HERODOTUS AND THE HUMAN CARNIVORE.

 HERODOTUS AND THE HUMAN CARNIVORE (by Mr Nizin Lopez)  .                               March 21st 2014

WARNING: “DO NOT” read this if you are not 18 and keep in mind also that this research is politically unaffiliated.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE WRITINGS OF HERODOTUS?

Sometime in 2014 I saw James Demonaco’s “Purge”, it was a decent film that dealt with those savage human characteristics; those characteristics that are so hard to talk about in our modern-civilized days. The funny thing is that though this movie was released in 2013, the Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus was already dealing with those twisted qualities of our humanity back in the days.

Like it says in ‘The Purge’: “war, genocide, murder,….the human race officially declared a violent specie”….Herodotus had been talking about that for a long time and he did not believe in censorship or in political correctness. He spoke about the stuff he saw, the things he experienced, those things he felt,…sometimes things he heard about.

The fact of the matter is that from a philosophical perspective Herodotus is a precious jewel of information that proves that the stuff that we see today is the Middle East is nothing new. Here are some examples that I collected from his writings, this proves beyond any doubt that the human race has always been incredibly bloody. Humans are definitely animals (no matter how refined and how civilized we appear to be).

(acrylic on canvas by Mr Nizin Lopez)

Herodotus 1.73 speaks about something that the Scythians did to Cyaxares, ruler of the Medes. This Cyaxares had abused the Scythians physically and they wanted revenge:

“After suffering this treatment from Cyaxares, the enraged Scythians, who felt they did not deserve such abuse, plotted to take one of their pupils, chop him to pieces, and prepare his flesh just as they would normally have prepared the game they caught in a hunt. They planned to bring the dish to Cyaxares and serve it up to him with the pretense that it was game from a hunt. Then, as soon as they had served it, they intented to flee with all speed to Sardis, to the court of Alyattes son of Sadyates. And this is just what happened. Cyaxares and the guests dinning with him at the meat, and the Scythians fled and became suppliants of Alyattes.”

(Herodotus, Book I.73.5-6)

This means that Cyaxares and his guests masticated human flesh! The Scythians didn’t seem to have a problem chopping somebody up even if that particular individual was blameless. I also assume that the cooks, or at least some of them, must have known that they were indeed roasting a human. They just didn’t give a damn because they had to do whatever it was they had to do in order to survive. Wow!

Herodotus 1.216 zooms into the issue of cannibalism. He speaks of a certain people known as the “Massagetai” who practiced human sacrifice and ate humans. This is what he says about them:

“A man’s life ends on the day they assign to him, for whenever someone grows very old, all his relatives assemble and sacrifice him together with some sheep. Then, after stewing the meat, they feast on it, believing this to be most blessed way to end one’s life. If someone dies from an illness, they do not eat his flesh but bury him in the ground, deeming it a misfortune that he did not attain the perquisites of being sacrificed and eaten.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.216.2-3)

This is pretty out there! I cannot even begin to imagine devouring the flesh of one of my loved ones. I could not even see the body of a person I love or care about dismembered in front of me. Definitely not served on a f*cking dish! Yet Herodotus tells us about it, there were people that ate others for the sake of tradition and culture. Incredible! At least Cyaxares was deceived by the Scythians but these folks, the Massagetai, they were out there in a different world! The Massagetai were not the only ones who ate their relatives, Herodotus 3.38.4 mentions an Indian people called “Kallatiai” who had the custom of eating their parents. In fact, Herodotus 3.99 mentions the “Lecterish” customs of some other Indians:

“To the east of these Indians lives another group of Indians called Padaioi, who are nomads and who eat raw meat. They are said to observe a custom that when any resident of their village-whether man or woman-becomes ill, that person is killed. If a man becomes sick, his closest male associates kill him, claiming that as his illness consumes him, his flesh is being spoiled. When he denies that he is sick, they will disagree; they will kill him and then feast on his body. In the same way, when a woman becomes ill, she, too, is put to death, but by the women closest to her. If anyone manages to reach old age, they sacrifice him and feast on his body; but not many people live this long, since everyone who falls sick before old age is killed.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.99.1-2)

The folks mentioned in Herodotus 3.99 were just a gang of blood thirsty animals, nothing else. Raw meat? Human flesh? Herodotus 4.18.3 mentions another “Padaioi type” around the area of Scythia that he defines as the “man eaters” (they were not ethnic Scythians). In Herodotus 4.106 he provides more details about these beasts:

“The man-eaters have the most savage character of all men; they have no conception of justice, and in fact follow no civilized traditions at all. They are nomads, wear clothes like those of the Scythians, speak their own peculiar language, and are the only one of these peoples who eat human flesh”.

(Herodotus, Book 4.106)

Herodotus 4.26 speaks about yet another group, also around the area of Scythia who suffer from the “Padaioi syndrome”. These folks however seem to be a little bit less primitive:

“The Issedones are said to observe the following custom: whenever a man’s father dies, all his relatives bring their flocks and sacrifice them. Next they chop up the animals and the body of the father, mix the meat together, and then set it all out for a feast. After having plucked the hair from the father’s head, they clean it, gild it, and thereafter treat it as a precious image, to which they offer lavish sacrifices annually.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.26.1-2)

It is obvious that the Issedones were doing that for the sake of honor but still, it is not easy to do the kind of stuff they were used to doing. Imagine for example cutting up your father’s head with some sharp blade in order to make a religious-sacred object out of it (and his flesh in your stomach). These guys were tough!

There were times when the atrocity known as cannibalism took place because there were no other choices. In Herodotus 3.25 we are told about the situation of the soldiers of Cambyses when he was trying to subjugate Ethiopia:

“For a while, his soldiers took what they could get from the land and survived by eating grasses, but when they reached the desert sand, some of the men committed a horrible deed. They chose by lot one man out of every ten and devoured them. When Cambyses learned of this, he was terrified at the thought of them devouring one another, and so he finally gave up the expedition against the Ethiopians and turned back.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.25.6-7)

Keep in mind that these soldiers didn’t drive in a Jeep, they didn’t have war tanks or planes that could bomb a country. They were walking on foot carrying heavy weaponry (swords, spears, axes, javelins, shields,…) and they were hungry and thirsty. I guess they had to do what they had to do (they tried to avoid committing cannibalism by eating grasses).

The most amazing story mentioned by Herodotus as far as cannibalism goes is the one of Astyages and Harpagos. In Herodotus 1.108 Astyages commanded Harpagos to slay the son of Mandane (Astyages’ own daughter) in order to remove any potential threat to the kingdom. Harpagos gave the mission to a fellow named Mithradates but Mithradates had mercy on the child that would eventually become the ruler Cyrus (the son of Cambyses). When Astyages realized that Cyrus was alive he decided to take revenge on Harpagos (Herodotus 1.128.2 tells us that he impaled all the dream interpreters of the Magi). This is the information we get from Herodotus:

“Astyages, when the son of Harpagos came to him, slew him, and cut him limb from limb. Next he roasted some parts of the flesh and boiled other parts, then prepared them so that they were ready to serve. When dinnertime came and Harpagos and the rest of the guests were present, tables full of lamb’s meat were set before Astyages and the others, but to Harpagos was served the body of his son, except for the head, hands, and feet; these had been set aside and covered up in a basket. When Harpagos decided he had eaten enough, Astyages asked him if he had enjoyed the feast. Harpagos replied that he had certainly enjoyed very much, and then those whose task it was set before him the head, hands, and feet of his son, still covered. Standing nearby, they ordered Harpagos to take off the cover and help himself to whatever he wanted. Harpagos obediently took off the cover and saw the remains of his son, but instead of reacting with shock at the sight, he contained himself. When Astyages asked him whether he knew what meat he had eaten, he replied that he knew, and that it was pleasing-as was everything the king did.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.119.3-7)

The Astyages-Harpagos tale is such a sick one that I don’t even know where to begin. It is incredible what politicians are willing to do for the sake of their wealth and for their status! First King Astyages orders the murder of the son of his own daughter (his own flesh and blood). Harpagos was definitely not innocent because he tried to kill Cyrus indirectly. Astyages murdered and butchered an innocent child to take revenge on Harpagos (all the folks who worked in the kitchen department and all the guards who knew about it were guilty as well one way or another). Finally, after Harpagos realized he had eaten his own flesh and blood he decides that his social status was more important to him than the life of his son. Like an absolute coward he bowed to Astyages. This grotesque tale tells us that politicians are willing to do everything and anything for the sake of power. Harpagos didn’t even deserve to have a wife and a heir (what a repulsive creature!).

We must understand that Cambyses, father of Cyrus, was no saint and we must also understand that Cyrus was no “tzadik” either. Cambyses was pretty much an animal, a mad creature. He for example murdered his own brother Smerdis and committed incest with his two sisters (he killed one of them). Herodotus 3.35 tells us about his most hideous deed:

‘So now Cambyses recalled this conversation and said angrily to Prexaspes, “well, then, you will find out whether the Persians are telling the truth or whether they are really out of their minds themselves. There stands your son on the porch; if I manage to hit him in the middle of his heart, that will show that the Persians talk nonsense; and if I should miss the mark, you may declare that the Persians are telling the truth and that it is I who am not sane.” Having said this, he drew his bow and shot an arrow at the boy, who fell to the ground. Cambyses ordered that the boy’s body be slit open and his wound examined. When the arrow was found within the heart, Cambyses burst into laughter and with great glee said to the boy’s father, ”so, Prexaspes, it is clear that I am not mad, and that it is the Persians who are out of their minds. Now tell me, have you ever seen anyone in the world who hit this mark so successfully?” Prexaspes, observing that the man was indeed insane and fearing for himself, said, “my Lord, I do believe that not even God Himself could shoot so well.” That was what Cambyses did then, but at another time he took twelve Persians, peers of the first rank, and for no reason at all had them buried alive up their heads.’

(Herodotus, Book 3.35.1-5)

Cambyses murdered an innocent child, ruined the life of a father, plus terrorized others for no reason at all. Prexaspes, the father of the boy, he ended up committing suicide:

“And he then told them how he had been forced by Cambyses to kill Smerdis son of Cyrus, and revealed that the Magi were now reigning. Finally, he threatened the Persians with many curses if they failed to recover their rule and to punish the magi. After that, he hurled himself headfirst down from the tower. Thus Prexaspes ended his life as he had lived it: an admirable man.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.75.2-3)

Herodotus tells us about some of the other atrocities of the Iranian Caligula known as Cambyses (I guess he was trying to revive the Apollo-Marsyas event mentioned in Herodotus 7.26.3). Herodotus 5.25 relates the horror he committed against another of his subjects:

“The father of this Otanes was Sisamnes, one of the royal judges, whom king Cambyses had punished for accepting a bribe and giving an unjust verdict. The king had ordered that his throat be cut and his entire body flayed; and after his skin was removed, strips were cut from it and stretched on the throne on which he had sat while rendering judgments. The judge whom Cambyses appointed to replace Sisamnes was actually the son of the very same Sisamnes he had executed and flayed, and Cambyses instructed his son to remember what throne he was sitting on whenever he was acting as a judge.”

(Herodotus, Book 5.25.1-2)

There is a difference, a big difference actually, between reading about “cutting a throat” and between feeling the actual blade separating your head from your body (the only way one can understand that is if one actually experiences it & survives somehow). An individual who conducts an actual skin flaying must be an extremely cold blooded creature. Cambyses was definitely involved in serious unspeakable evil even though this particular folk (Sisamnes) deserved to be punished somehow.

The Persians were certainly not the only ones involved in the cut-throat business, Herodotus tells us about many cases throughout his writings. Herodotus 4.62 speaks about how the Scythians sacrificed to Ares, god of war:

“Of all the enemies they capture alive in war, they sacrifice one out of every hundred, but in a different manner that they sacrifice animals. They pour wine over the man’s head, cut his throat over a jar, carry the jar up to the pile of sticks, and pour the blood upon the sword. In addition to taking the blood up to the sword, down below, they cut off the right arms of all the men who have been slaughtered and they cast them up in the air. After the other victims have been sacrificed, they depart, leaving behind the arms to lie just where they have fallen, apart from the bodies.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.62.3-4)

Once again, it is easy to read this but, feeling the sword slicing your throat and seeing your blood cascading into a ritualistic jar is a complete different story. Herodotus 5.5 describes the “reddish” activities of a certain Thracian tribe:

“The customs of those who live above the Krestonians are as follows. Each man has many wives, and whenever a man dies, a great contest with fierce rivalry is held among his wives and their families concerning which of them was the wife whom he loved the most. The woman who is judged most worthy of this honor is eulogized by both the men and the women, after which her closer relative cuts her throat over the grave and she is buried with her husband. The other wives consider their rejection a terrible misfortune and the greatest possible disgrace.”

(Herodotus, Book 5.5)

Herodotus 3.11 speaks about how throats were opened during a Persian-Egyptian clash:

“The Persians marched across the desert and took up their position near the Egyptians in preparation for meeting them in battle. At that point, the Greek and Carian mercenaries of the Egyptian king, who resented Phanes’ leading a foreign army into Egypt, schemed to punish him in the following way. They took the sons of Phanes, whom he had left behind in Egypt, into the camp, and after placing a wine bowl between the two armies, they led each of the sons up to it in full view of their father and cut their throats over the bowl, one by one. When they had thus slaughtered each of the boys in turn, they added wine and water to the blood, and then each of the mercenaries drank from the bowl.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.11.1-3)

If this is not absolute barbarism then I don’t know what it is! Here we have another case where three throats were opened:

‘When Darius was organizing a military campaign against Scythia, a certain Persian named Oiobazos requested that one of his three sons remain in Persia. Darius replied that not one but his three sons would be exempted from military service. This is what happened: “But Darius ordered those in charge of executions to put to death all three sons of Oiobazos, and indeed, after their throats had been cut, they were in fact left right there.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.84.2)

Herodotus 7.180 relates the story of a certain Greek that was embraced by the cold touch of the blade as well (sacrificed by the Persians):

“The ship from Troizen, which was under the command of Praxinos, was promptly pursued by the barbarians and captured. Then the barbarians took its most handsome marine to the prow of the ship and cut his throat, securing a good omen by taking the most handsome as the first of their Greek captives. The name of the man whose throat was cut was Leon, and perhaps his name had something to do with what happened to him.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.180)

When one reads Herodotus 8.90 he realizes how easy it was in those times for heads to roll, politicians had endless power in those days and they could do pretty much anything:

“It was this event that saved the Ionians, for when Xerxes saw them achieving this great feat, he turned to the Phoenicians and, in extreme vexation, blamed them for everything that had happened, and he ordered that their heads be cut off so that those who had proved to be inferior should never again slander their betters.”

(Herodotus, Book 8.90.3)

In some cases the heads of the defeated were treated as trophies or as some kind of exotic exhibition piece. Here’s what Herodotus tells us about a folk named Onesilos:

“Because Onesilos had besieged the Amathousians, they cut off his head and took it to Amathous, where they hung it up over the city gates. The head eventually became hollow as it hung there, and then swarms of bees entered it and filled it with honeycombs.”

(Herodotus, Book 5.114)

Here we have another “head case”:

“But Artaphrenes, the governor of Sardis, and Harpagos, the general who had captured him, also thought this was likely to happen; and in order to prevent Histiaios from escaping and again attaining prominence with the king, they took him to Sardis and there hanged him from a stake. But they embalmed his head and brought it to king Darius in Susa.”

(Herodotus, Book 6.30)

Herodotus 2.121.2 describes a very interesting case of a certain folk who was stealing from king  Rhampsinitos, he had no choice but to be decapitated:

“So the thieves came just as before; one of them entered, and when he got close to a coffer, he was at once caught in a trap. As soon as he realized how bad his situation was, he called out to his brother, describing to him what had happened, and asked him to enter quickly and to cut off his head so as to prevent him from being recognized and identified, which would ruin his brother along with himself. His brother thought this to be sensible advice and so he complied, and after securing the stone back in position, he returned home, carrying his brother’s head.”

(Herodotus, Book 2.121.2)

Herodotus 7.238 informs us of the fate of Leonidas, the beyond-honorable martyr of Sparta:

“After having said this, Xerxes made his way among the corpses, including that Leonidas. Having heard that Leonidas was a king and the commander of the Lacedaemonians, he ordered that his head be cut off and impaled on a stake.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.238)

The Scythians certainly did very weird things with the heads of those they conquered. Here’s what Herodotus tells us:

“Their customs concerning war are as follows. Whenever a Scythian slays his first man, he drinks some of his blood. He brings the heads of all those he slays in battle back to the king, and by bringing back a head, he receives a share of whatever plunder has been taken, but if he does not bring back a head, he receives nothing. He flays the head by first cutting in a circle around the ears and then, taking hold of it, shaking off the skin. He then scrapes it out with an ox’s rib and works the skin in his hands until he has softened it, after which he uses it as a handkerchief, which he proudly attaches to the bridle of his horse. And he who displays the most skin handkerchiefs is esteemed as the best man”.

(Herodotus, Book 4.64.1-2)

The cruelty of the Scythians was so “beyond-insanity” that Herodotus shares these details with us:

“They treat the skulls-not all of them, but those of their most hated enemies-in the following way. They saw off everything below the eyebrows and clean out everything that remains. If a poor man is doing this, he only stretches an untanned piece of oxhide around the outside and uses it as is. But if he is wealthy, he not only stretches an oxhide around the outside, but he gilds it on the inside as well. And the skull is then used as a drinking cup.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.65)

The Scythians were definitely merciless, Herodotus 4.65 says the following:

“They also do this to the skulls of their relatives if they have a dispute and one of them overpowers the other in the presence of the king. And when outsiders who are considered important come to visit the man, he brings out these heads and explains that, though these were his relatives, they brought war upon the family and he overpowered them. That is how they define a man’s valor.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.65.2)

Herodotus also speaks about death by stoning which is very popular in the Bible. Herodotus 1.167 gives us the following information concerning the Phocaeans:

“The Carthaginians and Thyrrenians divided by lot all the men taken prisoner from the ships they had destroyed, who were more numerous than those who had escaped. They brought them to shore at Caere and there stoned them to death. After this event all living things in Caere that passed nearby the place where the remains of the Phocaeans who had been stoned to death lay, whether they were flocks, oxen, or human beings, would suffer strokes and become twisted and crippled. The Caereans sent to Delphi wishing to set right their offense and did what the Phythia ordered, as they still do today: they sacrifice to the Phocaeans who were stoned to death as to heroes and hold athletic and equestrian competitions in their honor.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.167.1-2)

It is easy to read this but as I have previously mentioned, it is a complete different experience to feel the rocks breaking your body and disfiguring the hell out of you. Herodotus 9.5 speaks about how the Athenians stoned to death a man named Lykidas (and his family):

“The Athenians, both those in attendance at the council and others outside, at once grew so indignant when they found out about his proposal that they surrounded Lykidas and stoned him until he died. But they sent Mourychides of the Hellespont away unharmed. Now with all the commotion going on at Salamis concerning Lykidas, the Athenian women found out about what had happened, and word of it passed from one woman to the next as they recruited one another, until, on their own initiative, they all went to the home of Lykidas and there stoned to death his wife and children.”

(Herodotus, Book 9.5.2-3)

Not only did they blast Lykidas, they had no mercy at all on his wife or on his children. Imagine or better said, try to imagine what it felt like for that poor woman to see her seed being obliterated right before her eyes…here’s another insane act committed by the Athenians:

“So the Athenians led Artayktes to the promontory where Xerxes had bridged the strait, though some say they led him to the hill overlooking the city of Madytos. There they fastened him to a wooden flank, and hung him on it, and then they stoned his son to death before his eyes.”

(Herodotus, Book 9.120.4)

Herodotus also speaks about how some people blinded others “Ammonite style”. In Book 4 Herodotus says that “the Scythian custom is to blind all their slaves to conform with the process by which they obtain the milk that they drink.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.1)

Herodotus 8 talks about how the Thracians dealt with traitors:

“There an extraordinary deed was performed by the Thracian king of the Bisaltai and the Krestonian territory. He had told Xerxes that he himself would not willingly become his slave and, forbidding his sons to participate in the war against Hellas, he himself withdrew to Mount Rhodope. But his sons paid no attention to his orders, or perhaps they had their hearts set on seeing the war, and they joined the Persian on his expedition. For this reason, when all six of them now returned unharmed, their father gouged out their eyes.”

(Herodotus, Book 8.116.1-2)

Herodotus 9.93 speaks about a sad case, the case of a diviner named Euenios who was blinded for failing as a guardian of a sacred flock.

“But the Apollonians noticed what had happened, and having discovered it, they brought him before a court, which condemned him to be deprived of his sight for falling asleep on his watch. As soon as Euenios was blinded, the flocks ceased to give birth and the earth did not bear crops as it had before.”

(Herodotus, book 9.93.3)

Try to imagine what it would feel like to be deprived of your sight with a hot iron or with a blade…

Then of course we have the issue of human sacrifice which was practiced pretty much by every nation in the ancient world. Herodotus 1.86 shares the story of how Cyrus almost killed Croesus accompanied by fourteen youths:

“The Persians seized him and led him to Cyrus, and to a huge pyre that the king had them built, and they mounted Croesus bound in shackles on top of it, and with him, fourteen Lydian boys. Cyrus did this either to consecrate them as a sacrifice of victory offerings to some god, or to fulfill a vow, or perhaps, having found out that Croesus was God-fearing, he wanted to see of some divinity would save him from being burned alive.”

(Herodotus, book 1.86.1-2)

The Lydian king and the youths were saved by a miracle but the fact is that Cyrus intended to carbonize the hell out of them.

Herodotus 9.119 talks about a certain sacrifice performed by the Thracians:

“Oiobazos escaped to Thrace where the Apsinthian Thracians seized him and sacrificed him in their own fashion to the local god, Pleistoros; they murdered those who had accompanied Oiobazos, however, in a different manner.”

(Herodotus, Book 9.119)

Herodotus 8.118 tells us about how many Persians voluntarily offered themselves as a sacrifice to their king:

‘As the storm grew more violent and the ship became endangered, as it was heavily laden with the many Persians who were traveling with Xerxes and who were now on deck, the king fell into a panic and shouted to the helmsman, asking if there was any way they could be saved. The helmsman replied, “My Lord, there is none, unless we rid ourselves of these many men on board.” Upon hearing this, Xerxes said, “men of Persia, it is now time for you to prove your care for your king. For in you, it seems, lies my safety.” After he said this, his men prostrated themselves, leapt out into the sea, and the now lightened ship sailed safely to Asia. As soon as Xerxes stepped onto shore, he gave the helmsman a gift of a golden crown in return for saving his life, but then, because he had been responsible for the death of many Persians, he had his head cut off.’

(Herodotus, Book 8.118.2-4)

It is incredible to see how many men were willing to sacrifice their lives for a politician! Most of those men surely had wives and children. This meant that all those women became widows and that all those children ended up fatherless. All for the sake of one man that they called “Xerxes”! Herodotus 2.119 speaks of a sacrifice that took place in Egypt in the days of Menelaus:

“He was treated with great hospitality, and he regained Helen unharmed and recovered all his property. Once he had obtained all this, however, he subsequently behaved so dreadfully that he proved to the Egyptians that he was a most unjust man. For when he was ready to sail away and was prevented from doing so by adverse weather which persisted for a long time, he committed the ungodly act of seizing two children from local people and killing them as sacrificial victims.”

(Herodotus, Book 2.119.1-3)

So, Menelaus repaid the kindness of the Egyptians with absolute evil. He abducted the children of people who had done absolutely nothing to him and he murdered them in order to calm the sea “Jonah style”. People of high social status definitely feel like they can do as they please.

Herodotus 1.24 mentions the ungodly deed done to an artist called Arion of Methymna. This is the calamity he underwent even though he saved himself somehow:

“So he sailed out from Taras, and since he trusted no people more than Corinthians, he hired a boat of Corinthians. When these men were out at sea, they plotted to throw Arion overboard in order to get his money. Once Arion perceived this, he begged them to take his money but spare his life. But he could not persuade them. The sailors ordered him to kill himself if he would have a grave on land or to get it over with immediately and to jump into the sea.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.24.2-3)

It is incredible that some men would be willing to force another man into suicide for the sake of coins….yet such men exist!

Herodotus 4.103 speaks of a people called “the Taurians” who are neighbors of the very cruel Scythians:

“They sacrifice to the virgin those who have been shipwrecked and any Hellenes they can take at sea. The sacrifice is carried out in the following way. After the preliminary consecration rites, they strike the victim’s head with a club. Then, some say, they impale the head upon a pole and push the body over a cliff (for it is at the top of the cliff that the sanctuary has been built). Others agree about what they do with the head but say that the body is buried in the ground, not pushed off the cliff. The Taurians themselves say that the divinity to whom they offer these sacrifices is Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon. When the Taurians overpower their adversaries, each man cuts off the head of an enemy, brings it to his home, fixes it on a tall wooden stake there, and sets it up so that it towers high over his house-most of the time it is even higher than the chimney. They say that as these heads hang over the whole house, they serve as guardians of the household. These people live by plunder and war.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.103.1-3)

Herodotus 7.197 deals with a human sacrifice tradition at Halos in Achaea:

“When Xerxes arrived at Halos in Achaea, his guides, wanting to convey to him everything they knew, told him a local story about the sanctuary of Laphystian Zeus, and how Athamas son of Aiolos, in a plot with Ino, contrived the doom of Phrixos; and how, afterward, the Achaeans imposed upon his descendants the following trials and tribulations. The eldest member of the family was ordered to stay out of the public hall (for the Achaeans call the Prytaneion the “public hall”), but to guard himself. And if he did once enter it, he was not permitted to go out again until it was time for him to be sacrificed. The guides also said that many who had been about to be sacrificed had run off in fear and escaped to another country. But if one who had done so were to return after time had passed and was caught entering the Prytaneion, then he was thickly wrapped in garlands, led out in procession, and sacrificed.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.197.1-2)

Herodotus 7.114 talks about battery charging sacrifices performed by the Persians:

“When they heard that this place was called nine roads, they buried alive there that many sons and daughters of the local inhabitants. The burial of the living is a Persian practice, as I heard Xerxes’ wife Amastris, when she reached old age, caused fourteen children of prominent men to be buried alive, presenting them in place of herself as a gift to the deity they call the god of the netherworld.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.114.1-2)

Let’s think about that for a second: a foreign power invades your land and then they steal your faultless offspring in order to bury them alive! Then on the other hand an old “Bathorish” queen demands that fourteen youths who have committed no crime whatsoever be buried alive simply because that makes her feel younger. It is easy to read the story of Herodotus but it must be a complete different experience to see all that dirt, all that soil, and all that dust covering you up as you suffocate. All for the pride of an elitist!

In Book 7 Herodotus speaks about human sacrifices offered by the Lacedaemonians, meaning the Spartans.  Some Spartans offered themselves as a sacrificial-suicide, all in the holy name of Sparta:

“The men who volunteered to undertake the punishment imposed by Xerxes for the loss of Darius’heralds were Sperthias son of Aneristos and Boulis son of Nikolaos, Spartan of noble birth who had also attained the first rank in wealth. And so the Spartans sent them off to the Medes to die.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.134.2-3)

In Book 4 Herodotus tells us about the insanity that takes place when one of the kings of Scythia dies.  Herodotus says that the corpse is buried in the territory of the Gerroi, this is what he shares with us:

“Then they strangle one of the king’s concubines and also his cupbearer, his cook, his groom, his principal servant, his courier, and his horses, and they bury them all in the remaining open space of the grave, along with the prized possessions dedicated by others and golden libation bowls.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.71.4)

The funny thing is that this is not it, a year later they attend these rituals again and they kill a significant amount of people in honor of the king:

“Of these they strangle fifty males, and also fifty of the king’s best horses.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.72.2)

I wonder, is it really necessary that so many people die for the corpse of a politician? Herodotus tells us also that when the prophecies of the Scythian soothsayers were inaccurate there were serious consequences:

“In that case, they are put to death as follows. The soothsayers who have their feet bound, their hands tied behind their backs, and their mouths gagged, are thrust into the middle of a wagon that is filled with sticks and has oxen yoked to it. The sticks are then set on fire, and the oxen are released and put to plight. Many of the oxen are burned up together with the prophets, while others are only scorched as they flee when their yoke pole catches fire. Prophets are burned in the same way for other reasons as well, when they are designated false prophets. Moreover, those put to death by the king leave no sons behind, because the king kills all the male offspring, too, although he does not harm the females.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.69.1-3)

Herodotus 3.79 tells the story about how the sorcerers of Persia were massacred:

“After the conspirators had killed both magi, they cut off their heads and, leaving their own wounded men there, since they were too weak to go with them but could help guard the acropolis, the other five ran outside carrying the heads of the Magi. There, with great shouts they called out to the other Persians, describing all that had happened and showing them the heads. As they spread the news, they also killed every Magus they found in their path. When the Persians learned from them about the Magi’s criminal fraud and what had just occurred, they decided it was right for them to join in the killing, too, so, drawing their daggers, they slew every magus they found, and if nightfall had not ended the slaughter, there would not have been a single magus left alive. The Persians commemorate this day as their most important public holiday and celebrate it with a great festival they call the murder of the Magi.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.79.1-3)

Herodotus 7.107 shares the somber tale of a fellow named Boges who massacred his loved ones in the name of honor:

“And when there was no longer anything left to eat within the walls, he lit a huge pyre, cut the throats of his children, wife, concubines, and servants, and threw them all into the fire. Next, he took all the gold and silver from the city and cast it down from the wall into the river Strymon. And after he had done all that, he threw himself into the fire.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.107.2)

In Book 3 Herodotus speaks about how a certain Polykrates was impaled “Vlad style”:

“After Polykrates arrived in magnesia, he was brutally killed, which neither he nor his ambitions deserved. For with the exception of the tyrants of Syracuse, not one of the other Greek tyrants can compare with Polykrates in terms of magnificence. But Oroites killed him in a way too disgusting to relate and hung his body from a stake.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.125.2-3)

And here we have another surreal case, a violent event connected to Abydos:

“It was here that not long after this, when Xanthippos son of Ariphron was general of the Athenians, they took Artayktes, a Persian serving as governor of Sestos, and nailed him alive to a wooden plank because he had committed the unlawful deeds of bringing women into the sanctuary of Protesilaos at Elaious.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.33)

Then we have the very ugly issue of mass castration for the sake of profit. In our modern days for example the Jewish Ashkenazi elite dreams of sterilizing the Germans but if we check the writings of Herodotus we will see that massive-castration has been around for a long time. Herodotus 8.105 speaks of a repulsive monster called Panionios of Chios who turned vulnerable males into eunuchs:

“So it was from these Pedasians that Hermotimos had come, and of all the people we know of, it was he who managed to get the greatest revenge for an injustice done to him. Having been captured by his enemies and offered up for sale, he was bought by Panionios of Chios, who made a living off the most ungodly practice: whenever he acquired boys endowed with beauty, he would castrate them and then take them to Sardis or Ephesus and sell them for large sums of money, for among the barbarians, eunuchs are more valuable than males with testicles because of their trustworthiness and fidelity. So Panionios castrated this man as well as many others, since that is how he made his living.”

(Herodotus, Book 8.105.1-2)

How could someone take advantage of people in such a way and feel nothing? …and all for the sake of coins….Herodotus 8.106 speaks of Hermotimos’ revenge:

“After he had cast these reproaches at him, he had Panionios’ sons-all four of them-brought before them, and then compelled Panionios to cut off the private parts of his sons; and because he was forced, he did it. Then, when he had finished, his sons were forced to castrate him. So it was that vengeance at the hands of Hermotimos came to Panionios.”

(Herodotus, Book 8.106.4)

The Persians used mass-castration as a terror tactic against the Greeks based on Herodotus 6.32:

“At this point the Persians made good on the threats that they had voiced earlier against the Ionians when they were camped opposite them. For after they had completed their conquest of the cities, they picked out the most handsome boys and castrated them, making them eunuchs instead of male with testicles. And they dragged off the most beautiful of the virgins to the king.”

(Herodotus, Book 6.32)

What could be worse for a man than to be castrated? What is a man without his manhood? It would be better to be burned alive! Herodotus 3.48 grants us another example of this horror:

“For Periandros son of Kypselos had sent three hundred sons of the leading men of Corcyra to Alyattes in Sardis in order to be castrated,…”

(Herodotus, Book 3.48.2)

Personally, I cannot think of anything sadder than this. There were other types of mutilations that took place in the times of the Greco-Persian wars, here we have the case of Zophyro, a Persian who mutilated himself in order to gain the trust of the Chaldeans:

“Yet he could think of no way by which he would be able to subdue the city except by mutilating himself and going over to the Babylonians as a deserter. Thereupon, treating it as a trivial matter, he proceeded to mutilate himself irreversibly; he cut off his own nose and ears as well as tufts of his hair, whipped himself, and then went to Darius.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.154.2)

Believe it or not it takes balls and a heavy degree of insanity to do what Zophyro did, it is easy to read what Herodotus wrote down but to mutilate yourself is a complete different story. Try to imagine for a second what it would be like to cut your own nose and your own ears with a sharp blade! Herodotus 6.75 talks about an insane Spartan named Kleomenes who mutilated himself to the death:

“Because he was doing this and not in his right mind, his relatives confined him in a wooden pillory, and while he was thus confined, he noticed that one of the guards had been left alone with him, and he asked the guard to give him a knife. The guard refused at first, but then Kleomenes threatened what he would do to him when he was released, the frightened guard, who was a helot, gave him a knife. Kleomenes then took the weapon and started to mutilate himself, beginning from his shins. Cutting his flesh lengthwise, he proceeded to his thighs, and from his thighs, his hips, and then his sides, until he reached the abdomen, which he thoroughly shredded and then died.”

(Herodotus, Book 6.75.2-3)

Here’s the ugliest case of mutilation mentioned by Herodotus:

“During the time that Xerxes was conversing with his brother, Amastris sent for Xerxes’ bodyguards and had the wife of Masistes badly mutilated. She cut off her breasts and threw them to the dogs, then cut out her nose, ears, lips, and tongue and sent her back home horribly mutilated.”

(Herodotus Book 9.112)

In this case Masistes’ wife was turned into a grotesque “Hellraiser-like” creature. Her nose was cut off just like in the case of Zophyro, her ears were cut off just like in the case of Zophyro, her lips were cut off as well, her tongue went to hell…..and as if it wasn’t enough her breasts were cut off and thrown to beasts (that was symbolically speaking a “castration” kind of thing). The story of Masistes’ wife seems hard to believe but things like that did take place in the times of Herodotus. The story of Intaphrenes has pretty much the same flavor, he mutilated some individuals:

“And so Intaphrenes, as one of the seven, felt it was right for him to go in to the king without anyone announcing his entry, But the gatekeeper and the royal messenger did not allow him to pass, telling him that the king at that moment was with a woman. Intaphrenes thought they were lying, however, so drawing his dagger, he cut off their ears and noses and attached them to his horse’s bridle, which he tied around their necks before releasing them.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.118.2)

Intaphrenes actually went as far as exhibiting the body pieces as if they were trophies! The previously mentioned Scythians practiced sacred mutilation in a different fashion. This is what they did when they mourned for their deceased king:

“From the royal Scythians it is carried in a wagon to another nation, whose people receive the corpse brought to them and observe the same practice as has already been performed by the royal Scythians: They cut off a piece from their ears, shear the hair all around their heads, make incisions all over their arms, scratch their faces and noses, and thrust arrows through their right hands”.

(Herodotus, Book 4.1-2)

Based on the words of Herodotus the Carians of Egypt practiced ritual scarification just like the Scythians:

“Those Carians who live in Egypt go so much further than the Egyptians in their mourning that they cut their faces with knives, and thereby reveal themselves to be foreigners, not Egyptians.”

(Herodotus, Book 2.61.2)

As far as sacred oaths go, Herodotus gives us several examples. In Herodotus 1.74 we can see the grotesque way in which the Lydians and the Medes swore oaths to each other:

“These peoples make oaths just as the Hellenes do, except that in addition, they make small incisions on the surface of their arms and lick each other’s blood.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.74.5)

The famous Scythians definitely had their way of doing things:

“This is how the Scythians swear oaths, no matter to whom they are swearing them. They pour wine mixed with their own blood-extracted from their bodies by stabbing themselves with awls or by making small knife cuts-into a large earthernware cup. They then dip a short sword, some arrows, a battle-axe, and a javelin into the cup. After this has been done, they declare their pledges and invoke many sanctions, and those directly involved in the pact together with their most worthy followers drink from the cup.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.70)

On Herodotus 4.94 we hear about the surreal and savage customs of a superstitious people known as the Getai:

“As to immortality, the Getai believe that they do not really die, but that when one of them passes away, he goes to Salmoxis, a sort of divinity whom some of them also call Gebeleizis. Every fifth year they send off one of their number, who has been selected by lot to serve as a messenger to Salmoxis, with instructions as to what they want at that particular time. This is how they dispatch him. Three men who are appointed to the task each hold a javelin, while others seize the hands and feet of the man being sent to Salmoxis, swing him up in the air, and throw him unto the points of the javelins. If the man dies from being impaled, they believe that the god is well disposed towards them; but if he does not die, they blame the messenger himself, accusing him of being a bad man, and seek another to send in his place. They give the messenger instructions while he is still alive.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.94.1-3)

The Bible speaks about how the sea of reeds parted into two in order to allow Israel to depart from Egypt. Herodotus 7.39 speaks about how an army marched through a body that was cut in two pieces. A Lydian named Phythios asked Xerxes for the release of his eldest son. This was the reply of mighty Xerxes:

“And now that you have veered to a shameful course, you will receive less than your former actions deserved. Your hospitality will save you and four of your sons, but that one son to whom you cling the most will have to surrender his life as your punishment. Such was Xerxes’ reply to Phytios. Then he immediately ordered his men assigned to such tasks to find the eldest son of Phythios, cut him in two, and place one half of the body on the right side of the road and the other half on the left so that the army would march between them.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.39.2-3)

Now, when it comes to total and absolute insanity, the crown belongs to the Scythians. They flayed humans as if they were flaying goats:

“Many Scythians make cloaks to wear from the skins by stitching the scalps together like shepherds’ coats. Many also take the hands from the corpses of their enemies, skin them, and use them with the fingernails still intact as covers for their quivers. It turns out that human skin is both thick and translucent, in fact the most translucent of all types of skin because of its whiteness. Many Scythians flay the skin from the entire bodies of men, stretch them over frames of wood, and carry them on their horses as they ride around.”

(Herodotus, Book 4.64.3-4)

Herodotus also tells us about how some individuals were inclined towards the necromantic side. Here’s what he says of the Egyptians:

“But when wives of prominent men or very beautiful or noteworthy women die, they do not deliver the bodies to be embalmed at once. They give them over only on the second or third day after their death so that the embalmers do not have intercourse with the dead woman’s body, for they say that one was once caught in the act of having intercourse with a woman’s fresh corpse, and that this crime was disclosed by his co-worker.”

(Herodotus, Book 2.89.1-2)

Here’s another case. A certain fellow is recorded as having intercourse with the cadaver of his wife:

“When her response was reported to Periandros, he found her token of its truth credible, for he had engaged in intercourse with Melissa’s corpse.”

(Herodotus, Book 5.92.3)

The Iranian Caligula, Cambyses, he was so out of his mind that he abused the corpse of a folk named Amasis:

“As soon as he entered the home of Amasis, he ordered that the corpse of Amasis be removed from his tomb. When this had been done, he ordered that the corpse be whipped, plucked of its hair, stabbed, and subjected to every other kind of outrage as well.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.16)

This is what Tomyris, queen of the Massagetai did to the corpse of Cyrus, the man who had captured her son (Spargapises, son of Tomyris, committed suicide):

‘Tomyris then filled a wineskin with human blood and searched for the corpse of Cyrus among the Persian’s dead. When she found him, she thrust his head into the wineskin, and as she thus abused the corpse, she declared to it: “I am alive and I have conquered you in battle, but you have ruined me by taking my son through guile. Well, then, just as I threatened, I will slake your thirst for blood.” Of the many stories told about the death of Cyrus, this account seems to me to be the most credible version.’

(Herodotus, Book 1.214.4)

Back in the days of Herodotus women suffered absolute injustices. They were victims of unspeakable cruelty (victims of “absolute evil” really). The females who underwent this violence beyond-imagination were not only the conquered ones or the daughters of the poor, even the daughters of kings underwent indescribable horrors. Herodotus 2.131 speaks about what Pharaoh Mykerinos of the IV dynasty did to his own daughter:

“They say that Mykerinos fell in love with his own daughter and had intercourse with her against her will, and that afterwards she hanged herself in grief, and he buried her in the cow. But her mother cut off the hands of the girl’s serving maids who had surrendered her to her father,…”

(Herodotus, Book 2.131.1-2)

One would imagine that the one who should be punished was Mykerinos but the ones who ended up affected were also women (by the command of a woman). Mykerinos was not the only sick minded freak in the neighborhood; Herodotus 2.126 speaks about a certain atrocity committed by Pharaoh Cheops:

“The priests said that Cheops sank to such depths of wickedness that when he ran short of money, he placed his own daughter in a brothel and ordered her to charge a certain sum of silver, although they neglected to tell me the exact amount she was to demand.”

(Herodotus, Book 2.126)

Herodotus 2.111 talks about how Pheros, son of Sesostris, was trying to heal his blindness with the urine of a pious woman. He ended up spilling blood:

“His blindness continued for ten years until, in the eleventh year, there came an oracular response from the city of Bouto stating that the duration of his punishment was over now and that he would regain his sight by washing his eyes with the urine of a woman who had been with her husband alone, having had no experience of any other men. And so he first tried this with the urine of his own wife, but this failed to restore his sight. He then tried all other women, one after the other, and when he finally regained his sight, he brought together into one city-which is now called red soil-all the women he had tried except for the one whose urine had restored his sight. When they were gathered together there, he set them all on fire along with the city itself. But he took as his own wife the woman with whose urine he had washed his eyes and regained his sight.”

(Herodotus, Book 2.111.2-4)

In Book 3 Herodotus tells us the story about how in the days of Darius the Babylonians murdered their own women:

“Moreover, Darius had the foresight to ensure that they would have wives, so that they would have descendants who would continue their race after them, for the Babylonians had strangled their own wives, as was mentioned at the beginning, with a view of conserving the supply of grain. So now Darius ordered the neighboring peoples to assign women to Babylon, appointing a specific number to be sent from each, with the result that a total of 50,000 women went to the city. The present-day Babylonians are descended from these women.”

(Herodotus, Book 3.159.2)

It is unbelievable that men threatened by a foreign power would dare to kill their own wives for the sake of grain. Women murdered for food? Perhaps they also figured that the Persians were going to ravish them anyways…..(the Massagetai perceived women as capable of leadership but apparently the Chaldeans saw them as less than grain). It is said that in those days Darius impaled 3000 high ranking Babylonians. 

Herodotus 8.33 talks about the activities of the Persian army in Phocis:

“They also chased down some of the Phocians, catching them near the mountains, and they raped some of the women, who died from the sheer number of the men assaulting them.”

(Herodotus, Book 8.33)

How incredibly sad that must be for defenseless women to see merciless barbarians approaching them to abuse them….(it happened in Yugoslavia, in the 1990’s,…not so long ago). Herodotus 1.46 shares a tale of abduction and murder in which women of course ended up suffering the most:

“Those who set out from the Prytaneion of Athens may have believed themselves to be the most nobly born of the Ionians, but they did not bring their own women with them to settle in their colony; what they did when they got there was to seize Carian women after murdering their menfolk.  Because of these murders, the women compelled one another to take an oath to abide by a rule that they established, and which they handed down to their daughters: that they would never dine with their husbands nor even speak their new husbands’ names out loud, because these men had murdered their own fathers, their former husbands, and even their sons, and, having done this, took the women and lived with them.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.146.2-3)

Herodotus 6.137 talks about an ugly deed done by a people called the Pelasgians (the Biblical Phillishtim). After the Athenians expelled them from Mount Hymettos the Pelasgians ravished the women of the Athenians:

“At that time the daughters and sons of the Athenians used to frequent the nine springs to fetch water, since neither they nor any other Hellenes had servants yet. And whenever the daughters would go there, the Pelasgians would insult and show their contempt for the Athenians by violating them.”

(Herodotus, Book 6.137.3)

But the story doesn’t end there:

“So now these Pelasgians who inhabited Lemnos wanted to take revenge upon the Athenians. They knew all about the calendar and rituals of the Athenian festivals, so they obtained some penteconters and ambushed the Athenian women during their celebration of the festival of Artemis at Brauron. The Pelasgians seized many of the women and disappeared, sailing away and taking the women with them to Lemnos, where they kept them as their concubines. These women gave birth to many children and taught them the language of Attica and the way of life of the Athenians. Their children were unwilling to mingle with the children of the Pelasgian women, they would all rush to help and defend one another.  Moreover, these boys deemed in their right to rule over the others and to dominate them. When the Pelasgians recognized this, they discussed it, and as they deliberated, they were struck by a dreadful thought, that if these boys were so determined now to help one another in opposition to the sons of their wedded wives, what, then, would they do as grown men? After they had considered this a while, they resolved to kill the sons of the Attic women, and that is what they did, and they slew their Attic mothers, too. It was because of this act as well as the earlier one, when the women killed their husbands along with Thoas, that throughout Hellas, all savage deeds are customarily called Lemnian. After the Pelasgians had killed their own sons and these women, the Lemnian earth no longer brought forth crops, and neither their wives nor their flocks bore offspring to the same extent as before. Afflicted by hunger and the failure to produce children, they sent to Delphi to ask for a release from their troubles.”

(Herodotus, Book 6.138/6.139)

This is definitely one of the saddest stories found in the writings of Herodotus. A gang of abductors and rapists slay their own offspring and then obliterate the very women they wronged at the very beginning! The human animal is definitely capable of unspeakable atrocities. The human machine is so complex and so strange that it is even capable of killing itself. Herodotus shares a few tales of suicides, he talks for example about the suicide of a Phrygian of noble birth (he had accidentally killed one of the sons of the king of Lydia):

“ Then Croesus gave his son an appropriate funeral. And when it was over and all was silent around the tomb, Adrastos, son of Gordias son of Midas, to his own brother a murderer, to his purifier a murderer, admitting to himself that he knew of no man suffering greater torment, slew himself upon the tomb.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.45.3)

On Book 1 Herodotus speaks of the suicide of the son of Tomyris, the queen of the Massagetai who overcame Cyrus:

“But when the effects of the wine wore off from Spargapises son of queen Tomyris and he discovered the terrible nature of his predicament, he begged Cyrus to set him free from his bonds. Cyrus granted this favor to him, and as soon as he was free and had regained the use of his hands, he killed himself. Thus did he meet his end.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.213)

Herodotus 7.167 states that the Carthaginian Hamilkar took his own life due to a bad omen:

“Then, as he happened to be pouring libations on the sacrificial victims, he saw his troops being routed, and he threw himself into the fire. Thus he disappeared because his body was completely consumed by fire.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.167)

This is what Herodotus says about a folk who survived the Thermopylae event:

“It is also said that another of these three hundred men was sent away as a messenger to Thessaly and that he survived as well; his name was Pantites, and when he returned to Sparta, he suffered such dishonor that he hanged himself.”

(Herodotus, Book 7.232)

This folk had dedicated his life and soul to Sparta, he fought with all his might against the enemies of Sparta, yet his reward was “bitterness”. The Spartans considered his survival a dishonor even though it was just the mere result of divine providence. He, a war hero, he was forced to commit suicide. Yet he was not the only Spartan to suffer this fate, Herodotus 1.82 speaks the case of Othryades. The territory of Thyrea was disputed between the Spartans and between the Argives. The Spartans prevailed and Othryades was the only survivor:

“And they say that the one man left of the three hundred, Othryades, was ashamed to teturn to Sparta because his comrades had died; he killed himself there in Thyrea.”

(Herodotus, Book 1.82.8)

Oh human race! Human race! Oh two-legged therion! So far the tales of Herodotus support the image that Demonaco depicts of the human creature in ‘The Purge’.

The book “Philosophy” (100 essential thinkers) by Philip Stokes mentions a British thinker named Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). On page 69 of this book the following is said of Hobbes’ perceptions:

“…,Hobbes believes that the natural state of man is one of war and strife, unless acted upon and governed by the rules of social living. Only a covenant kept by the rule of the sword can keep man from falling back into his natural state.”

(Philosophy [100essential thinkers], by Philip Stokes. Enchanted Lion Books, New York. pg 69)

 

(religion portrays the human as a kind-"always benevolent" species...!)

 

Is transcendentalism possible? Can the Human creature transcend this holographic “gladiator arena” that we in our five limited senses perceive as reality? I personally believe in that “narrow door” once mentioned by a very wise teacher. I believe in that portal. May the Infinite Consciousness guide us into the path of serenity.

 

 

 

(before you criticize my "DARK-CREATIVITY" make sure you criticize the politicians who orchestrate the holy-wars in the Middle east first!!!)

Thank you for your time my friends.

Nizinlopez.wordpress.com

 

 

 

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