One need only stroll through any major art museum to come to the conclusion that many great artists are inspired by mythology. At first blush, the fascination with mythology might seem as if the artists are hiding from reality and retreating into fantasy. However, one who believes that has only a limited understanding of the role of mythology in culture, because myths “are not childish stories or mere pre-scientific explanations of the world, but serious insights into reality.” This is because mythical themes help explain cultural norms, and how various cultural groups approach major issues like sex, death, marriage, childbirth, and war.
One of the more interesting characters in mythology is the Roman goddess Venus. Venus was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and the Roman version of the goddess was largely influenced by the earlier Greek myths about Aphrodite. Venus played a major role in Roman culture during the Roman Republic and empire, and was associated with love, beauty and fertility. She was also considered the literal ancestor of the Roman people. The Birth of Venus was painted by Italian artist Sandro Botticelli in 1484 or 1485, though its origin and patron are otherwise unknown.
The myth of the birth of Venus is incredibly symbolic. According to both Greek and Roman mythology, Uranus, the ruler of the universe, was killed by his son Saturn. Uranus had been intent upon hiding some of his children, which enraged Gaia, Saturn’s mother. Saturn used a giant sickle and ambushed Uranus, cutting off his genitals, castrating Uranus, and casting the severed member into the sea. Accounts vary, but either Uranus’ blood or semen created several different varieties of mythical demi-gods. In addition...
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...ooking left arm or her oddly-long neck.
Sexuality has played an important role in art, since its very beginning. Mythology has played a similarly important role in human culture. It is not surprising, then, that mythology, culture, art, and sexuality have a unique relationship. Botticelli’s portrayal of Venus’ birth brings together those elements to reveal how female sexuality has been portrayed as threatening and healing at the same time. In this way, Botticelli uses an existing myth to contrast with modern attitudes about sexuality, making the viewer question their own moral standards.
References
Botticelli, S. (1485). The birth of Venus. Retrieved March 19, 2009 from Artchive. Web site:
http://artchive.com/artchive/B/botticelli/venus.jpg.html
Cavendish, R. Ed. (1980). An illustrated encyclopedia of mythology. New York: Crescent
Books.
The small, crudely carved statuette of an obese woman contrasts heavily with the graceful classical forms of sculpture such as Aphrodite of Cnidos, Praxiteles, 350 BCE. Although it would be difficult to associate the word beautiful with this statuette, there can be no doubt that it reflects the female form. The statuette has also been known as “la poire” or “the pear” due to its size and shape and more recently was donned the Woman from Willendorf. The removal of the title Venus served to take away the figurine’s status as a goddess and lower it to the human level, therefore allowing more consideration of the figurine’s purpose (Witcombe, sec. 3. The adage of the adage.
In conclusion, mythology has played such an influential role in art because the epic tales over hundreds of years, still to this day, give us many life lessons. Not only are these tales still relevant today, but they will continue to be important in the years to come. Myths help people learn from past mistakes, just like history. Mythology offers many morals and themes that can apply to anyone no matter the current life situation. Myths also show heroes, underdogs, and villains realistically even if the people aren’t particularly
From the very start we see Apuleius using references to Roman myths as similes to everyday occurrences. When Fotis, the slave, enters his bedroom to make love to him, he remarks that "she stood, transformed into a living statue: the Love-goddess rising from the sea. The flushed hand with which she pretended to screen her mount of Venus showed that she was well aware of the resemblance; certainly it was not held there from modesty." He describes a slave girl trying to seduce him as Venus rising out of the sea. Some of this description may be a hyperbole for Lucius' love of Fotis. However, Apuleius goes beyond this by linking Fotis directly to Venus. Thus, the most beautiful goddess in the Pantheon is easily seen in a slave girl. Similarly, Thelyphron, when telling the story how members of a household attacked him, describes himself as feeling "like Adonis mauled by the wild boar, or Orpheus torn in pieces by the Thracian women." This...
From before the dawn of civilization as we know it, humanity has formed myths and legends to explain the natural world around them. Whether it is of Zeus and Hera or Izanami-no-Mikoto and Izanagi-no-mikoto, every civilization and culture upon this world has its own mythos. However, the age of myth is waning as it is overshadowed in this modern era by fundamental religion and empirical science. The word myth has come to connote blatant falsehood; however, it was not always so. Our myths have reflected both the society and values of the culture they are from. We have also reflected our inner psyche, conscious and unconscious, unto the fabric of our myths. This reflection allows us to understand ourselves and other cultures better. Throughout the eons of humanity’s existence, the myths explain natural phenomena and the cultural legends of the epic hero have reflected the foundations and the inner turmoil of the human psyche.
The Venus of Willendorf was believed to be created 25,000 years ago, is none-freestanding sculpture and is sculpted out of oolitic limestone. The subject matter, I believe it to convey a fertility figure for men and woman to gaze upon. The Venus of Willendorf is a none-freestanding female nude stature, which is an 11 centimeters high, made out of oolitic limestone and now resides in Naturhistorisches Museum. She was found in 1908 in Austria in a village called Willendorf. The stature has been carved out of oolitic limestone and has been given a red ochre tint. This small oolitic limestone figure representing a woman in the nude has no known artist and no information on why it was created. I believe that
Images of biblical women have been used for centuries but some are much more controversial than others. One of the most infamous women associated with the bible is only directly mentioned in the bible once. Lilith is a woman whose story stems from Babylonian myths, demonology, and was the answer to a conflict in the Jewish creation story. She first appears in the folklore and more importantly the story of Gilgamesh, her story has grown into a femme fatale. The effect of social constructs on the interpretation of femme fatale archetypes such as Lilith are evident in the comparison of Lilith’s mythological beginnings to sexualized representation in Gabriel Rossetti’s painting Lady Lilith 1886. This transformation can be understood through analyzing the mythology surrounding Lilith, application of Jungian female archetypes, and the examination of art associated with Lilith.
Cupid Chastised tells a Greco- Roman mythological story. Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, had been having an affair with Mars, the god of war. Accordingly, Mars takes his anger out on Cupid, (again, the title is suggests the story), the god of desire, for creating the adulterous attraction. Manfredi’s painting depicts the very moment of Cupid’s chastisement, with Venus there trying to abate Mars’ violent actions. (ARTIC)
Myths relate to events, conditions, and deeds of gods or superhuman beings that are outside ordinary human life and yet basics to it” ("Myth," 2012). Mythology is said to have two particular meanings, “the corpus of myths, and the study of the myths, of a particular area: Amerindian mythology, Egyptian mythology, and so on as well as the study of myth itself” ("Mythology," 1993). In contrast, while the term myth can be used in a variety of academic settings, its main purpose is to analyze different cultures and their ways of thinking. Within the academic setting, a myth is known as a fact and over time has been changed through the many different views within a society as an effort to answer the questions of human existence. The word myth in an academic context is used as “ancient narratives that attempt to answer the enduring and fundamental human questions: How did the universe and the world come to be? How did we come to be here? Who are we? What are our proper, necessary, or inescapable roles as we relate to one another and to the world at large? What should our values be? How should we behave? How should we not behave? What are the consequences of behaving and not behaving in such ways” (Leonard, 2004 p.1)? My definition of a myth is a collection of false ideas put together to create
The Venus of Willendorf and the Venus de Milo are two ancient day venus sculptures representing two different views on beauty. The Venus of Willendorf is a small 4.5 inch limestone figure of a Goddess which is believed to be used as a fertility symbol, while the Venus de Milo is a tall ancient Greek statue of a Goddess which is said to represent love and beauty. The Venus of Willendorf’s body structure is very different than that of Venus de Milo. The venus of Willendorf appears to be a short lady with a large emphasis on her reproductive organs, breasts and stomach area whereas the Venus de Milo appears to be very tall with smaller breasts, and a really athletic build. She appears to have abs and looks as if she has not had children before, while the Venus of Willendorf looks like she has had children due to her huge breasts and stretched out belly button. The Venus
The society in which classical myths took place, the Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal one. By taking a careful gander at female characters in Greco-Roman mythology one can see that the roles women played differ greatly from the roles they play today. The light that is cast upon females in classical myths shows us the views that society had about women at the time. In classical mythology women almost always play a certain type of character, that is to say the usual type of role that was always traditionally played by women in the past, the role of the domestic housewife who is in need of a man’s protection, women in myth also tended to have some unpleasant character traits such as vanity, a tendency to be deceitful, and a volatile personality. If one compares the type of roles that ladies played in the myths with the ones they play in today’s society the differences become glaringly obvious whilst the similarities seem to dwindle down. Clearly, and certainly fortunately, society’s views on women today have greatly changed.
Botticelli depicts Venus standing a relaxing pose with long golden wavy hair that falls to her knees skin blemish free and pale as the seafoam she’s born from with one hand (right) gently placed over her right breast she uses the other (left) grasping for
As in some cultures today, some people think if a woman is little overweight, she will be able to bear a child whereas, a thin woman will not be able. Also, another culture, is men would divorce their wife because she is infertile and that is a humiliating for the man in society. According to Russ Meyer article“She is hen, nest, egg…” (Chang 1). This proves that even today “Venus of Willendorf” has impacted people around the world today and she was made almost a century
Nude portraiture has been a canon in the world of art for centuries. Whether it be on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel from the hands of Michelangelo or sketches from an aspiring artist trying get a model’s curves just right, the subject matter of nudity has been a key characteristic in the development of art, an artist’s skills, and consequently the context the nude figure has been portrayed in. As the movements progressed, not only did the stylistic approach to nudity change, but also a shift in the position nude subject matter held in a painting – a transformation from prestige to notoriety. Classical and Neoclassical eras emphasized the ideal nude body, usually a god or goddess. But as time went on and different styles developed, movements
Have you ever heard of Aphrodite? Or maybe, the goddess of love and beauty? If you have heard of one, you have heard of the other, because, Aphrodite and the goddess of love and beauty are the same person! Every greek god has a roman name. For example, Aphrodite’s roman name is Venus, named after a person with a famous armless statue. In myths, Aphrodite is usually found on Mount Olympus or on the Island of Cypress. Aphrodite has the power of transforming something ordinary to something beautiful. Another power that Aphrodite has is attracting lots of men.
According to the Greek creation myth, the world was nothing but darkness that a bird named Nyx lived inside. Nyx laid a golden egg with the wind, and for a very long time, she sat upon the egg. After a while, the egg hatched and out came Eros, the god of love. The broken pieces became the sky and the earth also known as Uranus and Gala, and Eros made them fall in love. Uranus and Gaia had many children and after a while, their children became scared of their own offsprings power. Kronos, who was Uranus and Gala's son, feared his children so much so that he would eat them while they were infants. Kronos's wife Rhea hid their youngest child and fed Kronos a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes so that he would not know the truth. When Zeus, Kronos