Category: At The Seams
-
The Fan
The fan is about as old as civilization itself. Sometimes it is said it is “as old as hot weather itself.” Found in the 14th-century BC Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb were eight fans, which in ancient Egypt were called “shuwt” to mean shadow or shade, and “seryt” to mean a royal or military standard. The…
-
Androgyny
It is said that Hermaphrodite, the child of Aphrodite and Hermes, was born so remarkably beautiful that the freshwater nymph Salmacis forced herself upon him in order to keep him forever. This androgynous boy of a woman’s body with male genitals had long symbolized for the ancient Greeks and Romans erotic love, passion, and lust. …
-
Attar of Roses
These perfumes: musk, clove… all from the hyacinthine shadows of those tresses. You think you hear a nightingale’s song… No. It is the voice of the Rose. – Fakhruddin Iraqi (1213 – 1289), Divine Flashes A classic theme within the Persian artistic tradition is that of the rose and the nightingale: the rose representing the…
-
Roses of the Orient
The Persian poet Sheikh Saadi Shirazi in 1258 wrote The Gulistân, or Rose-Garden, whose leaves, as he said, “cannot be touched by the tyranny of autumnal blasts, and the delights of whose spring the vicissitudes of time will be unable to change into the inconstancy of autumn.” Saadi told how, after spending the night in…
-
Lapis Lazuli
More than four millennia ago, the high priestess Enheduanna, daughter to the Akkadian King Sargon, wrote in Ezagin, the House of Lapis Lazuli: “O Ezagin, house of lapis lazuli, bright like the stars of heaven, welcoming shrine in Eresh! All primeval lords look up to you every month. The great Nanigbal, Nisaba, brought down divine…
-
The Spice Trail
In this legendary tale of the Wedding of Andromache and Hektor, the Greek poet Sappho wrote of “myrrh and cassia and frankincense rode on the wind” to perfume the streets of Troy. As early as the 7th century BC, Far Eastern spices had already found their way to ancient Greece. For centuries, Arab merchants controlled…
-
Porcelain
The word “porcelain” appeared some time during Middle Age Europe. At first it seemed to have been applied to rare pieces of artistry in carved shell or mother-of-pearl, because their white pearly surface recalled the sheen of the cowrie or Venus-shell, called by the Italians “Porcellana.” When Marco Polo published his account of China in…
-
The Tea Route
Between the 1850s and 1870s, the clipper ships were the marvel darlings of the maritime trade route that brought tea from China to Britain. From the port of Canton, these magnificent vessels traveled over 16 thousand miles, crossing the Indian Ocean toward Cape of Good Hope on South Africa’s southern tip before heading north along…
-
Journey to the West
Buddhist books arrived in China during the first century AD. From these books, the Chinese learned of the Buddha and became familiar with the names of the sacred places he had consecrated by his presence. Over time, new converts who desired to learn more of their religion risked the peril of travel to visit the…
-
The Heavenly Steed
More than two millennia ago, the Han people knew of the Horse of Heaven from far to the west of China. It came from Ta Yuan, ancient Ferghana, the Chinese equivalent for a local name for Greeks or Ionians, “Yavan”, which was described by Zhang Qian, China’s pioneer in Western Asia, as a land where…
hardlyplaying.blog 