1561
(That’s cat-tails, obviously.) And who ever said cats were unpredictable?
Charles Fox was a Whig politician who served briefly as Foreign Secretary. A staunch opponent of King George III, he once dressed himself in the colours of the American revolutionary army. But he was also friends with Prince George, the King’s son.
Picture: © Dwight Sipler, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1562
When he caught his wife with her lover, the ugly blacksmith of the gods showed that he was not without his pride.
While Odysseus is in the court of King Alcinous, a court musician entertains them with the story of Hephaestus. He was the lame and ugly blacksmith to the gods, whom Zeus instructed Aphrodite to marry so that the other gods would stop fighting over her — a solution which did not solve anything at all.
Picture: © Anna Anichkova, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1563
The gods had given Heracles every grace of body and mind, but there was one thing he must do for himself: choose how to use them.
Heracles, a child of Zeus, is endowed with astonishing physical strength and skill, but does he also have strength of character to match?
Picture: From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1564
Hild founded an abbey that poured out a stream of priests and bishops for the revitalised English Church.
Hild or Hilda was a seventh-century Northumbrian princess who at the age of thirty-three became a nun. Taught by St Aidan, she was one of the early English Church’s most respected figures and was given the care of a monastery for men and women at Hartlepool, moving to Whitby in about 657. There she trained clergy to preach the gospel and lead church services for Christians all over the kingdoms of the English.
Picture: © Geir Hval, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1565
Horatius Cocles was the last man standing between Rome’s republic and the return of totalitarian government in 509 BC.
Before it became a republic, Rome was ruled by seven kings, absolute monarchs. The last of these was King Tarquin the Proud, who was forced out in 509 BC. He was not the man to give up his throne easily.
Picture: © Gobbler, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1566
The chapel of Bede’s monastery in Sunderland was full of the colours and sounds of the far-off Mediterranean world.
In 678, the new Pope, a Sicilian Greek named Agatho, decided to continue a recent trend of introducing Greek elements into Roman worship. St Benedict Biscop, an English abbot who visited Rome for the fifth and final time the following year, brought the sights and sounds of the eastern Mediterranean back home.
Picture: Mattana, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015