Attis: A Christmas Enigma

Statue of the self-emasculated daemon Attis at Hieropolis, ancient cult center in Anatolia of the mother goddess Cybele

“Too late, too late,” she cried, and waved her wooden leg.—Anglo-Saxon incantation

Christmas Eve foreshadows Sol Invictus, the Victorious Sun,*

whose name's forgotten, though his war is won.

The lady vanishes, was not understood.

What was the leg she waved? Why is it wood,

lacking a better prosthesis art thinks good?

Too late for what? A light perhaps brighter?

Mysteries all day the unhinged saints recite.

Those providential tales are neither wrong nor righter.

“But what about my child!” the bald ingénue rehearses.

Deep in the mise-en-scène, deballed Attis** curses.

Why does stuff like this bung up the brain?

Speculation chimes with rhymes; it smirks.

Swiftly your ancient memories unwind,

plane going down—at least that works!

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus

 ** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attis

December 21, 2025

December

A December boar hunt at the Château de Vincennes, in the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (ca. 1416)

December was the tenth month

in the old Roman calendar of

Romulus, which started with March

—hence its name, from Latin decem,

ten. It's also National Fruitcake

Month and National Eggnog Month.

December 22's Global Orgasm Day.

Come in Peace! (Or at least fancy

doing so.) The Holidays, ditto.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

The hours of the ducs de Berry haven't all been rich.

One such lost his head to Louisette in 1793.

The latest would be Louis XX if he succeeded

—an outcome unlikely to be needed.

What can one say? History's a bitch!

Note: The inventor of the fatal device later wrongly attributed to Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was, in fact, Antoine Louis, a contributor to the Encyclopédie. It was originally called the Louison, or Louisette.

Cartoon by Rico in the Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)

December 22, 2025

The Deposizione

Rosso Fiorentino ("Firenze Red"), Deposizione

(ca. 1521). Pinacoteca Comunale, Volterra, Italy

“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise. . . .What is now proved was once, only imagin’d.”

—William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

Unpinning from the Cross was hard,

with even Seraphs at a loss!

yet human creatures braved the task.

After we'd bribed the Roman dogs

(easy—they were Krauts or wogs)

making mercy's scaffolding obligatory

took ages, till in Nicaea's fair and pleasant city

Great Kostas* forged officious pity.

Persisting in their folly, bishops contrived

monstrosities once only found in thought.

Long they've thrived, long the faithful bought.

Now in this annus horribilis, 2025,

it is uncertain what these days gives.

But—Oh, say it ain't so!—Kostakis lives.

*The Roman emperor Constantine I, called Constantine the Great (r. 306–37 CE), who founded Constantinople as his capital and in 325 imposed the straitjacket of the Nicene Creed on his newly Christianized empire.

Tuesday, December 16. 2025