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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 15823
[Art/Music/lit]
Date Posted:
7/14/2006
10:39:14 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 8,105
RSS: 19,431
Comments: 17
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Statue: It’s All In The Name
Author: Sadie Gurman Source: Rockford Register Star (OR)
Title: STATUE: IT’S ALL IN THE NAME
What the Rev. Kent Svendsen first saw as a direct defilement of the Ten Commandments, sculptor David Seagraves saw as a monument to fertility and agriculture — what he considers the roots of civilization.
Either way, the statue, originally dubbed “Demeter Over Illinois” by Seagraves, will stand in front of the Ogle County Judicial Center as early as this fall, with one major modification: its name.
Warned by some area religious leaders and several board members that the name “Demeter,” Greek goddess of the harvest, might unnerve some of the county’s Christian residents, the county board voted to change the name last month to “Agriculture, Mother of Civilization.”
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Community Thoughts: There are 17 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| I Am Cracking Up | Jul 17th. at 9:30:11 pm EDT
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Perriwinkle the Evil (Ozark, Alabama) - Email Me
As a linguist, this whole thing cracks me up. The Xians can't accept the name of a statue bearing a pagan name...yet eat cereal in the morning, drive a Saturn or a Mercury to work, look at their chronometer, go to church on Sunday, celebrate Easter...oh shall I go on?
The hypocrisy of some.
Besides, it clearly states in Genesis that Adam began agriculture. Seeing that Adam had a penis, it is not appropriate in a Xian community to ascribe the parent of agriculture to be a woman. I thought the only agriculture women started in their bible was the picking of apples....
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| The Meter | Jul 15th. at 5:03:39 am EDT
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Ahr-Ohn (Bridgeport, Connecticut) - Email Me
Obviously, had the French not murdered so many of its best citizens, Demeter would have been accepted as the standard unit of measure in this country, long ago.
Of course they have it backwards. Civilization is the mother of Agriculture; it's a matter of who gets to eat your Milch-Beast. Yoga caused Civilization, which accomodated Agriculture, which accomodated Worship, which required History, which repitition made Language possible, and thus we speak a derivative of Sanskrit. Agriculture also converted Forest to Field, releasing so much Carbon into the Atmosphere, the resulting Global Warming melted the glaciers of India.
How about Demeter, Mother of Mortgage and Tax Payments, as a statue overlooking the Court House Entrance?
Arawn
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| Stupidity Runs Amok | Jul 15th. at 12:29:37 am EDT
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William (Pictou Landing, Nova Scotia) - Email Me
Ok, so they change the name.... everyone who sees the statue is still going to associate it with Demeter now anyway.
"Oh what a lovely statue"
"Yeah, that's Demeter, but we aren't allowed to call her that"
morons
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| LMAO. | Jul 14th. at 8:45:52 pm EDT
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Amtehuti (Queens, Florida) - Email Me
The name that's replacing Demeter is just another title of Demeter. Unfortunately, Christians aren't exactly scholarly folk and will think the "evil Pagan influence" is gone while the rest of us poor heathens can sit back and laugh at the irony of it all.
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| Greco-Roman Imagery | Jul 14th. at 4:35:54 pm EDT
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NeferKa (Brookings, South Dakota) - Email Me
The image of the Goddess isn't meant to be worshipped. Greco-Roman imagery is used all the time to personify concepts; people used to understand that. Anyone who thinks that this statue should not be displayed should also agree that the Statue of Liberty shouldn't be in the public eye since it draws on the same type of iconography.
Furthermore, if having a statue that is inspired by the imagery of a Goddess makes the Christians worried that people will spontaneously start worshipping it (thus breaking a Commandment) , they probably have bigger problems to worry about first. The context is what matters. The statue is still going to stand, but the title is going to be changed. It still will be the image of Demeter, but the name is different, which I think insults the viewer. People should learn what the image symbolizes and understand how artists utilize images in order to convey ideas and meaning.
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| Context, People! Context! | Jul 14th. at 2:36:13 pm EDT
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NeferKa (Brookings, South Dakota) - Email Me
The artist, David Seagraves, chose the imagery based on classical mythology to personify agriculture, which is very important to the area. He did not make it as an idol to be worshipped, and I highly doubt that his particular brand of religion follows ancient Mediterranean Deities.
Why are these ministers getting all huffy about this? Can’t they take the context into consideration? Christians, for hundreds of years, have been using ancient Greco-Roman Gods in their artwork without Pagan intent, but now it’s a problem? They are leaving the statue, but the name has to be changed to, “Agriculture, Mother of Civilization.” How is this any better? Doesn’t this just allude to a Mother-Earth Goddess anyway? The artist doesn’t like the new title because “It’s spelling out the meaning a little too much,” and he hoped that viewers would be able to derive them meaning themselves without the new title.
Now I’m wondering if this would even be an issue if more people learned about classic mythology. People would then understand that when a Greek Goddess is found it art, it doesn’t always literally mean that “this is an idol and you have to worship it!” Or, perhaps, the art programs at school should be cut so quickly so citizens can have a little bit of understanding in the visual/tactile world and not be a bunch of uneducated people screaming about things they don’t comprehend.
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| Seems Reasonable. | Jul 14th. at 11:27:29 am EDT
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Aleyinn (Dundalk, Maryland) - Email Me
Truth be told, putting up a statue of a goddess on public land would indeed likely be an endorsement of religion, and prohibited by the First Amendment.
The name change seems likely to solve the problem, although the question might still persist whether it is religious in nature. I suppose that would depend on whether a case goes to the courts or not.
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