“The Pleiades” by Elihu Vedder (1885).

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The Pleiades were seven sisters: Maia, Electra, Alcyone, Taygete, Asterope, Celaeno and Merope.

Their parents were Atlas, a Titan who held up the sky, and the Oceanid Pleione, the protectress of sailing.

They were the sisters of the Hyades (a sisterhood of Nymphs that bring rain) and they were all together known as Atlantides . 

As it was already said, they were seven in number, six of whom are described as visible, and the seventh as invisible.

Some call the seventh Merope and relate that she became invisible from shame, because she alone among her sisters had had intercourse with a mortal man; Sisyphus, the King of Corinth.

Another explanation for the ‘lost’ star related to the myth of the Electra, an ancestress of the royal house of Troy. After the Trojan War and the destruction of that city, the grief stricken Electra abandoned her sisters and was transformed into a comet, everafter to be a sign of impending doom.

The word Pleiades was derived from the Greek word pleiôn, meaning “plenty “. Another suggested derivations include: from πλεῖν plein, “to sail,” making the Pleiades the “sailing ones”; from πλέος pleos, “full, many”; or from πελειάδες  Peleiades, “flock of doves.”

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The Seven Pleiades, plus Atlas and Pleione.

The Six visible Pleiades and Merope, the Seventh and invisible one.

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They Pleaides were  the virgin companions of Artemis, the Goddess of hunting and the Moon.

Whilst stalking a hind, the  hunter Orion crept into a sunlit glade, disturbing the sisters.

He then began to pursue them relentlessly. 

In frustration, Artemis pleaded with Zeus to for his intervention.

Therefore, Zeus transformed the sisters into a flock of doves, and soon after, into stars.

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The Seven Pleiades. Metamorphosis, from doves to stars.

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Artemis was angry because she no longer could see her companions and asked her brother, Apollo, to kill Orion. 

Apollo, Artemis´ brother, having been affronted by the mortal hunter’s prowess, was persuaded to set a monstrous Scorpion to attack Orion.

Finally, Zeus set the dead hunter in the sky in a vain pursuit of the Pleiades through the night sky for eternity, with the constellation Scorpio ever chasing after Orion, the hunter.

In many accounts, Apollo directed the scorpion to go after Orion. As he wanted to protect Artemis´chastity vows. He placed Orion´s constellation in the skies, along with Scorpio. Thus, at night, when Scorpio comes, Orion simultaneously begins to drop away to the opposite side, forever hightailing it away from the scorpion.

These two opponents, Orion and the Scorpion, were placed amongst the stars as their namesake constellations. But, they are positioned on opposite sides of the sky, one sets as the other rises.

The Scorpion rises as Orion starts to sink into the other side of the sky, and this was seen as Orion running away from the attacker, and still in fear of him.

Thus, Scorpius rule the northern hemisphere’s summer while Orion rules the winter skies.

From an astronomic point of view, Orion is known as the “mighty hunter” and is one of the most recognizable constellations in the sky.

The three stars in the Belt of Orion show up clearly in northern winter sky and align with the celestial equator; halfway between the North and South Poles.

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Constellations of Orion and Scorpio.

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When it comes to astronomy, the Nine bright stars of the Pleiades are named for the Seven Sisters, along with their parents Atlas and Pleion.

The Pleiades is an open star cluster, containing middle-aged stars, located in the constellation of Taurus.

Taurus is composed of two main groups of stars: the Pleaides and the Hyades, both  of them called Atlantides in Greek Mythology. 

The Pleiades, as mentioned, were placed in the sky by Zeus, as Artemis asked the Ruler of Gods to keep them safe from the lusty Orion.

The Seven Hyades lie 10° southeast of the Pleaides.

Mythologically, the Pleiades were daughters of Atlas and Aethra, and hence half-sisters of the Pleaides, with whom they made up the Fourteen Atlantides.

The Hyades were placed among the stars as a reward for their sisterly love, which was evinced by their sorrow at the death of their brother Hyas who was drowned in a well, or, in another version of the myth, he was killed by a wild beast in Libya).

The face of Taurus is marked by the V-shaped group of stars called the Hyades. It is among the nearest stars cluster to Earth and is the easily visible to in the night sky.

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Constellation of Taurus, including the Pleaides and the Hyades (Atlantides). And Constellation of Orion, alongside it.

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Annex: There is a similar Greek Myth which involves Stars and Constellations.

Specifically, the greek story featuring Zeus and his lover Callisto, in which Arcas and Callisto are transformed to stars, The Ursa Minor and Major, respectively. And after that, Callisto is transformed to a bear.

According to a different version of the myth of Zeus and Callisto, Zeus transformed himself to his sister Goddess Artemis, the Goddess of Nature and Hunting, in order to mate with Callisto.

Again, Hera, used to her husband’s cheating methods, figured out what was going on and tried to catch them on action, but then Zeus-Artemis changed Callisto back in to a bear and made her the largest constellation in the northern sky.

Located at the top of the heavens, these two stars of the two bear-constellations, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, never set, meaning, they are always visible in the night sky, all night, every night, throughout the year.

One version of the myth explains why they were positioned so… Zeus placed Callisto in the sky as the constellation Ursa Major, or “Great Bear”, and her son, Arcas who was also Zeus’ son, as Ursa Minor, as “Little Bear”.

Finally, a further point on the subject of the Pleiades.

When, it comes to Native American Mythology, probably the most famous legend of the Pleiades, is the story behind Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, a volcanic rock which the local Kiowa Indians call Mateo Tepe. According to that account, once seven maidens camped near the river in a region known to have many bears.

One of the bears began to chase the maidens, who knelt to pray for help, calling upon the gods. The ground was raised into the sky. The bear tried to follow in vain and clawed the side of the rock, the marks of which are seen on the Tower.

To protect the maidens, the Great Spirit allowed them to remain in the sky as the seven sisters, the Pleiades.

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The Seven Pleiades.

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►Gallery: The Pleiades … and Stuff featured in this post:

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►Links Post:

http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiPleiades.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(Greek_mythology)

http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/pleiades/pleiades_myth.html

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Orion.html

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/stars/hyades.html

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/UrsaMajor.html

http://mysteryoftheiniquity.com/2011/05/31/close-encounters-of-the-pleiades-kind/

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  :star: Last but not Least: “Three Awards”  :star:

I would like to thank  bloggers from Shehanne Moore, My Green Nook and Aromas and Flavours for nominating my blog for a Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award, a One Lovely Blog Award and a Dragons Loyalty Award, respectively.

I suggest you to check out these blogs and follow them, if you haven’t still done so…

•Rules for the One Lovely Blog Award and the Dragons Loyalty Award. ♠Thank the person who nominated you. ♠Add the logo to your post. ♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers of your choice and tell them about the nomination. 

•Rules for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. ♠Thank the person who nominated you. ♠Add the logo to your post. ♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers of your choice and tell them about the nomination. ♠Answer these questions, as per Shehanne Moore. When bestowing other bloggers with this award, You shall set your own 10 questions, if you wish

1. Do you like hamsters?. I do…

2. If you had  a hamster what would you call it? Tangerine or Haruki.

3. Seriously, if you did have to sum up your life in ten words, what would they be?  I try to enjoy life and its little things… 

4. Have you ever broken the law? Yes… Minor charges…

5 .What would be your ideal day? A sunny saturday, I guess… 

6. Favourite colour? Blue… Black?

7. Favourite recipe? Lemon Pie…

8. Favourite place close to where you live? Tigre, Buenos Aires.

9. Best thing that’s happened to you this year so far? Feeling blessed to have certain wonderful people in my Life. 

10. And the worst? …. Disclaimer:  I´d rather keep that one for myself!… 

•Notes:

-If you have been nominated and want to follow the Nomination Process, just click on the award for which you have been nominated for. That way you’ll be able to grab in regular size!.~☀ 🌟★🌟 ☀ ~☀ 🌟★🌟 ☀ ~☀ 🌟★🌟

I. Nominees: 1. Solveig Werner 2. Bottled Memos 3. Gator Woman 4. Of Opinions 5. A Writer of History 6. My Berkeley Bowl 7. Sundown 8. Claremary P. Sweeney 9. Breathing Space 10. Traveling Rockhopper.

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II. Nominees: 1. Being Southern Somewhere Else 2. Thefeatheredsleep 3. Fashionable Librarian 4. Storyshucker 5. Jane Eyre Gets Real 6. Charlotte Hoaks 7. Aromas and Flavours 8. Course of Mirrors 9. Jennifer´s Journal 10. Journey into Poetry.

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III. Nominees: 1. Shehanne Moore 2. Quoth The Wordsmith 3. My Green Nook 4. Rami Ungar, the Writer 5. Scribble and Scrawl 6. The Metropolis Marvel 7. Minuscule Moments 8. Living the Dream 9. Great Indie Authors 10. Touch my Sound.

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“Atlas holding up a celestial map”. Sculpture by Artus Quellinus. (17th century). Royal Palace in Amsterdam.

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Atlas (which means ‘very enduring’), was one of the Titans. He was son of  Iapetus (a Titan, son of Uranus and Gaia), and the Oceanid Clymene.

Atlas´ brothers were Prometheus (meaning ‘forethought’, the Titan who gave the human race the gift of fire and the skill of metalwork), Epimetheus (meaning ‘afterthought’. He was Pandora´s husband) and Menoetius (meaning “doomed might”).

Atlas was married to his sister, Phoebe (Titan and Goddess of Prophecy). 

He had numerous children, including  the Pleiades (the stars that announced good spring weather), the Hesperides (the maidens who guarded a tree bearing golden apples), the Hyades, (the stars that announced the rainy season), Hyas (Brother of the Hyades, and spirit of seasonal rains), the nymph Calypso, Dione (Goddess of the Oak and the personification of a more ancient Mother Goddess, and presumably, Aphrodite´s mother) and Maera. 

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During the Titanomachy, the War between the Titans and  the Olympian gods for control of the heavens, Atlas and his brother Menoetius sided with the Titans, while Prometheus and Epimetheus helped the Olympian gods.

Atlas was the leader in the batttle; however, being on the losing side, Zeus condemned him to eternally stand on the western side of Gaia (the earth) holding Uranus (the sky) on his shoulders.

Homer describes Atlas in his “Odyssey” as ‘deadly-minded’ and as holding the pillars which hold the heavens and earth apart.

Hesiod  in his “Theogony” also describes Atlas as holding up the heavens and locates him in the land of the Hesperides (female deities famed for their singing), which was far to the west, at the edge of the world.

Later tradition, including Herodotus, associates the god with the Atlas Mountains where the Titan was transformed from a shepherd into a huge rock mountain by Perseus (who had behead Medusa), using the head of the Gorgon Medusa with her deadly stare. (Note: the Gorgon Medusa was one of three ugly monsters who had snakes for hair, staring eyes, and huge wings).

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On the Left: “Medusa”, by Carvaggio (1595). On the Right: Statue of Perseus, holding Medusa´s head. Piazza della Signoria, Florence. Italy.

Both sides of The Titan. NYC, St. Patrick’s Cathedral/Rockefeller Center.

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Atlas was considered a source of great wisdom and founder of astronomy, and, according to Plato, in his dialogue “Critias”, he was the original king of Atlantis.

Atlas had been required to fetch the golden apples from the fabled gardens of the Hesperides which were sacred to Zeus´wife, Hera, and guarded by the fearsome hundred-headed dragon Ladon.  

Following the advice of Prometheus, Heracles (the grandson of Perseus) asked Atlas to get him the apples because he was the father of the Hesperides, who guarded the Golden Apples´Garden…

He was also requested to take the world onto his shoulders for a while, with the help of Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom.

But, Hercules tricked Atlas into taking the load back by asking Atlas to hold it while he shifted the load.

Hercules then took the apples and Atlas again shouldered the weight of the heavens.

Because the place where Atlas stood to perform his task was the westernmost end of the world known to the ancient Greeks, the ocean near him was called the Atlantic, meaning the “Sea of Atlas” in his honor.

Atlas’ best-known cultural association is in cartography / maps. The first publisher to associate the Titan Atlas with a group of maps was Antonio Lafreri, on an engraved title-page in 1572. However, he did not use the word “atlas” in the title of his work. The mapmaker Gerardus Mercator was the first to put a picture of Atlas holding up the world – not the heavens – on the title page of his book.

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On the Left: Atlas bears the world and the cosmos on his shoulders – from a 16th century English woodcut. On The Right: Atlas holding up the world on his back. Drawing by Danckerts, Justus.

“Atlas turned to stone” (The Perseus´Series), by Edward Burne Jones (1878).

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►Gallery: Atlas:

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►Links Post

http://atlascider.com/atlasmythology.html

http://www.greekmythology.com/Titans/Atlas/atlas.html

https://mitologiahelenica.wordpress.com/2015/05/07/perseu-e-atlas/

http://www.mapforum.com/03/lafrscho.htm

http://www.ancient.eu/Atlas/

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I want to be your Atlas, so I can
chisel away at “alas,” and grant you
relief from worries of the past.

I want to create a globe out
of those woes
to carry on my shoulders—
just for a moment.

Just so you can exhale the words:

“At last”.

© 2015 – Eva PoeteX

Originally published on Eva PoeteX.-

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About Eva Xanthopoulos: She is a Greco-American Artist and Mystic Poet. She is also a  Supporter of various causes and Promoter of artists worldwide.

Learn More about Eva here 

Check out her Poetry blog!. Also make sure to follow Eva on Twitter and  Facebook.

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Eva Xanthopoulos AKA Eva Poetex.

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Perseus and Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini, (1554). Perseus with the head of Medusa. Details.

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In Greek Mythology, the Gorgons were three monsters, daughters of Echidna and Typhon. Their names were Stheno (“forceful”), Euryale (“far-roaming”), and the most famous of them, Medusa (“ruler”).  Although the first two were immortal, Medusa was not, and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus.

It was said that their  appearance would turn anyone who laid eyes upon it to stone. The name “Gorgon”  is Greek, being derived from “gorgos” and translating as “terrible” or “dreadful”.

Hesiod in his “Theogony” imagines the Gorgons as three sea daemons and makes them the daughters of two sea deities.

Homer speaks only of one Gorgon, whose head is represented in “The Iliad”as fixed in the centre of the aegis (meaning a mirrored shield) of Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom,  and whose counterpart was a device on the shield of Agamemnon.

In Homer´s “Odyssey”, the Gorgon is a monster of the underworld into which the earliest Greek deities were cast.

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Roman mosaic from 4th C. BC found in Palencia, in the year 1869 and currently at the National archaeological Museum of Madrid.

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In most versions of the story, Medusa was killed by Perseus.

According to Ovid (“Metamorphoses”, book IV), the reason for the dispute between Athena and Medusa lay in Poseidon‘s rape of Medusa inside the temple of the virgin goddess.

The goddess of Wisdom was supposed to have punished Medusa by transforming her face, which therefore made Medusa an innocent victim.

As to Perseus, he was  the son of the mortal Danae (the daughter of the King of Argos) and Zeus, the Ruler of Gods.

He would later on become the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Dynasty of Danaans

Perseus had been sent to  fetch Medusa´s head by King Polydectes of Seriphus because Polydectes wanted to marry his mother.

The gods backed up Perseus. Thus, he received a mirrored shield from Athena, gold, winged sandals from Hermes (the messenger of the Gods), a sword from Hephaestus and Hades´helm of invisibility.

Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons who was mortal, so Perseus was able to slay her while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena.

Perseus could safely cut off Medusa’s head without turning to stone, by looking only at her reflection in the shield.

During that time, Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon.

When Perseus beheaded Medusa, Medusa and Poseidon´s sons, Pegasus (a winged horse) and Chrysaor (a golden sword-wielding giant), sprang from her body.

According to other accounts, either Perseus or Athena used the head to turn Atlas into stone, transforming him into the Atlas Mountains  that held up both heaven and earth.

Many elements of the myth suggest, through its basic ambiguity, the tragic nature of Medusa.

One of the most revealing of these is the gift from Athena to Asclepius of two drops of the Gorgon’s blood, one of which has the power to cure and even resurrect, while the other is a deadly poison.

In his study “The Mirror of Medusa” (1983), Tobin Siebers has identified the importance of two elements, i.e. the rivalry between Athena and the Gorgon, and the mirror motif.

As to the mirror motif, common features are numerous. For example, snakes are the attribute of Athena, as illustrated by the famous statue of Phidias. 

With regard to symbolisms and equivalents, it is interesting to highlight that in Ancient Greece a Gorgoneion (a stone head, engraving, or drawing of a Gorgon face), frequently was used as a sacred symbol in the hopes of warding off evil.

These symbols were similar to the sometimes grotesque faces on Chinese soldiers’ shields, also used generally as an amulet. Likewise, in Hindu mythology, Kali is often shown with a protruding tongue and snakes around her head. Medusa is, besides, one of the most archaic mythical figures, perhaps an echo of the demon Humbaba who was decapitated by the babylonian hero, Gilgamesh.

David Leeming in his book: “Medusa: In the Mirror of Time” (2013) traces the development of Medusa from her earliest appearances in Archaic art and poetry to her more recent incarnations. Leeming makes reference to Jean Pierre Vernant several times in his book.

Particularly he mentions Vernant´s  essay “In The Mirror of Medusa” (1985), in which he examines Medusa in the context of archaic Greek religious life.

Leeming second Vernant when he states that Medusa is basically “a mask conveying the Ultimate Other”. They both believe that Medusa represented the death power which “wrenches humans away from their lives”. (“To gaze at the Other, which is the Medusa mask is to lose the Self, to be petrified”).

In fact, the function of the Gorgon’s mask was to keep men at a safe distance from the sacred ceremonies and mysteries reserved for women, meaning, those which celebrated the Triple Goddess, the Moon.

Graves reminds us that the Orphic poems referred to the full moon as the “Gorgon’s head”. The mask was also worn by young maidens to ward off male lust.

Consequently, according to Robert Graves, the episode of Perseus’ victory over Medusa represents the end of female ascendancy and the taking over of the temples by men, who had become the masters of the divine which Medusa’s head had concealed from them.

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“La Méduse” by Jean Delville. 1893

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►:Gallery: “The Gorgons”: 

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“Medusa” by Arnold Böcklin (On the Left: 1878. On the Right: 1897).

“The Gorgon Medusa”, by Caravaggio. (1590).

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►Links Post:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon

http://www.rwaag.org/medusa

http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-08-09.html

https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=vQqIWcgAxhIC&redir_esc=y

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bogan/medusamyth.htm

https://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2008/12/25/medusa-inspired-art-on-show/

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  :star: Last but not Least: “Three Awards”  :star:

Thank you very much to bloggers from Time for my Thoughts, Jully´s Blog and Dear Kitty for nominating me for a Blogger Recognition Award, a Creative Blogger Award and a Real Neat Blog Award, respectively.

I will follow these basic rules for these three awards: 

♠Thank the person who nominated you. ♠Add the logo to your post. ♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers of your choice and tell them about the nomination. 

~ ★ ~ ★ ~ ★ ~ ★ ~ ★ ~ ★ ~

I. Nominees Blogger Recognition Award: 1. Natascha’s Palace 2. Art Box 3. Way Station 4. Book lover circumspect4 5. WolfBerryKnits 6. Cheryl “Cheffie Cooks” Wiser 7. Blabberwockying 8. Ricettedicasamia 9. Missameliaandsir 10. Keep The Hope.

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II. Nominees Creative Blogger Award: 1. Dreamspinner Extraordinaire 2. La Luna Escarlata 3. Spiritual Dragonfly 4. Trees of Transition 5. Stephanie’s Book Reviews 6. Collage a la intemperie 7. Breathe In My Touch 8.Time for my Thoughts 9. Dear Kitty 10. Of Means and Ends.

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III. Nominees Real Neat Blog Award:  1. Joys of Joel 2. Soul Synchronicity 3. Be Different Buddy 4. Ionic Bond Blog 5. El Mejor Viaje del Mundo 6. Nearly Dear 7. Jully´s Blog 8. Diana Douglas 9. All Nine 10. Imperfect Happiness.

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Bellerophon, Pegasus and Khimaira. Kylix Laconian Black Figure. Ca 570 – 565 BC.

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Pegasus was a Hippoi Athanatoi, meaning an immortal horse of the Gods. he was a winged horse which sprang forth from the neck of the Gorgon Medusa when she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. 

When Perseus struck off the head of Medusa, with whom Poseidon had once had intercourse in the form of a horse or a bird, there sprang forth from her Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus.

Chrysaor (meaning “Golden Sword”) was usually represented as giant, but may also have been conceived of as a winged boar.

As to Pegasus, he obtained that because he was believed to have made his appearance near the sources (pêgai) of Oceanus.

Liz Greene calls the winged horse the bridge between opposites: “An earthy creature which has the power to ascend into the spiritual realm”. [Source: Symbol Reader].

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“The Birth of Pegasus and Chrysaor” by Edward Burne-Jones (1885).

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Pegasus was tamed by Bellerophon, a corinthian hero, who rode him into battle against the Chimera.

On a side note, the Chimera was a creature of Asia Minor, composed of the parts of more than one animal. 

Usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat  arising from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake´s head. The Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Hydra.

After Pegasus had conquered the Chimera, he endeavoured to rise up to heaven with his winged horse, but fell down upon the earth, either from fear or from giddiness, or being thrown off by Pegasus, who was rendered furious by a gad-fly which Zeus had sent. But Pegasus continued his flight.

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“Bellerophon Rides to Kill the Chimera” by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov 1829.

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The winged horse was also placed amongst the stars as a constellation whose rising marked the arrival of the warmer weather of spring and seasonal rainstorms.

Hence, Pegasus became a constellation in the northern sky, which brightest star is the orange supergiant Epsilon Pegasi. 

Both Hesiod and Plato made reference to this emplacement:

“Pegasus, soaring, left the earth, the mother of sheep flocks, and came to the immortals, and there he lives in the household of Zeus, and carries the thunder and lightning for Zeus of the counsels”. (Hesiod, Theogony).

“A pair of winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent… Zeus, the mighty lord, holding the reins of a winged chariot, leads the way in heaven, ordering all and taking care of all; and there follows him the array of gods and demigods, marshalled in eleven bands [the twelve Olympians]”.  (Plato, Phaedrus, 246).

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Pegasus with the foal Equuleus next to it, as depicted in Urania’s Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London in 1825. The horses appear upside-down in relation to the constellations around them.

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From a symbolic point, Pegasoi or winged horses occur in ancient art drawing the chariots of various gods and goddesses, including Helios, the sun and Selene, the moon.

The hero Pelops was also given a chariot drawn by winged horses by the god Poseidon.

Furthermore, Pegasus is a Pterippus (pteros in Greek means “winged” and hippos means “horse”).

The symbolic meaning of the horse is pretty intense with themes of power and mobility.

The horse alone also carries archetypal themes of unifying grounded stability (four feet on the ground) with higher ideals (from speed and mobility).

This theme really comes to life when the horse is winged. The Pterippus, or winged horse, is a symbol of aspiring to the greatest heights of accomplishment.

Grounded by the stability of its body, yet in flight by the ephemeral power of its wings, Pegasus offers a great analogy because of the dichotomy it offers. 

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“Perseus on Pegasus Slaying Medusa “by John Singer Sargent. 20th century.

Perseus and Andromeda, detail of “Pegasus”, by Peter Paul Rubens. 1622.

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►Gallery: “Creatures, Characters and Gods featured in this post”:

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►Gallery: “Pegasus, The Winged Horse”:

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►Anex: A List of More Types of Horses in Greek Mythology (Gallery Below):

•The Centaur, a creature with the head and torso of a man and the lower body of a horse. 

•The Hippocampus, a creature with an upper body that resembles a horse and a dolphin-like lower body.

•The Hippogriff, a beast with a head and front legs of an eagle whilst the rest of its body is that of a horse.

•The Ichthyocentaur, a creature which supposedly was one-third horse, one-third fish, and one-third human. Also known as Sea Centaur.

•The Ipotanes, a being that looked overall human, but had the legs, hindquarters, tail, and ears of a horse.

•The Sileni, bipedal beings that appear human form the waist up and horse the waist down. They were  were rustic spirits in the train of the God of Wine, Dionysus.

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►Links Post:

http://www.theoi.com/Ther/HipposPegasos.html

http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Hippoi.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(mythology)

http://www.space.com/16743-constellation-pegasus.html

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/meaning-of-wings.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_and_Andromeda_(Rubens)

http://symbolreader.net/2013/08/11/light-and-matter-the-perseid-meteor-shower/

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►Greek Mythology: “The Sirens, Muses of the Lower World”:

“Odysseus and the Sirens” by Herbert James Draper, (1909).

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The Sirens were sea nymphs who lured sailors to their death with a bewitching song.

They parents were River Achelous and the Muse Melpomene (Pseudo-Apollodorus). For Euripides, they were virgin daughters of Gaia (the Earth). 

Their number is variously reported as between two and five.
In the “Odyssey”, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, but gives the number of the Sirens as two  on an island in the western sea between Aeaea and the rocks of Scylla.

 Hesiod says that they were three and that their names were Thelxiope or Thelxinoe, Molpe and Aglaophonos.

They are mantic creatures like the Sphinx with whom they have much in common, as they also were believed to combine women and birds in various ways.
In early Greek art, Sirens were represented as birds with large women’s heads, and bird feathers. Later, they were represented as female figures with the legs of birds, usually playing musical instruments, especially harps.

Pausanias in his book “Description of Greece” makes reference to a contest between the sirens and the muses. He states that the Muses won, plucked out the Sirens’ feathers and made crowns for themselves out of them.

→The Sirens are also connected with the legends of the abduction of Persephone, with the story of the Argonauts and with Homer´s “Odyssey”.

•According to Ovid (“Metamorphoses” V, 551),they were formerly handmaidens of Persephone.

When the goddess was secretly abducted by Hades, Demeter gave the sirens the bodies of birds, and sent them to assist Demeter in the search of her daughter.

This version explains why the Sirens were called “the Muses of the Lower world”.

They eventually gave up and settled on the flowery island of Anthemoessa.

In some versions, Demeter  turned them into birds to punish them for not guarding Persephone.

•When the Argonauts passed by the Sirens, the latter began to sing, but in vain, for Orpheus rivalled and surpassed them ; and as it had been decreed that they should live only till some one hearing their song should pass by unmoved, they threw themselves into the sea, and were metamorphosed into rocks.

The Sirens were later encountered by the Argonauts who passed by unharmed with the help of Orpheus, the poet drowing out their music with his song. The sound of their songs  was once thought to be a reason for sailors meeting disaster, as their haunting voice was heard coming from the waves forecasting bad weather.

•In Homer’s Odyssey, Book XII, Odysseus, escaped the danger of their song by stopping the ears of his crew with wax so that they were deaf to the Sirens. Odysseus himself wanted to hear their song but had himself tied to the mast so that he would not be able to steer the ship off its course.

The siren song was a promise to Odysseus of mantic truths; with a false promise that he will live to tell them, they sing:

“Once he hears to his heart’s content, sails on, a wiser man.
We know all the pains that the Greeks and Trojans once endured
on the spreading plain of Troy when the gods willed it so
all that comes to pass on the fertile earth, we know it all!”
(Homer’s “Odyssey” 12.188–91).-

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“Odysseus and the Sirens” by John William Waterhouse (1891).

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Gallery: “The Sirens”:

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Roman mosaic: “Odysseus and the Sirens” at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia. 2nd century B.C.

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►Gallery: “More Sirens”:

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►Links Post:

http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/Sirens/sirens.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/546538/Siren

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren_%28mythology%29

http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Seirenes.html

https://slpmartin.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/sirens-song/

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►Last but not Least: Three Awards:

“Very Inspiring Blogger Award, Liebster Award

& Hearts As One~ Dreamwalker’s Drum Beat Award!”: 

I) I want to thank Micheline from Micheline´s Blog for nominating me for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Please make sure to visit her blog as it is erudite and informative. A real a treat to the mind!.

II) Secondly, I also want to thank Becker A. Fernández from Mis Poemas for nominating me for a Liebster Award. Check out his blog… You’ll find impressive poems in spanish which you may enjoy as much as I do.

III) Finally, I particularly want to thank Sue Dreamwalker from Dreamwalker’s Sanctuary for nominating me for an awesome and beautiful award named Hearts As One~ Dreamwalker’s Drum Beat Award.

This award was created by Sue herself and therefore has a powerful meaning. You can check out  the meaning of the totem animals on the award here. Please make sure to visit Sue Dreamwalker’s Sanctuary, a great blog in which you may find inpiration and wise messages!.

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►I) Very Inspiring Blogger Award:

Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

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►Here are the Awards Rules for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award:

1) The nominee shall display the respective logo on her/his blog and link to the blogger that has nominated her/him.

2) The nominee shall nominate fifteen (15) bloggers she/he admires, by linking to their blogs and informing them about the nomination.

3) The nominee has to answer these seven (7)  questions.

1. Who is your favorite public figure?. Pope Francis. 

2. What do you like most?. Too many things… Don’t get me started!.

3. Do you follow trends?. It depends on my mood … Or personal trend, I guess

4. What do you do when someone gets angry?. I get angrier?… Or just try to be rational.

5. What have you loved most?. Being born. No doubts about it! :P

6. Do you have causes?. Yes, Humanity in general. Justice and Peace are my consequences, though.

7. What quality do you admire most?. Intelligence… But also Beauty.

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►These are my nominees for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award:

1. Let the Images Speak 2. Venomous Scribbles 3. Truel´s Blog 4. Poetic Parfait 5. Anettes Garten 6. Margaret Lynette Sharp 7. Mis Poemas 8. Biobioncino´s Blog 9. Goal Habits 10. Edge of Humanity. 11. Karen’s Nature Art 12. Words that flow like water 13. Soul Healing Art 14. Tales of a North Shore Princess 15. Love and biscuits blog.

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►II) Liebster Award:

Liebster Award.

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►Here are the Award Rules for the Liebster Award:

1) The nominee shall display the respective logo on her/his blog and link to the blogger that has nominated her/him.

2) The nominee shall nominate ten (10) bloggers she/he admires, by linking to their blogs and informing them about the nomination.

►And, these are the nominees for this Award:

1. The Last Half... 2. Stelle Lontane 3. Dreamwalker’s Sanctuary 4. Poesie Visuelle 5. UpChucking Words 6. Impresii din călătorie 7. Henry West 8. Micheline’s Blog 9. Gypsy in Jeans 10. Papillon 1961.

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►III) Hearts As One~ Dreamwalker’s Drum Beat Award:

Hearts As One~ Dreamwalker’s Drum Beat Award.

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►Here are the rules for the Hearts As One~ Dreamwalker’s Drum Beat Award:

In Sue’s words: “This is an award to pass along to bloggers who are sharing posts which are helping show our empathy, Love and Kindness, or who Highlight injustice who beat their own Drum to bring awareness to the world”.

I’ll then nominate ten (bloggers) which I believe follow these special requirements.

1) The nominee will have to nominate ten (10) bloggers under the same terms.

2) The nominee shall display the award’s logo on her/his blog and link to the blogger that has nominated her/him.

►So, without further ado, hese are the nominees for this Award:

1. JeriWB, Author and Editor 2. D. G Kaye Writer 3. Shehanne Moore 4. Kone, Krusos, Kronos 5. En Humor Arte 6. Blue Butterflies and Me 7. Inesemjphotography 8. Kev’s Blog 9. Petals Unfolding 10. Elizabeth Melton Parsons.

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►Greek Mythology: “The Nereids, Fifty Sea Nymphs”:

“A Mermaid” by John William Waterhouse (1900).

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The Nereids were fifty goddesses of the sea, daughters of Nereus (eldest son of Pontus, the Sea and Gaia, the Earth) and Doris (an Oceanid and Sea Nymph). They were sisters of  Nerites (a young minor sea god).

They Nereids were the patrons of sailors and fishermen, who came to the aid of men in distress.

Individually they also represented various facets of the sea, from salty brine, to foam, sand, rocky shores, waves and currents, in addition to the various skills possessed by seamen.

They often accompany Poseidon, the god of the sea, and can be friendly and helpful to sailors fighting perilous storms.

The Nereids were depicted in ancient art as beautiful young maidens, sometimes running with small dolphins or fish in their hands, or else riding on the back of dolphins, hippokampoi (fish-tailed horses) and other sea creatures.

The Nereids were different to the Sirens as those creatures we call Mermaids are, speaking properly, Nereids (fish shaped women) and not Sirens (women with bird forms).

•Sirens, Nereids and Mermaids:

The Nereids of Greek mythology gave rise to the tales of the mermaids that were so popular among later sailors’ mythology. These sea nymphs were given the features traditionally associated with the mermaid, half beautiful woman, half fish. These enchanting creatures were well known to mingle with humans and to bear children.

As to the Sirens, originally, there were only three sirens who, after being pounished, would be shaped as birds.

•The Sirens were handmaidens of Persephone, daughter of the goddess Demeter.

It is said that when Persephone was abducted by Hades, Demeter gifted the three girls with the bodies of birds so they could help search for the lost girl.

When they couldn’t find her they eventually gave up and went to live on the island of Anthemoessa, cursed by Demeter (who was angry at their abandonment of the search) to remain in their half-bird form.

The Sirens were further cursed when they entered a singing competition with the Muses and lost the contest as well as their wings and many of their feathers.

Eventually, the sirens died with the fulfillment of a prophecy that should anyone be able to resist their song, the sirens would perish.

And they did; when Odysseus had his men block their ears and then tied himself to the mast of his ship so he could listen but not interfere, the sirens hurled themselves into the sea and died as he passed.

•Poseidon and Amphitrite: One of the most well known mythological couples in which a sea- goddess related to the Nereids was involved, was that of Poseidon and Amphitrite. 

Amphitrite was a sea-goddess, daughter of Doris and Nereus and therefore sister of the Nereids. She might be also considered one of the Fifty Nereids (Sea-Nymphs), according to other sources.

Poseidon (Roman Equivalent: Neptune)  was  the God of the Sea and he was also referred to as “Earth-Shaker” due to his role in causing earthquakes. According to the references from Plato in his dialogues “Timaeus” and “Critias”, the island of Atlantis was the chosen domain of Poseidon.

So after this brief introduction and without further ado, I want to link back to Cyan Ryan’s blog as he has recently posted a “haiku-set of 20 haiku” in which he makes reference to Amphitrite and Poseidon’s love story. 

So, without further ado, make sure to read Ryan ‘s Poem: “Mermaid Wife Of Poseidon” (Haiku-Set). Also check out his remarkable poetry blog “21 Shades of Blue”. Worth Reading!~

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“Triumph of Poseidon and Amphitrite”. Detail of a mosaic from Cirta, Roman Africa (325 BC).

“Tritons and Nereids” by William Russell Flint (1911).

“The Sea Maiden” by James Herbert Draper. (1894).

“Les Sirenes visitées par les Muses” by Adolphe La Lyre (19th century).

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►Gallery: “The Nereids”:

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“Sirens by the Sea” by Victor Karlovich Shtemberg (19th century.

“Mermaids Frolicking in the Sea” by Charles Edouard Boutibonne (1883).

“Sea Maidens” by Evelyn Pickering de Morgan (1885).

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►Links Post:

http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Nereides.html

http://www.maicar.com/GML/NEREIDS.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nereid

https://geotopoi.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/liverpool-st-georges-hall-20131124-15.jpg?w=700

https://geotopoi.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/st-georges-hall-liverpool/

http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/02/05/the-difference-between-mermaids-and-sirens/

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►Last but not Least: Two Awards:

Versatile Blogger Award and Very Inspiring Blogger Award:

Versatile Blogger Award.

1) The nominee shall display the respective logo on her/his blog and link to the blogger that has nominated her/him.

2) The nominee shall nominate fifteen (15) bloggers she/he admires, by linking to their blogs and informing them about the nomination.

►These are my nominees for the for the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Restons subversifs 2. Pursuit of Happiness 3. Jakesprinter 4. The Vigilant Lens 5. Crumpled Paper Cranes 6. Smile Calm 7. Shamagaia 8. China Soujourns Photography 9. One and the Same 10. Travels with Choppy 11. The Urban Wildlife Interface 12. Breath of Joy 13. Alacartemenus 14. My Life as an Artist 15. Catania Fashion Blog.

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II) Very Inspiring Blogger Award:

Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

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►The Award Rules for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award are:

1) The nominee shall display the respective logo on her/his blog and link to the blogger that has nominated her/him.

2) The nominee shall nominate ten (10) bloggers she/he admires, by linking to their blogs and informing them about the nomination.

►And, these are the nominees for this Award:

1. Living the Seasons 2. Silver in the Barn 3. Heirloom 4. To Be By Your Side 5. Dunelight 6. Just Bliss 7. EuphonosBooks 8. Megan Elizabeth 9. Pictimilitude 10. My CherryBomb Nights.

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Thanks for dropping by!.

All the best to my fellow bloggers, Aquileana :D

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►Greek Mythology: “Poseidon, The God of Sea”:

“Neptune and Triton” by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1620-1622). Victoria and Albert Museum of London.

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Poseidon (Roman equivalent: Neptune), was a son of Cronos and Rhea and brother of Zeus, Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter.

Poseidon was the god of the sea, rivers, flood and drought, earthquakes, and horses.

Being the ruler of the sea, he was described as gathering clouds and calling forth storms, but at the same he has it in his power to grant a successful voyage and save those who are in danger.

He was further regarded as the creator of the horse, and was accordingly believed to have taught men the art of managing horses by the bridle, and to have been the originator and protector of horse races.

The common tradition about Poseidon creating the horse states that when Poseidon and Athena disputed as to which of them should give the name to the capital of Attica, the gods decided, that it should receive its name from him who should bestow upon man the most useful gift.

Poseidon their created the horse, and Athena called forth the olive tree, for which the honour was conferred upon her.

Homer says in the “Odyssey” that the palace of Poseidon was in the depth of the sea near Aegae in Euboea.

The symbol of Poseidon’s power was the trident, or a spear with three points, with which he used to shatter rocks, to call forth or subdue storms.

He was depicted as a mature man of sturdy build with a dark beard, and holding a trident. 

He was also represented on horseback, or riding in a chariot drawn by two or four horses.

Poseidon was married to Amphitrite, by whom he had three children, Triton, Rhode, and Benthesicyme, but he also had a good number of children by other divinities and mortal women.

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On the Left: Mosaic: Poseidon rides across the sea in a chariot drawn by two Hippokampoi (fish-tailed horses. 3rd century AD. On the Right: Poseidon with tirdent on hand driving a chariot, drawn by two Hippokampoi. 3rd century AD.

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►Gallery: “Poseidon, The God of Sea” (Greek Vases):

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On the Left: Head of Poseidon. Bronze Piece (between 227-200 BC). On the Right: Neptune with two hippocampus by Perino del Vaga. 16th century.

“Hear, Poseidon, ruler of the sea profound, whose liquid grasp begirds the solid ground; who, at the bottom of the stormy main, dark and deep-bosomed holdest they watery reign. Thy awful hand the brazen trident bears, and sea’s utmost bound thy will reveres. Thee I invoke, whose steeds the foam divide, from whose dark locks the briny waters glide; shoe voice, loud sounding through the roaring deep, drives all its billows in a raging heap; when fiercely riding through the boiling sea, thy hoarse command the trembling waves obey. Earth-shaking, dark-haired God, the liquid plains, the third division, fate to thee ordains. ‘Tis thine, cerulean daimon, to survey, well-pleased, the monsters of the ocean play. Confirm earth’s basis, and with prosperous gales waft ships along, and swell the spacious sails; add gentle peace, and fair-haired health beside, and pour abundance in a blameless tide”. (Orphic Hymn 17 to Poseidon).~

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►Gallery: “Poseidon, The God of Sea” (Statues and Sculptures):

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“The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite” by Frans Francken The Younger ( 17th century).

“The Return of Neptune” by John Singleton Copley (1754).

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►Links Post:

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Poseidon.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poseidon

http://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/gods/poseidon/

http://www.chateauversailles.fr/homepage

https://ladysighs.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/greek-god-poseidon/

https://poemsandpoemes.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/amazing-neptune/

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►Check out this Blog!~ Symbol Reader~

“Aquarius” by Johfra Bosschart. 20th century. Source: http://symbolreader.net/2014/02/12/images-of-the-zodiac-contemplating-aquarius/

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►Check out this Blog and particularly this Post:

~Poetic Parfait~ “Out Out, By Robert Frost”:

~Poetic Parfait~Click here.

“Poetry Analysis: ‘Out, Out” by Robert Frost”. Thank you for the mention Christy!.

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►Last but not Least: “Three Awards”:

I) I want to thank Euphonos from EuphonosBooks for nominating me for a “One Lovely Blog Award” (Pink Version).

II) I also want to thank for I am also very thankful to have been nominated for the “Wonderful Team Member Readership Award” by Csolisp .

III) Finally I would like to thank José Sala for nominating me for a “Liebster Award” (Pink Version).

Please make sure to check out these three great blogs I mentioned above, and to follow them If you haven’t still done so!.~

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►Rules for these Three Awards:

* Thank the person who nominated you for the award.
* Add the logo to your post.
* Nominate ten (10) bloggers you admire and inform your nominees by commenting on their blogs. 

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►I) Nominees~”One Lovely Blog Award” (Pink Version).~

1. House of Heart 2. Writer’s Notebook 3. Después de la Media Rueda 4. Poetic Parfait 6. Comienzo de Cero 7. Shehanne Moore 8. Impractical Dreamer 9. Morning Coffee 10. The Reading Bud.

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►II) Nominees~“Wonderful Team Member Readership Award” (Rad Version).~

1. Chrisnelson61 2. Things That Never Made It Into Print 3. José Sala 4. Litebeing Chronicles 5. Ivdorado 6. Implied Spaces 7. Merlinspielen 8. The Adventures of a 20 Something 9. Dewin Nefol 10. The Write Might.

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►III) Nominees~”Liebster Award” (Pink Version).~

1. By the Sea 2. The Wall Gallery Blog. Csolisp 4. The Empathy Queen 5. Of Glass & Paper 6. The Cat’s Blog 7. Mieux Vivre Jardin 8. Coffee n’ Notes 9. Freed from Time 10. Marcia’s Book Talk.

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“Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge” by Willem De Poorter. (17th century).

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Athena (Roman Equivalent: Minerva) was the city protectress of Athens and goddess of war, handicraft, wisdom and practical reason.

She was the daughter of Zeus and Metis, but she was born produced without a mother, so that she emerged full-grown from his forehead. The story of Athena’s birth is perfectly told in the post “The Weirdest Births of Mythology”~ Micromythos. It is said that while Metis was pregnant, Zeus ate the fetus following Uranos’ and Gea’s advice, who told him that if a boy was born, he would snatch his father’s power. The fetus was then carried in Zeus’ skull during nine months. After that time, the god had a terrible headache and ask the blacksmith god Hephaestus to split his head with an axe in order to relieve him from his pain. Then Athena, already as a young girl came out of his head, completely dressed and armed.

Her emergence there as city goddess, accompanied the ancient city-state’s transition from monarchy to democracy. Her birth and her contest with Poseidon, the sea god, in which the Gods disputed which of them should give the name to the capital of Attica, were depicted on the pediments of the Parthenon,and the great festival of the Panathenaea.

She was also part of the Judgement of Paris, in which she competed with Hera and Aphrodite for the prize of the Golden Apple.

Athena was essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation. She was usually portrayed wearing body armour and a helmet and carrying a shield and a lance.

Besides, she was said to be the creator of the olive tree, the greatest blessing of Attica.

She was associated with birds, particularly the owl, which became famous as the city’s own symbol, and with the snake. 

In Homer’s “Iliad”, Zeus, assigned the sphere of war to Ares and Athena. 

Athena’s moral and military superiority to Ares derived in part from the fact that she represented the intellectual and civilized side of war and the virtues of justice and skill, whereas Ares represented mere blood lust. 

Athena thus appears here as war goddess, who fights alongside the Greek heroes. She is the divine form of the heroic, martial ideal: she personified excellence in close combat, victory, and glory.

Athena also appears in Homer’s “Odyssey”, representing the tutelary deity of Odysseus.

Athena also has am important role in Aeschylus’ tragedy “The Eumenides” (third and last part of Aeschylus’ “Oresteia”). There, Orestes is judged by a jury composed of Athena and twelve Athenians. After being counted, the votes on each side are equal. Athena declares that tied juries will result in the defendant (Orestes) being acquitted as mercy should always take precedence over harshness.

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“Pallas and the Vices” (Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue), by Andrea Mantegna (1502).

“Pallas and the Vices”(Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue), by Andrea Mantegna (1502). Right side: Detail Athena, trying to Expel the creatures who represent the many vices from the Garden of Virtue and To rescue the “Mother of the Virtues” from her stone prison (to the far right of the painting, a detail of which can be seen below). –

“Pallas and the Vices” (Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue), by Andrea Mantegna (1502). Right side, details: The fluttering banner proclaims the following in Latin: ET MIHI MATER VIRTUTUM SUCCURRITE DIVI: Gods, save me too, the Mother of the Virtues.

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Homeric Hymn 11 to Athena. (Greek Epic C7th to 4th B.C.) :
“Of Pallas Athena, guardian of the city, I begin to sing. Dread is she, and with Ares she loves the deeds of war, the sack of cities and the shouting and the battle. It is she who saves the people as they go to war and come back. Hail, goddess, and give us good fortune and happiness!”~

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►Gallery:  “Athena, Goddess of Wisdom” (Sculptures):

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Up left: “Man in Armour” or “Alexander the Great” by Rembrandt (1655). Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow. Up down: “Minerva or Pallas Athena” by Rembrandt. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon. (1655).

“The Combat of Mars and Minerva” by Jacques Louis David (1711).

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►A Poem by LadySighs: “Greek Goddess ~ Athena”:

“Greek Goddess ~ Athena”. Poem by LadySighs. Click above. Source: https://ladysighs.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/greek-goddess-athena/

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►Update: Check out this poem by Geofrey Crow: “To Athena”:

[Painting: “The Combat of Mars and Minerva” by Suvée Joseph-Benoit (1771)].

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►Links Post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Athena.html

https://micromythos.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/the-weirdest-births-of-mythology/

https://ladysighs.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/greek-goddess-athena/

http://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/rembrandts_minerva_c.1655

http://wtfarthistory.com/post/8130067131/virtue-over-vice

http://bloomlisa.com/2015/01/28/give-me-a-hoot-hoot-for-the-owl/

http://thegigglingstream.blogspot.com.ar/2015/05/to-athena.html

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I would like to thank Bella Espíritu, for nominating me for a Mental Paradise Award Blog Friends Awards.

I also want to thank Risty for confering me a Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Blossom Version).

Finally, I want to say thanks to Sadness Theory for nominating me for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Fancy Version).

Thanks to these three bloggers and please make sure to check out their blogs and to follow them, If you haven’t still done so!.~

Note: In this ocassion and for the three awards, I will nominate blogs I have recently came across and like, recent followers and plussers. Also,  I will follow the nomination process without answering questions or mentioning facts about me…. 

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►Rules for these Three Awards:

* Thank the person who nominated you for the award.
* Add the logo to your post.
* Nominate ten (10) bloggers you admire and inform your nominees by commenting on their blogs. 

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►I) Nominees~Mental Paradise Award Blog Friends Awards~

1. Micromythos 2. Hello World 3. Bloom Lisa 4. Being Better 5. View from a Burrow 6. Arthur Penn 7. PictureS 8. M. Jean Pike’s Weblog 9. Difference Propre 10. The Ninth Life.

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►II) Nominees~ Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Blossom Version)~

1. Just Fooling Around With Bee 2. Ladyleemanila 3. Rareity 4. Sadness Theory 5. Find Your Middle Ground 6. Catherinejonapark 7. Creati-Tude 8. Festival Reviews 9. If It Was Today 10. The Alarm Clock of Love.

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►III) Nominees~Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Fancy Version)~

1. Bella Espíritu 2. Simona Prilogan 3. Risty’s Breath 4. Ruth Williams’ Blog 5. Working Girl Reviews 6. Life in the Foothills  7. Au fil-M-des Mots 8. Quebec1spire 9. L’envolée poétique 10. Le Blabla de l’ Espace.

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►I am Saying Hi & Bye!~

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“Jupiter and Europe” by Gustave Moreau (1868).

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Zeus was the supreme god in Ancient Greece, the father of the Olympian gods and the ruler of mankind. He was identified with the Roman god Jupiter and associated with other deities, such as the Egyptian god Ammon and the Etruscan god Tinia. 

He was regarded by the Greeks as the god of all natural phenomena on the sky; the personification of the laws of nature; the ruler of the state; and finally, the father of gods and men.

Zeus was the last child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Zeus had five older siblings. Two brothers (Poseidon and Hades), and three sisters (Hestia, Hera and Demeter).

Cronus had learnt that he was destined to be overthrown by his son as he had previously overthrown Uranus, his own father. His wife Rhea, knew that he would kill the baby so she sought Gaia to devise a plan to save him.

Finally, Rhea she gave birth to Zeus in Crete and hid him in a cave and he was raised by Gaia. 

As mentioned previously, Zeus’ father, Cronus, had sired several five children by Rhea, but he swallowed them all as soon as they were born.  After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge his  siblings in reverse order of swallowing.

Then he released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, from their dungeon in Tartarus.

Zeus married his own sister, Hera, the goddess of marriage and monogamy, but was giving her plenty of reasons to be jealous, since Zeus was renowned of his numerous lovers As a result, Zeus fathered plenty of children.

By Hera, Zeus sired Ares and Hephaestus (who would be both Aphrodite’s lovers) and Hebe, the goddess of youth. 

He had love affairs with Demeter (the Goddess of the Harvest and Perspehone’s mother), Leto (the Goddess of Motherhood), Dione (the personification of a more ancient Mother Goddess), Maia (a Nymph) and Thetis (A Sea Nymph and leader of the Fifty Nereids). Also Metis, (one of the Okeanides and the Titan goddess of good counsel and advise) was his lover and his first wife and Athena (the goddess of wisdom) was their daughter.

Among mortals she had several lovers such as Io, Leda, Europa, and even the handsome young man Ganymede, to whom Zeus granted him eternal youth and immortality. Seleme was also among them and with her Zeus sired Dionysus (The god of Wine).

Zeus was the god of regulated time as marked by the changing seasons and the regular succession of day and night, in contrast to what his father Cronus represented before him; absolute time, meaning eternity.

As the personification of the operations of nature, he represented the glaws of unchanging order, by which both the natural and the spiritual world were governed.

As the father of the gods, Zeus ascertained that each deity perform their individual duty, punished their misdeeds, settled their disputes, and acted towards them on all occasions.

The symbols of Zeus were the scepter, the throne and the thunderbolt, which was as a gift from the Cyclopes after he liberated them. Zeus’ tree was theoak tree and his sacred animal was the eagle. Using his shield, the Aegis, he could create all natural phenomena related to the air and the sky, such as storms and tempests.

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“Jupiter and Semele” by Gustave Moreau (1895).

“Zeus and Ganymede. (Ttheft of fire)” by Christian Griepenkerl (1878) .

“Jupiter and Thetis”, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. (1811).

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“O Zeus, much-honoured, Zeus supremely great, to thee our holy rites we consecrate, our prayers and expiations, king divine, for all things to produce with ease through mind is thine. Hence mother earth (Gaia) and mountains swelling high proceed from thee, the deep and all within the sky. Kronion king, descending from above, magnanimous, commanding, sceptred Zeus; all-parent, principle and end of all, whose power almighty shakes this earthly ball; even nature trembles at thy mighty nod, loud-sounding, armed with lightning, thundering god. Source of abundance, purifying king, O various-formed, from whom all natures spring; propitious hear my prayer, give blameless health, with peace divine, and necessary wealth”. [Orphic Hymn 15 to Zeus. (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.)]~

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“Zeus at Olympia, One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”:

“Zeus at Olympia”, sculture by Phidias. Drawings.

On the Left: A fanciful reconstruction of Phidias’ statue of Zeus, in an engraving made by Philippe Galle in 1572. On the Right: Coin from Elis district, Greece illustrating the Olympian Zeus statue.

The Statue of “Zeus at Olympia” was a giant seated figure, about 42 ft (13 m) tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus. It  It was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, until its eventual destruction for unknown causes during the 5th century AD.

In the 2nd century AD, the geographer Pausanias gave a detailed description. The statue was crowned with a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. It had gold sandals, and a golden robe carved with animals and lilies. In its right hand was a small chryselephantine statue of crowned Nike, goddess of victory. Its left hand held a sceptre inlaid with many metals, supporting an eagle. The throne was decorated in gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory. 

The Roman “Seated Zeus” sculpture is considered a copy of the original Statue of Zeus, and it was created following the type established by Phidias.

“Zeus at Olympia”. Zeus enthroned holding a royal sceptre and winged Nike (Victory), and with an eagle by his side. Roman copy inspired by Greek ivory and gold statue of Zeus at Olympia by Phidias. Marble & Bronze . Imperial Roman. C1st AD Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.

“Zeus at Olympia”. Roman copy inspired by Greek ivory and gold statue of Zeus at Olympia by Phidias. Marble & Bronze . Imperial Roman. C1st AD Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.

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►Gallery: “Zeus, The Ruler of Gods”:

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►Links Post: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus

http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/GreekGods/Zeus/

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/hi_fidegze.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Zeus_at_Olympia

http://www.greek-gods.info/greek-gods/zeus/#zeus-family

http://www.talesbeyondbelief.com/roman-gods/jupiter.htm

http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Zeus/zeus.html

http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/sevens-wonders-of-the-ancient-world

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I would like to thank Purple Anais from Arwenaragornstar for nominating me for a Lovely Blog Award.

I also want to thank The Chaos Realm for nominating me for a Versatile Blogger Award.

Finally I appreciate that Unbolt nominated me for a Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award.

Thanks to these three bloggers and please make sure to check out their blogs and to follow them, If you haven’t still done so!.~ :cool:  

Note: In this ocassion and for the three awards, I will nominate blogs I have recently came across and like, recent followers and plussers. Also,  I will follow the nomination process without answering questions or mentioning facts about me…. 

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►Rules for these Three Awards:

♠ Thank the person who nominated you for the award.
♠ Add the logo to your post.
♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers you admire and inform your nominees by commenting on their blogs. 

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►I) Nominees~Lovely Blog Award (True Colors Version):

1. Tina Frisco 2. The Golden Echo 3. The Peacock Feather 4. For the love of Nike  5. Speculations Impressed 6. Poet Charms 7. The Rose Hotel 8. Margaret Langstaff 9. June Kearns  10. An Honest Sinner

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►II) Nominees~Versatile Blogger Award (Flowers Version):

1. Echoes and Reflections 2. Eudaimonia 3. The Haute Mommy Handbook 4. Into the forgotten 5. Words of No Wisdom 6. Welcome to my World 7. Chronicle Me 8. Fifty Shades of Reality 9. Hiddenaltar 10. Jakariabulbul

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►III) Nominees~Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award (Cool Version):

1. Drifting through my Open Mind 2. Naponteaerea 3. Lenkalaskoradova 4. The return of the Modern Philosopher 5. 101 Half Connected Things 6. Everyday People 7. Catalina Trujillo 8. The Book Haven 9. Robin’s Real Life 10. Kultur Post

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On the Left: “Leda and the Swan” by Gustave Moreau. (1865-1875). On the Right: “Leda” by Gustave Moreau (1875-1880).

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Leda was daughter of the aetolian King Thestius and wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta.

Zeus took the form of a swan to seduce Leda. 

In Greek tradition, the Swan is the symbol of the Muses. The swan also has erotic connotations, such as in the love affair between Zeus and Leda. Also, the Greek Goddess of Beauty and Love, Aphrodite, had a swan-drawn chariot. Besides The swan, as a symbol of music, is also dedicated to Apollo, who was said to transform into a swan.

Back to the retelling: Zeus and Leda had sexual relationships the same night she had slept with her husband. 

Their consummation, on the same night as Leda lay with her husband Tyndareus, resulted in two eggs from which hatched the four children. (Zeus’ s and Tyndareus’).

According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen (later known as Helen of Troy) and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband and King of Sparta Tyndareus.

According to other sources, Nemesis, the Goddess of Revenge, produced the egg from which hatched the two sets of twins: Helen of Troy and Clytenmestra and the Discouri Castor and Pollux. Worth noting that these set of twins are supposedly from different fathers….

Clytenmestra and Helen were problematic women. The Trojan War will be provoked by the abduction of Helen.

And Clytemnestra will later on kill his own husband, Agamemnon and this is another incident related to the Trojan War.

Saying it briefly, the Greek Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, was kidnapped by the Trojans, so the Greeks besieged the city of Troy; after the war, Clytemnestra, the wife of the Greek leader Agamemnon, murdered him, with teh help of her lover, Aegistus.

Leda’s twin-sons, Castor and (Polydeuces or) Pollux, were renowned for their tender attachment to each other. They were also famous for their physical accomplishments, Castor being the most expert charioteer of his day, and Pollux the coward brother.

Their names appear both among the hunters of the Calydonian boar-hunt and the heroes of the Argonautic expedition.

Zeus wished to confer the gift of immortality upon Polydeuces as he was his son but he refused to accept it unless allowed to share it with Castor.

Zeus gave the desired permission, and the faithful brothers were both allowed to live, but only on alternate days. Castor and Polydeuces, also known as The Dioscuri received divine honours throughout Greece, and were worshipped with special reverence at Sparta.

Leda also had other daughters by Tyndareus: Timadra, Phoebe and Philonoe.

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On the Left: “Helen on the Walls of Troy” by Gustave Moreau. (1885). On the Right: Up: “Castor and Pollux, The Heavenly Twins”, by Giovanni Battista Cipriani. (1783). On the Right: Down: “Clytemnestra” by Frederick Leighton. (19th century).

On the Left: “Leda and The Swan” by Leonardo da Vinci (1510). On the Right: Detail, “Leda and the Swan”: The children of Leda.

On the Left: “Leda” by Leonardo da Vinci (1510 -1515). On the Right: “Leda and the Swan” by Francesco Melzi (16th century).

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►Reading: W. B. Yeats’ Poem “Leda and the Swan”:

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 ►Analysis of W. B. Yeats’ Poem “Leda and the Swan”:

William Butler Yeats (1865/1939).

“Leda and the Swan” (1924) is a Petrarchan Sonnet (*), a traditional fourteen-line poem predominantly written in Iambic Pentameter (**). [See notes below].

The poet retells a story from Greek mythology, the rape of the Princess of Sparta, Leda by the god Zeus, who had assumed the form of a swan.

Yeats combines words indicating powerful actions (sudden blow, beating, staggering, beating, shudder, mastered, burning, mastered) with adjectives and descriptive words that indicate Leda’s weakness (“caressed”, “helpless”, “terrified”, “vague”, “loosening”). By doing this, he increases the sensory impact of the poem.

The first eight lines of “Leda and the Swan” describe the act of rape from Leda’s perspective. The ninth line, appropriately enough, ends the description of the sexual act.

The last six lines of the poem, then, narrate the consequences of the it, for Leda, personally, and those ones related to the Trojan War.

“Leda and the Swan” looks a little different than other sonnets. It has three stanzas and 14 verses.

But, verse 11 appears to be broken off into two lines. Yeats probably divided this verse in order to heighten the drama of Agamemnon being dead and to show how the poem shifts back to Leda’s perspective.

•The first stanza is characterized by violent beats and pauses.

•The second stanza shifts to more flowing lines as Yeats philosophically reflects on the events. The verses here are structured by the question “how,” and there are many adjectives (“terrified,” “vague,” “feathered,” “loosening,” “white,” “strange”).

•In the third stanza, the adjectives pile up as the poem builds to the solemn declaration, “And Agamemnon dead”. 

The rhythm comes to a screeching halt as verse 11 is fractured over two lines, in order to reach emotional height. This stanza connects Leda’s hymenal wall with the walls of  the city of Troy.

The last verses of the poem become calm again. Yeats  returns to his percussive gentle beats, incorporating some alliteration (“brute blood”). Yeats will then wonder whether Leda, through her contact with Zeus, would be able to foresee how the result of their union—Helen—would bring about the fall of a great city. Hence, the poem ends with a rhetorical question, introduced as a sort of irresolvable doubt…

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(*) The Petrarchan Sonnet is named after Petrarch, a 14th century Italian poet who made the form popular throughout Europe. Like all sonnets, the Petrarchan sonnet has 14 lines. Unlike all sonnets, it also has a major thematic shift after the eighth line. At this point, the poem introduces a new subject or shifts its perspective in some way.

(**) Iambic Pentameter is closely associated with Blank Verse, Iambic is an adjective. Iamb is the noun and is short for Iambus. Iambus is from the Greek and refers to two. Therefore, Iamb refers to a foot, or any two syllable“unit”, referred to as a foot by metrists, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (or ictus).  An example of Iambic Pentameter in Yeats’ poem “Leda and the Swan” is: “He holds her help-less breast u-pon his breast“.

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►Gallery Of Paintings: “Leda and The Swan” (Leda and Zeus):

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“Leda and the Swan” by William Shackleton. (1928).

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 ►Links Post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_and_the_Swan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_(mythology)

http://www.talesbeyondbelief.com/myth-stories/lovers-of-zeus.ht

http://aliisaacstoryteller.com/2015/06/15/irish-mythology-the-swan/

http://www.druidry.org/library/animals/swan

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/yeats/section7.rhtml

http://www.shmoop.com/leda-and-swan/poem-text.html

http://www.betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/leda-and-the-swan-warning-necessary/

https://poemshape.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/what-is-iambic-pentameter-the-basics/

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I would like to thank José Sala for nominating me for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

I also want to thank  Optimista Blog for nominating me for a Versatile Blogger Award.

Last but not least thanks to Janet Wertman for nominating me for another Versatile Blogger Award.

Thanks to these three bloggers and please make sure to check out their blogs and to follow them, If you haven’t still done so!.~ :roll:  

Note: For the three awards, I will nominate blogs I have recently came across and like, recent followers and/or plussers. Also, I am changing the logos so that way I can include new awards among mine… And, finally, I will follow the nomination process without answering questions or mentioning facts about me…. 

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►Rules for these Three Awards:

♠ Thank the person who nominated you for the award.
♠ Add the logo to your post.
♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers you admire and inform your nominees by commenting on their blogs. 

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►I) Nominees~Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Monkey & Sunflower Version):

1. The Wayward Warrior 2. MidiMike 3. The Spendy Pencil 4. Unbolt 5. Yadadarcyyada 6. José Sala 7. Sunshine and Shadows 8. Optimista Blog 9. Pomad 10. The Daily Rant.

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►II) Nominees~Versatile Blogger Award (Purple Version):

1. Carole Migalka 2. JoHanna Massey 3. Lightwalker’s Blog 4. Bibliobulimica 5. Life, the Universe and Lani 6. A Beautiful Mess 7. The Vanessa Chronicles 8. Allyson Lee Adams 9. Kerry’s loft 10. Mountaintop Talk.

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►III) Nominees~Versatile Blogger Award (Bird Version):

1. Cadence4life 2. The Perceptions Square 3. Arwenaragornstar  4. The Chaos Realm 5. Shehanne Moore 6. Janet Wertman 7. Extravaganza Beading 8. Autumn Melody 9. The More I Learn the More I Wonder 10. Emily Lichtenberg. 

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“Hélène glorifiée” by Gustave Moreau (1897).

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Helen of Troy, also known as Helen of Sparta, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and sister of Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux.

Pollux shared a father with Helen (Zeus), whilst Castor’s and Clytemnestra’s father was he king of Sparta, Tyndareus.

In Greek myths, Helen was considered the most beautiful woman in the world.

By marriage she was Queen of Laconia, a province within Homeric Greece, the wife of King Menelaus, who was Agamemnon‘s brother.

When it was time for Helen to marry, many princes came to seek her hand.

During the contest, Castor and Pollux had a prominent role in dealing with the suitors, although the final decision was in the hands of King Tyndareus, Helen’s father.

Menelaus, her future husband, did not attend but sent his brother, Agamemnon on his behalf.

Before this, when Helen was a young girl she was kidnapped by Theseus. 

In most accounts of this event, this happened when Helen was seven years old.

It is said that two athenians, Theseus and Pirithous, thought that since they were both sons of gods, both of them should have divine wives; they thus pledged to help each other abduct two daughters of Zeus.

Thus Theseus chose Helen, and Pirithous vowed to marry Persephone, the wife of Hades.

Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast, but, as soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there. Helen’s abduction caused an invasion of Athens by Castor and Pollux, who captured Aethra (Theseus’ mother) in revenge, and returned their sister to Sparta.

After the Judgement of Prince Paris, she was presumably abducted by him and this led to the Trojan War. 

That is why Helen is also known as the face that launched a thousand ships.

Helen is sometimes depicted as being abducted and even raped by Paris.

However, Sappho argues that Helen willingly left behind Menelaus to be with Paris.

Homer depicts her as a wistful, even a sorrowful, figure, coming to regret her choice and wishing to be reunited with Menelaus.

Paris was killed during the Trojan War, and according to Homer’s “Iliad”, Helen was reunited with Menelaus, though other versions of the legend recount her ascending to Olympus instead, or even getting re-married with Priam’s surviving son Deiphobus, who she will betrayed hiding his sword, immediatly after the sack of Troy had begun.

During the fall of Troy, Homer says that after the Trojan Horse was admitted into the city Helen circled the Horse imitating  the voices of the Greek women left behind at home, almost like the Sirens did. Thus, she tortured  the men inside the wooden horse (including Odysseus and Menelaus) with the memory of their loved ones, and brought them to the brink of destruction.

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“Helen on the Walls of Troy” by Gustave Moreau (1895).

“Helen on the Walls of Troy”. (Two paintings dated 19th century). Both Gustave Moreau (1) and Frederick Leighton (2) depict an expressionless Helen. Blurry, anguished faces, that precisely “launched a thousand ships”.

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►Gallery: “Helen of Troy”:

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The story of Helen began in young life

As Theseus plotted to take a Divine wife

Conflict ensued as her brothers did invade

Capturing Theseus’s Mother, revenged repaid

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Helen of Sparta, Daughter of Zeus

A beauty to behold blooming with youth

She attracted her suitors to ask for her hand

Menelaus won her; Becoming Queen of his land

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Abducted by Paris, or did she willingly run?

As Oaths to her King another battle was begun

Her face did launch a thousand ships to sea

As Helen of Troy, another legend began to be

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Helen of Troy, a beauty to behold,

A Trojan Horse, a plan so bold

Queen of Laconia, Menelaus her King

Now coupled with Paris, more tragedy to bring

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Who can say what heartache transpired?

Daughter of Zeus, extremely desired

Did she find Happiness? Who can tell?

But what we do know- Men fell under her spell..

 ©2015 Sue Dreamwalker.-

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►About Sue Dreamwalker:

►Sue Dreamwalker Dixit: 

Sue Dreamwalker. Visit her Blog: https://suedreamwalker.wordpress.com/

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I would like to thank Henar de Andrés from “Pensando en la Oscuridad” for nominating me for a Black Wolf Blogger Award.

I would also like to thank  José Sala and Millie Thom for both nominating me for two Very Inspiring Blogger Awards (OMG & Puppy Versions).

please make sure to check out their blogs and to follow them, If you haven’t still done so!. :star: :star: :star:

_______________________________________________________________________________________

►Rules for these Three Awards:

♠ Thank the person who nominated you for the award.
♠ Add the logo to your post.
♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers you admire and inform your nominees by commenting on their blogs. 

________________________________________________________________

►I) Nominees~ Black Wolf Blogger Award (Sparkles Version):

1. Souldier Girl 2. Uninteresting Calc Equations 3. The Main Focus 4. Fedpoint86 5. Jully’s Blog 6. The Bégel’s Blab 7. It’s Jieyang! 8. Kintal 9. Underground Energy 10. Eye will not cry.

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►II) Nominees~Very Inspiring Blogger Award (OMG Version):

1. Caminando 2. Collage a la Intemperie 3. Milam Ahard 4. Mimoreliadospuntocero 5. VivalaViv 6. Americana Injustica 7. All Out of Excuses 8. Bear Trainer 9. My red abyss 10. Perso in Poesia 2015.

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►III) Nominees~Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Puppy Version):

1. Yesterday and today: Merril’s historical musings 2. Desertsunsaga 3. 4. The wind horse blog 5. The Cvillean 6. Ana Linden 7. Coming Out Crooked 8. Captain’s Log 9. The Dark Night Chronicles 10. Spahr Plops.

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►Links Post:

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hd/abouthelen.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_of_Troy

http://whitedragon.org.uk/articles/troy.htm

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V10N2/

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/JudgementParis.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/troyilium/a/helenoftroybasc.htm

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“Jupiter and Callisto” by François Boucher. In this painting Jupiter (Zeus) takes the form of Artemis/Diana (1759).

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Callisto (also known as Parrhasia)  was a daughter of the Arkadian King Lykaon and a hunting companion of the goddess Artemis (Also known as Cynthia, roman equivalent: Diana).

Callisto’s themes are instinct and flexibility. Her symbols are a bear, a willow branch and the constellation Ursa Minor.

Callisto wanted to preserve her virginity for as long as she remained in the company of the Huntress- Goddess.

“Callisto once belonged to the sacred circle of Hamdryades and huntress Diana (Artemis). She touched the goddess’ bow : `This bow I touch,’ she cried, `Be a witness to my virginity.’ Cynthia (Artemis) praised her, and said : `Keep the pledge you vowed and you will be my companions’ princeps. [Ovid, “Fasti” 2. 155 ff. (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)].~

But later on, she was seduced by the god Zeus (also known as Jove, roman equivalent: Jupiter), in the guise of the goddess Artemis.

The god transformed himself and took Diana’s (Artemis’)  form–assumed Diana’s dress and imitating her awoke the maid, and spoke in gentle tones, `What mountain slope, O virgin of my train, hath been thy chase?’ Which, having heard, Callisto, rose and said, `Hail, goddess! greater than celestial Jove! I would declare it though he heard the words’. Jove (Zeus) heard and smiled, well pleased to be preferred above himself, and kissed her many times, and strained her in his arms, while she began to tell the varied fortunes of her hunt… But when his ardent love was known to her, she struggled to escape from his embrace: ah, how could she, a tender maid, resist almighty Jove?… [Ovid, “Metamorphoses” 2. 409 – 531. (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)].~ 

When her pregnancy was revealed in the bath, Callisto blamed the goddess of the offence. 

The Moon’s bent horns were rising from their ninth sojourn, when, fainting from her brother’s flames, the goddess of the chase observed a cool umbrageous grove, from which a murmuring stream ran babbling gently over golden sands. When she approved the spot, lightly she struck her foot against the ripples of the stream, and praising it began; `Far from the gaze of all the curious we may bathe our limbs, and sport in this clear water’. Quickly they undid their garments,–but Parrhasis (Callisto of Parrhasia) hid behind the others, till they knew her state… Cynthia (Artemis) in a rage exclaimed, `Away! Thou must not desecrate our sacred springs!’ And she was driven thence. [Ovid, “Metamorphoses” 2. 409 – 531. (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)].~ 

Artemis, in her fury, transformed Callisto into a bear. Thus, the huntress became the hunted, somehow.

And lest her prayers and piteous words might move some listening god, and give remembrance, speech was so denied, that only from her throat came angry growls, now uttered hoarse and threatening. Still remains her understanding, though her body, thus transformed, makes her appear a savage bear… Over crags, in terror, she was driven by the cries of hounds; and many a time she fled in fear, a huntress from the hunters, or she hid from savage animals; forgetting her transformed condition. Changed into a bear, she fled affrighted from the bears that haunt the rugged mountains. [Ovid, “Metamorphoses” 2. 409 – 531. (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)].~

Hunters then caught and delivered her and her son Arcas (which mans “bear”) to King Lykaon.

Sixteen years later Callisto, still a bear, encountered her son Arcas hunting in the forest. Just as Arcas was about to kill his own mother, Zeus averted the tragedy by placing mother and son amongst the stars as Ursa Major and Minor, respectively.

By fixing “those new made stars in the highest dome of space that circles the utmost axis of the world”  [Ovid, “Metamorphoses” 2. 409 – 531. (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)].~ 

Hera was not pleased with this arrangement, especially since Callisto was another of her husband’s infidelities, so with one of the Nereids, i.e Thethys‘ help, they cursed these stars to circle in the skies forever. That’s why the two constellations are circumpolar, visible all year round.

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“Jupiter (Jupiter, shaped as Diana or Artemis) and Callisto. Progressions of Two paitings. 1) Painting with Cupid up on the left. “Jupiter in the guise of Diana and the nymph Callisto” by Pietro Liberi. (17th century). Painting with Cupid down on the left: “Diana and Callisto” by Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre. (17th century).

“Jupiter seduces Callisto.” by Peter Paul Rubens. (1673).

“Jupiter and Callisto” by Caesar van Everdingen (1655).

“Diana and Callisto” by Titian (1559). The painting depicts the moment when Callisto’s pregnancy is discovered.

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►Gallery: “Zeus and Callisto”:

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►Links Post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callisto_%28mythology%29

http://thedailyhaiku.blogspot.com.ar/2009/10/ursa-major.html

http://www.windows2universe.org/mythology/ursa_major_greek.html

http://www.talesbeyondbelief.com/myth-stories/lovers-of-zeus.htm

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/callisto.html

http://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Kallisto.html 

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My blogger friend Marlyn Exconde from Kintal invited me to join her in the “Love in Ten Sentences~Poetry Challenge”.

I am gladly joining her for National Poetry Month. However, I took some creative licenses.

The original prompt strictly states that you should: a) Write about love using only ten (10) lines. b) Use “love” in each line. c) Each line has to be only be four (4) words long. d) Nominate ten (10) bloggers for the challenge.

I have read many poems following the Love in Ten Sentences Challenge and, as far as I am concerned, these points were put aside, or not even mentioned. 

My poem doesn’t follow the prompts of the original Challenge, either. That’s why I will nominate ten (10) bloggers, as I suggest a new version of the Challenge, therefore called: “Non-Love in More than Ten Sentences”…

•~~~ ๑۩۩๑ ~~~•

:star: Rules for the “Non-Love in More than Ten Sentences Challenge”:

If you are in, you only have to link back to my blog and add your poem on your blog, making sure to include:

~The word “Love”, at least once.

~At least one adverb. (For instance: unavoidably).

~At least one quote or motto, marked by quotation marks.

As to the poem and particularly as to Non- Love, the topics might be related to: a break up, betrayals of love, an impossible love, amorous quarrels, an unrequited love, disappointment or disbelief with regard to love, and so on… 

Finally, you shall nominate ten (10) bloggers for them to follow up this challenge, if they want to.

►Being all this said,  these are my nominees for the “Non-Love in More than Ten Sentences”~ Poetry Challenge (in no particular order):

1. Poetic Parfait 2. Americana Injustica  3. Echoes and Reflections 4. Rosey 5. Forgotten Meadows 6. Sylvester L. Anderson 7. Eva Poetex 8. Friendly Fairy Tales 9. House of Heart 10. Poemimage.

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 ©2015 Amalia Pedemonte/Aquileana.~

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This photograph is from an argentine movie called “Siete para un Secreto”(“Seven for a secret”), dated 1947. The main actor and the man above, was Carlos Cores, my grandpa´s cousin. On the other hand, my grandpa, Lito Pedemonte, was a militar. The interesting fact here is that Cores is wearing my grandpa´s military uniform. It seems that Carlos Borcosque, the film director, was trying to reduce budgets, somehow. [Credit Photo: Amalia Pedemonte ©]

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Three new awards!… I would like to thank Angie from Family Love Does More for nominating me for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

I also want to thank Martes de Cuento for nominating my blog for another Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

Finally, last but least, I’d love to thank Shehanne Moore for nominating me an Infinity Dreams Award.

These three bloggers are really worth checking out!… So please, give it a shot and visit these blogs, like the posts and follow them!… :D

Note: For the three awards, I will nominate blogs I have recently came across and like, recent followers and/or plussers. Also, I am changing the logos so that way I can include new awards among mine… And, finally, I will follow the nomination process without answering questions or mentioning facts about me…. 

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►Rules for these Three Awards:

♠ Thank the person who nominated you for the award.
♠ Add the logo to your post.
♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers you admire and inform your nominees by commenting on their blogs. 

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►I) Nominees~Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Typing Machine Version):

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 1. Shehanne Moore 2. Martes de Cuento 3. Peg-o-Leg’s Ramblings 4. Bodhirose’s Blog 5. A Dystopian Fantasy 6. El Eco de tus Palabras 7. Art and Life Analysis 8. Diana Douglas 9. Galiana 10. Living the Dream

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►II) Nominees~Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Glitter Version):

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 1. Family Love Does More 2. En Humor Arte 3. Summerfield84’s English Blog 4. The Road to Serendipity 5. Ms. Mouse Cleans House 6. Auntie B’s Wax 7. Pensando en la Oscuridad 8. Casey Comments 9. Bloc de Notas 10. Amabile11

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►III) Nominees~ The Infinity Dreams Award:

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1. Pendragon Photos 2. Inking The Thinking 3. Cathy Sultan Blog 4. If I Could Talk I’d Tell You 5. Course of Mirrors 6. Susanne Leist 7. Sand Castle 8. Tails Around the Ranch 9. Yonezawa723 10. Life as we see it.

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“The Abduction of Ganymede” by Eustache Le Sueur (1650).

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Ganymede pouring Zeus a libation. 480 BC.

Ganymede was a Trojan prince in Greek mythology, known for his beauty. He was the son of the king Tros of Dardania, after whom Troy took its name, and Callirrhoe.

According to the myth, Zeus spotted Ganymede while the latter was attending to his father’s flocks and he became enchanted with his looks. Therefore, he took the form of turned into an eagle (Source: A Wing and A Day) and abducted Ganymede, bringing him to Mount Olympus.

In Olympus, Zeus granted him eternal youth and immortality and the office of cupbearer to the gods. From then on, Ganymede became water bearer to the Gods.

To compensate his father, Zeus  offered him the best horses possible, and told him that his son would now be immortal and serve as a cupbearer for the gods, as well as a lover for him:

“Ganymedes now, mixing the nectar, waits in heaven above, though Juno [Hera] frowns, and hands the cup to Jove [Zeus]”. (Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 152).~

Almost all gods were content with Ganymede, except for Hera, who felt jealousy.

The idea of Ganymede being the cupbearer of Zeus subsequently gave rise to his identification with the divinity who was believed to preside over the sources of the Nile, and of his being placed by astronomers among the stars under the name of Aquarius, which is associated with that of the Eagle.

Aquarius constellation is symbolized by the water carrier or the water bearer. The sun passes through this constellation from mid February to mid March.

There is another constellation also related to this greek myth, and it is called Aquila, which is the latin word for “eagle”. Needless to say that Aquila was the eagle that in Greek mythology actually bore Ganymede (Aquarius) up to Mt. Olympus. The eagle was also the thunderbolt carrier for Zeus.

Besides, Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter and in the Solar System. Still an extra fact is that according to observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have recently found that the largest moon in the Solar System is hiding an ocean under its surface.

“[Constellation] Aquila (Eagle). This is the eagle which is said to have snatched Ganymede up and given him to his lover, Jove [Zeus]. And so it seems to fly above Aquarius, who, as many imagine, is Ganymede”. (Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica, 2. 16).~

Ganymede was frequently represented as the god of homosexual love, and as such appears as a playmate of the love-gods Eros (Love) and Himeros (Desire)”.

Ganymedes was sometimes describes as the “Eros” of homosexual love and desire. Plato calls him Himeros (Sexual Desire).

“And when his feeling continues and he is nearer to him and embraces him, in gymnastic exercises and at other times of meeting, then the fountain of that stream, which Zeus when he was in love with Ganymede named Himeros (Desire), overflows upon the lover, and some enters into his soul, and some when he is filled flows out again”. (Plato, Phaedrus 255).~

Plato also mentions this myth in his dialogue “Laws”, in which he relates it to homosexuality:

“One certainly should not fail to observe that when male unites with female for procreation the pleasure experienced is held to be due to nature, but contrary to nature, when male mates with male or female with female, and that those first guilty of such enormities were impelled by their slavery to pleasure. And we all accuse the Kretans of concocting the story about Ganymedes. Because it was the belief that they derived their laws from Zeus, they added on this story about Zeus in order that they might be following his example in enjoying this pleasure as well”. (Plato, Laws, 636c).~

On the other hand, the myth was a model for the Greek social custom of Paiderastia, the socially acceptable erotic relationship between a man and a younger man.

Ganymede was depicted in Greek vase painting as a handsome boy. In the abduction scene his attributes were usually a rooster (a lover’s gift), a hoop (a boy’s toy), or a lyre. When portrayed as the cup-bearer of the gods he is shown pouring nectar from a jug.

In poetry, Ganymede became a symbol for the beautiful young male who attracted homosexual desire and love.

In Baldassare Peruzzi´s panel of “The Rape of Ganymede” (*see painting below) in a ceiling at the Villa Farnesina, Rome, Ganymede’s long blond hair and girlish pose make him identifiable at first glance, though he grasps the eagle’s wing without resistance.

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(*) “The Rape of Ganymede” by Baldassare Peruzzi. Ceiling at the Villa Farnesina, Rome, (1514).

“The Kidnapping of Ganymede” by Peter Paul Rubens (17th century).

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Zeus and Ganymede . Progressions of Two paitings. 1) Painting with Zeus as an eagle “Abduction of Ganymede” by Rembrandt (17th century). 2) Painting with Little Ganymede kissing Zeus: “Jupiter and Ganymede” by Nicolaes de Helt Stockade (17th century).

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►Links Post:

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Ganymedes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganymede_%28mythology%29

http://users.belgacom.net/bn061744/mgganymede.htm

https://awingandaway.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/ancient-flights-of-the-eternal-2/

https://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/march/nasa-s-hubble-observations-suggest-underground-ocean-on-jupiters-largest-moon/

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/07/jeremy-andenberg/15-constellations-every-man-should-know/

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I have been nominated for three awards. 

The One Lovely Blog Award,  from Inside the Life of Moi, the Creative Blogger Award, from Poetry and Chocolate and Books and the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, from Angelo’s Universe.

I want to thank these three bloggers and suggest you to please make sure to check out their blogs and follow them.

Note: For the three awards, I will nominate blogs I have recently came across and like, recent followers and/or plussers. Also, I am changing the logos so that way I can include new awards among mine… And, finally, I will follow the nomination process without answering questions or mentioning facts about me… 

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I am saying: “Awards… Wow, awesome!”.~

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►Rules for these Three Awards:

♠ Thank the person who nominated you for the award. 

♠ Add the logo to your post.

♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers you admire and inform them of the nomination. 

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►I) Nominees~One Lovely Blog Award~

1. Crissy Dean 2.Short Stories Diary 3. Italian Home Kitchen Blog 4. Robynchristi 5. Charlotte Bang Bang 6. Before Sundown 7. 100 Ways to Write 8. Yamarella 9. Poetic Darkness 10. From Midnight to Dawnlight.

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►II) Nominees~Creative Blogger Award (Pencils Version)~

1. Angelo’s Universe 2. Dorlanavann 3. Poems thrown in a shoebox 4. BlondiesBearista 5. Sesquiotica 6.Filling Spaces 7. Zen Scribbles 8. Comig East 9. Sinister Bend 10. Serenity in the City.

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►III) Nominees~Very Inspiring Blogger Award (Soft Version)~

1.Inside the Life of Moi 2. The Keys 3. Poetry and Chocolate and Books 4. The Writes of Woman 5. Ginger’s Grocery 6. Just Jen 7. Haiku Odyssey 8. Imagery of Light 9. A Little Blog of Books 10. A Writer’s Path.

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►Silvina Garré: “Palmas Azules Para Mí”:

~To Verónica Boletta, from the great Poetry Blog “En Humor Arte”~

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“The Peacock complaining to Juno”, by Gustave Moreau (1881).

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Hera (Roman equivalent: Juno) was Zeus’ wife and sister, and was raised by the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. She was the supreme goddess, patron of marriage, family and childbirth, having a special interest in protecting married women. 

Hera, like her siblings, was swallowed by her father Cronos (Rhea‘s husband) as soon as she was born.

Zeus with the help of Metis later tricked Cronos into a swallowing a potion that forced him to disgorge his offspring.

The legitimate offspring of her union with Zeus are Ares (the god of war), Hebe (the goddess of youth), Eris (the goddess of discord) and Eileithvia (goddess of childbirth).  

Johann Jakob Bachofen (“An Investigation of the Religious and Juridical Character of Matriarchy in the Ancient [1861]), considered that Hera, was originally the goddess of a matriarchal people, presumably inhabiting Greece before the Hellenes. According to this author, her activity as goddess of marriage established the patriarchal bond of her own subordination.

Her sacred animals were the cow, the lion and the peacock, and she favoured the city of  Argos.

She is usually portrayed enthroned, and crowned with the polos (a sort of crown worn by several of the Goddesses.

 ►Three Myths featuring Hera.

•The Judgement of Paris:

Hera, Aphrodite and Athena were the three goddesses who all claimed to deserved the Golden Apple of Discord, introduced by  Eris in Peleus and Thetis‘ wedding. This golden apple was labeled “For the fairest one”). Zeus chose Prince Paris of Troy to decide who was the fairest. Still, Paris could not decide, as all three were ideally beautiful, so they resorted to bribes. Hera offered Paris control over all Asia and Europe, while Athena offered wisdom, fame, and glory in battle, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as a wife, and he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen of Troy, who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris abducted Helen and her abduction would lead to the Trojan War.

•Hephaestus, the son that Hera produced alone: 

Hera was jealous of Zeus’ giving birth to Athena, without recourse to her (actually with with Metis), so she gave birth to Hephaestus without him, though in some stories, he is the son of her and Zeus. Hera was then disgusted with Hephaestus’ ugliness and threw him from Mount Olympus. Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical throne which, when she sat on, did not allow her to leave. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he repeatedly refused. Dionysus got him drunk and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule. Hephaestus released Hera after being given Aphrodite as his wife.

•Heracles, disowned by Hera and… the Milky Way: 

Hera hated Heracles, being the scapegoat of the illegitimate offspring sired by Zeus. Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman Alcmene.

Thus, Heracles’ existence proved at least one of Zeus’ many illicit affairs, and Hera usually conspired against him, as a revenge for her husband’s infidelities.

Fear of Hera’s revenge led Alcmene to expose the infant Heracles, but he was taken up and brought to Hera by his half-sister Athena, who played an important role as protectress of heroes.Hera did not recognize Heracles and nursed him out of pity. Heracles suckled so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and she pushed him away. Her milk sprayed across the heavens and there formed the Milky Way. But with divine milk, Heracles had acquired supernatural powers. Athena brought the infant back to his mother, and he was subsequently raised by his parents, who had originally named him Alcides, being Heracles a derivated name.

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“Juno Borrowing the Girdle of Venus” by Guy Head (1771).

“Hera in the House of Hephaistos William” by Blake Richmond (1902),

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 ►Gallery: “Hera, Zeus’ Wife”:

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Links Post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hera

http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Hera/hera.html

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Click above to visit the blog / Click en el logo para ingresar al blog.~

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→On May 12th I had the honor to be part of a poetic challenge at La Poesía No Muerde, a great community blog of Poetry, hosted by Hélène Laurent. Please, make sure to also read the poems by Verónica, from En Humor Arte; José from Viajes al Fondo del ALSA and Johan from Johan Cladheart.

•~~~• :star: •~~~ • :star: •~~~• :star: •~~~• :star: •~~~•  :star: •~~~•

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 ►La Poesía No Muerde: “Imagen encontró (¡Otro!) Poema”.

~”Fragmento de un Final”.~

Corola tallada de pétalos sin flor.
una hoja con ápice impermeable.
Eterna y seca primavera,
rivera incipiente, sutilmente verde.

Una furtiva mirada azul
sobre un camino oscilante,
surcos muertos, árboles vacíos de hojas.
Bajo el sol inagotable del mediodía interminable.

~~~ 

Réplicas de galerías.
Redundantes sonidos.
Las palabras que no dijimos
te hacen una reverencia.

~~~ 

Tus fantasmas esculpen mis recuerdos.
Soy todo lo que fui en tu cautiverio,
persistes, con codicia te acumulas.
A cada nombre me retiro, te invoco y te devuelvo.

~~~

Te conjuro, brisa efímera .
Nunca volverás a ser mi aire.
Escúrrete por la puerta de las sombras y el olvido
Deja de asediarme…

•~~~• :star: •~~~ • :star: •~~~• :star: •~~~• :star: •~~~•  :star: •~~~•

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 ► Last but not Least: Special thanks to Lisardo Sobrino Fernández for his poem Aquiles, on his blog, Tiempo de Letras.

©2015. Lisardo Sobrino Fernández. Click on the image.

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“Latona and the Lycian Peasants” by David Teniers II. (17th century).

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Leto (which means”the hidden one”. Roman equivalent: Latona) was daughter of the Titans Coeus (Polus) and Phoebe and the sister of Asteria.
In the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, (The Letoides).

Zeus married is sister Hera while Leto was already pregnant. While the pregnancy started before the marriage, Hera was still jealous of Leto.

Hence, as Hyginus, in his book “Fabulae” states, Hera banned Leto from giving birth on any island at sea, or any place under the sun.

Finally, she found an island (Delos, that wasn’t attached to the ocean floor so it wasn’t considered land and she could give birth there.

Leto easily brought forth Artemis, the elder twin.  By contrast, Leto labored for nine nights and nine days in order to give birth to Apollo.

The births took place in the presence of the witnesses goddesses Dione (an Oceanid, a water-nymph, the goddess Dione, in her name simply the “Goddess”, is sometimes taken as a mere feminine form of Zeus ), Rhea (mother of the Olympian Goddesses and Gods, but not as an Olympian goddess in her own right), Ichnaea (an epithet given to Nemesis), Themis (a Titaness, who was the personification of divine order and law) and the sea-goddess Amphitrite (Poseidon‘s wife).

Hera kept apart as she used her own daughter Eileithvia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor.

Instead Artemis, having been born first, assisted with the birth of her twin brother, Apollo.

Going further, ancient greek grammarian, Antoninus Liberalis considers that Leto sought out the “wolf-country” of Lycia.  Another sources link Leto with wolves and the Hyperboreans, people connected with the worship of Apollo at Delphi and of Artemis at Delos and named that way with reference to Boreas, the north wind.

Leto was identified from the fourth century onwards with the principal local mother goddess of Anatolian Lycia, as the region became Hellenized. 

Besides, Leto has been probably identified with the Lycian Godess of Fertility, Lada, also knwon as Kourotrophos (Rearer of Youths).

Leto’s primal nature may be deduced from the natures of her father and mother, who may have been Titans of the sun and moon. Her Titan father is called “Coeus”, and, he is in some Roman sources given the name Polus, which may relate him to the sphere of heaven from pole to pole. The name of Leto’s mother, “Phoebe” (“pure, bright”), is identical to the epithet of her son Apollo.

In Greek inscriptions, the Letoides (Apollo and Artemis) are referred to as the “national gods” of the country.

 There were two sanctuaries dedicated to Leto, the Letoon, near Xanthos and the Oenoanda, in the north of Lycia.

►Other episodes related to Leto:

In Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” (Book VI), he tells the sad story of Niobe’s children, which involves Leto, Artemis and Apollo.

•Niobe, a queen of Thebes, boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (The Niobids), seven sons and seven daughters, while Leto had only two. Aiming to punish Niobe due to her pride, Apollo killed her sons, and Artemis her daughters. Niobe cried so much that her tears formed the river Achelous.

Zeus seconded Leto as he made sure to turn all the people of Thebes to stone so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods themselves entombed them.

•Leto was threatened in her wanderings by the giant Tityos who attempted to rape her. Also she was assailed by the dragon Python. In both occasions, Leto’s son, Apollo was able to eliminate the threats, even if he was just a God child.

•During her wanderings with her children, Apollo and Artemis, Leto reached Lycia (nowadays located in southern Turkey).

Exhausted, she decided to halt and saw down in a valley a pond around which peasants were busy gathering rushes and algae. Attracted by its clear water, she went to drink from it. But the peasants objected and forbade her from drinking from the pond, ordering Leto to leave the place. 

Enraged, Leto cursed them. Soon after that, the metamorphosis began and the peasants of Lycia became frogs, as they were condemned to live forever like this in the slime of their pond, fulfilling the curse of Latona.

This last episeode is depicted in the Latona Fountain, at the Château de Versailles, France. This Fountain’s construction took, over twenty years (from 1666 to 1689) and it was built during  Louis XIV’s reign.

Some historians have interpreted the Latona fountain as an allegory of the victory of Louis XIV over the Fronde, the rebellion of the nobles against the power of the monarchy during the childhood of Louis XIV. Latona, the mother of Apollo, represents Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV and regent during the Fronde. The metamorphosis of the peasants into frogs illustrates the punishment reserved to those who dare to rebel against the royal authority.

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“Latona Turning the Lycians Peasants into Frogs”, by Johann Georg Platzer. (1730)

“Latona Changing the Lycian Peasants into Frogs” by Jacopo Tintoretto. (16th century).

“Landscape with Latona and the Peasants”, by Sinibaldo Scorza (1620).

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►”The Myth of Leto / Latona”:

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►Gallery: “Leto” / “The Latona Fountain” [Château de Versailles]:

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“Latona (Leto) and Her children (Apollo and Diana/Artemis)”, by William Henry Rinehart (1874). Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“Latona (Leto) and Her children (Apollo and Diana/Artemis)”, by William Henry Rinehart. (1874). Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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►Links Post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leto

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/337395/Leto

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/279545/Hyperborean

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/11923

http://latone.chateauversailles.fr/en/page/the-latona-fountain/history-of-the-latona-fountain

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►Book Tour: 

“Olga Núñez Miret tells us about her Trilogy Angelic Business“:

I’ve been writing since I was quite young and I write in whatever style the story I have in my head wants to be written in. So far literary fiction, romance, YA, thriller… and a few unfinished works. 

Around five years ago I discovered and read quite a few interesting Young Adult books and had an idea for what I thought could be a series. At the time I wrote the first of the novels and after trying to find an agent or a traditional publisher without much success, I started self-publishing, but decided to publish some of my other books first. Since then I’ve published twelve books (six original books and their translations, as I write in English and Spanish). 

I kept thinking about “Angelic Business” and, a few months later, I wrote the second novel in the series: “Shades of Greg”. (No, nothing to do with…). 

And last year, as part of NaNoWriMo I wrote the third novel in the series, “Pink, Angel or Demon?”. 

As I had written the three, I thought I’d publish them pretty close to each other so people wouldn’t have to wait to know what happened next (at least not too much)…. [Olga Núñez Miret].-

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“Angelic Business”, the three books of the series, by author Olga Núñez Miret.

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The trilogy “Angelic Business” is already available for pre-order at the special price of $0.99 each. You’ll find blurbs of each book on the links below. Check them out!:

•”Pink Matters” is currently available at Amazon for pre-order and will be published on June 26th.

•”Shapes of Greg” is available for pre-order at Amazon and will be published on July 15th.

•”Pink, Angel or Demon?” is available for pre-order at Amazon and will be published on July 30th.

►Connect with Author Olga Núñez Miret on her Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Wattpad.

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Author Olga Núñez Miret.

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►Last but not Least: “Three Awards”:

I would like to thank bloggers from Risty´s Breath, Life as we See It and Splashed for nominating my blog for a Versatile Blogger Award (Red Version), a Creative Blogger Award and a Sunshine Award, respectively.

I suggest you to check out these blogs and follow them, if you haven’t still done so…

•Rules for these Three Awards: ♠ Thank the person who nominated you for the award. ♠ Add the logo to your post. ♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers of your choice and tell them about the nomination. 

•Note: If you have been nominated and want to follow the Nomination Process, just click on the award for which you have been awarded to. That way you’ll be able to grab in regular size!.~ 🍒 🍒 🍒 

1. Lucinda E Clarke 2. Missing the Muse 3. Caterina Rotondi 4. The Book Haven 5. Hyperion Sturm 6. Simonjohnsonofclowne 7. Life as we See It 8. Books and Hot Tea 9. Makeup and Breakup 10. Life and Light.

II. Nominees for the Sunshine Award:

1. I.J.Keddie 2. Unbuttoned or Undone 3. View from a Burrow 4. Loujen Haxm ´Yor 5. Writing Between the Lines 6. Janna T Writes 7. Breathing Space 8. A Chaos Fairy Realm 9. The Four Rooms 10. Rambles, Writing and Amusing Musings.

III. Nominees for the Creative Blogger Award:

1. Beguiling Hollywood 2. First Night Design 3. Peak Perspective 4. Risty´s Breath 5. Splashed 6. Micheline Walker 7. A Little Bird Tweets 8. Millie Thom 9. Yadadarcyyada 10. The Woman Who.

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“Apollo Receiving the Shepherds’ Offerings” by Gustave Moreau (1895).

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Apollo was the son of Zeus and Leto.

The Roman worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks. Apollo had no direct Roman equivalent, although later Roman poets often referred to him as Phoebus.

Apollo had a twin sister, Artemis, the Goddess of Hunting.

Mythographers agree that Artemis was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo, or that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo.

As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular go, the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle.

As the god of prophecy. Apollo exercised this power in his numerous oracles, and especially in that of Delphi. The source of all his prophetic powers was Zeus himself and Apollo is accordingly called “the prophet of his father Zeus”. According to Apollodorus, the oracle had previously been in the possession of Themis, and the dragon Python guarded the mysterious chasm, and Apollo, after having slain the monster, took possession of the oracle.

Apollo  was also known as “the god who affords help and wards off evil”. He had the power of visiting men with plagues and epidemics, so he was also able to deliver men from them.

He was often equated with Celtic Gods of similar characteristics. [Read more on the Celtic version of Apollo at Linnea Tanner’s blog, “Apollo’s Raven”: “Ancient Celtic Religion: Apollo, God of Sun” and “Apollo and Coronis; White Raven; Association with Healing”].-

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“Apollo and The Nine Muses” by Gustave Moreau (1856).

“Apollo with Urania, Muse of Astronomy” by Charles Meynier (1800).

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►Gallery: “Apollo, Zeus and Leto’s Son”:

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►Links Post:

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Apollon.html

http://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Koronis.html

https://ledrakenoir.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/a-divine-day-as-apollon/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo

http://www.linneatanner.com/blog/apollo-god-of-healing/

http://www.linneatanner.com/blog/ancient-celtic-religion-apollo-god-of-sun/

https://ztevetevans.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/spirituality-the-raven-totem/

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©Copyright 2015. Geofrey Crow.-

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Geofrey Crow.-

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►🌟About Geofrey Crow 🌟

Geofrey dixit: I am an apprentice poet and fiction writer, working to learn the skill of turning life into words, and the even greater skill of turning words into life. I love pretty pictures, distant dreams, and silent sleep. More than anything else I am a lover of words, of the way words can bring us together and allow us, so briefly, to feel ourselves echoed in another’s thoughts. I write because literature can lift us out of ourselves, put us into another person’s mind, and, for a moment, reconcile us to our so solitary condition. If I can learn to do that, maybe in some small way I’ll have justified a part of my existence.

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•Make sure to visit Geofrey’s Blog, The Giggling Stream. 

•Feel Free to connect with Geofrey at: Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.

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►💫 Literary Magazine Salto Al Reverso #7  Is out! 💫  …

And my Brief Story “Otro Cortado” has been featured on Page 40.

►Ya está publicada la Séptima Edición de la Revista Salto Al Reverso …

Y, mi relato “Otro Cortado” ha sido publicado en la Página 40.

Revista Salto al reverso #7 (Click!).

Salto al Reverso #7. Click on the image above to Read. Hacer Click para leer.

Salto al Reverso #7. Click and Scroll down to page 40 to read my brief story. Hacer Click e ir a la página 40 para leer mi relato.

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►💫Quote Challenge💫 

My blogger friends Sylvester from Syl65’s Blog and Marlyn from Kintal have invited me for a so called 3-Day Quote Challenge.

The rules of the challenge are: ♠Post your favorite quotes or your own quotes for three (3) posts in a row. ♠Thank the person who nominated you. ♠Pass it on to three (3) other bloggers per quote, each time you post them. Or pass it to nine (9) bloggers if you choose to post all the quotes together, in the same post.

⚠ Note: I will post the three (3) quotes at once. Thus I will nominate nine (9) Bloggers. Also, I thought It would be fun to add those three quotes on personal photographs… So that’s what I did! :D

My nominees for the Quote Challenge are: 1. Deanne’ s World 2. The Girl Has No Name 3. An Elephant Called Buddha 4. Mumbai Metro Mess 5. The Raven’s Nest 6. Mithai Mumblezz 7. Fiesta Estrellas 8. Before Sundown 9. Send Sunshine.

► 🌟Three Quotes, and some Old Photographs🌟

~(Featuring My Family and Me)~ Click on the images to read ~

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►💫 Last but not Least: “Three Awards”💫

I would like to thank  bloggers from Emmanuel Muema’s Blog, Don’t Cha Wanna Dream and Belinda Crane for nominating my blog for a Creative Blogger Award, and two  Sisterhood of The World Bloggers Awards, respectively.

I suggest you to check out these blogs and follow them, if you haven’t still done so…

•Rules for these Three Awards: ♠Thank the person who nominated you. ♠Add the logo to your post. ♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers of your choice and tell them about the nomination. 

•Notes:

-As always I am not answering questions. Hence, I will just nominate ten bloggers per award.

-If you have been nominated and want to follow the Nomination Process, just click on the award for which you have been awarded to. That way you’ll be able to grab in regular size!.~ 💗💖💕

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“The Offering to Asclepius” by Pierre Narcisse Guerin (1803).

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“Gentle Asclepius, that craftsman of new health for weary limbs and banisher of pain, the godlike healer of all mortal sickness”.

[Pindar, Pythian Ode 3. 5 ff. C5th BC].–

Asclepius (Roman equivalent: Aesculapius) was the son of Apollo and a mortal woman named Coronis.

While Coronis was with Apollo, she became enamoured with Ischys, an Arcadian, and Apollo was informed of this by a raven, which he had set to watch her, or, according to Pindar, by his own prophetic powers.

Apollo sent his own sister, Artemis to kill Coronis. Presumably, Artemis destroyed Coronis in her own house at Lacereia in Thessaly.

According to Ovid, it was Apollo himself who killed Coronis and Ischys.

When the body of Coronis was to be burnt, Apollo, or, according to others Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, saved the child (Asclepius) cutting him from her womb.

From this fact, he received the name Asclepius, “to cut open”.

Apollo carried the baby to the Centaur Chiron who raised Asclepius and instructed him in the Art of Medicine.

After Asclepius had grown up, it was said that he not only cured all the sick, but called the dead to life again. About the manner in which he acquired this latter power, according to Apollodorus, he had received from Athena the blood which had flowed from the veins of Gorgo and the blood which had flowed from the veins of the right side of her body possessed the power of restoring the dead to life. [Note~ Gorgo: One of three winged daemon, it should have been Medusa as she was the only mortal among them].

Asclepius was married to Epione, with whom he had five daughters: Hygieia, Panacea, Aceso, Iaso and Aglaea and three sons: Machaon, Podaleirios and Telesphoros. 

The names of his daughters each rather transparently reflect a certain subset of the overall theme of “good health”. 

Hygiea was the Goddess of Good Health and a companion of the goddess Aphrodite. Panacea was the Goddess of All-Cure. Iaso was the Goddess of Remedy. Aceso was the Goddess of healing and curing. And Aglaea was the Goddess of Natural Beauty.

Some accounts say that Asclepius was killed because after bringing people back from the dead, Hades thought that no more dead spirits would come to the underworld, so he asked his brother Zeus to stop him. Zeus did so, with a flash of lightning. 

“[Asclepius] a healer for mankind of all their maladies and ills . . . And yet to profit even the skills of wisdom yield themselves captive. For a lordly bribe, gold flashing in the hand, even this man [Asclepius] was tempted to bring back to life one whom the jaws of death had seized already. With fierce hands swiftly the son of Cronos [Zeus] loosed his anger on these two; his blazing bolt stripped from them both their breath of life, and hurled them to their fate”. (Pindar, Pythian Ode 3. 54. C5th BC).~

Asclepius’s father, Apollo was angered, so in return he killed the three Cyclopes, one-eyed inmortal Giants who had made the thunderbolts for Zeus.

For this act, Zeus suspended Apollo from the night sky and commanded Apollo to serve the King of Thessaly.

Once the year had passed, Zeus brought Apollo back to Mount Olympus and revived the Cyclopes.

After his death the God of Medicine was placed amongst the stars as the constellation Ophiochus (“The Serpent Holder”).

“A man must seek from heaven only that which is fitting for mortal minds, perceiving well the path before his feet, the lot that is our portion … Now if Chiron the wise dwelt still within his cave, and if some spell to charm his soul lay in the honeyed sweetness of my songs, then might I surely persuade him for men of noble mind to grant them a physician of feverish ills, some son born of Apollon”. (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 610 ff. C3rd B.C).~

Apollonius Rhodius says that the Celts, among whom Apollo was worshipped, believed that the Eridanos River once carried amber drops which were Apollo’s tears, shed because of his son’s death.

“The Keltoi (Celts), however, have another tale about these amber drops that are carried down the current [of the river Eridanos of Northern Europe]. They say they are the many tears that Apollon shed for his son Asklepios (Asclepius) when he visited the sacred people of the North. He was banished from the bright sky by his father Zeus, whom he blamed for having killed this son of his, who was borne by the Lady Koronis (Coronis) in splendid Lakereia at the mouth of the Amyros”. (Pindar, Pythian Ode 3. 5 ff C5th B.C.).~

Asclepius was worshipped all over Greece. His temples were usually built in healthy places, on hills outside the town, and near wells which were believed to have healing powers. 

The original Hippocratic Oath (C5th BC) began with the invocation “I swear by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by Hygieia and Panacea and by all the gods”…

The most famous temple of Asclepius was at Epidaurus. Another famous healing temple was built approximately a century later, C3rd BC on the island of Kos, where Hippocrates, the so called “father of medicine”, may have begun his career.

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” A Sick Child brought into the Temple of Aesculapius” by John William Waterhouse (1877).

“Supplication Before the Goddess Hygieia” by Louis Hector Leroux (19th century).

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►Gallery: “Asclepius, Apollo’s Son and Greek God of Medicine”:

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►Links Post:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/asclepius.html

https://ztevetevans.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/greek-mythology-the-story-of-the-centaurs/

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/AsklepiasHygeia.html

https://letamendi.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/un-nino-enfermo-en-el-templo-de-esculapio-segun-un-cuadro-de-j-w-waterhouse-1877/

https://letamendi.wordpress.com/2014/07/26/higea-la-diosa-griega-de-la-salud-pintada-por-rubens/

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Click above to visit the blog / Click en el logo para ingresar al blog.~

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►”My Audio Poem at @LapoesianomuerD”.

“Verano Inaugural”/ “Inaugural Summer”. [June 23rd, 2015].

My poem “Inaugural Summer” has been featured at “La Poesía no Muerde”. It is an audio poem, and I read my own poem!… The video was created by Hélène Laurent and the image belongs to Jaime Domech. I will add the translation to English as well… Check out the post here.

Mi poema “Verano Inaugural” ha sido publicado en “La Poesía no Muerde”. Se trata de un poema con audio, leído y escrito por mí… El video fue creado por Hélène Laurent y la imagen pertenece a Jaime Domech. Ver el post aquí.

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►💫La Poesía no Muerde💫~Audio Poem ~

🌟”Inaugural Summer”🌟 / 🌟”Verano inaugural”🌟 

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►Buenos Aires Myth’s-Tress”

Resa McConaghy is a Canadian Costume Designer for Film, Television & Digital Media. She is also a Collector of Street Art. She owns two blogs Art Gowns and Graffiti Lux and Mural. I submitted a few photographs of Amateur Graffiti Street Art to her second blog, after having told her about them. And… Resa liked the pics and agreed to post them on Graffiti Lux and Mural. 💫🌟!… Isn’t it wonderful?…

With that being said, I invite you to check out the post here: “Buenos Aires Myth’s-Tress”. 💥🔛💥

Check out Resa’s great Blog and make sure to subscribe. You can follow Resa at Twitter too.~

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Click on the Logo to Check out Resa’s Blog.

Click on the Image to Check out Resa’s Post.

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► Last but not Least: “Three Awards”

I would like to thank  bloggers from Micheline’s Blog, Palabras Sosegadas and José Ángel Ordiz for nominating my blog for a Versatile Blogger Award, a Black Wolf Blogger Award and a Best Blogger Award, respectively.

I suggest you to check out these blogs and follow them, if you haven’t still done so…

•Rules for these Three Awards: ♠Thank the person who nominated you. ♠Add the logo to your post. ♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers of your choice and tell them about the nomination. 

•Notes:

-As always I am not answering questions. Hence, I will just nominate ten bloggers per award.

-If you have been nominated and want to follow the Nomination Process, just click on the award for which you have been nominated for. That way you’ll be able to grab in regular size!.~❤️💛❤️💛❤️💛~