#The Greek Tortoise

[snototter]

A pair of mating Greek tortoises (Testudo gracea) in Turkey

by Tim Melling

[tchai-castor]

As mentioned yesterday: the drawing of Odysseus, Ctimene and Eumaeus as kids, with Hermes disguised as a tortoise, introducing himself as their great-grandfather and you know Eumaeus is also there.

When I was drawing Diomedes as a kid, this image suddenly popped up in my head. I didn't finish or render any of the background, because when I was starting I thought the drawing looked worse. I actually think the white makes it look more dramatic.

One of my friends really likes this drawing. He joked that maybe Hermes himself gave me some divine inspiration for this, which I personally think would be one of the funniest things ever. Other gods: "Draw me as the godly god I am" and Hermes would just be like "Draw me as a tortoise".

[arthistoryanimalia]

An interesting bit of numismatic iconography for #WorldSeaTurtleDay:

“Aegina depicted images of sea turtles on their coins when the island was the supreme sea power among the Greek city-states. The sea turtle…represented its naval strength and resiliency. After its defeat by Athens in 458 BCE, Aegina ceased using the sea turtle and substituted the land tortoise to symbolize its lost sea power.”

- via The Art Institute of Chicago

1. silver stater depicting a sea turtle

510-485 BCE

Ancient Greek, minted in Aegina

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/142732/stater-coin-depicting-a-sea-turtle

2. silver stater depicting a land tortoise

404-350 BCE

Ancient Greek, minted in Aegina

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/9648/stater-coin-depicting-a-land-tortoise

[jinnseigame]

いねえなあと思ってたら洗面所で寝てた

[bestanimal]

I've sent you another ask about a bearded vulture in the past but I just wanted to add something!!

I was talking to my boyfriend about bearded vultures and apparently when he was a kid he went on vacation to South Africa and a bearded vulture had dropped a carcass down a hill and nearly flew directly into him while trying to grab the carcass

Omg! Your boyfriend almost had an Aeschylus moment.

[wolfiegal]

An Offering to Hermes

|A God of Roads and Thievery|

[adam-trademark]

THE RACE IS NOT ALWAYS TO THE SWIFT

(June 29, 2022)

[dailypepettepicture]

I'm trying this on the computer this time, 18th attempt in total

I went home this weekend and I finally saw Philoména again. I'd missed her so much, I think seeing her healed a part of my soul. Two weeks ago, I bought a mini hat I thought would fit her but when she tried it on, it was too big! *obliterated by cuteness* She's so tiny! But I'm sure she'll grow into it one day.

[peggy-sue-reads-a-book]

I need a whole picture/sketch book of all the gods and goddesses as babies with sacred animals!! I know you’re the girl to get the job done ;)

GOOD MORNING I MADE SMOL HERMES

[anne-fine]

Nice weather today. Tito and Nico playing together and having fun time outdoors

[robtopus]

Robert R. Sidian: Death of the Author. A Tragedy.

TW Death, animal death. Text after the cut.

The Greek playwright Aeschylus, it must be said, can count himself lucky. After all, he managed to survive fighting in the Battle of Salamis (where he undoubtedly was in dire straits) during the Persian Wars. His military career over, he casually invented Greek tragedy. Not only that, but he is the only playwright of antiquity where not just a few scattered plays are extant, but a whole trilogy. But despite Fate being kind to him in so many regards - surviving a bloody sea battle, inventing a new form of art - his death was decidedly silly:

An eagle, mistaking the playwright's bald head for a rock (proving that eagle eyes are worth absolutely nothing) dropped a tortoise he was holding in his claws onto Aeschylus. Of course, while this did achieve the Eagle's goal of opening the tortoise's shell, it also mostly opened up the head of the greatest living (up to this point, anyway) playwright. Aeschylus was killed instantly, leaving behind a mess of a corpse, a headstone only celebrating his military prowess and the ensuing ages who might hold him in high esteem yet only managed to record a fraction of his plays.

The fate of the tortoise remains unknown.

But I imagine her wandering the desert on that day, idly wondering whether she'd win a foot-race against Achilles, and if yes, how much of a head start she'd need. She's also thinking about her slow gait, living proof and metaphor for how sometimes a shell and a calm demeanor are the only things necessary to reach one's goals. She's just strolling along, maybe secretly wishing to inspire a poem or two, or maybe a parable, or a short story by a hack writer. She does, however, not waste a thought on what a tragedy is, how many actors are needed in the theatron or what fate befell the Tantalides, thoughts that, at this moment, might have gone through Aeschylus' bald head.

And then, all of a sudden, she is whisked away, higher and ever higher. Ripped from her surroundings, without rhyme nor reason, she is suddenly forced to cope with an entirely alien way of existence, and she soon finds that she doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Her horizons have, one might assume, expanded greatly, as have the heights of her reason - but she does not see any reason for that, nor does she know what to do with it, for her myopia does not allow her to even see that far. And the firm foundation all her reason was based on is rapidly disappearing, leaving her with nothing but empty, dead air. She does not even have a concept of up or down, but still she can feel herself ascend, like Icarus, ever closer to the sun (albeit not as willingly); and then, like for Icarus, gravity suddenly reverses, there is a whole different kind of pull to her body as the air and the ground both rush into her face and she is performing an action she found unthinkable, the word for which she can't remember (because she is too busy actually falling).

And then she hits, no, not the ground, but Aeschylus' blockhead, she is the last thing going through it, it feels like she hits a rock. Skull and shell both burst in a shower of blood, brain matter and scales, burst like over-ripe melons and with much the same colors. Incidentally, a sight like this would have never flown in the theater of Aeschylus.

And the eagle, the perpetrator of the whole disaster, just flies away, seemingly a symbol of freedom and leadership, when in reality his greed, stupidity and short-sightedness have led to a tragedy of previously unknown proportions.

What remains are the remains of man and tortoise, as not-quite-living proof of the fact that each tragedy needs a certain height for its protagonist to fall. 

© Robert R. Sidian 2021. Do not distribute. 

[blitheringbongus]

Self love is making silly doodles of yourself cuz the internet went down

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldTurtleDay on a #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday: what does this unusual 18th c. English portrait have in common with this early 20th c. Ottoman one from Pera Müzesi? More than you may think! 😉Find out more on the blog:

ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for World Turtle Day: an unusual tortoise portrait from 18th Century England, and its connection to Ottoman Turkey https://arthistoryanimalia.com/2023/05/23/animal-art-of-the-day-for-world-turtle-day-an-unusual-tortoise-portrait-from-18th-century-england-and-its-connection-to-ottoman-turkey/

Still Life With a Tortoise, 1743 possibly by Thomas Black (English, 1715-1777) oil on canvas, 74.9 x 96.5 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Tortoise Trainer, 1906 version by Osman Hamdi Bey (Ottoman, 1842-1910) oil on canvas, 221.5 x 120 cm Pera Müzesi

[jinnseigame]

私の指見るとご飯食べさせてもらえると思って口開けるのかわいい

[steeleyespan]

got stuck watching uk slander meme videos and most are pish but these two are killing meeeee

[turtlespet]

Can a Tortoise Live Outside?

Yes, a tortoise can live outside. Tortoises are well-adapted to living in the outdoors and they thrive in a natural habitat. Tortoises are equipped with thick shells that protect them from predators and the elements. They do best in temperatures ranging from 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit and need access to both shade and direct sunlight. A pen should also be large enough for your pet tortoise to…