Zeus’ Altar of Ashes Rediscovered

View from Mt. Lykaion via Wikipedia

News from the Archaeological Institute of America‘s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
By Bruce Bower January 30th, 2010; Vol.177 #3 (p. 14)

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Excavations at the Sanctuary of Zeus atop Greece’s Mount Lykaion have revealed that ritual activities occurred there for roughly 1,500 years, from the height of classic Greek civilization around 3,400 years ago until just before Roman conquest in 146.

“We may have the first documented mountaintop shrine from the ancient Greek world,” says project director David Romano of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Brit Hume Proselytizes Christianity

I don’t think that faith [Buddhism] offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. – Brit Hume on Fox News

At first I tried to shrug this off. But it kept eating at me.

Miasma and the Mentally Ill

Miasma: ritual pollution or defilement.

Is mental illness, and disease in general, inflicted by the gods as punishment for hubris and other “sins”? Are we punished for approaching the gods when afflicted by Miasma (ritual impurity), or simply ignored? Or, is Miasma the result of physical and mental illness, which when afflicts us, bars us from approaching the theoi (gods)? If so, what can we do to seek Their help when we most need it (when ill) and yet do so with respect?

How did the ancients approach this issue?