Do I Exist In Your Mouth? And In Your Hands When You Rest Your Head In Them?

Saturn Behind the Moon : What’s that next to the Moon? Saturn. In its monthly trip around the Earth – and hence Earth’s sky – our Moon passed nearly in front of Sun-orbiting Saturn earlier this week. Actually the Moon passed directly in front of Saturn from the viewpoints of a wide swath of Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. The featured image from Sydney, Australia captured the pair a few minutes before the eclipse. The image was a single shot lasting only 1/500th of a second, later processed to better highlight both the Moon and Saturn. Since Saturn is nearly opposite the Sun, it can be seen nearly the entire night, starting at sunset, toward the south and east. The gibbous Moon was also nearly opposite the Sun, and so also visible nearly the entire night – it will be full tomorrow night. The Moon will occult Saturn again during every lap it makes around the Earth this year. via NASA

“There comes a moment in everyone’s life where they do the most awful thing they have ever done, and ever will do. And I hope with all my heart that moment has already passed for me, because I have done terrible things, and it scares me to think of what could be worse.”

Temple of Nemesis

Rhamnous, Attica, Greek

5th century BCE

Peripteral Doric

The sanctuary of Nemesis lies on the road between Rhamnous and Marathon, around 630m south of the later city. Two temples to Nemesis and Themis can be seen at the site situated very close together.

Nemesis, also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia (“the goddess of Rhamnous”, her most important in ancient Greece), is the goddess who enacts retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods) 

Construction of the temple to Nemesis began around 460-450 BCE and continued until 430–420. It was built as a Doric peripteral temple during the reign of Pericles when the Parthenon was built in Athens, and on a platform with a massive polygonal terrace wall. It is believed that it was designed by the architect Callicrates who designed the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, the Poseidon Temple at Cape Sounion and the Ares temple in Acharnes.

The euthynteria and lowest level of the crepidoma were made from local dark marble, while the rest was constructed of white marble.

The Peloponnesian War must have interrupted the completion from 431 BCE and carving of the column flutes was not done and the stylobate blocks were left unfinished, retaining the protective excess marble on their easily damaged corners and upper surfaces. There were no pedimental sculptures, nor were the metopes decorated with sculpture. The roof was decorated with sculptural acroteria, however.

Unfinished fluting and carving on the 5th century BCE temple.

At some point after the original construction, the Temple of Nemesis was severely damaged at its eastern end and the upper courses were subsequently repaired with new blocks. The damage to this and other temples in the region and the destruction of monuments in Athens is thought to be caused by the armies of Philip V of Macedon during his raids in 200 BCE. The blocks which were used to repair the Temple of Nemesis are distinct from the original blocks and the tooling is quite different which suggests that the repairs were made in the Roman period, when interest in the old Classical temples was renewed. The central block of the architrave on the east end of the temple bears an inscription of rededication to the goddess Livia by the Demos, which may be associated with the repairs. This reconstruction must have been costly since it involved replacing the east end, which required making duplicate blocks for the frieze, geison, perhaps the tympanon, the raking geison, the akroteria, and perhaps part of the sima, rooftiles, and ceiling coffers. Unlike other temples in Attica which had fallen into disrepair, the Temple of Nemesis was not stripped of useful parts or removed whole to Athens. Instead, it was restored with pride as an important local monument.

Statue of Nemesis

The cella of the large temple housed the cult figure of Nemesis, sculpted by Agorakritos, a pupil of Phidias, from the block of Parian marble alleged to have been brought by the overconfident Persians for their triumphal stele. This famous statue of the goddess stood within the cella of the temple and was around 4m high. The Roman historian and connoisseur Varro rated it the finest example of Greek sculpture.

The badly damaged remains of an over life-size marble head from a cult statue of Nemesis, with perforations for attaching a gold crown, was discovered by the British architect John Gandy in the early nineteenth century and is now part of the British Museum’s collection. This has a stylistic similarity to the pediment sculptures of the Parthenon of 440-432 BCE.

Many parts of the original statue have been recovered and reconstructed from the hundreds of fragments found scattered about after the destruction of the cult image by early Christians, and this allowed the identification of a total of eleven Roman copies on a smaller scale. The base of the statue, approximately 90 cm high and 240 cm wide, has also been reconstructed; on three sides of the base, the nearly-in-the-round scene shows the presentation of Helen to her mother Nemesis by Leda.

Erechtheion and Propylaea, Acropolis, Athens 🏛✨ @warmhealer

Do you ever wonder about how an author would describe you in a novel? Not only your appearance but the way you talk and laugh and hold yourself and all the expressions on your face?

revisiting some of my old sketches and book notes inspired by leonardo da vinci.

“Nebulose diffuse, semplici, stellate. cometa. pianeti. anelli.” (to accompany) Atlante di geografia universale. 1842.

David Rumsey

take a deep breath and remember: you are loved and precious and unique, no one is capable of thinking the way you do or seeing the world through your eyes. you are unlike anyone else.

“Let your black hair, let your black hair / get in my way always.”

— Alex Dimitrov, from “Always,” Together and By Ourselves (via lifeinpoetry)