Heroes, Gods and Mortals  - Engaging Myth and Meaning

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According to ancient Greek myths, there was a time when Gods walked among us, appearing before our ancestors in of a swirl of mist or a sudden flash. These Gods considered us their children. They interfered in our affairs, tweaked the outcome of events, initiated dangerous challenges and contests, and they watched us. 

 

At the same time, the tales of the lives of these Gods reveal insights into aspects of our own personalities: jealousy, strength, pride, vengefulness, vanity, etc.  through the roles that Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo and the others played out in their stories, in the Myths.. This was a time of grandeur. Of awakening.  Of surprise. Prometheus was chained to a rock. His liver was ripped out each day by a ferocious bird, but people still came to talk to him. And he somehow could speak to them.

 

The world was emptier then. Quieter. Perhaps more wondrous. Each sunrise meant Helios was pulling the sun across the sky in his chariot. Myth not only explored the human psyche but also how the physical world worked, and our origins. Lust, revenge, bravery and fear fill these myths. The stories feel very human, but they were also pre-science and often wrong. Today we know there is no chariot carrying the sun across the sky, 

 

It was a system that worked for the Athenians for several hundred classic years  and provided enough stability to a period of intense intellectual and political artistic development. After the Athenians their culture lived on for another thousand years carried by the conquests of Alexander the Great, into the Hellenistic era and the Byzantine empire. We don't believe in these Gods anymore, but our courthouses still mimic Greek architecture with their white colonnade porches. Much of that ancient culture is still around us. Starting with our alphabet.

 

This series visually engages an ancient culture through some of its remaining products and artifacts. 

 

This project has been evolving over the last several years.