Or Hermes and Selene, if you want to go Greek. Hermes is, among many other things, the father of Hermaphroditus, western mythology's first tranny boy. His mother is Aphrodite, goddess of love.
As with my other watercolors in the same vein, these are both based on the writings of Giordano Bruno. What I like about Hermeticism - I think Bruno's ideas can be characterized by that term, at least to some extent - is that it's allowed pagan mythology and cosmology to survive Christianity and (who knows?) maybe beyond it. According to Hermeticism, the universe is one great living being filled with spirit and with consciousness, and I think that's a lot more fun than a Cartesian or Newtonian universe where matter is dead and devoid of intelligence until proven otherwise.
Hermaphroditos is not a "transsexual" or "tranny". Rather, he has the organs of both sexes from birth.
ReplyDeleteA transsexual is defined as "a person who tries to look, dress, and act like a member of the opposite sex; especially : someone who medically changes himself or herself into a member of the opposite sex".
The hermaphrodite is not changing anything at all.
Detail details.
ReplyDeleteA Queer is a Queer as Saint Burroughs always said.
Btw let's get to work on "DOME of LIGHT"!
Ya fans can't wait.
Btw I'm bringing back "Dragonfly"...I figure what the hell. What's the worse they can do...besides stone me to death.
I'll post a link on my reg. page "Sweetness & Light".
Stay Tuned.
Hi Anon. Actually, there is some variety of opinion on that among ancient sources. According to Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Hermaphroditus is born a male youth, but undergoes a transformation when he enters the pool of the water nymph Salmakis. She, having fallen in love with him, seizes Hermaphroditus and prays to be forever united with him. Some god answers her prayer by causing their bodies to be joined into one body possessing characteristics of both sexes.
ReplyDeleteOther authors, such as Diodorus Siculus, seem to support your view of Hermaphroditus as a born hermaphrodite. Several classical sources are cited here:
http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/ErosHermaphroditos.html
The classical references can be found by scrolling to the foot of the page.
Sidney, I really want to return to the Dome of Light. It all starts with creating a scale perspective layout. I worked out the math a long time ago, and may post some compositions I designed based on that. At the very least, I want to create it as a book. As for creating it full scale, that would seem to depend on some source of funding. If I get the chance, I'll do it.
Oh, also I might need a team to help me build it. This is likely to be a group effort and I have a notion it would best serve some kind of community that have an interest in maintaining it - as a temple, cafe, or whatever.
ReplyDelete