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109-471: Arion was a native of Methymna in Lesbos , and, according to some mythological accounts, a son of Cyclon or of Poseidon and the nymph Oncaea. All traditions about him agree in describing him as a contemporary and friend of Periander , tyrant of Corinth. He appears to have spent a great part of his life at the court of Periander, but respecting his life and his poetical or musical productions, scarcely anything

218-462: A heuristic device , Augustine thought the actual event of creation would be incomprehensible by humans and therefore needed to be translated. Augustine also does not envision original sin as causing structural changes in the universe, and even suggests that the bodies of Adam and Eve were already created mortal before the Fall . Apart from his specific views, Augustine recognized that interpreting

327-538: A busy schedule made up of preparing sermons and preaching at other churches besides his own. When serving as the Bishop of Hippo, his goal was to minister to individuals in his congregation and he would choose the passages that the church planned to read every week. As bishop, he believed that it was his job to interpret the work of the Bible. He wrote his autobiographical Confessions in 397–398. His work The City of God

436-521: A classic of Christian theology and a key text in the history of autobiography . This work is an outpouring of thanksgiving and penitence. Although it is written as an account of his life, the Confessions also talks about the nature of time, causality, free will, and other important philosophical topics. The following is taken from that work: Belatedly I loved thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new, belatedly I loved thee. For see, thou wast within and I

545-736: A disappointing meeting with the Manichaean bishop, Faustus of Mileve , a key exponent of Manichaean theology, started Augustine's scepticism of Manichaeanism. In Rome, he reportedly turned away from Manichaeanism, embracing the scepticism of the New Academy movement. Because of his education, Augustine had great rhetorical prowess and was very knowledgeable of the philosophies behind many faiths. At Milan, his mother's religiosity, Augustine's own studies in Neoplatonism , and his friend Simplicianus all urged him towards Christianity. This

654-513: A doublet of the fate of Melicertes , where the leap into the sea was that of his mother, Ino. transformed into the "white goddess" Leucothea ; Melicertes was carried more dead than alive to the shores where the Isthmian Games were celebrated in his honour, as he was transformed to the hero Palaimon, who was placated with a nocturnal chthonic rite, and the whose winners were crowned with a barren wreath of spruce. A similar story of told of

763-524: A festival in honour of the Ptolemies, the Ptolemaia, was instituted, and public documents produced by the city were dated by the regnal years of the Ptolemies. Worship of Sarapis , an Egyptian cult patronized by the Ptolemies, was probably introduced to Methymna at this period, and remained an important part of the city's life for several centuries. In the 2nd century BCE Methymna increasingly pursued

872-415: A greater good. Eventually, Augustine concludes that it was the good of the "companionship" between him and his accomplices that allowed him to delight in this theft. At the age of 17, through the generosity of his fellow citizen Romanianus, Augustine went to Carthage to continue his education in rhetoric , though it was above the financial means of his family. Despite the good warnings of his mother, as

981-510: A historical individual. "There is no historicity in this tale", according to Eunice Burr Stebbins, Arion and the dolphins are given as an example of "a folkloristic motif especially associated with Apollo" by Irad Malkin. Erasmus instanced Arion as one of the traditional poet's topics that sound like historia rather than fabulae , though he misremembered that Augustine had taken the Arion story to be historical. The pirates episode may be seen as

1090-561: A hymn to Poseidon, quoted by Aelian and by him ascribed to Arion, has survived, and is contained in Bergk 's Poetae Lyrici Graeci. A poetic translation was made by the English schoolmaster Herbert Kynaston . A more literal prose rendering follows: Chiefest of Gods, sea-lord Poseidon of the trident of gold, earth-shaking king of the swelling brine, the beasts that swim dance all about thee with fins, and lightly bound with nimble flingings of

1199-437: A large community of Christians against different political and religious factors which had a major influence on his writings. Possidius admired Augustine as a man of powerful intellect and a stirring orator who took every opportunity to defend Christianity against its detractors. Possidius also described Augustine's personal traits in detail, drawing a portrait of a man who ate sparingly, worked tirelessly, despised gossip, shunned

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1308-537: A literal 1,000-year kingdom prior to the general resurrection , but later rejected the belief, viewing it as carnal. During the medieval period, the Catholic Church built its system of eschatology on Augustinian amillennialism , where Christ rules the earth spiritually through his triumphant church. During the Reformation , theologians such as John Calvin accepted amillennialism. Augustine taught that

1417-535: A particular reputation among Romans for viticulture during the Imperial period . Virgil speaks of the vines of Methymna as the best and most numerous on Lesbos, while Ovid invokes them as an example of something which is proverbially numerous and bountiful. The distinctive strong taste of Methymnaean wine is mentioned by Silius Italicus , and Propertius uses this as a point of reference when describing another Greek wine. When Virgil and Silius wished to indicate

1526-519: A policy of seeking closer ties with the emerging power of Rome. Methymna remained loyal to Rome during the Macedonian Wars , and in 167 BCE it was rewarded when the Romans punished neighbouring Antissa for disloyalty and transferred its territory to Methymna. The territory of Methymna was ravaged by King Prusias II of Bithynia along with several other cities in this region in ca. 156 BCE, but

1635-400: A purely titular see of Methymna; there were 40 Roman Catholics in 1908. In 840 the city was plundered by Cretan Arabs and many of the inhabitants sold into slavery. The fortifications of Methymna were strengthened following this attack, and again at the end of the 11th century, as we learn from a building inscription dating to 1084/5. A few years later in 1089/90 these fortifications helped

1744-538: A rhetoric professor. Augustine won the job and headed north to take his position in Milan in late 384. Thirty years old, he had won the most visible academic position in the Latin world at a time when such posts gave ready access to political careers. Although Augustine spent ten years as a Manichaean, he was never an initiate or "elect", but an "auditor", the lowest level in this religion's hierarchy. While still at Carthage

1853-687: A second invasion in 1458 when the admiral Ismaelos seized the city with a force of 150 ships. Using Methymna as a base, the whole island was gradually brought under Ottoman control by September 1462. As Molova under the Ottoman Empire , the city was a kaza of the sanjak of Metelin in the vilayet of Rhodes . After the defeat of the Ottomans in the First Balkan War (1912), the Greek navy liberated and incorporated Lesbos in

1962-429: A small Numidian city about 31 kilometres (19 miles) south of Thagaste. There he became familiar with Latin literature , as well as pagan beliefs and practices. His first insight into the nature of sin occurred when he and a number of friends stole pears from a neighbourhood garden. He tells this story in his autobiography, Confessions . He realises that the pears were "tempting neither for its colour nor its flavour" - he

2071-443: A teenage heiress. By the time he was able to marry her, however, he had decided to become a Christian priest and the marriage did not happen. Augustine was, from the beginning, a brilliant student, with an eager intellectual curiosity, but he never mastered Greek – his first Greek teacher was a brutal man who constantly beat his students, and Augustine rebelled and refused to study. By the time he realized he needed to know Greek, it

2180-524: A villa outside of Milan where he gathered with his followers, and described it as Christianae vitae otium – the leisure of Christian life. In late August of 386, at the age of 31, having heard of Ponticianus's and his friends' first reading of the life of Anthony of the Desert , Augustine converted to Christianity. As Augustine later told it, his conversion was prompted by hearing a child's voice say "take up and read" ( Latin : tolle, lege ). Resorting to

2289-551: A young woman in Carthage. Though his mother wanted him to marry a person of his class, the woman remained his lover. He was warned by his mother to avoid fornication (sex outside marriage), but Augustine persisted in the relationship for over fifteen years, and the woman gave birth to his son Adeodatus (372–388), which means "Gift from God", who was viewed as extremely intelligent by his contemporaries. In 385, Augustine ended his relationship with his lover in order to prepare to marry

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2398-421: A youth Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a time, associating with young men who boasted of their sexual exploits. The need to gain their acceptance encouraged inexperienced boys like Augustine to seek or make up stories about sexual experiences. Despite multiple claims to the contrary, it has been suggested that Augustine's actual sexual experiences were likely with members of the opposite sex only. It

2507-401: Is a three-dimensional object composed of the four elements, whereas the soul has no spatial dimensions. Soul is a kind of substance, participating in reason, fit for ruling the body. Augustine was not preoccupied, as Plato and Descartes were, in detailed efforts to explain the metaphysics of the soul-body union. It sufficed for him to admit they are metaphysically distinct: to be a human

2616-426: Is known beyond the story of his escape from the sailors with whom he sailed from Sicily to Corinth. Arion is often called the inventor of the dithyrambic poetry, and of the name dithyramb. As Arthur Wallace writes: "As a literary composition for chorus dithyramb was the creation of Arion of Corinth," His fame was established in antiquity, and Herodotus says "Arion was second to none of the lyre-players in his time and

2725-596: Is known by various cognomens throughout the many denominations of the Christian world, including Blessed Augustine and the Doctor of Grace ( Latin : Doctor gratiae ). Hippo Regius , where Augustine was the bishop , was in modern-day Annaba , Algeria . Augustine was born in 354 in the municipium of Thagaste (now Souk Ahras , Algeria ) in the Roman province of Numidia . His mother, Monica or Monnica,

2834-808: Is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church , the Eastern Orthodox Church , the Lutheran churches , and the Anglican Communion . He is also a preeminent Catholic Doctor of the Church and the patron of the Augustinians . His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his death. Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, and a number of cities and dioceses. His thoughts profoundly influenced

2943-423: Is to be a composite of soul and body, with the soul superior to the body. The latter statement is grounded in his hierarchical classification of things into those that merely exist, those that exist and live, and those that exist, live, and have intelligence or reason. Like other Church Fathers such as Athenagoras , Tertullian , Clement of Alexandria and Basil of Caesarea , Augustine "vigorously condemned

3052-511: The sortes biblicae , he opened a book of St. Paul's writings (codex apostoli, 8.12.29) at random and read Romans 13: 13–14: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof." He later wrote an account of his conversion in his Confessions ( Latin : Confessiones ), which has since become

3161-493: The Edict of Caracalla in 212. Augustine's family had been Roman, from a legal standpoint, for at least a century when he was born. It is assumed that his mother, Monica, was of Berber origin, on the basis of her name, but as his family were honestiores , an upper class of citizens known as honorable men, Augustine's first language was likely Latin. At the age of 11, Augustine was sent to school at Madaurus (now M'Daourouch ),

3270-534: The Manichaean religion , to which he had formerly adhered. He preached around 6,000 to 10,000 sermons when he was alive; however, there are only around 500 sermons that are accessible today. When Augustine preached his sermons, they were recorded by stenographers. Some of his sermons would last over one hour and he would preach multiple times throughout a given week. When talking to his audience, he would stand on an elevated platform; however, he would walk towards

3379-465: The true church . He was strongly influenced by the Platonist belief that true reality is invisible and that, if the visible reflects the invisible, it does so only partially and imperfectly (see Theory of Forms ). Others question whether Augustine really held to some form of an "invisible true Church" concept. Augustine originally believed in premillennialism , namely that Christ would establish

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3488-597: The Archaic period, Methymna enslaved the city of Arisba on Lesbos: this will have greatly increased the territory of Methymna, as well as giving it access to the fertile land around the Gulf of Kalloni . We are also told by a local historian, Myrsilus of Methymna , who wrote in the first half of the 3rd century BCE, that Methymna founded the city of Assos which was on the coast of Asia Minor opposite Methymna. However, another local historian, Hellanicus of Lesbos , writing in

3597-732: The Athenian Empire. Methymna was briefly captured by the Spartans in summer 412, before quickly being retaken by the Athenians: in describing this episode, the historian Thucydides indicates that the Methymnaeans were much more inclined to side with Athens than Sparta. This was likewise the case in 411, when a group of Methymnaeans who were in exile at Cyme in Aeolis attempted to return to Methymna by force, but were rebuffed by

3706-644: The Augustinian Eremites . In the East , his teachings are more disputed and were notably attacked by John Romanides , but other theologians and figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church have shown significant approbation of his writings, chiefly Georges Florovsky . The most controversial doctrine associated with him, the filioque , was rejected by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Other disputed teachings include his views on original sin,

3815-665: The Augustinians guardians of the tomb of Augustine (called Arca ), which was remade in 1362 and elaborately carved with bas-reliefs of scenes from Augustine's life, created by Giovanni di Balduccio . In October 1695, some workmen in the Church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia discovered a marble box containing human bones (including part of a skull). A dispute arose between the Augustinian hermits (Order of Saint Augustine) and

3924-520: The Church are the successors of the Apostles , and their authority in the Church is God-given. The concept of Church invisible was advocated by Augustine as part of his refutation of the Donatist sect, though he, as other Church Fathers before him, saw the invisible Church and visible Church as one and the same thing, unlike the later Protestant reformers who did not identify the Catholic Church as

4033-469: The Church in 1298 by Pope Boniface VIII . His feast day is 28 August, the day on which he died. He is considered the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, and a number of cities and dioceses. He is invoked against sore eyes. Augustine is remembered in the Church of England 's calendar of saints with a lesser festival on 28 August. According to Bede 's True Martyrology , Augustine's body

4142-473: The Church, who are either dead, sinful members or elect predestined for Heaven). The former is the institutional body established by Christ on earth which proclaims salvation and administers the sacraments, while the latter is the invisible body of the elect, made up of genuine believers from all ages, who are known only to God. The Church, which is visible and societal, will be made up of "wheat" and "tares", that is, good and wicked people (as per Mat. 13:30), until

4251-504: The Dead, section 5 (420) he exhorted respect for the body on the grounds it belonged to the very nature of the human person . Augustine's favourite figure to describe body-soul unity is marriage: caro tua, coniunx tua – your body is your wife . Initially, the two elements were in perfect harmony. After the fall of humanity they are now experiencing dramatic combat with one another. They are two categorically different things. The body

4360-577: The Great and the Persian forces of Memnon of Rhodes , that Memnon captured Methymna in 333 BCE, and that when Alexander's admiral Hegelochus recaptured Methymna in 332 BCE its tyrant was Aristonicus not Kleommis. However, it is not clear whether Aristonicus was made tyrant when the Persians recaptured Methymna in 335, or whether Kleommis was re-installed and Aristonicus only made tyrant in 333. Whatever

4469-714: The Greek Kingdom. The province of Mithymna ( Greek : Επαρχία Μήθυμνας ) was one of the provinces of the Lesbos Prefecture. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipal units Mithymna, Agia Paraskevi , Eresos-Antissa , Kalloni and Petra . It was abolished in 2006. Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( / ɔː ˈ ɡ ʌ s t ɪ n / aw- GUST -in , US also / ˈ ɔː ɡ ə s t iː n / AW -gə-steen ; Latin : Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine ,

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4578-464: The Holiness of the Catholic Church . That year, also, Adeodatus and Augustine returned home to Africa. Augustine's mother Monica died at Ostia , Italy, as they prepared to embark for Africa. Upon their arrival, they began a life of aristocratic leisure at Augustine's family's property. Soon after, Adeodatus, too, died. Augustine then sold his patrimony and gave the money to the poor. He only kept

4687-590: The Mytilenaean revolt in 428 BCE when all the other cities of Lesbos sided with Mytilene. When the Athenians put down the revolt the following year, only Methymna was spared from having its territory turned into a cleruchy . After 427, Methymna and Chios were the only members of the Delian League to remain self-governing and exempt from tribute, indicating the privileged position Methymna held within

4796-512: The Romans later compelled Prusias to pay reparations of 100 talents for the damage done. In 129 BCE, an inscription from Methymna shows that the city formed a formal alliance with Rome. A dedication to the Galatian princess Adobogiona (fl. c. 80 - 50 BCE), who was the mistress of Mithridates VI of Pontus , a long-standing enemy of Rome, may indicate a cooling of relations between Methymna or Rome or simply political expediency. Methymna gained

4905-562: The Septuagint. His view was based on the Aristotelian distinction "between the fetus before and after its supposed 'vivification ' ". Therefore, he did not classify as murder the abortion of an "unformed" fetus since he thought it could not be known with certainty the fetus had received a soul. Augustine held that "the timing of the infusion of the soul was a mystery known to God alone". However, he considered procreation as "one of

5014-526: The ancient Faith". In his youth he was drawn to the Manichaean faith , and later to the Hellenistic philosophy of Neoplatonism . After his conversion to Christianity and baptism in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin and made significant contributions to

5123-442: The audience during his sermons. When he was preaching, he used a variety of rhetorical devices that included analogies , word pictures, similes , metaphors , repetition , and antithesis when trying to explain more about the Bible. In addition, he used questions and rhymes when talking about the differences between people's life on Earth and Heaven as seen in one of his sermons that was preached in 412 AD. Augustine believed that

5232-485: The best and brightest rhetoricians practised, in 383. However, Augustine was disappointed with the apathetic reception. It was the custom for students to pay their fees to the professor on the last day of the term, and many students attended faithfully all term, and then did not pay. Manichaean friends introduced him to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus , who had been asked by the imperial court at Milan to provide

5341-478: The case, in 332 Alexander gave Aristonicus over to the newly restored Methymnaean democracy to try, and he was found guilty and put to death by torture. In c. 295 BCE, Methymna struck silver drachms for King Lysimachus , indicating that the city was part of his kingdom at this time. However, by the 250s BCE at the latest, Methymna had come under the sway of the Ptolemaic Kingdom . During this period,

5450-476: The city and the river, Taras after himself. Another parallel is the myth of Dionysus and the sailors, related in the Homeric Hymns : Tyrrhenian pirates try to lash the god to the mast, but the wood itself starts to sprout and the mast is entwined with ivy (like the god's thyrsus ); the sailors leap into the sea and are transformed into dolphins. This is especially interesting because Arion is credited with

5559-464: The city's democrats and remained in power for the next decade. We do not know what happened to Kleommis after this, although it is likely that he was expelled when the island fell to Philip II 's generals Parmenion and Attalus in 336. The political history of the following four years are poorly attested: we know that Lesbos changed hands several times between the Macedonian forces of Alexander

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5668-439: The consciousness of his African heritage, at least geographically and perhaps ethnically. For example, he refers to Apuleius as "the most notorious of us Africans," to Ponticianus as "a country man of ours, insofar as being African," and to Faustus of Mileve as "an African Gentleman ". Augustine's family name, Aurelius, suggests his father's ancestors were freedmen of the gens Aurelia given full Roman citizenship by

5777-514: The contemporary ideas of ages (such as those of certain Greeks and Egyptians) that differed from the Church's sacred writings. In The Literal Interpretation of Genesis , Augustine argued that God had created everything in the universe simultaneously and not over a period of six days. He argued the six-day structure of creation presented in the Book of Genesis represents a logical framework , rather than

5886-543: The creation story was difficult, and remarked that interpretations could change should new information come up. Augustine developed his doctrine of the Church principally in reaction to the Donatist sect. He taught there is one Church, but within this Church there are two realities, namely, the visible aspect (the institutional hierarchy , the Catholic sacraments , and the laity ) and the invisible (the souls of those in

5995-497: The daughter of Macar and married to the personification of Lesbos. Very little is known about Methymna in the Archaic period. The story of Arion and the dolphin, which involves the Corinthian tyrant Periander and is evidently set at the turn of the 7th century BCE, suggests that Methymna was already a prominent city with far-reaching contacts across the Greek world at this period. Herodotus tells us that at some point in

6104-642: The development of just war theory . When the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine imagined the Church as a spiritual City of God , distinct from the material Earthly City. The segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople closely identified with Augustine's On the Trinity . Augustine

6213-685: The doctrine of grace, and predestination . Though considered to be mistaken on some points, he is still considered a saint and has influenced some Eastern Church Fathers, most notably Gregory Palamas . In the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches , his feast day is celebrated on 15 June. The historian Diarmaid MacCulloch has written: "Augustine's impact on Western Christian thought can hardly be overstated; only his beloved example, Paul of Tarsus , has been more influential, and Westerners have generally seen Paul through Augustine's eyes." Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine or Saint Austin ,

6322-407: The dolphin among the stars. This dolphin was catasterised as the constellation Delphinus , by the blessing of Apollo. The story as Herodotus tells it was taken up in other literature. Lucian of Samosata wittily imagined the dialogue between Poseidon and the very dolphin who bore Arion. Augustine of Hippo asserted that pagans "believed in what they read in their own books" and took Arion to be

6431-566: The drama [i.e. action] of tragedy, as Solon indicated in his poem entitled Elegies ". According to Herodotus ' account of the Lydian empire under the Mermnads , Arion attended a musical competition in Sicily , which he won. On his return trip from Tarentum , whose onomastic founder has a similar story, avaricious sailors plotted to kill Arion and steal the rich prizes he carried home. Arion

6540-625: The end of time. This concept countered the Donatist claim that only those in a state of grace were the "true" or "pure" church on earth, and that priests and bishops who were not in a state of grace had no authority or ability to confect the sacraments. Augustine's ecclesiology was more fully developed in City of God . There he conceives of the church as a heavenly city or kingdom, ruled by love, which will ultimately triumph over all earthly empires which are self-indulgent and ruled by pride. Augustine followed Cyprian in teaching that bishops and priests of

6649-412: The eternal fate of the soul is determined at death, and that purgatorial fires of the intermediate state purify only those who died in communion with the Church. His teaching provided fuel for later theology. Although Augustine did not develop an independent Mariology , his statements on Mary surpass in number and depth those of other early writers. Even before the Council of Ephesus , he defended

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6758-450: The exceptional quality of Phalernian wine, Methymnaean wine is among the vintages which they say it surpasses. We also learn from Horace that Methymnaean grapes were equally prized for the excellent vinegar which could be produced from them and which he describes accompanying a sumptuous eel dish. The medical writer Galen , who was a native of nearby Pergamon , considered all the wines of Lesbos to be excellent, but ranked that of Methymna

6867-414: The experience eventually produced a decreased sensitivity to pain. Augustine eventually broke off his engagement to his eleven-year-old fiancée but never renewed his relationship with either of his concubines. Alypius of Thagaste steered Augustine away from marriage, saying they could not live a life together in the love of wisdom if he married. Augustine looked back years later on the life at Cassiciacum ,

6976-399: The family house, which he converted into a monastic foundation for himself and a group of friends. Furthermore, while he was known for his major contributions to Christian rhetoric, another major contribution was his preaching style. After converting to Christianity, Augustine turned against his profession as a rhetoric professor in order to devote more time to preaching. In 391 Augustine

7085-417: The first in quality, that of Eresos second, and that of Mytilene third. In the novel Daphnis and Chloe , thought to be by the Mytilenaean aristocrat Longus and set in the region of Lesbos between Methymna and Mytilene, the vine harvest is the most important time of the agricultural year, and the Mytilenaean owner of the land in this region times his annual visit to coincide with the end of this harvest when

7194-583: The foot, the snub-nosed coarsing hounds of bristling mane, the dolphin-lovers of the Muse, sea-creatures of Nereus' goddess-daughters that he had of Amphitrite, the beasts that bore a wanderer on the Sicilian sea to Taenarum's shore in Pelops' land, ploughing to the untrodden furrow of Nereus' field astride their humpèd back, when crafty men had cast me from out the hollow wave-going ship into the sea-purple billows of

7303-464: The founding of Taras in Megale Hellas ( Magna Graecia ), modern Taranto, Apulia, Italy. When a son of Poseidon called Taras was shipwrecked, his father rescued him by sending a dolphin which he rode to traverse the sea from the promontory of Taenarum to the south of Italy. Brought ashore, Taras founded the city of the same name. According to Pausanias , he was worshiped as a hero who named both

7412-405: The goods of marriage; abortion figured as a means, along with drugs which cause sterility, of frustrating this good. It lay along a continuum which included infanticide as an instance of 'lustful cruelty' or 'cruel lust.' Augustine called the use of means to avoid the birth of a child an 'evil work:' a reference to either abortion or contraception or both." In City of God , Augustine rejected both

7521-433: The hill in the middle of the town. The town's agora is located on the uphill road to the fortress and is popular among tourists, with many historic shops, cafés and restaurants. The municipal unit of Míthymna stretches eastward from the town along the northern part of the island; it is the island's smallest municipal unit in land area at 50.166 km². Its population was 2,255 at the 2011 census. The next largest towns in

7630-606: The inhabitants of Methymna successfully repel an attack by Emir Tzachas of Smyrna. These fortifications again kept Methymna safe when the Genoese Lord of Phokaia, Domenico Cattaneo , seized the rest of Lesbos in 1335, but was unable to take Methymna or the equally well-fortified town of Eresos . Along with the rest of Lesbos, Methymna became a possession of the Gattelusi family in 1355. Methymna repelled an Ottoman invasion force in 1450, but its defences were over-powered in

7739-408: The invention of the dithyramb , a dionysiac song form. In light of the above parallels, Walter Burkert interprets the story as a significant development in the history of Dionysiac cult: "Released from this gloomy background, the cheerful and liberating legend of the sixth century further developed the image of the dolphin-rider under the colours of the renewed cult of Dionysus.". C. M. Bowra tied

7848-508: The library of the church in Hippo and all the books therein should be carefully preserved. He died on 28 August 430. Shortly after his death, the Vandals lifted the siege of Hippo, but they returned soon after and burned the city. They destroyed all but Augustine's cathedral and library, which they left untouched. Augustine was canonized by popular acclaim, and later recognized as a Doctor of

7957-582: The medieval worldview. Many Protestants , especially Calvinists and Lutherans , consider him one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and divine grace . Protestant Reformers generally, and Martin Luther in particular, held Augustine in preeminence among early Church Fathers . From 1505 to 1521, Luther was a member of the Order of

8066-511: The mid-5th century BCE, instead simply says Assos was an Aeolian foundation and does not specify a particular city as its founder. This has led some historians to doubt Myrsilus, and instead suggest that this is an example of "local Methymnaean manipulation of the past", although this could equally be true of Hellanicus. Methymna had a long-standing rivalry with Mytilene , and during the Peloponnesian War it sided with Athens during

8175-561: The municipal unit are Árgennos (pop. 240) and Sykaminéa (207). Molyvos Beach is one of the Blue Flag beaches in Lesbos. The shoreline is pebbled, but the seabed consists entirely of soft sand and remains shallow for a considerable distance. The agora and fortress are visible from the beach. As Methymna , the city was once the prosperous second city of Lesbos, with a founding myth that identified an eponymous Methymna (Greek: Μήθυμνα),

8284-499: The myth to the period following the expulsion from Corinth of the aristocratic Bacchiadae , who traced their descent from Dionysus: "the cult of the god had to develop new and more democratic forms." Stewart Flory identified Herodotus' characteristic use of the episode in a historicising context as an example of what Flory calls his "brave gestures", a man faced with death performs with calm dignity some spirited but unnecessary gesture that demonstrates contempt for danger. A fragment of

8393-498: The ocean. Letitia Elizabeth Landon 's poem Arion examines and illustrates the story of Arion's return to Greece. Alexander Pushkin 's 1827 Arion poem, where Arion is the sole survivor of a shipwreck after a sea storm and continues to sing the same songs with which he used to delight his shipmates, is thought to be a thinly veiled allusion to his own situation after the Decembrist revolt of 1825. George Eliot 's poem of

8502-471: The passage of time in a physical way – it would bear a spiritual, rather than physical, meaning, which is no less literal. One reason for this interpretation is the passage in Sirach  18:1, creavit omnia simul ("He created all things at once"), which Augustine took as proof that the days of Genesis 1 had to be taken non-literalistically. As additional support for describing the six days of creation as

8611-472: The population. When the Spartan commander Kallikratidas besieged Methymna in 406, the city stayed loyal to its Athenian garrison and held out until it was betrayed by several traitors. Our knowledge of the history of Methymna in the 4th century is limited, but its prominence as a polis is firmly attested by the city's silver and bronze coinage. By at least the 340s BCE, the tyrant Kleommis had expelled

8720-527: The practice of induced abortion ", and although he disapproved of abortion during any stage of pregnancy, he made a distinction between early and later abortions. He acknowledged the distinction between "formed" and "unformed" fetuses mentioned in the Septuagint translation of Exodus 21:22–23, which incorrectly translates the word "harm" (from the original Hebrew text) as "form" in the Koine Greek of

8829-443: The preachers' ultimate goal is to ensure the salvation of their audience. In 395, he was made coadjutor Bishop of Hippo and became full Bishop shortly thereafter, hence the name "Augustine of Hippo"; and he gave his property to the church of Thagaste. He remained in that position until his death in 430. Bishops were the only individuals allowed to preach when he was alive and he scheduled time to preach after being ordained despite

8938-528: The regular canons ( Canons Regular of Saint Augustine ) as to whether these were the bones of Augustine. The hermits did not believe so; the canons affirmed they were. Eventually Pope Benedict XIII (1724–1730) directed the Bishop of Pavia, Monsignor Pertusati, to make a determination. The bishop declared that, in his opinion, the bones were those of Augustine. The Augustinians were expelled from Pavia in 1785, Augustine's ark and relics were brought to Pavia Cathedral in 1799. San Pietro fell into disrepair but

9047-463: The saint. Augustine's large contribution of writings covered diverse fields including theology, philosophy and sociology. Along with John Chrysostom , Augustine was among the most prolific scholars of the early church by quantity. Augustine was one of the first Christian ancient Latin authors with a very clear vision of theological anthropology . He saw the human being as a perfect unity of soul and body. In his late treatise On Care to Be Had for

9156-531: The same name recounts Arion's murder by pirates ("sailors"), with, however, no mention of him being saved by dolphins. In Amor Towles ' 2016 novel A Gentleman in Moscow , the Count tells Anna the story of Arion, after tracing freckles that reminded him of a dolphin on her back. Inspired by the lifeguard dolphin story, the name Arion was given in 2015 to a possible exoplanet orbiting the star 18 Delphini , which

9265-487: The sea rather than be killed, but one of the dolphins saved his life and carried him to safety at the sanctuary of Poseidon at Cape Tainaron . When he reached land, being eager for his journey, he failed to return the dolphin to the sea and it perished there. He told his misfortunes to Periander , the Tyrant of Corinth, who ordered the dolphin to be buried, and monument raised to it. Shortly after, word came to Periander that

9374-414: The sea. When the tyrant brought the ship's crew to the dolphin's monument and ordered them to swear by the departed spirit of the dolphin that Arion was dead, Arion came out of the monument. In amazement, wondering by what divinity he had been saved, the ship's crew was silent. The tyrant ordered them to be crucified at the dolphin's monument. Apollo, because of Arion's skill with the kithara, placed him and

9483-526: The ship on which Arion had sailed had been brought to Corinth by a storm. He ordered the crew to be led before him, and inquired about Arion, but they replied that he had died and that they had buried him. The tyrant replied: "Tomorrow you will swear to that at the Dolphin's monument." Because of this he ordered them to be kept under guard, and instructed Arion to hide in the dolphin's monument the next morning, attired as he had been when he had thrown himself into

9592-401: The siege. Augustine has been cited to have excommunicated himself upon the approach of his death in an act of public penance and solidarity with sinners. Spending his final days in prayer and repentance, he requested the penitential Psalms of David be hung on his walls so he could read them and upon which led him to "[weep] freely and constantly" according to Possidius' biography. He directed

9701-484: The temptations of the flesh, and exercised prudence in the financial stewardship of his see. Shortly before Augustine's death, the Vandals , a Germanic tribe that had converted to Arianism , invaded Roman Africa . The Vandals besieged Hippo in the spring of 430 when Augustine entered his final illness. According to Possidius, one of the few miracles attributed to Augustine, the healing of an ill man, took place during

9810-558: The year's profit can be established. The first attested bishop of Methymna was Christodoros in 520 CE. In 640, Methymna was mentioned in the Ecthesis , pseudographically attributed to Epiphanius of Salamis , as an autocephalous archdiocese, and around 1084, it was made a metropolitan see under Alexius I Comnenus . The Fourth Crusade brought Latin control, on the strength of which the Roman Catholic Church maintains

9919-650: Was ordained a priest in Hippo Regius (now Annaba), in Algeria. He was especially interested in discovering how his previous rhetorical training in Italian schools would help the Christian Church achieve its objective of discovering and teaching the different scriptures in the Bible. He became a famous preacher (more than 350 preserved sermons are believed to be authentic), and was noted for combating

10028-487: Was a devout Christian; his father Patricius was a pagan who converted to Christianity on his deathbed. He had a brother named Navigius and a sister whose name is lost but is conventionally remembered as Perpetua . Scholars generally agree that Augustine and his family were Berbers , an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa, but were heavily Romanized, speaking only Latin at home as a matter of pride and dignity. In his writings, Augustine leaves some information as to

10137-694: Was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia , Roman North Africa . His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity , and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period . His many important works include The City of God , On Christian Doctrine , and Confessions . According to his contemporary, Jerome of Stridon , Augustine "established anew

10246-457: Was also the first man we know of to compose and name the dithyramb and teach it in Corinth". However, J. H. Sleeman observes of the dithyramb, or circular chorus, "It is first mentioned by Archilochus (c. 665 BC) ... Arion flourished at least 50 years later ... probably gave it a more artistic form, adding a chorus of 50 people, personating satyrs... who danced around an altar of Dionysus. He

10355-499: Was doubtless the first to introduce the dithyramb into Corinth". Armand D'Angour notes that Arion's contribution to the reform of the dithyramb, which was eventually performed in a circle and called kuklios choros , was recognised by ancient sources by the fact that they named his father Kukleus ("Circle-man"). Arion is also associated with the origins of tragedy: of Solon John the Deacon reports: “Arion of Methymna first introduced

10464-482: Was finally restored in the 1870s, under the urging of Agostino Gaetano Riboldi , and reconsecrated in 1896 when the relics of Augustine and the shrine were once again reinstalled. In 1842, a portion of Augustine's right arm (cubitus) was secured from Pavia and returned to Annaba. It now rests in the Saint Augustin Basilica within a glass tube inserted into the arm of a life-size marble statue of

10573-424: Was forever changed. Augustine arrived in Milan and visited Ambrose, having heard of his reputation as an orator. Like Augustine, Ambrose was a master of rhetoric, but older and more experienced. Soon, their relationship grew, as Augustine wrote, "And I began to love him, of course, not at the first as a teacher of the truth, for I had entirely despaired of finding that in thy Church—but as a friendly man." Augustine

10682-414: Was given the choice of suicide with a proper burial on land, or being thrown in the sea to perish. He asked for permission to sing a last song to win time. Playing his kithara , Arion sang a praise to Apollo , the god of poetry, and his song attracted a number of dolphins around the ship. Some argue that the dolphins were sent by Apollo to rescue Arion. At the end of the song, Arion threw himself into

10791-569: Was later translated or moved to Cagliari , Sardinia , by the Catholic bishops expelled from North Africa by Huneric . Around 720, his remains were transported again by Peter, bishop of Pavia and uncle of the Lombard king Liutprand , to the church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, to save them from frequent coastal raids by Saracens . In January 1327, Pope John XXII issued the papal bull Veneranda Santorum Patrum , in which he appointed

10900-413: Was named Musica at the same time. Methymna Mithymna ( Greek pronunciation: [ˈmiθimna] ) ( Greek : Μήθυμνα , also sometimes spelled Methymna ) is a town and former municipality on the island of Lesbos , North Aegean , Greece . Since the 2019 local government reform it is part of the municipality of West Lesbos , of which it is a municipal unit. Before 1919, its official name

11009-407: Was neither hungry nor poor, and he had enough of fruit which were "much better". Over the next few chapters, Augustine agonises over this past sin of his, recognising that one does not desire evil for evil's sake. Rather, "through an inordinate preference for these goods of a lower kind, the better and higher are neglected". In other words, man is drawn to sin when grossly choosing the lesser good over

11118-530: Was racked, and wounded, and bleeding." Augustine confessed he had not been a lover of wedlock so much as a slave of lust, so he procured another concubine since he had to wait two years until his fiancée came of age. However, his emotional wound was not healed. It was during this period that he uttered his famously insincere prayer, "Grant me chastity and continence , but not yet." There is evidence Augustine may have considered this former relationship to be equivalent to marriage. In his Confessions , he admitted

11227-531: Was shortly after the Roman emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire on 27 February 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica and then issued a decree of death for all Manichaean monks in 382. Initially, Augustine was not strongly influenced by Christianity and its ideologies, but after coming in contact with Ambrose of Milan, Augustine reevaluated himself and

11336-469: Was too late; and although he acquired a smattering of the language, he was never eloquent with it. He did, however, become a master of Latin. Augustine taught grammar at Thagaste during 373 and 374. The following year he moved to Carthage to conduct a school of rhetoric and remained there for the next nine years. Disturbed by unruly students in Carthage, he moved to establish a school in Rome, where he believed

11445-623: Was very much influenced by Ambrose, even more than by his own mother and others he admired. In his Confessions , Augustine states, "That man of God received me as a father would, and welcomed my coming as a good bishop should." Ambrose adopted Augustine as a spiritual son after the death of Augustine's father. Augustine's mother had followed him to Milan and arranged a respectable marriage for him. Although Augustine acquiesced, he had to dismiss his concubine and grieved for having forsaken his lover. He wrote, "My mistress being torn from my side as an impediment to my marriage, my heart, which clave to her,

11554-418: Was while he was a student in Carthage that he read Cicero 's dialogue Hortensius (now lost), which he described as leaving a lasting impression, enkindling in his heart the love of wisdom and a great thirst for truth. It started his interest in philosophy. Although raised Christian, Augustine became a Manichaean , much to his mother's chagrin. At about the age of 17, Augustine began a relationship with

11663-712: Was without, and I sought thee out there. Unlovely, I rushed heedlessly among the lovely things thou hast made. Thou wast with me, but I was not with thee. These things kept me far from thee; even though they were not at all unless they were in thee. Thou didst call and cry aloud, and didst force open my deafness. Thou didst gleam and shine, and didst chase away my blindness. Thou didst breathe fragrant odours and I drew in my breath; and now I pant for thee. I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for thy peace. Ambrose baptized Augustine and his son Adeodatus, in Milan on Easter Vigil , 24–25 April 387. A year later, in 388, Augustine completed his apology On

11772-562: Was written to console his fellow Christians shortly after the Visigoths had sacked Rome in 410 . Augustine worked tirelessly to convince the people of Hippo to convert to Christianity. Though he had left his monastery, he continued to lead a monastic life in the episcopal residence. Much of Augustine's later life was recorded by his friend Possidius , bishop of Calama (present-day Guelma , Algeria), in his Sancti Augustini Vita . During this latter part of Augustine's life, he helped lead

11881-472: Was Μόλυβος - Molyvos ; that name dates back to the end of the Byzantine Era , but is still in common use today. It is located NE of Eressos , N of Plomari and NW of Mytilene . The town (pop. 1,399 at 2011 census) is on the northern part of the island, just some 6 km north of the popular beach town of Petra . One of the most noticeable features of the town is the old Genoese fortress on

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