Food for the belly; food for thought

[changeling]

Lunch sooo good. Steph made a recipe of isachandra's, which was tofu battered in roast pepitos and spices, covered in a cranberry relish, with a side of roast pumpkin. What a lunch! So tasty. And I will publicly refute my doubty inner self that thought that the dried cranberries she bought might not work. Ohsogood.

I went to the library (I pretty much had to pass it to get to the bank to deposit my paycheck) to rapidly peruse their archaeology and mythology sections. I found a book called Black Athena Revisited, which I picked up on a whim. Examining it on the tram, I discovered I had hit veritable paydirt (vis-à-vis learning more about the basis of Neos Alexandria). It's a collection of articles refuting the basic premise of a book called Black Athena which claimed that every single thing Greece did or had (gods, philosophies, mythologies, art, architecture, language) was all MEENLY STOLEN from Egypt, and that all the Classical scholars since have been COVERING IT UP. It's great, because it seems that the articles (I'm most of the way through the first, by one of the editors) are going to talk about exactly how Greece was inspired/influenced by Egypt (and how this is not the same thing as porting an entire culture etc), and giving me a better idea of what the society was like.

Of course, what I really wanted was a book entitled State and Home Religion in Ancient Greece and Egypt: A User's Manual, but it seems that the copy is on loan. ;)

I've also grabbed a book called The Maiden King: The Reunion of the Masculine and Feminine, by Robert Bly & Marion Woodman, which is an exploration of Russian folktales (according to the blurb), and The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt by Richard H. Wilkinson, which I'm not sure is going to be of much help, but may have some useful titbits in there. I'll be able to see once I get it home.

I'd better go; I'm in the middle of photoshopping a bra onto a Waterhousian mermaid tattoo. No, really.

Comments

[watersusurrus.livejournal.com]

I want to borrow the Black Athena book. Hide it from me, or you will never see it again!

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

You may borrow it after me. :)

[sannion.livejournal.com]

Black Athena is a fun controversy to read. Especially the extremes that both sides have had to take. I seriously don't see why it's an issue. They hung out. They shared ideas. They did a little fighting, trading, and fucking. That's life in the ancient world.

Of course, what I really wanted was a book entitled State and Home Religion in Ancient Greece and Egypt: A User's Manual, but it seems that the copy is on loan. ;)

Heh. You find that - I want to see it!

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

Especially the extremes that both sides have had to take. I seriously don't see why it's an issue. They hung out. They shared ideas. They did a little fighting, trading, and fucking. That's life in the ancient world.

Which seems, so far (she says, reading essay #2), to be what this book is saying. They all seem to saying, "Well, we rejoiced when we started reading Black Athena, because it called Classical scholars, historical and modern, on these essentially racist ideas they/we've been holding, but then it veered into Crazyland, population Bernal, and we're not so pleased about that ..."

I'm not sure I realised or remembered how much I missed the reading and intellectualism of my (abandoned) BA until I started this. I'm really chuffed that my library had it, actually, because I was starting to despair of its owning anything remotely academic. I don't know if it's because my old council had a university in it, but I swear my old local library had more "adult" texts in it than this one! I haven't explored Moreland's full catalogue yet, though, so I should give it a few more chances. :)


Heh, if I find it, I'll post scans. :D

Although, maybe it's a book that exists in potentia, and it only takes one or two enterprising souls from somewhere in the Graeco-Egyptian community to write it ...

[sannion.livejournal.com]

Well, once the website is up and the group has been going for a while, I've considered writing a beginner's book and possibly some more advanced texts. But I've got too much going right now to devote to that, unfortunately. (Unless the gods see fit to arrange it so that I no longer have to work full time and can still make all my bills!)

[delirieuse.livejournal.com]

THAT WOULD ROCK. SERIOUSLY.

And, um, since I can't help any other way (especially not financially, aha), if you need an editor's eye? I'm so there.