I'm reading the Wikipedia, "Alkonost," because I'm looking "Sirin und Alkonost"/"Birds of Joy and Sorrow," another painting by Victor Vasnetsov, whom I've taken an interest in lately:
The note says the one on the left is the Alkonost. I infer that the one on the right is the Sirin. From the Wikipedia article "Sirin":
These half-women half-birds are directly based on the Greek myths and later folklore about sirens.... Men who heard them would forget everything on earth, follow them, and ultimately die. People would attempt to save themselves from Sirins by shooting cannons, ringing bells and making other loud noises to scare the bird off. Later (17-18th century), the image of Sirins changed and they started to symbolize world harmony (as they live near paradise). People in those times believed only happy people could hear a Sirin, while only very few could see one because she is as fast and difficult to catch as human happiness. She symbolizes eternal joy and heavenly happiness....
Sometimes Sirins are seen as a metaphor for God's word going into the soul of a man. Sometimes they are seen as a metaphor of heretics tempting the weak.
Posts
12 comments:
The Common Cormorant or shag
Lays eggs inside a paper bag.
The reason you will see no doubt
It is to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds
Have never noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.
-Christopher isherwood
Golden Gate Park is still full of beautiful women.
Not very bird-like, on the whole, but thats just as well. They all seem very fit and healthy.
They are almost always jogging though, which is a little too determined, too purposeful, too blinkered. The effect is rather off.
I cannot say if they can sing or not, because they never do.
"Golden Gate Park is still full of beautiful women."
I buy this, Buwaya.
Nearly 30 years ago, I had this nice girlfriend who lived in the Sunset District in the Avenues, right by Golden Gate Park. We'd take nice strolls in the Japanese Tea Garden and Stow Lake..
So, I mustered up the courage to propose and we've been happily betrothed ever since.
That is the setting of Seanan McGuire's October Daye books, putting modern day Faye in San Francisco. In fact, October spends several years transformed into a koi at the Tea Garden.
(eaglebeak)
Odysseus decided he wanted to hear what the Sirens sounded like, so he had all his sailors plug their ears with beeswax to make them deaf and therefore immune, and had himself bound to the mast, so he could listen without following the bewitching song.
Wily Odysseus, as Homer calls him.
What if they simply went extinct?
We have this impression that the ancient civs were ignorant. Athens? The birthplace of Democracy? ...just sayin.
Cause I've known some women that could pass as hybrids.
Russian traditions are a doosey. They mix the traditions of Vikings with Mongols and Slavs and see themselves as the Roman Empire complete with an Emperor who was also head of the Church ( Justinian's half).
The Great Courses has a good historical analysis by Lynne Ann Hartnett called Understanding Russia. I was surprised how well she connect the Russian culture with its situation.
"Sometimes Sirins are seen as a metaphor for God's word going into the soul of a man. Sometimes they are seen as a metaphor of heretics tempting the weak."
I suppose rational atheists from Gibbon to Marx to Dawkins would see no necessary dichotomy there. Mahayana Buddhists might say whether they manifest as peaceful goddesses or angry demons is simply reflective of your mind.
Looks like Pre-Raphaelites on LSD.
"...he had all his sailors plug their ears with beeswax to make them deaf and therefore immune,..."
And a fat lot of good it did them in the long run. If I remember correctly, he took ten ships, 1000 men, with him from a small island, and came back with 0, zero, nada, zilch, the big goose-egg. And then kills a few dozen more of the island's aristocracy for thinking they had a shot at his wife after twenty years of no news. And HE'S the hero? Where were all the mothers wives and daughters of the thousand guys who never came home? Not many commanders' reputations survive a 100% mortality rate among their troops. But I guess if you and your son slaughter the remaining Male population of your island, you're home free.
> And then kills a few dozen more of the island's aristocracy for thinking they had a shot at his wife after twenty years of no news.
Shortly after, spears, bows, and daggers over 3" in length were outlawed.
More malevolent are the the Stymphalian Birds. I happened upon a reference to them as figures in the Sixth of the Twelve Labors of Heracles today in reading Donna Leon's "The Waters of Eternal Youth."
The Stymphalian Birds were an innumerable swarm of voracious birds, the daughters of Stymphalus and Ornis. They had brazen claws, wings, and beaks, used their feathers as arrows, and ate human flesh. They had been brought up by Ares, and were so numerous, that with their secretions and feathers they killed men and beasts, and covered whole fields and meadows. From fear of the wolves, these birds had taken refuge in a lake near Stymphalus, from which Heracles was ordered by Eurystheus to expel them.
When Heracles undertook the task, Athena provided him with a brazen rattle, by the noise of which he startled the birds, and, as they attempted to fly away, he killed them with his arrows. According to some accounts, he did not kill the birds, but only drove them away, and afterwards they appeared again in the island of Aretias, whither they had fled, and where they were found by the Argonauts.
Post a Comment