Friday, November 27, 2015

The Red Basilica

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

I'll put the search strings in bold, these are the beginning of a quote, and the link(s), the ulr(s), which are highlighted too, will be the quote(s) end(s)...

Well, I continued to web poke around Pergamon (see previous two posts), and happened on another ruined Temple thereabout, called now The Red Basilica, or Red Hall...it was constructed with red bricks which were covered with marble...the marble is since gone, leaving behind just the red bricks, hence the names...and it is a marvel of a Temple, maybe more so than any I've come across in these history posts...it is thought to be a Temple to Serapis and Isis and Egyptian gods in general, and how and why it is in Pergamon in Turkey is a bit of a mystery...what I gather, is that from the time of Ptolemy in Egypt, this following the death of Alexander, there was an effort by the Greeks, then Romans, to consolidate religions...

Ptolemy serapeum

The Cult of Serapis was introduced during the 3rd century BC on the orders of Ptolemy I of Egypt[1] as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his realm.

Serapis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
A serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was accepted by the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria. There were several such religious centers, each of which was a serapeion (Greek: Σεραπεῖον) or, in its Latinized form, a serapeum.
 
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Pergamon

Inside Pergamon in Bergama, there is the Temple of Serapis, built for the Egyptian gods in the 2nd century CE and called the Red Basilica or Red Courtyard (Kızıl Avlu in Turkish) by locals. This is a basilica-shaped building constructed under the reign of Hadrian.

Serapeum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Hadrian was about what Ptolemy had been three or four hundred years before, and by about I mean this term "syncretic"...
 
syncretic

 
Syncretism (/ˈsɪŋkrətɪzəm/) is the combining of different, often contradictory beliefs, while blending practices of various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merger and analogizing of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths. Syncretism also occurs commonly in expressions of arts and culture (known as eclecticism) as well as politics (syncretic politics).
 

Syncretism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
Hadrian was a piece of work, and his syncretic pursuit led him to try and build like a Greek Acropolis on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem...he would restore the Temple, and add gods and goddesses from all over...the Jews would have none of it, and revolted...it was a fierce revolt, and Hadrian won out..for the Jews it was a watershed event, and the beginning of the Diaspora in earnest from Israel...
 
Hadrian Jewish revolt

 
The outbreak and initial success of the rebellion took the Romans by surprise. The rebels incorporated combined tactics to fight the Roman Army. According to some historians Bar Kokhba's army utilized guerrilla warfare, engaging Romans in surprise locations and inflicting heavy casualties with sneak attacks. Others, however claim that Bar Kokhba actually preferred direct engagement due to his superiority in numbers, and only after several painful defeats in the fields, the Romans decided to evade direct fighting and instead employ the tactic of siege on Jewish centers, taking them one by one. With the slow advance of the Roman Army and cut supplies, the rebels engaged in long-term defense tactics. The defense system of Judean towns and villages was based mainly on hideout caves, which were created in large numbers almost in every population center. Many houses utilized underground hideouts, where Judean rebels hoped to withstand Roman superiority by narrowness of the passages and even surprise attacks from underground. The cave systems were often interconnected into large systems, used not only as hideouts for the rebels, but also for storage and refuge for their families.[34] The hideout systems were widely incorporated in Judean hills, the Judean desert, northern Negev, and to some degree also in Galilee, Samaria and Jordan Valley. Some 350 hideout systems have been mapped within ruins of 140 Jewish villages in those areas as of July 2015.[

Bar Kokhba revolt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
for Hadrian, the revolt was Rome's business as usual, and not a large matter...he was busy all over the empire during his reign, consolidating and improving the infrastructure of the empire...Hadrian is the fellow who built Hadrian's Wall in England...and he had a fascination with Greece, and Greek gods and goddesses, and Egyptian gods and goddesses too, and went about restoring and building Temples, even initiating some new religions and temples of his own, like the one to his friend Antonio...
 
Hadrian temples
 
Hadrian is best remembered for his coast-to-coast wall across northern Britain (80 Roman miles in length, ten feet thick and twenty feet high.) It was built by the occupying legions in just eight years. But in fact Hadrian was one of the greatest builders in history, building prestigious monuments the length and breadth of the empire. In Rome his works include two of its finest buildings, the Pantheon and his own mausoleum (known today as Castel Sant' Angelo). In Greece Hadrian restored numerous towns, including the decaying city of Athens. On the banks of the Nile he built Antinoopolis, the only Roman new town ever built in Egypt.
 
Temples on the Mount
Herod, Hadrian and Jupiter
Who built what, when?

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/herod-vs-hadrian.html

Oh...that site just quoted is going on about if Jesus even existed...another flea comb effort!...but it has things, and has its due...

"Christianity was the ultimate product of religious syncretism in the ancient world. Its emergence owed nothing to a holy carpenter. There were many Jesuses but the fable was a cultural construct." - See more at:

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/index.html#sthash.9BF7UFbh.dpuf

anyway, I found myself much taken with the Red Basilca...it is an immense and fascinating ruin, and I looked through many of google's images, but couldn't find a reproduction, or a model, of what it looked like inside and out originally...and I found a little notation that Lucius of the Golden Ass story by Apuleius was at the Red Basilica in Pergamon...oh!...I just about leaped up...the whole Chapter Eleven of the Golden Ass is about what went on inside the Red Basilica!...I hadn't found a model, I'd found the Temple itself, after a fashion...

golden ass novel

The Metamorphoses of Apuleius — which St. Augustine referred to as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus)[1] — is the only Ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety.

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Final book

In the last book, the tone abruptly changes. Driven to desperation by his asinine form, Lucius calls for divine aid, and is answered by the goddess Isis. Eager to be initiated into the mystery cult of Isis, Lucius abstains from forbidden foods, bathes and purifies himself. Then the secrets of the cult's books are explained to him and further secrets revealed, before going through the process of initiation which involves a trial by the elements in a journey to the underworld. Lucius is then asked to seek initiation into the cult of Osiris in Rome, and eventually becomes initiated into the pastophoroi, a group of priests that serves Isis and Osiris.[8] Whether this religious ending is to be taken seriously or comically is a moot question in the interpretation of the novel.[9]

The Golden Ass

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Ass#Final_book

maybe next I can get to the war between the Greek gods and goddesses and The Giants, which was illustrated on the Altar of Pergamon...

oh...I was trying to think of a comeback to that site with its skepticism of Jesus...and the youtubes I've been perusing about the historical accuracy of the Bible...awful lot of such youtubes with Richard Dawkins going on about...anyway, there's this poem by the poet John Skelton, a favorite of Robert Graves...in fact he says the only poets ever were John Skelton and Ben Johnson, poets he meant in the tradition of the pre Christian bards...it's a grim poem, and Christian...I wont quote it, but here's link...

Upon a Dead Man's Head
John Skelton

http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/deedman.htm

DavidDavid




 
 
 

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