You seem to me as Dian in her orb,
As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown;
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pampered animals
That rage in savage sensuality. – William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (IV,i)
The lady in the statue is Cybele, the great mother-goddess of Asia Minor to whom big cats were sacred; she was worshipped in Rome as the Magna Mater in the feast of Hilaria, which started at the calends of April (March 25th) and continued through to yesterday. In early times these rituals were rather bloody and not at all nice, including castration of a male sacrifice who thus represented Cybele’s lover Attis (the later myth of Aphrodite and Adonis descended from it). But by the second century CE a bull had replaced the human, in an elaborate sacred drama and sacrifice called a taurobolium.
Today, however, was the feast of Veneralia, a festival dedicated to Fortuna Virilis (“Powerful Fortune”) and to Venus Verticordia (Venus the Changer of Hearts). Remember how I told you that women worshipped Fortuna Virilis by bathing in men’s public baths? Well, on Veneralia the image of Venus Verticordia was taken to a men’s bath by her priestesses and ceremonially bathed. As you can see, Fortuna and Venus had become closely associated by the imperial era and their ceremonies merged; by the second century CE the Magna Mater (due in part to the proximity of their festivals and association with Venus Genetrix) was also added to the mixture and worshipped as Venus Caelestis (Heavenly Venus), while a combined aspect of Venus and Fortuna was called Venus Felix (Venus the Lucky). Confused? Don’t feel dumb; I’m sure many Romans were as well. I’ll do my best to explain it in my column for the 23rd, “Vinalia Urbana“.
But in the meantime, so many readers have asked for more nude pictures I figured it was time to grant their requests in observance of the holiday. But since the pictures are pretty explicit, I figured it would be better to hide them away on a sub-page and require you to click through to get to it, so that those averse to such things don’t have to see my pussy. Those who prefer not to go there (and don’t worry, I’m not offended) can click here instead for a fun, cute way to spend a few minutes which doesn’t involve naked women.
Happy Veneralia!
One Year Ago Today
“A Modest Proposal” describes some imaginative ideas for sex laws proposed by legislators in Alaska and Texas.
I was always under the impression that the story of Aphrodite and Adonis derived from the tale of Astarte (or Ishtar) and Tammuz. I suppose the Cybele/Attis story is just another variant of the same tale, but since Adonai is a Semitic title for a patron deity (the original Hebrew Bible uses the same title for Yahweh in some books), it seems likely to me that the Greeks got the story from a Semitic source.
Your kitty is so cute!
I discuss the descent of that myth in “Whore Goddesses”; the Sumerian (Inanna and Damuzi) is the oldest, and the others descend from it by routes that aren’t entirely clear.
Thank you; everyone who’s ever seen her agrees that I have an unusually pretty kitty! 😉
Nice pussy, Maggie. I’m particularly partial to close-up shots 🙂
I think I have been had.
Are you serious? Someone out there “Out Perv’d” me by asking for nudies? WTF??!! I’m slipping!
I’ll bet that Sailor Barsoom was one of them!!
It’s not that I’m not demented … it’s just … well, I always thought the infamous “Red Umbrella” was like the Abbey Road album. It’s so perfect that wtf could you possibly do for a follow on?
Who, me?
Clever April fool story, of course I fell for it. Reminds my of my time at university. English literature, subject Chaucer. The lecturer wants us to read “The Canterbury tales” and continues: “But do not read ‘the millers tale’; that is too graphic and may make sensitive souls in embarrassed.” A week later the lecturer opened with words: “Now that I know that all of you have read the millers tale….”.
Apparently hundreds of people fell for it, which has resulted in my being insufferably pleased with myself today. 😉
Maggie is pleased — as she should be!
Yes, that is a pretty pussy and I still envy the vantage point enjoyed by same in one of your previously posted pictures.
You mean this one?
Your fingernails and the kitten’s eyes match perfectly.
holydamnholydamnholydamn.
YOU are LEGIT!!
And just when I thought the “Red Umbrella” reigned supreme …
This is now my fave pic!
Don’t ever cut your hair!!
Yup!
Lol. I fell for it. But some “whorish media bloggers”–I believe Furry Girl–have posted nude pics before.
Oh, I have, too; as Krulac points out above there’s the red umbrella pic:
Oh my, Maggie… You must be counting up those click-throughs and giggling up a storm, aren’t you? You TEASE!
ROFL! Well good for you! I’m sure it must have been a little sad the day requests for your company slowed down to the point you decided to just retire. It must put an entirely justified grin on your face to be able to point to your site nav stats and say, “Look: despite being formally retired for however many years, there’s STILL #### people who’d like nothing better than to see me naked!”
Then as I stop ruefully shaking my head (“can’t believe I fell for that, considering I knew what day it is”) I consider how you have some particularly nasty detractors, who clearly don’t feel like being irrelevant or inaccurate in putting down your site ought to be beneath them, and would like nothing better than an opportunity to point and say, “just another attention-whore’s self-promoting porno site”.
Given how your real goal is much more along the lines of education and awareness, it makes sense to me that you would not wish to do something to make it any easier on such nitwits. So, it follows that this and any future offers of more tasteful and beautiful nudes of our beloved Courtesan Crusader will never be more than an April Fool’s tease.
Dammit. 🙁
Oh, no, there will be other nudes in the future; I think as long as they’re infrequent and tasteful there’s little chance of any such criticism being taken seriously. 🙂
I thought Cybele was a popular sybil, dedicated to either Apollo or Hecate, depending upon sources used. She is frequently pictured with a drum which was used to induce trance leading to prophetic vision. Or…is this simply another epithet for her?
I think “Cybele” and “Sibyl” are false cognates; they sound alike but are etymologically unrelated.
My classics major HPS pronounces her name “Kai-bay-lay” not “sigh-belle”; but it’s possible that her version is the Romanized/Latinized pronunciation.
I’ll try to dig up links that I’ve found related to Cybele being a Sybil…
That’s how I pronounce it as well. 🙂
Puddles needs to learn how to erase his browsing history when he goes on my computer…