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Jules of Nature
$LAYYYTER
KIROKAZE
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year

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JVL
Three Goblin Art
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祝日 / Permanent Vacation
todays bird
DEAR READER
ojovivo
art blog(derogatory)

Kiana Khansmith
Not today Justin
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Keni

⁂
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
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@wonder-worker
main: @wishesofeternity
bookblr: @meanderingstar
I take lots of time to answer asks, sorry :(
Don’t have to tell Clodius it’s pride month, he’s already doing gay mob violence
The capture of Thessaloniki by the Normans of Sicily in 1185 dealt a severe blow to the Byzantine Empire. The inhabitants fiercely defended the city. Archbishop Eusthathios of Thessaloniki provided a lively first-hand account of the siege in The capture of Thessaloniki. He recounted the women’s active participation in the defense:
“It was not only men but women also who were overcome by martial fury. Some of these did nothing out of the ordinary, if we allow for the fact that they worked to the limits of their endurance throughout each day. They brought up stones for the machines and for the slingers, and carried water, not only those who were young women in their prime, but those whom age had made slow, and who were already tottering in the direction of the grave, into which we shall all fall in the end.
But others equipped themselves for battle, making up imitation breastplates from rags and rushes, and swathing their heads with spiralling headdresses, pretending to be soldiers; and loading themselves with stones suitable for throwing by hand, they made their way to the walls and hurled them at the enemy as best they could. These women proved the ancient story of the Amazons, and allowed no doubt of its truth. In fact they even surpassed the fame of those women of ancient times whom we know to have helped their fellow-citizens by cutting off the tresses of their heads and making cords from their hair because of the exigencies of war: our women offered not the locks of their hair, but their lives."
wish i was publius clodius pulcher tr pl 58 bc. would've been so fun torturing cicero would've felt amazing to invade his house would've commissioned someone to write monthly gossip suspiciously centered around all his embarrassing failures and displayed it at the grain/bread stalls
The mother of the last two Byzantine emperors, Helena Dragaš (c. 1372–1450) was a driving political force during the empire’s final years.
The Serbian bride
Helena was the daughter of the Serbian ruler Constantine Dragaš. In 1391, she married Emperor Manuel II, who had remained a bachelor until then. Helena was therefore much younger than him. Manuel II had long opposed marriage, fearing that having a wife and family would make him vulnerable in those troubled times. However, his influential mother, Helena Kantakouzene, convinced him to marry.
The union was celebrated in Constantinople with a splendid ceremony. In addition to sealing a strategic alliance, Manuel II gained a wife he could rely on. Helena indeed possessed great spiritual strength, and there are no negative comments about her in sources from the period.
Their relationship appears to have been harmonious. Manuel II had fathered illegitimate children before his marriage, but none are recorded afterward. Helena became the mother of a large family: six of her sons survived into adulthood. Four other children died in infancy, including two daughters whose names were never recorded.
A long wait
The empire was facing a difficult situation, particularly because of the threat posed by Bayezid I. By 1399, the imperial family had endured five years under siege in Constantinople. Manuel II therefore decided to seek help from European rulers. Before leaving, he sent his family to the Peloponnese.
Manuel II’s journey failed to secure the support he hoped for. However, the arrival of Timur and the crushing defeat he inflicted upon the sultan temporarily relieved the empire of that danger.
In the decades that followed, Helena remained a discreet presence. She was likely occupied with managing the large imperial household. Nevertheless, she became an influential figure during the final years of Manuel II’s reign, particularly in diplomacy.
28 MAY 1445: The marriage of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou. On Friday May the Twenty Eighth, fifteen year old Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Duke Rene of Anjou married the twenty three year old Henry VI. The young royal was received with great pomp and ceremony as she made her way to London. Two days later she was crowned Queen of England.
Cotton. Vesp. F. xiii. f.. 49 containing the inscription: thys boke ys myn elysabeth the kyngs dawghtyr (this book is mine elizabeth the king's daughter) written by Elizabeth of York
Cotton. Vesp. F. xiii. f.. 49 containing the inscription: thys boke ys myn elysabeth the kyngs dawghtyr (this book is mine elizabeth the king's daughter) written by Elizabeth of York
Monastic, mercenary, mage - a truly fantastical tale of the Middle Ages.
"The Romance of Eustace the Monk is at times colourful and taking artistic liberties as it is based on real world history. Although the Romance stretches the limits of belief, the adventures of this outlaw, who bafflingly performed the contradictory paths of pirate captain and Benedictine monk, are attested with other documentary evidence in the form of close rolls, patent rolls, and charters.
... Whatever the truth of Eustace, (the fact is hard to decipher from fiction), the Romance has it that Eustace was commanded by the devil to hurt as many people as possible and wage war on Kings and counts alike. This he did to no avail. His deeds went beyond simple practical jokes on monkish brothers or polite pirating as the tale depicts him in a very dark and dastardly light, labelling him at one of his lowest moments as “that fake monk of a pissing whore”. Yet despite his evil, reading the Romance it strikes me he’s almost a Flashman-esque anti-hero. He’s no Robin Hood, as he’s certainly not motivated with noble intent, but he’s an outlaw we root for regardless."
Medieval Warhorses, Repost + additions!
Since people loved my "Preindustrial travel times" post so much, I decided to repost my "Realistic warhorses" info separately from the original link, where it was a response to "how to get the feel of realistic combat."
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The original link is here.
The "Warhorse" post on my blog, plus a recent addition, is here.
And here's the text for people who want to go down my "grown up horse-girl" rabbit hole right away!
Medieval Warhorses:
First of all: DESTRIERS WERE NOT DRAFT HORSES. Horse/military historians are begging people to stop putting their fantasy knights on Shires, Belgians, and other massive, chunky farm-horses! The best known instance of “a knight needs to get lifted onto their 18-hand draft horse” is a SATIRE (A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, if I remember right), but somehow laymen decided to take it seriously.
Hell, I think the film’s historians knew that this was extremely inaccurate and begged the director not to do it.
My post got cut off, so I added the rest of it today! The rabbit-hole of preindustrial horsemanship deepens!
Richard III: my symbol is going to be a BOAR because what is more badass than a boar? Nothing, that’s what.
Henry VII: A dragon
Richard III: Blocked
slay queen
On Ancient Egyptian Erotica
“Erotica” may not be the first word to come to mind when you think about ancient Egypt. In fact, maybe you haven’t even spared ancient Egyptian erotica a thought – didn’t realise that the culture that left us the Pyramids and the Valley of Kings was quite that naughty (or maybe you have, because dick jokes have been the constant of human existence). But then a few Egyptologists online mention Egyptian erotica off-hand and now you’re left wondering how dirty they actually were.
What exactly was the extent of erotica in ancient Egypt? I’m using “erotica” in the widest sense of the word here, i.e. textual or visual depictions of love, lust and/or sex. Generally the term is defined as art with the purpose of eliciting feelings of arousal, but because it’s not always evident what the exact objective of a certain depiction or text was, I think it best to keep the definition broad.
The Turin Erotic Papyrus
The most famous example of ancient Egyptian erotica, Papyrus Turin 55001, colloquially known as the Turin Erotic Papyrus, illustrates this well. This papyrus was found in Deir el-Medina and dates to the Ramesside Period. It contains twelve depictions of a man and women in different sexual positions. While the girls are young and pretty, the man himself is bald and flabby – not exactly the epitome of ancient Egyptian physical beauty standards.
The man’s appearance isn’t the only thing that makes it questionable whether the Turin Erotic Papyrus is deserving of its nickname “the world’s first [known] men’s mag”. Apart from the sexual depictions, the papyrus also contains images of animals performing human tasks. This section is believed to be either humorous or satirical in nature, which casts doubt on whether the erotic section was supposed to arouse the reader/viewer.
The ancient Egyptian art depicted the ideal version of reality in “good” images. If the Turin Erotic Papyrus was intended to engender sexual arousal, or make it possible for the reader to identify themselves with the male main character, we can assume that he would at least have had hair. On the other hand, the women are drawn very appealingly, and sometimes engage in sexual activities on their own.
Unfortunately the papyrus is heavily damaged and the surviving text in the margins isn’t clear on its intent, either. By and large the text is complementary dialogue, with lines such as “Oh! Sun, you have found out my heart, it is agreeable work”. This means the actual purpose of the Turin Papyrus is uncertain, with some experts suggesting it was satirical, meant as a humorous depiction of uncouth and absurd behaviour at which the elite could laugh. But again, when you draw pretty young ladies with that kind of effort… well.
Love songs
The New Kingdom also left us many love poems or love songs. The Cairo Love Songs were found written down on a large potshard in Deir el-Medina, and Papyrus Harris 500, a Ramesside papyrus, contains a collection of love poetry in addition to the literary tales on it. Papyrus Turin 1996, and Papyrus Chester Beatty 1 also contain examples of the genre.
These love songs range from romantic, talking about how much two young people love each other, to downright lusty, with descriptions of the beauty of the beloved and/or talking about sex, sometimes in no uncertain terms.
However, keep in mind that the metaphors the ancient Egyptians used are separated from our modern society by various orders of magnitude. It’s altogether possible that some of the things we now read into these translations aren’t exactly what the original text was meant to say.
With that disclaimer out of the way, here are a few of my favourites (all translations by W. K. Simpson in Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry):
Papyrus Harris 500, song 1
If I am not beside you, where will you set your desire? If [you] do not embrace [me and seize] the moment, [Whom will you] approach (for) pleasure? But if you woo me to touch my breasts and my thighs, […]
Would you depart because you have the urge to eat? Are you a man who is devoted to his stomach? Would [you depart] in your fine clothing, While I am left with nothing but the bed sheets?
Would you leave me for the sake of drink2 […]? Then take my breast, for its milk wells up for you. More wondrous is a single day in your embrace […] Than a hundred thousand upon earth.
Papyrus Harris 500, song 4
My desire is not yet quenched by your love, My wanton little jackal cub. My lust for you I cannot forgo, Though I be beaten and driven off To dwell in the Delta marshes, (Driven) to the land of Khor with sticks and clubs, To the land of Kush with switches of palm, To the high ground with rods, Or to the low ground with branches. I will pay no heed to their warnings To abandon the one whom I desire.
Papyrus Harris 500, song 12
I shall go out [to seek my lover]. [I yearn] for your love, And my heart stops within me.
To look at a sweet cake Is like looking at salt; Sweet pomegranate wine in my mouth Is like the bitter gall of birds.
The breath of your nostrils Is the sole thing which can revive my heart, And I am determined that Amun will grant you to me For ever and eternity
Papyrus Harris 500, song 24
What is the completion of preparing to make love? Let Menqet be adorned there […] […] her bed chamber. Come, and I shall tell you. Put fine linen on her body While laying her bed with royal linen. Be meticulous about white linen, Adorn […] her body, Found like one sprinkled with perfume.
Papyrus Harris 500, song 25
Would that I were her Nubian maidservant Who attends to her personal needs; […] This would mean that the skin of her whole body Would be exposed to me.
Papyrus Chester Beatty I, song 41
Now you shall bring it to the house of (your) beloved And go as far as her portal. Her chamber will be open (for you), And her housemaid will have prepared it.
Provide her with songs and dances, Wine and strong beer in her pavilion. You will arouse her passions And fulfill them during this night.
She will say to you, ‘‘Take me into your embrace.’’ And when the dawn comes, She will still be there.
Papyrus Chester Beatty I, song 42
Now you shall bring it to the chamber of (your) beloved, Alone, no other (with you), And you will accomplish your desire in her [embrace]
The curtains will flutter, And the sky will descend in a gale of wind. (Hathor) will bring you her fragrance, And its perfume will overwhelm and intoxicate All those who are present.
It is the Golden Goddess Who destines her for you as a boon To let you fulfill the span of your life.
Some of the returning motifs in these songs are drinking of pomegranate wine or the shadow of a pomegranate tree as the location for a rendezvous; the idea that the embrace of a beloved dispels all ills in a lover; parents who don’t know how much their son/daughter yearns for their beloved; and Hathor as provider of lovers and love.
In ancient Egypt, premarital sex wasn’t much of a social issue. If there was consent between both parties, sex was fine (adultery was another matter, of course). This is the general attitude we get from these love songs: sex and love and desire are predominantly good (unless the lover suffers from being away from their beloved for too long), as long as they are enjoyed by both parties and adhere to Egyptian social mores.
Sources and further reading
W. K. Simpson - Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry
B. Mathieu - La Poésie Amoureuse de l’Égypte Ancienne: Recherches sur un genre littéraire au Nouvel Empire
G. Robins - Women in Ancient Egypt
A. G. McDowell - Village Life in Ancient Egypt: Laundry Lists and Love Songs
C. Graves-Brown (ed) - Sex and Gender in Ancient Egypt: Don Your Wig for a Joyful Hour
If you enjoyed this post please consider leaving a tip for your local exhausted Egyptologist on Ko-Fi.
Stained glass: Catherine Woodville and Jasper Tudor (left), Henry VII and Elizabeth of York (center), Richard III and Anne Neville (right). Cardiff Castle, Wales
Maidens with Swords - Ancient Roman Empire
Pope Celestine III and all the Cardinals having to listen to Philip oversharing and complaining about Richard at length: we diagnose you with Jealous Bitch Disease ...go in peace
At some point between 1440 and 1459, Stephen Scrope of Bolton translated Christine de Pizan's The Epistle of Othea into Middle English. One manuscript is dedicated to an unnamed "hye princess" that has been theorised to be Margaret of Anjou, Eleanor Cobham, Anne Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick, Anne Neville, Duchess of Buckingham and Anne Stafford (the daughter of Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham and wife of Aubrey de Vere, the Earl of Oxford's son).
With the exception of Margaret of Anjou (who was first posited by Jenni Nuttall), all of these women were first posited and then dismissed by Curt F. Bühler in 1970. There was no connection between Anne Stafford and Scrope or his circle at the time he was working on the Epistle, the other two Annes are dismissed as not being "particular noted" as patrons of the arts - though, oddly, the Duchess of Buckingham is now considered an notable book collector! Eleanor Cobham, on the other hand, is simply dismissed "hardly a suitable candidate" for owning a copy of the Epistle because of her "notoriety".
Look, I don't think it's very likely Eleanor was the "high princess" whom a copy of the book was dedicated to. There was only brief window where Scrope could have possibly have finished his translation and where Eleanor could have been in the position to act or to be sought out as a patron (1440 and early 1441). But Bühler's "too notorious for books/patronage" dismissal is just bizarre.
Firstly, while we don't have a lot of information about Eleanor as a literary patron, we can connect her with four books. Two books that belonged to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester featured her motto, which might suggest that she had given them to him. These were the Latin version of an Arabic Antidotarium and a collection of the works of Nicholas of Clemanges. Roger Bolingbroke dedicated a tract on geomancy to Eleanor and she also owned a copy of the Ancrene Wisse. It's also been suggested that Eleanor may have been involved in Humphrey's patronage of Italian humanists; at any rate she was married to a man famed for his literary patronage. So she wasn't "too notorious" to own books - even a text as religious as the Ancrene Wisse.
Secondly, even if Eleanor was "too notorious to be personally interested in books", being seen as a patron or reader of a moral exemplary text such as the Epistle would be a great way to try and lift her reputation. And even if she was too stupid to realise the value in presenting herself as such, surely it'd appeal to her vanity to be posited as a great patron, to be flattered by Scrope in such a way?
Thirdly, even if Scrope found Eleanor as objectionable as a person as Bühler evidently does on account of her reputation, he might want to consider it. He attempted twice to enter the service of Eleanor's husband, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, so he clearly didn't find the idea of her too repugnant and may well have attempted to gain Humphrey's favour by flattering the wife Humphrey evidentially really liked?
Finally, Eleanor being judged "too notorious" (lbr, slutty) for books or patronage is a weird judgement. Historically, a lot of famous mistresses were great patrons. What does Bühler imagine, Eleanor was like "lol I don't read, I only know how fuck and do magic?"