Perhaps the academics of the past were too preoccupied with their titles and the trappings of the academic world to truly engage with the deeper mysteries of art.
Or perhaps they were simply too lazy to do the painstaking work required to understand these masterpieces at all.
Weedgenstein:
I have to ask here whether the beauty of art does not lie precisely in its mystery and the inexplicable. Wouldn’t it be a sin to take away the enchantment of art by trying to analyze and fathom everything?ZN:
Come on, Benders, don’t let that guy in!
Gentlemen.
I implore you to contemplate the transcendent qualities of The Birth of Aphrodite, which embodies the sublime union of the sensual and the intellectual.
As you both engage in lively discourse, may the elegance and timeless wisdom of Botticelli’s masterpiece inspire you to seek the harmonious balance of your own brilliant ideas.
May we be reminded that even the most passionate philosophical debate can be enriched by the guiding light of our shared appreciation for the wonders of human creativity.
Let us move on, dear readers, for there is still much ground to cover.
Ambrosia as a Love Nektar
Ganymedes was depicted as a handsome youth in Greek vase painting. In scenes of his abduction, he holds a rooster (a gift from a lover), a hoop (a boy’s toy), or a lyre.
When portrayed as the cupbearer of the gods, he pours ambrosia from a jug.
In sculptures and mosaics, Ganymede usually appears with a shepherd’s crook, a Phrygian cap, and a red cloak.
The boy’s name is derived from the Greek words ganumai, ‘gladdening’, and mêdon or medeôn, meaning either ‘prince’ or ‘genitals’.
The name may have been deliberately constructed to carry a double meaning.
To be swooped down upon by something as powerful as an eagle, and then to begin pouring love potions over everyone:
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 31.252 ff:
[Hera, the wife of Zeus, complains:]
“Is it not shame enough, an impious thing, that I see the Trojan boy [Ganymedes] cup-lackey to Zeus,
disgracing heaven and Hebe cupbearer of Zeus,
when he ladles sweet nectar with human hands?”
Rubens – Study for the abduction of Ganymede
Mosaic from The House of Dionysus, Papus, Cyprus, Preserved ruin of a Roman villa dating to the 2nd century - is that an airborn kidney or an amanita muscaria?
Ganymede mosaic in the Archaeological Museum of Sousse
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 39. 67 ff :
“Zeus gave Olympian nectar to one of Trojan blood, a country clown, a cowman, Ganymede the cupbearer, and wine is not equal to nectar . . . Ganymede banquest with the heavenly immortals.’”
Triumph of Bacchus - Sousse - Tigers and even a Cheetah are depicted, and our friend Gamnymedes riding a lion.
So we see the nectar of the gods in all sorts of Dionysian settings in Roman houses dating from the 2nd to the 3rd century. The cheetah is shown drinking from a cup which appears to have a small stem at the bottom, like a mushroom. It is certainly afancy party, and as we shall see later in the book, the image of the eagle associated with a divine drink will return later in this book in the northern hemisphere.