Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1513

Jason and the Golden Fleece

A political rival sends Jason on a hopeless errand, to fetch the golden fleece.

Jason has been denied the crown of Iolcus which is his by right. Nonetheless, he gamely agrees to win it back, by fetching the legendary golden fleece from the Kingdom of Colchis on the Black Sea.

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Picture: Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1514

Perseus and the Gorgon

When Polydectes, King of Seriphos, sent Perseus to get the Gorgon’s head, he hoped the boy would never come back.

Polydectes, King of Seriphos, sent Perseus to get the vile Gorgon’s head, thinking it was a hopeless errand that would lead to the boy’s death.

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Picture: From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.. Source.

1515

Phrixus and the Golden Fleece

Long before Jason came to claim it, the golden fleece had already saved a boy’s life.

King Athamas’s first wife was the cloud-goddess Nephele, but she grew restless and left him. His choice of Ino as her successor proved even more disastrous.

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Picture: © Costas78, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.

1516

The Anglo-Zanzibar War

It lasted barely forty minutes, but it brought slavery to an end in the little island territory.

The Anglo-Zanzibar War on the 27th of August 1896 is the shortest in British history, but to the people of Zanzibar it meant everything.

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Picture: © xlandfair, Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.. Source.

1517

Armistice Day

Armistice Day is the anniversary of the end of the First World War on the 11th of November, 1918.

Armistice Day is an annual commemoration of the end of the First World War in 1918. Public ceremonies are kept on the nearest Sunday, which is now renamed Remembrance Sunday in recognition of other conflicts.

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Picture: © Mez Merrill, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Open Government v1.. Source.

1518

The Calendar ‘English Style’

An English monk warned of a flaw in the world’s most widely-used calendar.

Until 1752, the British Isles used the Julian Calendar brought here by the Romans in the first century AD. It had its problems, as even vocal champion St Bede acknowledged; but when Rome updated it in 1582 they trampled needlessly on ancient Church rules, offending the Greeks and Russians, and the Reformation was in full swing, which meant the English were in no mood to comply either.

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Picture: Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.. Source.