Bird is the Word
Posted on 11/27/2018 11:43:26 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists have unearthed a sensual fresco depicting the Ancient Greek myth of Leda and the Swan on a bedroom wall in Pompeii.
While the story might not appeal to modern sensibilities, the legend that Leda, the beautiful queen of Sparta, was seduced – or raped, depending on how you see it – by the king of the gods disguised as a swan was apparently a titillating subject for Ancient Romans.
In an astonishingly well preserved fresco revealed to the public this week, the moment is depicted as a non-violent encounter: Leda reclines languidly, gazing directly at the viewer, as the swan perches between her parted legs.
The coupling, which would result in the birth of Helen of Troy and thus the Trojan War and all its consequences (including, many centuries later, the founding of Rome by Trojan refugees), has inspired artists and poets throughout the ages. Michelangelo's strikingly sensual version, now lost but surviving in copies, is said to have drawn on Roman depictions similar to the one just discovered.
The mural was brought to light in a house along the Via del Vesuvio in the Regio V section of Pompeii, an area that has yielded some of the doomed city's most exciting new discoveries in decades since archaeologists began excavating it earlier this year.
One recent find, uncovered in the same house as the Leda fresco, showed the ancient fertility god Priapus weighing his oversized penis on a scale.
Unlike the better preserved Leda fresco, however, the Priapus painting was placed in an entrance corridor, suggesting that it was intended as a public symbol of good fortune – Romans considered the phallus a kind of charm against the evil eye – rather than for personal enjoyment.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.it ...
.jpg!Large.jpg "Leda and the Swan, c.1520 - Michelangelo")
Michelangelo's Leda and the Swan
Sometimes, I suspect, more likely to be into water sports, like anything involving paddling.
This dig also found a Priapus, I left it in the text excerpt, but didn't use that photo, for obvious reasons.
It’s not possible for us to see these things in the same way that people of the time did. Even when we think we understand something of their symbology and philosophy, we just don’t have the same eyes or think from within the same paradigms.
There are quite a few Leda and the Swan compilations if one does a search. Some are quite interesting.
What do you think is worse — having sex with a swan or killing innocents before their birth?
Think of what God has in mind for that generation.
That’s nothing compared to the likeness of Priapus I saw there.
By knitting them shirts made from stinging nettles. She also had to keep silent until they returned to their normal forms. Because of her silence she was accused of being a witch.(Even though the prince had fallen in love with her and pledged a troth to her.) She was sentenced to be burned, and as the stake was to be put alight her brothers came to rescue her. She quickly threw the shirts over their forms. One shirt was not finished so the youngest brother had a swan wing instead of an arm for the rest of his days.
In some tales it is 12 brothers.
Am I imagining an expression of “please don’t poop!”?
I’ve seen the picture..................
That is remarkably well-preserved.
What did they do, remodel the bedroom and cover it up
with some sort of cheesy oak paneling?
Well, after all, it was Leda who would have to sit on the eggs.
That’s right! Thank you. It’s one of the great folk tales.
Actually, it was a goose.
Goose? Are you sure? I'll have to take another gander.
Are there any pics of him going down on her?
First time I was in Pompei was in 1976. They had the Priapus at the House of the Vettii behind a metal box. You had to bribe the guard to see it....
Swanee! Swanee! How I love you! How I love you, my dear old Swaneeeee!
Wherever it is I betcha they threw some good parties there.
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