lionofchaeronea

[lionofchaeronea]

Hey, all--I need to take a break for a little while. I apologize. I'm just very tired and need some time to recharge. I'll be back soon--thanks for understanding.

[lionofchaeronea]

My latest cartoon for New Scientist.

[lionofchaeronea]

On Bravery

οἶδα γὰρ ὅτ��ι κακοὶ μὲν ἀποίχονται πολέμοιο, ὃς δέ κ᾽ ἀριστεύῃσι μάχῃ ἔνι τὸν δὲ μάλα χρεὼ ἑστάμεναι κρατερῶς, ἤ τ᾽ ἔβλητ᾽ ἤ τ᾽ ἔβαλ᾽ ἄλλον.

For I know that cowardly men hold back from battle, But whoever’s best in fight, it much behooves him To stand firmly, whether he’s struck or strikes another.

--Homer, Iliad 11.408-410

[lionofchaeronea]

Pluto and Charon

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: Prometheus Carrying Fire Artist: Jan Cossiers (Flemish, 1600-1671), after Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640) Date: between 1636 and 1638 Genre: mythological painting Period: Baroque Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 182 cm (71.6 in) high x 113 cm (44.4 in) wide Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

In this painting, the Titan Prometheus is shown descending from Olympus, holding stolen fire in a hollow stalk. As Hesiod recounts in the Theogony, after Prometheus deceived Zeus by giving him the inferior portion at a sacrifice, Zeus retaliated by withholding fire from humankind. Prometheus then stole fire from Olympus and brought it to Earth, allowing humans to cook their food and to practice metallurgy, two key markers of civilization in ancient Greek thought. It was for this crime, according to the Prometheus Bound attributed to Aeschylus, that Zeus bound Prometheus to a rock in the Caucasus, a giant vulture eating his liver every day, until he was finally freed by Heracles.

[lionofchaeronea]

This may fall into the "no one cares but me" category, but NYRB Classics is reissuing The Stone Door, the second, long-out-of-print novel by Leonora Carrington. Carrington's Surrealist masterpiece The Hearing Trumpet is one of my favorite novels in the English language, and words can't express how hyped I am for The Stone Door.

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: Tropical Forest with Monkeys Artist: Henri Rousseau Date: 1910 Genre: landscape painting Movement: Naive art, Primitivism Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 129.5 cm (51 in) high x 162.5 cm (64 in) wide Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA

Henri Rousseau, nicknamed "Le Douanier" (the Customs Officer) due to his day job collecting tolls and taxes, was self-taught as a painter. So far as is known, he never left France during his lifetime, and his famed jungle scenes were based on picture postcards and observations at the Paris botanical gardens.

[lionofchaeronea]

I've found my calling: to be a modern-day Socrates. "Good morning, sir! What are you having for breakfast? French toast? Lovely. Tell me, how would you define French toast? ...Ah, I see. Have you considered that your definition encompasses waffles as well? Bit of a problem, that. Shall we work toward a proper definition together? ...Well, it's taken half an hour of question-and-answer, but we've successfully proved that neither one of us can define -- hey, where are you going?"

[lionofchaeronea]

Eumaeus the Swineherd's Prayer

νύμφαι κρηναῖαι, κοῦραι Διός, εἴ ποτ᾽ Ὀδυσσεὺς ὔμμ᾽ ἐπὶ μηρί᾽ ἔκηε, καλύψας πίονι δημῷ, ἀρνῶν ἠδ᾽ ἐρίφων, τόδε μοι κρηήνατ᾽ ἐέλδωρ, ὡς ἔλθοι μὲν κεῖνος ἀνήρ, ἀγάγοι δέ ἑ δαίμων: τῷ κέ τοι ἀγλαΐας γε διασκεδάσειεν ἁπάσας, τὰς νῦν ὑβρίζων φορέεις, ἀλαλήμενος αἰεὶ ἄστυ κάτ᾽: αὐτὰρ μῆλα κακοὶ φθείρουσι νομῆες.

Nymphs of the fountain, daughters of Zeus, if ever Odysseus Burned up thighs for you, concealing them in rich fat, Of lambs and of kids, bring this my prayer to pass, That that man may come, and that a god may lead him: Then, you know, he’d scatter all those airs and graces That you now bear about in your arrogance, always roaming Through the city – but evil herdsmen are ruining his flocks.

--Homer, Odyssey 17.240-246

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: Mary Magdalene Artist: Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo (Italian [active in Venice], ca. 1480-ca. 1548) Date: between 1535 and 1540 Genre: religious art (Roman Catholic Christianity) Period: High Renaissance (Cinquecento) Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 89.1 cm (35 in) high x 82.4 cm (32.4 in) wide Location: National Gallery, London, England, UK

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, originally from Brescia, specialized in religious subjects. His ~40 extant paintings are distinguished by innovative use of color and lighting, as well as influence from Flemish painters such as Hieronymus Bosch.

This work depicts Mary Magdalene in unusual fashion, with almost her entire body covered in a white cloak; only a hint of red at her wrist reflects more traditional depictions of her. At the lower left corner of the picture is a jar containing ointment (Savoldo follows the traditional identification of the Magdalene with the nameless repentant sinner who anointed Christ's feet with nard in the Synoptic Gospels). At the upper left, in the distance, is a landscape that may reflect the lagoons of Venice, where Savoldo worked for much of his career.

[lionofchaeronea]

ὕβριν χρὴ σβεννύναι μᾶλλον ἢ πυρκαϊήν.

It’s more needful to extinguish arrogance than a blazing fire.

--Heraclitus of Ephesus (ca. 540-480 BCE), fr. 248 KRS, apud Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers IX.2

[lionofchaeronea]

Doing a deep dive into Plato this weekend, with the Meno (an old favorite), Charmides, Laches, and Lysis. As often when the world outside my window seems to be an irreparable mess, I'm taking refuge in the wisdom of the past. Not ideal, perhaps, but as coping strategies go, it's better than some.

[lionofchaeronea]

Red Avadavat aka Red Munia aka Strawberry Finch (Amandava amandava), male, family Estrildidae, order Passeriformes, India

photograph by Ashok Someshwar

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: The Birthday of Plato Celebrated in the Villa Careggi by Lorenzo the Magnificent Artist: Luigi Mussini (Italian, 1813-1888) Date: 1862, revised 1867 Genre: historical painting

This painting depicts a scene from November 7, 1468, when Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the great Renaissance Neoplatonist and humanist scholar, assembled a group of friends to re-enact Plato's Symposium, in honor of Plato's birthday. Ficino stands at the center of the painting, beside a portrait bust of Plato decorated with a garland. Revised editions of Ficino's work credited the initiative behind the celebration to Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, the seated figure dressed in red.

[lionofchaeronea]

Magpie Tanager (Cissopis leverianus), family Thraupidae, order Passeriformes, Brazil

photograph by BirdsRio

[lionofchaeronea]

Treehopper, Pyrgauchenia cf. colorata, Membracidae

Photographed in Malaysia by Nicky Bay // Website // Facebook

Shared with permission; do not remove credit or re-post!

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: Woman at the Piano with Cockatoo Artist: Gustave Léonard de Jonghe (Belgian, 1829-1893) Date: ca. 1870 Genre: portraiture Medium: oil on panel Dimensions: 66 cm (26 in) high x 48 cm (18.9 in) wide Location: private collection

Gustave Léonard de Jonghe specialized in portraits of society ladies in sumptuous interiors. While his work was predominantly in the Realist style, he also painted Orientalist scenes and work influenced by Japonisme, the European craze for Japanese aesthetics in the nineteenth century.