The Lion of Chaeronea

Thanks.

Thanks. And yes, I'm in the Northern Hemisphere (the continental United States, to be specific).

Thanks. I appreciate it.

Hi, all. I'm sorry about the roller-coaster of personal posts today. I know they're not what you're here for. I'm going to go ahead and leave this blog intact while I step away. I'll come back once things are more settled. Anyway, I appreciate your time. I hope you all have a good day/night/whatever it may be in your time zone.

OK.

Thanks.

Because I'm sick of it. Because I'm sick of everything. Because my mental health is imploding. So many reasons. Forgive me.

Planning to delete this blog very soon. If you have content you'd like to save, please do so now.

Thanks. That's very kind of you. I may come back in a little while. I'm just really tired, honestly.

Thanks. I really appreciate it.

I think I'm going to step away for a while. This just isn't fun anymore. I'm sorry.

Marble bust of the great Athenian general, orator, and statesman Pericles (ca. 495-429 BCE), shown here wearing a Corinthian helmet. Pericles is credited by many historians, notably Thucydides, with guiding 5th century BCE Athens to its peak of greatness; among his achievements were the ambitious building program on the Parthenon and the conversion of the Delian League, originally formed to combat the Persians, into a tribute-paying Athenian empire. His reputation was not, however, unblemished. His political opponents accused him of aiming at tyranny, while his enforcement of the Megarian Decree--which barred Sparta's ally Megara from all Athenian harbors and was effectively an act of economic warfare--may have been the proximate cause of the Peloponnesian War. His death from plague plunged Athens into crisis and led to a succession of populist leaders such as Cleon and Hyperbolus, whose far more aggressive foreign policy ultimately proved disastrous for Athens. Though the city would survive and even make a second attempt at empire-building, it never regained the unchallenged supremacy it had enjoyed in the Periclean period.

Roman copy of uncertain date after a lost Greek original. Now in the Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican City.

Getting a little weary of having my posts stolen by a certain massive Facebook group that shall (for the time being, anyway) remain nameless. I know it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I really do make an effort to produce quality content on this blog, and I would appreciate being credited for it.

Train Tracks at the Saint-Lazare Station, Claude Monet, 1877

Girl in the Garden, Mary Cassatt, between 1880 and 1882

Ichikawa Danjūrō IX (from the series A Contest of Magic Scenes by Toyokuni), Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865)

A mystic scene. The deity Kabeiros, worshiped (normally as part of a group, the Kabeiroi) on the Aegean island of Samothrace, is shown identified with Dionysos in his chthonic aspect. He reclines as at a symposium; in his left hand is an egg, suggesting rebirth, while his right hand holds a kantharos (two-handled drinking cup), from which a snake drinks. The snake itself is a common chthonic symbol: its ability to shed its skin was often understood as symbolic of the "death" and rebirth of initiates into mystery cults. Side A of a red-figure krater by the Mystai Painter, late 5th century BCE. From Boeotia; now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Photo credit: Zde/Wikimedia Commons.

If you created your own magical world, what would it be like? Very quiet, hilly, full of trees and grasses, and suffused at all times with a gentle, unobtrusive rain.

Uranus and the Dance of the Stars, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1834