Saturday, September 4, 2010

It's just work, work, work around here ...





















...but I hope my fellow Americans are all taking a break for Labor Day. Enjoy the weekend, everybody.

Hercules and the Nemean lion, Francisco de Zurbarán, 1634

4 comments:

jmcleod76 said...

You must have a thing for ol' Herc. You had him, a few months ago, or maybe more, wearing that lion.

You know, I've been writing a series for the Farmers' Almanac on the folklore behind the Zodiac, and I'd never realized before how most of the 12 signs follow the arc of Herc's 12 Labors. Interesting stuff.

Anyway, even if your workload is herculean, I hope the payoff is worth it.

BitterGrace said...

Um--which sign of the Zodiac is cleaning the Augean stables? 'Cause that seems like one you wouldn't want to be...

You'll notice you gave me inspiration for today's post--thanks!

Payoff--not necessarily in cash--has been well worth it. Hope you can say the same.

jmcleod76 said...

"The constellation of Capricorn was earlier known as the Augean Stable, since the sun appears goes to rest (i.e. stable) there during winter. Such dark times lead to ideas about sin accumulating through the year (creating the darkness), and eventually being washed away by the new year. Aquarius follows Capricorn, flooding the sky with its waters."

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/HeraclesLabours.html

I had to look this one up. I'm not that far in the series yet. Many of the parallels actually concern neighboring constellations to the sun signs, rather than the signs themselves, though the signs sometimes got written into the action. Cancer has a cameo in the Lernean Hydra story, for instance. The crab bites Herc's toe while he's fighting the beast and, depending on which version you read, either gets crushed underfoot and memorialized by Hera in the sky, or is simply kicked up into the heavens by Herc himself. That part of the story was likely born out of the fact that the crab sits next to Hydra in the sky (well, Cancer and about 1,000 other constellations ...).

BitterGrace said...

Fun stuff. I love that I know somebody who writes for the Farmer's Almanac.