Great Lovers In History
Tava's Pier Murals At Vinny's
----
The First Of Tava's Theme is found in his paintings of
Great Male Lovers In History,
who've either acquired or protected man's freedom.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu:
This oldest known epic is the
story about King Gilgamesh and Enkidu,
which pre-dates the famous
Hercules Legends,
and is probably the framework on
which that myth was based.
There is more than one interpretation
of the legend's translations and most can be accessed
on the web.
Historically speaking:
The Dynasty of Erech was founded by Meskiaggasher,
who, along with his
successors, was termed the "son of Utu",
the sun-god.
Following three other kings,
including
another Dumuzi, the famous
Gilgamesh took the throne of Erech around
2600 BC and became in
volved in a power struggle for the
region with the Kish Dynasts and with
Mesannepadda, the
founder of the Dynasty of Ur.
While Gilgamesh became a demi-god,
remembered in epic tales, it
was Mesannepadda who was eventually
victorious in this three-way power struggle,
taking the by
then traditional title of "King of Kish".
So They Did Have
Three-Way Power Stuggles
and Kings (or Queens?) of Kish!
Don't You Just Love It!
All translators do agree that Enkidu was made by the
gods as a "wild beastman" to finally
become the accepted
and cultured/refined
"Soul-Counterpart"
to
King Gilgamesh.
In other words,
Enkidu Was Created To Be The King's Male Lover.
The most important "Concept"
I want to make clear at this time
is that Gilgamesh tried to bring his lover, Enkidu,
Back From The Dead.
Tava always felt that during this
change of millennium,
I was Enkidu and he was
Gilgamesh.
Only, this time his fate was to die early,
and it was Enkidu's [my] Duty
to bring him back from the dead.
We both realized that only Man's Art,
Not Nature's Art,
could achieve immortality on this plane.
Therefore, through this
Cyber-Museum of his Murals
I am achieving the promise I made to him --
To Keep Tava Alive
Through His Living ArtWork.
To see other web sites
try a search on the Web
For Gilgamesh
or
read condensed versions of the
Gilgamesh and Enkidu Epic!
For more information please see
The Enkidu Myth:
or
The Priestess And Enkidu: The Taming of the Wild One
----
Harmodius and Aristogeiton: The
Defenders of Democracy
The second pair of Great Lovers
Tava painted were known as "The Defenders Of Democracy,"
but after reading some of the historical observations,
the lovers sounded more like "rebels with a cause" to me.
The basic History about the establishment of Democracy
in Greece Follows:
Harmodius and Aristogeiton kill
Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus,
tyrant of Athens, 514 BC (as told by Herodotus)
Last tyrant Hippias (brother of Hipparchus) ousted by
Spartans, 510 BC. (as told by Herodotus and
Thucydides)
The Institution of Democracy in Athens,
510 BC (as told by Perseus) Ionian Revolt in Asia Minor,
499 BC; this is put down, and Miletus destroyed.
Persian invasion of Greece,
490 BC (Battle of Marathon),
480 BC. Persians destroy the Acropolis,
but are defeated at the battles of
Salamis and Plataea.
(as told by Perseus)
The full story is best reviewed by reading
Thucydides Last Work -- The Peloponnesian War
this truncated version will give the reader the basic ideas
behind Tava's Murals.
I have secured permission to
quote the following
author without infringing on his copyright.
I found his observations about
Homosexual Couples to be very Interesting And Informative.
----
Essays on Gay History and Literature
by Rictor Norton
In "The Homosexual Pastoral Tradition"
by Rictor Norton,
the author concludes:
Several of the other pairs
of famous faithful friends
are compiled from the
relationships of historical figures,
for whom there is evidence
of at least
latent homosexual relations such as . . .
Harmodius and Aristogeiton,
who liberated Athens . . .
[like the "Heroes in Joseph Campbell's studies]
[see Campbell, Joseph section on this site]
. . .from the tyranny of Hipparchus
(who himself was homosexual!!),
became eponyms of Homosexual Love as well as
political comradeship.
{Copyright 1974, 1997 by Rictor Norton.
All rights reserved. Reproduction for
sale or profit prohibited.}
----
To read my condensed versions of
the links (mentioned above) about
Harmodius And Aristogeiton,
see
Harmodius And Aristogeiton: The Defenders Of Democracy
or
Harmodius And Aristogeiton: The Disgrace Of Alcibiades
----
Joseph Campbell's Heroes and Carl Jung:
To truly appreciate Tava's Concepts
the reader must understand the theories about
Heroes and Psychological Archetypes,
as described by Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.
The following is another source about these
great thoughts:
You can purchase the book
"A Hero with a Thousand Faces"
written by Joseph Campbell
through The Joseph Campbell Foundation
Cambell noticed a pattern called
"The Hero's Journey"
or
"Monomyth,"
which I believe you will find very informative.
Also, "The Mythic Dimension" (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
published by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
is a fabulous description of Heroes,
and crystalizes Tava's thoughts on Great Lovers In History.
----
Concerning Myth and Legend from Ancient Times to the Space Age
It is said, "Therefore, even the lover of myth is in a
sense a philosopher; for myth is composed of wonders."
-- Aristotle
In common parlance, a myth is a fiction -- Scholars define myth
as a special story to interpret the world
----
Robert W. Brockway, in his book
"Myth from the Ice Age to Mickey Mouse"
Summarizes the meaning of myth as follows:
A collective definition of myth
composed of many theories
might be framed by the
following paraphrase:
Myths are stories, usually,
about gods and other
supernatural beings (Frye).
They are often stories of
origins, how the world and
everything in it came to be in
illo tempore (Eliade). They
are usually strongly structured
and and their meaning is only
discerned by linguistic analysis
(Lévi-Strauss). Sometimes
they are public dreams which,
like private dreams, emerge
from the unconscious mind
(Freud). Indeed, they often
reveal the archetypes of the
collective unconscious (Jung).
They are symbolic and
metaphorical (Cassirer). They
orient people to the
metaphysical dimension,
explain the origins and nature
of the cosmos, validate social
issues, and, on the
psychological plane, address
themselves to the innermost
depths of the psyche
(Campbell). Some of them
are explanatory, being
prescientific attempts to
interpret the natural world
(Frazer). As such, they are
usually functional and are the
science of primitive peoples
(Malinowski). Often, they are
enacted in rituals (Hooke).
Religious myths are sacred
histories (Eliade), and
distinguished from the profane
(Durkheim). But, being
semiotic expressions
(Saussure), they are a
"disease of language"
(Müller). They are both
individual and social in scope,
but they are first and foremost
stories (Kirk).
----
The terms Legend and Folktale
are sometimes used interchangeably with
myth. These are not the same. How should we distinguish them?
Donna Rosenberg, in her book
"Folklore, Myth, and Legends: A World
Perspective,"
offers some useful guidelines:
A myth is a sacred story from
the past. It may explain the
origin of the universe and of
life, or it may express its
culture's moral values in
human terms. Myths concern
the powers who control the
human world and the
relationship between those
powers and human beings.
Although myths are religious
in their origin and function,
they may also be the earliest
form of history, science, or
philosophy...
A folktale is a story that, in its
plot, is pure fiction and that
has no particular location in
either time or space.
However, despite its elements
of fantasy, a folktale is
actually a symbolic way of
presenting the different means
by which human beings cope
with the world in which they
live. Folktales concern people
-- either royalty or common
folk -- or animals who speak
and act like people...
A legend is a story from the
past about a subject that was,
or is believed to have been,
historical. Legends concern
people, places, and events.
Usually, the subject is a saint,
a king, a hero, a famous
person, or a war. A legend is
always associated with a
particular place and a
particular time in history.
Therefore, The Epic Gilgamesh
is
Mythology,
while
the stories concerning
Harmodius And Aristogeiton
are
Epic Legends.