Art Blog/Eric Whollem: ABSTRACT PAINTING/ 'The Mirror of Persephone' by Eric Whollem/ Figurative abstraction/ MYTHOGRAPHIC ART/ The Eleusinian Mysteries/ Persephone and Eros/ THE INITIATE

Sunday, October 10, 2010

ABSTRACT PAINTING/ 'The Mirror of Persephone' by Eric Whollem/ Figurative abstraction/ MYTHOGRAPHIC ART/ The Eleusinian Mysteries/ Persephone and Eros/ THE INITIATE

The Mirror of Persephone

2001

by Eric Whollem

mixed media on paper

Collection of the artist

11" x 8.5"

COPYRIGHT BY THE ARTIST

Persephone and Eros

The Eleusinian Mysteries were one of the principal religious systems
of ancient Greece. Other mystery schools existed, but the rites of
Delphi at Olympus were the most widely revered.

Originally the religious center at Delphi was maintained by the
matriarchal hierarchy. There was a huge serpent that lived on the
site, called the Python. This serpent was slain by the Achaen invaders
who entered Greece, establishing a patriarchal overseership of the
temple complex.

THE DESCENT OF PERSEPHONE

Persephone was the archetypical Initiate to spiritual wisdom. In the
fragments that come down to us from antiquity, there is the legend of
how she in her descent into the Abyssos, met Eros in the form of a flower.
The face in the golden flower in my painting above gives my own artistic
version of the vision of Eros.

In viewing this vision as a physical actuality, Persephone is said to have
failed her initiatory trials.

I depict Persephone as a mermaid, in keeping with the tradtions of the
Greek colonists of Calabria.

_____________

Readers interested in reading more about Persephone's INITIATION should see my posts:

http://artblogericwhollem.blogspot.com/search/label/initiation

My posts on the topic of MERMAIDS can be accessed here:

http://artblogericwhollem.blogspot.com/search/label/mermaids

BELOW IS A
FAUX POSTAGE STAMP
FEATURING MY ART
DEPICTING PERSEPHONE

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE