The Mythology Project: "A Twist in My Sobriety"
"A twist in my sobriety" – the title was inspired by Tanita Tikaram’s song of the same name - is an ongoing project in which I approach different figures from Greek mythology in a way that discusses the purely factual, analytical consideration only to a limited extent. This is not about the malice, presumption or habitual perception of the protagonists, but rather about the drastic, usually tragic events in their lives, or, in the case of Nike, the physical dissolution of a symbolic figure.
Four of the works in this series - Kassandra, Medusa, Cyclops, and Arachne - deal with the dramatic effects of divine wrath on the depicted "persons":
The Trojan princess Kassandra was wooed by Apollon and received the gift of divination. When she did not give in to his courtship, Apollon pronounced the curse that no one would believe her prophecies hereafter.
The Medusa of the late classical antiquity was transformed from a beauty into a dreaded monster with serpent’s hair by the goddess Athena, as she had enraged the goddess by her rendezvous with the god Poseidon in Athena’s sanctuary. Medusa eventually paid for this crime with her life.
The Cyclops lost their freedom in the battle of the Greek gods by being trapped in the depths of the earth by their father Uranus. A truly claustrophobic experience.
The talented, but haughty weaver Arachne challenged the goddess Athena to compete in weaving. She won the competition with a beautiful tapestry depicting the erotic adventures of the Greek gods. Arachne hanged herself out of fear of Athena's revenge, but was revived by the goddess and condemned to live as a weaving spider from now on.
Nike, the goddess of victory, on the other hand, is one of the less differentiated deities in the Greek pantheon and is usually known as the personification of a victory in a sporting contest or military conflict or later - as the Roman Victoria - as an expression of power for the respective rulers. The main focus was not on her own deeds as a goddess, but rather on her symbolic content. She was treated as a vessel for changing intentions, as a hollow shape.
