RedWhite&Blue

Well silver falcon, Thanks for re-educateing me!, Certain other members of this Forum, Have been reading the wrong BOOKS, It seems my post was right in the first Instance, And they stand Corrected in Ancient History, Oil and Horseraceing, Ben Her Comes to mind, a BRILLIANT film, Loved them WHITE STALLIONS :wink:

Cyburn

Well in your case Im Half Anglo-Saxon and Half Egyptian/Persian

My dad's from Egypt, but I am not sure whether his ancestors are pure egyptian or did they come from Arabs or Persians....

SilverFalcon

Cyburn - One day when you have some cash to spare go get a cheek scrape for a DNA report. There are a few companies doing this now. It's way cool at the moment. They can trace Africans taken INTO phpbb_slavery in America right back to particular tribes and places in Africa so they don't have to feel alienated from their roots any more.

SilverFalcon

The Iranian Aryans invented polo. The ancient mounted warriors of the nomad tribes carried this through Asia, via China, Asia Minor and INTO phpbb_India. The Aryan Iranians first domesticated the horse, so those stallions you mentioned in Ben Hur have a noble history, Red, White and Blue. Did you know that Iranian women used to play polo against the noble men of court? In the days before the poor creatures became forcibly encased from head to foot in body bags. :?

RedWhite&Blue

This is Interesting Stuff, Silver Falcon, Which noblemen and which court?, And why would they Force good Horse Woman INTO phpbb_encased body bags from head to Foot?, Seems a waste!

SilverFalcon

I saw a little dockie on the BBC about these ladies. They have revived the sport but were saying how now that they have become Muslims the big black bags get in their way and make them incredibly hot. (Allah in his latterday manifestations tends to be a killjoy.) They said they enjoyed it so much they were willing to suffer the heat. You're right, it is a waste, they are lovely. They dressed up long ago too, of course but it was all silks and brocaded saddle blankets and cute little headgear. The noblemen must have found polo day came round quickly and ended too fast.

SilverFalcon

Red, White and Blue - here is some info on royal polo, mentioning the queens:

Polo is arguably one of the most complex of games in the world. The precise origin of polo is obscure and undocumented and there is ample evidence of the game's place in the history of Asia. No one knows where or when stick first met ball after the horse was domesticated by the ancient Iranian (Aryan) tribes of Central Asia before their migration to Iranian plateau; but it seems likely that as the use of light cavalry spread throughout Iranian plateau, Asia Minor, China and the Indian subcontinent, so did this rugged game on horseback.

However, many scholars believe that polo originated among the Iranian tribes [1] sometime before Darius the Great (521–485 BC) and his cavalry forged the Second Iranian Empire, the Achaemenid dynasty. Certainly it is Persian literature and art that give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity. The first recorded polo match occurred in roughly 600 BC between the Turkomans and Persian, with victory going to the Turkomans.

Ferdowsi, the most famous of Iranian poet-historian, gives a number of later accounts of royal polo tournaments in his 9th century epic, Shahnameh (the Epic of Kings). Some believe that the Chinese (the Mongols) were the first to try their hands at the game, but in the earliest account, Ferdowsi romanticizes an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Siyâvash, a legendary Persian prince from the earliest centuries of the Empire. The poet is eloquent in his praise of Siyâvash's skills on the polo field. Ferdowsi also tells of Emperor Sâpour-II of Sasanian dynasty of the 4th Century AD, who learned to play polo when he was only seven years old.

Polo was also popular among other nations, including China, where it was the royal pastime for many centuries. The Chinese most probably learned the game from the Iranian nobles who sought refuge in Chinese courts after the invasion of the Iranian Empire by the Arabs, or possibly by some Indian tribes who were taught by the Iranians. The polo stick appears on Chinese royal coats of arms and the game was part of the court life in the golden age of Chinese classical culture under Minghuang, the Radiant Emperor, who as an enthusiastic patron of equestrian activities.

For more than 20 centuries polo remained a favourite of the rulers of Asia, who played the game or were its patrons. Their Queens played, as did the nobility and the mounted warriors.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo

RedWhite&Blue

Nice One Silver Falcon, Also like the Heathen Site, Gladiator comes to mind, When in the Beginning scene, The Romans say, youd think a race would no when they are Conquered :?:

SilverFalcon

It isn't over until it's over. The old German saying "Do what is right, then fear no one" is a Heathen guide. And I like the Emperor Julian's words too, last pagan Emperor of Rome:

"For zeal to do all that is in one's power is, in truth, a proof of piety."

http://www.juliansociety.org/

(Piety in the Roman sense here meaning duty, Roman duty, the highest ethical obligation.) Julian died on the battle field at 33. Some say he may have been assassinated. His aspiration to do all that is one one's power to do lives on though. Which is why truly great people never really die and we can carry their deeds with us as inspiration and guidance and their words as touchstones to action. Never without honour, of course. If the Northern heathens do this they break their swords on their own bodies and lose their integrity.

Have you seen the powerfully evocative statue, Red, White and Blue, of a Gallic Chieftain killing himself and his wife in the face of Roman soldiers? I never forgot it when I was studying Fine Art. (Or the one of the dying trumpeter.) It still is one of my touchstones. An act of valour and honour and self sacrifice accompanied by the determination never to be a slave or have your wife violated if at all possible or to allow your people to see this happen and be humiliated by default. Different times, different heroes. We need these vaiant people again, Boudicca, the old Gallic warrior, Herman of the Cherusci, Vercingetorix of the Celts - they stretch away in folk memory and fill the mythology and folk tales with their exploits. All gone. Whimps and pimps in their places and we standing on the other side of the river, wondering how the river breached such honourable defences.

I suppose the lesson is never to break the bonds of group solidarity. Never sell your people down the river. Never adopt ideology that is not yours, evolved in the bone marrow of your people through trial and error and millennia. Never give in and most importantly of all, never give in to people who have assumed office by solicitation and sent your soldiers to the other side of the world to fight and die for causes that have no merit or support at home. (Are you listening Messrs Blair and Bush?)

Patriotism has taken an odd turn, a sea change in definition. It is often championed by people now who know nothing about it and have no intention of allowing it ever to have manifestation. Patriots wear many disguises today. Some are empty flag wavers, some are fascists and a whole new brigade of insincere usurpers of the term and title have sprung up like mushrooms practically overnight and are busily destroying any historical meaning of the word. And trying their level best to make genuine patriots look evil. If these people succeed they will damage every single political party that has patriotic aspirations by smearing them all with the same viral brush. It really doesn't take a genius to see them. For me it is as though they wore flourescent trousers. I don't believe they will ultimately succeed. I believe that somewhere, somehow, the real patriots will triumph over them and make that ancient warrior's sacrifice worth his while. If not, he may as well have lain down his sword, donated his wife to the Roman general and become a slave and placed all of his children and his entire tribe INTO phpbb_slavery. Often this happened and at other times bribery and corruption thwarted the warrior's gift.

Have we learned nothing? And most importantly, are we now blind that we cannot see the hand stetched out to feed us that we should bite off at our earliest convenience before it reveals the manacles it has concealed behind the thirty pieces of silver gleaming in the light of seeming human goodness and eternal freedom from whatever it is that makes a traitor what he is and a warrior so unlike him? Time will tell. And the winepresses of wrath will continue to produce bitter wine until the warriors are freed from their modern obligation to do wrong and fear everyone.

RedWhite&Blue

The Gallic Chieftain Killing himself, and The Dying Trumpeter, I do not Believe i have seen these works ot Art, could you give me a link Please!, Are these Images based on Fact, Are they recorded in History?