From The Land Of The Immortals

We were planning on going out as a family today but poor Arthur has contracted influenza, so I got a lot of lesson planning and school work completed in the morning and then went to view the Treasures of Ancient Greece exhibition at the Kobe History Museum. A fascinating exhibition, without doubt this was my favourite exhibit - a bull's head libation vessel, or rhyton, from Minos circa 1450 BC. A rhyton was the centre-piece of the bull-leaping event popular in Minos. Following the sacrifice of the bull after the games, people would drink wine from the rhyton, thereby conducting a second symbolic sacrifice.

In other news ........

Never thought I'd be turning to Adolf Hitler for my daily quote, but in light of current events this is chilling in its relevance.

"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater and in the press as a result of liberal excess during the past years."
- From The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1 (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pg 871-872