to: lt-antiq list
from: lauf-s
subject: Re: new member, etc.
date: 2001.08.14
[snip]
ps
Don't forget that August 18 is both the feast of Saint
Helena and the anniversary of the Rape of the Sabine
Women -- a strange (but perhaps even intentional?)
coincidence of paradigm shifting ancient Roman motherhood,
for sure. As I like to say, "Better late antiquity then
never!"
to: lt-antiq list
from: Dr. Graham Jones, Univ. of Leicester
Subject: Re: new member, etc.
date: 2001.08.15
Dear Stephen
Having spent some time thinking about Helena (as later
venerated) in terms of the possible absorption of aspects of
Helen of Troy, I should be very interested indeed to hear
more from you regarding the calendrical coincidence of
Helena and the Sabine Women.
Best wishes
Graham Jones
to: lt-antiq list
from: lauf-s
subject: Helena: calendrical coincidences
date: 2001.08.15
Dear Graham:
Regarding Helena and calendrical coincidences I have a few
more examples besides that of 18 August.
While Helena is revered as saint in the Roman Catholic
Church, both Helena and Constantine are revered as saints in
the Eastern/Greek Catholic Church, and, moreover, Helena and
Constantine there share the same feast day, 21 May. The
second Agonalia, a Roman 'festo' in honor of Janus is also
on 21 May. Since Janus had two faces, one that looked
forward and the other that look backward, I find it
interesting that 21 May also celebrates double saints.
Furthermore, Constantine and Helena themselves come to
represent a 'Janus' like situation in that they too were at
a distinct historical edge from which one could look back at
the Pagan world and ahead towards the Christian world.
The dedication date for Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome is
20 March. This church is the remaining vestige of the
Sessorian Palace which served as Helena's Roman residence
very likely from late 312 to 326, and the story goes that
Helena had a chapel built within the palace, and in this
chapel was deposited ground/dirt from Golgotha along with
many other relics including a piece of the Cross, hence the
name 'Holy Cross in Jerusalem'. According to the Freund
LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY (under Bellona) 20 March is the
"dies sanguinis", the day of blood when Bellona's (sister of
Mars and goddess of war) priests and priestesses "gashed
their arms and shoulders and offered their blood to the
goddess." What I think is interesting here is that Santa
Croce in Gerusalemme also represents an intense day of
blood, namely Christ's crucifixion.
We are probably all here familiar with the notion that
Christmas is a 'christianization' of the Sol Invectus (sp?)
feast, and I'm beginning to believe that there may well have
been a deliberate design of Christian 'usurpation of Pagan
feasts, especially in Rome where apparently virtually every
week there was something Pagan to celebrate. The above
examples only strengthen my conviction.
Steve
--
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from: lauf-s
subject: Re: new member, etc.
date: 2001.08.14
[snip]
ps
Don't forget that August 18 is both the feast of Saint
Helena and the anniversary of the Rape of the Sabine
Women -- a strange (but perhaps even intentional?)
coincidence of paradigm shifting ancient Roman motherhood,
for sure. As I like to say, "Better late antiquity then
never!"
to: lt-antiq list
from: Dr. Graham Jones, Univ. of Leicester
Subject: Re: new member, etc.
date: 2001.08.15
Dear Stephen
Having spent some time thinking about Helena (as later
venerated) in terms of the possible absorption of aspects of
Helen of Troy, I should be very interested indeed to hear
more from you regarding the calendrical coincidence of
Helena and the Sabine Women.
Best wishes
Graham Jones
to: lt-antiq list
from: lauf-s
subject: Helena: calendrical coincidences
date: 2001.08.15
Dear Graham:
Regarding Helena and calendrical coincidences I have a few
more examples besides that of 18 August.
While Helena is revered as saint in the Roman Catholic
Church, both Helena and Constantine are revered as saints in
the Eastern/Greek Catholic Church, and, moreover, Helena and
Constantine there share the same feast day, 21 May. The
second Agonalia, a Roman 'festo' in honor of Janus is also
on 21 May. Since Janus had two faces, one that looked
forward and the other that look backward, I find it
interesting that 21 May also celebrates double saints.
Furthermore, Constantine and Helena themselves come to
represent a 'Janus' like situation in that they too were at
a distinct historical edge from which one could look back at
the Pagan world and ahead towards the Christian world.
The dedication date for Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome is
20 March. This church is the remaining vestige of the
Sessorian Palace which served as Helena's Roman residence
very likely from late 312 to 326, and the story goes that
Helena had a chapel built within the palace, and in this
chapel was deposited ground/dirt from Golgotha along with
many other relics including a piece of the Cross, hence the
name 'Holy Cross in Jerusalem'. According to the Freund
LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY (under Bellona) 20 March is the
"dies sanguinis", the day of blood when Bellona's (sister of
Mars and goddess of war) priests and priestesses "gashed
their arms and shoulders and offered their blood to the
goddess." What I think is interesting here is that Santa
Croce in Gerusalemme also represents an intense day of
blood, namely Christ's crucifixion.
We are probably all here familiar with the notion that
Christmas is a 'christianization' of the Sol Invectus (sp?)
feast, and I'm beginning to believe that there may well have
been a deliberate design of Christian 'usurpation of Pagan
feasts, especially in Rome where apparently virtually every
week there was something Pagan to celebrate. The above
examples only strengthen my conviction.
Steve
--
The Design-L list for art and architecture, since 1992...
To subscribe, send mailto:design-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To signoff, send mailto:design-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Visit archives: http://lists.psu.edu/archives/design-l.html