ALLOW THIS

Detail of an ancient Roman bust of empress Faustina the Younger (c. 130-175 CE), wife of Marcus Aurelius and mother of Commodus, dated to the end of the 2nd century CE. Marble. Currently located in the Louvre. Photo taken by Ilya Shurygin for AncientRome.ru.

Virgin Mary, Enfield, New Hampshire.

Antonio Canova, Endimione dormiente, 1818-22

~Kundalini rising~ Laocoön and His Sons statue detail (by the sculptors: Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus). As Jung would say “ What Nature wants us to do is to move with a snake-like motion. … The snake is the symbol of the great wisdom of Nature, for the too direct way is not the best way; the crooked way, the detour, is the shorter way.”

Poseidon promised to Thetis that he would devote an island to Achilles after his death. The Nereids arrived in Troy to mourn the hero, their dead relative, the nine Muses were also lamenting for Achilles’ passing. The lament for the deceased hero lasted for seventeen days. The fire that burnt the dead body of the hero was lit the  eighteenth day and his ashes were placed in an urn made by Hephaestus, along with the ashes of his beloved Patroclus. A tomb was erected as the legend has it at the entrance of Hellespont. In a nearby village named Achilleion there was a temple of Achilles whose statue wore female earrings. Thetis, the mother of the hero, claimed his soul and transferred it to the island Lefki. Sailors said that they heard Achilles reciting verses of Homer as they sailed north of Bosphorus. War cries and hooves of horses were also heard. Statue: Death of Achilles by Innocenzo Fraccaroli, 1805-1888, Villa Reale, Milan, Italy.

~With a desire sacred yet lustful~ Satyr and Bacchante by James Pradier, 1834.

Neptune was the god of freshwater, the sea, and horses in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.

Detail of a neoclassical statue of a naiad or nymph by Giovanni Battista Lombardi, dated to 1858. Marble. Source: Sotheby’s.

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