Anche Stefano De Martino deve arrendersi ai Mondiali 2026. Affari Tuoi infatti giovedì e venerdì non è andato in onda su Rai1 per fare spazio alla cerimonia di apertura della competizione e la diretta delle partite Messico-Sudafrica e Canada-Bosnia. In tutto il game show dovrebbe perdere otto puntate, con grande gioia de La Ruota la Fortuna che può così consolidare il trend positivo dell’ultima settimana.
Affari Tuoi tornerà quindi oggi 13 giugno in onda su Rai1 con una puntata speciale dedicata ai Mondiali 2026 a partire dalle 20.30. A seguire in prima serata “Una voce per Padre Pio” e la partita Brasile-Maroccoa partire dalla mezzanotte.
Questa mattina presso l’Auditorium della Conciliazione di Roma è in corso l’assemblea costituente di Futuro Nazionale. L’inviata di Affaritaliani presente all’evento del partito di Roberto Vannacci riporta di gravi problemi di disorganizzazione.
I giornalisti sono rinchiusi all’interno di una piccola stanza insufficiente a contenerli e si ritrovano praticamente schiacciati l’uno sull’altro. Tra la folla c’è chi grida: “Siamo qui per lavorare”. Le uscite di sicurezza risultano bloccate e un disabile è impossibilitato ad andare ai servizi igienici. Vannacci sta parlando dal palco, ma i giornalisti non sono potuti entrare e ora attendono in una sala parallela.
Czech police found cocaine in a Russian Orthodox bishop’s car – right after a seminarian accused him of sexual assault. Coincidence or Kremlin takedown? With no court ruling and helmet cams off, the West’s propaganda machine gets another scalp.
Russian Orthodox metropolitan Hilarion (his last posting was in the Czech Republic) was involuntarily in the news again after Czech authorities claimed that after conducting a search they found cocaine hidden in the trunk of his automobile. The quantity alleged to have been seized by the Czech police in the good metropolitan’s vehicle was negligible, but still enough for criminal proceedings to be initiated and – perhaps more importantly – to generate massive embarrassment not just for him personally but also for the church which he represents.
Amazingly, or perhaps not, the church in question is not Southern Baptist or Presbyterian but Eastern Orthodox, in this particular case the Moscow Patriarchate in which metropolitan Hilarion happens to be a prelate.
For context, the alleged cocaine seizure comes relatively shortly after the first round of embarrassment, also involving metropolitan Hilarion, and his cell attendant, Japanese-Russian seminary student Georgy Suzuki (presumably unrelated to the motorcycle manufacturer). Suzuki claimed that whilst posted in Budapest, Hungary, as head of the Russian Patriarchate diocese in that country, the metropolitan had made some indecent proposals to him which the latter, being a pious Christian, of course indignantly rejected and then went vociferously public with his traumatic experience.
The metropolitan Hilarion affair, if it were just an isolated and personal matter, would scarcely merit extensive discussion. Based on what we know of human nature and its infirmities both allegations theoretically could be true, although on a cautionary note theoretical possibilities are considerably removed, in both moral and legal terms, from proven facts. The burden of proof of course, in both the moral and the penal sense, is invariably on the accuser. And it is always helpful to keep in mind that the graver the charge the stricter the degree of assurance of guilt that may be demanded in the form of convincing proof, and in some instances even to the extent of removing all reasonable doubt.
The principle “the more severe the crime the higher the standard of proof” is fundamental not just to criminal justice but in a broad sense to all moral reasoning concerning human behaviour. So without dismissing a priori Suzuki’s attempted molestation charges, how do they stack up?
It should be noted at the outset that Georgy Suzuki is the only source for the scandalous allegations at the expense of metropolitan Hilarion. That does not automatically disqualify them, but it does call for closer scrutiny of their credibility. Roman law has bequeathed us a fundamental precept that is pertinent in situations such as this one: unus testis, nullus testis, or one witness, no witness. When there is just a single witness whose declarations are not corroborated by the testimony of other observers or physical evidence, that should put us on guard. It is reasonable in such cases to be sceptical and to demand independent proof before rendering judgment.
Hilarion’s status as a high ranking ecclesiastical dignitary does not make his denials inherently more credible than simple seminarian Suzuki’s affirmations. But neither should the affirmations be given more weight merely because they have been made by someone who appears to be unblemished and even vulnerable. The accusations that have been made can gravely injure reputations, both personal and institutional. They must therefore be subjected to rigorous scrutiny and a sufficient amount of credible proof should be demanded before entertaining them seriously.
If Georgy Suzuki had simply aired his allegations and after that held his peace, arguably the case against the metropolitan would have appeared much stronger, although still falling short of the level of proof required for either moral condemnation or penal conviction. But instead Suzuki set off on a passionate media crusade against Hilarion, widening the affair’s scope beyond the original accusations. On his Telegram channel and other media platforms he is now excoriating the metropolitan for entirely unrelated faults, such as toleration of heresy and promotion of the Bologna-based system in educational establishments under church auspices which, he claims, has been academically detrimental to students and seminarians such as himself. These and other criticisms that he has raised might be justified but they are irrelevant to the central issue of molestation. In the absence of any corroborating evidence to support Suzuki’s original charges, far from solidifying the negative image of metropolitan Hilarion this ad hominem rampage seriously undermines accuser Suzuki’s own credibility.
The attentive observer can scarcely overlook the peculiar manner in which this scandal is framed. It follows to the letter the tried and tested pattern that over the past decades has been successfully used to discredit Christianity in the West. As in this case, the technique consists of a lone accuser making grave charges of moral turpitude against clerics that are not backed by other evidence than his word alone. Such accusations are nevertheless accorded deafening publicity by the media machine which incessantly repeats them without ever asking any critical questions.
The multitude of cases in the West that have plagued mostly the Roman Catholic communion have accomplished two important purposes. By pursuing the “deep pocket” strategy and extracting huge indemnities from the church as an institution, the pawns from whom these sordid allegations had originated or, more accurately, whoever is pulling their strings, have managed to bankrupt many Roman Catholic dioceses, thus engineering the financial ruin of the church in their respective countries. It is rumoured, without definitive proof, that the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was also coerced into paying a ransom to extricate itself and settle the matter in Hungary which, like the Czech Republic, is still Collective West EU/NATO territory. But even more importantly, given the spiritual darkness into which the Western world has plunged, it is not money but the infliction of severe reputational damage on the Christian church that is the main and ultimate objective behind these scandals. Its dignitaries must therefore be portrayed as depraved perverts, which is exactly what the cabal that fabricates most of these accusations in fact are.
It was apparently judged where these operations are devised that metropolitan Hilarion and his Church were made sufficiently vulnerable by the wide dissemination of Suzuki’s original allegations for the next phase of the discreditation process to be undertaken. In the Czech Republic, which was the metropolitan’s next posting, the police laid ambush on him at a petrol station whilst he was buying fuel. The Czech police surrounded his vehicle and without a court order or any semblance of probable cause proceeded to search the automobile, their helmet cameras conveniently turned off so that no record of the search would exist. When they opened the back of the vehicle the officers claimed to have found a handbag containing cocaine. There is no way of telling whether it was really there or was slipped in by the officers themselves at their superiors’ orders. The alleged seizure was judged sufficient to detain the metropolitan.
The cocaine search and seizure incident was marked by so many procedural irregularities that any American judge worth his salt would simply drop his gavel and call “case dismissed,” with apologies to the defendant. Exactly how Czech authorities resolved the issue is still murky, but since in a proper courtroom everything about the case was subject to challenge the Czech judiciary hastily improvised a formula to let the metropolitan go and he returned to Russia.
But as with the indecent propositioning allegation, without anything ever being settled in a public trial, where evidence would have to be produced and carefully weighed. Both matters were nevertheless “settled” not in a courtroom but in the arena of propaganda, where there are no rules or safeguards and masterfully generated impressions substitute for judiciously established facts.
Given the known frailties of human nature and dearth of reliable facts pointing one way or the other, no firm conclusions can be drawn but none can be excluded either. Of equal interest as the alleged incidents are the uses those incidents have been made to serve. In the current climate of international relations, where shaping public perceptions by means of propaganda is a major operational objective, there is no doubt that a high-ranking dignitary of the Russian Orthodox Church such as metropolitan Hilarion (formerly head of Moscow Patriarchy’s foreign relations department) is considered a high value target. His discomfiture therefore, and that of the Russian Orthodox Church with which he is associated, absolutely delights the targeters. Those who are doing the targeting are, of course, morally unperturbed by the faults that, rightly or falsely, have been imputed to Hilarion. Their poster boy Zelensky is known for personal depravity and, yes, cocaine consumption, but they do not object because he is their man. They themselves are deeply mired in the depths of depravity that are largely unfathomable to the normal human mind. But they are always ready and eager to smear others with their own perversions if that brings them an advantage.
Quando Leone XIV ha pubblicato la Magnifica Humanitas, la lettera enciclica sulla custodia della persona umana nel tempo dell’intelligenza artificiale, i media si sono quasi all’unisono concentrati principalmente su una parola, “disarmare”. Il risultato è stato prevedibile, con titoli che evocavano prese di posizione papali sui conflitti armati e sull’agenda geopolitica. Tutto giusto, ma non sufficiente a restituire il quadro di quanto espresso dal Pontefice. Raffaele Gaito, divulgatore digitale con oltre 200.000 iscritti su YouTube, autore del volume In cosa posso esserti utile. Guida molto pratica e poco emotiva all’intelligenza artificiale (Mondadori, 2026), ha dedicato un video sui suoi canali social proprio a smontare quella lettura.
«Hanno preso una frase, anzi una singola parola molto forte, “disarmare”, ed è stato facile costruire una notizia attorno a quel termine», dice Gaito a Formiche.net. Nel documento pontificio, il verbo compare in riferimento a un meccanismo di dominio legato all’intelligenza artificiale, ovvero la concentrazione del potere tecnologico nelle mani di pochi grandi attori privati. «Il pericolo di lasciare tutto nelle mani di un gruppo di imprenditori della Silicon Valley e di utilizzare queste tecnologie senza una seria riflessione etica. Il messaggio è evidente fin dalle prime pagine».
Tre livelli di lettura
Restando al di là del contenuto di natura spirituale, e quindi religiosa, materie di cui Gaito non si occupa, il divulgatore identifica nell’enciclica almeno tre livelli di significato distinti. Il primo è storico. «Il fatto stesso che esista un’enciclica dedicata all’intelligenza artificiale ha un valore non indifferente. Ci fa capire quanto la tecnologia sia ormai presente nelle nostre vite e quanto stia già incidendo in modo trasversale sulla società». Il secondo è politico, nel senso più ampio del termine. L’enciclica ha detto cose che altri non hanno detto. «Il Papa ha condiviso riflessioni che ci saremmo aspettati da altri soggetti, ma che non sono arrivate, né dalla politica, né tantomeno dal mondo accademico o da quello degli intellettuali». Molti di coloro che seguono i suoi canali, racconta Gaito, gli hanno scritto chiedendogli se non trovasse paradossale che fosse stato il Papa a colmare quel vuoto. «E io dico sì, e nel frattempo i politici stanno lì a guardare e forse il Papa e il suo team, che hanno lavorato a questa enciclica, hanno compreso più di tanti l’impatto che ha questa tecnologia».
Il terzo livello riguarda il contenuto. Gaito spiega infatti di avere costruito negli anni una divulgazione esplicitamente centrata sulla persona, il che lo porta ad essere particolarmente diretto su questo punto. «È un messaggio in cui io mi ritrovo molto. Sono diversi anni ormai che condivido il mio pensiero sull’intelligenza artificiale, raccontando i pro e i contro, i benefici e le limitazioni e così via, e mi sono rivisto in molte di quelle parole».
Il tifo da stadio che non aiuta il dibattito
Uno dei nodi più discussi dell’enciclica è il modo in cui il tema dell’intelligenza artificiale viene trattato nel dibattito pubblico. Leone XIV chiede di non essere spettatori passivi. «L’intelligenza artificiale spesso viene trattata in modo divisivo. Sei a favore o sei contrario. Il tifo da stadio non fa bene al dibattito», spiega Gaito, che tuttavia individua un ostacolo strutturale. «La tecnologia è qua, è già nelle nostre vite. Non stiamo parlando del futuro ma del presente. Cercare di comprenderla significa raccontarne le potenzialità e i limiti, gli aspetti positivi e i rischi, far capire quello che c’è dietro». Un approccio che però, riconosce, non è commercialmente conveniente. «Questo approccio razionale, molto concreto, quindi poco emotivo, è una cosa molto rara. È una cosa che non funziona quanto funziona urlare allo scandalo e fare il titolone che magari ti fa vendere una copia in più o ti fa ottenere un clic in più».
Algoritmi che decidono vite
L’enciclica dedica poi ampio spazio al tema delle disuguaglianze prodotte dall’intelligenza artificiale. Non un problema teorico, dice Gaito. «Già in realtà c’è. Il fatto è che molte persone non lo sanno. Ogni volta che apriamo un social c’è un algoritmo che decide cosa mostrarci, e quella roba ci influenza quotidianamente. Ma la parte grave è quando è un’IA a decidere che magari non puoi avere un mutuo, un’assicurazione oppure no, persino se puoi essere assunto o licenziato. Ecco, in quei casi la questione diventa molto importante, perché non ci si può nascondere dietro la scusa del “l’ha deciso l’algoritmo”, con un effetto scaricabarile, nel quale nessuno si prende la responsabilità e nessuno paga le conseguenze». La risposta, per Gaito, passa per la regolazione e la trasparenza. «Bisogna pretendere che il legislatore vada in una certa direzione, che le aziende decidano un certo livello di trasparenza e che ci sia una supervisione umana».
Il manifesto di Palantir e il sogno infranto
Poi c’è il tema della concentrazione del potere nelle mani di grandi attori privati che, scrive Leone XIV, «fissano le condizioni di accesso, le regole della visibilità e le possibilità stesse di partecipazione». Già Gaito nelle scorse settimane aveva analizzato sul suo canale il manifesto pubblicato da Palantir, la società di analisi dei dati fondata da Peter Thiel. «Io ho definito quel manifesto come una delle cose più distopiche che abbia mai incontrato nella mia vita, in questo lavoro che faccio da una ventina d’anni». Poi rincara la dose. «Probabilmente, fino a qualche anno fa, l’avremmo letto con il sorriso sulle labbra. Avremmo detto: vabbè, questi sono un po’ strani, sono i soliti soggetti un po’ particolari che vivono in Silicon Valley, fuori dal mondo. Oggi, purtroppo, quella cosa non mi fa più sorridere. È da prendere molto seriamente, perché è la visione del mondo che hanno alcune persone, e che non mette l’uomo al centro, assolutamente no, e che vogliono imporre al resto del mondo». Il raffronto con l’enciclica è conseguenziale. «Qualsiasi cosa leggevo lì dentro, uno, mi spaventava; due, ero in profondo disaccordo; e tre, se vogliamo fare il parallelismo con l’enciclica, era estremamente lontana da quella visione che invece abbiamo letto nel documento del Papa. Le due visioni si oppongono proprio: sono antitetiche».
La questione, per Gaito, è che ormai il modello del “fondatore che costruisce nel garage e cambia il mondo” è scomparso. «Io ero un ex-ragazzino cresciuto con il mito della Silicon Valley. Un po’ alla volta mi è crollato, da diverso tempo ormai. Leggere un documento del genere è stata proprio la pietra finale messa su quel sogno. A un certo punto, hanno avuto un potere enorme tra le mani, e da quel momento hanno iniziato a fare un po’ quello che volevano. Senza controllo. Perché quando diventi più potente e ricco di uno Stato non è sicuramente la multa della Comunità Europea a fermarti».
Il paragrafo 107 e la questione della governance
Quale paragrafo dell’enciclica consiglierebbe quindi Gaito a chi lavora ogni giorno con l’IA? «C’è questo passaggio che io trovo potentissimo, al paragrafo 107, dove dice che non serve un’IA più morale se questa morale è decisa da pochi. Riassume perfettamente quello che penso. La lezione è: non dimentichiamoci che di fronte abbiamo degli esseri umani. In un mondo che va alla velocità della luce e dove il dato regna sovrano, ricordiamoci che dietro quei dati ci sono sempre delle persone, con esigenze e problematiche, oltre che sogni e obiettivi». Paradossalmente, però, potrebbe essere proprio l’IA a restituire spazio alle relazioni umane. «Se la usiamo per automatizzare quella parte più noiosa, più macchinosa del lavoro, possiamo liberare tempo da dedicare alle persone, a ricostruire quelle relazioni che forse abbiamo un po’ messo da parte negli ultimi anni. Dobbiamo capire che è una scelta. Non dobbiamo subire questa tecnologia. Possiamo decidere noi in che direzione vogliamo indirizzarla».
A 30-year-old woman was rushed to a hospital Saturday with serious injuries after being attacked by a shark at a Sydney beach, the latest in a string of recent shark attacks off Australia's coast.
Officials said emergency crews responded to Coogee Beach on Saturday morning following reports that a swimmer had been bitten.
The woman was airlifted to a hospital for treatment, police said in a statement.
"The woman was pulled from the water by members of the public who commenced first aid," police said.
Last week, officials said a 35-year-old fisherman was killed by a suspected shark measuring nearly 15 feet long off the coast of Western Australia.
The man was spearfishing near Michaelmas Island, a protected sand cay near Albany.
On May 24, 39-year-old Michael Jensz was killed after suffering fatal injuries during a suspected bull shark attack while spearfishing along the Great Barrier Reef.
Just days earlier, on May 16, 38-year-old Steve Mattabonni was killed in a suspected great white shark attack near Rottnest Island, a popular tourist destination off Western Australia.
The war has produced regime change, but Iran’s new leaders are more willing to take risks and believe they have already absorbed the worst that America and Israel can deliver.
The ruling holds that a company that designs, trains, operates, and manages an AI system must assume legal liability for any damages caused by the responses it generates.
The degree of brain plasticity in fathers may be linked with how much they interact with their baby. Although fathers in many parts of the world are increasingly taking part in child care, paternal...
Campaigners found 64 per cent of women require emergency surgery for Placenta Accreta Spectrum and 30 per cent have to undergo hysterectomies — as they call for more to be done to detect condition
Ancient Greek hairstyles marked the identity of a person and denoted social status. Depiction of Hippocrates with his hair falling loosely around the nape of his neck and a wounded soldier brought to him. Adult men were depicted with beards, while young men were portrayed without. Painting on a red figure krater. Credit: Jaime Ardiles-Arce, Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
Hairstyles in Ancient Greece were one of the most significant identifiers of individuals, as they denoted social status and strength. They were also tied to rites of passage and religious rituals.
The hair on one’s head was so particularly valuable to ancient Greeks that it was worthy of its own unique term, being referred to as the kόme (κόμη), and people of the time meticulously cared for it, as they believed it was pivotal to one’s personality and reflected an individual’s social beliefs.
Hairstyles were an essential means of expressing one’s identity. The length and texture—long or short with loose waves or tight curls—was distinctively Greek and contrasted sharply with portrayals of non-Greeks. They were important in that they were a way for people to recognize each other and communicate their place within society.
Hair rituals, such as growing and cutting hair for the purpose of honoring deities, were complex and multi-layered. They needed to account for family status, gender, age, social class, transition points, and cult practices, as well as associations and organizations to which one belonged.
Heroes such as Achilles and Menelaus were portrayed by Homer with blond hair (xanthos), leading many men to lighten their own hair in an effort to resemble them. To do so, they relied on soaps and alkaline bleaches imported from Phoenicia. Some dyed their hair with a mixture of apple-scented yellow flowers and pollen, potassium salts, and even gold powder.
However, in Homeric and Classical Greek, xanthos (Greek: ξανθός) referred to light-colored hair more broadly and did not exclusively mean “blonde” in the modern Northern European sense. Its meaning was more flexible, often encompassing shades like golden, reddish-gold, or light brown.
Hairstyle depictions in sculptures and paintings
Much of what we know about hairstyles in Ancient Greece stems from depictions of literary works and art, such as sculptures, paintings, amphorae, and other types of vessels. In general, women are nearly always presented with long hair. Slave women, on the other hand, had short hair for hygienic reasons as well as to allow others to socially discriminate between them.
Warriors on amphorae are typically portrayed with pointed beards and long hair while their squires are usually beardless with long, curly hair, and lyre-players have long hair tied back in a bun with a hairband. In a bronze statuette of Apollo, adult men are pictured with beards and somewhat long hair whereas the younger men have no facial hair at all. What marked barbarians, on the other hand, was a moustache with no beard.
Generally speaking, there was a gradual change of style in depictions of men on sculptures and vases from more elaborate to simpler ones. On the other hand, women appeared in works of art donning a variety of ornamental kerchiefs, including pretty bands such as a type of sling known as the “sphendone” (σφενδόνη) due to its shape. A large stamnos, a type of large vase used for serving and storing liquids, depicts groups of women dressed in Ionic and Doric chitons (types of Greek tunics) with various sorts of headdresses.
In literature, the oldest accounts of hairstyles in Ancient Greece are to be found in the works of Homer in which one encounters the dedicating of hair to deities and the dead for the first time ever. This further attests to the importance ancient Greeks placed on hair. In Homer’sIliad, Book 23, Achilles dedicates his hair to his dead friend Patroclus, for example, in an act that symbolizes his grief for his best friend who has passed away as well as his devotion to their friendship.
Ancient Greek hairstyles varied through the centuries. Painting on red figure kylix depicting Heracles fighting Nereus. Three Nereids are fleeing. Credit: ArchaiOptix Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
Ancient Greek hairstyles through the centuries
Paintings in the palaces and pottery of the Minoan period (c. 3000 and 1100 BC) show dancers with shoulder-length black hair. In Aegean art, men are depicted with single or double plaits, and Homer’s heroes (c. 800 BC) had such hairstyles, as well, as did warriors at the battle of Marathon (490 BC).
“Saffron Gatherer” from a Minoan fresco in Akrotiri, Santorini. Credit: Public Domain
The most common hair adornment for women was a type of hairnet or coif made of net work known as a “kekryphalos” in Greek—otherwise also called a caul or “coif of network.” It was worn during the day and at night through to the Classical Period, and Homer made mention of these hairnets, which were frequently made of gold threads or silk, as Pausanias writes.
Overall, during the Archaic Period (c. 1100 to 480 BC), the kouros, the free-standing statues depicting male youth, had long, finely braided, shoulder-length hair at the very least. The maidens (kόre) had numerous braids and oftentimes also donned a coronet. Towards the end of the particular period, women were portrayed with their hair tied back and into a bun, known as the “knidian hairstyle,” named after the Knidian Aphrodite, a statue by Praxiteles of the 4th century BC.
Greek Kouros Statue. 580 BC . Credit: wikimedia commons / Ricardo André Frantz CC BY 3.0
It was in the mid-5th century BC when males began appearing with shorter hair in Greek artwork, and at the beginning of the Classical Period (c. 480 to 323 BC), they were shown with short, neatly trimmed hair. Modern historians attribute the trend towards shorter hairstyles in Ancient Greece to the rising popularity of sports, as athletes had to have their ears free and their hair fixed in place, possibly with hair oil. A good example is the famous Discobolus statue by Myron (c. 460-450 BC).
The Discobolus statue. Credit: Public Domain
Alexander the Great’s appearance—clean-shaven (unlike his father) with wind-swept locks combed back from a central part—was a tribute to the importance of youth and was subsequently adopted by other Greek kings. None of his Diadochi appeared with a beard on coinage, statues, or works of art. After Alexander the Great, it became typical for rulers to refrain from having facial hair for several centuries. This was also true of Roman emperors.
Bust of Alexander the Great. Discovered at Giannitsa. Credit: Explorer40/Wikimedia Commons
In the Archaeological Museum of Amfissa, over eight hundred miniature figurines of 3rd and 2nd century BC females are exhibited. Their hairstyles are particularly interesting, as bronze and golden spirals were used for fastening and decorating the hair. During the Hellenistic period, hairstyles became quite complex, and some of these can be seen on the figurines as well. Knidian hairdressing continued to be especially popular, but from 250 BC onwards, small curls were left hanging unfastened around the nape of the neck.
Hair rituals of the ancient Greeks
In archaic times, the ancient Greeks wore their hair long and were thus consistently referred to as long-and-thick-haired Achaeans (Greek: καρηκομόωντες Ἀχαιοί) in Homer’s works. This was a hairstyling practice that was adopted and preserved by the Spartans for centuries.
Plutarch writes that Spartan boys had their hair trimmed quite short. As soon as they reached puberty, however, they let it grow out. The men were particularly proud of their hair, as they deemed it the most affordable of body adornments and consistently took the time to properly care for it prior to going into battle. Both Spartan men and women tied their hair back in a knot over the crown of the head. Brides even shaved their heads and wore men’s costumes as part of the ceremony.
In rival Athens, the boys wore their hair long throughout childhood and had it cut off when they reached puberty. The cutting off of teenager’s hair was a solemn act honored through religious ceremonies. A libation (oinisteria) was initially offered to Hercules, and the hair was dedicated to a deity of choice afterwards. Plutarch writes that Theseus went through the ceremony at Delphi.
Prior to marriage, Delian girls and boys cut their hair in honor of the Hyperborean maidens who died at Delos and laid it on their tombs. A bride would cut her hair on the day of the wedding ceremony as a symbol of submission to her husband and offer it to the goddess Artemis or Athena. She would then pull her remaining her up in a knot. Following the ceremony, the bride wore a crown and special wedding veil. If she happened to be unfaithful to her husband, he would then shave her head, turning her into a social outcast.
An ancient Greek hairstyle on a 1st-century BC marble sculpture of a woman looking at what likely is her jewel box held by her attendant. Credit: Dave & Margie Hill / Kleerup Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA-2.0
A variety of hairstyles in Ancient Greece
The great variety of hairstyles in Ancient Greece makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact period during which each of the hairdos was popular, and there were a number of unique styles as well. Among these was the “melon-like” hairstyle, or the “peponoeidis,” thus named because of what resembled deep parallel grooves akin to those of a melon. Women often left their curls hanging freely around the forehead in the shape of knots or bell clappers in what was known as the “tettix.” Yet another hairdo was the “lambadion,” a type of bun with loose ends which conjured up images of torch flames or horse’s tail.
During the Hellenistic period, hairstyles became more sophisticated and complex. However, the most impressive hairstyle of the time was the knot of Heracles (herakleion amma), associated with good fortune and love. The hair was brushed forward to form a kind of bow or butterfly.
Headbands, diadems, coronets, headscarves, and clips or loops were used in creating the various styles for women, and hair additions and wigs were not uncommon. Garlands of fruit and ivy leaves, mainly from the plant of immortality, the elichryson, which was believed to bring serenity, were also incorporated into hairstyling trends.
Later on, in Roman times, hairstyles became extremely complex and pretentious and were named after the empress or specific woman of nobility who set the trend.
Caesar giving Cleopatra the Throne of Egypt. Public Domain
The Greek queen of Egypt Cleopatra is associated with a very public love affair with Roman leader Julius Caesar apart from her glamorous beauty routines, deadly snake bites, and lavish banquets. But their “situationship” was complex, according to two historians.
By Charlotte Dunn and Jayne Knight
This doomed romance ended abruptly in 44 BC when Caesar was quite literally stabbed in the back (and from all sides) by his enemies in Rome. And she pretty soon hooked up with one of his closest allies.
When Caesar met Cleopatra, he was 52 and had a wife back in Rome. But something about the 21-year-old Cleopatra caught his eye.
Perhaps it was her charming banter and impressive mind. The ancient author Plutarch reports Cleopatra was an irresistible conversation partner, and fluent in nine languages.
Things really got started when Caesar got involved in a family feud involving Cleopatra and her royal relatives.
Cleopatra came from a long line of dramatic and ruthless kings and queens, which we now call the Ptolemies.
The Ptolemies had ruled Egypt since about 305 or 304 BC. They didn’t always get along but they were very close. As in, genetically close.
The Ptolemies had practiced brother-sister marriages (and other in-the-family marriages as well) for several generations.
According to this tradition, Cleopatra was probably married to her ten-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII when their father died and they became co-rulers of Egypt.
Cleopatra pursued Julius Caesar
Left: a Roman sculpture of Cleopatra VII wearing a royal diadem, mid-1st century BC (around the time of her visits to Rome in 46–44 BC). Right: A posthumous painted portrait of Cleopatra VII of Ptolemaic Egypt from Roman Herculaneum, made during the 1st century AD. Credit: Louis le Grand / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons (right) / Ángel M / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
So in pursuing Caesar, you might say Cleopatra was going against the family trend by dating outside her siblings.
Cleopatra’s union with her little brother was not a happy one: the young Ptolemy, alongside his advisors, had managed to run Cleopatra out of Egypt, wanting to rule the kingdom without her interfering.
While Cleopatra was busy raising an army to reclaim her place on the throne, Caesar arrived at the royal palace at Alexandria in 48 BC.
Caesar had his own political woes. He was in the middle of a civil war and was pursuing his rival Gnaeus Pompey (also known as Pompey the Great) after defeating his army in Greece.
Ptolemy, completely misreading the situation, greeted Caesar with a gruesome and unexpected gift: Pompey’s severed head.
Outraged and disgusted, Caesar demanded Cleopatra and her brother reconcile, but Cleopatra had other plans.
The young Cleopatra was ambitious, and there’s no denying a connection with Caesar was politically advantageous.
Caesar also had plenty of other affairs, including one with another queen, Eunoë of Mauretania.
But there may well have been a true connection with Cleopatra. Caesar, after all, was also very well educated and ruthlessly ambitious, and the ancient author Suetonius states Cleopatra was Caesar’s most passionate love affair.
But whatever sparks flew, Cleopatra couldn’t fully escape her family responsibilities.
Caesar put her back on the throne but arranged for her to marry her youngest brother, Ptolemy XIV after her previous brother-husband (Ptolemy XIII) drowned.
Nothing spells romance like your lover ordering you to marry your 12-year-old brother, but Cleopatra needed Caesar’s help to secure her position on the throne.
Being older and ambitious, she seemingly had no trouble taking the lead in running their kingdom, pushing Ptolemy XIV to one side.
Cleopatra is famed for her lovers, but beyond romantic interests, these were important political allies. Credit: Lawrence Alma Tadema / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Cleopatra and Julius Caesar take a luxurious cruise down the Nile
Some sources say Cleopatra and Caesar celebrated their success at smoothing things over in Alexandria by taking a luxurious cruise down the Nile, accompanied by 400 ships.
This promoted their partnership and alliance, and by this time there was something else to celebrate: Cleopatra was pregnant with Caesar’s son, something she wanted to advertise as the future of her dynasty.
Cleopatra and Caesar’s son was nicknamed Caesarion, meaning “little Caesar”, although he is also known as Ptolemy Caesar or Ptolemy XV.
Caesarion’s existence was a bit of a problem. Caesar probably acknowledged the boy as his son, but Roman law did not, because Roman men were not allowed to marry foreign women.
There was also of course the matter that Caesar was still married at the time, to a Roman woman named Calpurnia.
The fiercely republican Romans of this era did not have much love for monarchy, and Caesar’s dalliance with Cleopatra probably made his fellow Romans even more suspicious about his own grand plans.
When in Rome
Despite many Romans disapproving of the relationship, the Egyptian queen spent about 18 months living on Caesar’s estate in Rome.
While there, Caesar seems to have done nothing to dispel the rumours about his situationship with Cleopatra, and he may have even dedicated a golden statue of Cleopatra as Venus in the temple of Venus Genetrix.
The famous orator Cicero was not impressed, writing in a letter to a friend “reginam odi” or “I hate the queen.”
After Caesar’s assassination, Cleopatra returned to Egypt.
But she soon began a love affair with Marc Antony, Caesar’s right-hand man and would-be successor to his power, if 19-year-old Octavian (who would eventually become the first emperor Augustus) had not been named heir in Caesar’s will.
Antony and Cleopatra’s relationship flourished but ended in tragedy when Octavian’s political rivalry with Antony intensified, and Octavian used their relationship as fuel for anti-Antony propaganda.
The lovers were eventually pursued and defeated by Octavian’s forces. Both took their own lives – he stabbed himself with a sword and she, according to one version of the tale, by compelling a snake to bite her.
Charlotte Dunn is a Lecturer in Classics, the University of Tasmania
Jayne Knight is a Senior Lecturer in Classics, the University of Tasmania
The article was published in The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons License
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