Η μάχη στο Αγιονόρι

Το κάστρο στο Αγιονόρι Κορινθίας

190 χρόνια από τη μάχη στο Αγιονόρι (28 Ιουλίου 1822): Νικηταράς, Παπαφλέσσας και Δημήτριος Υψηλάντης ηγούνται ελληνικού σώματος που νικά και πάλι και ουσιαστικά εξουδετερώνει τη στρατιά του Δράμαλη (δύο μέρες νωρίτερα είχε ηττηθεί στα Δερβενάκια). 

The massacre at Béziers on Ste. Madeleine's Day

Beziers

 

22 July 1209 (Ste. Madeleine's Day)

The day before, the crusader army, commanded by the Papal Legate, the Abbot of Citeaux Arnaud Amalric, reached the outskirts of Béziers and started to besiege the city, calling on the Catholics within to come out, and demanding that the Cathars surrender. Both groups refused. The army, consisting of knights mostly from northern France, was set up following Pope's Innocent III declaration of a crusade to eliminate Catharism in the Languedoc. 

During the storming of the city on Ste. Madeleine's Day, thousands of Béziers' citizens sought sanctuary in the Cathedral of St Nazaire, which was set on fire, and also in the Eglise de la Madeleine, inside which all were butchered to death. 

"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius - Kill them all, God will recognize his own" was the famous quotation of Arnaud Amarlic, which exonerated the rampaging Crusaders. 

No one was spared, irrespective of rank, sex or age... Contemporary sources give estimates of the number of dead ranging between 15,000 and 20,000.

Losing my thoughts

Falling leaves / © I.A. Daglis

... the meaning of my thoughts started to float away from me, like leaves that fall from a tree into a river, I was the tree, the world was the river ...

Jonathan Safran Foer [Extremely loud and incredibly close, 2005]

Desert

The desert of Judaea as seen from Masada / I.A. Daglis, thanks to Tsvi

The desert is the environment of revelation, genetically and physiologically alien, sensorily austere, esthetically abstract, historically inimical... Its forms are bold and suggestive. The mind is beset by light and space, the kinesthetic novelty of aridity, high temperature and wind. The desert sky is encircling, majestic, terrible... To the desert go prophets and hermits; through deserts go pilgrims and exiles. Here the leaders of the great religions have sought the therapeutic and spiritual values of retreat, not to escape but to find reality.

Paul Howe Shepard [Man in the landscape: A historic view of the esthetics of nature, 1967]

Abyss

Abyss / © I.A. Daglis

Wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
(When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you)

Friedrich Nietzsche [Aphorism 146 in Beyond Good and Evil, 1886]

Challenge

The Challenge of Angels Landing, 2009

 

 

 

According to the moral absolutism that characterized McCandless's beliefs, a challenge in which a successful outcome is assured isn't a challenge at all.

Jon Krakauer [Into the wild, 1996]