panthere

Ariane et Dionysos

28 Février 2025 , Rédigé par Le Pierre-Olivier Combelles et Le Fil d'Ariane Publié dans #Ariane, #Dionysos, #Antiquité, #Grèce, #Thésée, #Léopard, #Panthère, #Durga, #Hindouisme

Thésée et le Minotaure. Maître des Cassoni Campana, entre 1500 et 1525 (Collection du Musée du Petit Palais, Paris)

Détail: Ayant déroulé le fil d'Ariane, Thésée a pénétré dans le Labyrinthe et réussit à tuer le Minotaure.

Les héros sont les fruits des circonstances. Il n'y a pas de monstres sans héros ni de héros sans monstres.

Nécessairement, notre époque hantée de monstres et de démons engendrera aussi ses héros

et les siècles futurs chanteront leur gloire.

Ainsi le veulent les dieux, qui entendent les prières des hommes.

Pierre-Olivier Combelles, août 2020

https://pocombelles.over-blog.com/2020/08/thesee-et-le-minotaure.html

"La National Gallery de Londres abrite l'une des plus grandes œuvres de Titien. Il s'agit d'une peinture à l'huile intitulée « Bacchus et Ariane », réalisée vers 1522 pour Alphonse Ier d'Este, duc de Ferrare. La plupart des historiens de l'art qualifieraient ce thème de mythologique. Il dépeint le moment où Bacchus retrouve Ariane sur l'île de Naxos. Thésée l'a abandonnée ici et son navire disparaît au loin. Captivé par sa beauté, Bacchus saute de son char. Ariane fait face à la constellation Corona Borealis, dans le coin supérieur gauche. Il s'agit apparemment de la seule référence astronomique de cette peinture.

Cependant, comme beaucoup d'œuvres d'art de la Renaissance, « Bacchus et Ariane » est chargé d'un symbolisme astronomique caché. Il représente clairement les constellations du ciel nocturne occidental."

(...)

Sur la Vierge en tant qu' Ariane

"Le nom Ariane n'est en fait qu'une épithète signifiant « très sainte » ou « très pure ». La racine est le mot égéen « hagno/hadno » qui signifie « saint, pur ». Le mot « égéen » a la même signification. Ariane était la fille de Minos, roi de Crète. Les Romains l'ont identifiée comme Libera/Proserpina - épouse de Bacchus. Dans la mythologie romaine, le Grec Dyonisus portait deux noms : Bacchus et Liber. Le nom Liber se rapportait à l'automne, lorsque l'équinoxe se trouvait dans la constellation de la Balance, à côté de la Vierge.

Mais « Ariane » est un nom qui provient d'un culte local, égéen, de Crète et de Chypre. Plutarque a cité les travaux d'un auteur hellénique plus ancien, qui mentionnait l'ancien culte d'Ariane/Aphrodite à Chypre. Elle y possédait un bosquet sacré et, lors d'une certaine fête, les hommes tombaient par terre, imitant les affres de l'accouchement. Selon leurs croyances, Ariane mourrait pendant l'accouchement.

Tous ces faits indiquent clairement que l'Ariane de la mythologie grecque n'était qu'un culte local de la Vierge - en tant que déesse mère. Ce fait n'a pas échappé à Titien, qui a fondé ses œuvres sur les récits de Catulle et d'Ovide."

Source et suite:

https://cogniarchae.com/2020/04/24/on-astronomy-behind-titians-bacchus-and-ariadne-the-myths-meaning-and-origins/

Johann Heinrich Dannecker, Ariane sur la panthère (1810–1814), marbre, Francfort-sur-le-Main, Liebieghaus. Source: Wikipedia https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_(mythologie)#/media/Fichier:Liebieghaus-2014-Ariadne-auf-dem-Panther-Ffm-410.jpg

Initialement, Ariane était l'épouse de Dionysos, son « double féminin ». Hésiode dans la Théogonie la présente comme telle. Il affirme qu'Ariane fut transportée au ciel, Zeus l'ayant rendue immortelle afin de complaire à Dionysos, qu'elle avait épousé : « Dionysos aux cheveux d'or pour florissante épouse prit la blonde Ariane, la fille de Minos, que le fils de Cronos a soustraite à jamais à la mort et à la vieillesse ».

Ce don d'immortalité, présenté ici comme une récompense envers Dionysos, le fils bien-aimé de Zeus, rappelle, selon Louis Séchan et Pierre Lévêque, qu'à l'origine Ariane était une déesse égéenne de la végétation, et comme telle, soumise comme la végétation, à une mort suivie de résurrection. L'union d'Ariane et de Dionysos prouve également que dans le mythe primitif, ils représentaient tous deux des divinités de la végétation arborescente, et que l'épisode des amours d'Ariane et de Thésée a été surajouté tardivement.

Pour Jean Haudry, il n'y a aucune raison de voir en Ariane une ancienne déesse de la végétation. Le mythe s'explique par la survivance de Dionysos, ancien « Feu divin » : le Feu est un dieu jaloux qui contraint ses épouses à la chasteté. Leur infidélité est punie de mort comme il semble ressortir de la légende d'Ariane tuée par Artémis. Pour cette raison, Thésée ne fait que restituer Ariane à Dionysos, de la même façon que lors des Anthestéries qui commémorent le mariage de Dionysos et d'Ariane, la femme de l'archonte-roi est restituée au prêtre qui représente Dionysos. L'épouse du roi représente le foyer royal et en tant que telle appartient en premier lieu au Feu divin.

Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_(mythologie)#%C3%89tymologie

Relief d'une tombe sur la Voie Appienne : Scène du mythe de Dionysos et d'Ariane. Le cortège est mené par des ménades et des satyres jouant et dansant, Dionysos et Ariane sont à gauche dans un char tiré par des panthères. – Marbre, 110-130 après J.C., de Rome. Altes Museum (Berlin)

Peinture murale sikh représentant Durga (un aspect principal de la déesse suprême Mahadevi) écrasant Mahikasur de l'Akhara Guru Ram Rai Udasin situé à Dehradun

Le chemin de la forêt de Kenneth Anderson

26 Février 2025 , Rédigé par Pierre-Olivier Combelles Publié dans #Kenneth Anderson, #Inde, #Nature, #Léopard, #Panthère

Here in the jungle you will find truth, you will find peace, bliss and happiness; you will find life itself. There is no room, no time at all, for hypocrisy, for make-believe, for that which is artificial and false. You are face to face with the primitive, with that which is real, with that which is most wonderful—which is God.

Kenneth Anderson

Kenneth Anderson (1910-1974) and his pariah dog Nipper, whom he adopted during his hunt for the Leopard of Gummalapur

(...)

As I record these adventures, the sights and sounds of the present fade way and memories come rushing in. The blackness of the forest night with the star-filled sky above and the twinkling gems of the jungle carpet below, the myriads of fireflies that glitter together like elfin lamps amidst the dark foliage; and those other, brighter, living lights, the glowing eyes of a tiger, panther or bison, and the green eyes of graceful deer tripping daintily through the undergrowth, reflecting the beams of my torch as I walk beneath the whispering trees.

Come with me for the few hours it may take you to read this book into the domain of the tiger, the panther and the elephant, amidst the stupendous swaying heights and deep shade of the giant trees whose boles form the structure of this marvellous edifice. Forget the false values and ideas of what is called civilization, those imposed rules on the free and simple truths of life. Here in the jungle you will find truth, you will find peace, bliss and happiness; you will find life itself. There is no room, no time at all, for hypocrisy, for make-believe, for that which is artificial and false. You are face to face with the primitive, with that which is real, with that which is most wonderful—which is God.

If I can succeed in spiriting you away for a few moments from all that is mundane in your life, into the marvels of a tropical jungle and its excitements, where your life depends on your senses, your wits, your skill, and in the end on Providence, as you creep on the blood-trail of a wounded man-eater through dense verdure or among piled boulders, then I shall feel myself amply rewarded.

KENNETH ANDERSON, The Black Panther of Sivanipilli and Other Adventures of the Indian Jungle.

Le chemin de la forêt de Kenneth Anderson

"Every panther differs from any other panther. Some panthers are very bold; others are very timid. Some are cunning to the degree of being uncanny; others appear quite foolish. I have met panthers that seemed almost to possess a sixth sense, and acted and behaved as if they could read and anticipate one’s very thought. Lastly, but quite rarely, comes the panther that attacks people, and more rarely still, the one that eats them."

(...)

Generally a panther is an inoffensive and quite harmless animal that is fearful of human beings and vanishes silently into the undergrowth at the sight or sound of them. When wounded, some show an extraordinary degree of ferocity and bravery. Others again are most cowardly and allow themselves to be followed up, or even chased like curs.

If from a hill-top you could watch a panther stalking his prey, he would offer a most entertaining spectacle. You would see him taking advantage of every bush, of every tree-trunk, and of every stone behind which to take cover. He can flatten himself to the ground in an amazing fashion. His colouration renders him invisible, unless you have the keenest eyesight. I once watched one through a pair of binoculars and was amazed at the really wonderful sense of woodcraft the panther had. Then comes the final rush. In a couple of bounds, and with lightning speed, he reaches his prey.

(...)

In the past there has been much controversy between those sportsmen who have claimed that the panther and the leopard are two entirely different species of animal and those who have said that they are one and the same. This argument has died out with modern times, when it has been recognized that they are indeed one and the same. Difference in environment and diet has caused some animals to grow to a much larger size than others. The forest-dwelling panther, with his richer diet of game-animals, generally grow, much bigger and has a darker and thicker coat than the panther that lives near villages, where his food is restricted to dogs and goats. Also, living among rocks and boulders as the latter generally does, his coat is paler, and the hair short and coarse. Incidentally, the darker coat of the forest-dwelling panther helps to camouflage him very effectively against the dense vegetation of the jungle, while the paler coat of the ‘village panther’, as he is sometimes called, makes it very difficult to detect him among the rocks where he lives.

Very occasionally, however, there are exceptions in both cases, and Nature appears unaccountably to break her own rule. I have shot some very large panthers living near villages and far from the regular jungle, possessing dark rich coats of hair, and some quite small ones within the forest with pale coats.

(...)

The tiger takes to water and will swim across large rivers freely. Especially in hot weather, he is very fond, during the midday hours, of taking his siesta by the banks of a shady stream or pool, sometimes lying in the water itself. He hunts freely on rainy days, and his pug-marks are often seen in the morning after a night of pouring rain. This is not so with the panther. A true cat in every respect, he detests water, abhors rain, and is not given to swimming, although he can do so in emergencies, such as to escape from a pack of wild dogs.

(...)

The tiger was originally an immigrant into India from the colder regions of Mongolia. Hence his liking for cool spots in which to shelter from the heat. The panther is a true native of India and of the tropics.

(...)

Apart from the mating season, tigers advertise their presence in a jungle much more than panthers do. The tribes of aborigines living in the forests of India will confirm this and will tell you the rough direction of the trails generally followed by tigers while out hunting. Their melodious, deep-throated and long-drawn moaning call, terminating in that never-to-be-forgotten ‘oo-oo-ongh’ that reverberates down the aisles of the valleys and across the wooded glens of the jungle in the stygian darkness beneath the giant forest trees, or in the phosphorescent moonlight, is music to the jungle- lover’s ears. The harsher but less distance-carrying call of the panther, very closely resembling a man sawing wood, that occasionally penetrates the still darkness of the jungle night, is much less frequently heard.

(...)

Tigre aiguisant ses griffes sur le tronc d'un arbre.

One of the most intelligent animals, if not the most intelligent, in the Indian jungle is the wild dog*. Shikaris of earlier days have variously given this place to the wild elephant, tiger and panther, but if you have studied the habits of the wild dog you may be inclined to disagree with them. When hunting deer they send out ‘flankers’, which run ahead of the quarry and ambush it later. In large packs of thirty or more, these animals are fearless hunters, and will ring, attack and kill any tiger or panther by literally tearing it to bits, despite the number of casualties they may suffer in the process.

Particularly in the forests of Chittoor District, in the former Presidency of Madras, they have earned quite a reputation for this, and I know of at least three instances where a very gory battle had been waged, resulting eventually in the tiger being torn to shreds, but not before he had killed a half-dozen of the dogs and maimed many others. I have never come across a panther destroyed in this fashion because, as I have said before, of their ability to escape by climbing trees.

Kenneth Anderson, The Black Panther of Sivanipilli and Other Adventures of the Indian Jungle.

NDLR: Dhole, Canis alpinus.