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reetings from Australia.
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The feast called Oschophoria, or the feast of
boughs, which to this day the Athenians celebrate, was then first
instituted by Theseus. For he took not with him the full number of
virgins which by lot were to be carried away, but selected two youths
of his acquaintance, of fair and womanish faces, but of a manly and
forward spirit, and having, by frequent baths, and avoiding the heat
and scorching of the sun, with a constant use of all the ointments and
washes and dresses that serve to the adorning of the head or smoothing
the skin or improving the complexion, in a manner changed them from
what they were before, and having taught them farther to counterfeit
the very voice and carriage and gait of virgins so that there could
not be the least difference perceived, he, undiscovered by any, put
them into the number of the Athenian maids designed for Crete. At his
return, he and these two youths led up a solemn procession, in the
same habit that is now worn by those who carry the vine-branches.
Those branches they carry in honour of Bacchus and Ariadne, for the
sake of their story before related; or rather because they happened to
return in autumn, the time of gathering the grapes. The women, whom
they call Deipnopherae, or supper-carriers, are taken into these
ceremonies, and assist at the sacrifice, in remembrance and imitation
of the mothers of the young men and virgins upon whom the lot fell,
for thus they ran about bringing bread and meat to their children; and
because the women then told their sons and daughters many tales and
stories, to comfort and encourage them under the danger they were
going upon, it has still continued a custom that at this feast old
fables and tales should be told. For these particularities we are
indebted to the history of Demon. There was then a place chosen out,
and a temple erected in it to Theseus, and those families out of whom
the tribute of the youth was gathered were appointed to pay tax to the
temple for sacrifices to him. And the house of the Phytalidae had the
overseeing of these sacrifices, Theseus doing them that honour in
recompense of their former hospitality. Plutarch; Theseus Source |
Nottingham Goose Fair in the Old Market Square, 1910 |
I want to get mumbo-jumbo out of the world.
Almost the last words of British utopian socialist, William Morris, who
died on October 3, 1896
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Gore Vidal, American author born October 3, 1925; Two Sisters
One understands of course why the role of the individual in history is instinctively played down by a would-be egalitarian society. We are, quite naturally, afraid of being victimized by reckless adventurers. To avoid this we have created a myth of the ineluctable mass ('other-directedness') which governs all.
Gore Vidal; Rocking the Boat, 1963
Yet the myth that JFK was a philosopher-king will continue as long as the Kennedys remain in politics. And much of the power they exert over the national imagination is a direct result of the ghastliness of what happened at Dallas. But though the world's grief and shock were genuine, they were not entirely for JFK himself. The death of a young leader necessarily strikes an atavistic chord. For thousands of years the man-god was
sacrificed to ensure with blood the
harvest, and there is always an element of ecstasy as well as awe in our collective
guilt.
Gore Vidal; 'The Holy Family', Collected Essays, 1974
Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.
Gore Vidal
A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.
Gore Vidal
The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes.
Gore Vidal
Most lives are spent putting on and taking off masks.
Gore Vidal
Since no one can ever know for certain whether or not his own view of life is the correct one, it is absolutely impossible for him to know if someone else's is the wrong one.
Gore Vidal
Those who have not undergone minor disasters are being held in reserve for something major.
Gore Vidal
There is not one human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.
Gore Vidal
I suppose that one is always tempted to challenge those who think that they and they alone possess the truth or the way or the key to the mystery.
Gore Vidal
If the splitter of hairs has a sharp enough knife, the fact of life itself can be chopped into nothing.
Gore Vidal
At that instant he saw, in one blaze of light, an image of unutterable conviction, the reason why the artist works and lives and has his being – the reward he seeks – the only reward he really cares about, without which there is nothing. It is to snare the spirits of mankind in nets of magic, to make his life prevail through his creation, to wreak the vision of his life, the rude and painful substance of his own experience, into the congruence of blazing and enchanted images that are themselves the core of life, the essential pattern whence all other things proceed, the kernel of eternity.
Thomas Wolfe, born on October 3, 1900; Of Time and the River
The 'Twist' the only song, since time began, to become number one twice by the same artist. Oh yes, we're talking about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But lets face the truth. This is Nobel Prize Territory …
I want my flowers while I'm alive. I can't smell them when I'm dead. The people that come to see the show have given me everything. However I will not have the music business ignorant of my position in the industry. Dick Clark said, and I quote,
"The three most important things that ever happened in the music industry are Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Chubby Checker". Now I ask you. Where is my more money and my more fame? God bless and have mercy. You know I Love You.
Chubby Checker, born on October 3, 1941, pleads on his website for more honours
I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard travelling.
I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself …
Woody Guthrie, American folk singer/songwriter, died on October 3, 1967
October 3
is
the 276th
day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (277th
in leap years),
with 89
days remaining.
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3rd October Organization is also the name of a Marxist terrorist group.
The Bearing of Green Branches to commemorate Theseus's return
The Oschophoria was a festival in Attica, according to some writers
celebrated in honour of the deities Athena and Dionysus, according to others Dionysus and
Ariadne. Said to have been instituted by
the god Theseus, this was a vintage festival, its name derived from the word for a branch of a
vine with grapes.
The Greek myth states that when Theseus left Athens, he took with him three girls and two boys dresses as girls. After he killed the
Minotaur in the Labyrinth and returned to Athens he was crowned with a wreath of olive leaves. However, because his father died he put the crown on his staff and not on his head. The festival of Dionysus was being commemorated when he returned, and he placed the two boys that were dressed like women at the front of the procession.
Consequently, in the procession during the Oschophorian celebrations, two men dressed like women carried vine-branches from the temple of Dionysus to the temple of Athena Skira. They were accompanied by a herald with a wreath wrapped around his staff. Also in the procession were women who carried the sacred foods for the feast. Some of the meat became a burnt offering for the gods, with the remainder eaten or divided up for the participants to take home. When the procession reached the temple, stories were told and many songs sung. The women usually prepared the dinner and narrated myths. Athletic games were also played during the Oschophoria.
"OSCHOPHO´RIA (oschophoria or ôschophoria), an Attic
festival, which as a vintage festival paid honour to Dionysus and Athena, the
givers of wine and oil, and at the same time honoured the memory of Theseus, and
according to some of Ariadne also (Plut. Thes. 23). The time of its celebration
was the 7th and 8th of the Attic month Pyanepsion (Plut. Thes. 22). It is said
to have been instituted by Theseus. Its name is derived from ôschos, oschos, or
oschê, a branch of vines with grapes, for it was a vintage festival; and on the
day of its celebration two youths, called oschophoroi, whose parents were alive,
and who were elected from among the noblest and wealthiest citizens (Schol. ad
Nicand. Alexiph. 109), carried, in the disguise of women, branches of vines with
fresh grapes from the temple of Dionysus in Athens, to the ancient temple of
Athena Sciras in Phalerus. These youths were followed by a procession of persons
who likewise carried vine-branches, and a chorus sang hymns called ôschophorika
melê, which were accompanied by dances (Athen. xiv. p. 681). In the sacrifice
which was offered on this occasion, women also took part; they were called
deipnophoroi, for they represented the mothers of the youths, carried the
provisions (opha kai sitia) for them, and related stories to them. During the
sacrifice the staff of the herald was adorned with garlands, and when the
libation was performed the spectators cried out eleleu, iou iou (Plut. Thes.
22). The ephebi taken from all the tribes had on this day a contest in racing
from the city to the temple of Athena Sciras, during which they also carried the
oschê, and the victor received a cup filled with five different things.
(pentaploos, pentaploa, or pentaplê), viz. wine, honey, cheese, flour, and a
little oil (Athen. xi. p. 495). According to other accounts, the victor only
drank from this cup. The story which was symbolically represented in the rites
and ceremonies of this festival, and which was said to have given rise to it, is
related by Plutarch (Thes. 22, 23) and by Proclus (p. 388, ed. Gaisford).
(Compare Bekker's Anecdot. p. 318; Etymol. Magn. and Hesych. s. v. Ôschoi;
Suidas, s. v. Ôschophoria and ôschophoros; Preller, Griech. Myth. i. 165;
Bötticher, Baumcultus, p. 399; A. Mommsen, Heortol. p. 271.)
William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin, A Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London,
1890
Source
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year (2005)
A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac
Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה transliterated ro'sh hash-shānāh, 'beginning of the year') is the Jewish spiritual New Year. The Mishnah, the core work of the Jewish oral law, sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical and jubilee years.
First Thursday, Friday and
Saturday in October, 
