Long-form essays and reflections from the Domina Tempora archive.
The Old Mother of the Waters and the Lost City Below
In Chinese folklore, Shui-mu Niang-niang, or the Old Mother of the Waters, is a legendary spirit guardian of the waters surrounding the city of Sizhou, in Anhui province.. Depicted as a smiling old woman carrying two buckets of water, she is popularly credited with the destruction of the Sizhou by flooding it every year until eventually bringing it into complete submersion in by the waters of the Hongze Lake.
Although several of the most popular deities are female, gender immediately raises problems for the bureaucratic image of some important deities as governing elites tend to favor a religious practice that, in proving the connection of the state to the divine, legitimizes the state's efforts to preserve itself. Women, as well as men who are viewed to be rebels or misfits, tends to be excluded from the sites and definitions of power.
We are familiar with the image of the “Fat Buddha”, “Laughing Buddha” or “The Happy Chinaman” – a short, well-fed, jolly man whose belly one can rub for good luck. This figure is popular in China and those areas to which Chinese cultural influence spread.
The art of shadow puppetry has a long history in China, India, Nepal, and Southeast Asia, as well as in Turkey and Greece, surviving everything from war and famine to cultural revolutions.
In this modern age, the poems of the 13th century Persian poet Muhammad Jalal ad-Din Rumi have sold millions of copies, making him one of the most popular poets in the world. Considered a provocative figure, Rumi continued the long tradition of ecstatic seers in the style of ancient Greek’s Sappho. His poems have also been compared to Shakespeare’s for their resonance. Meanwhile, for political theorists and historians, Rumi’s writings on tolerance have further value in offering a glimpse of the beliefs and tradition in which Rumi experienced in his lifetime.
Loud men are shouting over Helen of Troy’s casting in Nolan’s Odyssey — Musk meltdowns, Matt Damon as Odysseus, Lupita Nyong’o controversy. A feminine guide to ignoring the spectacle and returning to Homer’s sensual, subversive myths instead.
No other Greek goddess was sculpted emphasizing her physical beauty as frequently as Aphrodite. Statues of Aphrodite from Cyrene and the Esquiline, both from the first century BCE, were even named Aphrodite Kallipygos, which means “Aphrodite with a beautiful derriere”.
Sixteenth century Theologian Martin Luther has referred to Melusine unfavorably several times as a succubus and nineteenth century composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote a concert overture titled “The Fair Melusina”. These days, perhaps without knowing her by name, we still recognize her image today as the logo for Starbucks Coffee.
The sirenas in the Philippine mythology is a mythological aquatic creature with the head and torso of human female and the tail of a fish. Unlike the ancient Greek’s sirens, sirenas are actually portrayed as mermaid-like creatures who live under the sea.
Before the first moon landing in 1969, the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e was mentioned in the Apollo 11 Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription between the Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas and the Apollo 11 crew. The center said, “Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, there’s one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with […]
