#romans

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was the month of purification, for ancient .
One of the old rituals is : young men (luperci) were initiated, and they hit the ground with goat-skin stripes in order to chase away evil spirits.
Also, they "hit" women because the festivity was linked with , goddess of childbirth.

is probably the of the Lupercalia festival.

In general, it is quite a busy –and complicated– month!
Read more 👉 https://godsip.club/articles/february-stars/

@folklore @mythology

A naked young man beats a young woman with a goat skin belt. On the right an altar on which a fire burns. On the base of the altar is the inscription: ut iucunda sic foecunda. The print may originally have belonged to book 22 of Michiel Hinloopen's Atlas of Rome (Schijnvoet book 10). Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lupercalia,_RP-P-H-OB-207.740.jpg

reviewed Les Mandarins 1 by Simone de Beauvoir (Collection Folio -- 769-770)

Simone de Beauvoir: Les Mandarins 1 (French language, 1972, Gallimard, GALLIMARD) 4 stars

The Mandarins (French: Les Mandarins) is a 1954 roman à clef by Simone de Beauvoir, …

Un très grand roman dans toutes ses dimensions

5 stars

Au moment de terminer #LesMandarins de Simone de #Beauvoir, je le range dans mon panthéon des œuvres majeures sans hésitation.

Il a les dimensions multiples des grands #romans : un contexte (#historique, l'immédiate sortie de la #guerre et le début de la #guerreFroide) et des personnages qui gardent toute leur force aujourd'hui. Le propos est tant politique que sur les relations amoureuses et familiales, et il est servi par un sens de la formule admirable.

Did you know that an old has been around since the ?

Androcles was a runaway who helped a with a thorn in its paw. The lion becomes friendly & shares its kill.

When Androcles is re-captured by , he's condemned to . When he faces his fate, the lion sent to kill him turns out to be HIS lion.

Caligula lets him & the lion go.

This story resurfaced in the , the Age & is still being used as recently as 2010.

This is a print of the tale of Androcles & the Lion. it shows a bald, older man crouching on the forest floor. he wears a toga and nothing else. He is hugged from the back by a big lion. The animal has large claws and an impressive mane. Androcles is holding one of the lion's claws and pulls out of obvious thorn, like that of a rose. The lion is hauling in pain.

Listen, right, I know fascists love the etc etc, but people are also capable of being interested in the history of where they live without actually thinking that empire, conquest, oligarchy, autocracy, slavery, pederasty and honeyed dormice are all solid ideas, worth reviving.

With that qualification, I were a high school history teacher I would have this map up in my classroom.

Credit: Sasha Trubetskoy
Website, with other similar maps for different regions: https://sashamaps.net

A tube or transit map style depiction of the Roman roads of Britannia. The roads are shown as Tube lines with a key.

Best moments of the Roman festival:

Emcee, in a news anchor voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you to the blood sacrifice event."

Romans: *struggling with setting up the ballista for the battle*
German warrior: "Should we come back later?..."

"Dad, are these the bad guys?"
"No, they are Gepids."

Emcee: "But! Alas, the barbarians have an even more shocking hostage... um... no they don't, they can't seem to find her."

😂 I love reenactment events.