Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
A 16th century fountain after the traditional Artemis of the Ephesians, in Tivoli. In the Book of Acts, Luke records an incident where Ephesus rioted against Paul’s preaching. It gives us a great snapshot of Roman religious practice in the first century AD: “He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at …
The Case of the Missing Mummies
The missing statuette of King Tut’s sister. No, she’s not a conjoined twin; that’s a lock of hair symbolizing her youth. She is holding an offering in her hand. By 1922, when Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, opinion was swinging around to the idea that the treasures …
It’s always been all about cats
Statue of the cat goddess Bastet Yesterday when I was looking through depictions of women in ancient Egypt, I noticed the above statue of the goddess Bastet as a domestic cat. It’s a delightful, relaxed, natural portrait of that small, furry, domesticated mammal that has been palling around with us for millennia, and it was …
The mighty have fallen
Great Royal Wife, God’s Wife of Amun and Regent Ahmose-Nefertari (1562-1495 BC) A recent surveyby Thomson-Reuters Foundation shows Egypt to be the worst state in the Arab world for women’s rights. (It’s also the most populous state in the Arab world.) This is depressing to anyone who believes that every day, in every way, things …
Giving it away for free—the journalism question
Low Bridge (Erie Canal), oil on canvas, by Carol L. Douglas. Go ahead, copy it, print it, and hang it on your wall. Satisfying? I doubt it. But you can contact me and buy the original, and I guarantee you it will bring you joy. No discipline has suffered more from the internet than journalism. …
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