised followers, “Where is God to be found? In the place where He is given entry.”

Finally, Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneersohn of Lubavitch (1860-1920) articulated profound teachings on the nature of the soul, the significance of Torah study, and the importance of spreading divine light throughout the world. He emphasized the transformative power of love, prayer, and mitzvot in cultivating a deeper connection to God. As he said: “A little light dispels much darkness.”

The Future of Hasidism

Hasidic communities face various challenges, including maintaining cultural distinctiveness in an increasingly secular world, navigating tensions between tradition and modernity, and addressing social issues such as poverty and access to education. At the same time, these communities are also characterized by resilience, solidarity, and a strong sense of collective identity. Hasidic Judaism offers a profound spiritual path rooted in a deep reverence for the Divine and a commitment to communal solidarity and real-world action.

Through the cultivation of awareness of the Divine presence, reverence for tzaddikim, joyous worship, mystical insights, fervent prayer, and acts of loving-kindness, adherents seek to lead lives imbued with holiness and meaning. By exploring these fundamental beliefs and practices, we gain a deeper appreciation for the richness and vitality of the Hasidic tradition within the broader background of Jewish faith and spirituality.

Over the years, Aboriginal activism has taken many forms. It has addressed every aspect of Aboriginal life, from the battle for civil rights to land ownership, from the fight for a less stereotypical depiction of Aborigines in film and television to a campaign for citizenship. In 1924 Fred Maynard founded the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA), the first Aboriginal organization to hold conferences and street rallies and inform non-Indigenous Australians about the everyday conditions of Aboriginal people. The formation of the AAPA represents the official beginning of Aboriginal activism. Let’s look at the aboriginal writers whose actions and words influenced (and were influenced by) this crucial moment in Australian history.

1. Faith Bandler: (Gently) Changing the Australian Constitution

Faith Bandler (1918-2015) was known as “the gentle activist.” She was born in New South Wales at a time when, to put it with her own words, Aboriginal people “were totally controlled by the government,” their lives regulated by the Aboriginal Welfare Board.

Her father, Peter Mussing, had married Faith’s mother, Ida, a woman of Scottish-Indian descent, after fleeing the sugarcane fields of Queensland to settle in New South Wales. Originally from the volcanic island of Ambrym, he was one of the many South Sea Islanders blackbirded from their homes and forcibly brought to Australia to work on sugar plantations. Faith visited Ambrym Island in 1975, more than nine decades after her father was kidnapped and taken to Queensland, and 50 years after his death.

The stories her father told her about Ambrym stayed with her throughout her life. So did the terrible tales her husband Hans Bandler (1914-2009), an engineer of Jewish origins, brought with him to Australia about the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald where he was imprisoned by the Nazi regime in 1938.

Bandler arrived in Australia during World War II, at a time when Faith was working on fruit farms for the Australian Women’s Land Army with her sister Kath. It was here that Faith learned first-hand that Aboriginal women were paid less than their fellow workers. Almost twenty years later, Bandler became the face of the 1967 Indigenous federal referendum when she was appointed New South Wales campaign director. In the 1960s, Aboriginal Australians were still not counted on the census. As a result, their rights fell outside the orbit of the Commonwealth laws.

The Referendum campaign was a team effort, of course. Aboriginal activists from across the country came together to try and convince white Australians to put themselves in their shoes. They succeeded. On May 27, 1967, 90.77 percent of Australians voted “yes” to change the Constitution. The Referendum campaign was a crucial moment in her life and in the history of Australia. Years later, Faith Bandler stated in an interview that “there were times when I would take as many as three meetings in a day. And I did things that I would never have dreamed of doing: like going into a pulpit, talking to church congregations, and putting up with people whose ideas were totally foreign to me. And all I wanted was their vote.”

2. Pearl Gibbs: Fighting the NSW Aborigines Protection Board 

Pearl Gibbs (1901-1983) was born in New South Wales, like her friend and fellow-activist Faith Bandler. Her mother was an Aboriginal woman of the Ngemba people, her father a white man. In 1923, she married a British sailor, Robert James Gibbs. Gibbs lived all her life between two worlds, and her activism was always influenced by this sensitivity.

Over the course of her life, she campaigned at length against the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board, the Australian state-run institution which ever since the 1880s exercised wide-ranging control over the lives of Aboriginal people and was responsible for the injustices suffered by the children of the Stolen Generations.

In 1917, when she was only 16, Gibbs began working as a domestic servant, like many Aboriginal women before and after her did. More than 20 years later, in 1938, she was instrumental in organizing the first Day of Mourning. On January 26th, white Australians gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet. Meanwhile, Aboriginal Australians gathered to remind white Australians of “the callous treatment of our people by the whitemen during the past 150 years, and we appeal to the Australian nation of today to make new laws for the education and care of Aborigines,” as stated in the resolution they released.

In 1956, Aunty Gibbs joined forces with Faith Bandler and together they founded the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship. The two women understood that to achieve permanent and substantial change they needed to connect with non-Aboriginal Australians, and so they did.

Over the years, they worked together to build a community of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, a community in which, however, non-Aboriginal people would work for and help Aboriginal Australians and not the other way round. They were always very clear about the power dynamics they did (not) want to create.

Over the years, they worked with many non-Aboriginal women activists, such as Jessie Street and Joan Strack. They drew attention to the fact that ever since 1788 Aboriginal women have been oppressed by white men and women alike. In her 1941 Radio Broadcast (re-published by Anita Heiss and Peter Minter in their Anthology of Australian Aboriginal Literature) she openly stated that “my people have had 153 years of the white man’s and white woman’s cruelty and injustice and unchristian treatment imposed on us.”

A talented public speaker, Gibbs understood the importance of radio and television in raising awareness about the conditions of her people. In her 1941 radio broadcast, she openly calls out Australia’s unfair treatment of Aborigines, who were, at the time she was speaking, “Australia’s untouchables.” She reminds her audience that any child born to an Aboriginal mother and white father outside of marriage “has to grow up as an unwanted member of an apparently unwanted race.” And that “hundreds of white men, women and children owe their very lives to Aborigine trackers and runners.”

Obvious as they may seem now, these were powerful words to be uttered on the radio, especially at a time when the rights of Aboriginal people were the least of concerns for many Australians. Gibbs wisely acknowledged this by directly addressing the ongoing war.

She reminded Australians that, just as thousands of Aboriginal people fought in the Boer War and in the 1914-18 War, thousands were now fighting in World War II, including her own son. “We the Aborigines,” she states, “are proving to the world that we are not only helping to protect Australia but also the British Empire.” Therefore, it is their right and duty to ask for full citizenship, “an equal number of Aborigines as whites on the Welfare Board,” and ultimately “friendship.”

“I’m asking your practical help for a new and better deal for my race. Remember we, the Aboriginal people, are the creditors.” Gibbs’ voice continues to resonate loud and clear half a century later.

3. Oodgeroo Noonuccal: Civil Rights & Poetry

Oodgeroo Noonuccal is the traditional Aboriginal name Kath Walker (1920-1993) chose for herself in 1988 to protest the Australian Bicentennial celebration. Oodgeroo means “paperbark.” Noonuccal is the name of the Traditional Owners of Minjerribah, now known as North Stradbroke Island, off the coast of Brisbane in Southeast Queensland.

One year before, she had returned the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) she had been awarded in 1970. Noonuccal was born in 1920 in Minjerribah. Her father, Edward, belonged to the Noonuccal tribe, and he was the one who taught her and her siblings about Aboriginal culture, stories, and skills. In 1972, on the land of her ancestors, she established the Noonuccal-Nughie Education and Cultural Centre to teach Aboriginal culture directly to Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians alike.

Children of all backgrounds were welcome; if the kids were green, she said in a 1987 interview, “I’d like them too…I’m color blind, you see.” Noonuccal left school in 1933, at the age of thirteen, embarked on one of the few careers open to Aboriginal young women: domestic service. 30 years later, in 1964, she would become the first published Aboriginal woman in Australia with her book of poems, We Are Going. It was an extraordinary success.

When some critics accused her poetry of being merely propaganda, she proudly embraced this critique. Before becoming the acclaimed writer and activist we know today, during the war Oodgeroo tried to become a nurse but was rejected because of her Aboriginal descent. She then served as a signaller in Brisbane and joined the Communist Party of Australia, the only party to oppose the White Australia Policy.

Her poems and activism stem from these experiences. No More Boomerang, written in 1966, perfectly captures the precarity experienced by many Aboriginal Australians in the 1960s. Each stanza follows the same pattern: it begins with an assessment of what Aborigines have lost to European colonization: “no more boomerang / no more spear,” “no more corroboree, gay dance and din”; “no more message-stick; lubras and lads.”

Those Aboriginal people who survived the impact of colonization did so by adapting. To adapt, they had to accept the European culture brought by colonization. In Noonuccal’s poem, this new culture is symbolized by pubs (“color bar and beer”); by the omnipresent television (“got television now, mostly ads”); by movies (“now we got movies, / and pay to go in”); by precarious jobs and unemployment (“now we track bosses / to catch a few job, / now we go walkabout / on bus to the job”).

And, of course, the atomic bomb. The last stanza of No More Boomerang goes like this:

“Lay down the woomera,

Lay down the waddy.

Now we got atom-bomb,

End everybody.”

Oodgeroo Noonuccal is now widely hailed as “the grandmother of Aboriginal poetry.” She died in 1993, and was laid to rest on Minjerriba, the island of her father and her ancestors. It was not far from the home she bought and named Moongalba, in 1972, her “sitting-down-place.”

4. Alexis Wright: Literature & Healing 

Alexis Wright (1950) is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. She is also a writer and a land rights activist. One of her most beloved novels, Carpentaria, is set precisely in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the land of her ancestors. In 2018, she delivered The Power and Purpose of Literature, widely known as the Boisbouvier Oration, at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

Wright begins her oration by recalling the story of the ten-year battle fought (and won) by the Gurindji people against Vestey’s, a British company that owned the Wave Hill pastoral property in the Northern Territory. The property stood on the land the Gurindji had lived on from time immemorial. During their ten-year legal battle, she says, the Gurindji “kept telling their story straight,” and that’s how they eventually managed to “achieve land rights over part of their traditional lands.”

Indigenous strength she states “comes from the strength of these stories, and ancestral heroes being imbued into our spirit.” Similarly, Aboriginal storytelling draws its power from its “deep relationships to ancestral stories.” In her speech, Wright tackles a great variety of themes and stories, all of which can be traced to the power of literature in healing and survival.

Indigenous literature is about finding relief from the burden of traumatic experiences while learning to navigate the complexities of the present. Indigenous writers, she notes, are finally writing their way out of a “quagmire of questions,” questions “that must be written to relieve the burden they have on the mind.” Indigenous people write so that they or their descendants will be able to “pass through fences, fence after fence, to find an explanation in our thoughts, to reach an understanding we can live with.”

Australian society is still struggling with old prejudices about Aboriginal people, as proven by the 2023 Indigenous Voice Referendum. Alexis Wright urges Aboriginal writers to challenge these stereotypes in their works and foster a discourse about the complexities and distinct realities of Australia’s multiracial society. Instead of sitting among themselves, “separate from the rest of the world as if we are the only people on the planet,” she hopes Aboriginal men and women will be able to “draw strength from our combined heritages, to grow stronger imaginatively and more creatively.” Our increasingly globalized world, she writes, is “becoming more in need of writers who can think far more deeply and bravely than ever before, to tell of the complexities, scope and connectiveness of our existence.”

5. Marcia Langton: The Importance of Education  

Marcia Langton’s (1951) life and activism are inseparable from academia. A descendant of the Yiman and Bidjara nations of Queensland, she moved around a lot as a child, before finally settling in Brisbane where she started high school and met Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

Neville Bonner and Noonuccal educated her on the “importance of being able to respond to complex issues with the right words, good ideas, and a well-argued case.” Hence, her faith in the power of education and academia. “I still believe,” she says in an interview published by Macquarie University, “that education is the most powerful tool for change; for economic empowerment; and for the successful advocacy of intransigent human rights issues, such as the rights of Aboriginal people.”

In 1984 Langton earned her degree in anthropology at the Australian National University. Five years later, she worked at length on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody and authored the groundbreaking report Too Much Sorry Business.

In 1992 she was appointed chair of AIATSIS in Canberra, and in 1999, she was granted an audience with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace to discuss the possibility of an apology, along with four other senior Aboriginal figures: Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue, Gatjil Djerrkura, Peter Yu, and Pat Dodson. In 2000 she was appointed Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne and in 2016 she became a distinguished professor and one year later associate provost.

In 2023, she actively campaigned for a “Yes” vote in the Indigenous Voice Referendum. The list of her academic qualifications and achievements is long and exhaustive, but it doesn’t tell her whole story. To truly understand Langton’s contribution to Aboriginal people and Australia, it is necessary to turn to the books, essays, and articles she has authored over the past few decades.

She has discussed Aboriginal Law with Aaron Corn in First Knowledges Law: The Way of the Ancestors (2023) and Indigenous owned and operated tourism experiences in Welcome To Country (2018). She has also co-authored Gunyah, Goondie & Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia (2007) with Paul Memmott, where they explore Indigenous-designed architecture across Australia, and It’s Our Country (2016), a collection of essays about constitutional recognition, with Megan Davis. To put it with June Oscar AO, one of Langton’s main contributions to the cause of her people is to have made Indigenous people understand and believe that “Indigenous knowledge needs to be a foundational part of western academic institutions.”

6. Romaine Moreton: Examining Film and TV

In discussing her life and career, Marcia Langton once wrote: “I adhere to an approach that I learnt when I was in my twenties, which was summed up in the saying, ‘The world is run by those who show up.’” Like Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Pearl Gibbs before her, she has been showing up for almost 50 years, defending the rights of her people.

The same can be said for Aboriginal activist, writer, and filmmaker Romaine Moreton (1969), a woman of the Goenpul people from Stradbroke Island in Southern Queensland and the Bundjalung peoples from northern New South Wales. The lands of her ancestors have always deeply influenced her works, and so has Australian colonial history. “The things I have to say and how I say them are a direct response to the environment in which I have grown up and continue to live in,” she once stated.

“To create works that do not deal with the morbid and mortal effects of racism for one, and the beauty of Indigenous culture for another, would be for me personally, to produce works that are farcical.” Her writings situate themselves at the crossroads between poetry, academic research, and filmmaking. One Billion Beats, for example, is the epitome of Moreton’s approach to art and political activism.

First performed in 2016 at Campbelltown Arts Centre in New South Wales and written by Moreton herself, One Billion Beats is a transmedia work, a performance as well as the result of years of research. Moreton takes to the stage and provides the viewers with an Aboriginal perspective on cinema, a medium that up until the 1970s was the exclusive prerogative of white Australians. As such, it was another means to advance the principles that form the basis of the White Australia policy. To reiterate, more or less subtly, the supposed backwardness of Aboriginal people and, on the contrary, the confidence of white Australians.

As she investigates the historical representation of Aboriginal people in Australian cinema and TV, Moreton takes as examples films that span more than five decades, from Chauvel’s Jedda (1955) to Luhrmann’s Australia (2009). She carefully employs the medium of the oppressor to dismantle the oppressor’s myths. “Each of us has the ability to cast a spell,” she says. “When we tell a story, when we engage in communication, we are all spellcasters. We all have that potential. But part of our responsibility is also to bring audiences out of it. That’s our responsibility as a spell-caster. What I am dealing with talking about these films is interrogating a spell that has been cast across our whole country by Western technology.”

Other Activists and Writers

Far from being comprehensive, this article represents a starting point for anyone interested in female Aboriginal activism. Journalist Emily Nicol once wrote that “women are recognised for having a uniquely different perspective when it comes to fighting for their culture and way of life. While both men and women are equally important when addressing systems that seek to dismantle cultural ways and take away land rights, women hold knowledges on certain aspects of country, medicines, bush foods, songs, and ways of being on the land that are integral to the strength of their community.” Here is a list of other (no less important) female activists you might want to learn more about:

1. Shirley Coleen Smith (Mum Shirl), involved in the 1970s Aboriginal land rights movement;
2. Hyllus Noel Maris, active in the field of Aboriginal education
3. Pat Dudgeon, an activist for Aboriginal suicide prevention
4. Lisa Bellear, a spokeswoman for the Stolen Generations, as well as a poet, photographer, broadcaster, and comedian
5. Larissa Behrendt, one of the most important Aboriginal Australian legal academics and filmmakers
6. Aileen Moreton-Robinson, author of the seminal book The White Possessive (2015)
7. Jenny Munro, one of the most prominent Aboriginal activists and environmentalists
8. Pat O’ Shane, a fierce defendant of Aboriginal female rights (and the first female Aboriginal magistrate in Australian history).

A ship known as ‘The Quest’, which once belonged to British-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, was discovered in the Labrador Sea off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada last Sunday. The rescue operation was led by a team working for The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS). Alexandria Shackleton, the explorer’s granddaughter, says this is “the last discovery in the Shackleton story.”

Ernest Shackleton

Shackleton was a pioneering explorer during the early 20th century, whose travels in Antarctica earned him a knighthood. After working as the third officer on Captain Falcon Scott’s Discovery Expedition (1901-1904), he became leader of the Nimrod Expedition (1907-1909), during which time he and his team travelled closer than anyone in history to the South Pole. He went on to lead the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), followed by his last journey, the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition in 1921. His 1,280 ft long ship, which he called the Foca, was later renamed The Quest by Lady Shackleton.

Shackleton’s Last, Fateful Journey

During his final voyage aboard The Quest, Shackleton had hoped to study the area around Baffin Bay, Canada. But unable to secure financial support for the mission, he hoped instead to map the coastal areas and islands of Antarctica, gathering specimens and looking for sites to install weather stations and other infrastructures. However, Shackleton was unable to complete his last journey, as he suffered a heart attack aboard the ship in 1922, when he was just 47 years old. His death was the only one ever to occur on any of the expeditions he led.

The Quest Continued On

Following Shackleton’s death, his ship continued to be used for polar expeditions for a further 40 years. Among its many adventures were the rescuing of survivors from the Italia airship crash, and acting as a Royal Navy cargo ship and minesweeper during World War II. During a seal hunting trip in 1962, the ship was badly damaged by ice, and it sank to the bottom of the ocean following the rescue of the ship hands.

Finding the Ship

Due to fluctuations in sea currents, the precise location of the ship has remained elusive until recently, when a major operation was launched by the RGCS, led by John Geiger. The team made use of historic maps and modern charts, along with side scan sonar to find the ship, which was remarkably intact, lying on the ocean bed at a depth of 1,280 feet.

Only the main mast appears to be broken, hanging over the ship’s side. Associate search director Antoine Normandin says the ship will remain exactly where it is, since it is a protected wildlife area. “But we do hope to go back and photograph it with a remotely operated vehicle,” he told the BBC, “to really understand its state.”

A Historic Discovery

The esteemed shipwreck hunter David Mearns spoke to the BBC about the rare discovery, noting its great important place in the history of polar exploration. He said, “[Shackleton’s] final voyage kind of ended that Heroic Age of Exploration, of polar exploration, certainly in the south. Afterwards, it was what you would call the scientific age. In the pantheon of polar ships, Quest is definitely an icon.”

Alexandra Shackleton also sees its discovery as a momentous moment for the preservation of her family legacy, and the significant closing of a personal chapter, telling New Atlas, “My grandfather, Sir Ernest Shackleton, had purchased Quest with the intention of leading a Canadian Arctic Expedition. It is perhaps fitting that the ship should have ended its storied service in Canadian waters.” She added, “I have long hoped for this day and I am grateful to those who made this incredible discovery.”

On the Bay of Naples in 79 CE, the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii and the many towns, villages, and villas surrounding it. Buried beneath lapilli and ash, Pompeii lay dormant for almost 1,600 years before it was rediscovered. In the years since, archaeologists have been dedicated to uncovering the secrets below the soil and bringing the stories of the people who lived there back to life. But why is this ancient city still so important 2,000 years after it was destroyed?

The Rediscovery of Pompeii

Rumors whirled around for centuries that towns in the area local to Naples were buried by the volcano in ancient times, and ancient literary records from Pliny the Younger and Tacitus told the story of how this happened. However further eruptions, particularly in 471–473 and 512, covered any remains there might have been more deeply and the town of Pompeii fell into legend. But in the late sixteenth century, Domenico Fontana, while digging a water channel through Pompeii to make an underground aqueduct to serve the local area, discovered an ancient wall covered in inscriptions.

The shaft entered the entombed walled city north of the Sarno Gate, cut across via dell’Abbondanza in the vicinity of Insula II.5, and traversed the city close to via di Castricio and via del Tempio d’Iside (one block south of via dell’Abbondanza). Crossing the forum, it exited north of the Porta Marina. It was here that the diggers encountered buildings and wall paintings, but the discoveries did not stimulate further interest. Fontana decided to keep it a secret, and so it remained, until 1689 when Francesco Picchetti found a wall inscription mentioning decurio Pompeiis (“town councilor of Pompeii”).

However, instead of ascribing it to the ancient city of Pompeii mentioned in the ancient texts, he instead associated it with the villa of Pompey, the famous Roman general who lived around the same time as Julius Caesar in the late Republic. It was Francesco Bianchini who eventually pointed out the true meaning of the inscription. This was supported by Giuseppe Macrini, who in 1693 excavated some walls and wrote that Pompeii lay beneath La Civita

(the local legend of a buried ancient city). Work did not begin at Pompeii until 1748, and in 1763 an inscription (“Rei publicae Pompeianorum”) was discovered. This is what identified the site as Pompeii.

Early Excavations at Pompeii

Today, Pompeii is the longest continually excavated archaeological site in the world, and has provided historians with a glimpse into ancient life in an ordinary Roman town. This all began in the Roman period, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander (r.222-235 CE) when workers were ordered to uncover the town. However, they found that the thick layers of lapilli were virtually impenetrable and they abandoned the effort.

It was as a result of excavations at nearby Herculaneum that efforts to find Pompeii were begun in the 17th century. Previous to the eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii originally lay 128 feet (39m) above sea level, on a prehistoric lava flow about 5 miles (8km) from the foot of Vesuvius. During the eruption, hot ash and gases (known as pyroclastic flows) traveled at speeds of up to 100mph (161 kph) into the towns in the surrounding area, knocking down buildings and killing all living beings in their wake.

The stages of the eruption, and the time of each, can be traced in the layers of material left behind. This has taught us much about the experience of the people living in the area of the time, as well as the reliability of ancient sources (such as Pliny the Younger who recorded the event), and volcanic eruptions more generally.

There were two main phases of Vesuvius’ eruption. These were called Vesuvian and Pelean, and alternated six times. The first released pumice, hot gases, and ash, with the pumice reaching up to the first floor in Pompeii. The Pelean phase consisted of pyroclastic flows, the ash solidifying all that remained in Pompeii. It was because of this final phase, and the exact weather conditions of the day, that Pompeii was preserved as it was for archaeologists to find centuries later. And it is this tragic, but serendipitous turn of events, which has made the town so special and important to history enthusiasts and archaeologists across the world.

How Early Excavations at Pompeii Changed History

When the first systematic excavations began in the 1700s, it was most akin to a treasure hunt. So-called excavators, working on behalf of King Charles III of Naples (known as Charles of Bourbon), were on the hunt for silver and gold, as well as marble statues, to sell and adorn the palaces. In addition to this, the excavations would enhance Charles’ international reputation and cement his position as head of a new ruling dynasty in Naples. Also at this time, Europe was entering a period of classical revival in terms of architecture and art, making the treasures found here sought-after items for the houses of the European elite.

The Grand Tour, a coming-of-age journey taken around Europe by royalty, writers, poets, and artists, was also getting into full swing during the time of the Bourbon excavations.

Soon, Pompeii was a ‘must-see’ on the Grand Tour itinerary, with many visitors recording their time at the site in words and images. Many of these are now excellent sources for historians wishing to reconstruct the early excavations and reception of the site. On the occasion that a particularly important dignitary would visit, sudden ‘discoveries’ would be made in the trenches, with the lucky visitor often taking home a memento of the discovery upon their departure.

The influence of Pompeii upon art, literature, poetry, and music was substantial during this time, and this fascination would continue to evolve over the years as excavations continued. In the nineteenth century, the slapdash treasure-hunting approach of the Bourbon excavations was abandoned in favor of order and record-keeping under the management of the new director, Giuseppe Fiorelli. It was Fiorelli who altered the view of Pompeii as a place of treasure to a place of stories and histories. Though not perfect, archaeologists and historians today are nonetheless indebted to his systematic note keeping during excavations, and the many things his team found there.

The Age of Amadeo Maiuri

As a Professor at the University of Naples, author of some 300 publications, archaeologist of one of the world’s most significant historical sites, and always impeccably dressed, Amadeo Maiuri left a legacy in Pompeii that cannot be ignored. In 1924, after some time working on various archaeological sites in Europe, Maiuri was installed as Director of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, as well as Chief of the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and superintendent of antiquities for the region of Campania.

Maiuri and his teams exposed many new areas of the town and proposed chronologies in the history of the town which are still discussed in important scholarly debates today.

Excavations in a house previously discovered in 1770, the House of the Surgeon (so named due to the surgical equipment found here), were restarted in 1926 by his teams. This revealed levels below the 79 CE level (dating back to the third century BCE) and taught us much about the development of the town previous to the Roman period. During the war, he did much to protect the artifacts from ending up in the hands of Nazis during their regular pillaging of museums.

Many outputs of Pompeii have been positive, though the same cannot always be said of the influences involved in the town’s excavation. During World War II, Maiuri was subject to the fascist rule of his home country, Italy, and his work flourished under the patronage of the scheme. One key aspect of the Italian fascist regime was propaganda modeled on the classical theme of “romanità,” translated as the “Roman way or manner” and modeled on the Latin concept of romanitas. Maiuri was ultimately responsible for perpetuating the image of Pompeii as “frozen in time,” though this was ultimately communicated to support the image of technological progression, willpower, and hard work in the ‘New Italy’ created by Mussolini. Once again, Pompeii was an important factor in changing history in the modern world.

The Importance of Ongoing Finds at Pompeii

Maiuri restarted excavations after the delay of WWII, and from 1951 onwards uncovered large areas of the town to the south of the Via dell’Abbondanza, the town’s main street, in Regions I and II. All debris that had been left outside of the city up until this point was also removed, revealing the Nuceria Gate and a necropolis just outside of the walls. By the 1990s, about two-thirds of the city had been revealed.

In this time, two amphitheaters, hundreds of houses and shops, workshops, inns, stables, brothels, temples, gardens, vineyards, and baths were uncovered. In each, the frescoes painted by skilled workers, and the many artifacts left behind by former inhabitants, opened up a window onto an ancient civilization whose time was cut short. For the first time, archaeologists and historians had tangible evidence on a large scale for the ways of the ancients they had been reading about in the ancient texts for centuries.

In numerous buildings, the cavities left by the decayed remains of Vesuvius’ victims in the hardened ash, were filled with Plaster of Paris. As the hardened material was pulled away by excavators, the form of people living two thousand years ago was revealed to modern eyes, complete with the markings of clothes and shoes. Inside, their bones unlocked secrets about ancient nutrition, illness, and health, importantly taken from a population killed by a natural disaster, rather than natural causes.

Later, this technique was applied to plants, telling us much about the diets and occupations of the local population. Due to the long-term excavations at the site, almost all new technological advances have been tested in Pompeii, meaning that it has remained at the forefront of archaeological discovery. And the advances show no sign of stopping any time soon.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, China signed unequal treaties, forced upon it following military defeats. The terms dictated that China give up territorial and sovereignty rights, allowing foreign countries, like Japan or the U.K., to exempt their citizens from Chinese law. Another part of the treaty established foreign enclaves in several Chinese cities. The 1901 Boxer Rebellion, the ensuing war, and the defeat of the Qing Dynasty led to the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. The revolt spread as the Qing couldn’t stop it. The last Qing emperor, Puyi, abdicated on February 12, 1912. The nucleus of the Kuomintang (KMT) would form soon after.

Sun Yat-sen: Revolutionary and Leader

No mention of the Kuomintang can be made without looking at Sun Yat-sen, its founder and ideological center. Born in 1866 in Guangdong Province, Sun emigrated to Hawaii to live with his brother. He studied at a British and American school, quickly learning English. He moved to Hong Kong in 1883, became a Christian, and graduated medical school. Sun met anti-Qing revolutionaries in medical school and joined their plots. A planned but failed uprising he helped plot in 1895 sent him to exile to Japan, and the U.S. Sun’s core ideology stressed replacing the Qing Dynasty with a modern nation-state. Upon hearing of the 1911 Revolution, Sun returned to China. On January 1, 1912, he became the provisional President of the Republic of China for only three months.

In August 1912, Sun formed the Kuomintang, known as the Nationalist Party. The years 1916 to 1928 were dubbed “The Warlord Era.” Political infighting and regional military governments dominated that period, with KMT’s base only in southern China.

Sun strengthened the KMT in southern China and, with the Chinese Communist Party’s help, slowly expanded. Sun asked and received help from the Soviet Union, too. In 1924, he published the Three Principles of the People. These were Nationalism, Democracy, and People’s Livelihood, which would set up China as a modern country. Sun became ruler of China after 1923 but passed away in 1925 before he could unify China. That came under his successor, Chiang Kai-shek. 

The Northern Expedition

In 1926, KMT armies under Chiang attacked north to unify China. With some warlords and Soviet assistance, their armies reached Beijing, the capital. Capturing this city gained the KMT international recognition, so Chiang became the accepted leader of China. As the Expedition fought on, Chiang turned on the Communists and politically left KMT members. On April 12, 1927, his forces massacred the Communists. Survivors fled into rural areas, where their power base lay, especially in the future. The Communists began to regroup, uniting peasants against warlords and corrupt KMT officials. 

Stability And Crisis

By 1928, the Kuomintang had unified China and ended the Warlord Era. Wanting to modernize the country, Chiang promoted democratic reforms for voting, women’s rights, and universal education. The KMT, too, wanted to create a welfare state in their direction. These were all part of Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People. The situation wouldn’t remain peaceful for long.

The KMT made strides toward all these goals, but after 1930, the country faced continual crisis. 1931 began with Imperial Japan’s taking Manchuria and then more. The KMT’s German-trained troops proved to be no match. By 1937, vast parts of China had fallen, forcing the KMT to move their capital twice by the 1940s. The KMT battled the Communists, or Reds, and warlord rebellions. Corruption remained a constant problem despite many reforms. 

The Reds: Not Defeated

The 1927 Communist massacre touched off a Civil War that grew worse in the 1930s and only ended with the KMT’s 1949 defeat. The KMT defeated the Reds in 1936, prompting the “Long March.” Mao Zedong led the march, becoming the Communist leader as they reorganized. The Communists did fight the Japanese in a successful guerilla war, tying down Japanese troops that could be used elsewhere. 

1940s: War and Exile

Nationalist China, a major Allied power, and Japan fought bitterly until Japan’s 1945 surrender. The American-backed KMT battled the Soviet-backed Communists in formerly occupied area. By 1948, the KMT had lost significant battles. Problems such as corruption, forced conscription of peasants, and massacres added to their problems. The KMT fled to Taiwan in 1949 permanently. The Kuomintang helped China modernize by breaking that dynastic cycle, stopping foreign domination, and uniting the country. Even the present Communist Chinese have acknowledged the KMT’s legacy, seeing Sun Yat-sen as a revolutionary.

Marcel Duchamp is one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century. He revolutionized painting and sculpture in multiple ways. Although his first readymade dates from 1913, only in 1915 did he attribute a name to his idea. Even though his Fountain became the most (in)famous and controversial piece of art, many have come to know Duchamp for the mustache and beard he drew on the Mona Lisa, which was meant to stress the fact that academic art wasn’t more sacred than ordinary objects.

Who Was Marcel Duchamp?

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was one of the most prominent French artists who revolutionized the concepts of painting and sculpture at the beginning of the 20th century. He is most often associated with Cubism, Dadaism, and Conceptual art.

Duchamp’s artwork revolved around the belief that art was supposed to serve the mind and not the eye. He used to call the latter retinal art and sought to distance himself from it as much as possible. At the beginning of the 1910s, Duchamp started showing interest in transition, movement, and distance, which would later become quintessential in his artwork. In 1912, he painted Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2 which portrays, with elements from Cubism and Futurism, the mechanistic motion of the depicted nude.

During the same decade, Marcel Duchamp developed the concept of readymade, which he thought of as an antidote to retinal art. Marcel Duchamp made only a few original readymades but he also made numerous replicas. They still stand as his most unique artworks that stirred controversy and influenced generations of artists.

What Were Duchamp’s Readymades?

The term readymades refers to found objects Duchamp chose to turn into art. He usually did nothing to those objects except add his signature or play with their position, for example, as he did with the Fountain. Although some readymades caused disgust and laughter when first exhibited, they still stood as the world’s most provocative artworks. Readymades became the subject of fascination among many art theorists too. After all, Duchamp’s ordinary objects became the centerpieces of reevaluating the inadequacies of traditional criteria for art.

By exhibiting his readymades, which did not fit traditional criteria for art, Duchamp claimed them as pieces of art, which prompted theorists to ponder upon a very important question on the nature of art. Art, as a privileged, isolated category, no longer existed, according to Steven Goldsmith. When selecting the objects for his readymades, Duchamp made sure he approached them with complete indifference and a lack of aesthetic emotion.

Bicycle Wheel

Bicycle Wheel, sometimes called the first kinetic sculpture, was created in 1913 in Marcel Duchamp’s studio in Paris. Although it is now widely regarded as a readymade, some art critics and historians do not consider it a pure readymade. Duchamp mounted the wheel upside down onto a stool. He used to spin the wheel and watch it simply because he enjoyed looking at it. According to Duchamp, that wheel turning “was very soothing, very comforting, a sort of opening of avenues on other things than material life of every day.” The original Bicycle Wheel was lost, but this didn’t prevent Duchamp from creating other versions. The third version is a part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Bottle Rack

The Bottle Rack readymade was created in 1914. It is considered the first pure readymade created by Marcel Duchamp. Just as its title implies, the artwork features a metal rack used for bottle drying. Some critics saw Bottle Rack as a piece showing sexual undertones due to its metal spikes, which, apparently, represented the male genitalia.

Duchamp apparently acquired that particular Bottle Rack from a store called Bazal de l’Hôtel de Ville in Paris. Other earlier readymades are not always considered pure readymades because they were slightly altered, but the Bottle Rack remained in its original form. There was only an inscription added on the side.

Duchamp moved to New York in 1915, while that particular bottle rack and other artworks remained in Paris. His sister, Suzanne Duchamp, had to take care of them. A year after arriving in New York, Duchamp wrote to his sister, telling her about the bottle rack. He asked if she could add the inscription to the piece and send it to him. Little did he know that Suzanne had thrown the bottle rack away. Therefore, the original version of the Bottle Rack was discarded by Duchamp’s sister. That particular object would later be sold for millions. However, Duchamp did not consider this to be a problem since the object was a mass-produced item. He created at least seven replicas, some of which are at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Norton Simon Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Moderna Museet.

In Advance of the Broken Arm

In Advance of the Broken Arm is also known as Prelude to a Broken Arm. This piece features a snow shovel with an inscription on its handle saying In Advance of the Broken Arm. The meaning behind its name points to the importance of the snow shovel in keeping oneself safe and sound. Without it, one would slip on ice or snow, fall, and break one’s arm. In his letter to his sister, Duchamp even advised her not to ponder upon the meaning of this readymade title. He advised her not to think of it in the Romantic, Impressionist, or Cubist sense since it had nothing to do with that. Duchamp bought the shovel at a hardware store. He then signed it and hung it from his studio ceiling. Like other readymades, that particular first shovel was lost. Its replica is now displayed at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Fountain

By far the most famous readymade is the Fountain. It has even been named the most influential artwork of the 20th century. It was created in 1917 and it features a porcelain urinal. The object was not altered but only repositioned. In addition, Duchamp also signed it using the name R. Mutt.

Duchamp bought the urinal from a sanitary ware supplier. He then added the inscription and submitted it to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition under the pseudonym R. Mutt. It was accepted because all submissions had to be accepted based on the Society’s constitution, however, they never put it on display. A few years before this event, Duchamp submitted his Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 to the Salon des Indépendants, but the organizers weren’t quite happy with it because of its title and subject. So, Duchamp had to withdraw the painting before the opening of the show.

As a consequence, art historians think that Duchamp might have wanted to test the Society’s openness toward freedom of expression by submitting this artwork under a pseudonym. He was also a member of the Society’s board, so he wanted to prevent biased opinion. Duchamp asked Alfred Stieglitz to photograph the Fountain. Since the original piece was eventually lost, the photograph taken on the 19th of April 1917 stands as one of the most important art-related documents of the 20th century.

L.H.O.O.Q.

L.H.O.O.Q. is what specialists call a rectified readymade. It consists of a postcard portraying Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. However, there’s something different here. Duchamp gave the Mona Lisa a mustache and a beard. The title is a gramogram, meaning that the letters are arranged in a way that, pronounced together, forms one or more words. For example, CU is read as see you. Duchamp’s gramogram ends up sounding like the words Elle a chaud au cul in French. This is a vulgar expression that translates as She is hot in the arse, although Duchamp once used a slightly more formal translation: There is fire down below.

At first, L.H.O.O.Q seemed to outrage people because it was seen as an attack on the original Mona Lisa and traditional art generally. Over the years, however, critics pointed to Duchamp’s attempt of gender reversal by masculinizing the woman. Considering that the Mona Lisa had been seen as the representation of ideal feminine beauty for hundreds of years, Duchamp’s prank, as some call it, challenged that concept.

As Duchamp himself stated, his readymade was an interpretation of the painting—Mona Lisa became a man, and not simply a woman disguised as a man, but a man in the truest meaning of the word. Many historians believed da Vinci was gay. It has even been suggested that by painting women, Leonardo da Vinci obscured his sexuality. In fact, some researchers argue that Mona Lisa was actually inspired by Gian Giacomo Caprotti, a possible lover of da Vinci, and by Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a rich Florentine merchant. Silvano Vinceti claims that the Mona Lisa is androgynous, meaning it’s part male and part female. Leonardo da Vinci thought that a perfect person would be seen in a combination of a man and a woman. Considering this, Marcel Duchamp only did the artwork a favor. He simply helped the hidden male characteristics resurface.

Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette

Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette translates as Beautiful Breath, Veil Water. This assisted readymade was created by Duchamp in 1921 in collaboration with Man Ray. It consists of a Rigaud perfume bottle with the label completely modified. The R of the label became RS reflected in a mirror. The model was replaced with a portrait of Rrose Sélavy, Duchamp’s feminine alter ego. This name had first been used a year before in the signature of another readymade called Fresh Widow. Now, Duchamp went even further by displaying a photo of Rrose that was taken by Man Ray. The original label read Eau de Violette and Un air embaumé (translated as Violet Water and perfumed air), but Duchamp’s version read Belle Haleine and Eau de Voilette (Beautiful Breath and Veil Water). Since Fountain is Duchamp’s most famous piece, you’ll be surprised to learn that Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette surpassed its price. It was sold at auction for 8,913,000 euros.

Australian cinema has earned a reputation for staging thought-provoking stories about the troubled relationship between Australians and the land, which is typically portrayed as a harsh, mysterious, and unforgiving environment. Until the early 1970s, Aboriginal people featured in Australian films as alien figures, impossible for white audiences to relate to, and often played by white actors in blackface. They could be funny, often ridiculous, along the line of an American minstrel show, or framed in a mystical light highlighting their closeness to the land and its mysteries. Their characterization often betrayed the colonial mindset of Australia. Then came David Gulpilil.

A Young Yolgnu Man Gone Walkabout 

1971 was the year of A Clockwork Orange, of Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show and Visconti’s Death in Venice. It was the year of Panic in Needle Park and Carnal Knowledge. Then came Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout, with its flight into the wilderness, its surreal and yet incredibly realistic shots of the Australian Outback and its biblical imagery. The three protagonists, the Girl, the White Boy and the Black Boy, are majestically played by Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, and David Gulpilil.

When Roeg decided to cast Gulpilil, the young Yolgnu man couldn’t speak English at all. Born and raised into one of the world’s oldest continuous cultures, he’d grown up outside the range of white Australian influences in the Maningrida Aboriginal community in the heart of the Arnhem Land region in the Northern Territory.

The promotion tour of Walkabout took Gulpilil across the world, to Europe and the United States, and immersed him in Western culture. Non-Aboriginal journalists and writers often muse about his time spent in the States with important figures of the 1960s counterculture movement such as John Lennon, Jimy Hendrix, Bob Marley, and Marlon Brando. They see it as a watershed event in Gulpilil’s life, the moment in which he finally emerged from the shut off bubble of his Aboriginal community to embrace Western culture. If this tour represented Gulpilil’s initiation into a world he knew nothing, or very little, about, the contrary is also true. Gulpilil’s charismatic presence introduced the world to a culture most people had so far disregarded as non-existent or on the verge of disappearing.

Half a century after its release, Walkabout still feels like a timeless dream. The story is simple, almost uneventful, and yet it speaks on several levels. It’s been said that in his portrayal of the Aboriginal Boy Gulpilil embodies the stereotypical image of the noble savage, the traditional indigenous person who, thanks to his unique and mystical connection with the land, comes to the rescue of two white and traumatized siblings lost in the outback.

From this perspective, Walkabout does nothing to push past the trope of the noble blackfella aimlessly roaming the Australian continent. It’s worth noting, however, that the Girl and her Little Brother are not Australian. They’re British. Gulpilil’s character does come to their rescue and helps them find water in the desert. In leading them through the outback, he does look like the stereotypical spear-throwing Aboriginal. And yet, there’s something more to it.

The Aboriginal Boy is more than just a supporting character. We know very little, almost nothing, about him or his past, but we sense that he is striving for something and that his actions are always justified. He has agency, and this agency is constantly heightened and reinforced by (and through) Gulpilil’s masterful performance.

Gulpilil once said in an interview that Nicolas Roeg decided to cast him after seeing him perform a ceremonial dance in his Maningrida community. Gulpilil’s dance at the end of the film is iconic, and a powerful reaffirmation of Aboriginal culture. The White Girl fears him. She doesn’t understand what she’s witnessing, and she can only watch on, feeling perhaps that she’s missing out on something. That something embodies all that white non-Indigenous Australians (and arguably, non-Indigenous people around the world) who have refused (or failed) to learn about Aborigines and their culture for centuries.

His Name is Gulpilil 

My Name is Gulpilil (2021) has the gentle and delicate progression of a ballad. Molly Reynolds’ documentary film has been described as “a living wake,” a wake that is raw, emotional, and hilarious at the same time. The film powerfully oscillates between past and present, a progression dictated by the nature of the story it is telling: the film’s protagonist, Gulpilil, is dying. First diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017, he was given six months to live. Three years later, when the film entered post-production, he was still alive. This is “my story of my story,” as Gulpilil puts it. There are no talking heads from anyone else.

Perhaps because it was shot when Gulpilil’s death seemed imminent, the film manages to avoid the pitfall of self-celebration. “There was nothing off limits,” the director said in a 2021 interview. Neither Gulpilil nor Molly Reynolds ever shy away from addressing the actor’s multiple criminal charges or his drinking problem. They are never afraid to show his weaknesses and his flaws.

Gulpilil openly discusses his lung cancer, the diagnoses, and his funeral, as well as his yearning to go home one more time, up north, to Arnhem Land. He is astoundingly fearless, honest, and unfiltered. He trusts Molly Reynolds, and it shows. Most of the time, cinematographers Maxx Corkindale and Miles Rowland frame him decentralized, either when he is sitting on his big armchair in the backyard of his house in Murray Bridge (where at the time he was living with his carer Mary) or when he is standing on the shore of a lake or on a dusty road next to an emu.

Gulpilil is as important as the land around him, these shots seem to suggest, and he surely would have agreed. The film, produced by Rolf de Heer (who directed Gulpilil in some of his best films, The Tracker and Charlie’s Country), is about Gulpilil’s life (and imminent death), as well as about his on-screen persona. Clips from his films go hand in hand with archival recordings of his successful theatre shows and shots of him, sick, struggling to breathe, and getting out of bed. 50 years separate David Gulpilil’s breakthrough role in Walkabout (1971) and My Name is Gulpilil (2021): over the course of these 50 years massive changes shook the foundations of Australian society and cinema. The most important (and symbolic) one is of course the 1992 Mabo Case, an historic decision by the High Court that recognized that the Meriam people of Murray Islands should enjoy rights to the lands and waters of their ancestors.

Just like the actions of Eddie Mabo and his people managed to reaffirm the Aboriginal peoples’ ancestral bond with the Australian land, over the course of his long career David Gulpilil has contributed to the decolonization of Australian cinema. Thanks to his powerful screen presence, he has dignified Aboriginal people both on screen and in real life. He understood cinema and how it works, and he used the far-reaching power of the moving image to push past the negative stereotypes surrounding his people. The Last Wave (1977), written and directed by non-Indigenous filmmaker Peter Weir, and described by Gulpilil as “the first film to authentically describe Aboriginal ‘Dreamtime’ mythology,” is a perfect example of this.

Facing and Welcoming: The Last Wave 

In Reynold’s film, as he puffs on his inhaler and takes his pills and painkillers, Gulpilil gives voice to the deep differences in attitudes towards life and death in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures. The Last Wave (1977), the second most significant film in his career after Walkabout (and perhaps Storm Boy), is one of the first works in Australian cinema to engage with Aboriginal culture, values, knowledge, and history without ridiculing or simplifying them. Gulpilil found in Peter Weir a filmmaker willing to engage with a unique culture, and an open mind he could trust to tell a story rooted in Aboriginal Dreamtime myths honestly and respectfully. Peter Weir (and Tony Morphett) admittedly wrote the character of Chris Lee with Gulpilil in mind. But what is The Last Wave about?

Black rain pours down on Sydney. Huge chunks of hail break through the windows of a school in remote Australia. A white solicitor, David Burton (Richard Chamberlain), sits in his car observing the unusually heavy rainfall. He starts having intense and bizarre dreams of running water invading his house, of drowned corpses floating around his car stuck in a traffic jam amid a flood.  Meanwhile, an Aboriginal man has been killed after a pub brawl—drowned, although in a mysterious way. Four Aboriginal men are accused of murder, and Burton is procured for their defence. One of them is Chris Lee (Gulpilil). As Burton desperately tries to understand the meaning behind his apocalyptic dreams, the two men develop an increasingly close relationship. Burton begins to suspect that the murder was an Aboriginal tribal execution.

The dinner table scene is the heart of the film. Two Aboriginal men (Chris Lee and Charlie, played by Amugula Nadjiwarra) sit across from David Burton and his wife Annie (Olivia Hamnett) discussing dreams, the Law, and men. Western rationalism clashes with Aboriginal knowledge. When Burton asks Chris Lee what dreams are, he replies: “Dreams like…seeing, hearing, talking.”

Burton, a logical-thinking lawyer with a typically white Australian family, can only stare at him. Does he understand what Lee is talking about? Do his words resonate with (and within) him, or is he just as lost and confused as the audience is? Chamberlain’s performance here is as powerful and nuanced as Gulpilil’s. “Dream,” Lee continues, “is a shadow of something real.” Interestingly, Gulpilil’s surname means “Kingfisher.”

Had these lines been written by Peter Weir alone, or by any other white, non-Aboriginal filmmaker, this would have been a case of cultural appropriation. Here however, we have a young Aboriginal actor engaging with a young non-Aboriginal writer and director to deliver a powerful story about the common history shared by Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. In the 1970s, Peter Weir was one of the first Australian filmmakers to turn to Aboriginal people and ask consent and permission when dealing with Aboriginal matters. He was soon to be followed by the above-mentioned Rolf de Heer and Molly Reynolds, who collaborated with Gulpilil on several films and documentaries over the next few decades and managed to introduce non-Indigenous audiences to Aboriginal history and culture.

Following The Tracker 

As in Walkabout, the story of The Tracker (2001), written and directed by Rolf de Heer, is rather simple. It’s 1922, and we’re “somewhere in Australia.” A white woman has been murdered. The man accused of her murder is Aboriginal. Three law enforcement officers, the Fanatic, the Follower, and the Veteran, employ an Aboriginal tracker (Gulpilil) to locate the murderer. The Australian outback, with its cracked earth and lush colors, belongs to the Tracker. This is clear from the very first shots: Without him, the three white men wouldn’t know where to go.

The Tracker is a complex character whose goals remain elusive. He is enigmatic, sarcastic, and moved in his actions by a clearly defined set of values. He works within the colonial world he lives in and does what he can to survive without ever betraying his moral principles.

Gulpilil, a master of silence, gives one of his best performances, as we see in the massacre scene, one of the most dramatic moments of the film. The Tracker has inadvertently led the white men to an Aboriginal camp. He spots the men and women gathered on the riverbanks before the others do, but it’s too late for him to turn back without raising their suspicions. Fear gives way to guilt; guilt gives way to pain; pain gives way to sorrowful acceptance. Gulpilil manages to convey all these feelings simultaneously in the span of a few seconds through his subtle body language and facial expression. Not a word is spoken. Carnage ensues. There’s nothing the Tracker can do to save his countrymen, other than withdrawing himself and his body from it.

The Tracker refuses to portray violence and gore graphically and to turn colonial violence into a grisly spectacle for the masses. It substitutes the carnage with paintings, created by South Australian artist Peter Coad specifically for this film and backed by the gorgeous songs written and performed by Aboriginal songwriter and activist Archie Roach (1956-2022), the voice of the stolen generations.

Just like Peter Weir did with The Last Wave and Reynolds will do with Another Country (2015), a powerful documentary film about Aboriginal remote communities, Rolf de Heer engages with Aboriginal culture by seeking the help and consent of Aboriginal people, actors, and songwriters. Through his collaboration with Gulpilil, he manages to create a character, the Tracker, who is never a victim, despite being repeatedly threatened, chained, and verbally abused.

De Heer’s film situated itself within the newly found awareness about Aboriginal land rights following the 1992 Mabo case. In rejecting the concept of terra nullius, it proved that the land had been stolen, settled, and conquered at the expense of the Aboriginal people. It also proved that the British Empire had acquired the land without buying it or leasing it, and most importantly, without signing treaties with the indigenous people, the custodians of the land from time immemorial. It also implied that Indigenous Australians were, and still are, the victims of imperial power, and that the colonization of Australia was not the heroic conquest of a wild, deserted land described in school textbooks and legislation bills. It was, on the contrary, a history of violence and violation of human rights, backed by an “illusion of vacant possession,” to quote from the 1993 speech of Aboriginal rights activist Patrick Dodson.

Gulpilil’s Country

Rolf de Heer worked with Gulpilil on another project, Charlie’s Country (2015), a slow-burning film about an Aboriginal man caught between two worlds. In his mid-60s, Charlie lives in an Aboriginal community where he is continuously supervised by white authorities who treat him like a child. He’s a hunter, but he can’t hunt: policemen won’t allow him. Why? Because his guns are not licensed. He makes himself a hand-made spear, but that gets confiscated too. He knows the land, the country of his ancestors, but he can’t use that knowledge to live off the land: white authorities won’t allow it.

Contemporary Australia is removed from him unless he completely adjusts to it and its rules. The film is essentially about non-Aboriginal Australians trying to suppress Aboriginality. It has been said that Charlie is a weathered figure, an old and tired man trying to find his place in the world, but that is not the whole story.

Yes, the corrugated shack he builds himself in the country, away from white settlement, does point to the miserable living conditions faced by many Aboriginal people across Australia. Yes, he is battered, humiliated, and endlessly forced to move around. But he is also undaunted. He is resilient, for lack of a better word, and he keeps going. As we follow him in his roaming and ordeal, we might notice something in Charlie’s character that sounds familiar: he has the same wit, the same energy, the same resilience, and the same (almost heroic) stubbornness as the Tracker.

Charlie’s Country was co-written by Gulpilil with Rolf de Heer, and it shows. The battered Land Rover Charlie fixes closely resembles the one owned by Gulpilil in the early 2000s when his luck seemed to have run out. Charlie says he once danced for the Queen. So did Gulpilil.

For three days after his death, Gulpilil was known as David Dalaithngu, in accordance with the Aboriginal tradition of not naming the dead. In a powerful article written shortly after Gulpilil’s death, Australian journalist Stan Grant called him “our greatest actor.” From his first film, Walkabout (1971) to his last, My Name is Gulpilil (2021), Gulpilil brought his unique contribution to stories written by non-Aboriginal filmmakers, slowly but steadily undermining Western assumptions about Aboriginal Australians. For all his life, David Gulpilil Dalaithngu walked tall in two cultures, powerfully alive and creative in both.

In 1830, France’s Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand claimed, “There are no Belgians, there never have been, and there never will be: there are Frenchmen, Flemings or Dutchmen (which is the same thing) and Germans.”

Indeed, for centuries, the area of present-day Belgium, formerly known as the Southern Netherlands or southern Low Countries, was a battlefield between rival European powers. Talleyrand thus thought that 1830 would be business as usual in Belgium. In other words, European states like France and Austria would settle any issue regarding the area. But that same year, uprisings in Brussels and elsewhere showed that many people disagreed with Talleyrand’s view of Belgium.

Origins 

The name “Belgium” derives from Julius Caesar’s description of an area of Gaul inhabited by the Belgae, a confederation in existence since at least the 3rd century BCE. However, for much of history, a map of Europe would not include Belgium.

In fact, it is necessary to understand Dutch history in order to appreciate how Belgium became a country in the 19th century. Our Dutch history lesson begins with the country’s struggle for independence from Spain during much of the 16th and early 17th centuries. The northern part of the Netherlands became independent as the United Provinces or Dutch Republic in 1648.

The new Dutch state’s leader was the Stadtholder William the Silent. On top of his position in the United Provinces, William was also Prince of Orange and founder of the Orange-Nassau branch. Samuel Humes explains that a seventh-generation descendant of William the Silent, William I, would play a central role in the story of Belgian independence.

The southern part of the Netherlands, which would one day become Belgium, remained under Spanish rule. However, in 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht transferred the Spanish Netherlands to the Austrian Habsburgs. Samuel Humes explains that the Austrian Netherlands soon became the wealthiest part of the Habsburg Empire.

The French Revolutionary Wars & The Belgian Revolution

As is the case across much of Europe, modern Belgium’s history begins in the French Revolutionary era. At the time, the Austrian Netherlands consisted of ten provinces. However, there was also the prince-bishopric of Liège, independent of Habsburg rule but still part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Each province maintained traditional privileges and autonomy in the early decades of Habsburg rule. In fact, before 1789, there was no common government or institutions in Belgium save those created by the Habsburgs.

But by the 1780s, Habsburg Emperor Joseph II started to roll back Belgian autonomy. Joseph’s unpopular policies met resistance from two separate groups. On the one hand, conservatives known as Statists opposed Habsburg reforms. They wanted to restore each province’s traditional privileges.

A group of revolutionaries known as Vonckists opposed Joseph’s reforms on the other end of the political spectrum. Led by Jan-Frans Vonck or Jean-François Vonck, they envisioned a republic along the lines of that recently created next door in revolutionary France.

Increasing opposition to Austrian rule briefly united these two Belgian groups. When Joseph II challenged traditional governance in the province of Brabant, the Statists and Vonckists took joint action. Vonck and Statist leader Hendrik van der Noot led rebels to victory over the Austrians at Turnhout.

Belgian leaders declared a United Belgian States, including Liège, in January 1790. But independence was short-lived. Statists and Vonckists clashed, which brought the Austrians back that November.

Austrian rule proved equally short-lived. French revolutionary forces took control of Belgium by late 1792.

Napoleonic Belgium 

The Austrians did briefly strike back against the French, but ultimately, Belgium fell under French control.

Belgium increasingly became connected to France following the Austrian defeat at Fleurus in 1794. By 1796, all laws passed in France automatically applied to Belgium. As historian Alexander Grab explains, French rule got off to a rocky start because of the unpopularity of anti-religious policies. In fact, the French had to suppress a major revolt in 1798 after the anti-religious measures combined with mandatory military service sparked outrage.

Napoleon further centralized the Belgian state to suit the French Empire’s needs. Building on a policy begun in 1795, French became the official language of government across Belgium. Moreover, Belgian elites increasingly embraced French as their preferred language regardless of their background.

Despite opposition to many French policies, Belgium’s economy prospered under Napoleon. Several industries, including textiles and coal mining, flourished during much of the period. The port of Antwerp also experienced a commercial revival.

Napoleon’s defeats at the 1813 Battle of Leipzig and campaign in France in 1814 resulted in his exile to the island of Elba. His enemies met to map Europe’s future at the 1814-1815 Congress of Vienna.

In Vienna, British Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh envisioned an enlarged Dutch state as a strong buffer against any future French expansion in Europe. As a result, Castlereagh encouraged William, Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands, to occupy present-day Belgium. Historian Adam Zamoyski points out that Castlereagh believed there would be no opposition to a Dutch occupation.

The United Kingdom of the Netherlands 

Most Belgians did not wish to become a part of an enlarged Dutch state. However, William became King William I of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands on March 16, 1815. Roughly three months later, Napoleon was defeated for the final time at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. William also became the head of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, exchanging his ancestral lands of Orange-Nassau with the King of Prussia.

For many Belgians, William’s policies confirmed their worst suspicions about joining the kingdom. William, for instance, mandated the Protestant Dutch Reformed faith as the kingdom’s official religion. He also set out to make Dutch the official administrative language across the country.

Although Belgians were primarily Flemings or Walloons and spoke French or Dutch dialects, they were overwhelmingly Roman Catholics. Moreover, the upper classes of even Flemish areas preferred to speak French, a legacy of Napoleonic rule. Finally, although Brussels joined The Hague as a co-capital, Dutch officials massively outnumbered Belgians. Thus, to many Belgians, this seemed to be a Dutch kingdom in all but name.

1830 was a challenging year for the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and European leaders who feared revolutionary outbreaks inspired by the French Revolution of 1789. Belgium’s independence involved both issues.

Barricades in Brussels: The Movement for Belgian Independence, 1830

For starters, William’s kingdom experienced a poor harvest. Poor economic conditions only emboldened Belgian nationalists. However, the movement for Belgian independence was also inspired by the revolutionary events of July 1830 in France. In Paris, Bourbon King Charles X abdicated amid unrest in favor of Louis-Philippe, the Duc d’Orléans, who became a sort of “Citizen King.”

Revolutionary activity in Brussels spilled over in late August 1830. In fact, several public events celebrating King William’s birthday were canceled in anticipation of riots. But the opera at the Theater de la Monnaie in central Brussels continued as scheduled on the evening of August 25, 1830. After the performance of the opera La Muette de Portici, theatergoers joined swelling crowds outside, singing patriotic arias from the show. Riots followed across Brussels.

Concerned citizens in Brussels formed a militia to protect the city from the riotous crowds. Representatives from the militia approached King William’s son, Prince William, to mediate a separation of the northern and southern Netherlands. But the prince refused.

Instead, King William sent another son, Prince Frederick, and inexperienced Dutch troops to quell the growing rebellion in Brussels. But Prince Frederick learned that Belgian rebels had set up barricades across the city’s strategic points. Furthermore, volunteers from across the country joined the revolutionary movement.

Fearful of directly storming the barricades, Frederick launched an ill-advised bombardment of Brussels. In response, angry militia leaders joined the rebel volunteers and formed a provisional committee to defend the city.

Dutch troops withdrew, leaving the rebel black, yellow, and red colors hoisted in Brussels. This would soon be the Belgian national flag.

Belgium Gets a King 

After the Dutch withdrawal, Belgian rebels established a provisional government under Charles Latour Rogier. On October 4, 1830, this government issued a Declaration of Independence, much like the famous American example from 1776.

A furious King William sought international intervention to defend his territory. But he would be disappointed with the reaction. Instead of protecting the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the diplomats at the Congress of Vienna had created European leaders who recognized an independent Belgium under certain conditions. This included finding a suitable king to govern a constitutional monarchy.

European powers settled on Prince Leopold of the German state of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. Leopold took the oath to assume the Belgian throne on July 21, 1831. This date is now celebrated as Belgium’s national day.

Historian Richard J. Evans points out that Leopold had spent much of his young life to date in the Imperial Russian military. He served with distinction as a cavalry officer in the 1813 Battle of Kulm against French troops and ended the Napoleonic Wars as a general.

Besides his German princely title and Russian military commission, Leopold was also a member of the British royal family because of his marriage to Princess Charlotte. Charlotte had died in childbirth, and Leopold agreed to marry a French princess as part of the negotiations to take the throne.

The Ten Days’ Campaign 

A Belgian state had clearly taken shape by 1831. However, King William refused to recognize Belgian independence or Leopold’s kingdom. The Belgians then presented William with a chance to retake his former territory.

In the summer of 1831, Belgian troops invaded William’s territory in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. European leaders, though, did not oppose Belgium’s annexation of Luxembourg. An enraged Dutch population prompted William to invade Belgium in the so-called Ten Days’ Campaign.

Dutch troops invaded Belgium on August 2, 1831. Leopold called on a French army to help drive the Dutch out. French troops quickly forced the Dutch to retreat. Only one Dutch garrison remained in the Belgian city of Antwerp. Alarm soon turned to the French army, which was suspiciously slow to leave Belgium. Following international pressure, the French left on September 30.

With the war’s end, Luxembourg’s territory was split between Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. King William’s family retained control of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg until 1890.

However, the Dutch remained in the fortress of Antwerp. In response, French troops once again fought the Dutch in November 1832. The British Royal Navy supported the French this time and helped force the Dutch surrender of Antwerp in December 1832.

Aftermath 

King William I finally recognized Belgian independence through the 1839 Treaty of London. This document is relevant for more than its role in the story of Belgian independence. For instance, the Treaty of London provided international recognition of Belgian neutrality. In 1914, Germany’s violation of this agreement by invading Belgium led to Britain’s entry into World War I.

Edward Hopper is one of the undisputed heroes of American modern art. His works are familiar even to those who rarely visit museums. Hopper’s paintings evoke feelings of gloom, loneliness, and alienation. However, while praising the artistic innovation of Hopper, art critics rarely seem to mention his wife, Josephine Nivison Hopper. Nivison was a successful artist before her marriage and she propelled her husband’s career. Read on to learn more about the troubled union between Josephine and Edward Hopper and the forgotten legacy of this woman artist.

Edward Hopper and Josephine Nivison Hopper

The life story of Edward Hopper, one of the most recognizable American Realist painters of the 20th century, is widely known and discussed. His wife of forty-four years, Josephine Nivison Hopper, usually gets mentioned as the muse or the model of the great artist.

Josephine Nivison, or Jo as she preferred to be called, was a New York City native, born in the early 1880s. During her young adulthood, she earned a living working as a school teacher but she always felt an inclination to the arts. She acted in theater companies and visited art colonies, mostly working with watercolors, painting landscapes and still lifes, using unusually bold colors. Not much of her work has survived, but we know for sure that Jo Nivison’s work was frequently included in art shows and displayed next to works made by Modigliani and Man Ray.

Nivison and Hopper crossed paths repeatedly but never paid enough attention to each other. This all changed in 1923 when they met again in an art colony in Massachusetts, both in their early forties. Jo had lost her beloved Arthur, a cat she adopted from the streets, and Edward helped her bring it home. At the time, Hopper was working with commercial illustration. After their relationship got serious, Jo encouraged him to move to the domain of fine art and even used her connections in the art world to make sure his work was added to group shows. The debut of Edward Hopper was an immediate success. A year after their encounter in Massachusetts, the couple married, enthusiastic about their prospective life together.

The Dark Side of the Artistic Union

However, the promising story of two artists creating art side by side and supporting each other never happened. For some reason, Edward Hopper expected his now wife, a mature woman in her forties, who spent years building an artistic career and fighting institutional barriers, to turn into a submissive housewife overnight. Despite Jo’s crucial role in promoting Hopper’s art, he never acknowledged her effort. He drew cartoons portraying Jo as the nagging and neglectful wife bothering and starving her poor husband. Gradually, he forbade her to discuss their relationship with others and cut her off from all her friends. Edward Hopper had to be the only person and the only project in Josephine Nivinson’s life, as he could not tolerate any kind of competition.

In terms of artistic practice, the initial excitement of shared occupation and common goals did not last long. As Hopper’s fame grew, he developed more resentment toward his wife’s accomplishments. He never directly forbade her to paint but was eager to build every possible obstacle in her way. At some point, Edward divided their shared studio, not allowing Jo to cross a line painted on the floor. He forbade her to use art supplies, claiming he needed them more. This forced her to buy new ones for herself. In a rare letter to a friend, Josephine noted that Edward often deliberately destabilized her mental state because he knew she would paint if she became happy. Devoid of creative impulse, Josephine turned into her husband’s manager, bookkeeper, and full-time model.

The dark side of their relationship was not limited to verbal or psychological abuse. Physical fights were so common that on their twentieth anniversary, Jo said they deserved a medal for distinguished combat. Edward replied by sketching a coat of arms of a crossed rolling pin and ladle—the objects often involved in their violent clashes. Intimacy did not bring joy either. Jo’s diaries keep records of complete neglect of her wants and needs, sexual violence, and abuse.

In her notes, Jo refers to paintings as their children, with Edward’s works being called heirs and hers being called stillborns. She further explained that she was incapable of creating anything healthy and functional in her mental state. She had no illusions about their marriage and the fact that she wasted decades of her life working on someone else’s accomplishments. While looking at a lighthouse painting by her husband, she compared him to it—tall, bright, and attractive to every living thing. Jo herself was neither a weary traveler nor a boat at sea, but a seagull that broke its neck upon collision with the lighthouse.

Artist Wife or Wife of Artist?

As terrifying and tragic as the case of Josephine Nivison seems, it is unfortunately not the only one. The abrupt erasure of the artistic effort of women associated with famous men was and remains a systemic issue. Upon starting a relationship or marrying famous male artists, women usually moved into the category of muses, occupying a passive position or doing the unpaid labor of inspiring their partners and often managing their enterprises. For decades, the image of a revolutionary photographer Dora Maar was not associated with her groundbreaking and commercially successful imagery but with Picasso. Jeanne Hebuterne, a promising young artist of the Parisian avant-garde, remained known as a tragic romantic heroine who committed suicide while eight months pregnant after the death of her partner, Amedeo Modigliani.

This does not mean, however, that a forgotten partner artist is always necessarily a good artist. They do not have to be; still, they deserve a chance to be seen. The Pre-Raphaelite icon Elizabeth Siddall, known as the muse of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was a gifted poet and a mediocre painter. She was mediocre not because of a lack of talent but because of her inability to study art properly. In other circumstances, she might have become the heroine of the entire movement not in the passive role of a frail and sickly red-haired specter but as an independent and confident creator. In a hostile and unwelcoming environment, the mere fact of her artistic input marked her dedication and potential, serving as a case study for the limited opportunities of women artists.

The case of Jo Nivison feels more tragic because of the immediate and obvious hypocrisy of the art world. The same people who eagerly included her work in shows discarded her at the first opportunity, preferring to praise her husband, the stereotypical Great Male Master. Nivison’s bitterness and regret filled her notes and rare artworks, weaving a narrative of involuntary yet conscious self-sacrifice.

The Posthumous Story of Edward Hopper’s Wife Josephine Nivison Hopper

Josephine Nivison Hopper outlived her famous husband for almost a year. In her will, she donated 3,000 paintings by her and her husband to the Whitney Museum of American Art. The same Whitney Museum that decades earlier presented Jo’s paintings at contemporary art shows, discarded her work, focusing on the oeuvre of her husband. Some watercolors by Nivison Hopper vanished without a trace, others were supposedly loaned to unnamed hospitals and governmental institutions and, most likely, still anonymously decorate these walls.

In popular and art historical literature, Jo Hopper was quickly labeled as a villain and a bitter, superficial woman trying to force the public to admire her mediocre art instead of her husband’s genius. Even in news articles on Hopper’s generous posthumous donation, the journalists could not help themselves but express contempt for Jo, writing that she was convinced of the value of her work. Her art was dismissed as lightweight, unserious, and feminine in a derogatory sense. Only in the 1990s did art historian Gail Levin discover Jo’s diaries while writing a biography of Edward Hopper (Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography). Her website also has a special page dedicated to the works of Jo Hopper. This newly revealed information greatly altered the general image of the artist and her heritage, showing a woman who made a sacrifice she never intended to make, and her attempts to protect her space and agency.

Juan Pujol Garcia, alias Agent Garbo, was a prominent figure within World War II. When the British wouldn’t take the Spanish-born chicken farmer’s help, he went to the German Embassy and was recruited as a spy. Independently, he built up a fake spy network and sent false intel, until Britain finally recruited him as a double agent. He continued to feed the Germans misleading or late information and took part in various maneuvers, including Operation FORTITUDE and helping make D-Day successful.

On February 14, 1912, Barcelona, Spain Juan Pujol Garcia was born. While he had been in the army, he avoided the Spanish Civil War. His experience with both the Republican and Nationalist sides during this time made him detest communism and fascism. This knowledge was important in defining how he would react when the Nazi regime rose to power in Germany.

Just before the start of World War II, while the Nazis were rising into power and invading countries, Pujol decided that he would like to contribute “to the good of humanity.” He decided the best way to serve would be to become a spy. There are many examples of ordinary citizens becoming spies, including French woman Rose Valland, who engaged in espionage.  

Becoming a Spy

With his wife he went to the British Embassy located in Madrid in January 1941, and offered to become a spy for them. They declined his offer, which in some ways makes sense. He wasn’t trained or a British civilian. In fact, he was a former chicken farmer, although he did serve in the Spanish Army. While Spain never officially joined the Axis side they did cooperate with the Nazis. Still, Pujol did not let this set-back stop him and he approached them two more times. When the British rejected him, he decided to go to the Germans and offer almost the exact same deal.

He convinced the Germans that he worked for the Spanish embassy with a fake diplomatic passport and established his views as pro-Nazi. Then he got in contact with an Abwehr agent named Friedrich Knappe-Ratey who, after checking out Pujol, gave him basic training on how to be a spy. He was given a codebook, invisible ink to write messages, and six hundred pounds, before being sent on his way to England to recruit more members for the cause to learn war secrets.

Life in Lisbon

Instead of going to England, Pujol settled in Lisbon, Portugal. There, he was armed with the items given to him by his spy handler – an English tourist map, information from the public library, and a shipping schedule to create the allusion that he was building a spy network in England. He began building a spy network of fictional people and became successful enough that Abwehr sent him a missive stating that they appreciated this useful information and to be cautious not to risk his spy ring. They continued to trust him despite mistakes he made with conversions of currency between countries and the metric system – because he wasn’t in England he didn’t realize the differences. If they did question something he would blame one of his “informants” for the mistake or inconsistency.

The British (Finally) Get Involved

It wasn’t until a year later that Juan, or his wife Araceli, ended up approaching the United States about his independent spy activities. He was then connected with MI6 and brought on as a double agent. The British became aware of a spy working for Germany through their code breaking. They were not sure exactly what was going on, because the information sent out did not match actual locations or information, as Pujol only used maps.

For safety, they moved Pujol and his wife to England. His handler Tomas (Tommy) Harris helped him to expand his fake network of people to 27 different personas and write over three hundred letters back to Germany about his spy ring. The idea was to give them as much information from Pujol to make it difficult to ferret out information or detect deceit.

Now that he had help, he didn’t just send false information back, but gave specific facts that would arrive too late for the Germans to effectively use it, which made it seem like he was an asset. This included letting the Germans know details about Operation TORCH. It was through his work with Britain that he got the codename “Garbo,” after the actress Greta Garbo, considered one of the best actresses of the time.

D-Day

D day took place on June 6, 1944, and was the culmination of many different groups hard work. Pujol, as Agent Garbo, played a role in its success. Germany knew that the Allied forces planned to invade as early as January 1944, but they did not believe it would take place at Normandy – instead they were diverted 150 miles away at Pas de Calais. This led them to send both armored and infantry divisions to the wrong location.

Similarly to other information that the British had him send, he did give the Germans some details about the Normandy invasion, timed to arrive after D-day. By this time Garbo was also using radio transitions with one of his other “informants” and tried to arrange a time with the Germans to transmit information about D-day. There was no response from the German radio operatives until five hours after the time they scheduled, allowing him to give extra information out of date, because the time that had passed while he waited. He also sold his annoyance at the Germans not being on air to receive his message stating to them, “I cannot accept excuses or negligence. Were it not for my ideals I would abandon the work.”

Later Years

Agent Garbo continued to work for the British through most of World War II. Fearing repercussion from the Nazis, with the help of the British government he faked his death from malaria. However, they never realized until decades later his role in WWII. He received an Iron Cross Second Class for his “services to Germany” and an MBE from King George VI for his role as Agent Garbo for the Allies, making him one of only two people to receive honors and medals from both sides of the war. His role in D-day and spying against the Germans went largely unknown until Rupert Allason wrote a book with Pujol titled Operation Garbo. He died in 1988, as one of the best double agents within World War II, with almost no official training.

Marcel Duchamp is one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. However, fame never interested him. It took him 20 years to finish one of his most notable works, Étant donnés. Is it possible that his disinterest in fame or the fact that he created, first and foremost, simply to materialize his ideas, was exactly what led to his worldwide recognition? We will probably never know for sure. Nonetheless, let’s discover some other curious things about him!

1. Marcel Duchamp’s Siblings Were Also Artists

Marcel Duchamp was the son of Lucie Duchamp and Eugène Duchamp. He had seven siblings, one of whom died as an infant. Four of them, however, including Marcel, pursued a career in the arts. Duchamp’s siblings played an important role in his development and growth both on a personal and artistic level. They probably inherited their passion for the arts from their maternal grandfather who was a painter and an engraver.

The eldest brother and Marcel’s mentor was Gaston Duchamp, who eventually began using the artistic name Jacques Villon. He first studied law at the University of Paris but soon realized that he wanted to be an artist. Although he was part of several artistic groups, Jacques worked only on commercial art projects for a long time. He contributed to Parisian newspapers with illustrations and cartoons. Jacques’ art was influenced by Fauvism, Cubism, and Impressionism.

Raymond Duchamp-Villon also did not initially study art. Instead, he studied medicine at the Sorbonne. Unfortunately, he had to give up his studies due to rheumatic fever. Eventually, he turned to making sculptures.

Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti, the youngest sibling, played a significant role in the development of Dadaism in Paris. She was particularly renowned for exploring gender dynamics, having been a female figure in an art movement that included predominantly men. She was also greatly overshadowed by her brothers’ art. Nonetheless, she never gave up and her artistic career was five decades long. Suzanne left behind an extensive legacy that influenced other soon-to-be artists. In 1967, Marcel organized an exhibition dedicated to the art of the Duchamp family as the last surviving sibling.

2. Duchamp’s First Works Were Impressionist

Although Duchamp sought to distance himself completely from retinal art and even condemned it for its inability to stir one’s intellect, his first works were actually Impressionist paintings. He painted the landscapes in Blainville using techniques employed by Claude Monet. However, his Impressionist tendencies didn’t last too long. Duchamp abandoned oil painting altogether for some time after making the Blainville paintings.

A few years later, he turned to a Renaissance technique. This implied using black and white oil paint as a base, which was subsequently covered in layers of transparent colors—a technique known as glazing. Although this, too, was not to his liking, it marked a clear separation from the Impressionist concept.

3. The Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 Was Controversial

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 was created in 1912 and, unexpectedly for Duchamp, steered much controversy in the art world. In Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, Duchamp aimed to represent movement through a painting. In 1912, Duchamp submitted this work to an exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants. It was accepted and eventually appeared in the catalog under number 1001. However, the painting was never displayed at the exhibition. Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, and other members of the group were instantly taken aback by Duchamp’s piece. First, the title wasn’t Cubist enough. According to them, painting a nude descending a staircase did not do the nude justice.

The committee thought that the painting was rather Futurist and not Cubist. So they asked Marcel’s brothers, Raymond and Jacques, to talk his brother out of exhibiting the piece. Instead, Duchamp went straight to the exhibition and took his painting home.

It seems that this particular event and the controversy stirred by this painting prompted him to submit other artworks under pseudonyms. Some art historians believe that by submitting under pseudonyms, the artist tested the openness of a particular committee to the freedom of expression and the expansion (or questioning) of the definition of art.

4. Duchamp Preferred to Spend Time Alone

While many artists preferred being around other people and spending time in artistic circles, Duchamp had a slightly more evasive personality. At first, while living in Montmartre, he tried to lead a more social lifestyle. He was even evicted from his Montmartre apartment after hosting a Christmas party that went on for two days. After that, he moved to Neuilly, where he was more isolated, sometimes not leaving the house for days. However, he never refused the company of his siblings.

Furthermore, the months he spent in Munich in 1912 were, most likely, solitary as well, but little is known about his time there. It seems he didn’t encounter too many people who could account for their interactions.

Nonetheless, it seems that his personality changed after he moved to the United States, possibly because he felt more comfortable in New York than in Paris. He started going out more, meeting other artists, and making new friends.

5. Duchamp Worked as a Librarian

A year after the unpleasant event with Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, Marcel Duchamp took a job as a librarian at the Sainte-Geneviève Library. He needed to supplement the allowance from his father and at the same time, step away from art for a while. One of his friends’ uncle, Maurice Davanne, was the director of that library and he helped Duchamp enroll in a librarian course at L’Ecole Nationale des Chartes. This was a period of significant discoveries for Duchamp, which would later be observed in his work.

He studied math and physics, read a lot of books written by the French mathematician and theoretical physicist Henri Poincaré, and, lastly, started experimenting with combining art with science. He did not give up on art altogether, he simply changed the course of his artistic thinking. Duchamp himself stated, “There are two kinds of artists: the artist who deals with society; and the other artist, the completely freelance artist, who has nothing to do with it–no bonds.”

6. Duchamp Never Read Much

This may sound a bit contradictory to the last fact you read about Marcel Duchamp. Well, it is nonetheless true. While Marcel was indeed fascinated by scientific literature and took advantage of his time working at the library to read some famous works, he was never really an avid reader. The artist thought that words couldn’t express anything. On the other hand, he was quite impressed by poetry, particularly the titles of poems. He was also passionate about wordplay.

7. Duchamp Was in Love With His Lifelong Friend’s Wife

Marcel Duchamp met Francis Picabia in 1911, at the Autumn Salon. They quickly became good friends and started spending time together. Over the nights spent at the Picabias’ apartment, Duchamp seemed to have fallen in love with his friend’s wife Gabrielle who was an intelligent, beautiful woman. Eventually, he telephoned Gabrielle one evening, telling her he was in love with her. He also sent her several letters about this.

The two scheduled a rendezvous once, for which Duchamp took the train from Munich to Andelot in the Jura. They met at the train station and spent a few hours talking. Although their relationship remained platonic, art historians believe that Marcel’s love for Gabrielle had a major impact on his personal and artistic self. It is believed that Gabrielle and Marcel did have a relationship after she eventually left her husband.

8. Duchamp Emigrated to the USA

When World War I started, Duchamp was exempted from military service due to a heart murmur. After this, he decided it was the perfect time to move to New York City.

He did not identify with any European artistic tendencies, instead, he sought to create his own. He did not understand the present concerns of his fellow artists, so he felt a bit isolated in France. Although Duchamp knew he should leave for the USA, he was sad to leave his siblings behind. He arrived in New York in June 1914. To learn English, he decided to teach French classes to those who spoke a bit of French so that they could all exchange knowledge.

Duchamp was particularly fascinated with New York’s skyscrapers and the rapid development of the city. As such, he considered that Europeans valued the past too much by preserving old buildings. New York, on the other hand, did not allow the past to be stronger than the present.

9. Duchamp Didn’t Like One of His Masterpieces

After taking a long break from painting on canvas, Duchamp set on to make Tu m’ in 1918. This was a large painting encompassing the shadows of some of his readymades.

During that time, the artist spent all his spare time researching his future work, The Large Glass. He oriented his efforts toward moving further away from what he called retinal art. This was the reason why he did not particularly like Tu m’, while critics considered it one of his masterpieces. He felt like the piece didn’t advance his research at all.

Even the painting’s title suggests this. Tu m’, translates as you and me (as a direct object) and can be followed by any French verb beginning with a vowel. It has been suggested that the title was actually supposed to be Tu m’emmerdes or Tu m’ennuies, which would translate as you bore me, although this theory hasn’t been fully confirmed. After making this work, Duchamp never painted on canvas again.

10. Marcel Duchamp Was a Master of Wordplay

Throughout his life, Marcel Duchamp showcased his love of wordplay. Multiple painting titles contain puns, alliterations, and other types of wordplay that would be unnoticeable at first sight. Take, for instance, his painting entitled Jeune homme triste dans un train, which translates as Sad Young Man in a Train. It appears that Duchamp made the young man sad only because triste sounded well alongside train. Critics, on the other hand, rushed to comment on the psychological implications of the title. Was it indeed an indication of the author’s feelings, or was it just wordplay? We’ll probably never know for sure.

Duchamp also had an alter-ego called Rrose Sélavy. Her name is also another form of wordplay. At first, she was simply Rose Sélavy, which in French reads as Eros, c’est la vie (translating as Eros, such is life), where Rose was the most banal French name for a girl. Then, he added another R to the name, so his alter-ego became Rrose Sélavy.

The title of one of Duchamp’s most famous readymades Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette also came out of wordplay. The perfume was originally inscribed with Un air embaumé (perfumed air) and Eau de Violette (Violet Water). Duchamp, alongside Man Ray, an artist whom Duchamp worked with, simply swapped i with o and got Eau de Voilette, which translates as Veil Water. The other part, un air embaumé, became Belle Haleine, which translates as Beautiful Breath.

By 1940, Europe was embroiled in war. France’s defeat was imminent, and soon Britain would be left alone to fight against the terror of Nazi Germany. Britain’s hopeless situation worsened when, on June 10, 1940, Italy declared war. Italian and British territories in Africa would ignite into conflict, shifting the war from the European continent for the first time. The ensuing North African Campaign would have a decisive impact on the future of the Second World War.

Early Engagements 

Following Italy’s declaration of war, Britain did not stand idly, instead acting quickly to counter a potential Italian offensive. On June 14, 1940, British forces stationed in Egypt crossed into Libya and captured Fort Capuzzo. British air and naval forces also acted decisively, gaining early successes, which resulted in Britain gaining both air and sea superiority.

The North African Campaign soon became an important front of the war. The Axis powers knew that achieving victory in North Africa and gaining control of the Suez Canal would isolate Britain, its territories in Asia, and its vital resources. Gaining control of North Africa would also allow the Axis to penetrate further into the Middle East, affording them control of precious oil and blocking Allied supplies to the Soviet Union.

For Britain, the control of North Africa was of paramount importance to ensure its continued supply of resources. Following the defeat of France, Africa presented an opportunity to open a new front against the Axis. This would later prove significant in alleviating pressure on the Soviet Union.

Despite the clear importance of the North African Campaign, Germany was hesitant to support Italy in their endeavors, as Hitler was more concerned with the conquest of Europe.

On September 13, 1940, Italy launched a successful offensive into Egypt, capturing the western region of the country. However, Britain responded with Operation Compass, a devastating offensive that resulted in the capture of 130,000 Italian troops and the capitulation of the Italian 10th Army.

Britain continued its pursuit of the remaining Italian forces and reached the Libyan city of El Agheila. Italy’s defeat seemed increasingly likely.

Germany Intervenes

Benito Mussolini urgently requested support from his German Allies. Hitler responded by deploying the Afrika Korps, a motorized force under the command of Erwin Rommel. While only a small force, it consisted of a Panzer division.

Rommel arrived in Tripoli, Libya on February 12, 1941 and quickly launched a reconnaissance mission of North Africa. German High Command had informed Rommel that they did not intend to launch a decisive military operation in North Africa. However, following successive victories at Agedabia and El Agheila, Rommel launched an offensive to capture the entire region of Cyrenaica, thereby ignoring instructions from the German High Command.

During the offensive, German forces surrounded the port city of Tobruk, which was held by Australian forces. The 9th Australian Division was heavily reinforced and repelled the German attack. Tobruk would be assaulted by German troops on numerous occasions over the next several months.

Rommel’s offensive into Cyrenaica was, however, a success, much to the alarm of the retreating Allied forces.

Britain responded in June 1941 with Operation Battleaxe in an attempt to relieve the Siege of Tobruk and recapture areas of Cyrenaica from the Germans. The operation was a failure; half of Britain’s tanks were destroyed on the first day of the operation, and their forces narrowly avoided being encircled by the Germans. In total, Britain lost over 100 tanks to Germany’s 12. Defeated, the Allies retreated back to Egypt.

Rommel’s Second Offensive

The failure of Operation Battleaxe resulted in a lull in fighting as both sides attempted to reorganize their forces. Britain notably reorganized their forces into the formation of the British 8th Army, which incorporated troops from Britain, Australia, India, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, New Zealand, Poland, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Mauritius. A diverse, multi-national force, the 8th Army symbolizes the united struggle against Nazism.

In November 1941, Britain attempted another offensive, Operation Crusader. Its objective was again to relieve the ongoing Siege of Tobruk, which this time was successful. However, both sides suffered heavy losses, with the Allies losing 18,000 men and 440 tanks, and the Axis suffered 38,000 casualties and lost 360 tanks.

Despite the defeat, Rommel regathered his strength and launched a second offensive. British commanders underestimated Rommel’s capabilities, and at the Battle of Gazala, Axis forces broke through the Allied lines and advanced towards Tobruk. On June 20, 1942, Rommel attacked Tobruk. The defending troops surrendered the next day, and 33,000 men were taken prisoner. Losing Tobruk was a devastating blow for the Allies.

Following the fall of Tobruk, Allied forces retreated to Egypt, with Rommel in pursuit. However, at the First Battle of El Alamein, Allied forces repelled the Axis advance. Rommel realized that his supply lines could not facilitate further offensive operations, and Axis forces would never advance further than El Alamein.

Rommel’s second offensive was a numerical victory for the Axis, who lost 40,000 men to the Allies 75,000. However, the Allies’ staunch defense at El Alamein significantly weakened Rommel’s forces, thus creating an opportunity for an Allied victory in North Africa.

The El Alamein Campaign

Rommel’s second offensive and the fall of Tobruk had a devastating impact on Allied morale. Winston Churchill was facing a vote of no confidence by his government, and Allied soldiers were becoming disillusioned with British command. Churchill knew that victory in North Africa was paramount. He met with a US delegation in London who agreed to an Allied invasion of Northwest Africa, known as Operation Torch. However, for Operation Torch to be successful, the Axis had to first be defeated in the Western desert.

Bernard Montgomery was given command of the British 8th Army and declared that Egypt would be defended at El Alamein and that there would be no further retreats. Montgomery reorganized the Allied forces and worked tirelessly to improve morale by personally visiting and speaking to as many units as possible. The British lines of defense at El Alamein were also reinforced with US Sherman tanks as well as troops from India and South Africa. By October 1942, the British 8th Army consisted of 195,000 men, 1,030 tanks, 900 artillery guns, and 530 combat aircraft, a much greater force than the Axis.

The Second Battle of El Alamein began on October 23, 1942. After days of brutal fighting, the Axis forces had suffered devastating attrition. The Afrika Korps had just 35 tanks remaining and were running dangerously short on supplies. On November 2, Rommel ordered a withdrawal. However, the following day, he received a message from Hitler, directly ordering him to continue fighting to victory or death.

Fighting would continue for two more days until Rommel finally ordered a retreat of his remaining men. The Allied forces would pursue the remnants of the Axis all the way to Tunisia.

Operation Torch & The Tunisian Campaign

The defeat of the Axis forces at the Second Battle of El Alamein allowed the Allied invasion of North Africa by American and British forces. Operation Torch was overseen by future US President General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

At the time, Operation Torch was the most complex amphibious landing in history. Three independent fleets had to traverse the contested Atlantic Ocean and disembark their troops at three landing sites at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers. Around 670 vessels transported 107,000 troops to their destination.

The landing at Casablanca was met with fierce resistance, but after three days of fighting, General George S. Patton and his 39,000 men forced the defenders to surrender.

Axis forces in Algeria were surrounded by the landing forces of Operation Torch to their west and the advancing British 8th Army to their east. The Axis did achieve a significant victory against the Allies at the Battle of Kasserine Pass, inflicting 10,000 casualties upon the superior Allied force. However, the Axis troops were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. Britain captured Tunis on May 7, 1943. The remaining Axis forces surrendered on May 13.

The Allies had successfully secured the entirety of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, thus securing North Africa under Allied control. The North African Campaign was over, an exceptional victory for the Allies.

A Logistical War

The fighting of the North African Campaign occurred upon the region’s coastal desert plains, thus presenting unique logistical challenges for both sides. Due to the terrain, warfare was mobile and mechanized, with tanks and armored vehicles being used extensively.

The nature of the fighting required a constant supply of fuel, ammunition, and water. Furthermore, the abundant use of tanks needed sufficient maintenance support. The inhospitable nature of the environment meant that engines and guns needed constant repairs or replacements.

As a result, the North African campaign became increasingly a war of logistics than a war of the battlefield. Both sides required extensive, complex supply lines to keep their fronts well-supported.

The Axis forces enjoyed a relatively short supply route across the Mediterranean from Italy. Most of the supplies came in from the port of Tripoli. However, Tripoli’s port was only equipped to handle 45,000 tons of cargo per month. During the campaign, the Axis required 70,000 tons of supplies per month. As a result, supply issues continually hindered Axis operations. Furthermore, once supplies arrived in North Africa, they had to be transported across vast distances. For example, supplies from Tripoli had to be transported 1,200 miles by truck to reach the front at El Alamein.

On the other hand, the Allies had well-established supply lines thanks to Britain’s extensive network of bases across the region. Britain had supplies coming in from Egypt, Somaliland, Iraq, and Palestine. They also received significant aid from the United States.

The logistical constraints of the war ultimately contributed to the Axis defeat. Rommel lacked the logistical support necessary to continue his operations and attempt further offensives into Egypt.

Treatment of Local Populations

Like the rest of the world, the people of North Africa were not spared from the discrimination and hatred dealt by the Second World War, though it is often forgotten by many.

During the war, the North African states of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were controlled by Vichy France, the authoritarian government installed by Nazi Germany. Before the fall of France, the region had become home to a significant Jewish population who had arrived as refugees from Europe. Vichy France imposed numerous anti-Semitic and racist policies upon its people. Jews were stripped of their citizenship, and their property was seized.

Over 70 internment camps were constructed in the Sahara Desert that kept thousands of Jews prisoner. In Algeria alone, approximately 3,000 Jews were interned at camps alongside other political prisoners and prisoners of war. Memoirs from former prisoners recall the brutal treatment they endured. Prisoners were beaten and incarcerated in appalling conditions and frequently died from disease and malnutrition.

Similarly, Mussolini implemented racist policies in Italian Libya. The local Black populations were segregated. Local Jews were also deported to labor camps. It is estimated that hundreds died from starvation and disease. Some Libyan Jews were also deported to concentration camps in Europe.

During the German occupation of Tunisia, it is estimated that 5,000 Jewish men were imprisoned in over 20 labor camps established by Nazi Germany.

Despite North Africa’s liberation by the Allies during Operation Torch, a number of former Vichy administration members continued to effectively run the countries. As a result, anti-Semitic laws were not repealed until March 1943.

Importance of the North African Campaign

The defeat of the Axis powers in North Africa opened the door to the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. This contributed to the downfall of Benito Mussolini and later the invasion of mainland Italy in 1943, which resulted in Italy’s formal surrender, thus defeating Germany’s primary ally on the European continent.

Arguably, the North African Campaign and, notably, the amphibious landings during Operation Torch provided important tactical and logistical insights that informed the Normandy landings of D-Day in June 1944.

The victory in North Africa was a significant morale boost for the Allies as, for the first time, they successfully defeated Germany on the ground. Furthermore, Operation Torch was also the first time US forces engaged directly against Germany. US engagement in the Western theater against Nazi Germany would prove paramount to the outcome of the war. The invasion also succeeded in uniting the Allied forces with the remaining French forces still stationed in French West Africa, a considerable boost for the Allies.

Historians estimate that approximately 900,000 German and Italian men lost their lives in North Africa. Not only was this a substantial loss of life, but it was also a significant blow to the Axis war effort. Up until this point, Axis morale had been consistently high following their victory over France in 1940.

Defeat in North Africa by 1943, alongside the Battle of Stalingrad (also in 1943), cast significant doubts over the effectiveness of the Nazi war machine. The contribution of the North African Campaign to the overall result of the Second World War is highly debated due to the much larger, consequential theatres of war on Europe’s Western and Eastern fronts. However, if the Axis had been victorious in North Africa, the course of the war would likely have been very different.

The Palette of King Narmer is arguably the pinnacle artwork of Pre-Dynastic Egypt. In this palette, artistic conventions were utilized in combination with Pharaoh Narmer’s ideological convictions. The merging of Upper and Lower Egypt could not have been achieved without solid visual propaganda; only the most potent imagery could have propelled Narmer’s Monarchy. The most critical conventions utilized in the Palette of King Narmer include religious iconography, register composition, low relief technique, stylized forms, and the influence of makeup and makeup palettes in ancient Egypt as a whole.

Ma’at, Balance, Harmony, and King Narmer’s Unification

The Palette of King Narmer was found at Hierakonpolis within the Temple of Horus, a religious and political capital in Pre-Dynastic Egypt. The palette was discovered in a tomb for the Pre-Dynastic Kings who ruled between 5,000 and 6,000 BCE. All these palettes shared similar themes of battles and victories that occurred both before and after the unification of Egypt under a Monarchy of King Menes, who ruled right after King Narmer.

The Palette of Narmer, along with its unusual size being an ancient makeup palette, was the crowning gem of all the palettes found at this site due to its importance as a tool of propaganda for the initial unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. For King Narmer and the Pharaohs to follow his rule for centuries to come, the utilization of art to spread political and religious doctrine was key to maintaining the desired social order, also known to the ancient Egyptians as ma’at. In The Egypt Story: Its Art, Its Monuments, Its History, P.H. Newby emphasizes that although today people look towards Egyptian art for its aesthetic beauty, what was important to the ancient Egyptian patrons was an accurate portrayal of their fundamentals on how to live.

Strong Iconography

Although the Egyptians did not lack an eye for beauty, conceptual utility came first. The focus on balancing opposites to create harmony was important, these dualities being the Red Land, which represented the desert, and the Black Land, which represented the fertile land. The Egyptians believed that when these two lands were balanced, the Nile River would provide the Egyptians with its annual flood that maintained crops and, hence, maintained life. This unification of harmonizing two lands was similarly utilized in unifying Upper and Lower Egypt, which was balanced by the rule of one King. In order to maintain ma’at, all artworks were defined by regulations, hence avoiding the production of art that may threaten the unification of Egypt supervised by King Narmer. Narmer’s Palette became the standard for art that maintained ma’at and established law.

All ancient Egyptian art is filled with powerful iconography that describes the potent religious mythos of each period, including the graphic low-relief imagery portrayed in the Palette of Narmer. An unknown artist of this slate stone piece carved King Narmer wearing the crown of Upper Egypt on one side of the palette and wearing both the white and red crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt on the other. This clearly depicts his mission to unify the lands.

This dynamic and influential imagery included pictorial images of the many gods and goddesses worshiped in both Upper and Lower Egypt. Their commanding presence and high place in the hierarchy helped establish Narmer’s ideological messages by utilizing the images for their ability to invoke order in Egypt’s citizens. By showing the support of the gods and portraying them alongside Narmer as Pharaoh, Narmer’s ideological agenda became the divine command as well.

Support From the Gods & the Power of Composition

The two heads at the top of the palette on either side depict the Goddess Hathor, a sky goddess and a mighty mother figure. Narmer’s wife and four attendants are seen holding the emblems of Horus, and on the opposite side of the palette Horus himself is depicted alongside King Narmer. The god Horus, just like the goddess Hathor, was a powerful sky god as well as a protector of Pharaohs in ancient Egypt. Alongside all of the support visually granted by the gods through their appearance in the piece, both real and composite mythological animals of great ferocity appear in the work. There are two lion and panther composite creatures whose necks intertwine to create the paint deposit indent. These hybrid creatures provoke fear in the viewer, yet also frame the central aspect of the makeup palette, which informs the viewer that everything will remain in the realm of ma’at if they behave and unify.

In The Origins of Register Composition in Predynastic Egyptian Art published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Whitney M. Davis discusses how the register system progressively emerged from specific mechanisms and techniques during the Egyptian Pre-Dynastic period. Artistic concerns such as the progression of narrative, having a baseline for imagery, depicting reality, and location-specific or landscape pieces helped to push the use of registers due to the registers’ ability to delineate imagery on a spatial, temporal, and contextual level. The Palette of Narmer used registers as a convention for Narmer’s ideological benefit by delineating the specific important imagery from one another. Registers allowed for several messages to be conveyed to the viewer in one piece, hence adding to its potent imagery and overall effectiveness as political propaganda.

Although aesthetic beauty was not of primary concern when creating ancient Egyptian artworks, it was taken into consideration. In The Art of the Predynastic Period published in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Eric T. Peet states that the low relief technique used in Pre-Dynastic Egyptian art, although not anatomically correct, gave the works an important aesthetic that draws in the eye of the viewer. When discussing the low-relief style in correlation with the stylized but unrealistic ancient Egyptian human form, Peet wrote, “This is due partly to the delicacy of the low relief but still more to this subtlety of line of which we are speaking. The curves of the body are not anatomically correct, but they have a charm and grace, which is even more important. They arrest the eye and in the same instant give it repose.” The aesthetic value of the low relief technique allowed for specific imagery to be portrayed in the Palette of Narmer. One detail was pointed out by Adriana Rossi in The Origin of Technical Drawing in the Narmer Palette published in the Nexus Network Journal.

Rossi discusses one small yet important relief detail in the Palette, which is what she argues to be an aerial view of a fortified structure that existed in multiples along the Nile River in Pre-Dynastic Egypt. The fortification structure detail was placed on the lowest register beneath Pharaoh Narmer’s feet, and along foreign invaders fleeing the scene. Rossi explains that fortifications such as this one were used as a defense system against the neighboring populations that had not been conquered by Narmer. She defends this by stating that the protuberances around the perimeter of the palette are not of the same width. Therefore, the detail of the fortified citadel is not merely a random protrusion. This detail, although so seemingly small, carries a large message aimed towards provoking fear in neighboring peoples, therefore helping maintain King Narmer’s ma’at in the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Makeup, Magic, Science

One of the most interesting decisions made by King Narmer in being the patron of such a large ceremonial makeup palette was the decision to display his political convictions on such an object. This decision was deliberate since it provoked ancient Egyptian citizens on a personal level due to makeup’s great cultural importance. At the time, Egyptian black and green makeup was utilized for religious, beautifying, and therapeutic purposes. Ancient Egyptians gave a magic role to makeup and held the belief that wearing it would ensure protection directly from the Egyptian gods Horus and Ra.

In Finding Out Egyptian Gods’ Secret Using Analytical Chemistry: Biomedical Properties of Egyptian Black Makeup Revealed by Amperometry at Single Cells, Issa Tapsoba discusses the chemistry of what the ancient Egyptians were putting in their makeup palettes and on their eyes. The lead-based compounds used by the Egyptians have been proven to treat eye illness and skin ailments by promoting the action of immune cells, hence protecting the wearer. Through Tapsoba’s research, this ancient magic is now solidified scientifically. It seems that King Narmer was perfectly aware of the power of makeup on a social and magical level, hence using the palette as his vehicle to further promote his political ideology.

King Narmer’s Influence Sets the Stage for Egypt 

The Palette of King Narmer helped establish a powerful, authoritative political view through its use of artistic conventions and compelling symbolism. Many Pre-Dynastic works, such as the Palette of King Narmer, set the stage for years to come in ancient Egyptian art because of their ability to combine visual beauty with a chosen philosophy or even multiple underlying messages. As the Egyptian royal families continued to establish their rule among the ancient Egyptian people, art remained the most critical device in maintaining their political influence.

Everybody has an opinion about Andy Warhol. He was one of the most polarizing figures in popular culture during his lifetime, whether it be through his frankness regarding sexual fluidity or his willingness to blur the lines between fine art and commercial products. He was one of the pioneers of an art movement known as Pop Art. Warhol also came up with a new way of interpreting American iconography.

Andy Warhol’s Cinematic Vision

There have been numerous op-eds about why Warhol is overrated. There’s even a 1977 comedy titled Andy Warhol’s Bad. Whether the artist born Andrew Warhola, Jr. was bad or not is dependent on the individual who is being asked this question. However, the influence that he had on generations of filmmakers is inarguable.

Warhol burst onto the cultural scene in 1962, when he exhibited Campbell’s Soup Cans and Marilyn Diptych. However, Warhol was not limited to working on canvases during this fertile period. He produced and directed a staggering 650 films between 1963 and 1968, many of which were deemed too experimental or avant-garde for a mainstream audience. And it’s easy to see why. Andy Warhol’s paintings and silk printings had a clarity, and a colorful sensibility that could draw the eye of novices and critics alike, but his films were much less inviting. They were unrehearsed, tedious, and purposefully lacking in dynamism.

Short Films and Static Camerawork

Warhol was fascinated by the intimate, fleeting moments that could be preserved on film, which often led to him planting the camera in a static position and letting his actors do whatever seemed natural to them. Warhol thought of scripted narratives as boring. Kiss (1963) and Blow Job (1964) are two early examples of Warhol as a cinematic auteur. The former features three and a half minutes of different couples kissing in a tight close-up, while the latter focuses on the face of actor DeVeren Bookwalter as he receives fellatio. Subsequent releases would get longer, and more narratively focused, but the willingness to linger on moments that other filmmakers would be afraid to capture, remained.

These shorts did not receive much attention outside of Warhol’s inner circle of friends upon release, but they became foundational texts for film students looking for a different way to tell stories. Steve McQueen recalls watching Warhol’s Couch (1964) while he was in college, and the film’s premise (two men looking at each other while sitting on a couch) transfixed him. McQueen would internalize this unspoken tension, and it would resurface, decades later, in the agonizingly patient scenes from his directorial debut, Hunger (2008).

Warhol and Lynch: Kindred Spirits

David Lynch is another director who was captivated by Warhol’s short films. Lynch was more than a decade younger than the Pop Art savant, but he was emboldened to start making shorts as early as 1967, and the influence is unmistakable. Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967) and The Alphabet (1968) take the intimacy and unpredictability of Warhol’s films and push them to grotesque extremes. They are perhaps the clearest example of a director building upon the foundation that Warhol laid.

Lynch eventually found mainstream success with films like The Elephant Man (1980) and Blue Velvet (1986), but his Warholian tendencies have remained intact. The latter is perhaps the definitive exploration of voyeurism onscreen. Lynch also shares Warhol’s fascination with American iconography, and Blue Velvet, through both its technicolor depiction of suburban life and grim exploration of underlying perversion, is a rare film that manages to capture the essence of both Warhol’s paintings and films.

The New Face of Auteur Filmmaking 

It’s worth noting that photographs taken by Lynch were featured in a 2014 exhibition alongside photos taken by Warhol. The two had much in common despite rarely crossing paths, and Lynch, in many ways, has modeled his eccentric public persona after Warhol’s. The director is known for his messy white hair and his unwillingness to discuss the meanings behind his films, which are attributes that were established by Warhol at the height of his fame.

Jim Jarmusch is the most obvious Warhol protege on the surface. He makes collages in his spare time and he sports a sunglasses and white hair combo that feels like a punk revision of Warhol’s classic look. A closer inspection, however, reveals that Warhol’s influence can also be seen in Jarmusch’s films. It’s impossible to watch Jarmusch’s films and not be reminded of Warhol’s movies like Vinyl (1965) and Chelsea Girls (1966).

Andy Warhol as Indie Film Progenitor

Warhol’s films predicated the fascination that we have with watching different celebrities interact. They challenge the viewer to extract greater meaning from vignettes that appear random in their assembly. One person’s drivel is another person’s revelation, which is a mindset that Jarmusch shows in dramas like  Stranger Than Paradise (1984) and Down by Law (1986).

These films conveyed the hipness of earlier Warhol releases through their black-and-white cinematography and fringe characters, but they also communicated a similarly disenfranchised worldview. Stranger Than Paradise, in particular, became the urtext for the indie movement of the 1980s, which means Warhol played a crucial role in an artistic revolution through sheer influence. If you have any doubts as to whether Jarmusch owes a great deal of his style to Warhol, you can just watch Cigarettes and Coffee (2003). By combining aimless conversation with Jarmusch’s famous friends, the film plays like a pointed spiritual sequel to Chelsea Girls.

Blue Movie and the Porno Chic Movement

Warhol was obviously keen on exploring sexuality on-screen, but his role in the legitimization of adult films as an art form is not often discussed. Blue Movie (1969) was the first sexually-explicit film to receive a wide theatrical release, and consequently, the first to be taken seriously by critics. It was a surprise box office hit and it effectively kicked off the porno-chic movement of the 1970s and enabled an X-rated film like Midnight Cowboy (1969) to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Midnight Cowboy even has a scene in which its characters attend a party at Warhol’s iconic studio, the Factory. The porno-chic movement was fleeting, but it stands to reason that it may not have happened at all were it not for Warhol’s ability to reach such a wide audience.

Warhol as Godfather of New Queer Cinema

Warhol’s films also played a significant role in the development of New Queer Cinema. The 1990s represented a transformative period in which directors like Gregg Araki and Gus Van Sant could explore homosexual relationships on-screen. Both directors have cited Warhol as a formative influence. Blow Job was a direct precursor to Araki’s The Living End (1992), while Van Sant opted to pair his directorial debut, Mala Noche (1985), with Warhol’s film My Hustler (1965), during a 2015 retrospective.

Van Sant is an admirer of Warhol who has spent decades trying to get a film about him made. He got close to making it during the early 1990s, but the death of the actor cast as Warhol, River Phoenix, led to the film being scrapped. Van Sant eventually reimagined his Warhol tribute as a stage musical, which he debuted in 2022.

The art critic Barbara Rose once claimed that Warhol was the inventor of the 1960s lifestyle. It’s certainly true that Warhol held sway over the tastemakers of the day, but limiting him to the 1960s does a disservice to the impact he has had on subsequent decades.

Warholian Films in the 21st Century

There’s another director who has proven that Warhol’s knack for provocation can elicit strong reactions from audiences decades after the artist’s death. Harmony Korine started by making Warholian films like Gummo (1997) and Julien Donkey-Boy (1999). Gummo is a vignette-driven account of people forced to pass the time after a tornado destroys their homes, and it feels very much indebted to Warhol’s Lonesome Cowboys (1968). Both films derive tension and a dark sense of humor from combining twisted behavior with tranquil settings.

Korine’s fascination with Warhol would culminate with Spring Breakers (2012). The film chronicles the adventures of four young women and an eccentric drug dealer. It was marketed as a colorful celebration of vapidness akin to Warhol’s screen printings. The film is much stranger than the marketing suggested, however, as Korine sought to emulate Warhol releases like Tub Girls (1967) and Trash (1970) in the pursuit of a sensory experience that was driven by feeling and emotion rather than logic.

Andy Warhol’s Legacy

Andy Warhol is best known for his contributions to Pop Art, but he was arguably more daring when it came to his film career. He broke down countless barriers when it came to what and how something could be depicted, and as a result, his influence is enormous. The styles of David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, and Harmony Korine could not be more disparate, and yet, they are unified by a Warholian desire to challenge the status quo.

Bessie Smith’s songs about liberated women, poverty, racism, and everyday struggles won her a legion of fans. Raised on the black Vaudeville circuits of the 1910s, she rose to become a highly successful recording artist in the 1920s. Despite being orphaned as a child and thrust into poverty she became the highest paid black entertainer of her day. The Great Depression ultimately cut her recording career short in 1933 but she never stopped performing. She tragically died after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident in 1937. Bessie Smith was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s and 1930s but also one of the greatest of all time.

Early Life

Bessie Smith, the youngest of seven children, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1894 or 1895. By the age of nine, she had lost her mother, father, and brother Bud. Bessie and her five remaining orphaned siblings went to live with an aunt. 

Living in poverty, for money, her sister took in laundry and Bessie sang on street corners and in local churches while her brother Andrew accompanied her on guitar. She joined her brother Clarence in the Moses Stokes traveling show in her late teens. 

Bessie refined her vocal style on the black Vaudeville stage, learning her craft as an entertainer as a mentee of the great blues singer, Ma Rainey. She quickly became a star act in Fred Swift Walcott’s traveling minstrel show, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. Off the back of her success in the show, by 24 she had established herself as a popular solo act based out of Atlanta, Georgia. 

Recording Career

In 1923, Bessie Smith signed with Columbia Records and released her first record “Downhearted Blues.” The song was a major hit, selling over three-quarters of a million copies in its first 6 months and propelling her into the national spotlight. 

Already well-known in the South and the East Coast, Bessie gained the headline spot of the Theatre Owners Booking Association, Performing across the country throughout the 1920s. She became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day and around this time earned the sobriquet “Empress of the Blues.”

Between 1923 and 1933 Bessie made 160 recordings for Columbia, including several hits with the seminal jazz musicians of the day, from Louis Armstrong to Sidney Becht. 

In 1929, she starred in Dudley Murphy’s flawed masterpiece “St. Louis Blues.” The film is packed with racist stereotypes about black people, yet features the only known footage of Bessie Smith singing, accompanied by a contingent of Fletcher Henderson’s jazz orchestra, including Harlem stride pianist James P. Johnson. 

Sexuality, Liberation, and the Blues

While references to love in the popular music of the 1920s were often sentimental and idealized the music of Bessie Smith was candid and raw. Her songs addressed themes of love and relationships, female sexuality, extramarital affairs, domestic violence, and heartache.

Following the abolition of slavery, a major aspect of black freedom revolved around the ability to make free decisions about relationships, sexuality, and love. Bessie Smith, who was open about her own romantic relationships with both men and women, connected with her audiences as a living feeling public.

Bessie Smith was a bold, independent character who radiated a zest for life. Her journey from rags to riches, combined with her lyrics about female empowerment and sexual love, articulated a powerful sense of black collective freedom (Davis, 1999). Her confident, assertive voice inspired generations of female singers from Mahalia Jackson, to Billie Holiday, and Janis Joplin.

Bessie’s Blues

Bessie Smith sang above all about hardship and life’s struggles: 

“Nobody knows you when you’re down and out

In your pocket, not one penny

And as for friends, you don’t have any.”

She sang the “Empty Bed Blues” (1928) and the “Backwater Blues” (1927), about the tragic 1926 Cumberland River flood. Jim Crow laws forbid her from staying in hotels (so she brought her own tour train). Her lyrics articulated the everyday realities of being black, working class, and poor in America. She sang about poverty, sexism, racism, and the ups and downs of love. Her incredible presence and commanding contralto voice made her a legend in her own time.

Bessie Smith tragically suffered fatal injuries in a car accident in 1937. Though her funeral attracted over 5,000 mourners, due to a lack of funds in her estate, she was buried in an unmarked grave. Finally, in 1970, NAACP leader Juanita Green Smith and Janis Joplin clubbed together for a headstone with a fitting inscription: “The greatest blues singer in the world will never stop singing.”

Outsider artist Henry Darger left behind a fifteen-thousand-page illustrated novel that features a complex interpretation of a challenging childhood and spiritually secluded adult life. Although Darger attended Catholic mass three to four times a day, other than his work as a janitor, he spent his time tucked away in a small Chicago apartment in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. In Darger’s alone time, his repressed and misunderstood energy came out through illustration and writing.

Henry Darger’s Illustrative Spiritual Storytelling

Like in the cases of many other outsider artists, Darger’s work was not discovered, both on a literal and emotional level, until after his death. Through his novel In the Realms of the Unreal, Henry Darger presented viewers with a complex tale about the transgender Vivian girls and their battle against the evil Glandelinians. This was a story exhibiting a Catholic philosophy filled with spiritual wisdom that was radical for his time. Darger’s preferred themes surrounding transformation and resilience in battle do not exclusively find ties to Catholicism. Many of the themes seen in In the Realms of the Unreal can be found in Native American folklore, as well as in classic tales such as The Wizard of Oz. Darger’s work ultimately shows us both the incredible enchantment and the immense pain of transformation.

Henry’s Early Life: Death, Nuns, Asylum, & Watercolors

Henry Darger grew up in a small two-story house between Adams and Monroe Street in Chicago with his father. Henry’s mother died when he was an infant, and soon after his sister was adopted. Darger’s father was a tailor who taught Henry how to read the newspaper at a young age. This led Henry to be pushed up from the first grade to the third one when he started attending elementary school. Henry’s father also gave him storybooks and coloring books on special occasions such as Christmas. Henry was inspired by these images and he bought himself watercolor paint boxes.

Unfortunately, when Henry was eight years old, his father became too ill to care for him, so he was sent to an all-boys home called The Mission of Our Lady of Mercy in Illinois. His father lived at the Saint Augustine poor house in Chicago for the remainder of his life. From Our Lady of Mercy, Henry was sent to a nearby public school. Darger’s time at this public school was marked with distracting behavior. Henry was known to make noises with his nose and throat often. Although he believed these noises to be funny and entertaining to his peers, his fellow students found them annoying. As a result, the schoolboys beat up Henry frequently after school. He tried his best to defend himself with a stick that he carried around with him daily.

Henry was forced to leave the school due to his troublesome behavior. Soon after leaving, Darger received a physical and mental assessment at Our Lady Of Mercy, where he was told that he was spiritually unwell. Henry was then swiftly sent to the Asylum For Feeble-Minded Children in southern Illinois, where he and fifteen thousand other children worked from seven in the morning until five in the afternoon on the asylum’s farm.

While there, Henry and the other children were physically abused. They were also deprived of formal education besides learning how to tend to the farm. Along with the physical abuse, Henry was subjected to electroshock treatments. He spent seven years at the asylum.

Many of the children including Henry tried to run away from the asylum, but for the most part, they ended up physically abused by the farm men who would chase after them. These events of physical abuse are evident in Henry’s later illustrations showing children being lassoed and taken as slaves by the evil Glandelinians. In the summer of Henry’s seventh year, however, Henry and a few other boys were able to escape quickly enough to find themselves on the Illinois Central train to Decatur. From Decatur, Henry walked by himself to Chicago. He eventually found himself a job at Saint Joseph’s Hospital, working as a janitor.

Henry was seventeen years old at this point. This was most definitely not the end of his suffering, unfortunately. Sister Rose, a nun at Saint Joseph’s, would constantly threaten to send Henry back to the asylum if he did anything wrong in his work. Feeling crushed by people from both in and out of the asylum, Henry went back to what gave him joy and reacquainted himself with the storybooks he loved so much as a child. He began working on his own illustrated novel In the Realms of the Unreal in 1909.

Henry’s Inspiration for In The Realms of the Unreal

Henry was able to transmute his childhood abuse into storytelling by using his experiences as a child and young adult in an informative way. For example, one of Henry’s most prominent bullies at the boys’ school, John Manley, became General Manley of the evil Glandelinians in the novel. The Glandelinians were clothed in Confederate uniforms and something the author called professor hats. These hats refer to Henry’s feelings towards the authority figures in his life who were physically and mentally abusive.

Henry’s close friend William Slaughter appeared In the Realms of the Unreal alongside Darger himself. They appeared as powerful generals defending the Vivian Girls in their mission to defeat the evil Glandelinians. Through careful analysis of Darger’s work, we can see that the stories he read as a child left a deep impact on his writing style and character choice. His novel includes names of characters from The Wizard of Oz. It was also inspired by passages from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Penrod by Booth Tarkington, and several works by Charles Dickens. Henry was completely self-taught. He collected newspapers and magazines to use as image references.

Eight years after he started working on his illustrated novel, Darger was drafted to fight in World War I. His time spent in service became another source of inspiration when it came to writing and illustrating the war scenes between the Vivian girls and the Glandelinians. Ultimately, Darger was dismissed from the army due to health issues with his eyes, so he went back to his job as a janitor at Saint Joseph’s Hospital. Henry continued to work there while simultaneously working on In the Realms of the Unreal until his death in 1973.

Henry’s Relationship with Humanity & God

Due to Henry’s traumatic and sorrowful childhood, he was labeled as a recluse. Henry’s landlady, Kiyoko Lerner, said in an interview: “My first impression was that Henry was not able to relate to anything or anybody surrounding him. He was very alone… Obviously he was scared; he was hurt by people. He never responded to the question you were asking him. He responded with an answer like, ‘storm is coming from California tomorrow night’ or ‘tornado is in Arkansas right now.’”

Darger was deeply scared and traumatized by his experiences, and he deliberately chose not to interact with other people to avoid further abuse.  This is also the reason why Henry put so much of himself and his time into creating another world where he could reenact the events of his life, as well as indulge in the fanatical essence of the stories he cherished. Although Darger created such a seemingly fantastical world, the themes of war, religion, and child abuse were real.

The end of In the Realms of the Unreal provides the reader with two alternative endings, one in which the Vivian girls are victorious in defeating the slave-owning Glandelinians, and the other where the Glandelinians are victorious over the Christian army and obliterate all its members along with the Vivian girls. Through Darger offering alternative endings to such an eventful tale, we can notice his changing relationship with God, as well as his feelings towards humanity itself. Henry Darger’s work was first seen by his landlords when he was bedridden and ill in Saint Augustine’s poorhouse awaiting his death. Although Henry had instructed his landlords to throw everything from his apartment, Kiyoko reported that she wasn’t able to throw away Henry’s work.

Christianity in In the Realms of the Unreal

Darger’s devoted Christian practice left an immense impact on the themes running through the pages of his novel. Mark Waters, a neighbor of Henry’s said that the outside artist came to mass every day. Henry even wrote in his novel that General Darger had to be in a communion-like state of grace whenever he approached the Vivian girls. There were Christian references in the symbols and the character development Darger created around the Vivian girls’ devotion to the Christian faith. There are also lesser-known references to Christian Saints.

There are also themes of female martyrdom and gender transformation. Darger’s Vivian girls show devoted faith in their Lord. In Henry’s story, they constantly risk their lives in numerous battles to save the imprisoned child slaves—the children of God who had suffered too long. In In the Realms of the Unreal, the Vivian girls transform into boys when engaging in battle with the Glandelinians. Darger illustrated this by adding male genitalia to the female figures. Many readers and observers of Darger’s work wonder why he chose to do this, especially since he mentioned in his diary that he saw women as the stronger gender.

The Vivian girls seemed happy and oblivious towards their nakedness for the most part, but on other occasions, they experienced violent physical punishment from the Glandelinians while they were nude. This opposing imagery is extremely reminiscent of the Garden of Eden. The images of the Vivian girls being crucified by the evil Glandelinians are also very closely tied to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Native American Themes in In the Realms of the Unreal

Stories of transformation, as well as of intelligent hybrid animals have circulated throughout culture for centuries, especially within Native American cultures. In In the Realms of the Unreal, Darger calls his half-human, half-snake creatures Blengiglomeneans, or just Blenglens. The Blenglens resemble large serpents, but they also have a rather angelic quality to them with their large wings. Some look more bird-like, while others look more like dragons. The Blenglens’ heads also tend to vary. Some have human heads, while others have heads of birds and cats.

Henry Darger’s Impact on Storytelling

With thoughtful observation, it becomes clear that Henry Darger’s In the Realms of the Unreal has a special place as a work inspired by classic novels, religious themes, and ancient Indigenous mythologies. There are also universal themes related to pain, trauma, grief, spirituality, and the fantastical. Henry Darger has left behind an expressive story about his life and the abuse he endured. In the Realms of the Unreal is a testimony to the multi-faceted richness of the human experience and the human spirit.

M.C. Escher spent most of his career being neglected by the artistic community. He spent the 1920s painting Italian landscapes to little fanfare, but a shift to what he called mental imagery led to a critical breakthrough. M.C. Escher became fascinated by mathematical and theoretical premises and decided to visualize them in ways the world had previously never seen.

M.C. Escher’s Universal Appeal

It took a long time for the public to get on Escher’s wavelength. He was 70 years old by the time his first exhibition was held, but his legacy has grown exponentially since then. There’s a bit of a catch when it comes to cinematic renderings of Escher’s style, however. While artists like Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol have relatively straightforward styles, and perhaps even ones that lent themselves well to the big screen, Escher’s is based on visual complexity. A good portion of his work is dedicated to the rendering of optical illusions and shapes that are deemed impossible in a three-dimensional space.

Escher Paintings as Cinematic Pastiche

The impossibility of Escher’s work has not stopped filmmakers from being influenced by him, but it has led to as many failed attempts as successful ones. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) is a prominent example of the former. The third installment in the fantasy franchise sees the main characters stumble into the famous lithograph Relativity (1953). The characters acknowledge the difficulty of navigating the winding staircases and the gravity-defying architecture, but they fail to do anything novel with the setting, and quickly exit.

Escher has become synonymous with the bizarre and the extreme, but his status as a household name makes him an appealing artist to reference, regardless of whether that makes sense within the confines of a film. A scene that is ultimately unoriginal, like the one mentioned in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, will attempt to derive creativity points by paying homage to Escher. It winds up falling flat as a result.

Impossible Staircases on Film

Labyrinth (1986) does a much better job of incorporating Escher’s Relativity and Convex and Concave (1955) into its story. Most of the film takes place in a strange, surreal landscape. The director Jim Henson based his camerawork on Escher’s style. One particular shot features a character diving off one of the staircases, only to have him surface around a corner seconds later.

The action occurs so quickly, that the camera is still tilted on its side from the previous shot, effectively creating the effect of the character walking sideways through the frame. Elsewhere, a wide shot of the room shows another character being chased horizontally through the frame, while an infant is posed vertically in the foreground. The film manages to capture the feeling of looking at an Escher piece for minutes on end.

Escher and Henson: Unlikely Bonds

Like Night at the Museum, Labyrinth features the actual Relativity lithograph on the wall, but unlike the former, Labyrinth manages to deliver on the promise of bringing said lithograph to life. Jim Henson was an enormous fan of M.C. Escher, and he took special steps to ensure that his cinematic rendering lived up to the real thing. He instructed cinematographer Alex Thomson to light the staircases evenly so that the shadows they cast didn’t reveal whether the staircases were going up or down. He also had the sets constructed in such a way that they could be moved to fit the needs of the choreography.

Henson may be best known as the creator of The Muppets, but the bulk of his career was dedicated to creating surreal films. The experimental short films he released during the 1960s and 1970s were a radical departure from his kid-friendly puppet shows. These shorts showcased a fascination with the depiction of abstract concepts a la Escher’s Cubic Space Division (1952).

Upending Conformity Through Art

Henson’s Time Piece (1966) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, and it depicts a man trying to escape the flow of time in a style very similar to that seen in Escher’s Ascending and Descending (1960). In both pieces, individuals struggle to break the constraints they’ve been placed under, and ultimately fall short. Escher discussed what he felt was the overarching theme of Ascending and Descending in his book The Graphic Work of M.C. Escher (1960). “Two recalcitrant individuals refuse, for the time being, to take any part in this exercise,” he noted. “They have no use for it at all but no doubt sooner or later they will be brought to see the error of their nonconformity.”

The prioritization of nonconformity makes sense, given the artist’s knack for taking mathematical principles and pushing them to their extreme. The problem with so many of the films that reference Escher is that they do so within the rigid structure of a narrative, which removes the interpretive qualities of his work.

Escher’s Impact on Blockbusters

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) has a sequence in which supernatural killer Freddy Krueger traps his victim in a nightmare space reminiscent of Escher’s Waterfall (1961). The screenplay for The Dream Child, which was penned by John Skipp and Craig Spector, makes explicit reference to Escher’s style. The writers describe the nightmare space as an “Escheresque, expressionistic landscape” and an “insane, logic-defying world where water runs uphill and stairs and doors stand at impossible angles to one another.” It’s a memorable sequence in an otherwise forgettable film, but Escher’s visual flair is once again flattened to serve the superficial appeal of a boogeyman story.

A similar fate has befallen the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has dominated popular culture in the 21st century. The franchise has previously dabbled in kaleidoscopic or surreal imagery, but it was the release of Doctor Strange (2016) that marked the first legitimate attempt to tell a superhero story within an Escherian setting. The visual effects artists who worked on the film used Escher as a benchmark when it came to adding surreal flourishes to seemingly realistic architecture.

Artistic Intent vs. Execution

The chase scene that opens Doctor Strange features elaborate, impossible building patterns reminiscent of Escher’s Another World (1947) and Print Gallery (1956). The rest of the film is rendered in a similarly impressive fashion, making use of quintessentially Escherian concepts like polyhedral compounds and small stellated dodecahedrons.

The same can be said of other MCU films like Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (2022). They are technical feats, and they pay tribute to Escher without the obviousness of Night at the Museum. Where they ultimately fall short is intent. The MCU is a blockbuster spectacle meant to appeal to kids and parents alike, while Escher’s lithographs are studies of paranoia and isolation. They might be aesthetically similar, but they are also fundamentally different in tone.

Shifting Perspectives

Escher’s life was characterized by struggle. He fled Italy after the rise of fascism in 1935 and often felt estranged from his wife and children due to the lengthy amounts of time he would spend on his work. He was also hampered by health problems during the final years of his life. There’s a sense of escape in Escher’s lithographs and paintings, of leaving struggle behind for the fantastical, but reality always made its way into the expressions of his characters and the ominous presentation of his designs.

The only film that has dared to approach Escher’s work on these terms is Fish & Cat (2013). An avant-garde combination of the mystery and slasher genres, Fish & Cat is unique in that it is presented as a nonlinear, uncut 135-minute shot. It’s a harrowing viewing experience, which director Shahram Mokri was inspired to make after studying Escher’s work and becoming fascinated by the latter’s ability to shift perspective within the same visual, as evidenced by the lithograph prints Reptiles (1943) and Three Worlds (1955).

“You can see a change in perspective in the same visual,” he told The Hindu. “In my film, I wanted to give a change in perspective of time in one single shot. So the idea for the film came from his paintings.” It’s a daring concept, but one that Mokri ultimately pulls off due to his clever camera placement and shot construction.

The M.C. Escher Conundrum

Fish & Cat doesn’t wear its Escher influence on its sleeve, like so many of its cinematic peers, and winds up being all the better for it. Not a perfect translation of the artist, but the closest the medium has gotten. M.C. Escher will continue to be a source of inspiration for generations of filmmakers, but his singular ability to conceive of impossible structures and communicate them to the untrained human eye is not easily replicable.

He said as much during the opening moments of the documentary M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity (2021). When asked which filmmaker would do a good job of bringing his vision to the screen, he said: “I fear that there is only one person in the world who could make a really good movie about my prints: myself.” There have been many valiant attempts, but the films we have thus far lead us to believe Escher may have been right.

The south of England has never really been forced to work very hard to appeal to tourists. Most guests don’t need to be persuaded to visit Stonehenge, get a photograph in front of Westminster Abbey, or eat delicious southern cuisine such as stargazy pie. (Ok, perhaps the last one is suited to an acquired taste and not actually appealing to the majority.) The perks of the South are no secret. Nevertheless, there’s also a great deal of fun to be had in the north. The three places that make up this list are well worth anybody’s time.

3. Alnwick  

Alnwick, the northernmost entry on the list, is a petit market town situated in Northumberland, merely an hour’s drive from the Scottish border. Although compact in size, this town is brimming with locations that have somewhat of a mythical aura. There are sections of Alnwick whereupon it almost feels as though you’re treading the grounds of a fantasy novel. Thus, it’s no coincidence that Alnwick’s castle was selected to represent Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter films. We’re sure fans of the franchise will be excited to hear that visitors are offered daily tours, which include interesting anecdotes regarding the site’s link to the movies.

The history of Alnwick Castle does, of course, extend a great deal further than the story of “The Boy Who Lived” and has played a hugely significant role during past conflicts between British nations. It was originally built to protect the border and served its purpose. King of Scotland, William I, initially attacked the castle in 1173 and then tried again the following year. He was unsuccessful on both occasions and captured during his second attempt.

The inside of the castle is a mesmerizing display of affluence. In the 1850s, Algernon Percy, the 4th Duke of Northumberland, decided a bit of renovation was in order. He hired English architect Anthony Salvin and Italian architect Luigi Canini to create his dream home. This resulted in an upper guard chamber, lower guard chamber, library, drawing room, dining room, and china gallery, each unique in appearance to the last.

It should be noted, however, that the castle is only open to the public between March and October since Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, and his family live there through the winter period. So, be sure to time your trip carefully to avoid disappointment.

To reinforce the theory that Alnwick contains all the hallmarks of a fictional fantasy world, it is important to note that Britain’s deadliest garden is also located within the town. Poison Garden, which can be found inside Alnwick Garden, houses around 100 toxic, intoxicated, and narcotic plants. It’ll be obvious when you’ve reached the entrance, given that the gate displays a skull and crossbones with the words “These Plants Can Kill.” The garden is open to the public, and we certainly encourage everyone to enter, but it’s probably best to behave sensibly once inside.

No magical visit to Alnwick would be complete without having a meal at The Treehouse Restaurant. It’s located in the treetops and built via a combination of English and Scots pine, Scandinavian redwood, and Canadian cedar. It’s quirky and cozy, and the traditional British food on offer is lovely. So, take a seat by a burning log fire, devour some classic local grub, and be sure to look at the cocktail menu since it pays tribute to the Duchess of Northumberland.

2. Whitby

Situated in North Yorkshire along the coastline, Whitby is one of the most picturesque seaside towns in the whole of the UK. It’s steeped in history and easy to navigate, ensuring visitors are always within arm’s reach of an interesting setting. A few popular attractions we’d recommend prioritizing are Whitby Abbey, the Captain Cook Memorial Museum, and taking a stroll along West Cliff Beach (providing the British weather opts to be forgiving during your visit).

In addition, the town is fantastically spooky and has been since 1897. Bram Stoker, the brains behind the novel Dracula, selected to reside in Whitby while writing his world-famous book due to its gothic appearance. Since then, the town’s association with the vampire has seemingly strengthened from year to year. To this extent, Whitby now hosts two official Goth Weekends every year. The event is centered around a music festival and serves as a huge tribute to Gothic culture. Should you find yourself in the seaside town amid the celebrations, you’re guaranteed to see a variety of interesting characters roaming the streets.

There are plenty of locations worth visiting, too, if you want to take in a little more of what inspired Dracula. This includes St. Mary’s Church, a beautiful cliffside parish overlooking the harbor. Stroker chose Mr. Swales’ name, a character within the story who predicted terrible things on the horizon, from a tombstone written in the church’s accompanying graveyard. Oddly enough, it’s alleged that Humpty Dumpty’s gravestone can also be found within the same cemetery. He may or may not be real, may or may not be an egg, and may or may not be buried in Whitby. Thus, you may or may not choose to believe he’s under the ground near Mr. Swales. Either way, there’s seemingly no way to verify the rumor. The stone in question is downward-facing, oval-shaped, and has a faded inscription that is no longer readable.

While there are alternative methods for reaching St. Mary’s Church and its surrounding area, the most recommended route is via trudging up Whitby’s iconic 199 steps. This route was previously used as a way to test the faith of those who intended to worship. It should also be noted that the steps can become steep in parts, so it’s best to take your time at the more challenging points.

Finally, if you’re still yet to be convinced by Whitby, we truly believe the seaside town has some of the best fish and chips restaurants in the world, which can be tried at the Magpie Cafe. However, the eatery’s great food isn’t a secret to locals. So, you may be forced to queue for a little while, but the meal will definitely be worth the wait.

1. Leeds

Leeds is one of the largest cities in England and has a wide range of attractions that should generate a lot more attention. Yet, this Yorkshire city is typically overlooked by tourists. York, Manchester, and Liverpool are generally the go-to picks for visitors brave enough to venture into the country’s northern half. However, Leeds certainly merits at least a little more consideration from travelers.

The vibrant city center, which will likely be your entry point should you arrive via public transport, nicely blends modern trends with historical architecture. We’d particularly encourage visitors to wander around The Corn Exchange, a charming spherical Victorian building that contains outer rings of quirky shops and a pleasantly peaceful dining area at its center.

Another favorite among shoppers is the vintage arcades. These are a series of 19th-century beautifully decorated archways with a mixture of luxurious designer shops and cool independent retailers. The medieval-inspired structures within the Country Arcade and Thorton’s Arcade are some of the most aesthetically pleasing. If you time your visit to the latter carefully, you’ll even get to see a life-sized figure of Robin Hood chiming a Roman numeral wall clock high above your head.

The Royal Armouries, a short walk from the shopping district, acts as a custodian for Britain’s collection of arms and armor and is deemed one of the largest of its kind in the world. The museum is divided into five sections: War, Tournament, Hunting, Oriental, and Self-Defense, and showcases a fascinating display of historical battle-themed relics that have been used throughout the world. The Royal Armouries boasts a plethora of cannons, swords, and painted portraits, though its most impressive feature is perhaps the glass-encased tournament armor of Henry VIII. The museum also has daily tours, dramatic performances, and combat displays to bring the experience of their guests to life, which is always good fun.

Leeds is also a great place to watch a sports match, with the city playing host to a number of traditional British favorites. Headingley Stadium has an adjacent rugby and cricket ground, enabling visitors to potentially watch either the local rugby league team, Leeds Rhinos, rugby union team, Leeds Tykes, or the Yorkshire cricket side. Elland Road, one of Britain’s most iconic football stadiums, is also located in the city. Due to the global recognition of English football, it’s common for visitors to want to attend a game, and watching Leeds United at Elland Road would be a truly authentic and passionate experience.

In recent years, Leeds has paid tribute to some of its most popular sporting heroes via a series of mammoth-sized street paintings. Leeds United legends Marcelo Bielsa and Gary Speed, along with Leeds Rhinos legends Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrows, can be found on walls across the city, as well as many other local favorites.

As for food, the options are endless. However, our top pick is The Swine That Dines. It’s traditional homely food done extremely well. The restaurant adopts simple, popular household dishes and creates an adventurous modification rich in flavors and gorgeous in taste. The cuisine on offer also goes well with a lovely glass of red wine. The staff are friendly, kind, and attentive, while the setting is intimate and cozy. Overall, a true ten-out-of-ten experience.

Northern Renaissance portraits contain secret messages from the artist and the sitter. Portraiture was on the rise during the Northern Renaissance due to the changing art market. This allowed people to present themselves in a way that sent covert signals of who they were within society. The symbolism of the Northern Renaissance can be read like a story, creating visual windows into the past.

Religious Identity in Northern Renaissance Portraiture

Robert Campin’s Annunciation Triptych has three panels. On the far right panel, we see Joseph working in his workshop which is filled with tools. There is a mousetrap on the window sill. He is focusing hard on his work. Behind him, the city is small but visible through the window, placing the setting as distinctly 15th-century Flanders—the contemporary rather than the ancient era.

While Joseph works on his carpentry, his betrothed, the Virgin Mary, is in the home being visited by the angel Gabriel, who brings her a divine message of her impending pregnancy in which she would carry the son of God into the world. She sits reading her Book of Hours, a prayer book based around the calendar year. She is so caught up in her prayer that she has not yet noticed the messenger. From the window, the divine pregnancy is sent to her as a tiny baby holding a cross, riding beams of spiritual light to Mary’s womb. She had been chosen to be the mother of Christ because of her purity, as indicated by the symbols of white lilies on the table and the shiny reflection of the pot in the background.

On the left of the triptych are portraits of the patrons of the artwork, incorporated into the overall scene of the triptych. They peer through a door to the mythical scene in the center, kneeling with admiration. Initially, the kneeling man was the only figure present on the panel. However, when he married his wife, he decided to have her added to the painting.

The guardsman behind them was another addition. These patrons would have commissioned this expensive artwork and requested their portraits be added to the scene for a reason, but why? As the fervent religious beliefs of the Middle Ages met the progress and changing socioeconomic structure of the Renaissance, more people had more money to use within society, earning them wealth and reputations they were not afforded before. New to the rising middle class and hoping to prove their character, they would have sought to confirm their identity with the artwork, adding themselves to the sacred event to demonstrate their religious devotion. It would have also made the scene more relatable to them, creating a more personal worship during private prayer.

Devotional Diptych Portraits

In Hans Memling’s portraits of Tommaso di Folco Portinari and his wife Maria Portinari, the two face each other with their hands clasped in prayer. Devotional diptych portraits could be two people in prayer, but it was common for it to be one person in prayer and the Virgin Mary on the other panel. The couple would have commissioned this diptych for their home for private prayer. To see themselves in prayer would enhance the prayer experience by creating a visual for themselves to aid their worship.

Tommaso di Folco Portinari was the manager of the Medici bank in Bruges. When originally commissioned, the painting had a third panel, making it a triptych. The middle panel was allegedly a devotional image of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus.

Identity is present even in a plain portrait with little detail concerning the setting. Both of the sitters present themselves as devout Christians with means of wealth. The jeweled necklace, soft furred collar, the sheer fabric of the conical headdress, and golden wedding rings all point towards the sitters’ socioeconomic and marital statuses. Beauty ideals are expressed in the painting as well. Maria Portinari’s light eyebrows and high forehead were ideals of beauty. Though she may really have had these features in life, their inclusion in the portrait ensures that she cared about such trends and wished to express her partaking in them. Just like today’s women often strive to present themselves as beautiful on social media, 15th-century women did the same with their portraits.

Socioeconomic Identity

Things were changing rapidly as the Renaissance swept across Europe. Northern Renaissance artistic symbolism differed significantly from the artistic symbolism previously used in the Gothic era. While symbolism had always been central to the image when present, it was now becoming a part of its atmosphere instead, by being discreetly placed around the scene. This is sometimes called hidden symbolism and is one of the hallmarks of Northern Renaissance art, alongside the intense hyperrealism of the style, thanks to the semi-translucent, layerable oil paints that were becoming available in the region.

Jan van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait is one of the best examples of hidden symbolism in Northern Renaissance portraiture. It depicts a wealthy Italian merchant, Giovanni Arnolfini, and his wife, Costanza Trenta. The couple is dressed in warm, luxurious clothing and elaborate headwear. It is important to note that the woman is not pregnant, as many people have come to believe, but that she is holding the luxurious fabric up to highlight their possession of quality-made clothing. Despite their layers, the oranges and shrubbery outside of the window indicate that it is a warm month of the year. The clothes, then, are there to establish their identity as lucrative people who can purchase such expensive material.

The oranges, too, indicate their wealth and worldliness. Some art historians believe that oranges could have been the trade that Giovanni Arnolfini was involved in and, therefore, are symbolic of the source of his wealth. However, most sources point towards cloth being their trade—backing up the theory that Costanza is not pregnant and instead holding up the fabric of her dress.

The beds, too, serve the purpose of displaying their wealth. It was common to take guests in the bedroom, as beds were expensive, and there was little use in keeping it private when it cost so much money. Beds could be elaborate and were often status indicators for visiting guests.

The couple expresses their Christian devotion in the background. The twelve passions of Christ surround a round mirror. When standing in front of the physical painting, the individual scenes are as small as a person’s fingernail. In the mirror is the reflection of the people in the room, including the artist himself. His signature is present above the mirror, causing his tiny reflection to nearly become a part of the signature itself.

There is a possible story present concerning the couple, as well. The dog in the foreground symbolizes fidelity, a testament to their relationship in marriage. Another theory from a 1930s art historian, Erwin Panofsky, assumes it to be a funerary portrait for Costanza, who may have died in childbirth. The best post is carved into the shape of St. Margaret, the patron saint of childbirth. The candle above Costanza is snuffed out and smoking, with candle smoke often being described as the breath of God in the Renaissance. Meanwhile, Giovanni’s candle remains lit and burns brightly, leading some to theorize that Giovanni had the portrait created posthumously for his late bride. There are many theories about the Arnolfini Portrait, as much of the symbolism has been lost to time and can now only be theorized about by modern art historians and viewers. Records of her death, however, do not support this theory.

Political Symbolism

Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors is full of 16th-century symbolism. He presents it to us on a two-tiered wooden table between two French ambassadors at the English court during Henry VIII’s divorce from his first wife in favor of his second, Anne Boleyn, who married in 1533. It was a tense time for Catholics at the English court, and Holbein captured it discreetly in The Ambassadors.

The man on the left, Jean de Dinteville, was in England on behalf of the French King, Francis I. His friend, George de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur, is seen on the right. The objects on the table between them symbolize the discord Europe was experiencing then. The top tier of the table represents spiritual matters, while the lower represents earthly matters. A math book is open to a complex problem. Another book is open to a Protestant hymn despite the Catholic sitters in the double portrait. A string on the lute has snapped.

In the top left corner, a crucifix is hidden behind the curtain, waiting for redemption. The red Anatolian carpet draped over the table reminds a contemporary viewer of the Ottomans—enemies of Europe during a point of weakness as the Reformation swept Europe. The globe displays Brazil on its horizon, a nod to the somewhat recent news that France had made a claim to the territory of Brazil and a cause for animosity between the French and Portuguese, who also had interests in Brazil.

The distorted skull, however, visible as a skull only when viewed at a specific angle, reminds the viewers that the discord of earthly matters means nothing, for the grave is what ultimately awaits us all. It reminds people to live well while on earth and to take care of spiritual matters before they, too, meet their inevitable end.

Display of Power

Symbolism in portraiture was especially important for rulers. It was much more common for subjects to be illiterate in the Renaissance than today, and symbolism in portraiture allowed monarchs to get messages out to their subjects about their reigns or ruling methods in a way that both literate and illiterate people would understand. Of course, this was not the only reason it was essential to rulers. It also served as a form of propaganda. To display power and wealth in a portrait is to send a message of how untouchable one is, for example.

Elizabeth I’s portraits are abundant in symbols to highlight aspects of her reign. It was a propaganda technique used by her father to appear publicly as a rich and powerful king, and her use of it perfected the method. Her lifelong attempt at remaining a virgin to keep her power as the rightful Queen of England is often alluded to in her portraits. She is often depicted dripping in pearls, a symbol of sexual purity to remind all viewers of her marriage to England, rather than a man who could take her power from her through the promise of obedience as part of 16th-century wedding vows.

The Armada Portrait is a beautiful example of Elizabeth I’s use of propaganda symbolism in her portraits. At this point in her reign, she was 50 years old and facing Spain’s attempts to invade England and overthrow her rule. Thankfully, the Spanish were blown off course, and England prevailed against their superpower enemy. A painting was created to commemorate the moment.

Her clothing is elaborately decorated with expensive fabrics, jewels, and bows. Behind her are two windows. One shows English ships preparing for battle on a calm sea, while another shows a stormy sea that violently rocks Spanish ships with its waves. Here, she asserts her rule as a calm one compared to the turbulence of Europe amidst a religious conflict. In essence, through symbolism, she calls the Spanish chaotic and vindictive while maintaining herself as a calm monarch who deserved no such treatment from her Spanish neighbors. Meanwhile, her pointer finger rests on the region of the English colonies in North America, establishing her presence as an international colonial power.

Crafting Identity Through Northern Renaissance Portraiture

Elizabeth I would have learned by example about creating propaganda with portraiture. Hans Holbein the Younger created countless portraits of Henry VIII, but they all have similar symbolic qualities. They all display his elaborate wealth and power as King. He wears lavish clothing that widens his shoulders. He stands with a hand on his hip, enlarging himself to appear mighty. He does not wear a crown because it is unnecessary—his majesty is depicted in fine clothing, sumptuous jewels, and a wide stance.

All of these create for him an identity that claims he is powerful, he is to be taken seriously, and he is not to be trifled with. Symbolism sends messages, consciously or unconsciously, to the viewer and could be tightly controlled by the patron or artist to create a final product that they would be using to present themselves to others. Symbolism in the Northern Renaissance was often indiscreet yet versatile in how it could be used to present a message. The messages usually centered around the sitter’s identity, whether their role in society, wealth and economic status, personal stories—tragic and triumphal—or their assertion of power as a ruler.

Researchers have unearthed some surprising new evidence from the remains of sacrificial Mayan victims in the ancient city of Chichen Itza more than 1,000 years ago. A recent study led by Rodrigo Barquera from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Athropology (MPI-EVA) in Germany reveals that identical twin boys were frequently selected as human sacrifices. The data was gathered from 64 bodies dating back to 500-900 CE that were found in an underground burial site called the chultun, near the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza.

Twins in Mayan Mythology

Twins were a recurring theme in Mayan mythology, and featured frequently in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the indigenous K’iche people. They were seen to embody qualities of duality amongst the Mayan’s revered deities and heroes. In one story from the Popol Vuh, the twins Hun Hunahpah and Vucub Hunahpu enter the underworld, where they are sacrificed by the gods. One of the boy’s heads is hung in a tree, from where it is able to impregnate a young woman, who in turn gives birth to twin boys Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who become known as the Hero Twins. With supernatural powers, they are able to undergo a series of sacrifices and resurrections in order to outsmart the Mayan gods of the underworld to avenge their father.

The Mayan Afterlife

Subterranean sites such as the chultun, a former underground water storage chamber, were thought to be entrances into the Mayan underworld, which would explain why the Mayan people would have buried their dead here. Human sacrifice was an important part of their culture, and researchers believe the children sacrificed in this particular location were made as offerings to the Mayan rain god Chaac, or to encourage maize-growing cycles.

Selected Individuals

Similarities found within the dietary patterns of the children buried in the site suggests many of them would have been closely related to one another, not just the ones revealed to be identical twins. Barquera says only a select group would have been chosen for this particular location: “Since many of the individuals were related to each other to some extent, that tells us that its probable that only specific families would have had access to this burial and that not just anyone could put their kids in there – it was a big honor.”

The First Study of Its Kind

This study is the first of its kind to look into the biological relationships between Mayan sacrificial victims, and it reveals greater insight into the religious beliefs of the Mayan people. Barquera says, “We think that the people from Chichen Itza were trying to symbolically replicate the Maya mythological stories and the representation of the twin heroes in this ritual burial.” He adds, “This is the first time we are able to confidently identify identical twins in the archaeological record.”

The research team gathered DNA from the temporal bone of the inner ear, known for preserving ancient remnants of DNA. MPI-EVA archaogeneticist Kathrin Nagele says, “We sampled only the left portion because that would make sure we sampled every individual only once. It was not preserved for every individual in the chultun, therefore we sampled only a subset.”

According to Immanuel Kant, there are two worlds out there: the one that we inhabit, and the one that we can never even fathom. The phenomenal world is the world that we experience. The noumenal world is the world that exists independently from our experience, the world of the ‘things in themselves’.

The Critique of Pure Reason 

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher of the 18th century. His magnum opus, The Critique of Pure Reason, laid the groundwork for German Idealism and influenced many great philosophers and thinkers. Published in 1781, the book explores the limits of our epistemological limitations through a discussion of a priori and a posteriori knowledge. A priori knowledge is knowledge independent from empirical experience while a posteriori knowledge is knowledge based on sense data. The heart of Kant’s discussion of the noumenal and phenomenal worlds lies in his understanding of the interplay of these two forms of knowledge. 

What Structures Our Experience?

Immanuel Kant proposed that our experience of the world is not the product of sense impressions alone, but rather consists of the synthesis of our a priori and a posteriori knowledge. Kant outlines two types of a priori structures that determine our experience of the world: the categories of understanding and the forms of intuition. The categories of understanding are divided into four main categories: relation, quality, quantity, and modality. Each of them includes three subcategories that further elucidate the a priori structures that we impose on sense perception. The forms of our intuition include time and space.

While this may sound strange to our ordinary understanding, it is easy to see why Kant arrived at these conclusions. The information we receive from our senses does not amount to the experience we have of the world. If that were the case, our experience would be that of incomprehensible colors and sounds mixed with unintelligible smells, tastes, and touches. Our sense of the world around us is definitely more than the data we receive from our senses. We live in a world that has structure, continuity, and intelligibility. What Kant is arguing is that these characteristics that comprise our ordinary experience of reality are not properties of what we believe to be ‘the external world’ but are in fact properties of our own cognitive faculties. 

Kant on Noumenon vs. Phenomenon

If our internal cognitive structures determine our experience of everything, to what extent can we claim to know the nature of our world? And what are the implications of Kant’s theory on our faith in science? What do we know about how things actually are? Kant not only argues that we know nothing, but that such knowledge is impossible! He distinguishes between ‘the things in themselves’ and how they appear to us. The ‘thing in itself’ is the thing’s existence independently from our categories of understanding and forms of intuition. According to Kant, ‘things in themselves’ are absolutely unknowable because we cannot transcend our cognitive faculties and their inherent structures. In other words, our knowledge will always be limited because it can never be independent of ourselves as knowers. Kant refers to the ‘things in themselves’ as the noumenon, and refers to the ‘things’ as they appear to us as the phenomenon. 

The Phenomenal World

Although we can’t know the noumenon, we can know what it’s not by understanding the phenomenon. As we’ve seen, the phenomenal world is the synthesis of the information we receive from our five senses and the a priori structures of our cognition that organize that information. Our categories of understanding determine our empirical knowledge. For instance, the relationships we perceive between things around us are not rooted in sense data. There is no evidence that the world operates through cause and effect. Furthermore, our ability to perceive the unity of objects falls under the category of quantity. We can understand the boundaries of an object vis a vis another even though these distinctions are not properties of our sensory information. If we look at a pen, we can experience it as a unified object that is distinct from other objects even though we don’t have visual data of all its dimensions and boundaries.

There is no sensory evidence for the objective existence of time and space. Rather, time and space are subjective structures through which our experience unfolds. That initially sounds like a crazy thought, but it is less odd when we remember the simple nature of our sense data. We do not have a sense that perceives ‘time’ for instance, rather ‘time’ is a sense of continuity that organizes the data we receive from our senses. Although we can never know the noumenal world, it can never hurt to let our imaginations run wild. How would you imagine a world without time, space, forms, and causality?

Washington DC is known for its vast number of world-class museums. Knowing which of DC’s 80+ museums you should visit can be challenging between visits to memorials and government buildings. Washington DC’s museums allow guests to explore science, history, culture, and art. It would be easy to spend an entire day or multiple days in any of those fantastic institutions. Here are some tips to help you decide which museums to visit and which to skip.

A general Washington DC tip: always check the websites of the places you want to see ahead of time to get a feel for their security procedures. Every location is different, and what you can and cannot bring in is not always intuitive. Additionally, rules about timed tickets and hours constantly change, so always check before you go!

The Smithsonian Institution

The story of how the Smithsonian came to be is in itself interesting. James Smithson, a British chemist who had never set foot on US soil, left his considerable fortune to the United States for the dispersion of knowledge. That founding gift has spawned 21 museums, most of which are in Washington DC. Besides being a famous historic institution in and of itself, these museums have the considerable advantage of being free to visit.

The most famous Smithsonian museums surround the National Mall between the United States Capitol and the Washington Monument. This makes it very easy to visit several museums in a single day.

The most famous of these museums are the Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of American History, the Museum of Natural History, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Air and Space Museum, and the Museum of the American Indian.

The Museum of African American History and Culture

The Museum of African American History and Culture has several discrete sections that guests follow in a particular narrative direction. At the lowest level are the history galleries and a “contemplative court” to allow you to process the difficult history before returning to the present. The upper levels are dedicated to community, sports, the arts, and more. The Museum of African American History and Culture also has an excellent food court based on African American food culture.

The National Museum of American History

The National Museum of American History has extraordinarily varied exhibits. When you walk in, you are greeted with the entrance to see the famous “Star Spangled Banner,” responsible for the American national anthem. The Star Spangled Banner is worth seeing, if for no other reason, because the exhibit around it is fascinating. The rest of the museum you can pick and choose based on your interests. Some famous exhibits are the First Lady exhibit, the Greensboro lunch counter, and a revolving parade of notable popular culture items. Check their website or a map when you arrive to plan what you want to see because this place can suck you in.

The National Museum of Natural History

The National Museum of Natural History is famous for its dinosaur bones, the Hope Diamond, the butterfly pavilion, and a huge taxidermied elephant named Henry. The Natural History Museum is among the oldest of the Smithsonian Museums and, like its contemporaries, has many unethical items in its collection. They have worked to correct this by creating new exhibits that are more inclusive, such as the “African Voices” exhibit. If you just want to hit the big-name exhibits, they have those marked both on the map and when you enter.

The Hirshhorn Museum

The Hirshorn is one of several Smithsonian art museums. Its focus is on modern art, much of it by living artists. The museum itself is a piece of art with a circular building surrounding a courtyard. Around the outside of the building is a sculpture garden that is the perfect place to get a taste of the collection if you don’t want to dedicate much time to it. If you are a fan of modern art, though, this unique museum is worth spending some time in.

The National Museum of Air and Space

The National Museum of Air and Space was, until recently, woefully outdated. They have spent the last years updating their galleries to appeal to a younger audience again. While the museum still covers the familiar topics of early flight and humanity’s trips to the moon, its new exhibits focus more on the overall impact of air travel on our society and more recent discoveries about our universe.

The National Museum of the American Indian

The National Museum of the American Indian is dedicated to telling the stories of the Indigenous people of the United States, both past and present. Their Nation to Nation gallery covers the history of treaties between the United States and Indigenous nations. The remaining galleries focus on Indigenous people and nations’ modern struggles and triumphs. Indigenous artists and educators have frequent demonstrations and events in their central atrium.

The National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery is not on the National Mall, but it is worth a mention. It is two museums in one: a museum of American art and a portrait gallery of presidents and other notable Americans. Between the two buildings is a beautiful atrium that can be a much-needed respite from the busy streets of Washington DC.

The presidential portraits are fascinating, and it is fun to see how different presidents decided to present themselves. This is a niche museum, and most people skip it. That said, this is worth a stop if you are interested in portraiture and American art.

Government Buildings & Their Museums

Most people coming to Washington DC want to see the levers of power at work. The good news is that while the likelihood of seeing a famous politician is low (but not impossible), famous government buildings have some excellent museums to give you a more in-depth view of what happens in the three branches of government.

The White House & The White House Visitor Center

The White House Visitor Center isn’t in the White House proper, but it is very close by and worth the extra walk. Getting into the White House itself is a complicated and involved process. If you want tickets, contact your Member of Congress or your country’s embassy for help.

The White House itself can be viewed either from The Ellipse, north of Constitution Avenue or on the other side from Pennsylvania Avenue or Lafayette Square, depending on the level of security that day.

Once you get pictures of your family standing awkwardly in front of the several security fences surrounding the White House, head over to where Pennsylvania Avenue continues a few blocks down 15th Street to the Visitor Center.

The Visitor Center packs a lot of information into a tiny space. It is filled with artifacts and interpretive panels playing original videos on repeat. If you have zero interest in artifacts, this place probably isn’t worth the wait in line. They do a lot with very little, though, and getting in and out of the space won’t take long.

There is also a gift shop where you can buy the Presidential Seal on nearly anything you desire. This is perhaps not the most important thing, but their bathrooms are also very nice.

The National Archives Museum

What is a visit to Washington DC without seeing the Declaration of Independence? The Archives are often a high priority for people, but it can take an unreasonable amount of time just to get in.

The Archives is an exciting stop once you get in their doors. Not only do they have the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights on display, but they also have a copy of the Magna Carta and ever-changing exhibits on the rest of their collection.

The trick with the Archives is to book timed tickets ahead of time. If none are available, just keep an eye on the building for times when the line isn’t around the block. First thing in the morning is usually a good bet, but depending on group tours, that isn’t a sure thing.

The United States Capitol & Visitor Center

While most people go to the Capitol to take a tour with professional, red-coated guides or an intern from their representative’s office, there is much to see in the visitor center without a ticket.

Once you get through the extensive security to enter the underground visitor center, walk down the stairs to the main hall and towards the gigantic statue of a lady with an eagle on her head. That statue is among many in the visitor center and the larger Capitol complex. Her name is “Freedom,” and she is the model used for the bronze version standing on the Capitol dome.

Many signs about her history surround her, but it is not unusual to also see an educator nearby eager to chat about the history of the building and the legislation written there.

Behind Freedom is the actual museum. This museum is an often overlooked but well-constructed exploration of the architecture of the Capitol building and the history of the Legislative branch.

The Library of Congress Jefferson Building

After touring the Capitol Building, follow the signs for the tunnel to the Library of Congress. If you go outside to enter, you must go through security again.

The Library of Congress was built to be a temple of learning, and the ornate space certainly delivers on that. Everywhere you look, there is a dizzying display of carvings, mosaics, and murals representing America and Humankind’s artistic and academic achievements.

It is worth going into the building just to view the great hall, but there is a lot more to see than that. During certain hours, you can enter the main reading room. There are also ever-changing exhibits on the various levels of the building. It is easy to get lost, but it is worth the wander if you have the time. There are few places in the world where you might stumble across a Gutenberg Bible and Thomas Jefferson’s personal collection, but this is one of them!

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court rounds out the places of interest on Capitol Hill. They have rotating exhibitions about the court’s history and how the judicial system works. You can see where the Supreme Court sits when the court is not in session. Check their website ahead of time for their schedule.

This one is great if you are excited about seeing the Supreme Court, but if you are uninterested or short of time, it is also fine to miss.

Arlington National Cemetery

While technically not in Washington DC, Arlington National Cemetery is accessible from the DC Metro or a moderate walk across the river from the Lincoln Memorial.

Arlington National Cemetery is the most famous US military cemetery and is very moving. Spending a whole day here would be easy, especially if you get lost. It is worth grabbing a map or pulling up the cemetery on your favorite map app to navigate. If you can, walking is the best way to get around, but there is a shuttle for those unable to walk up the hill.

The main sights people usually want to see are John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) grave, Arlington House, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

You will head straight up the hill from the visitors’ center to see JFK’s grave. JFK’s grave is a complex of Massachusetts Marble and the graves of John F Kennedy’s family and brothers. Once you see the eternal flame, follow the path on the left to see Robert, Edward, and a memorial marker for Joseph.

The access to the Arlington house is most accessible up the stairs found when you follow Sheraton Drive to the West. The view from the house is spectacular and worth the hike up there. There are bathrooms up there, and it can be an interesting stop when the house is open. Before it was a cemetery, Arlington was the plantation of Robert E. Lee, and that history is memorialized in and around the house.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is south of the house, and JFK’s grave—a lovely, tree-lined footpath cuts from the house to the tomb. The changing of guard schedule changes depending on the time of year, so check the website or with a staff member when you arrive. During the busy months (March-August), getting to the tomb as early as possible is a good idea if you want to have any choice in your viewing position. It gets very crowded very fast.

There are also bathrooms under the amphitheater, next to the Tomb Sentinel living area for their 24-hour shifts. Behind the amphitheater, you can also find the Challenger Memorial and the mast of the USS Maine.

If you plan carefully and stay on the path, it is possible to hit these big Arlington spots in an hour to an hour and a half, but most people will take at least half a day here.

Historic Sites & Museums

Besides the Smithsonian Museums and government buildings, there are plenty of historic sites and museums in and around Washington DC to enjoy. Here are some top picks.

The Petersen House – Ford’s Theater

Ford’s Theater, with the Petersen House across the street, is still a working theater and a memorial museum to President Abraham Lincoln. If you go during the day, depending on your ticket type, you will have time to explore their underground museum about Lincoln and his assassination. The museum has some interesting artifacts, but you are usually stuck down there longer than most people need to get through it.

Once through the museum, the rangers open the door, allowing you into the theater proper. If there is a ranger talk, they will talk about the history of the building and the assassination. Depending on who is telling the story, this can be fun or boring.

After the story, you are sent across the street to stand in line to see the Petersen House, where Lincoln died.

If you are excited about Lincoln, this is worth seeing, but with the many lines, it is a time-sink for those who are not as interested. It is advised to instead buy a ticket to see a show at Ford’s Theater. The shows happen on the stage that John Wilkes Booth jumped onto after firing his shot, and the famous box that held the president is clearly marked with bunting and can be seen from nearly anywhere in the theater.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon is a half-hour drive outside of DC, but it seems wrong not to include it in a DC guide.

Mount Vernon was George Washington’s plantation and is now a huge museum about him, his legacy, the legacy of enslavement, and a working farm. There is something for everyone here.

This site is a half or full-day experience with the drive, but there is much to see here. Besides touring Washington’s home, you can see a variety of garden styles Washington would have had in his lifetime. There are a variety of displays and buildings talking about the experience of the enslaved people, as well as living historians wandering around telling those stories.

There are also plenty of farm animals, a museum, and a stunning view of the Potomac River. If you have the time to dedicate, this is a charming stop.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Located just off the National Mall, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum includes a profoundly impactful permanent exhibition and several changing exhibits. If you are traveling during a busy time of year, it is a good idea to try to get timed tickets for the permanent exhibition ahead of time.

That said, even without tickets, there is plenty to see. There is a small exhibit called “Daniel’s Story” that explains the lead-up to the Holocaust and is geared toward a younger audience. There are also exhibits about the history of antisemitism and other genocides around the world.

This museum is an intense visit and can take a few hours, but it is filled with artifacts and information.

Additional Places of Note

These museums and famous sites did not fit in with the rest of the categories, but they are notable and worth a visit!

The United States Botanic Garden

It is amazing how many plants they squeeze into the Botanic Garden, sitting at the foot of Capitol Hill. Something interesting is always happening here, whether it is a cooking demonstration or a docent explaining where chocolate comes from.

This isn’t the sort of Botanic Garden where you are expected just to look at plants from afar. This garden works hard to make its exhibits engaging and hands-on. There usually isn’t a line to see this, making it a good, quick stop between other activities.

International Spy Museum

There are few things kids in DC love more than the Spy Museum. When you enter the exhibit, actors give you an “undercover identity” and a “mission” to follow as you explore the museum.

The exhibits are a mix of real-life spy gadgets and stories and memorable artifacts from spy movies like James Bond. There are also many interactive exhibits where guests can try their hand at spy skills like codebreaking and how to make sense of covertly gathered information.

If you have a young person with you who is perhaps less than enthusiastic about all the memorials and history, this is a good release valve for them. They might even learn something without realizing it!

National Gallery of Art

While not a Smithsonian museum, the National Gallery of Art on the National Mall’s extensive collections are free. With two buildings and an outside sculpture garden, there is plenty here to entertain an art lover.

If you love art and want to make a fast stop here, look at what is on display ahead of time. The sculpture garden is lovely if you are just looking for a nice art experience without too much time spent. There is also a cafe and fountain where you can take a break from the art.

The Boom movement in the mid-20th century marked a literary renaissance in Latin America, drawing global attention to writers from all across the continent. With magical realism at the forefront, literary narratives upended European modes of storytelling, crafting unique narratives that reshaped the world’s perception of Latin American literature and history. While the Latin American Boom was a 20th-century phenomenon, the literary heritage from pre-Columbian times to the colonial era and independence movements cannot be overlooked. Here are six of the greatest Latin American authors to read.

1. Jorge Luís Borges 

Argentine Jorge Luís Borges is one of the most well-known writers of Latin America. Born in Buenos Aires in 1899, Borges spent his childhood and adolescence in Europe, returning to Argentina in 1921.

Borges’s poems and collections of short stories, Fictions and “The Aleph” being the best-known, captivate the reader with their infinite curiosity about human existence examined through explorations of theology and philosophy, which Borges claims are the same thing. His stories defy a singular perception of this universe, with their labyrinthine libraries, alternate realities, and the constant blurring between reality and illusion.

Libraries held immense significance for Borges not only in fiction but also in life. In addition to being an avid reader and professor of English literature at the University of Buenos Aires, Borges served as the director of the National Public Library.

He often wove autobiographical details into his stories. “The South” is an excellent illustration of this. The protagonist Juan Dahlmann, who lives an uneventful and quiet life as a librarian in Buenos Aires, just like the author himself, suffers a head injury and starts to reflect on his German ancestry and his ties to the Argentine south in a hospital bed. The story takes the man from Buenos Aires to the country’s south, where a dreamlike reality draws him into a fight with gauchos. The story leaves the reader questioning whether Dahlmann is actually fighting the gauchos or is still in his hospital bed hallucinating a more epic death.

This story is inspired by an episode of septicemia that almost killed Borges. The writer underwent other health challenges throughout his life. Though visually impaired later in life, he never stopped reading and writing. To the surprise and discontent of many, this extraordinary voice of Latin American literature never received a Nobel prize. Nevertheless, Jorge Luís Borges is considered by many to be Latin America’s greatest writer.

2. Gabriela Mistral

In 1945, Gabriela Mistral, a schoolteacher and poet from Chile, became the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in literature. The Swedish Academy recognized Mistral “for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world.”

Gabriela Mistral, born Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, drew inspiration for writing from her father, who was also a schoolteacher. Mistral’s early life was marked by grief, as she lost her fiance to suicide, an event that left its imprint in many of her poems.

“Desolación” (“Desolation”), Mistral’s first anthology that explores love, grief, death, and faith with an intimate and evocative language is a testament to Mistral’s deep sensibility as a poet. Children and frustrated maternity are other recurrent themes in Mistral’s poetry. At odds with her political beliefs, her poetry is infused with religious and Catholic themes.

An outspoken socialist, Mistral led a politically and socially active life. Beyond a rich literary heritage, she contributed to school reforms both in Chile and Mexico, advocating for equal access to education for all children. Her love for children and devotion to education are beautifully expressed both in her life’s work and through her body of work.

3.  Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Latin America’s most famous nun, stands as a precursor to feminism whose literary legacy transcends time and space. Sor Juana’s unparalleled intellect, talent, and erudition earned her acclaim throughout colonial Latin America and Spain, placing her in the company of literary giants such as Luis de Góngora, Lope de Vega, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Her work remains one of the most remarkable examples of Hispanic Baroque literature.

Confronted with the social norms of colonial Mexico, Sor Juana had to make a choice: marriage or convent. In opting for life in the convent, Sor Juana gained social protection and access to an extensive library, where she devoted the majority of her time to scholarly pursuits and writing.

As an outspoken nun and advocate for women’s education, Sor Juana faced persecution throughout her life, often having to confront colonial authorities and church officials. Her essays are filled with witty confrontations, rich in erudition and sarcasm, while her poetry is straightforward and poignant—a testament to her inner turmoil in response to societal norms.

Sor Juana’s love poems—met with criticism and resistance from church authorities—are an expression of her deep connection to her inner world. Many dedicated to the Vicereine of Mexico, María Luisa Manrique de Lara y Gonzaga, attest to an intimate relationship between the two women, prompting speculation about Sor Juana’s potential romantic feelings for María Luisa.

Due to her exploration of feminist themes, Sor Juana’s writing and life have been recently re-examined from a feminist perspective, positing her as an early feminist whose legacy continues to inspire women and writers across Latin America.

4. Gabriel García Márquez

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Gabriel García Márquez is Latin America’s most well-known and read author globally. “Gabo,” as he is often called, became synonymous with magical realism and the Latin American Boom movement of the 1960s.

Gabriel García Márquez was born in Aracataca, Colombia, a municipality in the country’s Caribbean region. The rich cultural folklore and syncretic practices of the Caribbean coast served as a foundation for the creation of Macondo, the fictional town where most of Márquez’s stories are set. Initially pursuing a law degree, Márquez abandoned his studies and began working as a journalist before embarking on a prolific writing career.

Gabo’s most-read novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude—published for the first time in 1967—is the quintessential magical realist novel. Translated into more than 40 languages and with over 45 million copies sold worldwide, it continues to be the most translated literary work in Spanish after Don Quixote. In 1982, Márquez won the Nobel Prize, becoming the epitome of the literary success that swept over Latin America in the second half of the 20th century.

For those who need an introduction to magical realist novels and Latin American literature, Gabriel García Márquez is an excellent point of departure.

5. Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, one of Brazil’s greatest writers, lived and wrote in the 19th century. Born to a father of African descent and a white mother of Azorean ancestry, Machado de Assis experienced the contrasting realities of 19th-century Brazil due to his mixed-race heritage. Despite being a pardo, the writer did not explicitly address it in his writings, and his political views remain unknown to critics to this day. As a civil servant, Machado de Assis led a quiet life, dedicating himself to his governmental job until his very last days.

Although Machado de Assis’s writing initially did not garner admiration from literary critics and writers, he is now regarded as one of the most prominent figures in Brazilian literature. Machado is appreciated for his satire and innovative narrative techniques. His novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas recounts the life of Brás Cubas in the first person after the protagonist-narrator announces his own death. The novel delves into themes of betrayal and jealousy through an unreliable narrator.

Two of the most notable features of Machado’s work are ambiguity and unreliable narration—qualities that have piqued the interest of both scholars and readers. One of the writer’s most-read stories, titled “Missa do galo” (“Midnight Mass”), is an excellent example of his use of these devices. In typical Machado fashion, the story leaves the reader questioning whether or not there was adultery between the protagonist and the married landlady.

6. Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, ‘The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.’

These unforgettable lines belong to Pablo Neruda’s most renowned poem. A master of poetic excellence and lyrical prowess, the Chilean writer gained worldwide recognition and acclaim, leading him to win a Nobel Prize in 1971.

Born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, Neruda started writing poetry at a very young age. Though discouraged by his father, he continued writing and soon started publishing under the pseudonym Pablo Neruda. As a student, Neruda was encouraged by Gabriela Mistral, who worked as a school principal at the time. Interestingly, both poets went on to become Chile’s Nobel laureates.

A prolific writer, Neruda had two books published by the time he was 20 years old. However, the writer faced poverty in the early years of his career and had to take up low-paying diplomatic jobs to support himself. It was after Neruda developed a friendship with the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca and relocated to Spain as a consul that his poetry became more widely known and accepted in larger artistic circles.

Neruda’s literary legacy is immense and too diverse to be summarized in a single paragraph. It is safe to say, however, that Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair is his best-known masterpiece and one of the most celebrated collections of love poems ever written.

The Gilded Age in America is considered a unique era, unthinkable anywhere else. The documentary America Rising: The Arts of the Gilded Age explores this era of unbridled growth, optimism, and hope through its works of art. These paintings and photographs depict the wonders of America and the result of its rapid expansion from East to West, especially Manifest Destiny and Western Settlement. Unlike paintings in Europe, America’s artwork during the Gilded Age was free of restrictions and limits—symbolizing its historic growth. The art, including music, was a metaphor for national growth and aspirations, often mesmerizing and inspiring viewers. Enjoy this documentary and feel uplifted by the nation’s amazing art from this bold and exciting era!

Written & Directed by Michael Maglaras

America Rising: The Arts of the Gilded Age is written and directed by veteran filmmaker Michael Maglaras, who has created many other acclaimed documentaries about historical eras. In addition to American art during the 45-year period of the Gilded Age, Maglaras has also explored art during the Great Depression and the famous 1913 Armory Show in New York City, which introduced many Americans to modern art. His directing work goes back to 2005, and his most recent release is Ralph Waldo Emerson: Give All to Love.

As an experienced writer and director, Maglaras does an excellent job explaining and revealing the surge in American art, both domestically created and imported from Europe, during the Gilded Age. He covers the roots of the Gilded Age in the new technology of the Civil War, with photography sparking the creation of new art. Throughout the film, Maglaras covers many genres of art, from photography to painting to sculpture, depicting the breadth of American art as artists were able to use their training, resources, and inspiration to create new works.

Produced by 217 Films

Michael Maglaras and 217 Films seek to provide high-quality, engaging, and informative documentaries that explore the arts. These videos are full of rich dialogue and imagery that draw in the viewer. Right away, the viewer is drawn into the world of art—there is no lengthy prologue! Helpful subtitles allow the reader to quickly link each artist with their work, providing information for later exploration.

Maglaras’ guiding dialogue is well-paced and highly skilled, combining key information with bits of humor. The narration is pleasing and leaves the listener eager to hear more. The pacing is on point, with the documentaries neither rushing nor dragging. The viewer is carried along at a quick and enjoyable clip, making them excited to see the next revelation or innovation. Maglaras adds to this excellent pacing by including information from other experts who interject key pieces of knowledge to provide additional context.

The Director’s Statement on America Rising

In his well-crafted director’s statement, Maglaras explains that the Gilded Age was a complex and challenging era to explore, with many unexpected twists and turns. This era, which Maglaras defines as the time period between the death of US President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and the death of famous writer Mark Twain (who coined the term “Gilded Age” in his 1873 book The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-Day) in 1910. So much art was created during this era that Maglaras had difficulty narrowing down the most important innovations!

Maglaras points out that the influences of the Gilded Age technically began before 1865 and extended after 1910, with many of the era’s most famous artists being active outside the strict Gilded Age timeline. The ideas and norms generated during the Gilded Age carried through to the great debates in the aftermath of World War I, when America had to decide which route it would take on the world stage: international peace-keeper or isolationist. Even today, Maglaras explains, we are influenced by the DNA of the Gilded Age.

Why Now? Today’s Similarities to the Gilded Age

Why is now a good time to re-examine the Gilded Age? Maglaras points out that, a hundred years after the end of the era, we are entering a new Gilded Age in terms of income and wealth inequality. The release of America Rising: The Arts of the Gilded Age took place on January 20, 2017, when the nation’s first billionaire president was instated. This occurrence, regardless of one’s political leanings, highlights the role of wealth in relation to political power.

Art, wealth, and political corruption are similarities that we today share with the Gilded Age. New technology, from social media to artificial intelligence to 3-D printing, will someday be judged in terms of its influences on art, similar to how photography sparked a new era of art at the beginning of the Gilded Age. How will today’s artists capture the complexity of our own era, particularly compared to how Gilded Age artists did a hundred years ago? Likely now as then, powerful artists will both praise and criticize the excesses of our era.

Exploring Influences: Immigration & The Promise of America

It was not just American farmers and factory workers who dreamed of joining the capitalist class and enjoying the fruits of the technological and infrastructural boom of the Gilded Age. Maglaras explores the role of immigrants, many of whom sought the economic promise of America during the era. Almost twelve million immigrants, mostly from Europe, arrived in the United States during this era. These immigrants, most of them arriving with very little, inspired artists with their optimism, ambition, and determination.

The hard work of immigrants, both in the factories and as new farmers, helped fuel rapid economic growth. Artists captured the new life of arriving immigrants in photographs and paintings, energizing cities and building landscapes. As factories boomed, immigrants were joined by rural residents in flocking to cities, creating an era of urbanization that also inspired artists. The pace of American life quickened as labor moved to electric-lit factories, which could run all the time, rather than the agrarian life that was governed by the rising and setting of the sun.

Exploring Influences: American Artists Study in Europe

Economic growth during the Gilded Age created a growing class of wealthy Americans. These families could now afford to travel to Europe, where their members could study the arts in popular destinations like France and Italy. This would, in turn, intensify the creation of great art back in the United States. American artists of means would be influenced by European schools but would also influence these schools in turn, which Maglaras explores in detail.

Most great American painters of the Gilded Age were influenced, to some degree, by French impressionists. Some lived in Europe for long periods of time but retained their American backgrounds. Other artists of the era were born in Europe but moved to the United States, which adopted them as burgeoning talents. During the Gilded Age, America evolved from an agrarian nation to an urban nation and from a consumer of foreign artistic culture to a producer of its own artistic culture.

Exploring Influences: American Expatriates in Europe

The state of art on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean was influenced by a growing class of American expatriates who lived in Europe. These Americans, typically wealthy, moved to Europe but largely retained their US citizenship. The increase in Americans living in Europe, often studying and consuming art, signified America’s development as an economic power. No longer did the nation just absorb those seeking economic opportunity, but rather sent back those who had “made it” to seek enrichment. As a whole, America had “made it.”

American expatriates were not just absorbing European culture but also influencing it. Business contacts were made, and traditional norms in Europe were challenged. The sometimes tense relationships between wealthy Americans (“new money”) and European nobility (“old money”) could create drama that influenced art, especially literature. One common theme was wealthy American women marrying European nobles, which challenged norms on both continents.

Exploring Contrasts: Realism in Literature vs. Happiness in Paintings

Maglaras does not shy away from the harsh conditions faced by most Americans during the Gilded Age—he also explores the realism used by some prominent authors to highlight their struggles. These authors described the terrible conditions faced by the working poor and criticized the wealthy for doing little to improve their condition. Although some focused on the exciting settlement of the West, the plight of the urban poor often drew them back to contemporary events, including struggles like feminism against a deeply patriarchal society.

Frequently, the literature of struggle contrasted with paintings that focused on bold, happy colors and domestic achievements. This can be seen as analogous to the Gilded Age itself, at least in its early decades. Much of the art depicted America’s promise and fashion, while some depicted images of life in Europe. Part of this may have been due to necessity: those who could purchase paintings were typically wealthy and would thus want scenes resembling their own lives and aspirations.

Exploring Effects: Wealthy Art Collectors of the Gilded Age

The growing wealth of the Gilded Age created a class that could afford to collect art for the first time. As fortunes were made in coal, oil, steel, and railroads, tycoons wanted to surround themselves with luxury and sophistication, including fine art. By the 1880s, some wealthy Americans began to consider art as an investment as the prices of paintings kept rising. Around this time, art collectors also began exhibiting their collections in large galleries. As collectors accumulated more art, they began seeking different types, increasing demand for new schools of thought and helping expand artistic expression.

Famously, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie founded his art museum in 1895. The Pittsburgh Museum is considered the first modern art museum in the country. During the Gilded Age, the government allowed spending on arts as well, such as the first art installations for the White House. Portraits became very popular, with the wealthy having portraits of themselves made at unprecedented rates…and collecting famous portraits at unprecedented rates as well. This included US presidents of the era, who circulated their portraits as a way to boost popularity among voters.

Exploring Further: Other Documentaries by 217 Films, LLC

Fortunately, viewers of America Rising: The Arts of the Gilded Age will find several other films by Michael Maglaras and 217 Films to enjoy. Eight other documentaries are available to watch for free on the company’s website, giving viewers a chance to learn about famous writers and artists from multiple eras. Painter and poet Marsden Hartley is explored in Cleophas and His Own: A North Atlantic Tragedy and Visible Silence: Marsden Hartley, Painter and Poet, and painter John Marin is seen in John Marin: Let the Paint be Paint! 

Graphic artist Lyn Ward is analyzed in O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lyn Ward, and America’s first mass exposure to modern art is explored in The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show. After the Gilded Age, the art of the Great Depression is explored in Enough to Live on: The Arts of the WPA. The effects of the British documentary Civilisation, which came out during the Vietnam War, on American culture is analyzed by Maglaras in Civilisation and America fifty years after its 1970 release. Finally, iconic American literary figure Ralph Waldo Emerson is explored in Ralph Waldo Emerson: Give All to Love, released in 2023.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s six-panel series depicting the seasons gives modern viewers insight into what life was like on ordinary days in the 16th century. It is not uncommon to have accounts of important events that occurred in history, but the everyday life that even many modern viewers can still relate to is often obscured by time. The Seasons show us not only what the lower-class people of the Netherlandish Renaissance were like but also what the upper class was like through their act of commissioning such paintings.

Who Was Pieter Bruegel the Elder?

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Flemish artist of the 16th century who specialized in genre painting. Bruegel’s life is partially obscured by a lack of surviving documentation, with most information about him being centered around his career rather than his personal life or beliefs. Most information about Bruegel comes from a single 17th-century art historian named Karl van Mander, who wrote about Bruegel in his book Schilderboeck. His place of birth has yet to be definitively known, with multiple locations being possible contenders, but we can be sure he was born between 1526 and 1530, near Breda in the Low Countries.

Bruegel began to pursue art as a career and traveled to Italy to enhance his skills. In 1551, he was admitted into a painters’ guild in Antwerp under the teacher Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter he later married in 1563 after a falling out with his maidservant who was also his liaison. Not only was his new father-in-law a prominent artist renowned across Europe for his skill and even commissioned by Henry VIII of England, but his mother-in-law, Mayken Verhulst, was a favored miniaturist in the region. Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his wife, Mayken Coecke van Aelst, had two sons, Pieter Bruegel the Younger and Jan Bruegel the Elder, who would also become artists. The legacy would continue with the two sons of Jan Bruegel the Elder—Ambrosius Bruegel and Jan Bruegel the Younger.

The Father of Genre Art

Marrying into a family with connections to the art world helped his career. In 1565, Bruegel completed a series of paintings for a wealthy city-dweller named Nicholas Jongelink. Nicholas Jongelink patronized many of Bruegel’s surviving paintings and was particularly interested in paintings depicting peasant life. For this, Bruegel is often hailed as the father of genre art. Genre art is a specific genre of art that shows ordinary people going about their everyday lives. It would have been viewed as rustic by the wealthy city patrons, who commissioned these paintings to be displayed in their homes.

It is unknown whether their patronage of peasant depictions came from a sense of superiority or a genuine fondness for the aesthetics of the lower classes. However, at least some sense of class superiority likely caused the patronage of such works. Nicholas Jongelink was a wealthy merchant, banker, and art collector from Antwerp who lived in a grand chateau. He was also a member of a society that drew clear distinctions between socioeconomic classes, with a structured hierarchy that likely affected Jongelink’s opinion of peasants. The paintings were displayed in Jongelink’s dining room, situated on the walls around the room like a frieze.

Hunters in the Snow

The first of the series is the painting Hunters in the Snow, which depicts the months of December and January. On the left in the foreground, hunters are trudging through the snow with their dogs, returning home with only meager offerings of meat, such as the limp rabbit tied to the stick on the farthest hunter’s back. Their steps seem laborious and defeated, highlighting the hardship of the winter months.

However, as we follow the hunters down the hill, we are confronted with a cheerier winter scene. People skate and play on the ice, swinging their partners around and sporting with sticks. Despite the play, work continues and can be seen throughout the painting. A woman carries a bundle of sticks across the bridge. A group of people stoke a fire in the background. Wagons are hauled across roads, heading into town in the distance. The scene unites the landscape and the people within it—they change the landscape with their humanity and create a scene of everyday life that is so dynamic and believable that it constructs a type of 16th-century time travel for modern viewers.

Gloomy Day

Gloomy Day is the painting that was made right after Hunters in the Snow. This painting depicts the cold, wet months of February and March. Peasants cut wood and willow switches from the leafless trees in the foreground. Men, women, and children all pitch in. In the bottom right corner is a group of people taking a break to eat. Behind them, a man is fixing the facade of his house. In the distant water of the background, the river rocks and pulls boats into its waves. A parent and child look up at the sky in the bottom left corner—a storm is on the horizon.

Bruegel needed to observe peasant life by blending into the crowd to ensure his customer was satisfied with the final product. According to Karl van Mander, in 1604, years after Bruegel’s death, Bruegel and his friend Hans Fanckert would attend peasant parties and gatherings to observe the festivities to record later with their paint brushes. Van Mander claims that Bruegel came from a peasant background, and though this is possible, art historians agree that it cannot be taken as fact since we do not know the accuracy of Van Mander’s information, nor is there anything to back up his claims. Due to Bruegel’s connections in the city of Antwerp, it is just as likely that Bruegel came from a wealthier background.

Haymaking and a Lost Painting

The series moves on to Haymaking, which depicts the months of June and July. It depicts peasants working in the field, creating piles of hay for various uses. Baskets of food are carried on the heads of passers-by in the foreground, who pass three workers who slump from the labor they’ve been doing under the hot summer sun. The Lobkowicz family, one of the oldest Bohemian noble families, acquired the painting sometime before 1870, and it remains at their palace in Prague. The painting that would have come before this one would have depicted April and May but was lost by 1659. Some sources say it was replaced by another painting meant to recreate the original lost painting, but this one was also lost.

The rise in popularity of satire in literature during the 16th century could have also played a role in why wealthy patrons of the city wanted to decorate their homes with scenes depicting peasants dancing and working in a rustic environment. As humanism gained popularity in the Renaissance and for the first time since the classical era, satire also became more common. Artwork followed in satirical content. Humanist interest in satire played a vital role in the rise of genre paintings in the changing art market. Bruegel’s tendency towards satirization can be viewed in his peasant depictions. Although the scenes are pastoral, realistic in their movement, and often lively in content, the peasants in the painting are painted in a way that makes their forms heavy, clumsy, and unrefined, similar to how the upper classes from urban areas would have viewed the country peasant class. In this way, Bruegel may be catering to his patron’s expectations of peasant life.

The Harvesters

The Harvesters depicts the hot months of August and September. The scene shows the heat of the environment by casting everything in bright golds and yellows. Peasants sprawl under the shade of a tree for a break. Some eat, slurping their food from bowls, and some take short naps before the work resumes. The landscape is easy to follow back into the sprawling hills. The hills are full of wheat being harvested, and neat little piles are erected in the background.

The peasants appear exhausted, working long days in the intense heat with large hats to keep the sun off their skin. The field is large and far from being finished, indicating the hard work ahead of them. To a wealthy banker, the scene would look like one he has never experienced, so it would be easy for someone of such a background to judge the tired workers for their languishing, yet there is joy in the peasants’ faces as well. To modern viewers, the scene is one of community and a realistic display of what it means to work out of necessity.

The Return of the Heard

The Return of the Herd is the final painting of the series, depicting the months of October and November when the leaves have fallen and the air begins to grow cold. The painting depicts a key event of peasant life in 16th-century Northern Europe when the cattle are driven home for the coming winter. The grand nature in the background is sublime. It is a powerful scene of the grandeur of nature and how peasants play their role in interacting with the landscape in a way that links them and allows humans to become a part of nature.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s depictions of the seasons in this six-panel series were created for a wealthy banker in Antwerp, and there is a possibility that the artworks were created as a form of mild satire or a way for the upper-class patron to feel superior. Nevertheless, there is a lively realism to his paintings that invites the viewer into the scene’s atmosphere. His contribution to genre art allows modern viewers and art historians the special privilege of bearing witness to the everyday lives of 16th-century peasants.

How does life come to be, and how can we replicate and control it? Driven by these types of questions, humans tried to find ways to understand and create one of nature’s biggest marvels. Humankind has always attempted to capture the essence of life by physical replication: statues, paintings, and robots imitate humans. Today, our technology allows us to replicate intelligence and take our quest a step further. This article takes a look at two of the major historical episodes that brought us one step closer to replicating life.

Automata & Artificial Intelligence: Art Imitates Life

One of the earliest mentions of an attempt at creating a life-like being comes from the ancient period. The first such example comes from the story of King Solomon, who supposedly had an automated throne. The throne would have a mechanism that would make statues of animals bow to him and help him ascend the throne whenever he went to sit on it. Similar examples can be found in the legends of Ancient Greece as well.

Hephaestus, the Greek god of blacksmiths, was said to have automated workers that helped him. There is also the legend of Talos, an automaton that was constructed to throw stones at enemies. Probably the best replication of life, as legend goes, was made by the inventor Daedalus, who engineered a moving statue that could speak just like a human. Despite these being all myths, there is some truth to them as research tells us that, indeed, the Ancient Greeks had enough knowledge to build simple automated mechanisms that probably inspired the stories.

Hero of Alexandria (10-70 CE) was an inventor and engineer who built several automated objects. Among the surviving ones, the most popular are the wash basin automaton and Hero’s windwheel. The wash basin automaton would use a system of pipes and water to make the decorative birds around the basin sing whenever the basin was activated, and then the birds would stop singing after the mechanism ended its cycle. The windwheel functioned as a more modern counterpart that used the forces of nature to move.

Automata Becoming Automata

It comes as no surprise that the very nature of the term automaton is rooted etymologically in ancient Greek, meaning something that acts out of one’s willpower. The term was first used by the poet Homer, and its use remained more or less constant throughout the century to describe non-electronic mechanisms that enacted movement. Another particularity of the automata is the fact that, in most cases, it is made to resemble the natural behavior of beings, or as the Greeks put it, willpower itself. The fascination of building and improving such mechanisms was a constant in our history, as the ancient traditions were transmitted in the medieval period. Medieval artisans strived to achieve the accomplishments of Byzantine and their ancient predecessors.

The Renaissance and early modern period brought about a renewed interest in automata because engineering developed beyond the level of mastery it had during the Middle Ages. New discoveries and a better understanding of the Natural world and its laws allowed inventors to capitalize on this knowledge. It was during this period that the sciences got a boost, and intellectuals started to wonder whether there was a way to reach a point of mastery where one could build a perfect robot that replicates the real thing. In the case of humans, this was more complicated due to religious beliefs in the existence of the soul. Intellectuals were hopeful they could replicate an animal perfectly.

Animals as Natural Robots: The Early Modern Automata

The late Renaissance and early modern period are characterized by a worldview influenced by the mechanistic theory. The mechanistic theory posits that the natural world is a big mechanical system that works similarly to a mechanical clock. In this big mechanical world, God is the great engineer of it all, as He ensures that all parts work in perfect harmony. The advancements in anatomy and engineering made intellectuals believe that everything that existed in this world could be likened to a mechanism.

For René Descartes (1596-1650), living organisms are comparable to machines through the virtue of their constitution. Just like machines are put in motion by several parts that work together to create movement and other actions, organisms can also function based on the collaboration of their inner elements that make life possible.

Descartes wrote in the 17th century when there was a fervent interest in anatomy. He is prompted to say that animals are machine-like, comparing them to automata. In his Discourse on method, we are told that there are two ways to ascertain whether a being is a living human or an artificial one, a machine. An automaton could never use speech in a lengthy and discursive manner where one puts one’s thoughts in the external world. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be able to show signs of reason, which can be deduced from its actions.

The Problem With the Human

Despite Descartes’ theory on the living organisms as not that different from machines being very influential in the early modern period, there was still a problem to solve: that of the human. The philosophers of the period struggled with the following question: If indeed the body is constructed like that of a machine, if it is a system, that means that with the necessary technological advancements, it can be replicated. But will these advancements really be enough for us to replicate a human? Is a human just its body?

The main two problems with this were replicating speech and reason. While constructing an automaton of a duck that walked and quacked like one was something that could be done, the same couldn’t be said about a human.

For early modern people, if an automaton had the appearance and behavior of its real and living counterpart, the quest to replicate life was completed. Descartes described an automaton of a duck that even had feathers and replicated the bird’s behavior perfectly in as much as it could be easily mistaken for the real thing.

The advancements of these robots continued well into the 18th and 19th centuries when several human models were constructed in an attempt to overcome the problems of speech and reason. The technological level at the time permitted limited solutions, such as the construction of an automaton that had a pre-setting to write some answers on a paper to give the impression of speech.

The other solution in the case of reason was the production of automata that could beat humans at various games such as chess, although this was oftentimes possible with the intervention or collaboration of another human being who directed the machine, as the automata were not capable of making decisions.

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence 

The idea of artificial intelligence only became popular and quite widespread in the 20th century when science fiction pushed the limits of what automata could be. Although our culture was no stranger to the general concept of a robot, as it has existed in one shape or another since ancient times, it was only during this century that the idea of artificial intelligence as we know it came to be.

A very important role in this development was played by polymath Alan Turing, who envisioned how this type of intelligence could function. He observed that humans, when making judgments, make use of readily available information stored inside their minds. Based on this, he wondered why this couldn’t be possible for machines, as well as the fact that the act of storing information is not that special in itself.

In his paper from 1950 entitled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” he explained his theory and developed a method to test the intelligence level of artificial intelligence. Turing’s theoretical framework was thus pivotal in establishing the groundwork for creating AI.

Despite his many contributions, Alan Turing didn’t live to see the creation of artificial intelligence, as computers from his time weren’t able to store commands in their memories but could only execute inputted ones. This change in computer technology gave rise to artificial intelligence in practice, beyond theory, paving the way to AI as we know it.

Making Artificial Intelligence Possible 

As mentioned, the main obstacle in making artificial intelligence possible was the ability of a computer to store commands and, consequently, execute them. By solving this issue, artificial intelligence would be closer to becoming independent of human input. One of the first programs to mimic the human mind was called the Logic Theorist. This program was funded by the Research and Development (RAND) Corporation and focused on the problem-solving skills of the human mind by using logic commands to help determine the answers of the program to the problems imputed.

From 1957 up to 1974, significant developments were recorded in the world of artificial intelligence. Scientists focused on improving computers so that they are able to store more information and process tasks faster. On the other hand, several programs like the General Problem Solver and ELIZA were developed emphasizing two key elements—namely, the capacity for problem-solving and that of decoding and interpreting language.

Going back to the observations of philosophers like Descartes, it is visible that the AIs of the 20th century emphasized and tried to solve precisely the points that automata failed to replicate—human reason and human speech. From this, it appears that throughout history, there has been a consensus on what makes a human as such found in these two abilities.

Some Thoughts on Automata & Artificial Intelligence Today

From the end of the 20th century until today, artificial intelligence continued to evolve and develop even further, following roughly the same two aims: storing and combining available information in various ways and deciphering human language. Recent developments have been so spectacular that they spark much debate, with many questioning the safety of artificial intelligence for our future.

Many fear the possibility of artificial intelligence developing a mind of its own, becoming independent of us and our input if let to develop too much. This concern is only natural as it seems we are now close to completing the quest that automata began, the pursuit of creating something intelligent in our image.

Although automata have been received throughout our history with enthusiasm and curiosity, the concerns of them potentially becoming too human-like were always there. The existence of automata has fueled philosophers to try to identify what makes a human being. When a creation resembles its maker too closely, discussions about the essence of humankind become a more pressing matter. It is then, maybe more than ever, when we are prompted with the question: what does it mean to be human?

In turn, our inability to give a precise and definitive answer, despite our technological advancements, only contributes to our uneasiness towards the prospects of artificial intelligence.

If we look at artificial intelligence in a historical context from ancient times until now, it appears that this is the most natural development. The quest for building a human-like creature that can operate by itself and imitate the functions of its real counterpart was started a long time ago, during ancient times. Legends, myths, and fiction only prove that we always had this dream of being able to create intelligent life. Only now have we begun to see the results we have wished for since the beginning.

The mid-1930s marked the year Great Britain upped its re-armament game. Hermann Goering’s Luftwaffe no longer remained a secret with sleek bombers and fighters. The “bomber always gets through” concept dominated all theories that fleets of bombers could wreak destruction at long distances. The Wellington Bomber’s existence resulted from that. Designed by Barnes Wallis, Vickers built two prototypes, the second with modifications learned from the first.

A Unique Construction

The Wellington had a secret that only a few in Britain’s Air Ministry or Vickers knew: geodetic construction. Designed by Sir Barnes Wallis, the parts of this basket-weave structure each carried part of the weight. If one part got damaged, the remaining pieces spread the weight around, retaining the frame’s integrity. Most aircraft were built of different pieces, so much damage is not good. The Wellington’s aluminum and steel frame’s ability to absorb damage yet keep flying became legendary. 

One of Three

Not one to put their eggs in one basket, the Air Ministry ordered three “heavy” bombers into production in the late 1930s. The other two are Handley Page Hamden and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley. Each’s role differed slightly – the Hampden being the fast bomber, the Whitely the heavyweight with a 4-ton bomb load, and the Wellington’s 2,800-mile range in the middle. The fabric-covered Wellington carried a 2 ½ ton bombload, six machine guns, and a crew of six. 

Only the Wellington would remain in service past 1945. The others long obsolescent were gone by 1943. Vickers manufactured 11,400 Wellingtons, more than any British bomber. Their RAF service ended in 1953, seventeen years after its first test flight. 

A Theory Disproven

1940 debunked the 1930s theory that “the bomber will always get through” when flying in formation. The RAF, or Royal Air Force, had several costly lessons that proved different. On December 18, 1939, three Wellington squadrons attacked German shipping off Wilhelmshaven, twenty-four planes in total. About forty Luftwaffe fighters intercepted the British bombers, shooting down twelve. Three more crashed on the return home for a fifty percent loss. 

The RAF turned to night raids after several such raids in 1940. German interceptors overwhelmed unescorted bombers despite any plane defenses or formations. The Luftwaffe’s education would come later in 1940 during another epic battle. The Wellington was nicknamed Wimpy because it resembled the Popeye cartoon character J. Wellington Wimpy was kept on through 1941 and 1942 as the RAF’s primary bomber. The first 1,000-plane raid against Cologne in 1942 flew with 700 Wellingtons. Not bad for a plane from the mid-1930s that soon would be phased out. The more famous Avro Lancaster took on this big role.

Versatility Was the Key

The Wellington’s hard-won bomber reputation cannot be denied, but in war, nothing stays constant. By late 1942, hitting back against Nazi Germany required bigger bombers like the four-engine Lancaster, Stirlings and Halifaxes. The Wellington’s last night raid in Europe occurred in 1943.

But, the Wimpy’s versatility could not be denied. Continual armament and engine upgrades made the Wellington more reliable. Replaced as a bomber, the Wellington slid easily into other roles. Britain’s RAF Coastal Command used Wellingtons to hunt German U-boats with depth charges, searchlights, and flares. The stiff radar masts atop the Wellington’s back easily distinguished the anti-submarine models.

Other unsung roles the Wellington took were transport and mine detection. In the latter role, the Wimpy carried a car engine powering an aluminum magnetic ring around the plane. The magnetic waves would detonate the mines at a safe distance from Wellington. Vickers specifically built trainer version Wellingtons besides bombers. These planes trained Lancaster and Halifax crews.

The most unusual and groundbreaking Wellington role came in early warning detection. Late in 1944, the Luftwaffe used HE-111s to launch V1 flying bombs at Britain. Luftwaffe bombers would climb from sea level to launch. Detected by the airborne radar carrying Wellingtons, operators would vector in fighters to shoot down the bombers and buzz bombs. Like many classic war planes, the Wimpy came in no less than sixteen versions, including two trainer-specific ones post-war.

Long Live the Wimpy

Whether at the cold high altitude in Europe, Malta, or tropical India, the Wellington served. The Wellington, considered high-tech in 1938, displayed its vulnerability quickly. As a night bomber, it did well until more capable planes arrived. But, it served. Perhaps the Wellington’s strength lay in doing many jobs with little fanfare.

The hotly anticipated Art Basel art fair in Basel, Switzerland, kicks off today with a series of monumental displays featuring art by some of the most notable names in contemporary art. These include Agnes Denes, Petrit Halilaj, Christo, Liza Lou, Chiharu Shiota, and Stefanie Hessler. An impressive 285 galleries will also be showcasing their wares, with art sales already reaching into the millions following the VIP previews this Tuesday. The fair’s newly appointed director Maike Cruse says, “We are a small city with a rich density of high-profile art.” The fair runs from 13-16 June.

Agnes Denes

Basel’s Messeplatz has been transformed by iconic American land artist Agnes Denes into a field of wheat, titled Honoring Wheatfield – A Confrontation, 2024. The rural-inspired intervention is a recreation of her environmental installation Wheatfield – A Confrontation, 1982, in which she installed a field of wheat into a two-acre landfill site in lower Manhattan, where it provided a stark antidote to the grey, capitalistic urbanism of the World Trade Center and New York’s Wall Street. This time, Denes has covered 1,000 square meters of the Swiss plaza with lush, green wheat, and a pathway down the center for visitors to walk through. Her latest iteration speaks of the challenges faced by the global wheat market following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Denes also calls on our need to address the climate crisis, and the constructive, rather than destructive, role art fairs might play in preserving the future of the planet.

Petrit Halilaj

Elsewhere, Basel’s historic Merian Hotel has been given a new makeover by Kosovo-born artist Petrit Halilaj. His light installation When the Sun Goes Away we Paint the Sky, 2024, adorns the surface of the hotel with a scattering of illuminated five-pointed stars, which he sees as a potent message of hope for a brighter future. First presented in Manifesta 14 in 2022 on the Grand Hotel Prishtina, this latest installation celebrates the 30th anniversary between Art Basel and global financial firm UBS. Cruse says, “The collaboration over these 30 years between UBS and Art Basel helps us craft spaces together with artists, making their dreams come true and bringing them to reality.”

Chiharu Shiota

As part of Art Basel’s Unlimited program, which focusses on large-scale projects, Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has produced a 16 x 9 meter installation titled The Extended Line, 2023-24, in which suspended strands of red rope drip from the ceiling like red rain, spilling out onto a bronze cast of the artist’s hands. Interspersed within the thread are scattered white papers, resembling a flock of birds in the sky. As with much of her art, Shiota addresses deeply personal themes in this work of art, reflecting on her experiences of “suffering, regrets, and joys,” as a cancer survivor. She says, “What does it mean to be human? I am asking questions which I believe everyone is dealing with during their lifetime, and not really getting to a clear conclusion.”

Liza Lou

Meanwhile, Liza Lou’s visually arresting installation Security Fence, 2005 is a replica prison fence made from razor wire and glass beads, for which she enlisted the help of 20 Zulu women. The work is a jarring reflection on post-Apartheid South Africa, exploring, on one hand, the oppressive connotations of barbed wire fencing, yet also the collective, humanizing act of beading as a form of resistance and personal, creative freedom. Lou says, “During apartheid, the whites surrounded the townships with barbed wire fencing so that they couldn’t get out. We talked often about what it meant, what we were doing – one of my workers, Buhle, said, ‘We are covering it with love.'”

Germany’s more recent history obviously plays a significant role in shaping this list. It was, after all, immensely impactful to the entire world. With that being said, key dates on the nation’s historical timeline didn’t begin in 1914. The European country had played host to Roman emperors, the Thirty-Years’ War, and the Battle of the Nations, all before our planet had even made it to the 20th century. Germany is steeped in history, and subsequently, there are many landmarks to corroborate this. Here are the seven we deem to be the most substantial.

7. Luther Memorials

The noble monk situated centrally on the highest pedestal in the above photo is Martin Luther. This monument stands tall in Worms. He’s also highly appreciated in the town of Wittenberg, where another statue of him can be found. In 1517, Luther published a document entitled “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.” This thesis had a massive impact on how society viewed the teachings of the church and, in the view of many, started the Protestant Reformation.

Luther had taken exception to the idea that a person should essentially pay the church money to buy forgiveness from God and believed that salvation wasn’t something that could merely be purchased or sold by humans. Luther was exiled for his disruptions but didn’t waver in his views and protests. After determining that the only source considered viable when practicing Christianity was the Bible, he opted to spend his time in hiding, translating the Holy Scriptures to enable more people the opportunity to read them.

6. Cologne Cathedral

In 1248, construction began on Cologne Cathedral, and in 1880, the project was completed. Don’t worry; you didn’t misread those dates. Cologne Cathedral, or Kölner Dom as the locals call it, did indeed take a staggering 632 years to build. This is partially because cathedrals typically demand a meticulous, complex design and partially because there was an awful lot of fighting occurring across Europe. The project was stalled by both the Thirty Years’ War and the French Revolution. The French even transformed the space into a stable for their horses between 1794 and 1814 when they occupied Cologne.

Despite the many delays and excessive wait, Cologne Cathedral was generally considered a masterpiece when finished. It stands at 157 meters tall, which, at the time, made it the tallest structure in the world. To this day, it remains the largest Gothic church in northern Europe and was officially declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. The building was bombed in World War II, and as a consequence, much of the interior varies in age. The choir stalls situated behind the altar, for instance, were carved in the early stages of the 14th century, while the bronze altar that stands before them is only around 60 years old. There’s also a fabulous gold shrine dedicated to the Three Kings on display.

5. The Trier Imperial Baths

There was a period of time when the Romans were rather keen on inserting their dominance and marking their territory whenever they liked the look of a new location, and Trier in Western Germany was a city to which both Emperor Maximianus and Constantine the Great took a particular shine. In fact, the area was eventually transformed to such an extent that it was generally referred to as “Second Rome.” Constantine the Great was particularly enamored with Trier… until he wasn’t. He would eventually turn his attention to Constantinople, leaving many of the projects he’d been working on in the German city unfinished, including the Trier Imperial Baths.

Public bathing was, of course, a huge aspect of Ancient Roman culture. However, Flavius Gratianus, the next emperor to be placed in charge of the project, determined the grounds would be of better use if they served as a barrack for his soldiers and their horses. Since then, the monument has also been converted into a monastery, a castle, and a city wall. The site is a monumental part of European history and certainly worth visiting, especially considering the magnitude of work required to construct the landmark. These baths were created for the benefit of 80,000 people and are believed to be the largest of their kind outside of Rome.

4. The East Side Gallery 

From August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989, Berlin was a capital divided not just politically but also physically. Due to the division of Germany that had followed World War II, the Berlin Wall, which was 96 miles in length and 13 feet in height, had been inserted to block all movement between the two sections of Germany. The West was functioning by democratic laws, and the East was within the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Many East Germans saw a brighter future in the West, which didn’t sit well with the communist government of East Germany, who retaliated by closing the borders to prevent any further travel.

In 1989, the announcement came that the gates at the wall had been opened, enabling all locals to pass through freely. More than two million people from both sides of the border were quick to gather at the wall and joyously celebrate the news. Soon enough, the jubilant crowds began dismantling the wall.

Alongside the Spree River, 1.3 kilometers of the wall had remained intact. This prompted talented artists from all quarters to make their way to Berlin to add color, character, and life to the once-dreary wall. This resulted in the beautiful East Side Gallery, the longest permanent open-air art gallery in the world!

3. Monument to the Battle of the Nations

Prior to World War I, the Battle of the Nations was the largest war in European history. The monumental battle took place in Leipzig in 1813 and saw the Sixth Coalition, a team largely made up of Austrian, Russian, Prussian, and Swedish soldiers, defeat a French army led by Napoleon. The loss was extremely damaging to Napoleon’s reputation and ultimately led to his downfall. The battle, which lasted four days, resulted in over 100,000 casualties. Sadly, further tragedy was on the horizon, too. Ensuing the war, a vicious typhus outbreak spread across Leipzig and killed 10% of the city’s population.

In 1913, exactly 100 years after this hugely significant historical war, a stunning monument was built in Leipzig as a memorial to those who lost their lives as a consequence of this famous battle. A carefully crafted towering Saint Michael stands valiantly and stern-faced at the entrance. Once inside the landmark, you’re greeted by an outer circle of mournful, downward-looking statues of soldiers, while the hypnotic, domed ceiling displays rings of mighty soldiers on horses. The Monument to the Battle of the Nations (Völkerschlachtdenkmal in German) is brimming with powerful imagery, and it’s a landmark highly recommended to any history buff to visit should the opportunity arise.

2. Brandenburg Gate

Much like the East Side Gallery, Brandenburg Gate also had a monumental role in Germany’s recent divided period and now serves as an iconic landmark where people gather around to celebrate the reunification of the two sides of the country. Since the Brandenburg Gate happened to be situated between East and West Germany, it automatically became a part of the Berlin Wall. During this period, residents on both sides were no longer permitted access to the monument. Therefore, when the Berlin Wall eventually collapsed, the Brandenburg Gate became a symbol of freedom, with over 100,000 people turning up to watch the gate’s official reopening.

The gate was constructed between 1788 and 1791 and designed to replicate Propylaea in Athens. Situated centrally at the top of the gate is “Quadriga,” a courageous statue of a goddess riding a chariot with the aid of four horses. However, this iconic statue hasn’t always remained at the top of the Brandenburg Gate. In the heat of battle, Napoleon ordered his soldiers to capture the statue and take it back to Paris to display as a trophy of sorts. The Prussian army would later retrieve the monument before returning it to Germany and, subsequently, the top of the Brandenburg Gate, where it’s remained ever since.

1. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Six million Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust. Almost 80 years have passed since the infamous genocide occurred, and this shockingly devastating, callous act of cruelty still remains both impossible to fathom and traumatically heartbreaking. There was an outcry for a respectful landmark to be installed in the country’s capital in the 1980s, a demand the government agreed was necessary. However, they necessitated a lengthy period to establish the specifics of a design worthy of acknowledging such a sensitive topic. In 1999, the German parliament finally announced its intentions to create a memorial site commemorating those who tragically fell victim to the Holocaust.

Peter Eisenman, an architect from New York, was assigned the task of creating a tribute that could be deemed touching and poignant. Eisenman was provided an area of 19,000 square feet, which he filled with 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights. He left pathways between each slab, enabling visitors to walk around the landmark at their own pace. The project was finished and opened to the public in 2005. There’s also an information center beneath the memorial, which is divided into four rooms and exhibits victims’ biographies, diary entries, and farewell letters.

SUMMARY

• Hecate, a multifaceted Greek goddess, is associated with magic, witchcraft, the moon, and the night, and is often depicted as a triple-formed deity symbolizing the Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
• Her primary symbols include torches, keys, and dogs, reflecting her roles as a guide through darkness, a controller of boundaries, and a protector against evil.
• Worship of Hecate involved household offerings, rituals at crossroads, and significant cult centers in Caria, Eleusis, and Samothrace, highlighting her importance in both personal and public religious practices.

The goddess Hecate is one of the lesser-known goddesses of the Greek pantheon. Child of Perses and Asteria, she was the only Titan to retain her control under Zeus’ reign. Hecate’s powers transcended the boundaries of the sky, the earth, the seas, and the underworld. Although there are few myths about the goddess Hecate, her tales reveal a lot about her spheres of influence. During the Roman era, many of her attributes fell in the realm of the underworld. Yet, she also controlled elements that placed her firmly in the light. The goddess possessed extensive powers, which were later assimilated by other deities. Hecate could bestow wealth and blessings on her worshippers, yet she could also withhold these gifts if she were not adequately worshipped. This article will explore who Hecate was and what her attributes and symbols were.

The Origins of Hecate

Classical scholars dispute the origins of Hecate’s worship in Ancient Greece. For many, the goddess’ worship has a pre-Greek origin, while for others, it originated in Thrace. Among the theories, the most popular is that Hecate was accepted into Greek religion from the Carians in Asia Minor. According to scholars, it is believed that the goddess came to Greece during the Archaic age. The presence of Hecatean worship in Caria is attested by the number of cult sites dedicated to the goddess. The most prominent of these was in Lagina. However, due to these Anatolian cult sites’ late dates, other classicists argue that an Anatolian origin is impossible for the goddess.

In the ancient sources, Hecate first appears in Hesiod’s Theogony in the 7th century BCE. Hesiod only mentions her parentage and role in the Gigantomachy, where she slew Clytius. However, she is conspicuously absent from the Homeric epics.

Hecate’s depiction in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter is perhaps her most well-known literary appearance. In the hymn, Hecate and the sun god, Hyperion, hear Persephone’s cries when Hades abducts her. After Demeter had searched for her daughter for nine days, Hecate came to her on the tenth with a torch in her hands.

The goddess told Demeter all she had heard but did not know who had taken her daughter. Once Persephone was reunited with Demeter, Hecate embraced the girl. She would become Persephone’s companion in the underworld when the girl returned to Hades each year. A standard iconographic reference to this myth is Hecate carrying a torch.

Hecate’s Divine Duties

Hecate’s scope of divine duties was extensive in Ancient Greek religion. She was most notably the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, light, ghosts, necromancy, and the moon. Further, she was the goddess and protector of the oikos, and entranceways.

In her form as a triple-goddess, Hecate was strongly associated with the crossroads. She was portrayed as a liminal goddess who can cross from the underworld to the physical world with ease. Her liminality stemmed from her parentage and mythology, where she was able to move between her position as a Titan and a goddess. This liminality is attested to by her epithets and cult titles such as: Enodia (on the way), Trodia (frequenter of the crossroads) and Propylaia (of the gates).

By the first century CE, Hecate’s role as a goddess of magic and witchcraft was well established by Lucan’s Pharsalia. The witch, Erichtho, in the Pharsalia invokes Persephone as the lowest aspect of Hecate. It is in the Pharsalia, that we find the hag-like attributes given to Hecate.

Her retinue included the Lampades, or nymphs of the underworld, and ghosts. According to mythology, the Lampades were a gift from Zeus after her loyalty to him during the Titanomachy. The Lampades carry torches and accompany the goddess on her nocturnal travels.

Depictions of the Goddess

Hecate was commonly depicted in Greek pottery in singular form wearing a long robe and holding burning torches in her hands. Pillars of the torch-bearing goddess called Hecataea stood at crossroads and doorways.  Later, Hecate’s most prevalent iconographic representation is as a triple-formed goddess with each form standing back-to-back looking at each direction of a crossroads.

Some of her statuary votive offerings included the addition of the Graces dancing around the goddess, such as in the image above. In other representations, she is accompanied by a pack of dogs. In his Description of Greece, Pausanias posits that Hecate’s triple-form representation was first depicted by the sculptor, Alcamenes in the 5th century BCE. He also states that a sculpture of the goddess called Hecate Epipurgidia (on the tower) was in Athens beside Wingless Victory’s temple on the Acropolis.

On the famous Pergamon Altar (c. 2nd century BCE) Hecate is represented as trimorphic, while attacking a serpent-like giant with a dog’s help. Throughout antiquity, Hecate’s triple form was portrayed as three separate bodies around a central column. Yet, in late antiquity, this representation transformed into a single goddess with three heads. Esoteric literature from this time describes Hecate as having three heads – that of a dog, a snake, and a horse. Hecate was also identified with many goddesses from surrounding pantheons.

Identification With Artemis

The name of Hecate or Ἑκατη means “worker from afar” from the Greek word hekatos. The masculine form Hekatos is a common epithet used for Apollo. According to scholars, this Apolline epithet links Hecate to Artemis, a goddess with similar spheres of influence. The goddesses were characterized in much the same fashion.

Both goddesses were generally portrayed as wearing hunting boots, carrying torches, and accompanied by dogs. They were often conflated to make a dual goddess, for example in Aeschylus’ Suppliants. In Aeschylus’ play, the two goddesses are called to as one by the chorus. This consolidation of the goddesses occurs again in Aristophanes’ Frogs (1358f), in which the character of Aeschylus invokes the goddesses.

Identification With Artemis-Selene

In the Roman era, Hecate became amalgamated with the goddesses Artemis and Selene, particularly in Roman poetry. Apart from her combined triple form, she became known by her Roman name, Trivia. The Roman poets encouraged Hecate’s trimorphic depictions by calling her Hecate-Selene and similar variations. Seneca often refers to Hecate in conjunction with her lunar counterparts and even connects Medea to the goddess.

Identification With Iphigenia

Early ancient sources connected Hecate with Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon. According to Pausanias, Hesiod stated that Iphigenia was not killed but rather became Hecate by the will of Artemis. In this identification, Hecate was sometimes associated with a goddess whom the Tauri worshipped as Iphigenia.

Hecate and Hermes

Hermes similarly occupied chthonic characteristics, and some ancient sources described Hecate as being the consort of this chthonic Hermes. Both Hecate and Hermes were gods of the dead and could transcend liminal spaces and boundaries between worlds. The connection between these two gods was first offered by the Roman poet Propertius in the first century BCE.

Hecate’s Sacred Animals

As previously mentioned, Hecate’s most sacred animal was the dog. In a description offered by Apollonius of Rhodes, Hecate’s presence is accompanied by the sound of dogs’ barks from the underworld.

Ancient authors, such as Ovid and Pausanias indicate that dogs – particularly black dogs – were sacrificed to the goddess. Scholars have also suggested that Hecate’s association with dogs points to her role as a goddess of birth. This is because dogs were also the sacred animals of other birth goddesses, such as Eileithyia and Genetyllis.

In later antiquity, Hecate’s dogs became associated with the restless souls of the dead who accompanied the goddess. The myth of Queen Hecuba’s metamorphosis into a dog is linked to the goddess Hecate. According to the legend, Odysseus received Hecuba as his captive after the fall of Troy. But the Trojan queen murdered a Thracian king on her voyage to Greece. As punishment, Hecuba was transformed into a black dog and became the companion of Hecate.

Another sacred animal of the goddess Hecate was the polecat or weasel. According to the myth told by Antonius Liberalis, Alcmena’s midwife Galinthias had deceived the gods during the birth of Heracles. While seeing Alcmena in labor pains, Galinthias went to the goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia, and the Fates – who prolonged the labor as a favor for Hera – told them the child had been born. In retribution for deceiving the gods, Galinthias was transformed into a polecat. Hecate pitied her transformation and appointed Galinthias as her servant and companion.

Worship of the Goddess Hecate

The cult of the goddess in mainland Greece was not as popular as the worship of other Olympians. The goddess had few dedicated temples throughout the ancient world. Smaller household shrines for Hecate were commonplace in the ancient world. These smaller shrines were erected to ward off evil and protect the individual from witchcraft. In Greece, Hecate’s most prominent cult centers were in Caria, Eleusis, and the island of Samothrace.

In Samothrace, the goddess was worshipped as a goddess of the Mysteries. Evidence of her worship has likewise been discovered in Thessaly, Thrace, Colophon, and Athens. The latter two cities bear evidence of sacrifices of dogs in the goddess’ honor. Pausanias offers that Hecate was the goddess most worshipped by the people of Aegina who believed that Orpheus established the rites of the goddess on their island. Pausanias also describes a wooden image of Hecate located in the Aeginetan temple.

Although Hecate does not have a Homeric Hymn in her honor, she has several Orphic Hymns. In fact, the collection of Orphic Hymns opens with a hymn dedicated to the goddess. This is significant because of her role as a goddess of entry-ways.  The Orphic Hymn to Hecate reveals a lot about her spheres of influence as perceived by the Orphics. In their mysteries, she was the goddess of roads and the crossroads, and invoked as such.

Most notably, she is also called the goddess of the dead, who presides over deserted places. In this hymn, her sacred animals include deer, dogs, and wild predators. She is described as the herder of bulls and a nurturer of youths, as well. The hymn beseeches the goddess to come to the holy rites in a favorable mood with a happy heart.

The goddess Hecate proves to be more interesting the more we learn about her. Her position as a liminal figure and a goddess of roads and entryways illuminates her position as a protector. Yet her role as a nocturnal goddess of magic and witchcraft reveals a darker side. Hecate is a multi-faceted figure deserving the same attention level as the more popular deities from the Greek pantheon.

FAQs

Who was Hecate in Greek mythology?

Hecate is a goddess in Greek mythology known for her association with magic, witchcraft, the night, and the moon. She was unique among the Titans as she retained her power under Zeus and could traverse the realms of the heavens, earth, and the underworld. Hecate is often depicted as a triple-formed goddess, symbolizing her role in different aspects of life and magic.

What are the symbols and attributes of Hecate?

Hecate’s primary symbols include torches, keys, and dogs. She is frequently depicted holding torches, which symbolize her role as a guide through darkness and the underworld. Dogs are sacred to her, often appearing as her companions. As a goddess of boundaries, keys represent her control over the crossing points between the physical and spiritual worlds.

How was Hecate worshipped in ancient Greece?

Worship of Hecate varied, with significant cult centers in Caria, Eleusis, and Samothrace. She was honored with offerings at household shrines to protect homes from evil and witchcraft. Her followers performed rituals at crossroads, a symbol of her liminal nature. Despite her few dedicated temples, Hecate was invoked in various mysteries and rites, reflecting her complex role in Greek religion.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary works set within the realm of Middle Earth were heavily inspired by Norse mythology. His elves and dwarves are plucked directly from the Norse cosmos, and Gandalf is inspired by none other than Odin the All-Father, the most important Viking deity. Even Tolkien’s One Ring is inspired by the Norse story of the cursed ring Andvaranaut.

It is perhaps no surprise that elements of Norse mythology inspired Tolkien’s creation of his rich fantasy world. As well as being a founding member of the Inklings, Tolkien also founded the Leeds Viking Club in the 1920s.

Tolkien’s Interest in Norse Mythology

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in England in 1892 and became famous for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and several other books set in the same fantasy universe. He studied classics and then English language and literature at Oxford University, and when he graduated in 1915, he joined the British Army.

Tolkien’s experiences in World War I would mark the author and greatly influence his writings. He participated in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, where he became very ill. This resulted in him being sent back to England and spending the rest of the war in hospitals and garrisons.

Back in his life in academia, he worked at the University of Leeds before coming back to Oxford where he worked until his retirement in 1959. He specialized in English and Anglo-Saxon literature, and he started to write his now-famous works. He was also a founding member of The Inklings club with fellow fantasy writers at Oxford, including C.S. Lewis.

So, where did Tolkien’s interest in Norse mythology begin? Well, in the 1920s he completed a translation of the Old English poem, Beowulf. While written in Old English, the poem is about a 6th-century Danish hero. When he returned from the war, he worked for the Oxford English Dictionary, specializing in German etymology.

While still at the University of Leeds, Tolkien founded The Viking Club, where interested parties could talk about extinct Germanic languages and culture. Tolkien further pursued his interest by writing his own version of the Norse Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. This included the Norse story of the cursed ring Andvaranaut. But the cursed ring is just one of the many elements of Norse mythology that would find its way into Tolkien’s fictional works.

Norse Cosmology and the Creation of Middle Earth

Tolkien’s works stand out for their setting —  a complex and coherent fantasy world with its own extensive mythology. The cosmology that Tolkien created was certainly inspired, in part, by the cosmology of the Norse universe.

This starts with Middle Earth itself, which is the realm of mortal men in Tolkien’s universe. This seems to be inspired by Midgard, a realm created by the Norse god Odin and his brothers, who then created men to populate the world. The gods protect Midgard from chaotic forces from their home, Asgard.

In Tolkien’s universe, the divine Valar live in Valinor. This seems to be inspired by Asgard as Valinor is connected to Middle Earth by a long straight land bridge similar to the Rainbow Bifrost Bridge that connects Asgard and Midgard.

Within Midgard itself, Tolkien’s dark and dangerous fictional forest of Mirkwood is inspired by the Mirkwood of the Poetic Edda, which is a forest between Asgard and Muspelheim, the realm of the fire giants. Tolkien may also have been inspired by the Norse Ironwood that seems to have separated Midgard and Jotunheim, the world of the giants. It was occupied by clans of giant wolves led by the giantess Angrboda. Tolkien’s terrifying Wargs may be inspired by these wolf packs.

Meduseld, the golden mead hall of the kings of Rohan, seems to be directly inspired by Heorot, the mead hall described in Beowulf. Both halls are described as having a roof of straw that gleams like gold. When Legolas describes Meduseld, he uses a direct quote from the Old English poem saying the “light of it shines far over the land.”

When the fellowship arrives at the hall, they must discard their weapons before entering. This echoes what happens when the heroes of Beowulf arrive at Heorot and are forced to pile their weapons up at the door.

The Inhabitants of Middle Earth

Many of the inhabitants of Middle Earth are also inspired by beings that exist in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. The most obvious of these are Tolkien’s elves and dwarves.

Norse mythology has two different groups of elves, called Light Elves and Dark Elves. The Light Elves are described as angelic and magical beings with a supernatural connection to nature. It is often difficult to draw clear lines between the elves and the gods. These creatures inspired Tolkien’s elves.

The Dark Elves are the inspiration for Tolkien’s dwarves. In Norse mythology, the dark elves are said to live underground in caves and workshops, and they are the master blacksmiths of the Norse cosmos. They made many of the great treasures in the Norse universe, including Thor’s hammer Mjolnir.

To cement this connection further, the complex language that Tolkien created for his dwarves was based on the Old Norse runes. Meanwhile, Tolkien’s common Elvish language was based on Welsh and other Celtic languages, while High Elven (Quenya) was based on Finnish with Latin and Greek elements.

The names of all the dwarves that we meet in The Hobbit are also inspired by the names of dwarves listed in the Voluspa Saga, the story of the creation and destruction of the world told by the Volva witch to Odin. Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dwalin, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, Ori, Fili, and Kili are all Norse dwarves. And of course, there is Thorin Oakenshield.

Even Frodo’s name comes from the Ynglinga Saga, which records a mythical prehistory of Scandinavia. Frodi is a Danish king descended from Odin, who rules over the country during a period of peace and prosperity and is described as so honest that he would never steal a ring.

Tolkien’s trolls are also inspired by Scandinavian folklore, in which trolls are believed to live under bridges and at other crossroads. But they also borrow from the Norse mythology surrounding the dwarves. In one story, Thor becomes angry that a dwarf has the audacity to ask for the hand of his daughter, Thrudr, in marriage. He tricks the dwarf into talking with him for the entire night so that he loses track of time and turns to stone when the sun rises. Gandalf uses a similar strategy to deal with the trolls in The Hobbit.

Gandalf as Odin

Gandalf is the name of a dwarf found in the Volsupa Saga, but Tolkien himself stated in a letter that he wrote in 1946 that Gandalf was also inspired by the idea of the Odinic Wanderer. Odin was the most important of the Norse gods. He was the god of war, wisdom, witchcraft, and writing. While Odin had a high seat in Asgard from where he could look out over the cosmos, he often chose to abandon this seat and walk among mortals in disguise as a wanderer. When he did, he looked like an old man with a great beard and a brimmed hat, just like Gandalf.

Gandalf is one of the Valar, a god-like race that lives in Valinor. But he spends his life wandering Middle Earth, guiding the course of events.

We see another Norse motif when Gandalf faces the Balrog in Moria. The Balrog is a fire demon that is based on Surtr, a great fire giant that is destined to burn much of the world at Ragnarök, the Norse foretelling of the end of the world. The battle between Gandalf and the Balrog seems to represent an imagined fight between Odin and Surtr on the Rainbow Bifrost Bridge. According to the Ragnarök prophecy, the Bifrost Bridge is destined to crumble under the weight of the giants in the final battle.

Several other Tolkien characters can also be linked to Norse mythology, including Beorn, who has a Viking name and can transform into a bear like a berserker warrior, and the hero Turin Turambar from The Silmarillion, who seems to be based on Sigurd, the hero who kills the dragon Fafnir. 

What About the One Ring?

What about the most important motif in Tolkien’s work, the one ring? Can it be related to Norse mythology? As mentioned above, Tolkien wrote a version of the adventures of the Viking heroes Sigurd and Gudrun, which contained the story of the Andvaranaut, a cursed ring. Incidentally, the same stories inspired Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which Tolkien reportedly hated, considering it fascist propaganda.

In the story, a dwarf named Andvari is a shapeshifter who can turn into a fish and enjoys swimming. One day he encounters a group of water nymphs, who laugh at him, so he steals their enchanted treasure. Like most dwarves, he is a master craftsman and uses some of their treasure to make a magnificent golden ring for himself, called Andvaranaut. It is also enchanted to ensure his treasure always grows, so he can spend his time swimming and admiring his wealth. He seems not unlike the version of Gollum we meet in The Hobbit.

One day, Odin, Hoenir, and Loki are traveling to meet the dwarven king Hreidmar, and they stop at Andvari’s river. Loki sees Andvari and his treasure, but he also sees a handsome otter. He kills it and skins it for its pelt, which he intends to give to the dwarven king as a gift. But when the trio arrives and the king sees the pelt, he is horrified. His sons can also shapeshift, and one of them becomes a handsome otter. It is his pelt.

The gods agree to pay a ransom for the death and to cover every millimeter of the pelt with gold. Loki returns to the river to retrieve the gold he saw there to pay the price. He catches Andvari in fish form and demands the gold in exchange for his life. Andvari begs Loki to just leave him the ring, but Loki refuses. Therefore, Andvari curses the ring to bring its owner great wealth, but also devastation.

Loki initially intends to keep the ring for himself, but when a small part of the pelt seems to be uncovered, he must use the ring to complete the ransom.

The dwarven king immediately becomes obsessed with his new treasure, especially the ring. He refuses to share it with his two other sons, Regin and Fafnir. Eventually, Fafnir kills his father and drives his brother from their keep. Fafnir then permanently shapeshifts into a dragon so that he can protect his treasure.

Fafnir seems to be the inspiration for Tolkien’s dragon Smaug. The small hole in Smaug’s armored scales may also be inspired by the tiny part of the pelt that was not covered in gold and forced Loki to hand over the ring.

Later, Regin is living in a human village and meets the young hero Sigurd. Sigurd has brought the smith his father’s broken sword, Garm, so that it may be reforged. This is reflected in the Elves reforging Narsil, the sword of the kings of Gondor, as Anduril for Aragorn.

Regin convinces Sigurd to kill Fafnir for him and bring him the ring, which Sigurd does. But as he is returning with the prize, Sigurd learns that Regin intends to kill him, so he kills Regin and keeps the ring. Like the One Ring, the Andvaranaut has an ownership history based on death and blood. Sigurd himself meets a bloody end when he is killed by his friend Gudrun.

This is not the only special ring that appears in Norse mythology. Odin also possessed a special gold ring forged for him by the dwarves. Called Draupnir, which means “dripper,” every nine days it produced eight rings equally as fine, ensuring Odin’s continued wealth. While Tolkien’s lesser rings are clearly much more complex than these copies, the idea of a ring begetting and controlling other rings may have started here.

Interestingly, one of the kennings for Draupnir is “precious sweat.” Perhaps this inspired the etymologist Tolkien to have Gollum call the One Ring “my precious.”

San Francisco Bay produced many groundbreaking artists who worked in different fields in the second half of the 20th century. Using a wide range of techniques and mediums, these artists have participated in and shaped art distinctively unique to the Bay Area. While their intentions and practices are diverse, some common characteristics include advocacy, humor, and experimentation. Let’s dive into the fascinating practices of ten contemporary Bay Area artists.

10. Bay Area Artist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) 

Ruth Asawa was born in Southern California to Japanese parents. When she was a teenager, her entire family was sent to internment camps. After this painful experience, Asawa was able to pursue art at Black Mountain College, where she practiced drawing, painting, and sculpture. She moved to the Bay Area in 1949 and started making her signature works—suspended abstract sculptures made of wire.

She first learned about this wire-looping technique from Mexican people crafting baskets. Installed as immersive environments, her suspended sculptures took very organic shapes. Asawa’s impactful work pioneered Post-Minimalist concerns with using simple, everyday materials and creating abstract shapes.

She lived in San Francisco and was very involved in the community. In 1982, she helped create a public high school dedicated to art education. In 2010, the school was renamed the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School for the Arts in her memory.

9. Robert Arneson (1930-1992)

Robert Arneson contributed to redefining the art of ceramics, pushing the medium’s boundaries beyond craft techniques and its functional properties. He studied at California College for the Arts in San Francisco and began teaching at UC Davis in the 1960s. His tongue-in-cheek works would later be seen as part of the Funk art movement. As an anti-establishment movement geared against then-revered Abstract Expressionism, Funk artists created figurative and whimsical artworks, playing with moral limits and absurdity.

His sculpture California Artist (1982) is a self-portrait condensing all stereotypes of West Coast artists. It’s a portrayal of a man standing with his arms crossed, wearing an open denim jacket and sunglasses, with a cool grin on his face. A marijuana plant grows along the timeworn painted-brick pedestal, littered with beer bottles and cigarette buds. The overall style is grotesque and more caricatural than realistic. Arneson often used self-deprecation as a way to reflect on the artist’s place within our society.

8. Bruce Conner (1933-2008) 

Bruce Conner grew up in Kansas and studied art at the University of Nebraska. In the mid-1950s, he lived in New York City and then San Francisco, creating an impressive amount of works with various techniques. Conner was involved with the counterculture Beat movement active in San Francisco during the 1960s. The movement embraced free-spirited artists and writers.

His unconventional assemblages, made with a variety of found materials and objects, particularly drew the Bay Area community’s attention. His large-scale assemblage Partition could be used as a functional screen yet its hectic arrangement looks closer to an artist’s nightmare. An overwhelming amount of material is glued on the wooden panels. There are fringes, nylon stockings, feathers, mirrors, artificial flowers, paper, wax, and metal fragments. Conner wanted to explore fears and desires by creating an off-putting yet enticing piece of furniture. Simultaneously, he also created experimental films that addressed the Cold War.

7. Viola Frey (1933-2004)

Viola Frey saw ceramic as fine art like many other artists from the Bay Area clay movements. She primarily studied painting at California College of the Arts, just so that her work could be taken seriously. After her studies, she turned to ceramics. Her first works were smaller-scale figurines, sculptures, and painted plates. In the 1970s, Frey started to make large-scale and often oversized human figures which were made of clay and painted with bright colors.

Frey’s 1992 work The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization is a monumental ceramic sculpture installation. This work is also representative of her technique. Frey made individual ceramic pieces that, when assembled together, form a greater composition. Each ceramic piece was painted and drawn on.

6. Joan Brown (1938-1990)

Joan Brown was born in San Francisco. Working with oil painting, Brown created colorful works that were partly inspired by her own life as well as made-up universes. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and is recognized as a member of the Bay Area Figurative Movement which also featured artists like Richard Diebenkorn. Though she first started by making abstract works, she later chose to switch to figurative painting, with vibrant colors and wide brush strokes, often representing herself and her family members. Later on, she changed her style again, adopting a more detailed approach. The Dancers in the City #2 is an example of that shift, with dancers and a dog drawn with an animation-like quality. The San Francisco skyline in the background adds some grounding to the work, but it’s also the thing that emphasizes the solitary urban experience.

5. Yolanda López (1942-2021)

A third-generation Mexican-American, Yolanda López was born in San Diego. After high school, she joined an activist group called the Third World Liberation Front in San Francisco. During the 1970s, she studied Fine Arts at San Diego State University and UC San Diego. Her work explored the Chicano identity, reappropriating cultural symbols and adding her own experience to her paintings, prints, and drawings.

An activist, she contributed to the diffusion of the Chicano Art Movement, working at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. Her series Virgen de Guadalupe is emblematic of her practice. This series of oil pastels on paper reinterprets the iconography of the Guadalupe, an important Mexican symbol of faith and love. In the triptych, she represented herself, as well as her mother and grandmother, as the Virgin Mary. In doing so, López altered the meaning of this religious icon and denounced patriarchy by highlighting Chicana womanhood.

4. Mildred Howard (b. 1945)

Mildred Howard is a native of San Francisco who studied at the College of Alameda and John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley. She later taught at Stanford University. Howard has created public artworks that helped build the Bay Area artistic scene’s distinctive character. In her work, Howard uses everyday objects and familiar tropes to recall social issues such as racial inequality. Her practice is both conceptual and material-oriented, and decisively militant.

While containing the tendencies of post-modern art, Howard’s installations mix her personal experience with a more global conversation about identity. She focuses on the African-American experience in the U.S. Her installation Ten Little Children Standing in a Line consists of two parts: a grid made of bullet cartridges fixed to the wall and copper glove molds installed on a low pedestal. This work directly points to school shootings, a socially relevant topic in American culture. Howard, however, chooses to evoke the feeling of violence rather than display it.

3. Hung Liu (1948-2021)

Hung Liu grew up in China. As a young adult, she was forced to work in fields. She was able to find shelter in her artistic creativity using a sketchbook and a camera. After working as an elementary school art teacher, she studied painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. During the 1980s, she studied at UC San Diego after years of trying to overcome Chinese bureaucracy. She later moved to the Bay Area. Her paintings are often autobiographical, commenting on multiculturalism. Her 1988 painting Resident Alien is a large-scale painting of a copy of her green card. The author played with the fact that the word alien is often used to describe immigrants living in the USA. She changed her name to Fortune Cookie, which symbolizes cultural hybridization since the product is neither an American nor a Chinese commodity. With a useful amount of sarcasm, Liu emphasizes the importance of words related to immigration.

2. Enrique Chagoya (b. 1953)

Enrique Chagoya grew up in Mexico City in a family where art was omnipresent. While studying at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, he created political and satirical cartoons for union and student newspapers. He moved to the United States as a young adult and studied art both at the San Francisco Art Institute and UC Berkeley.

In his work, Chagoya combines American pop culture imagery and icons with pre-Columbian figures and existing colonial artworks. In his painting Uprising of the Spirit, he juxtaposed Superman and 15th-century Aztec philosopher King Nezahualcóyotl. He also painted colonizers murdering Indigenous people. While Superman is globally recognizable, Nezahualcóyotl is lesser known as a ruler who wanted to end human sacrifices in religious rituals. Chagoya wanted to highlight Nezahualcóyotl’s superhero-like character that is far from archaic stereotypes that have dehumanized Mexican Indigenous civilizations for centuries. Moved by a strong urge to fight social injustice, Chagoya aimed to create a piece for post-colonial dialogue.

1. Bay Area Artist Barry McGee (b. 1966)

Barry McGee grew up in San Francisco. Under the tag name of Twist, McGee became an important figure in the local street art scene in the 1990s, which later became known as the Mission School. His recognizable graffiti includes characters with droopy faces, colorful optical shapes, doodles, and paint drips. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991. His works have influenced global tendencies in street art. His pieces have also largely contributed to the rise of street art on the art market.

Jonathan Yeo’s portrait of King Charles II, currently on show in London, was given a new makeover by animal rights activist group ‘Animal Rising’ at around midday on Tuesday. The protestors pasted the face of animated character Wallace from the popular Wallace and Gromit Aardman Animations franchise over King Charles’s head, along with a cartoon caption reading, “No cheese, Gromit. Look at all this cruelty on RSPCA farms!”

Philip Mould Gallery

The protest took place at London’s Philip Mould Gallery, where the painting is currently on show to the public for free. After climbing over the security rope in front of the regal portrait, protestors pasted their cut-outs over the painting using rollers, while shocked gallery-goers looked on. They then shared a video of the action taking place on X, formerly Twitter. No harm was done to the original painting, as the activists pasted cut-out paper onto the Perspex covering the portrait of King Charles with water, which were easily peeled away. The incident was, according to gallery staff, a peaceful protest which was over quickly.

The King’s First Official Portrait

As the first official portrait of King Charles III since the coronation, the monumental painting was revealed at Buckingham Palace just 1 month ago, depicting the King dressed in, and surrounded by striking shades of red, while wearing his red Welsh guard’s ceremonial military uniform, with a butterfly on his shoulder. The commission was put in place before the king’s rise to the throne, to celebrate his 50-year membership with the Drapers’ Company, originally established as a trade association for wool merchants around 600 years ago, and now operating as a philanthropic venture. It typifies British artist Jonathan Yeo’s style of portraiture, in which he has depicted a range of high profile public figures with detailed faces against abstract, painterly grounds.

A ‘Comic Redecoration’

The group called their act a “comic redecoration”, and a “light-hearted action [that] played on the King’s love of Wallace and Gromit.” They also deliberately targeted King Charles given his status as a royal patron to the RSPCA, calling for him to suspend his allegiance with the charity until they drop the Assured Scheme, set up to approve the welfare of farmed animals. Daniel Juniper, one of the members of Animal Rising who carried out the protest, said, “Even though we hope this is amusing to His Majesty, we also call on him to seriously reconsider if he wants to be associated with the awful suffering across farms being endorsed by the RSPCA.”

The RSPCA Assured Scheme

The protest came about in response to what Animal Rising called a “damning investigation” into 45 farms claiming to be RSPCA approved. Their report, first released to the public on Sunday via their website, and mentioned in their Twitter posts on Tuesday, exposes 280 legal breaches and 94 breaches of Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) regulations across UK farms which were approved by the RSPCA. Orla Coghlan, a spokesperson for Animal Rising, argues, “It’s clear from the scenes across 45 RSPCA Assured farms that there’s no kind way to farm animals.”

In response, the RSPCA issued a statement defending the Assured scheme, calling it “the best way to help farmed animals right now, while campaigning to change their lives in the future.” They added, “Concerns about welfare on RSPCA Assured certified farms are taken extremely seriously and RSPCA Assured is acting swiftly to look into these allegations.”

Ever since the arrival of European immigrants on the shores of the North American continent, Indigenous peoples from numerous tribes fought to maintain their sovereignty and independence. However, by the late nineteenth century, the Native peoples of what was now the United States were considered subjugated. The US began to use governmental legislation to “manage” the people whom many considered less civilized than their white counterparts. Even today, lawmaking is a tool used by the federal government in interactions with those of Indigenous affiliation, affecting the social, economic, and legal rights of millions.

1. Indian Removal Act (1830)

Signed into law on May 28, 1830 by President Andrew Jackson, this law gave the president of the United States new powers: the ability to grant lands west of the Mississippi River to Native Americans in exchange for lands within current state borders. The Native American tribes would have no say in these potential exchanges, and as a result, many resisted this law. This included many members of the Cherokee Nation, resulting in the infamous “Trail of Tears” during the winter of 1838-39, in which thousands died on a forced march to Oklahoma territory after being forced from their homelands in the Southeast. The Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes would also be greatly affected, with many losing their lives as a result of forced relocation from this law.

As a result of the Indian Removal Act, almost 50,000 Indigenous Americans were forced from their homes to Jackson’s “Indian Territory” in Oklahoma. Twenty-five million acres of land in the east were then opened to white settlement, allowing for the establishment of farms, homes, and plantations, contributing to the expansion of slavery in the US.

2. 25 U.S. Code § 71 (1871)

The US, or entities representing it (or claiming to), had been creating treaties with Native American tribes since before the nation was even born. Nearly half of these treaties had not been ratified by Congress, and many, if not most, were unethical, made via interpreters who falsified or left out information with people who were unable to read the information in the document for themselves.

Viewpoints on land ownership between parties varied drastically, and treaties were often signed by individuals who had no authority within a tribal government. This code of law, 25 U.S. Code § 71, would prevent the US from making any further treaties with tribes and instead directed that all Indigenous people should be treated as individuals from that point and, in legal terms, were wards of the government.

3. Indian General Allotment Act (1887)

Known simply as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Act for its sponsor and writer, Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts, this piece of legislation passed Congress on February 8th, 1887. This law authorized the president to break up reservation land into parcels that could then be designated to individuals. Native Americans would be required to register on tribal “rolls” to gain access, and parties got a certain amount of land depending on whether they were a man, woman, or child.

Some tribes, including the “Five Civilized Tribes” that had suffered tremendously under the Indian Removal Act, were exempt due to preexisting laws that ruled that they owned their reservation land outrightly. However, later amendments and negotiations resulted in the Dawes Act applying to these groups as well.

The Dawes Act was a key tool in Federal Indian policy of the period, of which a main goal was to encourage the adoption of agriculture and the ultimate target: assimilation into white culture.

4. Snyder Act (1924)

Almost oxymoronic in that it admitted the land’s first people into the country, officially, the Snyder Act of 1924 (not to be confused with the Snyder Act of 1921) gave Native Americans born in the United States full US citizenship. Although the US Constitution had given all US citizens the right to vote in 1870, Native Americans had been unable to enjoy this freedom until the Snyder Act granted them citizenship. Even with the passage of this bill, it took over forty years for all fifty states to appropriately comply.

5. Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

The Wheeler-Howard Act of June 18, 1934, more commonly recognized as the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), illustrated a shift in how the US government made policy toward its tribes. The IRA ended the process of allotment that was instituted by the Dawes Act, creating a process for lands to be restored to tribal ownership. Funds were set aside for education, and metrics for Native American preference in hiring practices in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) were created.

Tribal governments earned recognition through the IRA, and the legislation incentivized tribes to adopt constitutional-style governments. Overall, the bill helped to restore some measures of tribal sovereignty. However, many felt it ignored some critical aspects of traditional organization and leadership among some tribes, placing all groups under one umbrella and assuming all could operate using the same methods.

6. Indian Civil Rights Act (1968)

The Indian Civil Rights Act, or ICRA, is a federal law that acts as an extension to the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights. It prevents tribal governments, though sovereign, from violating individual rights, including through the passage of law. These rights include free exercise of religion and speech, protection from unreasonable search and seizure, and the right to a speedy and public trial, among others. This act protects not only tribal members but also non-Indians from any potential violations by a tribal governmental entity. Though many of the rights do echo, there are a few differences between the ICRA and the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. For example, the ICRA does not require a tribal government to provide a lawyer to a defendant who cannot afford one.

7. American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978)

Religion is one way that many contemporary Indigenous people are able to connect to their traditional way of life and heritage. This law enables the protection of these sacred ways by ensuring access to religious sites, certain religious objects, and freedom of worship. For example, peyote, a hallucinogen, is classified as an illegal drug in the United States. However, this act permits the possession, use, and transportation of peyote by Indigenous people for “bona fide traditional ceremonial purposes.” Originally passed in 1978, the law was further amended in 1994 to add additional rights.

8. Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act (1990)

NAGPRA, passed in 1990, gave descendants, tribes, and related organizations the rights to certain Indigenous human remains, funerary objects, sacred items, and similar cultural objects. At the time, these items were in museums, storage, or federal collections and could not be accessed by those who felt connected to them by family lineage or culture.

The Department of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was given responsibility for making sure the repatriation outlined in the act was carried out. However, the act has proved difficult to enforce, and work is moving slowly. At its current rate of return, it is estimated that it would take about 238 more years to repatriate all human remains inventoried in NAGPRA’s latest reporting.

9. Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act (1994)

Not all tribes existing on what is now US soil are considered official, according to the American government. According to the law, tribes must follow certain steps to become federally recognized and receive sovereignty. In 1978, an official process for recognition known as FAP (Federal Acknowledgement Process) was created. In 1994, these steps were revised into Public Law 103-454 or the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act. According to the Act, which remains in effect today, there are three ways in which an Indigenous group may become recognized by the federal government of the United States: by an act of Congress, by certain administrative procedures as listed, or by the decision of a US court.

When a tribe becomes federally recognized, they have a government-to-government relationship with the United States, and they also become eligible for services and funding opportunities from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. At the time of publishing, there are 574 federally recognized Indigenous tribes in the United States.

10. Savanna’s Act (2020)

Instances of violence, including murder and rape, are higher among Indigenous women than national averages across the board. Native women make up a significant portion of those reported missing and murdered in the United States each year, so many that an abbreviation, MMIW (missing and murdered Indigenous women), has been created to refer to this glaring problem. Many of these women are part of the “vulnerability pipeline,” and the crimes against them are underreported across the country.

Savanna’s Act, passed in 2020, was named for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a member of the Spirit Lake Nation. Savanna was 22 years old and eight months pregnant when she was violently murdered in 2017. Savanna’s Act aims to improve data collection on MMIW (and men) and empower tribal governments by giving them more resources to respond effectively in cases like Savanna’s. The data collected by these efforts will then be used to compile statistics and educate law enforcement nationwide along with the public about the very real problem at hand.

Savanna also inspired the Not Invisible Act, which required the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice to create a joint commission focused on solving the problem of violent crime against missing and murdered Indigenous persons. This commission was tasked with creating recommendations to combat violent crime against Indigenous people in the US going forward, including “identifying, reporting, and responding to” these cases. Savanna’s killer was caught and is serving life in prison without parole. Her baby girl survived the murder and lives with Savanna’s boyfriend and family.

In the early 1940s, the modern jazz idiom, known as bebop, exploded old certainties and changed jazz forever. Bebop represented the avant-garde – new experimental ideas and methods – of jazz, a staunch rejection of commercial music, and a manifesto for black equality. The name ‘bop’ itself reflects the fast, off-beat rhythms that characterize the music. Despite never reaching the commercial success of earlier periods of jazz, the sheer technical advancements, and cool sophistication of ‘bop’ forever changed the trajectory of jazz.

The Bebop Revolution

Bebop was invented after hours in the late 1930s, in the finest jazz clubs in Harlem, New York. In the upstairs rooms of Mintons Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown House, young back jazz musicians ignited a musical revolution. The bebop style sought to challenge the dominance of the big bands and the commercialization of the music at large. At its core, ‘bop’ was about improvisation; lightning-fast key changes, complex chord progressions, and dazzling counter-melodies. Departing from the structured arrangements of earlier forms of jazz, the bebop sound favored small, dynamic ensembles over the grandeur of the big bands. 

To many outside observers, bebop was baffling: Cab Calloway labeled it “Chinese music” and Louis Armstrong was dumbstruck by the “weird chords.” Bebop rhythms defied the “dead beat” pulse of swing – as drummers sought to hammer out “tunes” as opposed to simple timekeeping. Themes, harmonies, and melodies were innovative and complex. The technical advancements of bebop heralded the dawn of “modern” jazz. 

The Boppers

The modern bebop revolution was spearheaded by young black musicians who sought to break free from the standardized, repetitive music of the 1920s and 1930s swing and big bands. Bop was as much a style as it was a sound. Youthful, idealistic, and musically gifted, pioneers like John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (Trumpet), Charlie Parker (Saxophone), Miles Davis (Trumpet), and Thelonious Monk (Piano) shunned the formal attire of older generations of jazz musicians. The combination of zoot suit and beret, thick-rimmed glasses and goatee, favored by Dizzy Gillespie epitomized the bebop look. 

The boppers adhered to the laid-back lifestyle of bohemian intellectuals as they purposefully pushed their jazz in avant-garde directions. Their “hipster” culture, along with their music, diverged significantly from the social norms of previous jazz generations. From the late-1930s onward, these young black musicians grew increasingly ambitious, seeking not only to assert their supremacy over white musicians but also to carve out their own distinct musical and cultural identities. 

Bebop Politics

The late 1930s marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of jazz. The political turmoil of the decade emboldened black Americans in their pursuit of social equality, and consequently, laid the groundwork for the bebop revolution of the early 1940s. According to Eric Hobsbawm (2014), bebop ‘was political as much as it was musical.’ The bebop style, he explains, wasn’t merely played for kicks, money, or to showcase technical expertise, it was played as a dual manifesto: for black equality and against the commercialization of jazz.

The boppers were particularly contemptuous of those they considered “Uncle Tom” musicians – members of the black old guard servile to whites. But also of the “ofays” (whites) that capitalize on the achievements of their music, and worse, imitated their style. Both the ofays and the Uncle Toms were antithetical to the creation of a black artistic movement rooted in authentic black culture, beyond the grasp of white appropriation. 

Birth of the Jazz Avant-Garde

The ‘modern’ jazz of the boppers was generated through improvisation and powered by the belief that the old ways of jazz were inadequate and new ways of expression had to be found. This rested in a ruthless break with the past. Rather than pay homage to the greats of earlier jazz generations, Thelonious Monk infamously opted to celebrate the influence of classical composers such as Stravinsky and Debussy. Dizzy Gillespie, who claimed to play for musicians rather than the public, likened bop to the famous avant-garde mantra of “art for art’s sake.”  

The birth of bop thus represented a deliberate rejection of the ‘old’ jazz conventions of the past. It was – and is – a music crafted for the ears of musicians, bohemians, and intellectuals. While its revolutionary sounds have since become widely embraced, bebop undeniably shifted the trajectory of jazz away from popular consumption and towards an embrace of the avant-garde.

Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi were both chosen for a competition in 1401 to create a quatrefoil for the Florence Baptistry doors to see who would win the overall commission of the doors. Ghiberti wrote of his victory, while Brunelleschi wrote about a tied competition from which he backed out. But who was telling the truth, and what happened in the end?

Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi: It’s a Tie

In 1401, the Arte del Calimala, a wool merchant guild in Florence, was responsible for the outer aesthetics of the Florence Baptistry of Saint John. There were elaborate bronze doors installed in the 14th century, and the guild sought to continue the tradition by finding someone to create new ornate doors for the building. They reached out to artists in the area to compete in a competition on who could make the best doors for the baptistry. The chosen subject was the biblical story of the sacrifice of Isaac.

Competing artists included Niccolò d’Arezzo, Simone da Colle, Jacopo della Quercia, Niccolò di Pietro Lamberti, Francesco di Valdambrino, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Filippo Brunelleschi, of which two were chosen as winners. Each artist was told to create a bronze quatrefoil for the doors, and the winner of the competition would be able to create the entire door for the baptistry, consisting of twenty-eight total quatrefoils. This commission was highly sought after, with the baptistry being one of the most important places in the city. Winning a commission such as that one could significantly impact an artist’s career. Once all the artists submitted their designs of The Sacrifice of Isaac, a panel of thirty-four Florentine natives judged the works. They concluded that it was a tie between Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi.

Brunelleschi’s Reaction

Filippo Brunelleschi felt insulted by the results of the competition. Ghiberti and Brunelleschi studied together under the Florentine goldsmith Benincasa Lotti, and Brunelleschi likely saw Ghiberti as his younger, less adept rival. Besides this, Brunelleschi had the confidence to create works alone in his studio, while Ghiberti opened his studio to others when creating a new design. He would invite the public to watch him work and make suggestions for improvement. One of his visitors was a judge on the panel charged with the responsibility of choosing a winner.

Legends claim that upon hearing the news of the tied results, Brunelleschi stormed from the building and left Florence altogether. Though he went to work in Rome for ten years after withdrawing from the competition, there is no concrete evidence that suggests he reacted in such a dramatic way when hearing the results. Nevertheless, Brunelleschi made it clear that he only worked on projects he had complete control over and did not wish to share the victory with his rival. Brunelleschi largely abandoned sculpture after this event.

Brunelleschi’s quatrefoil is the more dramatic of the two. The bronze design depicts the story of the Sacrifice of Isaac, in which God tests the faith of Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son, as he sacrificed his son, Jesus Christ. However, when Abraham went to carry out this horrific task, an angel was sent to stop him at the last moment. This is the moment that is shown in Brunelleschi’s quatrefoil.

Though both quatrefoils depict a scene of violence, Brunelleschi plays with the violence to create a strong moment of tension as the blade is pressed hard against the child’s lifted neck. The angel has a sense of urgent movement as it appears and grabs Abraham’s arm, hoping to prevent the attack before it is too late. Next to the figures of Abraham and Isaac is a lamb, which can be used in the boy’s place for sacrifice. Below them are more figures, including a young boy peering at his foot. Both of the bottom figures look down to Hell, but the young boy checking his foot alludes to Brunelleschi’s interest in classical art and his skill in looking back to the ancient world.

Only through Brunelleschi’s forfeit did Lorenzo Ghiberti emerge as the sole winner, yet he was willing to claim sole credit for his victory. He wrote, “To me was conceded the palm of victory by all the experts and by all my fellow competitors. Universally, they conceded to me the glory without exception. Everyone felt I had surpassed the others in that time, without a single exception, after great consultation and examination by learned men.”

Some theories suggest that Ghiberti’s quatrefoil was favored due to its lighter weight. Because of this it would cost less. He cast the design in a single piece, with the back somewhat hollow. Brunelleschi’s version, which has a smooth, solid back for the quatrefoil, is roughly 15 pounds heavier. However, one cannot deny the skill that went into the design.

In Ghiberti’s quatrefoil, nature is incorporated into the scene by placing the figures of Abraham and Isaac onto a rock formation. In this way, it adds to the drama by creating a stage, yet also calls to the beauty of nature to glorify the sacred tale. The figures are also more reserved, creating a more calm atmosphere despite the impending violence of the scene. The blade is not pressed to the boy’s throat but instead waits in Abraham’s hesitating hand. The angel, too, does not reach out for them and is only beginning to enter the scene from above, coming out of the back of the quatrefoil at a sharper angle of foreshortening.

Ghiberti’s Doors at the Florence Baptistery

Since Brunelleschi pulled out from the competition after hearing the results were tied, Ghiberti was awarded the complete victory. As was promised, he set out to create the full door for the baptistry. The South Doors of the Florence Baptistry were made in the 14th century by a Florentine artist named Andrea Pisano, giving Ghiberti a source of creative inspiration when designing the new East Doors (now the North Doors) early in his career.

While the competition was intended for only one quatrefoil, Ghiberti now needed to create an entire door of quatrefoils. He took significant inspiration from the South Doors concerning the design, but Ghiberti’s doors depicted the Life of Christ condensed into twenty-eight scenes, with the bottom eight being the Evangelists and Fathers of the Church. Scenes include Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Dispute with the Doctors, Baptism of Christ, Temptation of Christ, Chasing the Merchants from the Temple, Jesus Walking on Water and Saving Peter, Transfiguration, Resurrection of Lazarus, Entry of Jesus in Jerusalem, Last Supper, Agony in the Garden, Christ Captures, Flagellation, Jesus before Pilate, Ascent to Calvary, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Pentecost, St. John, St. Matthew, St. Luke, St. Mark, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, and St. Augustine.

They were first created from cast bronze. Ghiberti was particular about the outcome and notoriously cast and recast the artworks until he thought them perfect enough to be complete. The commission took 21 years to complete. In 1424, the doors were completed and revealed to the public.

Shortly after the North Doors (then called the East Doors) were revealed, Ghiberti was commissioned again to design the East Doors (then called the North Doors), which would later be nicknamed The Gates of Paradise by the prominent artist Michaelangelo. Ghiberti’s career was proving to be lucrative, and he was well-known across the region due to his victory in the 1401 competition.

With the outcome of his work being so satisfying to the people of Florence, Ghiberti was commissioned to create another set of doors for the baptistry—the third and final set. He took the job gladly and spent the rest of his life dedicating hours of work to perfecting the new set of doors. They consisted of ten squares depicting various scenes from the Old Testament.

Ghiberti’s skill is apparent in these doors, once he had forsaken the Gothic style for the new Renaissance style. The scenes have depth that make the space behind the figures seem infinite, while the figures are built in a classical style to remind viewers of the building’s ancient past. A 15th-century chronicler claimed that the building was once a temple to Mars, however modern archaeological discoveries do not support this theory.

When the scenes were completed in 1452, twenty-seven years after accepting the commission, they were considered so striking in their beauty that a decision was made to move them to the East Doors so they could face the cathedral the building sat next to. The original doors have been moved to a museum today, but a replica is still facing the cathedral. Lorenzo Ghiberti died three years after their unveiling, with a reputation that would last into the modern era.

Brunelleschi’s Dome

Brunelleschi, too, had a life and career of marvelous outcome. After abandoning sculpture, he turned his attention towards engineering. While staying with his friend, the sculptor Donatello, in Rome, he became fascinated with the construction of the Pantheon. He wondered how the dome stood so long without falling. Nobody had ever created a self-sufficient dome for a building before. In fact, it was one of the great engineering mysteries at the time. However, Brunelleschi knew that if the ancient Romans could do it, so could he.

When Brunelleschi returned to Florence, he thought the cathedral needed a dome like the Pantheon in Rome. He went to the authorities and asked permission to build a dome for the cathedral. The authorities were hesitant and demanded he demonstrate his plan for them. Brunelleschi showed them a rough plan by breaking off the bottom of an egg, but he needed to formulate a proper, new way to do it. The recipe for concrete that the Romans used was lost to time, so he needed to think of something new.

He also wasn’t dealing with a circle. Instead, the dome was an octagon and nobody had ever vaulted an octagonal dome before. There was no way to build scaffolding strong enough and tall enough to hold the structure as it was being built. His ideas were revolutionary. His architectural plans showed the dome sliced in half so that the inner layers were visible for demonstration.

He made the dome hollow to be as light as possible. The inner layer was the hollow, wooden structure made of interlocking verticals and horizontals, surrounded by a layer of bricks laid in an interlocking pattern and then held together by eight ribs made of sandstone, which also aided in supporting the overall structure. To create this incredible dome, he had to invent machines to assist in building the structure. While the dome was being constructed, he ensured the safety of his workers by providing meals, watered wine, a safety net in case of accident, as well as a clock with chimes to signal the end of a work day.

At its completion in 1436, Brunelleschi’s Duomo was the tallest ever built besides St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. To this day, it is considered one of the great architectural accomplishments in the world. It stands right next to the Florentine Baptistery with Ghiberti’s doors.

By the autumn of 1864, the Confederacy could no longer hope for military victories that would win the war. However, it refused to surrender, hoping that continued Union casualties might generate enough political pressure in the North to prompt calls for an armistice. Frustrated with the South’s stubborn refusal to end the war, Union general William Tecumseh Sherman began using a controversial tactic: scorched-earth destruction of Southern infrastructure and farms.

Victory Goes to the Union

The March to the Sea of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman was a resounding success for the Union, with the capture of the major port city of Savannah, Georgia by December 21, 1864. At this late stage of the war, Sherman faced little organized opposition from Confederate armies, but his maneuver was a significant gamble. During that era, most militaries avoided winter offensives, especially without strong supply lines. Sherman broke with tradition by having his forces “live off the land” during their march, meaning they could cover more ground.

Confederate General John Bell Hood attempted to distract Sherman during his march through Georgia by moving toward Tennessee, which had already been taken by the Union. Instead of following Hood, Sherman continued southeast through Georgia. Another Union general, George H. Thomas, was tasked with managing General Hood. Only occasionally did Confederate forces engage either of Sherman’s two columns and they were soundly defeated. When Sherman arrived at Savannah, the Confederates eventually chose to evacuate the city rather than fight to defend it.

Timeline of Sherman’s March to the Sea

In September 1864, General Sherman was in Atlanta, Georgia after the Battle of Atlanta that July. He began planning a large campaign that would take his army and headquarters from Atlanta, which was inland, to the coastal port city of Savannah, Georgia. From there, he could link up with the Union navy, which had been blockading the South, and both resupply and transfer troops elsewhere.

On November 15, Sherman began his march with 60,000 men split between two columns. Few of Sherman’s officers knew his plans, as Sherman wanted complete secrecy. To avoid the Confederates determining his plans, he also kept them secret from his superiors, including General-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant and Union president Abraham Lincoln.

On November 22, Sherman’s forces faced the only true “battle” during their march: Confederate militiamen under an inexperienced brigadier general attacked Union troops and discovered, to their dismay, that the Northerners were armed with new repeating rifles.

On December 13, Sherman captured Fort McAllister, which defended Savannah.

Less than one week later, Sherman was on the outskirts of Savannah and laid siege to the city. Afterwards, he informed the Confederate defenders under General William J. Hardee that he had cut them off from any resupply and that the Union Navy could bombard any part of the city.

Aided by cavalry general Joseph Wheeler, Hardee evacuated the city on December 20.

Two days later, Sherman sent word to Abraham Lincoln that Savannah had been captured.

What Caused Sherman’s March to the Sea?

After the Battle of Atlanta, Sherman was weary of the war. Despite its military being far outmatched and receiving no foreign aid or recognition, the Confederacy refused to surrender. The war was continuing to cause thousands of casualties on both sides. Frustrated, Sherman wanted to end the war quickly by striking the South hard and demoralizing its civilian population. For most of the Civil War, the Union had focused on trying to retain public support, including in captured areas. But was this relative generosity only prolonging the war?

Sherman wanted to introduce psychological warfare to the conflict. He would punish the Southern civilian population as well as the military in order to demoralize the Confederacy. However, when a target had surrendered, he would treat it generously. This incentivized towns and cities in the South to surrender more quickly: holding out would result in harshness, while surrender would result in generous terms. Ideally, Sherman’s brutality in warfare against the civilian population would generate public pressure for the Confederate government in Richmond, Virginia to surrender.

Why Was Sherman’s March to the Sea Significant?

Sherman’s March to the Sea radically changed the Civil War by introducing the concept of total war, including scorched earth tactics. Although observers were horrified at the new tactics, Sherman was successful in breaking the morale of civilians in Georgia. Despite many journalists being appalled, Sherman largely maintained order among his ranks, and few buildings were razed. And, despite much of the scorched earth (burned crops) being blamed on General Sherman, it is possible that it was ordered burned by retreating Confederates to deprive the Union troops of resources.

The March allegedly had a long-term economic impact on Georgia, with significant destruction of farms and infrastructure that took decades to heal. Critics argued that Sherman’s brutality doomed the South to decades of economic weakness, which was only relatively corrected thanks to high federal spending during the New Deal and World War II. However, supporters praise Sherman’s March as the strongest federal action since the Emancipation Proclamation to actually free slaves. Up to 20,000 enslaved people were freed thanks to the twin columns of Sherman’s forces.

5 Facts About Sherman’s March to the Sea

1. Casualties

Casualties are often considered minimal during Sherman’s March to the Sea, probably less than 3,000 for the one-month operation. In the largest battle on November 22, the Confederates suffered some 650 casualties versus less than one hundred for the Union. Of considerable debate is the number of civilian casualties along the route of the March and whether Sherman should be considered primarily responsible.

2. Commanders

Union forces were led by General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was a close compatriot of General-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant. Both men were from Ohio and graduated from West Point. Like many fellow generals, Sherman had served in both the Seminole Wars in Florida and the Mexican-American War, though he saw no combat in the latter. Also like Grant, Sherman had left the Army during the 1850s, only to volunteer for service again after the Battle of Fort Sumter. Some 75 years after Sherman’s March to the Sea, the famous general became the namesake of the M4 Sherman battle tank of World War II.

Confederate forces opposed to Sherman during the March were primarily led by General Joseph Wheeler, who was under the umbrella of General William J. Hardee. Wheeler was very young for a general and had graduated from West Point only two years before the Civil War began. After the war, Wheeler went on to serve eight terms in the US House of Representatives. When war broke out with Spain in 1898, Wheeler returned to military service in the US Army – an extreme rarity for a Confederate general. In 1900, Wheeler was made a brigadier general in the US Army, though he retired shortly thereafter.

3. Number of Forces Involved

Sherman commanded some 62,000 men, divided evenly into two columns. His massive force dwarfed the much smaller Confederate armies in the area, such as Wheeler’s small cavalry force of only 3,500 men. Only 230 Confederate soldiers manned Fort McAllister, which defended the route to Savannah. At most, 10,000 Confederates defended Savannah when Sherman approached on December 9, 1864, with up to half of these relatively inexperienced militiamen or reserves.

4. Visiting Sherman’s Route Today

Today, visitors can tour the March to the Sea Heritage Trail in Georgia. Created in 2010, this driving trail includes both the left and right routes taken by Sherman’s two columns. Various events are often held along this route for history buffs, though full-time historical sites will likely require visitors to go to Savannah, where the March ended. In that city, visitors can tour the Green-Meldrim House, which was Sherman’s headquarters.

5. Trivia: “40 Acres and a Mule”

After arriving in Savannah, Sherman dealt with a humanitarian crisis: waves of refugee slaves who had sought freedom under the protection of the Union armies. On January 12, 1865, Sherman met with the US Secretary of War and twenty African American ministers regarding the refugee crisis. Four days later, the general issued Special Field Order No. 15, which allocated formerly enslaved people 40 acres of farmland (the mule would come later). This was the first instance of any reparations for enslaved people during or after the US Civil War.

Aftermath of Sherman’s March: A Christmas Present for Lincoln

Famously, General Sherman presented President Abraham Lincoln the captured city of Savannah as a Christmas present in a telegram on December 22, 1864. Washington DC celebrated the capture of the large Confederate port city with a 300-gun salute. There was some arguing at the White House over whether Sherman’s Army or the US Navy should be given credit for capturing the city. Observers at the Lincoln White House felt that the Christmas of 1864 was much happier than its predecessors, as the end of the war was in sight. The three preceding Christmases under the Lincoln presidency had all been held under the cloud of war.

The battering of Southern morale, in general, was another Christmas gift for the Union. With scarce resources, Confederate governors had to determine who should receive assistance in the aftermath of Sherman’s March—wealthy plantation owners or lower-income whites? This hastened the fall of the Confederacy by destroying civilian unity and support of the war effort. By “making Georgia howl,” Sherman removed much Southern stomach for continued fighting, and the war was almost entirely over less than five months after Sherman reached Savannah.

Mozambique had undergone centuries of suffering and exploitation at the hands of the Portuguese empire. As a wave of liberation swept the African continent, the Mozambican people would be inspired to take up arms against their oppressors. A nine-year guerilla conflict would ensue, ultimately leading to the nation’s freedom. The Mozambican War of Independence encapsulates the importance of collective struggle and sacrifice in the face of tyranny.

Mozambique Under Portuguese Colonial Rule

The African nation of Mozambique was first exposed to Portuguese settlers as early as the late 15th century. During this period, Portugal established early trading posts along the Mozambican coast, which it used to exploit the region for its valuable gold and ivory.

However, Portugal’s colonial appetite was not satisfied by Mozambique’s resources alone. During the 18th century, Portugal began enslaving the Mozambican people, predominantly selling them to French colonies in Brazil, Cuba, and North America. By the 19th century, Mozambique had become one of the largest centers of slavery in the world. Estimates suggest that approximately one million Mozambicans were sold into slavery (Waterhouse, 1996).

Around this time, Europe began formalizing its conquest of Africa. European nations callously divided the African continent among themselves during the Scramble for Africa and consolidated their territorial conquests during the 1885 Berlin Conference. Mozambique was formally recognized as a Portuguese territory following negotiations with Britain in 1891.

The Portuguese, however, faced staunch resistance from the Mozambican people, notably from the Gaza Empire, which continued to control much of the country’s southern regions. Gungunhana, King of the Gaza Empire, fiercely resisted Portuguese occupation, but after several bloody clashes, he was ultimately defeated in 1895 (Waterhouse, 1996).

Upon assuming control of Mozambique, the Portuguese government contracted the administration of much of the nation to private companies, which imposed forced labor upon the indigenous people (Diaz & Alejandro, 2022). Mozambique became a major source of labor for mines in South Africa and South Rhodesia. Thousands of Mozambicans were forced across the border to work in appalling conditions. The treatment of Mozambicans was so horrific that it is estimated that thousands fled across the border to territories under British control, which were supposedly less oppressive.

African Liberation Movements in the Cold War Theater 

Mozambique, like most of Africa, remained under Europe’s exploitative control for the first half of the 20th century. However, following the end of the Second World War, this would steadily begin to change. Europe became far more concerned with rebuilding its own devastated continent than its African colonies. Their grip on Africa was loosening.

African independence and anti-colonial movements exploded in popularity during the 1960s. They were supported by a 1960 United Nations resolution, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which affirmed the granting of all peoples under colonial rule. A wave of independence swept the continent as France and Belgium granted independence to many of their African colonies. It seemed all of Africa would soon be free.

The African independence movements also occurred during the grips of the Cold War. Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, took an aggressive stance towards colonialism, stating that the Soviet Union would support any nation fighting for its liberation.

Despite being close allies to many European colonial states, the US, as a former colony itself, also pursued a strong stance against colonialism. The US was increasingly concerned that the nationalist forces in Africa would develop communist sympathies and ultimately side with the Soviet Union. Thus, the administration of John F. Kennedy opened dialogue with nationalist movements in an attempt to dissuade the spread of communism. They even discussed potential financial assistance with movements in Angola and Mozambique. However, these did not materialize after Portugal threatened to withdraw US access to the Lajes Field air base in the Azores, Portugal.

Although pressure was mounting on Europe to relieve their control of Africa, Portugal was reluctant to do so. Portuguese Prime Minister and dictator António de Oliveira Salazar refused to grant their colonies independence. He declared that Portugal’s territory in Africa were not colonies but instead “overseas provinces” and thus was integral to Portuguese sovereignty. It became increasingly clear that Portugal would not relinquish control of Mozambique peacefully.

The Mueda Massacre & The Birth of FRELIMO

Revolution was simmering in Mozambique by the early 1960s, and numerous liberation movements had begun gathering support. On June 16, 1960, two prominent civil society leaders visited North Mozambique to meet with the region’s colonial administrator. A large crowd gathered outside the colonial office in Mueda in support, with many holding placards calling for freedom and independence. However, Portuguese forces requested that the crowd of Mozambicans salute the Portuguese flag.

The crowd refused. Tensions soon flared and were exacerbated when the two leaders were arrested. Portuguese troops opened fire on the crowd, killing upwards of 500 people (Israel, 2020). The Mueda Massacre, the brutal murder of peaceful Mozambican protestors, would be the spark to ignite Mozambique into revolution.

On June 25, 1962, three liberation movements—MANU, UDENAMO, and UNAMI—agreed to combine their strength and form the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Liberation Front of Mozambique), better known as FRELIMO. The new movement appointed Eduardo Mondlane as its leader, an anthropologist who gained a PhD from Northwestern University and worked at Syracuse University before returning to Mozambique to fight for its liberation (Waterhouse, 1996). FRELIMO quickly became the prominent organization in Mozambique’s struggle for independence.

FRELIMO was headquartered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Tanzanian government was sympathetic to Mozambique’s cause after having achieved independence from Britain in 1961.

Following the establishment of FRELIMO, many Mozambicans, especially young students, crossed the border into Tanzania to join the movement. As numbers grew, it became time to decide how Mozambique would achieve independence. Many within the organization still wished to achieve victory peacefully. However, many were inspired by Angola’s ongoing armed struggle against Portugal and by Algeria’s monumental victory against France. FRELIMO ultimately decided to pursue a guerilla people’s war, akin to the struggles fought in China and Vietnam.

Armed Struggle Begins

After receiving training in Algeria, FRELIMO forces were ready to begin their fight for independence. On September 24, 1964, the movement launched simultaneous attacks on colonial administration buildings and key infrastructure in an attempt to destabilize the foundations of Portuguese colonial rule. FRELIMO employed guerilla tactics, often ambushing Portuguese forces in small numbers before retreating into the wilderness.

The struggle was slow and arduous for the first few years of the war, due to the small size of FRELIMO forces. Their numbers slowly grew, however, and by 1967, there were an estimated 8,000 guerillas within FRELIMO. However, Portugal also increased their forces, with troops rising from 8,000 to 24,000 between 1964 and 1967 (Opello, 1974). As such, FRELIMO struggled to make any major impact on Portuguese rule.

The movement had established a significant foothold in the Northern regions of Mozambique. This allowed FRELIMO to consolidate control and slowly penetrate the country’s central regions.

A notable development in FRELIMO’s operations occurred in 1966 when the movement allowed women to play an active role in the liberation struggle. After receiving training, women contributed to FRELIMO in a variety of capacities, though usually not on the front line. Women made key contributions to intelligence gathering and mobilizing support in areas not under FRELIMO control. They also played an instrumental role in the liberated areas under FRELIMO administration, participating in their defense and contributing to social initiatives, such as literacy campaigns and health care (Diaz & Alejandro, 2022).

FRELIMO Suffers Internal Conflict 

Divisions within FRELIMO soon surfaced as progress in the liberation struggle faltered. Lazaro Nkavandame, a senior leader of FRELIMO and former leader of MANU, became increasingly disillusioned with the direction of the movement. He disagreed with the socialist ideas being implemented within the liberated zones under FRELIMO control. Small-scale violence occurred between FRELIMO and members of MANU in 1968, and Nkavandame attempted to form a new separate organization. Ultimately, he, along with MANU members, was expelled from FRELIMO. Nkavandame would later supposedly establish contacts with the Portuguese and became a key critic and propagandist against FRELIMO.

The internal cohesion of FRELIMO suffered a devastating blow when, on February 3, 1969, their leader, Eduardo Mondlane, was assassinated. He had previously escaped three other assassination attempts. However, while staying with a friend in Dar es Salaam, an explosive device hidden in his mail exploded as he opened it (Shore, 1992). Mozambique and Africa had lost a talented statesman and figurehead of the liberation movement.

The perpetrator of Mondlane’s assassination has never been conclusively discerned. Some accuse China or the Soviet Union, as Mondlane was relatively moderate in his political stance, thus constraining FRELIMO from truly embracing communism. However, it is generally accepted that Portugal most likely orchestrated the assassination. However, it is believed they would likely have needed assistance from within Mozambique and maybe even FRELIMO (Roberts, 2017).

Mondlane’s death resulted in a leadership battle until Samora Machel was eventually appointed FRELIMO’s new president. Many observers, including the Portuguese, expected the assassination would have a significantly detrimental effect on FRELIMO’s operation. However, this was not the case. FRELIMO and the Mozambicans were invigorated; their fight for liberation was intensified to diminish what Mondlane’s murderers hoped to achieve.

Operation Gordian Knot

By 1970, little had been gained by either side in the war despite six years of fighting. FRELIMO continued to control significant portions of the northern regions of the country and persisted with its guerilla tactics, though it was proving to have insubstantial effects in undermining Portuguese control.

Portugal, however, had steadily been increasing its forces in Mozambique, with nearly 60,000 troops stationed in the country by 1970. Many of these troops, believed to be as many as 60%, were African troops serving in the Portuguese Colonial Army (Opello, 1974). The year 1969 had seen the appointment of a new commander of Portuguese forces in Mozambique, General Kaúlza de Arriaga. He had closely studied the conflict in Mozambique and traveled to the US to meet General William Westmoreland, Commander of US forces in Vietnam, to discuss tactics that could be utilized.

Inspired by his meeting with Westmoreland, Arriaga devised Operation Gordian Knot, the first major Portuguese offensive of the war, which featured heavy aerial bombardments and the use of helicopters to proceed and support ground troops.

The operation was launched on June 10, 1970 with 35,000 ground troops. Its aim was to destroy the network of FRELIMO bases and camps covering the north of Mozambique, as well as to cut off the organization’s access to Tanzania, through which it was receiving support.

Ultimately, the operation successfully destroyed over one hundred FRELIMO bases. However, the operation resulted in a significant portion of Portugal’s troops concentrated in the north. FRELIMO successfully dispersed their troops, not only reducing their casualties but also allowing them to penetrate the country’s central regions, which were now weakly defended. This allowed FRELIMO to open a new frontline in the Tete Province.

Operation Gordian Knot lasted for seven months and was the largest and most expensive Portuguese operation of the war so far. Though it did destroy the majority of FRELIMO bases in the north, it did not have a particularly decisive impact on the organization, which was able to regroup and reorient its operations.

Continued Fighting & War Crimes

Fighting continued in Mozambique into the early 1970s, with much of the conflict now being focused on the country’s central region. Due to the increased fighting in Tete Province, the region was designated as a special military region, which resulted in increased activity of the Portuguese army. Portugal also launched Operation Frontier in 1971 in another attempt to cut FRELIMO’s access to Tanzania. The operation attempted to improve local infrastructure to support Portugal’s ongoing operations. Roads were resurfaced with asphalt, and new airfields were constructed. Social initiatives were also launched in rural areas in hopes of retaining the support of local Mozambicans (Opello, 1974).

FRELIMO proceeded with its guerilla tactics, attacking convoys and launching ambushes against the rail and road links between the key port city of Beira and the border with South Rhodesia. A number of trains were also successfully derailed on the Trans-Zambezia line.

Throughout the war, Portugal committed numerous atrocities and war crimes against the Mozambican people. Portuguese forces routinely detained and tortured civilians in an attempt to extract information on FRELIMO. Young men who were suspected of being FRELIMO members were killed extrajudicially. Arbitrary killings, rape, and mass murder also occurred frequently. On December 16, 1972, Portuguese forces entered the village of Wiriyamu and accused them of sheltering FRELIMO fighters. It is estimated that 400 innocent villagers were massacred (Dhada, 2014).

Another cruelty of Portuguese operations was the establishment of “aldeamentos,” which were fortified relocation camps. Portugal used them to resettle Mozambicans living within FRELIMO-controlled areas in an attempt to diminish civilian support for the movement.

Estimates suggest that over 750,000 Mozambicans were forced into the camps, which were poorly constructed. It is believed that between 6 and 8% of the camp’s population died of starvation or disease (World Peace Foundation, 2015).

The Carnation Revolution & Freedom for Mozambique 

Despite the Mozambican’s hard-fought struggle and sacrifice for their liberation, it would ultimately be events within Portugal that would directly ensure their freedom.

Civilian discontent had been growing in Portugal for some time. The Estado Novo regime had been in power since 1933. It was a fascist dictatorship under whose leadership many civil liberties and freedoms had been repealed. By the 1970s, worsening economic issues had undermined the regime’s popularity.

The ongoing fighting in Portugal’s colonies also contributed to the revolution. Portugal had been fighting three simultaneous colonial wars in Angola, Guinea-Bisaau, and, of course, Mozambique for 13 years, which had exhausted the country. The Portuguese people especially had become opposed to the continued fighting and supported the colonies in their struggle for independence. Equally, a significant number of soldiers in the Portuguese armed forces, especially those who were conscripted, had become disillusioned with the war.

On April 25, 1974, supporters of recently dismissed General António de Spínola overthrew the Portuguese dictatorship led by Marcelo Caetano in what is known as the Carnation Revolution.

One of the first actions of Spínola, now the new president of Portugal, was to end the violence in Africa and discuss the independence of the African colonies. On September 7, 1974, Portugal and Mozambique signed the Lusaka Accord, which formally recognized the independence of Mozambique and conferred the transfer of power to FRELIMO.

June 25, 1975 marked the official independence of Mozambique, with Samora Machel rising to president of the nation. After years of perseverance, struggle, and sacrifice, Mozambique was liberated.

Post-Independence

As the jubilation of independence settled, FRELIMO set about the task of governing the nation. However, Mozambique was a fragmented country. The vast majority of the Portuguese settlers, many of the country’s highly educated and trained, fled the country, taking their expertise with them. It is believed that around 98% of the native Mozambican population was illiterate by the end of the independence war. Furthermore, FRELIMO still faced continued hostility from some African neighbors and the international community.

FRELIMO officially adopted Marxism-Leninism as their doctrine and pursued drastic reforms to revitalize the country. Land, healthcare, and education were quickly nationalized. These radical changes did achieve some early success. The number of children enrolled in primary school increased from 70,000 in 1974 to 1,376,000 by 1981. The annual budget for public health increased threefold within four years, which resulted in infant mortality rates falling by 20% (Waterhouse, 1996). Mozambique received widespread international praise for its success in improving healthcare and literacy.

However, FRELIMO’s lack of experience in governance soon showed. An elaborate agricultural policy failed and was compounded by a severe drought. Nationwide economic hardship soon followed as both production and growth slumped. Furthermore, FRELIMO consolidated power, transforming the country into a one-party state, and was quickly becoming increasingly authoritarian.

In 1977, merely two years after independence, a civil war erupted between FRELIMO and an insurgent anti-communist force named RENAMO. Lasting for 15 years, the war would claim the lives of over one million people.

Mozambique’s fight for independence was slow and arduous against an uncompromising European power desperate to cling to its colonial possessions. Ironically, it was this commitment to retain its colonies that would lead to the downfall of the Portuguese regime. Though Mozambique’s independence was ultimately achieved through events in Portugal, it should not diminish its people’s sacrifice and struggle. Unfortunately, for the people of Mozambique, freedom would not lead to peace.

Bibliography

Dhada, M. (2013). The Wiriyamu Massacre of 1972: Its Context, Genesis, and Revelation. History in Africa, 40(1), 45–75.

Diaz, S. B., & Alejandro, J. (2022). Through Armed Struggle: Colonial Occupation, National Liberation War and Independence in Mozambique. Brazilian Journal of African Studies, 7(14).

Israel, P. (2020). The Mueda Massacre Retold: The ‘Matter of Return ‘ in Portuguese Colonial Intelligence. Journal of Southern African Studies, 46(5), 1009–1036.

Opello, W. C. (1974). Guerrilla War in Portuguese Africa: An Assessment of the Balance of Force in Mozambique. African Issues, 4(2), 29–37.

Roberts, G. (2017). The assassination of Eduardo Mondlane: FRELIMO, Tanzania, and the politics of exile in Dar es Salaam. Cold War History, 17(1), 1–19.

Shore, H. (1992). Remembering Eduardo: Reflections on the life and legacy of Eduardo Mondlane. Africa Today, 39(1/2), 35–52.

Waterhouse, R. (1996). Mozambique: Rising from the ashes. Oxfam GB.

World Peace Foundation. (2015, August 7). Mozambique: War of Independence | Mass Atrocity Endings. https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/mozambique-war-of-independence/

The Valkyries were divine shieldmaidens in the service of Odin, the All-Father. They helped the leader of the gods choose the bravest fallen warriors to dwell in the afterlife of Valhalla.

In Renaissance art, they are often depicted as beautiful and benevolent winged maidens carrying swords and round shields. But this is a very romantic image when compared to how they were described in the Viking Age.

In Norse sagas and Viking histories, Valkyries are beautiful, but also bloodthirsty. They reveled in the gore of the battlefield, entered the fray themselves to ensure the outcomes of wars, and even feasted on dead bodies.

Function of the Valkyries

In Old Norse, Valkyrie means “chooser of the slain.” This is a literal description of one of the roles of the Valkyries, a group of divine warrior women in the service of Odin.

The Valkyries helped the god of war choose the bravest fallen warriors on the battlefield to take to Valhalla, a hall in Asgard. There the warriors joined the ranks of the Einherjar, a cohort of worthy dead warriors, and trained to fight alongside the gods at Ragnarök.

The Valkyries were also sometimes called Oskmey, which means “wish maiden”. This reiterates their association with Odin, who was sometimes called Oski. What type of wishes they may have granted is unclear. Perhaps they fulfilled the wish of a warrior to be taken to Valhalla when they died.

The Valkyries were also sometimes called Rangahlin, which means “shield goddess.” They were closely associated with the Norns, the female Norse goddesses that spun fate.

In Njals Saga, one of the Icelandic sagas, a man witnesses a group of Valkyries weaving. But they use no ordinary loom. The heads of men are used as weights, their entrails as the warp and weft, a sword is used as the shuttle, and the reels are made from arrows. The writer observes that with this bloody work, they are choosing who will win an upcoming battle.

Other stories make it clear that Odin would send the Valkyries to the world of men to intervene in fights and ensure the proper outcome of battles. So, perhaps, the Valkyries could also grant the wish of victory in war.

Divine Demons

If you search for artworks depicting the Valkyries, you will find that they are popular subjects. They are often depicted as voluptuous and feminine women, mostly nude, but carrying shields. They appear as angelic warriors entering the fray on the side of good.

But if you read the descriptions of the Valkyries from the Viking Age, they appear much more like demons of death. The description of the group working at their bloody loom above is just one example.

While the Valkyries were all women, they wore chain mail that fell to the knee and helmets just like male warriors. They rode horses but also wore cloaks made from swan feathers. It was these cloaks that enabled them to fly.

When they appear over the battlefield, they are often described as shining brightly. When any of the gods appear to mortals they are often described as shining. They also carried spears, rather than swords or axes. This seems to be in imitation of Odin, who famously wielded the spear Gungnir.

But while they may have shone beautifully overhead like stars, the guttural battle cries made by the goddesses struck terror into the hearts of the warriors below. They were also described as reveling in the bloodshed they encountered. They would often pour more blood onto the battlefield, presumably implying that their presence made the battle more ferocious and increased the carnage.

After the battle, they would first feast on the bodies of their dead like carrion ravens or wolves (animals both associated with Odin), and bathe in the blood of the dead.

The only description of the Valkyries from the Viking Age that seems inconsistent with this bloody visage is the description of them serving meat and mead to the dead warriors in Valhalla. As cup-bearers, they fulfilled the same role as noble women in mortal households.

It is hard to imagine a Valkyrie bathing in blood and then meekly serving men mead. For this reason, some scholars have suggested that this function was added by later Christian authors to make the women more palatable. While this is possible, Viking Age sources also conflated the Valkyries with the daughters of kings and other noble women. This suggests that the roles of warrior and noblewoman could go hand in hand.

Identity of the Valkyries

The Valkyries are often described as traveling in groups of nine or twelve, but there doesn’t seem to have been a limit on the number of Valkyries. These numbers may represent a cohort that would fight together.

There is also a considerable blurring of lines between goddesses, Valkyries, and mortal women. This reflects the fact that the Vikings did not always draw clear lines between beings in the supernatural realm.

In various sources, we are given the names of many Valkyries. Their names almost always relate to war or battle. There is Hidlr (battle), Gunnr (war), Geirskogul (spear bearer), Goll (tumult), Hlokk (sound of battle), and Geirahod (spear fight).

Interestingly, we also meet Valkyries named Thrudr (power) and Freyja (lady). Thrudr and Freyja are both names of other goddesses, which suggests that some of the more important goddesses may also have numbered among the Valkyries.

Thrudr is the daughter of Thor, but little else is known about her. Freyja is a Vanir goddess who came to live in Asgard after the Aesir-Vanir war. She is a goddess of fertility, love, and beauty. She was one of the most important and popular Norse goddesses.

The sources suggest that just as Odin oversaw Valhalla, Freyja had her own arena, called Folkvanger, and that she also chose brave fallen warriors to dwell there. The sources even imply that she got first choice of the fallen. This seems to confirm a connection between Freyja and the Valkyries, but also reflects her greater importance.

Mortal Valkyries

At least some of the Valkyries were clearly considered goddesses. They are described among the gods in attendance at Balder’s funeral. But many mortal women are also described as Valkyries.

Perhaps the best-known example of mortal Valkyries comes from the Icelandic poem Volundarkvida. Three brothers meet three women who are spinning swan feather cloaks. This clearly identifies them as Valkyries, but they also have mortal identities. Two are the daughters of King Hlodver, named Hladgudr Scanhvit (swan white) and Hervor Alvitr (strange creature). The third is the daughter of Kjarr of Valland and is called Olrun (beer rune).

The three brothers take the women as wives, and they stay together for seven winters. But at that time, the women flew away to resume their work and never returned. Each man loses themselves as they set out to find their lost loves.

In another story, the son of a Norwegian king sees nine Valkyries riding past while he sits on a burial mound. His location may be significant as the Vikings believed that burial mounds could act as gateways between different realms.

The most beautiful of the Valkyries stops to talk to the man. She reveals that her name is Svava and she is the daughter of King Eylimi, who she often protects in battle. So again, she is given a mortal identity.

She gives the man a gift so that he can become a powerful king himself. When he is, he asks for Svava’s hand in marriage, which he receives. When he later dies in battle, the two are described as being reincarnated, which may imply that they start a new life in Valhalla.

On yet another occasion, a warrior Helgi meets a group of Valkyries on the battlefield and invites them back to spend the night with himself and his warriors. One of them, called Sigrun, explains that she cannot because she is betrothed to another man. She’s not happy about this because she considers the man unworthy.

Helgi then raises an army and goes to battle with the father of Sigrun’s betrothed to prevent the marriage. Once he is successful, with the help of the Valkyries, Helgi and Sigrun marry.

It is unclear what these stories mean about the nature of the Valkyries. The Danish author Saxo Grammaticus describes the shieldmaiden Vebjorg becoming a Valkyrie after she is killed in battle, suggesting that it is an afterlife occupation not dissimilar from that of the Einherjar. But Svava still seems to be alive when she is described as a Valkyrie since she still occupies her position in Viking society.

The Most Famous Valkyrie: Brunhild

The most famous Valkyrie is Brunhild. Her story was later immortalized in the operas of Wagner, but we first meet Brunhild in the Volsunga. Brunhild is commanded by Odin to intervene in a battle, but she strikes down the wrong king. Angered, Odin condemns Brunhild to marry a mortal man. This seems to be a very brutal punishment, and perhaps one that strips her of her divine status.

While Brunhild must submit to the punishment, she is incensed. Therefore, she says that she will only marry a man who can prove his bravery. Agreeing to her request, Odin places Brunhild on a mountain surrounded by a ring of fire and sends her to sleep. She will only accept a man brave enough to pass through the fire and awaken her.

The great Viking warrior Sigurd comes across Brunhild and awakens her. While the two fall in love, Sigurd says that he cannot marry her right now because he has too many things to do. He departs, promising to return. She says that she will marry the next man to awaken her, believing that it will be Sigurd. But as Sigurd continues his adventures, he is magically afflicted with amnesia. He forgets about Brunhild and marries someone else.

However, fate does take him to Brunhild’s stronghold again, this time with his friend Gunnar. They decide to win Brunhild for the single Gunnar, but he does not dare to pass the fire. So, Sigurd and Gunnar magically swap faces and Sigurd goes in his place.

Brunhild is still in love with Sigurd, but must marry Gunnar, as this is the condition of her punishment. She goes back to Gunnar’s kingdom, Gunnar and Sigurd restore their faces to one another, and Brunhild marries Gunnar.

Years later, Brunhild learns of the deception and decides to take revenge. She tricks Gunnar into killing his best friend in a ploy to punish both men. But Brunhild’s heart breaks when Sigurd dies and she throws herself on his funeral pyre to die by his side. But don’t feel too sorry for Brunhild — she also arranges to have Sigurd’s three-year-old son by his wife killed and placed on the funeral pyre.

At some point in their relationship, probably the first time they met, Sigurd and Brunhild made love. Brunhild became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter called Aslaug. According to legend, Aslaug would be fostered out and her identity kept a secret until she married the famous Danish warrior Ragnar Lodbrok. Aslaug was the mother of many of his sons, including Bjorn Ironside and Ivar the Boneless.

During World War II’s Nazi invasion, countless artworks were looted from museums, galleries, and the homes of Jewish families, including works by the world’s most revered artists. Among those that were retrieved after the war were two rare 17^th century Dutch paintings: Floris van Schooten’s Still Life With Ham, (1630?) and Peter Binoit’s Food, Fruit and Glass on a Table, (1620?). It is only recently that the family of the original owners was uncovered by a team of experts working with the National Museum Recuperation program in Paris. But instead of keeping the artworks, the family chose to donate them to the Louvre Museum permanent collection.

The Nazi Raid in 1944

In 1944, as part of countless Nazi raids, the paintings were taken by the Nazis from a mansion at 5 rue Mauberg on the 7^th arondissement of Paris in 1944. The home belonged to Mathilde Javal, daughter of doctor Emile Javal and his wife Maria Ellissen. Their family was torn apart by the war, with some deported to Auschwitz and killed, while others fought in the resistance or went into hiding. It is thought the paintings were taken to Germany in the autumn of 1944.

Temporary Display in the Louvre Museum, Paris

After the war, the paintings were found, along with approximately 60,000 others during the 1950s and returned to France. Unable to confirm the original owners, government officials placed the artworks in the care of the Louvre Museum in Paris, where they were held as part of the National Museum Recuperation program, an organization set up for artworks stolen by the Nazis, whose original owners could not be identified. While around 45,000 of the looted artworks were returned to their rightful owners, it would be several decades before the two still life paintings were returned to the Javal family.

Returning Stolen Art

Javal survived the war, but she was unable to retrieve her paintings due to insufficient documentation proving ownership. She had put in an application after the war, but spelling errors in the name and address of her paperwork made her attempts unsuccessful. However, thanks to a team of genealogy experts, along with the French Ministry of Culture, who began their research for the National Museum Recuperation program in 2015, the two paintings were returned to the ownership of Javal’s family of 48 descendants in December 2023. Director of the Louvre, Laurence Des Cars, called the artwork retrieval a “commitment to transmitting memory and a constant reminder to action.”

A Donation to the Louvre Museum

The surviving Javal family chose to return the artworks to the Louvre Museum, where they had been on display since the 1950s. This decision was, as one family member explains, a “duty of memory towards… [our] family, looted from and persecuted, whose history speaks to current generations.” They handed over the paintings in an official ceremony held at the Louvre last Tuesday, which was attended by Javal’s family heirs.

On Display Today

The paintings are now on permanent display in the Louvre as part of an exhibition revealing artworks stolen by the Nazis during World War II. The exhibition room also reveals the Javal family history, their relationship to the artworks, and the ordeals they faced during Nazi persecution. A spokesperson for the Louvre observed of the artworks, “These two are not masterpieces worth tens of millions. They are by artists unknown to the general public, but they are very beautiful works of a quality to be put on display in a museum.” A member of the Javal family says the new display, which features the stories of numerous other stolen artworks like theirs, is a vitally important historical record which “testifies to a rich and interesting group of people.”

During the sixteenth century an entire town became caught up in what can best be described as a manic episode of chaotic movements or “dancing.” This event started from one woman and soon spread to over 50 other people in the town dancing, until they collapsed from exhaustion. This bizarre pattern of behavior continued for several months, ending as abruptly as it began, and leaving questions of what actually caused this “plague” in the small town of Strasbourg. So, what do historians believe happened to the town of Strasbourg? Like many historical mysteries, this one remains unsolved. However, there are several working theories on what caused the bizarre group behavior.

Historical Context

Strasbourg, now located in France near the Rhine, was originally part of the Holy Roman Empire until 1681. Throughout its history the town has had several dark moments, including the Strasbourg massacre in 1349 and Nazi occupation from 1940-1944. In the 1500s Strasbourg took part in the Reformation, thereby becoming predominantly Protestant. Still, the dancing plague continues to be one of Strasbourg’s darkest and strangest historical events. 

Manic Episodes in Strasbourg Begin

In July of 1518 a woman named Frau Troffea (possibly Trauffea) went into the center of Strasbourg and began twitching and having spasms. These continued until she became exhausted and would start up again after she rested. There is no mention of anyone attempting to intervene as this pattern continued for an entire week. By the end of the week others joined in the macabre dance with about three dozen convulsing in disjointed movements.

Still more people joined in, and seemed to be affected by the dancing mania. By August it is believed that between 50-400 people had taken part in the dancing. The exhaustion of the marathon of dancing took a toll on the dancers, with many collapsing and dying of exhaustion and essentially dancing themselves to death. There are no exact figures on the mortality rate of the dancing plague, although one source from a man passing through claims at least fifteen died a day.

Religious or Supernatural Causes

This wouldn’t be the only outbreak of dancing hysteria, nor was it the first of its kind, although it is one of the most well-known. Other instances took place including earlier in 1374 in Germany. During the time, society was still deeply religious, and these “plagues” were considered curses upon individuals and groups, with many believing there was a connection between the uncontrollable dancing and religious or supernatural causes.

Medical Maladies

Unable to understand what was happening to the citizens of Strasbourg, one theory doctors at the time diagnosed the affected with was an imbalance of the four humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.  In an effort to quell the dancing and rebalance the humors, which was believed to be be too much hot blood in their system, it was decided to allow the villagers to get it out of their system by giving them a place to do their dancing. They built a stage and even hired a band of pipers and drummers to play music and professional dancers to join in and hold up the affected when they wanted to collapse, but the plague continued. 

Eventually, men and women were taken to a shrine for St. Vitus, prayed over, and had exorcisms in an attempt to cull the madness. St. Vitus was the patron saint of nervous disorders and was used against chorea, a state of repetitive spastic movements. Chorea was also known as the St. Vitus Dance. This seemed to end the craze, leading many at the time to believe the root cause was religious. 

Mass Hysteria and Panic

One plausible theory explaining this strange phenomenon is mass hysteria and panic, which would cause the initial trigger to snowball from one woman to a large group all exhibiting the same symptoms. This could be caused by trauma of a psychological stress. Historian John Waller wrote that circumstances such as famine and disease outbreaks could have caused the dancing mania. 

As mentioned earlier, the city had gone through radical societal changes in the time of the plague, including religious reform and the rebuilding of government structures. It’s easy imagining that the burden of surviving and facing such drastic changes to their lifestyle could drive up stress, triggering a psychological episode.

The Ingestion of Ergot

Another possibility for the convulsions is the ingestion of ergot, a fungus that can infect rye and grain, which would have been a main staple in their diet. Ergot causes hallucinations, similar to LSD and lead, along with convulsions from muscle contractions, tingling and crawling sensations, and vertigo. Ergot is also one of the suspected culprits of the behavior of the girls that led to the Salem witch trials. There is, however, some doubt to this theory, as poisoned rye would not allow the dancers to keep moving for days.

Deliberate Dancing

A small theory that has been mostly dismissed is that the dancing plague was actually deliberate dancing, not random movements of hysterical people. Dancing was often a part of religion, and this theory suggests that the twitching and spasms was a local cult dancing as a religious act to gain favor from higher powers. This seems unlikely as there were no documented religious sects in the area, and reports reveal that while dancing the victims were in immense pain and begging for help, indicating the dance was not something they were doing willingly. Whatever the ultimate cause, the Strasbourg dance plague of 1518 and how the public responded and tried to put an end to it, will go down in one of the strangest events of the French Early Modern period.

Colorful, traditional, and revolutionary, Mexico’s art has forever altered the world of human expression. If you want to experience art as diverse and celebrated as Mexico’s for the first time, no place is better than its capital Mexico City. Among its crowded streets are endless museums, galleries, markets, and street artists who are continuing traditions and breaking them all in the same breath.

Exploring the Art of Mexico City

No matter where you go in the city, you’ll find exquisite works by some of the most influential artists the world has ever seen such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco. You’ll also find traditional folk art, pieces by up-and-coming artists, and street artists such as El Norteño who are taking modern Mexican art to new heights. And then, outside the ornate museums and famous private galleries, in the city’s hundreds of neighborhoods, you’ll find the independent artists who sell their work at fairs, markets, and on the street. Graffiti artists and nameless muralists continue the city’s legacy of bending the rules to make everything uniquely Mexican. If you’re an art lover and it’s your first time in Mexico City, don’t miss the destinations below. These places are the perfect starting points to dive into the incredibly diverse, revolutionary, and influential world of Mexican art.

8. Palacio de Bellas Artes

Near the iconic Torre Latinoamerica in Mexico City’s Centro Histórico is the Palacio de Bellas Artes. This beautiful theater and concert hall is home to some of the country’s most celebrated murals and one of the city’s best art museums. As soon as you enter the expansive building, you’ll experience its fantastic architecture firsthand. Combined, Art Deco and Art Nouveau designs create a space unlike anything else in the city. Italian architect Adamo Boari designed the building in 1904. Following the long and violent Mexican Revolution, it was finally finished in 1934.

The museum houses permanent murals and revolving expositions by some of the country’s top artists. You’ll see works by famous artists such as Francisco Castro Leñero and the influential painter and sculptor Federico Silva. One of Mexico’s most beloved murals, Diego Rivera’s Man, Controller of the Universe stretches over the wall. The giant mural takes you through the contrary forces of socialism and capitalism, showing an everyday worker in the middle controlling everything. Amongst the historical figures in the mural are Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, and Leon Trotsky.

7. Museo Nacional de Antropología

This impressive Anthropology Museum ranks as one of the world’s great museums. It showcases thousands of years of Mexican artwork among its priceless historical artifacts. For any art fan, no visit to Mexico City would be complete without wandering its rooms.

Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez designed this expansive space in 1964. It has 23 rooms, each containing hundreds of artifacts from the entirety of Mexican history, from the Olmecs and Toltecs to the Maya and Aztecs. There are endless mediums represented here, including carvings, murals, pottery, and other folk art. Each hall has informative explanations of the period and artistic styles. Many of these styles are still reflected in modern Mexican works, including the murals of Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, and the world-renowned sculptor Sebastián.

Some of the most famous works of pre-Columbian art, including murals from ancient Teotihuacán, royal headdresses, and prehistoric carvings, are displayed next to ancient carvings and sacred artifacts. If you can spend the day here, try traveling counterclockwise through the exhibit halls on your own or even consider joining one of the free guided tours to learn even more about the breathtaking museum and its collection.

6. Frida Kahlo Museum

In the neighborhood of Coyoacan is one of Mexico City’s most beloved museums—the Frida Kahlo Museum. Few landmarks in the city attract as many art lovers as this humble but lovely museum.

The museum is located in Frida Kahlo’s home, where she spent most of her life. Inside, she painted some of her most famous masterpieces, including works completed just before her death. You can see the bed she began painting in after her tragic bus accident, which almost killed her at age 18, with its reflective ceiling mirror and the many brushes and stencils she used to create her masterpieces.

Downstairs are her now iconic outfits. Her corsets and dresses and her headscarves depict the artist’s evolution as a public figure and fashion icon. Her journals and sketches are also on display, as well as childhood memorabilia and some of her earliest drawings, giving visitors an intimate look into her life.

5. Visit the Museo Soumaya

As soon as you see the glimmering futuristic monolith in the Polanco neighborhood, you’ll likely freeze and stare up at its design. Even if you skip going inside, the giant Museo Soumaya building is a work of art worth seeing. This private museum houses a huge rotating collection of over 60,000 works. The pieces on display range from pre-Hispanic Mexican treasures and international classics to modern thought-provoking works. Inside, a winding white walkway takes you to the upper levels. You’ll see exhibitions of masterpieces by Tintoretto, El Greco, Monet, and many more on the 3rd and 4th floors. On the 5th floor, you will find temporary exhibitions and special events. The top floor has works by Salvador Dalí, Auguste Rodin, and Émile-Antoine Bourdelle.

4. Museo Jumex

Eugenio López Alonso, heir to the Grupo Jumex juice corporation, started the art foundation Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo in 1994. He began traveling and collecting fine art, hoping to inspire a new generation of Mexican artists. From his collection, Alonso created the Museo Jumex in 2013 next to the Museo Soumaya in Polanco. It was designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning British architect David Chipperfield. Since then, it has become one of Mexico City’s most visited and respected art museums.

You can take guided tours or enjoy the collections at your own pace. You’ll see work by Andy Warhol and other internationally renowned artists, as well as pieces made by up-and-coming Mexican painters and sculptures. Museo Jumex has temporary exhibitions, including immersive spaces, from some of the country’s best talent. When you’re done, don’t miss a visit to the gift shop and cafe. Grab an art book or quirky souvenir and cozy up with a cup of coffee after appreciating Museo Jumex’s outstanding collections.

3. University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC)

A little over 30 minutes south of the historic city center on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico is the MUAC. At over 14,000 square feet, it’s one of the largest art museums in the city. Architect Teodoro Gonzalez designed the building, giving fans of modern architecture another reason to visit. Inside, you’ll find an impressive revolving collection of over 2000 pieces of contemporary Mexican art housed inside beautiful interior galleries. The museum opened in 2008 and has since worked to inspire and further Mexican contemporary art through not only its exhibitions but education, community programs, and workshops as well.

Inside the museum, you’ll find paintings, video installations, drawings, and works made in various other mediums. These priceless pieces are from the 1950s until the present day, with immersive thought-provoking exhibits to go along with them. After your visit, don’t miss the Nube Siete cafe. Here, you can drink excellent coffee while seated on a glass bottom platform over dramatic volcanic rock and stones. The food is also worth coming for.

2. Walk Around the National Autonomous University of Mexico

Once you’ve finished enjoying art at MUAC, don’t miss a walk around the campus grounds and the nearby ecological preserve to see more amazing pieces. The National Autonomous University of Mexico is one of Latin America’s largest and most acclaimed universities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Within its grounds are some of the best murals and art installations in the city.

Start your visit at the ecological preserve, lying just north of the MUAC and between campus. This space is home to the Espacio Escultórico, an open collection of large installations and sculptures set within the forest. You’ll get to walk through striking outdoor masterpieces by artists such as Manuel Felguérez and Federico Silva.

Just to the north of the ecological reserve, you can visit the striking murals of the UNAM Central Library’s facade. This ten-story library is covered with stone murals by artist and architect Juan O’Gorman. Each mural depicts the long and dramatic history of Mexico. Its north wall represents the country’s indigenous past, while its south shows its colonization. The east wall represents modern Mexico and the west symbolizes the university.

1. Mexico City’s Museo de Arte Popular

If you love folk art, the Centro Historico’s Museo de Arte popular is a must-see. Inside this beautiful Art déco building is one of the country’s largest collections of Mexican folk art. You’ll see some of the finest examples of traditional folk art through the ages, from pottery to textiles, weavings to jewelry. Most of the pieces are from indigenous artists and showcase the rich diversity of Mexican handicraft design. The museum also organizes events like the Japón / México exhibition, which features traditional lacquerware from Mexico and Japan. These rotating events give many art fans a window into Mexico’s influence on global art through the ages.

Once you’re done visiting, don’t miss the gift shop. This charming store is run by a non-profit whose work is dedicated to helping Indigenous artists sell their work and earn a fair wage. The store contains small pieces from around Mexico. You can buy small gifts or even traditional clothing pieces.

Sitting atop a plateau in the Valley of Mexico is the sprawling capital of Mexico City. Over 20 million people live and work in this vast metropolis. Yet, within this global city are ancient monuments from past empires, Spanish colonial architecture, and dozens of world-renowned museums that beautifully preserve its history for the world to experience. Below are just a few of Mexico City’s must-see destinations for history lovers. These include giant Pre-Columbian pyramids, colonial Spanish churches, and some of the world’s greatest museums.

Visit the Centro Histórico of Mexico City

For history lovers, Mexico’s capital is like no other city on earth, with so much history preserved and maintained within such a giant urban space. You will want to spend weeks or even months here to truly experience the wealth of historical places that this incredible city contains. Mexico City’s historical landmarks are easy to get to thanks to the city’s large and efficient metro system and access to ride-sharing apps and taxis. Most of its landmarks and historic districts are safe to visit and easy to get around.

Start your visit to Mexico City in its historic Centro Historico. This area was where the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, once existed. Surrounded by canals and the 2,200 square mile Lake Texcoco, the city had a pre-Hispanic population of more than 200,000 people and it was the center of the empire’s government and trade. Today, it’s still the center of Mexico, with government offices and protected cultural landmarks that attract millions of tourists annually. Once you arrive, make sure you visit landmarks such as the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral and the city’s central square, or Zocalo.

Afterward, take a stroll down Avenida Francisco I. Madero. Here, you’ll pass centuries-old buildings with aged facades and plenty of historical significance. Don’t miss landmarks such as the House of Tiles, Palacio Postal, and the Torre Latinoamericana, which was the tallest building in Mexico from 1956 to 1982. While you’re there, don’t miss a visit to the top of the Torre Latinoamericana for the best views of the city.

As you’re walking, don’t forget to enjoy the timeless, although often out of tune, melodies of the organ grinders, or organilleros. A century ago, these instruments and the people who played them entertained the masses. Now, many people turn a blind eye in favor of modern street performers who often compete with the organilleros for space.

See the Templo Mayor Museum

This is one of the must-see museums in Mexico City and arguably the most important historical monument. The Templo Mayor Museum houses relics and excavations of the Aztec ‘Great Temple’ Teocalli. This was the spiritual and cultural heart of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, which officially became Mexico City after the Spanish arrived. Inside, you’ll get to approach the excavated portions of the temple and see carvings of deities and religious symbols. You’ll see carvings of human skulls on one wall and the intricate stone floors of the temple’s walkways. Inside the museum are artifacts and replicas of the ancient city. Jewelry, clothing, and precious items show visitors what life must have been like in Tenochtitlán. One highlight of the museum is the stone of Coyolxauhqui—a giant stone wheel that depicts the murder of the god Coyolxauhqui by her brother Huitzilopochtli.

Spend a Day at the Museo Nacional de Antropología

No visit to Mexico City would be complete without spending a day at the National Anthropology Museum. Here, you’ll see endless pre-Columbian art and artifacts from Mexico’s history. At the entrance to the museum is a mesmerizing water fountain that towers above the modern courtyard, sending tons of water crashing to the courtyard floor. Famous architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez designed the building and it was built between 1963 and 1964. If you look around, you’ll notice that almost every design element is infused with Mexican Indigenous art and mysticism.

Inside you’ll find 23 large rooms, each containing artifacts spanning from the ancient Olmec civilization to almost every Indigenous culture in Mexico. You’ll come face to face with sacred objects such as the Aztec Stone of Tizoc, the Aztec Sun Stone, and the famous jade mask of Palenque Mayan ruler Kʼinich Janaab Pakal I. This beautiful museum is the most visited one in Mexico, and it houses the largest collection of Mexican historical artifacts in the world. Plan to spend at least a few hours here, if not most of the day.

Walk Through Bosque de Chapultepec Park

Mexico City’s 1,700 acres plus Bosque de Chapultepec is twice the size of New York’s largest green space, the famous Central Park. Within it are museums, ruins, a castle, and monuments to the historical figures who once lived here. Around three miles southwest of the Centro Historico, Bosque de Chapultepec functions like the city’s lungs. Towering trees cover the grounds above endless hiking trails, bike paths, lakes, and must-see sights.

Start your day at the park by visiting Chapultepec Castle. This enormous fortress and mansion was once the home of the Spanish Viceroy. Today, it’s home to the National History Museum Castle Chapultepec, a must-see place for history and unbeatable views of the city’s skyline.

From here, walk down the hill and through the park to learn more about its Indigenous history. For centuries, the park was a sacred space, a summer retreat, and a treasured source of freshwater for the Aztecs and earlier Indigenous people. King Nezahualcoyotl built his summer residence in the park in 1428 and later Emperor Moctezuma Xocoyotzin constructed an animal sanctuary and baths. Today, you can still visit the emperor’s baths and monuments dedicated to the Aztec Rulers.

Spend the Day in Coyoacán

Just a half an hour south of the Centro Historico is Coyoacán. This neighborhood was the launching point of Hernán Cortés’ attack on the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. As the Aztec capital lay in ruins, Coyoacán became the first capital of the newly declared New Spain. Today, the neighborhood is full of historic buildings and sights that preserve its history. The oldest historic site is La Conchita Chapel, built on top of an existing Indigenous altar between 1525 and 1530. It is one of the first churches in Latin America, built shortly after the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Nearby, in the center of Coyoacan, is another must-see historical building—the San Juan Bautista Church. It was built in the mid-16th century which makes it one of the oldest churches in Mexico. Today, Coyoacán is famous for being the former home of the artist Frida Kahlo. Her bright blue home is now the Frida Kahlo Museum, a must-see destination for any art lover. Her contribution to the art world is undeniable and in her former home, you can see her personal items and other objects from her life.

Experience the Ruins of Teotihuacán

Over a thousand years before the Mexica People forged the Aztec Empire, the city of Teotihuacán stood as a center of trade, culture, and power in the region. Its population once rivaled any other city in the ancient world and influenced the development of societies beyond modern Mexico. Not much is known about the people who built the great city. However, through surviving murals and stories passed down to other societies, we can understand a little about their lives. Remnants of faraway cultures, including jewelry and pottery designs, were unearthed here, indicating that Teotihuacán traded with other societies.

You can still visit the site of this ancient city and experience its alleyways, murals, temples, and government buildings. The most impressive structures are by far the imposing Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon.

Teotihuacán deserves an entire day to visit. From its pyramids to its murals, each section of this sprawling UNESCO World Heritage Site will enthrall you. Consider visiting with a registered guide or hiring one when you arrive. This is a great way to learn about the site’s secrets and the latest archeological research.

Visit the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Mexico City

Mexico City is where cultures have meshed together for centuries and you can truly notice this at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (Plaza of the Three Cultures). This monument in the neighborhood of Tlatelolco is home to ancient Aztec ruins, a Spanish Cathedral, and more modern Mexican architecture.

The plaza was once the home of the city of Tlatelolco, an ancient Aztec city that became part of Tenochtitlán. For centuries, it was home to one of the largest markets in the empire. Today, you can walk around its ruins and even visit its main temple, Templo Mayor.

In the same square, you’ll find the Templo de Santiago. This 17th-century church was built from the stones of the former Aztec temples. Inside, you can see the stones that were once part of the Aztec buildings that stood on the church grounds.

Next to the Pre-Independence monuments is a more somber remnant of Mexican history, the Museo Memorial del 68. In 1968, student protests near the plaza ended in violence, when the Mexican military opened fire on hundreds of students. The museum’s exhibits take you through this tragic incident as it unfolded.

Although the plaza grounds and monuments are relatively safe to visit during the day, it’s best not to come here at night. The neighborhood of Tlatelolco is close to some of the city’s more dangerous neighborhoods such as Tepito, so it’s best to be cautious.

The cognitive abilities of Neanderthals, our extinct human relatives, has sparked ongoing scientific debate. Initial studies hinted at their cognitive inferiority compared to modern humans, but recent research challenges this view. This article explores the genetic, archaeological, and comparative approaches used by scientists to investigate Neanderthal cognitive abilities. By examining the latest research, including studies on Neanderthal DNA and archaeological discoveries, a nuanced perspective emerges, suggesting that Neanderthals were potentially cognitively sophisticated, and capable of advanced behaviors like symbolic thinking, complex language, and planning.

Origins of Neanderthals and Initial Discoveries

Neanderthals were a human species that lived in Europe and Asia from about 400,000 to 30,000 years ago. They differed physically from modern humans, having a stocky build, large nose, and prominent brows. They had large brains and were skilled hunters and toolmakers. They used fire and lived in complex social groups. There is also evidence of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, with some present-day individuals inheriting Neanderthal DNA.

The discovery of the first Neanderthal skeleton led to a stereotype that still influences our perception today. Paleontologist Marcellin Boule classified them as primitive, and his 1911 recreation depicted Neanderthals as violent, hunched, hairy beings with protruding heads. This image has largely persisted, even though Boule based his reconstruction on fossil remains from the Chapelle-aux-Saints cave, where the skeleton was not only old but also had deformed bones, with spinal curvature and other issues. Today, many scientists are trying to break this stereotype.

Unraveling Cognitive Abilities Through Tool-Making and Hunting

One piece of evidence supporting the idea that Neanderthals had advanced cognitive abilities is that they could create complex tools and may have had hunting strategies. Their primary weapon was a spear with a stone tip. Stone cores that preserve the sequences Neanderthals used for stone knapping provide the most accurate representation of Neanderthal technology. Levallois, the most famous of these methods, has become synonymous with Neanderthal technology.

As one of the more intricate stone-processing techniques to learn, Levallois offers insight into the Neanderthal mind. Patterns of fracture and worn edges suggest that the stone was once attached to the ends of shafts and often broke during use. Even though the use and crafting of these tools speak to their complex cognitive abilities, Neanderthals appear less creative and innovative as they did not create new types of weapons and tools, even when in contact with modern humans with their more advanced tools.

There are multiple theories about Neanderthal hunting strategies, ranging from skilled hunters to scavengers. However, patterns of Neanderthal injuries provide evidence that they killed at close range. Hunting evidence was found at La Cotte, where Neanderthals captured, butchered, and transported mammoths. Neanderthals were dominant terrestrial hunters, focusing on a limited number of large mammals like mammoths. Nevertheless, they were adaptable, shifting attention to any large creatures the region offered. Their strategies relied on a fundamental understanding of the surrounding terrain, the ability to set traps and surprise their prey, and the courage to kill them up close with spears, as likely occurred at La Cotte. However, as skilled as they were, due to their concentration on only a few species, their hunts likely often failed, leaving them without food for days.

Hunting Clues: Neanderthal Injuries Unravel the Story

Evidence of hunting is also visible on Neanderthal skeletons; wounds found on the head and upper body that have often healed resemble those wounds endured by rodeo competitors today. An example comes from the Shanidar Cave skeletons where one individual lacked a right forearm, displaying injuries and arthritis in the right leg, along with injuries on the left side of the face that may have led to blindness. Another skeleton had a rib injury, likely caused by a spear thrown by a modern human. Intriguingly, these individuals didn’t die from these injuries — they first lived for several years, and then later died after a few weeks, probably due to infection from the injury.

All this suggests that Neanderthals had close interactions with powerful, dangerous animals as well as modern humans. What is even more interesting is that this indicates Neanderthals cared for each other because such injuries could not be survived alone. Therefore, their social organization, empathy, and emotions were probably comparable to modern humans.

Neanderthal Healthcare: Survival and Compassion

Penny Spikins, professor of the archaeology of human origins at the University of York, explores the evolutionary significance of Neanderthal healthcare, suggesting that care played a crucial role in the survival and adaptation of Neanderthals in the harsh environments they inhabited. Healthcare practices aided Neanderthals in overcoming adversity, potentially being a key factor in their ability to coexist with early modern humans for thousands of years. It also suggests that healthcare practices among Neanderthals are an important part of the larger puzzle of human evolution, and understanding Neanderthal healthcare may provide new insights into the lives of these human ancestors.

One example, in addition to those mentioned from Shanidar, is the lower jaw from Bau de l’Aubesier in France, dating back over 180,000 years, showing dental disease and tooth loss in a Neanderthal. Chewing must have been extremely difficult and painful for this individual, yet they lived even after losing teeth, suggesting someone cared for them by preparing soft food.

While not much is known about Neanderthal medicine, evidence indicates successful healing of most injuries. There are traces of medicinal plants at El Sidron Cave in Spain, where compounds with anti-inflammatory properties from yarrow to chamomile-like plants were discovered between the teeth of a Neanderthal.

On the other hand, some scientists align more with the theory that Neanderthals were cold and calculating. Evidence for this includes instances where individuals with leg injuries, hindering their movement, were killed or left to die. In contrast, those with injuries to the head or neck, still capable of rapid movement, were spared. It is believed that they had to be cold and calculating to survive.

Did Neanderthals Bury Their Dead?

Penny Spakins argues in her research that empathy played a crucial role in the evolution of human cognition for Neanderthals; asserting that without it, they would not have been able to survive. She suggests that compassion and empathy were integral components of the social glue that held Neanderthal communities together, forming the basis for developing advanced cognitive abilities such as language, culture, and collaboration. Spakins also proposes that Neanderthals had a deep understanding of their environment and the animals living around them, serving as the foundation for their survival and well-being.

One of the main pieces of evidence Spakins uses, in addition to bones indicating healthcare, is the presence of Neanderthal graves, suggesting that Neanderthals had some form of social and emotional relationship with their deceased. As an example, she points to Las Palomas in southern Spain, where a small child and an adult woman, possibly their mother, were buried together and covered with stones. Spakins argues that there is a higher likelihood that children would be buried with specific grave materials, such as flint flakes on the grave of a newborn in the Ferasi cave, France, or a red deer maxilla at the burial site of a seven-month-old child in Amud, Israel. She also mentions goat horns surrounding the grave of a child in Teshik-Tashu, Uzbekistan, and the burial of a two-year-old Neanderthal with a triangular flint at the chest and a stone slab above the head, from the Dederiyeh cave in Syria.

When it comes to Neanderthal burial practices, there are many unanswered questions. Scientists still aren’t certain whether Neanderthals intentionally buried their dead or simply left them in a place where their bodies were later naturally buried. Shapel, Krapina, and Ferasi are all places that have examples of “graves,” as Penny Spakins has mentioned, along with skeletons found beside the graves. Many scientists aren’t even sure if Neanderthal bodies were buried at all, as they were often shallowly placed underground, and parts of the skeletons are frequently missing, although it is possible that this happened because later animals found them and removed some skeletal parts from the ground. Some skeletons have been found in a state where they were merely laid down and positioned. In any case, it seems that even if Neanderthals had burial practices, they were infrequent and minimal.

Reassessing Neanderthal Empathy: Examining Aggression and Non-Empathetic Traits

In addition to these empathy-related pieces of evidence, there are also indications of interpersonal conflict and aggression among Neanderthals. For instance, the upper right part of the skull of a 36,000-year-old Neanderthal from Saint-Cesaire in France shows head trauma. The skull fracture had healed, and the injury seemed non-lethal. Computer tomography of the wound reveals that it was likely inflicted by a sharp object, a classic sign that the Neanderthal had been struck with a weapon on the skull.

Furthermore, there are numerous examples suggesting that Neanderthals exhibited cannibalistic tendencies. For instance, Neanderthal bodies were consumed in “mortuary sites” in L’Hortus, France, possibly long after their death. It is assumed they were eaten before being left in a small crevice. There are multiple theories about why Neanderthals engaged in this behavior. It could have been for sustenance, but it is also possible that it involved some form of ritual, or even revenge.

An instance where food is presumed to have been the motive was found in Moula-Guercy, France, where two adult Neanderthals, two teenagers, and two children between six and seven years old were dismembered and used for food 100,000 years ago. Facial muscles were cut, and skulls were cracked to extract the brain, with bones then discarded along with the remains of animal carcasses. The skeletons of a group of Neanderthals seemingly killed in a rockslide in El Sidron Cave, Spain, fifty thousand years later, were also scattered and broken in a manner resembling the preparation of animals for consumption. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain whether this was a common practice among Neanderthals, or a few isolated incidents that occurred during times of severe food shortages.

Neanderthal Memory: Working Memory and Spatial Cognition

When we discuss Neanderthal tool-making and hunting abilities, we should also turn our attention to their working memory. Scientists have hypothesized that the complexity of Neanderthal stone tools indicates advanced working memory. Additionally, they argue that the use of personal ornaments such as beads is another sign of highly developed working memory capacities. They have suggested that Neanderthals had a cognitive advantage over early modern humans in certain memory-related skills, such as spatial memory, which are crucial for hunting and navigation in their environment. For information about good hunting spots, the types of animals present, hiding places, cliffs, and ravines, as well as raw material reserves, they mainly relied on long-term memory. They knew how to memorize and track specific routes and they employed short-term planning, at least during hunting expeditions.

For example, at the Shanidar Cave site, evidence of flower and plant processing has been found, suggesting that Neanderthals could remember the locations of different plants, their seasonal availability, and the best way to process them. This kind of knowledge would require a complex working memory system. Similarly, the use of ornaments and other decorative items found in Krapina suggests that Neanderthals engaged in symbolic and ritual behavior requiring advanced cognitive abilities, including working memory.

Art and Symbolic Thinking

Some interesting findings come from Hohle Fels in Germany, the La Roche-Cotard site in France, and Gorham’s Cave, Gibraltar. The art found in these caves includes engravings and pigments, indicating a certain level of skill and planning. Scientists also note that some Neanderthal art is similar to that of early modern humans, suggesting that Neanderthal cognitive abilities were comparable to those of early modern humans.

There is evidence that colorful shells and teeth were used as ornaments, perhaps as necklaces or sewn into clothing. At Cueva de los Leones in southern Spain, pierced shells colored with vibrant red ochre were found. Additionally, colorful feathers were used, possibly to further adorn the body. Therefore, Neanderthals may have used color to enhance their surroundings and bodies.

One of the more well-known “artworks” by Neanderthals is the Roche-Cotard mask. Only a few centimeters long and created over 33,000 years ago, it depicts a carved face, perhaps that of a child. This mask shows us that Neanderthals had some form of creativity and the ability to remember faces. The purpose of the mask is unknown, perhaps it served as a toy.

Neanderthal Brains

Anthropologist Robin Dunbar introduced the social brain hypothesis. In his work, it is proposed that the size of the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions, is linked to the size of social groups in primates. Dunbar suggests that as primates evolved, the size of their social groups increased. As a result, their brains also had to evolve to cope with the cognitive demands of maintaining these larger social networks. He argues that the same process applies to early humans and that the size of the human neocortex is linked to the size of prehistoric human social groups. As the Neanderthal neocortex is of a similar size to that of modern humans, it is suggested that Neanderthals were more similar to modern humans.

The question arises: How did Neanderthals transmit their knowledge, from hunting and tools to everyday life situations? Did they have language? The ability to imagine what others see and know is called the “Theory of Mind,” and it is assumed that Neanderthals had these abilities to a greater extent.

An interesting discovery comes from Oldeholtpade in the late Paleolithic in the Netherlands, where it was observed that Neanderthals produced finely crafted blades before teaching learners, most likely children, how to use cores. Learners would practice shaping flakes from cores. Numerous Neanderthal sites have also revealed the presence of these beginners. Most cores from Maastricht-Belvedere, Site K, are damaged by careless mistakes, and some even show repeated and senseless hammering on the edges of flint. It is believed that they were created by young Neanderthal children who might have been upset and expressed their frustration by hitting stones. Thus, we have a glimpse into how Neanderthals transmitted knowledge and how they learned to make tools even as children.

So What About Their Speech?

Regarding speech, none of the necessary anatomy — vocal cords, throat, tongue, lips, and so on — has been preserved. However, paleoanthropologists have made significant efforts to describe changes in bone structures supporting these speech organs, such as the hyoid bone. Nothing we know about Neanderthal anatomy would seriously constrain their speech abilities but given the differences between Neanderthal faces and ours, it is suspected that Neanderthal voices might have sounded somewhat different, and the range of consonants and vowels they could generate might have been different.

We are aware that Broca’s area, located in the lower left frontal lobe, is used by the modern brain to control speech and is larger compared to other primates. However, noting that the Broca’s area was likely larger in Neanderthals doesn’t necessarily mean they had the ability of speech.

Neanderthals possessed the FOXP2 gene, which we also have and which is implicated in the ability of speech. Nevertheless, it is still inconclusive whether Neanderthals had speech and language, but it is believed they probably had a range of sounds they used in some pattern.

Concluding Insights

Scientific studies and research in the last few decades have surprised us with new insights into the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals. Once considered primitive and rough beings, it is now known that they were competent, with a more complex social organization, possibly even language, and the ability to use and develop tools. Their capabilities are evident through their use of ornaments, potential grave sites, and their genetic material.

Although there are still questions that scientists are working to resolve, it is clear that Neanderthals were capable and intelligent, able to adapt to their environment, and perhaps possessed a degree of empathy. In any case, Neanderthals have shown us that our ancestors were much more capable than previously thought, and that the heritage, culture, and evolution of the human species was much more intricate than previously assumed.

The hard work is now underway for a bright new mega museum in the Italian city of Naples, which the Italian government promises to be “the biggest cultural infrastructure in Europe.” Designed by architect Paolo Desideri, the ambitious new museum space will be housed in the former Albergo dei Poveri (also known as Palazzo Fuga), a cavernous site with more than 100,000 sq. m of floor space that has been derelict for decades. The site will become a sister museum to the Museo Nazionale Archaeologico Napoli (MANN), and be known as MANN 2.

The New Site

Part of a widespread regeneration project for Naples to improve the city’s tourism, the new archaeological museum site will provide ample space for MANN to display its vast collection of artefacts, much of which has been sitting in storage for decades due to insufficient exhibition rooms in its current location. The project means these long-forgotten relics, which have often only come out of storage for temporary displays when on loan to other museum sites around the world, will now be visible to the wider public on a more permanent basis. It is also hoped the venture will give purpose to the abandoned site of Albergo dei Poveri, which is loaded with history, and attract visitors to the surrounding area in Naples.

A Dedication to Pompeii

A star attraction for the new museum will be a series of exhibition rooms devoted to Pompeii – the museum currently holds more than 40,000 objects related to the excavation and rediscovery of the ancient city that was buried in mountains of ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This will give the site a distinct identity that separates it from MANN. Massimo Osanna, Italian director general of the Museums of the Ministry of Culture says, “In Palazzo Fuga we do not want to replicate a collection already well told in the MANN itself: rather, we are going to create a space dedicated to the history of the rediscovery of the Vesuvian sites through artefacts, but also reconstructions, panels, and multimedia supports.”

Approximately 10,000 sq. m of the site will be devoted to the remains of Pompeii and Vesuvius, and their discovery during the 18^th century, with a series of rooms titled Discovery, Vesuvian Excavations (Pre-Unit, Post-Unit, and 1964 to present), Daily Life and Tragedy, and Paper Pompeii. Among the fascinating objects to go on display will be ordinary household matter, the bundles of gold and silver that inhabitants of Pompeii tried to grab in desperation before the city was submerged in ash, along with real eruptive materials and minerals from the area.

Regeneration and Improvement

Plans are also in place to create a series of exhibits dedicated to historical archaeologists, including Giuseppe Fiorelli, Vittorio Spinazzola, and Amedeo Maiuri, along with other interactive, state of the art exhibition rooms. The rest of the site will be devoted to academic study and accessibility – part of the building will become home to a branch of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and the city’s National Library, while more than half of the site will become teaching spaces and accommodation for the University of Naples Federico II. The space will be completed with a bookshop, café, and panoramic terrace.

The entire project has been funded for 158 million euros. With work now in progress, the aim is to complete the entire renovation of the Albergo dei Poveri by the middle of 2026. Paolo Giulierini, MANN’s director, sees the exciting new venture as a key cultural coup for the area, which he hopes will attract visitors from far and wide. He calls MAAN 2, “an epochal urban regeneration project that will leave its mark on Naples”.

Picture an ancient state — let’s say around 1,700 years ago. Under its ruling dynasty, this state converted to Christianity, becoming one of the earliest places to do so. Its rulers, whether out of genuine religious conviction, political opportunism, or both, styled themselves as great defenders of the one true faith.

No, this isn’t the Roman Empire. It’s actually one of its contemporaries: The Kingdom of Aksum. This grand state, located in modern Eritrea and Ethiopia, made a name for itself as a major trading hub in late antiquity. Aksum’s religious conversion marks the beginning of the long history of Ethiopian Christianity. Today, the ancient kingdom may have long since crumbled, but its legacy, in the form of Ethiopian Christianity, is still alive and thriving.

Before the Dawn of Ethiopian Christianity in Aksum

Archaeological evidence places the foundation of the Kingdom of Aksum at some time during the 1st century CE. At its height, the kingdom’s territory stretched from Ethiopia and Sudan in the west across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula. Researchers believe that Aksum’s identity as a country was inseparable from its status as a trading hub. It had trading connections with all of the great Mediterranean and Middle Eastern powers of its day, including Rome, Egypt, and Arabia. Aksumite coins have been discovered across the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.

Before the coming of Ethiopian Christianity, religion in Aksum resembled that of pre-Islamic Arabia. Ethiopians worshiped many gods, each with a different attribute or function. Even after the kings of Aksum instituted Christianity, some pre-Christian beliefs and rituals persisted. Later kings, however, would likely have denied any “pagan” influences in their culture.

Fourth Century Changes: The Arrival of Frumentius

Tradition cites the 4th century CE as the beginning of Ethiopia’s Christian era. Everything is said to have started with the arrival of a merchant from the north — a man by the name of Frumentius. The narrative goes that Frumentius and his brother came from Tyre, in modern Lebanon. The brothers were on a boat in the Red Sea, when the ship unfortunately ran into trouble. Local pirates harassed the Phoenician travelers and took them captive. From there, they were enslaved, eventually making their way to the royal family of Aksum.

Even though they were slaves, Frumentius and his brother won the favor of Aksum’s king and queen with their knowledge. Frumentius became a more committed Christian in Ethiopia, advocating for Roman and Greek merchants in the country. He also obtained a valuable position at the Aksumite court. It was here that he would meet the crown prince, Ezana, becoming his teacher.

King Ezana’s Conversion

The future King Ezana of Aksum was young when his mother introduced him to Frumentius. Although still enslaved, Frumentius had considerable freedom to instruct Ezana on important topics. The Levantine merchant-missionary must have left a meaningful impact on the crown prince, given what was to come.

Sometime during the first half of the 4th century (possibly the 330s), Frumentius traveled north to Alexandria, Egypt. He met with the Coptic Church’s patriarch, Athanasius, with one request: that a bishop be appointed for Africa south of the Nile. Athanasius approved and made Frumentius himself Aksum’s head missionary. He was free to begin conversion efforts among the Aksumites.

Before Prince Ezana had reached legal maturity, his father died. His mother ruled in his place for the first several years of his kingship. When Ezana was old enough, he not only accepted the crown but also the Christian religion. Frumentius himself was allegedly the one who baptized the new Aksumite king. Ethiopian Christianity had dawned.

Later Developments: Aksum’s Expansion

As the king who initiated the development of Ethiopian Christianity, Ezana is the best-known of Aksum’s rulers. But he wasn’t necessarily its most ambitious. That distinction could arguably go to Kaleb I, who reigned 200 years after Ezana. Under Kaleb’s rule, the Kingdom of Aksum reached its zenith, conquering new territories and strengthening its trading and religious networks.

Kaleb came to power around 514. He appreciated both Ethiopian and Greek culture and inscriptions in Greek have been found in Aksum’s ruins. He was also a contemporary of the Byzantine emperors Justin I and Justinian and Kaleb developed economic and diplomatic ties with them both. Aksum came to not only dominate the Red Sea region, but it made a name for itself as a global economic power.

Aksum’s conquest of southern Arabia (modern Yemen) was the greatest achievement of Kaleb’s reign. Allegedly, an Arabian leader called Dhu Nuwas had converted to Judaism and went about persecuting local Christians. Given Aksum’s historical supremacy in the region, Kaleb could not let this stand. The king sent an army to Yemen, conquered the territory, and defeated Dhu Nuwas. Aksum’s direct domains now extended to the other side of the Red Sea.

How accurate is the narrative of an Arabian Jewish warlord persecuting Christians en masse? We really have no way of knowing the full answer. Perhaps it had a more symbolic meaning, representing the triumph of Christianity over other religious traditions. Regardless, the conquest of Yemen cemented Kaleb’s legacy as a great Christian king. The modern Ethiopian Orthodox Church recognizes him as a saint, as do Ethiopian Catholics.

The Decline of Aksum

The Kingdom of Aksum stayed Christian for centuries after kings such as Ezana and Kaleb were gone. But its society started to decline around the 7th century. Archaeologists have not discovered any Aksumite coins from this time period, and the rulers of Aksum had long since stopped building monuments. Aksum’s territories would recede when Islamic armies conquered the Arabian Peninsula. The kingdom continued to trade, but it was losing control over its merchant networks.

It was not just the Muslim conquests or local invasions that contributed to the fall of Aksum. Scholars suspect climate change may have played a role, too. Without their access to the Red Sea, the Aksumites had to produce more of their own goods, including food. Agriculture and irregular periods of rainfall combined to degrade Ethiopia’s soil. By the middle of the 10th century, Aksum could not sustain itself any longer.

The Legacy of Aksum and Ethiopian Christianity

When a once-powerful society collapses, very rarely does everything it once upheld cease to exist. Sure, a country’s culture might undergo dramatic changes, but the past never entirely fades away. This was true of the Roman Empire, and it is equally true of the Kingdom of Aksum.

Ethiopian Christianity survived Aksum’s fall. If anything, it became even more vibrant. Historical and archaeological evidence from Ethiopia’s next dynasty, the Zagwe, is hard to come by. What little evidence is available, however, suggests continued Christian devotion and state patronage of the religion. The eleven rock-cut churches of Lalibela (Link to Lalibela Article 6476), for example, are a testament to early medieval Ethiopian Christianity and Aksumite architectural styles.

The final dynasty to rule Ethiopia, the House of Solomon (1270-1974), went even further in upholding Orthodox Christianity. The Solomonic emperors crafted an intricate narrative linking their rule to both the Kingdom of Aksum and Biblical figures like King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The emperor was seen as being divinely approved; it was his duty to protect and promote Ethiopian Christianity. A 14th-century epic, the Kebra Nagast, chronicles the imperial family’s legendary genealogy in great detail.

The old city of Aksum still exists, as well. It continues to occupy a central place in Ethiopian Orthodoxy, as it did over a thousand years ago. Many Ethiopians believe the sacred Ark of the Covenant rests in Aksum’s largest church, the Church of Our Lady, Mary of Zion. We have no way to verify this claim, but the legend testifies to Aksum’s importance as a spiritual center for Ethiopian Christianity.

Throughout history, warfare has been a catalyst for technological innovation. The ancient world’s arsenal was simple yet effective, comprising daggers, short swords, spears, and bows for close combat, and powerful siege engines like catapults, rams, and siege towers for breaching fortifications. In addition to these commonly used weapons, the ancient engineers would make ingenious and often unusual weapon designs that would not look out of place in the modern arsenal of war. These weapons were often created by some of history’s great geniuses and played a crucial role in turning the tide of battle. They varied in shape and size, from colossal warships to lethal flamethrowers or terrifying dragon-head rockets. While some of these ingenious weapons are lost to time or have become the stuff of legend, others have left a lasting legacy, showcasing the ancients’ remarkable ingenuity and creativity in the art of war.

1. Greek Fire

The so-called Greek fire, the Byzantine Empire’s legendary incendiary weapon, was developed in the 7th century and used with devastating effect in naval warfare. Often compared to modern napalm, Greek fire was reputedly invented by Callinicus, a Greek-speaking Jewish refugee from Syria, and first deployed during the Arab siege of Constantinople around 672 CE. This “liquid fire” was projected onto enemy ships using siphons — an early version of flamethrowers — igniting upon contact and proving nearly impossible to extinguish. Extremely difficult to extinguish, the weapon had a unique advantage — it could burn on water. In fact, it would ignite more intensely upon contact with water and stick to any surface it touched, making it an invaluable weapon for the Byzantine navy.

The exact composition of this substance remains a mystery to this day. Some speculate that Greek fire was likely a blend of petroleum, pitch, sulfur, resin from pine or cedar trees, lime, and bitumen. The formula was a closely guarded state secret, known only to a select few within the Byzantine court, including the emperor. Despite numerous attempts by rival powers to replicate it, the exact ingredients and method of deployment were never duplicated, preserving the Byzantine naval dominance for centuries.

2. The Claw Of Archimedes

One of the most famous ancient innovations, the so-called Claw of Archimedes, came from the brilliant mind of mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and inventor Archimedes of Syracuse (ca. 287 BCE – ca. 212 BCE). This fearsome machine — a large mechanical arm equipped with a grappling hook (also known as an “iron hand”) — was mounted on the walls of Syracuse to defend against maritime invasions. The operators would lower the claw from the walls onto an enemy ship. Once ensnared, the ship would be lifted by the Claw and repeatedly dropped until it capsized. 

According to Plutarch, these deadly machines played a significant role during the Second Punic War in 213 – 212 BCE. As the Romans besieged Syracuse, the defenders utilized massive catapults. In response, the Romans tethered their ships together and equipped them with towering ladders to scale the sea walls. This was the moment the Syracusans had anticipated, deploying the “Claw” to seize and overturn the invading vessels, throwing the Roman assault into disarray.

3. Archimedes’ Heat Ray

Another defensive mechanism employed by Syracuse’s defenders was Archimedes’ “Heat ray.” This device allegedly focused sunlight using an array of mirrors (polished shields or copper plates), creating intense heat to ignite Roman warships. However, it should be noted that none of the contemporary accounts of the Siege of Syracuse referenced such a weapon. Our primary source discussing this device is Anthemius of Tralles, who wrote centuries after the event. Roman ships did indeed burn during the siege, but only from incendiary projectiles thrown onto their decks.

MIT researchers conducted experiments to explore the practicality of the “Heat Ray,” managing to ignite a mock ship under specific conditions. These experiments yielded mixed results, suggesting that even if such a device existed, its effectiveness in actual combat would have been questionable.

4. The Steam Cannon

Another fascinating weapon attributed to Archimedes was a steam-powered device known as the Architonnerre, capable of rapidly firing projectiles. This “steam cannon” would operate by heating a large metal tube until sufficiently hot, then injecting a small amount of water behind a projectile within the tube. The water would rapidly convert to steam, propelling the projectile with great force. The existence of this innovative weapon, however, is highly debated. 

Inspired by Archimedes, famed Renaissance inventor and polymath Leonardo da Vinci, sketched his own version of a steam cannon, the Architronito. There have also been modern attempts to explore the practicality of a “steam cannon”, with varying degrees of success. Due to intense heat, the mixture would have likely exploded as soon as it was fired, never reaching its intended target.

5. Hellenistic Mammoth Ships

The Hellenistic naval warfare can be described as “bigger is better.” The colossal vessels of the Hellenistic world, known as “polyremes,” were marvels of ancient naval engineering, with some, like the colossal tessarakonteres, purportedly measuring up to 420 feet (128 m) in length and carrying over 4,000 rowers. While these figures may be somewhat exaggerated, it is clear that these ships were significantly larger than the triremes of earlier times, which typically carried around 200 rowers. The shift from ramming tactics to siege weaponry, such as large catapults and ballistae, marked a significant evolution in naval combat strategies, and larger ships capable of carrying greater firepower became the norm.

The giant ships dominated the Mediterranean up to the end of the first century BCE. In fact, the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, saw the last recorded deployment of large warships. It also spelled the end of the Hellenistic era. Following Octavian’s triumph, the Roman navy became the sole master of the Mediterranean, and the large ships were relegated to the symbols of prestige and power, used by the wealthy and influential, such as emperor Caligula‘s large barges on the Nemi lake. 

6. Chu-Ko-Nu: Ancient Chinese Crossbow

While the crossbow is commonly associated with European medieval warfare, the earliest evidence of crossbows originates from ancient China. Notably, the Chinese crossbow — the Chu-Ko-Nu — was a more advanced repeating crossbow, invented around the 4th century BCE. This innovative design was further improved by the famous military strategist Zhuge Liang (181 – 234 CE), whose version could fire up to three bolts simultaneously. 

Although it was less accurate than single-shot crossbows and had a shorter range than longbows, the Chu-Ko-Nu boasted an impressive rate of fire for an ancient weapon. Trained soldiers could discharge up to ten steel bolts in just 15 seconds before needing to reload the magazine. No wonder the Cho-Ko-Nu remained in use at least until the late Qing dynasty, more than a thousand years after its inception.

7. Huo Long Chu Shui: Ancient Chinese Rocket

The Huo Long Chu Shui, or “Fire Dragon Emerging from Water,” is another case of an advanced weapon from pre-modern times. This early example of a multistage rocket was used effectively during the Ming dynasty. Its purpose was twofold, to instill fear and cause destruction among enemy ranks. The weapon consisted of a hollow bamboo tube, decorated with a carved dragon head, which housed several gunpowder-propelled rockets. The rockets would ignite in sequence, first propelling the device itself and then launching smaller projectiles at the enemy, creating a barrage of fire from above.

One could only imagine the faces of the men confronted with this terrifying weapon, a fire-breathing dragon sending a flaming hailstorm of terror on the helpless soldiers below. The Huo Long Chu Shui could launch its fiery arrows over fortifications, causing chaos and damage upon impact. Its design was so advanced for its time that it continued to inspire fear and awe in adversaries, solidifying its place in the annals of military history as a testament to the ingenuity of ancient Chinese warfare.

8. Chinese Land Mines

While the armies of medieval Europe were embroiled in the Crusades, the Chinese were taking a significant leap forward with the invention of a precursor to the modern land mines. Attributed to Lou Qianxia, these early mines were sophisticated and lethal weapons, utilizing various forms of gunpowder to blind, burn or poison. Initially, these devices were large bomb-like weapons that would be detonated en masse to kill and confuse the enemy, making him an easy target for an ambush. However, by the 13th century, the Chinese had developed more advanced land mines that could be triggered by the unsuspecting enemy’s footsteps.

The Chinese engineers continued to improve the lethal weapon, adding mechanical triggers akin to clockwork mechanisms. Concealed boards placed just beneath the earth surface would activate gears and weights when stepped on, striking flint to ignite the fuse. This innovation led to the creation of the “self-trespassing” mine, a direct ancestor of the modern land mine. Another deadly mine variant was the so-called “underground sky-soaring thunder,” a slow-burning flame in a bowl buried above a network of fuses, triggered by the disturbance of seemingly abandoned weapons or by unfortunate individuals who wanted to relieve themselves. 

Buddhism has an ancient, long-ranging history which expands across several different schools of thought. Many have heard of the pillars of suffering or of reaching nirvana, but few aspects of Buddhism are quite so entrancing as Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. Visual imagery is paramount in understanding the teachings, as paradise on earth is seen as an achievable goal. This creates a rich and fascinating history through which one can learn about the religion’s mystical beliefs and practices.

History of Esoteric Buddhism’s Visual Culture

Esoteric Buddhism derives from ancient Indian Tantrism, which emphasized mysticism, symbolism, and incantations. The Tantric belief system states that through ritualistic practices such as meditation, chanting and mantras, mudras, and intricate visual images, the ultimate goal can be achieved. The belief system spread through China and was established in Japan via two monks, Kūkai and Saichō, who traveled from Japan to China in 804 and 803 CE, respectively. Kūkai studied Sanskrit and Chinese Esoteric Buddhism under Huiguo, a monk in Xi’an. Upon his return in 806, Kūkai brought treasures from his findings and eventually established a Shingon temple at Mount Kōya. Saichō established the Japanese Tendai school. These sects incorporated many of the Chinese esoteric rituals, though there were notable differences in ideology. 

Prior to these ideas, Japanese Buddhism was an amalgamation of various spiritual practices and rituals, but the Tendai and Shingon systems created more unified schools of thought. Japan was in the midst of the early Heian period, and this introduction of new material from Tang China brought about a drastic change in Japanese art. Painting, sculpture, and other art forms took a sharp turn from the previous traditional Nara period and began to reflect these mystical practices through depictions of Hindu deity-derived multiple-headed bodhisattvas, complex mandalas, and large paintings on hanging scrolls. Esoteric Buddhism vanished relatively quickly in India and China, leaving Japan a site of historic preservation of Esoteric artworks and imagery.

Four Heavenly Kings

Sanskrit names are common amongst deities, but most interesting is the addition of appellations to these names to signify their importance or the roles they play in the Buddhist faith. In Japan, “Ten” denotes a divine being, and we see this manifest in Shitennō sculptures. Bishamon Ten (Tamon Ten), Komoku Ten, Jikoku Ten, and Zocho Ten are considered celestial guardians – the Four Heavenly Kings – and are found in Buddhist temples throughout Japan. The oldest preserved are those found in the Golden Hall of the Hōryū-ji temple in Nara. These deities are most often dressed in armor as protectors of the temple, wearing helmets and fierce expressions. 

Those at Hōryū-ji, however, are instead wearing crowns, visually similar to the halos found in Byzantine or medieval European Christian art. Decorated with paint and lacquer and made of camphor wood, these seventh-century statues are less aggressive than many other Shitenno found in Japan. They stand at the four corners of the compass, protecting the realm of the Buddha, and exhibit calm – yet stern – facial expressions. Their robes and long sleeves fold gracefully around them. The use of wood distinguishes these Japanese expressions of the Heavenly King from others. 

At the Hokke-dō of the Todai-ji temple in Nara, however, these guardians hold swords or thunderbolts. They don magnificent hairstyles – one with strands of hair going upward in a hostile, provoked fashion – and equally treacherous scowls. These temple guardians do not wear carefully draped robes, but rather full body armor. Their muscular arms and bodies are powerful and robust, provoking fear only in those with the intent to undermine Buddhism.

Mandalas

According to the Mahavairocana Sutra, mandalas are the full representation of perfection. They have precise mathematical proportions, bright and intensely vivid colors, gold gilding, and rhythmic patterns. It is a full sensory experience, and each of these images was thought to increase the interconnectedness to Buddha and promote the path to enlightenment. Esoteric mandalas use deities and Sanskrit characters to chart the cosmic realm visually, map the geography of the Buddhist journey, and encourage an internal pilgrimage to enlightenment. 

The Sai-in Mandala, or Womb World mandala, in Tō-ji, Kyoto was produced in the late ninth century during the Heian period and is in remarkably good condition. The Womb World mandala illustrates the Dainichikyo, or the Sun Buddha, typically depicted in sculpture as a bodhisattva. Dainichikyo is worshipped as the supreme deity of the Shingon sect. The Womb World mandala is used in conjunction with the Diamond World mandala, regarded as the second most celebrated work in the Shingon school because it illustrates the teachings of the Kongōchōgyō sutra. Together, they are called the Mandalas of the Two Worlds, or “ryōbu mandara.”

Protector Deities

Esoteric Buddhism took Japan by storm and was widely received, creating some of the most intricate, magnificent art in Japanese history. Imagery was of the utmost importance in order to understand the formless and mysterious Absolute Buddha. These paintings, statues, and drawings were created with an extraordinary level of terrifying realism, expression, and complex, mathematical precision. When considering the aforementioned protector deities, for example, one might initially be frightened – but they are fierce defenders in the name of Buddha, providing a brave and fearless defense that creates a stunning portrait of devotion when combined with other visual elements. The iconographic elements in Japanese Esoteric Buddhist art are visually remarkable components that contribute to the personal path to righteousness and clarity.

Zen gardens, also known as Japanese Karesansui, have been used for meditation and contemplation for centuries. They are designed to express the essence of nature in a minimalistic and harmonious way, using carefully placed rocks, raked sand and gravel, and sometimes a few additional elements. Let us delve together into the world of Zen gardens!

A Brief Note on Zen Buddhism and Zen Gardens

Zen-Buddhism and its two branches were created by Eisai (the founder of the Rinzai school) and Dōgen (the teacher of the Sōtō school); they introduced it to Japan in the Kamakura (1192–1333) and Muromachi (1336–1573) dynasties respectively. Zen gave a spiritual basis to overall life, and especially to the warrior class, the samurai. The main characteristics of Zen—spontaneity, simplicity (sabi), calmness, and solitude (wabi)—influenced calligraphy, ink painting (zen-painting), flower decoration (ikebana), poetry (renga and haiku), drama (nō), tea ceremonies, and swordsmanship (kendo).

Zen Buddhism is rather unusual in its teachings. Today, historians and philosophers are divided on whether it is a religion or a philosophy because Zen denies any external rites, does not require special clothing or a way of eating, and there are no philosophical discussions or religious revelations. The entirety of Zen literature consists of anecdotes from the lives of Zen teachers and their students. Although often humorous and full of spirit, these anecdotes may seem incomprehensible, even meaningless, but of course, that is not true. Zen Buddhism actually fully follows the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism, relying primarily on the teachings contained in the Prajnaparamita Sutra. Zen has no books because learning basically boils down to the teacher’s direct guidance of their student. In this context, anecdotes about teachers served as the basis for teaching new generations of students, but to think that they contain the entire teachings of Zen Buddhism would be completely wrong.

Generally, a garden that does not use water and expresses a mountain or waterside landscape using stones and plants is called a Karesansui. In particular, the relationship between Zen Buddhism and Karesansui is deep. Zen, has been influenced by Chinese Taoism, and ideally involves training in remote, deep mountains. Karesansui is a recreation of such scenery.

The Philosophy of Zen Garden 

A Karesansui is a garden that abstractly expresses the philosophy and spirit of Zen. They are often situated next to Zen Buddhist temples. Such a garden uses stones and sand as the central materials to express a landscape of landscapes. Without flowing water or plants, stones and sand resemble mountains and rivers flowing through a gentle, hilly area, allowing the majestic scenery of nature to be captured in a limited space. The most outstanding feature of Karesansui is its expression in space.

Since a completely natural landscape cannot be called a garden, it requires an artificial relationship with nature. Zen Gardens typically offer the scenery of a hermitage/arbor in the middle of nature (rural scenery overlooking nature itself), or take the form of a miniature garden-like model that imitates nature, incorporating various natural elements without selecting them prior.

The most crucial thing about making a Karesansui is to take advantage of the natural properties of these natural materials without making any changes to them. The landscape of Karesansui, which has been stripped down to its bare minimum, will give peace of mind.

Modern Karesansui is an important element of Japanese culture, and it is often loved by foreigners visiting Japan too. Karesansui has a deep connection with Zen, expressing the state of mind of the Zen monk who created the Karesansui.

To enjoy Karesansui, knowing how to see them correctly is important. Zen gardens are not symmetrical but are characterized by asymmetrical compositions. This aesthetic sensibility symbolizes Zen, is born from Zen spirituality, and represents the fact that organic beauty is never complete.

The main feature of Karesansui is the Iwagumi, which is an arranged row of stones and one of the viewpoints of Karesansui. Iwagumi is an important element that determines the quality of the entire Karesansui, and there are various ways of assembling it, such as Taki Iwagumi, which uses only stones to represent the shape of a waterfall, and Sanson Iwagumi, which uses three stones to represent the Buddha and a samurai. Depending on whether the top of the stone is sharp or blunt, the overall impression of the Karesansui feels different.

Peace, harmony, and beauty are the three fundamental elements that characterize the art of the Japanese Zen garden. It is impossible to define or label it with one typology. There are, in fact, many types, each with their own unique and unmistakable style. The goal is to provide the observer with a revised vision of reality where every element contributes to the creation of the landscape.

History of Zen Garden

The basics of the Zen Garden were created around 2,000 years ago. At that time, they marked sacred places outside, in nature, with stones. These were and are, the so-called Shinto shrines, which are part of native Japanese religion. Zen gardens have also been influenced by Buddhism, Taoism, and the principles of Yin and Yang.

Zen Gardens continued to develop in the late Kamakura Period under the influence of the introduction of Zen Buddhism. In the world of Zen, in addition to having a heart that admires nature, it is essential to purify one’s mind through meditation. In Zen training, most Zen temples were built on vast plots of land in the mountains to become one with nature. But as Zen Buddhism spread, they began to be built in urban areas with small plots of land. Karesansui became a natural element.

In addition, the creation of dry landscape gardens was used as part of Zen monks’ training to reflect their mental and physical state. As a relationship between the Rinzai sect and the Shogunate gradually emerged, Zen gardens were also created at the imperial court.

In the Muromachi Period, the style of buildings changed from Shinden-zukuri to Shoin-zukuri, and the influence of ink paintings created the need for ornamental gardens instead of formal gardens. Karesansui rapidly developed and they remain the same to this day. The foundation of Zen Gardens as we know them was completed in this period.

Particularly after the Onin War, when the country was in financial trouble, Zen gardens were valued because they were inexpensive to create. During the Edo Period, Japanese gardens were built all over the country, and the appeal of Karesansui became popular in general.

Symbolism in Zen Gardens

The four main elements of a Zen garden are: stones, water, moss, and trees. However, large plants are avoided. The lack of water in rock gardens is embodied by gravel and sand. These elements and areas are often separated by the so-called torii, classic wooden gates, which serve as a transition and a link. The addition of too many playful details and colors is deliberately avoided. A Zen garden should look calm and orderly, intended to promote creativity and concentration.

Stones are an important component of Japanese gardens. You can use just one stone to balance the landscape of the entire garden or combine several stones to depict waterfalls, mountains, etc. Due to the influence of Zen Buddhism, stones play a special role in this form of Japanese garden. In contrast to the paradise or tea gardens that were often prevalent in the past, Zen gardens provided something new.

Consisting mainly of stones and white gravel areas, plants were almost completely eliminated. These new gardens should not necessarily be entered but instead should be viewed like a picture from the outside. Through the influence of Zen, gardening became less of a job and more of a spiritual practice.

According to the teachings of Zen Buddhism, there is no distinction between I and you, or subject and object. Clear boundaries, such as those we would like to draw everywhere in the Western world, either fall into disuse or need to be created.

The non-essentials should be left out to have a pure mind for meditation. This Zen wisdom is called “Mu” or “Ku” in Japanese. Translated into English, it means something like “emptiness.” This “emptiness” is embodied by the white gravel surfaces.

The reason for using stones in a Zen garden is rooted in classic Japanese aesthetics. A term that plays a significant role here is “Wabi-Sabi.” The syllable “Sabi” can essentially be translated as “patina.” Due to its origin, every stone has a certain patina, i.e., a thin surface layer. A stone in the mountains has a mountain patina, and a stone by the sea has a sea patina. While they remain in a Zen garden, stones take on a garden patina over time. However, only old stones are used. Young stones are strictly frowned upon. Old and used stones radiate transience.

Here, Zen Buddhism shows itself clearly again because change is the only constant. “Wabi” connotes an appreciation for things that show “Sabi.” This leads to an appreciation of the transience of the stones, which is reflected in the different patinas and other features, e.g., scratches, notches, and color differences. It is also important to mention that the stones should never be arranged in a geometric figure, as this cannot be found in nature. An even number of stones should also be avoided. There are usually five or seven stones that are placed either together or individually.

The curved lines in the gravel and sand areas highlight the stone settings. These usually symbolize natural structures such as streams or other bodies of water. It should be noted that no beginning or end to the lines can be seen and that the lines of the individual patterns merge. Taking up the teachings of Zen Buddhism, stones themselves are pretty meaningless, just like man alone is pointless. Meaning only comes into being in connection with an environment.

Zen Gardens are representations of natural scenery such as deformed nature, rough seashores, beaches, etc. They visualize stories from myths, Buddhist scripture, and Zen proverbs. Mt. Horai, Mt. Sumeru, Gokuraku, Nine Mountains and Eight Seas, and many other mythical features permeate Zen Gardens.

Rocks, water, sand, gravel, and other material elements can recreate hills, seas, lakes, and rivers. When creating a Zen landscape, you must abandon the classic idea of a garden that Western gardening has accustomed us to. Each individual plant, each stone, and each grain of sand has a specific function and corresponds to a predetermined order and symbolism.

There is no room for frivolity, embellishments, or chaos. The “randomness” with which classical gardens are often created must be abandoned. The idea is to provide balance and harmony with a minimalist style and almost obsessive attention to detail.

The Zen garden is typically a dry garden. As a result, plants are usually used less. Traditionally, they are limited to moss, which grows over the stones or is placed around the stones. The green color of the moss stands for wisdom and it helps you immerse yourself in meditation. In practice, however, these traditional rules are often broken, and Zen gardens are given an individual touch. However, to maintain the traditional line, plants from Asia, such as Japanese maple or bamboo are particularly recommended.

Choosing plants is one of the fundamental steps after decorating the space. Tall trees are rarely inserted to avoid too apparent contrasts and asymmetries. Small plants, limited in size and manageable with simple pruning, are better. The function of plants is not namely decorative but symbolic. They are used to connect nature and man in the ever-evolving universe.

Evergreen species with long flowering periods and regular vegetative development are generally preferred. Bonsai are usually the protagonists, along with maple, bamboo, reed, and juniper. The lawn must be made of moss, not grass. The green mantle softens the shape and creates soft lines of a beautiful, intense green color that does not fade throughout the year.

Ginkgo biloba is highly valued among the few permitted deciduous species. It is an ancient, almost extinct species characterized by large lobed leaves. The weeping willow is also widely used for its decorative leaves that sway with every light breeze. Among the evergreens, cedar and silver fir are also widely used.

The Book of Job in the Old Testament ends with more than Job’s recovery and restoration. He also gets a new family with seven sons and three daughters. The story highlights the daughters. We learn about their names and their beauty, and we learn that Job gave them an inheritance, just like their brothers. This part, shown in Job 42:15, is critical. It shows Job, a good man in the Bible, treating daughters and sons equally. This is surprising for an Old Testament story and offers us a fresh perspective.

Surprising Facts About the Biblical Patriarchy 

Our perception of ancient history is often flawed. However, ancient texts challenge our impaired perspective and often surprise us. Who would expect an Old Testament document to treat women better than some newer and much-praised systems, such as Athenian democracy?

It is still true that many religious traditions, even nowadays, oppress women. But this oppression is not necessarily based on Biblical commandments. We may find verses that say, for example, that wives must submit to their husbands. But Bible verses don’t exist in a vacuum. When we read the whole section in which this line appears, we can find that God commands men to be kind and loving toward their wives and to serve them and provide for them. Furthermore, it says that husbands must love their wives in order to love themselves. Finally, in 1 Peter 3:7, we read that the prayers of men might be hindered if they don’t treat their wives with respect as their partners in life.

The Bible has always been revolutionary. It ordered people to treat others with dignity. It questioned meaningless celebrations and other futile religious practices. It outlawed child sacrifice and demanded that the vulnerable be protected from harm and poverty. It practically invented human rights while the world was plagued with horror. Ultimately, it said that men and women are equal before God (Galatians 3:28).

In the New Testament, Jesus shows by example what kind of attitude men should have toward women. When a group of self-righteous men wants to kill an adulteress by stoning, he stops them by saying the famous line: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7 NIV).

Now, many argue that the New Testament is all about love and compassion, while the Old Testament is about rules and punishment. For that reason, we’ll focus solely on the Old Testament and particularly on The Book of Job.

Why is The Book of Job so Important?

The Book of Job is one of the oldest books of the Old Testament. It is also one of the most influential ones. It is often cited in apologetic works. A good debate about the topic of why bad things happen to good people is unthinkable without mentioning Job’s case. The most important aspect of this text is that it challenges the simplistic notion of retributive justice, where good is always rewarded, and evil is punished. Its cultural influence is also remarkable. This ancient book has served as inspiration for literary classics, such as Goethe’s Faust.

In a nutshell, Job is an exceptionally good and faithful man. Satan challenges God, claiming Job is only good because he is blessed. To test this, God allows Satan to take away Job’s wealth, health, and family. Job is devastated but doesn’t turn against God. His friends say he must have done something wrong, but Job knows he is innocent. In the end, God appears in person, and Job realizes some things are beyond our understanding. God then restores his fortunes and gives him even more.

Job is described as blameless — a label that is not frequently seen in the Bible (Job 1:1). Verse six brings us to another dimension in which God tells Satan about Job, describing him like this: “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Satan then questions Job’s motives and, eventually, gets God’s permission to ruin Job’s life in order to question his loyalty to the Lord.

An analysis of the entire Book of Job is beyond the scope of this article. However, for our purposes, we need to emphasize, first, that Job was portrayed as a spotless person. Second, most of the book is an explicit criticism of the hypocrisy of religious morality. Job’s friends, who came to comfort him, end up being his persecutors, claiming that there’s no such thing as undeserved punishment. If Job’s life has become miserable, it must have been his fault. In the end, God appears in person and criticizes these so-called friends and their views. God’s justice is not that simple.

The way in which The Book of Job criticizes traditional morality is revolutionary. It has been so since the time when the book was written, and it still is today. But that’s not the only revolutionary aspect of this biblical text.

The Patriarch and His Daughters

There is a consensus among Biblical scholars that Job lived after the flood but before Moses’ time. The exact period is unknown, but it is likely around the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Lot. This is known as the patriarchal period.

Job was a patriarch in the most precise sense. He was incredibly rich and had a large, happy, and healthy family. At the beginning of The Book of Job, his children are grown-ups. They live separately in their own homes, but they maintain strong bonds and traditionally gather to celebrate each other’s birthdays.

In verses 4-5, Job acts as a priest for his children:

“His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, ‘Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’ This was Job’s regular custom” (Job 1:4-5 NIV).

As the head of the family, Job clearly believes that the well-being of his children is his responsibility — even though they are grown-ups. He has already amassed a fortune for them, and he regularly makes sacrificial offerings for each of them. Completely devoted to the family and loyal to God, Job only does what is right in God’s eyes — and he does so til the end of the text, regardless of the harsh treatment he receives. The last thing he does after God has restored everything is shown in the epilogue:

“The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers” (Job 42:12-15).

Granting an inheritance to female offspring was not common in ancient times, and the author did not mention this without reason. Job is not just a regular person. He is a strong believer in God. The portrait of Job is to serve as a role model for anyone who wants to do things right.

Mosaic law was still not in place, so stories like this helped individuals maintain a sense of right and wrong. And for some reason, the author wanted the readers to see that giving an inheritance to daughters is the right thing to do. As we will see, this is not the only instance in the Old Testament that talks favorably about women’s rights.

The Treatment of Women in the Old Testament

Even though some religious individuals have negative views on equal rights, the Bible as a whole does not support such views. One of the early texts that illustrates this is the advice to a son given in Proverbs 1:8-9. It explicitly says to a young person not to forget the lessons received from both father and mother.

In Genesis, we read that God created the woman to be the man’s partner (Gen 2:18). However, after the fall, the first thing Adam did was blame Eve for his own wrong decision (Gen 3:12). After that, every time someone did injustice to a woman, the main cause was the sin that entered the world.

But, according to the Bible, God was not happy with the mistreatment and oppression of women, children, or anyone else. As a result, he gave people a set of laws and regulations, as well as entire court case notes. So, in the books of Moses, we can find passages such as this one:

So Moses brought their case before the LORD, and the LORD said to him, What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them (Num 27:5-7).

Likewise, there were marital laws in place to defend women. A man who married a girl, and then “hated” her and falsely accused her in order to get a divorce was to be whipped (Deuteronomy 22:13-21). The punishment for rape was also death:

“But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death” (Deuteronomy 22:25-26).

In this case, it was important to make a clear distinction between an offender and the victim to prevent further injustice. But sometimes, men and women were in the same kind of trouble. The previous lines of Deuteronomy say that a couple caught in adultery should be put to death (Deuteronomy 22:22-23).

In practice, men often got away with violating women’s rights. But it was not God’s law that instructed them so.

Violence Against Women and Divine Retribution in the Old Testament 

The historical books of the Old Testament are detailed and honest in depicting the people and events they mention. Thanks to these texts, we know that people often violated God’s laws. But they always had to face the consequences. One of the surprising facts is that even the individuals or tribes that seem to enjoy special protection from God were not spared when they did something wrong.

King David was, without doubt, one of God’s favorites. However, he did atrocious acts that were punished severely, and the record is kept as a warning for any future wrongdoers. In 2 Samuel 11, we see David falling in love with a married woman, whom he soon makes pregnant. Next, he arranges for her husband to be killed. It should be mentioned that the husband was one of the most loyal generals in the army. The king’s plan worked, and his people never found out about it. However, his actions “displeased the Lord” (2 Sam 11:27), and David was punished quite harshly.

The name of the woman mentioned above was Bathsheeba, and we could say that, as the wife of a general, her social position was relatively high. But the Bible teaches that even poor and socially insignificant women must not be hurt. There’s a famous example from The Book of Judges, chapters 19 and 20, where the entire tribe of Beniamites was nearly wiped out from the face of the earth after a group of men raped an unnamed woman. The entire chapter 19 was written to depict the details of these monstrous events. In the next chapter, we see God personally coordinating the armies of the remaining eleven tribes as they attack the Beniamites.

Job and Women

The Old Testament passages that describe cruelty and poor treatment of women serve as a depiction of corrupt human nature, not desirable behavior. God’s commandments are different. Orders that men should treat women well are given in Mosaic Law and are clearly shown in other biblical texts, including The Book of Job.

Even though women are not the main characters in The Book of Job, they do appear, and they are treated with love and respect. Job’s wife only speaks once in the text, but we see that she has the right to express her opinion. Job dismisses her opinion as wrong — just like the opinions of his male friends — but it has nothing to do with her status as a woman.

As for his daughters, they are loved by both their father and their brothers. Job takes care of all of his children alike. His sons from his original family — all adult men — see their sisters as equals, invite them to their homes, and eat and drink together. The sons from the new family are barely mentioned. We only know there were seven of them. But the daughters are shown as precious. Unlike the sons, they are mentioned by their names.

The tone in which Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-Happuch were described as beautiful speaks volumes. Their father loved them and in his righteousness, he treated them the same as his sons. However, the ending makes us think that he may have treated the girls even better. Even though we don’t know much about the life of these special women, their brief mention in The Book of Job is an invaluable testimony of divine justice.

Hades was one of the primary Olympian deities and brother to Zeus and Poseidon. He was a chthonic god, meaning a god of the earth with special power over the dead. He was sometimes called “Zeus below the earth” in deference to the power he wielded and to the size of his kingdom. There was a cultural aversion to invoking the god’s name, instead calling him by his many epithets like Host-of-Many or He-Who-Leads-Away. He was also commonly referred to as Plouton or Pluto, meaning wealthy, most likely due to the fact that precious metals were found beneath the earth and so would be part of his domain. This name was also used by the Romans, who amalgamated Hades with their own original god of the underworld, Dis Pater.

Unlike many of his siblings, such as Zeus or Demeter, Hades had no widespread cult of worship. People feared to speak his name out loud for fear that he would take notice of them. Hades had very few of his own myths, but he featured in many stories of Greek heroes such as Heracles, Theseus, and Orpheus. In these stories he acted as an antagonistic force for the heroes to overcome.

1. Birth and Ascension of Hades

Hades was born to the Titan Kronos and the mother goddess Rhea. He was one of six children and the eldest of their three sons. However, due to a prophecy given to Kronos describing how he would be overthrown by one of his sons in the same way he overthrew his own father, Ouranos, the Titan swallowed his children as soon as they were born. He gulped down five of the six. Only Zeus, the youngest, escaped due to a clever trick by Rhea, who swaddled a stone in place of the baby Zeus for Kronos to swallow. Zeus grew up on Crete and returned to eventually overthrow his father. Kronos regurgitated his children in the reverse order he swallowed them, so the eldest son Hades became the youngest.

Hades then joined Zeus in a war against their father and the other Titans, known as the Titanomachy. They freed the Cyclopes from Tartaros to aid them and, as a gift, they gave Hades his signature helmet of invisibility. Zeus was gifted the thunderbolt and Poseidon his trident, and with these weapons they defeated their father and usurped him. The brothers divided up his powers among themselves, deciding which domain they would rule by casting lots. Zeus drew the heavens, Poseidon the seas, and Hades the underworld (Apollodorus, 2nd century CE).

2. Abduction of Persephone

The central myth about Hades involves his abduction and rape of Persephone, daughter of Demeter. The earliest recounting of this myth comes from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, composed sometime in the mid-seventh century BCE. The hymn recounts the abduction, as well as Demeter’s travels across the earth as she grieved for her lost daughter.

As the story goes, Zeus gave Persephone as a bride to Hades, both without her knowledge or consent. At Zeus’ instructions, Gaia laid a trap for the young goddess in the form of a beautiful meadow. Persephone was playing in the meadow, picking flowers and dancing with nymphs, when she spied the most beautiful flower she’d ever seen. When she reached out to grab it, the earth opened up and out sprung Hades on his chariot. He snatched the goddess up, ignoring her cries for help, and took her away to the underworld. Demeter heard her daughter’s cries and, upon learning that Hades had taken her with Zeus’ permission, she went into a self-imposed exile. Without Demeter, the world fell into a terrible famine that was only ended by Zeus’ intervention.

The king of the gods sent Hermes into the underworld to convince Hades to allow Persephone to return to Olympus. Hades acquiesced to Zeus’ demand and bid Persephone to go back to her mother, but before she could leave he secretly made her eat a pomegranate seed. This simple act would have significant consequences. When Demeter was reunited with her daughter, she sensed that something was wrong and asked her,

“My child, surely you haven’t eaten any food while you were below, have you? Speak up, don’t hide it, so that both of us may know. For, if so, you may dwell with me and your father, the dark-clouded son of Kronos, coming up from hateful Hades and honoured by all the immortals. But if you have eaten any, going back under the caverns of the earth you will live there for a third part of the seasons in a year[…]”
(López-Ruiz, 2014, p.487)

By eating the pomegranate seed Persephone became bound to return to the underworld for a third of every year. This myth served to explain the cycle of seasons and how the gods played a role in these natural phenomena. Persephone returning to the underworld to take her place as Hades’ queen brings the onset of winter, and her return to Olympus marks the start of spring.

3. Leuce and Minthe

Before Persephone, Hades had for his mistress a nymph by the name of Minthe. She was the daughter of the river Cocytus, one of the rivers that flowed through the underworld.

Ovid (1st century BCE) gave a brief mention to this story in Book X of his Metamorphoses, when Venus (Aphrodite) said to Persephone, “[…] were you not once allowed to change a young woman to fragrant mint[?]” Oppian, a second-century author, gives a slightly fuller account. He wrote that Mint, written in Greek as Minthe, was Hades’ mistress before his abduction of Persephone. Afterwards she became jealous and complained loudly, saying that she was more beautiful than Persephone and that Hades would eventually come back to her. Demeter, Persephone’s mother, flew into a rage at hearing her daughter so disrespected and trampled the nymph underfoot. From that spot grew the herb that bears her name.

Leuce was a nymph and one of the daughters of Oceanus. There is little known about her except that Hades fell in love with her and carried her off to the underworld. She lived out her days with him there, and when she died, Hades sprouted a leucen tree in Elysium, the fields of the dead, in her memory. Heracles was said to have crowned himself with the leaves of this tree when he returned from the underworld.

4. Hades and the Labours of Heracles

Hades features twice in the mythos of Heracles. For the hero’s twelfth and final labour, Heracles was tasked with capturing Cerberos, the three-headed hound that guarded the entrance to the underworld. When Heracles finally made it to the House of Hades, he asked the god for the beast and Hades presented him with a challenge. If he could overcome Cerberos without the use of his weapons, then he could have it. Using his bare hands, Heracles wrestled the three-headed hound to submission despite being bitten by the dragon that was the beast’s tail. He carried the hound back through the underworld and presented it to King Eurystheus, completing the final labor. He then returned Cerberos to Hades.

The god encountered Heracles one more time after this. In a brief passage in Book V of The Iliad, Homer (8th century BCE) writes of how Heracles injured Hades by running him through with a spear:

“Even tremendous Hades

had to endure that flying shaft like all the rest,

when the same man, the son of thunder-shielded Zeus,

shot him in Pylos – there with the troops of battle dead –

and surrendered Death to pain. But Hades made his way

to craggy Olympus, climbed to the house of Zeus,

stabbed with agony, grief-struck to the heart,

the shaft driven into his massive shoulder

grinding down his spirit…”

(ln.449-457)

Hades joined the battle on the side of the Pylians, but was forced to retreat after sustaining the injury. According to Pausanias, only the people of Elis worshiped Hades, which would explain why he came to their aid.

5. Punishments of Hades

A portion of the myths surrounding Hades have to do with the punishments the god inflicts on mortals who have offended him. One such mortal was Sisyphos, a mythological king of Corinth and grandfather to the hero Bellerophon. In one version of his story Sisyphos betrays one of Zeus’ secrets, so the god sent Hades to collect him and bring him to the underworld. The king managed to trick Hades and chain him, saving his own life but also preventing anyone else on earth from dying as long as the god remained chained. Ares intervened and freed Hades, then turned Sisyphos over to him. In another version of the story it is Thanatos, the god of death, who is sent to collect the king and subsequently chained.

Before he died, Sisyphos told his wife Merope not to perform the customary funerary rites and to throw his body into the city square. When he reached the underworld he tricked Hades, or in another version, Persephone, into allowing him to return to the world of the living to punish his wife for her blatant disrespect of his body. He was allowed to return, but the crafty Sisyphos never went back down to the underworld. When he finally died of old age the gods hadn’t forgotten what he had done. Hades condemned him to an eternity of pushing a massive boulder up a hill, only for it to inevitably roll back down before it ever reached the top.

Greek heroes Theseus and Pirithous also spent time in the underworld suffering one of Hades’ punishments. The two men resolved that they would each marry a daughter of Zeus; Theseus carried off Helen of Sparta, but Pirithous was more ambitious. He vowed to take Persephone as his wife. The two men descended into the underworld to find her, traversing all the dangers until they finally arrived at the House of Hades. The god invited them inside for a banquet and bid them to sit down on two stone chairs. When they did, they became stuck, and they were bound to the chairs by coils of snakes. Hades knew of their plan and knew that it was Pirithous’ idea, so, while he eventually allowed Theseus to escape with the help of Heracles, Pirithous remained imprisoned forever.

The bard Orpheus, one of Jason’s Argonauts, was another who descended into the underworld, but his motivation was love. The first-century BCE poet Ovid recounts the story in Book X of his Metamorphoses. Overcome with grief by the death of his wife, Eurydice, he went down to the underworld to ask Hades to restore her to life. He made this request in the form of a song. When he was done, all the spirits and tormented dead wept, and neither Persephone nor Hades could deny him.

Hades granted his request, bringing forth Eurydice, who was still limping from the wound that had killed her, on the condition that he not look back at all until he had exited the underworld. The bard and his wife journeyed back upwards, but as he neared the exit Orpheus feared that Eurydice wouldn’t make it all the way with her injury. He turned back, and as he did his wife slipped back into the underworld for a second time. Orpheus begged the ferryman at the River Styx to allow him back into the underworld, but he was denied.

Hades was not the protagonist in any of his own myths, but he was featured in many of the most well-known stories from antiquity. While he mainly kept to himself in the underworld, the stories of heroes often brought them into contact with the world of the dead. He was a force to overcome or to bargain with, and any who cheated him found themselves eternally tormented. For while some escaped, they always returned to him in the end.

References

Apollodorus. (1st or 2nd century CE). The Library of Greek Mythology (R. Hard, trans). Oxford University Press, 1997

López-Ruiz, C. (Ed.). (2014). Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: A Sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Myths in Translation. Oxford University Press

Homer. (8th or 7th century BCE). The Iliad (R. Fagles, trans). Penguin Books USA Inc., 1990

Hesiod. (8th century BCE). Theogony and Works and Days (D. Wender, trans). Penguin Group, 1973

Ovid. (43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D.). Metamorphoses (C.Martin, trans). W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005

The origins of Stoic philosophy can be traced back to Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE. The word “Stoic” comes from the Stoa of Attalos, where the philosophy developed. Although Stoicism was originally a Hellenistic philosophy, four of the most notable Stoics were all Romans: Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Musonius Rufus.

Stoicism, also known as the art of letting go, resonated with people from all walks of society. Marcus Aurelius was an Emperor, while Epictetus was born a slave — but both subscribed to, benefitted from, and promoted Stoic philosophy.

What is Stoic Philosophy?

Stoicism teaches that we cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond to it. We should focus on what we can control rather than what we cannot. This philosophical system recognizes four virtues: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Courage refers to fortitude, strength, and endurance. Temperance refers to self-control, discipline, moderation, and abstinence. Justice speaks to honesty and fairness. Wisdom is the enduring search for knowledge and its application to real-life situations.

Stoicism teaches that things can and will go wrong in life, but this presents us with an opportunity to utilize one or more virtues to overcome whatever obstacle is in the way. It boils down to an attitude toward challenges, such as seeing how circumstances allow for growth and personal development. It is a philosophy of action rather than words. In this vein, Epictetus wrote: “Waste no more time talking about what a good man is like. Be one!”

Stoics believed their practitioners could achieve eudaimonia (happiness, welfare, good spirit) by practicing the virtues. Wealth, to them, did not lie in material possessions but rather in developing a rich spirit and character. They, therefore, devalued material things that could be lost or taken away in favor of that which could not.

Stoics believed that a system of logic governs the universe. They referred to that system as the logos, from where we derive the word “logic.” Logos, to them, is a god-like entity, the universal force of reason. This entity was also called divine reason, the spirit of the universe, destiny, the gods, or nature, among other names.

It is important to note that Stoicism (capital “S”) refers to the philosophy of the Stoics while stoicism refers to an attitude of indifference to pain or not showing emotions nor complaining when enduring hardship or suffering.

John 1:1, speaking about Jesus (see verse 14), reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Considering that “Word” is a translation of the Greek word logos, the similarity to Stoicism is significant. It is therefore not surprising that many of Jesus’ teachings reflect Stoic thinking.

Stoicism in Jesus’ Words?

Many scholars and philosophers have identified Stoic principles in what Jesus said and how he reacted to situations, which has led to the question of whether Jesus subscribed to Stoic philosophy. Here are some similarities between what Jesus said and what Stoicism teaches:

Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:12: “Do for others as you would like them to do to you” are remarkably like Seneca’s “Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your betters” (Letter XLVII: On Master and Slave, line 11) and conveys the same wisdom.

Matthew 5:5 reads: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The meekness Jesus refers to should not be interpreted as weakness. The essence of the original Greek word praos, which is translated as meek in most Bibles, cannot be captured in any one word in English. It depicts a powerful personality that is under control. Self-control is central to Stoic philosophy which teaches there is great reward in practicing it.

The idea of self-examination also features prominently among the Stoics and in Jesus’ teachings. He said: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). Seeking to change oneself is within your control but trying to fix the faults of another are not, and Jesus promoted the idea of looking at oneself, rather than others, to correct that which may need work.

Jesus taught: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39). The same principle can be identified in Seneca’s words: “If you want to be loved, love.” (Epistulae Morales 9) and “Take care not to harm others, so others won’t harm you.” (Epistulae Morale 103).

When it comes to material things, Jesus taught: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” This idea is remarkably like Marcus Aurelius’ view that very little is needed to be happy and that possessions detract from what is important in life.

Jesus accepted and embraced His fate in the garden of Gethsemane when He said: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42) and later, on the cross, He forgave those who caused his suffering when he uttered: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). These words would resonate with any Stoic for they embody the idea of acceptance of adverse circumstances and of practicing self-control in response to them.

Stoicism in the Epistles

Jesus’ followers also subscribed to principles that align with Stoicism. Paul, a highly educated follower of Jesus and the contributor of the largest portion of the New Testament wrote many letters that reflect stoic principles. He writes to the Romans, incorporating elements of stoic thought, when he declares: “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3). Any of the ancient Stoics would applaud Paul’s words when he says: “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Romans 15:1).

The author of Hebrews 12:11 speaks to the benefit of discipline, writing: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” His message resonates with Musonius Rufus, who wrote: “If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.”

James, the author of one of the general epistles, wrote: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” The passage reflects the Stoic idea that adversity creates opportunities for character development.

How Do Jesus’ Teachings Differ From Stoic Philosophy?

The writings of some Stoics seem to display pantheistic tendencies and the belief that the universe or nature embodies God. Assigning a specific view to all ancient Stoics would be impossible due to the diverse beliefs they held. The divine in Stoic philosophy is indifferent to people’s suffering and struggles. Christians, on the other hand, believe in a personal God who is interested in and invested in the lives of all people. He is aware of their suffering, struggles, and needs. He wants to get involved in their spiritual development and well-being. Christians can petition God in prayer whenever they desire to, and they have assurance that their prayers are heard and answered.

Stoics aim to live in harmony with the logos (nature, god) but do not believe that the divine being, whatever form it takes, saves them. In Christianity, God is the savior of his people. Jesus taught: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Stoic philosophy teaches its proponents to focus on the now, not what happened in the past or what will happen in the future. It seldom refers to anything resembling an afterlife and never goes into much detail about it. In Christianity, much is said about the afterlife and its rewards. It is a central theme and presents the hope that allows the believer to endure in the present. That said, the Bible teaches something like Stoic philosophy, stating: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). However, this statement does not negate the faith believers have that eternal life after death transcends their immediate wants.

Jesus and Stoic Philosophy

There are many ways in which the teachings of Jesus align with Stoic philosophy. Many of Jesus’ sayings and those of his apostles resonate with Stoic principles.

Stoic philosophy and Christianity differ on some core beliefs about the higher being, salvation, and the afterlife, among other things. Stoics believed in an impersonal and sometimes pantheistic god, while Christianity teaches that there is a personal God who is very much involved in the lives of the saints.

It would not do justice to either Christianity or Stoicism to say Jesus was a Stoic. It would be more accurate to say that Stoic philosophy and Christian principles overlap when not addressing the divine being or matters of salvation.

Invented in 1450, the Gutenberg printing press was a revolutionary development in the Western world that ushered in the ‘information revolution.’ For the first time in Europe, book printing was no longer a painstaking, expensive task that limited reading and writing to the wealthy and the clergy. Johannes Gutenberg made literacy accessible to the masses, spreading ideas and messages in a way the continent had not yet seen. The press facilitated movements such as the Protestant Reformation which permanently reshaped European politics and religion. Johannes Gutenberg is known today as the ‘father of mass media’ for his invention that laid the foundation for all forms of mass communication that came after him.

The Gutenberg Press Was the First Western Printing Press

A printing press relies on movable type to transfer text to paper. Before the Gutenberg press, European books were largely transcribed by monks and scribes. These copies were expensive and often only produced on commission – limiting literacy to the clergy and those wealthy enough to afford handwritten texts. While the Gutenberg press was certainly not the first printing press – movable type had existed in China since the 9th century – it was the first in Europe and came with important technological developments. Primarily, using metal type instead of wood allowed for a sharper impression, resulting in a higher quality text. The Gutenberg press was modeled after the medieval wine press – involving a large lever that would exert downward pressure on paper, transferring to it the contents of the inked type below and could print about 250 pages per hour.

The First Complete Extant Book: The Gutenberg Bible

One of the earliest books to be printed on the Gutenberg press was the bible, in 1455. Known as the Gutenberg Bible, it is widely regarded as an exemplary piece of early printing and is the first complete extant book from the West. It is not clear how many copies were originally printed but approximately forty still exist today, only three of which are completely intact. The book was printed in a gothic typeface and adorned with colorful hand-drawn headings that helped it maintain much of the character that was typical in other, handwritten, bibles at the time. Alongside being written in Latin using St. Jerome’s fourth-century translation known as the ‘Vulgate,’ the Gutenberg Bible was an entirely familiar book that was also utterly state-of-the-art in its formation. 

The Gutenberg Bible represents the first time a book was made cheaply and quickly, relative to the time. This expanded the general public’s access to the written word and set the stage for an information revolution. Eventually, printed text became ubiquitous because of the press’ efficiency and accessibility. It soon made economic sense for a layperson to learn to read and write when books and pamphlets began to circulate more frequently. And, importantly, as the public learned to read over the following century, they no longer relied on the church and ruling class for information.

Setting the Stage for Western Mass Media

Johannes Gutenberg is often considered the ‘father of mass media’ for his invention. A slow-moving medium reserved only for the elite could now be shared quickly among the masses. One of the most significant early examples of the power of the printing press was the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s. Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses could not have gained such a following if not for the Gutenberg Press, which made it possible to quickly print and disseminate pamphlets. 

The Gutenberg Press also created a culture of mass media that far exceeded the printed word. It was common for literate members of communities in the Early Modern period to perform readings of pamphlets, for entertainment or news, in public, creating a shared media landscape. This foundation of mass media then gave way to new forms mass communication like newspapers and novels and, eventually, radio, film, and television.

In the aftermath of World War II, much of Western Europe lay in ruins. France, Germany, and Italy had been ravaged by warfare. To prevent the rise of another totalitarian ruler from the ashes of Europe, the United States decided to remain active on the international scene and help rebuild the war-stricken continent. The Marshall Plan, created by US Secretary of State George C. Marshall, was proposed in 1947 and made into law the following year. Ultimately, it would give billions of dollars in economic aid to Western Europe, primarily to rebuild destroyed infrastructure. But was the economic aid without strings, or did it help further American interests? Here’s a look at the Marshall Plan and its Cold War effects.

Setting the Stage: Aftermath of World War I

The devastation of World War I was unprecedented, with large swaths of territory rendered unusable by trench warfare, minefields, unexploded ordnance, and the use of chemical weapons like mustard gas. Although the United States did provide some assistance in the aftermath of the war, it was largely in the form of loans and food aid rather than help rebuilding infrastructure. Economically wounded by war, many European societies underwent periods of radicalism after World War I.

Most famously, Russia experienced the Bolshevik Revolution as a result of the hardships of World War I. Russia’s poor performance in World War I led to the toppling of its tsarist monarchy and replacement by a communist government, triggering the lengthy and brutal Russian Civil War. At the end of this war, the Soviet Union was created. Its government was dedicated to spreading communism worldwide, upsetting many world powers who were opposed to communism, especially the United States.

Setting the Stage: Rise of Mussolini & Hitler

The devastation of World War I led not only to far-left radicalism (communism) but also far-right radicalism (fascism). At both ends of the political spectrum horseshoe, a populist government has complete control over society. As the new Soviet Union quickly fell under the total control of dictator Joseph Stalin, who replaced Vladimir Lenin upon Lenin’s death in 1924, Germany and Italy also headed toward totalitarian rule. In Italy, Benito Mussolini rose to power after World War I, coining the term fascism in the process by arguing that a strong leader was needed to fix the nation’s economic woes.

Germany suffered the most from the Great Depression in Europe, compounding its economic woes from the end of World War I. This downturn and desperation helped result in the rise of Adolf Hitler, who was appointed chancellor by ailing German president Paul von Hindenburg in early 1933. Similar to the New Deal in the United States, both Mussolini and Hitler gained popularity and bolstered their power during the mid-1930s by using deficit spending to improve their respective economies. By 1939, Hitler felt ready to embark on armed conquest to gain Lebensraum (living space) for Germany.

1940-45: Destruction of Western Europe in WWII

The destruction of World War I was quickly surpassed by that of World War II. Vast swaths of Europe, including major cities in Germany, France, Italy, and Eastern Europe, were decimated. Even cities in Britain faced direct destruction, thanks to German bombing and later use of the V-1 buzz bomb and V-2 rocket.

Civilians faced harsh shortages of important goods, including food. Scorched earth retreats to deprive advancing armies of resources had occurred both during the German advances of 1940-42 and the German retreats of 1944-45.

Unlike World War I, where Germany signed an armistice out of exhaustion, World War II required the Allies to fight all the way into Berlin, which finally fell in May 1945. This meant the destruction of many German cities, including through controversial firebombing. France, occupied by Germany for almost four years, lost thousands of factories, both to the Germans themselves and to the Americans and British, who were attacking German-controlled infrastructure. Italy, having switched sides to the Allies in 1943, also lost infrastructure as German occupiers retreated.

1947: George C. Marshall Proposes Generous Aid

General George C. Marshall, a World War I veteran, served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II and was praised for his administrative skill and ensuring that the US military was well organized and supplied. Immediately after the end of World War II, Marshall was sent to China to try and negotiate an end to the Chinese Civil War. Unfortunately, this was not successful, and Marshall returned to the United States in January 1947. President Harry S. Truman quickly named Marshall the next US Secretary of State. That June, in a commencement address at Harvard University, Marshall proposed a large aid package to Europe to ease the suffering of civilians.

Specifically, the aid would be targeted at rebuilding Europe’s infrastructure so that those nations could resume domestic production. This idea became popular and was formalized as the Economic Recovery Program (ERP). Commonly, it was known as the “Marshall Plan.” While it was not formally intended to protect Western European nations against communist encroachment, it did emphasize the free market. In December 1947, Truman proposed Marshall’s ideas to Congress. Only four months later, on April 3, 1948, Truman signed the ERP into law as the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948.

1948-52: The United States Delivers Aid

The formal Marshall Plan appropriations occurred over four years, from 1948 to 1952, with a total funding of $13.3 billion by Congress. Many Americans wanted to revitalize Western Europe quickly, particularly to prevent the spread of communism. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin refused to allow any nations in the new Soviet bloc of central and eastern Europe to accept Marshall Plan aid. This had two results: it both strengthened animosity between West and East and encouraged Congress to generously fund the program – it would likely have received less funding if money were going to communists!

Of the funds appropriated by Congress, roughly a quarter went to Britain, almost 20 percent went to France, and 11 percent went to West Germany. In total, sixteen European countries received aid from the Marshall Plan. Allegedly, West Germany and Italy received less aid due to their World War II status as Axis Power aggressors. Switzerland, Sweden, and Portugal, who were not directly involved in the war, also received aid.

To receive aid, recipients had to agree to work toward free trade agreements within Europe and with the United States. Perhaps in a nod toward free market capitalism, recipients were encouraged to reduce public spending, thus increasing the economic role of the private sector.

Marshall Plan Projects

In the program’s early days, the immediate influx of aid helped alleviate shortages of goods. Over the longer term, there were projects to rebuild destroyed or damaged infrastructure, especially roads. Capital goods like tractors were in high demand, and their purchase under the Marshall Plan helped change labor dynamics in Western Europe – more men were available for industrial and white-collar work instead of agriculture. Factory equipment for steel production was also in high demand, as the war had destroyed many steel plants due to their value as military targets. In West Germany, Marshall Plan funds helped rebuild both the steel and coal industries, with coal being a vital energy source.

The rebuilding of destroyed factories, such as a French steel plant, allowed for the modernization of Europe’s industries. Many of Western Europe’s factories were far older than their North American counterparts, usually meaning they were less efficient. With new equipment, recipients of Marshall Plan aid became as productive as similar industries in America. As a result of American equipment and goods as aid, Western Europe became more familiar with American products and came to seek them out. This helped benefit American companies, as they would now sell more exports to Europe.

Truman Goal: Containment of Communism

The Marshall Plan was not entirely based on an affinity for Western Europe. Countering the Soviet Union was a goal of the Plan, as the Soviets had reneged on agreements to allow Eastern European nations to hold free elections. After the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, US President Harry S. Truman had a distrust of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and embarked on a policy of containment. This would be strengthened in 1949 after the victory of the communists in the Chinese Civil War. The American policy of containment was simple: to contain communism within its existing borders.

Seeing Stalin’s refusal to abide by agreements made at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences in 1945 made many Americans fear the potential spread of communism into Western Europe. These war-torn nations were desperate for aid, and citizens might even accept communism if it meant economic revitalization. To prevent the rise of communists in Western Europe, those economies needed to be rebuilt quickly. By providing economic aid, the United States was reducing radicalism and opportunities for the USSR to foment revolution. Simultaneously, the US was building trading partners for its own industries, providing a double benefit.

Marshall Plan & Truman Doctrine

The Marshall Plan is often seen as part of a larger, similarly-focused program known as the Truman Doctrine. Broader than the Marshall Plan, which was limited to economic programs and focused on Western Europe, the Truman Doctrine intended to provide economic, political, and military assistance to all democratic states that needed help resisting communism. These simultaneous programs help underscore the basic American goal of containing communism, especially in Europe. If economic aid under the Marshall Plan was insufficient to quell the rise of communists in a European country, the Truman Doctrine would allow military aid to bolster a government that was fearful of a potential communist uprising or coup d’état. 

Unveiled by President Truman in March 1947, a few months before George Marshall’s speech at Harvard, the Truman Doctrine began with aid to Greece and Turkey, which were directly on the periphery of the new Soviet bloc. The US decided to provide assistance to Greece and Turkey after Britain, struggling from its own World War II economic stresses, chose to halt its own aid. If the US’s European allies were suffering economically, they could not be expected to aid in the struggle against communist expansion. The initial offer of aid to Eastern Europe could also be seen as a diplomatic offensive against the USSR, making the US appear powerful and generous and forcing Joseph Stalin to appear ungrateful by refusing to allow the aid.

Aftermath: Marshall Plan Promotes Mutual Defense

Closer economic ties between Western Europe and the United States generated by the Marshall Plan are credited with leading to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. Although the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 is often explained as the military reason for the creation of the alliance, it is undeniable that the growing economic ties between the US and Europe assisted with the plans to create a unified military bloc. Without the Marshall Plan, it would likely have taken longer for Western European states to pursue a strong military alliance with the United States, especially one that calls for mutual response.

Economic ties helped reinforce military alliances, especially when it came to arms sales. If the United States supplied industrial equipment, European nations would have an incentive to purchase similarly manufactured military equipment as well. Increased mutual trade between the US and Western Europe provided a strong incentive to protect the region from communist encroachment, as such trade with America would likely be suspended if a communist government took over. Creating a strong export market in Europe gave American industries and policymakers reason to support generous funding for NATO.

Aftermath: America’s International Role?

However, America’s spending on rebuilding the economies of Western Europe was not without controversy. Some fiscal conservatives did not like the idea of using tax dollars to benefit other countries, even allies, while there were still struggling people in the United States. There were fears that the US would increasingly be seen as a checkbook by other countries, which would demand aid in exchange for avoiding communism. Some felt that the provision of generous aid, especially to former fascist powers West Germany and Italy, would intensify growing Cold War tensions. The Soviets, in the aftermath of a terrible war on their territory, were not eager to see the former Axis Powers rebuilt.

Ethically, there are some concerns about nation-building and whether people lose some of their autonomy when they accept foreign aid. Critics argue that America’s foreign aid is secretly influenced by a desire to control a territory rather than just humanitarian reasons. This debate continues today. Even when foreign countries request aid, does the receipt of American aid and assistance imply some degree of American control? One case study would be the Suez Crisis of 1956 – did the receipt of American aid through the Marshall Plan help force Britain and France to accept US demands that they end their military operation to retake the Suez Canal from Egypt?

The position of photography as an art form was debated from its beginning in the mid-19th century. However, photography made its way to museums by the 1960s through many exhibitions and acquisitions. At the same time, American and European conceptual artists altered the traditional practice of photography by using it to express an idea which was at the essence of conceptual art. They adopted the camera as an experimental tool. Photographs of their ephemeral works allowed them to advertise their practice and ensure their legacy.

Surrealist Experiments Towards Conceptual Photography

Fine art photography has its roots in early 20th-century photographs, which placed a strong emphasis on the craft and form of the medium. Later on, Dadaists and Surrealist artists experimented with the possibilities of the camera, leading to the emergence of a conceptual approach to photography through which artists not only depicted a subject but illustrated an idea. The American artist Man Ray experimented with photography in the 1920s and 1930s, creating many memorable images. He would play with angles, lighting, and different visual effects. This resulted in sometimes equivocal and unhesitatingly aesthetic photographs, such as L’Inquiétude [Anxiety] (1920), where he tentatively represented an emotion rather than a material subject. The photograph is blurry and evocative, leaving the viewer puzzled, if not anxious to know more about it. Other artists from around the same time, such as Claude Cahun, would also experiment with the camera, creating self-portraits of performances by dressing up and embodying different characters.

Performing For the Camera

Many conceptual artists developed performances based on instructions, cues, or controlled improvisation. Artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s used the camera to compose and create photographs as documents of these performances. American artist Martha Wilson created a series of characters that she impersonated using her own body and face in photographs that could not be described as self-portraits.

These works became conceptual photographs representing the fictional identities of the artist, based on gender stereotypes. Her series A Portfolio of Models (1974) showcases different female figures (such as The Working Girl or The Lesbian), for which Wilson chose clothing, styling, and a pose in a very studio-like image. She then paired each photograph with a short text, in which she humorously described the character’s life and motivations. She worked together with photographer Victor Hayes on these images.

Other artists used the camera to stage repetitive acts or experimental situations representing their intentions and goals. Italian artist Giovanni Anselmo who was a member of the Arte Povera group, placed his camera to face a field and ran into the frame once the camera’s timer was on. The final piece was titled Entering the Work (1971). The work speaks about the conceptual idea of entering one’s art, piercing its secrets, while at the same time reflecting on the artistic work that’s being done in order to produce a piece. It also directly ponders on the camera’s capacity to capture movement, and therefore time and space. The work has been printed on different mediums (paper or fabric) and in different sizes, highlighting photography’s great ability to be reproduced and disseminated.

Photography as Documentation

Obviously, photography can also be used as a way to document moments in time. Conceptual artistic practices include performances and ephemeral works. In those instances, photography (as well as video) has often been the only way to record, keep track, and later on publicize these works. Photography helps performance artists ultimately make their art sellable and collectible. In 1976, Artforum critic Nancy Foote wrote an essay called The Anti-Photographers about the delicate, yet paradoxical, relationship that conceptual artists had with photography. The author noted: “Conceptual art has never been plagued with accusations that it belongs on photography’s side of the tracks, yet the condition in which much of it could or would exist without photography is open to question.”

Without the camera, many conceptual artworks would only exist in narrated accounts or artists’ instructions.

For instance, during the 1970s American artist Bonnie Ora Sherk created a series of visionary performances in urban environments of San Francisco, California, exploring the relationships between humans and nature. Her performance Public Lunch (1971) took place at the San Francisco Zoo, where Sherk decided to eat lunch in the big cats’ cages during opening hours. Video footage and photographs became the only records of that artwork. They show Sherk sitting at a table, next to the lions’ and tigers’ cages, being fed like an animal. While the artist didn’t take the photographs herself, she decided to use photography as a tool to transmit her message. These images have become deeply associated with her practice, as well as with the general performance art of the time.

Conceptual Use of Photography

As seen in the examples above, most conceptual artists were not photographers. Performance artists would have friends or hired photographers record their art pieces. Other conceptual artists, interested in the relationship between text, image, and meaning, also included photographs in their work in order to question our relationship with abstract ideas and reality.

One of conceptual art’s seminal artworks was made by American artist Joseph Kosuth. It’s called One and Three Chairs (1965) and it features a display of three versions of a chair. There’s a definition from the dictionary, a manufactured chair, and a photograph of the chair. All three elements (the physical object and the two prints) embody the same concept—a chair.

In that particular work, Kosuth used photography to simply ask the question: What is a chair? Is a photograph of a chair equivalent to its written definition? The work is collected and displayed in many institutions around the world using different chairs and definitions written in various languages. Kosuth’s instructions for the piece state that the chosen chair should be photographed as it is installed in the museum’s gallery.

American artist Ed Ruscha also uses photography in his works. In the early 1960s, he took a series of photographs of urban environments in Los Angeles, focusing on one element of the landscape. For instance, he photographed gas stations and produced an artist book titled Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963). A decade later, Ruscha was invited to collaborate with the limited-edition print firm Gemini G.E.L. and create a new kind of still-life photographs in a series titled Tropical Fish (1975).

His print Air, Water, Fire from that series is a colorful and luscious image. It shows a bike pump, a seltzer dispenser, and a small figurine of Satan placed on a red plastic background. Each of these objects represents the three elements from the title. The objects’ juxtaposition is rather comical if not banal, adopting a type of Pop Art aesthetic. While the series’ concept is ambiguous, its images show how a conceptual artist can play with the codes of consumerism.

A Boxed Set of Conceptual Photography 

In 1982, American artist Tom Marioni curated a boxed set of 54 black-and-white reproductions of photographs made by different artists. For the project, Marioni invited artists like Marina Abramovic, Chris Burden, Paul Kos, and Richard Long to submit a conceptual photograph (not a documentary one), to be featured in this portable exhibition. The box, titled Artists’ Photographs (1982), was actually the fifth and last issue of Marioni’s magazine Vision, dedicated to conceptual art and published by Crown Point Press. This last issue of Vision focused on the conflict between photography and conceptual artists. By the late 1970s, photography made its way into the art market. Artists such as Cindy Sherman or Jeff Wall, of the so-called Pictures generation, adopted the conceptual artists’ ways of playing with photography while they embraced and confronted pop cultural imagery.

The country we now know as France takes its name from the Franks—a Germanic tribe that occupied the area of Europe known to the Romans as Gaul. The origins of this tribe, and their ruling structures, are obscure. Yet one figure stands tall among the 5th-century Franks, a ruler who is commonly held as the founding father of the French monarchy. This man was Clovis—and his baptism by Saint Remigius in the early sixth century into Nicene (or Catholic) Christianity initiated a form of rule that would persist until the French Revolution.

Clovis and the Merovingians 

When Clovis first came to power following the death of his father Childeric in 481, the nature of his power was difficult to grasp. He was king of the Franks, though the nature and extent of the Frankish realm was in a state of flux as the dying Roman state broke down. Moreover Clovis was a pagan. According to Gregory of Tours, Clovis was convinced to convert to Christianity due to the influence of his wife and due to his successful petitioning of Christ to gain victory in battle. His baptism by Saint Remigius, bishop of Reims, in the early sixth century was a foundational moment for the French state, and French kings would be anointed in Reims cathedral throughout the Middle Ages.

The other key event of Clovis’ reign was the battle of Vouillé, fought in 507. Having consolidated and centralized his authority over the Franks in the north of Gaul, Clovis fought a great battle against Alaric II, king of the Visigoths whose authority ranged over the Iberian peninsula and well into southern Gaul. The battle fought near the city of Poitiers, saw a Frankish victory and the death of Alaric II.

This victory confirmed Clovis’ predominant status in Gaul and allowed him to extend his authority southwards. It may even have been a decisive factor in persuading Clovis to receive baptism—although there is a dispute among historians as to whether Gregory of Tours’ dating of Vouillé after the baptism is accurate.

The Merovingian Dynasty has garnered a reputation for incessant infighting and weak kings. A great part of this stems from how inheritance operated among the Franks at this time. Upon his death, the mighty realm that Clovis had put together was divided between his four sons. They would quarrel incessantly among each other—with no one ruler recognized as superior. The Frankish kingship was not yet a unitary title held by and passed to one individual. Four kingdoms emerged in this period within the overarching kingdom of the Franks—Neustria, Austrasia, Burgundy, and Aquitaine.

The incessant warfare between Frankish kings would lead to occasional unity under rulers like Clothar II and his son Dagobert I (died 639), as they were able to rule all of the Franks (albeit with very powerful nobles), but this disintegrated as the realm was again divided among male offspring. By the eighth century, the authority of the Merovingian monarchs had gradually declined in favor of Frankish nobles, in particular, the “Mayors of the Palace.”

Charlemagne and the Frankish Empire

The most fundamental legacy of the Merovingians for the French monarchy was the unity of Church and Crown embodied in the baptism of Clovis, and the entrenchment of a Frankish ruling class in a realm populated mostly by Gallo-Romans. However, it is really with the Carolingians that we see the birth of what would become a single, indivisible king of the Franks, a king anointed by the Church and able to claim divine authority from this.

The Merovingian kings who ruled after Dagobert in the late seventh and early eighth centuries have become known as les rois faineants, or the “do-nothing kings.” As the monarchy slid into obscurity, it was resuscitated by a new dynasty—the Carolingians. The first Carolingian of note was Charles Martel (died 741), who as Mayor of the Palace was the most senior noble in Francia and effectively ruled the Frankish territories through a Merovingian puppet king.

It was Martel’s son Pippin III who, by overthrowing the Merovingians and having himself crowned king of the Franks in 751, re-established the king as the most powerful magnate in the Frankish realm. Pippin was swift to establish his sacral legitimacy—having himself anointed by the Pope in 754 and thus becoming the first king of the Franks to be anointed. Pippin’s accomplishments (which included expanding his realm and undertaking governmental reforms) are generally overlooked by history. That is due largely to the greatness of his son.

Pippin’s son Charlemagne is the ruler upon whom centuries of French kings (and German emperors) would seek to model themselves. Clovis is an extremely distant founding figure, and he echoes through history as a haze, a figure commanding respect yet insufficiently comprehendible to be used as a template for rulers. Charlemagne, on the other hand, is a figure whom historians and successive French kings could get a firm grasp of, and his conquests of the Lombards and the Saxons and his overseeing of a Carolingian renaissance made many see him as an almost perfect king. He elevated the authority of the Frankish Crown to supreme heights, and bolstered its spiritual authority through his relationship with the Pope and the great revival of church power and creativity that he helped unleash.

Charlemagne’s crowning as emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day 800 cemented his legendary reputation, and it helped cause a fragmentation of claims to his legacy. Charlemagne the emperor was seen as the progenitor of the Holy Roman Emperors of Germany and Northern Italy. Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was claimed by later French kings. What both sets of rulers laid claim to was a deeply sacral legitimacy as well a memory of his earthly power.

The Carolingian Fragmentation

Charlemagne was above all a pan-European figure, whose legacy was grasped at by a number of rulers both in the decades after his death and centuries later. In terms of defining the scope of the French king’s power, the Treaty of Verdun, drawn up in 843 between the warring grandsons of Charlemagne, was perhaps the most important legacy of the Carolingian dynasty. This treaty divided Charlemagne’s empire into three realms: West Francia, Lotharingia, and East Francia. Unbeknownst to those who made the treaty, West and East Francia would persist for centuries as territorial units, their borders roughly equivalent to modern France and Germany. The energetic rule of Charles the Bald (ruled 843-77) in West Francia, and his capture of much of the western half of Lotharingia upon the death of its ruler Lothar II in 870, helped to consolidate West Francia as a kingdom.

However, just as the power of the Merovingian kings gradually eroded, so too did the last whimpers of the Carolingian dynasty see royal power shrink in the face of mighty regional nobles. The first non-Carolingian since the Merovingian dynasty took the west Frankish throne when Odo, count of Paris and hero of the Viking siege of 885, was elected as monarch.

His energetic reign from 888 to 898 could not prevent the increasing decentralization of power. Successive Carolingian rulers in the 10th century then fought a losing battle to maintain their authority, with Viking raids along the many river systems of Francia adding further pressure. Twice more before 987 the Frankish nobles placed non-Carolingians on the Frankish throne, but the reigns of Robert (922-23) and Rudolph (923-36) were brief and the Carolingians were able to regain the throne after the latter’s death.

In post-Roman Europe, centralization of power was an aberration rather than the norm—thus the fragmentation of Charlemagne’s empire was in many respects inevitable. Regions such as Normandy, Flanders, Brittany, Aquitaine, and the south of France (centered on Toulouse) became virtually autonomous in the 10th and 11th centuries. They acknowledged the king of the Franks as their feudal overlord, but this did not equate to any real cessation of power (and some nobles did not even make this acknowledgement). Even as the Ottonian Dynasty came to imperial power in the lands of East Francia and Lotharingia, centralizing power, West Francia came to take on the form of a series of autonomous lordships, held together by only the mildest acknowledgement of a king of the Franks.

Frankish Kingship in the Year 1000

The Frankish kingship by the year 1000 was thus a complex institution. In practical terms it was a weak position, certainly when compared to the king of the English across the channel in the late 10th century. The latter exercised a great deal of authority throughout his kingdom, standing atop a remarkably effective state apparatus that approached what we might call a “bureaucracy.”

And yet the English Crown was vulnerable, prone to instability and deadly competition. The 11th century would see English kings killed, dynasties supplanted and then re-established on the throne, and very few instances of father-son succession. The Frankish Crown, due both to its weakness and to its deep spiritual significance, would move away from this turbulence in the 11th century.

That the authority of the Frankish Crown was more significant than the meager lands it ruled directly is evident from the fact that the great nobles of West Francia could not or did not make successful claims to the title of king. The rulers of Aquitaine and Brittany made feeble attempts to claim the title “king” in the late 9th and very early 10th century, but quickly reverted to “duke.” The ruler of Burgundy would lay claim to a kingship until the 11th century, yet the power of this monarch did not expand far beyond the territory surrounding Lake Geneva.