April 23 coincidences
bookburn
Straining upon the Start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge
Cry "God for Harry, England and St. George!"
Art Neuendorffer
Shakespere & Cervantes both died on St. George's day 1616
Shakespere's official birthday: St. George's day 1564
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bookburn wrote:
<<April 23 is UNESCO's internation day of the book
and St. George's Day. Did Shakespeare identify with
spearing dragons and rescuing maidens like St. George?>>
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Like Perseus, Beowulf, St.George,
_ the KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSSE & Daniel
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_ THE FIRST BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QVEENE. by Ed. Spenser
_ THE LEGENDE OF THE KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSSE.
_ LO, I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
_ As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,
_ Am now enforst a far vnfitter taske,
_ For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
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_ Beowulf - as translated by FRANCIS B. Gummere
_ LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
_ of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
_ we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
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_ Apocrypha (Bel and the Dragon)
1:11 LO, we go out: but thou, O king, set on the meat,
_ and make ready the wine, and shut the door fast
_ and seal it with thine own signet;
1:27 Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did
see them together, and made lumps thereof: this he put in the
dragon's mouth, and so the dragon burst in sunder : and Daniel
said, LO, these are the gods ye worship.
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http://library.thinkquest.org/10395/text/others.html
<<A queen, as everyone knows, must always maintain dignity on the
throne, so we cannot help feeling sorry for Queen Cassiopeia, wife
of Cepheus. She and her daughter Andromeda were beautiful, and the
Queen Mother could not resist the temptation to boast of this beauty.
Sea nymphs, the goddesses of the sea, were offended when mortal
Cassiopeia dared to praise herself as being more beautiful than they.
The sea nymphs appealed to the heavenly council, which voted to punish
Cassiopeia by embarrassing her. The Queen on the Throne was changed
into stars in the northern sky. As she revolved around Polaris, she
would, for six months of the year, be sitting on her throne head down,
like a tumbler. This position would shame her and remind her and other
mortals never to be so audacious as to compare themselves to the
immortal celestial ones. Then, to show the justice of the council,
Queen Cassiopeia was permitted to be upright on her throne, as a
dignified queen should be, for the other six months of the year.
The Nerids were the bathing beauties of the ancient world along the
Mediterranean Sea. As sea nymphs and goddesses, they felt superior
to any mortal beauty. When news reports reached them that Queen
Cassiopeia dared to compare the loveliness of her daughter, Princess
Andromeda, to their ethereal charms, the Nerids became envious and
angry. Appealing to the celestial authorities they obtained a ruling
which sent a huge sea monster to ravage the coast of the kingdom of
Cepheus, father of Andromeda. The only salvation for the kingdom--so
ruled the temple oracle, was to sacrifice Andromeda to the monster.
King Cepheus of Aethiopia had a momentous decision to make. Should
he consent to the directive given by the temple oracle of Ammon and
sacrifice his lovely young daughter, Andromeda, to the sea monster,
Cetus? His queen, Cassiopeia, had placed him in the position where his
role as the protector of his people's safety clashed with the feelings
as a father. As father of Andromeda, he was aghast at the oracle's
edict that only his daughter would be acceptable as a sacrifice to
propitiate the gods. As leader of his country, he could not make
exceptions and substitute another maiden in place of his daughter,
else the countryside would be ravaged.
Cepheus chose to chain his daughter to the rocks, and left her
defenseless. After the crisis had passed, he was eventually
placed in the sky as an inconspicuous constellation. Might
Cepheus be considered the symbol of a leader who will
appease rather than defend when an ultimatum is delivered?>>
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Alg(OL)
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http://library.thinkquest.org/10395/text/perse.html
<<As a handsome youth, Perseus had the tremendous task of rescuing
the lovely maiden Andromeda, chained to the rocks as a sacrifice to
the sea monster, Cetus. Even though he needed a weapon more powerful
than his sword for this task, undaunted, he travelled to the lair of
Medusa. Medusa's head was covered with snakes instead of hair, and
the sight of her petrified anyone who looked at her. To guard Perseus
against this danger, Minerva had given him her shield, which he used
as a mirror so that he would not have to gaze at Medusa herself.
Approaching Medusa in this way, he was able to cut off her head.
He returned to the chained Andromeda and freed her by using Medusa's
head to petrify Cetus, the sea monster, who was just about to
devour her. The Constellation Perseus contains the most interesting
variable star, the celebrated Algol [=> the eye of Medusa].>>
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http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/Pegasus.html
<<Pegasus the Legendary Winged Horse: When the Gorgon Medusa was
decapitated by the hero Perseus, Pegasus & his brother, Chrysoar,
were born from the mix of seafoam and blood. Ridden by Perseus,
he carried the hero over the sea and aided in the defeat of Cetus,
the Sea-dragon, and the rescue of the Princess Andromeda. After
this adventure, the young colt was gathered by Athena (Minerva)
and carried to Mt. Helicon where she entrusted the Muses with his
care. In his excitement young Pegasus struck the ground with his
hooves and cause the springs of Aganippe & Hippocrene to gush forth
their bounty of inspiration. Urania, the Muse of Astronomy & Universal
Love (also an aspect of Aphrodite) showed the most interest in his
rearing. Prophesying of his future heroic deeds and eventual celestial
honor she grieved the most when Bellerophon, at Athena's beckoning,
came to take Pegasus away from Mt. Helicon. After the many long years
of heroic deeds Pegasus had accomplished in the companionship of
Bellerophon, and the hero's thankless death, Urania was enraptured by
Pegasus' triumphant arrival to Mt. Olympus. The tragic ending of the
tale of Bellerophon would seem to be a shrewd illustration of the
folly of assuming that something or someone is subject to our will and
cannot function successfully without us. The Greeks may have also
attempted to tell us that simply being a member of the human race does
not, in itself, warrant our acceptance into the transcendental realms.
The simple fact that it was the Horse and not the Man must surely
convey something of the status of man in the universal scheme of
things. Pegasus went on to become the occasional mount of the goddess
Eos (Aurora) on her mission to bring forth the Dawn. At other times he
was ridden by Apollo (Phoebus) as he brought the sun across the sky.
And, even more importantly, Pegasus served as Zeus' Lightening bearer,
when Pegasus' own hooves could be heard thundering across the skies in
a storm. As a tribute to his exceptional life and heroic deeds, Zeus
honored Pegasus with a constellation in the sky. According to an
amalgam of several other myths stemming from Cheiron's progeny, there
is a formidable afterlife for Pegasus involving a wife, Euippe (or
Ocyrrhoe), and two children, Celeris & Melanippe. In poetry, the
phrase "My Pegasus will not go this morning" means the author's
brain will not work (lacks inspiration), and "I am mounting my
Pegasus" means he's going to write (he's becoming inspired),
and "I am on my Pegasus" means he's engaged in writing. >>
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http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Pegasus
<<Pegasus (Pegasos) was a winged horse...the foal of Poseidon.
Descriptions vary as to the winged stallion's birth & his
brother the giant, Chrysaor. Chrysaor (Greek: *golden falchion* )
was a giant, the son of Poseidon & Medusa.
St. George Fighting the Dragon (with a *falchion*) 1504-06
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/raphael/lvr-george.jpg
He was conceived on the floor of a temple to Athena who, enraged
at the desecration, turned Medusa into a Gorgon. Some say that
they sprang from Medusa's neck as Perseus beheaded her, a "higher"
birth, like the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus Statue of Zeus.
Others says that they were born of the earth as Medusa's blood
spilled onto it, in which case Poseidon would not be their sire.
Minerva caught and tamed Pegasus, and presented him to the Muses.
Hesiod connects the name Pegasos with the word for "spring, well",
*PEGE* ; everywhere the winged horse struck hoof to earth, an
inspiring spring burst forth: one on the Muses' Mount Helicon:
the Hippocrene ("horse spring"), at the behest of Poseidon to
prevent the mountain swelling too much and another at Troezen
(TREE-zun:), a city in Argolis located southwest of Athens
and the birthplace of Theseus.
The actual etymology of the name is most likely from Luwian
pihassas "lightning", or pihassasas, a weather god (the god
of lightning). In Hesiod, Pegasos is still associated with
this original significance by carrying the thunderbolts for Zeus.
Mounted on Pegasus, and with the Gorgon's head safely in his magical
bag, Perseus was completed as a hero, and was ready to win Andromeda.
Pegasus aided the hero Bellerophon ("bearing darts") who is a double
in some way for Perseus, in his fight against both the Chimera & the
Amazons. There are varying tales as to how Bellerophon found Pegasus,
some say that the hero found him drinking at the Pierian spring
and that Polyidus told Bellerophon how to find and tame him,
others that Athena did so.
Prior to aiding Bellerophon, Pegasus brought thunderbolts to Zeus. In
his later life, Pegasus took a wife, Euippe (or Ocyrrhoe), by whom he
had a child, Celeris. This family is the origin of the winged horses.
Pegasus was eventually turned into a constellation but a single
feather fell to the earth near the city of Tarsus (hence its name).>>
[Paul of Tarsus fell off a horse just like Bellerophon.]
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_ _Moby Dick_
<< Akin to the adventure of Perseus and Andromeda- indeed, by some
supposed to be indirectly derived from it- is that famous story of St.
George and the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have been a whale;
for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled
together, and often stand for each other. "Thou art as a lion of the
waters, and as a dragon of the sea," said Ezekiel; hereby, plainly
meaning a whale; in truth, some versions of the Bible use that
word itself. Besides, it would much subtract from the glory of the
exploit had St. George but encountered a crawling reptile of the
land, instead of doing battle with the great monster of the deep.
Any man may kill a snake, but only a Perseus, a St. George,
a Coffin, have the heart in them to march boldly up to a whale.
Let not the modern paintings of this scene mislead us; for though
the creature encountered by that valiant whaleman of old is vaguely
represented of a griffin-like shape, and though the battle is
depicted on land and the saint on horseback, yet considering the
great ignorance of those times, when the true form of the whale was
unknown to artists; and considering that as in Perseus' case, St.
George's whale might have crawled up out of the sea on the beach;
and considering that the animal ridden by St. George might have been
only a large seal, or sea-horse; bearing all this in mind, it will
not appear altogether incompatible with the sacred legend and the
ancientest draughts of the scene, to hold this so-called dragon no
other than the great Leviathan himself. In fact, placed before the
strict and piercing truth, this whole story will fare like that
FISH, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philistines, DAGON by name; who
being planted before the ark of Israel, his horse's head and both
the palms of his hands fell off from him, and only the stump or
FISHY part of him remained. Thus, then, one of our own noble stamp,
even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England; and by good
rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in the most
noble order of St. George. And therefore, let not the KNIGHTS of
that honorable company (none of whom, I venture to say, have ever
had to do with a whale like their great patron), let them never
eye a Nantucketer with disdain, since even in our woollen frocks
and tarred trowers we are much better entitled
to St. George's decoration than they. >>
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http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Travel/Tours/England/Stratford/ShakespeareCrest.jpg
http://www.isdrenaissance.com/globe.html
http://www.earthtransitions.com/devas.htm
<<Pictures in the cathedrals of Europe show St. George (the dragon
slayer) putting his spear into the heart of the dragon to kill it. So
the Gothic cathedrals placed on the ancient druid power points, were
being used to subdue these dragon lines or earth currents, rather
than honor them. As ?pagan? (originally a term which meant ?country
dweller?) became associated in the early Christian days with the
devil, the nature based religions were also subdued and even
exterminated, with nature worship being punishable by death by the
time of Pope Gregory in the 600?s A.D. So a new use for feng shui
began to emerge in which placement was not only for survival and for
aligning the earth with the heavens, but now for power and control In
the middle ages, the Knights Templar studied this form of geomancy and
purposefully laid out a complex design of cathedrals all throughout
Europe to harness the power of these energy lines. The students of
the Templars, the Masons, kept this knowledge of the power of the
earth?s energy grids alive and to this day it lives on right in
our own nation?s capitol, which was founded by our forefathers,
who were themselves Masons.>>
http://www.artnowgallery.nu/St._George_dragon_a.jpg
Sculptures by Salvador Dali
http://www.draconian.com/whatis/george.jpg
Juliusz Kossak "St. George Killing the Dragon"
http://artyzm.com/e_obraz.php?id=1631
http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/grgbkcv2l.jpg
St. George and the dragon c. 1555-58
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/tintoretto/st-george-dragon.jpg
St. George Fighting the Dragon 1504-06
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/raphael/lvr-george.jpg
St. George and the Dragon c. 1456
http://www.wga.hu/art/u/uccello/6various/5dragon1.jpg
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/u/uccello/6various/5dragon1.html
St. George and the Dragon Rubens, 1606-07
http://www.galleriasofia.com/images/St%20George%20and%20the%20Dragon.jpg
http://simonandbaker.com/jacquemart_george_dragon.jpg
http://www.iconsexplained.com/iec/rit/03089_st_george_dragon_russian_museum_450x600.jpg
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Art Neuendorffer