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Author Topic: What deity is this - a river god?  (Read 1192 times)

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Offline Sosius

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What deity is this - a river god?
« on: September 10, 2014, 06:44:04 pm »
This is not ancient--it's a modern iron cast.  Does anyone know which deity or river god it portrays?  I see reeds in his hair, and ivy behind, but I can't figure which (if any) deity it represents.
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Offline Molinari

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2014, 07:04:59 pm »
Where does the piece originate?  That's basically essential to determining the identity of the river god.

Offline Sosius

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2014, 07:12:22 pm »
Possibly France.  It was at an auction house, but it weighs about 600 pounds, so there's no way I could pay the freight!  However, I was still curious about who it might represent.  After doing a bit more Googling, it does look a bit like La Seine:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/57230570
Sosius

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Offline *Alex

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2014, 08:02:30 pm »

Molinari is right. River gods tend to be generic and you would need more information to connect him to a particular river. For example one of my 18th century tokens (below) depicts a river god, but the river in question is only identifiable by the word "Clyde" on the urn from which the water is flowing.

Alex.


Offline JBF

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #4 on: September 10, 2014, 11:51:04 pm »
Ivy is an aspect of Dionysus, (as well as grapes of course).
I don't know what god reeds signify.

Offline Sosius

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2014, 11:58:05 pm »
Thanks, all.
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Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2014, 04:47:18 pm »
Most likely a medival carving, in which case it's a traditional type of image which wouldn't have any divine name attached to it.
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Offline JBF

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2014, 08:34:46 pm »
It is a little off-topic, but a good story so I will include here.

At the coffeehouse I hang out at, there used to be a girl whose last name is (something like) Twiddle.
Turns out an ancestor was named after a river (in Scotland?).  A knight went off to the crusades
and came home several years later to find that his wife had had a child.  Before he could say anything,
she came out and said, 'oh husband, do not blame me, i bathed in the river and this is what happened.'
The child was named after the river, and his ancestors are still alive to tell the story today.

Can you imagine being the knight, and coming home, I mean either you can make an issue about it,
or you could just accept the story and go on from there.

Offline SC

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2014, 09:24:58 am »
An excuse as old as time.  Iphimedeia claimed to have become pregnant by Poseidon by sitting at the seashore and scooping waves into her lap.

So absent husbands should ban bathing in the river and trips to the seashore.

Shawn
SC
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Offline JBF

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2014, 01:03:24 am »
Wasn't queen Isabella of Spain said to have three baths in her lifetime?
One when she was born.
One when she was married.
and One when she died.
yuch!

Offline Jochen

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #10 on: September 16, 2014, 04:13:28 am »
And it is said that she has never shifted her underwear. Over the years
it got a yellowish colour which now is called Isabelline.

Jochen

Offline dafnis

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Re: What deity is this - a river god?
« Reply #11 on: September 16, 2014, 05:50:29 am »
If you understand and/or can follow Spanish, the Spanish public TV has been airing since a couple of years ago a great series about her extremely interesting life.
http://www.rtve.es/television/isabel-la-catolica/capitulos-completos/
(For Britons, Sky showed in its Sky Arts 1 or 2 channel at least season 1 with English subtitles a few months back).

 

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