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Poppy Etiquette

As November is now upon us, I would like to go over a couple points of etiquette, because it seems to be an issue.
A poppy is worn in November to remember our fallen soldiers through out history- that being said it is inappropriate to wear your poppy in any way but the following:

1. You wear it on your chest, on your left. Over your heart.
you DO NOT wear your poppy on your hat or your bag. Putting it on your collar is pushing it, it should be on your lapel- not your collar.

2. You begin wearing your poppy on the first of November, and you take it off before you leave the house on the twelfth.

The Concept of a Hero has NOT changed over 3000 years.

The Homeric epics paint a very different picture of a hero, and we deal with that by saying- their concept of a hero was different than ours.
I disagree.
Plainly in the Iliad and Odyssey there are real heroes- people that we would consider heroes today like Patroclos and Hektor. They hold bravery, honesty, and the greater good above their heads and march it right into battle.

Achilles- is hardly hero. He is not an epic hero. he is no hero. He has a lifestyle that many envy. He is the celebrity of the ancient world. But his moral actions do not constitute a hero in the ancient world any more than Brittany Spears does in the modern world.

Cycladic Figurines

Cycladic civilization is dated between 3000 and 2000 BCE. The people of the Cyclades lived on the small, infertile islands in the Agean Sea which the ancient Greeks believed formed a circle. Much of our knowledge of the Cycladic people was "unearthed" about 50 years ago by Colin Renfrew. From what we know, there did not seem to be a political structure and the main resources on the island were minerals; iron, lead, silver, gold and stone. Among the stone was obsidian (a volcanic rock that once chipped, becomes the sharpest blade known to man) and parian marble. Parian marble is make of fine crystals- which allows a smooth finish when worked into a sculpture or brick.

Found on the island are many figurines carved out of marble. The purposes of these figurines are unknown, but I would like to weigh in on the issue. The smallest figurines are called Schematics or violin type which are believed to be some of the earliest.


To me it is clear that they had wooden limbs and probably a wooden bead that would slip over the long marble neck to make a head. It is argued that the long neck is a tribute to the divine, as their head is extending upward.. to the divine, and I think it is possible that the figurines were used as votives or offerings to the gods (thus the effort in cutting and carving the marble) but other than that it is unknown. I do think that there was more attached to the marble despite the lack of piercings that would hold the organic additions to the marble body.

The folded arm figurines I also had an opinion about. It was said in class that the figurines were to represent a pregnant women as she has a slight bump on her stomach. I do not believe that this is true, I think that women have a stomach, these figurines were not models of the twenty- first century, they represent women who have a stomach when they are not pregnant. As in Egyptian art men and women are represented with a stomach that droops over their linen garments. The fact that their arms are folded and they cannot stand but lie to me either says that they represent the dead for another religious purpose, or because they are women they do not bother to toil on them as much as those of the men who are sitting on stools doing things - such as the man playing the lyre.