Four people have a gift, the power of an element. If a sacred ritual was used to combine them, they would become very powerful. The dead would rise, demons would roam the earth and man would kill man. The blood of the innocence would cover the earth. The ground would shake, fire would shoot up from the earth, water hundreds of feet high would crash down on homes and people, the air would swirl into powerful tornadoes destroying everything in their path. One group of friends join together and try to put an end to hell's powerful grip on the earth.
In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now strange to us, magic was of great importance both in the literary mythic tradition and in ritual practice. In this book, Daniel Ogden presents 300 texts in new translations, along with brief but explicit commentaries. Authors include the well known (Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny) and the less familiar, and extend across the whole of Graeco-Roman antiquity.
These ardent, even obsessed, poems about erotic passion are among the brightest jewels in the crown of Latin literature. Written by Propertius, Rome's greatest poet of love, who was born around 50 b.c., a contemporary of Ovid, these elegies tell of Propertius' tormented relationship with a woman he calls "Cynthia." Their connection was sometimes blissful, more often agonizing, but as the poet came to recognize, it went beyond pride or shame to become the defining event of his life. Whether or not it was Propertius' explicit intention, these elegies extend our ideas of desire, and of the human condition itself.
The persecution of Old World German Protestants and Anabaptists in the seventeenth century--following debilitating wars, the Reformation, and the Inquisition-- brought about significant immigration to America. Many of the immigrants, and their progeny, settled in the Appalachian frontier. Here they established a particularly old set of religious beliefs and traditions based on a strong sense of folk spirituality. They practiced astrology, numerology, and other aspects of esoteric thinking and left a legacy that may still be found in Appalachian folklore today. Based in part on the author's extensive collection of oral histories from the remote highlands of West Virginia, Signs, Cures, and Witchery; German Appalachian Folklore describes these various occult practices, symbols, and beliefs; how they evolved within New World religious contexts; how they arrived on the Appalachian frontier; and the prospects of those beliefs continuing in the contemporary world. By concentrating on these inheritances, Gerald C. Milnes draws a larger picture of the German influence on Appalachia. Much has been written about the Anglo-Celtic, Scots-Irish, and English folkways of the Appalachian people, but few studies have addressed their German cultural attributes and sensibilities. Signs, Cures, and Witchery sheds startling light on folk influences from Germany, making it a volume of tremendous value to Appalachian scholars, folklorists, and readers with an interest in Appalachian folklife and German American studies.
Voltaire writes a long essay questioning the Jean Calas case, reflecting on Christianity and remembering the earthquake in Lisbon. Voltaire, novelist, dramatist, poet, and philosopher was one of the most renowned figures of the Age of Enlightenment.
In the first decade of the 1800s, John Bell moved his growing family from North Carolina to the Red River community in Robertson County, Tennessee. Bell, who became an elder in the Red River Baptist Church, was well-liked and respected by his neighbors and prospered as a farmer. As Bell worked his farm, a unique phenomenon occurred. Beginning in 1817 and continuing until 1821, John Bell and his family were allegedly “haunted” by a devilish spirit called a “witch” known as “Kate.” The witch's actions were observed by many in the community, including the clergy. The events subsided only after Bell's death. Known as the “Red Book,” and including the eyewitness account of Richard Williams Bell, son of John Bell, Ingram's account is the story of the Bell Witch.
