Come fly with me!

 

Feelin' it!

I've really begun to savor my freedom. It's so gratifying to plunk down my teacher's ID and seconds later be handed a ticket like the one on the left. See where it says "0 ft" (zero forints)? To me that translates as "100% freedom to choose how and when you wish to visit the museum". 

What's more: I discovered that although you have to check your bags (purses, backpacks, etc.), it doesn't mean you can't take anything into the museum. If you ask for it, the garment-check staff will give you a museum-issued cloth bag with shoulder straps that you can take into the exhibits with you. So, notebooks and pen case packed, and off I go! 

Sirens and Sphinxes and Harpies... Oh my!

Any time I go into a museum of ancient history, or to any ancient historical sight, I am fascinated by the ubiquitous images of winged humanoids. You name the culture -- anywhere in the world -- and a couple thousand years ago winged critters with human bodies or heads were part of their visual culture. The list just goes on forever: genies, fairies, gods, demons and (popular to this day!) angels. What's up with that? What kind of archetypical phenomenon is this?

Are you from around here, Buddy?

The case can by made that angels and spirits of the air are indistinguishable from aliens. They come from the sky. They are frightening to behold. Their appearance is accompanied by strange phenomena (lights, celestial music, sudden changes in weather), they have mysterious knowledge of the future and of things going on at a distance. They seem to be able to read minds. They appear and disappear in a flash. Aliens. 

Angels are messengers

The Greek word angelos means messenger, one who announces. It's used in the bible to translate the Hebrew malakhim, meaning messenger of God, a word that came into Hebrew during the Babylonian captivity. And the rabbit hole just keeps going deeper. Winged humanoids all the way down. 

I have brought a message for you!

It counts, to this day as one of the most intense, profound dream experiences of my life, which is saying something, since I've had some pretty intense ones over the 46 years I've been recording my dreams. 

I'm standing on the front steps of the red-brick, early twentieth century building housing my Catholic grade school (a building that, incidentally, doesn't exist anymore, except in my and others' astral world). There are condors circling overhead, riding the currents on their three-meter (12-foot) wingspans. One is slowly descending toward me, and the moment its talons touch the concrete platform right in front of me, it transforms into a tall, thin, elderly man with white hair and a full. long white beard. He tells me he has a message for me (what the message was and from whom it came I will not reveal here). Once he had delivered the message, he jumped in the air, became a condor again, and flew off. 

It's the sort of dream you wake up from with your mouth agape, certain that you have been contacted from beyond. 

In the scriptures of Abrahamic religions and literature of the world, visitations from angels, and mythical beings often took place in dreams or "visions" (define that as you will). 

On this particular visit to the temple of the muses, I took note of just how many objects depicted winged humanoids in this, relatively small collection: more than two dozen. 

Take this Corinthian pyxis from around 580 BC. These appear to be sphinxes, creatures who, in ancient mythologies guarded sacred sites by testing the worthiness of those seeking entrance. 

Or this Etruscan kyathos (ladle) from around 500 BC. 

And then we have this Etruscan wine jug from around 500 BC. The figure on this one is identified as Eros. Ah! The wings of love!

On this Corinthian krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), you can see what, to my eye, are sirens (sirens are attractive, harpies are ugly and terrifying). 

And then there's this display of various winged humanoid sculptures.

Wings are the power to move between levels, between dimensions. The heavens are full of divine and semi-divine beings. In our dreams, sometimes we can fly. Sometimes we flap our arms like wings in these dreams. In Egyptian symbolism, the sun disk has wings. 

What do you think when you see a human figure with wings?