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Eridu Genesis: The Oldest Mesopotamian Text on the Great Flood

The Eridu Genesis (also known as the Sumerian Flood Story, The Flood Story, Sumerian creation myth, Sumerian deluge myth) is the oldest Mesopotamian text relating the tale of the Great Flood that would appear in later works such as the Atrahasis (17th century BCE) and The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2150-1400 BCE). The title of the work comes from the modern era, coined in 1981 by the scholar Thorkild Jacobsen; the original name for the piece is unknown.

The story given in the Eridu Genesis is also – most famously – told as the story of Noah and his ark from the biblical book of Genesis (earliest possible date circa 1450 BCE, latest circa 800-600 BCE). The Eridu Genesis is dated to circa 1600 BCE in its written form but is thought to be much older (circa 2300 BCE), preserved by oral tradition until committed to writing.

The extant work is badly damaged, with a number of significant lines missing, but can still be read and easily understood as an early Great Flood story. Scholars who have studied the text generally rely on the later Akkadian/Babylonian Atrahasis – which tells the same tale – to fill in the blanks of missing text from the broken tablet.

The story most likely influenced the Egyptian "flood story" known as The Book of the Heavenly Cow (dated, in part, to the First Intermediate Period of Egypt, 2181-2040 BCE) but certainly was the inspiration for the later Mesopotamian works as well as the biblical narrative of Noah.

The story was discovered in 1893, during the period of widespread expeditions and excavations throughout Mesopotamia funded by Western institutions. The good man in this version of the tale, chosen to survive the flood and preserve life on earth, is the Priest-King Ziudsura of the city of Suruppak (whose name means "life of long days"). This same figure appears in The Instructions of Shuruppag (circa 2500/2000 BCE) and as Atrahasis ("exceedingly wise") in the later work that bears his name, as Utnapishtim ("he found life") in The Epic of Gilgamesh, and as Noah ("rest" or "peace") in the book of Genesis.

Expeditions & Discovery

In the 19th century, Western institutions, including museums and universities, funded expeditions to Mesopotamia in hopes of finding physical evidence that would corroborate the historicity of biblical narratives. The 19th century saw the unprecedented practice of increasingly critical readings of the Bible, which questioned long-held beliefs regarding its divine origin and supposed infallibility.

This age of skepticism would see the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, suggesting that human beings, rather than being created by God as "a little lower than the angels" (Psalm 8:5), evolved from primates.

In 1882, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche published his work The Gay Science, containing the famous line, "God is dead and we have killed him", alluding to the seeming triumph of technology and secularism over traditional religious belief. Prior to the rise of secular skepticism, and even during the period when Darwin and Nietzsche were writing, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world, completely original, and of divine origin.

This view was encouraged by the work of the archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656), creator of the Ussher Chronology, which, relying primarily on the book of Genesis and referencing other biblical narratives, dates the creation of the world to 22 October 4004 BCE at 6:00 p.m. Since the Bible was believed to have been written by God, it was infallible and could be trusted not only in dating the age of the Earth but for any other aspect of human existence.

The expeditions sent to Mesopotamia were supposed to find evidence supporting this view but found the exact opposite. Cuneiform tablets, deciphered from the mid-19th century onwards, challenged the traditional view of the Bible directly in that they contained a number of stories, motifs, and symbols which appeared in the biblical narratives and pre-dated them; among these was the Sumerian Flood Story, the first known account of the tale people of the time knew as Noah's Ark.

The badly damaged tablet was discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Nippur by an expedition funded by the University of Pennsylvania in 1893. It was left untranslated until 1912, when the German Assyriologist Arno Poebel (1881-1958) deciphered it as part of his job for the University of Pennsylvania.

The existence of a pre-biblical account of Noah's flood – already made clear by George Smith's translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh in 1876 – suggested to some that the traditional interpretation of the Bible needed to be rethought, while, to others, it meant that a Mesopotamian account of a great flood corroborated the biblical story, just from another point of view.

The British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley (1880-1960) challenged this latter claim through his excavations at the ruins of ancient Ur in the 1920s. During the 1928-1929 excavation season, Wooley sank a series of shafts into the soil and determined there had been significant flooding in the region but that this was a local, not a global, event and, further, was not a singular incident but had happened a number of times when the Tigris and Euphrates rivers overflowed their banks.

Woolley's excavations were mirrored elsewhere in Mesopotamia by other archaeologists who came to the same conclusion. The historicity and originality of the biblical narrative of the Great Flood could no longer be maintained, and Ussher's chronology was challenged and dismissed by scholars (although both are still maintained by Christians in the present day who maintain the so-called Young Earth View). Scholar Stephanie Dalley, commenting on further excavations in Mesopotamia throughout the 20th century, writes:

No flood deposits are found in third-millennium strata, and Archbishop Ussher's date for the Flood of 2349 BC, which was calculated using numbers in Genesis at face value and which did not recognize how highly schematic Biblical chronology is for such early times, is now out of the question. (5)

The small tablet of the Eridu Genesis story found at Nippur, missing much of its narrative, had provided Woolley with the academic freedom to make the kind of assertions concerning the flood in the 1920s that would have been unthinkable a mere century before.

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A Praise Poem of Lipit-Estar: A Popular Sumerian Song

A Praise Poem of Lipit-Estar is a Sumerian praise song honoring Lipit-Estar (also known as Lipit-Ishtar, reign circa 1935 to circa 1924 BCE), the fifth king of the First Dynasty of Isin, best known for his legal code written between the time of the better-known Code of Ur-Nammu and the later Code of Hammurabi.

The poem (also known as Lipit-Eštar A in modern scholarship to differentiate it from other poems concerning Lipit-Estar) would have been sung at festivals in ancient Mesopotamia honoring the king and the gods he served. These praise songs were often composed by the scribes in ancient Mesopotamia as though the king were speaking the lines themselves, and this poem conforms to that same paradigm. The king, as the head of Mesopotamian government, was expected to recognize his own worth as a steward of the gods, and so, as seen in this work, hymns of praise dispense with any semblance of modesty.

A Praise Poem of Lipit-Estar was composed during the king's reign, along with many others serving the same purpose, but took on a life of its own after his death as part of the curriculum of the Mesopotamian education system, known as the edubba ("House of Tablets"), and formed part of the Decad (ten compositions) a student needed to master before graduation. As an often-copied text, the work continued to be memorized and recited for over a century after Lipit-Estar's reign.

It continues to be anthologized in the present day as one of the more popular Sumerian praise poems, owing to its imagery and its historical value in illustrating the ideal of the perfect Sumerian king. Whether any king lived up to this ideal is unlikely, but works such as A Praise Poem of Shulgi suggest they were based, at least in part, on historical truth, even if aspects of a king's character and accomplishments may have been exaggerated. The purpose of such pieces, however, was not to present the king accurately but to praise him as a worthy steward of the gods and immortalize his reign in verse.

Lipit-Estar & Kingship

Lipit-Estar's name appears on the Sumerian King List, and his reign is documented through royal records and inscriptions. He was regarded as a good king who defeated the Amorites and secured his kingdom, but little else is known of him except for what is given in praise songs like this one and from the values expressed through his laws, the Code of Lipit-Estar (also given as the Code of Lipit-Ishtar) which dealt with subjects such as land disputes, public works and service, taxes, inheritance, and debt enslavement.

Like the earlier Code of Ur-Nammu (circa 2100-2050 BCE), issued under either Ur-Nammu (reign circa 2112 to 2094 BCE) or his son and successor Shulgi of Ur (reign 2094 to circa 2046 BCE), the Code of Lipit-Estar reflects a king presenting himself as a father figure to his people, gently correcting them when they go astray and instructing them through just punishments, usually fines, that fit the severity of any breach of the law. It differs significantly from the later Code of Hammurabi, which mandated strict penalties, including dismemberment or death, for many infractions.

Lipit-Estar's law code, like that of any other Mesopotamian king from Ur-Nammu to Hammurabi, derived its authority, not from the monarch himself, but from the gods who had chosen him as their steward over the land and its people. Kingship in Mesopotamia evolved from the position of tribal chief to leader of a community or village to monarch of a kingdom by the time of the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia (circa 2900 to circa 2350/2334 BCE). The authority of the king was understood to rest upon divine will and was only respected as long as it was clear the gods still approved of the job he was doing. Scholar Stephen Bertman comments:

To justify this greater power, the king would require a divine mandate, especially since he was no longer just the leader of a single community serving a local god but the master of a wider domain. One solution would be to claim he had been chosen by heaven, a claim that could be affirmed by the high priest of a nationally venerated temple such as the temple of the god Enlil at Nippur.

Indeed, the king's evident success was the most convincing proof of his divine selection. Both that success and his choice by the gods would then be celebrated in poetry and song ... such as portraying the king standing in a god's presence or making the king taller than the people around him. (66)

A Praise Poem of Lipit-Estar would have been composed to affirm the king's claim to divine approval, celebrate his stewardship, and link him directly to the gods through epithets and imagery or more directly by referencing him as a son of Enlil, the sky god who maintained order in the universe.

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Miklós Horthy

Miklós Horthy (1868-1957) was a Hungarian admiral and statesman who served as regent for the Kingdom of Hungary from 1920 until his forced abdication in 1944. During the interwar period and for most of World War II, Horthy played a critical but controversial role in both Hungary's foreign and domestic affairs.

Beginning his career in the Austro-Hungarian navy in 1882, Horthy rose through the ranks to become vice-admiral and later commander-in-chief in 1918. Following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I (1914-1918), Horthy led the National Army against the Hungarian Soviet Republic and became regent for the re-established Kingdom of Hungary in 1920.

During the late 1930s, Horthy's conservative government increasingly aligned itself with Nazi Germany, signing the Tripartite Pact in November 1940 and participating in the 1941 Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. In 1944, Horthy was overthrown by a Nazi-backed coup after attempting to sign an armistice with the Allies. Following Allied capture, he was released in December of 1945 and spent the remainder of his life exiled in Portugal until his death on 9 February 1957.

Today Horthy's legacy remains deeply controversial due to his authoritarian rule, alliance with the Nazis, and disputed role in the Holocaust.

Early Career

Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was born on 18 June 1868 in Kenderes, Austria-Hungary, to István Horthy and Paula Halassy. Ennobled since 1635, the Horthy family owned a large 1,500-acre estate and had connections to the Hungarian House of Magnates. During his childhood, Horthy's family wealth allowed him to have a detailed education, including studies in literature, ancient classics, and language proficiency in German, French, English, and later Italian and Croatian. At the age of 14, Horthy joined the Imperial and Royal Naval Academy in Fiume and served in several overseas missions across the Mediterranean before becoming an officer. Upon his graduation, in 1892, Horthy was invited to sail around the world and made stops throughout India, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, and other Pacific islands.

After briefly serving as a translator for a joint parliamentary review in Vienna, Horthy met and married Magdolna Purgly de Jószáshely (1881-1959) in 1901. Together, the two had four children: Magdolna (1902-1918), Paulette (1903-1940), István (1904-1942), and Miklós Jr. (1907-1993). Horthy would outlive all of them except for Miklós Jr.

Following his promotion to captain of the Taurus in 1908, Horthy was sent as part of a diplomatic mission to the Ottoman Empire, where he witnessed the Young Turks Revolution. Credited with helping save the life of the Austrian ambassador, Horthy evacuated the diplomatic mission and safely returned them to Austria. Impressed by his actions during the crisis, Horthy was made a naval aide-de-camp to Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph in 1911. In this position, Horthy grew to greatly admire and respect the emperor. He became an important naval advisor to the monarch, oversaw daily court routines, and took up painting.

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🏛️ Enigmatic Whispers of the Aegean: The Story of Cycladic Sculpture

Buried in the marble of the Cycladic islands are some of the most distinctive and minimalist sculptures of the Bronze Age Aegean. Created between 3000 BCE and 2000 BCE, these art pieces flourished thanks to the islands’ rich natural resources like gold, silver, copper, obsidian, and marble [1]. Eventually, Minoan influence from Crete began to reshape Cycladic culture around 2000 BCE [1].

🗿 Know the Forms

The earliest figurines (Neolithic to ~2500 BCE) resemble violins but are actually naked squatting women [1].

A later, possibly Asia-influenced style is the standing female figure, produced until ~2000 BCE [1].

These figures are highly stylized, with only key features like the nose, breasts, pubic area, fingers, and toes rendered through simple inscribed lines [1].

Arms are folded across the chest, always with the right arm under the left, and the oval head tilts back with only the nose sculpted [1].

Over time, figures evolved: legs became more defined, heads more curved, knees less bent, and shoulders more angular [1].

Most are around 30cm tall, though miniatures and life-size versions exist [1].

Their feet point downward, meaning they can’t stand alone—likely laid down or carried [1].

No two figurines are exactly alike, even from the same workshop [1].

🎶 Other Figures Rare examples include harp players seated on thrones or stools and a standing pipe (aulos) player from Keros (~2500 BCE)—the first known musical sculptures in the Aegean [1].

🛠️ Crafting the Marble Figures were carved from slim rectangular marble pieces using emery, an abrasive nearly as hard as diamond, sourced from Naxos [1]. The process was extremely laborious, resulting in a finely polished sheen [1]. Some statues still show traces of color: red and black for hair, painted eyes, necklaces, diadems, and body patterns—hinting at a more colorful original appearance [1]. Mouths are rarely depicted [1]. A well-preserved British Museum figure retains painted eyes and decorative dots [1].

🌍 Spread and Influence These figurines were found across the Cycladic islands, as well as on Crete, the Greek mainland, and in Anatolia (Cnidus, Miletus) [1]. Both imported originals and local copies (sometimes using ivory) were discovered [1].

❓ Purpose and Mystery Their manufacturing difficulty suggests great cultural significance—not mere toys [1]. Most likely, they were religious idols, possibly representing a fertility deity, given the predominance of female and sometimes pregnant figures [1]. Some were found at settlements, not just graves, supporting this view [1]. Others, however, were buried—perhaps as guardians or representations of the deceased [1]. Painting materials found in graves imply painting may have been part of burial rites [1]. Yet, some large figures couldn’t fit in graves, and distribution varies wildly: up to 14 in one grave on some islands, but only 6 in 540 graves on Syros [1]. At Dhaskalio Kavos (Keros), many figures were deliberately broken—ritual? Or loss of significance? [1].

🎨 Modern Fame and Loss of Context Cycladic art captivated 20th-century artists like Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore, sparking a vogue that led to illegal looting [1]. Many museum pieces now have no provenance, hindering scholarly understanding [1]. Without writing, the true meaning of these objects remains unknown, leaving us to imagine the faces and beliefs behind them [1]. Fascinating for over 3,000 years, they remain a tangible link to a lost culture [1].

CycladicArt #BronzeAge #AncientGreece #MarbleFigurines #WorldHistory #ArtMystery #FertilityDeity #AegeanIslands

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North American P-51 Mustang: The Fighter that Changed Aerial Warfare

The North American P-51 Mustang was a long-range fighter aircraft used by the air forces of the United States and Great Britain during the Second World War (1939-45). Widely considered one of the most effective fighter planes of the war, the single-seater Mustang could operate as a reconnaissance aircraft, interceptor fighter, fighter-bomber, and long-range bomber escort. Used in most theatres of the war from 1944, the Mustang gained legendary status and continued to see action in the Korean War (1950-53).

Design Features

The Mustang was designed, developed, and put into production after WWII had already started. In April 1940, it was the British who first commissioned the North American Aviation Company to come up with a new fighter plane. With parts of Europe already occupied by Nazi Germany, the brief was to have a prototype ready in just four months. Designers Raymond Rice and Edgar Schmued studied the performance of fighter planes already being used in the war and came up with a prototype that impressed in testing. A little behind schedule because of engine delays, the first Mustang prototype, then called NA-73X, flew for the first time in October 1940. The aircraft's engine was made by Allison and could give an impressive 1,100 hp (820 kW). The aircraft also impressed pilots with its manoeuvrability, particularly at low altitudes. There was a problem, though: the Allison engine lost significant performance the higher it flew, especially over 12,000 ft (3,660 m). Nevertheless, the first aircraft were delivered to the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in November 1941.

The initial agreement to provide the British with Mustangs included the proviso that two planes would be made available to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). The two fighters, designated XP-51, received some design changes, notably a self-sealing fuel tank. Another 150 planes were made, and 93 of these were given to Britain under the Lend-Lease agreement; the remaining Mustangs were given to the USAAF. Ultimately, the Mustangs were built in their thousands and became one of the USAAF's main interceptor and escort fighters for the remainder of the war.

As with most aircraft during the war, the Mustang received regular updates and design improvements. The fuselage was strengthened, rivets were smoothed down to create a more aerodynamic fuselage, the ailerons were improved, the gun-loading mechanism was simplified to reduce jamming, and ever-more powerful engines were added. The laminar-flow wings, with their thicker parts set further back than on other fighter aircraft, gave the plane even more speed.

One persistent design problem had been the poor visibility for the pilot looking behind them. This issue was resolved by changing the cockpit canopy from a side-opening one to a sliding hood. Even better, the P-51D version had a bubble canopy, which gave the pilot a 360-degree view. New materials like plastic and a rethink of the basic internal structure greatly reduced the weight of later Mustangs (by about 40%), and this gave them a top speed of 487 mph (784 km/h).

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Calypso: The Nymph Who Kept Odysseus Prisoner

In Greek mythology, Calypso, whose name means "to hide" or "to conceal," is a nymph best known from Homer's (c.750 BCE) epic The Odyssey for falling in love with Odysseus and imprisoning him on her island, Ogygia, for seven years (or five years, depending on the source), during his long voyage home.

Becoming enamoured with the Ithacan king, Calypso wanted to make Odysseus immortal, so he would stay with her forever. However, at the command of Zeus and Hermes, she lets him leave her island. She is often listed as being the daughter of the Titan Atlas and is commonly described in the Odyssey as “the nymph with lovely braids” (Homer, The Odyssey, 5.33).

Family

​According to most ancient sources, Calypso is the daughter of the Titan Atlas, who was made to hold up the heavens for eternity as punishment after the Titanomachy (the war between the Titans and the Olympian gods). However, according to other sources, she may also be the daughter of the Titan Oceanus and the sea nymph Thetis, or even of the pre-Olympian god Nereus, known as "the old man of the sea." Her mother is rarely mentioned.

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J. E. B. Stuart's Sabers and Roses Ball of 1862: An Evening's Break from the War - Almost

In September 1862, while in Urbana, Maryland, on the Maryland Campaign, Confederate Cavalry General J. E. B. Stuart (1833-1864) decided to take a break from the American Civil War and stage a grand party at the Landon House (also known, since the 1940s, as the Stancioff House), a former silk mill, schoolhouse, and site of the Landon Military Academy.

When Stuart and the party of his company happened upon Landon House, it was deserted, and he hit upon the idea of hosting a ball there the next night – on 8 September. The primary account of this event – known as the Sabers and Roses Ball of 1862 – comes from Stuart's friend and comrade-in-arms, Johann Heinrich August Heros von Borcke (1835-1895), a Prussian cavalry officer who enlisted to serve in the Confederate States of America's army under J. E. B. Stuart.

Stuart was killed in action at the Battle of Yellow Tavern on 11 May 1864 – an engagement in which Borcke participated – but Borcke would survive the American Civil War, return to Prussia, and continue his military career in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. He retired from military service in 1867 and wrote his Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, in which he relates the events of 8 September 1862 and the grand ball at the "Academy" (the Landon House).

Borcke died in Berlin, Germany, in 1895 from sepsis of a wound he had received in 1863 while fighting for the Confederacy. He is mainly remembered today for his Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence and the first-hand accounts of daily life, major battles, and friendships described throughout the work, which provides an in-depth look into the lives of Civil War soldiers.

Text

The following excerpt is taken from Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence by Heros Von Borcke, J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1867, pp. 132-135. The narration begins after the conclusion of a dinner party at the home of the Cockys family when the guests and host decide to take a walk.

…In the agreeable conversation of these ladies, in mirth and song, the afternoon of our dinner party passed lightly and rapidly away; and then came night, queenly and beautiful, with a round moon, whose beams, penetrating the windows, suggested to our debonair commander a promenade, which he at once proposed, and which was carried.

Leaving to our fair friends the choice of their partners, we were guided by them to a large building, crowning the summit of a gentle hill on the edge of the village, from which a broad avenue of trees sloped downwards to the principal street.

This building had been occupied before the breaking out of the war as an academy, but now was entirely deserted and dismantled, and our footsteps echoed loudly as we walked through its wide, empty halls, once so noisy with human voices.

Each story of the house had its ample verandah running round it, and from the highest of these we had a magnificent view of the village and the surrounding country. The night was calm, the dark blue firmament was besprinkled with myriads of stars, and the moon poured over the landscape a misty, bluish light that made it all look unreal.

One might have thought it a magical scenic effect of the theater or been carried back in imagination to the Thousand and One Nights of Eastern fable, had not the campfires of our troops and the constant neighing of the horses reminded him of the realities by which he was surrounded.

We were indulging in the dreamy sentiment, natural to the hour, when the gay voice of Stuart broke in – "Major, what a capital place for us to give a ball in honor of our arrival in Maryland! Don't you think we could manage it?"

To this there was a unanimous response in the affirmative, which was especially hearty on the part of the ladies. It was at once agreed that the ball should be given. I undertook to make all necessary arrangements for the illumination and decoration of the hall, the issuing the cards of invitation, etc., leaving to Stuart the matter of the music, which he gladly consented to provide.

A soldier's life is so uncertain, and his time is so little at his own disposal, that in affairs of this sort delays are always to be avoided; and so we determined, on our way home, to the great joy of our fair companions, that the ball should come off on the following evening.

There was great stir of preparation at headquarters on the morning of the 8th. Invitations to the ball were sent out to all the families in Urbana and its neighborhood, and to the officers of Hampton's brigade. The large halls of the Academy were aired and swept and festooned with roses and decorated with battle flags borrowed from the different regiments.

At seven in the evening, all was complete and already the broad avenue was filled with our fair guests, proceeding to the scene of festivity according to their social rank and fortune – some on foot, others in simple, light "rockaways," others again in stately family coaches, driven by fat negro coachmen who sat upon the box with great dignity.

Very soon, the sound of distant bugles announced the coming of the band of the 18th Mississippi Infantry, the Colonel and Staff of the regiment, who had been invited as an act of courtesy, leading the way, and the band playing in excellent style the well-known air of Dixie.

Amid the loud applause of the numerous invited and uninvited guests, we now made our grand entrée into the large hall, which was brilliantly lighted with tallow candles. As master of ceremonies, it was my office to arrange the order of the different dances, and I had decided upon a polka as the best for an animated beginning.

I had selected as queen of the festival and had expected to open the ball with her as my partner, and my surprise was great indeed when my fair friend gracefully eluded my extended arms, and with some confusion explained that she did not join in round dances, thus making me uncomfortably acquainted for the first time with the fact that, in America, and especially in the South, young ladies rarely waltz except with brothers or first cousins, and indulge only in reels and contre-dances with strangers.

Not to be baffled, however, I at once ordered the time of the music to be changed and had soon forgotten my disappointment as to the polka in a very lively quadrille. Louder and louder sounded the instruments, quicker and quicker moved the dancers, and the whole crowded room, with its many exceedingly pretty women and its martial figures of officers in their best uniforms, presented a most striking spectacle of gaiety and enjoyment.

Suddenly enters an orderly, covered with dust, and reports in a loud voice to General Stuart that the enemy have surprised and driven in our pickets and are attacking our camp in force, while at the same moment the sound of shots in rapid succession is distinctly borne to us on the midnight air.

The excitement which followed this announcement I cannot undertake to describe. and the officers rushed to their weapons and called for their horses, panic-stricken fathers and mothers endeavored in a frantic way to collect around them their bewildered children, while the young ladies ran to and fro in most admired despair.

General Stuart maintained his accustomed coolness and composure. Our horses were immediately saddled, and in less than five minutes we were in rapid gallop to the front.

Upon arriving there, we found, as is usually the case in such sudden alarms, that things were by no means so desperate as they had been represented.

Colonel Baker, with the splendid 1st North Carolina regiment, had arrested the bold forward movement of the Yankees. Pelham, with his guns in favorable position, was soon pouring a rapid fire upon their columns. The other regiments of the command were speedily in the saddle.

The line of battle having been formed, Stuart gave the order for a general attack, and with great rage and fury we precipitated ourselves upon the foe, who paid, with the loss of many killed and wounded, and a considerable number of prisoners, for their unmannerly interruption of our social amusement.

They were pursued in their headlong flight for several miles by the 1st North Carolina until, a little past midnight, they got quite out of reach, and all was quiet again.

It was about one o'clock in the morning when we got back to the Academy, where we found a great many of our fair guests still assembled, awaiting with breathless anxiety the result of the conflict.

As the musicians had never dispersed, General Stuart ordered them again to strike up; many of our pretty fugitives were brought back by young officers who eagerly volunteered for that commendable purpose; and, as everybody was determined that the Yankees should not boast of having completely broken up our party, the dancing was resumed in less than half an hour and kept up till the first glimmer of dawn.

At this time, the ambulances laden with the wounded of last night's engagement were slowly approaching the Academy, as the only building at Urbana that was at all suited to the purposes of a hospital. Of course, the music was immediately stopped, and the dancing ceased, and our lovely partners in the quadrille at once became "ministering angels" to the sufferers.

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Winfield Scott: The General Who Mapped the Union Victory

Winfield Scott (1786-1866) was an American military leader famous for his brilliant tactics in battle, for his insistence on the value of a highly trained, disciplined army, and for being the general who proposed what came to be known as the "Anaconda Plan" to win the American Civil War and preserve the Union. Although Scott's plan was initially rejected and mocked, the essential elements of his proposal were implemented between 1861 and 1865, winning the war.

He was referred to as "Old Fuss and Feathers" because of the value he placed on proper discipline and behavior of those in the military. Following the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Army was largely disbanded and the small standing army of the federal government – as well as local militias – were manned by soldiers who had little or no formal military training. Beginning in May 1814, Scott changed that by establishing his 10-week Camp of Instruction, during which soldiers would drill up to ten hours a day. Scott's efforts led directly to the American victory over the British at the Battle of Chippawa on 5 July 1814 during the War of 1812.

He authored General Regulations for the Army (1821) and Infantry Tactics, Or, Rules for the Exercise and Maneuver of the United States Infantry (1835), standard reading for servicemen up through the 1850s. Scott could, in fact, be credited with creating the force that became the United States Army of the 1840s, and his tactics and concepts informed those of many of the most significant commanders on both sides during the American Civil War.

Early Life & Education

Scott was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, on 13 June 1786, the fifth child of William Scott and Ann Scott (neé Mason). William Scott was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, and his father, James Scott, was a veteran of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 in Scotland, coming to North America soon after. The Scotts were, therefore, a military family.

Winfield Scott grew to the imposing height of six feet and five inches, and as his family was well-off, he was sent to school rather than working as a planter in the fields like his father (who died when Scott was six years old). Scott began studies at the College of William & Mary in 1805, reading the works of John Milton, William Shakespeare, and others, but he was drawn to the campaigns of Julius Caesar and Scipio Africanus. He remained there two years before leaving to study law under the attorney David Robinson, who had been brought to North America by Scott's grandfather as a tutor for his family.

While working for Robinson as a legal clerk, the trial of Aaron Burr for high treason was held at the courthouse in Richmond, and Robinson, as a well-known court reporter, was chosen to record the proceedings; he took Scott and his two other clerks with him. At the trial, Scott met a young reporter covering the event for the New York Gazette, Washington Irving, who would later become one of America's most famous authors.

Burr's trial, at which he was acquitted (although Scott believed he was guilty), solidified in Scott a belief his Christian upbringing and earlier studies had encouraged: that there was an objective standard of right and wrong and one had a moral duty to adhere to the right, the just, the proper. Throughout the rest of his life, Scott was known for his quick temper and intolerance of "wrong behavior" – which would cause him problems more than once.

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Enki's Journey to Nippur: A Celebration of Life

Enki's Journey to Nippur (circa 2000 BCE) is a Sumerian origin myth explaining the creation of the temple at Eridu by the god Enki and how musical instruments were ordained for use in festivals in ancient Mesopotamia. The poem formed part of the Decad (ten compositions of advanced study) in Mesopotamian education.

The piece (also known as Enki Builds E-engura and Enki's Journey to Nibru) describes Enki's creation of the E-engura (temple), praise for his work as given by his minister/servant Isimud, the finished work, and Enki's trip to Nippur (also known as Nibru) where he hosts a drinking party to celebrate his accomplishment and receives the blessings of the god Enlil. Although the title suggests the piece will focus on the journey, that part of the story only appears in the last 33 lines.

The poem was found in the ruins of the city of Nippur (in modern-day Iraq) in the mid-19th century and the ruins of Ur in the early 20th century, the later find adding to the broken tablet discovered at Nippur.

The work is important as a Mesopotamian charter myth (creation or origin myth) on the creation of Enki's temple, alcohol as part of religious celebrations, and the importance of musical instruments in religious festivals, but also for its contribution to modern scholarship concerning the curriculum of the edubba ("House of Tablets"), the Mesopotamian scribal school.

Further, the poem suggests the common motif of ancient religious literature of a god creating something from nothing and, often, through the power of speech. In Enki and the World Order, the god creates the world by speaking it into existence, and this seems to be the same with Enki's Journey to Nippur, even though it is not as explicitly stated. This motif is thought to have influenced later works, including the first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible.

Enki & The Edubba

Enki was the Sumerian god of wisdom, intelligence, trickery and mischief, crafts, magic, exorcism, healing, creation, virility and fertility, art, and freshwater. Although the myths in which he features cover aspects of all of the above, he was primarily associated with freshwater and wisdom, as noted by scholar Stephen Bertman:

Enki's domain was the Abzu (or Absu), an ocean of freshwater upon which the earth floated, and which served as the life-giving source of streams and rivers. Because of water's secret and potent source,

Enki was associated with arcane wisdom, embodied in both skilled crafts and sorcery. He used his cunning to save mankind before the Great Flood, and he was prayed to by those beset by crisis. His holy city was watery Eridu. (118)

The Sumerians understood Eridu as the oldest city on earth and the site where order, law, and kingship were first established. As the founder of the city, therefore, Enki was among the oldest and most revered of the Mesopotamian pantheon. He was also known by other names, including Nudimmud (as given in the poem), Ninsiku, Nissiku, Enkig, and Ea, each used to describe a different aspect of the god or a different culture's name for him.

Enki first appears in Sumerian literature in the Early Dynastic III period (2600-2350 BCE) under those names, except for Ea, which was the name used by the Akkadians from circa 2400 BCE on, and possibly Nudimmud, a Babylonian name.

He was the son of the sky god An (Anu), though sometimes referenced (as in this poem) as the son of Enlil, most likely a symbolic term meaning he acted in accordance with Enlil's will. He is usually depicted as an equal or near-equal of Enlil, as in the list of the Seven Divine Powers (the earliest Sumerian gods): Anu, Enki, Enlil, Inanna, Nanna, Ninhursag, and Utu-Shamash.

As the god of wisdom and intelligence, Enki was naturally associated with the Mesopotamian scribal schools, although of the many myths in which he features – and which would have been memorized and copied by the scribes in ancient Mesopotamia – only Enki's Journey to Nippur was included as part of the curriculum.

Students began their education with simple texts before progressing to the Tetrad (four compositions) and then the more difficult Decad. Enki's Journey to Nippur would have been included for the complexity of the text as well as its content praising Enki as a god of creation.

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Odysseus: The Ultimate Homecoming

Odysseus, a Trojan War veteran, faces life-threatening trials and irresistible temptations during his ten-year journey home to Ithaca. Guided by Athena and tormented by Poseidon, he literally travels to hell and back to reclaim his throne and his faithful wife, Penelope. Written in the 8th century BCE, this epic poem remains a timeless story of persistence, loyalty, and heroism.

The Long Road Back

After the war, Odysseus and his crew are blown off course, landing on hostile shores where they encounter monsters and meddlesome gods. He must navigate past half-bird, half-woman Sirens by lashing himself to the mast while his men plug their ears with wax. The journey includes terrifying encounters with the six-headed monster Scylla, the deadly whirlpool Charybdis, and the Cyclops Polyphemus, whose anger ensures Odysseus wanders for years. Despite offers of immortality and other fleshly temptations, his desire to return to civilization never dies.

Key Facts

Hero: Odysseus, King of Ithaca and veteran of the Trojan War.

Duration: A total of 20 years away from home (10 years fighting, 10 years traveling).

Goal: To return to his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus.

Divine Allies & Enemies: Frequently aided by Athena, but constantly at the mercy of Poseidon.

Major Perils: Includes the Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, the Cyclops, and a literal voyage into the underworld.

Historical Context

The story is set in the 13th century BCE during the Bronze Age, a time Greeks viewed as a "golden era" of heroism superior to their own deplorable current state. Although the myth depicts this ancient past, the poem itself was first written down in the 8th century BCE after a much longer history of oral storytelling [2][3].

Historical Significance

The Odyssey continues to fascinate audiences in literature and film because it reminds us that persistence and loyalty can overcome all obstacles. It serves as a celebration of the adventures inherent in travel and establishes a narrative where civilization ultimately prevails over chaos [1][2][15].

Battle of Philippi (Philippi Races): The First Organized Land Battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Philippi (3 June 1861) was the first organized land engagement of the American Civil War, fought in Philippi, Virginia (present-day West Virginia) over a month before the more widely recognized First Battle of Bull Run (also known as the Battle of First Manassas) on 21 July 1861, commonly held to be the first battle of the war.

The Battle of Philippi differs from the Battle of Fairfax Court House on 1 June 1861 in that this engagement was an organized effort on the part of the Union Army, whereas the earlier one at Fairfax Court House was an accidental clash of opposing forces.

The battle, usually regarded as a skirmish, was a Union victory, heralded as a great triumph in the Northern press, which claimed it presaged a speedy resolution to the War of the Rebellion. The engagement, aside from its status as the first land battle of the conflict, is significant for several events:

The elevation of Union Major General George B. McClellan to a national hero in the North, encouraging his appointment by President Lincoln to the post of Commanding General of the United States Army from 1861 to 1862.

The first instance of battlefield amputations, performed by Union surgeons on Confederate casualties.

The creation of a prosthetic leg by Confederate James E. Hanger, one of the casualties, who later manufactured prosthetic limbs for the Confederacy and went on to establish the Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc., still operating in the USA today as Hanger, Inc.

The empowerment of Virginia's pro-Union government in exile, which would lead to the establishment of the State of West Virginia in 1863.

The engagement is also known as the "Philippi Races," a term coined by the Northern press to mock the flight from the field by the surprised and poorly prepared Confederates when the Union assault on the town began.

Pro-Union and Pro-Secessionist Virginia

The Jamestown Colony of Virginia was founded in 1607, and colonization of the region spread westward. By 1640, chattel slavery had been established, and it became institutionalized by 1660. The large plantations that relied on slave labor, however, did not extend into the northwest region of the colony, and, in time, the citizens of that region found they had more in common with those of Ohio and Pennsylvania than those of their own state.

After the Union Fort Sumter was fired upon by Confederate troops 12 April 1861, and President Abraham Lincoln called for a mobilization of troops to put down the rebellion, the Virginia government at Richmond voted in favor of secession on 23 May – but there was strong pro-Union sentiment in the northwest region of the state and, especially, in Wheeling, which would become the seat of the so-called pro-Union government in exile.

Still, there were many pockets of pro-Secessionist citizens in the region, and, after secession had been passed in Richmond, Confederate officers arrived in various towns to recruit men for the army. One such town was Grafton, chosen by Confederate Colonel George Porterfield as a site to muster troops. Grafton, however, was strongly pro-Union, and so Porterfield retreated to Philippi, a secessionist town.

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The Witch Who Turned Men Into Pigs

Circe is a terrifying yet beautiful goddess in Greek mythology known for turning men into beasts. She lives alone on the island of Aeaea, where her home is guarded by wolves and lions that were once human. Despite her hatred for humanity, she famously becomes the lover of the hero Odysseus, keeping him on her island for a year. She also transforms the lovely nymph Scylla into a monstrous sea creature out of jealousy.

Who Was Circe?

Circe was a powerful sorceress with an exceptional talent for mixing magical drugs and potions [1]. She was born from the union of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis, giving her divine status among the gods [1]. Although she was a fearsome witch, she was also beautiful and skilled at working the loom [1].

Her magic often involved transformation, turning men into animals like swine, wolves, or lions for her entertainment or as revenge [1]. She bewitched men with her voice and always had a way with magical substances [1].

Key Facts

Parentage: Daughter of Helios (sun god) and Perseis (Oceanid) [1]

Home: Wooded island of Aeaea, guarded by men turned into wolves and lions [1]

Famous Transformation: Turned Odysseus's men into swine [11][13]

Other Victim: Transformed nymph Scylla into a sea monster [1][17]

Relationship: Became lovers with Odysseus for one year [11]

Child: Had a son named Telegonos with Odysseus [11]

Historical Context

Circe appears prominently in Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid, where Odysseus warns Aeneas to avoid her island [1]. In ancient mythology, she represents the dangers of female power and sorcery, often portrayed as a threat to male heroes on their journeys [1].

Historical Significance

Circe symbolizes female empowerment and self-discovery, a theme explored in modern literature like Madeline Miller's novel Circe [2]. Her story highlights the complex role of women in mythology, moving from a fearsome monster to a figure seeking purpose and strength [2]. Her encounter with Odysseus provides crucial advice for his journey home, showing her as both a threat and a helper [11][13].

The Queen of the Night: The Mysterious Burney Relief

The Queen of the Night (also known as the "Burney Relief") is a high-relief terracotta plaque of baked clay, 19.4 inches (49.5 cm) high, 14.5 inches (37 cm) wide, with a thickness of 1.8 inches (4.8 cm), depicting a naked winged woman flanked by owls and standing on the backs of two lions. The piece originated in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), most probably in Babylonia, during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE), as it shares qualities in craftsmanship and technique with the famous diorite stele of Hammurabi's laws and also with the piece known as The God of Ur from that same period.

The woman depicted in the relief is acknowledged to be a goddess as she wears the horned headdress of a deity and holds the sacred rod-and-ring symbol in her raised hands. Not only is the woman winged, but her legs taper to bird talons (which seem to grip the lion's backs), and she is shown with a dew claw on her calves.

Along the base of the plaque runs a motif which represents mountains, indicating high ground. Who the winged woman is, however, has not been agreed upon, though scholars generally believe her to be either Inanna (Ishtar), Lilith, or Ereshkigal. The piece is presently part of the collection of the British Museum, Room 56, in London.

The Burney Relief's History

In 1936, the Burney Relief was featured in the Illustrated London News, highlighting the collection of one Sydney Burney, who purchased the plaque after the British Museum passed on the offer to buy it. Since the piece was not archaeologically excavated but simply removed from Iraq sometime between the 1920s and 1930s, its origin and context are unknown. How the plaque arrived in London is also unknown, but it was in the possession of a Syrian antiquities dealer before coming to the attention of Sydney Burney.

Not much is known of Sydney Burney other than that he was a captain in the English Army during World War I (1914-18) and was president of the Antique Dealers Association in London. The plaque was broken in three pieces and some fragments when originally purchased, but, once repaired, it was found to be mostly intact.

The Burney Relief was analyzed in 1933 and authenticated in 1935 prior to the offer made to the British Museum. The plaque then changed hands twice before the British Museum finally acquired it in 2003 for the sum of 1,500,000 pounds, a considerably higher price than what was asked in 1935.

It was at this time that the piece known as the Burney Relief came to be called The Queen of the Night due to the dark black pigment of the plaque's original background and the iconography (the downward-pointing wings, the talon feet, etc.) associating the female figure with the underworld. The name is therefore a modern, not an ancient, designation for the plaque. There is no way to know what the piece was originally called or what purpose it was created for.

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France’s Fire: The Revolution That Changed the World

The French Revolution (1789–1799) shattered France’s monarchy, birthed a republic, and ignited a global shift toward modern democracy. Led by ordinary citizens and Enlightenment thinkers, it replaced feudal privilege with the rallying cry of Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Though it ended in Napoleon’s dictatorship, its ideals reshaped politics, human rights, and nationhood forever.

What Sparked the Revolution?

France was drowning in financial crisis and social inequality under King Louis XVI. The Ancien Régime locked power in the hands of clergy and nobility while commoners suffered. When the Estates-General of 1789 failed to fix things, the Third Estate broke away, forming the National Assembly and swearing to write a new constitution [9][4].

Key turning points included:

Storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789): Lower-class sans-culottes attacked the prison symbolizing royal tyranny, marking the Revolution’s violent start [3].

Women’s March on Versailles (October 5, 1789): Parisian women marched demanding food and reforms, forcing Louis XVI to return to Paris and stripping him of power [2].

The Reign of Terror

Hope turned to horror during the Reign of Terror (1793–1794). The Committee of Public Safety, led by Maximilien Robespierre, executed 16,594 people legally and killed an estimated 30,000–50,000 total through prisons and massacres [6][7][8]. Former revolutionaries, including Robespierre himself, were guillotined in a frenzy of paranoia.

Napoleon’s Rise and the Revolution’s End

After the Terror, the Revolution stalled until Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in the Coup of 18 Brumaire (1799), ending the Republic and launching the First French Empire [4][5]. Though autocracy returned, the Revolution’s legacy was unstoppable.

Key Facts

Dates: 1789–1799

Motto: Liberté, égalité, fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity)

Death toll: ~45,000 during the Reign of Terror [6]

Key figure: Robespierre, leader of the Terror [1]

Women’s role: Led the March on Versailles and created political clubs [2][10]

End: Napoleon’s coup in 1799 [4]

Historical Context

The Revolution erupted from economic collapse, war debts, and the Enlightenment’s challenge to absolute monarchy. France’s rigid class system left 98% of people (the Third Estate) with no political power [5][9].

Historical Significance

It toppled absolute monarchy, established the concept of the nation-state, and spread democratic ideals worldwide. Though Napoleon ended the Republic, the Revolution inspired future revolutions and defined modern human rights [1][5].