thought this news item was quite hilarious.
i always thought alexander was a coarse barbarian. (despite the hollywood puff-piece job in that ridiculous movie recently, 'alexander', which, like '300', bears no relationship to reality).
that impression is strengthened by this news item.
i dread to think what the glass phallus was used for.
now that i think of it, his horse was named bucephal(l)us, wasn't it?
i dread to think even more what the horse might have been used for.
(think russia's catherine the great, who, one might say, expired coming and going, in close embrace with a horse, which apparently fell on her).
*Afghan antiques back after 70 years*
** KABUL, March 17: The first of more than 1,400 Afghan artefacts, the most
significant being a ceremonial glass phallus believed to have been used by
Alexander the Great, were unpacked on Saturday in the biggest return of such
items in nearly 70 years.
The artefacts -- ranging from ancient treasures more than 2,300 years old to
more mundane items such as traditional cloth caps — were unpacked from a
container that brought them home on Friday from years in Switzerland.
Collected after a worldwide appeal in the late 1990s to try to salvage some
of Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage looted in war, the items were
returned because the country is considered stable enough to keep them safe.
"A very big part of Afghanistan's lost treasures comes back to Afghanistan",
a minister said.—AFP
http://dawn.com/2007/03/18/images/top02.jpg
http://dawn.com/2007/03/18/top13.htm
9 comments:
Bucephalus = bu + cephalus = bull + head. So many words derive from the -cephalus root; are they all related to penises too? Do people who are brachycephalic have really thick penises? The wordplay with the addition of the "l" is so ridiculous it's not even funny.
ah, i see you have not heard of a new invention called the 'pun'. you could look that up also on wikipedia.
anyway, forgetting the horse for a moment, whatever was alexander doing with a glass phallus?
I guess the glass phallus was used to construct a solar cross ;)
I guess you have not heard of the great dildosthenes and his great contributions
It's general knowledge. I don't need to run to Wikipedia for every other thing.
By the way, Empress Catherine II died of natural causes, in her late 60s. The myth about the stallion is just that ... a myth.
"whatever was alexander doing with a glass phallus"
Without seeing it, I have no idea for sure, but phallic symbols were part of many cultures (including Indian ... refer the Shiva lingam-yoni). The Greco-Roman deity Hermes/Mercury was especially closely associated with phallic symbology. I would look at the possibility that this "ceremonial phallus" was associated with Hermes worship.
Commentator Sohan is right of course - except for the tiny bit he got wrong. It was not Hermes worship but Hephaestion worship that Alexander engaged in. And Haphaestion, being a good friend, in turn engaged in Alexander worship ... all with the glass phallus of course.
You can look it up if you like.
P
I don't know how I could be "wrong" about Hephaestion, since I didn't even bring up that topic. I am well aware of the theories about the relationship between Alexander and him, but I don't see any evidence or even plausibility that this "ceremonial glass phallus" was involved.
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