(1) From whom they are divided by over 200,000 years of separate ancestry, meaning that, appearances notwithstanding, they're actually closer to being Vietnamese or Swedish, if we understand correctly. (Humanity has been divided into 12 main gene pools, based on mitochondrial DNA, 11 of them found in Africa alone, the 12th covering the rest of the world, as well as North Africa and part of Eastern Africa). Ms. Siuda's attempts to base scholarship on political concerns notwithstanding, the Anti-Afrocentric camp does, in actual fact, have a considerable amount of science at its disposal backing up its position. Saying that "both sides have been unreasonable" may make for an easier peace, if one side lets itself be steamrollered, but it isn't an honest portrayal of the situation.
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(2) An ancient bust of a very non-African looking Cleopatra in the Graeco-Roman Museum of Alexandria can be found here.
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(3) The reference here is to a style of art which arose in this period (Ukiyo-e) which portrayed the "Floating World" of transitory pleasures which the Japanese middle class enjoyed in that period, away from the overbearing presence of the upper classes. Any inference that Antistoicus was teasing Ms. Siuda (the House' self-styled monarch), at the time, would have been mistaken, although in retrospect that would be an amusing thought, and quite understandable, given the views that he holds of the Nisut and her 'holy calling', at present (May 25, 2002).
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(4) The symbolism survives to this very day: I am sure that when the reader is told by his mentor "I will be on you like a hawk", he knows exactly what is meant. This is a serious matter being spoken of, so nothing less than one's very best performance will be acceptable.
One might say that the careless student is likened to the careless prey, whose lack of caution leaves him in the claws of the hawk, which represents the critical judgement of the mentor.
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(5) No, that wouldn't be Rhadamanthys for Hellenes, despite what you may have heard to the contrary over at Yahoogroups. He isn't the son of Hades, either. (He's a son of Zeus and Europa, as is the mythical figure of Minos, not to be mistaken with the pre-Hellenic Cretan monarch). Hades, as the being to whom defixones (engraved lead strips, intended to bind the unjust) are addressed, is the deity to whom justice is entrusted in this life. Minos, Rhadamanthys and Aecus serve Hades on the tribunal which judges the dead.
The error, here, lies in confusing "judgment" with "justice". The former is a last ditch effort to provide some semblance of the latter, when deterrence has failed. Hades, in Hellenic belief, becomes a truer god of justice, because rather than providing for the desire for retribution, he acts to prevent an outrage from occuring in the first place. Justice delayed (as, until death) is justice denied.
A simple enough matter to understand, but the anti-philosophical and anti-scholarly stance of much of Neo-Paganism often makes the straighforward into the unknowable, and the gods into strangers. Something to keep in mind when one wonders why people like Stephanie Cass should be judged so harshly as they seem to be, here.
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