A Grace & Fury Assortment

Kicking off with bit of a re-do from years past; then a couple of related cartoons, poems, and vintage "representative" photographs from husband's collection:

Famous 15th century Italian artist Raphael painted The Three Graces (right). The three graces in mythology were goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, said to rule beauty and charm in nature and humanity. Other artists and sculptors have depicted the three sisters too. A related damaged sculpture (above left) now in The Louvre, Paris dates from around two centuries before Christ.

The graceful sisters: Aglaia, who represented radiance or splendor. Euphrosyne - joy. Thalia represented fruitfulness or good cheer. If the sisters were to be represented astrologically, I guess the Sun would be obvious to represent radiance and splendor; Venus for joy, and Jupiter for fruitfulness or good cheer - the three graces in planetary form?


Another, contrasting set of three exists in mythology: The Three Furies. This painting is by W. Bouguereau "Orestes and the Furies". The Greeks knew them as Erinyes, daughters of Gaia (Earth) sprung from the blood of Uranus. They were Tisiphone (avenger of blood), Alecto (the implacable), and Megaera (the jealous one). Said to be merciless goddesses of vengeance whose punishments continued after death.

Which planets might carry the attributes of these three lovelies? Mars, Saturn for the first two; but how about "the jealous one"? Moon, perhaps? I tend to give the Moon positive interpretation, but in tarot The Moon card isn't one of the true "goodies". The Moon is changeable, temperamental, could easily become jealous. The Moon might represent "the jealous one".

So then, each planet, except Mercury, would have a Grace or a Fury to its name. Mercury has the job of bouncing around between them all.

Graces and Furies - we all have them all within us, somewhere !

Hauled into the 20th/21st centuries:

Clarifying caption:  Any man who loves and reveres his mother and his country should idolize, if he worship at all, the three graces,  Suffrage, Preparedness and Americanism.

 From a version of Dante's Divine Comedy

A HYMN TO THE GRACES by Robert Herrick

When I love, as some have told
Love I shall, when I am old,
O ye Graces! make me fit
For the welcoming of it!
Clean my rooms, as temples be,
To entertain that deity;
Give me words wherewith to woo,
Suppling and successful too;
Winning postures; and withal,
Manners each way musical;
Sweetness to allay my sour
And unsmooth behaviour:
For I know you have the skill
Vines to prune, though not to kill;
And of any wood ye see,
You can make a Mercury.

SEE HERE.


SONG OF THE FURIES (from "The Eumenides")
by Aeschylus (translated by Henry Hart Milman.)

3 verses - full poem is HERE

Up and lead the dance of Fate!
Lift the song that mortals hate!
Tell what rights are ours on earth,
Over all of human birth.
Swift of foot to avenge are we!
He whose hands are clean and pure,
Naught our wrath to dread hath he;
Calm his cloudless days endure.
But the man that seeks to hide
Like him, his gore-bedewèd hands,
Witnesses to them that died,
The blood avengers at his side,
The Furies' troop forever stands.

For light our footsteps are,
And perfect is our might,
Awful remembrances of guilt and crime,
Implacable to mortal prayer,
Far from the gods, unhonored, and heaven's light,
We hold our voiceless dwellings dread,
All unapproached by living or by dead.

What mortal feels not awe,
Nor trembles at our name,
Hearing our fate-appointed power sublime,
Fixed by the eternal law.
For old our office, and our fame,
Might never yet of its due honors fail,
Though 'neath the earth our realm in unsunned regions pale.

The Graces?

 I'm tagging this trio as The Furies!

And...as though we don't have enough to contend with via Graces and Furies, The Fates and The Sirens are determined not to be forgotten!

Grace & Fury in Myth and Dance

Last week we attended a performance by the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company at our local theatre. Dancers were cross-cultural: from China, Moscow, New Jersey, Korea, Cuba, Japan, and California , their choreographer and artistic director is Nai-Ni Chen who was a renowned traditional dancer in the Republic of China and served on several ambassadorial culture missions around the world. The show was a blend of traditional and modern dance.

Looking through the photographs my husband managed to capture with his pocket camera during the performance brought to mind an old post of mine featuring the Three Graces and The Three Furies. Dug it out, combined an edited version with our photographs.


One of Raphael's paintings depicts The Three Graces. In mythology these were goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, said to rule beauty and charm in nature and humanity. Aglaia represents radiance or splendor. Euphrosyne represents joy. Thalia represents fruitfulness or good cheer.


Which planets might the three sisters personify ? I'd guess Sun for radiance and splendor, Venus and Jupiter for the other two, not sure which is which though.

We all embody a potential for both grace and fury.


Here, with delicate grace the dancers performed Raindrops: Choreographer Nai-Ni chen drew inspiration from her childhood memory of the Taiwanese city in which she was born, Keelong, also known as the "Rain Harbor".



The exquisitely graceful and elegant Peacock Dance. The peacock is considered a sacred bird among the Dai people in the Yunan province. Movements derive from real actions of the peacock - drinking water, walking, running, grooming feathers.
Dancer was Min Zhou.





There was a lovely dance: The Way of Five - Fire which we didn't manage to capture. The photo is from the Dance company's website linked above.

A leaflet provided tells that this was Nai-Ni Chen's first exploration of the ancient Chinese theory that the cycles of creation and destruction correspond to the ever-changing phenomena of nature. the "Five" refers to the five elements: wood, water, fire, metal and earth. Each element as part of the forces of nature, creates another in harmony and destroys another in conflict.

(I wonder why Chinese elements do not include Air, as in astrological elements in western tradition?)




And so to The Furies:

Another trio - The Three Furies, the Greek Erinyes, daughters of Gaia (Earth) sprung from the blood of Uranus could be said to represent the shadow sides of the Three Graces. This painting is by W. Bouguereau Orestes and the Furies. Tisiphone (avenger of blood) Alecto (the implacable) and Megaera (the jealous one). Said to be merciless goddesses of vengance whose punishments continued after death. Which planets might carry the attributes of these three lovelies? Mars, Saturn, and what about "the jealous one"? The Moon, perhaps? I tend to give the Moon a positive interpretation, but in tarot,the Moon card isn't one of the true "goodies". The Moon is changeable, temperamental, could easily be jealous. Yes, I'll choose the Moon to represent "the jealous one".


In dance:
Lu Wen-Long, the Warrior. (A Warrior is nothing if not a symbol of fury!)
This dance is taken from the 500 year old Chinese Kunqu Opera. Legend goes that Lu Wen-Long was abducted from his Han military family by Manchurians, grew up among enemies of his family. After aiding the Manchrians in many victories he defected to become a famous general of his own Han people. The high platform shoes of his costume, and head dress of long bird feathers symbolise a courageous young general. The short white stick symbolises his white horse, and the double spears are his special weapons. Dancer: Yao-Zhong Zhang.





The Lion Dance (not exactly furious though) - Said to have originated in the Tang Dynasty 3,000 years ago. Seen as a prayer of peace because during the dance a child playfully leads a beast. Child and beast playing together symbolises harmony on earth. The Lion Dance is always performed at Chinese New Year. there are many different styles of the Lion Dance, this was the northern style.



The show finished with a colourful dance, Festival, based on the Dragon Boat summer festival. The spinning, floating ribbons symbolise prosperity of the village.

Graces and Furies

Good Friday is here - I hope everyone has a pleasant Easter weekend. It'll be business (or lack of it) as usual for me, so I'll continue to natter on into cyber space.

Here's a Google trail I've wandered along:

The artist Raphael was born this day, 6 April, in 1483, in Urbino, Italy. One of his famous paintings depicts The Three Graces. The three graces in mythology were goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, said to rule beauty and charm in nature and humanity. Other artists and sculptors have painted the three sisters. One, damaged, sculpture in The Louvre, Paris dates from around 2 centuries before Christ.

Aglaia represents radiance or splendor. Euphrosyne represents joy. Thalia represents fruitfulness or good cheer.

Which planets might the three sisters personify ? I'd guess at The Sun for radiance and splendor, with Venus and Jupiter for the other two, not sure which is which though.


Raphael's painting led me to think about another set of three - The Three Furies, the Greek Erinyes, daughters of Gaia (Earth) sprung from the blood of Uranus. This painting is by W. Bouguereau "Orestes and the Furies".

Tisiphone (avenger of blood) Alecto (the implacable) and Megaera (the jealous one). Said to be merciless goddesses of vengance whose punishments continued after death. So which planets might carry the attributes of these three lovelies? Mars, Saturn, and what about "the jealous one"? The Moon, perhaps? I tend to give the Moon a positive interpretation, but in tarot,the Moon card isn't one of the true "goodies". The Moon is changeable, temperamental, could easily be jealous. Yes, I'll go for the Moon to represent "the jealous one".

So each planet except Mercury could have a Grace or a Fury to its name. Mercury has the job of bouncing around between them all.

Graces and Furies - we've got 'em all within us - somewhere !