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reetings from Australia.
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At that time Apollonia, parthénos presbytis
[virgo presbytera – probably not a virgin advanced in years, but a deaconess] was held in high esteem. These men seized her also and by repeated blows broke all her teeth. They then erected outside the city gates a pile of fagots and threatened to burn her alive if she refused to repeat after them impious words (either a blasphemy against Christ, or an invocation of the heathen gods). Given, at her own request, a little freedom, she sprang quickly into the fire and was burned to death. But, they say, during the time of persecution certain holy women plunged into the water with the intention of being swept away by the waves and drowned, and thus preserve their threatened chastity. Although they quitted life in this wise, nevertheless they receive high honour as martyrs in the Catholic Church and their feasts are observed with great ceremony. This is a matter on which I dare not pass judgment lightly. For I know not but that the Church was divinely authorized through trustworthy revelations to honour thus the memory of these Christians. It may be that such is the case. May it not be, too, that these acted in such a manner, not through human caprice but on the command of God, not erroneously but through obedience, as we must believe in the case of Samson? When, however, God gives a command and makes it clearly known, who would account obedience thereto a crime or condemn such pious devotion and ready service? |
St Apollonia of
Alexandria |
I believe and I say it is true Democratic
feeling, that all the measures of the Government are directed to the
purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
William Henry Harrison, 9th US President and first
to die in office, born on February 9, 1773
The chains of military despotism once fastened upon a nation, ages
might pass away before they could be shaken off.
William Henry Harrison
The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power
from the governed.
William Henry Harrison
The people are the best guardians of their own rights and it is the
duty of their executive to abstain from interfering in or thwarting
the sacred exercise of the lawmaking functions of their government.
William Henry Harrison
There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the
noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of
unlimited power.
William Henry Harrison
Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.
Amy Lowell, American imagist poet, born on February 9, 1874
Youth condemns; maturity condones.
Amy Lowell
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
Amy Lowell
It's not that the Irish
are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for
everything and everybody.
Brendan Behan (Irish: Breandán Ó Beacháin), Irish poet, short story writer,
novelist and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English, born on February 9,
1923 (attrib.)
If I'm a snob, I'm a working class snob and that is the best kind.
Brendan Behan; (attrib.)
We shall not fail or falter, we shall not weaken or tire.
Winston Churchill, speaking on radio to the British people, February 9, 1941
My life has been a tapestry of
rich and royal hue
An everlasting vision of the ever-changing view
A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold
A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold.
Carole King, American singer, songwriter and pianist, born on February 9,
1942; from 'Tapestry' (1971)
You just call out my name
And you know wherever I am
I'll come running to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer or fall
All you have to do is call
And I'll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You've got a friend.
Carole King; from 'You've Got a Friend' (1971)
The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.
Robert
Mitchum, American actor who, on February 9, 1949, was jailed for two months for smoking marijuana
They're all true – booze, brawls, broads, all true. Make up some more if you want to.
Robert Mitchum on press stories
February 9 is the 40th
day of the year in the Gregorian
calendar, with 325
days remaining (326 in leap years).
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Feast day of Apollo, ancient
Greece
Apollo ('destroy' or 'excite'), is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the
twin of Artemis
(goddess of the hunt). In later times he became equated with Helios, god
of the sun, and by proxy his sister was equated with
Selene,
goddess of the moon. Later, he was known primarily as a solar
deity. In Etruscan mythology, he was known as Aplu.
Today celebrates increasing light of the new season,
as we are halfway between the solstice and the equinox.
Apollo was the god of
hunting, pestilence and healing, in Greek and possibly cultures in Asia
Minor. He was worshipped around 1300 BCE and earlier, to about 400 CE.
His cult centred at
Delos, Pylo-Delphi and other sanctuaries. Literary sources include the
epic poems Iliad and Odyssey (Homer); Hymn to Apollo (Hesiod) as well as various temple hymns.
He was the epitome of
youthful manliness, and a distant rather than an intimate god. His mother
is Leto; she wandered the world, suffering until she chanced on the island
of Delos where she found refuge.
Apollo is generally
portrayed in art as a god of hunters carrying a bow and arrows, associated
with a stag or roe, and also pictured with lions. A gracious player of the
lyre, he became the patron god of poets and leader of the
Muses.
However, Apollo was a
merciless killer when he had to be, killing the many children of
Niobe. He
slew the Delphic python and the Olympic Cyclopes, but suffered temporary
banishment for his crimes.
The Celts revered him
under various synonyms. The 6th-Century BCE Greek historian,
Hecataeus of
Miletus, wrote that an unnamed
island we today can clearly identify as
Britain, was inhabited by the
Hyperboreans who "venerate Apollo more than any other god", and that
Apollo returned to the island every nineteen years, to much celebration.
Hecataeus did not know it but he was describing the 19-year lunar
metonic
cycle which was unknown to Greek scholars until a century after the
historian wrote.
Apollo was Christianized as St Vincent (qv), Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, January 22.
Delphi and Apollo
From c. 1400 BCE, the Delphic shrine was sacred, initially probably to an earth goddess represented by a python. (Some believe that this and the legend of St Patrick of Ireland, tell of the supplanting of goddess religion by the masculine.)
Snakes were part of Delphic lore until
c. 800 BCE, when Apollo was said to have slain the serpent guarding the sanctuary, establishing the oracle anew. At first the oracle priestess (sometimes two in shifts) could only be consulted on one day a year. She might have become entranced, by a drug perhaps; she answered questions in hexameter
verse.
King Croesus simultaneously asked seven oracles,
"What is the King of Lydia doing now?" Only the Delphic oracle answered correctly that he was cooking a tortoise and a lamb in a pot of bronze.
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Feast day of St 
