Tag: pregnancy
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A royal pregnancy gone wrong
George Dunea Perhaps one of the most famous pregnancies gone wrong was that of Princess Charlotte, the granddaughter of King George III and in line to someday succeed to the throne of England. Brought up in a royal household wreaked by dissension, she grew up rebellious, capricious, and ill-mannered, but settled down after her marriage…
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Birth of Adonis
George Dunea In his version of an ancient Greek myth, Ovid tells what he calls the horrible story of Myrrha developing an incestuous passion for her father, the king of Cyprus. After becoming pregnant, she flees to escape punishment and appeals to the gods to take pity on her. She is transformed into a myrrh…
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Birth of Mary
George Dunea The story of the birth of the Virgin comes not from the Scriptures but from the apocryphal Gospel of James, probably written about AD 145. It tells that Anna and Joachim were infertile but prayed for a child and were promised that such a child would advance God’s plan of salvation of the…
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Birth of Bacchus
George Dunea Bacchus (Dionysus), god of wine, fertility, and ritual or religious ecstasies, was born under trying circumstances. His mother, Semele, already with child from Jupiter, was induced by a jealous Juno to insist he visit her as a god, not disguised as a mortal. When Jupiter appeared to her the way he really was,…
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The colorful birth of Saint Augustine of Hippo
Among the many paintings that celebrate the advent of a new life, this one by the talented Venetian artist Antonio Vivarini (1418-1484) is perhaps the most colorful. Now shown at the Courtauld Gallery in London, “Birth of Saint Augustine” displays in colorful palette the saintly figures wearing bright yellow halos, the mother covered with a…
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Why are most babies born at night?
“Obstetrics is not the pleasantest of medical occupations, although it pays well and is one of the things that the young physician with any kind of practice can count on as a as financial backlog. Yet it takes a great deal of time and means a lot of night work. While the statement may not…
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Divine birth: The birth of Moses
Moses was born in the year 2377 after the creation of the world. He was born circumcised, and was able to walk immediately after his birth; but according to another story he was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. A peculiar and glorious light filled the entire house at his birth, indicating that…
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Divine birth: Aphrodite born from the foam of the sea
The goddess of love, lust, and lasciviousness, Aphrodite (Venus) rose naked from the sea, her DNA reputedly derived from the discarded organs of her cruelly gelded grandfather Uranus. Each year she is admired in her dishabille by throngs of tourist visiting the Uffizi museum in Florence. In one of several contradictory legends, Uranus (Roman Saturn,…
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Divine birth: Pegasus, born from Medusa’s blood
Pegasus, the divine, winged white horse, was the offspring of the god Poseidon and the gorgon Medusa. He was born from Medusa’s blood after she was beheaded by Perseus, arising from her head or from the blood that had seeped into the earth. Because he created the spring of Hippocrene, held sacred by the Muses,…