Milo, 5X Ancient Olympic Winner

A statue of  his death

Milo of Croton was the strongest of all the Greek athletes in the Ancient Olympic Games. He was a five time winner of the games. He loved to tie a cord around his head, and break it with the swelling veins of his forehead. When he had something in his grasp nobody could take it from him even if it was ranging from just a pomegranate or one hand on a chariot. That item would not move from him.

One time, he actually saved some people with his strength. When a roof was about to collapse, he supported one of the pillars that held it up and let the people run to safety from the building.

Even though he could pick up even the heaviest animal, he couldn't escape them. Especially, when his hand accidentally got stuck between the two halves of a split tree he had tried to pull apart. He was ate by wolves.



Sources:
Milo of Kroton
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/milo.html
The Baldwin Project: Milo of Croton
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=guerber&book=greeks&story=milo

Religious Paintings of the 13th century

Jesus has the body of a man and the head
of a boy.

Random Fun Fact
In the the bridge between the ancient times and middle ages, it seems 13th century artists didn't really care about how church altar paintings maybe interpreted but only if the viewers got the message of what was happening inside of it. This resulted in some awkward paintings.








When I'm really tired and don't feel like writing a post, I hope to write a quick post like this one of a random fun fact about a specific painting or other things.

Aliens or Beings from an Underground World in 12th Century England?

In 12th century Suffolk, a girl and boy were found of green color. They spoke a weird language no one understood and had strange clothes. The villages who found them took them to a knight's house. They stayed there but refused to eat anything except raw beans. The boy grew depressed, and died, soon after they were both christened by the townspeople. But the girl, who was named Agnes, had lived, learning the language, and becoming popular with the people, though her green color had faded away. They asked her where she came from and how she came here. She told a interesting story. She said that she was from a place called St. Martin's Land. A land where it was always twilight with no sun and everything was green. She found Suffolk when her brother and she heard some bells which enchanted them. Following those sounds, they came through a cave and emerged to the present place where they were struck by the light of the sun and the strangest temperatures of the air, new sights to them. They sat in that place where they were found.

Many theories about the green children origins have emerged.  Some say that they were green fairies, aliens, they had came through a rip in dimensions, came from an underground world, or that everything was just a hoax in the beginning.

Agnes married Richard Barre.


Sources:
Martin and the Green Children by John Clark; Folklore 117 (August 2006) pp.207-214 http://his.library.nenu.edu.cn/upload/soft/MartinandtheGreenChildren.pdf
William of Newburgh's Account of the Children and Ralph Coggeshall's from http://anomalyinfo.com/

Check out

The Enigmas of History

by Alan Baker

Click on the image. Mysteries? Yes please.

Xerxes Punished the Sea

Xerxes' servants lashing the sea; I bet the sea
really regret it's actions after this

The Persian king Xerxes wanted to go to war with Greece, so he had a bridge built across the Hellespont Sea to aid him with this. Soon afterwards a storm destroyed the bridge and he became furious, madly furious. In fact he insisted in having the sea called the Hellespont whipped a thousand times and even ordered some primitive version of handcuffs thrown into it. Xerxes ordered his servants to say this as they whipped the sea:

"You hateful water, our master lays his judgement on you thus, for you have unjustly punished him even though he's done you no wrong! Xerxes the king will pass over you, whether you wish it or not! It is fitting that no man offer you sacrifices, for you're a muddy and salty river!"(1)

Xerxes ordered the bridge to be rebuild and after a winter's time he crossed the bridge in elated happiness.

Sources:

1.Herodotus: The Histories: Xerxes at the Hellespont (mid 5th Century BCE); http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/world_civ/worldcivreader/world_civ_reader_1/herodotus.html

2. The History of Herodotus by Herodotus, translated by George Rawlinson, Book VII; http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.7.vii.html 

3. Xerxes by Jacob Abbot; http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=abbott&book=xerxes&story=hellespont

Caligula to Appoint His Horse to Highest Office

There are so many interesting things about the Roman Emperor Caligula. He was mad, like many Emperors at that ancient time. The time before pills and lunatic asylums were invented.  He never missed a chance to show how crazy he was. Just one example:

Caligula, not the worst looking.
If you have to learn anything today
learn that if you go insane it always helps to look good.

He loved his horse, Incitatus, and wanted to appoint him a consul, the highest office you can acquire, second to the emperor. He treated his horse very well, he fed it oats with gold flakes in it and kept it in a stable built out of marble. It must have been a site to see or even hear about. The horse had servants and could invite people to dine with him, not that the horse ever did.

After 5 years of power, Caligula was assassinated along with his wife and daughter.

Aeschylus' Odd Death

Aeschylus was a Greek playwright. He was often told to be the father of play tragedies. He wrote Agamemnon, The Persians, and Seven Against Thebes.

What really stands out about him is his unusual death. Now to totally get the picture you have to imagine that you are out and about, just walking along, minding your own business, like the playwright was. Suddenly out of the blue sky, an eagle swoops down and releases a weird roundish thing over you. "Oh wait!" You realize  shocked as it drops towards you, "it's a turtle!" Then it connects with your skull, and you go unconscious and this leads to your later death. That's what happened to him. Apparently the eagle was trying to break the tortoise' shell, and thought Aeschylus' head was a rock.  His head kinda does look like a rock.

It was not told if the tortoise lived or not after Aeschylus' head got in it's way. But I know if a tortoise can survive that he can survive anything.

Aeschlysus looking quite scary.