Health and Romanesque: Clearer than water: Aphrodite Valdeolmilla

2022-11-08 18:09:00

A few kilometers northeast of Palencia is Valdeolmillos, a fascinating place on the slope of a hill above which is the church of San Juan Bautista.

The Romanesque silhouette fascinates us, as do the many architectural elements it contains. Well, of all of them, what undoubtedly fascinates us the most is the pair of giants of the Conquering Arcade.

Despite their crude construction and disastrous renovations that make them ugly, they are absolutely fascinating, amazing and with unprecedented figures:

In the first of them, to the left of the apse, we place a female figure who, with a calm and carefree expression, dominates with both hands the two bows used by the sagittarians who direct the arrow towards him .

In his antagonist, we see a human figure standing firmly on his tail, pulling his hair braided into two strands. Beside him, two winged companions, two young birds, complement the councils.

It is said that it is not published since the early art symbol prevails where the previous idea is practically unimproved.

For example, the woman who mediates between two opposing creatures, whether they are a sword, a horse or a lion, is a frequent subject in the Romanesque but we have never seen her as the target of war and even less yours and yours. The attacks are merged into one, meaning that it is their own, as if they are the same creature and belong to the same sky.

On the other hand, we will find hundreds of statues, as well as birds and fish, throughout our Romanesque world, but it will be rare if not impossible to find another capital with the art shown in the temple. This is Palencia.

We can connect this work with Galligans son, who also belongs to the iconography of the 11th century.

the only person with similar characteristics or, we can relate to the Minoan god of snakes, for the same reason.

But, although it is possible that there is a common link that connects them and leads to the original source, we focus our attention on the subtle difference of what holds each of them together.

Our head of state does not appear to be holding two fish or two snakes, but instead has his hair divided into two halves.

Venus Anadyomena is a symbolic representation of the goddess Aphrodite emerging from the ocean taken by the painter Apelles in the temple of Aesculapius and which became very famous and famous in antiquity. This image disappeared, but Pliny refers to it in Historia Naturalis in this way:

“Venus rising from the sea was consecrated by the divine Augustus in the temple of his father Caesar. This image, called Anadyomena, has been praised in Greek verses, defeated by time, but logo. The lower part is broken and not “No. In fact, we can find one that is capable of restoring it. The legend of Aphrodite born from the foam formed around the virile member of Uranus corrupted by Cronus is the first explanation of the name Anadyomene, that is.

“the one who came out of the water and ruled over them”

The beautiful Anadyomene figure became the most sought-after representation of Venus in ancient times, one of its main symbolic characteristics was to show the goddess in the habit of washing her hair. Thus, when they saw a woman with that quality, even if she did not have any other image, they knew that she was the goddess of love, Aphrodite.

Aphrodite Anadyomene in a fresco from Pompeii Another ancient and famous statue of the goddess is also famous, which is currently preserved only by Roman works. This is a bronze statue made by Calamis in 460 BC known as Aphrodite Sosandra

“who saves men.” Placed at the entrance of the Propylaea of ​​the Acropolis of Athens, it attracts attention for its pure and dignified appearance. Covered from head to toe, here Aphrodite has left the usual characteristics of sensuality to become the representative of moral truth and the highest knowledge, strong and protective, the goddess of love and mediator, who complements

and save the souls of men. In Romanesque, this ability to balance opposing forces between I and instincts, the quality of Aphrodite Sosandra, represented by a female figure standing between two swords, either holding their weapons or the reins of their horses.

In their eagerness to give a name to what they don’t have yet, they call it peace or God’s intervention, they certainly ignore where the evolution of this event came from and why a woman commented.

Reign of Venus, 4th century (Tunisia)
Venus is in the middle,mediator between day and night, between sea and land, between God and people

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The roots of the iconography of Aphrodia in her Anadyomene version can be found in ancient Greek texts such as Hesiod’s Theogony and the Homeric Hymn of the 8th century BC. C., as well as votive sculptures or images of women bathing in basins from the 5th century BC. The known search sites for Anadyomene representatives can be grouped into four places: tombs, tombs, springs or baths, and houses.

We do not know if these areas: tombs, sanctuaries, baths or fountains, could have taken place in Valdeolmillos, where the church is currently located or near it, because nothing is known about Valdeolmillos, nothing at all , as if to destroy his reputation. areas of the people, until the end of the 9th century when the Christian army of Alfonso III recaptured the area and resettled it.

We know that the sacramental purpose of religious spaces tends to fossilize and that the outgoing deities transfer their identity properties to the incoming ones. We also know that the ancients read that there are two types of love, pure or spiritual love and foolishness or physical love. The first was attributed to the celestial Venus or Urania, the daughter of Uranus, born from the foam of the ocean

and those who are accepted by the government are beyond understanding; while another love is attributed to the earthly or Vulgar Venus, who rules the world of the senses and is the daughter of the earth goddess.

It would not be strange if these incoming beliefs mixed the old decision that ended in the famous Anadyomene by referring her to Venus, the love of material and her contrast with another divine point of view, Sosandra, who received the people are saved. There are two capitals. But the goddess’s correction is subtle and subtle. We would like to think that a pagan place related to Anaydomene later received the name of the greatest saint associated with the power of holy water, Saint John the Baptist, whose festival is more than a popular celebration, called for much water in the rivers and in the sows, who baptized Christ himself and The baptism of one born to you is as pure as Venus from the foam of the sea.

There is also a belief that on that day the water gets fertilization and healing properties.

Aryan Baptistery in Ravenna s.VI / Anadyomena in Suso s.II-VI

Isolated in places, far from the sea where he was born, the son of this lady Anadiomeda, rising on his fish tail, linked to archaic science, is an indication of Venusian worship that exists and of resonance is petrified in the church of San Juan Bautista from Valdeolmillos.

The distinctiveness of these capitals provides a humanistic significance that should not be overlooked in the eyes of historians.

We have not seen anything written about those pagans of the past, but our Aphrodite Valdeolmilla makes it clear. They are. And among the ruins of their palaces, the owl’s voice will be heard, and the singers will sing in the places consecrated for pleasure.” (Isaiah, 13)

Health and Romanesque

October 2022

(1) Valdeolmillos City Council

(2) City to city

(3) Venus Anadyomena

(4) Sosandra- Mythology