I want to own a globe of the world as it looked during the last ice age: significant glaciers, lower sea levels, radically different coastlines. The world of the previous age of mankind, where most of our history occured and little save cave paintings record it.
Just think for a minute what the world would look like. Would the Gulf of Mexico be an inland sea? How far south would the glaciers reach for the North American interior? What drowned lands would then be above sea level? Would the Black Sea (or even the Mediteranian for that matter) connect to the oceans? Would the deserts of our day be the forrests of previous era?
And would this global map look at all familiar?
Would we find lands now reduced to fiction and legend?
Any help, insight, research, or opinions would be apreciated....
Lurker
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Atlantis in The Odyssey
For those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about go read the Odyssey:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/homer/ody/index.htm
And the part of the Dialogues of Plato about Atlantis:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/critias.txt
With those bits of info out of the way, here's my 'grade A' paper for my classical literature class. Sorry about the �'s.
Homer�s Odyssey told of the godlike, sea-fairing Phaeacians who lived on the remote isle of Scher�a. As the setting for seven books of the Odyssey, Homer devoted almost as many scenes to this lost idyllic paradise as he did to Ithaca. Given their advanced seafaring technology, their physical remoteness, and their close relationship with the Greek god Poseidon, one cannot help but compare the Phaeacians to another lost advanced island-nation� Atlantis.
Odysseus�s first glimpse of Scher�a from afar, which looked �like a shield on the misty sea,� (Book V, line 281) was comparable to the plain Plato described as �smooth and even, and of an oblong shape� (Plato). He had great trouble making landfall due to the �jutting cliffs,� very similar to Atlantis where �the banks were raised considerably above the water�. He eventually made landfall at the broad mouth of a river, of which Atlantis had several, unlike most Aegean islands.
Odysseus�s first encounter with the culture of the Phaeacians was with Nausicaa, daughter to the king Alcinous. Her description of the lifestyle of the island gave a picture of �security, ease, and elegance of Phaeacian life� (Dimock, 1989). Indeed Homer depicted various scenes featuring locals involve feasting, giving gifts, dancing, singing, and playing sports. Citizens of Atlantis were said to have had more restraint, and �thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property� and that �they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom�. Regardless, both societies were presented as the epitome of culture and as virtual utopias.
The origin of the people on Scher�a was very similar to that of Atlantis, where �Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island� (Plato). In the Odyssey it was revealed that �Nausithoos, the king who brought the Phaeacians to this remote island� was a �child of Poseidon and Periboia� a mortal (Dimock, 1989). There were differences between the stories, Plato named the girl Cleito, but the similarities were uncanny. Phaeacians were constantly referred to �distant relatives� to the Greek gods and called �kin� just as the Atlanteans are themselves described to have been of �divine nature� due to their ancestor Poseidon.
The Isle of Scher�a was very remote. It took Odysseus eighteen days to reach from Calypso�s Isle by raft. Being so far removed from Greece, their concept of geography was understandably very different. �No place can have seemed more central than the island of Euboia� to the Greeks, which the Phaeacian sailors claimed was the most distant land known (Dimock, 1989). The only hint of location in the Atlantis text is the mention of the island being �outside the Pillars of Heracles� thought to refer to the Atlantic instead of the Mediterranean, certainly far enough removed to justify this altered outlook.
But the speed at which the Phaeacians traversed this distance was unprecedented in its day. The ships described by the Odyssey are practically magical in their abilities: �Phaeacian ships do not have pilots, nor steering oars, as other ships have. They know on their own their passengers� thoughts� (VIII, 603). �Their ships are very fast, fast as a flying bird, or even a thought� (VII, 37-38). Few details are given about Atlantis� ships save that they have twelve hundred in their navy and many goods were transported domestically and from the �foreign cities over which they held sway�.
Some of the most impressive features of Scher�a were her developed harbors. Odysseus �marveled at the harbors and the shapely ships, at the meeting grounds and the long walls capped with palisades� (VII, 47). Massive harbors and extensive waterworks were also hallmarks of the Atlantean infrastructure, albeit with far more allusions to channels and bridges.
The palace of Alcinous surpasses all other mortal structures of the time. Every surface was coated in bronze, silver, or gold. It was filled with priceless godly artwork, glorious furniture, and fifty highly skilled slaves. The courtyard orchard has multiple varieties of fruit that �Never Perishes nor fail, summer or winter� (VII, 125). Two springs run in this courtyard, one to water the crops and the other for public drinking, whereas the Critias has �two springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly from the soil�. Both the Odyssey and the Critias both went to great lengths to describe the bounty and fertility of their respective islands, contrasting greatly to most of Greece. Both describe endless groves, incredible varieties of fruits and game, and cultivation aided by two divinely created springs which only further enhanced the fertility of the land.
The Phaeacians, while peaceful, are no strangers to war. The servant �Eurymedusa had come from Apeire in the curved ships, long ago, and had been chosen from the spoils of war for Alcinous� (VII, 7). This is a reference to a land lost to time, but along with hinted conflicts with the Cyclops and the ferocious speed of their navy, they could have been a truly powerful offensive country. Of course, the military forces described by Critias are far more menacing, with thousands of chariots and an entire warrior class.
The Phaeacians have a prophecy foretelling that Poseidon would �encircle our city within a mountain� (VIII, 615) for giving safe transport to passengers. This is eerily similar to the geography of Atlantis formed when Poseidon �inclosed [sic] the hill in which she [Cleito] dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another�. Or perhaps their prophesy referred to the sinking of the island by an earthquake, the ultimate end of Atlantis that buried her forever.
The Phaeacians prepared to sacrifice bulls to placate the ocean god, just as the Kings of Atlantis sacrificed bulls to at their temple of Poseidon. In fact, both islands describe their temples to Poseidon being centermost in their respective cities, and the most highly decorated. Even their ceremonial equipment was similar when Plato tells of how �they drew from the bowl in golden cups and [of] pouring a libation on the fire� for Poseidon, while the king Alcinous gave Odysseus a similarly described �beautiful cup, pure gold, to remember me by all of his days as he pours wine to Zeus and the other gods� (VIII, 468).
There were other details that wouldn�t quite fit. �Twelve honored kings are lord in Phaeacia� with Alcinous being the 13th (VIII, 422), while Atlantis had ten kings, whose lines started from 5 pairs of male twins. The few names and genealogies given don�t work out either. Neither do the timelines for both stories, with Atlantis being at least nine thousand years ago and Homer�s works less than half that.
But both islands have the same otherworldly feel to them, of some high civilization that was lost to the mists of time and only barely recorded, reduced to the status of a myth. �Neither Homer no the oldest member of his audience can have met in real life a race of people for whom reality was suspended to the degree that it was for the Phaeacians. Therefore, if they ever existed, they must have disappeared long ago� (Dimock, 1989). Both were fertile Utopian societies with advanced seafaring capabilities, descended from Poseidon and ultimately destroyed for displeasing him, reduced to mere echoes across time.
Works Cited
Dimock, George E. The Unity of the Odyssey The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989
Homer. Odyssey. Translation by Stanly Lombardo, Hackett Publishing Co, 2000
Plato, Critias. translated by Benjamin Jowett
http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/critias.txt
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/homer/ody/index.htm
And the part of the Dialogues of Plato about Atlantis:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/critias.txt
With those bits of info out of the way, here's my 'grade A' paper for my classical literature class. Sorry about the �'s.
Homer�s Odyssey told of the godlike, sea-fairing Phaeacians who lived on the remote isle of Scher�a. As the setting for seven books of the Odyssey, Homer devoted almost as many scenes to this lost idyllic paradise as he did to Ithaca. Given their advanced seafaring technology, their physical remoteness, and their close relationship with the Greek god Poseidon, one cannot help but compare the Phaeacians to another lost advanced island-nation� Atlantis.
Odysseus�s first glimpse of Scher�a from afar, which looked �like a shield on the misty sea,� (Book V, line 281) was comparable to the plain Plato described as �smooth and even, and of an oblong shape� (Plato). He had great trouble making landfall due to the �jutting cliffs,� very similar to Atlantis where �the banks were raised considerably above the water�. He eventually made landfall at the broad mouth of a river, of which Atlantis had several, unlike most Aegean islands.
Odysseus�s first encounter with the culture of the Phaeacians was with Nausicaa, daughter to the king Alcinous. Her description of the lifestyle of the island gave a picture of �security, ease, and elegance of Phaeacian life� (Dimock, 1989). Indeed Homer depicted various scenes featuring locals involve feasting, giving gifts, dancing, singing, and playing sports. Citizens of Atlantis were said to have had more restraint, and �thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property� and that �they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom�. Regardless, both societies were presented as the epitome of culture and as virtual utopias.
The origin of the people on Scher�a was very similar to that of Atlantis, where �Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island� (Plato). In the Odyssey it was revealed that �Nausithoos, the king who brought the Phaeacians to this remote island� was a �child of Poseidon and Periboia� a mortal (Dimock, 1989). There were differences between the stories, Plato named the girl Cleito, but the similarities were uncanny. Phaeacians were constantly referred to �distant relatives� to the Greek gods and called �kin� just as the Atlanteans are themselves described to have been of �divine nature� due to their ancestor Poseidon.
The Isle of Scher�a was very remote. It took Odysseus eighteen days to reach from Calypso�s Isle by raft. Being so far removed from Greece, their concept of geography was understandably very different. �No place can have seemed more central than the island of Euboia� to the Greeks, which the Phaeacian sailors claimed was the most distant land known (Dimock, 1989). The only hint of location in the Atlantis text is the mention of the island being �outside the Pillars of Heracles� thought to refer to the Atlantic instead of the Mediterranean, certainly far enough removed to justify this altered outlook.
But the speed at which the Phaeacians traversed this distance was unprecedented in its day. The ships described by the Odyssey are practically magical in their abilities: �Phaeacian ships do not have pilots, nor steering oars, as other ships have. They know on their own their passengers� thoughts� (VIII, 603). �Their ships are very fast, fast as a flying bird, or even a thought� (VII, 37-38). Few details are given about Atlantis� ships save that they have twelve hundred in their navy and many goods were transported domestically and from the �foreign cities over which they held sway�.
Some of the most impressive features of Scher�a were her developed harbors. Odysseus �marveled at the harbors and the shapely ships, at the meeting grounds and the long walls capped with palisades� (VII, 47). Massive harbors and extensive waterworks were also hallmarks of the Atlantean infrastructure, albeit with far more allusions to channels and bridges.
The palace of Alcinous surpasses all other mortal structures of the time. Every surface was coated in bronze, silver, or gold. It was filled with priceless godly artwork, glorious furniture, and fifty highly skilled slaves. The courtyard orchard has multiple varieties of fruit that �Never Perishes nor fail, summer or winter� (VII, 125). Two springs run in this courtyard, one to water the crops and the other for public drinking, whereas the Critias has �two springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly from the soil�. Both the Odyssey and the Critias both went to great lengths to describe the bounty and fertility of their respective islands, contrasting greatly to most of Greece. Both describe endless groves, incredible varieties of fruits and game, and cultivation aided by two divinely created springs which only further enhanced the fertility of the land.
The Phaeacians, while peaceful, are no strangers to war. The servant �Eurymedusa had come from Apeire in the curved ships, long ago, and had been chosen from the spoils of war for Alcinous� (VII, 7). This is a reference to a land lost to time, but along with hinted conflicts with the Cyclops and the ferocious speed of their navy, they could have been a truly powerful offensive country. Of course, the military forces described by Critias are far more menacing, with thousands of chariots and an entire warrior class.
The Phaeacians have a prophecy foretelling that Poseidon would �encircle our city within a mountain� (VIII, 615) for giving safe transport to passengers. This is eerily similar to the geography of Atlantis formed when Poseidon �inclosed [sic] the hill in which she [Cleito] dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger and smaller, encircling one another�. Or perhaps their prophesy referred to the sinking of the island by an earthquake, the ultimate end of Atlantis that buried her forever.
The Phaeacians prepared to sacrifice bulls to placate the ocean god, just as the Kings of Atlantis sacrificed bulls to at their temple of Poseidon. In fact, both islands describe their temples to Poseidon being centermost in their respective cities, and the most highly decorated. Even their ceremonial equipment was similar when Plato tells of how �they drew from the bowl in golden cups and [of] pouring a libation on the fire� for Poseidon, while the king Alcinous gave Odysseus a similarly described �beautiful cup, pure gold, to remember me by all of his days as he pours wine to Zeus and the other gods� (VIII, 468).
There were other details that wouldn�t quite fit. �Twelve honored kings are lord in Phaeacia� with Alcinous being the 13th (VIII, 422), while Atlantis had ten kings, whose lines started from 5 pairs of male twins. The few names and genealogies given don�t work out either. Neither do the timelines for both stories, with Atlantis being at least nine thousand years ago and Homer�s works less than half that.
But both islands have the same otherworldly feel to them, of some high civilization that was lost to the mists of time and only barely recorded, reduced to the status of a myth. �Neither Homer no the oldest member of his audience can have met in real life a race of people for whom reality was suspended to the degree that it was for the Phaeacians. Therefore, if they ever existed, they must have disappeared long ago� (Dimock, 1989). Both were fertile Utopian societies with advanced seafaring capabilities, descended from Poseidon and ultimately destroyed for displeasing him, reduced to mere echoes across time.
Works Cited
Dimock, George E. The Unity of the Odyssey The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989
Homer. Odyssey. Translation by Stanly Lombardo, Hackett Publishing Co, 2000
Plato, Critias. translated by Benjamin Jowett
http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/critias.txt
Sunday, March 05, 2006
United Nations replacement
First off, it should be democracies only. If a government is not voted in by frequent and fair elections, then it shouldn't be alowed to join.
That said, I would have it grow organically like the EU or the United States, voting to uphold some universal values and not to war with member states.
Primary concerns would be trade, environment, conflict resolution, space exploration, and other concerns of a global nature. And thats it. At every turn power must be minimized, capped, and otherwise stunted, for there is no escape from a runaway world government. No place to run.
The New United Nations (NUN) would function like a super-congress, with representatives elected at large from the regions they hail from. There should be no presidential position, for this would be way too dangerous.
I would also put it near the middle east, close conection between Africa and Europe and Asia, because that is where most of the action is.
Lurker
(eh, I'll finish this later)
That said, I would have it grow organically like the EU or the United States, voting to uphold some universal values and not to war with member states.
Primary concerns would be trade, environment, conflict resolution, space exploration, and other concerns of a global nature. And thats it. At every turn power must be minimized, capped, and otherwise stunted, for there is no escape from a runaway world government. No place to run.
The New United Nations (NUN) would function like a super-congress, with representatives elected at large from the regions they hail from. There should be no presidential position, for this would be way too dangerous.
I would also put it near the middle east, close conection between Africa and Europe and Asia, because that is where most of the action is.
Lurker
(eh, I'll finish this later)
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