Daily Amazing Women of History! Woman #2

The amazing woman of today is not an actual person, but rather a spectacular woman of Greek and Roman myth, the goddess Flora, goddess of spring and fertility in Roman myth. Now, Flora did not start off as a goddess, to learn how she became the goddess we must first look at what happened to her family.


In Greece, Flora was the human named Chloris, and she was daughter to a woman named Niobe, the Queen of Thebes. Niobe was a proud vain woman who boasted to Leto that she was better because Niobe had 14 children while Leto only had two the twins Apollo and Diana. Well after hearing Niobe's slight against her mother Diana went and destroyed the family. Diana killed all of the kids of the family...but one. Chloris was the youngest and she begged Diana to spare her and not punish her for her mothers sin. Diana pity the girl and spared her, but at a price.


Chloris was banished from Diana's sight and forced to endlessly roam the earth all the while being chased by Zephyrus, God of the West wind, the wind that brings Spring.


Now one might ask how Chloris became Flora? Well there are two different answers.

1. The gods and goddess finally took pity on the girl and changed her into a deity.

2. That Chloris finally stopped running and turned to face her fate and the god that had been chasing her.


Personally I like the second one best. That is what makes her an amazing woman in my eyes. The fact that she had the coraggio (courage) to stand up and face something that she was so scared of she ran for decades. But I will let you decided the end of the human girl Chloris and the beginning of the goddess Flora.


The image shown is from Botticelli's La Primavera and depicts the goddess Flora on the left and the human girl Chloris being chased by the god of the west wind, Zephyrus on the right.

Cool fact

On this day in 1752, Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite is struck by lightning, enabling him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. Franklin became interested in electricity in the mid-1740s, a time when much was still unknown on the topic, and spent almost a decade conducting electrical experiments. He coined a number of terms used today, including battery, conductor and electrician. He also invented the lightning rod, used to protect buildings and ships.

Daily Amazing Women of History! Woman #1

Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh of the New Kingdom in Egypt.

Hatshepsut ruled Egypt between 1476-1458. In the ancient times women where not seen very highly so it was very rare to have a woman in any sort of power anywhere, but Hatshepsut declared herself pharaoh. To make her rule seem even more that of a true pharaoh Hatshepsut wore men's clothing and even attached the false beard that it was common for pharaohs to wear. She also fabricated many story about her divine connection with the Gods, because if you were in contact with the Gods you were the perfect person to be on the throne.

But, her life was not all wine and roses, she had a most trusted adviser named Senenmut and gossip followed Hatshepsut and Senenmut through most of Hatshepsut's reign that they were lovers. Also when Hatshepsut died her nephew took over who resented Hatshepsut for taking the throne from him so he destroyed almost every thing Hatshepsut had done/created. Her tome and mummy have never been found.

Cool fact #2: D-Day

Although the term D-Day is used routinely as military lingo for the day an operation or event will take place, for many it is also synonymous with June 6, 1944, the day the Allied powers crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control during World War II. Within three months, the northern part of France would be freed and the invasion force would be preparing to enter Germany, where they would meet up with Soviet forces moving in from the east.

With Hitler's armies in control of most of mainland Europe, the Allies knew that a successful invasion of the continent was central to winning the war. Hitler knew this too, and was expecting an assault on northwestern Europe in the spring of 1944. He hoped to repel the Allies from the coast with a strong counterattack that would delay future invasion attempts, giving him time to throw the majority of his forces into defeating the Soviet Union in the east. Once that was accomplished, he believed an all-out victory would soon be his.

On the morning of June 5, 1944, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe gave the go-ahead for Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious military operation in history. On his orders, 6,000 landing craft, ships and other vessels carrying 176,000 troops began to leave England for the trip to France. That night, 822 aircraft filled with parachutists headed for drop zones in Normandy. An additional 13,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover and support for the invasion.

By dawn on June 6, 18,000 parachutists were already on the ground; the land invasions began at 6:30 a.m. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture Gold, Juno and Sword beaches; so did the Americans at Utah. The task was much tougher at Omaha beach, however, where 2,000 troops were lost and it was only through the tenacity and quick-wittedness of troops on the ground that the objective was achieved. By day's end, 155,000 Allied troops--Americans, British and Canadians--had successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches.

For their part, the Germans suffered from confusion in the ranks and the absence of celebrated commander Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was away on leave. At first, Hitler, believing that the invasion was a feint designed to distract the Germans from a coming attack north of the Seine River, refused to release nearby divisions to join the counterattack and reinforcements had to be called from further afield, causing delays. He also hesitated in calling for armored divisions to help in the defense. In addition, the Germans were hampered by effective Allied air support, which took out many key bridges and forced the Germans to take long detours, as well as efficient Allied naval support, which helped protect advancing Allied troops.

Though it did not go off exactly as planned, as later claimed by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery--for example, the Allies were able to land only fractions of the supplies and vehicles they had intended in France--D-Day was a decided success. By the end of June, the Allies had 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy and were poised to continue their march across Europe.

Parthanon

Built twice after it was "burned" down the first time, before it was finished, and it was built as a temple to the patron Goddess of Athens ATHENA! :D

Alright fun ( or disturbing )
fact of the day #1:
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of
places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones
to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out
of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and
they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought
they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin
and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out
in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell thus,
someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."