This is a modern image of the goddess Aphrodite, by the artist Galilleo. Upon discovering it, I had to wonder how the hell she could have ever fallen out of favor. On the other hand, the realization is obvious that none of the ancient classical Greek depictions really did her true justice. In fact, she was no more or less beautiful than any of the other sculpted goddesses of the age, and they were all rather bland. I am not a big fan of ancient Greek art in general. This modern version, however, is a different matter. The artist who rendered this drawing, despite it’s somewhat comic book style layout, has an obvious affinity for the goddess.
If you are the kind who can easily achieve a semi-trance state, it would be a relatively simple matter to meditate upon the goddess, upon which you might be blessed with an image of Aphrodite that is equal to or even superior to this one. You might well be surprised by what you see. By who you see. Perhaps somebody you know, maybe even your wife or girlfriend-or maybe not.
Hopefully, you will not see an image similar to this one. If you do, it might be indicative of a serious problem in the way of relationships. It might be something you would want to work on.
If, on the other hand, your experiment is successful, you will have been gifted with a point of meditation which you can go back to, again and again. You might find yourself becoming more and more attached to the goddess, and find yourself turning more and more to her. Once you get to know her well, it would not be at all innappropriate to indulge in the ritual I have developed for the worship of and attunement with Aphrodite.
As for my original question as to how she could have ever fallen out of favor-when you stop to think about it, she never really did.
16 comments:
I'm curious...why the cat? is there some relevance or did the artist just put it in there? I don't know much about this Goddess.
How interesting that Galileo's Greek goddesses all look like Anglicized, corn-fed, mid-60's Hollywood film stars instead of Mediterranean women.
Yeah, attractive. But not exceptionally diverse.
The Tao of Masonry
Meowkatt-A lot of modern pagans, or at least some of them, consider the cat to be sacred to Aphrodite, due to it's suppossedly fickle yet sensous nature. I don't know for sure whether Galilleo is a pagan, but evidently he has made that same identification.
Tom-That's a good point, I didn't notice it so much with Aphrodite, in fact she's about the only one who could pass as Meditterranean. Most of the others do seem more Anglicized, such as Pandora and Persephone.
I am thinking that maybe since he is Greek, and is surrounded by Meditterraneans, he views that type as mundane and ordinary, whereas we might tend to see them as more exotic.
Yet, for the goddess that represents feminine beauty, charm, sensuosness and sexuality, he has chosen a more Meditterranean appearring model. I'm glad he did, she's the best representation of the goddess, in my opinion, that I have seen. In order to really appreciate her, you might want to enlarge on the photo. Compared to his other work, this one seems, to me, particularly inspired.
Not that I have a problem with Anglo women, far from it. But a blonde Persephone just don't seem right. About the only Greek goddess I can visualize as blonde is Artemis.
left a comment on the ritual post.. for me pandora's image is this.
Yes, that is a very good rendition of her. She seems to be wary about opening it, knowing full well it's a big mistake, yet can't quite help herself. It's also more realistic a drawing of the phyical human form and more representative of what a Greek mythological character might look like.
About the other comment, I hope you didn't misunderstand what I was saying, and certainly hope you didn't find it offensive. I was just pointing out the pitfalls involved in viewing mythological stories as actual literal events. That doesn't mean that the old myths don't contain real spiritual value on a subconscous, psychological, and symbolic level. They certainly do.
However, when you see them as actual events, you miss the point of the deeper meaning and beauty behind the old stories. In fact, this in effect tends to make them less relevant.
Plus, it is unnecessary insofar as your devotion to the deities is concerned, to view the myths as literal. You can be devoted to them and in fact have a better relationship with them by seeing the myths for the powerful stories that they are.
In other words, literal interpretations serves no valid purpose, and in fact is the germ that leads to the virus of fundamentalism. A true devotee has no need of this, and in fact it is a hidrance and distraction to his own personal, spiritual, and evolutionary growth, and this translates outwardly to humaity as a whole.
wow.. tht's some reply! quite a bit of it flew slightly above my head.. but the words made a whole lotta sense on some level.
no no! didn't find it offensive at all! you were right in pointing out that myths/stories can't always be taken literally..
it was just a burst of insight into the varied shades of your personality that i was so fascinated with when i commented.. and how well you balance the spiritual with the logical. you know when to allow the myth/story/ritual to guide you and when to let your logical mind take over.
my previous comment was me trying to make the pieces of your personality fit.. and this comment of yours helped me understand better.
:)
Thank you. Yes, there has to always be room for logic and reason, even in religion, maybe especially so. Otherwise, it descends to the level of tall tales and pure fantasy. That's one reason I enjoy engaging in my own little experiments in "fractured fairy tales", such as this post. Helps to keep things in realistic perspective. I guess it also explains why I am so drawn to Athene, really my major deity, and who can be rightfully seen as a goddess of logic and reason, as well as moderation.
I forgot for a moment what post I was on, I was referring to "Liquid Beauty" when I mentioned that about the fractured fairy tales, though I guess my ritual to Aphrodite would apply too, in a way.
By the way, Sou, I'm probably going to put you on the blogroll, in fact I've been meaning to but haven't decided which one yet. I'm thinking about the one that seems to be about arts and culture and stuff. It or one fo the others will probably be on in a day or two, as soon as I make up my mind.
yay.. i'm on your blogroll! There are no categories however.. the list is displayed alphabetically. so do let me know what label you chose!
"Squeek". That's what it's called on your Profile Page, and it's the Blog title. If you don't see it, you probably need to hit your "Refresh" button.
I have to do it everytime I go to certain blogs, otherwise I just see the same page that I saw the last time, and there might have been several posts by then, but they don't show up until I hit refresh. The blogroll does the same thing, I had to hit it before I saw yours and the other blogs I added today.
Goodness. Who knew that breast implants were available back in Aphrodite's time.
Geeeez. Her breasts are drawn so HUGE. She's not the goddess of silicone!!!
Autogato, some women do have naturally large breasts, you know. Not that there's anything wrong with having small ones.
Oh yeah, totally. Definintely. I know several women with naturally large breasts. However, naturally large breasts tend to have a certain shape, whereas unnaturally large breasts tend to have another shape.
Now you should bear in mind that the artist presumably is male, and also that she is nude, and therefore braless. A couple of huge melons would tend to sag somewhat if not supported, eh?
Excuse me, I think I'm going back to bed.
That image was created by the artist Luis Royo. Google his work and you'll eventually find it.
Anonymous-
This post is from so far back I'd all but forgotten about it. I used to have a link to his website on my sidebar, but I took it and quite a few other links off a few months back to cut down on clutter. But on the website, he went by Galileo. Thanks for cluing me in as to his real name, I'll look him up.
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