Het Verre Westen

Je moet teksten nooit al te letterlijk nemen, want al snel lijkt het dan alsof er onzin staat. Hier zijn vier regels uit Vergilius’ Aeneis, het gedicht dat, in de vorm van een verhaal over de zwerftocht van de Trojanen naar Italië, de lof zingt van keizer Augustus.

[Augustus] super et Garamantas et Indos
proferet imperium. Iacet extra sidera tellus,
extra anni solisque vias, ubi caelifer Atlas
axem umero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum.noot Vergilius, Aeneis 6.797-797.

Tot voorbij de Garamanten en Indiërs zal Augustus
het imperium uitbreiden. Er ligt land buiten de sterren,
buiten de banen van jaar en zon, waar hemeldrager Atlas
op zijn schouder de as draait waaraan de fonkelsterren zijn bevestigd.

De eerste volzin is duidelijk: keizer Augustus zal de invloedssfeer (imperium) van de Romeinen uitbreiden tot voorbij de Garamanten in de Sahara en Indië. Van “voorbij de Garamanten” valt met enige goede wil nog wel chocola te maken: de Romeinen hadden namelijk contact met de Nok- en Sao-culturen van Subsaharaal Afrika, en dat Augustus die aan zijn gezag onderwierp, was geen ondenkbare gedachte. Uiteraard was het praktisch moeilijk uitvoerbaar. “Voorbij Indië” was echter noch uitvoerbaar, noch denkbaar: daar strekte zich, althans op Vergilius’ landkaart, eigenlijk alleen maar Oceaan uit. De bedoeling van deze passage, vreemd als ze is, is echter duidelijk: de Romeinse macht zou worden uitgebreid naar het zuiden en oosten.

De dichter voorziet ook westelijke expansie: de reus Atlas, die het hemelgewelf torste, werd geacht te leven in het verre westen, volgens een passage uit dezelfde Aeneis in de buurt van de ondergaande zon.noot Vergilius, Aeneis 4.480-486. De dichterlijke taal is op dit punt helemaal bizar: Augustus zal Romes invloed zelfs verspreiden tot het land “buiten de sterren”, tot voorbij de baan die de zon elke dag aflegt om de aarde en zelfs voorbij de baan die de sterren in de loop van een jaar afleggen om diezelfde aarde.

Vanuit ons heliocentrische wereldbeeld is dit absurd, vanuit Vergilius’ geocentrische wereldbeeld eveneens. Het is een beetje Platoons: in zijn Faidros schetst Plato een universum met een gat in het dak, waar de goden soms even naar buiten gaan, dus naar een wereld “voorbij de sterren”, waar ze de ideeën aanschouwen – zie de gravure van Camille Flammarion hierboven. Dat is de wereld van het transcendentale. Misschien bedoelde Vergilius dat, maar het lijkt me aannemelijker dat het een hyperbool is, zij het een nog hyperbolischer hyperbool dan “voorbij Indië”.

Overigens was keizer Augustus, toen Vergilius deze regels tussen 29 en 19 v.Chr. schreef, inderdaad actief in het westen: in 26 en 25 onderwierp hij Asturië in Noord-Spanje, met nog wat kleinere campagnes in de volgende jaren. Daarmee rondde Augustus de twee eeuwen durende verovering van Iberië af en bracht hij de grenzen van het imperium naar de Atlantische Oceaan. Voor de auteur van de Aeneis, waarin de westwaartse migratie van de Trojanen naar Italië centraal staat, was de verder westwaartse beweging richting Oceaan alleen maar logisch, en als je eenmaal stond aan de oevers van de wereldzee, kon je alleen maar fantaseren over expansie voorbij het westen, van de aardschijf af, over de grenzen van het universum.

What do you do when the melodies of your favorite songs no longer make sense?

https://scribblesandlenses.wordpress.com/2026/06/13/what-do-you-do-when-the-melodies-of-your-favorite-songs-no-longer-make-sense/

Sethianism

The Sethians were 1 of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd & 3rd centuries AD. Along with Valentinianism & Basilidianism.

It was speculated to have originated in the 2nd century AD as a fusion of 2 distinct Hellenistic Judaic philosophies & was influenced by Christianity & Middle Platonism.

The Sethians (In Latin: Sethoitae) are 1st mentioned (alongside the Ophites) in the 2nd century by our boy, Irenaeus (who wasn’t Gnosticism’s friend) & in Pseudo-Tertullian texts. All later accounts appear to be largely lifted from Irenaeus. Hippolytus repeats info from Irenaeus.

According to Epiphanius of Salamis (circa 375), Sethians were found, in his time, only in Egypt & Palestine. But 50 years earlier, they had been found as far as Greater Armenia. Greater Armenia (a.k.a. the Armenian Empire) was an Armenian kingdom (in the ancient Near East) that existed from 331 BC to 428 AD, 758 years.

Philaster’s (4th century AD) Catalogue of Heresies puts the Ophites, Cainites, & Sethians as pre-Christian Jewish sects. However, since Sethians identified Seth with Christ (in the Second Logos of the Great Seth), Philaster’s belief that the Sethians had pre-Christian origins hasn’t found acceptance in later scholarship.

Sethianism claims that gnosis 1st descended upon Seth (3rd son of Adam & Eve), whose knowledge the Sethians regard as their origin.

Norea (who’s either Noah’s wife or Adam & Eve’s daughter) plays a role. As seen in Mandaeism & Manicheanism.

The Sethian cosmogonic myth (or their origin of the universe/cosmos) gives a prologue to Genesis & the rest of the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Hebrew/Christian Bible). This presents a radical re-interpretation of the Orthodox Jewish conception of creation & the divine relation to reality. Their cosmogony is most famously in the Apocryphon of John, which describes an Unknown God.

From the “Unknown God” emanate aeons. This is a series of paired female & male beings. The 1st of these is Barbelo, who is a co-actor in the following emanations.

The aeons that result are representative of the various attributes of God, which are indiscernible when they aren’t abstracted from their origin. God & the aeons comprise the sum total of the spiritual universe, known as the Pleroma. Pleroma generally refers to the totality of divine powers.

In some versions of the myth, the aeon Sophia (knowledge) imitates God’s actions, performing an emanation of her own without the prior approval of the other aeons in the Pleroma. This results in a crisis within the Pleroma, leading to the appearance of Yaldabaoth.

This figure is commonly known as the demiurge (the “artisan” or “craftsman”) after the figure in Plato’s Timaeus. Sophia, at first, hides this being. But it escapes, stealing a portion of her divine power from her in the process.

Yaldabaoth uses this stolen power to create a material world imitating the divine Pleroma. To complete this task, he spawns a group of entities known collectively as Archons, the petty rulers & craftsmen of the physical world. Like him, they’re commonly depicted as zoomorphic, having animal heads.

At this stage, the events of the Sethian story start to cohere with the Genesis story everyone knows. The demiurge & his archontic associates fulfil the role of the Creator. In Genesis, the demiurge proclaims himself to be the only god, claiming that there weren’t any other gods better than him.

The demiurge unknowingly emanates a shadow ‘image’ of Adam, while unwittingly transferring the portion of power stolen from Sophia into the 1st physical human body. He then makes Eve from Adam’s rib in an attempt to isolate & regain the power that he’s lost.

By way of this, he tries to SA Eve, who then contains Sophia’s divine power. Several texts picture him as failing when Sophia’s spirit transplants itself into the Tree of Knowledge. The pair eat from the tree of the divine epignosis, guided by Christ appearing as an “eagle” above it to guide them to remember their true “nature above.”

Most surviving Sethian texts are preserved only in Coptic translation of the Greek original. Very little direct evidence of Gnostic teaching was available before the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library.

We’ve posted a few of these texts. Check them out at your leisure:

• Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit
• Second Treatise of the Great Seth
• Pistis Sophia
• Gospel of Judas
• Manichaean Psalms of Heracleides

The Gospel of Judas is the most recently discovered Gnostic text. National Geographic (Yes, that National Geographic. You know, NatGeo, y’all!) published an English translation of it. Our founder has a VERY well-worn copy of this book. It’s well-worn because they’ve read it numerous times.

This text portrays Judas Iscariot as the “13th spirit/daemon,” who “exceeded” the evil sacrifices of the “man who clothed me (Jesus).”

Its reference to Barbelo & inclusion of material similar to the Apocryphon of John & other such texts connects the text to Barbeloite &/or Sethian Gnosticism.

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Cat Fitzpatrick On Writing Transsexuals Into Iambic Pentameter

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/cat-fitzpatrick-on-writing-transsexuals-into-iambic-pentameter

Game 2 in our 9-game, 100th episode special in late July will look at pedit5, aka The Dungeon from the PLATO system in 1975!

The first ever computer RPG game translating D&D mechanics to the digital world, it also introduced random encounters in its fixed environs.

A direct inspiration for 1980's Rogue, the comforting orange glow was a foundational pillar for the late 70s gaming ecosystem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedit5

#GROGPOD100 #pedit5 #plato #retrocomputing #retrogaming #dnd #gaming #history

Il Fatto Quotidiano: Le prove dell’esistenza di Dio? Ci interessano ancora: ristampato “MillenniuM”

Non possiamo sapere se Dio esiste, ma certo interessa ai lettori. Il numero di Millennium su “Tutte le prove dell’esistenza di Dio“, uscito il 15 maggio, è stato appena ristampato per soddisfare le richieste. Lo potete (ri)trovare in libreria (cerca qui la più comoda per te) e negli store online (Amazon, Ibs, Feltrinelli, Mondadori, Unilibro, Libreria Universitaria, Hoepli).
Con un taglio fra filosofia, scienza e teologia, il mensile diretto da Peter Gomez racconta “la più gigantesca inchiesta umana, mai terminata”, per dirla con Fabrizio d’Esposito, che ne ripercorre le tappe in un lungo articolo che spazia da Platone ad Heidegger, mentre Laura Margottini dà voce a scienziati e divulgatori – come Telmo Pievani e Francesco Sylos Labini – su limiti della scienza e conseguenti letture metafisiche. Di fede e scienza discutono, con erudizione e ironia, Jacopo Fo e Piergiorgio Odifreddi.
In un’epoca dominata dal materialismo, le grandi domande continuano ad attrarci, come sa bene l’imprenditore-teologo francese Olivier Bonnassies, coautore del best seller internazionale “Dio. La Scienza. Le prove” (firmato con Michelle- Yves Bolloré, fratello del famoso finanziere Vincent). Intervistato da Martina Castigliani, illustra presunte prove “scientifiche” dell’esistenza di un’intelligenza superiore basate principalmente sul Big Bang, sulla meccanica quantistica e sugli studi che cercano di tracciare l’origine della vita sulla Terra.
Tornando coi piedi per terra, MillenniuM propone un bellissimo colloquio fra lo scrittore giramondo Lawrence Osborne e Nanni Delbecchi. E ancora, due reportage italiani: uno da Ponte, il paese in provincia di Benevento assediato dai cantieri delle grandi opere, di Valentina Barile e Manuel Dorati; l’altro da Voghera, in provincia di Pavia, da dove Antonio Armano descrive la mesta decadenza di una cittadina del Nord, partendo da un suo illustre cittadino, lo scrittore Alberto Arbasino. Ultima segnalazione, un Portfolio fotografico tutto declinato al femminile. Anche se non è il numero di marzo.
L'articolo Le prove dell’esistenza di Dio? Ci interessano ancora: ristampato “MillenniuM” proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.

The evidence of God’s existence? Do we still care about it: reprinted “MillenniuM”

We cannot know if God exists, but it certainly interests readers. The Millennium issue on “All the Proofs of God’s Existence,” released on May 15th, has just been reprinted to meet demand. You can (re)find it in bookstores (search for the most convenient one for you) and online stores (Amazon, Ibs, Feltrinelli, Mondadori, Unilibro, Libreria Universitaria, Hoepli).

With a blend of philosophy, science, and theology, the monthly magazine directed by Peter Gomez recounts “the most gigantic human inquiry, never finished,” as Fabrizio d’Esposito puts it, tracing its steps in a long article from Plato to Heidegger, while Laura Margottini voices scientists and popularizers – such as Telmo Pievani and Francesco Sylos Labini – on the limits of science and subsequent metaphysical readings. Jacopo Fo and Piergiorgio Odifreddi discuss faith and science with erudition and irony.

In an era dominated by materialism, the big questions continue to attract us, as Olivier Bonnassies, a French entrepreneur-theologian and co-author of the international bestseller “God. Science. The Proofs” (signed with Michelle-Yves Bolloré, Vincent’s famous financier brother), well knows. Interviewed by Martina Castigliani, he illustrates alleged “scientific” proofs of the existence of a superior intelligence based primarily on the Big Bang, quantum mechanics, and studies trying to trace the origin of life on Earth.

Returning to earth, MillenniuM proposes a beautiful interview between the globe-trotting writer Lawrence Osborne and Nanni Delbecchi. And still, two Italian reportages: one from Ponte, a provincial town in the Benevento province besieged by construction sites, by Valentina Barile and Manuel Dorati; the other from Voghera, in the Pavia province, where Antonio Armano describes the mournful decline of a Northern town, starting from one of its illustrious citizens, writer Alberto Arbasino. Last recommendation, a photographic Portfolio entirely focused on women. Even if it's not the March issue.

The article “Proof of God’s Existence? We’re Still Interested: Restyled “MillenniuM” comes from Il Fatto Quotidiano.

#MillenniuM #Amazon #Feltrinelli #Mondadori,Unilibro #Hoepli #PeterGomez #Fabriziod’Esposito #Plato #Heidegger #LauraMargottini #TelmoPievani #JacopoFo #OlivierBonnassies #French #Vincent #MartinaCastigliani #Earth #LawrenceOsborne #NanniDelbecchi #Italian #Ponte #Benevento #ValentinaBarile #ManuelDorati #Voghera #Pavia #AntonioArmano #Northern #AlbertoArbasino #IlFattoQuotidiano

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2026/06/04/le-prove-dellesistenza-di-dio-ci-interessano-ancora-ristampato-millennium/8408408/

The rebirth of Greek wine

One of the great stories in the world of wine over the last half century is the rebirth of Greek wine. I say “rebirth” because wine has been an inextricable part of the story of Greece from time immemorial. What would Plato’s Symposiu…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #mediterranean #MediterraneanDiet #MediterraneanFood #GreekWine #MediterraneanWine #Greek #Greekwine #homer #plato #WilliamGladstone #Wine
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2669841/the-rebirth-of-greek-wine-2/