Helios Colossus of Rhodes, artist’s impression, 1880
The Eve of the Day
Tomorrow is the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – the birth of the Invincible Sun. In some calendars, such as the Celtic & the Anglo Saxon, the day begins at dusk. So Christmas Eve is not the evening before Christmas Day. It is the beginning of Christmas Day itself.
So some countries celebrate the eve as much or more than the day. The Church would have encouraged this to accommodate former pagan belief into newly converted societies. (the most obvious example is Halloween see my post here).
But the Church also suggests celebration of the Eve derives from the Jewish tradition of the beginning of the day at dusk. In Genesis are the words;
‘And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.’
Christian tradition holds that Jesus was born on the holy night and thus is celebrated by the midnight mass.
When does the day begin?
This seems a silly question. In our society, the day officially begins at midnight. But it clearly begins at dawn. This was the normal start of day for Ancient Egypt, Republican Romans, and Western Europe till the coming of clocks in about 1400. We have already seen there are calendars that start the day at Sunset: Muslim, Jews, Celts, and the Saxons. In Britain, astronomers started the day at midday until an Act of Parliament reset it to midnight as recently as 1925.
Dawn seems the obvious choice, it’s called daybreak after all. But the problem is that the first light is so variable. It is an opinion when the light arrives and will vary depending on clouds, hills and height above sea level etc. Midnight is halfway between dawn and dusk, and I assume can be determined mathematically and astronomically. So Julius Caesar changed the Roman start of day to midnight when he reformed the Roman Calendar. (See my post on the Julian Calendar here).
Dusk is a counterintuitive choice, I think. The reasoning is that the Sun has gone down. It is finished for the day. Sunset is the end of the day. So it is also the start of the next daily cycle.
The Celts started their year at Halloween for similar reasons. In autumn, the various harvests have been collected. Most plants have ended their growing cycle and shed their leaves. Therefore, November 1st (or its eve) is the end of the growing year. On the ground, the seeds are ready and waiting to begin sprouting to bring new life. So, this is the new year. Sort of makes sense?
Christmas Eve Celebrations
In Britain, among the general population, there are no special customs except for preparing for the arrival of Father Christmas, and perhaps going to Midnight Mass. In Germany, Heiliger Abend is when Gifts are exchanged. Afterwards, is a relatively light dinner, often consisting of potato salad and sausages.
In my experience, Christmas Eve is a relaxing evening in front of the TV while wrapping presents. (After the children have gone to bed of course). Sometimes in front of the first roaring fire of the winter.
Then the filling of pillow cases or stockings full of presents. Last thing is tip-toeing upstairs placing a plate in the hall upstairs with a mince pie, shot of brandy for Father Christmas and a carrot for the reindeer. Then the crinkle of the wrapping paper as the presents are placed on the children’s bed. Now, the little darlings are finally fast asleep after an overexcited bedtime. These are the precious moments of family life.
Mothers of God’s Eve
December 24th is a day for Mothers, as tomorrow, the 25th, will be born Jesus, Mithras, Attis, Saturn, Apollo, and the Day of the Birth of the Invincible Sun, Solis Invictus. And so we think of Mary, Isis, Theia, the Three Mother Goddesses and mothers everywhere.
First Published 24th December 2022, Republished 2023,2024,2025
1653 Illustration of Old Christmas being rejected by the Puritan from London and welcome from the rustic from Dorset
23rd December 1652 Resolved by Parliament. : ‘That no Observation shall be had of the five-and-twentieth day of December, commonly called Christmas-Day.’
This was one of several bans on Christmas that Parliament introduced. (Parliament not Cromwell). It banned Christmas Services and ordered that shops be kept open, but it was, at least, inside people’s homes, largely unenforceable.
The logic for banning it was that Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible and was thus a Catholic superstition.
Christmas struggled through the Commonwealth, and then came back with a bang in 1660 on the Restoration of Charles II. However, it did shorten the period of Christmas festivities and make it more low-key, really all the way till the 19th Century when Dickens and Washington Irving revived the traditions of Christmas.
Drink at a Georgian Christmas might well be port. Then the next favourites would brandy, claret, punch, rum, porter. So says my source Henry Jeffreys in his book ‘Empire of Booze’ and in this Guardian article:
Claret, probably, originally outsold port. But the wars against France and the difficulty of importing French wine, saw a transfer to wines from our ‘oldest ally’ Portugal. But the travel distance was longer, so the wine was fortified to help preserve it better. Hence, the British addiction to port. Sherry was also popular for similar reasons, being a fortified white wine. Shakespeare calls it ‘sack’ and sometimes ‘Canary’. (Toby Belch ‘says thou lack’st a cup of canary ‘ in ‘Twelfth Night’, which is a Christmas play.) See below for more on Sack and Shakespeare.
Louis Philippe Boitard‘s satirical engraving ‘Imports from France’ Looking east towards the Tower of London. Barrels at the front right are marked Claret, Burgundy and Champagne.
Georgian Alcohol consumption was prodigious. Samuel Johnson said, ‘All the decent people in Lichfield (where Johnson came from) got drunk every night and were not the worst thought of‘. The Prime Minister. William Pitt the Younger said, ‘I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worst for it. University College has witnessed this.’ He is referring to his college at the Oxford University. He might be considered to be another of our Prime Ministers who have first disgraced themselves at Oxbridge only to rise to rule the unfortunate British nation? However, in those days, Port was sold in pint measures (45cl) and was 16%, while now it is 20% and sold in 75cl bottles. So, maybe we are almost as bad?
Even so, three bottles is still a lot. A drunken population would have not only increased the death rate but also increased violence and abuse. Gout was one result of too much drinking and a rich diet.
Gout. 18th Century Bath
However, this is Christmas so let’s end on a high note, so here are a couple of recipes!
To make ye best punch
“Put 1½ a pound of sugar in a quart of water, stir it well yn put in a pint of Brandy, a quarter of a pint of Lime Juice, & a nutmeg grated, yn put in yr tosts or Biskets well toasted.”
And Gin? The cheap gin panic had calmed down by the 1770s after no less than eight Gin Acts of Parliament. Booths and Gordon’s Gins were established in London during this period and Gin almost a respectable drink.
There appears to have been a shortage of Gin punch recipes in the 18th Century, but by the end of that century this recipe survives from London’s Garrick Club
– half a pint of gin, lemon peel, lemon juice, sugar, maraschino, a pint and a quarter of water and two bottles of iced soda water.
You would not need many of these to become quite relaxed quite quickly!
Sack and Falstaff.
Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV eulogies on sack saying it not only makes for excellent wit but also the best soldiers:
“A good sherris sack hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the dull and crudy vapors which environ it, makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit“.
The second your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood; which cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes. illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart, who, great and puff’d up with this doth any deed of courage—and this valour comes of sherris. that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile, bare land, manured, husbanded, and till’d, with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand the first humane principle I would teach them should be to forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack.
Merry Wives of Windsor
In the Merry wives of Windsor Falstaff is still always drinking sack. He asks Bardolph ‘Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in’t.‘ Toast is thought to freshen up stale sack. Also, it could be drunk hot as suggested by Falstaff asking for:
‘Go brew me a pottle of sack finely.’
Bardolph asks if he wants the sack with eggs but Falstaff refuses asking for his sack to be a
‘Simple of itself; I’ll have no pullet-sperm in my brewage.’
A simple is the opposite of a compound, so pure with no additions (apart from the toast!). Pullet sperm is, in think, a dismissive reference to eggs. Sack posset was original a medicine but later a popular treat made with eggs, cream, spices and sack. Once concocted, the top would be a foamy or crusty cap, the middle a custard and the bottom a spicy hot alcohol.
First Published in 2022 and revised December 2023, 2024, 2025
The Solstice and the East Pediment of the Parthenon
British Museum Shop, reproductions of Hestia and Selene’s Horse from the Parthenon Marbles
At the Summer Solstice, I took a group to the British Museum and, a few days later, to Stonehenge, and managed to ‘integrate’ the two into a solstice narrative. At the BM, over years of trying to explain the sculptures, I have been building in my mind an interpretation of the Pediment that gives, I hope, an original insight into the possible intentions of the sculptors. I don’t know how ‘true’ it is, but I do think it gives an insight into metaphor and symbolism in great works of art. Bear in mind that there is a lot of uncertainty about some of the attributions, and, that the male and female virtues that I am talking about are traditional ones, not necessarily how we would express it in the modern world.
At the left of the above photography, you see the horses that take Helios chariot into the sky to bring up the sun to light the world every day. Most sun deities are male, and the Sun gives light and life to the world, without it this earth is an inert block of ice cold stone. The next statue is casually laying back and looking fit, relaxed and not looking as if he is in that position because of the impossible triangular Pediment space he inhabits. He is the epitome of male strength, usually identified with Hercules but other people have other ideas and a young Dionysus is another suggestion. Whoever he is he represents male beauty and strength. So this end of the pediment represents the Sun and male virtues. This is the East Pediment of the Parthenon which is orientated to the rising sun, a little north of east.
Next figure is Demeter, the goddess of fertility, the goddess of the earth. Placed here to remind us that the Sun needs the Earth to create life and sustenance. It reminds us that the universe is not male, the male only works in conjunction with the female. Demeter is cuddling her daughter Persephone, the Goddess of Hades. She reminds us that life is a cycle of death and life. Plants die, turn into soil and create the conditions for future life.
Next is Hebe, daughter of Zeus and Hera, wife of Heracles (Hercules). She is the cupbearer to the Gods and gives them the ambrosia that keeps them forever young. She is the Goddess of Immortality, a reminder that the universe is eternal.
Next to Hebe is a void where there was the central statue of the east pediment depicting the Birth of Athena (according to Pausanias who wrote a guide in the 2nd Century BC to the Temple). Athena was born from the head of her father Zeus- a virgin birth. Athena therefore is, in some ways, the greatest of the Olympians, as she has the virtues of her female sex and the virtues of her father’s masculinity (and, dear Gods, hopefully not the massive ‘Me Too’ vices of her father). She is therefore, wise, nurturing, just, intuitive, decisive, a leader; an ideal combination of male and female.
Zeus (sitting) Hephastus to right (looking back with Axe) Athena just visible above Zeus’s head
Her back story is that her dad, Zeus eats her mum, Metis, who is pregnant with her. Sometime later, he has a cracking headache. Hephaestus, the disabled artificer God hits Zeus over the head with an axe to clear the headache. Zeus gives birth to a fully formed Athena through the split in his head. She was known as Athena Parthenos, Athena the Virgin. Her name is originally Athene but it got changed to Athena in 500 BC.
Hestia, Dione, Aphrodite, Horse of Selene’s chariot
To Athene’s left is Hestia (Vesta for the Romans). Her name means “hearth, fireplace, altar” and she is the goddess of the domestic sphere, of the comforts of home, of a warm fire enjoyed by a loving family.
The next set are two beautifully draped women languidly leaning on each other, and these are Dione, with her daughter Aphrodite – the Goddess of Love. Dione is the daughter of Gaia and Uranus daughter of earth and sky. So, here, counterpoised to Hercules, are epitomes of women. Women of power, creation, and love.
Finally, we have the exhausted horse of Selene. Her chariot takes the moon into the sky, positioned opposite to Helios and the Sun. Selene is the Moon goddess, and the Moon is beautiful, powerful as it gives us the tides and fundamental to the life of humans as she presides over the menstrual cycle. Compared to the movements of the Sun which any fool can work out, and which are relentless (symbolising Justice) the movements of the Moon are mysterious to most of us. So Selene is beautiful, powerful, creative and the Goddess of Intuition.
So, if you put it all together, the East Pediment of the Parthenon shows that the world is a union of the male and the female, balanced between the two with Zeus and Athene in the middle, with Athene holding the main part because she, in her person, represents both the male and the female.
Of course, we know that the Athenian society was a patriarchal one with women mostly kept in the domestic sphere. But here, at least, women were given an equal billing in the organisation of the Cosmos.
Sculptures from the east pediment of the Parthenon
I must end by warning the reader that this is only my interpretation. I am not a scholar of Ancient Greece. I have come to my own conclusion based on spending a lot of time looking at the marbles, doing Solstice Virtual Tours, and mostly informed by the labels in the gallery, with of course, some reading including Mary Beard’s book entitled ‘Parthenon’ and the BM’s guidebook. In particular, I have not incorporated into my ‘story’ the sculptures that were in the gaps that do not survive or only in fragments scattered throughout the Museum world. However, what we do know is that in the centre is Zeus and Athene and at the edges are the chariots of the Sun and the Moon. And so fitting to celebrate the Solstice.
The Winter Solstice this year is: Sunday, December 21, at 3.03pm GMT in the UK. according to the Royal Museums Greenwich. Today, the Sun is at its lowest midday height of the year. This morning was the most southerly rising of the Sun this year. If the southward diminishing of the Sun everyday were to continue, life will be extinguished on earth. The world would have no light and no heat. So, societies all round the world, made a point of honouring their Sun Gods and Goddesses on this day.
And so on this day, or so it was thought, our Deities renew their promises as the Sun begins its rebirth. It begins to rise further north each day, the Sun at noon is higher, and it sets further north. So the days are longer, brighter, eventually warmer. Thank God(s)!
For some, it’s just the turn in the cycle of life. For others, it’s the death of the old Sun and the birth of a brand-new Sun. The Egyptians believed that the sun was reborn every day as a dung beetle.
Symbolically, the winter solstice is an ending as well as a beginning. It is a turning point and a promise by the Deity that the world will continue. It will turn, the wheel will turn. Warmth and growth will return. Buds already growing in the earth will break out and bring new growth.
The Winter Solstice – time for a party!
Culturally, it’s a time to have a party before the weather gets really cold. It is a time to evaluate your life; look back at the lessons from the last year. A time to begin, like the Sun, a new and hopefully better cycle.
Note. So if the Sun is at its shortest and weakest, why isn’t it the coldest time of the year? That is because the earth and particularly the oceans retain the heat of the Sun, and so the coldest time is at the end of January.
Capella Palatina Palermo 12th Century Mosaics God is shown creating the firmament. ‘And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters’
We are coming up to the key days in the year. And so will be looking at calendars and counting days. But what about ages, epochs and aeons?
‘Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition’ reports that there are seven ages of the world:
This is how they calculate it: the life of a yew tree is 729 years, and there are seven ages from the creation of the world until its doom. So the world will last 5103 years.
‘Practical Magic’ divides ages up as follows:
A wattle has a life of 3 years (1*3) Three wattles are the life of a hound – 9 years (3*3) Three hounds are the life of a steed – 27 years (9*3) Three steeds are the life of a man – 81 years (27*3) Three men are the life of an eagle – 243 years (81*3) Three Eagles are the life of a yew. – 729 years (243*3)
How Old is a Yew Tree/Eagle
A comment by a reader has prompted me to write the following about the ages given above:
‘Practical magic’ says the poem is ‘Ancient’. So it’s folklore and not science, and the ages are opinion not scientific fact.
As I understand it Yew trees live a long time but not quite as long as many people think. I base this on the Yew Tree at Steventon, Hampshire where Jane Austen was born. The tree has/had a plague on it saying it was 1200 years old. I used to visit it regularly. On one visit, I was told that an expert opinion suggested it was more like 700 years old. (ifmy memory serves). I do not have the details, but my source would have been one of the people associated with the Church.
The Woodland Trust (says Yew Trees get old at 900 years. They cite a few which are ‘said to be’ over 2000 years old. But are they? The scientific sites I have looked at suggest that Yew Trees should be described as ‘ancient’ from 400 not 900 years. There are problems with dendrochronology dating of yew trees, and so most methods depend upon an estimation from the width of the tree trunk. But that, itself, depends upon how much you believe in the claims of the ancient trees. So, I think it’s best to take the extreme cases with a very large pitch of salt. So 729 years is probably not so far off the mark for a Yew tree.
As to Eagles, this website on eagles says they can live to 30ish in the wild and 68 years in captivity. So the claim for 243 years is way off the mark! Wattles what are they? I have searched, but not found any reference. My guess is a short-lived bird.
The End Was Nigh
Archbishop Usher of Armagh (1581 – 1656) calculated that the world was created in 4004 BC. He counted the begettings in the Bible. If we accept his date, and apply the seven yew tree ages rule (5,103), then the world should have ended in AD 1099 (give or take a year). But it didn’t end then, did it? We are in the 9th Age and counting.
It doesn’t make sense to me to have a factor of 3 for the smaller divisions, and then to switch to a factor of seven. Surely, far more logical is to have a factor of 3*3 years. So, if there were nine ages of the world, then it would survive for 6561 years, which will end in approx. 535 years time (cAD2557). This calculation has the massive advantage of not yet being proved wrong! (Please note, cult owners, I have copyright on this date).
It’s notable that when a Cult declares the imminent end of the world, and they trudge up to the top of a high eminence to observe it (normally by Hampstead Pond in London). They seem quite happy to trudge back down again. Soon they are up and running again with the same enthusiasm for the next ‘end of the world’ date.
Of course, the world was created around 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years ago according to Wikipedia. According to the Doomsday Clock the world will end at 12 O’clock and we are 89 seconds away from it. This is based on a catastrophic end for our civilisation. If we avoid this then other scientists have suggested mammals will be wiped out in approximately 250 million years.
Abrahamic Ages
The Jewish tradition was for six or seven ages of 1000 years. The seventh didn’t really count because it was the age of the messiah when there was a 1000-year sort of super sabbath. Or another idea is that it was an age that ran parallel with the other six. So the world was to be 6000 years long.
With the coming of Christianity, dating the Creation, and (therefore the Day of Judgement) became more important. The Romans dated from the foundation of Rome, and the Greeks from the First Olympiad. But beyond that they had a whole mythology and creation myths about an Age of Gold. Followed by a Bronze Age (Troy and all that) followed by their very own base Iron age. You can read about this in my post about Hesiod.
An early Christian attempt to tell the age of creation was the Anno Munda‘s arrangement of the Year. This is pretty complicated and is based on a Talmudic tradition. A late Roman version uses ‘the Diocletian Years’, which is when the persecution of Christians began. It held that the world was created 5500 years before the Birth of Christ. So we are 5500BC plus 2025 years since the date of the creation. And it was supposed to have ended in 500AD. 6000 years after the Creation. so we have outlived Creation by 1525 years.
St Augustine of Hippo took the tradition of six ages and brought it into the Christian canon. These are the six ages:
The First Age “is from the beginning of the human race. That is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made. Down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the flood“, i.e. the Antediluvian period.
The Second Age “extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called the father indeed of all nations”.
The Third Age “extends from Abraham on to David the king”.
The Fourth Age is “from David on to that captivity whereby the people of God passed over into Babylonia”.
The Fifth Age is “from that transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ“
The Sixth Age: “With His [Jesus Christ’s] coming, the sixth age has entered on its process.”
As each age is 1000 years, then you can see why so many people were worried as 1000 AD approached.
The Seven Ages of Man
The Age of Man can also relate to the average age of a human lifespan. Of course, six is not such a magical number as seven, and so Shakespeare ran with the idea in the Seven Ages of Man spoken by Jacques in ‘As you like it’. If there are seven ages of human life, and we have a span of six score and ten, then each age is ten years.
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth.
And then, the justice, In fair round belly, with a good capon lined, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws, and modern instances, And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
(Jacques, Act 2, Scene 7)
Seven Ages of Man Statue 22-foot high cast aluminium Sculpture by Richard Kindersley, located on Queen Victoria Street, Blackfriars, near the Blackfriars. St Andrew’s by the Wardrobe in the background. Photos k. Flude
The Kalendar of Shepherds
Now, the Kalendar of Shepherds has a similar idea, but it calculates it differently. The Kalendar, based on a 15th Century French original, says there are 12 ages of man, corresponding with the 12 months of the year. Each age is 6 years long, and so our likely lifespan is 72.
Kalendar of Shepherds
Each month is allocated to one of the ages, and has an insight into human life for that span. In January, the first 6 years of a human life are mapped out. If you read above you will see we have no ‘wit, strength or cunning. Nor ‘may do nothing that profiteth’ in those first years. A little harsh, and as a fond grandfather, it, I refute it. In December, the last 6 years are prefigured.
Our alloted span, says Practical Magic is 81 years, Kalendar of Shepherds say 72, and Shakespeare offers us 70.
Life expectancy at birth in the UK was 83.0 years for females and 79.1 years for males. This is an increase of 18 weeks from 82.7 years for females and 21 weeks from 78.7 years for males since 2019 to 2021.‘
Capella Palatina, Sicily
By the way, the Capella Palatina, illustrated at the top of this post, is a marvel of gold mosaics. It is absolutely stunning. It makes a trip to Palermo a must.
On This Day
1843 – Charles Dickens published ‘A Christmas Carol’
First Published on December 18th 2022, revised and republished in December 2023, 2024,2025
So, the old Sun is dying, and if the Sun keeps going down we are all going to die. With all of nature dying or hibernating, evergreens are a symbol of a promise/proof that life will continue through the dark days. So, with its bright-green leaves and its luminous berries, Holly is the ideal evergreen for the Solstice. And as the prickles symbolise Christ’s Crown of Thorns, and the berries the red blood of Jesus, the symbolism works, too, for Christians.
Henry Mayhew (editor of Punch) in his ‘London Labour and London Poor’ (1851–62) talks of Christmasing for Laurel, Ivy, Holly, and Mistletoe. He calculated that 250,000 branches of Holly were purchased from street coster mongers every Christmas. He says that every housekeeper will expend something from 2d to 1s 6d, while the poor buy a pennyworth or halfpennyworth each. He says that every room will have the cheery decoration of holly. St Pauls Cathedral would take 50 to a 100 shillings worth.
He also calculates that 100,000 plum puddings are eaten. Mistletoe he believes is less often used than it used to be, and he hopes that ‘No Popery’ campaigners will not attack Christmassing again.
Hot plum pudding seller from Sam Syntax Cries of London, 1820s from the Gentle Author Spitalfields Life website
Culpeper on Ivy (1814 edition):
‘Ivy’ says Culpeper in his Herbal of 1653, its winter-ripening berries are useful to drink before you ‘set to drink hard’ because it will ‘preserve from drunkenness’. And, moreover, the leaves (bruised and boiled) and dropped into the same wine you had a ‘surfeit’ of the night before provides the ‘speediest cure’. (The Perpetual Almanac of Charles Kightly)
It is so well known to every child almost, to grow in woods upon the trees, and upon the stone walls of churches, houses, &c. and sometimes to grow alone of itself, though but seldom.
Time. It flowers not until July, and the berries are not ripe until Christmas, when they have felt Winter frosts.
Government and virtues. It is under the dominion of Saturn. A pugil of the flowers, which may be about a dram, (saith Dioscorides) drank twice a day in red wine, helps the lask, and bloody flux. It is an enemy to the nerves and sinews, being much taken inwardly, out very helpful to them, being outwardly applied. Pliny saith, the yellow berries are good against the jaundice; and taken before one be set to drink hard, preserves from drunkenness, and helps those that spit blood; and that the white berries being taken inwardly, or applied outwardly, kills the worms in the belly. The berries are a singular remedy to prevent the plague, as also to free them from it that have got it, by drinking the berries thereof made into a powder, for two or three days together. They being taken in wine, do certainly help to break the stone, provoke urine, and women’s courses. The fresh leaves of Ivy, boiled in vinegar, and applied warm to the sides of those that are troubled with the spleen, ache, or stitch in the sides, do give much ease. The same applied with some Rosewater, and oil of Roses, to the temples and forehead, eases the head-ache, though it be of long continuance. The fresh leaves boiled in wine, and old filthy ulcers hard to be cured washed therewith, do wonderfully help to cleanse them. It also quickly heals green wounds, and is effectual to heal all burnings and scaldings, and all kinds of exulcerations coming thereby, or by salt phlegm or humours in other parts of the body. The juice of the berries or leaves snuffed up into the nose, purges the head and brain of thin rheum that makes defluxions into the eyes and nose, and curing the ulcers and stench therein; the same dropped into the ears helps the old and running sores of them; those that are troubled with the spleen shall find much ease by continual drinking out of a cup made of Ivy, so as the drink may stand some small time therein before it be drank. Cato saith, That wine put into such a cup, will soak through it, by reason of the antipathy that is between them.
Roman Horse from Bunwell, Norfolk. Illustration by Sue Walker.
In 2021 I posted about Eponalia for the 18th Dec but I have now added the text to this page.
I’ve been too busy working on my Jane Austen and Christmas Virtual Tour ) to post over the last few days. And I have, therefore, shamelessly stolen this post off my Facebook friend Sue Walker, who is a talented archaeological illustrator, artist and a very good photographer.
She wrote: ‘the 18th December is the festival of the Celtic goddess Epona, the protector of horses, she was adopted by the Romans and became a favourite with the cavalry. This finely sculpted bronze horse with a head dress and symbol on its chest is 37mm high – found in Bunwell #Norfolk #Archaeology’
First published on December 17th 2022, Revised and republished December 2023
St Hildegard of Bingen receives a divine inspiration and passes it on to her scribe. From the Rupertsberg Codex of Liber Scivias.
What a relief! Here is a Saint who was not flayed alive, burnt on a griddle, scratched with wool combs, crucified upside down, beheaded, eyes gouged out, etc. etc. (consider identifying the Saints in this list as my Christmas Quiz). She died of illness, aged 81 and was famous not just for her visions but her erudition, her scientific writings, and her musical compositions. She came from the Rhineland area of Germany.
Before you proceed to read this post listen to this YouTube clip of her sublime music.
Hildegard of Bingen: De Spiritu Sancto (Holy Spirit, The Quickener Of Life)
Magistra Bingen, Monophony and Migraine
She was elected as Magistra (Mother Superior) of her Convent in 1136, and went on to found two other nunneries. But, was made famous by her writings on her visions. She was also a renowned composer of sacred monophony,
There has been speculation that her visions were caused by migraine. Read Mary Sharratt’s piece for more details, from which I took the following quotation.
‘When I was forty-two years and seven months old, Heaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain, and inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast, not like a burning but like a warming flame, as the sun warms anything its rays touch.‘
Hildegard von Bingen, Scivias, translated by Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., and Jane Bishop
Writings on Science and Medicine
Among the many books she wrote were two famous and early books on medicine and science. Her medical writing was highly practical although, of course, based on the humoural theories which had held sway since Hippocrates. However, she did think that the four humours had a hierarchy. She considered blood and phlegm the more superior humours, representing the celestial elements of fire and air. While black bile and yellow bile represented the earthly humours of earth and water.
Just as physicists today look to find a unifying theory of everything, Hildegard also tried to find unities within the body of classical knowledge. According to Wikipedia, she:
‘often focuses on interrelated patterns of four: “the four elements (fire, air, water, and earth), the four seasons, the four humours, the four zones of the earth, and the four major winds.” ‘
Linked also to the celestial bodies and to religion, she gave her world view in Causae et Curae c. 42:
It happens that certain men suffer diverse illnesses. This comes from the phlegm which is superabundant within them. For if man had remained in paradise, he would not have had the flegmata within his body, from which many evils proceed, but his flesh would have been whole and without dark humour [livor]. However, because he consented to evil and relinquished good, he was made into a likeness of the earth, which produces good and useful herbs, as well as bad and useless ones, and which has in itself both good and evil moistures. From tasting evil, the blood of the sons of Adam was turned into the poison of semen, out of which the sons of man are begotten. And therefore their flesh is ulcerated and permeable [to disease]. These sores and openings create a certain storm and smoky moisture in men, from which the flegmata arise and coagulate, which then introduce diverse infirmities to the human body. All this arose from the first evil, which man began at the start, because if Adam had remained in paradise, he would have had the sweetest health, and the best dwelling-place, just as the strongest balsam emits the best odour; but on the contrary, man now has within himself poison and phlegm and diverse illnesses.
And here I was hoping to find light and joy in a medieval Saint’s story! So we seem to be doomed by Adam’s Fall, and the poor quality of his semen. (Having recently watched Hugo Blick’s Wild West box set ‘The English’, I can quite understand the syphilitic underpinnings of Hildegard’s theory).
It also reminds me of Pandora’s Box. At least we know the Greco-Roman Gods were flawed divinities. While the Abrahamic God is omnipotent. Why then does he allow evil, cruel or unfair outcomes from his own creations?
Feverfew
Feverfew CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=216947
On the subject of headaches, Hildegard was a keen user of feverfew, which has been, since the 18th Century, a suggested cure for Migraine. I didn’t find it worked for me, being a sufferer since age 12. And it never occurred to me to think that the flashing lights, partial temporary blindness, tingling muscles and devastating headaches might be a gift from God.
Hildegard wrote the following about feverfew:
“If you suffer from a sick intestine, boil the Motherswort with water and butter or oil and add some spelt flour. Prepare a drink, for it helps the intestines.”
And so it became popular among women for gynaecological issues and abdominal pain. Feverfew has flowers like a daisy, ‘growing in every hedgerow’ according to Mrs Grieve’s English Herbal. Grieve’s says it is good for nervous and hysterical complaints; low-spirits; as a syrup good for coughs; as a tincture against swellings caused by bites of insects and vermin. However, https://www.drugs.com/npp/feverfew.html says the :
‘leaves possess emmenagogic activity (ejection of the placenta and fetal membranes) and may induce abortion. Use is not recommended during breastfeeding or in children younger than 2 years.‘
And there are also potential issues.
St Hildegard seems to have two special days – one is Dec 17th and the other is the day she died, September 17th 1179 which is her ‘Liturgical Feast’.
First Published on December 18th, 2022, Revised and republished December 2023, 2024, 2025
Trotty Veck 1889 Dickens The Chimes by Kyd (Joseph Clayton Clarke)
As Christmas looms, seasonal publications have a mixture of wonder and joy at the coming family reunions and festivities mingled with an awareness that, for some, Christmas will depend on the Food Bank or the Charity Shelter. The weather is now cold, living costs continue to rise at the very time extra spending is needed to unlock the joy of the Season. Also to counter the dark, the cold, and the spectre of death which, in fact, has always been central to the season of winter.
Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books epitomise this dichotomy.And by adding an element of the supernatural, provided a vehicle for joy and hope. It also came with a forceful political message that the authorities and the rich were not doing their Christian duty to alleviate poverty. Christmas Carol contrasts the wealth of a mean rich Stockbroker with the family of his poor employee Bob Cratchit, and provides a powerful tale of redemption.
The Chimes
But in this post I want to concentrate on his second Christmas Book, ‘The Chimes’. It was published on December 16th, 1844. And tells the story of the stick-thin Trotty Veck who is an aged City messenger, nicknamed Trotty because of his habit of keeping himself warm by running on the spot. He is afraid to let his daughter, Meg, marry as he has so little hope for the future. While he is worrying, he, Meg and her intended Richard are approached by Alderman Cute and Mr Filer.
Meg, Richard, Mr Filer, Gentleman, Alderman Cute and Trotty Veck. Probably located by the door of St Nicholas, Colechurch, City of London.
Cute represents the financial industries in the City of London and the Law. Filer the new breed of political economists. These, working with the ideas of Malthus and the new science of Statistics, had proved, that generous support for the poor would, inevitably, lead to a country full of poor people and no rich people. And thus, they justified the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1832. At this time Dickens was a Parliamentary reporter (1831-1834), and he observed the cruelty and absurdity of this piece of iniquitous legislation. In 1929 my mother was born in a workhouse, where she had been taken by her unmarried mother. She was so ashamed she didn’t tell her children until she was in her 70s.
The Workhouse
That is the legacy of the cruel Workhouse system. It was based on providing the lowest possible level of support offering separation from family, meagre food, and sparse comforts. This the rate payers believed would encourage the poor to stop being lazy and get back out there to earn their own living. Thus allowing taxes to fall. (brilliantly satirised by Dickens’ Oliver Twist, asking for ‘More’).
Below, I enclose the scene from the Chimes, which satirises the attitude of the governing classes.
‘And you’re making love to her, are you?’ said Cute to the young smith.
‘Yes,’ returned Richard quickly, for he was nettled by the question.
‘And we are going to be married on New Year’s Day.’
‘What do you mean!’ cried Filer sharply?Enough ‘Married!’
‘Why, yes, we’re thinking of it, Master,’ said Richard. ‘We’re rather in a hurry, you see, in case it should be Put Down first.’
‘Ah!’ cried Filer, with a groan. ‘Put that down indeed, Alderman, and you’ll do something. Married! Married!! The ignorance of the first principles of political economy on the part of these people; their improvidence; their wickedness; is, by Heavens! enough to—Now look at that couple, will you!’
...
‘A man may live to be as old as Methuselah,’ said Mr. Filer, ‘and may
labour all his life for the benefit of such people as those; and may heap up facts on figures, facts on figures, facts on figures, mountains high and dry; and he can no more hope to persuade ’em that they have no right or business to be married, than he can hope to persuade ’em that they have no earthly right or business to be born. And that we know they haven’t. We reduced it to a mathematical certainty long ago!’
Alderman Cute was mightily diverted, and laid his right forefinger on the side of his nose, as much as to say to both his friends, ‘Observe me, will you! Keep your eye on the practical man!’—and called Meg to him.
...
‘Now, I’m going to give you a word or two of good advice, my girl,’ said the Alderman, in his nice easy way. ‘It’s my place to give advice, you know, because I’m a Justice. ...
‘You are going to be married, you say,’ pursued the Alderman. ‘Very
unbecoming and indelicate in one of your sex! But never mind that.
After you are married, you’ll quarrel with your husband and come to be a distressed wife. You may think not; but you will, because I tell you so. Now, I give you fair warning, that I have made up my mind to Put distressed wives Down. So, don’t be brought before me.
You’ll have children—boys. Those boys will grow up bad, of course, and run wild in the streets, without shoes and stockings. Mind, my young friend! I’ll convict ’em summarily, every one, for I am determined to Put boys without shoes and stockings, Down. Perhaps your husband will die young (most likely) and leave you with a baby. Then you’ll be turned out of doors, and wander up and down the streets. Now, don’t wander near me, my dear, for I am resolved, to Put all wandering mothers Down. All young mothers,of all sorts and kinds, it’s my determination to Put Down. Don’t think
to plead illness as an excuse with me; or babies as an excuse with me;
for all sick persons and young children (I hope you know the
church-service, but I’m afraid not) I am determined to Put Down.
And if you attempt, desperately, and ungratefully, and impiously, and
fraudulently attempt, to drown yourself, or hang yourself, I’ll have no pity for you, for I have made up my mind to Put all suicide Down! If there is one thing,’ said the Alderman, with his self-satisfied smile, ‘on which I can be said to have made up my mind more than on another, it is to Put suicide Down. So don’t try it on. That’s the phrase, isn’t it? Ha, ha! now we understand each other.’
Project Gutenberg - The Chimes by Charles Dickens
It is a savage burlesque of a satire but at its core, Filer provides the economic/statistical justification. Cute enforces it by legal harassment of the poor. Dickens was writing after a recent introduction of legislation making suicide a punishable offence.
Government Cruelty
This has a contemporary resonance. During my lifetime, the first British Government to be cruel in its provision of benefits, in my opinion, for the poor was Teresa May’s Conservative Government. Her laws made getting help so difficult that people died as a result of the deliberately difficult system. ‘I, Daniel Blake’ a 2016 film by Ken Loach brilliantly captured the essence of this system. That government’s treatment of the Windrush generation was a similar example of bureaucratic cruelty. And the continual decline of the benefit system over the 14 years of Conservative Government meant that the poor bore the brunt of austerity. Keir Starmer started his period in office on the wrong foot too cutting benefits to the poor.
Dickens, progressive propagandist
The piece above reminds us what a brilliant propagandist Dickens was. Every generation of children, since he wrote Christmas Carol, has read it or seen it in popular retellings such as The Muppet Movie. I think it could be argued that the ‘More’ scene in Oliver Twist and the Christmas Carol have made the case for compassionate care and redemption far better than contemporary Christianity or political parties.
In the Chimes. these two men discourage Trotty from letting the young ones marry. He has a dream and sees the hopeless result of his decision: suicide, prostitution, crime. When he wakes up, he realises that what they do have is hope. Hope springs eternal and he lets them marry.
For more on this scene, have a look at the Victorian Web
Dickens was not a socialist. ‘Hard Times’ shows that Dickens was against strikes, despite leading a strike when he was a young newspaper man. He was a free trade Liberal; a reformer who believed that the rich needed to do their Christian duty and provide charitable support, pay decent wages and look after their dependents and servants. He thought society should care less about the dogma of Christianity but look to its essence, ‘love your neighbour like yourself’. This, alone, was sufficient to right the wrongs caused by the selfish.
First Published on December 16th 2022, republished and revised in December 2023, 2024, 2025
Medieval Cataract Surgery – calling couching Eye Care through the Ages .
So, on St Lucy’s Day, you, being someone worried about your eyes, might have sought an altar dedicated to St Lucy, the patron saint of eye health. (see December 13th’s Post on St Lucy). Although you may be disappointed that there has been no miraculous cure for you, you might have been encouraged to do something about it. So that’s what this post is about.
There are only two churches in the UK dedicated to St Lucy or St Lucia. One run by the National Trust in Upton Magna, Shropshire, but there must have been a few chapels in Cathedrals and Abbeys dedicated to her. I have my eyes open for them!
For Redness of the Eye or Pink Eye
There are many household books still, existing. These show that much of medical practice was carried out in the home, by ordinary men and women. More often women, actively not only collected useful recipes and cures, but also tested them out and improved them. Here is an example:
For the redness of eyes, or bloodshot. Take red wine, rosewater, and women’s milk, and mingle all these together: and put a piece of wheaten bread leavened, as much as will cover the eye, and lay it in the mixture. When you go to bed, lay the bread upon your eyes calmer and it will help them.
Fairfax Household book, 17th/ 18th century. (Reported in The Perpetual Calendar of Folklore by Charles Kightly)
‘Pink eye’ is mentioned in a document unearthed at the Roman Fort of Vindolanda. It lists the troops of the Cohort in occupation. We read that of the garrison of 750, 474 are absent with 276 in the fort of which 38 are sick, 10 with ‘pink eye’. This is probably conjunctivitis.
Prevention is better than cure
Things hurtful to the eyes. Garlic, onions, radish, drunkenness, lechery, sweet wines, salt meats, coleworts, dust, smoke, and reading presently after supper.
Good for the eyes. fennel, celandine, eyebright, vervain, roses, cloves and cold water.
Whites Almanack 1627
Cataract operations
Cataract operations have been carried out since 800 BC using a method called ‘couching’.
This was a last resort when the cataract was opaque and the patients nearly blind. It would mean they would need very thick lenses to see well again but, crude as it seems, it worked.
But the operation, without anaesthetics must have been a considerable ordeal. The recovery (still required today for those suffering from a displaced retina) means that the patient has to lie on their back for a week with supports on either side of the head to prevent movement. Of course, there was a serious risk of infection, so prophylactic visits to a chapel of St Lucy might be called for.
The modern treatment for cataracts was established in the 1940s and offers a great solution in 15 minutes surgery. Currently, the NHS has been having trouble dealing with all the cases required, (6% of surgery is for cataract operations). Before COVID-19, there was some talk about cataracts being, in practice, not readily available on the NHS. The waiting time is supposed to be 18 weeks but, for example, at NHS Chesterfield Royal Hospital the waiting time approaches almost 10 months. But waiting times around the country vary from 10 weeks to over a year.
Patrick Brontë’s Eye
On 26th August 1846 Charlotte Brontë took her father to Manchester from Haworth for Cataract surgery. The operation took 15 minutes but without anaesthesia. He was very calm and said the pain was ‘a burning pain.’ It was vital he stay still through the pain. Then, he had to remain in bed for a month in the dark, minimising movement. Leeches were applied to his face, to reduce the inflammation of the wound. He was looked after by a nurse 24 hours a day, supervised by Charlotte. She used the time she spent waiting in writing Jane Eyre. Her Father’s vision was significantly improved and he was able to resume his Parish duties.
You will note, above, that it was considered bad for the eyes to read in low light. It is a myth and not true. Poor Samuel Pepys was continually worried about his reading and writing habits ruining his eyesight. This is an extract from the poignant last entry in his famous diary:
And thus ends all that I doubt I should ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my journal, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand; and therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear: and therefore resolve from this time forward to have it kept by my people in long-hand. I must be consented to sit down no more than is fit for them and all the world to know; or, if they be anything, which cannot be much now my amores are past and my eyes hindering me almost all other pleasures. I must endeavour to keep a margin in my book open, to add, here and there, a note in shorthand with my own hand.
Samuel Pepys Diary, May 31st
The sad thing is that Pepys had another 38 years before he went blind, and what glorious diary entries have we missed because of his false fears of the effect of eye strain?
First published in 2022, updates 2023, 2024 and 2025
