Revival History

An image on a Greek krater showing a woman with a prized possession that dates to about 470 BC and was found in Etruria, Italy. "Some connect it with a procession during the festival of the Haloa in Eleusis near Athens, at which phalloi were carried; addressees were Demeter and Dionysus and the plea for fertility was an important aspect. Others identify the woman as a hetaera...with an olisbos, an artificial phallus." Per the Altes Museum in Berlin, Germany where this is on display.

 February 7th, 1497- Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola organizes and executes the Bonfire of the Vanities in Florence, Italy. Believed to be occasions for sin, Savonarola and his supporters decided on Mardi Gras to destroy all of the mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, playing cards, musical instruments, and immoral arts such as certain books, paintings, sculptures, and written verse. Among the burned "vanities" were books by Boccaccio, Dante, Propertius, and Ovid, paintings by Botticelli and Lorenzo di Credi, and numerous ancient statues. Supposedly motivated by zeal, Savonarola's radical action caught the attention of Pope Alexander VI, who had Savonarola excommunicated three months later. Savonarola's zealous, puritanical methods eventually resulted in the Pope ordering his execution in 1498 by being hung on a cross and then burned. Considered a dangerous radical, heretic, false teacher, and threat to the Church, Savonarola's followers were ordered to repent a...