Dionysos around the blogosphere

I’m starting a new semi-regular feature here at The House of Vines. It’s sort of like the old Miscellanea posts – only better because it’s entirely focused on Dionysos! If you write something for him or encounter some interesting tid-bit in your online travels and would like to see it highlighted here, drop me a [...]

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One last post for tonight, I promise

Ever since Amy at Ptolemais posted about this song, I have been completely obsessed with it: I have also been pondering this fascinating meditation on the destruction of Amy Winehouse and its tragic implications. Granted, that’s partly because I had just posted about her fellow member of the 27 Club Jim Morrison – but it’s [...]

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Spider in the news

I’ve been bad about posting spider-related news items, so I’m going to clear out my bookmarks and make a Mega Spider News Post. Mazda issues recall over spider in fuel tank Mazda has a creepy problem: A common spider species seems to have developed a hankering for making nests and weaving webs inside the engines [...]

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The Canons of the Council of Eugene

For a while now there has been a growing movement to declare me the Pagan Pope. I have remained steadfast in my refusal to accept such honors because 1) wearing a tiara and womanly gown – as the heads of other religions seem to favor – is not flattering with my figure and 2) I [...]

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Just a quick note

To let you know that my lovely and talented partner Dver is having a sale on things she’s made or modified, including ritual masks, jewelry and a creepy little “Baby Zagreus” doll. She’s also offering signed copies of her book. Lots of beautiful and interesting things to look at with many wonderful pictures. Stop by [...]

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Inquiring minds want to know

Considering how much outcry there was about Idris Elba playing Heimdall are Asatruar going to be equally miffed by The Asylum casting a Latina actress as a Valkyrie in their Almighty Thor movie? Or are they going to be too busy recovering from the thought of former wrestler Kevin Nash playing Odin and Richard “Poor [...]

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Another roundup of interesting things I’ve read recently

* Hosni Mubarak is suffering damnatio memoriae in Egypt, with his name and image being removed from all public squares, streets, libraries and other public institutions around the country. This puts him in the company of some of the more interesting Pharaohs and Emperors of history such as Akhenaten, Hatshepsut, Caligula, Maximian, etc. The article [...]

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Two interesting bits of temple-related news

First, Egypt has opened a temple of Sobek at Madinet Madi in the Faiyum to tourists. This temple contained a nursery for baby crocodiles, some of which were raised specifically so that they could be mummified and sold to pilgrims. Though not mentioned in the article, Strabo has a great account of what it was [...]

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Has the president of Persia returned to his people’s ancestral traditions?

Yes, yes. I know that it’s politic to call them “Iranians” these days, but they will always be Persians to me. Apparently Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has surrounded himself with sorcerers or moghu as his ancestors would have called them, a word that entered English as magician by way of the Greek mágoi: Close allies of Iran’s [...]

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Bias at the Wild Hunt?

“Ben” left the following comment on a post at Jason Pitzl-Waters’ Pagan news and media behemoth The Wild Hunt: I really do think heathens are almost totally ignored in this Wild Hunt thing. It’s always Wicca this, Wicca that. I’m totally unfamiliar with Wicca, but I know it’s very different from Asatru and other reconstructionist [...]

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More weird crap from Sannion’s bookmarks

In what is becoming a somewhat regular feature here at The House of Vines, I present some of the interesting, inspiring and just plain weird news items and blog posts that I’ve read of late: * The Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats. Wonderful story, but they’re a bit confused on who Helena’s son [...]

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A year in the forest

My lovely and talented partner is celebrating imWalde’s 1st anniversary by releasing 13 new pieces as part of her Bone Forest collection. I helped her photograph some of these yesterday and in my not-so-humble-opinion I think they represent some of the best, most beautiful, magical and artfully constructed jewelry she’s made thus far. There’s even [...]

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Hellenismos in the news

Looks like protesters are making headway in the battle over the Altar of the Twelve Gods: An Athens court on Friday ordered the temporary suspension of railway works aimed at covering up a significant archaeological find in Monastiraki, central Athens, until a verdict is issued on an injunction brought against the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP) [...]

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Isn’t that interesting

Turns out that the Roman Empire fell because they caught the gay from the Carthaginians. That’s what Roberto De Mattei (the deputy head of Italy’s National Research Council) is asserting at least. Before Rome conquered Carthage (“a paradise for homosexuals”) they were totally butch, and afterwards they became infected with an effeminacy that made them [...]

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I know it’s a little silly, but …

I have to share this awesome news anyway. I just discovered that “Britain’s best-known classicist” Mary Beard linked to something I wrote a while back. It was in a piece she did discussing the comparison of Gordon Brown and Marcus Antonius and if you scroll down to where she discusses the Amimetobioi you’ll see that [...]

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Get your poison while it lasts

Cross-posting this for The Bog Witch. For personal reasons I won’t elaborate upon here, I’ve decided to put my poison/felt necklaces on clearance and return to focusing on animal parts in my jewelry for the foreseeable future. So if you want one of these pieces, get it now – they will disappear as of April 30! [...]

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Marcus Antonius walks the earth today with the face of Charlie Sheen

I know a lot of Pagans have their panties in a wad over some of the things that Charlie Sheen has been saying recently. (Though, really, the only time Pagan panties aren’t in a wad is when they go skyclad.) And others are convinced that he’s hopped up on goofballs or gone insane. He isn’t. [...]

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Bad news and good news out of Egypt

So, remember how it was reported that during the Egyptian revolution only a couple sites were looted, with only a few relatively unimportant items destroyed or lost? Yeah, turns out that Zahi Hawass completely lied to everyone in an effort to conceal the extent of the carnage. Before resigning his post on March 3rd Hawass [...]

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How beautiful

A documentary about the worship of Aphrodite in modern-day Kypros is in the works and it looks really good: I so can’t wait to see this.

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Assorted Greco-Egyptian newsy bits

First, they are auctioning off a mummified hand that almost certainly does not belong to Kleopatra VII, despite the claims of the auction house. Secondly, the Russians are concerned that a comet named Apophis is going to strike the earth in the year 2036. Here’s an idea, astronomers: how about we don’t name celestial bodies [...]

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