tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7110706252335044918.post7134716238003546751..comments2023-11-02T04:58:31.451-07:00Comments on Mythcongeniality: The Gift of TiresiasGillianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10300317401842476897noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7110706252335044918.post-56348697984373219342008-09-09T17:59:00.000-07:002008-09-09T17:59:00.000-07:00As I understand it, the snake, because it sheds it...As I understand it, the snake, because it sheds its skin, represents immortality. Take, for example, its role in the Gilgamesh epic, swallowing the plant that will give Gilgamesh perpetual youth. Of course, the snake being phallic, in the hands of a goddess we might see divine androgyny. <BR/><BR/>As regards the Minoan mother goddess being antecedent to Hera, I hang out with women who consider all goddesses as avatars of the one goddess. My visceral feeling about the direct connection between Hera and the Minoan goddess is a bit ambivalent, and it has to do with the iconography. Hera is depicted with the distaff, the pomegranate (ovary?) and the peacock. She's not just a mother goddess, but a goddess of marriage. The Minoan goddess seems in a frenzy of passion. Of course, the patriarchal Hellenic society might have robbed Hera of a bit of her ginger.<BR/><BR/>I'm also fascinated with the bathing motif. When I've taught the Odyssey, I've pointed out that while Odysseus is out on the sea, he's dealing with multiple images of the seductive and destructive feminine. If water is the subconscious,then the sirens, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, and Calypso might all be manifestations of Odysseus' subconscious. In a society as femophobic as ancient Greece, it's not surprising that the feminine would manifest in this way. I'm also reminded of the story of Acteon, who also stumbles upon Artemis in her bath, is transformed into a stag, and is devoured by his own dogs.<BR/><BR/>You're right about the art, which is interesting since Greek artists don't seem to have any qualms about depicting Hermaphroditus and other intersexed individuals. <BR/><BR/>Finally, we're both right about Fuseli. His given name was Johann Heinrich Füssli, but went by John Henry Fuseli. I admit that I was being a little lazy. I was starting to zonk when I posted and couldn't remember which first name he went by. ;)Gillianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10300317401842476897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7110706252335044918.post-90676368691062990162008-09-09T13:12:00.000-07:002008-09-09T13:12:00.000-07:00The myth of Tiresias is very interesting. The asso...The myth of Tiresias is very interesting. The association of two sacred snakes with Hera suggests to me--and mind you, this is only speculation on my part because I've never seen it suggested anywhere--that this myth is VERY old. Hera is not usually associated with snakes. The only other case where she is is the episode where she sends two serpents to kill the baby Herakles in his crib, but this doesn't seem a matter of totemic attributes, while the snakes in the Tiresias story DO. Anyway, the reason that I think this story is very old is because there IS a mother goddess associated with (two) snake in the Minoan pantheon. Whether this is an antecedant to Hera, I can only speculate, but I think she is. She's depicted in a fairly famous statue: http://z.about.com/d/atheism/1/0/Q/T/MinoanSnakeGoddessColor-l.jpg<BR/><BR/>I also wonder about the admixture of oral traditions given the similarities of some of the myth of Tiresias with the myth of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis, in which both male characters stumble across a goddess (or demi-goddess) bathing. <BR/><BR/>The Myth of Tiresias is interesting in one other respect. It's one of the few myths that seems to exist almost solely from literary sources (from Hesiod, mostly) rather than from art. It doesn't seem to have been depicted often, if at all, by Greek visual artists. <BR/><BR/>Oh, by the way, the painter you reference is <I>Henri</I> Fuseli, not "John". Although it's not depicted in this particular piece, Fuseli often included castration and dismemberment imagery in his paintings. He was kind of a weirdo. <BR/><BR/>Cheers.Vulnavia Morbiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04722740955194993451noreply@blogger.com