Divine cannibalism

This picture is “Saturn devouring his son” by Peter Paul Rubens, painted in 1636.

01 saturn-devouring-his-son-1636-oil-on-canvas-peter-paul-rubens

The Greek myth tells of Chronos, who in Roman mythology became Saturn. He learned that one of his children would overthrow him, so he ate each one as they were born. His wife hid Zeus, who of course did eventually overthrow Chronos to become king of the gods, and she replaced him with a stone. This painting presumably represents one of the less stoned siblings.

saturn-devouring-his-son-goya

Almost 200 years later, in his Black Paintings, Francisco Goya shows the same divine cannibal god as nightmare and psychopath, and the victim as a bleeding, barely recognisable figure, neither human or god, but clearly animal in content. There is evidence that, in the original version, Goya gave Saturn a partially erect phallus, implying that cannibalism is, at least in the divine realm, apparently something of an aphrodisiac.

Good to know even gods can be cannibals.

2 thoughts on “Divine cannibalism

  1. Hey! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I truly enjoy reading your articles. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics? Thanks a lot!

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  2. Matthew Schwartz's avatar Matthew Schwartz

    Driven by envy, even the God’s own children cannot be spared from their brutal fate. The anxiety of his retirement as ruler drove him to consume them, probably in a thought of having more power as inside of him were new-born kings with great power, isn’t it why he thought that; in the future, soon will be overshadowed by his own creation? No denial, that he seemed to enjoy cannibalism, enjoying the power that he has, the pleasure in Saturn was very much visible. Reference to the erect phallus. Nightmare fuel the second painting was, it was the perfect composition of what Saturn did to his creations.

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