The Iliad begins, quite literally, with a hecatomb, literally "a hundred oxen", offered to the gods before battles and after victories

The Iliad begins, quite literally, with a hecatomb, literally "a hundred oxen", offered to the gods before battles and after victories. It is a recurring motif throughout the whole epic.

But the truly richest material on the sacrifice of cattle is to be found in the Old Testament. The sacrifices of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple come to 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, quite literally mass slaughter as a religious act.

One suspects that what is happening in the country to the luckless cows and other livestock belongs precisely to this sphere. It is all far from simple.

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

The Iliad begins, quite literally, with a hecatomb, literally "a hundred oxen", offered to the gods before battles and after victories

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s