Nut had a strong relationship with Geb, her twin brother, as well as Thoth the god of scribes and wisdom. She was the goddess of the Sky and Geb was the god of the Earth. In the morning they were separated but at night they came together, which created the darkness. This is a story the ancient Egyptians used to explain their 365-day calendar. Nut loved Geb and Thoth, but she was married to Ra. When Ra found out about her secret loves, he was furious. He told Nut that she could not have any children on any of the 360 days of the year. This saddened her, so she went to Thoth for help. She gambled with Khonsu (the moon god) to create 5 more days, so she and Geb could have five children. The children were: Osiris was first, Horus was second, Set was third, Isis was fourth, and Nephthys was the fifth. These days (December 27-31) were called the Demon Days. She and Ra also had one daughter named Sekhmet, the lion goddess, who had a flip personality called Hathor the goddess of love and peace.
Nut is gorgeous and worshipped, and she was a protective goddess, like Bast (the cat goddess). The Egyptian Gods are commonly thought to have been incestuous however it is now known by students of ancient Kmet (previous name of ancient Egypt) that brother-sister father-daughter language referred to the "principle relationship" these entities embodied and shared. The incest concept is a common error in Egyptology literature and needs be corrected. Revealed texts (scripture) consistently call people "sons of" and "daughters of" those unrelated, and people understand this is a social rather than sexual term. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers were generic terms which still can be seen among Africans and African Americans, in addition to most religious groups (a "sister" is a nun Catholicism and Buddhism). When the pantheon is understood as reflecting "first principle" conceptions and worldview, and when attributing male and female to myths is appreciated as sheer anthropomorphism, it is easier to comprehend these relationships. Follow the defining principles, and the mating and birth of consequent principles (relationships) become clearer.
The ancient Egyptians had three calendars, but the Agricultural one was the one that was used in everyday life. It was made up of three seasons, each containing four months. The seasons were Akhet, (the inundation) Peret (when the water retreated) and Shemu (harvest season). Nut loved Geb, but Ra was not happy that she loved Geb so he told Shu, their father (the air god) to separate them. Then, Ra put a curse on Nut so she could not have babies on any of the three-hundred sixty days of the year. Thoth wanted to let Nut be able to have babies so he challenged Khonsu, the moon god, to a game of Senet. If he won, he would be able to add five days to the year. If he lost, he would be killed. Thoth won and added five more days to the year. On the first day, Nut had Osiris to replace Ra, but Set later deceived him and Osiris became god of the underworld. On the second day she had Horus, the war god. On the third day, she had Set, the god of storms, evil, and Chaos, on the forth day she had Isis the goddess of magic, and on the fifth day she had Nephthys the river goddess. After a long time, the Egyptians realized the calendar was off because they did not have the quarter day at the end, like we do by having leap years. The calendar said it was flood season, but the flood did not come until later. The ancient Egyptians noticed the star Sirius would rise right before the flood. They used this as the beginning of the year and as the beginning of flooding.
Dennis Kearney
Dennis Kearney (1847–1907) was an American politician who was himself an immigrant from Ireland. He is known for being racist towards Chinese people. His fame comes from his strong support of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Cross of Gold speech
The Cross of Gold speech was a famous speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois by William Jennings Bryan. He wanted silver and not gold to be America's bullion standard. It was his goal to create inflation to help those in debt. The end of the speech gives it its name when he says;
Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello, (c. 1396 – 1475), was a painter from Florence in Italy, during the time known as the Early Renaissance. He is famous as one of the first painters of the Italian Renaissance to use perspective in his pictures.
Most of what we know about Uccello comes from Giorgio Vasari, who wrote Paolo's biography about 75 years after Uccello died. Uccello was born about the year 1396, in the city of Florence. Vasari says that he was called "Uccello", which means "Bird", because he loved all animals and would often paint them, but he loved birds best of all. When he was about 11 years old, he was sent to be trained in the workshop of one of the most famous artists in Florence, a young man called Lorenzo Ghiberti.
Ghiberti was famous because he had won an important competition to make a huge set of beautiful doors for the oldest church in the city. The doors took 27 years to make, so in that time, lots of different artists helped in the making of them, and lots of talented young people like Uccello were trained in the workshop. Uccello worked there for 8 years.
While Uccello was still quite young he got an important job to do, all by himself. He was asked to paint some frescoes showing stories of different saints for the monks of a Church of San Miniato, on a mountain above Florence. It was a large beautiful church, but the monks at the monastery did not eat expensive food. They only ate bread and cheese. So, Uccello also ate nothing but bread and cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, sometimes made into soup. After a few weeks he thought he was turning into a cheese! So he ran away from the monastery and went back to Florence, leaving his work unfinished.
One day when two of the monks were walking in the street, they chased Uccello and caught him. They asked him why he had never finished the job. Uccello told them that it was because of the cheese. The monks laughed and promised that he would get better food, if only he would promise to come back and finish what he had started. He came back to finish the frescoes, called "The Lives of the Church Fathers". They are painted in dull colours as a protest against the simple food. Vasari, who tells this story, says that Uccello never ate cheese again in his life.
Today, these frescoes at San Miniato have been badly damaged by water. Most of them have fallen off the wall or have faded. However, one beautiful angel remains quite clear.
In 1425 Uccello went to the city of Venice where he lived and worked for several years.
In 1436 he was back in Florence to do some important jobs for Florence Cathedral. The first was to paint a large fresco in honour of an English Knight, Sir John Hawkwood.
The painting of Sir John is quite unusual. It is of Sir John on his war horse. Uccello has painted it to look like a statue of the soldier on his horse. He has used white and greenish-grey against a dark red-brown background. To add colour, Uccello has painted the horse's saddle and bridle bright red. The horse is standing on a painted "plinth" like the base of a statue and Sir John's name is written on the plinth, as if the statue was standing in the town square. And in large letters are words which translate as "The Work of Paolo Uccello".
The painting was very popular, and some years later, another soldier was remembered in the same way with a painting by the artist Andrea Castagno.