►“Greek Myths and Graffiti Murals”: “Collaboration With Resa McConaghy”:

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⇒About This Post. Abstract:

The following article is composed of two sections, each one of them including murals from Argentina and Canada, respectively. This post aims to analyze with a with a free, but still judiciously, well-founded criteria how certain mythological greek themes and characters might be recurrent, despite time and even against it.

As Resa and I found some graffitis which seemed to have mythological and even philosophical equivalents we decided we wanted to try to show those connections. Resa´s mural is from the University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada) whilst mine are from The Planetarium (Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina). With that being said, we just wanted to say that, after finding many similarities, we are quite pleased with the outcome. Both of, Resa and I believe the convergences are striking. And being so, they broaden and deepen the…

►Greek Mythology: “Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Ares and her Other Lovers”:

“Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan” by Joachim Wtewael. (1601).

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Hephaestus (Roman equivalent: Vulcan), the smith and craftsman of the gods, was married to Aphrodite (Roman equivalent: Venus), the goddess of love and beauty.

It was not a good  marriage because Aphrodite was as an unfaithful wife.

But Hephaestus also cheated her, for example with Athena, the Greek goddess of reason, intelligent activity, arts and literature.

Aphrodite most notable lovers were the gods Ares (God of War. Roman equivalent: Mars),Dionysius, Greek God of Wine and Fertility,  Hermes, (Greek God of herds and herald of the gods. Roman equivalent: Mercury), Zeus (King of Gods. Roman equivalent: Jupiter), Nerites (A young Sea-God who was the very first love of Aphrodite). Poseidon (Greek God of the Sea. Roman equivalent: Neptune), and the mortal, Adonis, who was Myhrra’son

►Greek Mythology: “Hephaestus”  /

“Collaboration with Holly Rene Hunter” 🔥:

“The Fall Of Hephaestus” by C. Van Poelenburg. 17th century.

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Hephaestus(Roman equivalent: Vulcan)  was the Greek god of fire, metal work, blacksmiths and craftsmen.

According to Homer’s  “Iliad”, Hephaestus was born of the union of Zeusand Hera. In another tradition, attested by Hesiod, Hera bore Hephaestus alone.

Hephaestus. Attic Red Figure. 430 – 420 BC.

Hesiod tells us in “Theogony”, that in order to get even with Zeus for solely bringing about the birth of Athena, Hera produced the child Hephaestus all on her own.

Though Hesiod’s version seems to be the one that is most commonly accepted among readers, its content greatly alters our understanding of the birth of Athena. The ancient texts unequivocally state that it was Hephaestus who released the goddess from the head of Zeus by cracking the god’s…

►Greek Mythology: “Artemis´Dual Archetype” / “Collaboration with Resa McConaghy and Mirjana M. Inalman”🌛🏹. 

“Diana, The Huntress” by Guillaume Seignac. 19th century.

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Artemis(Roman Equivalent: Diana) is often depicted in two ways: as a huntress goddess and as the goddess of the Moon. 

Artemis/Diana by Jean-Antoine Houdon (18th century)

Artemis was the first-born child of Zeus and Leto. Her mother was forbidden by jealous Hera to give birth anywhere on the earth but the floating island of Delos provided her sanctuary. Immediately after her birth, Artemis helped her mother deliver Apollo for which she is sometimes called a goddess of childbirth.

►Greek Mythology: “The Nereids, Fifty Sea Nymphs”:

“A Mermaid” by John William Waterhouse (1900).

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The Nereids were fifty goddesses of the sea, daughters of Nereus (eldest son of Pontus, the Sea and Gaia, the Earth) and Doris (an Oceanid and Sea Nymph). They were sisters of  Nerites (a young minor sea god).

They Nereids were the patrons of sailors and fishermen, who came to the aid of men in distress.

Individually they also represented various facets of the sea, from salty brine, to foam, sand, rocky shores, waves and currents, in addition to the various skills possessed by seamen.

They often accompany Poseidon, the god of the sea, and can be friendly and helpful to sailors fighting perilous storms.

The Nereids were depicted in ancient art as beautiful young maidens, sometimes running with small dolphins or fish in their hands, or else riding on the…

►Greek Mythology: “The Sirens, Muses of the Lower World”:

“Odysseus and the Sirens” by Herbert James Draper, (1909).

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The Sirens were sea nymphs who lured sailors to their death with a bewitching song.

They parents were River Achelous and the Muse Melpomene (Pseudo-Apollodorus). For Euripides, they were virgin daughters of Gaia (the Earth). 

Their number is variously reported as between two and five.
In the “Odyssey”, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, but gives the number of the Sirens as two  on an island in the western sea between Aeaea and the rocks of Scylla.

 Hesiod says that they were three and that their names were Thelxiope or Thelxinoe, Molpe and Aglaophonos.

They are mantic creatures like the Sphinxwith whom they have much in common, as they also were believed to combine women and birds in various ways.
In early Greek…

►Greek Mythology: “Selene, Goddess of the Moon”:

►Poetry: “Selene Awakens”, by Christy Birmingham:

“Luna” by Evelyn De Morgan (1885).

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Selene is the Greek Goddess of the Moon. She is the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia.

Besides, Selene is sister of the Sun-God Helios, and Eos, Goddess of the Dawn.

In classical times, Selene was often identified with Artemis, much as her brother, Helios, was identified withApollo.

Just as Helios, from his identification with Apollo, is called Phoebus (“bright”), Selene, from her identification with Artemis, is also commonly referred to by the epithet Phoebe (feminine from the name is of Greek origin, it is likely connected to the word selas (σέλας), meaning “light”.

Both Selene and Artemis were also associated with Hecate, and all three were regarded as Lunar Goddesses, although only Selene was regarded as the personification…

►Philosophy: “Plato´s Cave and Fifteen Million Merits” (Black Mirror):

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Hello readers! This is a post in collaboration with Christy Birmingham, from Poetic Parfait and When Women Inspire. You might wonder how the idea of writing this post came up. Well, basically, I had begun watching Season Three of Black Mirror, which was recently released on Netflix. I told Christy how much I liked it, and, from that moment, we started chatting about the series. Soon after, Christy watched “The Entire History of You”, which is the third episode of the first season, followed by “Fifteen Million Merits” (the second episode of the same season).

We discussed both episodes. And we decided to do a post on the latter. Therefore, this complete post was a result of the exchanges of points of views. But each one of us focused on particular themes.

Christy Birmingham

Christy wrote…

“Perseus and Andromeda” by Gustave Moreau. 1869.

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Andromedawas the beautiful daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of  Joppa in Palestine (called Ethiopia).

Cassiopeia had offendedthe Nereids by boasting that Andromeda was more beautiful than they, so in revenge Poseidon sent a sea monster called Cetus to ravage Cepheus’ kingdom as divine punishment.

Since only Andromeda’s sacrifice would appease the gods, she was chained to a rock and left to be devoured by the monster.

Meanwhile, Perseus had already killed the fearsome Gorgon Medusa .

As he was riding the winged horse, Pegasus over Africa in his return home, he encountered the Titan Atlas, who challenged him. 

In their confrontation, Perseus used Medusa’s head to turn the Titan into stone. 

Later on, he came across the beautiful chained Andromeda, and as he did, he approached Cetus while being invisible (because he was wearingHades’s helm, which…

“The Tree of Forgiveness.” by Edward Burne-Jones. 19th century.

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⇒“Metamorphoses” by Ovid:

“Metamorphoses” by Ovid. Illustration by George Sandys. 1632.

In my previous post, I have mentioned Ovid´s book “Metamorphoses”as a key source of Greek Mythology. 

“Metamorphoses” is a narrative poem in fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid, completed in 8 CE.

It is a “mock-epic” poem, written in dactylic hexameter, the form of the great epic poems of the ancient tradition, such as “The Iliad” and  “The Odyssey.

This poem describes the creation and history of the world, incorporating many classical myths.