honor the gods

July Fragment of a mosaic with the months of the year. First half third century CE. Discovered in the city of Thysdrus, Roman province of Byzacena, (modern El Djem, Tunisia).  Collection of the Archaeological Museum of Sousse.  Photo: ©Ad Meskens, 2012 via Wikimedia Commons (X). License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 

Hail Divine Julian, who heard the call of the gods

You who bravely tried to save what was being destroyed

Know that your efforts were not in vain

Your mission lives within our hearts

The worship of the gods has returned after a short delay

Penelope looks so soft looking at Telemachus in this painting, and the statue of Odysseus in the shadows 😭💔

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From Book V of Homer's Iliad. Upon being grievously wounded by the Achaean warrior Diomedes, the hero Aeneas is saved through divine intervention from his mother, the goddess Aphrodite. 

Inktober 06: Thracian huntress courting the Amazon Penthesilea.

“The white-ground alabastron is signed by the Pasiades Painter, 525-500 BC. As noted, women’s pottery often featured Amazons, but this vase is highly unusual. On one side, a ponytailed Thracian woman steps forward, clad in high boots and a leopard skin, with a large snake coiled around one arm. A poorly preserved inscription appears to give her name as Theraichme, “Huntress”. She is gallantly presenting a rabbit to an Amazon on the other side of the vase, clearly labeled “Penthesilea.”

“So this scene is a startling reversal of a common male courtship theme, in which a suitor presents a rabbit as a love-token to his beloved. This unique scene is not known from any myth or literary text about Penthesilea. We can guess that the image is a provocative twist on the expected theme of rabbit love-gifts and hunting trophies as a courtship metaphor among homosexual men. The gesture also reminds us of Meleager presenting his lover Atalanta with the trophy of the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Possibly this painting illustrates a lost story about a Thracian woman and Penthesilea, who was a Thracian by birth.”