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It was early December of a remarkably warm autumn in Alexandria. The year of 185 was going to expire soon and Hero felt that the next one would be the most challenging in his entire life. He turned 15 today and was at the very end of his first master class in the Great Library. Hero was fluent in several languages even before he entered his teenage years and he knew that Alexandria had to be his next stop a day after he read Ptolemaîos' Almagest, the scroll he had lucky to stumble with in Antioch's atheneum. Today and after two years in the campus he knew that he was at the crossroads. Earlier this morning Hero realized the passion he shared toward the imperial history and the stories from the past was taking the toll with every passing day and the time has come for the next step. Here, laying on the small carpet just outside southern city walls and watching the starry sky he made a definite decision. As soon as his course is finished he would start traveling the world with his
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In pre-Christian mythologies of the western and northern tribes and their pagan beliefs, female deities were not uncommon. Take for instance old Gaul's Matres or Valkyries of the old Norse mythology and of course all the goddesses from the history of all polytheistic religions around the globe. But perhaps the most interesting of them all are, you guessed, the fairies. They are not actually deities per se and rather belong to the spirit realm of the afterlife and dead, but still you can find them, in one form or another, in almost all religious legends and myths. The city where I was born, the valley it resides and the river that splits it in half are no different. The history of this area is, metaphorically speaking, very colorful and full of wonders, all the way to the beginning of the Neolithic era, and over the centuries this valley literally saw lots of different cultures and deities. One of them, originates way back to the Celtic Gauls and their tribe named Scordisci who live
In pre-Christian mythologies of the western and northern tribes and their pagan beliefs, female deities were not uncommon. Take for instance old Gaul's Matres or Valkyries of the old Norse mythology and of course all the goddesses from the history of all polytheistic religions around the globe. But perhaps the most interesting of them all are, you guessed, the fairies. They are not actually deities per se and rather belong to the spirit realm of the afterlife and dead, but still you can find them, in one form or another, in almost all religious legends and myths. The city where I was born, the valley it resides and the river that splits it in half are no different. The history of this area is, metaphorically speaking, very colorful and full of wonders, all the way to the beginning of the Neolithic era, and over the centuries this valley literally saw lots of different cultures and deities. One of them, originates way back to the Celtic Gauls and their tribe named Scordisci who lived in this neighborhood almost 24 centuries ago. They were the one who named the river and the first settlement as Naissa/Navissos, which pretty much means river and town of fairies. Whether or not this area in the BC was flooded with fairies or perhaps the geographic of it resembled to their beliefs, or even the very "Celtic Otherworld" was pictured and portrayed like our own neighborhood, the name survived for centuries and despite numerous conquerors and different cultures, the fairies staid in the name and the 'spirit' of the town all the way till today. Perhaps first document that 'officially' coined Celtic's name was published in Alexandria by the famous Claudius Ptolemy in his master piece 'Geography' (around AD 150) in which he mentioned Ναϊςςός (latin: Naissus) as 'first among four largest towns in Roman Dardania'*.
When I said the town inherited not only the 'fairy tale' name, but also the spirit that it still living in legends and myths, what I really had in mind was one particular spot on the northern hill named 'Metoh' and outskirt of the town where almost entire millennium stands a ruin of an old temple built on that particular spot by one of Byzantine emperors in 11th century. The official name of the temple was 'Holy Trinity Church' but over time it earned prefix 'Rusalija' which pretty much originated from old Serbian folklore, and, no doubts, connects the church with Rusalkas, mythical water nymphs or a female spirits from old pagan Slavic mythology. In some of Slavic languages, Russian included, word 'rusalka' translated to English literally means 'mermaid'. This variation of immortal creatures from the spirit world are completely opposite from the 'Tinkerbell' kind of fairies - instead, they could be very malevolent and dangerous young undead girls who died in or near a river or a lake and spend eternity haunting the waterway. With their long red hair and beautiful appearance and singing, they lure young men into the depths to their death. In Serbian stories even hearing their song results in immediate deafness. They are the most deadly one entire week, 50 days after Easter, which comes in late May or early June every year. As it seems, legends say that they are only afraid by wormwood and garlic, so try to have them with you if you are true believer.
Well, we didn't have any garlic in our pockets last November when we visited the church and I truly hated my curiosity when I read about Rusalkas before we drove there. Sometimes it is extremely wise to read about horror myths after you visit the spot where this malicious fairies live. Firstly, the site was eerie - the church is abandoned and to get to it you have to drive through the old graveyard people seem to visit only once a year, during 'Holy Trinity' week. Secondly, the weather was way to windy and spooky and I had to engage all my driving skills to enter the church yard - the car simply didn't want to enter due to poor quality of the stone entrance and kept rolling backwards. Thirdly, it was almost a sunset, part of the day usually identified with 'twilight hour'. When we finally got inside, my wife refused to get out of the car and in a couple of minutes of intense bravery only Viktor and I went out to take couple of photos. Needless to say, the feeling was truly cheerless and the only bright of the site was the view. The location was perfect and we glimpsed entire city with large orange sun on the horizon and I finally took one of the best sunsets in our collection along with great shots of the little temple itself. Confidentially speaking, if Viktor didn't bring his plastic gun-toy, we would probably stay less time listening that spooky Rusalka's song ... or heavy wind whistles... or whatever it was.. Although, I would be feeling much safer with couple of garlic cloves ... Ahem ...
However, besides city and river names, history of this area in BC is not very well documented, archaeologically speaking and even though there are plenty of evidence and finds, before Ptolemy reference, nothing is certain. But the names are always interesting and as they survive millenniums there are many speculations of their origin. Celtic 'Navissos' is no doubt related to fairies, I mean even the word 'fairy' is coined by ancient Gauls, in nowadays France, and the root is in the Old French word 'faerie' which means 'enchantment' or 'under the spell'. However, even before Celtic invasion of Balkans in 3rd century BC, this land was populated with various forms of societies and civilization. It lays on the cross roads between north and south and west and east and as I described in post Constantine & Naissus, it was always under siege or some sort of raid. Due to this geographic misfortune, one tribe never managed to rule this area for, relatively speaking, long period of time. Before Celtic tribe of Scordisci who staid here after Celtics retreated from invasion of Greece, the land was occupied with people of Dardani, who originated either from estranged Illyrian tribe or, how some scholars suggest, directly from ancient city of Dardania, located next to the city of Troy, as described in Homer's Illiad, who moved to the Balkans millenniums before AD. Even before Dardani's rule, at some point in 4th century this area was raid and occupied with Triballi tribes and if you add Greeks and Romans and constant threats from Gothics and Huns from the north and far east you'd get the picture of how unwise was to settle around here in ancient times. Anyhow, the point is that almost everybody managed to spend some time here and to contribute a little in those violent times. Or to be precise, to contribute in everything but changing the original name that staid the same from the very beginning.
So lets try to summarize the names from all those conquerors over time: Navissos, Ναϊσσός, Naissus, Nais, Niş, Niš, all of them related to fairies in different languages. Perhaps the most interesting connection with the name is during Greek ruling, especially from the golden prosperity times of Macedonian expansion in some point of centuries before Christ. In Greek mythology exists famous mountain of Nysa, which was the traditional place where the rain nymphs (Hyades), raised the semi-god Dionysus, who was one of those bad guys from the Olympus - the god of wine, ritual madness and religious ecstasy and to quote Wikipedia, Dionysus represents everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods. I guess, there is no need to add that one hypotheses of the location of Nysa (which is still unknown if it's not made up) is within ancient Tribalia or .. pretty much .. this neighborhood again. Tribalia and triballian tribes were located entirely in nowadays Eastern Serbia which borders with Niš valley and it's northern-eastern mountains. By the myth, and just like their half-sisters, sea-nymphs Pleiades, rain-nymphs Hyades were transformed into a cluster of stars that was afterwards associated with rain. So if you look up in a bright starry night and see The Hyades in the constellation of Taurus, which is the nearest open star cluster to the Solar System, remember that their five brightest stars might have been living just around within my north neighboring mountains in their ... fairy existence.
Of course, Greek mythology doesn't end this story about origin of the name of my birth town with fairies. Even in the Scandinavian mythology there is a 'Nis', dwarfed male fairy in Danish Jutland (Nisse god-dreng - Nisse good lad**) who offers his help to run household and help people if, of course he is pleased by treat (groute) every evening. In the end, I am sure that Niš, or old Naissus, if you will, is one of the rarest cities on the planet with real fairy-tale in it's name origin and I would really like to see a tribute to fairies, even to the evil Rusalkas in form of some sort of street art or museum or something that could show modest traveler, tourist or web surfer not only the history of one town's name but also a hint of how once our ancestors pictured spirit world and their interaction with people. If this happens anytime in the future, this post will definitely get it's sequel with hopefully great photos and more stories.
Inage credits and direct refs:
*** https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/arts...rusalka.html
* http://www.poesialatina.it/_ns/greek/testi/Claudius_Ptolemaeus/Geographia_(lib._1-3).html
** http://www.celtic-twilight.com/otherworld/fairy_mythology/scandinavia3.htm
http://www.guideforthearts.com/renee-fleming-to-star-in-the-title-role-of-rusalka/
http://celticruins.blogspot.rs/2014/06/fairies-haunt-springs-wells-and-rivers.html
http://www.niscafe.com/grad-nis/
Refs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka
http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/faeries.html
http://celticruins.blogspot.rs/2014/06/fairies-haunt-springs-wells-and-rivers.html
http://celticruins.blogspot.rs/2014_06_01_archive.html
http://www.panacomp.net/serbia?mesto=srbija_sveta%20trojica%20matejevac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scordisci
http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7653/2006/0350-76530637007P.pdf
http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/AnatoliaDardania.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nysa_(mythology)
Kristine Opolais in Dvořák’s 'Rusalka' - The Met Opera***
When I said the town inherited not only the 'fairy tale' name, but also the spirit that it still living in legends and myths, what I really had in mind was one particular spot on the northern hill named 'Metoh' and outskirt of the town where almost entire millennium stands a ruin of an old temple built on that particular spot by one of Byzantine emperors in 11th century. The official name of the temple was 'Holy Trinity Church' but over time it earned prefix 'Rusalija' which pretty much originated from old Serbian folklore, and, no doubts, connects the church with Rusalkas, mythical water nymphs or a female spirits from old pagan Slavic mythology. In some of Slavic languages, Russian included, word 'rusalka' translated to English literally means 'mermaid'. This variation of immortal creatures from the spirit world are completely opposite from the 'Tinkerbell' kind of fairies - instead, they could be very malevolent and dangerous young undead girls who died in or near a river or a lake and spend eternity haunting the waterway. With their long red hair and beautiful appearance and singing, they lure young men into the depths to their death. In Serbian stories even hearing their song results in immediate deafness. They are the most deadly one entire week, 50 days after Easter, which comes in late May or early June every year. As it seems, legends say that they are only afraid by wormwood and garlic, so try to have them with you if you are true believer.
'Holy Trinity Rusalija' - abandoned temple from 11th century
Well, we didn't have any garlic in our pockets last November when we visited the church and I truly hated my curiosity when I read about Rusalkas before we drove there. Sometimes it is extremely wise to read about horror myths after you visit the spot where this malicious fairies live. Firstly, the site was eerie - the church is abandoned and to get to it you have to drive through the old graveyard people seem to visit only once a year, during 'Holy Trinity' week. Secondly, the weather was way to windy and spooky and I had to engage all my driving skills to enter the church yard - the car simply didn't want to enter due to poor quality of the stone entrance and kept rolling backwards. Thirdly, it was almost a sunset, part of the day usually identified with 'twilight hour'. When we finally got inside, my wife refused to get out of the car and in a couple of minutes of intense bravery only Viktor and I went out to take couple of photos. Needless to say, the feeling was truly cheerless and the only bright of the site was the view. The location was perfect and we glimpsed entire city with large orange sun on the horizon and I finally took one of the best sunsets in our collection along with great shots of the little temple itself. Confidentially speaking, if Viktor didn't bring his plastic gun-toy, we would probably stay less time listening that spooky Rusalka's song ... or heavy wind whistles... or whatever it was.. Although, I would be feeling much safer with couple of garlic cloves ... Ahem ...
The sunset from the 'Holy Trinity' church (Metoh hill)
However, besides city and river names, history of this area in BC is not very well documented, archaeologically speaking and even though there are plenty of evidence and finds, before Ptolemy reference, nothing is certain. But the names are always interesting and as they survive millenniums there are many speculations of their origin. Celtic 'Navissos' is no doubt related to fairies, I mean even the word 'fairy' is coined by ancient Gauls, in nowadays France, and the root is in the Old French word 'faerie' which means 'enchantment' or 'under the spell'. However, even before Celtic invasion of Balkans in 3rd century BC, this land was populated with various forms of societies and civilization. It lays on the cross roads between north and south and west and east and as I described in post Constantine & Naissus, it was always under siege or some sort of raid. Due to this geographic misfortune, one tribe never managed to rule this area for, relatively speaking, long period of time. Before Celtic tribe of Scordisci who staid here after Celtics retreated from invasion of Greece, the land was occupied with people of Dardani, who originated either from estranged Illyrian tribe or, how some scholars suggest, directly from ancient city of Dardania, located next to the city of Troy, as described in Homer's Illiad, who moved to the Balkans millenniums before AD. Even before Dardani's rule, at some point in 4th century this area was raid and occupied with Triballi tribes and if you add Greeks and Romans and constant threats from Gothics and Huns from the north and far east you'd get the picture of how unwise was to settle around here in ancient times. Anyhow, the point is that almost everybody managed to spend some time here and to contribute a little in those violent times. Or to be precise, to contribute in everything but changing the original name that staid the same from the very beginning.
Niš downtown by the old fortress and Nišava river
So lets try to summarize the names from all those conquerors over time: Navissos, Ναϊσσός, Naissus, Nais, Niş, Niš, all of them related to fairies in different languages. Perhaps the most interesting connection with the name is during Greek ruling, especially from the golden prosperity times of Macedonian expansion in some point of centuries before Christ. In Greek mythology exists famous mountain of Nysa, which was the traditional place where the rain nymphs (Hyades), raised the semi-god Dionysus, who was one of those bad guys from the Olympus - the god of wine, ritual madness and religious ecstasy and to quote Wikipedia, Dionysus represents everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods. I guess, there is no need to add that one hypotheses of the location of Nysa (which is still unknown if it's not made up) is within ancient Tribalia or .. pretty much .. this neighborhood again. Tribalia and triballian tribes were located entirely in nowadays Eastern Serbia which borders with Niš valley and it's northern-eastern mountains. By the myth, and just like their half-sisters, sea-nymphs Pleiades, rain-nymphs Hyades were transformed into a cluster of stars that was afterwards associated with rain. So if you look up in a bright starry night and see The Hyades in the constellation of Taurus, which is the nearest open star cluster to the Solar System, remember that their five brightest stars might have been living just around within my north neighboring mountains in their ... fairy existence.
Ivan Kramskoi, Русалки (Rusalki), 1871
Of course, Greek mythology doesn't end this story about origin of the name of my birth town with fairies. Even in the Scandinavian mythology there is a 'Nis', dwarfed male fairy in Danish Jutland (Nisse god-dreng - Nisse good lad**) who offers his help to run household and help people if, of course he is pleased by treat (groute) every evening. In the end, I am sure that Niš, or old Naissus, if you will, is one of the rarest cities on the planet with real fairy-tale in it's name origin and I would really like to see a tribute to fairies, even to the evil Rusalkas in form of some sort of street art or museum or something that could show modest traveler, tourist or web surfer not only the history of one town's name but also a hint of how once our ancestors pictured spirit world and their interaction with people. If this happens anytime in the future, this post will definitely get it's sequel with hopefully great photos and more stories.
Inage credits and direct refs:
*** https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/arts...rusalka.html
* http://www.poesialatina.it/_ns/greek/testi/Claudius_Ptolemaeus/Geographia_(lib._1-3).html
** http://www.celtic-twilight.com/otherworld/fairy_mythology/scandinavia3.htm
http://www.guideforthearts.com/renee-fleming-to-star-in-the-title-role-of-rusalka/
http://celticruins.blogspot.rs/2014/06/fairies-haunt-springs-wells-and-rivers.html
http://www.niscafe.com/grad-nis/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka
http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/faeries.html
http://celticruins.blogspot.rs/2014/06/fairies-haunt-springs-wells-and-rivers.html
http://celticruins.blogspot.rs/2014_06_01_archive.html
http://www.panacomp.net/serbia?mesto=srbija_sveta%20trojica%20matejevac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scordisci
http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-7653/2006/0350-76530637007P.pdf
http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/AnatoliaDardania.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nysa_(mythology)
Not so long ago I mentioned great city of Alexandria in post Constantine & Naissus when I described the horrible misfortune and death of Hypatia, one of the greatest philosopher and astronomer of 4th century AD, who lived at the very end of classical Greek era of prosperity. Within the same city walls, couple of centuries before, one of the equally greatest and famous scientists of all times, Claudius Ptolemy was living, exploring, teaching and dedicating his life in various disciplines including astronomy and, of course, unavoidable astrology which was considered to be "connected science" for centuries, especially in the old ages. Rachel Weisz as Hypatia of Alexandria in Agora (2009) Among other things, Ptolemy will be remembered as the one of first scholars who described and identified 48 constellations of clear and unpolluted nightly skies above Alexandria so many centuries ago. One of the biggest constellations in his list was the great constellation of Gem
Not so long ago I mentioned great city of Alexandria in post Constantine & Naissus when I described the horrible misfortune and death of Hypatia, one of the greatest philosopher and astronomer of 4th century AD, who lived at the very end of classical Greek era of prosperity. Within the same city walls, couple of centuries before, one of the equally greatest and famous scientists of all times, Claudius Ptolemy was living, exploring, teaching and dedicating his life in various disciplines including astronomy and, of course, unavoidable astrology which was considered to be "connected science" for centuries, especially in the old ages.
Among other things, Ptolemy will be remembered as the one of first scholars who described and identified 48 constellations of clear and unpolluted nightly skies above Alexandria so many centuries ago. One of the biggest constellations in his list was the great constellation of Gemini. This zodiac member* (one of 13 constellations who appears in the background of the Sun during one year of Earth's orbit) is made out of 80 stars. Perhaps the most interesting stars in Gemini are two "twins", Castor and Pollux (twin brothers from Greek mythology), who are among the brightest star systems of the heavens, first being a system made out of 6 stars gravitationally bonded while the other is an old and evolved giant star. These two stars are the pillars of the whole constellation and certainly the most important stars in the Gemini but from the point of view related to this post's title maybe more interesting star in the constellation is it's 37th member. A star without a name with astronomical designation HD50692 and simply called 37 Geminorum or "37 Gem". It came to focus during the year of 2003 when astronomers Jill Tarter and Margaret Turnbull under the Project Phoenix (a part of SETI) published the article Target Selection for SETI. I. A Catalog of Nearby Habitable Stellar Systems. The goal was to by thorough examination of various star features (like star age, composition, similarity to the Sun, capability to harbor stable habitable zone where liquid water can exist etc.) to narrow down 118,218 stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue database to the relatively small number of potential SETI targets. The result of the research is The Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems (HabCat) with selection of 17,129 candidates with potential habitable exoplanets capable of complex life similar to Earth.
After this initial research is done in 2003, according to one of the paper writers, astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull, "37 Gem" was most likely the best candidate to harbor an Earth twin planet within its Goldilocks zone. The star is stable and non-variant, middle-aged and just a bit hotter and brighter than our Sun. It is located 56,3 light years from our Solar system and it is one billion years older than our Sun. Now, if this system is reach with elements originated from old supernovae explosion in the distant past like in our planetary front yard and if major cosmic collisions and natural doomsday scenarios didn't interfere much with evolution of lifeforms, then this star and its potential planetary system is more than promising. However, so far no planets are detected in this system and no radio messages are caught from this direction but if some Earth like planet is there and, in one potential scenario, if some sort of intelligent life emerged and evolved, the fact is that they had one billion of years ahead of us. In simple words if alien humanoids or whatever they look like exist, they could be far more advanced than we are and they maybe don't communicate with radio waves anymore. Furthermore, if interstellar travels are possible with some sort of 'warp speed' spaceship technology it is likely that they already developed it by now. Not to mention that this kind of advanced civilization would be fully aware of all star systems in their neighborhood of say 100 light years in all directions. In other words, if they exist, they already know about us.
Astronomy, of course, is the science dealing with extremely large numbers and thanks to many new techniques in interstellar observation, we now know great deal about star "37 Gem". Even though two stars are similar in many aspects, it is actually not the exact Sun twin. Like in case of identical twins of one mythological story of Castor and Pollux, the two stars are different. Slightly, but they are. Way back in the year of 2004, I read one interesting hypothetical question within popular Serbian Astronomy Magazine. Miroslav Filipović, one of the astronomers who worked at the time at Australian Parkes Observatory asked very interesting question. He wondered what would happen if we took the almighty hand and in one millisecond replaced our Sun with "37 Gem"? It was actually interactive quiz question (here is the Serbian link) and I couldn't resist not to post my thoughts on the subject. Basically I said that this scenario would be catastrophic for our Solar system. All orbits would start changing immediately and our Goldilocks zone would suffer the most as the asteroid belt would go into chaotic stage and in the process of adjusting to the new boss, until all orbits stabilizes, Earth would probably loose all habitable properties due to asteroid bombardments similar to the early stage of Solar system and life as we know it would most definitely seize to exist. The biggest unknown to me was what would happen to Jupiter? This giant planet and its orbit acts as a gravitational balance between main star and all other planets and with its enormous gravity attracts all killer objects toward itself and keep the asteroid belt in line. The moral of the story is that even the slightest difference between two stars can be the major difference in their system geometry and behavior. Not to mention that if we use our Solar system analogy, in order for life to survive billions of years of evolution, there must exist one giant planet in right position in order to protect the planets in habitable zone from serious attacks from large asteroids and comets. If we put this story into consideration, it seems now that finding Sun's twin doesn't guaranty the existence of habitable Earth like planet capable of evolution of intelligent life.
With latest update of this post I tried to simulate this hypothetical scenario in Universe Sandbox. 37 Gem, actually is not part of the app's default library so, to test it out, I just enhanced the Sun's mass to match 37 Gem's, which is estimated to be 1,1 Solar mass. In the simulation result, within hours and days, the Earth's orbit changed and the Goldilocks zone expanded producing the average temperature to jump from cozy fifteen degrees to more than fifty. I am not sure that there is a physics process in existence to create something like this, but this fragileness gave me another stomach twitching nevertheless.
But to get back to the title and in light of so many reported UFO sightings all over the world and with lots of stories involving alien autopsies, abducting humans and (ancient) alien astronauts believers we can ask ourselves is there an ultimate connection between Aliens & UFOs?
Well, the ultimate fact is that we still have no single proof that aliens exist at all and sometimes, the lack of proof means that it doesn't exist at all and in this case this might be true for our small interstellar neighborhood. So, for now, the answer to the famous question "Are there aliens in UFOs?" will stay "No". UFO will still be what the acronym means in the first place: "Unidentified Flying Object". To be honest, on several occasions I saw UFOs on the sky. One of them pretty memorable - decade or so ago there was one bright light flying very fast above the beach resort in Greece and its magnitude was probably about -5 or even brighter which was probably the brightness of three or four full Venus magnitudes and believe me or not, what first popped to my mind wasn't aliens driving some fancy saucer and instead first thing I thought was that this might be related to the jet military planes from nearby air force base located couples of hundreds kilometers near to the Thessaloniki, the second largest city in the country. It's not that I am one of those conspiracy theorist out there, it was the simple fact that we were regularly seeing these jets during day light with some of them repeatedly breaking the sound barrier above Aegean sea. However, what I didn't hear that night was the sound of jet. It was flying completely quiet. That fact is still buzzing my mind. But not enough to immediately imagine little grays in shiny alien aircraft in search for abductees.
In favor of the fact that there is no proof of aliens visiting our planet or any significant proof of their communications detected in past decades, speaks the 50+ years of radio silence since SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) is using scientific research to detect at least one confirmed artificial electromagnetic signal from above. That is if we exclude the WOW!** signal from the August of 1977. Jerry R. Ehman, american astronomer detected the strong narrow band radio signal that appeared to originate from Chi Sagittarii, shared three star systems in the constellation Sagittarius. However, even though the signal never repeated again, it staid the best candidate for the proof of one alien world 220 light years away from Earth. The signal was 30 times louder than normal deep space noise and the fact that its frequency was 1420MHz, the same frequency the most common element hydrogen resonates at, no doubts points toward the valid conclusion that it indeed was artificial in origin. Too bad it staid unconfirmed ever since. But if it was really a message from the alien race living in one of the star systems of Sagittarius constellation, I could say that I fully understand why it is not repeated (or detected) again. The simple reason is the same why we here don't send messages to the outer space on purpose. Or to be precise why broadcasts sent from Earth to chosen star systems are not continuous messages and instead just some isolated shy and timid dispatches.
Ever since SETI started its research in only listening the heavens there is a loud debate whether or not it is wise to send pointed messages to the unknown aliens. There is a simple fear that some of them can be violent and eager to enslave us the moment they receive this kind of invitation. If you ask me I stand to the point that sending these messages is too early. We are still young civilization and it is wise to wait for couple of more decades until we, at least, evolve from residents of one planet into residents of one Solar system. We simply need to understand more than just Earth before we start actively search for the contact of the third kind. Of course this doesn't stop people behind Active SETI or METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) who are trying to send messages ever since first message to ET is sent in form of Pioneer plaques, placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 spacecraft illustrating hydrogen atom, naked man and woman and Solar system main objects. Couple of years later first radio message was sent from Arecibo radio telescope toward the 25,000 light years distant star cluster M13. Arecibo message was created by Dr. Frank Drake with help of Carl Sagan and contained simple physics along with mathematical and graphical data and it served more in educational purposes than as an real attempt to contact extraterrestrials.
On the other end, there are pointed messages to the desired star systems with more complex data included. Scientists and politicians are not really united when it comes to possible messaging extraterrestrials, not to mention that there is no valid protocol of what we should do if some ET pays us a surprise visit and so far there are no unite efforts to perform active SETI on a global scale. Instead some not very bright individual messages are sent from time to time, like the one sent last year toward the source of WOW! signal with, believe it or not, 10,000 twitter messages. I wonder what aliens would conclude after reading tweets but I am sure nothing good. Equally problematic, to say the least, message called "Teen Age Message" is sent from radio telescope in Ukraine in 2001. The message's content and target stars were selected by a group of teens from four Russian cities. You probably guessed, teens, among other data, have chosen to send an audio file and in this case a concert named "First Theremin Concert for Extraterrestrials". Among other stars, this message is sent toward "37 Gem" as well and it will arrive in December 2057. Then we will know for sure if aliens there like music and art.
In conclusion let me say the obvious. The space is cruel place and distances between two star systems are tremendously huge. Technology to build a space ship for interstellar travel is definitely extra ordinary and not just within the realm of solving the cruising speed to be faster than light. I am more than positive that first contact with alien technology will be with some robotic probe instead of live contact with cute and friendly aliens in flash. If traveling through the space was easy and solvable we would probably have a significant proof by now that aliens exist and we wouldn't be buzzing our minds with Fermi paradox and obvious question of why the nightly sky is not filled with alien spacecrafts, deep space stations and beautiful green girls from Orion.
Original post date: November 2013, Updates: December 2016, December 2015
Image ref:
https://philipstanfield.com/tag/mysticism-2/
*What is the Zodiac?
http://earthsky.org/space/what-is-the-zodiac
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/starfinder2/en/
**Wow! signal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal
***UFOs Explained –– and Unsolved
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a3995/4304207/
http://ufodigest.com/news/0809/ufos-solved.php
****The Green Sisters
http://www.startrekmemorabilia.com/non-human-hotties/slave-sisters-from-bound
More resources:
http://static.astronomija.co.rs/razno/zabava/igre/pobednik2.htm
http://static.astronomija.co.rs/dubokisvemir/galaksija/explanete/37gem/odgovor.htm
http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/627/habitability-betting-on-37-gem
http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/031008190106.4hcm1yfo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_twin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_to_Extra-Terrestrial_Intelligence
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/newworlds/HabStars.html
Rachel Weisz as Hypatia of Alexandria in Agora (2009)
Among other things, Ptolemy will be remembered as the one of first scholars who described and identified 48 constellations of clear and unpolluted nightly skies above Alexandria so many centuries ago. One of the biggest constellations in his list was the great constellation of Gemini. This zodiac member* (one of 13 constellations who appears in the background of the Sun during one year of Earth's orbit) is made out of 80 stars. Perhaps the most interesting stars in Gemini are two "twins", Castor and Pollux (twin brothers from Greek mythology), who are among the brightest star systems of the heavens, first being a system made out of 6 stars gravitationally bonded while the other is an old and evolved giant star. These two stars are the pillars of the whole constellation and certainly the most important stars in the Gemini but from the point of view related to this post's title maybe more interesting star in the constellation is it's 37th member. A star without a name with astronomical designation HD50692 and simply called 37 Geminorum or "37 Gem". It came to focus during the year of 2003 when astronomers Jill Tarter and Margaret Turnbull under the Project Phoenix (a part of SETI) published the article Target Selection for SETI. I. A Catalog of Nearby Habitable Stellar Systems. The goal was to by thorough examination of various star features (like star age, composition, similarity to the Sun, capability to harbor stable habitable zone where liquid water can exist etc.) to narrow down 118,218 stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue database to the relatively small number of potential SETI targets. The result of the research is The Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems (HabCat) with selection of 17,129 candidates with potential habitable exoplanets capable of complex life similar to Earth.
After this initial research is done in 2003, according to one of the paper writers, astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull, "37 Gem" was most likely the best candidate to harbor an Earth twin planet within its Goldilocks zone. The star is stable and non-variant, middle-aged and just a bit hotter and brighter than our Sun. It is located 56,3 light years from our Solar system and it is one billion years older than our Sun. Now, if this system is reach with elements originated from old supernovae explosion in the distant past like in our planetary front yard and if major cosmic collisions and natural doomsday scenarios didn't interfere much with evolution of lifeforms, then this star and its potential planetary system is more than promising. However, so far no planets are detected in this system and no radio messages are caught from this direction but if some Earth like planet is there and, in one potential scenario, if some sort of intelligent life emerged and evolved, the fact is that they had one billion of years ahead of us. In simple words if alien humanoids or whatever they look like exist, they could be far more advanced than we are and they maybe don't communicate with radio waves anymore. Furthermore, if interstellar travels are possible with some sort of 'warp speed' spaceship technology it is likely that they already developed it by now. Not to mention that this kind of advanced civilization would be fully aware of all star systems in their neighborhood of say 100 light years in all directions. In other words, if they exist, they already know about us.
Astronomy, of course, is the science dealing with extremely large numbers and thanks to many new techniques in interstellar observation, we now know great deal about star "37 Gem". Even though two stars are similar in many aspects, it is actually not the exact Sun twin. Like in case of identical twins of one mythological story of Castor and Pollux, the two stars are different. Slightly, but they are. Way back in the year of 2004, I read one interesting hypothetical question within popular Serbian Astronomy Magazine. Miroslav Filipović, one of the astronomers who worked at the time at Australian Parkes Observatory asked very interesting question. He wondered what would happen if we took the almighty hand and in one millisecond replaced our Sun with "37 Gem"? It was actually interactive quiz question (here is the Serbian link) and I couldn't resist not to post my thoughts on the subject. Basically I said that this scenario would be catastrophic for our Solar system. All orbits would start changing immediately and our Goldilocks zone would suffer the most as the asteroid belt would go into chaotic stage and in the process of adjusting to the new boss, until all orbits stabilizes, Earth would probably loose all habitable properties due to asteroid bombardments similar to the early stage of Solar system and life as we know it would most definitely seize to exist. The biggest unknown to me was what would happen to Jupiter? This giant planet and its orbit acts as a gravitational balance between main star and all other planets and with its enormous gravity attracts all killer objects toward itself and keep the asteroid belt in line. The moral of the story is that even the slightest difference between two stars can be the major difference in their system geometry and behavior. Not to mention that if we use our Solar system analogy, in order for life to survive billions of years of evolution, there must exist one giant planet in right position in order to protect the planets in habitable zone from serious attacks from large asteroids and comets. If we put this story into consideration, it seems now that finding Sun's twin doesn't guaranty the existence of habitable Earth like planet capable of evolution of intelligent life.
With latest update of this post I tried to simulate this hypothetical scenario in Universe Sandbox. 37 Gem, actually is not part of the app's default library so, to test it out, I just enhanced the Sun's mass to match 37 Gem's, which is estimated to be 1,1 Solar mass. In the simulation result, within hours and days, the Earth's orbit changed and the Goldilocks zone expanded producing the average temperature to jump from cozy fifteen degrees to more than fifty. I am not sure that there is a physics process in existence to create something like this, but this fragileness gave me another stomach twitching nevertheless.
But to get back to the title and in light of so many reported UFO sightings all over the world and with lots of stories involving alien autopsies, abducting humans and (ancient) alien astronauts believers we can ask ourselves is there an ultimate connection between Aliens & UFOs?
Well, the ultimate fact is that we still have no single proof that aliens exist at all and sometimes, the lack of proof means that it doesn't exist at all and in this case this might be true for our small interstellar neighborhood. So, for now, the answer to the famous question "Are there aliens in UFOs?" will stay "No". UFO will still be what the acronym means in the first place: "Unidentified Flying Object". To be honest, on several occasions I saw UFOs on the sky. One of them pretty memorable - decade or so ago there was one bright light flying very fast above the beach resort in Greece and its magnitude was probably about -5 or even brighter which was probably the brightness of three or four full Venus magnitudes and believe me or not, what first popped to my mind wasn't aliens driving some fancy saucer and instead first thing I thought was that this might be related to the jet military planes from nearby air force base located couples of hundreds kilometers near to the Thessaloniki, the second largest city in the country. It's not that I am one of those conspiracy theorist out there, it was the simple fact that we were regularly seeing these jets during day light with some of them repeatedly breaking the sound barrier above Aegean sea. However, what I didn't hear that night was the sound of jet. It was flying completely quiet. That fact is still buzzing my mind. But not enough to immediately imagine little grays in shiny alien aircraft in search for abductees.
UFOs Explained***
In favor of the fact that there is no proof of aliens visiting our planet or any significant proof of their communications detected in past decades, speaks the 50+ years of radio silence since SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) is using scientific research to detect at least one confirmed artificial electromagnetic signal from above. That is if we exclude the WOW!** signal from the August of 1977. Jerry R. Ehman, american astronomer detected the strong narrow band radio signal that appeared to originate from Chi Sagittarii, shared three star systems in the constellation Sagittarius. However, even though the signal never repeated again, it staid the best candidate for the proof of one alien world 220 light years away from Earth. The signal was 30 times louder than normal deep space noise and the fact that its frequency was 1420MHz, the same frequency the most common element hydrogen resonates at, no doubts points toward the valid conclusion that it indeed was artificial in origin. Too bad it staid unconfirmed ever since. But if it was really a message from the alien race living in one of the star systems of Sagittarius constellation, I could say that I fully understand why it is not repeated (or detected) again. The simple reason is the same why we here don't send messages to the outer space on purpose. Or to be precise why broadcasts sent from Earth to chosen star systems are not continuous messages and instead just some isolated shy and timid dispatches.
Ever since SETI started its research in only listening the heavens there is a loud debate whether or not it is wise to send pointed messages to the unknown aliens. There is a simple fear that some of them can be violent and eager to enslave us the moment they receive this kind of invitation. If you ask me I stand to the point that sending these messages is too early. We are still young civilization and it is wise to wait for couple of more decades until we, at least, evolve from residents of one planet into residents of one Solar system. We simply need to understand more than just Earth before we start actively search for the contact of the third kind. Of course this doesn't stop people behind Active SETI or METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) who are trying to send messages ever since first message to ET is sent in form of Pioneer plaques, placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 spacecraft illustrating hydrogen atom, naked man and woman and Solar system main objects. Couple of years later first radio message was sent from Arecibo radio telescope toward the 25,000 light years distant star cluster M13. Arecibo message was created by Dr. Frank Drake with help of Carl Sagan and contained simple physics along with mathematical and graphical data and it served more in educational purposes than as an real attempt to contact extraterrestrials.
'Aliens form Orion'****
On the other end, there are pointed messages to the desired star systems with more complex data included. Scientists and politicians are not really united when it comes to possible messaging extraterrestrials, not to mention that there is no valid protocol of what we should do if some ET pays us a surprise visit and so far there are no unite efforts to perform active SETI on a global scale. Instead some not very bright individual messages are sent from time to time, like the one sent last year toward the source of WOW! signal with, believe it or not, 10,000 twitter messages. I wonder what aliens would conclude after reading tweets but I am sure nothing good. Equally problematic, to say the least, message called "Teen Age Message" is sent from radio telescope in Ukraine in 2001. The message's content and target stars were selected by a group of teens from four Russian cities. You probably guessed, teens, among other data, have chosen to send an audio file and in this case a concert named "First Theremin Concert for Extraterrestrials". Among other stars, this message is sent toward "37 Gem" as well and it will arrive in December 2057. Then we will know for sure if aliens there like music and art.
In conclusion let me say the obvious. The space is cruel place and distances between two star systems are tremendously huge. Technology to build a space ship for interstellar travel is definitely extra ordinary and not just within the realm of solving the cruising speed to be faster than light. I am more than positive that first contact with alien technology will be with some robotic probe instead of live contact with cute and friendly aliens in flash. If traveling through the space was easy and solvable we would probably have a significant proof by now that aliens exist and we wouldn't be buzzing our minds with Fermi paradox and obvious question of why the nightly sky is not filled with alien spacecrafts, deep space stations and beautiful green girls from Orion.
Original post date: November 2013, Updates: December 2016, December 2015
Image ref:
https://philipstanfield.com/tag/mysticism-2/
*What is the Zodiac?
http://earthsky.org/space/what-is-the-zodiac
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/starfinder2/en/
**Wow! signal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal
***UFOs Explained –– and Unsolved
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a3995/4304207/
http://ufodigest.com/news/0809/ufos-solved.php
****The Green Sisters
http://www.startrekmemorabilia.com/non-human-hotties/slave-sisters-from-bound
More resources:
http://static.astronomija.co.rs/razno/zabava/igre/pobednik2.htm
http://static.astronomija.co.rs/dubokisvemir/galaksija/explanete/37gem/odgovor.htm
http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/627/habitability-betting-on-37-gem
http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/031008190106.4hcm1yfo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_twin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_to_Extra-Terrestrial_Intelligence
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/newworlds/HabStars.html
Couple of centuries after Christ, Constantine was very popular name. Especially among soldiers in Roman and Bysantine empires along with Greeks during their Macedonian age. Within latin Cōnstantīnus and greek Κωνσταντῖνος (Kōnstantînos) name literally means the one who's constant and steadfast especially within military properties related to strength and stamina. In those times the land of my current location was called "Moesia Superior" with the city of Naissus in the role of its main trade center and biggest military outpost for Roman army. Today's name of the city is "Niš", the largest city of southern Serbia and also the city where I was born and where I live ever since. Serbian usage of the name is "Konstantin" and even though it is not related to military anymore, the name is fairly popular nowadays among young Serbians. It was third on my list when my son was born simply because I really like names with strong inner "adjectivity"
Couple of centuries after Christ, Constantine was very popular name. Especially among soldiers in Roman and Bysantine empires along with Greeks during their Macedonian age. Within latin Cōnstantīnus and greek Κωνσταντῖνος (Kōnstantînos) name literally means the one who's constant and steadfast especially within military properties related to strength and stamina. In those times the land of my current location was called "Moesia Superior" with the city of Naissus in the role of its main trade center and biggest military outpost for Roman army. Today's name of the city is "Niš", the largest city of southern Serbia and also the city where I was born and where I live ever since. Serbian usage of the name is "Konstantin" and even though it is not related to military anymore, the name is fairly popular nowadays among young Serbians. It was third on my list when my son was born simply because I really like names with strong inner "adjectivity" and history as well, but in our case my son's name Viktor won six years ago in the photo finish. If I had another son his name would probably be Konstantin (Constantine) or Filip (Philip) but now it is certain that this will stay in my wish list only.
Well, this post is not going to be just about names. Instead it will equally be about my birth town, history of Christian religion and "Edict of Milan", small glimpse to the Roman empire, the end of Classical era during violent events in ancient Alexandria and little photography on the way. But, for a moment, let's stay with names and their importance for this story. With mention of "Edict of Milan", the city I was most probably named for, many of you probably guessed why I partly named this post "Constantine". Constantine I or Constantine The Great, emperor of Western part of Roman empire and Licinius I, its fellow emperor of Eastern part, in February of 313, BC, declared Christianity, rising religion of the time, to be treated equal to all other official beliefs in the whole southern Europe, northern Africa and big portion of eastern Asia ruled by Romans after Crucifixion of Jesus where modern history we are living in started with. But, early days (or to better say centuries) of "modern history" or how we love to call it "AD" were, to call it the least, very disturbing. The probably best example of those violent "multi-religious" times happened at the end of fourth century in the city of Alexandria. I am sure if Alexander the Great knew what would happen 700 years after he founded the city, he would never do it in the first place. In the classic BC times of great city, free thought and scientific premises flourished in the most famous institution in the world at the time and probably ever since - the great Library of Alexandria. In those times over million scrolls from Assyria, Greece, Persia, Egypt, India and many other nations were stored in the library and comparing to nowadays terminology we can safely say that entire ancient "internet" were located within one single library. More than hundred scholars worked full time within Library's walls performing research, translating documents, giving lectures, writing books. It was one of the shiniest period of the whole World's history.
Then "Anno Domini" happened. Soon after the birth of Christianity, Alexandria became home for people of different beliefs but mainly Christians, Jews and Pagans. One ancient writer claimed that there was no people who loved a fight more than those of Alexandria. Religious animosities raised to the edge in the time of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria and in his raid, around 391AD, the Temple of Serapis, where one branch of Alexandrian library was located, was demolished, documents destroyed and temple converted to church. The rest of the Library's treasure was probably lost couple of years later when one of the most famous women ever lived, Hypatia, a neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer was killed by Christians during some retaliation against both the Jews and the Pagans. That night was officially the end of Classical antiquity or era of prosperity I was talking about in post Aegean Sea. If some document survived that night, when Hypatia was stripped, beaten and hacked to pieces and her body burned to hide all traces of the crime, then it was destroyed centuries later, when Muslims took the city of Alexandria around the year of 640AD, where all the remaining scrolls are proclaimed either heresy or superfluous.
There is no doubt that Constantine the Great was one of those great visionaries who has foreseen all possible futures of Roman empire and had enough courage to act and officially acknowledge definite rise of Christians in order to avoid all the dangers that came with first multi-cultural societies. The Rome and Constantinople under his rule and rules of many emperors that came later more or less managed to survive the Alexandria's fate. At least until couple of centuries later when third big player in the world of monotheistic religions appeared in the face of Islam. We all know what happened next. The crusades. What happened to Alexandria in fourth century, started to happen to Jerusalem. Multiple times. During each crusade. Some would say it is not over yet.
If story so far was not enough to demonstrate the cruelty of the first couple of centuries of the first millennium AD, I have some more historical facts and they all originate way back to the point of first founders of my home town. The misfortune of Naissus was in the fact that it's location was on the crossing road point between north and south and west and east. Who ever warrior you were and whatever army or tribe you belonged to in those times your path would lead through Naissus and you were destined to raid it, no matter if you were member of Triballi tribes who invaded this area in 4th century BC or member of Gallic groups who invaded Balkan peninsula during the 3th century BC or Romans who gave the original name to the town and held it the longest period of them all but with the price of thousands men lost in numerous battles and with the most famous one called simply "Battle of Naissus" where Romans with help of Dalmatians and Greeks finally defeated the enormous invasion by Gothics and their allies. Later in 5th and 6th centuries, the town was constantly in flames and devastated by Attila's Huns, Barbarians, restored by Romans and Byzantine emperor Justinian I and then demolished again by Avars and finally occupied by Serbian ancestors, the Slavs in the year of 540AD or so. Serbians managed to hold it even longer than Romans, all the way into the next millennium but also with frequent interruptions by various invasion in face of Bulgarians and Ugri (Hungarian ancestors). Second millennium was no different and the same area where I am sitting right now was under different rulers firstly by Byzantine forces, Hungarian kingdom, Greeks, Serbians again, Ottoman empire, Austrians... Phew... I probably forgot someone. Let's just finish with all the world wars, Germans and the Nazi and hope that all the testosterone in the third millennium devolved a little and we will witness no more wars like before.
Naissus was a birth town for three Roman emperors in 3rd century and after. The most famous one was of course Constantine the Great (272), but also Constantius III (360) and later Justin I (450). Within the suburb of Naissus, not far from the thermal water spa, during the reign of Constantine the Great, Romans built a luxurious residence with a highly organised economy by the name Mediana***. Until it is fully destroyed by Attila's hordes in the year of 442, the residence was used by several emperors after Constantine including Julian the Apostate who was best known for his attempts to restore paganism to the Roman empire and this time within Hellenistic polytheism (Julian was also one of neoplatonist philosophers, like Hypatia) and for several edicts in various laws including Tolerance Edict of 362. Obviously, his efforts was not successful for a longer period of time and religions with Gods seen in plural finally ended in Greek and Roman mythology and picturesque legends. But, perhaps the best known role of the residence of Mediana, who lies, by the way, only couple of hundreds meters form my home, was in the year of 364AD when emperors Valentinian and Valens met there and divided the Roman Empire and ruled as co-emperors.
Well, in the history of humans, every separation on west and east never was without serious consequences. Separation of Roman empire, over time moved the center of power from Rome to Constantinople, started with Rome fall on September 4, 476. Christian Church suffered the same. Distance and differences did the math and Church finally separated in so called "Great Schism" culminating in early 11th century and giving birth to the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church we all know today. The saddest thing is that one full millennium passed since then and both "grand" fractions of the same religion are still looking to each other over their shoulders. After all that time, I am positive that if we randomly select one catholic cardinal and one orthodox patriarch and asked them why Church split up in the first place and why they didn't manage to even sit and talk for a 1000 years and find the way to "un-schism" lost millennium, I am sure that they would hardly be able to provide any meaningful answer. Giving up the throne is never easy and I guess the only way to unite Christianity is for God to show himself once again and to cut the misery once for all. But, this story is not the place for me to express all of my skepticism about this and if you are eager to read more about my religious glimpse to the world, please go to Science of God.
Well ok, let's stop with history now and continue with some more cheerful stories. For starters, please allow me to quote my favorite character from the movie "Kung Fu Panda". In the animated story, master Oogway, among all his turtle wisdom, said exactly this: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present." It is a beautiful one-liner and after little search online I have to say that I failed to find the origin of this quote but I am perfectly fine to credit it to Oogway himself. In that spirit, let's switch from history to the present and talk a little about my home city and religious event happening this weekend.
This year is 1,700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan and this weekend is chosen in Serbia to be memorized with special liturgy (λειτουργία) where all major patriarchs gathered in Niš or Naissus if you will, to honor Constantine's efforts to stop persecuting Christians and give rising new religion chance to be equal with others. The liturgy took place in front of Church of the Holy Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena in one of the biggest parks in the city and for this occasion a piece of wood from the Jesus's cross (fragmentary remains that are by tradition alleged to be those of the True Cross) and John the Baptist's right hand, with which he baptized Jesus was transferred to the Constantine's new Church. Last night, two relics were moved to the new display and we wanted to feel the atmosphere. The crowd was fantastic and on the nearby cross section people formed the cross with candle lights in total darkness (below photo), while this morning was official event for "VIPs" which was much less interesting. Perhaps the only shadow to the occasion was presence of zillion policemen fully armored and spread everywhere. I guess they will never learn that the same job can be done without uniforms and with hidden guns, but that's topic for another story.
After 1700 years I guess lots of things changed. There are no Roman empire anymore or big crusades but religiosity is still there, without much disturbance by the passed centuries. We can say about Christian church in general whatever we want but one thing is for sure. Society of people can't live without protocols and rituals. This is what we are and I will just repeat what I said two years ago in relation to Orthodox Christian rituals: "From the point when we are born until died there are many occasions requiring many events to be performed. I mean I can't imagine wedding here in Serbia without Church involved. They have very nice protocols. Funerals too. Anything that requires more than two people to participate with, religious organisations are doing this just right."
They proved it once again.
Image ref:
https://philipstanfield.com/tag/mysticism-2/
* Constantine The Great
https://relevancy22.blogspot.rs/2015_03_02_archive.html
** Battle of Naissus
http://www.crystalinks.com/CrisisoftheThirdCentury.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Naissus
http://artnumisma.com/2013/05/20/battle-of-naissus-268ad/
http://www.geocities.ws/reginheim/battles.html
*** Mediana
http://www.panacomp.net/serbia?mesto=srbija_medijana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediana
More references
http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/women/hypatia.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Roman_Empire_125.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niš
http://www.ni.rs/index.php?language=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Milan
Constantine the Great*
Well, this post is not going to be just about names. Instead it will equally be about my birth town, history of Christian religion and "Edict of Milan", small glimpse to the Roman empire, the end of Classical era during violent events in ancient Alexandria and little photography on the way. But, for a moment, let's stay with names and their importance for this story. With mention of "Edict of Milan", the city I was most probably named for, many of you probably guessed why I partly named this post "Constantine". Constantine I or Constantine The Great, emperor of Western part of Roman empire and Licinius I, its fellow emperor of Eastern part, in February of 313, BC, declared Christianity, rising religion of the time, to be treated equal to all other official beliefs in the whole southern Europe, northern Africa and big portion of eastern Asia ruled by Romans after Crucifixion of Jesus where modern history we are living in started with. But, early days (or to better say centuries) of "modern history" or how we love to call it "AD" were, to call it the least, very disturbing. The probably best example of those violent "multi-religious" times happened at the end of fourth century in the city of Alexandria. I am sure if Alexander the Great knew what would happen 700 years after he founded the city, he would never do it in the first place. In the classic BC times of great city, free thought and scientific premises flourished in the most famous institution in the world at the time and probably ever since - the great Library of Alexandria. In those times over million scrolls from Assyria, Greece, Persia, Egypt, India and many other nations were stored in the library and comparing to nowadays terminology we can safely say that entire ancient "internet" were located within one single library. More than hundred scholars worked full time within Library's walls performing research, translating documents, giving lectures, writing books. It was one of the shiniest period of the whole World's history.
Then "Anno Domini" happened. Soon after the birth of Christianity, Alexandria became home for people of different beliefs but mainly Christians, Jews and Pagans. One ancient writer claimed that there was no people who loved a fight more than those of Alexandria. Religious animosities raised to the edge in the time of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria and in his raid, around 391AD, the Temple of Serapis, where one branch of Alexandrian library was located, was demolished, documents destroyed and temple converted to church. The rest of the Library's treasure was probably lost couple of years later when one of the most famous women ever lived, Hypatia, a neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer was killed by Christians during some retaliation against both the Jews and the Pagans. That night was officially the end of Classical antiquity or era of prosperity I was talking about in post Aegean Sea. If some document survived that night, when Hypatia was stripped, beaten and hacked to pieces and her body burned to hide all traces of the crime, then it was destroyed centuries later, when Muslims took the city of Alexandria around the year of 640AD, where all the remaining scrolls are proclaimed either heresy or superfluous.
Rachel Weisz as Hypatia of Alexandria in Agora (2009)
There is no doubt that Constantine the Great was one of those great visionaries who has foreseen all possible futures of Roman empire and had enough courage to act and officially acknowledge definite rise of Christians in order to avoid all the dangers that came with first multi-cultural societies. The Rome and Constantinople under his rule and rules of many emperors that came later more or less managed to survive the Alexandria's fate. At least until couple of centuries later when third big player in the world of monotheistic religions appeared in the face of Islam. We all know what happened next. The crusades. What happened to Alexandria in fourth century, started to happen to Jerusalem. Multiple times. During each crusade. Some would say it is not over yet.
If story so far was not enough to demonstrate the cruelty of the first couple of centuries of the first millennium AD, I have some more historical facts and they all originate way back to the point of first founders of my home town. The misfortune of Naissus was in the fact that it's location was on the crossing road point between north and south and west and east. Who ever warrior you were and whatever army or tribe you belonged to in those times your path would lead through Naissus and you were destined to raid it, no matter if you were member of Triballi tribes who invaded this area in 4th century BC or member of Gallic groups who invaded Balkan peninsula during the 3th century BC or Romans who gave the original name to the town and held it the longest period of them all but with the price of thousands men lost in numerous battles and with the most famous one called simply "Battle of Naissus" where Romans with help of Dalmatians and Greeks finally defeated the enormous invasion by Gothics and their allies. Later in 5th and 6th centuries, the town was constantly in flames and devastated by Attila's Huns, Barbarians, restored by Romans and Byzantine emperor Justinian I and then demolished again by Avars and finally occupied by Serbian ancestors, the Slavs in the year of 540AD or so. Serbians managed to hold it even longer than Romans, all the way into the next millennium but also with frequent interruptions by various invasion in face of Bulgarians and Ugri (Hungarian ancestors). Second millennium was no different and the same area where I am sitting right now was under different rulers firstly by Byzantine forces, Hungarian kingdom, Greeks, Serbians again, Ottoman empire, Austrians... Phew... I probably forgot someone. Let's just finish with all the world wars, Germans and the Nazi and hope that all the testosterone in the third millennium devolved a little and we will witness no more wars like before.
Third-century Roman soldiers battling Gothic troops**
Naissus was a birth town for three Roman emperors in 3rd century and after. The most famous one was of course Constantine the Great (272), but also Constantius III (360) and later Justin I (450). Within the suburb of Naissus, not far from the thermal water spa, during the reign of Constantine the Great, Romans built a luxurious residence with a highly organised economy by the name Mediana***. Until it is fully destroyed by Attila's hordes in the year of 442, the residence was used by several emperors after Constantine including Julian the Apostate who was best known for his attempts to restore paganism to the Roman empire and this time within Hellenistic polytheism (Julian was also one of neoplatonist philosophers, like Hypatia) and for several edicts in various laws including Tolerance Edict of 362. Obviously, his efforts was not successful for a longer period of time and religions with Gods seen in plural finally ended in Greek and Roman mythology and picturesque legends. But, perhaps the best known role of the residence of Mediana, who lies, by the way, only couple of hundreds meters form my home, was in the year of 364AD when emperors Valentinian and Valens met there and divided the Roman Empire and ruled as co-emperors.
Well, in the history of humans, every separation on west and east never was without serious consequences. Separation of Roman empire, over time moved the center of power from Rome to Constantinople, started with Rome fall on September 4, 476. Christian Church suffered the same. Distance and differences did the math and Church finally separated in so called "Great Schism" culminating in early 11th century and giving birth to the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church we all know today. The saddest thing is that one full millennium passed since then and both "grand" fractions of the same religion are still looking to each other over their shoulders. After all that time, I am positive that if we randomly select one catholic cardinal and one orthodox patriarch and asked them why Church split up in the first place and why they didn't manage to even sit and talk for a 1000 years and find the way to "un-schism" lost millennium, I am sure that they would hardly be able to provide any meaningful answer. Giving up the throne is never easy and I guess the only way to unite Christianity is for God to show himself once again and to cut the misery once for all. But, this story is not the place for me to express all of my skepticism about this and if you are eager to read more about my religious glimpse to the world, please go to Science of God.
In front of Church of the Holy Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena
Well ok, let's stop with history now and continue with some more cheerful stories. For starters, please allow me to quote my favorite character from the movie "Kung Fu Panda". In the animated story, master Oogway, among all his turtle wisdom, said exactly this: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present." It is a beautiful one-liner and after little search online I have to say that I failed to find the origin of this quote but I am perfectly fine to credit it to Oogway himself. In that spirit, let's switch from history to the present and talk a little about my home city and religious event happening this weekend.
This year is 1,700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan and this weekend is chosen in Serbia to be memorized with special liturgy (λειτουργία) where all major patriarchs gathered in Niš or Naissus if you will, to honor Constantine's efforts to stop persecuting Christians and give rising new religion chance to be equal with others. The liturgy took place in front of Church of the Holy Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena in one of the biggest parks in the city and for this occasion a piece of wood from the Jesus's cross (fragmentary remains that are by tradition alleged to be those of the True Cross) and John the Baptist's right hand, with which he baptized Jesus was transferred to the Constantine's new Church. Last night, two relics were moved to the new display and we wanted to feel the atmosphere. The crowd was fantastic and on the nearby cross section people formed the cross with candle lights in total darkness (below photo), while this morning was official event for "VIPs" which was much less interesting. Perhaps the only shadow to the occasion was presence of zillion policemen fully armored and spread everywhere. I guess they will never learn that the same job can be done without uniforms and with hidden guns, but that's topic for another story.
1,700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan in Niš, Serbia
After 1700 years I guess lots of things changed. There are no Roman empire anymore or big crusades but religiosity is still there, without much disturbance by the passed centuries. We can say about Christian church in general whatever we want but one thing is for sure. Society of people can't live without protocols and rituals. This is what we are and I will just repeat what I said two years ago in relation to Orthodox Christian rituals: "From the point when we are born until died there are many occasions requiring many events to be performed. I mean I can't imagine wedding here in Serbia without Church involved. They have very nice protocols. Funerals too. Anything that requires more than two people to participate with, religious organisations are doing this just right."
They proved it once again.
Image ref:
https://philipstanfield.com/tag/mysticism-2/
* Constantine The Great
https://relevancy22.blogspot.rs/2015_03_02_archive.html
** Battle of Naissus
http://www.crystalinks.com/CrisisoftheThirdCentury.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Naissus
http://artnumisma.com/2013/05/20/battle-of-naissus-268ad/
http://www.geocities.ws/reginheim/battles.html
*** Mediana
http://www.panacomp.net/serbia?mesto=srbija_medijana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediana
More references
http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/women/hypatia.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Roman_Empire_125.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niš
http://www.ni.rs/index.php?language=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Milan