The Libyan Sibyl on Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo

Photo: The restored Libyan Sibyl, fresco on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo

The image shows the restored Libyan Sibyl fresco painted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which was painted by Michelangelo incorporating various Bible stories between 1508 and 1512. These frescoes are considered the masterpieces of high renaissance art.

According to Greek mythology, the Libyan Sibyl (sibyl = prophetess), named Phemonoe, was the daughter of Zeus and Lamia, and the first woman ever to chant oracles. She is believed to have divine powers even after death, giving oracular prophesies through voices and omens.

Phemonoe was the priestess presiding over the Oracle of Zeus-Ammon in the Siwa Oasis in the Libyan Desert, and the name Sibyl was given to her by the Libyans.

According to Plutarch, the founder of Alexandria, Alexander the Great, was told by the Libyan Sibyl that he would be the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt.

Yule Log, the Dessert and the Tradition

Photo: A homemade Yule log (Bûche de Noël) made of chocolate filled with raspberry jam - the traditional French dessert for Christmas

Yule log is a traditional dessert served during the Christmas season. It is made from sponge cake and ingredients such as chocolate, butter cream, various extracts, and often shaped like a mini Yule log.

Historically Yule was originally celebrated by the Germanic peoples. In Nordic countries, and in some English speaking countries, words equivalent to Yule are used for Christmas. The customs such as Yule singing, Yule goat and Yule boar are linked to the pagan tradition of Yule.

The pagan Yule can be traced to several fourth century communities, even before they were converted to Christianity. They continued many of their original traditions even after conversion, though they underwent many changes in the course of time.

It is not clear if the historical Germanic Yule feast involved ancestor worship and the cult of the dead, as was prevalent in some pagan rituals. However, when the custom fell out, probably in the 1940s, it became just the dessert.

The English historian Henry Bourne (1694-1733) traced the origin of the Yule log to Anglo-Saxon paganism. He noted that the celebration involved burning a log of wood, known by names such as Yule Clog, Gule Block or Christmas Block. Its purpose was to illuminate the house and was symbolic of the return of the Sun and seeking longer duration of daylight.

The custom can also be traced to the folklore of England. According to lore, the Yule log is burned at night on the Christmas Eve. It should burn uninterrupted till only ash is left, because relighting it is considered unlucky. People sit around the fire and narrate stories of ghosts.

While setting fire to the log, people keep silence and make their wishes silently. After this, candles are lit from the fire and placed on a table following which silence can be broken. No other lights must be lit that night. Often a piece of the wood is saved to be lighted along with the next year's log. On the Christmas morning, a leaf or a tree branch is brought home before taking anything out of the house.

In France, where the custom is known as Bûche de Noël, the branch from a fruit bearing tree is circumambulated thrice around the house and blessed with wine, before burning. This custom seems to have been discontinued by a log-shaped cake, known as Bûche de Noël.

Yule log is also similar to Badnjak as in Slavic mythological rituals and other customs such as smearing the log with the blood of fowls or goats. The ash from the log is scattered in gardens and agricultural fields to promote fertility on the New Year's Eve.

Francis Derwent Wood: Leda and the Swan

Public Domain Photos: Leda and the Swan (1912), marble sculpture by the British sculptor Francis Derwent Wood RA (1871-1926), height: 38 cm, private collection

Jean-Balthazar Keller: Adonis, bronze sculpture

Public Domain Photo: Adonis,a bronze sculpture inspired by an antique sculpture from the French royal collections, created by the Swiss sculptor and gunfounder Jean-Balthazar Keller (1638-1702), cast in 1687, dimensions H: 1.62 m (5 ft. 3 ¾ in.), W: 70 cm (27 ½ in.), located at Louvre Museum, Paris.

Rembrandt: The abduction of Europa

Public Domain Image: The abduction of Europa, known by alternate title: De roof van Europa (Ovidius, Metamorphosen II, 833-875), oil on oak panel painting (1632) by the Dutch painter and etcher Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), dimensions 62.2 cm x 77 cm (24.49 in x 30.31 in) located at The J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), one of the most visited museums in the United States.

Peter Paul Rubens: Venus and Adonis

Public Domain Image: Venus and Adonis, oil on canvas painting by Flemish Baroque painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), dimensions 194 cm x 236 cm, located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image dimensions: 2536×2030 pixels, size: 582 KB

Peter Paul Rubens: The Three Graces

PD Image: The Three Graces (1620-1624), oil on panel painting by artist (s) of the workshop of the Dutch painter and sculptor, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), dimensions 119 cm x 99 cm (46.85 in x 38.98 in)

Giovanni Lanfranco: Venus Playing the Harp

Public Domain Photo: Venus Playing the Harp (Allegory of Music), 1630-34 oil on canvas painting by Italian painter of the Baroque period Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647), dimensions 214 cm x 150 cm, located at Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.

Charles Gleyre: Le Coucher de Sappho

PD Image: Sappho geht zu Bett (translated variously as Sappho goes to bed,
Le Coucher de Sappho or The setting of Sappho), 1867 oil on canvas painting by Swiss painter Marc Charles Gabriel Gleyre (generally known as Charles Gleyre, 1806-1874), dimensions 108 cm x 72 cm (42.52 in x 28.35 in).

Lord Krishna battles against Narakasura’s armies

PD Image: Lord Krishna battles against the armies of the Demon Narakasura, painting (1520-30) on Bhagavata Purana (Stories of Lord Vishnu) from Delhi-Agra area of India; the painting currently located in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, New York City, USA.

Jan Matsys: Flora (1559)

PD Image: Flora (1559), oil painting by Flemish painter Jan Matsys - his name is alternatively spelt as Jan Massys, Jan Metsys, or Jan Matsijs - (1510-1575), located at the Hamburger Kunsthalle art museum in Hamburg, Germany.

Peace riding in a triumphal chariot

PD Photo: ‘Peace riding in a triumphal chariot’ (1828), a quadriga by French sculptor François Joseph Bosio (1768-1845), bronze mould by Charles Crozatier, height 3.5 meter (11 feet 5 ¾ inches).

François Joseph Bosio's quadriga is installed atop the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, a victory arch in Paris, located at the Place du Carrousel on the site of the former Tuileries Palace, which was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune in until 1871.

A quadriga (triumphal chariot) is a chariot drawn by four horses abreast, and has been considered the symbol of triumph. Victory (Victoria) and Fame (Pheme or Fama) were often depicted as driving the quadriga. In classical mythology the quadriga is the chariot of the gods. For instance, Apollo was depicted driving his quadriga across the heavens.

In ancient Roman religion, Victoria was the personified goddess of victory, and the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike. In Greek mythology, Fame (‘Pheme’ in Greek and the Roman equivalent ‘Fama’) was the personification of fame and renown.

Venus of Lespugue, tusk ivory carving

PD Photo: Replica of the Venus of Lespugue, carved from tusk ivory (Gravettian/ Upper Paleolithic) located at Museé des Antiquités Nationales, Paris, France.

The age of Venus of Lespugue, now residing in France at the Museé des Antiquités Nationales, Paris, is estimated between 24,000 and 26,000 years. This Venus figurine, a statuette of a nude female figure of the Gravettian (named after the site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France), was discovered In 1922 by René de Saint-Périer (1877-1950) in the Rideaux cave of Lespugue (Haute-Garonne) in the foothills of the Pyrenees, a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain.

Venus of Lespugue, one among hundreds of Venus figurines of the Gravettian cultural stage discovered across central Europe (and into Russia), is linked to similar figurines and carvings. 147 mm (approximately 6 inches) tall, the Lespugue Venus is carved from tusk ivory, which was damaged during excavation, and restored later.

Of all Venus figurines discovered from the upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Lespugue defies logic that it is about 25000 years old, as it looks like any sculpture or art piece of the twentieth century. This Venus is well-attributed with the most exaggerated female secondary sexual characteristics, especially the extremely large pendulous breasts. The rest of the figure too complements well the beauty of Venus.

The cave of Orpheus' oracle in Lesbos and other stories

PD Image: The cave of Orpheus' oracle in Antissa, Lesbos, Greece

Orpheus has a special importance in Greek mythology, with the inspiration for Orphic cults, literature, poetry and drama of ancient Greece and Rome and Western classical music.

According to one myth, in the later part of his life, Orpheus disdained the worship of all gods except the sun, whom he called Apollo. One day he went to the oracle of Dionysus at Mount Pangaion to salute the sun at dawn, but was rent to pieces by Thracian Maenads for not honoring his previous patron (Dionysus) and buried him in Pieria.

Ovid’s account of his death gives it a bizarre twist: the Ciconian women, Dionysus' followers, killed him, when they were spurned by Orpheus, who had hated women after the death of his wife Eurydice, who died of a snake bite, after which he had taken only boys as his lovers. First the women threw sticks and stones at him, but his music was so powerful and beautiful that even the stones and sticks refused to hit him. However, finally, the enraged women tore him to pieces. In an Albrecht Dürer drawing a ribbon high in a tree is lettered ‘Orfeus der erst puseran’ (‘Orpheus, the first sodomite’); an interpretation of the passage in Ovid where Orpheus is said to have been ‘the first of the Thracian people to transfer his love to young boys.’

His severed head and lyre, still singing mournful songs, floated down the Hebrus River (Maritsa or Evros) to the Mediterranean Sea, and the winds and waves carried them on to the shores of Lesbos island (now in Greece), where the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built for him near Antissa. There his oracle prophesied, until it was silenced by Apollo.

Lesbos, the Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea, is the third largest Greek island and the largest of the numerous Greek islands scattered in the Aegean, and separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait.

Interestingly, one meaning of the word lesbian is derived from the poems of Sappho, who was born in Lesbos and who wrote with emotional content towards other women. It is due to this that Lesbos and especially the town of Eresos, Sappho’s birthplace, are a hot destination for lesbian tourists/ LGBT tourism. But, the deeply conservative Greek Orthodox population of the island disapproves of it strongly. In 2008 the Lesbian islanders lost a court battle against the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece. The Lesbian islanders had requested a legal injunction to bar homosexual groups from using the word ‘lesbian’ in their names, because the petitioners’ claim it violates their human rights as it is ‘insulting’, and the usage of the word ‘lesbian’ to refer to certain sexual preferences of women disgraces the people of Lesbos island.

Hermaphroditus and Hermaphrodites

PD Photo: Hermaphroditus, marble sculpture at Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight Village, Wirral, England, photo taken on 15 July 2006.

PD Image: The metamorphosis of the nymph Salmacis and Hermaphroditus (alternatively known as ‘Verwandlung von Hermaphroditos und Salmicis’ or ‘De gedaanteverwisseling van Hermaphroditus en de nimf Salmacis’) by Flemish painter Jan Gossaert (1478-1532) created in the year ± 1517, oil on panel, size 32.8 cm x 21.5 cm (12.91 in x 8.46 in), located at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

PD Image: The Nymph Salmacis and Hermaphroditus (1828) by Belgian neo-classical painter François-Joseph Navez (1787-1869).

The term ‘hermaphrodite’ is derived from the Greek mythological character Hermaphroditus, who fused with the nymph Salmacis, resulting in one individual possessing the physical traits of both male and female. Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite.

Salmacis is an atypical naiad (nymph) whose attempted rape of Hermaphroditus places her as the only nymph rapist in the Greek mythological canon. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, she becomes one with Hermaphroditus, and Hermaphroditus curses the fountain to have the same effect on others, or whoever comes to the fountain of Salmacis (located near the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus) will become effeminate.

Earlier, the word ‘hermaphrodite’ was used to describe a person incompatible with the biological gender binary, but it has recently been replaced by the word ‘intersex’ in medical science.

People with intersex conditions (hermaphrodites) may choose to live exclusively either as male or female, using clothing, social cues, genital surgery and hormone replacement therapy to blend into the sex they identify themselves with more closely. Some intersexual people outwardly appear completely female or male, without realizing that they are intersexual. Intersex is hypothesized to be caused by unusual sex hormones that may be caused by an atypical set of sex chromosomes.

Charon carries souls of the dead over Styx by Konstantin Makovsky

Image: Charon transfers souls of the dead over Styx River, 1861 painting by Russian painter Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1915)

According to Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman who carries the souls of dead persons across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay passage charges to Charon was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Those who could not pay passage charges to Charon, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years.

Johanna und die beiden Alten by Lovis Corinth

Image: Johanna und die beiden Alten (Johanna and the two old men), 1923 oil on canvas painting by German painter and printmaker Lovis Corinth (1858-1925) dimensions 150.5 cm x 111 cm, located at Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover, Germany.

Melusine by Ludwig Michael von Schwanthaler

Photo: 19th century sculpture entitled ‘Melusine’ (1845) by German sculptor Ludwig Michael von Schwanthaler (1802-1848) in the Russell Cotes Museum and Art Gallery, Bournemouth, Dorset, England.

Melusine, or Melusina, is a female spirit of springs and rivers, according to European legends and folklore. Usually she is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down, as a mermaid is featured in paintings and sculptures.

According to one story, Elynas, the King of Albany (old name for Scotland), came across Pressyne, a beautiful lady, while hunting in the forest. He persuaded her to marry him but she agreed on the condition that he must not enter her chamber on when she birthed or bathed her children. She gave birth to the triplets Melusine, Melior and Palatyne. When the King violated the promise, Pressyne left the kingdom with her daughters to the lost Isle of Avalon.

The girls Melusine, Melior and Palatyne grew up in Avalon. On their fifteenth birthday, Melusine asked why they had been taken to Avalon. Upon hearing of their father's broken promise, Melusine wanted to take revenge. She and her sisters captured Elynas and locked him up in a mountain. Pressyne got enraged when she knew what the girls had done and punished them for their disrespect to their father. Melusine was condemned to take the form of a serpent from the waist down every Saturday. In other stories, she takes on the form of a mermaid.

Melusine’s legend is especially connected with the Celtic areas of France, Netherlands and other countries. Sir Walter Scott told a Melusine tale in ‘The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’ (1802-1803):

“The reader will find the fairy of Normandy, or Bretagne, adorned with all the splendour of Eastern description. The fairy Melusina, also, who married Guy de Lusignan, Count of Poitou, under condition that he should never attempt to intrude upon her privacy, was of this latter class. She bore the count many children, and erected for him a magnificent castle by her magical art. Their harmony was uninterrupted until the prying husband broke the conditions of their union by concealing himself to behold his wife make use of her enchanted bath. Hardly had Melusina discovered the indiscreet intruder, than, transforming herself into a dragon, she departed with a loud yell of lamentation, and was never again visible to mortal eyes; although, even in the days of Brantome, she was supposed to be the protectress of her descendants, and was heard wailing as she sailed upon the blast round the turrets of the castle of Lusignan the night before it was demolished.”

The Crouching Aphrodite (Venus)

The so-called Lely's Venus ‘Aphrodite surprised as she bathes’, marble sculpture, Roman copy by an unknown artist from the 2nd century BC after an Hellenistic original, height 1.12 m (3 feet 8 inches), from the former collection of Sir Peter Lely; lent by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, location at Main floor, room 23, Greek & Rome, British Museum, London, United Kingdom.

The Crouching Aphrodite (Venus), marble sculpture, Roman variant of the Imperial Era after a Hellenistic type (but the goddess is raising her left hand towards her neck whereas in the prototype used she to crosses her arms on her breast), height 71 cm (27 ¾ inches), seized during the French Revolution from the collections of Louis XIV of France, currently housed at Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Sully, ground floor, room 17, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Crouching Aphrodite (Venus) at Louvre Museum, view 2

The Crouching Aphrodite (Venus), marble sculpture, Roman copy by an unknown artist of the 1st or 2nd century CE after a Hellenistic original of the 3rd century BC, derived from the Cnidian Aphrodite by Praxiteles from Sainte-Colombe, Isère, France, height 96 cm (37 ¾ in.), Gerantet Collection (purchase 1878), current location at Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Sully, ground floor, room 17, Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Paintings by Antonio María Esquivel

‘Venus anadiomene’ (1838), also known as ‘Venus anadiomede’, ‘Venus Anadyomene’ or ‘Venus rising from the sea’, by Spanish painter Antonio María Esquivel (1806-1857) currently located at Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

José y la mujer de Putifar (Joseph and Potiphar's Wife), 1854 painting by Antonio María Esquivel, located at Museum of Fine Arts, Seville, Spain.