Ancient Art Depicts Mankind's History, not Myth
Contact: Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr., Solving Light Books, 410-757-4630, RBowieJ@comcast.net
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, September 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- Solving Light Books announced today the publication to its Web site of 37 images of Noah from ancient Greek art. These images of the Greek version of Noah reveal his role in Greek art as the known historical figure in contrast to whom the artists depicted, and boasted of, the rapid growth of their man-centered religious outlook. Ancient Greek artists and poets called Noah "Nereus" (meaning the "Wet One"), and also referred to him as the "Salt Sea Old Man."
The Web presentation has six parts:
•Part I consists of 37 images of Noah cropped out of their sculpted and vase-scene contexts so that the viewer can examine the similarity of the images in one place.
•Part II presents a short pictorial review of what Greek religious art chronicles and celebrates—the end of Noah's rule, the resurgence and triumph of the way of Kain (Cain), and the exaltation of man as the measure of all things.
•Part III features vase-scenes wherein the hero-rebel Herakles (the Nimrod of Genesis and Gilgamesh of the Sumerian epic) threatens Noah, brings him and his rule to a halt, and pushes him out of the way.
•Part IV presents an ancient vase-art tradition wherein Herakles is pictured as seizing Noah's authority in the form of a creature known as Triton.
•Part V features vase-scenes in which Noah reacts stoically to the abduction of his daughter, Thetis, by the Zeus-worshipper, Peleus.
•Part VI presents scenes in which the ancient artists depict Noah as an unwilling and disheartened witness to the key events leading to the triumph of Zeus-religion.
The creator of the Web presentation, Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr., is the author of "Athena and Eve," "Athena and Kain," "The Parthenon Code: Mankind's History in Marble," "Noah in Ancient Greek Art," and a 950-slide PowerPoint presentation on the true meaning of ancient Greek art. "An enormous amount of information about mankind's origins hides in plain sight in the art of ancient Greece. These many images of the Greek version of Noah, now made available to the public, are just a small part of it," Mr. Johnson said.
