We recently looked at the reception of the primordial duel of Zeus and Typhoeus, a battle for control of the young cosmos, by the Greek band Wrathblade. Today we look at an earlier tradition from further east of a similar confrontation between a storm-god and serpent of chaos, by a band that draws from the […]
Central to the mythologies of many, if not most cultures, are tales of how the earth, the universe, and the gods who rule it came into being. These cosmogonies (origins of the universe) and theogonies (origins of the gods) can be divided into two broad categories. More familiar to, but not exclusive to Abrahamic religions […]
Greek philosophy in the Hellenistic world developed in response to the new world order violently ushered in by Alexander and his squabbling Macedonian successors who carved his global empire into vast multinational kingdoms, where semi-divine monarchs commanded massive professional armies. The days of the polis city-state, where one’s identity and moral obligations were tied to […]
Day 7 of 7 Days of Roman Founders. Our final track in this series on the reception of Rome’s foundation myth comes from the Rhode Island black metal project Cemetery Lights. This title track to their 2018 EP Lemuralia is based on the poet Ovid’s account (in the Fasti) of the origin of the Roman […]
Day 4 of 7 Days of Roman Founders. Today let’s look at a French band’s take on the Roman foundation myth. Deos is another band who go all in with Roman themes, and their debut album, 2015’s Ghosts of the Empire, naturally begins at the beginning. This opening track (following an instrumental intro) takes its […]
Zeus holds his place at the pinnacle of the Greek pantheon for a number of reasons. First and foremost, he earned it by right of might, overthrowing his own titanic father, “crooked Cronus” after a war between the Titans and Cronus’ Olympian progeny. This victory was not without the help of Zeus’ mother Rhea. Hearing […]
On this day in 363 CE, the last Roman emperor not to take up the banner of Christ, the nephew of the very Constantine who was the first Christian emperor, was wounded by a spear to the abdomen on the battlefield against the Sassanid Persian Empire. Julian would succumb to his wound 3 days later, […]
When given the terms “megalomaniac” and “Roman emperor,” most people today can name Nero and Caligula, and perhaps Commodus thanks to “Gladiator.” But the Romans themselves in their later history often included one more in their canonical lists of exemplary tyrants. That was Titus Flavius Domitianus, known to us as Domitian. While not possessing the […]
In the popular imagination, the epic showdown between the rival superpowers of the rising Roman Republic and the maritime empire of Carthage evokes images of elephants crossing the icebound Alps led by Hannibal, or of Cato the Elder demanding that “Carthage must be destroyed,” whose eventual fulfillment saw the ancient Phoenician city sacked and razed, […]
This black metal project from Rhode Island USA is releasing their debut full-length later this summer via Nuclear War Now. Titled The Underworld, the LP explores several elements of the Greek afterlife. Some preview tracks are available here: https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/…/the-underwo… But for now, let’s focus on some earlier material (for which we have lyrics available). It’s clear […]
Heavy Metal Classicist 