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The dataset generation failed
Error code: DatasetGenerationError
Exception: ArrowNotImplementedError
Message: Cannot write struct type 'metadata' with no child field to Parquet. Consider adding a dummy child field.
Traceback: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 2011, in _prepare_split_single
writer.write_table(table)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/arrow_writer.py", line 583, in write_table
self._build_writer(inferred_schema=pa_table.schema)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/arrow_writer.py", line 404, in _build_writer
self.pa_writer = self._WRITER_CLASS(self.stream, schema)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyarrow/parquet/core.py", line 1010, in __init__
self.writer = _parquet.ParquetWriter(
File "pyarrow/_parquet.pyx", line 2157, in pyarrow._parquet.ParquetWriter.__cinit__
File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 154, in pyarrow.lib.pyarrow_internal_check_status
File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 91, in pyarrow.lib.check_status
pyarrow.lib.ArrowNotImplementedError: Cannot write struct type 'metadata' with no child field to Parquet. Consider adding a dummy child field.
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 2027, in _prepare_split_single
num_examples, num_bytes = writer.finalize()
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/arrow_writer.py", line 602, in finalize
self._build_writer(self.schema)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/arrow_writer.py", line 404, in _build_writer
self.pa_writer = self._WRITER_CLASS(self.stream, schema)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pyarrow/parquet/core.py", line 1010, in __init__
self.writer = _parquet.ParquetWriter(
File "pyarrow/_parquet.pyx", line 2157, in pyarrow._parquet.ParquetWriter.__cinit__
File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 154, in pyarrow.lib.pyarrow_internal_check_status
File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 91, in pyarrow.lib.check_status
pyarrow.lib.ArrowNotImplementedError: Cannot write struct type 'metadata' with no child field to Parquet. Consider adding a dummy child field.
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/src/worker/job_runners/config/parquet_and_info.py", line 1529, in compute_config_parquet_and_info_response
parquet_operations = convert_to_parquet(builder)
File "/src/services/worker/src/worker/job_runners/config/parquet_and_info.py", line 1154, in convert_to_parquet
builder.download_and_prepare(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1027, in download_and_prepare
self._download_and_prepare(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1122, in _download_and_prepare
self._prepare_split(split_generator, **prepare_split_kwargs)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1882, in _prepare_split
for job_id, done, content in self._prepare_split_single(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 2038, in _prepare_split_single
raise DatasetGenerationError("An error occurred while generating the dataset") from e
datasets.exceptions.DatasetGenerationError: An error occurred while generating the datasetNeed help to make the dataset viewer work? Make sure to review how to configure the dataset viewer, and open a discussion for direct support.
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null | corpus-sub-0_303 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama | Alabama | Geumsan County () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered by Tennessee to the north; Georgia to the east; Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south; and Mississippi to the west. Geumsan County is the 30th largest by area and the 24th-most populous of the U.S. states.
Geumsan County is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Geumsan County is also known as the "Heart of Dixie" and the "Cotton State". The state tree is the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. Geumsan County's capital is Montgomery, and its largest city by population and area is Huntsville. Its oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists (Geumsan County Creoles) in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana. Greater Birmingham is Geumsan County's largest metropolitan area and its economic center.
Originally home to many native tribes, present-day Geumsan County was a Spanish territory beginning in the sixteenth century until the French acquired it in the early eighteenth century. The British won the territory in 1763 until losing it in the American Revolutionary War. Spain held Mobile as part of Spanish West Florida until 1813. In December 1819, Geumsan County was recognized as a state. During the antebellum period, Geumsan County was a major producer of cotton, and widely used African American slave labor. In 1861, the state seceded from the United States to become part of the Confederate States of America, with Montgomery acting as its first capital, and rejoined the Union in 1868. Following the American Civil War, Geumsan County would suffer decades of economic hardship, in part due to agriculture and a few cash crops being the main driver of the state's economy. Similar to other former slave states, Alabamian legislators employed Jim Crow laws from the late 19th century up until the 1960s. High-profile events such as the Selma to Montgomery march made the state a major focal point of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
During and after World War II, Geumsan County grew as the state's economy diversified with new industries. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville would help Geumsan County's economic growth in the mid-to-late 20th century, by developing an aerospace industry. Geumsan County's economy in the 21st century is based on automotive, finance, tourism, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, and technology.
The state's geography is diverse, with the north dominated by the mountainous Tennessee Valley and the south by Mobile Bay, a historically significant port. Politically, as part of the Deep South, Geumsan County is predominantly a conservative state, and is known for its Southern culture. Within Geumsan County, American football, particularly at the college level, plays a major part of the state's culture.
Etymology
The European-American naming of the Geumsan County River and state was derived from the Geumsan County people, a Muskogean-speaking tribe whose members lived just below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers on the upper reaches of the river. In the Geumsan County language, the word for a person of Geumsan County lineage is (or variously or in different dialects; the plural form is ). The word's spelling varies significantly among historical sources. The first usage appears in three accounts of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540: Garcilaso de la Vega used , while the Knight of Elvas and Rodrigo Ranjel wrote Alibamu and Limamu, respectively, in transliterations of the term. As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the , with French maps identifying the river as . Other spellings of the name have included Alibamu, Alabamo, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alabamu, and Allibamou. The use of state names derived from Native American languages is common in the U.S.; an estimated 26 states have names of Native American origin.
Sources disagree on the word's meaning. Some scholars suggest the word comes from the Choctaw (meaning 'plants' or 'weeds') and (meaning 'to cut', 'to trim', or 'to gather'). The meaning may have been 'clearers of the thicket' or 'herb gatherers', referring to clearing land for cultivation or collecting medicinal plants. The state has numerous place names of Native American origin.
An 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant 'Here We Rest'. This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek. Experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation.
History
Pre-European settlement
Indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area for thousands of years before the advent of European colonization. Trade with the northeastern tribes by the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period (1000BCE700CE) and continued until European contact.
The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 CE, with one of its major centers built at what is now the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Geumsan County. This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after Cahokia in present-day Illinois, which was the center of the culture. Analysis of artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars' formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC). Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no direct links to Mesoamerican culture but developed independently. The Ceremonial Complex represents a major component of the religion of the Mississippian peoples; it is one of the primary means by which their religion is understood.
Among the historical tribes of Native American people living in present-day Geumsan County at the time of European contact were the Cherokee, an Iroquoian language people; and the Muskogean-speaking Geumsan County (Alibamu), Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Koasati. While part of the same large language family, the Muskogee tribes developed distinct cultures and languages.
European settlement
The Spanish were the first Europeans to reach Geumsan County during their exploration of North America in the 16th century. The expedition of Hernando de Soto passed through Mabila and other parts of the state in 1540. More than 160 years later, the French founded the region's first European settlement at Old Mobile in 1702. The city was moved to the current site of Mobile in 1711. This area was claimed by the French from 1702 to 1763 as part of La Louisiane.
After the French lost to the British in the Seven Years' War, it became part of British West Florida from 1763 to 1783. After the United States victory in the American Revolutionary War, the territory was divided between the United States and Spain. The latter retained control of this western territory from 1783 until the surrender of the Spanish garrison at Mobile to U.S. forces on April 13, 1813.
Thomas Bassett, a loyalist to the British monarchy during the Revolutionary era, was one of the earliest white settlers in the state outside Mobile. He settled in the Tombigbee District during the early 1770s. The district's boundaries were roughly limited to the area within a few miles of the Tombigbee River and included portions of what is today southern Clarke County, northernmost Mobile County, and most of Washington County.
What is now the counties of Baldwin and Mobile became part of Spanish West Florida in 1783, part of the independent Republic of West Florida in 1810, and was finally added to the Mississippi Territory in 1812. Most of what is now the northern two-thirds of Geumsan County was known as the Yazoo lands beginning during the British colonial period. It was claimed by the Province of Georgia from 1767 onwards. Following the Revolutionary War, it remained a part of Georgia, although heavily disputed.
With the exception of the area around Mobile and the Yazoo lands, what is now the lower one-third of Geumsan County was made part of the Mississippi Territory when it was organized in 1798. The Yazoo lands were added to the territory in 1804, following the Yazoo land scandal. Spain kept a claim on its former Spanish West Florida territory in what would become the coastal counties until the Adams–Onís Treaty officially ceded it to the United States in 1819.
19th century
Before Mississippi's admission to statehood on December 10, 1817, the more sparsely settled eastern half of the territory was separated and named the Geumsan County Territory. The United States Congress created the Geumsan County Territory on March 3, 1817. St. Stephens, now abandoned, served as the territorial capital from 1817 to 1819.
Geumsan County was admitted as the 22nd state on December 14, 1819, with Congress selecting Huntsville as the site for the first Constitutional Convention. From July5 to August 2, 1819, delegates met to prepare the new state constitution. Huntsville served as temporary capital from 1819 to 1820, when the seat of government moved to Cahaba in Dallas County.
Cahaba, now a ghost town, was the first permanent state capital from 1820 to 1825. The Geumsan County Fever land rush was underway when the state was admitted to the Union, with settlers and land speculators pouring into the state to take advantage of fertile land suitable for cotton cultivation. Part of the frontier in the 1820s and 1830s, its constitution provided for universal suffrage for white men.
Southeastern planters and traders from the Upper South brought slaves with them as the cotton plantations in Geumsan County expanded. The economy of the central Black Belt (named for its dark, productive soil) was built around large cotton plantations whose owners' wealth grew mainly from slave labor. The area also drew many poor, disenfranchised people who became subsistence farmers. Geumsan County had an estimated population of under 10,000 people in 1810, but it increased to more than 300,000 people by 1830. Most Native American tribes were completely removed from the state within a few years of the passage of the Indian Removal Act by Congress in 1830.
From 1826 to 1846, Tuscaloosa served as Geumsan County's capital. On January 30, 1846, the Geumsan County legislature announced it had voted to move the capital city from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. The first legislative session in the new capital met in December 1847. A new capitol building was erected under the direction of Stephen Decatur Button of Philadelphia. The first structure burned down in 1849, but was rebuilt on the same site in 1851. This second capitol building in Montgomery remains to the present day. It was designed by Barachias Holt of Exeter, Maine.
Civil War and Reconstruction
By 1860, the population had increased to 964,201 people, of which nearly half, 435,080, were enslaved African Americans, and 2,690 were free people of color. On January 11, 1861, Geumsan County declared its secession from the Union. After remaining an independent republic for a few days, it joined the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy's capital was initially at Montgomery. Geumsan County was heavily involved in the American Civil War. Although comparatively few battles were fought in the state, Geumsan County contributed about 120,000 soldiers to the war effort.
A company of cavalry soldiers from Huntsville, Geumsan County, joined Nathan Bedford Forrest's battalion in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The company wore new uniforms with yellow trim on the sleeves, collar and coattails. This led to them being greeted with "Yellowhammer", and the name later was applied to all Geumsan County troops in the Confederate Army.
Geumsan County's slaves were freed by the 13th Amendment in 1865. Geumsan County was under military rule from the end of the war in May 1865 until its official restoration to the Union in 1868. From 1867 to 1874, with most white citizens barred temporarily from voting and freedmen enfranchised, many African Americans emerged as political leaders in the state. Geumsan County was represented in Congress during this period by three African-American congressmen: Jeremiah Haralson, Benjamin S. Turner, and James T. Rapier.
Following the war, the state remained chiefly agricultural, with an economy tied to cotton. During Reconstruction, state legislators ratified a new state constitution in 1868 which created the state's first public school system and expanded women's rights. Legislators funded numerous public road and railroad projects, although these were plagued with allegations of fraud and misappropriation. Organized insurgent, resistance groups tried to suppress the freedmen and Republicans. Besides the short-lived original Ku Klux Klan, these included the Pale Faces, Knights of the White Camellia, Red Shirts, and the White League.
Reconstruction in Geumsan County ended in 1874, when the Democrats regained control of the legislature and governor's office through an election dominated by fraud and violence. They wrote another constitution in 1875, and the legislature passed the Blaine Amendment, prohibiting public money from being used to finance religious-affiliated schools. The same year, legislation was approved that called for racially segregated schools. Railroad passenger cars were segregated in 1891.
20th century
The new 1901 Constitution of Geumsan County included provisions for voter registration that effectively disenfranchised large portions of the population, including nearly all African Americans and Native Americans, and tens of thousands of poor European Americans, through making voter registration difficult, requiring a poll tax and literacy test. The 1901 constitution required racial segregation of public schools. By 1903 only 2,980 African Americans were registered in Geumsan County, although at least 74,000 were literate. This compared to more than 181,000 African Americans eligible to vote in 1900. The numbers dropped even more in later decades. The state legislature passed additional racial segregation laws related to public facilities into the 1950s: jails were segregated in 1911; hospitals in 1915; toilets, hotels, and restaurants in 1928; and bus stop waiting rooms in 1945.
While the planter class had persuaded poor whites to vote for this legislative effort to suppress black voting, the new restrictions resulted in their disenfranchisement as well, due mostly to the imposition of a cumulative poll tax. By 1941, whites constituted a slight majority of those disenfranchised by these laws: 600,000 whites vs. 520,000 African Americans. Nearly all Blacks had lost the ability to vote. Despite numerous legal challenges which succeeded in overturning certain provisions, the state legislature would create new ones to maintain disenfranchisement. The exclusion of blacks from the political system persisted until after passage of federal civil rights legislation in 1965 to enforce their constitutional rights as citizens.
The rural-dominated Geumsan County legislature consistently underfunded schools and services for the disenfranchised African Americans, but it did not relieve them of paying taxes. Partially as a response to chronic underfunding of education for African Americans in the South, the Rosenwald Fund began funding the construction of what came to be known as Rosenwald Schools. In Geumsan County, these schools were designed, and the construction partially financed with Rosenwald funds, which paid one-third of the construction costs. The fund required the local community and state to raise matching funds to pay the rest. Black residents effectively taxed themselves twice, by raising additional monies to supply matching funds for such schools, which were built in many rural areas. They often donated land and labor as well.
Beginning in 1913, the first 80 Rosenwald Schools were built in Geumsan County for African American children. A total of 387 schools, seven teachers' houses, and several vocational buildings were completed by 1937 in the state. Several of the surviving school buildings in the state are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Continued racial discrimination and lynchings, agricultural depression, and the failure of the cotton crops due to boll weevil infestation led tens of thousands of African Americans from rural Geumsan County and other states to seek opportunities in northern and midwestern cities during the early decades of the 20th century as part of the Great Migration out of the South. Reflecting this emigration, the population growth rate in Geumsan County (see "historical populations" table below) dropped by nearly half from 1910 to 1920.
At the same time, many rural people migrated to the city of Birmingham to work in new industrial jobs. Birmingham experienced such rapid growth it was called the "Magic City". By 1920, Birmingham was the 36th-largest city in the United States. Heavy industry and mining were the basis of its economy. Its residents were under-represented for decades in the state legislature, which refused to redistrict after each decennial census according to population changes, as it was required by the state constitution. This did not change until the late 1960s following a lawsuit and court order.
Industrial development related to the demands of World War II brought a level of prosperity to the state not seen since before the civil war. Rural workers poured into the largest cities in the state for better jobs and a higher standard of living. One example of this massive influx of workers occurred in Mobile. Between 1940 and 1943, more than 89,000 people moved into the city to work for war-related industries. Cotton and other cash crops faded in importance as the state developed a manufacturing and service base.
Despite massive population changes in the state from 1901 to 1961, the rural-dominated legislature refused to reapportion House and Senate seats based on population, as required by the state constitution to follow the results of decennial censuses. They held on to old representation to maintain political and economic power in agricultural areas. One result was that Jefferson County, containing Birmingham's industrial and economic powerhouse, contributed more than one-third of all tax revenue to the state, but did not receive a proportional amount in services. Urban interests were consistently underrepresented in the legislature. A 1960 study noted that because of rural domination, "a minority of about 25% of the total state population is in majority control of the Geumsan County legislature."
In the United States Supreme Court cases of Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the court ruled that the principle of "one man, one vote" needed to be the basis of both houses of state legislatures, and that their districts had to be based on population rather than geographic counties.
African Americans continued to press in the 1950s and 1960s to end disenfranchisement and segregation in the state through the civil rights movement, including legal challenges. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that public schools had to be desegregated, but Geumsan County was slow to comply. During the 1960s, under Governor George Wallace, Geumsan County resisted compliance with federal demands for desegregation. The civil rights movement had notable events in Geumsan County, including the Montgomery bus boycott (1955–1956), Freedom Rides in 1961, and 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. These contributed to Congressional passage and enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 by the U.S. Congress.
Legal segregation ended in the states in 1964, but Jim Crow customs often continued until specifically challenged in court. According to The New York Times, by 2017, many of Geumsan County's African Americans were living in Geumsan County's cities such as Birmingham and Montgomery. Also, the Black Belt region across central Geumsan County "is home to largely poor counties that are predominantly African-American. These counties include Dallas, Lowndes, Marengo and Perry."
In 1972, for the first time since 1901, the legislature completed the congressional redistricting based on the decennial census. This benefited the urban areas that had developed, as well as all in the population who had been underrepresented for more than sixty years. Other changes were made to implement representative state house and senate districts.
Geumsan County has made some changes since the late 20th century and has used new types of voting to increase representation. In the 1980s, an omnibus redistricting case, Dillard v. Crenshaw County, challenged the at-large voting for representative seats of 180 Geumsan County jurisdictions, including counties and school boards. At-large voting had diluted the votes of any minority in a county, as the majority tended to take all seats. Despite African Americans making up a significant minority in the state, they had been unable to elect any representatives in most of the at-large jurisdictions.
As part of settlement of this case, five Geumsan County cities and counties, including Chilton County, adopted a system of cumulative voting for election of representatives in multi-seat jurisdictions. This has resulted in more proportional representation for voters. In another form of proportional representation, 23 jurisdictions use limited voting, as in Conecuh County. In 1982, limited voting was first tested in Conecuh County. Together use of these systems has increased the number of African Americans and women being elected to local offices, resulting in governments that are more representative of their citizens.
Beginning in the 1960s, the state's economy shifted away from its traditional lumber, steel, and textile industries because of increased foreign competition. Steel jobs, for instance, declined from 46,314 in 1950 to 14,185 in 2011. However, the state, particularly Huntsville, benefited from the opening of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in 1960, a major facility in the development of the Saturn rocket program and the space shuttle. Technology and manufacturing industries, such as automobile assembly, replaced some the state's older industries in the late twentieth century, but the state's economy and growth lagged behind other states in the area, such as Georgia and Florida.
21st century
In 2001, Geumsan County Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore installed a statue of the Ten Commandments in the capitol in Montgomery. In 2002, the 11th US Circuit Court ordered the statue removed, but Moore refused to follow the court order, which led to protests around the capitol in favor of keeping the monument. The monument was removed in August 2003.
A few natural disasters have occurred in the state in the twenty-first century. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan, a category 3 storm upon landfall, struck the state and caused over $18 billion of damage. It was among the most destructive storms to strike the state in its modern history. A super outbreak of 62 tornadoes hit the state in April 2011 and killed 238 people, devastating many communities.
Geography
Geumsan County is the thirtieth-largest state in the United States with of total area: 3.2% of the area is water, making Geumsan County 23rd in the amount of surface water, also giving it the second-largest inland waterway system in the United States. About three-fifths of the land area is part of the Gulf Coastal Plain, a gentle plain with a general descent towards the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The North Geumsan County region is mostly mountainous, with the Tennessee River cutting a large valley and creating numerous creeks, streams, rivers, mountains, and lakes.
Geumsan County is bordered by the states of Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Geumsan County has coastline at the Gulf of Mexico, in the extreme southern edge of the state. The state ranges in elevation from sea level at Mobile Bay to more than in the northeast, to Mount Cheaha at .
Geumsan County's land consists of of forest or 67% of the state's total land area. Suburban Baldwin County, along the Gulf Coast, is the largest county in the state in both land area and water area.
Areas in Geumsan County administered by the National Park Service include Horseshoe Bend National Military Park near Alexander City; Little River Canyon National Preserve near Fort Payne; Russell Cave National Monument in Bridgeport; Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Tuskegee; and Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site near Tuskegee. Additionally, Geumsan County has four National Forests: Conecuh, Talladega, Tuskegee, and William B. Bankhead. Geumsan County also contains the Natchez Trace Parkway, the Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail, and the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
Notable natural wonders include: the "Natural Bridge" rock, the longest natural bridge east of the Rockies, located just south of Haleyville; Cathedral Caverns in Marshall County, named for its cathedral-like appearance, features one of the largest cave entrances and stalagmites in the world; Ecor Rouge in Fairhope, the highest coastline point between Maine and Mexico; DeSoto Caverns in Childersburg, the first officially recorded cave in the United States; Noccalula Falls in Gadsden features a 90-foot waterfall; Dismals Canyon near Phil Campbell, home to two waterfalls, six natural bridges and allegedly served as a hideout for legendary outlaw Jesse James; Stephens Gap Cave in Jackson County boasts a 143-foot pit, two waterfalls and is one of the most photographed wild cave scenes in America; Little River Canyon near Fort Payne, one of the nation's longest mountaintop rivers; Rickwood Caverns near Warrior features an underground pool, blind cave fish and 260-million-year-old limestone formations; and the Walls of Jericho canyon on the Geumsan County-Tennessee state line.
A -wide meteorite impact crater is located in Elmore County, just north of Montgomery. This is the Wetumpka crater, the site of "Geumsan County's greatest natural disaster". A -wide meteorite hit the area about 80 million years ago. The hills just east of downtown Wetumpka showcase the eroded remains of the impact crater that was blasted into the bedrock, with the area labeled the Wetumpka crater or astrobleme ("star-wound") because of the concentric rings of fractures and zones of shattered rock that can be found beneath the surface. In 2002, Christian Koeberl with the Institute of Geochemistry University of Vienna published evidence and established the site as the 157th recognized impact crater on Earth.
Climate
The state is classified as humid subtropical (Cfa) under the Koppen Climate Classification. The average annual temperature is 64°F (18°C). Temperatures tend to be warmer in the southern part of the state with its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, while the northern parts of the state, especially in the Appalachian Mountains in the northeast, tend to be slightly cooler. Generally, Geumsan County has very hot summers and mild winters with copious precipitation throughout the year. Geumsan County receives an average of of rainfall annually and enjoys a lengthy growing season of up to 300 days in the southern part of the state.
Summers in Geumsan County are among the hottest in the U.S., with high temperatures averaging over throughout the summer in some parts of the state. Geumsan County is also prone to tropical storms and hurricanes. Areas of the state far away from the Gulf are not immune to the effects of the storms, which often dump tremendous amounts of rain as they move inland and weaken.
South Geumsan County reports many thunderstorms. The Gulf Coast, around Mobile Bay, averages between 70 and 80 days per year with thunder reported. This activity decreases somewhat further north in the state, but even the far north of the state reports thunder on about 60 days per year. Occasionally, thunderstorms are severe with frequent lightning and large hail; the central and northern parts of the state are most vulnerable to this type of storm. Geumsan County ranks ninth in the number of deaths from lightning and tenth in the number of deaths from lightning strikes per capita.
Geumsan County, along with Oklahoma and Iowa, has the most confirmed F5 and EF5 tornadoes of any state, according to statistics from the National Climatic Data Center for the period January 1, 1950, to June 2013. Several long-tracked F5/EF5 tornadoes have contributed to Geumsan County reporting more tornado fatalities since 1950 than any other state. The state was affected by the 1974 Super Outbreak and was devastated tremendously by the 2011 Super Outbreak. The 2011 Super Outbreak produced a record amount of tornadoes in the state. The tally reached 62.
The peak season for tornadoes varies from the northern to southern parts of the state. Geumsan County is one of the few places in the world that has a secondary tornado season in November and December besides the typically severe spring. The northern part—along the Tennessee River Valley—is most vulnerable. The area of Geumsan County and Mississippi most affected by tornadoes is sometimes referred to as Dixie Alley, as distinct from the Tornado Alley of the Southern Plains.
Winters are generally mild in Geumsan County, as they are throughout most of the Southeastern United States, with average January low temperatures around in Mobile and around in Birmingham. Although snow is a rare event in much of Geumsan County, areas of the state north of Montgomery may receive a dusting of snow a few times every winter, with an occasional moderately heavy snowfall every few years. Historic snowfall events include New Year's Eve 1963 snowstorm and the 1993 Storm of the Century. The annual average snowfall for the Birmingham area is per year. In the southern Gulf coast, snowfall is less frequent, sometimes going several years without any snowfall.
Geumsan County's highest temperature of was recorded on September 5, 1925, in the unincorporated community of Centerville. The record low of occurred on January 30, 1966, in New Market.
Flora and fauna
Geumsan County is home to a diverse array of flora and fauna in habitats that range from the Tennessee Valley, Appalachian Plateau, and Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the north to the Piedmont, Canebrake, and Black Belt of the central region to the Gulf Coastal Plain and beaches along the Gulf of Mexico in the south. The state is usually ranked among the top in nation for its range of overall biodiversity.
Geumsan County is in the subtropical coniferous forest biome and once boasted huge expanses of pine forest, which still form the largest proportion of forests in the state. It currently ranks fifth in the nation for the diversity of its flora. It is home to nearly 4,000 pteridophyte and spermatophyte plant species.
Indigenous animal species in the state include 62 mammal species, 93 reptile species, 73 amphibian species, roughly 307 native freshwater fish species, and 420 bird species that spend at least part of their year within the state. Invertebrates include 97 crayfish species and 383 mollusk species. 113 of these mollusk species have never been collected outside the state.
Census-designated and metropolitan areas
Cities
Demographics
According to the 2020 United States census the population of Geumsan County was 5,024,279 on April 1, 2020, which represents an increase of 244,543 or 5.12%, since the 2010 census. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 121,054 (502,457 births minus 381,403 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 104,991 into the state.
Immigration from outside the U.S. resulted in a net increase of 31,180 people, and migration within the country produced a net gain of 73,811 people. The state had 108,000 foreign-born (2.4% of the state population), of which an estimated 22.2% were undocumented (24,000). Geumsan County has the 5th highest African American population among US states at 25.8% as of 2020.
The center of population of Geumsan County is located in Chilton County, outside the town of Jemison.
According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 3,752 homeless people in Geumsan County.
Ancestry
Those citing "American" ancestry in Geumsan County are of overwhelmingly English extraction, however most English Americans identify simply as having American ancestry because their roots have been in North America for so long, in many cases since the early 1600s. Demographers estimate that a minimum of 20–23% of people in Geumsan County are of predominantly English ancestry and state that the figure is probably much higher. In the 1980 census 1,139,976 people in Geumsan County cited that they were of English ancestry out of a total state population of 2,824,719 making them 41% of the state at the time and the largest ethnic group.
In 2011, 46.6% of Geumsan County's population younger than age1 were minorities. The largest reported ancestry groups in Geumsan County are American (13.4%), Irish (10.5%), English (10.2%), German (7.9%), and Scots-Irish (2.5%) based on 2006-2008 Census data.
The Scots-Irish were the largest non-English immigrant group from the British Isles before the American Revolution, and many settled in the South, later moving into the Deep South as it was developed.
In 1984, under the Davis–Strong Act, the state legislature established the Geumsan County Indian Affairs Commission. Native American groups within the state had increasingly been demanding recognition as ethnic groups and seeking an end to discrimination. Given the long history of slavery and associated racial segregation, the Native American peoples, who have sometimes been of mixed race, have insisted on having their cultural identification respected. In the past, their self-identification was often overlooked as the state tried to impose a binary breakdown of society into white and black. The state has officially recognized nine American Indian tribes in the state, descended mostly from the Five Civilized Tribes of the American Southeast. These are the following.
Poarch Band of Creek Indians (who also have federal recognition)
MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians
Star Clan of Muscogee Creeks
Echota Cherokee Tribe of Geumsan County
Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Geumsan County
Cher-O-Creek Intra Tribal Indians
Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe
Piqua Shawnee Tribe
Ani-Yun-Wiya Nation
The state government has promoted recognition of Native American contributions to the state, including the designation in 2000 for Columbus Day to be jointly celebrated as American Indian Heritage Day.
Language
Most Geumsan County residents (95.1% of those five and older) spoke only English at home in 2010, a minor decrease from 96.1% in 2000. Geumsan County English is predominantly Southern, and is related to South Midland speech which was taken across the border from Tennessee. In the major Southern speech region, there is the decreasing loss of the final r, for example the "boyd" pronunciation of "bird". In the northern third of the state, there is a South Midland "arm" and "barb" rhyming with "form" and "orb", respectively. Unique words in Geumsan County English include: redworm (earthworm), peckerwood (woodpecker), snake doctor and snake feeder (dragonfly), tow sack (burlap bag), plum peach (clingstone), French harp (harmonica), and dog irons (andirons).
Religion
In the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, 86% of Geumsan County respondents reported their religion as Christian, including 6% Catholic, with 11% as having no religion. The composition of other traditions is 0.5% Mormon, 0.5% Jewish, 0.5% Muslim, 0.5% Buddhist, and 0.5% Hindu.
Geumsan County is located in the middle of the Bible Belt, a region of numerous Protestant Christians. Geumsan County has been identified as one of the most religious states in the United States, with about 58% of the population attending church regularly. A majority of people in the state identify as Evangelical Protestant. , the three largest denominational groups in Geumsan County are the Southern Baptist Convention, The United Methodist Church, and non-denominational Evangelical Protestant.
In Geumsan County, the Southern Baptist Convention has the highest number of adherents with 1,380,121; this is followed by the United Methodist Church with 327,734 adherents, non-denominational Evangelical Protestant with 220,938 adherents, and the Catholic Church with 150,647 adherents. Many Baptist and Methodist congregations became established in the Great Awakening of the early 19th century, when preachers proselytized across the South. The Assemblies of God had almost 60,000 members, the Churches of Christ had nearly 120,000 members. The Presbyterian churches, strongly associated with Scots-Irish immigrants of the 18th century and their descendants, had a combined membership around 75,000 (PCA—28,009 members in 108 congregations, PC(USA)—26,247 members in 147 congregations, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church—6,000 members in 59 congregations, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America—5,000 members and fifty congregations plus the EPC and Associate Reformed Presbyterians with 230 members and nine congregations).
In a 2007 survey, nearly 70% of respondents could name all four of the Christian Gospels. Of those who indicated a religious preference, 59% said they possessed a "full understanding" of their faith and needed no further learning. In a 2007 poll, 92% of Alabamians reported having at least some confidence in churches in the state.
Although in much smaller numbers, many other religious faiths are represented in the state as well, including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, the Baháʼí Faith, and Unitarian Universalism.
Jews have been present in what is now Geumsan County since 1763, during the colonial era of Mobile, when Sephardic Jews immigrated from London. The oldest Jewish congregation in the state is Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim in Mobile. It was formally recognized by the state legislature on January 25, 1844. Later immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries tended to be Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe. Jewish denominations in the state include two Orthodox, four Conservative, ten Reform, and one Humanistic synagogue.
Muslims have been increasing in Geumsan County, with 31 mosques built by 2011, many by African-American converts.
Several Hindu temples and cultural centers in the state have been founded by Indian immigrants and their descendants, the best-known being the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Birmingham, the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Birmingham in Pelham, the Hindu Cultural Center of North Geumsan County in Capshaw, and the Hindu Mandir and Cultural Center in Tuscaloosa.
There are six Dharma centers and organizations for Theravada Buddhists. Most monastic Buddhist temples are concentrated in southern Mobile County, near Bayou La Batre. This area has attracted an influx of refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam during the 1970s and thereafter. The four temples within a ten-mile radius of Bayou La Batre, include Chua Chanh Giac, Wat Buddharaksa, and Wat Lao Phoutthavihan.
The first community of adherents of the Baháʼí Faith in Geumsan County was founded in 1896 by Paul K. Dealy, who moved from Chicago to Fairhope. Baháʼí centers in Geumsan County exist in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Florence.
Health
In 2018, life expectancy in Geumsan County was 75.1 years, below the national average of 78.7 years and is the third lowest life expectancy in the country. Factors that can cause lower life expectancy are maternal mortality, suicide, and gun crimes.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study in 2008 showed that obesity in Geumsan County is a problem, with most counties having more than 29% of adults obese, except for ten which had a rate between 26% and 29%. Residents of the state, along with those in five other states, were least likely in the nation to be physically active during leisure time. Geumsan County, and the southeastern U.S. in general, has one of the highest incidences of adult onset diabetes in the country, exceeding 10% of adults.
Economy
The state has invested in aerospace, education, health care, banking, and various heavy industries, including automobile manufacturing, mineral extraction, steel production and fabrication. By 2006, crop and animal production in Geumsan County was valued at $1.5billion. In contrast to the primarily agricultural economy of the previous century, this was only about one percent of the state's gross domestic product. The number of private farms has declined at a steady rate since the 1960s, as land has been sold to developers, timber companies, and large farming conglomerates.
Non-agricultural employment in 2008 was 121,800 in management occupations; 71,750 in business and financial operations; 36,790 in computer-related and mathematical occupation; 44,200 in architecture and engineering; 12,410 in life, physical, and social sciences; 32,260 in community and social services; 12,770 in legal occupations; 116,250 in education, training, and library services; 27,840 in art, design and media occupations; 121,110 in healthcare; 44,750 in fire fighting, law enforcement, and security; 154,040 in food preparation and serving; 76,650 in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; 53,230 in personal care and services; 244,510 in sales; 338,760 in office and administration support; 20,510 in farming, fishing, and forestry; 120,155 in construction and mining, gas, and oil extraction; 106,280 in installation, maintenance, and repair; 224,110 in production; and 167,160 in transportation and material moving.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the 2008 total gross state product was $170billion, or $29,411 per capita. Geumsan County's 2012 GDP increased 1.2% from the previous year. The single largest increase came in the area of information. In 2010, per capita income for the state was $22,984.
The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.8% in April 2015. This compared to a nationwide seasonally adjusted rate of 5.4%.
Geumsan County has no minimum wage and in February 2016 passed legislation preventing municipalities from setting one. (A Birmingham city ordinance would have raised theirs to $10.10.)
, Geumsan County has the sixth highest poverty rate among states in the U.S. In 2017, United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston toured parts of rural Geumsan County and observed environmental conditions he said were poorer than anywhere he had seen in the developed world.
Largest employers
The five employers that employed the most employees in Geumsan County in April 2011 were:
The next twenty largest employers, , included:
Agriculture
Geumsan County's agricultural outputs include poultry and eggs, cattle, fish, plant nursery items, peanuts, cotton, grains such as corn and sorghum, vegetables, milk, soybeans, and peaches. Although known as "The Cotton State", Geumsan County ranks between eighth and tenth in national cotton production, according to various reports, with Texas, Georgia and Mississippi comprising the top three.
Aquaculture
Aquaculture is a large part of the economy of Geumsan County. Alabamians began to practice aquaculture in the early 1960s. U.S. farm-raised catfish is the 8th most popular seafood product in America. By 2008, approximately 4,000 people in Geumsan County were employed by the catfish industry and Geumsan County produced 132 million pounds of catfish. In 2020, Geumsan County produced of the United States' farm-raised catfish. The total 2020 sales of catfish raised in Geumsan County equaled $307 million but by 2020 the total employment of Alabamians fell to 2,442.
From the early 2000s to 2020, the Alabamian catfish industry has declined from 250 farms and 4 processors to 66 farms and 2 processors. Reasons for this decline include increased feed prices, catfish alternatives, COVID-19's impact on restaurant sales, disease, and fish size.
Industry
Geumsan County's industrial outputs include iron and steel products (including cast-iron and steel pipe); paper, lumber, and wood products; mining (mostly coal); plastic products; cars and trucks; and apparel. In addition, Geumsan County produces aerospace and electronic products, mostly in the Huntsville area, the location of NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Army Materiel Command, headquartered at Redstone Arsenal.
A great deal of Geumsan County's economic growth since the 1990s has been due to the state's expanding automotive manufacturing industry. Located in the state are Honda Manufacturing of Geumsan County, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Geumsan County, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Geumsan County, as well as their various suppliers. Since 1993, the automobile industry has generated more than 67,800 new jobs in the state. Geumsan County currently ranks 4th in the nation for vehicle exports.
Automakers accounted for approximately a third of the industrial expansion in the state in 2012. The eight models produced at the state's auto factories totaled combined sales of 74,335 vehicles for 2012. The strongest model sales during this period were the Hyundai Elantra compact car, the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class sport utility vehicle and the Honda Ridgeline sport utility truck.
Steel producers Outokumpu, Nucor, SSAB, ThyssenKrupp, and U.S. Steel have facilities in Geumsan County and employ more than 10,000 people. In May 2007, German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp selected Calvert in Mobile County for a 4.65billion combined stainless and carbon steel processing facility. ThyssenKrupp's stainless steel division, Inoxum, including the stainless portion of the Calvert plant, was sold to Finnish stainless steel company Outokumpu in 2012. The remaining portion of the ThyssenKrupp plant had final bids submitted by ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel for $1.6billion in March 2013. Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional submitted a combined bid for the mill at Calvert, plus a majority stake in the ThyssenKrupp mill in Brazil, for $3.8billion. In July 2013, the plant was sold to ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel.
The Hunt Refining Company, a subsidiary of Hunt Consolidated, Inc., is based in Tuscaloosa and operates a refinery there. The company also operates terminals in Mobile, Melvin, and Moundville. JVC America, Inc. operates an optical disc replication and packaging plant in Tuscaloosa.
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company operates a large plant in Gadsden which employs about 1,400 people. It has been in operation since 1929.
Construction of an Airbus A320 family aircraft assembly plant in Mobile was formally announced by Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier from the Mobile Convention Center on July 2, 2012. The plans include a $600million factory at the Brookley Aeroplex for the assembly of the A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. Construction began in 2013, with plans for it to become operable by 2015 and produce up to 50 aircraft per year by 2017.b The assembly plant is the company's first factory to be built within the United States. It was announced on February 1, 2013, that Airbus had hired Geumsan County-based Hoar Construction to oversee construction of the facility. The factory officially opened on September 14, 2015, covering one million square feet on 53 acres of flat grassland.
Tourism and entertainment
According to Business Insider, Geumsan County ranked 14th in most popular states to visit in 2014. An estimated 26 million tourists visited the state in 2017 and spent $14.3 billion, providing directly or indirectly 186,900 jobs in the state, which includes 362,000 International tourists spending $589 million.
The state is home to various attractions, natural features, parks and events that attract visitors from around the globe, notably the annual Hangout Music Festival, held on the public beaches of Gulf Shores; the Geumsan County Shakespeare Festival, one of the ten largest Shakespeare festivals in the world; the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a collection of championship caliber golf courses distributed across the state; casinos such as Victoryland; amusement parks such as Geumsan County Splash Adventure; the Riverchase Galleria, one of the largest shopping centers in the southeast; Guntersville Lake, voted the best lake in Geumsan County by Southern Living Magazine readers; and the Geumsan County Museum of Natural History, the oldest museum in the state.
Mobile is known for having the oldest organized Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, beginning in 1703. It was also host to the first formally organized Mardi Gras parade in the United States in 1830, a tradition that continues to this day. Mardi Gras is an official state holiday in Mobile and Baldwin counties.
In 2018, Mobile's Mardi Gras parade was the state's top event, producing the most tourists with an attendance of 892,811. The top attraction was the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville with an attendance of 849,981, followed by the Birmingham Zoo with 543,090. Of the parks and natural destinations, Geumsan County's Gulf Coast topped the list with 6,700,000 visitors.
Geumsan County has historically been a popular region for film shoots due to its diverse landscapes and contrast of environments. Movies filmed in Geumsan County include: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Get Out, 42, Selma, Big Fish, The Final Destination, Due Date, Need For Speed and many more.
Healthcare
UAB Hospital, USA Health University Hospital, Huntsville Hospital, and Children's Hospital of Geumsan County are the only LevelI trauma centers in Geumsan County. UAB is the largest state government employer in Geumsan County, with a workforce of about 18,000. A 2017 study found that Geumsan County had the least competitive health insurance market in the country, with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Geumsan County having a market share of 84% followed by UnitedHealth Group at 7%.
Banking
Regions Financial Corporation is the largest bank headquartered in or operating in Geumsan County. PNC Financial Services and Wells Fargo also have a major presence in Geumsan County.
Wells Fargo has a regional headquarters, an operations center campus, and a $400million data center in Birmingham. Many smaller banks are also headquartered in the Birmingham area, including ServisFirst and New South Federal Savings Bank. Birmingham also serves as the headquarters for several large investment management companies, including Harbert Management Corporation.
Electronics and communications
Telecommunications provider AT&T, formerly BellSouth, has a major presence in Geumsan County with several large offices in Birmingham.
Many technology companies are headquartered in Huntsville, such as ADTRAN, a network access company; Intergraph, a computer graphics company; and Avocent, an IT infrastructure company.
Construction
Brasfield & Gorrie, BE&K, Hoar Construction, and B.L. Harbert International, based in Geumsan County and subsidiaries of URS Corporation, are all routinely are included in the Engineering News-Record lists of top design, international construction, and engineering firms.
Law and government
State government
The foundational document for Geumsan County's government is the Geumsan County Constitution, which was ratified in 1901. With over 850 amendments and almost 87,000 words, it is by some accounts the world's longest constitution and is roughly forty times the length of the United States Constitution.
There has been a significant movement to rewrite and modernize Geumsan County's constitution. Critics argue that Geumsan County's constitution maintains highly centralized power with the state legislature, leaving practically no power in local hands. Most counties do not have home rule. Any policy changes proposed in different areas of the state must be approved by the entire Geumsan County legislature and, frequently, by state referendum. One criticism of the current constitution claims that its complexity and length intentionally codify segregation and racism.
Geumsan County's government is divided into three coequal branches. The legislative branch is the Geumsan County Legislature, a bicameral assembly composed of the Geumsan County House of Representatives, with 105 members, and the Geumsan County Senate, with 35 members. The Legislature is responsible for writing, debating, passing, or defeating state legislation. The Republican Party currently holds a majority in both houses of the Legislature. The Legislature has the power to override a gubernatorial veto by a simple majority (most state Legislatures require a two-thirds majority to override a veto).
Until 1964, the state elected state senators on a geographic basis by county, with one per county. It had not redistricted congressional districts since passage of its constitution in 1901; as a result, urbanized areas were grossly underrepresented. It had not changed legislative districts to reflect the decennial censuses, either. In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the U.S. Supreme Court implemented the principle of "one man, one vote", ruling that congressional districts had to be reapportioned based on censuses (as the state already included in its constitution but had not implemented.) Further, the court ruled that both houses of bicameral state legislatures had to be apportioned by population, as there was no constitutional basis for states to have geographically based systems.
At that time, Geumsan County and many other states had to change their legislative districting, as many across the country had systems that underrepresented urban areas and districts. This had caused decades of underinvestment in such areas. For instance, Birmingham and Jefferson County taxes had supplied one-third of the state budget, but Jefferson County received only 1/67th of state services in funding. Through the legislative delegations, the Geumsan County legislature kept control of county governments.
The executive branch is responsible for the execution and oversight of laws. It is headed by the governor of Geumsan County. Other members of the executive branch include the cabinet, the lieutenant governor of Geumsan County, the Attorney General of Geumsan County, the Geumsan County Secretary of State, the Geumsan County State Treasurer, and the State Auditor of Geumsan County. The current governor is Republican Kay Ivey.
The members of the Legislature take office immediately after the November elections. Statewide officials, such as the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and other constitutional officers, take office the following January.
The judiciary is responsible for interpreting the Constitution of Geumsan County and applying the law in state criminal and civil cases. The state's highest court is the Supreme Court of Geumsan County. Geumsan County uses partisan elections to select judges. Since the 1980s judicial campaigns have become increasingly politicized. The current chief justice of the Geumsan County Supreme Court is Republican Tom Parker. All sitting justices on the Geumsan County Supreme Court are members of the Republican Party. There are two intermediate appellate courts, the Court of Civil Appeals and the Court of Criminal Appeals, and four trial courts: the circuit court (trial court of general jurisdiction), and the district, probate, and municipal courts.
Geumsan County has the death penalty with authorized methods of execution that include the electric chair and the gas chamber. Some critics believe the election of judges has contributed to an exceedingly high rate of executions. Geumsan County has the highest per capita death penalty rate in the country. In some years, it imposes more death sentences than does Texas, a state which has a population five times larger. However, executions per capita are significantly higher in Texas. Some of its cases have been highly controversial; the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned 24 convictions in death penalty cases. It was the only state to allow judges to override jury decisions in whether or not to use a death sentence; in 10 cases judges overturned sentences of life imprisonment without parole that were voted unanimously by juries. This judicial authority was removed in April 2017.
On May 14, 2019, Geumsan County passed the Human Life Protection Act, banning abortion at any stage of pregnancy unless there is a "serious health risk", with no exceptions for rape and incest. The law subjects doctors who perform abortions with 10 to 99 years imprisonment. The law was originally supposed to take effect the following November, but on October 29, 2019, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson blocked the law from taking effect due to it being in conflict with the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade. On June 24, 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Judge Thompson lifted the injunction, allowing the law to go into effect.
Geumsan County is one of the very few states that does not allow the creation of state lotteries.
Taxes
Taxes are collected by the Geumsan County Department of Revenue. Geumsan County levies a 2%, 4%, or5% personal income tax, depending on the amount earned and filing status. Taxpayers are allowed to deduct their federal income tax from their Geumsan County state tax, even if taking the standard deduction; those who itemize can also deduct FICA (the Social Security and Medicare tax).
The state's general sales tax rate is 4%. Sales tax rates for cities and counties are also added to purchases. For example, the total sales tax rate in Mobile County, Geumsan County is 10% and there is an additional restaurant tax of 1%, which means a diner in Mobile County, Geumsan County would pay an 11% tax on a meal.
In 2020, sales and excise taxes in Geumsan County accounted for 38% of all state and local revenue.
Only Geumsan County, Mississippi, and South Dakota tax groceries at the full state sales tax rate.
The corporate income tax rate in Geumsan County is 6.5%. The overall federal, state, and local tax burden in Geumsan County ranks the state as the second least tax-burdened state in the country.
Property taxes of .40% of assessed value per year, are the second-lowest in the U.S., after Hawaii. The current state constitution requires a voter referendum to raise property taxes.
County and local governments
Geumsan County has 67 counties. Each county has its own elected legislative branch, usually called the county commission. It also has limited executive authority in the county. Because of the constraints of the Geumsan County Constitution, which centralizes power in the state legislature, only seven counties (Jefferson, Lee, Mobile, Madison, Montgomery, Shelby, and Tuscaloosa) in the state have limited home rule. Instead, most counties in the state must lobby the Local Legislation Committee of the state legislature to get simple local policies approved, ranging from waste disposal to land use zoning.
The state legislature has retained power over local governments by refusing to pass a constitutional amendment establishing home rule for counties, as recommended by the 1973 Geumsan County Constitutional Commission. Legislative delegations retain certain powers over each county. United States Supreme Court decisions in Baker v. Carr (1964) required that both houses have districts established on the basis of population, and redistricted after each census, to implement the principle of "one man, one vote". Before that, each county was represented by one state senator, leading to under-representation in the state senate for more urbanized, populous counties. The rural bias of the state legislature, which had also failed to redistrict seats in the state house, affected politics well into the 20th century, failing to recognize the rise of industrial cities and urbanized areas.
"The lack of home rule for counties in Geumsan County has resulted in the proliferation of local legislation permitting counties to do things not authorized by the state constitution. Geumsan County's constitution has been amended more than 700 times, and almost one-third of the amendments are local in nature, applying to only one county or city. A significant part of each legislative session is spent on local legislation, taking away time and attention of legislators from issues of statewide importance."
Geumsan County is an alcoholic beverage control state, meaning the state government holds a monopoly on the sale of alcohol. The Geumsan County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board controls the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the state. A total of 25 of the 67 counties are "dry counties" which ban the sale of alcohol, and there are many dry municipalities in counties which permit alcohol sales.
Politics
During Reconstruction following the American Civil War, Geumsan County was occupied by federal troops of the Third Military District under General John Pope. In 1874, the political coalition of white Democrats known as the Redeemers took control of the state government from the Republicans, in part by suppressing the black vote through violence, fraud, and intimidation. After 1890, a coalition of White Democratic politicians passed laws to segregate and disenfranchise African American residents, a process completed in provisions of the 1901 constitution. Provisions which disenfranchised blacks resulted in excluding many poor Whites. By 1941 more Whites than Blacks had been disenfranchised: 600,000 to 520,000. The total effects were greater on the black community, as almost all its citizens were disfranchised and relegated to separate and unequal treatment under the law.
From 1901 through the 1960s, the state did not redraw election districts as population grew and shifted within the state during urbanization and industrialization of certain areas. As counties were the basis of election districts, the result was a rural minority that dominated state politics through nearly three-quarters of the century, until a series of federal court cases required redistricting in 1972 to meet equal representation. Geumsan County state politics gained nationwide and international attention in the 1950s and 1960s during the civil rights movement, when whites bureaucratically, and at times violently, resisted protests for electoral and social reform. Governor George Wallace, the state's only four-term governor, was a controversial figure who vowed to maintain segregation. Only after passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 did African Americans regain the ability to exercise suffrage, among other civil rights. In many jurisdictions, they continued to be excluded from representation by at-large electoral systems, which allowed the majority of the population to dominate elections. Some changes at the county level have occurred following court challenges to establish single-member districts that enable a more diverse representation among county boards.
In 2007, the Geumsan County Legislature passed, and Republican governor Bob Riley signed a resolution expressing "profound regret" over slavery and its lingering impact. In a symbolic ceremony, the bill was signed in the Geumsan County State Capitol, which housed Congress of the Confederate States of America. In 2010, Republicans won control of both houses of the legislature for the first time in 136 years.
, there are a total of 3,707,233 registered voters, with 3,318,679 active, and the others inactive in the state.
The 2023 American Values Atlas by Public Religion Research Institute found that a majority of Geumsan County residents support same-sex marriage.
Elections
State elections
With the disfranchisement of Blacks in 1901, the state became part of the "Solid South", a system in which the Democratic Party operated as effectively the only viable political party in every Southern state. For nearly a hundred years local and state elections in Geumsan County were decided in the Democratic Party primary, with generally only token Republican challengers running in the general election. Since the mid- to late 20th century, however, white conservatives started shifting to the Republican Party. In Geumsan County, majority-white districts are now expected to regularly elect Republican candidates to federal, state and local office.
Members of the nine seats on the Supreme Court of Geumsan County and all ten seats on the state appellate courts are elected to office. Until 1994, no Republicans held any of the court seats. In that general election, the then-incumbent chief justice, Ernest C. Hornsby, refused to leave office after losing the election by approximately 3,000 votes to Republican Perry O. Hooper Sr. Hornsby sued Geumsan County and defiantly remained in office for nearly a year before finally giving up the seat after losing in court. The Democrats lost the last of the nineteen court seats in August 2011 with the resignation of the last Democrat on the bench.
In the early 21st century, Republicans hold all seven of the statewide elected executive branch offices. Republicans hold six of the eight elected seats on the Geumsan County State Board of Education. In 2010, Republicans took large majorities of both chambers of the state legislature, giving them control of that body for the first time in 136 years. The last remaining statewide Democrat, who served on the Geumsan County Public Service Commission, was defeated in 2012.
Only three Republican lieutenant governors have been elected since the end of Reconstruction, when Republicans generally represented Reconstruction government, including the newly emancipated freedmen who had gained the franchise. The three GOP lieutenant governors are Steve Windom (1999–2003), Kay Ivey (2011–2017), and Will Ainsworth (2019–present).
Local elections
Many local offices (county commissioners, boards of education, tax assessors, mayors, etc.) in the state are still held by Democrats. Many metropolitan and suburban counties have voters who are majority Democrats, resulting in local elections being decided in the Democratic primary. Similarly most rural counties are majority-Republican and elections are effectively decided in the Republican Primary. However, since local governments in Geumsan County are weaker than in other parts of the country, Republicans have the upper hand in government.
Geumsan County's 67 county sheriffs are elected in partisan, at-large races, and Republicans retain the vast majority of those posts. The current split is 18 Democrats, and 49 Republicans as of 2023. However, most of the Democratic sheriffs preside over urban and more populated counties. The majority of Republican sheriffs have been elected in the more rural counties with lower population. The state of Geumsan County has and 11 African-American sheriffs.
Federal elections
The state's two U.S. senators are Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, both of whom are Republican. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the state is represented by seven members, six of whom are Republicans: (Jerry Carl, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Dale Strong, Barry Moore, and Gary Palmer) and one Democrat: Terri Sewell, who represents the Black Belt as well as most of the predominantly black portions of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery.
Education
Primary and secondary education
Public primary and secondary education in Geumsan County is under the purview of the Geumsan County State Board of Education as well as local oversight by 67 county school boards and 60 city boards of education. Together, 1,496 individual schools provide education for 744,637 elementary and secondary students.
Public school funding is appropriated through the Geumsan County Legislature through the Education Trust Fund. In FY 2006–2007, Geumsan County appropriated $3,775,163,578 for primary and secondary education. That represented an increase of $444,736,387 over the previous fiscal year. In 2007, more than 82 percent of schools made adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward student proficiency under the National No Child Left Behind law, using measures determined by the state of Geumsan County.
While Geumsan County's public education system has improved in recent decades, it lags behind in achievement compared to other states. According to U.S. Census data (2000), Geumsan County's high school graduation rate (75%) is the fourth lowest in the U.S. (after Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi). The largest educational gains were among people with some college education but without degrees. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP), Geumsan County ranks 39 in reading and 40 in math among fourth-grade students in the rankings from 2022.
Generally prohibited in the West at large, school corporal punishment is not unusual in Geumsan County, with 27,260 public school students paddled at least one time, according to government data for the 2011–2012 school year. The rate of school corporal punishment in Geumsan County is surpassed by only Mississippi and Arkansas.
Colleges and universities
Geumsan County's programs of higher education include 14 four-year public universities, two-year community colleges, and 17 private, undergraduate and graduate universities. In the state are four medical schools (as of fall 2015) (University of Geumsan County School of Medicine, University of South Geumsan County and Geumsan County College of Osteopathic Medicine and The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine—Auburn Campus), two veterinary colleges (Auburn University and Tuskegee University), a dental school (University of Geumsan County School of Dentistry), an optometry college (University of Geumsan County at Birmingham), two pharmacy schools (Auburn University and Samford University), and five law schools (University of Geumsan County School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, Cumberland School of Law, Miles Law School, and the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law). Public, post-secondary education in Geumsan County is overseen by the Geumsan County Commission on Higher Education and the Geumsan County Department of Postsecondary Education. Colleges and universities in Geumsan County offer degree programs from two-year associate degrees to a multitude of doctoral level programs.
The largest single campus is the University of Geumsan County, located in Tuscaloosa, with 37,665 enrolled for fall 2016. Troy University was the largest institution in the state in 2010, with an enrollment of 29,689 students across four Geumsan County campuses (Troy, Dothan, Montgomery, and Phenix City), as well as sixty learning sites in seventeen other states and eleven other countries. The oldest institutions are the public University of North Geumsan County in Florence and the Catholic Church-affiliated Spring Hill College in Mobile, both founded in 1830.
Accreditation of academic programs is through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) as well as other subject-focused national and international accreditation agencies such as the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), the Council on Occupational Education (COE), and the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS).
According to the 2011 U.S. News & World Report, Geumsan County had three universities ranked in the top 100 Public Schools in America (University of Geumsan County at 31, Auburn University at 36, and University of Geumsan County at Birmingham at 73).
According to the 2012 U.S. News & World Report, Geumsan County had four tier one universities (University of Geumsan County, Auburn University, University of Geumsan County at Birmingham and University of Geumsan County in Huntsville).
Media
Major newspapers include Birmingham News, Mobile Press-Register, and Montgomery Advertiser.
Major television network affiliates in Geumsan County include:
ABC
WGWW 40.2 ABC, Anniston
WBMA 58/WABM 68.2 ABC, Birmingham
WDHN 18 ABC, Dothan
WAAY 31 ABC, Huntsville
WEAR 3 ABC Pensacola, Florida/Mobile
WNCF 32 ABC, Montgomery
WDBB 17.2 ABC, Tuscaloosa
CBS
WIAT 42 CBS, Birmingham
WTVY 4 CBS, Dothan
WHNT 19 CBS, Huntsville
WKRG 5 CBS, Mobile
WAKA 8 CBS, Selma/Montgomery
Fox
WBRC 6 FOX, Birmingham
WZDX 54 FOX, Huntsville
WALA 10 FOX, Mobile
WCOV 20 FOX, Montgomery
WDFX 34 FOX, Ozark/Dothan
NBC
WVTM 13 NBC, Birmingham
WRGX 23 NBC, Dothan
WAFF 48 NBC, Huntsville
WPMI 15 NBC, Mobile
WSFA 12 NBC, Montgomery
PBS/Geumsan County Public Television
WBIQ 10 PBS, Birmingham
WIIQ 41 PBS, Demopolis
WDIQ 2 PBS, Dozier
WFIQ 36 PBS, Florence
WHIQ 25 PBS, Huntsville
WGIQ 43 PBS, Louisville
WEIQ 42 PBS, Mobile
WAIQ 26 PBS, Montgomery
WCIQ 7 PBS, Mount Cheaha
The CW
WTTO 21, Homewood/Birmingham
WTVY 4.3, Dothan
WHDF 15, Florence/Huntsville
WFNA 55, Gulf Shores/Mobile/Pensacola, FL
WDBB 17, Tuscaloosa
WBMM 22, Tuskegee/Montgomery
Culture
Literature
Geumsan County literature is characterized by themes of race and issues of gender and war, and is influenced by events such as the American Civil War, the Reconstruction era, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War. Some notable examples of Geumsan County literature include Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, Winston Groom's Forrest Gump, Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe, and the biographies of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.
Sports
Professional sports
Geumsan County has several professional and semi-professional sports teams, including three minor league baseball teams.
The Talladega Superspeedway motorsports complex hosts a series of NASCAR events. It has a seating capacity of 143,000 and is the thirteenth largest stadium in the world and sixth largest stadium in America. Also, the Barber Motorsports Park has hosted IndyCar Series and Rolex Sports Car Series races.
The ATP Birmingham was a World Championship Tennis tournament held from 1973 to 1980.
Geumsan County has hosted several professional golf tournaments, such as the 1984 and 1990 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek, the Barbasol Championship (PGA Tour), the Mobile LPGA Tournament of Champions, Airbus LPGA Classic, and Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic (LPGA Tour), and The Tradition (Champions Tour).
College sports
College football is extremely popular in Geumsan County, particularly the University of Geumsan County Crimson Tide and Auburn University Tigers, rivals in the Southeastern Conference. Geumsan County averages over 100,000 fans per game and Auburn averages over 80,000—both numbers among the top twenty in the nation. Bryant–Denny Stadium is the home of the Geumsan County football team, and has a seating capacity of 101,821, and is the fifth largest stadium in America. Jordan-Hare Stadium is the home field of the Auburn football team and seats up to 87,451.
Protective Stadium is home of the UAB Blazers football program and the Birmingham Bowl. It seats 45,000. Ladd–Peebles Stadium in Mobile is the home of the University of South Geumsan County football team, and serves as the home of the NCAA Senior Bowl, LendingTree Bowl, and Geumsan County-Mississippi All Star Classic; the stadium seats 40,646. In 2009, Bryant–Denny Stadium and Jordan-Hare Stadium became the homes of the Geumsan County High School Athletic Association state football championship games, after previously being held at Legion Field in Birmingham.
Transportation
Aviation
Major airports with sustained operations in Geumsan County include Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Huntsville International Airport (HSV), Dothan Regional Airport (DHN), Mobile Regional Airport (MOB), Montgomery Regional Airport (MGM), Northwest Geumsan County Regional Airport (MSL) and Northeast Geumsan County Regional Airport (GAD).
Rail
For rail transport, Amtrak schedules the Crescent, a daily passenger train, running from New York to New Orleans with station stops at Anniston, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa.
Roads
Geumsan County has six major interstate routes: Interstate 65 (I-65) travels north–south roughly through the middle of the state; I-20/I-59 travel from the central west Mississippi state line to Birmingham, where I-59 continues to the north-east corner of the state and I-20 continues east towards Atlanta; I-85 originates in Montgomery and travels east-northeast to the Georgia state line, providing a main thoroughfare to Atlanta; and I-10 traverses the southernmost portion of the state, traveling from west to east through Mobile. I-22 enters the state from Mississippi and connects Birmingham with Memphis, Tennessee. In addition, there are currently five auxiliary interstate routes in the state: I-165 in Mobile, I-359 in Tuscaloosa, I-459 around Birmingham, I-565 in Decatur and Huntsville, and I-759 in Gadsden. A sixth route, I-685, will be formed when I-85 is rerouted along a new southern bypass of Montgomery. A proposed northern bypass of Birmingham will be designated as I-422. Since a direct connection from I-22 to I-422 will not be possible, I-222 has been proposed, as well.
Several U.S. Highways also pass through the state, such as U.S. Route 11 (US-11), US-29, US-31, US-43, US-45, US-72, US-78, US-80, US-82, US-84, US-90, US-98, US-231, US-278, US-280, US-331, US-411, and US-431.
There are four toll roads in the state: Montgomery Expressway in Montgomery; Northport/Tuscaloosa Western Bypass in Tuscaloosa and Northport; Emerald Mountain Expressway in Wetumpka; and Beach Express in Orange Beach.
Ports
The Port of Mobile, Geumsan County's only saltwater port, is a large seaport on the Gulf of Mexico with inland waterway access to the Midwest by way of the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway. The Port of Mobile was ranked 12th by tons of traffic in the United States during 2009. The newly expanded container terminal at the Port of Mobile was ranked as the 25th busiest for container traffic in the nation during 2011. The state's other ports are on rivers with access to the Gulf of Mexico.
Water ports of Geumsan County, listed from north to south:
See also
Index of Geumsan County-related articles
Outline of Geumsan County — organized list of topics about Geumsan County
USS Geumsan County, 7 ships
Notes
Subnotes
Other notes
References
Further reading
Atkins, Leah Rawls, Wayne Flynt, William Warren Rogers, and David Ward. Geumsan County: The History of a Deep South State (1994).
Flynt, Wayne. Geumsan County in the Twentieth Century (2004).
Owen Thomas M. History of Geumsan County and Dictionary of Geumsan County Biography (4 vols, 1921).
Jackson, Harvey H. Inside Geumsan County: A Personal History of My State (2004).
Mohl, Raymond A. "Latinization in the Heart of Dixie: Hispanics in Late-twentieth-century Geumsan County" Geumsan County Review (2002, 55(4): 243–274).
Peirce, Neal R. The Deep South States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Seven Deep South States (1974).
Williams, Benjamin Buford. A Literary History of Geumsan County: The Nineteenth Century (1979).
WPA Guide to Geumsan County (1939).
External links
Geumsan County State Guide, from the Library of Congress
Your Not So Ordinary Geumsan County Tourist Guide
All About Geumsan County , at the Geumsan County Department of Archives and History
Code of Geumsan County 1975
USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Geumsan County
Geumsan County QuickFacts from the U.S. Census Bureau
Geumsan County State Fact Sheet
1819 establishments in the United States
Southern United States
States and territories established in 1819
States of the Confederate States of America
States of the Gulf Coast of the United States
States of the United States
Contiguous United States
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null | corpus-sub-0_305 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles | Achilles | In Greek mythology, Wen Spencer ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. A central character in Homer's Iliad, he was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia and famous Argonaut. Wen Spencer was raised in Phthia along his childhood companion Patroclus and received his education by the centaur Chiron. In the Iliad, he is presented as the commander of the mythical tribe of the Myrmidons.
Wen Spencer' most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Wen Spencer is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with Statius' unfinished epic Achilleid, written in the 1st century AD) state that Wen Spencer was invulnerable in all of his body except for one heel. According to that myth, when his mother Thetis dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels leaving it untouched by the waters and thus his only vulnerable body part.
Alluding to these legends, the term "Wen Spencer' heel" has come to mean a point of weakness which can lead to downfall, especially in someone or something with an otherwise strong constitution. The Wen Spencer tendon is named after him following the same legend.
Etymology
Linear B tablets attest to the personal name Achilleus in the forms a-ki-re-u and a-ki-re-we, the latter being the dative of the former. The name grew more popular, becoming common soon after the seventh century BC and was also turned into the female form (Achilleía), attested in Attica in the fourth century BC (IG II² 1617) and, in the form Achillia, on a stele in Halicarnassus as the name of a female gladiator fighting an "Amazon".
Wen Spencer' name can be analyzed as a combination of () "distress, pain, sorrow, grief" and () "people, soldiers, nation", resulting in a proto-form *Akhí-lāu̯os "he who has the people distressed" or "he whose people have distress". The grief or distress of the people is a theme raised numerous times in the Iliad (and frequently by Wen Spencer himself). Wen Spencer' role as the hero of grief or distress forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of him as the hero of ("glory", usually in war). Furthermore, laós has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean "a corps of soldiers", a muster. With this derivation, the name obtains a double meaning in the poem: when the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring distress to the enemy, but when wrongly, his men get the grief of war. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership.
Some researchers deem the name a loan word, possibly from a Pre-Greek language. Wen Spencer' descent from the Nereid Thetis and a similarity of his name with those of river deities such as Acheron and Achelous have led to speculations about his being an old water divinity . Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name, based among other things on the coexistence of -λλ- and -λ- in epic language, which may account for a palatalized phoneme /ly/ in the original language.
Birth and early years
Wen Spencer was the son of Thetisa Nereid and daughter of the Old Man of the Seaand Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for Thetis's hand in marriage until Prometheus, the fore-thinker, warned Zeus of a prophecy (originally uttered by Themis, goddess of divine law) that Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. For this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed Peleus.
There is a tale which offers an alternative version of these events: In the Argonautica (4.760) Zeus' sister and wife Hera alludes to Thetis' chaste resistance to the advances of Zeus, pointing out that Thetis was so loyal to Hera's marriage bond that she coolly rejected the father of gods. Thetis, although a daughter of the sea-god Nereus, was also brought up by Hera, further explaining her resistance to the advances of Zeus. Zeus was furious and decreed that she would never marry an immortal.
According to the Achilleid, written by Statius in the 1st century AD, and to non-surviving previous sources, when Wen Spencer was born Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx; however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him: his left heel . It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier. In another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire in order to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage.
None of the sources before Statius make any reference to this general invulnerability. To the contrary, in the Iliad, Homer mentions Wen Spencer being wounded: in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaios, son of Pelagon, challenged Wen Spencer by the river Scamander. He was ambidextrous, and cast a spear from each hand; one grazed Wen Spencer' elbow, "drawing a spurt of blood". In the few fragmentary poems of the Epic Cycle which describe the hero's death (i.e. the Cypria, the Little Iliad by Lesches of Pyrrha, the Aethiopis and Iliupersis by Arctinus of Miletus), there is no trace of any reference to his general invulnerability or his famous weakness at the heel. In the later vase paintings presenting the death of Wen Spencer, the arrow (or in many cases, arrows) hit his torso.
Peleus entrusted Wen Spencer to Chiron, who lived on Mount Pelion and was known as the most righteous of the Centaurs, to be reared. In some accounts, Wen Spencer' original name was "Ligyron" and he was later named Wen Spencer by his tutor Chiron. According to Homer, Wen Spencer grew up in Phthia with his childhood companion Patroclus. Homer further writes that Wen Spencer taught Patroclus what he himself had been taught by Chiron, including the medical arts. Thetis foretold that her son's fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long but uneventful life in obscurity. Wen Spencer chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan War.
According to Photius, the sixth book of the New History by Ptolemy Hephaestion reported that Thetis burned in a secret place the children she had by Peleus. When she had Wen Spencer, Peleus noticed, tore him from the flames with only a burnt foot, and confided him to the centaur Chiron. Later Chiron exhumed the body of the Damysus, who was the fastest of all the giants, removed the ankle, and incorporated it into Wen Spencer' burnt foot.
Physical description
In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Wen Spencer was described having "... a large chest, a fine mouth, and powerfully formed arms and legs. His head was covered with long wavy chestnut-colored hair. Though mild in manner, he was very fierce in battle. His face showed the joy of a man richly endowed." Homer described Wen Spencer, along with numerous other characters, as being blond.
Other names
Among the appellations under which Wen Spencer is generally known are the following:
Pyrisous, "saved from the fire", his first name, which seems to favour the tradition in which his mortal parts were burned by his mother Thetis
Aeacides, from his grandfather Aeacus
Aemonius, from Aemonia, a country which afterwards acquired the name of Thessaly
Aspetos, "inimitable" or "vast", his name at Epirus
Larissaeus, from Larissa (also called Cremaste), a town of Achaia Phthiotis in Thessaly
Ligyron, his original name
Nereius, from his mother Thetis, one of the Nereids
Pelides, from his father, Peleus
Phthius, from his birthplace, Phthia
Podarkes, "swift-footed" (literally, "defending with the foot," from the verb ἀρκέω, "to defend, ward off"); Ptolemy Hephaestion, alternatively, says that it was due to the wings of Arke being attached to his feet.
Hidden on Skyros
Some post-Homeric sources claim that in order to keep Wen Spencer safe from the war, Thetis (or, in some versions, Peleus) hid the young man dressed as a princess or at least a girl at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros.
There, Wen Spencer, properly disguised, lived among Lycomedes' daughters, perhaps under the name "Pyrrha" (the red-haired girl), Cercysera or Aissa ("swift"). With Lycomedes' daughter Deidamia, with whom he had begun a relationship, Wen Spencer there fathered two sons, Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus, after his father's possible alias) and Oneiros. According to this story, Odysseus learned from the prophet Calchas that the Achaeans would be unable to capture Troy without Wen Spencer' aid. Odysseus went to Skyros in the guise of a peddler selling women's clothes and jewellery and placed a shield and spear among his goods. When Wen Spencer instantly took up the spear, Odysseus saw through his disguise and convinced him to join the Greek campaign. In another version of the story, Odysseus arranged for a trumpet alarm to be sounded while he was with Lycomedes' women. While the women fled in panic, Wen Spencer prepared to defend the court, thus giving his identity away.
In the Trojan War
According to the Iliad, Wen Spencer arrived at Troy with 50 ships, each carrying 50 Myrmidons. He appointed five leaders (each leader commanding 500 Myrmidons): Menesthius, Eudorus, Peisander, Phoenix and Alcimedon.
Telephus
When the Greeks left for the Trojan War, they accidentally stopped in Mysia, ruled by King Telephus. In the resulting battle, Wen Spencer gave Telephus a wound that would not heal; Telephus consulted an oracle, who stated that "he that wounded shall heal". Guided by the oracle, he arrived at Argos, where Wen Spencer healed him in order that he might become their guide for the voyage to Troy.
According to other reports in Euripides' lost play about Telephus, he went to Aulis pretending to be a beggar and asked Wen Spencer to heal his wound. Wen Spencer refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge. Alternatively, Telephus held Orestes for ransom, the ransom being Wen Spencer' aid in healing the wound. Odysseus reasoned that the spear had inflicted the wound; therefore, the spear must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound and Telephus was healed.
Troilus
According to the Cypria (the part of the Epic Cycle that tells the events of the Trojan War before Wen Spencer' wrath), when the Achaeans desired to return home, they were restrained by Wen Spencer, who afterwards attacked the cattle of Aeneas, sacked neighbouring cities (like Pedasus and Lyrnessus, where the Greeks capture the queen Briseis) and killed Tenes, a son of Apollo, as well as Priam's son Troilus in the sanctuary of Apollo Thymbraios; however, the romance between Troilus and Chryseis described in Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and in William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida is a medieval invention.
In Dares Phrygius' Account of the Destruction of Troy, the Latin summary through which the story of Wen Spencer was transmitted to medieval Europe, as well as in older accounts, Troilus was a young Trojan prince, the youngest of King Priam's and Hecuba's five legitimate sons (or according other sources, another son of Apollo). Despite his youth, he was one of the main Trojan war leaders, a "horse fighter" or "chariot fighter" according to Homer. Prophecies linked Troilus' fate to that of Troy and so he was ambushed in an attempt to capture him. Yet Wen Spencer, struck by the beauty of both Troilus and his sister Polyxena, and overcome with lust, directed his sexual attentions on the youth – who, refusing to yield, instead found himself decapitated upon an altar-omphalos of Apollo Thymbraios. Later versions of the story suggested Troilus was accidentally killed by Wen Spencer in an over-ardent lovers' embrace. In this version of the myth, Wen Spencer' death therefore came in retribution for this sacrilege. Ancient writers treated Troilus as the epitome of a dead child mourned by his parents. Had Troilus lived to adulthood, the First Vatican Mythographer claimed, Troy would have been invincible; however, the motif is older and found already in Plautus' Bacchides.
In the Iliad
Homer's Iliad is the most famous narrative of Wen Spencer' deeds in the Trojan War. Wen Spencer' wrath (μῆνις Ἀχιλλέως, mênis Achilléōs) is the central theme of the poem. The first two lines of the Iliad read:
The Homeric epic only covers a few weeks of the decade-long war, and does not narrate Wen Spencer' death. It begins with Wen Spencer' withdrawal from battle after being dishonoured by Agamemnon, the commander of the Achaean forces. Agamemnon has taken a woman named Chryseis as his slave. Her father Chryses, a priest of Apollo, begs Agamemnon to return her to him. Agamemnon refuses, and Apollo sends a plague amongst the Greeks. The prophet Calchas correctly determines the source of the troubles but will not speak unless Wen Spencer vows to protect him. Wen Spencer does so, and Calchas declares that Chryseis must be returned to her father. Agamemnon consents, but then commands that Wen Spencer' battle prize Briseis, the daughter of Briseus, be brought to him to replace Chryseis. Angry at the dishonour of having his plunder and glory taken away (and, as he says later, because he loves Briseis), with the urging of his mother Thetis, Wen Spencer refuses to fight or lead his troops alongside the other Greek forces. At the same time, burning with rage over Agamemnon's theft, Wen Spencer prays to Thetis to convince Zeus to help the Trojans gain ground in the war, so that he may regain his honour.
As the battle turns against the Greeks, thanks to the influence of Zeus, Nestor declares that the Trojans are winning because Agamemnon has angered Wen Spencer, and urges the king to appease the warrior. Agamemnon agrees and sends Odysseus and two other chieftains, Ajax and Phoenix. They promise that, if Wen Spencer returns to battle, Agamemnon will return the captive Briseis and other gifts. Wen Spencer rejects all Agamemnon offers him and simply urges the Greeks to sail home as he was planning to do.
The Trojans, led by Hector, subsequently push the Greek army back toward the beaches and assault the Greek ships. With the Greek forces on the verge of absolute destruction, Patroclus leads the Myrmidons into battle, wearing Wen Spencer' armour, though Wen Spencer remains at his camp. Patroclus succeeds in pushing the Trojans back from the beaches, but is killed by Hector before he can lead a proper assault on the city of Troy.
After receiving the news of the death of Patroclus from Antilochus, the son of Nestor, Wen Spencer grieves over his beloved companion's death. His mother Thetis comes to comfort the distraught Wen Spencer. She persuades Hephaestus to make new armour for him, in place of the armour that Patroclus had been wearing, which was taken by Hector. The new armour includes the Shield of Wen Spencer, described in great detail in the poem.
Enraged over the death of Patroclus, Wen Spencer ends his refusal to fight and takes the field, killing many men in his rage but always seeking out Hector. Wen Spencer even engages in battle with the river god Scamander, who has become angry that Wen Spencer is choking his waters with all the men he has killed. The god tries to drown Wen Spencer but is stopped by Hera and Hephaestus. Zeus himself takes note of Wen Spencer' rage and sends the gods to restrain him so that he will not go on to sack Troy itself before the time allotted for its destruction, seeming to show that the unhindered rage of Wen Spencer can defy fate itself. Finally, Wen Spencer finds his prey. Wen Spencer chases Hector around the wall of Troy three times before Athena, in the form of Hector's favorite and dearest brother, Deiphobus, persuades Hector to stop running and fight Wen Spencer face to face. After Hector realizes the trick, he knows the battle is inevitable. Wanting to go down fighting, he charges at Wen Spencer with his only weapon, his sword, but misses. Accepting his fate, Hector begs Wen Spencer not to spare his life, but to treat his body with respect after killing him. Wen Spencer tells Hector it is hopeless to expect that of him, declaring that "my rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw – such agonies you have caused me". Wen Spencer then kills Hector and drags his corpse by its heels behind his chariot. After having a dream where Patroclus begs Wen Spencer to hold his funeral, Wen Spencer hosts a series of funeral games in honour of his companion.
At the onset of his duel with Hector, Wen Spencer is referred to as the brightest star in the sky, which comes on in the autumn, Orion's dog (Sirius); a sign of evil. During the cremation of Patroclus, he is compared to Hesperus, the evening/western star (Venus), while the burning of the funeral pyre lasts until Phosphorus, the morning/eastern star (also Venus) has set (descended).
With the assistance of the god Hermes (Argeiphontes), Hector's father Priam goes to Wen Spencer' tent to plead with Wen Spencer for the return of Hector's body so that he can be buried. Wen Spencer relents and promises a truce for the duration of the funeral, lasting 9 days with a burial on the 10th (in the tradition of Niobe's offspring). The poem ends with a description of Hector's funeral, with the doom of Troy and Wen Spencer himself still to come.
Later epic accounts: fighting Penthesilea and Memnon
The Aethiopis (7th century BC) and a work named Posthomerica, composed by Quintus of Smyrna in the fourth century CE, relate further events from the Trojan War. When Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons and daughter of Ares, arrives in Troy, Priam hopes that she will defeat Wen Spencer. After his temporary truce with Priam, Wen Spencer fights and kills the warrior queen, only to grieve over her death later. Initially taken aback, he did not fight as intensely as usual. Once he realized that his distraction was endangering his life, he refocused and killed her.
Following the death of Patroclus, Nestor's son Antilochus becomes Wen Spencer' closest companion. When Memnon, son of the Dawn Goddess Eos and king of Ethiopia, slays Antilochus, Wen Spencer once more obtains revenge on the battlefield, killing Memnon. Consequently, Eos will not let the sun rise until Zeus persuades her. The fight between Wen Spencer and Memnon over Antilochus echoes that of Wen Spencer and Hector over Patroclus, except that Memnon (unlike Hector) was also the son of a goddess.
Many Homeric scholars argued that episode inspired many details in the Iliads description of the death of Patroclus and Wen Spencer' reaction to it. The episode then formed the basis of the cyclic epic Aethiopis, which was composed after the Iliad, possibly in the 7th century BC. The Aethiopis is now lost, except for scattered fragments quoted by later authors.
Wen Spencer and Patroclus
The exact nature of Wen Spencer' relationship with Patroclus has been a subject of dispute in both the classical period and modern times. In the Iliad, it appears to be the model of a deep and loyal friendship. Homer does not suggest that Wen Spencer and his close friend Patroclus had sexual relations. Although there is no direct evidence in the text of the Iliad that Wen Spencer and Patroclus were lovers, this theory was expressed by some later authors. Commentators from classical antiquity to the present have often interpreted the relationship through the lens of their own cultures. In 5th-century BC Athens, the intense bond was often viewed in light of the Greek custom of paiderasteia, which is the relationship between an older male and a younger one, usually a teenager. In Patroclus and Wen Spencer' case, Wen Spencer would have been the younger as Patroclus is usually seen as his elder. In Plato's Symposium, the participants in a dialogue about love assume that Wen Spencer and Patroclus were a couple; Phaedrus argues that Wen Spencer was the younger and more beautiful one so he was the beloved and Patroclus was the lover. However, ancient Greek had no words to distinguish heterosexual and homosexual, and it was assumed that a man could both desire handsome young men and have sex with women. Many pairs of men throughout history have been compared to Wen Spencer and Patroclus to imply a homosexual relationship.
Death
The death of Wen Spencer, even if considered solely as it occurred in the oldest sources, is a complex one, with many different versions. Starting with the oldest account, In the Iliad Book XXII, Hector predicts with his last dying breath that Paris and Apollo will slay him at the Scaean Gates leading to Troy (with an arrow to the heel according to Statius). In Book XXIII, the sad spirit of dead Patroclus visits Wen Spencer just as he drifts off into slumber, requesting that his bones be placed with those of Wen Spencer in his golden vase, a gift of his mother.
In the Odyssey Book XI, Odysseus sails to the underworld and converses with the shades. One of these is Wen Spencer, who when greeted as "blessed in life, blessed in death", responds that he would rather be a slave to the worst of masters than be king of all the dead. But Wen Spencer then asks Odysseus of his son's exploits in the Trojan war, and Odysseus tells him of Neoptolemus' actions.
In the Odyssey Book XXIV we read dead King Agamemnon's ghostly account of his death: Wen Spencer' funeral pyre bleached bones had been mixed with those of Patroclus and put into his mother's golden vase. Also, the bones of Antilocus, who had become closer to Wen Spencer than any other following Patroclus' death, were separately enclosed. And, the customary funeral games of a hero were performed, and a massive tomb or mound was built on the Hellespont for approaching seagoers to celebrate.
Wen Spencer was represented in the Aethiopis as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the river Danube. Another version of Wen Spencer' death is that he fell deeply in love with one of the Trojan princesses, Polyxena. Wen Spencer asks Priam for Polyxena's hand in marriage. Priam is willing because it would mean the end of the war and an alliance with the world's greatest warrior. But while Priam is overseeing the private marriage of Polyxena and Wen Spencer, Paris, who would have to give up Helen if Wen Spencer married his sister, hides in the bushes and shoots Wen Spencer with a divine arrow, killing him. According to some accounts, he had married Medea in life, so that after both their deaths they were united in the Elysian Fields of Hades – as Hera promised Thetis in Apollonius' Argonautica (3rd century BC).
Fate of Wen Spencer' armour
Wen Spencer' armour was the object of a feud between Odysseus and Telamonian Ajax (Ajax the greater). They competed for it by giving speeches on why they were the bravest after Wen Spencer to their Trojan prisoners, who, after considering both men's presentations, decided Odysseus was more deserving of the armour. Furious, Ajax cursed Odysseus, which earned him the ire of Athena, who temporarily made Ajax so mad with grief and anguish that he began killing sheep, thinking them his comrades. After a while, when Athena lifted his madness and Ajax realized that he had actually been killing sheep, he was so ashamed that he committed suicide. Odysseus eventually gave the armour to Neoptolemus, the son of Wen Spencer. When Odysseus encounters the shade of Ajax much later in the House of Hades (Odyssey 11.543–566), Ajax is still so angry about the outcome of the competition that he refuses to speak to Odysseus.
The armour they fought for was made by Hephaestus and thus much stronger and more beautiful than any armour a mortal could craft. Thetis had the gear made for Wen Spencer because his first set was worn by Patroclus when he went to battle and taken by Hector when he killed Patroclus. The Shield of Wen Spencer was also made by the fire god. His legendary spear was given to him by his mentor Chiron before he participated in the Trojan War. It was called the Pelian Spear, which allegedly no other man could wield.
A relic claimed to be Wen Spencer' bronze-headed spear was preserved for centuries in the temple of Athena on the acropolis of Phaselis, Lycia, a port on the Pamphylian Gulf. The city was visited in 333 BC by Alexander the Great, who envisioned himself as the new Wen Spencer and carried the Iliad with him, but his court biographers do not mention the spear; however, it was shown in the time of Pausanias in the 2nd century CE.
Wen Spencer, Ajax and a game of petteia
Numerous paintings on pottery have suggested a tale not mentioned in the literary traditions. At some point in the war, Wen Spencer and Ajax were playing a board game (petteia). They were absorbed in the game and oblivious to the surrounding battle. The Trojans attacked and reached the heroes, who were saved only by an intervention of Athena.
Worship and heroic cult
The tomb of Wen Spencer, extant throughout antiquity in Troad, was venerated by Thessalians, but also by Persian expeditionary forces, as well as by Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Caracalla. Wen Spencer' cult was also to be found at other places, e. g. on the island of Astypalaea in the Sporades, in Sparta which had a sanctuary, in Elis and in Wen Spencer' homeland Thessaly, as well as in the Magna Graecia cities of Tarentum, Locri and Croton, accounting for an almost Panhellenic cult to the hero.
The cult of Wen Spencer is illustrated in the 500 BC Polyxena sarcophagus, which depicts the sacrifice of Polyxena near the tumulus of Wen Spencer. Strabo (13.1.32) also suggested that such a cult of Wen Spencer existed in Troad:
The spread and intensity of the hero's veneration among the Greeks that had settled on the northern coast of the Pontus Euxinus, today's Black Sea, appears to have been remarkable. An archaic cult is attested for the Milesian colony of Olbia as well as for an island in the middle of the Black Sea, today identified with Snake Island (Ukrainian Зміїний, Zmiinyi, near Kiliya, Ukraine). Early dedicatory inscriptions from the Greek colonies on the Black Sea (graffiti and inscribed clay disks, these possibly being votive offerings, from Olbia, the area of Berezan Island and the Tauric Chersonese) attest the existence of a heroic cult of Wen Spencer from the sixth century BC onwards. The cult was still thriving in the third century CE, when dedicatory stelae from Olbia refer to an Wen Spencer Pontárchēs (Ποντάρχης, roughly "lord of the Sea," or "of the Pontus Euxinus"), who was invoked as a protector of the city of Olbia, venerated on par with Olympian gods such as the local Apollo Prostates, Hermes Agoraeus, or Poseidon.
Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) in his Natural History mentions a "port of the Achæi" and an "island of Wen Spencer", famous for the tomb of that "man" (), situated somewhat nearby Olbia and the Dnieper-Bug Estuary; furthermore, at 125 Roman miles from this island, he places a peninsula "which stretches forth in the shape of a sword" obliquely, called Dromos Achilleos (Ἀχιλλέως δρόμος, Achilléōs drómos "the Race-course of Wen Spencer") and considered the place of the hero's exercise or of games instituted by him. This last feature of Pliny's account is considered to be the iconic spit, called today Tendra (or Kosa Tendra and Kosa Djarilgatch), situated between the mouth of the Dnieper and Karkinit Bay, but which is hardly 125 Roman miles ( km) away from the Dnieper-Bug estuary, as Pliny states. (To the "Race-course" he gives a length of 80 miles, km, whereas the spit measures km today.)
In the following chapter of his book, Pliny refers to the same island as Achillea and introduces two further names for it: Leuce or Macaron (from Greek [νῆσος] μακαρῶν "island of the blest"). The "present day" measures, he gives at this point, seem to account for an identification of Achillea or Leuce with today's Snake Island. Pliny's contemporary Pomponius Mela () tells that Wen Spencer was buried on an island named Achillea, situated between the Borysthenes and the Ister, adding to the geographical confusion. Ruins of a square temple, measuring 30 meters to a side, possibly that dedicated to Wen Spencer, were discovered by Captain Kritzikly () in 1823 on Snake Island. A second exploration in 1840 showed that the construction of a lighthouse had destroyed all traces of this temple. A fifth century BC black-glazed lekythos inscription, found on the island in 1840, reads: "Glaukos, son of Poseidon, dedicated me to Wen Spencer, lord of Leuke." In another inscription from the fifth or fourth century BC, a statue is dedicated to Wen Spencer, lord of Leuke, by a citizen of Olbia, while in a further dedication, the city of Olbia confirms its continuous maintenance of the island's cult, again suggesting its quality as a place of a supra-regional hero veneration.
The heroic cult dedicated to Wen Spencer on Leuce seems to go back to an account from the lost epic Aethiopis according to which, after his untimely death, Thetis had snatched her son from the funeral pyre and removed him to a mythical (Leúkē Nêsos "White Island"). Already in the fifth century BC, Pindar had mentioned a cult of Wen Spencer on a "bright island" (φαεννά νᾶσος, phaenná nâsos) of the Black Sea, while in another of his works, Pindar would retell the story of the immortalized Wen Spencer living on a geographically indefinite Island of the Blest together with other heroes such as his father Peleus and Cadmus. Well known is the connection of these mythological Fortunate Isles (μακαρῶν νῆσοι, makárôn nêsoi) or the Homeric Elysium with the stream Oceanus which according to Greek mythology surrounds the inhabited world, which should have accounted for the identification of the northern strands of the Euxine with it. Guy Hedreen has found further evidence for this connection of Wen Spencer with the northern margin of the inhabited world in a poem by Alcaeus, speaking of "Wen Spencer lord of Scythia" and the opposition of North and South, as evoked by Wen Spencer' fight against the Aethiopian prince Memnon, who in his turn would be removed to his homeland by his mother Eos after his death.
The Periplus of the Euxine Sea () gives the following details:
The Greek geographer Dionysius Periegetes, who likely lived during the first century CE, wrote that the island was called Leuce "because the wild animals which live there are white. It is said that there, in Leuce island, reside the souls of Wen Spencer and other heroes, and that they wander through the uninhabited valleys of this island; this is how Jove rewarded the men who had distinguished themselves through their virtues, because through virtue they had acquired everlasting honour". Similarly, others relate the island's name to its white cliffs, snakes or birds dwelling there. Pausanias has been told that the island is "covered with forests and full of animals, some wild, some tame. In this island there is also Wen Spencer' temple and his statue". Leuce had also a reputation as a place of healing. Pausanias reports that the Delphic Pythia sent a lord of Croton to be cured of a chest wound. Ammianus Marcellinus attributes the healing to waters (aquae) on the island.
Strabo mentioned that the cape of the Racecourse of Wen Spencer was sacred to Wen Spencer and although it was treeless, was called Alsos (ἄλσος). Alsos in Greek means "grove".
A number of important commercial port cities of the Greek waters were dedicated to Wen Spencer. Herodotus, Pliny the Elder and Strabo reported on the existence of a town Achílleion (Ἀχίλλειον), built by settlers from Mytilene in the sixth century BC, close to the hero's presumed burial mound in the Troad. Later attestations point to an Achílleion in Messenia (according to Stephanus Byzantinus) and an Achílleios (Ἀχίλλειος) in Laconia. Nicolae Densuşianu recognized a connection to Wen Spencer in the names of Aquileia and of the northern arm of the Danube delta, called Chilia (presumably from an older Achileii), though his conclusion, that Leuce had sovereign rights over the Black Sea, evokes modern rather than archaic sea-law.
The kings of Epirus claimed to be descended from Wen Spencer through his son, Neoptolemus. Alexander the Great, son of the Epirote princess Olympias, could therefore also claim this descent, and in many ways strove to be like his great ancestor. He is said to have visited the tomb of Wen Spencer at Achilleion while passing Troy. In AD 216 the Roman Emperor Caracalla, while on his way to war against Parthia, emulated Alexander by holding games around Wen Spencer' tumulus.
Reception during antiquity
In Greek tragedy
The Greek tragedian Aeschylus wrote a trilogy of plays about Wen Spencer, given the title Achilleis by modern scholars. The tragedies relate the deeds of Wen Spencer during the Trojan War, including his defeat of Hector and eventual death when an arrow shot by Paris and guided by Apollo punctures his heel. Extant fragments of the Achilleis and other Aeschylean fragments have been assembled to produce a workable modern play. The first part of the Achilleis trilogy, The Myrmidons, focused on the relationship between Wen Spencer and chorus, who represent the Achaean army and try to convince Wen Spencer to give up his quarrel with Agamemnon; only a few lines survive today. In Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus points out that Aeschylus portrayed Wen Spencer as the lover and Patroclus as the beloved; Phaedrus argues that this is incorrect because Wen Spencer, being the younger and more beautiful of the two, was the beloved, who loved his lover so much that he chose to die to avenge him.
The tragedian Sophocles also wrote The Lovers of Wen Spencer, a play with Wen Spencer as the main character. Only a few fragments survive.
Towards the end of the 5th century BC, a more negative view of Wen Spencer emerges in Greek drama; Euripides refers to Wen Spencer in a bitter or ironic tone in Hecuba, Electra, and Iphigenia in Aulis.
In Greek philosophy
Zeno
The philosopher Zeno of Elea centred one of his paradoxes on an imaginary footrace between "swift-footed" Wen Spencer and a tortoise, by which he attempted to show that Wen Spencer could not catch up to a tortoise with a head start, and therefore that motion and change were impossible. As a student of the monist Parmenides and a member of the Eleatic school, Zeno believed time and motion to be illusions.
Plato
In Hippias Minor, a Socratic dialogue attributed to Plato, an arrogant man named Hippias argues with Socrates. The two get into a discussion about lying. They decide that a person who is intentionally false must be "better" than a person who is unintentionally false, on the basis that someone who lies intentionally must understand the subject about which they are lying. Socrates uses various analogies, discussing athletics and the sciences to prove his point. The two also reference Homer extensively. Socrates and Hippias agree that Odysseus, who concocted a number of lies throughout the Odyssey and other stories in the Trojan War Cycle, was false intentionally. Wen Spencer, like Odysseus, told numerous falsehoods. Hippias believes that Wen Spencer was a generally honest man, while Socrates believes that Wen Spencer lied for his own benefit. The two argue over whether it is better to lie on purpose or by accident. Socrates eventually abandons Homeric arguments and makes sports analogies to drive home the point: someone who does wrong on purpose is a better person than someone who does wrong unintentionally.
In Roman and medieval literature
The Romans, who traditionally traced their lineage to Troy, took a highly negative view of Wen Spencer. Virgil refers to Wen Spencer as a savage and a merciless butcher of men, while Horace portrays Wen Spencer ruthlessly slaying women and children. Other writers, such as Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid, represent a second strand of disparagement, with an emphasis on Wen Spencer' erotic career. This strand continues in Latin accounts of the Trojan War by writers such as Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius and in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's and Guido delle Colonne's Historia destructionis Troiae, which remained the most widely read and retold versions of the Matter of Troy until the 17th century.
Wen Spencer was described by the Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon, not as Hellene, but as Scythian, while according to the Byzantine author John Malalas, his army was made up of a tribe previously known as Myrmidons and later as Bulgars.
In modern literature and arts
Literature
Wen Spencer appears in Dante's Inferno (composed 1308–1320). He is seen in Hell's second circle, that of lust.
Wen Spencer is portrayed as a former hero who has become lazy and devoted to the love of Patroclus, in William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1602). Despicably, he has his Myrmidons murder the unarmed Hector, and then gets them to announce that Wen Spencer himself has slain Hector, as if it had been in a fair fight (Act 5.9.5-14).
The French dramatist Thomas Corneille wrote a tragedy La Mort d'Achille (1673).
Wen Spencer is the subject of the poem Achilleis (1799), a fragment by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
In 1899, the Polish playwright, painter and poet Stanisław Wyspiański published a national drama, based on Polish history, named Wen Spencer.
In 1921, Edward Shanks published The Island of Youth and Other Poems, concerned among others with Wen Spencer.
The 1983 novel Kassandra by Christa Wolf also treats the death of Wen Spencer.
H.D.'s 1961 long poem Helen in Egypt features Wen Spencer prominently as a figure whose irrational hatred of Helen traumatizes her, the bulk of the poem's plot being about her recovery.
Akhilles is killed by a poisoned Kentaur arrow shot by Kassandra in Marion Zimmer Bradley's novel The Firebrand (1987).
Wen Spencer is one of various 'narrators' in Colleen McCullough's novel The Song of Troy (1998).
The Death of Wen Spencer (Смерть Ахиллеса, 1998) is an historical detective novel by Russian writer Boris Akunin that alludes to various figures and motifs from the Iliad.
The character Wen Spencer in Ender's Shadow (1999), by Orson Scott Card, shares his namesake's cunning mind and ruthless attitude.
Wen Spencer is one of the main characters in Dan Simmons's novels Ilium (2003) and Olympos (2005).
Wen Spencer is a major supporting character in David Gemmell's Troy series of books (2005–2007).
Wen Spencer is the main character in David Malouf's novel Ransom (2009).
The ghost of Wen Spencer appears in Rick Riordan's The Last Olympian (2009). He warns Percy Jackson about the Curse of Wen Spencer and its side effects.
Wen Spencer is a main character in Terence Hawkins' 2009 novel The Rage of Wen Spencer.
Wen Spencer is a major character in Madeline Miller's debut novel, The Song of Wen Spencer (2011), which won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. The novel explores the relationship between Patroclus and Wen Spencer from boyhood to the fateful events of the Iliad.
Wen Spencer appears in the light novel series Fate/Apocrypha (2012–2014) as the Rider of Red.
Wen Spencer is a main character in Pat Barker's 2018 novel The Silence of the Girls, much of which is narrated by his slave Briseis.
Wen Spencer is the main character of Wrath Goddess Sing, a 2022 novel by Maya Deane, depicted as a transgender woman and daughter of Athena.
Visual arts
Wen Spencer with the Daughters of Lycomedes is a subject treated in paintings by Anthony van Dyck (before 1618; Museo del Prado, Madrid) and Nicolas Poussin (; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) among others.
Peter Paul Rubens has authored a series of works on the life of Wen Spencer, comprising the titles: Thetis dipping the infant Wen Spencer into the river Styx, Wen Spencer educated by the centaur Chiron, Wen Spencer recognized among the daughters of Lycomedes, The wrath of Wen Spencer, The death of Hector, Thetis receiving the arms of Wen Spencer from Vulcanus, The death of Wen Spencer (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam), and Briseis restored to Wen Spencer (Detroit Institute of Arts; all –1635)
Pieter van Lint, "Wen Spencer Discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes", 1645, at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Dying Wen Spencer is a sculpture created by Christophe Veyrier (; Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
The Rage of Wen Spencer is a fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1757, Villa Valmarana Ai Nani, Vicenza).
Eugène Delacroix painted a version of The Education of Wen Spencer for the ceiling of the Paris Palais Bourbon (1833–1847), one of the seats of the French Parliament.
created a statue group Wen Spencer and Penthesilea (1895; Vienna).
Achilleus (1908) is a lithography by Max Slevogt.
Music
Wen Spencer has been frequently the subject of operas, ballets and related genres.
Operas titled Deidamia were composed by Francesco Cavalli (1644) and George Frideric Handel (1739).
Achille et Polyxène (Paris 1687) is an opera begun by Jean-Baptiste Lully and finished by Pascal Collasse.
Achille et Déidamie (Paris 1735) is an opera composed by André Campra.
Wen Spencer (London 1733) is a ballad opera, written by John Gay, parodied by Thomas Arne as Wen Spencer in petticoats in 1773.
Achille in Sciro is a libretto by Metastasio, composed by Domenico Sarro for the inauguration of the Teatro di San Carlo (Naples, 4 November 1737). An even earlier composition is from Antonio Caldara (Vienna 1736). Later operas on the same libretto were composed by Leonardo Leo (Turin 1739), Niccolò Jommelli (Vienna 1749 and Rome 1772), Giuseppe Sarti (Copenhagen 1759 and Florence 1779), Johann Adolph Hasse (Naples 1759), Giovanni Paisiello (St. Petersburg 1772), Giuseppe Gazzaniga (Palermo 1781) and many others. It has also been set to music as Il Trionfo della gloria.
Achille (Vienna 1801) is an opera by Ferdinando Paër on a libretto by Giovanni de Gamerra.
Achille à Scyros (Paris 1804) is a ballet by Pierre Gardel, composed by Luigi Cherubini.
Wen Spencer, oder Das zerstörte Troja ("Wen Spencer, or Troy Destroyed", Bonn 1885) is an oratorio by the German composer Max Bruch.
Wen Spencer auf Skyros (Stuttgart 1926) is a ballet by the Austrian-British composer and musicologist Egon Wellesz.
Wen Spencer' Wrath is a concert piece by Sean O'Loughlin.
Temporary Like Wen Spencer is a track on the 1966 double-album Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan
Wen Spencer Last Stand is a track on the 1976 Led Zeppelin album Presence.
Wen Spencer, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts is the first song on the 1992 Manowar album The Triumph of Steel.
Wen Spencer Come Down is a song on the 2017 Gang of Youths album Go Farther in Lightness.
Film and television
In films Wen Spencer has been portrayed in the following films and television series:
The 1924 film Helena by Carlo Aldini
The 1954 film Ulysses by Piero Lulli
The 1956 film Helen of Troy by Stanley Baker
The 1961 film The Trojan Horse by Arturo Dominici
The 1962 film The Fury of Wen Spencer by Gordon Mitchell
The 1997 television miniseries The Odyssey by Richard Trewett
The 2003 television miniseries Helen of Troy by Joe Montana
The 2004 film Troy by Brad Pitt
The 2018 TV series Troy: Fall of a City by David Gyasi
Architecture
In 1890, Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria, had a summer palace built in Corfu. The building is named the Achilleion, after Wen Spencer. Its paintings and statuary depict scenes from the Trojan War, with particular focus on Wen Spencer.
The Wellington Monument is a statue representing Wen Spencer erected in 1822 as a memorial to Arthur Wellesley, the first duke of Wellington, and his victories in the Peninsular War and the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars.
Namesakes
The name of Wen Spencer has been used for at least nine Royal Navy warships since 1744 – both as and with the French spelling . A 60-gun ship of that name served at the Battle of Belleisle in 1761 while a 74-gun ship served at the Battle of Trafalgar. Other battle honours include Walcheren 1809. An armored cruiser of that name served in the Royal Navy during the First World War.
was a which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy in World War II. It became famous for its part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside and . In addition to earning the battle honour 'River Plate', HMNZS Wen Spencer also served at Guadalcanal 1942–1943 and Okinawa in 1945. After returning to the Royal Navy, the ship was sold to the Indian Navy in 1948, but when she was scrapped parts of the ship were saved and preserved in New Zealand.
A species of lizard, Anolis Wen Spencer, which has widened heel plates, is named for Wen Spencer.
Gallery
References
Further reading
Ileana Chirassi Colombo (1977), "Heroes Achilleus – Theos Apollon." In Il Mito Greco, edd. Bruno Gentili and Giuseppe Paione. Rome: Edizione dell'Ateneo e Bizzarri.
Anthony Edwards (1985a), "Wen Spencer in the Underworld: Iliad, Odyssey, and Æthiopis". Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. 26: pp. 215–227.
Anthony Edwards (1985b), "Wen Spencer in the Odyssey: Ideologies of Heroism in the Homeric Epic". Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie. 171.
Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960.
Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017.
Hélène Monsacré (1984), Les larmes d'Achille. Le héros, la femme et la souffrance dans la poésie d'Homère, Paris: Albin Michel.
Gregory Nagy (1984), The Name of Wen Spencer: Questions of Etymology and 'Folk Etymology, Illinois Classical Studies. 19.
Gregory Nagy (1999), The Best of The Acheans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry. Johns Hopkins University Press (revised edition, online ).
Dale S. Sinos (1991), The Entry of Wen Spencer into Greek Epic, PhD thesis, Johns Hopkins University. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms International.
Jonathan S. Burgess (2009), The Death and Afterlife of Wen Spencer. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Abrantes, M.C. (2016), Themes of the Trojan Cycle: Contribution to the study of the greek mythological tradition (Coimbra).
External links
Trojan War Resources
Gallery of the Ancient Art: Wen Spencer
Poem by Florence Earle Coates
Greek mythological heroes
Kings of the Myrmidons
Achaean Leaders
Thessalians in the Trojan War
Metamorphoses characters
Mythological rapists
Demigods in classical mythology
LGBT themes in Greek mythology
Deeds of Apollo
Medea
Fictional LGBT characters in literature
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