Has anyone read S.F Platonov's 'Time of Troubles' translated by translated by John Alexander, can you tell me anything in terms of its readability and accuracy? If it's not good, any other book recommendations on the Time of Troubles? Chester Dunning has one too which is a bit on the long side for me but if anyone can vouch for this I might check it out.

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Are there any links to view the footage? I’m curious as hell to see what they found.

Sure, but that's the only similarity.

In monotheistic religions, God wants you to be good, and offers a definition of what "good" means. Monotheistic religions generally come with a philosophy attached to them.

In polytheistic religions, different gods want different things from you and those demands can be contradictory (something that appeases one god may anger another god). Generally, the demands of polytheistic gods are linked to their domains rather than morality. The god of war usually wants you to murder your enemies in spectacular fashion, for example.

As someone else said, one of the reasons why philosophy flourished in Classical Greece was because their religion didn't really say anything about what was good and what was evil, so people started debating that.

I'd use stronger language than "major malfunction"...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Commission_Report

Quite similar to modern monotheistic religions where priests and ministers have “special” knowledge on how to get in God’s good graces.

I generally agree with what you are saying but morality did creep in especially in areas like guest/host relationships and ritual contamination.

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By coincidence, a while back I became fascinated by Roman religion. Roman religion is so much more complex and multifaceted than just the pantheon of gods and Greek-derived myths we learn about in school. It infused every aspect of society, including tutelary deities, ancestor cults, family cults, demons, spirits, festivals, sacrifices, etc. Every person was thought to have their own spirit, called a genius, which is where we get that word (it also influenced His Dark Materials)

For priests specifically, Wikipedia has a very good page on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_ancient_Rome#Public_priesthoods_and_religious_law

See also: http://www.classicsunveiled.com/romel/html/religion.html

I became interested in this topic after reading The Ancient City by Foustel de Coulanges. I would recommend that book if you want to know more.

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Who cleaned up after WW1 and WWII? Especially the immediate aftermath. Was it left to the locals or did governments?

Both are examples of protection rackets

The huge difference, besides monotheism, is that the Greco-Roman religions were not about morality at all. They were about a contractual (best definition) relationship to obtain favor and avoid disfavor of the gods. Roman's considered Christians to be atheists because (1) Christianity was not ancient and cultural (Judiasm in contrast) and (2) Christians refused to honor the Roman religions, whose God's were tied to the success of the state.

Ancient Greco-Roman polytheism did not "go to church", did not listen to sermons, etc. The religious services were impersonal and involved specific rites carried out by appointed priests and professional acolytes.

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Or maybe it's so no one can see the aliens landing!

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wow, this is extremely detailed, I will try to incorporate these aspects into my writing!

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The Greeks didn't have a priestly class with any real authority like the Vedic Indians, ancient Israelites, Egyptians, etc. It seems like the Mycenaeans did, but at some point during the 400 year dark age after the Bronze Age Collapse, they were displaced for unknown reasons. Classical Greece technically had priests, but they were completely subject the polis and and didn't do a whole lot other than maintain the temples, etc. You didn't have to be a priest to perform a sacrifice like in many similar societies. Any male citizen could do it. The lack of a priestly class in Greece to control the society's behavior through established dogma, etc., freed poets and (later) philosophers up for religious and cosmological speculation.

Depends on various things, 1 Location 2. Time peroid and 3. The class using them. I could give you some ideas of terms used for Britian and Ireland that were around queen victorias time
Some slang by lowerclass would include Brickies (brick layer ) Quakers (worked soup kitchens in irish famine ) (Mutton Shunter) policeman Docker (dock worker) THREE-PENNY UPRIGHT ( a prositute ) Bit Faker (someone who made fake coins ) Bludger (violent criminal) Didikko (person of travelling community) Dipper (Pickpocket) Don (leader or distinguised person ) Flash (something or someone Posh eg flash house) Spike Workhouse , landsharks bloodsuckers(landlords) gentry (gentleman

Upperclass and middle being better educated would be less likely to use slang, When I look at letters written at the time about the famine for example the terms used are straightforward compared to lowerclass slang but terms I've seen are things like the labouring men, The middle men (for landlords) Tendry (tennants)
"It would be impossible adequately to describe the privations which they [the Irish labourer and his family] habitually and silently endure ..."

I think if your looking for earlier good examples of how things were written earlier would be to read a few chapters from books of that era your interested in that focus on class division eg poldark (set in early 18th century) or something like homers oddessy if you want ancient greece, shakespere if you want 1600s etc

As several others have said, the gods are powerful entities over their domain and as such require propitiation to work toward your best interests. In this way, many polytheistic practices require "magical thinking". The domains of life outside human control are personified and your actions towards those personified entities can produce (sometimes)predicatable outcomes. Sometimes this may demand certain modes of living, but generally meant "giving cult" to the religious practitioners representing the deity.

That is one if the reasons why philosophy became so prevalent in ancient polytheistic societies. Philosophy is what discusses the meaning of life and the mode of attaining that meaning through modes of being or living. In most monotheistic practices, this role is collapsed into the head religious practitioner. Paul, to a certain degree, sold Christianity to Greeks and Romans as a new philosophy, as that would demand life change, rather than just another deity to offer cult to.

Paul Hadot's book "Philosophy as a way of Life" demonstrates this well.

Excerpt:

>The artifact was discovered by a TV documentary crew seeking the wreckage of a World War II-era aircraft. Divers noticed a large humanmade object covered partially by sand on the seafloor.

>The proximity to the Florida Space Coast, along with the item’s modern construction and presence of 8-inch square tiles, led the documentary team to contact NASA.

>“While it has been nearly 37 years since seven daring and brave explorers lost their lives aboard Challenger, this tragedy will forever be seared in the collective memory of our country. For millions around the globe, myself included, Jan. 28, 1986, still feels like yesterday,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

>“This discovery gives us an opportunity to pause once again, to uplift the legacies of the seven pioneers we lost, and to reflect on how this tragedy changed us. At NASA, the core value of safety is – and must forever remain – our top priority, especially as our missions explore more of the cosmos than ever before.”

>A major malfunction 73 seconds after liftoff resulted in the loss of Challenger and the seven astronauts aboard.

ETA:

NASA, November 10, 2022 ~10:00 GMT-5.

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