#Thyiades

[lepetitdragonvert]

The Bacchante

c. 1853

Artist : Jean Léon Gérôme

#jean léon gérôme #bacchante #maenad #classic art #mythologie #mythology #greek mythology #ancient greek #thiasus #bassarids #bacchae #bacchantes #bacchus #dionysus #dionisos #roman mythology #mimallones #klodones #thyiades #potniades #mythological #dionysios #1850s #1853 #supernatural

[aybyc12n4not]

Cory Chase's Slow and Deep Lesbian Scissoring Husky daddy naked movietures and teen boys chubby gay sex xxx Trick chubby wife in micro bikini gets fucked on boat Curvy shemale mistress fucks her slave boy Clit play and pussy opening from ginger Boquete gostoso e depois uma rapidinha Latina soccer teen besties share a big cock outdoor Mom bath hidden Russian brat princess and her male dog slave Luscious young chick Maya Bijou seems to be a slut with such a blowjob

#well-lent #snout #postvertebral #springmaking #gangshag #hero-shiping #unpalliable #loped #stupe #fadingrainbow #Cynodontia #Thyiades #decoupled #well-knit #excusative #cauterization #hybridized #hoarsen #unmenstruating #memorablenesses

[autumncrowcus]

'It cannot be accidental that in Delphi, where Apollo reigned—and gave prophecy—for nine months, leaving his abode to Dionysos for the winter, the thyiads became active exactly when the Pythia was silent. Like the two divine half-brothers who shared the same temple but never met there, the thyiads and the Pythia represent two types of possession—distinct, but nevertheless sharing a common realm, of becoming “engodded.” The Pythia was chosen from the women of the area of Delphi who had much practice in alteration of their consciousness. It is plausible that the performance of certain Delphic matrons as bacchants influenced their choice as candidates for the role of the Pythia.'

-“Apolline and Dionysian Ecstasy at Delphi,” Yulia Ustinova, collected in The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World

#apollo #dionysus #delphi #pythia #thyiads #maenads #history

[bagfzm34j2j9]

Beautiful Pregnant Girl Masturbating Hot TS Hanna swallow Latinos cock and cum Sexy girl nude chatting on cam Must Watch Masturbator vagina Real Pink Pussy A Hypospadia cock pissing for a special nympho friend ExxxtraSmall - Hot Asian Teen Ember Snow Cock Crave Satisfied Voloptuous party chick gets her tight ass fucked deep Concupiscent young asian hottie ends naughty porn play with facial Milf gives foot and handjob and gets spunked over TEKKEN / DEVIL ASUKA DOMINATING DEVIL KAZUYA [SFM]

#thick-thronged #defamous #rhamnitol #Thyiad #wod #Falasha #uncloud #circumnutate #plumpnesses #washiness #fluviology #cranch #error-tainted #scrooped #MDS #isatin #hyposecretion #dismission #pachnolite #obolary

[swordoodles]

Orgiastic dances, nymphs in trances

(We'll be the envy of the gods above)

Click for quality! Join the frenzy!

[ID: a digital drawing of a maenad. the background is pink-ish purple, and has darker purple dots all over it. the maenad can be seen from waist up, with light purple skin and dark purple shoulder-length curly hair. her yellow eyes are open and her dark pupils are slit-shaped like a cat's. she has one arm arm stretched forward in a way we can't see her left hand, and the other arm is folded, her right hand being seen as in front of her body and making a "come here" motion with her index finger. she has long black nails, and the hand and arm are positioned to cover her right breast, the left being visible. her purple nipple is heart-shaped for censoring reasons and she has stretch marks in the same color. the multiple black lines tracing her body are curly and irregular. END ID]

#dionysia #dionysia ta astika #helpol #art #dionysos deity #dionysus deity #dionysian frenzy #maenad #hellenic polythiest #thyiades #nymphai #thyades #maenads #og art

[mtfautoandrophile]

thyiads replied to your post: i think the big problem for me with minecraft is...

i really love mining and giving all my resources away just bc the thrill of mining sustains me

thyiads replied to your post: i think the big problem for me with minecraft is...

and the reason i dont play anymore is bc i habe no one to gi e to

we could never play minecraft together because the more you gave me things the more i’d have to find something radically unexpected and impressive to build something stupidly big out of.

#thyiads

[thegrapeandthefig]

Dionysus, this winter god

(Listen to the audio version)

Having been a hellenic polytheist for several years has completely changed my way of considering the year. Because the Attic calendar's New Year typically falls somewhere in July/August, I naturally consider the first Dionysian event of the year to be the Oschophoria, which I celebrated last month.

I've often seen people be surprised by the statement that Dionysus is a winter god. In turn, their surprise surprises me because I honestly can't imagine it otherwise at this point. Since the season has just started, I thought it would be an ideal moment to explain this a bit further.

Wine season The first logical overlap with the ritual calendar is with the wine cycle. The earliest festival of the year, the Oschophoria, tends to fall around the end of October, thus fitting nicely with the end of the grape harvest and the beginning of the wine making process. And at the end of the cycle, we find the Anthesteria in late February/early March where the new wine is officially opened, mixed and offered. I agree with the theory that City Dionysia placed in spring, and which marks the last festival of the Dionysian year, is meant to be the final act before and coincides with the preparation of the new harvest and the emergence of the vine's first blossoms. the other festivals in between those two steps line up with different steps of the wine-making process.

I do not think it is a coincidence that all the Dionysian festivals fall at a time where the wine is actively being made and/or undergoing the fermentation process. It would make sense to concentrate devotion at this time to guarantee the quality of the new wine.

Dionysus of Delphi When Apollo departs from Delphi for his yearly travel to the Hyperboreans, it is Dionysus who replaces him at the temple.

A small parenthesis, as I feel like this is one of the things that confuse people a lot, so I just want to give some insight about the whole thing before moving on to Dionysus: Delphi was also an astronomical center. There is recent research linking the departure of Apollo and the arrival of Dionysus in Delphi with the yearly movement of the stars as seen from Delphi. If this theory is right, this would explain how the divinatory timing was organized in Delphi. All in all, Apollo being gone is supposed to impact divination and oracle activity, not personal worship.

End of parenthesis, back to Dionysus. In Delphi more than anywhere else, Dionysus not Apollo's contrary. They complement eachother nicely. In Delphi, singing the dithyramb would mark the beginning of winter. On a cultic level, Dionysus' winter presence relates to his birth and reawakening through the biennial rite of the Thyiades. Quite little is known of this celebrations (and the other delphic festivals to Dionysus in general) but we know that once every two years, female worshippers would climb up to the Corycian cave on Mount Parnassus to celebrate the awakening of the Dionysus Liknetes, that is, the child Dionysus asleep in his the liknon (winnowing basket).

All this to say that Dionysus is the winter god par excellence. He thrives during this season and keeps us warm with his many holidays.

Further reading: Anghelina C., The Drunken World of Dionysos, in: Trends in Classics, 2017 Dietrich C. B. , Divine Madness and Conflict at Delphi,in: Kernos, 1992

#dionysus #dionysos #dionysusdeity #dionysus deity #dionysus* #hellenic polytheism #hellenic paganism #hellenic pagan #hellenic religion #hellenismos #hellenic reconstructionism

[quillcalamity]

uhHHHHHHH tbh idk how to describe myself so watch me cope genderless blob, burnout gifted kid (yummy!) family issues, hyperfixates easily, artwhore - makes no sense ever. UhHh i like reading! pretends to have an aesthetic but its literally just mental illness - hoard a lot of shit including wrappers and cans - unholy sleeping hours and caffeine life support (pls help??)

EYUP!! welcome to this abhorred hellsite ( affectionate )

anyways!! I think you'd be a thyiad! they were a troupe of nymphs the followed the train of dionysus! some were dryads, some were naiads! I'll let you pick which one of the two you wanna be! Reason I picked that is because dionysus was the god of the arts ( I've mentioned that previously! ) also I feel like the frenzied nature that these nymphs possess kinda fits! ya know?

Good luck surviving mcytblr! Its just uh a lot here :]

#yas my beloved <3 #asks from the garden #asks game #assigning people nymphs #thank you for letting me info dump :D #even if I asked you to #HDAJKH #THAT IS BESIDES THE POINT #anyways #to my followers #go give my friend a warm welcome :D #spam them with the tapeworms post <3 #welcome to mcytblr #<3

[ofbloodandfaith]

Day 9 of 30 Days of Apollon

Common mistakes about this deity

The most common mistake I think is that Apollon is the personification sun, while in fact he just sometimes moves the sun around by driving the sun chariot.

The personification of the sun is actually Helios.

HELIOS (Helius) was the Titan god of the sun, a guardian of oaths, and the god of sight. He dwelt in a golden palace in the River Okeanos (Oceanus) at the far ends of the earth from which he emerged each dawn, crowned with the aureole of the sun, driving a chariot drawn by four winged steeds. When he reached the the land of the Hesperides in the far West he descended into a golden cup which bore him through the northern streams of Okeanos back to his rising place in the East.

Once his son Phaethon tried to drive the chariot of the sun, but he lost control and set the earth ablaze. Zeus struck the boy down with a thunderbolt.

Helios was depicted as a handsome, usually beardless, man clothed in purple robes and crowned with the shining aureole of the sun. His sun-chariot was drawn by four, sometimes winged, steeds.

Helios was identified with several other gods of fire and light such as Hephaistos (Hephaestus) and light-bringing Phoibos Apollon (Phoebus Apollo).

That within Orphic myths he is a migratory god who gives way for winter gods in Autumn in the same way that Persephone does; fertility dies as Adonis and Hyacinth do and Dionysus takes his place in Delphi (nearly all of Dionysus’ festivals take place in winter while Apollon's are spring and summer). Dionysus may take Persephone's place on earth in winter (while she is in and with Hades lol) as she is the mother of his first carnation Zagreus.

Below are some quotes from https://lykeiaofapollon.wordpress.com/ who in her own words is “a Hellenic polytheist, with a strong Orphic leaning/education”.

The rains of Zeus being more prolific during the winter months when the downpours (or snowfalls in the case of colder regions heh) nourish the earth for germination. It is cool, it is wet, and in warm climates in the mediteranean it is teaming with life in its fairest blush. Thus so deftly Pan blows his syrinx through the land, blowing forth the rain-bearing clouds. Meanwhile Apollon’s period is the bright heat of the ripening season. There are numerous depictions of him with the golden grain, most particularly on coinage whch he is said to bring with him on return from Hyperborea…or perhaps more accurately this represents what his return results in bringing. So on one hand we have the planting and germinating, and then on the other we have the season cultivation, ripening and harvest. Pan here thus representing the seasonal opposite to Apollon.

I would then hazard to guess that that the relationship between Dionysos and Apollon at Delphi has some root with these interconnections. Certainly in Arcadia, who have rich traditions of being the birthplace of Zeus (though doutblessly they are not the only ones), the deception of Cronos and the approach of the Kuretes, the fact that images of him as a youth are almost an exact mirror to Dionysos is fascinating. Zeus too has a thyrsus, just his is crowned with an eagle, and his costume is fairly different in leathers and tunic, but he too wears the vines. Thus I would suggest that the division of Delphi between Dionysos and Apollon works on a symbolic level, particularly if Proclus is correct in saying that Dionysos is in a manner contained in Zeus. Apollon is not an inheritor of Zeus, but rather he sits on his own throne near his father’s side.

Therefore the honoring of Apollon Karneios, regardless of his horned imagery, is very much the honoring of the wolf god Apollon, as he is giving honor for preserving the herds even as he perserves the crops from famine and storms, and is so honored with sacrifices of goats and sheep.Therefore as the god of the approaching autumn he is very much the howling wolfish god as August storms threaten to roll in with gusting winds. In my mind, as I don’t put much emphasis on later solar cult associations, I consider Apollon’s Hyperboreia retreat in the autumn and through the spring, during the stormy season, as being an unleashing of his own tempest. Apollon is not a god who seasonal dies but one who brings around the seasons himself. I have stated before that in my locality I don’t see Apollon as departing but rather released from his civilized duties back to the wilderness, running as a wolf with ravens flocking around him. 

He is the one who slays the seasonal dying god, the bull Dionysos, as the Thyiades of his own Delphi rave and tear the bull as Apollon, the wolf god (as he was so represented at Delphi) is the sacrifice of the bull. His are the winds unleashed destroying ever vine and shriveling every greenery by their blasts. The Dioskoui, wind gods in their own right, so hail him their king! For this purpose too he has been identified in some cases with Iakkhos, the boy of the winds.

Apollon’s domain in which he is associated in general to the rearing of the young to maturity (after which comes the slaughter and harvest as we see during his summer festivals) is intrinsic to his nature and is very much inseparable from his relationship with Dionysos. He is at once the god who is protector/rear and slayer of Dionysos while at the same time being the son of Persephone (or Demeter) and Dionysos. He is bound to Dionysos. Just as Dionysos tends to be linked to the passage of the sun through the heavens, Apollon is the passage of the heavens through time…he directs the movement of the heavens and all bodies within the heavens (including the son). That Apollon was later confused with the sun I think confused matters considerably, but I think just as Dionysos is symbolically related to the sun, so is Apollon’s relation to it on a symbolic level.  Anciently it was said that Dionysos is the sun at night and Apollon is the sun at day. This seems to just be a figurative way of showing that Apollon is the illuminator of the mysteries (which the sun is present in the heavens! that is the important key point), while Dionysos is the mysteries.

Other misconceptions can be found here: 

 https://lykeiaofapollon.wordpress.com/misconceptions-of-apollon/

#30 days of Apollon #dodekatheism #hellenic polytheism #hellenismos #hellenic pagan #for the love of apollo #for the love of the dodekatheon #ares is great #Hail King Zeus and Queen Hera #hermes is my god #Hades is great too #Hestia is a sweetheart #30 days of deity devotion #30 days of devotion

[apollon-quotes]

The heights of Parnassus are above the clouds, and the Thyiad women [maenads] rave there in honor of Dionysus and Apollo

– Pausanias, Description of Ancient Greece

#apollo #apollon #greek gods #greek mythology #hellenism #hellenismos #dodekatheism #theoi #dionysus #maenads #pausanias

[mythodico]

(les) Ménades ou Bacchantes

description: nourrices de Dionysos, femmes qui suivirent le dieu pendant sa marche triomphale de Lydie jusqu'en Grèce, portent le nom de Thyiades quand elles forment le cortège rituel du dieu de la vigne et du vin lors des fêtes dionysiaques.

attributs: couronnées de feuilles de lierre tenant à la main le thyrse (bâton terminé par une pomme de pin) et portant la nébride (vêtement en peau de bête)

sources: III (Diodore de Sicile), Les bacchantes (Euripide), Dionysiaques (Nonnos)

#Ménades #mythologie grecque #Bacchantes #mythologie romaine

[autumncrowcus]

'The nature of the thyiad’s [local Delphic word for maenad's] experience is encapsulated in the line by Timotheus of Miletus, active in the late fifth–early fourth century: “Frantic dancer, inspired by Phoebus, mad woman, raging rabidly” (thuiada phoibada mainada lussada, fr. 2b PML). Every word in Timotheus’ description is meaningful. Unsurprisingly, the thyiad is defined as a maenad. Likening the thyiad to lussas, a person in a state of violent frenzy, immediately brings to mind lussa, “wolfish rage”. This word occurs in Homeric descriptions of berserk warriors and in later references to combat frenzy (Ustinova 2018: 217–19). A goddess driving mortals into hideous madness, portrayed with canine heads emerging above her head and named Lyssa, appeared in the Athenian theatre more than once (Duchemin 1967; Kossatz-Deissmann 1992). In Aeschylus’ Xantriae, Dionysos seizes Lyssa and makes her join the bacchants, suffering the paroxysms of madness herself: “From the feet upwards, I am torn apart to the top of my head; a spur in my tongue, I say scorpion’s sting” (fr. 169 TGF). The goddess of bestial rage, who is torn into pieces from within, is juxtaposed with human bacchants and their sensation of being consumed by the frenzy instilled by Dionysos. The thyiad, in association with lussas, is therefore described as not only possessed and frantic, but rabid, ferocious and dangerous.

'Even more significant is the explication of the term thyiad as “inspired by Phoebus,” that is, Apollo. This is one of the crucial clues to the understanding of the profound connection between Apollo and Dionysos in Delphi, which appears to reflect the awareness of proximity, even merging, of the experiences of the main votaries of the two cults and their cultic behavior. Timotheus, as well as his contemporaries, probably discerned that the maniai of the Pythia and of the local maenads were related.'

-“Apolline and Dionysian Ecstasy at Delphi,” Yulia Ustinova, collected in The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World

#dionysus #apollo #delphi #maenads #thyiads #history

[disbander-of-armies]

Women in Ancient Greek Religion

In 480 BCE the Athenians had every reason to be very afraid. The Persian king Xerxes was marching into Greece with a giant army to destroy every city not willing to surrender to him. And Athens was one of the few city states that chose to defy him. How could the Athenians and their allies ever defeat the Persian army? In search for an answer, they asked the god Apollon for help. And his priestess, the Pythia of Delphi, gave them this answer:

“Though all else shall be taken, Zeus, the all seeing, grants that the wooden wall only shall not fail”

This was a very cryptic answer indeed. Some said that they should all stay within the city walls, as the “wooden walls” referred to the ramparts of the Acropolis, according to them. Others said that the “wooden walls” were meant to be ships and that they would defeat the Persians in a sea battle. 

The priestess of Athena Polias, gave them the answer. Athena’s holy snake hadn’t eaten its honey cake. This was a clear sign: The goddess had already left the city. The Athenians all left as well and prepared to battle the Persians at sea. And they won a glorious victory.

Women in ancient Greece, save for a few exceptions, didn’t have a lot of rights. In Athens, for example, women weren’t allowed to vote, represent themselves in court or move around freely. And yet two women greatly influenced one of the most important events in all of Greek history. This was because of one very important part of ancient Greek life women weren’t excluded from: Religion.

Religion was everywhere in ancient Greece. So much so, that the ancient Greeks didn’t even have a word for “religion”. It was so intertwined with every part of their lives that didn’t see it as a separate sphere. And women were very important.

I’ve already mentioned the priestess of Apollon at Delphi and the priestess of Athena Polias. But these weren’t the only ones. Women had important roles in everday religious life: Girls would lead processions to a sacrifice, priestesses would pour libations and sing hymns.

Women also had their own festivals. One of most famous is the Thesmophoria . Every year in the month of Pyanepsion (late fall) women would gather to honor Demeter and Persephone. They would celebrate for three days, including baking cakes that resemble genitalia and engaging in sexual banter. At Thebes, the men were even forced to hold a senate session in the marketplace because the women were celebrating the Thesmophoria in the Cadmeia (the citadel) where they usually met.

Women known as Thyiades would dance for Dionysos at the slopes of Mount Parnassos. Pausanias tells a story of one time when some of the Thyiades, still in trance, fell asleep in marketplace at Amphissa. Local women, of fear that the men would mistreat them, formed a circle and kept a vigil all through the night.

In Hellenistic Greece, priestesses and religious benefactors would be given extraordinary honors like front seats in the theater. They were revered by the people in life and in death, like Berenike of Syros who was granted a gold crown and a public proclamation at her funeral.

Women in ancient Greece were forced to live in the shadows for most of the time. But their gods gave them an opportunity to step into the light.

(Most of the facts and stories mentioned are from Joan Breton Connelly’s book Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece)

#greek religion #greek gods #hellenic polytheism #about greek religion #apollo

[nelkitty]

Re: Pentheus and Self-Acceptance

This is going on Tumblr because everything goes on Tumblr and I don't know which of my friends have even read The Bacchae SO I think the common belief is that Pentheus is doomed when he decides to move against the Maenads, or even when he shuts the gates against Dionysus...? But I think it's much later than that, right before he heads out, when Dionysus asks him, "And if thou prove their madness true, aye, more than true, what love and thanks hast thou for me?" Pentheus ignores him. Dionysus further comments on how Pentheus' heart has changed, having experienced the touch of bacchic madness, and Pentheus scorns him by talking about how he'll use this strength to capture the Maenads and lock them up. I think that's when Dionysus condemns him. Every line between them thereafter is Dionysus goading him, building him up and learning his plan. I don't think it's Pentheus' hate for the Maenads that is the damning part of the exchange, either. In bacchic terms, madness is almost synonymous with freedom. There's a scene a prior to this one where Dionysus seemingly enchants Pentheus- Pentheus has a conversation with him where he expresses surprise and a seeming lack of control over his words, as Dionysus suggests that Pentheus dress up as a woman and see for himself. Pentheus surprises himself by agreeing to the plan, and later, when he's dressed up in disguise, he's described as being enthusiastic with a touch of the madness. If you go with the meaning of that madness, he's high on the freedom that Dionysus has coaxed from him. I think that's where he ultimately falls. Dionysus is good, and patient, and relatively polite (for a scorned god) and even shows Pentheus his influence in a gentle way, and Pentheus is determined still to lock up the Maenads and drive Dionysus from his lands. He totally ignores Dionysus' suggestions that maybe he could feel differently. It sounds to me like those stories of far-right conservatives who'll dress up in drag or sleep with trans folk or engage in cottaging to get their rocks off, and then immediately turn around to condemn the people they've used, the people they secretly admire, covet, the people they wish they could be. Violent self-denial and projected self-hatred. Dionysus shows Pentheus kindness and acceptance, teasing his desires from him, even fixing up the very outfit he's wearing to supposedly trap the Maenads. He tells Pentheus he looks like his beautiful mother and aunts, instructs him on how to wear it well, and asks him one more time (now that Pentheus is experiencing that 'god given' madness/freedom) if he is still determined to attack his flock. Pentheus takes this acceptance, and throws it back in his face. No wonder Dionysus has him torn apart. Side note: I hold this same theory for why the maenads and the thyiades experience the ecstatic trances differently. It's plainly stated that the maenads ("mad women") denied his influence, and so were overwhelmed by him, driven wild. The thyiades, however, were calmer. They came to him themselves and accepted him. Aggressively denying who you are will hurt you, and drive you to hurt others. Acceptance will bring peace. Another side note: I go with 'maenad' for this reason. I was my most sick with mental illness when I fought it every step of the way, instead of learning to work with it. Likewise for various other aspects of my being. SOMEONE PLEASE TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS I WANT INPUT.

#Dionysus #Dionysos #Maenad #Bacchus #Euripides #The Bacchae #Queering #Mine #Me

[thegrapeandthefig]

The gradual demise of maenadism began in the Hellenistic period and was apparently complete by the third century A.D. Poetic descriptions of maenads and their rites continued to be written by skillful poets like Nemesianus and Nonnos, but no author later than Pausanias shows any knowledge of real maenads. The silence of the stones and the absence of full-fledged maenads from scenes of Dionysiac initiations in Italian art of the late Republic and early Empire confirm this impression. Once the ritual mountain setting and the organization of maenads into local troops under the leadership of a chief maenad were abandoned, maenadism degenerated into Dionysiac carnival and merrymaking. There existed an early trend to separate the maenad from her inherited ritual function and to turn her into a human symbol of the Bacchic mood, comparable to the satyr, Silenus, and Pan, to the vine and ivy, and to the grape cluster or the mask which were similarly used as interchangeable decorations in Dionysiac art and in Bacchic cult. Nothing illustrates the sorry state of maenadism in the second century A.D better than two inscriptions set up by private Dionysiac clubs which had both men and women as members. The first inscription comes from Physkos in Lokris and records the cult law of a thiasus whose male members are called "herdsmen" (βουκολοι) and the female members "maenads." [...] The ορειβασια of ritual maenadism had become a routine mountain picnic for men and women, and participation was apparently so irregular that it had to be made compulsory under pain of penalty. The women of Physkos were maenads in name only. But at about the same time some thirty miles east of Physkos the Thyiads of Delphi had not yet abandoned their old maenadic ritual. The regional pattern of Greek cult tolerated the coexistence of old and new forms of Dionysiac worship in close proximity.

- Αlbert Henrichs, Greek Maenadism from Olympias to Messalina, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 82 (1978), pp. 121-160

#yes i know this an old article #we just don't have a lot of literature on the topic okay #well #there is still Jaccottet but she doesn't disprove any of this

[calpep]

The map of your heart is written on your hands over wrist, and downy arms They are marvelous, veinous, translucent led by carmine-tipped fingers, warm stilettos that carve out my heart at night, and fill it again in the morning You bear patinas of gold dust and henna, like the queens of old whose bodies bore kingdoms, diosa, cradle me in your arms Precious earths are ground into words, symbols, scents, and curls, gentle ochres spelling love and beauty On you is cast a spell that constrains the searing heat of iron and blood; like the earth, fertile, potent, eternal Your heart is guarded by features i cannot conquer, or climb, suprasternal notch, gaps, articulations Like the days of the great gods they are insurmountable altars of sublime flesh suckled on blood and honey Sacred, devoted, mystical, on whose pyres were burned amber, myrhh, and sandalwood, thyiades Rapturous skin, the living canvas for palettes of pleasure, loyalty, order, on you i read an exquisite tapestry of pain and longing Filligree and arabesque cry out love and happiness, but their power soon fades with time, incantations lose their spell And love itself is but a shadow of a smile represented by a disappearing line (at Charlottesville DowntownMall)