Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 49

Maori Gods and Legends

The Maori are the Polynesians who settled New Zealand.  Today's post shows Maori carvings in the Te Parapara Garden in Hamilton, NZ.  This garden is all about the gardening practices of the Maori before the arrival of white Europeans in the 1700s.

The statue above represents Hoturoa, legendary captain of the Tainu waka, the first Polynesian ship to discover New Zealand after sailing over the wide Pacific, supposedly around the year 1300.  You might note that he's well hung.

The garden is divided into two parts: one about the wild native food that the Maori found in their new land, which is the realm of the god Haumia-tiketike, and one about the cultivated food that the Maori brought to New Zealand, which is the realm of the god Rongomatane.

The older section of native food is surrounded by a palisade with figures representing Maori ancestors who act as guardians, such as the one above.  Note that he has an erection.

The carving on the far post, Rangi-potiki, is a Maori god, one of the "props of heaven."  I couldn't identify Iranui, on the near post.  He might be a god or an ancestor.  Both of them have erections.  Unlike Greek and Roman statues, where only the fertility god Priapus was represented with an erection, erections were commonplace in Maori art as a sign of virility and strength. 

Here's the gate separating the two halves of the garden.  The carvings are based on an 1844 drawing of an elaborately carved house that was built for the first Maori King before he was crowned in 1858.  Supposedly the carvings tell the story of how cooked kumara (sweet potato, which the Maori brought to New Zealand) was used to ward off supernatural beings.

However, what I noticed about the carvings, aside from the guy with an erection at top left, is the guy at bottom left who is masturbating.  I don't know it he's a good guy or a bad guy in the story.

Of course the Maori didn't have refrigeration, but they were able to preserve their food supply (mainly kumara, or sweet potato) by drying it and storing it in these structures built on pillars to ward off rats.

Let's look at the statues that top the storage house.  The guy on top is masturbating.  Presumably he's a benevolent figure protecting the food.

Here's another food storage house on pillars.  And it's also overseen by a figure on top who is masturbating.

And if we look at the carvings that were in the shadow of the roof in the previous photo, we see – another guy masturbating.

I don't know whether there are Maori legends or myths involving masturbation.  But when Europeans arrived in New Zealand, it became clear that for the Maori, sex was considered normal and healthy, pre-marital sex was fine, and same-sex relationships were accepted with no problem.  Of course, all of this was a big problem for the Christian missionaries.

We end with a carving of a famous Maori chieftain, Taimanu-po.  He lived around 1600 and ruled the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, which included Hamilton, where this garden now exists.  He has an erection, and he's reaching down to grab it.  It looks to me like in these carvings, masturbation is not just tolerated, it's being celebrated.

Who knew that learning about other cultures could be this much fun?

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 58

 Montreal 2012

Yesterday was Canada Day.  To honor our Canadian friends, today's post is about the World Naked Bike Ride in Montreal on June 9, 2012.

The second guy from the right above, the one with a headband, caught my eye.

We first see him and a friend getting a little touchy-feely.

Another friend joins them.

Then we see another guy talking to them.  He's holding a red magic marker.

Here's the group of four guys.

And here's another view of them talking.  They seem to be buddies.

Here are three of them, including the magic marker guy.  He has drawn a red square on his chest, which we also see in the first photo above.  What's that about?  In 2012, the government of the province of Quebec proposed to raise university tuition by 75%, causing a wave of student protests.  The symbol of the student protests was a red square.  In the fall, the Parti Québécois was elected and halted the tuition increases.

But this was a World Naked Bike Ride, and here we finally see the riders in the streets of Montreal.  The headband guy is in the background at center left.

We end with a view of our friend's beau cul (beautiful butt).  How do we know it's the same guy?  Because of his headband.

Olympics - Part 3

 1936 Berlin

The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin and later became known as the Nazi Olympics.  Above is the official poster, showing a view of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

Here's part of the opening sequence of Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia documenting the 1936 Olympics.  In this sequence, a statue of a nude discus thrower has morphed into the German decathlete Erwin Huber preparing to throw the discus.  Huber is totally naked, including a brief frontal glimpse.

Olympia was technically brilliant, and it appears on many lists of the greatest films of all time.  Nevertheless, it was also brilliant Nazi propaganda celebrating the greatness of Germany.

This statue, Faustkämpfer (Boxer), was made for the Olympic grounds by sculptor Josef Thorak, with German world heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling as his model.

Schmeling himself could not compete in the 1936 Olympics because he was a professional fighter.  At the time, only amateur athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics, not professionals.  Since then, many Olympic sports have been opened to professional athletes, including boxing in 2016.

This statue, Zehnkämpfer (Decathlete) was made by sculptor Arno Breker and won a silver medal in sculpture in the Olympic art competition.  22-year-old decathlete Gustav Stührk was the model for this statue, but he did not compete in the 1936 Olympics.

We previously saw German fencer Erwin Casmir in the 1928 Olympics.  He also won two bronze medals in the 1936 Olympics, and here's a different photo of him.

The Japanese athletes took team baths in Berlin as they would at home.

In addition to the athletic competitions, there was an art exhibit by Jay Stowitts showing 55 of his paintings depicting American male athletes in the nude, which caused a sensation among attendees.

Here's Stowitts with two of the paintings in the background.  While he was in Berlin, Stowitts assisted Leni Riefenstahl in making her film Olympia.  Due to her fame and influence, Riefenstahl was able to protect Stowitts from Nazi persecution which he otherwise would have encountered because he was gay.

Above, Stowitts' painting of tennis player Bobby Riggs.  If you only know Riggs from his 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" challenge against Billie Jean King, which he lost (he was 55 years old and retired), you might be interested to know that in his prime, he was the #1 tennis amateur in the world in 1939 and the #1 tennis professional in the world in 1946 and 1947.

In 1936, Riggs did not play in the Berlin Olympics.  He was only 18 years old, but he was already ranked the fourth best men's tennis player in the U.S.

Wrestlers Briggs Hunt and William Golden.  Neither were in the 1936 Olympics.  27-year-old Hunt was the national AAU lightweight wrestling champion and a shoo-in to make the Olympic team, but two weeks before the Olympic trials, he was shot in the back in a hunting accident.  He recovered and was a wrestling coach at UCLA for many years, finally making it to the Olympics in 1956 as a referee.

Diver Frank Kurtz, above, was in the 1932 Olympics, in which he won a bronze medal, and the 1936 Olympics.

Stowitt's portrait of Woody Strode was also used on the poster for the exhibit that we saw earlier.  Strode was a decathlete at UCLA, but he was not on the U.S. Olympic team in 1936.  He later became a football player for the LA Rams and then went on to a career in acting, appearing in dozens of films.

However, as a black man, he was not welcome in Nazi Germany.  Because Stowitts' art show featured some black and Jewish athletes, the Nazis closed the exhibit.

Next time: Olympic Games 1948 to 1952.