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Goddess
Embodied
Cheri
Carr
What do you think of when you think of ancient
Greek art? For most of us, the words bring to mind stately
depictions of young male warriors in the nude, dazzlingly
white busts of ancient politicians and scholars, or
larger-than-life statues erected to pacify and exalt
the gods. But how in the world, you ask, could images
of themselves possibly "pacify and exalt" the gods?
Surely it isn't that the gods are simply an extremely
vain bunch? To answer this question, we must first look
at the purpose of Art itself.
What, after all, makes art,
Art? Is it, as some people say, that which makes us
transcend ourselves? If this theory is correct, and
the defining characteristic of Art resides in its ability
to compel those who experience it to become aware of,
if for only a short time, ideas that express or somehow
define that which is fundamental in human experience,
then the average contemporary conception of the purpose
of ancient Greek art is all wrong.
Without a doubt, many contemporary
people highly value the Greek precedent--perfection
in symmetry, form, grace, and elegance. By this view,
the purpose of Art is beauty. But this perspective is
the modern-day viewer's fundamental flaw. To view ancient
Greek art in terms of its beauty alone is to sorely
underestimate what that art essentially is--a religious
experience. Therefore, ancient Greek art is Art,
or, it compels us to transcend ourselves, through the
very quality of its being a religious experience.
This phenomenon is often experienced in the form of
an epiphany--the sudden realization of meaning.
To demonstrate this idea,
I will explore the oft forgotten religious dimensions
of the statue of Aphrodite pictured above. In this way,
I hope to show how this particular work of art creates
an epiphany, and in so doing, reveals itself as true
Art.
Now, look at the picture of
the statue that is printed on the front page of this
essay. It is sculpted of marble and stands thirty-two
inches high. It was created about 150 B.C.E. and depicts
the goddess Aphrodite emerging from a pool of water,
wringing out her hair--wet, perhaps, from a sacred bath.
The statue was cut off at her thighs as part of the
original design and was probably displayed in a garden
pool. This idea, that the goddess of love would be displayed
in a garden, is interesting.
During the first few centuries
of its existence, the Church tried very hard to replace
pagan ideas with Christian ones. This led to the attempt
to suppress cults of earth goddesses, such as Demeter,
who also protected fertility in women. A dissociation
of the ideas of agricultural fecundity and human fecundity
ensued.
Additionally for the modern-day
person, the experience of a garden evokes images of
the Garden of Eden. This garden represents spiritual
purity, perfection, and lack of desire, including lack
of sexual desire. Therefore, to have Aphrodite, the
most sexually provocative deity, associated with the
garden is often quite strange to the contemporary person.
Anciently, however, gardens
and sex were very closely linked. Words describing women's
sexual organs, such as "peach," "rose," and "flower"
are reminiscent of this earlier time, as are descriptions
of women as "fallow" or "barren" if they are unable
to produce children. Sexual activities, such as "sowing
wild oats," and "de-flowering" are also some of the
relics in our language that have survived from this
earlier period. To best illustrate the ancient association
between the garden and sex: mythically, the protector
of gardens was Priapus, the god of wealth, who was depicted
as a giant flying phallus.
The idea that the statue is
emerging from a pool of water and the fact that she
was cut off at her thighs to be displayed is also quite
interesting.
To demonstrate, please take
another look at the picture of the statue. If she were
to be placed in a pool of water, even a shallow pool,
the water would cover her body below the hips. She is,
therefore, not totally exposed. In many of her statues,
she is shown modestly concealing her genitalia with
her hand or still clinging to a robe that artfully cloaks
some aspect of her body. In this case, the statue is
veiled by water that serves the same purpose. This partial
nudity is very traditional in art depicting her. After
all, as a goddess, Aphrodite is mainly concerned with
the evocation of desire, not the fulfillment of it.
As James Hillman, in his essay, "Pink Madness", points
out, she represents the "soft-core" aspect of sex in
that she "both denies and offers what the psyche wants"
(65). This quality of "presence and absence" in her
nudity does exactly what the goddess herself sets out
to do--evoke desire.
Or, as Aphrodite invites and
sparks the erotic imagination, so do her images.
Seen from this perspective,
the statue of the goddess reveals itself as not being
a statue at all. In reality, it is the goddess herself,
the goddess embodied.
For just a moment, try to
imagine walking in a garden one day and coming across
this very life-like statue of a beautiful woman in the
nude. Greek statues were very often brilliantly painted
so you could easily have mistaken it for a real person
upon first glance. Seeing her, you might be surprised,
curious, aroused, even a little scared. This is the
power of the epiphany. It is the core of the ancient
religious experience. Moreover, this experience is specifically
religious because it makes you realize the gods as an
active force in your life. In this way, by acknowledging
the gods' presence in your life, by realizing and appreciating
their power, you can "pacify and exalt" them. Not only
that, however, the statues are themselves the gods.
They are the locus of the religious experience. Thus,
after seeing this statue, being surprised and excited,
you can no longer deny or wonder whether erotic desire,
Aphrodite's presence, is a truth of human experience.
Works
Cited
Museum of Archeology
and Anthropology. Ed. Dr. Donald White. 1996. U
of Pennsylvania. 9 October 2000.
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/greek_world/Images/Religion_death/69_14_1_400.gif.
Hillman, James. "Pink Madness,
or, Why Does Aphrodite Drive Men Crazy With Pornography?"
Archetypal Sex. Spring 57: 39-71.
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