Happy Mother's Day

Motherhood is an amazing thing. It is a concentrated form of personal and spiritual growth. Recently I was speaking with a single aquaintance who was planning a yoga retreat to strengthen her spirituality. Man, I thought - try being spiritual with nerf balls flying past your head. When you've mastered that - woohoo - girlfriend you've got it!

If you are feeling a bit insecure about your less than perfect mothering skills - read on to find our about a very "infamous" mother.





Agrippina - An Infamous Woman
by Micah

Agrippina's husband, Emperor Claudius, had three different infamous wives before he married Agrippina. He didn't enjoy the experiences. In fact, after his third wife, Claudius asked his guards to kill him if he was such a fool as to marry again. Claudius did marry again, to Agrippina, his niece. His guards did not kill him when he married her. A pity for Claudius...
Agrippina had been married to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenbarbus and had a son with him, named Nero.
Agrippina wanted power and she wanted her son Nero to be Emperor instead of Claudius' son. So she persuaded Claudius to have his daughter, Octavia, marry her son Nero. She guarded her position as empress and prepared to make Nero heir to the throne. Then, when she decided it was time to get rid of Claudius, she secretly poisoned him and Nero became the Emperor.
Even though Nero appreciated what his mother had did, he began to resent Agrippina's control and had lots of arguments with her. Nero decided he would have to kill her in order to be free of her. He tried various ways to get rid of her, and all failed. He finally planed a ship wreck. He prepared a ship which would collapse in the sea.
When Agrippina was in the ship and the accident occurred, Agrippina's two companions were killed. Agrippina was wounded, but she swam to shore. She sent a messenger to inform her son of her escape, pretending to have no suspicions of his guilt so that she could counterstrike. Nero was terrified: he had reason to believe that her revenge was likely to be deadly. He sent some guy to kill his mother. Agrippina last words are supposed to have been, "Strike here", as she pointed to the womb from which Nero had come.