#poems about prehistory

[siliconpoems]

Available from my Etsy Store from 31st March 2023 at 6.00pm GMT.

[lefresne]

What I have never understood about Galahad is Why does he need to be Lancelot's son? Why does Galahad need to be born by Rape? And Why and HOW on earth can Elaine be the Grail Bearer and still commit an obvious sin?

(tw for issues related to rape)

Oh anon, this is one of the great mysteries of Arthuriana. Even more puzzling is the fact that by the end of the twelfth-century there already was a Grail hero: Perceval! In fact, early prose romances, building on Chrétien’s poem, will keep Perceval as Grail hero (ie. The Perlesvaus and the Didot-Perceval, an early prose cycle that includes a prehistory of the Grail, a prose Grail Quest, and a version of the Mort), but for some reason by the 1230s, a few significant developments have occurred: Lancelot’s lineage is ‘attached’ to Joseph of Arimathea’s and the name ‘Galahad’ is introduced for the first time. The best essay on the subject is Emmanuèle Baumgartner’s chapter in The Lancelot Grail Cycle: Text and Transformation, ‘From Lancelot to Galahad: The Stakes of Filiation’. Broadly, it argues that the introduction of the character of Galahad is answering to both narrative and textual issues: principally, how to reconcile widely divergent textual traditions that one ‘inherits’ in order to produce a single, coherent ‘cycle’. The medieval ‘cycle’ is itself responding to a desire for ‘total’ encyclopaedic knowledge of Arthurian history, and this desire for accumulating a frankly disorientating amount of textual material was in fact very characteristic of the period. As to why is has to be Lancelot specifically, it might just have to do with the fact that the prior textual sources establish him as the 'best' knight so it would have been prestigious to have him as a father. Unfortunately, within the ideological framework outlined in earlier Grail narratives (notably its emphasis on chastity), Lancelot must be ‘sacrificed’, punished, and violated in order for these disparate textual elements to ‘fit’. He cannot be the Grail hero because of his prior textual inheritance, the only ‘solution’ (and I am putting HUGE quotation marks here) is to fall back on a trope common the chivalric romance which is that narrative progresses along the same lines as heterosexual reproduction (which is itself a fantasy but that’s for another time YIKES). The character of Lancelot has to be ‘rewritten’ into Galahad (and this is a trope that is super prevalent throughout the PL and Vulgate Cycle, all Lancelot’s ancestors have the same names and seem to be like weird, uncanny echoes of each other). In other words, if you're thinking that the introduction of Galahad is incoherent, it's because it is - it's literally trying to make things that were not initially thought as fitting together, fit together through re-writing / over-writing.

I have the PDF of the chapter if you do not have institutional access, and I might be able to find a way to get it to you (hint hint nudge nudge). 

As for Elaine’s final fate, she is deemed unworthy of continuing to bear the Grail, and retires to a convent, and then dies. She does, however, briefly voice her resentment towards her father as she considers herself ‘diminished’ now that she is no longer a virgin (yikes).  

[leftistfeminista]

María Cristina López Stewart, a brilliant 21 year old MIRista, student, historian, philosopher and poet.

From a comrade "But the girl also knows many other things, and with the deputy head of the unit - she is a humanist, now it is clearly evident - at the end of that day she dazzles us by talking to us about Auerbach, about Hegel, the German philosophers and how you get through them to Marx."

But to Pinochet's fascist thugs like Osvlado Romo she was nothing but a "nice arse, and a great vagina" as recorded by her friend in Being Luis, when he confronted Romo at his trial.

Being Luis: A Chilean Life By Luis Muñoz Page 244

The sadistic guards cruelly boasted about enjoying her body to her friends and comrades.

But today we remember her for her mind and spirit. As the Blue Notebooks of her poetry are republished. Here we see the patriarchal, misogynist nature of the Pinochet project, the desire to bring these fierce intelligent women down to nothing but their feminine bodies. As objects to be used and consumed. In honoring he poetry and her thoughts, we refute these fiends.

She was a student at Liceo 7 in Providencia and a student of History and Geography at the University of Chile, and wrote the poems before her kidnapping in 1974. The text will be presented next Thursday at the Museum of Memory, after within the framework of the social outbreak his family decided to publish it. «For many years I thought that my sister's poems would not be understood. It seemed to me that we had not managed, as a society, to build 'memory' and vindicate those who were branded as terrorists, subversives and common criminals... After the social outbreak of October 2019, it seemed to us that a process was culminating and that the conditions were created for a new dialogue with history. The songs, speeches and slogans confirmed that not only was memory alive in the collective unconscious, but perspectives that had been postponed and repressed for centuries were also vindicated. Like a kind of revelation, we felt that it was time to share the poems from the Blue Notebook: there would be those who would understand them," says Patricia López, who edited the book with her daughter Cristina Alarcón.

« Today the books and notebooks are on the walls, on the stones or on the posts. Where is the best interpreted story? The facts are known in the street, a voice on top of a box, a honk at the kiosk on the corner , explosive bombs, tear gas, gunshots. Everything is there, the history of today and tomorrow . (7-21-73, "The Blue Notebook")

On September 10, 1973, one day before the coup d'état, Mary wrote the following verse:

Will 73 be like all the months that are sometimes called September? Won't a Hawker Hunter darken the sky ? Will the clicking of a rifle not break the harmony of sounds ? And a few days after the coup, these verses:

The story was defined in three minutes.

AND:

Life changes as suddenly as a gunshot that we all begin to hear and that still does not stop.

Mary's last poem reads like this:

No end, he told me it's just a chapter about to start. Is it true then, that not everything ends definitively? Is it true that prehistory led to slavery, slavery continued in feudalism, and the latter gave rise to capitalism, a new version of slavery? It's true? And then later...

Even in the darkest of moments, surrounded by degradation, she had revolutionary optimism in the grand sweep of history. That the new version of slavery that capitalism has subjected her to, would meet its' end. Despite the cruel methods of Junta guards to reduce women comrades to their bodies and raw femininity, she remained concerned with world destiny. Humiliation and degradation will not make revolutionary women forget who they are.

[lenasai]

before 2022 ends (for me) i'm gonna steal an idea from @thehallstara and do a recap of the stuff i wrote this year, with commentary because i feel like it...and also so it's not like. exactly the same thing lmao

first, go take a look at hir post if you feel so inclined. if you have the time, those twines are all bangers.

list below the cut because this will probably be long when it appears in the tag:

the splorts poetry series as it exists now. the first two sets were from 2021, but i started the series after realizing i was going to post more individual blaseball poems. turns out putting a bunch of poems in one work and waiting for those to be done before you publish them means a lot of stuff just goes unpublished, so i moved toward publishing stuff individually. if you wanna just look at the poems i wrote in 2022, start with lucky number 81 (what if)

the merry exit (un?)memorial dimension traveling club - a fun little exploration of the merry exit from the gamma 1 test circuit and the merry exit from the tutorial game

hold on, you'll live to play again - look i KNOW what's going to be in the second chapter. i just haven't written it yet. every now and then i go "oh no i abandoned the happy story about the kids" and stare wistfully at the pages document hoping the second chapter will just write itself. i will write it eventually. shoutout to the random person who left kudos on the first chapter like 50 years after i wrote it, knowing there's a nonexistent second chapter. anyway. i wrote the first chapter for the first anniversary of longest thursday. it's about the season 20 postseason and the moment we knew everyone (mostly ivy) was going to be safe. it's got more core lore than i expected to write. thank you mechs.

ashes, dust, and other reminders of what once was - for the garages fic exchange, about chorby soul and parker macmillan. HOO BOY this is the one i'm proudest of. if you read only one piece from this post, i hope you will consider making it this one...which is a huge ask because it's nearly 11k words. if i had a nickel for every time i wrote over 10k words of People In The Vault Being Sad About Things i would have two nickels. that's not a lot of nickels, but very funny it happened twice. this is also the first work i've written for another person, and they were an absolute pleasure to write for. anyway. i think chorby soul and parker macmillan should be besties.

what if the light at the end of the tunnel burns me again - for the firefighters fic exchange, about Agan Espinoza's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Season 24. i love them. i curled up into a little ball of shrimp emotions when they fell in the last fall ball with parker macmillan. god damn.

end-of-the-world tour - i wrote 1.5k words about parker macmillan's roam to the (prehistory) crabs and immortals in like two hours. absolutely no proofreading went into it. i wrote it and tossed it into the void after my computer threatened to fuck me over at the deadline. written for the blaseball zine jam.

batting practice - yeah so i procrastinated until the week of the deadline, then got possessed by some kind of writing demon and wrote 5.5k words about wyatt quitter and jasmine mason. not to say it was rushed, but it may have a residual formatting glitch i may have missed when copying from pages into ao3. i went over it many times to try and get rid of those, but if you see a couple of paragraphs fused together, no you didn't. written for the lift fic exchange.

[crossover-enthusiast]

Ty bro!!

I was watching stuff to do with prehistory today and got all up in my feelings while thinking about just how many people there were on this earth who lived their lives just as I had—so I wrote this /lh

The poem sounds like something Iris would enjoy tho lmao /j

Ooo

Oh yeah! She'd definitely like it

[essayofthoughts]

Orchid and sage for the ask game! 👋🏻☺️

Orchid - What's a song you consider to be perfect?

That. That is tough. Because by what metric are we measuring perfect? Most impactful? In what way? There's some songs that I loathe because they're incredibly effective earworms, I just hate them for it. There's some songs which reliably emotionally affect me deeply. Others which are perfect for when I'm writing X thing, or which can make me dance in my chair (when I am someone who refuses to dance around others), songs which are so embeded in my brain I can recall most of the lyrics at the drop of a hat. Songs which I think (with my minimal musical knowledge) are just... technically gorgeous.

I think, if I had to pick one, I'd probably go with Bohemian Rapsody by Queen because... because if you start singing it, everyone around you is almost always capable of joining in. Because it does so many things and yet feels cohesive. Because it's beautiful.

Close seconds are probably American Pie and Beethoven's 9th. And. None of these songs I tend to listen to often but they are songs that I think are very special.

Now if you want songs that reliably punch me in the gut or make me cry or which I think are perfect for specific characters or fics, that's a different question.

Sage - What medium of art (poetry, music, fiction, paintings, statues) etc. is the most touching to you? Why do you think that is?

Again! Definition of terms! Ask games like this are frustratingly inexact. For a literal definition, obviously it'd be statues, ceramic and other physical art, and I do find a particular poetry in the fingerprints of the potter in the pottery they made. You can feel the maker's handprints across thousands of years of time and that's one of those parts of archaeology that just... destroys me every time - see also handprint art in caves. I could go on.

Music also does something deep and fundamental to emotions - hell, we have Major and Minor key which are broadly considered to be great for marking the emotion of a tune! Music is magical and can affect us in just... incredible ways for what it is. It's sound and yet-

Yeah.

But also I'm someone who fics and I'm biased and words are also magical! You can use words to paint an image in someone's mind, and with poetry, by playing with the rules of language, you can invoke emotion just by how someone must read the poem, by the contrast of words. And poetry can blend into music - what are lyrics but a particular form of poem?

For me, personally, I get especially emotional about physical, tangible and - importantly - historical art, because I studied archaeology and I get very emotional about these... these things that survive, these things that connect us to ancestors and forbears and even other varieties of human. A thumbprint in clay, a handprint on stone - marks of lives lived long ago and yet still recognisable, still human. Still us. And... especially in prehistory, that cave art and some of those carved and crafted pieces, that's all we have of them. We don't have their music, we don't have their stories - we don't even have their language!

But we have their art. Art that was meant to convey something then, that was humans reaching out to humans, to show and share something - things they'd seen, marks of what they'd survived (there are hand outlines of people who lost parts of their fingers to frostbite, but they survived and they left these handmarks all the same!), there's dotmarks and tallies, there's art of rhinos on cave walls that under fiery torchlight look as though the animal is tossing it's head-

And we see these things. We recognise these things. We don't know what they were trying to convey to us - true death of the author! - but we know they were trying to convey something. We see that reaching hand and in all the ways we can, our brains reach back. We want to understand, we want to connect. We are social animals and even across a thousand years of time, we seek that social connection.

God I love humanity.

I find historical - prehistorical - art the most emotionally affecting. I love writing as a personal favourite. Music gets to me. But if by "touching" this question means "emotionally affecting" - yeah, it's prehistoric art specifically. Even when they're long gone, even when we can never speak to them, share their stories, fully understand their intent... we recognise something is there. We want to understand.

We are people, and we recognise the works of other people. They made that art to try to tell others something - because they wanted connection too, and...

We're people. Across hundreds of thousands of years, we're all still people. We still care and want to connect. And that gets to me.

[dan6085]

Here is a brief timeline of the history of Indonesia:

Prehistory:

- Archaeological evidence shows that humans have lived in what is now Indonesia for at least 1.5 million years. Early civilizations include the Tarumanagara and the Srivijaya Empire.

7th-14th century:

- The Srivijaya Empire, centered on the island of Sumatra, became a major center of trade and culture in Southeast Asia, with its influence extending throughout the region.

- The Majapahit Empire, based on the island of Java, reached its peak in the 14th century under the reign of King Hayam Wuruk, with the empire controlling much of what is now Indonesia, as well as parts of Malaysia and Singapore.

The Majapahit Empire was a powerful Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that existed on the Indonesian island of Java from the late 13th century to the early 16th century. The empire was known for its military strength, cultural achievements, and political stability, and is considered one of the greatest empires in Southeast Asian history.

Here are some key facts and details about the Majapahit Empire:

- The Majapahit Empire was founded in 1293 by Raden Wijaya, who defeated the existing Mongol-linked kingdom of Singhasari and established his own kingdom at Trowulan in East Java.

- The empire reached its peak in the 14th century under the reign of King Hayam Wuruk, who ruled from 1350 to 1389. During his reign, the empire controlled much of what is now Indonesia, as well as parts of Malaysia and Singapore.

- The Majapahit Empire was known for its strong military, which allowed it to defeat invading armies and maintain its territorial control. The empire also had a well-organized bureaucracy, with officials appointed based on merit rather than birth.

- The empire was a center of culture and learning, with literature, art, and architecture flourishing during its reign. Notable works from this period include the Nagarakretagama, a 14th-century poem that describes the empire's political and cultural achievements, and the temples and palaces at Trowulan.

- The Majapahit Empire was a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom, with both religions coexisting and influencing each other. The empire was also known for its syncretic religious practices, which blended Hindu and Buddhist beliefs with local animism.

- The Majapahit Empire declined in the 15th century, due to a combination of factors including political instability, economic pressures, and invasions from neighboring kingdoms. The empire was eventually conquered by the Islamic Demak Sultanate in the early 16th century.

The legacy of the Majapahit Empire can still be seen in modern-day Indonesia, particularly in the country's cultural traditions and historical landmarks. The empire's emphasis on military strength, cultural achievements, and political stability helped to shape the identity of Indonesia as a nation, and its cultural achievements continue to inspire admiration and pride among the Indonesian people.

16th-19th century:

- The arrival of European powers, including the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, led to increased colonization and control over parts of Indonesia.

- The Dutch East India Company established a trading post in Jakarta in the early 17th century and gradually gained control over much of the archipelago. The Dutch colonial period lasted until the mid-20th century.

- Indonesia experienced a period of resistance and rebellion against colonial rule, including the Java War and the Aceh War.

20th century:

- Indonesia declared independence from the Netherlands in 1945, with Sukarno becoming the country's first president.

- The country faced significant challenges in its early years, including political instability, economic struggles, and separatist movements in several regions.

- Sukarno's government was eventually overthrown in a military coup in 1965, led by General Suharto, who ruled Indonesia for the next three decades.

- Indonesia has experienced significant economic growth and development in recent years, becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia.

21st century:

- Indonesia has faced a number of challenges in recent years, including natural disasters, terrorism, and political unrest.

- The country has pursued policies aimed at promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and improving infrastructure and education.

- Indonesia has also sought to increase its role in regional and global politics, with the country hosting a number of high-profile events and conferences.

This timeline provides a brief overview of the history of Indonesia, but there are many more details and complexities to this story. Indonesia's rich cultural heritage and complex political history have made it a fascinating and dynamic country, with a unique identity that continues to evolve and develop.

[samwellwinchesterthebrave]

My poem for the first day of NaNoWriMo was inspired by a dinosaur song while my niece was watching Cocomelon

Day 1

Millions of years ago, in a different world,

Unique creatures lived and thrived.

They ruled the seas, the skies, the land.

None knew how quickly their end would come.

For eons, dinosaurs walked where we do now.

They adapted to changing climates,

Marching through whole eras of prehistory.

Until a massive comet ended their reign.

Now we study their fossilized bones and tissues,

Clues and details hidden securely in rock and dirt.

We live among their winged descendents,

Fascinated by and learning about these lost animals.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP POETRY BOOK OF THE DAY: Deciphering the Desert: a book of poems by Susan Cummins Miller

TO ORDER GO TO: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/deciphering-the-desert-a-book-of-poems-by-susan-cummins-miller/

The fifty-three poems in Deciphering the Desert capture a geoscientist’s contemplation of, discoveries in, and wisdom gained from the changing terrain of her life and work. These poems arise from the mysteries that surround us in the intersections of landscape, science, history, prehistory, and time. They excavate what lies behind, beneath, and beyond surface observations and experiences—the extraordinary in the commonplace—and they reveal the healing power and renewal to be found in the desert West.

Tucson writer Susan Cummins Miller, a former field geologist and college instructor, is the author of the novels Death Assemblage, Detachment Fault, Quarry, Hoodoo, Fracture, and Chasm. She compiled and edited the anthology A Sweet, Separate Intimacy: Women Writers of the American Frontier, 1800-1922, and her award-winning poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Finishing Line Press recently released her chapbook of poems, Making Silent Stones Sing.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Deciphering the Desert: a book of poems by Susan Cummins Miller

Each time Susan Cummins Miller walked into her childhood library in Pasadena, she saw these words above the door: “Be made whole by the great spaces and the stars.” The poems in Deciphering the Desert are filled with the stars. And shells. And dry bones and shining stones. Azure skies and back roads, Joshua trees, pack rats and yellow butterflies. Susan’s curiosity about the natural world began by asking questions on summer trips with her family throughout the West. And receiving answers. In one poem, Miller questions the La Brea Tar Pit woman: “Did you ask questions? Did you feel the subtle shift in tenor when answers appeared, as if from the very air?” The poems in Deciphering the Desert are crafted the same way the earth is: with specific details and colors, and the names of things intact “in the starlit secret places, … the riverside camps.” The mysteries of nature become clearer as we are made whole by Susan’s words.

–Liza Porter, author of Red Stain and Keep the Singing.

From a plastic dashboard Jesus to bared-soul musings, poet/geologist Susan Cummins Miller leads readers on a lyrical field trip through family, culture, and, most of all, the natural world–thus helping us decipher far more than the desert.

–Wynne Brown, author of The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon’s Life of Science and Art

Please share/please repost [PROMO]#flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #read #poetrybook #poems

[siliconpoems]

‘Second Hand Stones’ Poem

Written by The Silicon Tribesman. All Rights Reserved, 2022. Repost Only With Credits.

[thesilicontribesman]

I’ve just posted a poem; please click on the link to read and like the poem if you wish :)

[true--north]

🔥🗿 Frozen 2 meta posts 💧🍂

Fanfics master post

Summary on Ahtohallan

The Shipwreck Manuscript, the key document for understanding Frozen 2

The fifth row of the Manuscript, where the greatness of Elsa's destiny depicted; the fourth row

More on the Manuscript: Iduna's inscription; Where could Iduna get it from?;

Arendelle's prehistory

The Hero's Journey 2 3 4 5 6

The Light of Ahtohallan, 2 3 4 5 6

Free will and Elsa's destiny

New dress, Something is familiar

Ahtohallan, Elsa, Anna

Anna's fears 2 3 4

Anna and a bridge, discussion 1 2 3

The foreshadowing 2

Ahtohallan and Arendelle, The Dam

Frozen 2 themes, why I love them

Elsa, a fantasy heroine, she hears the calling

"She will sing to those who hear", the Voice and Elsa

Iduna and Gale, Iduna and Ahtohallan, 2 3

"And in her song all magic flows"

Little Elsa, Iduna and her daughters

Some things never change, an analysis of the song

Where do the sisters belong? 2 3

Broken promises?, Retcon?

The connection of the movies 2 3 4

My interpretation of Show Yourself, a poem

My addition to the post by mybabygirlelsa

Anna and Elsa, fan edits, parallel

Agduna and Dangerous Secrets 2 3 4 5 6

Iduna and Agnarr quotes about the sisters, 2

Golden Four: how they deal with problems

"I want" songs

Forest of Shadows, Polar Nights 2 3 4

The powers, F2 discussion at greatqueenanna's 2

Hot take on the post-Frozen 2 content and so called "separation"

My vision

Anna and Elsa's togetherness

Queen Anna, 2 Queen Elsa, Arendelle's prehistory

Messages, Related topics 2 3

Messianic symbolism of Frozen 2, and more

The ice boat scene 2 3

Elsa and the Earth Giants 2 3

Frozen 2 Kristanna

[vikiblood]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythians#Culture_and_society

OK, the link is about the Scythians, but this part is about their most important deity, enjoy:

Artimpasa

Artimpasa (Ἀρτίμπασα), more commonly known as Argimpasa (Ἀργίμπασα) due to a scribal corruption, was equated by Hēródotos with the Greek goddess Aphrodítē Ouranía. Artimpasa was an androgynous goddess of warfare, sovereignty, priestly force, fecundity, vegetation and fertility and was the Scythian variant of the Iranian goddess Arti , a patron of fertility and marriage and a guardian of laws, and from whom the first element of Artimpasa's name was derived.

The cult of Artimpasa was performed by the Anarya, who were powerful transvestite priests from the most noble families affiliated to an orgiastic cult of the goddess.

The Enarei, singular Enaree (Ancient Greek: Ἐνάρεες Enárees, Ἀναριεῖς Anarieîs, derived from the Iranian term *anarya, meaning "unmanly", were Scythian androgynous/effeminate priests and shamanistic soothsayers who played an important role in the Scythian religion.

Religious role

The Enarei performed Artimpasa's cult and played an important political role in Scythian society as they were believed to have received the gift of prophesy directly from the goddess Artimpasa (conflated by Herodotus with Aphrodite). The Enarei wore women's clothing, performed women's jobs and customs and spoke in a feminine manner.They were accepted and revered in Scythian society.

Scythian religion included shamanism and divination, both nature and deities worship and had no temples. Scythian shamanism involved religious ecstasy through the use of cannabis, with modern authors claiming that Enarei likely performed those rites, just like 'gender-crossing shamans' of other cultures.

Divination

Herodotus describes the Scythian divination practices: the method employed by the Enarei differed from that practised by traditional Scythian diviners: whereas the latter used a bundle of willow rods, the Enarei used strips cut from the bark of the linden tree (genus tilia) to tell the future,which they did by splitting the bark and twining the strands among open fingers.

The Enarei were especially consulted when the king of the Scythians was ill, which was itself believed by the Scythians to be caused by a false oath being sworn upon the king's hearth.

Androgyny

Hippocrates wrote that Enarei would "play the part of women", which has been interpreted as referring to being the passive person in a homosexual intercourse.Aristotle described them with the word "malakia" (soft, effeminate), which also carried connotations of the sexually receptive homosexual party.

Herodotus, who uses the term "androgynos" (ἀνδρόγονος), explains their effeminate condition with the story of the Scythians who pillaged the temple of Aphrodite Urania at Askelon, and all their descendants after them, afflicted by the goddess with the “female” sickness. Hippocrates, who speaks about the Enarees in his work On Airs, Waters, Places, theorized that they were impotent as a result of continuous horseback riding, and it was for this reason they have adopted feminine roles.[6] Hippocrates also underlined that only the noble and powerful men (who got to ride horses) became Enarei.

Modern hypothesesThe archaeologist Timothy Taylor in his 1996 book The Prehistory of Sex proposed a theory that Enarei drank pregnant mare urine to induce hormonal feminization.He bases his theory on some pastoralist peoples custom of consuming animal urine,[12] Ovid poems mentioning virus amantis equae ("slime/flux of mare in heat") as an ingredient (in Medicamina Faciei Femineae it is a "baneful"/"hurtful" one) witches would use and modern usage of conjugated equine estrogens for transfeminine hormone replacement therapy. Despite the lack of direct evidence, this idea has gained popularity and has been both cited and passed off as a fact on the Internet.

[baeddel]

I'd have to reread Savage's paper. However, whenever people claim the Scythians used premarin, the evidence given is a poem by Virgil in which a witch (usual translation) is making beautifying treatments from hippomanes (this gets translated all sorts of ways). 1. If I recall, this poem predates Virgil's time with the Scythians. 2. Hippomanes is placenta, not urine.

[Anon sent a followup message clarifying that they meant Ovid, not Vergil]

i just went back to double check the paper and it turns out that, after discussing Herodotus and Hippocrates, the evidence she uses about Scythians drinking horse urine is indeed derived from Ovid's Amores, so the argument is susceptible to your criticism (Savage 2006, pg 75-76). she wants to corroborate it by saying that there are other examples of pastoral communities which drink pregnant mare urine (citing some pages in Timothy Taylor, 1997, Prehistory of Sex, which I've never been able to pirate lol), but offers no other evidence that the Scythians in particular did so. so your original ask was completely correct: all arguments that Scythians used premarin rely in some important way on Ovid's Amores, which can't do what we want it to.

we could rescue some weak version of the argument by saying 1. that it is known that premarin was used medicinally in some historical societies that predate the Scythians, 2. that the enaree were described by Herodotus and Hippocrates as both feminine and infertile, and that therefore 3. it is possible that the enaree used premarin for the purposes of feminization. but if Savage's strong argument was at the threshold of what i considered acceptable evidence we've dipped below it by now & i'm not likely to make this claim in the future. i'll add a note in the original post.

[carriagelamp]

The tops books I read over the 2020 – you know, what I could fit in between the entire world collectively losing its mind and a literal plague being unleashed on us.

This is ridiculously late, but my new year was just too busy to get this done and fight with tumblr over uploading x.x so here it finally is. I won’t go into detail about them, because I did that in my various monthly reviews, but (with the exception of Crave which was unspeakably bad but made the list because it was strangely iconic for my summer this year) this assortment of novels, novellas, comics, and manga were all fantastic reads that I would recommend people check out!

The list in a not-picture form:

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood by Fred Rogers – a collection of illustrated poems from Mister Rogers

Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller – most recent queer novel by one of my favourite authors, about magic and science and war and medicine

Behind The Scenes by Bisco Hatori – a manga series by the creator of Ouran Highschool Host Club, a great coming-of-age story about a students in the theatre prop department

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor – a scifi novella about the first of the Himba people to leave for space after being accepted into the most prestige university in the galaxy

The Bromelaid Trilogy by Terry Pratchett – a series about a dying race of nomes who discover there’s more of them than they thought and more to the world than they imagined

Crave by Tracy Wolff – worst paranormal romance book I’ve ever read, derivative of, somehow, everything, do not fucking bother

The Deep by Rivers Solomon – a novella about a race of deep sea mermaids and how they cope with the traumatic history of their people

Doll Bones by Holly Black – a story about a group of kids as they struggle with growing beyond playing make believe and a ghost that may or may not be haunting them

Flawed Dogs by Berkeley Breathed – a story about dogs and how they survive in against the human standards of perfection and beauty, both hilarious and traumatically brutal

FRNCK by Olivier Bocquet & Brice Cossu – a French graphic novel series about a boy who accidentally falls back into prehistory and is adopted, somewhat reluctantly or at least with great confusion, by a family of cavemen

Ghost Hunters Adventure Club and the Secret of the Grand Chateau by Dr Cecil H. H. Mills – a Hardy Boys satire written by the Game Grumps which was probably the funniest book I read all year, I would highly recommend it even as someone with zero interest in the Game Grumps.

Gregor the Overland by Suzanne Collins – Gregor discovers a hidden world under New York populated by giant animals and strange humans that are determined to draw him into their political turmoil

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – I feel like I read this ten years ago. The novel that the Netflix series was loosely based on, a very cool horror with fascinating themes built into the subtext

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju – a Canadian slice-of-life novel about a young queer teen falling into the LGBT scene for the first time and figuring out friendship, love, and who she is

The Last Book On The Left by Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, and Ben Kissel. True crime stories with a comedic twist, adapted from their podcast The Last Podcast On The Left.

Lupin III: World’s Most Wanted #3 by Monkey Punch – anyone on this blog knows I fell hard for Lupin this year. A goofy series about a world class thief and his team.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline – probably the best book of the year for me. A post-apocolypse story based around the horror of residential schools, climate change, and illness

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyers – look I loved the Twilight series too much as a teen when it was first coming out not to have gone head over heels for this. Unabashedly loved it.

No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen – a Canadian novel about child poverty and homelessness, more light-hearted and hopeful than it sounds

The One And Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate – a gorilla that’s spent his entire life placidly living in a tiny mall exhibit meets a new friend and suddenly has something bigger to live for and protect

Our Dreams At Dusk by Shimanami Tasogare – one of the best queer manga series I’ve ever read, super artsy and focuses on the different complicated experiences by a number of different characters

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey – alternative history novella about a gay gunslinger and his team of hippo-cowboys in Louisana as they go on the biggest heist of their careers - so worth the read, this was tons of queer fun

Sanity & Tallulah by Molly Brooks – a graphic novel about the hijinks two young children (and aspiring mad scientists) can get up to on their space station home

The Witcher: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski – can you believe The Witcher came out this year? Anyway, the novels were fucking amazing, some of the best high fantasy I’ve read in years

[loveindicators]

abt 🤙🏼

dyre , she/her , indian

(poetry here)

HELLO hi i am here to cry in general but yearn specifically over words (!), mitski, sing street 2016, jurassic park 1993, x-files, the It franchise, the replacements, stranger things, childhood, hope and whatnot

there's no start nor end to what i post i am just here. main interests are writing literature film mystery punk prehistory (esp dinosaurs) etc. and I post my poems under # my writing <33

i do not know the second thing about minecraft or dream but I do enjoy some of the dsmp members' vlogs a lot. I really only watch tommyinnit wilbur jackmanifold ranboo and stuff

pls do ask if you need me to tag anything.

and 🫂 do fwel free to message me 🫂 or send an ask 🫂 you could tell me about the new bird you've noticed on your window today and I will love you.