Pyrenees Puzzle

45 million years ago, in the Tertiary period, a certain island crashed into the western edge of Europe. Today, we call it Iberia, or Portugal and Spain. The impact shoved up a mountain range at the collision point, which we call the Pyrenees.

Not well-versed in the science of plate tectonics, the ancients had other ideas about the creation of those mighty mountains. The hero Heracles/Hercules, it seems, wandered that way during the performance of his 12 labors. Here we run into an ancient he-said, She said. Some versions of the story have him raping a Girl named Pyrene, others that She attacked him, and they all involve some brutish cowherd named Geryon. All of the stories, sadly, end with Her death. In his grief, Hercules piled up great heaps of rocks at Her burial site, forming the mountains which are named for Her.

I spent a lot of time online last night (hey, some guys watch football for hours, so sue me) trying to figure out what ancient writer actually told this story, especially since the modern re-tellings conflict so greatly. I have an obsession with going to the source of things.

I scoured my notes on Sophocles, Euripides, Virgil, etc., to no avail.

It appears that a first-century Roman named Silias Italicus preserves the earliest extant retelling of the myth, in an obscure book called Punica.

Tangent-ially (is that a word?) check out this link for a scholar who connects the whole scenario to Celts and ancient ritual: https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A3=ind0812&L=CELTIC-L&E=quoted-printable&P=379088&B=--_618a290a-522f-4d8b-98a9-860ced371477_&T=text%2Fhtml;%20charset=Windows-1252

The earth is green beneath your feet

The earth is green beneath your feet.

And not just if you are standing in the grass, or in a puddle of algae.

It is deep, dark green, deep beneath you, in the mantle of the planet.

Peridotite is what they call the stuff. Here, too, there be diamonds. And sometimes, a pretty green gem called Olivine.

Fascinating.

Researchers are now drilling off the coast of Africa, where the peridotite, usually deeply buried beneath other layers of stuff, is mysteriously exposed.

If you find a piece of peridotite for sale in your local rock shop, a chip of the deep earth could be yours to take home.

Or you might find the mineral protruding from the shoulder of some ancient mountain range, such as the American Appalachians, where it was thrust up long ago.

Our planet still holds so many mysteries -- around us, above us and even beneath us.