Witches and Witchcraft

Witchcraft is the use of supernatural powers and magical spells. In Christian Europe witches were thought to be in worshipers of Satan and used their powers to harm people and property. The concept of witchcraft as good and bad is increasingly distinguished with good witches involving healing.

Beliefs in witchcraft have existed in many cultures worldwide and still exist in some today.. The witch was a respected in primitive times and they were valued, not feared, they helped ease pain and healed people and their animals. In primitive times religion and magic were virtually the same. Priests were magicians and magicians were priests.

These beliefs were prominant in Early Europe of the 14th to 18th century, where witchcraft came to be seen as diabolical and resulted in the Witch Hunts.

In the Christian and Islamic faiths, sorcery came to be associated with evil.

Many French healers were accused of witchcraft a majority of the accused witches in Hungary seem to have been healers.

Some of the healers and diviners accused of witchcraft should be considered as Shamans. These people had contacts with fairies, spirits and traveling through the Otherworld. These beliefs are found in the folklore of most of Europe, and were described by the accused witches in Europe.

The basic characteristics of a witch is that they poscess the ability to cast a spell. A spell could consist of a set of words, or a verse. Spells are cast by many methods, by the binding or pricking of a wax image of a person to affect them magically; with incantations; by performing physical rituals; and by the use of magical herbs, amulets or potions.Necromacy is the practice of conjuring the spirits of the dead for prophocy.

Today, it is thought that many witches and the possessed were those with dementia or other psychosis. In early times the medical and the psychological sciences to explore causes, other than possession, for the behavior of people was not as advanced as it is today; although Anceint Greece surpassed the European countries. A victim who was thought to be possessed because of their spastic jerkings and verbal utterances such as people with Tourette's syndrome were victims for the accusations of possessed. The involuntary profanities and barks, curses, tics, facial contortions were thought to be possessed by the Devil.

The name Witch conjures up Sabbaths and demonic activity to this day and the association of the Old Hag and her cat still crosses people's minds when it is uttered. Throughout time this reference has been made; and it has been proven that even when there is doubt there is still a grain or truth. Are witches a part of the imaginary world or is the imagined the truth buried in the seas of unknown.

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Greece After the Trojan War

The Trojan War was a disaster for Greece eventually. Maybe because the war lasted for 10 years and during this time all the kings and armies of Greece were at the front. When the Greeks eventually conquered Troy and returned to their homes, they only found decaying societies.  Other speculation about the Greek decline after the war is that the Greeks wanted Troy because it probably reflected a real war  c.1200 B.C between the invading Greeks and the people of Troas, possibly over control of trade through the Dardanelles  and was not for Helen of Troy as it is written in the myth

 They spent much effort in the siege and when they finally conquered it, it without establishing their rule. This could be explained by historical citations of a  barbarian tribe which was invading and destroying the civilizations in the Middle East. Maybe the Greeks left Troy to prepare their defenses against them and since their economy was based on trading with the Middle Eastern countries, their civilization decayed because of the invasion.

Shortly after the Trojan War, there came a period known as the Dark Age.  Little is know about Greece in this time period. At the beginning of the 8th century B.C. there came an end to the Dark Age and the beginning of the Archaic Age. The literary work of the composer of the Iliad and the Odyssey, known as Homer,  were stories of creation told by Hesiod. These poets created what became the standard religious stories known and told about the ancestors of the Greeks. These were the gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus.

During the Archaic Age,  communities came into contact with one another. Monarchy gave way to aristocracies. The foundations for democracy emerged, and some small farmers decided to move into the urban area and brought the beginning of the city-state.

While the city had marketplaces, business and trade were considered dishonest.  Exchange was necessary to fulfill need for family, friends, or community and was not simply for profit. Standards for proper behavior for citizens made some tasks demeaning. There were slaves to do the work that was beneath the dignity of a citizen. Despite resistance to money-making, by the end of the Archaic Age, the use of coins began, which helped promote trade.

During the Archaic Age there was expansion. Greeks from the mainland set out to settle the Ionian east. Certain colonists began to question the world around them, to look for a pattern in life and the cosmos, these in turn became the first philosophers.

When the Greeks  invented the lyre, they produced a new music to accompany it. At the beginning to the Archaic age, statues copying  the Egyptian style, and appeared stiff and lifeless, by the end of the period and the beginning of the Classical Age, statues were being created more lifelike.

Following the Archaic Age was the Classical Age. The Archaic Age ended  after the Persian Wars.

The Classical Age brought new ideas, philosophy, and new medical techniques to the Greeks and the Grecian world flourished to become the center of the Ancient world.

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