Corona Virus isolation ~ Day 283: Christmas Eve roses & berries

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roses 

arranged by Tom White

photo by Styrous®

 

A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles.               

    

The name rose comes from French, itself from Latin rosa, which was perhaps borrowed from Oscan, from Greek ρόδον rhódon (Aeolic βρόδον wródon), itself borrowed from Old Persian wrd- (wurdi), related to Avestan varəδa, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr.         

   

The cultural history of the rose has led to it being used often as a symbol. In ancient Greece, the rose was closely associated with the goddess Aphrodite. In the Iliad, Aphrodite protects the body of Hector using the "immortal oil of the rose" and the archaic Greek lyric poet Ibycus praises a beautiful youth saying that Aphrodite nursed him "among rose blossoms". The second-century AD Greek travel writer Pausanias associates the rose with the story of Adonis and states that the rose is red because Aphrodite wounded herself on one of its thorns and stained the flower red with her blood.     

 

 

Aphrodite

 

Book Eleven of the ancient Roman novel The Golden Ass by Apuleius contains a scene in which the goddess Isis, who is identified with Venus, instructs the main character, Lucius, who has been transformed into a donkey, to eat rose petals from a crown of roses worn by a priest as part of a religious procession in order to regain his humanity.        

 

  

 Isis

fifteenth or fourteenth century BCE

 

 

Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the rose became identified with the Virgin Mary. The color of the rose and the number of roses received has symbolic representation. The rose symbol eventually led to the creation of the rosary and other devotional prayers in Christianity.         

The Wars of the Roses were a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster, represented by a red rose, and the House of York, represented by a white rose. Eventually, the wars eliminated the male lines of both families.            

 

Roses are a favored subject in art and appear in portraits, illustrations, on stamps, as ornaments or as architectural elements. Henri Fantin-Latour was also a prolific painter of still life, particularly flowers including roses. The rose 'Fantin-Latour' was named after the artist. Other impressionists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir have paintings of roses among their works.      

 

In 1908, Henry Albert Payne was commissioned to produce a wall painting for the decoration of the Palace of Westminster. His work, Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens, is an allegory on the Wars of the Roses and now hangs in the Palace's East Corridor.      

 

 

Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens - 1910  
 painting by Henry Albert Payne

 

 

"Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." was written by Gertrude Stein as part of the 1913 poem Sacred Emily, which appeared in the 1922 book Geography and Plays. In that poem, the first "Rose" is the name of a person.             

                    

       

Christmas Eve in other languages:       

Arabic - ليلة عيد الميلاد         

Catalan - Nit de Nadal         

Chinese - 平安夜               

Dutch - kerstavond          

French - Réveillon de Noël

German - Heiligabend        

Greek - παραμονή Χριστουγέννων          

Hawaiian - Mele Kalikimaka                     

Hebrew - ערב חג המולד           

Irish - Oíche Nollag             

Japanese - クリスマス・イブ or Kurisumasu ibu             

Korean = 크리스마스 이브               

Norweigen - Julaften       

Persian - شب کریسمس        

Polish - Wigilia           

Portuguese - Véspera de Natal            

Russian - канун Рождества        

Spanish - Nochebuena               

Turkish - Noel arifesi            

Ukranian - Святвечір         

Zulu - usuku ngaphambi kukakhisimusi           

Viewfinder links:            
                  
Corona Virus articles              

William Shakespeare             

Gertrude Stein      
Styrous®       
Tom White             
            
Net links:            
                 
Taste of Home ~ 75 Christmas Eve Dinner Ideas            
Time & Date ~Christmas Eve in the United States             
            

YouTube links:            
                   

Kelly Clarkson ~ Christmas Eve (Official Audio)         

Céline Dion ~ Christmas Eve (Official Audio)         

Yamashita Tatsuro ~ Christmas Eve           

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve / Sarajevo        

            

          

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," Juliet.

                             ~ William Shakespeare

  
      
Styrous® ~ Thursday, December 24, 2020         

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The Doc is in

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Judgement of Paris

     

photo montage by Styrous®

This is my photo montage interpretation of an ancient Greek myth, "Judgement of Paris". The images are from two photo shoots done months apart in 2004; the montage was made in 2008.

An Ovation TV ad used my "Judgement of Paris" montage in the My Art Series, 2009, Set 7, which featured Fred Scott, Styrous® and Wade Lawrence.

Comments about the "Judgement of Paris" montage on Ovation TV.

"Judgement of Paris" was shown in The Love Show, the inaugural exhibition for the Gray Loft Gallery.

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The down 'n dirty version of the myth:

A bunch of gods had a party. One goddess didn't get invited, so she threw a golden apple into the mix to create discord. It worked, the gods started squabbling about who the apple was meant for. The boss god didn't want to take the heat so he had a mortal make the call. Each goddess tried to bribe the mortal into voting for her. He picked one but it turned out to be a very bad choice. If you REALLY want to know all the facts, full details below.

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The high brow version:

SYNOPSIS

THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS was a contest between the three most beautiful goddesses of Olympus--Aphrodite, Hera and Athena--for the prize of a golden apple addressed to "the fairest".

THE MYTH

The story begins at the Wedding of Peleus and Thetis to which all of the gods were invited, all except Eris, the goddess of discord. When she appeared at the festivities, she was turned away, and in her anger cast a golden apple addressed, "Kallisti" ("To the Fairest") amongst the assembled goddesses.

Three goddesses laid claim to the apple--Aphrodite, Hera and Athena. Zeus was asked to mediate but he didn't want any part of it, so, he commanded Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris of Troy to decide the issue.

The three contenders bathed in the spring of Ida, then appeared before Paris, the shepherd prince, on Mount Ida in the climactic moment that is the crux of the tale. Each goddess wanted to be judged the fairest, so they each undressed and presented themselves to Paris naked, in hopes of appearing more sexual than the other two. While Paris inspected them, each attempted with her powers to bribe him; Hera offered to make him king of Europe and Asia, Athena offered wisdom and skill in war, and Aphrodite, who had the Charites and the Horai to enhance her charms with flowers and song, offered the world's most beautiful woman. This was Helen of Sparta, who was the wife of the Greek king Menelaus.Paris accepted the gift from Aphrodite and awarded the apple to her, receiving Helen as well as the enmity of the Greeks and especially of Hera. (Euripides, Andromache, l.284, Helena l. 676).   

The Greek expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris, both of them had fled to Troy, led to the fall of the city and is the mythological basis of the Trojan War.    

 - (Greek myth)

Styrous® March, 2012

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