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purple motes

Artifacts to help you imagine more.

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Highlights

  • Abelard castrated
  • Byzantine wife saves husband
  • Amphitryon & Geta duped
  • Chastelaine de Vergi tragedy
  • Aristotle’s advice to Alexander
  • Empress Theodora: woman leader
  • Tristan & Isuet
  • Xanthippe & Socrates
  • New Modern Sexism Scale

Bible

death of the author defeated: Easter drama of imagination

The author rises from the dead to bring literature back to life, especially medieval literature. Rejoice! I say it again, rejoice! … Read the post death of the author defeated: Easter drama of imagination

Christian hope for release from Hell

In medieval Easter plays and resurrection poems, harrowing of Hell starts with repentance. Then Jesus frees captive souls and renews the earth. … Read the post Christian hope for release from Hell

Apollonius of Tyana on eunuchs’ passion

Apollonius of Tyana rightly believed that eunuchs can passionately love women, but wrongly believed that they must forever suffer lovesickness. … Read the post Apollonius of Tyana on eunuchs’ passion

shepherds, angel, and devil converse about Jesus’s birth

In the Carmina Burana‘s Christmas play, an angel and a devil compete to persuade shepherds about a virgin mother and baby in a manger. Angelic singing wins! … Read the post shepherds, angel, and devil converse about Jesus’s birth

Valerius Maximus on a sacrificial father and his repentant son

Valerius Maximus’s sacrificial father & repentant, parricidal son suggests a Jewish recasting of Isaac’s binding into a story like the Prodigal Son parable. … Read the post Valerius Maximus on a sacrificial father and his repentant son

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