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The
birth of opera
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In the late 16th century, the humanists with their great love of antiquity
decided to resurrect the ancient Greek dramas, bringing back the masks or comedy
and tragedy by combining theatre, poetry, music and dance, back to life.
The new genre was became known as Opera. combining polyphonic music,
elaborate backdrops painted in one-point perspective and the great stories
beginning with that of Orpheus and Eurydice.. One of the founders, Giulio Caccini was a tenor and composer to the Medici family, he brought the voice to the forefront of the recitative, accompanying it with a basso continuo. This process became the “aesthetic manifesto” of the opera. In 1600, on the occasion of the wedding of Maria de Medici with Henry IV of France, Eurydice by Jacopo Peri (1561-1633) was performed at the Palazzo Pitti. Peri himself played the role of Orpheus and used this new style of expression: the recitar cantando or "singing recitation. |
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| Orpheus Rejects Women | ||||||||||||
| There are many stories of his death resulting from the rejecting of all women after the death of his wife, Orpheus was torn to pieces by Thracian women; or in another version, he was dismembered by Maenads (at Deium in Macedonia) at the urging of Dionysus, who resented Orphic rejection of sacrificial murder and the worship of Apollo (in whose temple Orpheus served as a priest) | ||||||||||||
| Dionysus & Homosexuality | ||||||||||||
| There is only one rather late reference to the homosexuality of Dionysos,the Dionysiaca of Nonnos tells of a tragic love affair with a youth named Ampelos, who was gored to death by a wild bull and whom the Dionysus later transforms into a vine. Bisexuality was common among Greek men and their gods, so a single reference would mean this is no god of homoerotic love. Indeed, in ancient Greece the active role in a pederastic relationship was considered evidence of masculinity rather than effeminacy where only the passive or subordinate partner was thought to be feminized by male homosexual relationships. | ||||||||||||
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Knidian Aphrodite at the Vatican: the first female nude of Western Art by Praxitles in 4th century B.C. Cyprus is famous since antiquity as Aphrodite's Island |
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Phanes:
(fa - nays)
is the power of erotic energy
Phanes in the Orphic tradition was
the first king of the universe. He passed the
sceptre of kingship on to Nyx (Night), his only
child, who in turn handed it over to her son Ouranos
(Heaven). From him it was first seized by Kronos
(Time), and then by Zeus, the ultimate ruler of the
cosmos. Phanes is the golden winged
Primordial Being, the source of the universe. Called
Protogonos (First-Born) and Eros (Love) — being the
seed of gods and men — Phanes means "Manifestor" or
"Revealer," and is related to the Greek words
"light" and "to shine forth." |
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| This famous
relief of Mithraism
shows
us orphic firstborn god Phanes Protogonus, known
also as Eros, Pan and Phanes-Jupiter who sprang from
the primeval egg. Mithraism most important annual holiday was December 25th which was became Christmas when it was replaced as the official Roman religion replaced by Christianity. more at saturnalia |
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Sappho & the |
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The superheroine Wonder Woman frequently uses the phrase "Suffering Sappho!" as an exclamation. |
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Lesbianism hardly exists in the myths. No goddess ever has sexual relations with another goddess, or with a nymph, or with a girl. Not even the Amazons, though living in an exclusively female society and being fellow warriors in a female army are described as doing so. However the head of Orpheus does float to the Lesbos from which the word lesbianism is derived. From the late archaic period on there are hints that women from Lesbos had a reputation for being sexually adventurous. Yet there is a discontinuity between these quips about Sappho and/or “Lesbianism,” and her own poetry, which is intense, sometimes voluptuous, but really not very carnal. The bulk of Sappho's poetry is now lost, but her reputation in her time was immense, and she was reputedly considered by Plato as the tenth Muse. |
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Her homoerotic poetry reflects a circle of
mainly adolescent girls or very young women around a
somewhat older and more authoritative Sappho. Passionate
attachments exist between members of this group as well as
between individual girls and Sappho.
The 3rd Century philosopher Maximus of
Tyre wrote that Sappho was "small and dark" and that her
relationships to her female friends were similar to those of
Socrates: |
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| Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne, daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I pray thee break not my spirit with anguish and distress, O Queen. But come hither, if ever before thou didst hear my voice afar, and listen, and leaving thy father's golden house came with chariot yoked, and fair fleet sparrows drew thee, flapping fast their wings around the dark earth, from heaven through mid sky. Quickly arrived they; and thou, blessed one, smiling with immortal countenance, didst ask What now is befallen me, and Why now I call, and What I in my mad heart most desire to see. 'What Beauty now wouldst thou draw to love thee? Who wrongs thee, Sappho? For even if she flies she shall soon follow, and if she rejects gifts shall yet give, and if she loves not shall soon love, however loth.' Come, I pray thee, now too, and release me from cruel cares; and all that my heart desires to accomplish, accomplish thou, and be thyself my ally. | ||
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| The myth of the amazons only described limited sex lives for the sake of procreation. However it was said that they removed one breast so as to make their archery skills more effective, however, there is no indication of this practice in works of art, in which the Amazons are always represented with both breasts. Modern archaeology in 2003 uncovered some of the Scythian burials of warrior-maidens entombed under kurgans in the Altai region of Siberia, giving concrete form at last to the Greek tales of mounted Amazons wiki/Amazons | ||
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The Roman counterpart of the effeminate male
was the masculine female, the tribade (tribas; plural
tribades). Tribas is the ancient term closest to our notion
of a lesbian. Although the word is Greek and derived from
the Greek verb tribein, "to rub," its earliest surviving
occurrences are in Latin texts. However, Sappho had no
association with with the type of lesbian called dykes today
although Sparta, the great militaristic rival to Athens,
known for not worshiping Dionysos,
did have homoerotic initiation
rituals for girls. wiki/Alcman |
Ovid wrote no poems to boys himself but, like
his fellow-poets, he assumes the universality of
bisexuality. At the beginning of his Loves, he laments that
he has "no boy to sing of" or "long-haired girl," these
being equally acceptable subjects for the erotic poet.
Not all the homoerotic stories of the Metamorphosis are in
book ten. Book three tells the tale of Narcissus. In Ovid's
version, Narcissus is loved by girls and boys, but it is
specifically a boy he scorns who sets the
curse on him; he
falls fatally in love with another "lovely boy" when he sees
his image reflected in a pool.
Lesbianism is a theme rarely treated in Latin literature, but one story in Ovid's book nine describes the love of two girls. But though Ovid regards the love of boys as commonplace, love between females is unthinkable in his world. Ovid represents Iphis as shocked and horrified when she discovers her feelings; a benevolent goddess resolves the impasse by changing her into a boy.
Eros is a mysterious
energy inherent in the whole of creation, fascinating
seekers all over the world. Across the cultures, Eros takes
different names but still remains the same agent that has to
be awakened from within, since it is the only element that
can transform the human psyche. Psyche has to be pacified
and Eros’ "fire" has to be transformed into "light" so that
he can become the mediator and guide that gently pushes and
pulls the seeker towards the source of divine love—Eros the
Beloved—that awakens from within, guides and accompanies the
seeker from within the inner planes. He is the inner
witness, the agent within the seeker that unfolds
gnosis, or divine knowledge. This divine knowledge awakens
higher levels of consciousness within him and, in turn,
these levels of consciousness aroused by Eros lead the
seeker back to the source of light.
The Greek
mysteries relate that at the very beginning of
creation, only chaos existed, and from chaos was born
Eros. Elsewhere, according to mythology, we are told that
amongst the gods, Eros was the most handsome. This is how
theogonia (the birth of the gods) begins and we are
assured that the poet Isiodos heard it from the mouth of the
Muse herself. According to Isiodos, Eros represents the
driving force behind the entire theogonia. The Orphics agree
that Eros appears at the beginning of theogonia and
cosmogonia in general, and they tell us that his mother was
Night, the dark goddess, and his father the Wind. From their
first cosmic and elemental embrace, Eros was born from a
silver egg.
For the Greeks, the essence of Eros is the unfoldment of human thought, and in Greek philosophy, he is described as a liberating agent who releases and activates the creative process of the mind. Eros inspires and opens the channel of intuition to the higher and abstract understanding and communion with beauty and truth.
Greek philosophers saw the
spirit of Dionysus penetrating the whole of nature and
binding together the two aspects of Eros, the penetration
and blending energy of matter with its counterpart and
complement, spirit. Esoterically, Eros is the leading force
within a seeker that takes him away from a level of duality
to a level of unity and wholeness. Furthermore, Eros is the
key to transforming psychic vibratory rates. He does that by
placing a seeker on his axial center, the neutral and
timeless zone within his conscious self. This level of being
brings about the integration of ego with soul. Hence, Eros
is the god or essence that gives us the possibility of
letting go of the past and living in the present moment,
embracing spontaneously everything within and without our
reach.
In the Renaissance this was referred to as "Joy in the
present"
today we might have an opportunity to understand it as part
of a Carnaval experience.
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Maenads kill Orpheus for forsaking Dionysus
and themselves. by Albrecht Dürer 1494 (Kunsthalle, Hamburg) The ribbon high in the tree is lettered Orfeus der erst puseran ("Orpheus, the first sodomite") from Ovid |
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| Eurydice Dies from a
Snakebite |
Orpheus Descends to the
Underworld |
| Orpheus Is Slain by Female
Bacchantes |
Orpheus Playing the Lyre |
| The Hebrus Receives Orpheus'
Head and Lyre |
Chione Slain by the Arrows of
Diana |
| Midas' Wish |
A Wolf into Stone |
| Midas' Ears into Ass's |
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| LINKS
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Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama by Walter W. Greg
Project Gutenberg EBook
ipce.info/library_3/files/antiquity.htm
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square miles with 230 miles of coastline. Its
population is approximately 108,000 about a third of
which live in the capital city, Mytile
"He
taught the men of Thrace the art of loving boys, and
revealed to them that this love was the way to feel young
again, to touch the innocence of youth, to smell the flowers
of spring. Lovers he had many. Of all, he loved young Calais
the best, winged Calais, son of Boreas, the
"But his love for Calais was fated to come to a sudden end.
It was in early spring, during the Dionysian festival. That
was the time when Thracian women took on the role of
Maenads, the wild and crazy attendants of Dionysus, the god
of wine, passion and abandon. They hated Orpheus for turning
them away when they desired him, for keeping to himself the
boys they lusted after, and for mocking them for being free
with their love. That day they came upon him while he was
singing so sweetly that even the birds had grown quiet and
the trees had bent down to listen. He was singing of the
gods who had loved boys, of Zeus and Ganymede, of Apollo and
his lovers, of how even gods can lose their beloveds to the
claws of death."
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North Wind, his
friend and companion on the Argos.
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