I thus had Perseus on my mind when I checked William Wright's latest post, "Encyclopedia Brown, Blue Denim, and a Gorilla Suit" and saw this picture of the cover of an Encyclopedia Brown book:
In the central picture, a character (who I guess is a race-swapped Encyclopedia Brown) holds up a gorilla suit, gripping it by the top of the head with one hand, the other hand hanging down at his side.
Interestingly, this same post also included an image of Alvin and the Chipmunks assuming the poses of bronze statues, including Rodin's The Thinker:
With that context of people posing as famous statues, take another gander at Encyclopedia Brown. Does his pose remind you of anything?
It's a mirror image, but other than that the pose -- nearly as iconic as The Thinker's, I'd say -- is a pretty perfect match. There are also some phonetic links. Perseus with the Gor-gon's head was sculpted by Cell-ini. Encyclopedia Brown holds a gor-illa's head which, according to a quote from the book which William included in his post, was found in a cell-o case.
The name Cellini means "butler," by the way. In "GAEL," I connected Paraoh's butler (from the story of Joseph) and William Butler Yeats with this picture of a gorilla:
The pose is somewhat similar to that of Perseus or Brown, and I think Cellini's gorgon's head looks a bit like a bunch of grapes at first glance. One of the Chipmunks from William's post is also holding a bunch of grapes in his right hand and a large round vessel in his left.
I connected Perseus with a character called Joseph in my sister's story. William connects Encyclopedia Brown with Peter. The late John Pratt made the case that the Perseus myth symbolizes the prophetic career of Joseph Smith (see "Constellations Testify of Seven Angels"), presenting a long list of parallels. One of the connections he made was that Perseus's visit to the three Gray Sisters, who look like swans, represents Joseph Smith's visit from Peter, James, and John. Pratt had already identified Peter with the constellation of the Swan, since that constellation resembles a cross, with the swan's head at the base of the cross, thus suggesting Peter, who was crucified upside down. Three swans, then, would mean Peter and his two associates.
I'm not quite sure how to make sense of these links, but I thought they were intriguing enough to note in a post.
3 comments:
I think the Chipmunk whose pose matches the green gorilla is even the one that dresses in green (Theodore, right?).
I wrote a post earlier this year that included a phrase from a dream: "Calilean Butler". At the time, I took it as a word play with Galilean, and associated it either with Jesus or a servant, though didn't have much else to go on.
I realize now that Peter was also a Galilean, and so might have been the Butler in question in my dream, or at least part of the reference. Maybe that is an answer to the riddle. Here is the post.
https://coatofskins.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-calilean-butler-exploring-idea-that.html
You probably know this already (or maybe mentioned it as well somewhere), but Butler originally meant "Cup Bearer", which makes that Animalia picture of the the Gorilla holding the Cup or Grail all the more interesting in this sense.
Just posted the earlier comment without seeing your comment on Theodore. Yes, that the Green Ape and Green Theodore are pretty much a direct match on those poses, grapes, etc.
Nice find.
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