Posted on 11/27/2018 11:43:26 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists have unearthed a sensual fresco depicting the Ancient Greek myth of Leda and the Swan on a bedroom wall in Pompeii.
While the story might not appeal to modern sensibilities, the legend that Leda, the beautiful queen of Sparta, was seduced – or raped, depending on how you see it – by the king of the gods disguised as a swan was apparently a titillating subject for Ancient Romans.
In an astonishingly well preserved fresco revealed to the public this week, the moment is depicted as a non-violent encounter: Leda reclines languidly, gazing directly at the viewer, as the swan perches between her parted legs.
The coupling, which would result in the birth of Helen of Troy and thus the Trojan War and all its consequences (including, many centuries later, the founding of Rome by Trojan refugees), has inspired artists and poets throughout the ages. Michelangelo's strikingly sensual version, now lost but surviving in copies, is said to have drawn on Roman depictions similar to the one just discovered.
The mural was brought to light in a house along the Via del Vesuvio in the Regio V section of Pompeii, an area that has yielded some of the doomed city's most exciting new discoveries in decades since archaeologists began excavating it earlier this year.
One recent find, uncovered in the same house as the Leda fresco, showed the ancient fertility god Priapus weighing his oversized penis on a scale.
Unlike the better preserved Leda fresco, however, the Priapus painting was placed in an entrance corridor, suggesting that it was intended as a public symbol of good fortune – Romans considered the phallus a kind of charm against the evil eye – rather than for personal enjoyment.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.it ...
Dr. Swan, Medicine Woman.
She may be a quack, but you can’t duck her bills.
Did the swan have a wing-man?
This is tame compared to other paintings about the myth. Look up Francois Boucher’s painting of 1740. Basically full blown bestiality.
I do not know about this, but:
“Seven swans a-swimming” is supposed to be about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Was the swan rich?
You know, swanky.
It’s very clear the empire fell because of bird sex
PIV is always rape, ok?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/3108209/posts
“When you do it wth a swan, how is the bill paid?”
With bills of course.
“I’d feather not go into detail.”
I certainly hope not. Going into detail is downy sodomy, you silly goose.
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