Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) is an oil mural by the Spanish
artist Francisco Goya. Satan is depicted as a goat in moonlit silhouette
who hulks over a coven of terrified witches; a young woman in black sits
at far right, withdrawn from the others, perhaps in defiance. The mural
is one of the fourteen Black Paintings Goya created on the plaster walls
of his home, the Quinta del Sordo, around 1822. He was in his mid-70s,
living alone and suffering mental and physical distress. As in some of
his earlier works, Witches' Sabbath seems to explore themes of aging,
death, violence and intimidation. It is generally seen by art historians
as a satire on the credulity of the age and as a condemnation of
superstitions, such as the witch trials of the Spanish Inquisition. Some
fifty years after Goya's death, the murals were removed from the home by
transferring them to canvas supports. Today the paintings are in the
collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches%27_Sabbath_%28The_Great_He-Goat%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1884:
Welsh physician William Price was arrested for attempting to
cremate his deceased infant son; he was acquitted in the subsequent
trial, which led to the legalisation of cremation in the United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Price_%28physician%29>
1943:
World War II: As part of Operation Iskra, the Soviet Red Army
eased the Siege of Leningrad, opening a narrow land corridor to the
city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Iskra>
1958:
African Canadian Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his
first game in the National Hockey League, breaking the colour barrier in
professional ice hockey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_O%27Ree>
1990:
In a sting operation conducted by the FBI, Marion Barry, the
Mayor of Washington, D.C., was arrested for possession of crack cocaine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
banausic:
1. (formal) Of or pertaining to technical matters; mechanical.
2. (formal) Uncultured, unrefined, utilitarian.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/banausic>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Dr. Reich vastly offended many people by his sociological theory,
which holds that fascism is just an exaggerated form of the basic
structure of sex-negative societies and has existed under other names in
every civilization based on sexual repression. In this theory, the
character and muscular armor of the average citizen — a submissive and
frightened attitude anchored in body reflexes — causes the average
person to want a strong authority figure above them. Tyranny, in this
model, is not created by tyrants alone but by neurotic masses who want
tyrants.
--Robert Anton Wilson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson>