Sunday 30 December 2012

Flowers




Festive, Christmassy Antonello





with lots of reflections this time,





I especially like the clock





lots of red for Christmas.





Inspired, as usual.





Lots of pomegranates as this is the fruit for the New Year in Greece, a symbol of regeneration, fertility, prosperity and the inseparable duality of life and death.

The duality of the pomegranate is best illustrated by the myth of Persephone who was daughter of Demetra (goddess of fertility, the four seasons and the harvest) but also daughter of Demetra's younger self.  Hades, god of the underworld abducted Persephone and would not let her return to earth. Demetra's grief meant that the earth became barren. When Hermes was sent to retrieve Persephone she had already eaten six pomegranate seeds which meant that she was committed to returning to the underworld for six months of the year. The seasons of spring, summer and autumn represent the time when Persephone is reunited with Demetra, while winter represents the time when Demetra is grieving because she is not with her beloved daughter.


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