April 24: International Day For Multilateralism And Diplomacy For Peace

"Diplomacy"

The term “diplomacy” derives from the Greek “diploma”, a folded document that granted immunity to messengers. These keyworkers had a challenging job. Emperor Nero for example, had the habit of providing his messengers with an obscene password, just for the fun of getting them into trouble. To keep their messages secret, the ancients were quite inventive. The tyrant Histiaios shaved the head of a slave, wrote a message on it and sent the slave on its way when the hair had grown back, only to be shaved off again to reveal the writing. More subtile forms of cryptography are the Spartan “skutalon”, a cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it, and the well known “Caesar cipher”, based on substitution. More complicated was the “pyrseia table”, that used a grid, lit by torches, to send messages letter by letter. Even more advanced was the “hydraulic telegraph”: two identical devices that made use of pre-written messages, floating on an adjustable level of water.  Who needs an Enigma machine, indeed.​ Back to April overview.

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April 25: World Penguin Day

"Penguin Classics"

“It has been the intention of this book… to discriminate what truly merited discussion from the mass of worthless stories… Since my plan has been a good one there is no change I can make in it.” (Pausanias, 1st century BC). When such a confident statement reaches me from two millennia ago, it puts a smile on my face. Thanks to the “Penguin Classics”-series, these ancient works are still in bookshops today. But I can’t help wondering: What’s with the penguin? The bird meant nothing to Egyptians, Greeks nor Romans. Furthermore, the peaceful penguin society, where both sexes respectfully share responsibilities, couldn’t differ more from the violent and mysoginistic antique world. No penguin would be amused to be featured on the cover of a book with phrases like this: “Only with women is it true that nothing bad that happens to them, can take away their appetite for trouble.” The ancients themselves would obviously have voted for the majestic eagle. My suggestion would be an ostrich, or a cuckoo. And yours? Back to April overview.

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April 26: Spring Month

"The Bird Family"

Little Anthus grew up in a family that possessed a herd of mares. His elder brother would normally watch over them, but one time, Anthus was asked to drive them out of the meadow. The horses didn’t take that well and burst into a stampede. Anthus’ cries alarmed his father, who froze in fear and failed to get his son out of harm’s way. The mother came running, screaming her lungs out, but she lacked the strength to rein them in. After trampeling the son, the mares turned against the father, and the mother too fell under their hoofs. The unexpected outburst of violence alarmed the gods, and they took pity on the family. They turned the boy Anthus into an “anthus”, or pipit. (The Greeks had observed – or invented – that this bird hates horses and mockingly imitates their neighing.) The father, who had lacked the courage to jump in, became an insignificant quail. While the mother, who had faced the danger head on, was turned into a high rising skylark. As one of the rare myths that actually pays tribute to a woman, let’s cherish it. And larks too! Back to April overview.