Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is an artwork by Chinese contemporary artist and political commentator, Ai Weiwei. The work comes in a small (gold) and large (bronze) version. Created in 2010, the zodiac heads (a Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig) are inspired by those which once comprised a water clock-fountain at the Old Summer Palace, which is a complex of palaces and gardens in Beijing that were constructed by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty. The Old Summer Palace was eventually destroyed by French and British troops in
Barbarous name supposed effectiveness of barbarous names rested in their utterance, not their meaning. Barbarous name A barbarous name is a meaningless or seemingly meaningless word used in magic rituals. The term "barbarous" comes from the Greek "barbaroi" () meaning those who do not speak the Greek Language (barbarians). Often these names were derived from foreign sources and acquired their "barbarous" nature from the magician's lack of understanding of that language. Many ancient barbarous names were of Egyptian origin, though there were plenty of Hebrew and Persian names that were corrupted by transcription into Greek. They appear throughout the Greek Magical Papyri,