[this is a continuation of yesterday's post] 

In another section of the Supreme Court’s marble frieze honoring Precursors of the  American Constitutional legal tradition, we find other members of this Hall of Fame, including Confucius and Octavian/Caesar Augustus (pictured above). Below we find Charlemagne and…..yes, it’s the Prophet Muhammad! My neighbors and country cousins will be needing a fainting couch if they see this.

And the Pagan Roman Goddess of War and Wisdom appears all over Washington D.C. monuments and her cult has spread “from sea to shining sea.” Look around,  she’s everywhere, and you just never noticed before.  Note the Great Seal of the State of California depicting Minerva as the overseer and benevolent guardian of the Golden State.  Who needs Wonder Woman, Xena Warrior Princess or (currently) Gina Carano ?  We’ve already got an older, more widely known, and more enduring female action super-hero: the Goddess Minerva!

 There’s a very interesting compilation of photos and records, “The Classical Temple Architecture and Pagan Statuary of Washington D.C.” found at http://community2.webtv.net   There are obvious historical reasons why, in creating a republic, the Founders had to reach back to Pre-Christian, Pagan civilizations to find models for everything from political institutions (‘senate’ for example), to concepts such as 'citizen', to architecture, to political philosophy and terminology. They had to reach back past almost 1800 years of Christian history to seek a useful tradition to borrow from and build upon. Maybe we should acknowledge and study not  our oft-touted  Judeo-Christian origins but our Greco-Roman Pagan origins. Maybe getting back in touch with those roots would restore a sense of perspective and balance in our understanding.