title: Bar Harbor, Maine

text: Downeast Windjammer Cruise Lines operates regular summer ferry service across Frenchman Bay between Bar Harbor and Winter Harbor.


title: Bar Harbor, Maine

text: Recreational activities abound in Bar Harbor. The downtown is particularly alive in the summer and fall months due to its proximity to Acadia National Park. Outdoor activities in Acadia include hiking along trails or carriage roads, biking along the carriage roads, bird watching, and mountain climbing, with Cadillac Mountain being the highest point on the Atlantic seaboard.


title: Bar Harbor, Maine

text: Those interested in the marine life surrounding Mount Desert Island can go to the marina at the end of Main Street and sign up for tours that feature puffins, whales, seals, seabirds, and lighthouses, or for a general nature cruise.


title: Bar Harbor, Maine

text: In 2012, the American Planning Association named the Village Green as one of their top ten Great Places in America for Public Spaces.


title: Bar Harbor, Maine

text: Cruise ships arrive in the harbor from May through October (most often in September), with 154 ship visits and more than 222,000 passengers in 2018. The forecast for 2019 was 176 ship visits and more than 254,000 passengers. Bar Harbor also hosts many long-distance cyclists, as it is the eastern terminus of the Adventure Cycling Association's Northern Tier Bicycle Route (Anacortes, Washington, is the western terminus), and the northern terminus of its Atlantic Coast Bicycle Route (Key West, Florida, is the southern terminus).


title: Bar Harbor, Maine

text: Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium, on Main Street (across from Cottage Street), is a popular location due to its lobster-flavored ice cream. It also has a lobster statue at its storefront.


title: Bar Harbor, Maine

text: Bar Harbor is featured in the 2007 book "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan as the setting of Westover Hall, a boarding school.


title: Bar Harbor, Maine

text: The "" add-on for the video game "Fallout 4" is located on Mount Desert Island, with Bar Harbor being reimagined as the post apocalyptic settlement of Far Harbor.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Slavery was an accepted practice in ancient Greece, as in other societies of the time. Some Ancient Greek writers (including, most notably, Aristotle) described slavery as natural and even necessary. This paradigm was notably questioned in Socratic dialogues; the Stoics produced the first recorded condemnation of slavery.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The principal use of slaves was in agriculture, but they were also used in stone quarries or mines, and as domestic servants. Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, with an average of three or four slaves per household, except in poor families. Slaves were legally prohibited from participating in politics, which was reserved for citizens.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Modern historiographical practice distinguishes between chattel slavery (personal possession, where the slave was regarded as a piece of property as opposed to a mobile member of society) versus land-bonded groups such as the penestae of Thessaly or the Spartan helots, who were more like medieval serfs (an enhancement to real estate). The chattel slave is an individual deprived of liberty and forced to submit to an owner, who may buy, sell, or lease them like any other chattel.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The academic study of slavery in ancient Greece is beset by significant methodological problems. Documentation is disjointed and very fragmented, focusing primarily on the city-state of Athens. No treatises are specifically devoted to the subject, and jurisprudence was interested in slavery only as much as it provided a source of revenue. Greek comedies and tragedies represented stereotypes, while iconography made no substantial differentiation between slaves and craftsmen.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The ancient Greeks had several words to indicate slaves, which leads to textual ambiguity when they are studied out of their proper context. In Homer, Hesiod and Theognis of Megara, the slave was called ("dmōs"). The term has a general meaning but refers particularly to war prisoners taken as booty (in other words, property). During the classical period, the Greeks frequently used ("andrapodon"), (literally, "one with the feet of a man") as opposed to ("tetrapodon"), "quadruped" or livestock. The most common word for slaves is ("doulos"), used in opposition to "free man" (, "eleútheros"); an earlier form of the former appears in Mycenaean inscriptions as "do-e-ro", "male slave" (or "servant", "bondman"; Linear B: ), or "do-e-ra", "female slave" (or "maid-servant", "bondwoman"). The verb (which survives in Modern Greek, meaning "work") can be used metaphorically for other forms of dominion, as of one city over another or parents over their children. Finally, the term ("oiketēs") was used, as meaning "one who lives in house", referring to household servants.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Slaves were present through the Mycenaean civilization, as documented in numerous tablets unearthed in Pylos 140. Two legal categories can be distinguished: "slaves (εοιο)" and "slaves of the god (θεοιο)", the god in this case probably being Poseidon. Slaves of the god are always mentioned by name and own their own land; their legal status is close to that of freemen. The nature and origin of their bond to the divinity is unclear. The names of common slaves show that some of them came from Kythera, Chios, Lemnos, or Halicarnassus and were probably enslaved as a result of piracy. The tablets indicate that unions between slaves and freemen were common and that slaves could work and own land. It appears that the major division in Mycenaean civilization was not between a free individual and a slave but rather if the individual was in the palace or not.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: There is no continuity between the Mycenaean era and the time of Homer, where social structures reflected those of the Greek dark ages. The terminology differs: the slave is no longer "do-e-ro" (doulos) but "dmōs". In the "Iliad", slaves are mainly women taken as booty of war, while men were either ransomed or killed on the battlefield.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: In the "Odyssey", the slaves also seem to be mostly women. These slaves were servants and sometimes are concubines.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: There were some male slaves, especially in the "Odyssey", a prime example being the swineherd Eumaeus. The slave was distinctive in being a member of the core part of the "oikos" ("family unit", "household"): Laertes eats and drinks with his servants; in the winter, he sleeps in their company. Eumaeus, the "divine" swineherd, bears the same Homeric epithet as the Greek heroes. Slavery remained, however, a disgrace: Eumaeus declares, "Zeus, of the far-borne voice, takes away the half of a man's virtue, when the day of slavery comes upon him".


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: It is difficult to determine when slave trading began in the archaic period. In "Works and Days" (8th century BCE), Hesiod owns numerous "dmōes" although their exact status is unclear. The presence of "douloi" is confirmed by lyric poets such as Archilochus or Theognis of Megara. According to epigraphic evidence, the homicide law of Draco () mentioned slaves. According to Plutarch, Solon () forbade slaves from practising gymnastics and pederasty. By the end of the period, references become more common. Slavery becomes prevalent at the very moment when Solon establishes the basis for Athenian democracy. Classical scholar Moses Finley likewise remarks that Chios, which, according to Theopompus, was the first city to organize a slave trade, also enjoyed an early democratic process (in the 6th century BC). He concludes that "one aspect of Greek history, in short, is the advance hand in hand, of freedom "and" slavery."


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: All activities were open to slaves with the exception of politics. For the Greeks, politics was the only occupation worthy of a citizen, the rest being relegated wherever possible to non-citizens. It was status that was of importance, not occupation.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The principal use of slavery was in agriculture, the foundation of the Greek economy. Some small landowners might own one slave, or even two. An abundant literature of manuals for landowners (such as the "Economy" of Xenophon or that of Pseudo-Aristotle) confirms the presence of dozens of slaves on the larger estates; they could be common labourers or foremen. The extent to which slaves were used as a labour force in farming is disputed. It is certain that rural slavery was very common in Athens, and that ancient Greece did not have the immense slave populations found on the Roman "latifundia".


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Slave labour was prevalent in mines and quarries, which had large slave populations, often leased out by rich private citizens. The strategos Nicias leased a thousand slaves to the silver mines of Laurium in Attica; Hipponicos, 600; and Philomidès, 300. Xenophon indicates that they received one obolus per slave per day, amounting to 60 drachmas per year. This was one of the most prized investments for Athenians. The number of slaves working in the Laurium mines or in the mills processing ore has been estimated at 30,000. Xenophon suggested that the city buy a large number of slaves, up to three state slaves per citizen, so that their leasing would assure the upkeep of all the citizens.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Slaves were also used as craftsmen and tradespersons. As in agriculture, they were used for labour that was beyond the capability of the family. The slave population was greatest in workshops: the shield factory of Lysias employed 120 slaves, and the father of Demosthenes owned 32 cutlers and 20 bedmakers.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Ownership of domestic slaves was common, the domestic male slave's main role being to stand in for his master at his trade and to accompany him on trips. In time of war he was batman to the hoplite. The female slave carried out domestic tasks, in particular bread baking and textile making.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: It is difficult to estimate the number of slaves in ancient Greece, given the lack of a precise census and variations in definitions during that era. It seems certain that Athens had the largest slave population, with as many as 80,000 in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, on average three or four slaves per household. In the 5th century BC, Thucydides remarked on the desertion of 20,890 slaves during the war of Decelea, mostly tradesmen. The lowest estimate, of 20,000 slaves, during the time of Demosthenes, corresponds to one slave per family. Between 317 BC and 307 BC, the tyrant Demetrius Phalereus ordered a general census of Attica, which arrived at the following figures: 21,000 citizens, 10,000 metics and 400,000 slaves. However, some researchers doubt the accuracy of the figure, asserting that thirteen slaves per free man appear unlikely in a state where a dozen slaves were a sign of wealth, nor is the population stated consistent with the known figures for bread production and import. The orator Hypereides, in his "Against Areistogiton", recalls that the effort to enlist 15,000 male slaves of military age led to the defeat of the Southern Greeks at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), which corresponds to the figures of Ctesicles.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: According to the literature, it appears that the majority of free Athenians owned at least one slave. Aristophanes, in "Plutus", portrays poor peasants who have several slaves; Aristotle defines a house as containing freemen and slaves. Conversely, not owning even one slave was a clear sign of poverty. In the celebrated discourse of Lysias "For the Invalid", a cripple pleading for a pension explains "my income is very small and now I'm required to do these things myself and do not even have the means to purchase a slave who can do these things for me." However, the huge individual slave holdings of the wealthiest Romans were unknown in ancient Greece. When Athenaeus cites the case of Mnason, a friend of Aristotle and owner of a thousand slaves, this appears to be exceptional. Plato, owner of five slaves at the time of his death, describes the very rich as owning fifty slaves.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: There were four primary sources of slaves: war, in which the defeated would become slaves to the victorious unless a more objective outcome was reached; piracy (at sea); banditry (on land); and international trade.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: By the rules of war of the period, the victor possessed absolute rights over the vanquished, whether they were soldiers or not. Enslavement, while not systematic, was common practice. Thucydides recalls that 7,000 inhabitants of Hyccara in Sicily were taken prisoner by Nicias and sold for 120 talents in the neighbouring village of Catania. Likewise in 348 BC the population of Olynthus was reduced to slavery, as was that of Thebes in 335 BC by Alexander the Great and that of Mantineia by the Achaean League.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The existence of Greek slaves was a constant source of discomfort for Greek citizens. The enslavement of cities was also a controversial practice. Some generals refused, such as the Spartans Agesilaus II and Callicratidas. Some cities passed accords to forbid the practice: in the middle of the 3rd century BC, Miletus agreed not to reduce any free Knossian to slavery, and vice versa. Conversely, the emancipation by ransom of a city that had been entirely reduced to slavery carried great prestige: Cassander, in 316 BC, restored Thebes. Before him, Philip II of Macedon enslaved and then emancipated Stageira.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Piracy and banditry provided a significant and consistent supply of slaves, though the significance of this source varied according to era and region. Pirates and brigands would demand ransom whenever the status of their catch warranted it. Whenever ransom was not paid or not warranted, captives would be sold to a trafficker. In certain areas, piracy was practically a national specialty, described by Thucydides as "the old-fashioned" way of life. Such was the case in Acarnania, Crete, and Aetolia. Outside of Greece, this was also the case with Illyrians, Phoenicians, and Etruscans. During the Hellenistic period, Cilicians and the mountain peoples from the coasts of Anatolia could also be added to the list. Strabo explains the popularity of the practice among the Cilicians by its profitability; Delos, not far away, allowed for "moving myriad slaves daily". The growing influence of the Roman Republic, a large consumer of slaves, led to development of the market and an aggravation of piracy. In the 1st century BC, however, the Romans largely eradicated piracy to protect the Mediterranean trade routes.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: There was slave trade between kingdoms and states of the wider region. The fragmentary list of slaves confiscated from the property of the mutilators of the "Hermai" mentions 32 slaves whose origins have been ascertained: 13 came from Thrace, 7 from Caria, and the others came from Cappadocia, Scythia, Phrygia, Lydia, Syria, Ilyria, Macedon, and Peloponnese. Local professionals sold their own people to Greek slave merchants. The principal centres of the slave trade appear to have been Ephesus, Byzantium, and even faraway Tanais at the mouth of the Don. Some "barbarian" slaves were victims of war or localised piracy, but others were sold by their parents.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: There is a lack of direct evidence of slave traffic, but corroborating evidence exists. Firstly, certain nationalities are consistently and significantly represented in the slave population, such as the corps of Scythian archers employed by Athens as a police force—originally 300, but eventually nearly a thousand. Secondly, the names given to slaves in the comedies often had a geographical link; thus "Thratta", used by Aristophanes in "The Wasps", "The Acharnians", and "Peace", simply meant "a Thracian woman". Finally, the nationality of a slave was a significant criterion for major purchasers: Ancient practice was avoid a concentration of too many slaves of the same ethnic origin in the same place, in order to limit the risk of revolt. It is also probable that, as with the Romans, certain nationalities were considered more productive as slaves than others.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The price of slaves varied in accordance with their ability. Xenophon valued a Laurion miner at 180 drachmas; while a workman at major works was paid one drachma per day. Demosthenes' father's cutlers were valued at 500 to 600 drachmas each. Price was also a function of the quantity of slaves available; in the 4th century BC they were abundant and it was thus a buyer's market. A tax on sale revenues was levied by the market cities. For instance, a large helot market was organized during the festivities at the temple of Apollo at Actium. The Acarnanian League, which was in charge of the logistics, received half of the tax proceeds, the other half going to the city of Anactorion, of which Actium was a part.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Buyers enjoyed a guarantee against latent defects: The transaction could be invalidated if the purchased slave turned out to be crippled and the buyer had not been warned about it.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The Greeks had many degrees of enslavement. There was a multitude of categories, ranging from free citizen to chattel slave, and including penestae or helots, disenfranchised citizens, freedmen, bastards, and metics. The common ground was the deprivation of civic rights.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Athenian slaves were the property of their master (or of the state), who could dispose of them as he saw fit. He could give, sell, rent, or bequeath them. A slave could have a spouse and child, but the slave family was not recognized by the state, and the master could scatter the family members at any time. Slaves had fewer judicial rights than citizens and were represented by their masters in all judicial proceedings. A misdemeanor that would result in a fine for the free man would result in a flogging for the slave; the ratio seems to have been one lash for one drachma. With several minor exceptions, the testimony of a slave was not admissible except under torture. Slaves were tortured in trials because they often remained loyal to their masters. A famous example of a trusty slave was Themistocles's Persian slave Sicinnus (the counterpart of Ephialtes of Trachis), who, despite his Persian origin, betrayed Xerxes and helped Athenians in the Battle of Salamis. Despite torture in trials, the Athenian slave was protected in an indirect way: if he was mistreated, the master could initiate litigation for damages and interest ( / "dikē blabēs"). Conversely, a master who excessively mistreated a slave could be prosecuted by any citizen ( / "graphē hybreōs"); this was not enacted for the sake of the slave, but to avoid violent excess ( / "hubris").


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Isocrates claimed that "not even the most worthless slave can be put to death without trial"; the master's power over his slave was not absolute. Draco's law apparently punished with death the murder of a slave; the underlying principle was: "was the crime such that, if it became more widespread, it would do serious harm to society?" The suit that could be brought against a slave's killer was not a suit for damages, as would be the case for the killing of cattle, but a ("dikē phonikē"), demanding punishment for the religious pollution brought by the shedding of blood. In the 4th century BC, the suspect was judged by the Palladion, a court which had jurisdiction over unintentional homicide; the imposed penalty seems to have been more than a fine but less than death—maybe exile, as was the case in the murder of a Metic.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: However, slaves did belong to their master's household. A newly bought slave was welcomed with nuts and fruits, just like a newly-wed wife. Slaves took part in most of the civic and family cults; they were expressly invited to join the banquet of the "Choes", the second day of the Anthesteria, and were allowed initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries. A slave could claim asylum in a temple or at an altar, just like a free man. The slaves shared the gods of their masters and could keep their own religious customs if any.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Slaves could not own property, but their masters often let them save up to purchase their freedom, and records survive of slaves operating businesses by themselves, making only a fixed tax-payment to their masters. Athens also had a law forbidding the striking of slaves: if a person struck what appeared to be a slave in Athens, that person might find himself hitting a fellow citizen because many citizens dressed no better. It astonished other Greeks that Athenians tolerated back-chat from slaves. Athenian slaves fought together with Athenian freemen at the battle of Marathon, and the monuments memorialize them. It was formally decreed before the Battle of Salamis that the citizens should "save themselves, their women, children, and slaves".


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Slaves had special sexual restrictions and obligations. For example, a slave could not engage free boys in pederastic relationships ("A slave shall not be the lover of a free boy nor follow after him, or else he shall receive fifty blows of the public lash."), and they were forbidden from the palaestrae ("A slave shall not take exercise or anoint himself in the wrestling-schools."). Both laws are attributed to Solon.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The sons of vanquished foes would be enslaved and often forced to work in male brothels, as in the case of Phaedo of Elis, who at the request of Socrates was bought and freed from such an enterprise by the philosopher's rich friends. On the other hand, it is attested in sources that the rape of slaves was prosecuted, at least occasionally.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: In Gortyn, in Crete, according to a code engraved in stone dating to the 3rd century BC, slaves ("doulos" or "oikeus") found themselves in a state of great dependence. Their children belonged to the master. The master was responsible for all their offences, and, inversely, he received amends for crimes committed against his slaves by others. In the Gortyn code, where all punishment was monetary, fines were doubled for slaves committing a misdemeanour or felony. Conversely, an offence committed against a slave was much less expensive than an offence committed against a free person. As an example, the rape of a free woman by a slave was punishable by a fine of 200 staters (400 drachms), while the rape of a non-virgin slave by another slave brought a fine of only one obolus (a sixth of a drachm).


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Slaves did have the right to possess a house and livestock, which could be transmitted to descendants, as could clothing and household furnishings. Their family was recognized by law: they could marry, divorce, write a testament and inherit just like free men.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Prior to its interdiction by Solon, Athenians practiced debt enslavement: a citizen incapable of paying his debts became "enslaved" to the creditor. The exact nature of this dependency is a much controversial issue among modern historians: was it truly slavery or another form of bondage? However, this issue primarily concerned those peasants known as "hektēmoroi" working leased land belonging to rich landowners and unable to pay their rents. In theory, those so enslaved would be liberated when their original debts were repaid. The system was developed with variants throughout the Near East and is cited in the Bible.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Solon put an end to it with the / "seisachtheia", liberation of debts, which prevented all claim to the person by the debtor and forbade the sale of free Athenians, including by themselves. Aristotle in his "Constitution of the Athenians" quotes one of Solon's poems:


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Though much of Solon's vocabulary is that of ”traditional” slavery, servitude for debt was at least different in that the enslaved Athenian remained an Athenian, dependent on another Athenian, in his place of birth. It is this aspect which explains the great wave of discontent with slavery of the 6th century BC, which was not intended to free all slaves but only those enslaved by debt. The reforms of Solon left two exceptions: the guardian of an unmarried woman who had lost her virginity had the right to sell her as a slave, and a citizen could "expose" (abandon) unwanted newborn children.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The practice of manumission is confirmed to have existed in Chios from the 6th century BC. It probably dates back to an earlier period, as it was an oral procedure. Informal emancipations are also confirmed in the classical period. It was sufficient to have witnesses, who would escort the citizen to a public emancipation of his slave, either at the theatre or before a public tribunal. This practice was outlawed in Athens in the middle of the 6th century BC to avoid public disorder.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The practice became more common in the 4th century BC and gave rise to inscriptions in stone which have been recovered from shrines such as Delphi and Dodona. They primarily date to the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and the 1st century AD. Collective manumission was possible; an example is known from the 2nd century BC in the island of Thasos. It probably took place during a period of war as a reward for the slaves' loyalty, but in most cases the documentation deals with a voluntary act on the part of the master (predominantly male, but in the Hellenistic period also female).


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The slave was often required to pay for himself an amount at least equivalent to his market value. To this end they could use their savings or take a so-called "friendly" loan ( / "eranos") from their master, a friend or a client like the hetaera Neaira did.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Emancipation was often of a religious nature, where the slave was considered to be "sold" to a deity, often Delphian Apollo, or was consecrated after his emancipation. The temple would receive a portion of the monetary transaction and would guarantee the contract. The manumission could also be entirely civil, in which case the magistrate played the role of the deity.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The slave’s freedom could be either total or partial, at the master’s whim. In the former, the emancipated slave was legally protected against all attempts at re-enslavement—for instance, on the part of the former master’s inheritors. In the latter case, the emancipated slave could be liable to a number of obligations to the former master. The most restrictive contract was the "paramone", a type of enslavement of limited duration during which time the master retained practically absolute rights. If a former master sued the former slave for not fulfilling a duty, however, and the slave was found innocent, the latter gained complete freedom from all duties toward the former. Some inscriptions imply a mock process of that type could be used for a master to grant his slave complete freedom in a legally binding manner.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: In regard to the city, the emancipated slave was far from equal to a citizen by birth. He was liable to all types of obligations, as one can see from the proposals of Plato in "The Laws": presentation three times monthly at the home of the former master, forbidden to become richer than him, etc. In fact, the status of emancipated slaves was similar to that of metics, the residing foreigners, who were free but did not enjoy a citizen’s rights.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Spartan citizens used helots, an enslaved group (that formed the majority of the population) collectively owned by the state. It is uncertain whether Spartan citizens had chattel slaves as well. There are mentions of people manumitted by Spartans, which was supposedly forbidden for helots, or sold outside of Laconia. For example, the poet Alcman; a Philoxenos from Cytherea, reputedly enslaved with all his fellow citizens when his city was conquered, was later sold to an Athenian; a Spartan cook bought by Dionysius the Elder or by a king of Pontus, both versions being mentioned by Plutarch; and the famous Spartan nurses, much appreciated by Athenian parents.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Some texts mention both slaves and helots, which seems to indicate that they were not the same thing. Plato in "Alcibiades I" cites "the ownership of slaves, and notably helots" among the Spartan riches, and Plutarch writes about "slaves and helots". Finally, according to Thucydides, the agreement that ended the 464 BC revolt of helots stated that any Messenian rebel who might hereafter be found within the Peloponnese was "to be the slave of his captor", which means that the ownership of chattel slaves was not illegal at that time.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Most historians thus concur that chattel slaves were indeed used in the Greek city-state of Sparta, at least after the Lacedemonian victory of 404 BC against Athens, but not in great numbers and only among the upper classes. As it was in the other Greek cities, chattel slaves could be purchased at the market or taken in war.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges mentions that there was a hierarchy of classes superposed one above the other in the Spartan society. If the Helots and the Laconians are left out, the hierarchy would be as follows: first there were the Neodamodes (former slaves freed), then the Epeunactae (helots who slept with Spartan widows in order to help Sparta with manpower shortage because of war casualties), then the Mothaces (very similar to domestic clients) and then the bastards (who though descended from true Spartans, were separated).


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: It is difficult to appreciate the condition of Greek slaves. According to Aristotle, the daily routine of slaves could be summed up in three words: "work, discipline, and feeding". Xenophon notes the accepted practice of treating slaves as domestic animals, that is to say punishing them for disobedience and rewarding them for good behaviour. For his part, Aristotle prefers to see slaves treated as children and to use not only orders but also recommendations, as the slave is capable of understanding reasons when they are explained.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Greek literature abounds with scenes of slaves being flogged; it was a means of forcing them to work, as were control of rations, clothing, and rest. This violence could be meted out by the master or the supervisor, who was possibly also a slave. Thus, at the beginning of Aristophanes' "The Knights" (4–5), two slaves complain of being "bruised and thrashed without respite" by their new supervisor. However, Aristophanes himself cites what is a typical old saw in ancient Greek comedy:


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: He also dismissed those slaves who kept on running off, or deceiving someone, or getting whipped. They were always led out crying, so one of their fellow slaves could mock the bruises and ask then: 'Oh you poor miserable fellow, what's happened to your skin? Surely a huge army of lashes from a whip has fallen down on you and laid waste your back?'


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The condition of slaves varied very much according to their status; the mine slaves of Laureion and the "pornai" (brothel prostitutes) lived a particularly brutal existence, while public slaves, craftsmen, tradesmen and bankers enjoyed relative independence. In return for a fee ( / "apophora") paid to their master, they could live and work alone. They could thus earn some money on the side, sometimes enough to purchase their freedom. Potential emancipation was indeed a powerful motivator, though the real scale of this is difficult to estimate.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Ancient writers considered that Attic slaves enjoyed a "peculiarly happy lot": Pseudo-Xenophon deplores the liberties taken by Athenian slaves: "as for the slaves and Metics of Athens, they take the greatest licence; you cannot just strike them, and they do not step aside to give you free passage". This alleged good treatment did not prevent 20,000 Athenian slaves from running away at the end of the Peloponnesian War at the incitement of the Spartan garrison at Attica in Decelea. These were principally skilled artisans ("kheirotekhnai"), probably among the better-treated slaves, although some researchers believe them to be mainly workers of the mines of Laurion, whose conditions were infamously harsh. The title of a 4th-century comedy by Antiphanes, "The Runaway-catcher" (), suggests that slave flight was not uncommon.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Conversely, there are no records of a large-scale Greek slave revolt comparable to that of Spartacus in Rome. It can probably be explained by the relative dispersion of Greek slaves, which would have prevented any large-scale planning. Slave revolts were rare, even in Rome. Individual acts of rebellion of slaves against their master, though scarce, are not unheard of; a judicial speech mentions the attempted murder of his master by a boy slave, not 12 years old.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Very few authors of antiquity call slavery into question. To Homer and the pre-classical authors, slavery was an inevitable consequence of war. Heraclitus states that "[w]ar is the father of all, the king of all...he turns some into slaves and sets others free." Aristotle also felt this way, stating "the law by which whatever is taken in war is supposed to belong to the victors." He also states that it might have a few issues though, ”For what if the cause of war be unjust?” If the war was because of an unfair or incorrect reason, should the victors of that war be allowed to take the losers as slaves?


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: During the classical period the main justification for slavery was economic. From a philosophical point of view, the idea of "natural" slavery emerged at the same time; thus, as Aeschylus states in "The Persians", the Greeks "[o]f no man are they called the slaves or vassals", while the Persians, as Euripides states in "Helen", "are all slaves, except one"—the Great King. Hippocrates theorizes about this latent idea at the end of the 5th century BC. According to him, the temperate climate of Anatolia produced a placid and submissive people. This explanation is reprised by Plato, then Aristotle in "Politics", where he develops the concept of "natural slavery": "for he that can foresee with his mind is naturally ruler and naturally master, and he that can do these things with his body is subject and naturally a slave." As opposed to an animal, a slave can comprehend reason but "…has not got the deliberative part at all."


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Alcidamas, at the same time as Aristotle, took the opposite view, saying: ""nature" has made "nobody" a slave".


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: In parallel, the concept that all men, whether Greek or barbarian, belonged to the same race was being developed by the Sophists and thus that certain men were slaves although they had the soul of a freeman and vice versa. Aristotle himself recognized this possibility and argued that slavery could not be imposed unless the master was better than the slave, in keeping with his theory of "natural" slavery. The Sophists concluded that true servitude was not a matter of status but a matter of spirit; thus, as Menander stated, "be free in the mind, although you are slave: and thus you will no longer be a slave". This idea, repeated by the Stoics and the Epicurians, was not so much an opposition to slavery as a trivialization of it.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: The Greeks could not comprehend an absence of slaves. Slaves exist even in the "Cloud cuckoo land" of Aristophanes' "The Birds". The utopian cities of Phaleas of Chalcedon and Hippodamus of Miletus are based on the equal distribution of property, but public slaves are used respectively as craftsmen and land workers. The "reversed cities" placed women in power or even saw the end of private property, as in "Lysistrata" or "Assemblywomen", but could not picture slaves in charge of masters. The only societies without slaves were those of the Golden Age, where all needs were met without anyone having to work. In this type of society, as explained by Plato, one reaped generously without sowing. In Telekleides' "Amphictyons" barley loaves fight with wheat loaves for the honor of being eaten by men. Moreover, objects move themselves—dough kneads itself, and the jug pours itself. Similarly, Aristotle said that slaves would not be necessary "if every instrument could accomplish its own work... the shuttle would weave and the plectrum touch the lyre without a hand to guide them", like the legendary constructs of Daedalus and Hephaestus. Society without slaves is thus relegated to a different time and space. In a "normal" society, one needs slaves. Aristotle argues that slaves are a necessity though, saying "Property is part of the household, ... For no man can live well or indeed live at all, unless he be provided with necessaries." He also argues that slaves are the most important part of the property as they "take precedence of all the instruments." This would suggest that at least some slaves would be treated well for the same reason one would take great care of their most important tools. By viewing slaves as tools of a household, it creates another reason for acceptance of slavery. Aristotle says "indeed the use of slaves and of tame animals is not very different," showing as well that at least in part, some slaves were thought of no higher than the common tamed animals in use at the time. Antiphon viewed slaves as a bit more than common animals or tools. On the topic of a man killing his own slave, he says that the man should "purify himself and withhold himself from those places prescribed by law, in the hope that by doing so he will best avoid disaster." This suggests that there still is some sense of inappropriateness in killing a slave, even one owned by the killer.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Punishment of slaves would have been swift and harsh. Demosthenes viewed punishment for slaves as acceptable in the form of physical harm or injuries for all that they may have done wrong, stating "the body of a slave is made responsible for all his misdeeds, whereas corporal punishment is the last penalty to inflict on a free man." This was spoken about in legal proceedings, suggesting that it would have been a widely accepted way of treating slaves.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Slavery in Greek antiquity has long been an object of apologetic discourse among Christians, who are typically awarded the merit of its collapse. From the 16th century the discourse became moralizing in nature. The existence of colonial slavery had significant impact on the debate, with some authors lending it civilizing merits and others denouncing its misdeeds. Thus Henri-Alexandre Wallon in 1847 published a "History of Slavery in Antiquity" among his works for the abolition of slavery in the French colonies.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: In the 19th century, a politico-economic discourse emerged. It concerned itself with distinguishing the phases in the organisation of human societies and correctly identifying the place of Greek slavery. According to Karl Marx, the ancient society was characterized by development of private ownership and the dominant (and not secondary as in other pre-capitalist societies) character of slavery as a mode of production. The Positivists represented by the historian Eduard Meyer ("Slavery in Antiquity", 1898) were soon to oppose the Marxist theory. According to him slavery was the foundation of Greek democracy. It was thus a legal and social phenomenon, and not economic.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: Current historiography developed in the 20th century; led by authors such as Joseph Vogt, it saw in slavery the conditions for the development of elites. Conversely, the theory also demonstrates an opportunity for slaves to join the elite. Finally, Vogt estimates that modern society, founded on humanist values, has surpassed this level of development.


title: Slavery in ancient Greece

text: In 2011, Greek slavery remains the subject of historiographical debate, on two questions in particular: can it be said that ancient Greece was a "slave society", and did Greek slaves comprise a social class?


title: Red Velvet (wrestler)

text: Stephanie M. Cardona (born June 3, 1992), better known by the ring name Red Velvet, is a Colombian-American professional wrestler and dancer. She is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW).


title: Red Velvet (wrestler)

text: Velvet began training at Fighting Evolution Wrestling (FEW) under JB Cool, based in Miami, Fl, in 2015. She made her in-ring debut, under the ring name Red Velvett, on March 24, 2016 in a singles match against Rebel, in a losing effort. On August 19, 2016, Velvet won the FEW Women's Championship in a triple threat match against Jade and Rebel. On January 21, 2017, Velvet lost the title to Lea Nox. On November 2, 2018, she made her SHINE debut against Avery Taylor, which she was pinned.


title: Red Velvet (wrestler)

text: On June 10, 2020, Velvet made her All Elite Wrestling debut on "AEW Dark", facing Allie and Brandi Rhodes in a tag team match, which she lost. On the June 24 episode of "AEW Dynamite", Velvet made her Dynamite debut and faced Hikaru Shida which Velvet lost via pinfall. On October 13, Velvet won her first match in AEW on "AEW Dark" against Elayna Black by pinning her. On the December 9 episode of "AEW Dynamite" Jade Cargill attacked Velvet backstage. On January 27, 2021, it was then announced that Velvet and Cody Rhodes will be taking on Jade Cargill and Shaquille O'Neal in a mixed tag team match on the March 3 episode of "Dynamite" titled The Crossroads. The team of Cody Rhodes and Velvet lost to Jade Cargill and Shaquille O'Neal by Jade Cargill winning via pinfall. On March 25, it was announced that Velvet signed a full-time contract with All Elite Wrestling. On the May 19 episode of "Dynamite," Velvet faced Serena Deeb for the NWA World Women's Championship which Velvet lost by submission. On August 13 Velvet challenged Britt Baker for the AEW Women's World Championship on the debut show "AEW Rampage" which they were the main event of, Velvet lost by submission. On November 5 episode of "Rampage" Velvet took part in the AEW women's TBS championship tournament where she faced The Bunny and won making her advance to the next round. On the November 19 episode of "Rampage" Velvet competed in the second round of the tournament facing Jade Cargill which Velvet lost to. On April 8 2022, on "Rampage", Velvet participated in the AEW Owen Hart Cup facing Willow Nightingale in the qualifying round where she won advancing to the next round. On April 13, on "Dynamite" Velvet became apart of The Baddies stable which includes her, Kiera Hogan and Jade Cargill, establishing herself as a heel for the first time in her career. On May 20 on "Rampage" Velvet faced Kris Statlander in the quarter finals of the Owen Hart Cup where she lost. On June 22 it was revealed on "Dynamite" that Velvet had sustained an injury. Velvet made her return to AEW television on the November 23 episode of Dynamite.


title: Red Velvet (wrestler)

text: Cardona is of Colombian descent. She is the daughter of the Colombian World Flyweight boxing champion, Prudencio Cardona. On December 18, 2020, she announced her engagement to fellow professional wrestler Wes Brisco, However as of July 2022, she is in a relationship with Chandler Hopkins.


title: Lotus Bakeries

text: Lotus Bakeries is a Belgian biscuit company, founded in 1932, with its headquarters in Lembeke, Kaprijke, Belgium. Lotus is known for its speculoos biscuits and biscuit-based products, branded as Lotus Biscoff in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Germany and India. The company has become an international group. Brands include Lotus, Lotus Biscoff, Dinosaurus, Peijnenburg, Annas, Nākd, TREK, BEAR and Kiddylicious.


title: Lotus Bakeries

text: The company Lotus was founded in Lembeke in 1932 by the brothers Jan, Emiel and Henri Boone. When the company was founded, the brothers made cookies for breakfast and also "speculoos" for St Nicholas' Day; they later specialised in "speculoos". Karel Boone, the son of founder Jan Boone, became a director in 1966 and was the CEO of Lotus for 32 years from 1974, and then the president of the company for 20 years (1966–2012). In the mid-1980s, Delta became the first airline to serve Biscoff in-flight, a move that their full-service competitors, American and United, have mimicked to great success.


title: Lotus Bakeries

text: In 2006, his brother Matthieu took over as CEO. At the end of 2011, a new generation took over with Jan Boone becoming the new CEO of the company.


title: Lotus Bakeries

text: In 2012, Lotus took over the Dinosaurus brand, starting production in mid-2013. In 2015, Lotus started producing the Trek, Nākd, BEAR and Kiddylicious brands.


title: Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

text: The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to protect women from domestic violence. It was brought into force by the Indian government and Ministry of Women and Child Development on 26 October 2006. The Act provides a definition of "domestic violence" for the first time in Indian law, with this definition being broad and including not only physical violence, but also other forms of violence such as emotional, verbal, sexual and psychological abuse. It is a civil law meant primarily for protection orders, rather than criminal enforcement.


text: The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 is different from the provisions of the Indian Penal Code in that it provides a broader definition of domestic violence in what it covers and who it protects.


text: Pursuant to the Act, the aggrieved person is defined as "any woman who is, or has been, in a domestic relationship with the respondent and who alleges to have been subjected to domestic violence by the respondent." This law protects not only women from violence within their husband-wife relationships, but women living in the same home with people with whom they are in a domestic relationship with. This protects women from violence within their relationships by marriage (ex: husband-wife, daughter-in-law with father-in-law/mother-in-law/etc), relationships by blood (ex: father-daughter, sister-brother), relationships by adoption (ex: adopted daughter-father), and even relationships in the nature of marriage (ex: live-in relationships, legally invalid marriages). This Act was considered to be the first piece of legislation to provide legal recognition and protection to relationships outside of marriage.


text: Domestic violence is defined by Section 3 of the Act as "any act, omission or commission or conduct of the respondent shall constitute domestic violence in case it:


text: The Act includes and defines not only physical violence, but also other forms of violence such as emotional/verbal, sexual, and economic abuse through the section "Chapter 1 - Preliminary".


text: Primarily meant to provide protection to the wife or female live-in partner from domestic violence at the hands of the husband or male live-in partner or his relatives, the law also extends its protection to women living in a household such as sisters, widows or mothers. Domestic violence under the act includes actual abuse, whether physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic, or the threat of abuse. This definition also includes harassment by way of unlawful dowry demands to the woman or her relatives.


text: The aggrieved person also has the right to reside in the shared home regardless of whether or not she has any title or ownership over the home.


text: The Act recognizes the aggrieved person's right to reside in the shared household; however, the Act also establishes the aggrieved person's right to reside in a shelter home as a form of relief. A Protection Officer or a service provider may also request this shelter on behalf of the aggrieved person. The Ministry of Women and Child Development in each State or Union Territory is required to recognize and notify of shelter homes available to aggrieved persons.


text: Medical facilities are bound to provide free medical aid, even if the aggrieved woman requests aid without any prior recommendation either from the Protection Officer or the service provider. The obligations of the medical facility are independent of, and shall be fulfilled regardless of the fulfillment of, those of the Protection Officer and service provider.


text: According to Shalu Nigam, there are several gaps in the implementation of laws intended to protect women from domestic violence, including the 2005 Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act. Lack of awareness of the law, and therefore the accessibility and awareness of services, types of relief, and legal rights, prevents proper implementation of the law. Some of these implementation issues revolve around some districts, such as Odisha, giving these new regulation responsibilities to existing officers rather than employing new Protection Officers. This implementation gap results in duties pertaining to the Act being unfulfilled as PO responsibilities fall secondary to the officers' prior duties. Another barrier to the implementation of the law is the lack of meaningful immediate relief for survivors of domestic violence, such as "practical remedies in terms of medical aid, short-stay homes, creche facilities, psychological support, shelter homes or economic or material assistance", according to Shalu Nigam. In most districts, shelter homes are the only available form of immediate relief; survivors of domestic violence often also need "medical treatment, trauma counseling, clothes and ready cash, which are not provided in the shelter homes."


text: Beyond enforcement, implementation is also dependent on the slow-moving social acceptability of reporting these cases.


text: India's Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System wrote a report on offenses against women, in which the committee sought to expand the definition of "wife" to include women who lived with a man as his wife for a long period of time "during the subsistence of the first marriage". This specification implicated this expanded definition of "wife" refers to relationships between a woman and an already married man, rather than non-marital relationships. When Maharashtra attempted to follow the recommendations in the committee's report, the legal status of non-marital, live-in relationships was brought into public discussion. The protection of women in non-marital live-in relationships in the same law applied to marital relationships was construed as an effort to legalize secondary marriages or non-marital live-in relationships. The committee's recommendations were in fact cited in a legal case, "Chanmuniya vs Virendra Kumar Singh Kushwaha and Another" (2010), to support an interpretation of the definition of "wife" to include relationships where a marriage is "presumed" due to a long period of cohabitation.


text: One criticism revolves around the law's lack of effective force in responding to the criminal act of domestic violence. As the law serves chiefly as a civil law, a further offense (such as violating a Protection Order issued under this law) is required before triggering criminal law sanctions against the respondent, such as arrest and imprisonment. However, groups involved in drafting the law believed this would provide more rapid and flexible relief for the victim.


text: Men's organizations such as the Save Indian Family Foundation have opposed the law, arguing that it might be misused by women during disputes. It has been noticed by women's groups that such claims emerge only when special provisions are made for the marginalised.


text: Renuka Chowdhury, the Indian Minister for Women and Child Development, agreed in a "Hindustan Times" article that "an equal gender law would be ideal. But there is simply too much physical evidence to prove that it is mainly the woman who suffers at the hands of man".


text: Former Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee has also criticized the broad definition of verbal abuse in the act.


text: According to the then President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, "Another disquieting trend has been that women themselves have not been innocent of abusing women. Some surveys have concluded that 90 percent of dowry complaints are false and were registered primarily to settle scores. It is unfortunate if laws meant to protect women get abused as instruments of oppression. The bottom-line therefore, is the fair invocation of legal provisions and their objective and honest implementation."


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: "Ashes to Ashes" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, originally released on 1 August 1980 as the lead single from his 1980 album "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)". Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, it was recorded from February to April 1980 in New York and London and features guitar synthesiser played by Chuck Hammer. An art rock, art pop and new wave song led by a flanged piano riff, the lyrics act as a sequel to Bowie's 1969 hit "Space Oddity", depicting the astronaut Major Tom as a "junkie" alone floating in space. Bowie partially based the lyrics on his own experiences with drug addiction throughout the 1970s.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: The song's music video, co-directed by Bowie and David Mallet, was at the time the most expensive music video ever made. The solarised video features Bowie as a clown, an astronaut and an asylum inmate, each representing variations on the song's themes, and four members of London's Blitz club, including Steve Strange. Influential on the then-rising New Romantic movement, commentators consider it one of Bowie's best videos and of all time.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Upon release, "Ashes to Ashes" became Bowie's second No. 1 UK single and his fastest-selling single up to that point. Bowie performed the song only once during 1980 but frequently during his later concert tours. Initially viewed with mixed critical reactions, later reviewers and biographers consider it one of Bowie's finest songs, particularly praising its unique musical structure. In subsequent decades, the song has appeared on compilation albums and other artists have covered, sampled or used its musical elements for their own songs. The song's namesake was also used for the 2008 BBC series of the same name.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: The sessions for David Bowie's "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" commenced at the Power Station in New York City in February 1980, with production handled by Bowie and longtime collaborator Tony Visconti. The backing tracks for "Ashes to Ashes" were recorded under the working title "People Are Turning to Gold". The band, like Bowie's four previous albums, consisted of Carlos Alomar on guitar, George Murray on bass and Dennis Davis on drums. Roy Bittan, a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band who were recording "The River" (1980) in the adjacent studio, contributed piano while session musician Chuck Hammer played guitar synthesiser. Hammer, who dubbed his work "guitarchitecture", formerly toured for Lou Reed and was hired by Bowie after he sent tapes of his work to him. Visconti stated that Hammer "would pick a note and out of his amplifier would come a symphonic string section".


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: For their parts, Alomar played "opaque reggae" and Murray played a funk bassline using a mixture of fingerstyle and slapping. Davis initially struggled with the ska drumbeat. Bowie played the beat he envisioned for the drummer on a chair and cardboard box, which Davis studied and learned, recording the final take the next day. Although desiring a Wurlitzer electronic piano to tape Bittan's piano part, Visconti ran a grand piano through an Eventide Instant Flanger to imitate the sound of one upon learning the real Wurlitzer would take too long to deliver. For his parts, Hammer layered four multi-track guitar textures, each given different treatments through the Eventide Harmonizer, which were recorded in the studio's back stairwell to add extra reverb. According to biographer Chris O'Leary, he played "various chord inversions for each chorus section", although Visconti said that "it's the warm string choir you hear on the part that goes, 'I've never done good things, I've never done bad things...


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: The backing tracks were recorded without lyrics or melodies pre-written. Unlike his recent Berlin Trilogy, wherein Bowie wrote lyrics almost immediately after the backing tracks were finished, he wanted to take time writing melodies and lyrics for the "Scary Monsters" songs. Feeling nostalgic, he had the idea of writing a sequel to his first hit "Space Oddity" (1969), a tale about a fictional astronaut named Major Tom, after re-recording the song in 1979 for "The "Will Kenny Everett Make It to 1980?" Show". Bowie stated in 1980:


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Reconvening in April 1980 at Visconti's own Good Earth Studios in London, Bowie and Visconti recorded the vocal tracks and additional overdubs for the now-titled "Ashes to Ashes". According to author Peter Doggett states that Bowie originally sang the title as "ashes to ash" and "funk to funky" as "fun to funky" before settling on the final lines. For overdubs, Visconti added additional percussion and contributions from session keyboardist Andy Clark, who had been introduced to Visconti by ["Kenny Everett" 'Space Oddity'] drummer Andy Duncan. According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, Clark "provided the symphonic sounds" that end the track, while O'Leary says his parts are "a high pitch in the chorus". Upon finishing the track, Visconti recalled: "We love[d] it immensely and knew it was one of the major tracks."


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Characterised by commentators as art rock, art pop and new wave, Pegg describes "Ashes to Ashes" a culmination of Bowie's late 1970s experimental period. With a funk rhythm, a guitar synth-led sound and complex vocal layering, author James E. Perone considers it the most musically accessible song on "Scary Monsters" and on any Bowie album in several years. The author likens Murray's funky bass playing to the plastic soul of "Young Americans" (1975) and "Station to Station" (1976).


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: The song's musical structure is unique and unusual, which Perone argues made it stand out in pop music at the time. as an arpeggio figure, the piano riff appears to have a "missing bar" rather than repeating every three bars, creating a feeling of being in 3/4 time in a 4/4 setting. The vocal melody also matches the piano riff through its use of contrasting beats, such as "funk" on the downbeat and "fun-ky" on the off-beat. Visconti called the beat "a mind-bender": "Your brain tells you this isn't supposed to work." Additionally, the vocal melody features contrasting phrasing, meaning the verses consist of unrelated sections, singing through bars ("Major To-om's"), key changes, large vocal register changes and contrasting singing styles. O'Leary comments: "It's as if the conductor of an orchestra is also the lead tenor."


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: "Ashes to Ashes" takes melodic inspiration from "Inchworm" by Danny Kaye, who was one of Bowie's earliest influences. Originating from the 1952 musical film "Hans Christian Andersen", Bowie stated in 2003 that "Inchworm" chords were one of the first he learned on guitar, calling them "remarkable" and "melancholic": Ashes to Ashes' is influenced by that. It's childlike and melancholic in that children's story way." Like "Inchworm", "Ashes to Ashes" contains moves from F to E-flat to close out verses. The song itself is in the key of A-flat major, with the intro and outro featuring "intrusions" of B-flat minor. O'Leary refers to the two bridges as "series of arcs", as Bowie starts low in his register, rising to high and descending back to low in the same breath. The second verse features dead-pan backing vocals "delay-echoing" the lead vocal.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Melancholic and introspective, the song's lyrics act as a sequel to "Space Oddity", which ends with Major Tom alone floating out in space. Eleven years after liftoff, Ground Control receives a message from Major Tom, who has succumbed to drug addiction and increased paranoia following his abandonment to space: "Strung out in heaven's high / hitting an all-time low." Ground Control are not keen on the astronaut's reappearance – "Oh no, don't say it's true" – and pretend that he is fine, in Doggett's words mimicking "government agencies everywhere". The astronaut reflects on his life and hopes for the future: "I'm hoping to kick / but the planet is glowing." He wishes he could break free from his "caged psyche": "Want an axe to break the ice / Wanna come down right now." His pleas are disregarded by the public, leading him to proclaim that he has "never done good things", has "never done bad things" and "never did anything out of the blue". The song ends with the nursery rhythm lines "My mother said / to get things done / you'd better not mess with Major Tom".


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Described by the artist as "a story of corruption", Bowie wanted to see where Major Tom ended up in the 1970s:


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Regarding the song's drug references, Bowie joked about getting the word "junkie" past the BBC's censors in an interview with "NME" in September 1980. Comparing "Space Oddity" with "Ashes to Ashes", NPR's Jason Heller evaluated the latter's technological undertones compared to the "psychedelically spacious" former. Writer Tom Ewing wrote that it was as if "Major Tom thought he was starring in an Arthur C. Clarke story and found himself in a Philip K. Dick one by mistake, and the result is oddly magnificent."


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Reviewers have interpreted "Ashes to Ashes" as commentary on Bowie's own personal struggles with drug addiction throughout the 1970s. Several said the song represents Bowie's reflection and acknowledgement of the past, at the same time offering hopes for the future. Bowie himself said the "Scary Monsters" album was an attempt to "accommodate" his "pasts", as "you have to understand why you went through them". The lyrics describe Major Tom as a junkie who has hit "an all-time low". "NME" editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray interpreted the line as a play on the title of Bowie's 1977 album "Low", which charted his withdrawal inwards following his drug excesses in America a short time before, another reversal of Major Tom's original withdrawal "outwards" or towards space.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Buckley argues that Bowie offered a comment on his entire career "using a rather sarcastic piece of self-deprecation" with the line "I've never done good things / I've never done bad things / I never did anything out of the blue." Bowie himself said that these three lines "represent a continuing, returning feeling of inadequacy over what I've done. I have a lot of reservations about what I've done, inasmuch as I don't feel much of it has any import at all." On the artist's future, Buckley interprets the axe line as the artist's desire to move into less experimental territory and more "normalised" ground. Years later, Bowie said that "I was wrapping up the seventies really for myself, and that seemed a good enough epitaph for it – that we've lost him, he's out there somewhere, we'll leave him be." Heller agreed, arguing that it provided closure for the artist's "most momentous decade".


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: The music video for "Ashes to Ashes" was co-directed by Bowie and David Mallet, who had previously directed the videos for "Lodger" (1979). Filmed at a cost of £250,000, it was the most expensive music video ever made at the time and remains one of the most expensive of all time. Shot in May 1980 over a period of three days, Bowie storyboarded the video himself, planning every shot and dictating the editing process. Mallet used the new Paintbox computer programme to alter the colour palatte, rendering the sky black and the ocean pink. Writer Michael Shore described Mallet's direction as "deliberately overloaded": "demented, horror-movie camera angles, heavy solarisations, neurotic cuts from supersaturated colour to black-and-white."


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: The video utilised multiple locations, including at Beachy Head and Hastings. Shooting at the beach was Mallet's idea; he later said: "[It is] one of the very rare places you can get right down to the water and there's a cliff towering over you." The crew found an abandoned bulldozer on the beach and were able to contact its owners and employ it for the shoot. Meanwhile, the "padded cell" and "exploded kitchen" sets were developed from "The "Will Kenny Everett Make It to 1980?" Show" performance of "Space Oddity", also shot by Mallet, the year prior. Similar to Bowie's other music videos, "Ashes to Ashes" does not tell a story, instead being filled with strange images that Buckley compares to a "dreamlike mental state". Discussing the connections between the different locations, Shore states "the stunningly elegant self-referential video-within-video motif, wherein each new sequence is introduced by Bowie holding a postcard-sized video screen displaying the first shot of the next scene."


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: In the video, Bowie portrays three different characters—a clown, astronaut and asylum inmate—all of whom represent variations of the song's "outsider theme". His four followers, donning black clerical robes, were members of London's Blitz nightclub, a "Bowie-worshipping nightclub" that housed several up-and-coming artists of the New Romantic era, including Steve Strange, a future member of Visage. Strange later told biographer Marc Spitz that his robe kept getting caught in the bulldozer. "That's why I kept doing that move where I pull my arm down. So I wouldn't be crushed." Strange's friend Richard Sharah did Bowie's make-up for both the video and the "Scary Monsters" photo shoot the previous month, while his Italian Pierrot costume was designed by Natasha Korniloff, whose affiliation with Bowie dated back to his days as a mime with Lindsay Kemp in 1968. The elderly woman who appears at the video's end, acting as Bowie's mother, was not, according to popular belief, his actual mother.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: In his book "Strange Fascination", Buckley states that the video conveys an "Edwardian queasiness", depicting "a world of nostalgia, childhood reminiscence and distant memories". Pegg and Buckley interpret Bowie's three characters, archetypes that had permeated his songwriting for a decade, act as an "exorcism of his past". Bowie himself described the shot of him and his followers walking up the shoreline while the bulldozer trails behind them as symbolising "oncoming violence". He also said the followers have religious undertones, "an ominous quality that's rooted quite deeply". Scenes of the singer in a space suit—which suggested a hospital life-support system—and others showing him locked in what appeared to be a padded room, referred to both Major Tom and to Bowie's new, rueful interpretation of him. The former scenes were "intentionally" derived from H. R. Giger's designs for the 1979 film "Alien". Bowie clarified:


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: "Ashes to Ashes" was released in edited form as the lead single from "Scary Monsters" on 1 August 1980, with the catalogue number RCA BOW 6 and the "Lodger" track "Move On" as the B-side. RCA stressed the relationship of "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes" by releasing a nine-minute promo on 12" vinyl in America titled "The Continuing Story of Major Tom", which segued the former into the latter. The British single came in three different picture sleeves, each packaged with four different sheets of adhesive stamps, all featuring Bowie in his Pierrot costume from the music video; Pegg says this was RCA adopting "the craze for limited-edition collectables" that pervaded the 7" single market at the time. On the album, released on 12 September, "Ashes to Ashes" was sequenced in its full-length form as the fourth track on side one of the original LP, between the title track and "Fashion".


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: After years of dwindling commercial fortunes, "Ashes to Ashes" was a return to commercial form for Bowie. Debuting at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart, the single secured the top spot from ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All" a week later following the music video's broadcast on "Top of the Pops". It became Bowie's fastest-selling single up to that point and his second number one single following the 1975 reissue of "Space Oddity".


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Compared to the single's strong UK performance, the US release fared worse. With "It's No Game (No. 1)" as the B-side, the US single reaching No. 79 on the "Cash Box" Top 100 chart and No. 101 on the "Billboard" Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. Elsewhere, "Ashes to Ashes" charted at No. 3 in Australia and Norway, 4 in Ireland, 6 in Austria, New Zealand and Sweden, 9 in West Germany, 11 in the Netherlands' Dutch Top 40 and Switzerland, 15 in Belgium Flanders and the Netherlands' Dutch Single Top 100, and 35 in Canada. The song also reached No. 14 in France in 2016.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: "Ashes to Ashes" initially received mixed reviews from music critics. Amongst positive reviews, "Billboard" magazine said the song combines "rock and dance beats" with "tight rock rhythms lay the groundwork for the nuance-rich melody". In their reviews of the "Scary Monsters" album, "Billboard" and "The Spokesman-Review" Tom Sowa highlighted "Ashes to Ashes" as one of its best tracks.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: On the other hand, Deanne Pearson called it a "strange choice for a single" in "Smash Hits", one that was ultimately "not a hit" and should have been left as an album track. "Rolling Stone" Debra Rae Cohen described the song as Bowie's "most explicit self-indictment", and one that mirrors "the malaise of the times". Although Cohen found the track's imagery "chilling", she ultimately felt it was hard to see the song "as anything but perverse self-aggrandizement". Ronnie Gurr of "Record Mirror" was negative, finding it "not in truth a great effort". Nevertheless, the magazine ranked it the second best single of 1980, behind "Going Underground" by the Jam, while "NME" ranked it the fifth best single of the year.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Bowie only performed "Ashes to Ashes" once in 1980, on 3 September for an appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". In subsequent decades, Bowie performed the song on the 1983 Serious Moonlight, 1990 Sound+Vision, 1999 Hours, 2002 Heathen (2002), and 2003–2004 A Reality tours.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: A Serious Moonlight performance, recorded on 12 September 1983, was included on the live album "Serious Moonlight (Live '83)", released as part of the "Loving the Alien (1983–1988)" box set in 2018 and separately the following year. The filmed performance also appears on the concert video "Serious Moonlight" (1984). Bowie's 25 June 2000 performance of the song at the Glastonbury Festival was released in 2018 on "Glastonbury 2000", while a recording from a special performance at the BBC Radio Theatre, London on 27 June 2000 was released on the bonus disc of "Bowie at the Beeb". Another live recording from the A Reality Tour, recorded in Dublin in November 2003, is included on the accompanying DVD and live album. Although O'Leary believes no live performances ever came close to matching the studio recording in quality, Pegg believes "Ashes to Ashes" made "successful transitions" to the stage.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: In later decades, reviewers and biographers consider "Ashes to Ashes" one of Bowie's best songs. Praise is given to its musicality and unique structure; Trynka, in particular, attributes the song's success to its "melodic inventiveness". Regarding its structure, O'Leary says the track "seems built by a surrealist watchmaker" due to the details present in the mix, deeming it one of Bowie's finest studio recordings. Writing for "Consequence of Sound", Nina Corcoran stated the song "makes the most of Bowie's musical creativity" and overall represents "an ode to the '70s". "American Songwriter" Joe Beviglia called the song a "dark masterpiece". "Rhino Entertainment" argued the song predicted the subsequent decade with its "omnibus clash of synthesized guitars, hard funk bassline and dissonant guitars".


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Some critics analysed the song against Bowie's entire career. O'Leary opines that while his career was far from over when the song was released, "Ashes to Ashes" is "his "last" song" or "the closing chapter that comes midway through the book." He concludes: "Bowie sings himself onstage with a children's rhyme: eternally falling, eternally young." "The Guardian" Alexis Petridis said the song represents a moment in his catalogue where "the correct response is to stand back and boggle in awe", because "everything about it – [its] lingering oddness of its sound, its constantly shifting melody and emotional tenor, its alternately self-mythologising and self-doubting lyrics – is perfect." Chris Gerard of "PopMatters" even considered it one of Bowie's signature songs.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Artists who have covered "Ashes to Ashes" live or in-studio include Tears for Fears for the 1992 "Ruby Trax" charity album, Uwe Schmidt, Northern Kings, the Shins, the Mike Flowers Pops and John Wesley Harding. Songs that used musical elements or lyrics from "Ashes to Ashes" include Marilyn Manson's "Apple of Sodom" (1997), Landscape's "Einstein a Go-Go" (1981) and Keane's "Better Than This" (2008). Song that directly sampled "Ashes to Ashes" included Samantha Mumba's UK top five hit "Body II Body" (2000) and James Murphy's remix of Bowie's 2013 single "Love Is Lost". The song's namesake was also used for the 2008 BBC sequel series of their popular time-travelling crime drama "Life on Mars", which itself took its name from another Bowie song.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: The music video has also received praise and recognition as a major influence on the then-rising New Romantic movement. Initially voted by "Record Mirror" readers as the best music video of 1980, together with "Fashion", MTV ranked the video the 58th greatest of all time in 1999. Over two decades later in 2021, "Rolling Stone" placed it at number 44 in their list of the 100 best music videos of all time. Discussing the video's influence upon its release, Andy Greene wrote: "MTV came onto the airwaves exactly one year later, and it would give rise to a whole new generation of Bowie imitators, but none of them could compete with the real deal." "Dig!" magazine also included "Ashes to Ashes" video in their list of 20 essential clips of the 1980s. Luke Edwards argued that the video "truly captured the spirit of the MTV age" before the channel's golden era.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Commentators hail the video as not only one of Bowie's finest, but one of the medium's high points. Considered "the defining early music video" by Buckley, and "one of the most significant and influential of the age" by Dave Thompson, its techniques and effects influenced videos of artists including Adam Ant, Duran Duran and the Cure. Pegg argues it "would define rock video for the early 1980s", while Heller contends it proved music videos were "viable promotional investments". Videos that later mimicked or took appropriation from the "Ashes to Ashes" video included Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey" (1982), Erasure's "Chorus" (1991), Marilyn Manson's "The Dope Show" (1998). The spacesuit Bowie wore in the video will be sold in 2022 as part of an auction of other music memorabilia by artists such as Rihanna, Noel Gallagher and Mel B.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: "Ashes to Ashes", in both its single edit and full-length forms, has made appearances on compilation albums. The single edit is included on "Changestwobowie" (1981), "Best of Bowie" (2002), "The Platinum Collection" (2006), "Nothing Has Changed" (2014) and "Legacy (The Very Best of David Bowie)" (2016), while the album version is included on the "Sound + Vision" box set (1989), "Changesbowie" (1990) and "The Singles Collection" (1993). The single edit was also included on "Re:Call 3", part of the "A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982)" compilation, in 2017. Rumours of an extended unreleased version, allegedly some 13-minutes long and featuring additional verses, a longer fade-out and a synthesiser solo. A 12-minute version that appeared on bootlegs was fake, simply repeating and splicing the verses. In 2020, Visconti said that no additional verses were recorded nor is he aware of any other versions of the song existing.


title: Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song)

text: Following Bowie's death in January 2016, "Rolling Stone" named "Ashes to Ashes" one of the 30 most essential songs of the artist's catalogue. The magazine wrote: "As offbeat as the song was, it's a testament to Bowie's art-pop genius that 'Ashes to Ashes' became a huge international hit." The song has appeared on lists of Bowie's greatest songs by "The Telegraph" (no order), "The Guardian" (No. 2), behind "Sound and Vision" (1977), "Digital Spy" (No. 3), "Far Out" and "Uncut" (No. 6), Smooth Radio (No. 7), "NME" (No. 9), "Mojo" (No. 10) and "Consequence of Sound" (No. 30). In 2016, "Ultimate Classic Rock" placed the single at number 10 in a list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best in 2016. Two years later, "NME" readers voted it Bowie's third best track, behind "All the Young Dudes" and "Life on Mars?".


title: Toast (food)

text: Toast is sliced bread that has been browned by radiant heat. The browning is the result of a Maillard reaction altering the flavor of the bread and making it firmer. The firm surface is easier to spread toppings on and the warmth can help butter reach its melting point. Toasting is a common method of making stale bread more palatable. Bread is toasted using a toaster or a toaster oven. Toast may contain carcinogens (acrylamide) caused by the browning process.


title: Toast (food)

text: Butter or margarine, and sweet toppings, such as jam or jelly, are commonly spread on toast. Regionally, savory spreads, such as peanut butter or yeast extract, may also be popular. Toast may accompany savory dishes such as soups or stews, or it can be topped with ingredients like eggs or baked beans to make a light meal. Toast is a common breakfast food. A sandwich may also use toasted bread.


title: Toast (food)

text: The word "toast" comes from the Latin "torrere" 'to burn'. One of the first references to toast in print is in a recipe for Oyle Soppys (flavoured onions stewed in a gallon of stale beer and a pint of oil) from 1430. In the 1400s and 1500s, toast was discarded or eaten after it was used as a flavoring for drinks. In the 1600s, toast was still thought of as something to be put into drinks. In his 1602 play "The Merry Wives of Windsor", Shakespeare gives Falstaff the line: "Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in't." Toast has been used as an element of American haute cuisine since at least the 1850s. Toasting is a common method of making stale bread more palatable.


title: Toast (food)

text: Sliced bread is commonly used in modern preparations; some of these specifically market their suitability for toasting.


title: Toast (food)

text: In a modern home kitchen, toast is usually made in a special-purpose electrical appliance, a toaster. Sliced bread is placed into the slots on the top of the toaster, the desired degree of toasting is set, and a lever is pushed down to expose the bread to the heated elements. The toast is popped up when it is ready. Bread toasted in a conventional toaster can "sweat" when it is served (i.e. water collects on the surface of the cooled toast). This occurs because moisture in the bread becomes steam while being toasted due to heat and when cooled the steam condenses into water droplets on the surface of the bread.


title: Toast (food)

text: It can also be toasted by a conveyor toaster, which device is often used in hotels, restaurants, and other food service locations. It works by having one heating element on the top and one on the bottom with a metal conveyor belt in the middle which carries the toast between the two heating elements. This allows toast to be made continuously, as more slices can be added at any time without waiting for previous ones to pop up.


title: Toast (food)

text: Toaster ovens are special small appliances made for toasting bread or for heating small amounts of other foods.


title: Toast (food)

text: Bread can also be toasted under a grill (or broiler), in an open oven, or lying on an oven rack. This "oven toast" is usually buttered before toasting. It can also be made by heating bread in a skillet or pan. Bread can also be toasted by holding it near, but not directly over, an open flame, such as a campfire or fireplace; special toasting utensils (e.g. toasting forks) are made for this purpose.


title: Toast (food)

text: Toast is most commonly eaten with butter or margarine spread over it, and may be served with preserves, spreads, or other toppings in addition to or instead of butter. Toast with jam or marmalade is popular. A few other condiments that can be enjoyed with toast are chocolate spread, cream cheese, and peanut butter. Yeast extracts such as Marmite in the UK, New Zealand and South Africa, and Vegemite in Australia are considered national traditions. Some sandwiches, such as the BLT, call for toast to be used rather than bread.


title: Toast (food)

text: Toast is an important component of many breakfasts. In the United Kingdom, toast is part of a traditional breakfast: it may be incorporated in a full breakfast or eaten with baked beans. A dish popular there with children is eggs and soldiers. Strips of toast (the soldiers) are dipped into the runny yolk of a soft-boiled egg through a hole made in the top of the eggshell, and eaten.


title: Toast (food)

text: Toast is also used in some traditional bland specialty diets for people with gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea. This is because toasting breaks down the starch in the bread and makes it easier to digest.


title: Toast (food)

text: In southern Sri Lanka, it is common for toast to be paired with a curry soup and mint tea. In Japan, people like to toast thick slices of bread. Toast became a staple dish in Japan after World War II, especially after it was introduced in school lunches throughout the country due to the shortage of rice. Thick slices of toasted bread are also eaten in regions of the US, where they are known as Texas toast. Street vendors in South Korea serve toast with a variety of toppings, usually fried eggs, vegetables and slices of meat, topped with sauces. Korean toast is to be eaten as a sandwich. In Southeast Asia, coconut jam is a popular spread for toast. Avocado toast is seen as a symbol of millennial culture.


title: Toast (food)

text: By 2013, "artisanal toast" had become a significant food trend in upscale American cities like San Francisco, where some commentators decried the increasing number of restaurants and bakeries selling freshly made toast at what was perceived to be an unreasonably high price.


title: Toast (food)

text: Toasted bread may contain Benzo["a"]pyrene and high levels of acrylamide, a carcinogen generated during the browning process. High acrylamide levels can also be found in other heated carbohydrate-rich foods. The darker the surface colour of the toast, the higher its concentration of acrylamide. That is why, according to the recommendations made by the British Food Standards Agency, bread should be toasted to the lightest colour acceptable. epidemiological studies suggest it is unlikely that dietary acrylamide consumption increases the risk of developing cancer.


title: Toast (food)

text: Another popular idiom associated with the word "toast" is the expression "to toast someone's health", which is typically done by one or more persons at a gathering by raising a glass in salute to the individual. This meaning is derived from the early meaning of "toast", which from the 1400s to the 1600s meant warmed bread that was placed in a drink. By the 1700s, there were references to the drink in which toast was dunked being used in a gesture that indicates respect: "Ay, Madam, it has been your Life's whole Pride of late to be the Common Toast of every Public Table."


title: Toast (food)

text: The slang idiom "you're toast", "I'm toast", or "we're toast" is used to express a state of being "outcast", "finished", "burned, scorched, wiped out, [or] demolished" (without even the consolation of being remembered, as with the slang term "you're history")." The first known use of "toast" as a metaphorical term for "you're dead" was in the film "Ghostbusters" (1984), in which Bill Murray's character Peter Venkman declares, "This chick is toast", before the Ghostbusters attempt to burn the villain with their nuclear-powered weapons. "Hey, dude. You're toast, man", which appeared in "The St. Petersburg Times" of Oct. 1, 1987, is the "...earliest [printed] citation the "Oxford English Dictionary" research staff has of this usage." In marijuana slang, to be "toasted" is to experience cannabis intoxication.


title: Toast (food)

text: Humorous observations have been made about buttered toast. It has been noted that buttered toast has a perceived tendency, when dropped, to land with the buttered side to the floor, the least desirable outcome. Although the concept of "dropped buttered toast" was originally a pessimistic joke, a 2001 study of the buttered toast phenomenon found that when dropped from a table, a buttered slice of toast landed butter-side down at least 62% of the time. The phenomenon is widely believed to be attributable to the combination of the size of the toast and the height of the typical dining table, which means that the toast will not rotate far enough to right itself before encountering the floor. A joke that plays on this tendency is the buttered cat paradox; if cats always land on their feet and buttered toast always lands buttered side down, it questions what happens when buttered toast is attached to a cat's back.


title: Toast (food)

text: A more recent cultural phenomenon is the popularity of avocado toast, which is toast spread with mashed avocado. It is associated with the Millennial generation in particular as a stereotypical food consumed by that group.


title: Toast (food)

text: Cheese and marshmallows are also toasted by exposure to dry radiant heat. A toasted cheese sandwich features toasted cheese and toasted bread. Bagels, English muffins, Pop Tart pastries, and crumpets are foods that can also be toasted.


title: Hough transform

text: The Hough transform is a feature extraction technique used in image analysis, computer vision, and digital image processing. The purpose of the technique is to find imperfect instances of objects within a certain class of shapes by a voting procedure. This voting procedure is carried out in a parameter space, from which object candidates are obtained as local maxima in a so-called accumulator space that is explicitly constructed by the algorithm for computing the Hough transform.


title: Hough transform

text: The classical Hough transform was concerned with the identification of lines in the image, but later the Hough transform has been extended to identifying positions of arbitrary shapes, most commonly circles or ellipses. The Hough transform as it is universally used today was invented by Richard Duda and Peter Hart in 1972, who called it a "generalized Hough transform" after the related 1962 patent of Paul Hough. The transform was popularized in the computer vision community by Dana H. Ballard through a 1981 journal article titled "Generalizing the Hough transform to detect arbitrary shapes".


title: Hough transform

text: The Hough transform was patented as in 1962 and assigned to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission with the name "Method and Means for Recognizing Complex Patterns". This patent uses a slope-intercept parametrization for straight lines, which awkwardly leads to an unbounded transform space since the slope can go to infinity.


title: Hough transform

text: In automated analysis of digital images, a subproblem often arises of detecting simple shapes, such as straight lines, circles or ellipses. In many cases an edge detector can be used as a pre-processing stage to obtain image points or image pixels that are on the desired curve in the image space. Due to imperfections in either the image data or the edge detector, however, there may be missing points or pixels on the desired curves as well as spatial deviations between the ideal line/circle/ellipse and the noisy edge points as they are obtained from the edge detector. For these reasons, it is often non-trivial to group the extracted edge features to an appropriate set of lines, circles or ellipses. The purpose of the Hough transform is to address this problem by making it possible to perform groupings of edge points into object candidates by performing an explicit voting procedure over a set of parameterized image objects (Shapiro and Stockman, 304).


title: Hough transform

text: The simplest case of Hough transform is detecting straight lines. In general, the straight line can be represented as a point ("b", "m") in the parameter space. However, vertical lines pose a problem. They would give rise to unbounded values of the slope parameter "m". Thus, for computational reasons, Duda and Hart proposed the use of the Hesse normal form


title: Hough transform

text: where formula_2 is the distance from the origin to the closest point on the straight line, and formula_3 is the angle between the formula_4 axis and the line connecting the origin with that closest point.


title: Hough transform

text: The intuition for this form, similarly to the plane equation, is that every vector on the line must be perpendicular (orthogonal) to the straight line of length formula_2 that comes from the origin. It is easy to see that the intersection point of the function line and the perpendicular line that comes from the origin is at formula_6. So, for any point formula_7 on the line, the vector formula_8 must be orthogonal to the vector formula_9. Therefore, we get that for any point formula_10 on the function line, the equation formula_11 must be satisfied. Therefore, formula_12. Since formula_10 and formula_6, we get formula_15. Since formula_16, we get the final form of formula_17.


title: Hough transform

text: It is therefore possible to associate with each line of the image a pair formula_18. The formula_18 plane is sometimes referred to as "Hough space" for the set of straight lines in two dimensions. This representation makes the Hough transform conceptually very close to the two-dimensional Radon transform. In fact, the Hough transform is mathematically equivalent to the Radon transform, but the two transformations have different computational interpretations traditionally associated with them.


title: Hough transform

text: Given a "single point" in the plane, the set of "all" straight lines going through that point corresponds to a sinusoidal curve in the ("r", "θ") plane, which is unique to that point. A set of two or more points that form a straight line will produce sinusoids crossing at the ("r", "θ") for that line. Thus, the problem of detecting collinear points can be converted to the problem of finding concurrent curves.


title: Hough transform

text: Given a shape parametrized by formula_20, taking values in the set formula_21 called the shape space, one can interpret the Hough transform as the inverse transform of a probability distribution on the image space to the shape space formula_21, and interpret shape detection as maximum likelihood estimation.


title: Hough transform

text: Explicitly, the Hough transform performs an approximate naive Bayes inference. We start with a uniform prior on the shape space. We consider only the positive evidence, and ignore all negative evidence, so that we can detect partially occluded shapes.


title: Hough transform

text: We add up the log-likelihood in the shape space up to an additive constant. The assumption of "naive Bayes" means that all pixels in the image space provide independent evidence, so that their likelihoods multiply, that is, their log-likelihoods add. The freedom in additive constant allows us to perform no operation on the "background pixels" in shape space.


title: Hough transform

text: Finally, we perform maximum likelihood estimation by picking out the peaks in the log-likelihood on the shape space.


title: Hough transform

text: The linear Hough transform algorithm estimates the two parameters that define a straight line. The transform space has two dimensions, and every point in the transform space is used as an accumulator to detect or identify a line described by formula_23. Every point in the detected edges in the image contributes to the accumulators.


title: Hough transform

text: The dimension of the accumulator equals the number of unknown parameters, i.e., two, considering quantized values of formula_2 and formula_3 in the pair formula_18. For each pixel at formula_27 and its neighborhood, the Hough transform algorithm determines whether there is enough evidence of a straight line at that pixel. If so, it will calculate the parameters formula_18 of that line, then look for the accumulator's bin that the parameters fall into, and increment the value of that bin.


title: Hough transform

text: By finding the bins with the highest values, typically by looking for local maxima in the accumulator space, the most likely lines can be extracted, and their (approximate) geometric definitions read off (Shapiro and Stockman, 304). The simplest way of finding these "peaks" is by applying some form of threshold, but other techniques may yield better results in different circumstances – determining which lines are found, as well as how many. Since the lines returned do not contain any length information, it is often necessary, in the next step, to find which parts of the image match up with which lines. Moreover, due to imperfection errors in the edge-detection step, there will usually be errors in the accumulator space, which may make it non-trivial to find the appropriate peaks, and thus the appropriate lines.


title: Hough transform

text: The final result of the linear Hough transform is a two-dimensional array (matrix) similar to the accumulator—one dimension of this matrix is the quantized angle formula_3, and the other dimension is the quantized distance formula_2. Each element of the matrix has a value equal to the sum of the points or pixels that are positioned on the line represented by quantized parameters formula_18. So the element with the highest value indicates the straight line that is most represented in the input image.


title: Hough transform

text: From the calculations, it can be seen that in either case the support line at 60° has a similar length.


title: Hough transform

text: Hence, it is understood that the corresponding lines (the blue ones in the above picture) are very similar.


title: Hough transform

text: The following is a different example showing the results of a Hough transform on a raster image containing two thick lines.


title: Hough transform

text: The results of this transform were stored in a matrix. Cell value represents the number of curves through any point. Higher cell values are rendered brighter. The two distinctly bright spots are the Hough parameters of the two lines. From these spots' positions, angle and distance from image center of the two lines in the input image can be determined.


title: Hough transform

text: An improvement suggested by O'Gorman and Clowes can be used to detect lines if one takes into account that the local gradient of the image intensity will necessarily be orthogonal to the edge. Since edge detection generally involves computing the intensity gradient magnitude, the gradient direction is often found as a side effect. If a given point of coordinates ("x,y") happens to indeed be on a line, then the local direction of the gradient gives the "θ" parameter corresponding to said line, and the "r" parameter is then immediately obtained. (Shapiro and Stockman, 305) The gradient direction can be estimated to within 20°, which shortens the sinusoid trace from the full 180° to roughly 45°. This reduces the computation time and has the interesting effect of reducing the number of useless votes, thus enhancing the visibility of the spikes corresponding to real lines in the image.