Baubo and the Dancers

Often compared to Sheela Na Gig, Baubo has a long and complex history. She was first mentioned by Christian writers around 200 CE. She appears in the story of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, who I happened to paint yesterday. Original painting of Demeter, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

Homer wrote that Iambe cheered Demeter by jesting, helping Demeter to rouse herself from depression after her daugher Persephone was taken. Because of Iambe, Demeter found the strength to fight to retrieve Persephone from the Underworld. Thanks, Iambe, you prevented eternal winter. As a result, the internet reports that iambic verse was named after Iambe.

The Christian writers, however, gave the role of cheering Demeter to a woman named Baubo, who, instead of using her wit and jokes, exposed her hilarious 'shameful parts'.

Later, Goethe included a lewd witch named Baubo, riding a sow to Walpurgis Night, in Faust. Subsequently, statuettes of women riding pigs and/or exposing their genitals were labeled Baubo.

Then, in 1898, a group of German archaeologists working in the 5th century BCE Demeter sanctuary at Priene unearthed a distinctive set of figurines. "The head of each of these female figurines is placed directly onto her legs, and lacking a torso, the chin and vagina [I think they mean vulva] merge into one another. The archaeologists identified this 'grotesque-obscene' aspect with Baubo, and the statuettes became known as Baubo figurines.

This disseration about Baubo was enlightening.

I wanted to paint Baubo, but I feel like she is somewhat misunderstood, and I wanted to understand her before attemping a painting. While the Christian and German men who wrote her history characterized her as an obscene witch, art historian Winifred Milius Lubell has another hypothesis for Baubo. From an article on bust.com "She thinks Baubo was another aspect of 'extremely ancient...agricultural rituals of fecundity,' in which chosen women 'squatted over the newly plowed fields' and allowed their menstrual blood to drip into the earth to increase its fertility. You might say that Baubo spoke truth to power, the servant's pussy flash reminding the grain goddess of her responsibility over the harvest and thus as a life-giving force to humanity. Without Baubo's timely reminder of the vulva's regenerative power, human civilization would have ended."

It has also been suggested that Baubo may have some relation to the Blemmyes, ancient rumored headless inhabitants of ancient Libya or the Nile system.

What we do know is that these figurines were found in a temple to Demeter, an agriculture goddess. So, I thought that perhaps she should be dancing in a field with her divine female friends. Are you into mysteries of the divine feminine? Would you like to own Baubo on a coffee mug or other merch? You can! On Redbubble and Fine Art America.

Comments

Asherah

An inscription from Khirbet El-Qôm (near Jerusalem) dated to the 700s BCE and translated by archaeologist Judith Hadley reads, "Uriyahu the Rich wrote it. Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh for from his enemies by his Asherah he has saved him by Oniyahu by his Asherah and by his A[she]rah.” ( Source ) Asherah was the Great Goddess of the Ancient Near East. From this inscription and other evidence, it is surmised that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, once had a wife - Asherah. Asherah was also sometimes known as Astarte and was associated with lions and the planet Venus, like her relative, Ishtar/Inanna. Asherah's symbol was the tree of life, and her worship involved sacred groves and asherah poles. Asherah original painting available through Saatchi Art . Stickers, prints, and other merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America. All of the Asherahs in my painting are based on figurines housed in the Isra...

Sheela Na Gig and the Power of the Vagina

The Guardian published a piece on Sheela Na Gigs for International Women's Day on Monday. Here's a link. A few weeks ago, I painted two Sheelas. Found on churches throughout the British Isles and Europe, Sheela Na Gigs are "figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva." There are over 100 documented examples just in Ireland. The carvings may be remnants of a pre-Christian mother goddess. They may also have been thought to ward off evil spirits. They're often found over doors or windows, and they're generally smiling. The two I have painted are from the Church of St. Mary and St. David at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England and the Parish Church of Oaksey, Wiltshire. While I was researching the Sheelas I came across other related stories of, as the Guardian so deftly put it, "big vagina energy". The power of women (especially the nude form) to create life, protect it, or - conversely - take it away. My favorit...

Jowangsin

Jowangsin is a Korean Goddess of fire and the hearth. An offering to Jowangsin in the form of a bowl of fresh water would be placed on an altar above the hearth. Jowangsin had rules for the kitchen. Do not curse while in the hearth. Do not sit on the hearth. Do not place your feet on the hearth. Maintain the cleanliness of the kitchen. You may worship other deities in the kitchen. ( source ) Throw your muddy shoes inside or put them on the hearth, and you will experience her vengeance. She was believed to keep track of household activities and communicate with the heavens. Jowangsin helping with the cooking in a traditional Korean kitchen, circa 1950. Original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or via Fine Art America or Saatchi Art . Left: Women in a kitchen in Korea in 1950. Right: An example of a traditional kitchen in hanok (traditional Korean-style homes) during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). [National Archives of Korea, N...

Bucranium = Uterus

A bucranium is a bull's head and horns. Bucrania have been found in shrines at Catalhoyuk, one the oldest cities ever to be excavated. Dorothy Cameron interpreted the bucrania at Catalhoyuk as a "symbol of life and regeneration--essentially a female symbol, representing the divine power of the female reproductive system." Bucranium = Uterus original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . Layout of bucrania based on a drawing of a reconstruction of Shrine E VI at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in a 2007 article by Joan Relke (below). Source Marija Gimbutas writes, "the key to understanding Neolithic renditions of the bull's head and horns (bucranium in archaeological literature) comes through their resemblance to the female uterus and fallopian tubes." Besides the bucrania from Shine E VI, other images at Catalhoyuk show female torsos with bucranium in the position of the uterus an...

Coatlicue

Coatlicue is the Aztec mother of the gods, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Her name means snake skirt, because that is her awesome fashion statement. At one point, she lost her head...but it was okay because two snakes grew in its place. To match her serpentine skirt, she wears a skull pendant, surrounded by human hands and hearts. As a befitting a mother goddess, her breasts are no longer high and perky. She has nursed the universe, and so her breasts are relaxed, having done their work well. Coatlicue is available on prints, stickers, and other merch from RedBubble . Fun fact: The most famous statue of Coatlicue, on which my painting is based, resides in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City... but the the first time it was uncovered by archaeologists, in 1790, they reburied it because it was too terrifying. Source, World History Encyclopedia . Another fun fact: On a mythology subreddit I subscribe to today, a man as...

The First Known Artists were Women

In 2013, Dean Snow of the University of Pennsylvania published research on sexual dimorphism of hand prints present in Upper Paleolithic cave art. His analysis showed that the overwhelming majority of hand prints present in the European cave art analyzed belonged to women ( source ). Marija Gimbutas and others write that in Old European religion caves represented the womb of the earth Goddess. Women, in the womb of the Earth Mother, creating artwork at the dawn of time. The Creator creating creators, matrilineally. The Creator original painting. Blogger Art Chester writes, "There is also an indirect argument based upon observations of modern primates. Blogger Greg Laden, who studied with Prof. Snow at Penn State, states that when you study chimpanzees, you find that the males are virtually technophobes: 'Virtually all chimp technology is used by females, invented by females, passed from female to female, and so on. Males don’t seem ...

Echoing Multiverse

Search This Blog