this is probably a looong shot, but could it be made to resemble some
constellation?
Duc
Quoting Richard Landes <[log in to unmask]>:
> At 01:47 PM 2/7/01 -0600, you wrote:
> >This is REALLY off the top of my head (it comes from my "other life" as
> a
> >numismatist) but there are classical Greek coins from southern Italy
> that
> >show Hercules straddling the Nemean lion as he strangles it. It looks
> >very much as if he were riding it. I would not be surprised to learn
> that
> >some sort of visual vocabulary of hero/lion transferred that position
> from
> >Herakles to Samson. For what it's worth...
> >TGD
>
> moreover, that image of man on animal easily conflates (or replaces)
> some
> of the more interesting early romanesque capitals in which the creature
> is
> half-man, half animal. the transformation into narrative, and to an
> antagonistic relationship with the wild beast suggests just the kind of
> "humanization" of xnty that lynn white proposed as part of his religious
> explanation for the rise of technology in the 11 and 12th cns. while i
> agree with the main lines of the argument, i don't think it explains as
> much as describes the process.
>
> r
>
>
> Richard Landes
> Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University Department of
> History
> 704 Commonwealth Ave. Suite 205 226 Bay State Road
> Boston MA 02215 Boston MA 02215
> 617-358-0226 of 358-0225 fax 617-353-2558
> of 353-2556 fax
> http://www.mille.org [log in to unmask]
>
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