The Gift of Athena Onka or
The Goddess with the Head of a Sacred Donkey and her Sweet Daughter, the Spring of Thebes
by Fernanda Facciolli |
Jocasta, Oedipus and the Dragon of Thespiae or
The Main River of Thebes floods his Mother the Spring during a terrible tempest at Thespiae by Emmet |
Fueled by her determination to uncover clues to back-up her conviction, Fernanda and her husband, who uses the nom de plume "Emmet" as an artist, traveled to Greece in 2012 guided by Periegesis, the ancient text of Pausaias (110-180 AD), who, in turn, had made a similar journey influenced by the even more archaic writings of Hesiod (750-650 BC). Using scholarly research, original theories and their artistic abilities, the two artists present a new way of examining what lies under the foundation of our civilization.
CON PAUSANIA SULLE TRACCE DI ESIODO
Quando gli Eroi erano ancora fiumi, i Giganti erano ancora montagne e le Ninfe erano ancora fonti
|
FOLLOWING PAUSANIAS IN SEARCH OF HESIOD
When Heroes were rivers, Giants were mountains, and Nymphs were watersprings
What the couple discovered in Thebes and Boeotia inspired a series of paintings, accompanied by a text published in three languages -- Italian, English and Greek -- by Marcianum Press, with a preface by Paolo Leoncini, the distinguished former Professor of Italian literature at Ca' Foscari University, Venice.
The Island of Ogygia or
When the City of Thebes was an Island in a Lake and her Name was Ogygia, the Ancient by Emmet |
In ancient Greece, Thebes was the largest city in the region of Boeotia, as well as a major rival of Athens and Sparta. According to Fernanda and Emmet, Boeotia -- the region that gave us the mighty Hercules -- was the real birthplace of most of the original Greek myths and legends -- stories that were later rewritten. .
Even in ancient times, there were travel writers, and Pausanias was one whose words have come down to us today. Also a geographer, he was from Lydia, an area of Greece that is now part of Turkey, and lived around 900 years ago, about 110-180 AD. Before he traveled to Boeotia, Pausanias had been to visit the pyramids in Egypt, to Jerusalem and to Rome, among many other places. He not only wrote about the people and sights he saw, he was also fascinated by the myths and history that had created the cultures he was visiting. He wrote a ten-volume set entitled Hellados Periegesi (Description of Greece), and focused on ancient Greece and its holy relics, gods and sacred objects in their local context, rather than the contemporary Greece under Roman rule he was visiting. Even though he was a follower of Zeus, he was open-minded about cultures that followed different gods.
Hesiod was thought to be a Greek poet who lived around 750-650 BC in Boeotia, around 800 or 900 years earlier than Pausanias, or about 1800 years ago. Like any good travel writer, Pausanias used the writings of the local poet Hesiod, among others, as part of his research to uncover the ancient past of the area he was visiting when he went to Boeotia.
Menestratus, Cleostratus and the Dragon
of Thespiae or
Mother-Moon, Daughter-Spring and the Terrible Storm that Flooded the River at Thespiae
by Fernanda Facciolli |
The Sphinx of Thebes by Fernanda Facciolli |
Fernanda and Emmet disagree with that interpretation. Tracing the origins of the Boeotian word for "Sphinx," they deducted that the mount where the Sphinx had her sanctuary was once covered by a lush oak forest, and the correct name of Mount Sphynghion, the Boeotian hill of Thebes, should be "The Mount of Oaks." Instead of Oedipus, the King of Thebes, killing the Sphinx, he was actually leading the triumphant goddess into Thebes on the back of the sacred donkey, which was held in high esteem for the milk it provided, similar to human mother's milk.
The Lion and the Lioness or
The Animal Face of the Sphinx and the Lion of St. Marco by Emmet |
The winged lioness had revealed her true essence as a goddess of the earth.
The Human Face of the Sphinx or
The holy procession up the face of the Sacred Mountain by Emmet |
Book launch on September 23, 2014 |
CON PAUSANIA SULLE TRACCE DI ESIODO
Quando gli Eroi erano ancora fiumi, i Giganti erano ancora montagne e le Ninfe erano ancora fonti
by
FERNANDA FACCIOLLI
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014
5:00 PM
Dorsoduro 1
Venezia
entrance: Seminario Patriarcale alla Salute
by invitation only
Galleria Il Dictynneion
Campiello del Sole
San Polo 911/a
Venezia
Vaporetto stop: San Silvestro or Rialto Mercato
Open afternoons or by appointment
+39 333-774-8603
Fernanda Facciolli
Ciao from Venezia,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog
This is a sponsored post.
The artist Fernanda Facciolli is convinced that our planet Earth once worshiped mother goddesses and the elements of nature. The moon, mountains, trees and waters were deities to be revered. Before the Classical Greek priests of Zeus of deliberately rewrote the story in about 480-323 BC and gave us the gods on Mount Olympus, there existed a different group of gods adulated by the Archaic Greeks, centuries before
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