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The femme fatale has roots stretching back to Greek mythology. Here are just a few of the most notorious examples – and a few that have been severely misrepresented… Apr 7, 2023 • By Catherine Dent, MA 20th and 21st Century Literary Studies, BA English Literature femme fatale ancient greek myth The femme fatale is a character archetype found across many different cultures and mythologies – and Ancient Greek mythology is no exception. A dangerous, seductive, and beautiful woman, examples of the femme fatale abound in Greek myths. From the theodical foundation myth of Pandora, the first human woman to...

ergei Markov, a former adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Ukraine's military will become "unified through gay sex" like the Spartans by 2025 during a recent appearance on Russian state television.Markov's remarks come amid Ukraine's latest counteroffensive against Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's military is seeking to retake control of territory that has been held by Russia, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Putin launched his "special military operation" on Ukraine in February 2022, hoping for a quick victory over the Eastern European nation, whose stronger-than-expected defense effort, bolstered by Western support, has prevented the Kremlin from achieving...

The warriors from other Greek city-states were usually farmers first and soldiers second — but Spartans dedicated their lives to battle. Bret Devereaux has a problem with the Spartans. He’s concerned that so much of U.S. culture admires ancient Greece’s most famous bronze-clad warriors. In a Foreign Policy article published this July, he claims ancient Sparta’s military reputation is a myth, and that the city-state was a “proto-fascist” entity “unworthy of emulation.” The article completely ignores Sparta’s well-merited, legendary military reputation and falsely tars Sparta as “fascist.” This characterization is not only vague but also self-defeating. One of the...

Spartan citizens lived in luxury. Spartan armies were not invincible. Spartan politics had quite a bit in common with Athenian democracy. Classical Sparta, in short, was very different from the austere hyper-militarized society of popular myth…Why the Sparta you know Never Existed | April 8, 2022 | toldinstone

A leader of a rebel military group in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), blamed for brutal war crimes and shooting Ukrainian POWs since its formation in 2014, was shot dead in battle. Russian warlord Vladimir Zhoga, who headed the Neo-Nazi 'Sparta Battalion', was killed in Volnovakha, Ukraine, following the eleventh day of Russia's invasion as Putin's troops fail to make big wins. Zhoga's kill was yesterday confirmed in a Telegram channel post from Denis Pushilin, head of the breakaway DPR.

How did people in the past prove their identity? How common was identity theft? Let's find out!In this history documentary we ask the question: how did people prove their identity in the past? The results of our research actually resulted in a far more sophisticated answer than I could have ever imagined and which sheds light on the true complexities of antiquity.We began by quickly reviewing the reasons why you might even need to prove your identity in the first place. This involves things like property claims, inheritance, marriage, and more. But perhaps the most important use of ID was...

China has released a video which reportedly shows its border clash with Indian troops last June after Beijing admitted that four of its soldiers were killed in the fatal high-mountain fight. The footage, aired by Beijing's state broadcaster CCTV, is said to capture the bloody hand-to-hand combat between Chinese and Indian forces at the Galwan River valley, which also resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian servicemen. The official channel claimed the clip showed an Indian army 'several times the size of the Chinese side' launching a violent revenge attack after a Chinese commander had tried to solve the two...

'Mr. Keller had such disdain for President Trump that it enraged him that someone was displaying a Trump flag' New Jersey police said that a man faces charges of criminal mischief and harassment for repeatedly throwing trash onto the lawn of a Sussex County home where a Donald Trump flag was posted. “I think you know why,” Richard Keller, 58, reportedly told police when they asked why he had thrown garbage onto the lawn, according to a local news outlet. “Because of that flag.”

REPORT: Marxist Antifa Terrorists to be Bused to Sparta, Illinois With Orders to Burn Farm Houses, Kill Livestock in Rural “White” Areas

For the first time, the U.S. Navy has granted a waiver to allow a transgender sailor to continue her military service despite the president’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the armed forces. Attorneys for the sailor and a spokesperson for Navy Secretary James E. McPherson confirmed earlier this week that senior government officials had approved the waiver. Navy spokesperson Brittany Stephens said the sailor, known only as "Jane Doe" in media reports and court documents, “requested a waiver to serve in their preferred gender” and will be “allowed to adhere to standards associated with their preferred gender, such...

As those who follow the gyrations of the stock market are well aware, human beings have a propensity for short-term thinking. They react on impulse to that which is recent; they magnify its significance; and they forget what previous generations learned through bitter experience.To this propensity, the study of history can be an antidote. But all too often historians ransack the past in support of current prejudice.For one who wishes to escape the prison of presentmindedness and gain perspective, there is no substitute for works written regarding circumstances similar to our own at a time our prejudices and predilections...

For years men have waged war and, of course, sex is not a novel concept or construct. Lysistrata portrays women in a powerful role, namely in control of their sex and sex in general. They have authority over the men. When the absurdities of war have taken their men away, the women use sex as a weapon in order to obtain peace. By withholding sex, women come to essentially control their men. The men eventually succumb to the women and yield in their determination to carry out a war. This is interesting because in Ancient Greek tradition, the women are...

While Hughes explores the Late Bronze Age reality behind the story of Helen, she takes in some of the most beautiful scenery of the ancient world, from the magnificent citadel at Mycenae to the spectacular site of the shrine to Helen, high in the hills above Sparta. She also tastes the food of the ancient world -- based on the latest archaeological research -- and discovers how the conflict in Helen's name would really have been fought. Working with weapons experts and accurate replicas of chariots pulled by local gypsy horses, Hughes experiences firsthand how chariots and archers battled beneath...

Helen of Troy Existed? By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery NewsWas a Queen of Sparta Helen of Troy? Oct. 17, 2005— Helen of Troy, described in the epic poem The Iliad, was based on a real woman, according to a new book that weaves history, archaeology and myth to recreate the famous ancient Greek beauty's life. According to the new theory proposed by Bettany Hughes, Helen's mythological character was inspired by a wealthy Bronze Age leader from the southern mainland of Greece. Hughes, a former Oxford University scholar who has conducted research in the Balkans, Greece, and Asia Minor, was unavailable for...

Archaeologists discover palace with archaic inscriptions built during the Mycenaean period 'Archaeologists in Greece have discovered the ruins of an ancient palace with important archaic inscriptions dating back to the Mycenaean age, the culture ministry said Tuesday. The palace, likely built around the 17th-16th centuries BC, had around 10 rooms and was discovered near Sparta in southern Greece. At the site, archaeologists found objects of worship, clay figurines, a cup adorned with a bull’s head, swords and fragments of murals.'

Ongoing excavations at a site in the southern Peloponnese are offering rare insight into the ancient past of Laconia, about which very little physical evidence exists, the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency cited the Culture Ministry as saying on Tuesday. Covering an expanse of 3.5 hectares, the site on Aghios Vassilios Hill near the village of Xirokambi on the Sparta plain has been under excavation since 2009 and is believed to contain valuable evidence that will shed light on life in the area during the 17th to 16th centuries BC, the announcement said. A palace complex found on the site and...

(LiveActionNews) — A common narrative in our society is that, by opposing abortion and infanticide, Christians are conducting a “war on women.” However, in a fascinating study entitled “The Rise of Christianity,” published by Princeton University Press, sociologist Rodney Stark argues that the phenomenal growth of “the obscure, marginal Jesus movement” was due in large part to women. Stark argues that early Christianity was “especially attractive to women” because “within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large.”Furthermore, Stark argues that the Christian opposition to abortion and infanticide was one of...

Socrates Â… took occasion of the presence of a whole company and of Euthydemus to remark that Critias appeared to be suffering from a swinish affection, or else why this desire to rub himself against Euthydemus like a herd of piglings scraping against stones. The hatred of Critias to Socrates doubtless dates from this incident. He treasured it up against him, and afterwards, when he was one of the Thirty [Tyrants] Â… he framed the law against teaching the art of words merely from a desire to vilify Socrates. He was at a loss to know how else to...

In the English language, the word “Spartan” has come to mean austere. The culture of ancient Sparta was so harsh that mothers would send their sons off to war with the warning, “Return with your shield or on it.” Spartan austerity began at birth. New-born infants were examined and if they were not fit, they were left to die. Infanticide was not unusual in the ancient world. But, in Sparta, it was managed by the state with chilling efficiency. What mattered most was not the individual, but the nation. Weak individuals were not allowed to drain the strength of one...

The seats of Messene’s grand theater in the southwestern Peloponnese have remained empty since 300 C.E. Long gone are the days when a general from the Achaean league or the king of Macedonia would host events with thousands of visitors. After 20 years of excavation and restoration, the theater will be reopened—as both an archaeological site and a contemporary cultural institution. Excavation director Petros Themelis told the Greek publication Αρχαιολογìα Online, “We want the theater to operate for events, schools, conferences. We want all areas of ancient Messene to operate in a multifaceted manner. We want the whole city to...