[askaphrodite-blog]

BOUNDARY-BREAKING STARS OF MUSIC

Two  stars in the music world, albeit from opposite ends of the musical spectrum but both known as boundary-breakers,  were featured in Monday’s Los Angeles Times.  One article told about the death of a rock and roll legend, Lou Reed, and the other about a concert given by the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s conductor laureate, Esa-Pekka Salonen.

What this brings to mind is how important music is in the life of any community.  The Greeks had their own musical super-stars, with Orpheus being the most famous.  He came by his talent honestly, if you will, being the son of Apollo, the god of music and Calliope, the muse of epic poetry.  Orpheus was given a lyre by his father, who got it from his half-brother Hermes.  It was said that though Hermes invented the lyre, Orpheus, getting all sorts of wonderful new sounds from it, perfected it, making him a boundary breaker also.

His music was so enchanting to all who heard it that it was said he could charm the birds of the air, the fish in the waters and the wild beasts of the forests.  He could divert the course of rivers and coax the trees and rocks to dance.  He caused flowers to bloom and gardens to grow. Once when he was playing his entrancing music in the forest, the oak trees pulled up their roots to follow him down the mountainside and plant themselves by the seashore where Orpheus ended his song. 

It seems to me that Lou Reed and Esa-Pekka Salonen are just  part of a long line of musical innovators, first read about in Greek mythology.

[askaphrodite-blog]

THE FAMILY TREE: FROM PALEONTOLOGY TO MYTHOLOGY

Where did I come from?  Every parent has anguished over how to answer that question.  As reported by the LA Times a new study from the journal, Science, focusing on 1.8 million year old skulls, has challenged long held beliefs about our earliest ancestors.

The Greeks had a different take on where we came from as told in the myth of Pandora.  The Titans, Prometheus and Epimethius, helped Zeus and the Olympians in their fight against the Titans, and as punishment were banished from the Titan realm and were , furthermore, assigned the task of making creatures to populate Earth. 

Prometheus created life forms out of mud and Hephaestus from his fiery forge, breathed life into them. Epimetheus gave them their qualities and abilities, assigning the animals wonderful attributes such as swiftness, cunning, strength, fur, scales wings and such.  But when it came to man, he had run out of marvelous characteristics, so he called on his brother for help.  Prometheus gave man the ability to walk upright like the gods, and then, stealing from the sun god Apollo, gave them fire. Now, fire was an extraordinary gift.  It gave light, warmth, protection and the ability to cook.  But more importantly, it also provided the alchemical process where simple rock ore was transmuted to metal.   Metal gave man the ability to make tools for cultivation and hunting.  It literally allowed civilization to develop.

As for Pandora, Zeus had her created to get revenge on Prometheus for his gift of fire, but that’s a story for another day. So to answer, where did we come from, take your pick:  ancient skulls or ancient gods.

[askaphrodite-blog]

MUSING ON CAVE ART AND WOMEN ARTISTS

National Geographic magazine has just published an extraordinary article which suggests that most of the oldest-known cave art paintings were done by women. “Most scholars had assumed these ancient artists were predominantly men, so the finding overturns decades of archaeological dogma.” writes Virginia Hughes. 

By analyzing hand stencils in eight cave sites in France and Spain, it was determined that three-quarters of the prints were female. This is just mind boggling, and it occurred to me that the male bias in art still exists. 

You just have to visit any of the world’s art museums to see that most of the works on the walls are by males unless there is a special showing of female artists.  Whether these cave paintings were made for reasons relating to the hunt or for shamanic practice, I must say that it makes my heart swell with pride to find that we women have been making meaningful art since prehistoric time. 

Just like the present day graffiti taggers spray-paint walls to leave their mark, these paleolithic handprints document the early presence of women artists. We were here! And we still are.

source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/cave-handprints-actually-women-missions-pictures/

[askaphrodite-blog]

THE FASHION POLICE ON MT. OLYMPUS

From all reports the most exciting part of the 2013 Emmy Awards was the fashion reporting.  High on Mt Olympus, generally,  clothing  wasn’t an issue since goddesses are always depicted wearing what has become known as “the goddess dress”, a beautifully draped flowing  gown.

However there was one myth where alluring attire was an important part of  the story, the legend of Pandora.  She was the first woman on Earth, created  as an instrument of revenge against Prometheus. He  had given “man” fire, against the wishes of Zeus, and for Zeus it was payback time. Before Pandora was sent down to earth to marry Prometheus’ brother,  a great banquet was held in her honor. Each of the gods was asked to give her a gift, hence her name which means “all gifted one”.   Aphrodite’s gift to her was, obviously, beauty.   When Pandora was brought into the company of the Olympians, she was so ravishing that even the gods were awed.  She was wearing a gown made of silvery, gossamer-like fabric, an embroidered veil, garlands of flowers  in her hair and a golden tiara.  

I wonder what Joan Rivers would have said about it--the dress, the hair, the make-up, the accessories. She was also given an engraved golden jar which she was told never to open, which held the dark, second “gift”: all the evils in the world. 

You know how well that turned out. Perhaps Pandora’s story will lead to  a new segment  of ‘The Fashion Police’.  Along with the ‘best dressed’ and  the ‘worst dressed’, we could add the most ‘vengefully dressed.’

[askaphrodite-blog]

THE MUSE IN MUSEUM

Elie Broad and his wife, Edythe, hosted a “hard-hat” tour of the construction site for their new museum. 

Have you ever wondered about the derivation of the name museum?  It comes from the Greek goddesses, the Muses, nine sister nymphs who dedicated their lives to the arts and sciences. 

The legend of their birth tells of Zeus, who took the form of a shepherd, and then-as was his usual modus operandi- seduced a beautiful maiden, in this case Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory.  They slept together for nine nights, after which she gave birth to nine daughters, the Muses.  I’m not sure that Mnemosyne was as delighted with the birthing of nine children as she was with the memory of the begetting.  Nevertheless, caring for nine babies was obviously more than she had bargained for,  so she gave them to the nymph Eufime to raise.  Apollo, the god of music, recognized their artistic gifts and became their teacher and the leader of their heavenly choir. 

They sat near the throne of Zeus, king of the gods, and sang of his greatness, of the origin of the world and its inhabitants  and the glorious deeds of the great heroes.  Often they would teach mortals the gifts of healing, prophesy, poetry and music. From ancient times artists in all fields have called on the “muse’ for inspiration in their creative endeavors. With talk of the new Eli Broad Museum in the news, it is all very amusing.

[askaphrodite-blog]

FORESTS! FIRES! ALCHEMY!

Fire season started early this year  and daily we hear about the destruction of forests. 

Our fascination with fire goes back  to the ancient Greek Gods and the myth of Prometheus giving fire,-- taken from the chariot of the sun god Apollo--,  to mankind, much to the chagrin of the head god Zeus.  Fire was an extraordinary gift.  It gave light, warmth, and the ability to cook.  It allowed man to burn herbs as offerings whose smoke rose directly to the gods.

Think of  the goddesses Hestia and Vesta who presided over the hearths that sanctified the home and  temple. But more importantly, fire provided the alchemical process where simple rock ore was transmuted to metal.  Hephaestus, son of Hera, was god of the forge and was  weapon maker for the gods.  For mankind, smithing was felt to be more magic than science. The furnace was considered a portal, the host of a sacred process.  The smith was a priest who could commune with the gods.  There were rituals performed to purify and sanctify the smith and the forge, so the alchemical powers of the gods could be summoned.   Being able to turn ore into metal was an enormous step forward.  Metal gave man the ability to make tools for cultivation and hunting which literally allowed for civilization to develop.  And fire was used to make glass.

In olden times, glass-makers set up camp at the forest’s edge where there was plentiful wood and organic materials.  Forests, then, represented the edge of civilization, dark places where strange spirits and other-worldly creatures lived. Fire, and thus  alchemy, was considered transformational magic, the realm of sorcerers , and what better place for this wizardry than the edge of the forest.

[askaphrodite-blog]

HELPING HANDS FOR POSEIDON

“From sick to seaworthy” headed the column in the LA Times about the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro and the work they do to revive ailing sea lion pups and return them to the ocean, the realm of Poseidon.  He, along with his brothers Zeus and Hades, after they overthrew their father Kronos, divided the world into three parts  with Poseidon ruling the sea,  Hades ruling  the underworld and Zeus ruling  the heavens. Just as Zeus is usually depicted with a thunderbolt in his hand, Poseidon is usually shown with a trident in his hand, by which means he produced tsunamis and earthquakes, raised up islands from the bottom of the sea, created sea monsters and caused wells to spring forth out of the earth. His power could cause both destructive storms and calm  angry waves. But this tempestuous god also had a playful side.  According to legend he created creatures like the octopus, seals, and otters for the water nymphs to play with.  Meanwhile here on Earth---which, by the way, was the part of the world the male gods neglected  to choose-- the workers at the  Care Center deliver recovered sea lion pups  to the shore.  Once the babies catch a whiff of salt air they scamper into the ocean and their second chance at life, returning  to  Poseidon, their patron god.

[askaphrodite-blog]

THE NEW PERCY JACKSON MOVIE

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is the follow-up to 2010’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, stories based on a novel from the Greek mythology-inspired adventure series for young adult readers.  The L.A. Times’ review calls it ‘a junior branch of Greek mythology. ‘ I call it wonderful for the mere fact that it is based on Greek mythology, the basis for my glass art and book, “The Art of Myths and Music”.

Percy is the son of the sea god, Poseidon, and his friend Annabeth is the daughter of the goddess of wisdom, Athena.  The series relates the adventures of children having  an Olympian god as one parent, living together in, as the Times reviewer wrote, ‘a Camp Half-Blood--a kind of Hogwarts for godspawns.’

I am often asked why I chose mythology as my focus of interest, since it is ancient history, a thing of the past. For me the myths are about timeless themes, fabulous stories that reflect the past but mirror our present situations.  They are about love, tragedy, heroism, power, passion, anger, jealousy, all very human attributes as shown through the legends of those magnificent gods and goddesses who unfortunately did not always behave in a god-like manner.  One has only to view the daily reports about politicians, movie stars and ordinary people in the news to recognize the similarity  to the behavior of the Olympians. I, for one, am delighted that Hollywood is bringing a new awareness of these marvelous stories  to a young generation.

[askaphrodite-blog]

THE MOST UNUSUAL ROYAL BIRTH

In my last blog of royal babies and heirs to the throne I wrote about the rare births of both Athena and Hephaestus.  However, the two of them together along with a little earthly help,  produced the most unusual scion in Greek mythology. 

Athena was known as one of the virgin goddesses. The use of virgin here simply meant that they lived their lives  not necessarily without men, but independent of the control of men, choosing not to marry and become mothers. They were immune to Aphrodite’s love spells. Nevertheless, Athena did in a way, have a child. One day she went to the smith-god  Hephaestus to order some armor and he was overcome with desire for her. 

When she refused his advances he tried to rape her.  I guess he didn’t like taking no for an answer.  Anyhow, she wiped his semen off her thigh with a tuft of wool which she then threw down on the earth, perhaps making her the first litterbug.  From the pre-olympian Earth Mother, Gaia, and the semen on the tuft of wool,  Erichthonius, a serpent/man was born.

  Athena raised him as his foster mother, and he eventually became the founder-king of Athens.  As a side note, because he was lame of foot, to help him get around more easily, he invented the four horse chariot and of course became a champion driver.  Zeus was so impressed with him that at his death he raised him to the sky as the constellation Auriga. What a noble end to such an ignoble genesis.

[askaphrodite-blog]

RARE ROYAL BABIES

Viewing all the excitement about the new British prince parented by William and Kate, I was reminded of two remarkable Greek royal babies parented by Zeus and Hera, individually.

The first child was the goddess Athena. It was prophesied that Zeus would be supplanted on the throne by a son, so when his first wife Metis was pregnant he swallowed her. It seemed a good idea at the time. However he suffered from a terrible headache and had the god Hephaestus take an ax to his head. Out came not the son he had feared but a beautiful, full-grown daughter who became the ‘apple of her father’s eye’, a true ‘daddy’s girl’. As a birth story this surely overshadows the tale of the stork bringing the baby.

The second child, Hephaestus, was the son of Hera, Zeus’ queen. She was so angry at all Zeus’ love affairs and the children he fathered without her that she decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and have a child without him. Unfortunately her son did not measure up to Mt. Olympus standards. First of all he was born lame--hardly godlike. Then he was the ‘god of the forge’ which meant he worked. Who ever heard of a god who worked. Hera did the only thing she could. She threw him out of heaven. I think this is an extreme case of what happens when a child doesn’t measure up to his parent’s expectations. Let us hope that Prince George Alexander continues to delight his royal family.

[askaphrodite-blog]

FIRE! A GIFT FROM THE GODS

Fire was  in the news this weekend.  In one pleasant story it was about new rules for beach blazes, and in another more dramatic story, it was about the inferno that ensued after a tanker spill in a freeway tunnel. 

Living in California we know about the enormous devastation that fires bring, but in Greek mythology it was the gift of fire that led to the devastation.  Prometheus gave man fire, an extraordinary gift. 

Think of it.  It gave, light, warmth and the ability to cook food.  But more importantly, it also provided the alchemical process where simple rock ore was transmuted to metal.  Metal gave man the ability to make tools for cultivation and hunting.  It literally allowed for civilization to develop. 

Zeus, very angry with Prometheus for having given fire to man, had Pandora created as an instrument of revenge.  The beautiful Pandora,  made in the image of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, was given  a gift from each of the gods---hence her name which means “all gifted one”--- and  was sent to Earth to marry Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus.

However, she was also given an engraved golden jar which she was told  never to open. She placed this in a locked box, but curiosity got the better of her, and she thought ”after all, it is a wedding gift”, and she decided to peek in.  Of course, you know the rest.  She opened a Pandora’s box of evils. The great god  Zeus had his revenge.  To paraphrase an old saying: “Beware a Greek bearing gifts.”

[askaphrodite-blog]

OF TWO TRIALS: ZIMMERMAN AND ORESTES

The acquittal in the trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin has raised questions in the legal community and caused protests around the nation. 

It called to mind the first jury trial in recorded history,  that of  Orestes who was brought before the Greek court because he had murdered his mother Clytemnestra.  The back story is that when Agememnon left to lead the Greek expedition against Troy, his wife Clytemnestra took a lover.  When Agememnon returned after ten years she and her lover murdered him, and it was to avenge this crime against his father that Orestes committed matricide. 

Athena, the goddess of wisdom cast the deciding vote to acquit Orestes.  She was persuaded by Apollo’s argument in Orestes’ defense that the death of a mother was of less importance than a father’s death since the woman simply nurtured the seed while it was actually the man who planted it.  The goddess Athena, motherless herself, having sprung fully grown from Zeus’ head,  always defended patriarchal principles, so it was no surprise that she supported the young man.  I suspect that there were many emotional reactions to this acquittal also.

[askaphrodite-blog]

RACE TO THE RESCUE

The dramatic rescue efforts for the plane crash in San Francisco has reminded me of rescues in Greek mythology.  I first thought of the myth of Daphne fleeing an enamored Apollo.  Eros, in revenge for an insult from the Sun God, shot him with a golden arrow, causing him to fall madly in love with Daphne, but then shot Daphne with a lead tipped arrow which caused her to rebuff Apollo. In running from him she called on the river god  for help, and when Apollo went to embrace her, she turned into a Laurel Tree.  I’m not sure that this was exactly the rescue Daphne had envisioned.

Another tale tells of the pregnant Semele who was burnt to death because she, a mortal, viewed her powerful lover, the god Zeus. He, however, saved their unborn child, Dionysus, and sewed him into his thigh until he could be born.  Dionysus, in turn, eventually retrieved his mother from the underworld and brought her to Mt. Olympus... two rescues in one tale.

We read of the maiden Andromeda who was chained to a rock at the foot of a cliff as a sacrifice to a sea monster.  Perseus, the slayer of Medusa, swooped down on his winged horse, Pegasus, cut her free and killed the monster.  Like all romantic fairy tales, they lived happily ever after.

But unfortunately, there was also a rescue that failed.  When Orpheus went down to the underworld to liberate Euridice, he was told to never look back at her until they were aboveground.  However, he was so anxious to make sure that she was indeed following him, that he turned around and she was then lost forever.  I guess not all races can be won.

[askaphrodite-blog]

CREATIVE DESTRUCTION and the THIRD ACT

Featured on the first page of the LA Times Business section was an article entitled ‘Creative Destruction’ which tells about the demolition of the downtown Wilshire Grand Hotel,  the first step toward the construction of the new Korean Air skyscraper hotel. 

The unexpected surprise for onlookers has been the providing of fresh views of previously hidden downtown buildings.   So the destruction created a new site and lovely vistas.

The title ‘Creative Destruction’ caught my eye because I had just been planning the talk I will be giving Sunday afternoon at The Last Bookstore about my art work and how it was the genesis for my ‘third act’. 

To  get the materials for my shattered glass creations I smash beautiful glass bottles, destruct them if you will,  and use the shards to make assemblages, something new out of the ruins of the old. 

I’ve found the actual act of smashing  to be enormously freeing, because I never know what’s going to happen when I wield my hammer. In my life thus far as a pianist, designer, educator, I have always been very controlled.

Now, not only does the breaking of glass provide me with my art medium, it also  somehow  liberates my actions and my thinking.  It carries over to other facets of my life where I just ‘go for it’ and look forward to  unexpected possibilities.   ‘Creative Destruction”.  For me they are words to live by.

[askaphrodite-blog]

BUT IS IT ART?

Mural art on buildings and private homes has long been a part of Los Angeles’ Latino community.  Mexico has a  history of magnificent art on its major buildings and has been home to some of the world’s most renowned muralists like Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiro.

Historically Los Angeles has been considered one of the world’s mural capitals with public art from artists like Judy Baca and  Kent Twitchell. 

Recently singer Chris Brown unveiled a mural of eight foot monsters at his Hollywood Hills home much to the consternation of his neighbors who considered it an eyesore. 

In Tuesday’s LA Times there is an article  about a proposed ordinance that will impose restrictions and launch a permitting system for creating new wall art, probably because of home decoration like Brown’s.  Some opponents of the murals are concerned that what is called art is really advertising.  While I do not do murals I do have artwork on my house.  On the wall of the front walkway I have one of my smashed-glass assemblages and on a post leading to the front door--Dionysus.

Thus far my neighbors have all been very positive about them, but I do recognize that they are much smaller and not so much ‘in your face’ as Chris Brown’s.   But is it art? Perhaps the answer is like that of the judge who couldn’t define pornography but said he’d know it when he saw it. Maybe mine just says an artist lives here.

[askaphrodite-blog]

MICHAEL DOUGLAS, THE THIRD ACT AND ME

Last Thursday’s LA Times had an article telling how the goal of  playing Liberace in ‘Behind the Candelabra’ gave Michael Douglas the will to fight his cancer and start the ‘third act’ of his life. ‘The third life.’ I had just heard the expression when it was proposed to me as the topic for a speaking engagement and book signing at The Last Bookstore in downtown LA .  So on Sunday, June 30, from 3- 5pm.

I’ll be talking on “Becoming the Muse: Breaking Through to Your Third Life”.  With so many of us living longer and healthier lives, we are now faced with the prospect of what to do with all these extra years.  For me it is the most exciting, prolific, fun time I’ve ever had.  I had  careers as a concert pianist, designer,  educator, and now a glass artist, author and blogger.  The best part is that everything I’ve ever done is  being incorporated in the work I do now.  In my book, “The Art of Myths and Music”  I illustrate the glass assemblages I’ve done of the Greek gods and goddesses, I  tell the story of each, and I perform  piano  music (on an enclosed CD.) 

Liberace used his piano playing of the classics to entertain in glitzy, costumed Las Vegas shows.  I use my piano playing  of the classics to enhance  my artworks in my book and in lectures. Michael Douglas says that getting “Behind the Candelabra” was one of the biggest gifts of his life inaugurating his ‘third act.’  Being an artist, author, lecturer, pianist and  blogger  is the greatest gift for me,  inaugurating the  third act of my life.

[askaphrodite-blog]

OF LOTUSES, LYRES AND LOOTINGS...

The gorgeous Lotus beds of Echo Park Lake can now be restored thanks to a theft eight years ago.  The LA Times wrote of a  nursery owner, so enchanted with the beauty of the blossoms he saw at the Lotus Festival, that he surreptitiously took cuttings and started growing them. Since then the water plants in Echo Park have all died out so there is a Lotus Festival with no Lotuses.  Now the thief has sold the plants back to the city--that’s real chutzpah-- and the flowers are reestablished.

The Greeks, of course, had their own charming thief whose deed gave us something valuable.

Hermes couldn’t resist stealing, and being very precocious he did so on the day he was born.  (Gods obviously develop rather differently from humans.)  Hermes snuck out of his cradle and stole some of the finest cattle from his half-brother Apollo.  He even had the cattle walk backwards so their footsteps would be harder to trace.  Making gut strings from a sacrificed cow and attaching them to a tortoise shell, he invented the seven stringed lyre, and thereby the octave scale which is the basis for our classical music. Apollo, who had the gift of foresight, realized who was responsible. In a heavenly trial before Zeus, Hermes pulled out his new lyre, and played so sweetly that Apollo, the god of music, was enthralled, and accepted the gift of the instrument in payment for the theft. So I guess this proves that crime does pay, and rather handsomely!