Art of Realism and Vulgarity

What is mean by Realism? When an artist paints a model, he paints what she is and as she is this called Realism. Most of the medieval artist done the same including the Great Dutch artists. If the model is perfect with enchanting beauty then there is nothing to say the painting is loutish beefiness. This kind of differentiation can be well explained by comparing the two paintings “The Leda” painted by various famous painters of those days. In this comparison the former is improper since she is neither naked full nor she is altogether clothed. For the subject of painting, being partially clothed is obsolete.

Let us see another two examples “Leda and the Swan” was also sculptured by Michelangelo as Jupiter having sexual intercourse with Leda as swan is an example for realism. Compare this with the painting of a nude girl frightened by crackle of a flying bird a bathing veiled corner. Though the later exemplified her innocence and she is alone beautifully by the painter it is not in the category of realism. Hence another term Vulgarity arises.

"The little Bather "

The word Vulgarity was derived from the Latin word Vulgaris means not refine or in bad taste. Most of us think both the words vulgar and obscene means the same thing. A representation of sexual intercourse is not obscene why because it is proper and moral act of a human being. Whereas, it is generally accepted that it is in bad taste to represent it in art. A picture representing coition may be vulgar but not obscene. All the vulgar pictures are necessarily be evil and but they are more or less like that only. The vulgar pictures are often arousing sexual feelings and stimulate the mind and the physique. In other words Obscenity represents the depravity in character or in the habit. It differentiates what is decency and what is indecency. Hence we can conclude Obscenity is harmful. When a female and the male is painted or sculptured together as nude the idealization is difficult but don’t forget to accept it is often done humbly and properly. We can give lots of examples both in ancient and the modern art Cupid and Psyche, Love by Evelyn B. Longman.

History Mystery: Was Cassandra raped?

According to Homer’s Iliad Alexandra (Cassandra) was the offspring of King Priam the ruler of Troy. Cassandra was an attractive young girl who was blessed with the bequest of prophecy by the Apollo. Apollo was smitten on her but Cassandra avoided him so Apollo got angry and soiled his blessings to Cassandra according to that she was destined to tell the reality but never believed. According to Robert Graves Cassandra means “The girl who entangles men”. This was an irony since, even though she was a beauty queen her fore told prophesies about their death kept the men far from her. Cassandra was always been misunderstood and treated as a mad woman and a raving lunatic. Cassandra was an immense beautiful brilliant woman but sadly cursed by the gods because she refused to be a puppet in their hands. Hence she is not a mad woman but she is a heartrending lady.

In Greek mythology more stories of gods lusting and falling in love with the young beautiful girls are there. Since Cassandra is a beautiful young woman she is no exception. There are two versions how Cassandra got the gift of Prophecy from Apollo the most beautiful young god. One day Cassandra was sleeping in the temple of Apollo and her beauty aroused Apollo, he promised her to teach the art of prophecy in turn he expected the sexual favor from her. She agreed to the bargain and learnt the prophecy and later she denied him to keep up the promise. Her activity outraged Apollo and he cursed her according to that curse though she would always speak the truth no one would ever believe her words. One of her most famous prophecies is her prediction of the Greek siege behind the Trojan horse. She foretold their fate but nobody believed her prophecy. Hence the great mass destruction of Troy began and the bedlam infected Trojan and the Trojan girls were at the mercy of the bloody Greeks and outburst the uncontrolled violence on the Troy. The Greek men were pacified only after the sexual aggression and harassment on the Troy women. Helen supplicated Menalaus by showing her bare breast and Cassandra was raped by Ajax.

Vergil gives an elaborate account about the rape of Cassandra. Cassandra escaped to the temple of Athena and she was followed by Ajax. Since Cassandra hold the wooden image of the goddess tightly he could not dragged her away from the statue and so he had taken both of them. Most of the narratives of this story differ here. Very interesting difference is whether Cassandra was actually raped by Ajax or not. Another version of the story elaborates the Athena’s anger at the sacrilege of the temple. Little Ajax grabbed Cassandra who is the head priest of the Goddess Athena and pulled her away by the hair and sanity of the temple. The Alter; where sacrifices to be made are a sacred place. There the pretty girl was humiliated and raped (According to Herodotus 2.64 Greeks were very strictly prohibited from having intercourse in a sanctuary). What happened after the rape (supposed) of Cassandra is enthralling. Agamemnon claimed to Odysseus, Cassandra as a reward for him but Odysseus told him about the rape which was vehemently denied and opposed by Ajax and Ajax escaped and hide himself in the temple of Athena. He finally apologized for displacing Athena’s image from the temple he worked there for his offence. In total Cassandra was the reason of the misery of Greeks in a way here prophetic curse avenged her city came true. If Cassandra had not been humiliated or raped at the altar of the temple of Athena there would have been no odyssey. The people who analyzed the typical paintings of Cassandra and Ajax clearly pointed out no sexual intercourse were suggested in the paintings. Let us analyze the pottery “The Fall of Troy “by Kleophrades in 480.

Cassandra is depicted as nude and a shawl is tied around her shoulders. Her thighs were extended and one of her legs is clamped on the ground and she is knelt the other leg. One of her hand is holding the statue of Athena tightly and the other hand is stretched toward Ajax. Ajax holds her hair tightly with one hand and spread out his sword with the other hand. Ajax’s sword is projected horizontally towards her in a phallic shape. And Cassandra is in an erotic position with her legs wide open and breasts were bare and bulged by the knot of her shawl. Her hand is stretched as signaling Ajax to approach while her palm is facing up and arm is outstretched, this gesture could not be ascertain her acceptance toward Ajax or her fear. There is no actual sign of going to be raped is in this painting and The warrior Ajax looks that he is going to capture here but there is no hint of rape in his body line. She is exceedingly in a submissive sexual position and he is in a dominant position. Cassandra’s life was a tragic one from her initial encounter with Apollo to the last untimely death of her in the hands of Clytemnestra.

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.XI

Probably India is one of the leading country has the worship of the nature and its power by symbolizing the genital organs of male and female. Tantras, the scared writings of Saktas are (somewhat later than Puranas) are the worshippers of the wives of the Trimurthi, hence they are the real worshippers of the female powers of the nature. This female worship extends to Shiva Sakthi otherwise called as Parvathi, Kali devi, Dhurga, Bhavani and more. This kind of female worship can be found in Puranas and is much described in Tantras.

Tandras have most mystic and magic rituals, it largely consisting vulgar and dissolute practicing methods. The oldest Indian myths say that the sky and the earth are the parents of all the other gods which is similar to same folklore of the Greek Bible by Homer and Hesiod. Prajavathi is another god sometimes equally ranked with the Trimurthi and is believed that he is the creator of all other gods and of the life on earth. Hence Prajavathi is identified as the God of Heaven. In ancient days the Phallus was not adored and promiscuously displayed as of today. The women were not allowed to view the genital part of a male of that period. According to the ancient Vedic stories Urvasi was not allowed to see her husband Pururavas as nude. Similar story could be seen in Amor and Psyche in Greek work.

In ancient days, the eternal feminine that is the attributes of conceiving and producing and of nourishing is mentioned as Goethe. Moses told “The Almighty shall bless thee with blessings ……. of the breasts and of the womb" (Gen. xlix, 25). In Psalm “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children like olive plants round about the table" (Ps.cxxviii, 3). Similarly the sterility was considered as a curse on Human beings.

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.X

With mention to Milton’s paradise lost we can conclude the tree of the knowledge of evil and good and the serpent in the Eden only referred the sexual passion. The feast celebrated as Yom Ashoora on the tenth day of Moharran is the celebration in representation of the first meeting of Eve and Adam after they had driven out of the Eden garden once was their paradise land. The snake has been represented as the symbol of evil from the early historic period. The trepidation of the serpent is common throughout the world since the ancient times. Even devil is worshiped by the ancient people to appease the evil spirit. The Persian goddess Ahriman and Dew are the representation of evil spirits and they are supposed to be the poisonous snakes. In Hinduism the supreme power of creation is of two folded. The right side is the male usually represented by lingam and the left side is the female indicated by the yoni, and is called as Maya Prakriti which is undying and non perishable. In some of the Ardanari- Eshwari the right side is provided with real penis and the left with the valva.

Similar theory can be found in Bible. Philo A Jewish philosopher, who is a contemporary of the Jesus mentioned that Adam was hermaphrodite in nature and god only separated Adam and Eve into two. Further Philo mentioned that the yearning for the reunion of the two halves (Adam and Eve) of the bisexual man with love is the prime basis of the sensual pleasure which is represented as the snake. This is the beginning of all wrongdoing.

According to Augustine, Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Adam was yield to his obsessive desire for Eve and if he stayed away from the sexual pleasure with her even we might have rebuked god and force god to find out some other harmless way of reproduction without the co operation of the sexes. And the world may fill with the people without romance. We aware that god warned Adam and Eve and told them not to eat the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and the bad. But the serpent came and tempted Eve and made them to eat.

Philo describes Eve as the representation of the sensual or perceptive side of man and hence serpent easily attacked Eve. Senses only yield pleasure and bind them and obliterate the immortal virtue. Ancient authors called the “Adams apple” musa paradisiaca, a variety of plantain since this fruit resembles as lingam. Some authors believe that may be a citrus fruit lemon. Almost 90% of the people believe Eve gave Adam an apple to eat. This is the great mistake. The name of the fruit that was given by Eve to Adam was no where mentioned in the bible. More over the apple was unknown to the people of Asia Minor which was the supposed location of the Paradise the Eden garden.

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.IX

The Kabbalah is a Jewish religious theosophy written in the earliest century of this era. The Kabbalah have certain mysteries which were taught to Adam by God himself in the heaven. They were transmitted to the successive generations orally until they were come to existence to writing. In kabbalah calls the God as Pure Thought or Supreme will or the En Soph. According to the Kabbalah, the Holy Ghost made all the things in the universe as male or female otherwise nothing could endure.

It describes the archetypal man using many mystic references to geometry by assigning the strange numerical values of words and mentioned sex to the right and left. This archetypal man has some special references for example the wisdom was placed in the forehead and hence it was male and the intelligence in the left side of the chest and hence it is female. The father wisdom and the mother intelligence produced a crown. The right arm was for love hence it is male and the justice was in the left arm hence it is female and both together they produce beauty stay in the breasts. The firmness reside on the right thigh hence it is male and the splendor was female and reside on the left thigh they both together produce the sexual organs. According to Kabbalah the marriages are made in heaven and it preaches the greater holiness in monogamous marriages and it says the souls of husband and wife are of two halves of the hermaphrodite spirit wandered without bodies for certain period.

Similar one to Kabbalah is mentioned in the Mormons dogma. Here I wish to state Mormons are not Christian sects. Adam is the primary god where as Christ, Mohammed are the secondary divine characters. They believe that every woman has the duty of giving birth to as many children as possible since all the souls who do not enter into the children during the birth cannot enter into the heaven. They believe that a woman who avoids becoming a mother is a sin and who is doing their duty as a mother and giving birth to many children will be rewarded in the heaven proportionately. Hence Mormonism introduces the polygamy as a religious duty.

The Kabbalah has influence the Christian thinking and has flourished during the Renaissance. That was openly mentioned in the work of the famous and significant things as Pico della Mirandola, Johannes Reuchlin, Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo Arippa etc.

History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.VIII

While watching a naked woman you may observed the weird feminine charms of the beautifully rounded breasts, mons Veneris (fleshy mount of pubis) with its healthy growth of hair. This hairy embellishment of the Pubes of the woman is in the form of an inverted pyramid or a triangle with apex pointing down; in other words the reverse of the male triangle. Apart from the female triangle, a circle with a speck in the center, a breast with its nipple, or an “Assyrian bell” which represent breast in profile and the other end of the staff constitutes the feminine scepter of the Egypt; a triangle with a slit which represents a pubes without hair; or a doubly pointed ellipse which represent a vulva.

The narration available in bible as follows “The door of my mother’s womb” (Job iii -10). This is nothing but a religious symbolism. Literally speaking this is the door through which every human ushered into the earthly life. Sometimes the doubly pointed represented as oval and a diamond also.

All most all the ancient religions represent the goddess who presided over the womanly functions, for example moon was described as a beautiful woman or as a cow or as any of the symbols described above in the previous paragraph. The moon as named as Isis, Ma, Cybele, Ishtar, Astarte, Freya, Diana, Venus, Ashtoreth and Genetrix etc.

The female sexual organ the valva is still widely worshiped in almost most of the Asian countries and it is named as Yoni in India and this feminine attributes worshippers are named as Yonicitas. Yoni is a Sanskrit word means Uterus. This is the female power of the nature in creation. The Supreme Being divided into male and female parts when it wishes to begin the creation.

From the male part namely Brahma all males and from the female part namely nature all the females originated. In religion the female power is regarded as the special force of nature and is most justified for the worship. Here you can find the replica of an idol found in the ruins of the City of Troy, which is almost 3000 years old in which you can note the fertility triangle and the swastika symbol within it. You can compare the idol of Ishtar and find the similarities between the two primitive implements.

Know your English !! Part.X

Diacritical marks: Marks used in writing and printing to adjust the way in which a letter is pronounced,

Cedilla: (,) shaped rather like a comma, placed beneath a letter on some languages to adjust the way it is pronounced. For example, a cedilla placed beneath the letter ‘c’ in French words indicates that it should be pronounced as ‘s’ as in François

               

Throwing down the gauntlet:  Issuing a challenge. The original challenge involved was a duel. The gauntlet was a protective glove worn as part of a soldier’s armour in the Middle Ages. Throwing one’s gauntlet at the feet of a rival knight was a standard way of challenging him to one to one combat.

Short shrift: Brief and unsympathetic treatment, or abrupt dismissal.  The word shrift is an old term for confession in church, and short shrift originally referred to the brief time in a condemned prisoner could make his confession before being executed.

Portmanteau word (also blend): Words formed by fusing the sounds and meaning of two different words, such as chunnel  (from channel and tunnel) and chortle (from chuckle and smort). The second example was coined by Lewis Carroll, who was also responsible for the term ‘portmanteau word’. In Through the looking glass, Humpty Dumpty describes such blends as ‘like a portmanteau – there are two meanings packed up into one word’- just as a portmanteau bag consists of two thinner cases hinged together at the back.

Ivory towers:  Institution or way of life secluded from reality and often devoted to abstract intellectual concerns rather than practical every day matters.