K O I O S @c0eus-blog1 - Tumblr Blog

The State Hermitage Museum

Hermes, Eurydice and Orpheus

Relief. Roman copy of the augustan age from a Greek original of the second half of 5th cent. BCE by Alcamenes, disciple of Phidias.

Hermes stands on the viewer’s left, and can be recognized from his traveler’s hat (petasos) and cloak (chlamys) pinned at the right shoulder, leaving the right arm bare. He wears a short tunic belted at the waist. With his left hand he holds the right wrist of Eurydice.

Eurydice wears a Classical peplos, a simple dress pinned at each shoulder, with an overfold that covers her belt. A veil completes her costume, and frames her face and downcast eyes. She stands with her weight on the left leg; the right is free and trailing. Her left hand is raised to the shoulder of her husband, as if to comfort him.

Orpheus at right balances the figure of Hermes in a near mirror-image pose (his right hand is raised, however, to touch the hand of Eurydice on his shoulder), and he wears high boots. The singer wears a peaked Thracian cap to indicate his northern origin (his face is restored), and he grasps his lyre in the left hand: the instrument is difficult to recognize, since it appears in profile.

The pathos of the scene depends largely on the pose and gestures of the three figures, but as spectators we sense the tragic outcome of the story.

(Naples, National Archaeological Museum.)

she-initiates-deactivated202006

“Spirituality and sexuality are not your qualities, not things you possess and encompass. Rather, they possess and encompass you, since they are powerful daimons, manifestations of the gods, and hence, reach beyond you, existing in themselves.”

— Carl Jung, ‘The Red Book: A Reader’s Edition’

arcusxx

motivationsforlife

Lights by Andre Benz

rabbitinthemeadow

Of stillness and water Of sweet and long goodbyes // Part 3

historyarchaeologyartefacts

Tabar, Iran 1739 - 1740.[1441x1960]

cbairdash

So, weapon and history side of tumblr … would this have been for ceremonial use given the decorative nature of the blade itself?

petermorwood

IMO it’s a fighting axe: none of the gilding and etched ornament reduces its effectiveness as a weapon. This is what an undecorated tabar(zin) looks like.

Here’s a rather worn version of the OP design…

…one with a more extended blade…

…one with a more crescent blade…

…and one with a more fanciful shape.

Look at the thickness of metal making up the deer’s “neck”…

…and the cross-section of this axe-head.

…and the extra little surprise tucked inside this one’s haft.

Despite the artistry on them, these are real weapons. Check tabar and tabarzin in Google Image: beneath their layer of bling, almost all are fully functional battleaxes.

These “fretwork” examples with decorative patterns cut right through the metal may be more ornamental than most,…

…but there’s still enough sturdy frame to make them work properly as an axe.

They may not have been intended for fighting, but they could be used for it without any conversion work required.

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Incidentally, tabar(zin) are among the only real weapons I can think of which feature the double head so popular with Conan-the-Barbarian style fantasy illustrations. Doubles were more usually tools, for instance a felling-axe with one coarse edge and one fine…