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The first name that came to mind when I read your question was the 4th century neoplatonic philosopher Sallustius. He was a friend of the emperor Juilan the Apostate who tired to re-establish paganism. His treatise on paganism and the gods is online here...

I assume that by the ‘dark’ side people are referring to the occult .I have read and thought much about both the dark side and the brighter realms of spirituality. I had assumed (like a lot of people )that these were opposed but I get a lot of suggestions through lucid dreaming and in a dream I...

Here are a few thoughts I jotted down after a quick re-reading of book 16 The effecting of the deaths of Homeric hereos is surprisingly complex at times(even if the action is described in terms of mere butcher's work ,e.g. '..it struck him where the head springs from the neck at the top joint...

hello Courtney, I doubt if being in the same book is that crucial since it is generally believed that the Iliad was originally an oral poem and the division into 'books' is much later. However it is an interesting question , are you suggesting that Patroclus' death was divine retributon for his...

Thanks for the very thought provoking details. Clinical descriptions of vampirism can also be found in the annals of abnormal psychology. After I read your post I looked up 'Vampirism' in Krafft-Ebings 'Psychopathia Sexualis'( I always keep a copy handy) K-E says 'only 2 cases so far (i.e...

The story you refer to is in Judges Chap 19 . It is very similar to the crime and destruction of Sodom .The depraved inhabitants of Gibeah (called 'sons of Belial') demand the visitor, the Levite be handed over to them for their own sexual pleasure .The host offers them his own daughter and the...

I just came across a stange case of apparent punishment of the innocent in 'Peri Erotikwn ' of Parthenius in his version of the story of Polycrita . She was a maiden of Naxos who gave herself in marriage to the enemy general who had fallen in love with her in return for his promise to save the...

As well as links between Christ and Mithras there are parallels with other pagan Deities , the most obvious being with Hercules and Osiris .I was also thinking about the spread of Christianity and the cult of Dionysus . Christians believe that the birth of Christ was the pivotal moment in...

Thanks for that , I never realised there were all these connections .I knew that some of the signs varied between ancient cultures but never realised that Taurus was such a widespread and enduring figure in the Zodiac .The bull seems to be a constant link between the various ancient religions ...

Our concept of innocence and guilt is entirely different from the ancients . We see individuals as being responsible for only their personal acts and then only if the evil was intended . Whereas in Biblical stories and Greek myth people are punished for collective sins i.e. their whole...

Thanks for the link, it is very informative and detailed . I found an alternative interpretation of the Bull-slaying myth . It is recorded in Eliphas Levi's 'Histoire de la Magie' He says that the bull represents the angel with the fiery sword that guards the entrance to Paradise "the great...

By coincidence I was just reading how the Mithras myth was lost for centuries and scholars struggled to find a meaning for the sculptural images . Sculptures of the bull-slaying god were copied in the nmiddle ages . The phrygian cap was turned nto a turban and the god Mithras was turned into an...

According to 'the Mysteries of Mithra by F.Cumont p.130... 'the generative rock had given birth to Mithra on the banks of a river '..' a light burst from heaven (which was thought of as a solid vault )'they (some shepherds ) had seen him issue from the rocky mass his head adorned with a Phrygian...

I agree that scientists can be influenced (perhaps unconsciously) by their "religious affiliation" and background but still produce good science .It may even be beneficial if their religion gives them a context for ideas which make them receptive to the development of original theories . In...

My sources (as far as I can find them) are as follows : re the Church and the big bang .G. Smoot (who worked on the detection of echoes of the big bang in the cosmic background radiation) writes " Fred Hoyle [the leading proponent of the steady state universe ] accused advocates of the big bang...

Going back to the comment about the Catholic Church being quick to accept the big bang theory , I read somewhere that the scientists who had been working on this were rather embarassed by the Church's enthusiasm , (Stephen Hawking even went to meet the Pope to discuss his theories ) . Some...

I cant figure out how to edit/correct my post so I meant t'keleth not 'keleth'

Indigo originally was a plant extract it is now produced artificially and is the dye used in blue jeans .it is quite distinct from the royal purple (purpura)of the ancients which came in a variety of shades This was an extract from the murex sea-snail also known as 'Phoenician purple' 'Scarlet...

The law of conservation of matter and energy only applies to a closed system and not if the singularity of the big bang was a linked to another universe . It also seems that virtual particles ( i.e. pairs of particles and anti-particles that spontaneously appear for very short times can also...

In fact it may not require much matter to make a universe. It was once suggested that there is in fact only 1 individual electron (& possibly one individual example of each of the other particles ) but because it zips back and forward in time it is able to appear in many places simultaneously...