How do the moon phases programme our civil, religious and sexual activities? Prof. Vella will explain how these numbers, a reflection of the different lunar phases, became sacred.
The ancients looked at the moon as their goddess which regulated their daily, monthly, and even their yearly calendars. The precision of the reappearances of the different moon phases helped them to programme their civil, religious and sexual activities. Some numbers came to reflect the different phases, intervals between them and the imagined length of the lunar month with its four sub-dividends, and these, inspired by the Moon-Goddess, came to be considered as sacred numbers. The Jews inherited these numbers from Babylon and passed them on to the Christian world. Prof. Horatio Caesar Roger Vella will be delivering a lecture precisely on a Full Moon night, just as the Greeks in Periclean Athens attended their three-day dramatic performances also on Full Moon to celebrate the goddess through her subordinate god, Dionysus.
During the evening, Prof. Vella will also be singing the Homeric Hymn to Selene in the original Greek and Catullus 34, Hymn to Diana in the original Latin.
Date & time: Tuesday 16 July at 21:00 (full moon evening)
Venue: Carpark 4 (carpark near Quadrangle), University of Malta, Msida Campus