We visited Capitol Park today, just for the exercise and to see the gardens before the end of the rose season. On the walk over, we just had to snap a photo of the city’s favorite controversial statue, Poseidon.
(Here’s a work semi-friendly shot from the rear, overlooking the Sacramento Convention Center.)
This guy was a gift from Greece about 30 years ago. I think he used have a trident pointed at the K Street Mall, until vandals took it.
Sacramento was one of the first communities in the country to adopt an ordinance requiring 2 percent of a budget for construction of local government projects to pay for public art. So a few years ago, a brouhaha over our Poseidon statue made many of us shake our heads. (The link is also work semi-friendly.)
Some Christian home-study convention took offense at Poseidon’s nudity. So they dressed him in a suit! The Convention Center let them do it because of the money the home-study convention was putting in the coffers.
(I'm not sure how they managed the suit, since the statue's feet don't leave their pedestal. Maybe they borrowed one of those Velcro-seamed tear-away suits, the kind Ch1ppendale dancers wear. Ouch - the irony of that thought!)
The city, acting lucidly about the matter, decided never to allow its public art to be covered again, and folks have respected the policy – except during playoffs, when Poseidon has been known to sport a purple Kings scarf.
Nice butt!
Posted by: jo | June 21, 2004 at 07:55 AM
I don't really mind nudity in public places. But I don't understand why they have to allow him to pole dance. Damn government. They'll do anything for revenue these days.
Posted by: Keith | June 21, 2004 at 10:05 AM
*rolls eyes*
I lived in a seedy part of Paris many years ago, from my bedroom window I could see a statue of a naked woman (can't remember who it was). I woke up one morning, opened the shutters to see that some wag had painted bright red bra, panties, garter and stockings on the statue. And it was so well done, beautifully detailled. If I'd known that all these years later I'd be blogging, I'd have taken pictures!
Posted by: Daisy | June 21, 2004 at 10:10 AM
The Decency of the Gods, Part I (The Short List)
Zeus: Castrated/killed his father Cronos, married his sister Hera. Courted Leda as a Swan, Europa as a bull and Danae as a shower of gold. Was responsible for Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter Iphegenia in order to prosecute the Trojan war (which led to Agamemnon's death at his wife's hands some ten years later). Persecuted Prometheus for giving fire to mortals by having an eagle gnaw at his liver for eternity.
Hera: Married her brother Zeus. Persecuted all his mortal lovers. Attempted to have Heracles killed as an infant by sending her snakes into his crib. Tricked Semele, mother of Dionysus, into making Zeus reveal himself as a god to her (which killed her right darn quick). Challenged Arachnae to a weaving contest and when she lost she turned Arachnae into a spider out of spite.
Artemis: When offended by Niobe's claims about how much she loved her children shot them down with her arrows one by one while mom watched. Turned Acaeton into a deer when he accidentally espied her bathing in her sacred pool and was subsequently run down and killed by his hounds.
Aphrodite: Married Hesphaestus (Vulcan) but constantly cheated on him with Ares. Offered Paris Helen of Sparta in exchange for being chosen as Most Beautiful Goddess.
Hades: Kidnapped Persephone and made her live underground for six months.
Isis: Yearly dismembered her brother/husband Osiris (including ther naughty bits) for reasons only Egyptians thought were valid.
Cybele: Middle-eastern mommy goddess who demanded her male priests castrate themselves as part of their initiation riutals.
Huitzipochtli: Demanded (and got) regular offerings of human hearts as part of a well-balanced divine diet.
Odin/Wotan: Dishonored every treaty he made, cheated on his wife and stood by and happily allowed Siegmund and Seglinde (brother and sister) to father Sigfried.
Yog-Sothoth, Cthulu and Azatoth: Have been conspiring for billions of years to enter our universe and devour it.
Posted by: Anthony | June 22, 2004 at 09:06 AM
Gracious. I feel a soap opera parody coming on.
Posted by: pam | June 22, 2004 at 09:19 AM