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Pantagathus

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  1. Pantagathus

    Poseidonogenes

    By Pantagathus,

    I have come to realize something during my recent vacation that I should have known or sensed all along... What with my natural aptitude at sailing and swimming, my love for the sea, my providential naval service & induction as a 'Shellback' (servant of Neptune), my choice of Nauclerus as a title here at UNRV, etc...
     
    My run of bad luck lately may indeed be because I was forsaking the signals that I was perhaps all along a beloved son of Poseidon and have not been honoring Patros Genethlios as I should; an unfortunately easy thing to do when one is living hours away from the sea.
     
    I'm writing this down in my blog here because there are enough of my friends here that will read this with understanding and without judgment or without thinking I've lost my marbles.
     
    Anyway, the first few days in Jamaica were rough. A wicked north wind grew from a nuisance on Saturday (17th) to a full out gale by Monday night (19th) where the swells crashing on the cliffs were sending waves of spray up to and over 30 feet high. It became quite dangerous to go anywhere near the cliffs. The locals said a north wind like this was rare and many speculated it was being caused by the weird winter weather in the States.
     
    Most everybody of good repute was saying it would definitely last until Thursday before it would calm down due to the strength it was showing.
     
    I was determined for it not to last that long because I wanted to swim/snorkel off the cliffs and knew the sea would only be safe 24 hours after the swells had calmed. Rough seas churn up all the critters and push big hungry things towards shore
  2. Pantagathus
    In the Blue -vs- Red Thread, I treatised a mantra. The following is more specifically what I was refering to (written in the 2nd Century BC):
     
    "Thus the only hope still surviving unimpaired is in themselves, and to this they resort, making the state a democracy instead of an oligarchy and assuming the responsibility for the conduct of affairs.
     
    Then as long as some of those survive who experienced the evils of oligarchical dominion, they are well pleased with the present form of government, and set a high value on equality and freedom of speech.
     
    But when a new generation arises and the democracy falls into the hands of the grandchildren of its founders, they have become so accustomed to freedom and equality that they no longer value them, and begin to aim at pre-eminence; and it is chiefly those of ample fortune who fall into this error.
     
    So when they begin to lust for power and cannot attain it through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates, tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way. And hence when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence.
     
    For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch.
     
    Sound vaguely familiar?
  3. Pantagathus
    So, it has now been almost 24 hours that the Perseus-Tufts database has been corrupted and non-functional.
     
    I am like a diabetic without insulin, a manic-depressive without lithium, a colapsed lung patient without a respirator... You get the drift.
     
    I continue to promise myself that if I ever have enough cash laying around to become philanthropic; Perseus Tufts will get it.
  6. Pantagathus

    The New Pestilence

    By Pantagathus,

    Oh Lord Apollon Parnopios!
     
    What have I done my Lord to engage your wrath!
     
    First poor Sufflavus is taken in vicious sacrifice and now a pestilence enshrouds my home that rivals the very breath of Typhon!
     
    At every turn amongst my walls the putrescent emanation of death confronts me!
     
    Not a room is free of the abhorrent presence of those macabre agents of decomposing flesh,
     
    Those corpulent flying factotums of filth!
     
    Oh Lord Apollon Parnopios!
     
    What wretched effrontery have I perpetrated to deserve this vexation?
     
    Nowhere can I find the source of spoilation,
     
    Only the baneful torment of the malodorous smell and shrill sound of sibilation...
     
    Begrimed I am in supplication my Lord,
     
    Please lift this curse from my house,
     
    Please let me find the source in order to expell the quandry from heart and home,
     
    Please oh Lord Apollon Parnopios!
     
    :notworthy:
  7. Pantagathus
    ...and that bang was made by me hitting a wet, hard bathroom floor...
     
    Yep, Saturday I slipped in a hotel bathroom and hurt myself pretty bad; dislocated a shoulder (may have broken it, getting it x-rayed this afternoon), smashed my face & broke one of my teeth.
     
    The pain has not been fun. Can't get to the dentist just yet as mine is out recovering from surgery of his own.
     
    At least I was able to see my regular doctor yesterday and now have a decent prescription for the pain.
     
    Here's to hoping that 2007 is a considerable improvement on 2006...
  8. Pantagathus

    Brassica

    By Pantagathus,

    As a few of you already know, I am an unashamed beer aficionado. My love for beer coupled with my love for ancient history and literature often motivates me to search for anecdotes within ancient sources that deal with the sublime beverage.
     
    Recently I came across something that I honestly admit, I did not know before. I have no doubt that Pertinax is well versed in this but apparently, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all highly esteemed cabbage as the number one remedy for hangovers.
     
    What is rather funny is that until quite recently, most
  11. Pantagathus
    Does our vainglorious Emperor not know that perception IS reality in most cases?
     
    It seems not, when the Pew Research poll indicated that quite a few Europeans think the US has become a dangerous loose cannon, he goes and tells them they are absurd.
     
    Way to go buddy! That's bound to make them rethink their ill conceived outlook! Popularity polls should start heading for 99% in a matter of days!
  12. Pantagathus
    I have two lovely plants (umbrella plant and some other tropical doodad) that are spending the summer outside so they can grow nice and big and strong.
     
    Problem is that my resident squirrels don't seem to understand that there are no buried acorns in them!
     
    Lately I've come home almost every other day to find the potting soil ravaged; my poor little plant's roots naked and exposed.
     
    Phase 1 for thwarting their barbaric little advances is a nice layer of cayane pepper on the soil. But it seems that Jupiter Pluvius has a different idea today . It is pouring rain now and I think that my 'heated' little message will be diluted.
     
    I must find some alabaster or sandstone and get to work on a Priapus. The joyful one of the phallus may be my only hope.
  15. Pantagathus
    Yesterday I posted an image in the Gallery of an Paleo-Indian spear point I found in South Carolina in 1991. Unfortunately during the Holidays I have come to learn that a portion of the land where I found that and other artifacts is in grave danger...
     
    I will let this e-mail I just sent to the Director of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology explian:
     
    Dear Dr. Leader,
     
    I am writing to you and the SCIAA in general with an urgent plea for help.
     
    There is an endangered piece of land off US Highway 601, adjacent to the Lynches River on the border of Chesterfield and Lancaster Counties where I found Late Pleistocene artifacts almost 15 years ago. The land in question used to be part of a friend
  17. Pantagathus
    I am going to see Beck at the Tabernacle here in Atlanta tonight. :pimp:
     
    I just happened to be lucky enough to get a pre-sale invitation and was on the ball enough to buy tickets at 10:00:01 AM on the morning they went on sale & 00:00:05 seconds (or whatever) before they sold out.
     
    I am extremely pumped. I have only seen the funky little white man once; at Bumbershoot in Seattle in 1997. That was awesome & I have no doubt that this will be too. He is quite the entertainer.
  19. Pantagathus
    So the other weekend I (as well as some other folks) went up to Black Mountain, NC to visit my sister. We spent most of Saturday doing some Christmas shopping around the town shops.
     
    In one of the antique shops we went into, there was a little box of stuff on the front counter that I usually don't bother to look at in a store: 'Arrowheads'
     
    I have quite a few, but they have all been found by me or in a few cases my great uncle. I've never really felt driven to pick through a box and pay money for them. Lately however, I learned a lot more about differentiating styles from certain periods of prehistory; so, when I saw the box that day I was curious to look through it and see if I could find some really old points (>10,000 years old).
     
    For the most part I was pretty disappointed as almost all of the points were broken. However, I finally found one fragment that really caught my attention...
     
    It was made of a beautiful, translucent, green stone and comes across as more of a ceremonial piece than a functional one; as the tip was worked in a rounded manor instead of a point.
     
    I would say that it was what an archaeologist would consider an amulet or charmstone artifact. Furthermore, the reason it seems for the artifact not being whole has to do with evidence that an attempt was made to put a hole in it, probably for use in a necklace. Whether done by the original workman or in modern times I have no way of knowing.
     
    The main reason I was so fascinated with this artifact has to do with a tenuous connection to similar charmstones found in Near Eastern & Anatolian Mesolithic communities and Asian (Chinese) Neolithic ones... Apparently, small greenstone ax heads used as amulets are recognized as a sort of ancient sun worshipping talisman. In fact, I've read that in the Anatolian case it's connected to the pre-historic, Pelasgian Zeus.
     
    I was so overwhelmed by the piece that I didn't hesitate one bit to buy it. I can't really describe it but it really does exude a sort of power and I find myself unconsciously compelled to touch it and keep it close to me.
     
    It's really quite fascinating. I wish I could thank the ancient man who made it.

  20. Pantagathus

    Next Tuesday...

    By Pantagathus,

    Well the moment of truth is at hand. I'm meeting the Cultural Survey Consultant and the Chesterfield County Archaeologist at the site next Tuesday the 31st.
     
    But the consultant's professional pride seems to be on shaky ground, he & his client are a little prickly:
     
    Sean, we are arranging for a meeting up at the site on 31 January 2006, which is next Tuesday. Can you make it then? Would you be able to bring the artifacts along? Also, our client asks how you came to know that development was approaching? And, what are the names of your friend and his father, who owned the property when you first visited and found the site?
     
    In an earlier email, you mentioned wanting to return to the site to take more photos and further document the area. The present owners (our client) want to remind you that they now own this property, and request that you provide a written request to access the property.
     
    Andrew
  21. Pantagathus
    As you all know I have been completely inactive from the UNRV community for roughly a year and a half. When I say completely inactive, I mean it in the most literal sense. I haven't even kept up with friends that I used to often talk to outside of the site. Specifically Tom Isabella aka 'Gaius Octavius'...
     
    He called a couple of times last year when I was completely indisposed and his messages were increasingly distraught in that he felt he had offended me and had lost my friendship. This of course was not the case but for a variety of now seemingly ridiculous reasons I never did return his calls and let him know.
     
    I got the note from his wife Jean in late August last year about his horrible trip to ICU where they drained a liter and a half of fluid out of his heart (caused by metastatic adeno-carcinoma) and the loss of his left leg to gangrene because his circulation had pretty much shut down there.
     
    I sent my regards to him then and knew that he had made it home (under hospice care) in early September last year but my own family was going through a very rough time then and I did not follow up with Jean about Tom
  22. Pantagathus

    Vacation

    By Pantagathus,

    So, on Friday I leave for Jamaica... :pimp:
     
    Going to Negril for a week for some fun in the sun and relaxation. I will eat conch fritters and drink Red Stripe for all of you.
     
    Oooooh I can't wait to catch up on some reading in a tropical location!
  23. Pantagathus

    Moravian Sugar Cake

    By Pantagathus,

    So this past Saturday we had a baby shower for my sister and it was a wonderful occasion because we had all siblings together (me, my older brother & his family, & my 2 sisters); which won
  24. Pantagathus
    The Mercurius mosaic had run it's course. Though I still really like my first avatar I used here; the Ulysses (Odysseus) cameo, I needed a change.
     
    That being said, I think I've found a keeper with my new one. Given the motif (which I hope all will recognize...) coupled with the meaning of my forum name I find its ironic humor quite appropriate.
     
    On a different note, I'm reading Lionel Casson's book Travel in the Ancient World currently and it is superb. I will submit a lengthy review to the site but I will say here that I think it should be in everyone's library who is interested in ancient history. It was first written in 1974 and is still perhaps the most diffinitive work on the subject.
     
    It's almost 2 book in one as he covers the ancient explorers quite thoroughly as well as general travel in the Bronze Age up to Late Roman period.
     
    On an even more different note, I pulled my thigh muscle really bad last week after it had just healed from 2 weeks ago. I've never had a pulled/torn muscle hurt that bad. I've been loopy on muscle relaxers since Friday and it still hurts; it is getting better though.
  25. Pantagathus

    Vaca Santa!

    By Pantagathus,

    Boy did I just hit a jackpot...
     
    Thanks to the Amazon.com marketplace I was able to pick up:
    Encounters And Transformations: The Archaeology of Iberia in Transition (Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology) for $15; which new runs $130.
     
    The jackpot is not really in regards to acquiring a book that is normally out of my price range but what is in it. I have to admit I was expecting yet another book written from a Judeo-Centric view that Iberia wasn't squat or worth studying until the period of Phoenician orientalization onward (and that even that was fueled in turn by Assyria ).
     
    Thank the Gods, I was wrong! Holy cow there are some amazing essays in there!!! The one that has taken me straight to Elysium so far has been: "A Thorny Problem: Was There Contact Between the Peoples of the Sea and Tartessos" by Dr. Manuel Bendala Galan. I mean, I've seen scattered, terse, matter of fact remarks before about Mycenaean interaction with Iberia well before the Phoenicians ever arrived on scene but never in such detail by a Spanish archaeologist, in a university funded compilation!!
     
    I can not wait to read all the essays as I have no doubt I will arrive at the end with a completely illuminated view of the Iberian Bronze age and what that meant moving into the 1st Millennium BC.
     
    Like one of the essays I skimmed over that went into depth about the connections between central Italian & Southern/Western Iberian archaeological data from the 3rd & 2nd Millenniums BC... Oh and the essay on Iberians in Sardinia...
     
    The only thing that irks me is being reminded by this amazing publication of essays that there is incredible information out there trapped behind big dollar signs...
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