Last night, I read that there were 3,977 confirmed and presumptive cases of coronavirus in Canada. Quebec leads Canada at 1,629 cases (MSN).
In the meantime, I am having difficulty renewing my PC fees of approximately $50. My credit card (Mastercard) will not pay. Yet, there is money to pay.
Allow me to say that, unfortunately, Quebec is not the best of environments. I have noted considerable defiance. Leaders should seek stability and security. For instance, in 1982, the Premier of Quebec, René Lévesque, refused to sign the Constitution. Yet, no referendum had given the Quebec government a mandate to secede. We must act in an orderly fashion.
I don’t know what is going on, but I live carefully, I have good neighbours, my nephew, François, and my dear friend Paulina. We phone and send emails. I also have my fine colleagues at WordPress.
The Weeping Angel of the Amiens Cathedral is described as a cherub, but were it not for his tears, we would mistake him for a putto (plural putti), a plump little angel hovering above in a Nativity scene, in Christian iconography, or above lovers, in secular iconography. In the Tale of Cupid and Psyche, Cupid is an oversized putto who does not belong to religious angelology.
“[Nicolas Blasset] became famous when, as a result of losing a lawsuit, he was obliged to execute a statue of a Weeping Angel (marble, 1636; Amiens, Cathedral) for the funerary monument of Canon Lucas.”
The angel’s right hand is set on an hourglass symbolizing the brevity of life. As for his left elbow, it rests on the skull of a skeleton, a symbol of death. The statue of the weeping angel adorns the funerary monument of canon Guilain Lucas who died in 1628.
The Death of Children
In the 17th century, before advances in medicine and hygiene, children often died at an early age. Youth and death were therefore closely linked, the two being at all times the opposite sides of the same coin. Dead children are still called “little angels.” Blasset himself executed the funerary monument of his eight-year-old son.
“His favourite theme, childhood, is treated with astonishing mastery and unusual sensitivity, as in the funerary monument of his eight-year-old son Jean-Baptiste Blasset (polychromed stone, c. 1647-8; Amiens, Mus. Picardie).”
The Battle of the Somme
Amiens is the capital of the French Department of Somme, in Northern France, where one of the bloodiest battles in history was fought. It opposed Anglo-French forces and German forces and took place between 1st July and 18th November 1916, wounding or taking the life of more than 1,000,000 soldiers.
On 1st July alone, British forces sustained 60,000 casualties. Field MarshalDouglas Haig and General Henry Seymour Rawlinson took much of the blame for the loss of so many lives, but war is war. The Battle was meant to be an Anglo-French offensive. The Battle of the Somme — the Somme is a river, is considered the beginning of modern all-arms warfare. (See Battle of the Somme, Wikipedia.) For the first time, a tank, un char d’assaut, was used. The French account of the Battle of the Somme has yet to be translated into English.
A Tank
Battle of the Somme
The Weeping Angel: W. W. I Memorabilia
Beginning with the Battle of the Somme and throughout the remainder of World War I, soldiers who survived death started buying memorabilia featuring the Weeping Angel: various items, but post cards in particular. These they sent to family, fiancé(e)s, and friends throughout the Commonwealth, including Canada.
Until recently, young men who had survived childhood often died on battle fields in the prime of life. This would explain, I am told, the low birth rate in France following the Napoleonic Wars. War followed war, so why have children who could be cannon fodder. Napoleon’s grande armée (FR) was decimated. In fact, several soldiers who had survived the journey to Russia did not return to France, fearing for their lives. They did not have winter garments and therefore settled in Russia.
César Cui (18 January 1835 – 13 March 1918), one of “The Five” Russian composers, was a descendant of a soldier who would not undertake the march back to France. “The Five” aimed at creating a special idiom for Russian music. Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893), however, composed European music.
Conclusion
Although L’Ange pleureur became very popular during World War I, it is a sculpture dating back to 17th-century France. The grande armée and the vanitas constitute central themes in the age of the divine rights of kings. No one but God stood above Louis XIV, the Sun King. Therefore, only the sermons of eloquent preacher Bossuet, could instil fear of God—not reverence—in his king. Louis would have to answer to a superior power: God.
We have seen in earlier posts that the still-lifes of 17th-century Dutch artists were also vanitas. The props were skulls (crânes) and hourglasses (sabliers).
Also associated with these themes is the carpe diem: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. The carpe diem enjoins humans to enjoy life to the full as they will grow old and die. The carpe diem (seize the day) is the reverse side of a memento mori (remember death).
Mortality is the human condition and, in particular, the condition of soldiers we send into battle. Angels weep…
It is within the nature of the human mind to invent what is lacking. We cannot fly, but birds fly. Flying is so powerful a wish that we have invented angels and archangels who inhabit not only the Old and the New Testaments, but also belong to other cultures. For instance, there are Islamic angels and their role is that of messengers, or oracles. According to the Old Testament, Gabriel is the archangel who announced to Mary that she was bearing Jesus. In Islam, Gabriel (Jibra’il) is one of four archangels whose duty it is to deliver God’s messages to prophets. We also have “pagan” angels.
The Wish to Fly
The wish to fly has led to the invention of aircrafts. Humans can now fly to the moon. However, this post is not about the history of aviation. It is about the wish to fly as expressed in Greco-Roman mythology. Not that such a wish begins with Greco-Roman mythology but that Greco-Roman mythology tells the story of Pegasus and Icarusand, by the same token, that of their entourage: Bellerophon, who rode Pegasus, Daedalus, who crafted wings for Icarus, not to mention Medusa and Chimera, female monsters.
Pegasus is the son of Poseidon, a god, and the Gorgon Medusa, a monster
Medusa was slain by Perseus
Pegasus, a winged horse, was tamed by Bellerophon
Bellerophon, a slayer of monsters, tamed Pegasus
Pegasus helped Bellerophon kill the Chimera, also a monster
There are many winged creatures in Greek mythology, but the most famous are PegasusandIcarus.
Pegasus,[1]is a winged horse who “carrie[d] the thunder and lightning of Zeus [Jupiter].”[2] He is the son of Poseidon,[3] the “god of the sea, earthquakes, storms, and horses.” (See Poseidon, Wikipedia.) His mother, however, is Medusa,[4] a mortal Gorgon and a monster. She had living venomous snakes in place of hair. The coupling of gods and mortals sometimes led to the birth of “monsters.”
Medusa was killed by Perseus, who, like Bellerophon, was also a slayer of monsters. In order to destroy Medusa, Perseus was provided with “winged sandals, Hades‘ cap of invisibility and a sickle.” As mentioned above, Hades is the god of the Underworld, but he is also capable of making himself invisible, another one of mankind’s wishes.
Pegasus was born from the blood flowing from the severed head of Medusa, his mother. A lesser sibling, Chysaor, was also born from the blood pouring out of Medusa’s head. Both were Poseidon’s offsprings. (See Gorgon, Wikipedia, and Gorgo/ Medusa, the Oxford Classical Dictionary.)
Perseus, bronze sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini, 1545–54 (Photo credit: Art Resource, NY, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Bellerophon and Chimera
Pegasus was tamed byBellerophon, who slayed monsters. In fact, Pegasus helped Bellerophon killChimera, a female and mortal sibling of Cerberus/ Kerberos (GR), the three-headed dog who guarded the entrance to the Underworld.
Bellerophon’s story
Bellerophon was falsely accused of trying to rape Anteia (later called Stheneboea). Anteia’s husband, Proetus, sent him to Iobates, king of Lycia and Anteia’s father. Bellerophon was to deliver a sealed letter in which Proetus was requesting that Iobates kill the bearer of the letter, Bellerophon.
Convinced that Bellerophon would not survive what seemed an impossible mission, Iobates asked him to slay Chimera. He also asked him to fight the Solymi and the Amazons. With the help of Pegasus, Bellerophon performed the tasks assigned to him successfully. Iobates therefore married him to his daughter.
Bellerophon died when he flew Pegasus to Olympus, home of the twelve Olympians. Flying to Olympus was hubris, or “extreme pride and self-confidence,” on the part of Bellorophon. (See Hubris, Wikipedia.) The gods of antiquity always punished hubris. Pegasus, a zoomorphic being, did not perish because he was born a winged creature. No god would punish him for being what he was. After Bellerophon’s death, Pegasus became a constellation and was made a symbol of immortality in Latin Mythology.
“In late antiquity Pegasus’s soaring flight was interpreted as an allegory of the soul’s immortality; in modern times it has been regarded as a symbol of poetic inspiration.”[5]
Daedalus and Icarus by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690), c. 1645, (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Master craftsman Daedalus had a son named Icarus. Daedalus had built the labyrinth inside which the Minotaur, part bull, part man, was held. Daedalus crafted wings for his son Icarus who wanted to fly, which was hubris. Icarus defiantly flew so close to the sun, the god Helios, that the wax used to attach wings to his body melted. He therefore fell to his death into the sea of Icarus, named after him. Mere mortals cannot fly.
Daedalus had accompanied Icarus, but managed to land in Sicily and he became an Etruscan, ancient Italy, celebrity. His image appears on a gold coin or seal called a bulla. However, there are divergent accounts of Daedalus’ fate. Greek historians differ. According to one account, Daedalus became jealous of Talos, his nephew and apprentice, who invented the saw, thereby surpassing his mentor, Daedalus.
Daedalus was known as the best craftsman. Talos’ invention therefore aroused Daedalus’ jealousy. So envious was Daedalus that he pushed Talos off the Acropolis. The goddess Athena saved Talos by turning him into a partridge, a metamorphosis. Talos acquired a new name, Perdix (partridge orune perdrix [FR]). As for Daedalus, he left Athens. (See Daedalus, Wikipedia.)
Conclusion
Pegasus could fly. He was a beautiful white and winged horse. But in Greek mythology, one does not defy the gods with impunity. Bellerophon tried to fly Pegasus to mount Olympus, attracting the wrath of the gods. He therefore fell to his death. For his part, Icarus soared so high that the sun, Helios, melted the wax that kept his wings attached to his body. So he too fell to his death.
The story of Pegasus is an interesting case of zoomorphism. Only his wings differentiate Pegasus from a horse. Similarly, only their wings differentiate angels from human beings. However, Chimera combined many features and was viewed as a monster. She was in fact grotesque but not in the same way as gargoyles and the large number of figures ornamenting misericords. TheMedieval Bestiaryis its own world. Or is it the other way around? Greco-Roman Mythology is its own world?
I should note that:
“Chimera, or chimère, in architecture, is a term loosely used for any grotesque, fantastic, or imaginary beast used in decoration.”[6]
Zoomorphism is a complex subject. For instance, we have yet to discuss shapeshifting beings: lycanthropy or the werewolf(le loup-garou), a dual incarnation with a human literary counterpart, Robert Louis Stevenson‘s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The Chimera of Arezzo, bronze, Etruscan, 5th century BCE; in the Museo Archeologico, Florence. (Photo credit: Scala/Art Resource, New York & Britannica)
Sources and Resources
Robert Graves, The Golden Fleece (London: Cassell, 1944)
Edith Hamilton, Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (Little, Brown & Company, 1942)
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