Inter-city rail
Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that cover longer distances than commuter or regional trains. There is no precise definition of inter-city rail. Most broadly, it can include any rail services that are neither short-distance commuter rail trains within one city area, nor slow regional rail trains calling at all stations and covering local journeys only. Most an inter-city train is an express train with limited stops and comfortable carriages to serve long-distance travel. Inter-city rail sometimes provides international services; this is most prevalent in Europe, due to the close proximity of its 50 countries in a 10,180,000 square kilometre area. Eurostar and EuroCity are examples of this. In many European countries the word "InterCity" or "Inter-City" is an official brand name for a network of regular-interval long-distance train services that meet certain criteria of speed and comfort; this use of the term appeared in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and has been imitated.
The speeds of inter-city rail lines are quite diverse, ranging from 50 km/h in a mountainous area or on undeveloped tracks to 200–350 km/h on newly constructed or improved tracks. As a result, Inter-city rail may or may not fall into the category of higher-speed rail or high-speed rail. Ideally, the average speed of inter-city rail service would be faster than 100 km/h in order to be competitive with car and other methods of transport. 50–100 kmThe distance of an inter-city rail journey is at least 50–100 km, although in many large metropolitan areas commuter and regional services cover equal or longer distances. 100–500 kmA distance of 100–500 km is a common journey distance for inter-city rail in many countries. In many cases, railway travel is most competitive at about 2–3 hours journey time. Inter-city rail can compete with highways and short-haul air travel for journeys of this distance. 500–1,000 kmIn journeys of 500–1,000 km, the role of inter-city rail is replaced by faster air travel.
Development of high-speed rail in some countries increases the share of railway for such longer-distance journeys. The Paris-Marseille TGV and Tokyo-Aomori Shinkansen are examples of this type of journey. In conventional non high-speed rail, overnight trains are common for this distance. 1,000 km or moreIn some countries with a dense rail network, large territory, or less air and car transport, such as China and Russia, overnight long-distance train services are provided and used practically. In many other countries, such long-distance rail journey has been replaced by air travel except for tourism or hobbyist purposes, luxury train journeys, or significant cost benefit. Discount Eurail Pass in Europe, Amtrak in the United States, Indian Pacific in Australia are examples. Faster high-speed rail of 350 km, such as the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway in China and Tokyo-Sapporo in the proposed Hokkaido Shinkansen in Japan, may play a significant role in long-distance travel in the future. Railways in Africa are still developing or not used for passenger purposes in many countries, but the following countries have inter-city services between major cities: Algeria SNTF Egypt: Egyptian National Railways Morocco: ONCF South Africa: Shosholoza Meyl Tunisia Tunisian Railways Trains run by China Railway link every town and city in the People's Republic of China mainland, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xi'an, as well as onwards from Shenzhen across the border to Kowloon, Hong Kong.
New high-speed lines from 200–350 km/h operation are constructed, many conventional lines are upgraded to 200 km/h operation. There are seven High-Speed Inter-City lines in China, with up to 21 planned, they are operated independently from the parallel High-Speed-Rail-Lines. Japan has six main regional passenger railway companies, known collectively as Japan Railways Group or as JR. Four JR companies operate the "bullet trains" on fast and frequent Shinkansen lines that link all the larger cities, including Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima and many more. Many other cities are covered by a network of JR's "limited express" inter-city trains on 1,067 mm, narrow gauge, lines. Major cities are covered by convenient train services of every one hour or more frequent. In addition to the JR Group, Japan has several major regional carriers such as the Kintetsu and Nagoya Railroads. Rail services that connect the towns in the New Territories with the city centres of Kowloon and Hong Kong are provided by the East Rail Line, West Rail Line and Tung Chung Line.
Inter-city railway services crossing the Hong Kong-China border are jointly operated by Hong Kong's MTR Corporation Limited and the Ministry of Railways of the People's Republic of China. Hung Hom Station is the only station in the territory where passengers can catch these cross-border trains. Passengers are required to go through immigration and customs inspections of Hong Kong before boarding a cross-border train or alighting from such a train. There are four cross-border train services: Between Hong Kong and Beijing Between Hong Kong and Shanghai Between Hong Kong and Guangzhou Between Hong Kong and Zhaoqing A new bo
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a country in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. With a land area of 2,150,000 km2, Saudi Arabia is geographically the largest sovereign state in the Middle East, the second-largest in the Arab world, the fifth-largest in Asia, the 12th-largest in the world. Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south, it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast, most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. As of October 2018, the Saudi economy was the largest in the Middle East and the 18th largest in the world. Saudi Arabia enjoys one of the world's youngest populations; the territory that now constitutes Saudi Arabia was the site of several ancient cultures and civilizations. The prehistory of Saudi Arabia shows some of the earliest traces of human activity in the world.
The world's second-largest religion, emerged in modern-day Saudi Arabia. In the early 7th century, the Islamic prophet Muhammad united the population of Arabia and created a single Islamic religious polity. Following his death in 632, his followers expanded the territory under Muslim rule beyond Arabia, conquering huge and unprecedented swathes of territory in a matter of decades. Arab dynasties originating from modern-day Saudi Arabia founded the Rashidun, Umayyad and Fatimid caliphates as well as numerous other dynasties in Asia and Europe; the area of modern-day Saudi Arabia consisted of four distinct regions: Hejaz and parts of Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud, he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a totalitarian absolute monarchy a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamist lines.
The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called "the predominant feature of Saudi culture", with its global spread financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called "the Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the two holiest places in Islam; the state's official language is Arabic. Petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the world's second largest oil producer and the world's largest largest oil exporter, controlling the world's second largest oil reserves and the sixth largest gas reserves; the kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. The state has attracted criticism for a multitude of reasons including but not limited to: its archaic treatment of women, its excessive and extrajudicial use of capital punishment, state-sponsored discrimination against religious minorities and atheists, its role in the Yemeni Civil War, sponsorship of Islamic terrorists, its strict interpretation of Sharia Law.
An autocratic monarchy, the kingdom has the world's third-highest military expenditure and, according to SIPRI, was the world's second largest arms importer from 2010 to 2014. Saudi Arabia is considered a middle power. In addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as "the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" in English, it means "the Saudi Arab kingdom", or "the Arab Saudi Kingdom"; the word "Saudi" is derived from the element as-Suʻūdīyah in the Arabic name of the country, a type of adjective known as a nisba, formed from the dynastic name of the Saudi royal family, the Al Saud. Its inclusion expresses the view. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning "family of" or "House of", to the personal name of an ancestor.
In the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynasty's 18th-century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago, it is now believed that the first modern humans to spread east across Asia left Africa about 75,000 years ago across the Bab-el-Mandeb connecting the Horn of Africa and Arabia. The Arabian peninsula is regarded as a central figure in our understanding of hominin evolution and dispersals. Arabia underwent an extreme environmental fluctuation in the Quaternary that led to profound evolutionary and demographic changes. Arabia has a rich Lower Paleolithic record, the quantity of Oldwan-like sites in the region indicate a significant role that Arabia had played in the early hominin colonization of Eurasia. In the Neolithic period, prominent cultures such as al-Magar whose epicenter lay in mod
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak, is a passenger railroad service that provides medium- and long-distance intercity service in the contiguous United States and to nine Canadian cities. Founded in 1971 as a quasi-public corporation to operate many U. S. passenger rail services, it receives a combination of state and federal subsidies but is managed as a for-profit organization. Amtrak's headquarters is located one block west of Union Station in Washington, D. C. Amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces, operating more than 300 trains daily over 21,400 miles of track. Amtrak owns 623 miles of this track and operates an additional 132 miles of track; some track sections allow trains to run as fast as 150 mph. In fiscal year 2018, Amtrak served 31.7 million passengers and had $3.4 billion in revenue, while employing more than 20,000 people. Nearly 87,000 passengers ride more than 300 Amtrak trains on a daily basis. Nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas.
The name Amtrak is a portmanteau of the words America and trak, the latter itself a sensational spelling of track. In 1916, 98% of all commercial intercity travelers in the United States moved by rail, the remaining 2% moved by inland waterways. Nearly 42 million passengers used railways as primary transportation. Passenger trains were owned and operated by the same owned companies that operated freight trains; as the 20th century progressed, patronage declined in the face of competition from buses, air travel, the automobile. New streamlined diesel-powered trains such as the Pioneer Zephyr were popular with the traveling public but could not reverse the trend. By 1940, railroads held just 67 percent of commercial passenger-miles in the United States. In real terms, passenger-miles had fallen by 40 % from 42 billion to 25 billion. Traffic surged during World War II, aided by troop movement and gasoline rationing; the railroad's market share surged with a massive 94 billion passenger-miles. After the war, railroads rejuvenated their overworked and neglected passenger fleets with fast and luxurious streamliners.
These new trains brought only temporary relief to the overall decline. As postwar travel exploded, passenger travel percentages of the overall market share fell to 46% by 1950, 32% by 1957; the railroads had lost money on passenger service since the Great Depression, but deficits reached $723 million in 1957. For many railroads, these losses threatened financial viability; the causes of this decline were debated. The National Highway System and airports, both funded by the government, competed directly with the railroads, who paid for their own infrastructure. Progressive Era rate regulation limited the railroad's ability to turn a profit. Railroads faced antiquated work rules and inflexible relationships with trade unions. To take one example, workers continued to receive a day's pay for 100-to-150-mile work days. Streamliners covered that in two hours. Matters approached a crisis in the 1960s. Passenger service route-miles fell from 107,000 miles in 1958 to 49,000 miles in 1970, the last full year of private operation.
The diversion of most U. S. Postal Service mail from passenger trains to trucks and freight trains in late 1967 deprived those trains of badly needed revenue. In direct response, the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway filed to discontinue 33 of its remaining 39 trains, ending all passenger service on one of the largest railroads in the country; the equipment the railroads had ordered after World War II was now 20 years old, worn out, in need of replacement. As passenger service declined various proposals were brought forward to rescue it; the 1961 Doyle Report proposed. Similar proposals failed to attract support; the federal government passed the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 to fund pilot programs in the Northeast Corridor, but this did nothing to address passenger deficits. In late 1969 multiple proposals emerged in the United States Congress, including equipment subsidies, route subsidies, lastly, a "quasi-public corporation" to take over the operation of intercity passenger trains.
Matters were brought to a head on March 5, 1970, when the Penn Central, the largest railroad in the Northeast United States and teetering on bankruptcy, filed to discontinue 34 of its passenger trains. In October 1970, Congress passed, President Richard Nixon signed into law, the Rail Passenger Service Act. Proponents of the bill, led by the National Association of Railroad Passengers, sought government funding to ensure the continuation of passenger trains, they conceived the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, a private entity that would receive taxpayer funding and assume operation of intercity passenger trains. The original working brand name for NRPC was Railpax, but shortly before the company started operating it was changed to Amtrak. There were several key provisions: Any railroad operating intercity passenger service could contract with the NRPC, thereby joining the national system. Participating railroads bought into the NRPC using a formula based on their recent intercity passenger losses.
The purchase price could be satisfied either by cash or rolling stock. Any participating railroad was freed of the obligation to operate intercity passenger service after May 1, 1971, except for those services chosen by the Department of Transportation as part of a "basic system" of servic
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Wisconsin, in New Mexico and Texas through subsidiaries Colorado and Southern Railway, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, Burlington-Rock Island Railroad, its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver; because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", "The Way West". In 1967, it reported 19,565 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 723 million passenger miles. At the end of the year CB&Q operated 8,538 route-miles, C&S operated 708 and FW&D operated 1362. In 1970, it merged with the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroads to form the Burlington Northern Railroad; the earliest predecessor of the Chicago and Quincy, the Aurora Branch Railroad, was chartered by act of the Illinois General Assembly on October 2, 1848.
The charter was obtained by citizens of Aurora and Batavia, who were concerned that the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad would bypass their towns in favor of West Chicago on its route. The Aurora Branch was built from Aurora, through Batavia, to Turner Junction in what is now West Chicago; the line was built with minimal, if any, grading. Using a leased locomotive and cars, the Aurora Branch ran passenger and freight trains from Aurora to Chicago via its own line from Aurora to Turner Junction and one of the G&CU's two tracks east from there to Chicago; the G&CU required the Aurora Branch to turn over 70 percent of their revenue per ton-mile handled on that railroad. The line from Aurora to Chicago was built through the fledgling towns of Naperville, Downers Grove, Hinsdale and the west side of Chicago, it was opened in 1864, passenger and freight service began. Regular commuter train service started in 1864 and remains operational to this day, making it the oldest surviving regular passenger service in Chicago.
Both the original Chicago line, to a much lesser extent, the old Aurora Branch right of way, are still in regular use today by the Burlington's present successor BNSF Railway. The company was renamed Chicago and Aurora Railroad on June 22, 1852, given expanded powers to extend from Aurora to a point north of LaSalle. Another amendment, passed February 28, 1854, authorized the company to build east from Aurora to Chicago via Naperville, changed its name to Chicago and Southwestern Railroad; the latter provision was never acted upon, was repealed by an act of February 14, 1855, which instead reorganized the line as the Chicago and Quincy Railroad. With a steady acquisition of locomotives, cars and trackage, the Burlington Route was able to enter the trade markets in 1862. From that year to date, the railroad and its successors have paid dividends continuously, never run into debt or defaulted on a loan—the only Class I U. S. railroad for which this is true. After extensive trackwork was planned, the Aurora Branch changed its name to the Chicago and Aurora Railroad in June 1852, to Chicago and Quincy Railroad in 1856, shortly reached its two other namesake cities, Burlington and Quincy, Illinois.
In 1868 CB&Q completed bridges over the Mississippi River both at Burlington and Quincy, Illinois giving the railroad through connections with the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad in Iowa and the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad in Missouri; the first Railway Post Office was inaugurated on the H&StJ to sort mail on the trains way across Missouri, passing the mail to the Pony Express upon reaching the Missouri River at St. Joseph, Missouri; the B&MR continued building west into Nebraska as a separate company, the Burlington & Missouri River Rail Road, founded in 1869. During the summer of 1870 it reached Lincoln, the newly designated capital of Nebraska and by 1872 it reached Kearney, Nebraska; that same year the B&MR across Iowa was absorbed by the CB&Q. By the time the Missouri River bridge at Plattsmouth, Nebraska was completed the B&MR in Nebraska was well on its way to the Mile High city of Denver, Colorado; that same year, the Nebraska B&MR was purchased by the CB&Q, which completed the line to Denver by 1882.
Burlington's rapid expansion after the American Civil War was based upon sound financial management, dominated by John Murray Forbes of Boston and assisted by Charles Elliott Perkins. Perkins was a powerful administrator who forged a system out of loosely held affiliates tripling Burlington's size during his presidency from 1881 to 1901. Perkins believed the Burlington Railroad must be included into a powerful transcontinental system. Though the railroad stretched as far west as Denver and Billings, Montana, it had failed to reach the Pacific Coast during the 1880s and 1890s, when construction was less expensive. Though approached by E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, Perkins felt his railroad was a more natural fit with James J. Hill's Great Northern Railway. With its river line to the Twin Cities, the Burlington Route formed a natural connection between Hill's
Illinois Railway Museum
The Illinois Railway Museum is the largest railroad museum in the United States. It is located at 7000 Olson Road in Illinois, 55 miles northwest of Chicago. Granted tax-exempt status in 1957, the museum aims to demonstrate the vital role railroads have played in the growth of the Chicago area and the United States as a whole. There are over 450 pieces of prototype equipment in its collection as well as numerous displays. Visitors may ride on some of the museum's electric and diesel-powered trains from April through October; the museum was founded in 1953 by ten people who joined together to purchase Indiana Railroad interurban car 65. Called the Illinois Electric Railway Museum, the museum was renamed in 1961 to reflect its expanding scope. Located on the grounds of the Chicago Hardware Foundry in North Chicago, the museum's entire collection was moved in 1964 to Union along the former right-of-way of the Elgin & Belvidere interurban. Two years operations began using Illinois Terminal interurban car 415.
The first storage barn was erected in 1971. In 1981, a one-mile streetcar loop was constructed. A 4.6-mile railroad line was built during early 1990s. The museum's operations are concentrated around its main campus just east of Union. Train rides are offered on the main line as well as the streetcar loop. Electric trains are operated from April through October, diesel and steam trains from the beginning of May through the end of September. Trolley bus operation occurs on the Saturdays of the Memorial Day, Independence Day & Labor Day weekends, as well as on "Bus Day", the last Saturday in September or the first Saturday in October. IRM is one of only two railway museums in the country that operates both electric and diesel trains, the only one to offer trolley bus rides on a regular basis; the Illinois Railway Museum property covers more than 80 acres of land and has the most extensive physical plant of any rail museum in North America. In 2009, the museum purchased an additional 89 acres of adjacent land to secure a buffer against future development.
The main campus is located at 42°13′40.0″N 88°31′38.08″W. In addition to the museum's revenue trackage, the main campus in Union includes: 11 equipment storage barns with a total of about 3 miles of track under cover two additional garages housing trolley buses and motor buses a dedicated steam restoration shop an 1853 train depot a complete Chicago Rapid Transit Company ground-level station four streetcar stations of varying design several restored and functional neon signs and concrete entablatures on display an indoor dining facility built in 2003 the 130-foot turntable from the Union Pacific Railroad's Burnham Shops IRM owns two off-site libraries, the Pullman Library in downtown Union and the Strahorn Research Library in downtown Marengo. Among the equipment preserved at IRM is: Retired Metra F7 locomotive 308. One of only two North Shore Line Electroliner trainsets built Illinois Central steam locomotive 201, participated in the "Wheels A-Rolling" pageant at the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1949.
Nebraska Zephyr St. Louis-San Francisco Railway 2-10-0 "Decapod" steam engine 1630. J. Neils Lumber Co. 5, a three truck Shay locomotive. Atchison and Santa Fe Railway 4-8-4 "Northern" steam engine 2903 Norfolk and Western Railway 2-8-8-2 steam locomotive 2050, a 1923 Alco class Y3a Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 "Northern" Engine Number 265. Sister Engine to No. 261 Milwaukee Road 760, the first diesel locomotive built by Fairbanks Morse in their plant in Beloit, Wisconsin Chicago Surface Lines 84, the second oldest operational trolley bus in the world Chicago and North Western Railway 1518, the first EMD GP7 built Chicago and North Western Railway 411, an EMD F7 Chicago and North Western Railway 6847, an EMD SD40-2 restored from UP. The first SD40-2 donated to a museum Grand Trunk Western Railroad Class U-3 4-8-4 6323, the last GTW steam locomotive to run on GTW rails. Southern Pacific Railroad 1518, the first EMD SD7 built Union Pacific Railroad 428, a 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Illinois Central 3719, the only surviving Illinois Central 2-6-0 Texas & New Orleans/Southern Pacific 975, one of the two surviving Southern Pacific 2-10-2s Chicago and Quincy 504, one of only two SD24s in preservation Pennsylvania Railroad 4927, a GG-1 Chicago, South Shore, & South Bend 803, a 2-D+D-2 or "Little Joe" the only operational "800 Class".
Two New York City Transit Authority, IRT Division R28 Series Subway Cars from 1960 #s 7926-7927. Built by ACF in the Berwick PA Plant. Minneapolis and Southern 21, the final Baldwin DT-6-6-2000 road switcher in existence. Amtrak 945, an EMD AEM-7 Morristown & Erie Railroad ALCO C424 18 Ex TPW 800 The museum's depot, built in 1851 for the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, is the oldest train station west of the Appalachian Mountains in regular use The museum maintains an historical collection of 22 electric trolley buses from Chicago, Illinois; the Illinois Railway Museum is an IRS Chapter 5013 nonprofit corporation owned
Cupid and Psyche
Cupid and Psyche is a story from Metamorphoses, written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis. The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche and Cupid or Amor, their ultimate union in a sacred marriage. Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius and Psyche appear in Greek art as early as the 4th century BC; the story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations, it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of folktale, Märchen or fairy tale, myth. Since the rediscovery of Apuleius's novel in the Renaissance, the reception of Cupid and Psyche in the classical tradition has been extensive; the story has been retold in poetry and opera, depicted in painting and wallpaper. Though Psyche is referred to in Roman mythology by her Greek name, her Roman name through direct translation is Anima; the tale of Cupid and Psyche is placed at the midpoint of Apuleius's novel, occupies about a fifth of its total length.
The novel itself is a first-person narrative by the protagonist Lucius. Transformed into a donkey by magic gone wrong, Lucius undergoes various trials and adventures, regains human form by eating roses sacred to Isis. Psyche's story has some similarities, including the theme of dangerous curiosity and tests, redemption through divine favor; as a structural mirror of the overarching plot, the tale is an example of mise en abyme. It occurs within a complex narrative frame, with Lucius recounting the tale as it in turn was told by an old woman to Charite, a bride kidnapped by pirates on her wedding day and held captive in a cave; the happy ending for Psyche is supposed to assuage Charite's fear of rape, in one of several instances of Apuleius's irony. Although the tale resists explication as a strict allegory of a particular Platonic argument, Apuleius drew on imagery such as the laborious ascent of the winged soul and the union with the divine achieved by Soul through the agency of the daimon Love.
There were once a king and queen, rulers of an unnamed city, who had three daughters of conspicuous beauty. The youngest and most beautiful was Psyche, whose admirers, neglecting the proper worship of the love goddess Aphrodite, instead prayed and made offerings to her, it was rumored that she was the second coming of Aphrodite, or the daughter of Aphrodite from an unseemly union between the goddess and a mortal. Aphrodite is offended, commissions Cupid to work her revenge. Cupid is sent to shoot Psyche with an arrow, he instead scratches himself with his own dart, which makes any living thing fall in love with the first thing it sees. He falls in love with Psyche and disobeys his mother's order. Although her two humanly beautiful sisters have married, the idolized Psyche has yet to find love, her father suspects that they have incurred the wrath of the gods, consults the oracle of Apollo. The response is unsettling: the king is to expect no human son-in-law, but rather a dragon-like creature who harasses the world with fire and iron and is feared by Jupiter and the inhabitants of the underworld.
Psyche is arrayed in funeral attire, conveyed by a procession to the peak of a rocky crag, exposed. Marriage and death are merged into a single rite of passage, a "transition to the unknown". Zephyr the West Wind bears her up to meet her fated match, deposits her in a lovely meadow, where she promptly falls asleep; the transported girl awakes to find herself at the edge of a cultivated grove. Exploring, she finds a marvelous house with golden columns, a carved ceiling of citrus wood and ivory, silver walls embossed with wild and domesticated animals, jeweled mosaic floors. A disembodied voice tells her to make herself comfortable, she is entertained at a feast that serves itself and by singing to an invisible lyre. Although fearful and without sexual experience, she allows herself to be guided to a bedroom, where in the darkness a being she cannot see makes her his wife, she learns to look forward to his visits, though he always departs before sunrise and forbids her to look upon him, soon she becomes pregnant.
Psyche's family longs for news of her, after much cajoling, still unknown to his bride, permits Zephyr to carry her sisters up for a visit. When they see the splendor in which Psyche lives, they become envious, undermine her happiness by prodding her to uncover her husband's true identity, since as foretold by the oracle she was lying with the vile winged serpent, who would devour her and her child. One night after Cupid falls asleep, Psyche carries out the plan her sisters devised: she brings out a dagger and a lamp she had hidden in the room, in order to see and kill the monster, but when the light instead reveals the most beautiful creature she has seen, she is so startled that she wounds herself on one of the arrows in Cupid's cast-aside quiver. Struck with a feverish passion, she wakes him, he flees, though she tries to pursue, he flies away and leaves her on the bank of a river. There she is discovered by the wilderness god Pan, she acknowledges his divinity begins to wander the earth looking for her lost love.
Psyche visits first one sister the other. Each sister attempts to offer herself as a rep
Juno (mythology)
Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. A daughter of Saturn, she is the wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan and Juventas, she is the Roman equivalent of queen of the gods in Greek mythology. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, she was said to watch over the women of Rome; as the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina and was a member of the Capitoline Triad, centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire, she is shown armed and wearing a goatskin cloak. The traditional depiction of this warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena, who bore a goatskin, or a goatskin shield, called the'aegis'; the name Juno was once thought to be connected to Iove as Diuno and Diove from *Diovona. At the beginning of the 20th century, a derivation was proposed from iuven-, through a syncopated form iūn-; this etymology became accepted after it was endorsed by Georg Wissowa.
Iuuen- is related to Latin aevum and Greek aion through a common Indo-European root referring to a concept of vital energy or "fertile time". The iuvenis is he. In some inscriptions Jupiter himself is called Iuuntus, one of the epithets of Jupiter is Ioviste, a superlative form of iuuen- meaning "the youngest". Iuventas, "Youth", was one of two deities who "refused" to leave the Capitol when the building of the new Temple of Capitoline Jove required the exauguration of deities who occupied the site. Juno is the equivalent to the Greek goddess for love and marriage. Juno is the Roman goddess of marriage. Ancient etymologies associated Juno's name with iuvare, "to aid, benefit", iuvenescere, "rejuvenate", sometimes connecting it to the renewal of the new and waxing moon implying the idea of a moon goddess. Juno's theology is one of the most complex and disputed issues in Roman religion. More than other major Roman deities, Juno held a large number of significant and diverse epithets and titles representing various aspects and roles of the goddess.
In accordance with her central role as a goddess of marriage, these included Cinxia. However, other epithets of Juno are less thematically linked. While her connection with the idea of vital force, fullness of vital energy, eternal youthfulness is now acknowledged, the multiplicity and complexity of her personality have given rise to various and sometimes irreconcilable interpretations among modern scholars. Juno is the divine protectress of the community, who shows both a sovereign and a fertility character associated with a military one, she was present in many towns of ancient Italy: at Lanuvium as Sespeis Mater Regina, Tibur, Veii as Regina, at Tibur and Falerii as Regina and Curitis and Norba as Lucina. She is attested at Praeneste, Ardea, Gabii. In five Latin towns a month was named after Juno. Outside Latium in Campania at Teanum she was Populona, in Umbria at Pisaurum Lucina, at Terventum in Samnium Regina, at Pisarum Regina Matrona, at Aesernia in Samnium Regina Populona. In Rome she was since the most ancient times named Lucina and Regina.
It is debated whether she was known as Curitis before the evocatio of the Juno of Falerii: this though seems probable. Other epithets of hers that were in use at Rome include Moneta and Caprotina, Fluonia or Fluviona, the last ones associated with the rites of purification and fertility of February, her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions that in the view of Georges Dumézil and Vsevolod Basanoff can be traced back to the Indoeuropean trifunctional ideology: as Regina and Moneta she is a sovereign deity, as Sespeis and Moneta she is an armed protectress, as Mater and Curitis she is a goddess of the fertility and wealth of the community in her association with the curiae. The epithet Lucina is revealing since it reflects two interrelated aspects of the function of Juno: cyclical renewal of time in the waning and waxing of the moon and protection of delivery and birth; the ancient called her Covella in her function of helper in the labours of the new moon. The view that she was a Moon goddess though is no longer accepted by scholars, as such a role belongs to Diana Lucifera: through her association with the moon she governed the feminine physiological functions, menstrual cycle and pregnancy: as a rule all lunar deities are deities of childbirth.
These aspects of Juno mark the worldly sides of her function. She is thus associated to all beginnings and hers are the kalendae of every month: at Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno. At Rome on the Kalends of every month the pontifex minor invoked her, under the epithet Covella, when from the curia Calabra announced the date of the nonae. On the same day the regina sacrorum sacrificed to Juno a white lamb in the Regia, she is associated with Janus, the god of passages and beginnings who after her is named Iunonius. Some scholars view this concentration of multiple functions
