For the first #FannyFriday in #PrideMonth I offer you a rare depiction of women loving women in Graeco-Roman art. These ladies are engaged in some good old oral 👌
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"Two women from Samos, Bitto and Nanion, do not like to meet #Aphrodite by her own rules. They desert to the other side, which is not good. Queen Aphrodite, hate these fugitives from your kind of sex."
Greek Anthology 5.207
🏛 Mirror case, women bathing before a statue of Aphrodite on a pillar, 110–117 CE
For the first #PhallusThursday in #PrideMonth, I present to you a beautiful bisexual ring from #ancientRome with a phallus on the left for scale. Which part of this love chain do you prefer?
A Roman silver ring with erotic intaglio, 3rd century CE
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"When sent by Polydectes, son of Magnes, to the Gorgones, he [Perseus] received from Mercurius [#Hermes], who is thought to have loved him, talaria and petasus, and, in addition, a helmet which kept its wearer from being seen by an enemy."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2.12
🏛 #Perseus and Hermes, detail, Bell Krater, Jatta, 400-375 BCE
"Beardless #Ampelos, they say, a Nymph's and a Satyr's son, was loved by #Bacchus [Dionysos] on Ismarian hills. He trusted him with a vine hanging from the leaves of an elm; it is now named for the boy. The reckless youth fell picking gaudy grapes on a branch. Liber [#Dionysos] lifted the lost boy to the stars." #Ovid, Fasti 3.407
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"Out of the sea was rising lovely-crowned Kypris [#Aphrodite], foam-blossoms still upon her hair; and round her hovered smiling witchingly #Himeros, and danced the Kharites [Graces] lovely-tressed."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 5.72
🏛 Little Aphrodite in a sea shell, terracotta, Museo archeologico provinciale Francesco Ribezzo, Brindisi
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
"Engendered form the sea-foam, we are told she [#Aphrodite] became the mother by Mercurius [#Hermes] of the second Cupidus [literally Eros but probably referring to Hermaphroditos]."
Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 21-23
"Not ye had the wakeful dawn put all the stars to flight from heaven, and Luna (the Moon) was beholding the approach of day with fading horn."
Statius, Thebaid 12.1
🏛️ The goddess #Luna in her biga, relief on the Arch of Constantinus, tondo on short west side, 312—315 CE, #Rome
""I will tell of #Dionysos, the son of glorious Semele, how he appeared on a jutting headland by the shore of the fruitless sea, seeming like a stripling in the first flush of manhood: his rich, dark hair was waving about him, and on his strong shoulders he wore a purple robe."
Homeric Hymn 7 to Dionysos
🏛 Dionysos detail on Coptic Egyptian tapestry from the 4th Century
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"#Aphrodite, they say, as she [after her birth in the sea] dropped anchor near Rhodes, was prevented from stopping there by the sons of Poseidon, who were arrogant and insolent men. The goddess, in her wrath, brought a madness upon them."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.55.4
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
"Akragas, five cities of that name. The first is in #Sicily, named for the river flowing past it. [...] Others say the city is named for Akragas, the son of #Zeus and Asterope, the daughter of Okeanos."
Stephanus Byzantius, Ethica A 167 s. v. Ἀκράγαντες
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
A man was chopping wood by a river when he dropped his axe into the water. #Hermes took pity on him and presented a golden axe, then a silver axe, asking each time whether it was his. The man said no. Then Hermes showed him the lost axe and when he recognized it, Hermes gifted him all of the axes.
Aesop, Fables 474
"Whensoever bright #Selene (the Moon) having bathed her lovely body in the waters of Okeanos, and donned her far-gleaming raiment, and yoked her strong-necked, shining team, and drives on her long-maned horses at full speed, at eventime."
Homeric Hymn 32 to Selene
🏛️ Selene and Helios, red figure vase painting, Canosa, Italy, ca. 330 – 310 BCE
"But the god changed into a dreadful lion there on the ship and roared loudly: And so the sailors fled into the stern and crowded about the helmsman, until suddenly the lion sprang upon the master and seized him; and when the sailors saw it they leapt overboard into the bright sea."
Homeric Hymn 7
🏛 #Dionysos, Silenos & pirates, #mosaic, 2nd century CE, Bardo National Museum
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and Aphrogeneia (the foam-born) because she grew amid the foam, and well-crowned Kythereia because she reached Kythera, and Kyprogenes because she was born in billowy Kypros, and Philommedes (Genital-Loving) because sprang from the members."
Hesiod, Theogony 176
It's the Day of Hermes aka Mercurius Day aka #Wednesday! 🐏
#OTD, 15 May, it's the #Mercuralia, a Roman festival in honour of Mercurius in his function as god of commerce. This year it coincides with the birthday of Apollon. #Hermes and #Apollon are half-brothers and love each other dearly:
"And Hermes loved the son of Leto continually, even as he does now."
Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes
"Luna the Moon's course also has a sort of winter and summer solstice; and she emits many streams of influence, which supply animal creatures with nourishment and stimulate their growth and which cause plants to flourish and attain maturity."
Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.14
🏛️ Roman coin depicting moon goddess #Luna with a crab
"Note that the ancients used the word phlyein (to luxuriate) of an abundant yield of fruit. So they called #Dionysos Phleon (the luxuriant), Protrygaios (the first at the vintage), Staphylites (the god of the grape), Omphakites (the god of the unripe grape), and various other #epithets."
Aelian, Historical Miscellany 3. 41
🏛 Relief of Dionysos with a thyrsos and grape clusters