Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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  R: (46d) Hercules battles Ladon L: (46b) Herakles Melkart. Sepulcral Stela Mozia Museum   R: (46c) Corinth. National Museum of Denmark c. 575-550 BC L: (50e) Lydia. Sardes Reverse: Apollo. Club in wreath c. 150 BC   R: (50f) Macedonian Kingdom. Alexander the Great. Shield with club of Herakles ornamenting boss. c. 300 BC The goddess Aphrodite was born from an oyster, as shown in the depiction (44b, d). Sea shells were promised to her for votives by the people of Cyprus. (156) The Syrians called her the “Lady with Pearls.” (157) The pearl inside the oyster shell is another representation of the egg. The oyster shell is also similar to the mushroom gills. To be “born from the egg,” the belly or navel, or the Omphalos, could be likened to the birth of the mushroom egg in the earth to its fullest outgrowth. In Rome she was known as Venus Anadyomene and her likeness retained, she is still a mushroom goddess. Sometimes, she is depicted with a shell as a mushroom cap behind her head, and the shell creates |
the effect of radiant luminescence (44a), or in the case of a Roman plaque from 100-200 AD, the shell/mushroom cap is above her head (44c), or as we see in a statue from 100 BC, the shell/mushroom cap is on top of her head, either as a shell or a mushroom (44e). In every case, the shell makes up the cap of the mushroom and Aphrodite’s body represents the stem. Venus head fragments c. 100 BC-100 AD. Have been found all over Greece and Rome and they usually look like mushrooms heads (58a, b, c, d).   R: (44c) Aphrodite. Roman c. 100-200 AD L: (44b) Aphrodite c. 200-300 BC   R: (44e) Aphrodite With a Goose Myrina, Aeolis c. 100 BC  (44d) Aphrodite c. 1100-1200 AD (156) Pliny. Hist. Nat. IX, 30; XXXII, 5 (157) Mythology and Symbols, p. 148; M. Eliade, "Imgeler Simgeler", op. cit., pp. 147-49 |
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