Eagles

I ought to have posted a spoof for April 1st, but I've missed the midday cut off and so I won't bother. The one in the Guardian this morning is lame even by their standards and I haven't paid much attention elsewhere. James has just posted on his blog about painting eyelids on 28mm figures. Is that meant as a joke? Very hard to tell; even if he had the eyesight to paint them I certainly haven't got the eyesight to see them.

James' painting style continues to evolve

I have been to a lecture on Roman legionary eagles. It started by giving a few examples from popular culture - the film 'The Eagle', HBO's 'Rome', Spartacus (the smutty TV one rather than the noble Kirk Douglas one) - and then rather counter-intuitively praised them for their accuracy. Apparently the legionaries really did care about the eagle more than about life itself. The explanation favoured by the lecturer was religious, but as usual no one actually appears to know. The choice of the eagle as symbol comes from its role as retriever of Jupiter's thunderbolts. I was tempted to ask whether there were any homo-erotic undertones related to the eagle's part in the abduction of Ganymede, but, remembering the reaction on a previous occasion when I had asked about the way that a young lady was fondling Hercules staff, I didn't.

"Who's a pretty boy then?"

I learned two other facts that I didn't know before. Firstly, the eagles were the first example in history of a unit standard being so revered. It didn't happen in Greece, Egypt, Persia or China. Secondly, no examples survive. They are all believed to have been melted down for the gold and silver.