Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 88

Pluto/Hades

Pluto was the Greek and Roman god of the underworld.  Do not confuse him with the Christian concept of Satan.  Pluto was not evil, and the afterlife was not divided into Heaven and Hell; everyone went to the same underworld after they died, with the exception of a few heroes chosen by the gods who went to the Elysian Fields.  Pluto ruled the underworld.

Early on, he was called Hades by the Greeks, but later he became known as Pluto, and Hades referred to his realm.  The Romans adopted the name Pluto.

Above, Pluto by Hendrik Goltzius, 1588.

The most well-known myth involving Hades/Pluto was his abduction of the goddess Persephone to be his wife.  Above, The Rape of Proserpina by Vincenzo di Rossi, c. 1565.  Proserpina is the Italian name for Persephone.  Rape refers here to abduction, not sexual rape, although sex undoubtedly followed.

Above is a rear view of that same statue, The Rape of Proserpina.  In Greek myth, after he abducted Persephone, Pluto married her, and they ruled the underworld together.

Here's another statue of The Rape of Proserpina.  This one is by Bernini in 1621.  Note that Pluto is accompanied by his three-headed dog Cerberus.

Cerberus guarded the gates of the underworld – he let you in, but you couldn't go back out again.  One of the mythical Labors of Hercules was to capture Cerberus.  Above, Hercules and Cerberus by Franco de Zurbaran, c. 1634.

Pluto and Cerberus by Maerten van Heemskerck, c. 1555.  It turns out that the name Cerberus comes from the proto-Indo-European word kerberos, meaning spotted.  So, in effect, the fearsome three-headed dog was named Spot.

A sixteenth century print of Pluto holding a bident with Cerberus.  What's a bident?  You've heard of a trident, a three-pronged spear.  Well, a bident is a two-pronged spear.

We end with a modern representation – a 1994 painting of Robert Lucy as Pluto by Sylvia Sleigh.

Gods, Myths, and Heroes - Part 87

Cincinnatus

The city of Cincinnati is named after the Roman hero Cincinnatus, a military leader and statesman who lived c. 519 BC - 430 BC.  Above is a statue of Cincinnatus in Cincinnati.

Cincinnatus became a hero to the Romans because of his honorable and selfless behavior.  Those were the days of the Roman Republic, before the Roman Empire, when Rome was a small city-state.  In 458 BC, Rome was being attacked by a neighbor, the Aequi.  The city leaders found Cincinnatus plowing the soil of his farm, as shown in the statue.

The city leaders made him Dictator, which gave him total control over Rome.  In those days the title Dictator did not have the negative connotations that it has now, but it did give him power over everything in Rome.

Above, a statue of Cincinnatus by Lysippe, c. 320 BC, now in the palace of Versailles.

Cincinnatus took control of the small Roman army and in 15 days he defeated the Aequi.  Then he gave up his dictatorship.

Above, a statue of Cincinnatus by French sculptor Denis Foyatier, 1834, in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.

Cincinnatus was given a second dictatorship in 439 BC to deal with a wealthy Roman who was trying to buy the loyalty of the poor and make himself king.  After 21 days, the wealthy man was killed while resisting arrest, and since the threat was gone, Cincinnatus again resigned his dictatorship.

Cincinnatus became a hero to the Romans for his honorable behavior.  Granted supreme power twice, he held onto it for not a day longer than necessary.

Above, an indoor copy of the Foyatier statue of Cincinnatus that has escaped the weathering of the outdoor copy.

George Washington was called the American Cincinnatus because he gave up his command of the army after the American Revolution and did not try to make himself king.  Above, George Washington as Cincinnatus by Horatio Greenough, 1832, shows Washington in Roman robes that he never would have worn in real life.

If all of this makes you think of an American politician who, having no ethics or honor, is the anti-Cincinnatus, constantly trying to increase his power, you are not alone.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 86

 Vulcan

The Roman god Vulcan, corresponding to the Greek god Hephaestus, was the god of fire, volcanoes, and blacksmiths.  He is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer.

Vulcan was the son of Jupiter, the king of the gods, but unlike the other gods, he was not supernaturally beautiful.  Instead, he was said to be ugly, and and he had a crippled leg.

This 16th century Venetian statue of Vulcan shows his crippled leg.  All the other representations I've seen show a normal-looking leg.

For the Romans, Vulcan had a forge inside the volcano Mt. Etna in Sicily, and when he was angry, Mt. Etna erupted.

Because he was ugly, his romantic story was different from other gods, too.  Above, Athena scorning the advances of Hephaestus (Vulcan), painted by Paris Bordone, 16th century.

So Jupiter arranged for Vulcan to marry the beautiful goddess of love Venus.  But Venus did not love her husband Vulcan.  Above, Vulcan, at left, Venus, and Mars, the god of war, at right, who is attracting Venus' attention.

Vulcan found out that his wife, Venus, was being unfaithful, having an affair with Mars.  He made a net and ensnared them while they were making love (above, Venus and Mars Surprised by Vulcan, a painting by Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael, c. 1606) and dragged them up to Mount Olympus to shame them.

So if you're having romantic problems, you're not alone: even the gods had romantic problems.

Our last view of Vulcan is a statue by Mario Raggi, 1897, that stands atop the tower of the town hall in Sheffield, England.  Sheffield was a center for making iron and steel and became known as the Steel City, hence the statue of the blacksmith god Vulcan as its protector.  

Raggi did not depict Vulcan as ugly or crippled but as a typical handsome Greek/Roman god.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 85

 Poseidon/Neptune

The Greek god Poseidon, known as Neptune to the Romans, was the god of the sea.  Above, this statue in Athens may be Zeus, the king of the gods, or it may be Poseidon, who was often depicted holding a trident aloft. 

A third century Roman mosaic of Neptune.  Poseidon/Neptune was not only the god of the sea, he was the god of horses, often depicted driving a chariot, and he was also the god of earthquakes.

A fourth century Roman mosaic showing Neptune and his wife Amphitrite.  Again, he is driving a chariot.

In Greek mythology, Poseidon took Pelops, a king in southern Greece who initiated the ancient Olympic Games, as a lover.  This 2012 painting Pelops and Poseidon by Carlos Barahona shows Poseidon, at left, getting it up for Pelops, while the octopus and fish suggest that somehow they're underwater.

A more conventional representation is the Neptune Fountain in Bologna by Giambologna, 1567, showing Neptune with his trident.

And here's the Poseidon Statue in Gothenburg, Sweden by Carl Milles, 1931.

Neptune is celebrated to this day.  Neptune Day is an annual festival in Koktebel, Ukraine, in the Crimean peninsula.  It's a naturist festival held on a nude beach, and we see Neptune with his trident, above, in 2015.  The Crimean peninsula has been occupied by Russia since 2014, but the nude festival has continued.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 84

Cerne Abbas Giant

The Cerne Abbas Giant is a figure on a hill in Dorset, England.  It is cut into the turf about two feet deep, and the cuttings are filled with crushed chalk.  We hardly need to point out its prominent anatomical feature.

The Giant measures 180 feet long.  The size can be seen above relative to people who were maintaining it in 2019 (the cuttings have to be cleared of weeds).

Three theories have been proposed for the origin of the Giant.  One is that it is a Celtic creation, because the Giant is similar to the Celtic god Nodens found on a skillet handle dated between 10 and 51 AD, above.

The second theory is that it was created when England was part of the Roman Empire, and the Giant represents the Greek/Roman hero Hercules (above), specifically during the reign of Emperor Commodus (176-192 AD), who represented himself as a reincarnation of Hercules.

The third theory, citing the lack of documentation about the Giant before the 1690s, is that it was created in the 17th century.  Above, a 17th century Dutch sculpture of Cain and Abel.

Well, it turns out they're all wrong.  In 2021, scientists analyzed samples from the deepest layer of the Giant with a technique called optically stimulated luminescence.  The results: the samples dated between 700 and 1100 AD, most likely around the midpoint of that range, the tenth century.

So the Giant was made by medieval Britons.  What did it represent to them?  We don't know, but they certainly gave us something to look at.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 83

Zephyrus

Zephyrus was the ancient Greek god of the west wind.  There were four Greek gods of the winds.  Boreas, the north wind, was cold and blustery.  Notus, the south wind, was hot and summery.  Eurus, the east wind, was rainy and stormy.  But Zephyrus, the west wind, was mild, with gentle breezes, and he was associated with spring.  Even today, a zephyr means a mild, pleasant breeze.

Above, a fresco of Zephyrus from Pompeii.

Above, The Funeral Pyre of Patroclus by John Flaxman, 1805, depicts a story in the Iliad where Achilles' friend and lover Patroclus has died but the funeral pyre won't light.  Achilles prays to the wind gods, including Zephyrus, to start and fan the fire, and they do.

We've already seen the myth of Eros (Cupid) and Psyche.  Zephyrus is the god who transports the beautiful girl Psyche to a remote place where Eros can make love to her.  Above, Zephyr and Psyche by Henri-Joseph Ruxthiel, 1814, shows Zephyrus carrying Psyche.

But Zephyrus had his own love interests.  He fell in love with a handsome Spartan prince called Hyacinthus.  Above, a 5th century BC ceramic showing Zephyrus and Hyacinthus having intercrural sex (a form of sex in which Zephyrus' penis goes between Hyacinthus' thighs).

A 5th century BC vase depicting Zephyrus pursuing Hyacinthus.  But Hyacinthus had other admirers, in particular the god Apollo, and he decided to leave Zephyrus and go with Apollo.

Apollo invited Hyacinthus to play a game of throwing the discus with him.  Above is a Roman copy of a Greek statue c. 390 BC showing Hyacinthus with a discus.

But the jealous god Zephyrus hadn't gotten over Hyacinthus leaving him.  When Apollo threw his discus, Zephyrus blew it off course so it hit Hyacinthus in the head.  Apollo tried to save him, but Hyacinthus died.  Above, The Death of Hyacinthos by Jean Broc, 1801.  Unable to save him, Apollo then turned the youth into the hyacinth flower.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 82

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Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 81

Osiris

Osiris was the Egyptian god of the dead and lord of the underworld.  The figure above is not Osiris; it is the deceased inhabitant of an Egyptian tomb appearing naked before the god Osiris.

According to Egyptian myth, Osiris was murdered by his brother, the god Set, chopped up into 14 pieces, and scattered across the country.  His wife, Isis, who was also his sister, retrieved all of the pieces except his penis.  It had been eaten by fish in the Nile.

So Isis made a new phallus for the resurrected body of Osiris, apparently good enough to conceive a child, the falcon-headed god Horus.  The "corn mummy" above, inside a falcon-headed sarcophagus, shows the dead Osiris.  His body is wrapped, but he has a significant bulge.

Statues of Osiris always had an erection.  Apparently his penis was connected to his ability to resurrect you into the afterlife after you died.

But this is a more accurate view of Osiris.  This is the same figure as the previous photo, but it is lying down.  Osiris was always shown lying down, to emphasize that he was dead, and yet he lived again.