{"id":26443,"date":"2018-10-23T05:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T10:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=26443"},"modified":"2018-10-23T00:19:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T05:19:44","slug":"austin-peay-state-university-classics-students-sacrifice-golden-eagle-during-homecoming-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2018\/10\/23\/austin-peay-state-university-classics-students-sacrifice-golden-eagle-during-homecoming-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University classics students \u201csacrifice\u201d golden eagle during Homecoming ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Austin Peay State University (APSU)<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-324279\" title=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" width=\"250\" height=\"64\"\/><strong>Clarksville, TN<\/strong> &#8211; Dr. Tim Winters, Austin Peay State University (APSU) Latin professor, raised his face to the warm, bright sky and said, \u201cIt\u2019s a good day to sacrifice an eagle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nearby, a golden eagle (or maybe just a turkey-shaped pi\u00f1ata, painted gold) was placed on an altar in the center of campus for the annual Homecoming sacrifice.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_436499\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/APSU-classics-students-\u201csacrifice\u201d-golden-eagle-during-Homecoming-ceremony.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-436499\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-436499\" title=\"APSU Latin professor Dr. Stephen Kershner sacrifices a golden eagle during homecoming.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/APSU-classics-students-\u201csacrifice\u201d-golden-eagle-during-Homecoming-ceremony-480x320.jpg\" alt=\"APSU Latin professor Dr. Stephen Kershner sacrifices a golden eagle during homecoming. \" width=\"480\" height=\"320\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-436499\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">APSU Latin professor Dr. Stephen Kershner sacrifices a golden eagle during homecoming.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>For years, Austin Peay\u2019s classics program has used the event to support homecoming festivities while also teaching the public about ancient Greek and Roman traditions.<\/p>\n<p>Student members of the University\u2019s Eta Sigma Phi Classics Honor Society wore makeshift togas and made noise to wake the gods during Monday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this several years now, and in the beginning it was really hard because we had to say, \u2018May they just score a touchdown,\u2019 but now our football team is much better,\u201d Dr. Stephen Kershner, assistant professor of classics, said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a learning event. I talk about what actually occurred at a sacrifice so the students know what they\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the ceremony, Kershner explained how the ancient Romans followed a religion that focused on deeds, so a sacrifice was a way \u201cthe ancients would have gained the favor of their deities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moments after Kershner called, in Latin, for the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles to be unable to catch a pass, he drove a knife into the pi\u00f1ata. The fake bird\u2019s carcass was later placed in the fire at Austin Peay\u2019s annual bonfire.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For information on Austin Peay\u2019s classics program, visit <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/classics\/\" >https:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/classics\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Austin Peay State University (APSU) Clarksville, TN &#8211; Dr. Tim Winters, Austin Peay State University (APSU) Latin professor, raised his face to the warm, bright sky and said, \u201cIt\u2019s a good day to sacrifice an eagle.\u201d Nearby, a golden eagle (or maybe just a turkey-shaped pi\u00f1ata, painted gold) was placed on an altar in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,10974,262,825,32724,29539,10163],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6Sv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26444,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443\/revisions\/26444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}