LERNAEANSTROUTHION

LERNAEAN STROUTHION by

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LERNAEAN STROUTHION OR THE OSTRICH OF LERNA

Lernaean Strouthion is a sculpture extracted from an Axel King painting. The image has been submitted by one of the users of the website (www.axelking.com) and selected by The

Leroy Brothers to use for the creation of a new art installation.

The Leroy Brothers use their imagination and their wikilligence (knowledge gathered from wikipedia) for the creation of the installations. The initial subject (here, the ostrich putting

his head through a hole in the ground) comes from crowdsourced input. The artists create connections between the subject and the existing world.

Axel King painting Selected object = the ostrich + head Extraction of the ostrich + head

3D software translation

Sculpture

FOR EACH HEAD CUT OFF TWO MORE WILL GROW如果你剪去一个头，将会有两个头冒出来

Lernaean HydraFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Greek mythology, the Lernaean Hydra (Greek: Λερναία Yδρα (help·info)) was an ancient nameless serpent-like chthonic water beast (as its name evinces) that possessed nine heads

— and for each head cut off it grew two more — and poisonous breath so virulent even her tracks were deadly. The Hydra of Lerna was killed by Hercules as one of his Twelve Labours.

Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, though archaeology has borne out the myth that the sacred site was older even than the Mycenaean city of Argos since Lerna was the site of

the myth of the Danaids. Beneath the waters was an entrance to the Underworld, and the Hydra was its guardian.

The Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna (Theogony, 313), both of whom were noisome offspring of the earth goddess Gaia.

Contents [hide]

1 The Second Labour of Heracles

2 Constellation

The Second Labour of Heracles

Upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelt, Heracles covered his mouth and nose with a cloth to protect himself from the poisonous fumes. He fired flaming ar-

rows into its lair, the spring of Amymone, a deep cave that it only came out of to terrorize neighboring villages. He then confronted it, wielding a harvesting sickle (according to some early

vase-paintings) or a sword. Ruck and Staples (1994: 170) have pointed out that the chthonic creature’s reaction was botanical: upon cutting off each of its heads he found that two grew

back, an expression of the hopelessness of such a struggle for any but the hero, Heracles. The weakness of the Hydra was that only one of its heads was immortal.

The details of the struggle are explicit in Apollodorus (2.5.2): realising that he could not defeat the Hydra in this way, Heracles called on his nephew Iolaus for help. His nephew then came

upon the idea (possibly inspired by Athena) of using a burning firebrand to scorch the neck stumps after each decapitation. Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus cauterized the open

stumps. Its one immortal head Heracles placed under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius (Kerenyi 1959:144), and dipped his arrows in the Hydra’s poisonous blood,

and so his second task was complete. The alternative to this is that after cutting off one head he dipped his sword in it and used its venom to burn each head so it couldn’t grow back.

Heracles later used an arrow dipped in the Hydra’s poisonous blood to kill the centaur Nessus; and Nessus’s tainted blood was applied to the Tunic of Nessus, by which the centaur had his

posthumous revenge. Both Strabo and Pausanias report that the stench of the river Anigrus in Elis, making all the fish of the river inedible, was reputed to be due to the Hydra’s poison,

washed from the arrows Heracles used on the centaur.

Heracles & the Hydra, Paestan black-figure hydra

C6th B.C., J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu

HERACLESCOVEREDHIS MOUTHAND NOSEWITH A CLOTH TOPROTECT HIMFROM THEPOISONOUS FUMES

为了避免吸入有毒的烟雾,

HERACLES 戴上

防护口罩工作

When Eurystheus, the agent of ancient Hera who was assigning The Twelve Labours to Heracles, found out that it was Heracles’ nephew Iolaus who had handed him the firebrand, he

declared that the labour had not been completed alone and as a result did not count towards the ten labours set for him. The mythic element is an equivocating attempt to resolve the

submerged conflict between an ancient ten Labours and a more recent twelve.

Constellation

Mythographers relate that the Lernaean Hydra and the crab were put into the sky after Heracles slew them. In an alternative version, Hera’s crab was at the site to bite his feet and bother

him, hoping to cause his death. Hera set it in the Zodiac to follow the Lion (Eratosthenes, Catasterismi). When the sun is in the sign of Cancer, the crab, the constellation Hydra has its

head nearby.

Lernaean Strouthion

Symbolic

In analogy to the Greek Lernaean Hydra, the Lerneaen Strothion produces (grows) two more sculptures (heads) each time a sculpture (head) has been sold (cut off).

Hercules (the artist) fights against a beast (art market) with nine heads (the products, the sculptures) with a deadly breath (art bubbles). The demand on the art market rises when a

sculpture is sold out. Therefor it needs to generate new editions, which, as a consequence, raises the value of the previously produced sculptures.

The original Lernaean Strouthion possesses 9 heads. Similar to the mythology, each of them is multiplied by two when sold.

Morality

The ostrich technique is the technique used to hide yourself when a problem occurs. While hoping that the problem will be solved by itself, it mostly engraves the situation. The sculpture

symbolizes that for each existing problem, not one, but several solutions are possible when thinking creatively.

THE SECOND LABOUR OF HERACLES: KILL THE HYDRAHERACLES 的第二项工作：杀死水螅

1st edition 2nd edition 3rd edition 4th edition

The body is produced in a series of 8 + 2 artist proofsThe 9 heads are produced in a series of 4 + 2 artist proofs

1/4

2A/4

2B/4

3Aa/4

3Ab/4

3Ba/4

3Bb/4

4Aaa/4

4Aab/4

4Aba/4

4Abb/4

4Baa/4

4Bab/4

4Bba/4

4Bbb/4

1/8

The editions

IOLAUS HANDED THE FIREBRAND TO SCORCH THE NECKSIOLAUS 用氩弧焊烧焊鸵鸟的脖子

ONE PROBLEM OFFERS MANY SOLUTIONS一个问题提供了许多解决方案

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