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From today's featured article

Roman statue of Isis, second century CE

The mysteries of Isis were religious initiation rites performed in the cult of the goddess Isis in the Greco-Roman world. Alluding to the worship of Isis from ancient Egyptian religion, they were modeled on other mystery rites, particularly the Eleusinian mysteries, which honored the Greek goddess Demeter. By undergoing the mystery rites, initiates signaled their dedication to Isis. Many texts from the Roman Empire refer to the Isis mysteries, but the only source to describe them is a work of fiction, the novel The Golden Ass, written in the second century by Apuleius. In it, the initiate undergoes ritual purification before descending into the innermost part of Isis's temple, where he experiences a symbolic death and rebirth and has an intense religious experience. Some aspects of the mysteries of Isis and of other mystery cults resemble elements of Christianity, but the evidence for their influence on Christianity is unclear. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Psyche Showing Her Sisters Her Gifts from Cupid

... that Jean-Honoré Fragonard's Psyche Showing Her Sisters Her Gifts from Cupid (pictured), presented to Louis XV at the Palace of Versailles in 1753, was painted when the artist was 21 years old?
... that the 2017 film Suburbicon was inspired by Daisy Myers's family, who faced racially charged harassment and violence in all-white Levittown, Pennsylvania?
... that the hornbeam Carpinus perryae was described from two fossil nutlets found on a single rock?
... that the verse novel Songs of a Mormon Woman by Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz was banned as pornographic in Austria?
... that Winterset City Park has a six-ton granite boulder that commemorates the discovery of the Red Delicious apple in Madison County, Iowa, in 1872?
... that water polo player Jack Ferguson performed in a circus throughout Britain as a child?
... that the DK Atlas of World History includes maps on the spread of agriculture and the movement of indentured servants?
... that pitcher Hal Stowe won a baseball game without throwing a pitch?

In the news

Naomi Mataʻafa

A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children is found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, part of the Canadian Indian residential school system from 1893 to 1969.
The district court of The Hague orders Royal Dutch Shell to cut its global carbon emissions by 45 per cent by the end of 2030.
In Mali, President Bah Ndaw, his prime minister and his defence minister are arrested by the army in a coup d'état.
A makeshift ceremony is held to swear in Naomi Mataʻafa (pictured) as Prime Minister of Samoa after she and her party are locked out of parliament.

On this day

May 29: Feast day of Saint Paul VI (Catholicism)

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay

1852 – Swedish operatic soprano Jenny Lind concluded a successful concert tour of the United States under the management of showman P. T. Barnum.
1918 – World War I: Armenian forces defeated Ottoman troops at the Battle of Sardarabad, halting the Turkish advance and preventing further destruction of the Armenian nation.
1953 – The mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (both pictured) became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1999 – President Olusegun Obasanjo took office as Nigeria's first elected and civilian head of state after 16 years of military rule.

Louise-Adéone Drölling (b. 1797)
G. K. Chesterton (b. 1874)
Margaret Barr (d. 1991)

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Today's featured picture

This historical depiction of the coat of arms of Wisconsin was illustrated by the American engraver Henry Mitchell in State Arms of the Union, published in 1876 by Louis Prang. The symbols depicted on the shield in the center represent the changing focus of the state's economy from fur trading to lead and iron mining, agriculture, manufacturing and shipping, as well as the traditional motto of the United States, E pluribus unum. The badger depicted above the shield alludes to Wisconsin's nickname as the "Badger State", while the cornucopias in the base represent prosperity and abundance, and the lead ingots mineral wealth and the original thirteen U.S. states. Wisconsin's state motto, "Forward", appears above the design, which also features on the state flag and the state seal.

Engraving credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva

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