Domina Tempora

On the early hours of 1 January 2020, flash floods took place throughout the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and the metropolitan area. Water levels reached 30-200 cm in many parts of the city, even standing at four meters in some areas. More than 397,000 people were evacuated to higher grounds. Due to landslides, hypothermia, drowning and electrocution, officials reported the death toll at 60 on 4 January 2020.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2020/01/08/reflecting-on-floods-finding-hope-and-new-beginnings-in-an-ancient-disaster/

Adonis is a young man renowned for his beauty. But he is not interested in love and only wants to go hunting. When Venus sees Adonis, she falls in love with him and comes down to earth where she encounters him setting out on a hunt. She asks him to get off his horse, and speak to her,but Adonis does not want to talk to any woman, not even a goddess. So she forces him to listen. She lies down beside him, gazes at him, and talks of love. He manages to get away and goes to get his horse.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2020/02/15/no-such-thing-as-true-love-the-tragedy-of-venus-and-adonis/

The Roman author Ovid was born a year after the assassination of Julius Caesar. He wrote various works throughout his long career, but none so insightful for the everyday person as his Ars Amatoria (“The Art of Love”).

At first glance, the three books of Ars Amatoria are a collection of short poems playing with the common tropes of love stories - the locked-out lover, the slave go-between, the symptoms of love-sickness, the rich rival, the poor poet, infidelity and occasionally successful erotic encounter. But, they also include advice to the reader on how to be a good lover.  

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2020/07/10/8-ancient-roman-love-hacks/

The Roman author Ovid was born a year after the assassination of Julius Caesar. He wrote various works throughout his long career, but none so insightful for the everyday person as his Ars Amatoria (“The Art of Love”).

At first glance, the three books of Ars Amatoria are a collection of short poems playing with the common tropes of love stories - the locked-out lover, the slave go-between, the symptoms of love-sickness, the rich rival, the poor poet, infidelity and occasionally successful erotic encounter. But, they also include advice to the reader on how to be a good lover.  

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2020/07/10/8-ancient-roman-love-hacks/

It is one of the odd mysteries of life that when a man was unfaithful to his wife, the wife would first blame the other woman. Such was the case with Namakaokahai and Pele. Overcomed with rage, Namakaokahai sent high tides and floods to destroy Pele’s home. Pele fled but could not escape her sister’s wrath.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2020/01/17/the-sisters-of-fire-and-water/

Probably the oldest transmitted hero myth we know is from the period of the foundation of Babylonia (circa 2800 BC). It concerns the birth history of its founder, Sargon of Akkad.  He was best known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC. The Sumerian king list makes him the cup-bearer to king Ur- Zababa of Kish. Sargon appears as a legendary figure in Neo-Assyrian literature of the 8th to 7th centuries BC. Tablets with fragments of a Sargon Birth Legend were found in the Library of Ashurbanipal.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2018/12/07/sargon-karna-and-ion-hidden-sons-of-virgin-mothers/

Marriage is a beautiful thing. However, even the most optimistic among us will agree that marriages are challenging and takes a lot of work to maintain. It is so challenging that it takes two people to maintain a working marriage - the  two people are, of course, the husband and wife who want to make it work. Some marriages maybe downright difficult, miserable and even unsalvageable at times.  Even Hera, the ancient Greek goddess who were actually in charge of family and marriage, had to constantly battle the many infidelities of Zeus, her philandering husband. 

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2021/05/17/the-unhappy-marriage-of-an-ancient-goddess/

Marriage is a beautiful thing. However, even the most optimistic among us will agree that marriages are challenging and takes a lot of work to maintain. It is so challenging that it takes two people to maintain a working marriage - the  two people are, of course, the husband and wife who want to make it work. Some marriages maybe downright difficult, miserable and even unsalvageable at times.  Even Hera, the ancient Greek goddess who were actually in charge of family and marriage, had to constantly battle the many infidelities of Zeus, her philandering husband. 

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2021/05/17/the-unhappy-marriage-of-an-ancient-goddess/

Although not everybody wants to be famous, it is still a natural human desire to receive some recognition for one’s talents and contribution. For the more ambitious, those who aim for everlasting fame must deal with numerous challenges from jealousy of rivals to possible extinction of their own civilisation and language.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2020/07/03/9-ancient-ways-to-everlasting-fame/

In the Dreamtime, the cluster of stars which we know as the Pleiades were seven beautiful ice maidens. Their parents were a great mountain and an ice-cold stream that flowed from the hills. The seven sisters wandered across the land, their long hair flying behind them like storm clouds. Their beauty was so entrancing that every man who saw them fell in love with them instantly. But the maidens' affections were cold.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://martinifisher.com/2020/04/10/the-maidens-and-the-stars-star-legends-of-aboriginal-australia/