#bacchylides

[en-theos]

POSSIBLE hymn to Demeter by bacchylides of which only this line remains (fr. 2 Campbell, transl. mine):

αἰαῖ τέκος ἁμέτερον, μεῖζον ἢ πενθεῖν ἐφάνη κακόν, ἀφθέγκτοισιν ἶσον. Aiai, my child, an evil too great for mourning has come, like the unspeakable.

[laiapolypharmakos]

Theseus arrives at Poseidon's sea palace:

Theseus (bows): Good afternoon, Queen. Amphitrite (scrutinises him): Wait… you have something on your head. Theseus (touches his hair): Do I have any algae? Amphitrite: Posidonia isn't algae, it's a plant. Theseus (blushing bright red): I'm sorry, Queen… I just wanted to make a good impression. Amphitrite: Oh no… what a nice boy, Poseidon. May he stay for dinner.

Attic red figure terracotta kylix, attributed to Briseis Painter, ca. 480 BC. Metropolitan Museum, USA.

Well she is crowing him but we could also hc that Amphitrite is one of those people who gets annoyed when they see things out of place, such as a hair on a jumper or a leave in the hair.

The scene seems to belong to fragment 17 of Bacchylides where Minos, to prove whether Theseus is truly the son of Poseidon, throws a jewel (traditionally a ring) into the sea and Theseus jumps into the water and arrives with dolphins at Poseidon's palace, where he is received by Amphitrite, who dresses him in a purple cloak and presents him with her own wedding crown, made of roses by Aphrodite. AAAAAAAGHHHH🌹🌹🌹🌹

A little take to Posidonia oceanica:

As Amphitrite has emphasised, it is not a seaweed but a plant, specifically an angiosperm, also known as a marine phanerogam, and this particular species is the most important in the Mediterranean. It forms extensive meadows, capable of hosting a high biodiversity of species. The meadows provide shelter, food and a nursery for juveniles for many species, produce oxygen daily, while capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and creating tonnes of biomass per year.

(up and donw, left to right): Posidonia meadows; leaves and a flower; flower; fruits floating in the sea; germinated fruit

And yes, it is named Posidonia after Poseidon. Isn't everything absolutely wonderful?

[pink-lemonade-rose]

The notion of centrality emerges from literary evidence on Hestia: the adjective mesos ("middle") appears several times in connection to her central location in both private and public settings. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, she is described as sitting in the middle of the oikos. According to other descriptions, Hestia dwells amidst the burning flame and is herself the house of the gods. By the same token, Hestia's centrality is also linked to Delphi, the omphalos of the earth. Moreover, when Hestia is described as sitting in the ether, her centering is imagined as cosmic. This "centering" is further noticeable in the public field of the polis. In Bacchylides, for instance, Hestia is described as "sitting in the middle of the streets" (that is, in mid-city; […], Bac.14B.4).

[...]

Hestia is thus attested as standing "in the middle," a center associated with domestic space, the polis, and sacrifice. This positioning in the middle, at the center, ultimately blurs the boundaries between the categories through which we attempt to visualize Hestia. It thus becomes less important whether a space is identified as private or public, related to the oikos or the polis, allegedly female or male, in order for it to be connected to Hestia. That would explain why we find the goddess both in the presumably private and feminine oikos, as well as in the agora, a place often described as the center of male, public, and civic life.

Ariadne Konstantinou, "Hestia and Eos"

[rndmraichu]

[bebemoon]

"mermaids at play” painting detail by arnold böcklin + an excerpt on theseus’ visit to poseidon’s palace (from greek lyric iv, fragment 17) by bacchylides .

[paganimagevault]

Libation of Apollo kylix 480-470 BCE

"Nothing is past belief that is wrought by the care of the Gods. Then Delos-born Apollo carried the old man to the Hyperboreans, with his daughters of slender ankle, and there gave him rest..."

-Bacchylides, The Poems and Fragments: Page 261 (291 of 558 in pdf link below)

https://paganimagevault.blogspot.com/2019/11/libation-of-apollo-kylix-480-470-bce.html

[lionofchaeronea]

A Prayer for Poetic Victory

Anthologia Palatina 6.313 = Bacchylides Many-named daughter of Pallas, lady Nike, Look always with favor on the lovely chorus Of the Carthaeans, and ring with many crowns Bacchylides of Ceos in the frolics of the Muses.  κούρα Πάλλαντος πολυώνυμε, πότνια Νίκα, πρόφρων Καρθαίων ἱμερόεντα χορὸν αἰὲν ἐποπτεύοις, πολέας δ᾽ ἐν ἀθύρμασι Μουσᾶν Κηίῳ ἀμφιτίθει Βακχυλίδῃ στεφάνους.

The Temple of Athena Nika. View from the North-East, Carl Werner, 1877

[perkwunos]

Bacchylides, Epinician III, translation by Barbara Hughes Fowler