@BretVDB Isn’t Book 6 all about how Justice has to be tempered with Courtesy, that human decency and culture are what make the brutality of Book 5 bearable? The real problem for him is mutability and vanity, that all human endeavor is doomed to destruction and meaninglessness without God.
Pre Columbian Basalt Sculpture of a Homosexual Copulating Couple (1000-1500 CE) - Costa Rica 🇨🇷
This unusual Costa Rican sculpture is of two naked males wearing flat headdresses engaging in a homosexual activity. Carved of basalt stone, the sculpture is highly stylized and created in a simple, minimal manner. The larger man stands behind, with his hands firmly holding the shoulders of the smaller man. Such pose generates the feeling of tension, more of a power play between the men than the sexual connotation. Although such scene of homosexual activity may have a certain connotation for people today, the people of Ancient Costa Rica had a quite different interpretation. Wearing little clothing was a symbol of high class for Ancient Costa Ricans because only people who worked in the fields had to wear clothing to protect their sensitive areas such as the genital area.
Costa Ricans also considered sex as the unpredictable force, which often leads to tension and destruction. Thus, sex was naturally analogized with beings of aggressive power, such as human males who were often warriors, the fighting force in their culture. Moreover, such activity had a ritualistic significance. During ceremonies, a strong, masculine warrior engaged in the sexual act with another warrior of lesser power to transfer his strength and virility.
The basalt sculpture, then, embodies more conception and symbolism than just sex itself. Looking at this sculpture, we realize that symbolism can be interpreted in a myriad of ways depending on the culture and context in question. It behooves us to look below the surface to understand the intricacies of symbol systems and their use within a given culture during a given period. It only expands our understanding of the beauty and complexity of the overall human experience and its infinite expressions.
Barakat Gallery, London
#archaeohistories
Everyone thinks it's funny that Shakespeare wrote all those sonnets about being a gross old man in love with a beautiful twink. But it's also funny he wrote all those sonnets about being a hapless bozo in love with a cruel old woman. Those are the two types of love.
@normal_ballerz That is…if you can get past the Swiss guard. They’re really nice usually, also lowkey kinda hot himbos, but good luck using English. You’re gonna have to talk your way in using Italian, German, or French.
@normal_ballerz As the proud owner of a Vatican Library card 🤓📚🇻🇦 I can say you’re not missing much. The Sala Sistina is beautiful, and I also like the café courtyard area where you can rip cigs with the monks and lecherous old Italian scholars. The office to get in is at the Porta Sant’anna.
@RomanHeadWoundG@InuitKodiak His faults notwithstanding, I really like Quintus’s bit about the “holy hill of Virtue” (ζαθέης Ἀρ��τῆς ὄρος) from book 5, and I think it was recombined with bits of Vergil very effectively in some of my favorite stanzas of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene.