Authors
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Arachidamia of Sparta
The Greeks did not have a good track record on women’s rights in the ancient world. However, there was an anomaly in a strange place. The city-state of Sparta was not generally a tolerant place. Men were expected to give life long service to the military and boys were separated from their families to build esprit de corps. A coming of age ritual was killing a slave and not getting caught. It was a messed up place. (For more on the Spartans, please see these posts: http://www.historynaked.com/leonidas-unlikely-king/ and http://www.historynaked.com/historical-inaccuracies-300/ ) However, women there were given extraordinary rights. This was because the men were off fighting and the women were left…
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The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635
Hurricanes are a part of life if you live on the Eastern Seaboard or Gulf Coast of the US or the Caribbean. What we tend to forget is these powerful storms have been around longer than the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. We discussed a few such hurricane in our posts about the 1900 Galveston Storm (Please see this post for more information:http://www.historynaked.com/great-storm-1900-galveston-hur…/ ) and one that destroyed the young city of New Orleans (Please see this post for more information: http://www.historynaked.com/founding-of-new-orleans/ ). There was even a hurricane that possibly stopped Washington DC from burning in 1814 (Please see this post for more information:http://www.historynaked.com/white-house-white-house-white/ ) However, hurricanes have been plaguing the…
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The Valiant Ladies of Potosí
When the Spanish “discovered” South America, they were thrilled to find a plethora of precious metals to take. The heart of the silver boom was the town of Potosí, in what is now Bolivia. At the time it was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru and was known as Alto Peru. There was so much money there that the theory is that the mint mark of Potosí, which was the letters “PTSI” all written over each other, is the origin of the dollar sign. The very name meant money, and a common Spanish expression is “vale un Potosí”, which is literally translated to “to be worth a Potosí” and means…
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Isabel MacDuff Comyn- The Lady in the Cage
As I have said before, do not mess with a Scottish woman. This is the story of a woman who did her duty to her country and her king and paid the price. A price that seems like it’s out of a fairy tale or a horror movie, but paid it she did. This is the story of Isabel MacDuff Comyn, a patriot of Scotland. Isabel was born to Duncan Macduff, the Earl of Fife, and Johanna de Clare. The date of her birth isn’t recorded and estimates range from 1270 to 1285. Her father was murdered by his classman in 1299, and Johanna and Isabel’s younger brother also named…
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The Festival of Drunkenness
No, dear reader, this is not Panama City on Spring Break. This is an actual religious festival from ancient Egypt. We have discussed how beer played a part in religious festivals, and that the Sumerians actually had a goddess specifically for it. (For more on Nin-kasi, please see this post: http://www.historynaked.com/nin-kasi-lady-fills-mouth-beer/ ) There was an importance placed on beer in Egyptian culture as well. The source of this festival is a mythological story of how beer saved the world. The story goes that Re, the sun god, was frankly salty about the “duplicitousness” of mankind and called his children together to discuss it. A Council of the Gods is called,…
