283. At some point James Potter and Sirius Black found all of James’ old glasses from throughout his life and placed every single one of them on James’ face, all 12 of them, and wore them to transfiguration.
Mcgonagall was so done with their antics by then that she didnt even realise and just continued teaching the lesson as if nothing was amiss.
Christian: Satan; the powers of darkness; solitude; mourning; desolation; bad news. The call of the owl is the 'song of death’. The owl was used to depict Jews who preferred the darkness to the light of the gospel.
Egyptian: Death; night; coldness.
Graeco-Roman: The screed owl symbolized wisdom and was sacred to Athena/Minerva. The owl was an attribute of the Etruscan god of darkness and of Night.
Hebrew:Blindness.
Hindu: Emblem of Yama, god of the dead.
Japanese: Death; ill omen.
Mexican: Night; death.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
Italian built bolt-action rifle, the Minerva is their Tactical lineup, they also offer the Victoria (Sporting) and the Lunae (Hunting). The Stubby, according to their website, uses a 15.5″ long barrel. It might have a pinned on muzzle brake to reach 16″ but since this is a European only rifle at the moment, I’m not sure what their restrictions or laws are regarding barrel length. This particular example is owned by a target shooter in the U.K. (GRH)
MyPatreon is a year old! Look at all the Goddesses I’ve painted in the past year. To my patrons: thank you so much; your encouragement and support really mean a lot to me!
Summary: Years after Lily’s death, Severus falls in love with you, a fellow professor at Hogwarts. You understand him and heal his broken heart. You know all about his spy role and accept him for who he is. After Minerva chases Severus away from Hogwarts he needs to see you once for the last time.
***
It had been months since the death of Dumbledore, and since your husband got the tags of a murderer and traitor. Death-eaters invaded and took over the entire school. The once bright halls and corridors, were now cold and dark. It broke your heart to see the staff and students shoot disgusted glares at your husband. But you had to remain silent and endure all the pain.
You and Severus have been married 8 years and it had been some of the best years of your life. You taught astronomy at Hogwarts for the past 11 years and the place was what you called home. Severus told you all about his double agent role and the task he was entrusted with by Dumbledore himself. He had to kill Albus. Knowing well enough of the consequences, he had to agree to do finish the task. And now a traitor and coward was what everyone called him. But for you, he was always the bravest person you’d ever met.
Today was the day Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts. Your husband had just fled the great hall after a short duel with Minerva, only defending her spells. The war had officially begun. You were confused and scared at the same time. The last time there was a war, thousand all across the country died. You had no idea weather or not you or Severus were going to survive this.
Without knowing where to go, you run outside and help the others set up protection charms, when a familiar looking bird lands on your shoulder. It was Severus’s owl. It held a letter in it’s beak and flew away as soon as you grabbed the letter. With clammy hands, you rip it open and read it.
My love,
The war has begun and the Dark Lord will surely demand my presence soon. I cannot assure you weather or not we will survive this, I trust you know that too. I will wait for you in Hogsmeade. Please be careful on your way. I love you.
S.S
The second you read the last word, you ran as fast as your legs could carry you heading to the village of Hogsmeade. Once you reached there, you looked around frantically for your husband. Hurriedly you searched all the streets.
Suddenly, someone gripped your arm and dragged you into a narrow dark alley. Just as you were about to scream, your mouth was covered tightly by a cold hand.
“It’s me dear.”
You stopped fighting the grip once you heard the soothing familiar voice. He let you go and you were staring at those familiar black pools of eyes.
“Severus!”
You fell into his safe arms as you relished the feeling of being held by your husband.
“It’s all right y/n.we’re safe for now.”
“I missed you.”
“I know, so did I.”
He gently stroked your hair as you closed you eyes and lost yourself in the warmth.
“What do we do now?”
You asked taking a step back so you could look at him.
“I need to go meet the dark lord. You need to go back to Hogwarts. Help them.”
You nodded and pressed your lips to his. He kissed you passionately and held you close. After an eternity, you broke apart.
“We need to go. I love you y/n.Always.”
“Always.”
With that you take a last look at the man you love and started walking back to Hogwarts.
***
Lost in your thoughts, you don’t notice the dark figure following you.
“In a hurry you filthy mudblood?”
Said a high-pitched voice behind you. You look back and it’s the last person you wanted too see.
“Bellatrix.”
You spat, hatred heavy in your voice.
“What do you-”
Before you could finish, you were on the ground, squirming and whimpering, under the Cruciatus curse. Without being able to take it anymore you screamed until your throat was raw. Tears flowed down your face as the pain worsened. With a tap of the wand, the pain increased ten-fold as you screamed bloody hell.
Severus, who was making his way to the Shrieking Shack, was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard your voice screaming. His eyes widened as he raced towards the directed from where your voice echoed.
Once the curse stopped, the maniac witch climbed over you and pulled out her dagger. She traced your face with the tip.
“I’ve heard things about you. They say you’re beautiful. But i think not.”
She bent down to your ear and whispered.
“Not after this.”
With that she dug the dagger on your skin above your eye brow. Dragging it down toward you cheeks. The pain was unbearable as you felt your flesh ripping. Bloody screams were torn from your throat. Your cries broke Severus’s heart as he hurried trying to locate you.
Bellatrix’s mad cackles ceased suddenly as she looked at your now scarred face and grinned.
“That was fun!”
You tried pushing her off but you were too weak. She raised her wand and with a wide grin, sliced your throat. This happened just as Severus found you. He saw the crazy witch slice the throat of his wife. Sprinting towards you, he shot a killing curse at Bellatrix.
He kneeled next to you. And stared at your vandalized face in horror. He tried several healing spells on the large open wound on your neck but nothing helped. Blood oozed out and stained your robes, forming a pool beneath you. Tears rolled down your husbands cheeks as he gently pulled you into his lap trying his best not to hurt you more.
“y/n…I am so sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”
“It’s al-right Sev. I-I love yo-you…so much.”
You slowly raised a hand and placed it on his cheek. He placed his hand on top of your much smaller one and gripped it tight.
“It’s hi-hideous is it n-not? My face.”
His heart broke when you asked him. You were always beautiful to him, no matter what.
“No, no my love. You are beautiful. You will always be.”
He cupped your face and looked into your eyes fondly.
“Th-thank you Severus, f-for everything.”
“No,y/n,thank you, thank you for making my life so much better, so much brighter. I love you my dear.”
You wanted to say something but you began coughing and choking. Blood trickled down your lips. You spoke faintly though the coughs.
“I wil b-be with y-you. Al-always.”
You watched your husband nod and sob as he bent down until your lips met. Ignoring the blood that got on his lips, he placed a gentle kiss on your lips and on your scarred forehead.
And with that your vision blurred and faded into darkness. Severus watched as the life and light from your warm eyes faded. He cried out loudly and hugged your lifeless body.
“Alwaysy/n.”
He whispered through the cries and held you closer to his heart.
8 years ago he fell in love with you and you changed his world forever until this day where you left him in his arms.
this is a list of small devotional acts to honour and bond with athena, greek goddess of wisdom, war, battle strategy, and the arts
» read
» take up sewing, weaving, or knitting
» research something! this is actually a hobby of mine, i’ll randomly research something of interest to me. you can do podcasts (i love the killing of marilyn monroe), youtube videos, books, online articles, through anything.
» stick up for yourself and those you care about
» voice your beliefs
» …learn proper grammar if you haven’t already lmao
» study, if you’re in school, or even if you’re not, learning is a lifelong journey
» exercise! not necessarily for appearance reasons but for your overall physical and mental health
» take a self defense class (especially if you’re female)
» can’t take a self defense class? utilize the internet and research pressure points and other overall safety tips (again, especially if you’re female)
» wake up early
» do chores, even just making your bed can make a huge difference (…i say white writing this from an unmade bed)
» pay attention in class
» pay attention to the arts, too. athena is a matron of the arts too
» write or read poetry
» use olive oil products
» incorporate cinnamon, geranium, cedar wood, and patchouli into your life
» offer her coffee, she really likes it
» journal
» study up on history (even if it’s just listening to hamilton, i get the feeling she really likes it)
» spend time in bookstores and libraries, even if you’re not reading
» work on your self confidence
» take care of your mental health (i.e. taking pills, resting when needed, etc)
» to add on to the previous point, focus on self care! try to focus on the inside more than the outside, but let’s face it: who doesn’t love a good face mask and bubble bath
» volunteer for leadership positions (if you’re in school, student council, MUN, etc and if you’re at work, offer to supervise or organise an event)
» use crystals like amazonite, sodalite, tourmaline, tiger’s eye, and blue howlite
» play strategy games
» watch movies/tv with her! (i associate les mis, sherlock, brooklyn 99, and law and order as things she may like)
this is a list of small devotional acts to honour and bond with athena, greek goddess of wisdom, war, battle strategy, and the arts
» read
» take up sewing, weaving, or knitting
» research something! this is actually a hobby of mine, i’ll randomly research something of interest to me. you can do podcasts (i love the killing of marilyn monroe), youtube videos, books, online articles, through anything.
» stick up for yourself and those you care about
» voice your beliefs
» …learn proper grammar if you haven’t already lmao
» study, if you’re in school, or even if you’re not, learning is a lifelong journey
» exercise! not necessarily for appearance reasons but for your overall physical and mental health
» take a self defense class (especially if you’re female)
» can’t take a self defense class? utilize the internet and research pressure points and other overall safety tips (again, especially if you’re female)
» wake up early
» do chores, even just making your bed can make a huge difference (…i say white writing this from an unmade bed)
» pay attention in class
» pay attention to the arts, too. athena is a matron of the arts too
» write or read poetry
» use olive oil products
» incorporate cinnamon, geranium, cedar wood, and patchouli into your life
» offer her coffee, she really likes it
» journal
» study up on history (even if it’s just listening to hamilton, i get the feeling she really likes it)
» spend time in bookstores and libraries, even if you’re not reading
» work on your self confidence
» take care of your mental health (i.e. taking pills, resting when needed, etc)
» to add on to the previous point, focus on self care! try to focus on the inside more than the outside, but let’s face it: who doesn’t love a good face mask and bubble bath
» volunteer for leadership positions (if you’re in school, student council, MUN, etc and if you’re at work, offer to supervise or organise an event)
» use crystals like amazonite, sodalite, tourmaline, tiger’s eye, and blue howlite
» play strategy games
» watch movies/tv with her! (i associate les mis, sherlock, brooklyn 99, and law and order as things she may like)
The sanctuary of Allat included a temple which is clearly younger than the temenos itself. The same is true of the temple of Ba῾alshamin, and the two are very similar to each other, even if that of Allat is preserved only in its lower courses. Both are prostyle of Roman type with a Corinthian porch of four columns in front and two intercolumnia deep, facing East, both are articulated on three other sides with pilasters, both stand on low podiums and had plain pediments in front and back.
The Lion of Al-lāt is statue that adorned the Temple, of a lion holding a crouching gazelle, was made from limestone ashlars in the early first century CE and measured 3.5 m (11 ft) in height, weighing 15 tonnes. The lion was regarded as the consort of Al-lāt. The gazelle symbolized Al-lāt’s tender and loving traits, as bloodshed was not permitted under penalty of Al-lāt’s retaliation. The lion’s left paw had a partially damaged Palmyrene inscription which reads: tbrk ʾ[lt] (Al-lāt will bless) mn dy lʾyšd (whoever will not shed) dm ʿl ḥgbʾ (blood in the sanctuary).
The temple of Allat can be dated from the internal evidence of two incomplete inscriptions as having been built in CE 148 or slightly later, barely twenty years or so after the cella of Ba῾alshamin. It is also clear that the same families were involved in the two sanctuaries. The fragmentary text from the doorway of Allat mentions two buildings: “this naos” and “the old hamana”. The latter term is Aramaic and applies to some sort of shrine. Here, for the first time, it can be ascribed with practical certainty to material remains.
These remains consist of the foundations of a small rectangular building, broader than it is deep (7.35 through 5.50 m), with very thick walls around a narrow room, barely large enough for the door wings to open inwards. This shrine has been piously preserved within the second century temple in such a way that the new walls enclose the old, leaving between them a space averaging only 6 cm wide. Stone of a different kind was used in each case. As the floor of the old building was laid practically on the ancient ground level, and as it continued to be used, the internal level of the new temple was lower than expected: the front columns set on a bench around the porch and the floor of the cella a few steps down from the porch.
The foundations of the new building also go deeper into the ground, which would have been no easy affair: they would have had to undermine the old shrine partly while keeping it intact at all costs. The cella is thus nothing more than a box containing the ancient tabernacle which remained in use as the adyton, the inner sanctum and seat of the goddess. This is apparently the only known case of such survival in Syria: usually, the adyton is built together with the temple, even if it may take the aspect of an independent building, as the two adytons of Bel, or incorporate some elements taken from the older phase, as in the case of Ba῾alshamin.
The exterior changed radically and became Classical in inspiration, Hellenistic for Bel, Vitruvian for the other two. In each case, however, these Corinthian temples were meant to impress the viewer and proclaim their belonging to the modern Roman world, but they were just a disguise. All three keep in different ways the memory of smaller, simpler tabernacles dedicated to the same godheads in the same places, but only the temple of Allat actually preserved its predecessor intact.
As the hamana of Allat remained complete, it would be pointless to roof the new cella above it. Indeed, there are good reasons to believe that the place was left open: not only has an outlet been arranged for rainwater, but more importantly, the pre-existing altar was left in front of the tabernacle but inside the temple, standing on a stone pavement not linked to either building; it could be used only if open to the sky. On the other hand, the porch should have been covered in the normal way. The narrow room inside the primitive shrine could not have any windows, as its walls are over 2 m thick. It was closed with two-winged doors which, when opened, revealed a statue inside a niche.
We have recovered several fragments of the framing, consisting of jambs covered with vine-scrolls and of a lintel featuring a spread eagle. The slab on which the statue was placed is preserved in place and bears a series of grooves and mortises suggesting a graphic restoration. This is possible thanks to several small replicas of the enthroned goddess, seated between two lions and holding a long sceptre. The statue was probably not of one piece but composite, and could perhaps have been moved from the throne to be carried in processions.
This is in sharp contrast to rituals that we can envisage for the relief images of other temples. But then, the idol of Allat was much older than the appearance of frontality in the art of Palmyra, and with it the possibility to represent the gods on a flat surface offered for viewing and veneration in other temples. Dated monuments allow us to fix the advent of frontality in the brackets between 15 and 30 CE. For its part, the idol of Allat (called “Lady of the House”), was offered by a certain Mattanai, being an ancestor of someone who mentioned the fact five generations later in 115 CE. This would bring back the original foundation to about 50 BCE at the latest (Gawlikowski 1990: 101–108).
By the same token, the first shrine of Allat becomes the oldest known in Palmyra and the first of which some remains are still in place. Another inscription found nearby mentions a hamana built in 31/30 BCE for the solar god Shamash. A square foundation 4 m to the side is still to be seen there, exactly on the axis of the Allat temple. It could have once contained a small inner room and the inscription could once have been placed in its wall, though we cannot establish this with absolute certainty. Another similar foundation was found a few years ago very close to the Allat temple. Possibly, the original temenos contained several such chapels, each for a different god. The Vitruvian cella had intruded in its midst about 150 CE without changing the character of the cult and scrupulously keeping the old installations in place.
The temple of Allat was destroyed twice: it was sacked once in 272 by the Roman troops of the emperor Aurelian and again, definitely, by a Christian mob at the end of the fourth century. In the meantime, the sanctuary remained in use within the limits of a legionary camp for over a century. One may imagine that access to it was restricted as far as the civilian population was concerned. The temple’s interior was radically changed during this time. Indeed, the old tabernacle contained within the cella had been destroyed together with the statue on the first occasion, while the walls of the cella seem to have remained intact.
At any rate, a restoration effort occurred very soon afterwards. Instead of trying to rebuild the shrine, its foundations were left in place and covered with a kind of platform including some sculptured fragments, which were thus piously preserved. We could recover some votive reliefs of the first to third centuries and some elements of the niche once framing the seated statue of the goddess. The cult image itself had to be replaced. Four short columns were brought in and set up in front of the masonry preserving the broken remains to support roofing in the form of a square canopy or perhaps a shelter from wall to wall over the whole ruin of the primitive shrine.
Under the canopy a new statue was fixed. Fallen and broken during the second sack, it has survived for the most part and could be reassembled. The statue is a second century copy of a statue of Athena, executed in Pentelic marble. It is clear that the original was Athenian and conceived in the circle of Pheidias. It has replaced an old and venerable, but no doubt primitive statue, and this in a time right after a military disaster and economic collapse. It could hardly be imported from Greece in these conditions, but could rather have embellished some profane public building in the city before receiving divine honours in the restored temple. The late restoration was probably an initiative of a Roman legionary legate under Aurelian, who wanted to reconcile the destitute local goddess, seeing in her no doubt Minerva, one of the standard Roman army cults. If so, the statue does not provide evidence for the cult of Allat, but is rather one of a series of Classical marbles imported to Palmyra for adornment of public buildings.
Yes, and now to one of my favourite podcasts D&D stoy arcs. The wonderful McElroy family have created a wonderful story arc, full of monsters, cryptids and wonderful characters, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to sketch some of the npc. I adore each and every one of them. More will come.
As some of you know, I’m working in a very awesome project with my friend Zoimar Lezama, I’m talking of course of the Cirque des spectrums!, next month is the first anniversary of the cirque (Yaayy :D) and we are working really hard too show you some fantastic illustrations, outfits, photoshoots and more for this wonderful occasion, so for the next few days I will show you more things on the facebook of the cirque.
We are already preparing us for the Cirque des Spectrums first anniversary next month, this is a advance of the outfit design of our wonderful Ringmaster Minerva! Art: Enys Guerrero
Color pencils, water colors and inks on cardboard.
New illustration for Cirque des Spectrums, this time I drew Minerva in her gala outfit in an illustration a bit more elaborated than the one last time, it has been very funny to work the background and the details, I took as inspiration some XVIII century paintings, I hope you like it!
thank you @kuroimarzipan for your patience and amazing donation to The Montrose Center’s Disaster Relief Fund!! I had a lot of fun drawing this, and I’m sure the LGBT folks in Houston more than appreciated the aid you offered.
