The Mixoparthenos - Siren

 
"Siren, Bronze, Italian (Rome), ca. 1570-90.  
The Metropolitan Museum of Art



 

 
The Mixoparthenos (Greek: Μιξοπάρθενος) was a Greek mythological figure,  traditionally hailing from the Black Sea region where her image is seen frequentl. The name means "half-maiden" .

The form of the Mixoparthenos is distinctive - above the waist, a beautiful woman, but covered with scales from waist down, ending in a double snake-tail. Some versions have the Mixoparthenos ending in a double fish-tail. Herodotus's Histories (4.9.2), Heracles marvels at a Mixoparthenos when he meets one, and mates with her, producing three sons, the youngest of which eventually became the founder of the Scythian nation. 
 
The Starbucks logo depicts a Mixoparthenos, of the double fish-tailed variety.

The Mixoparthenos

The mixoparthenos is a mythical creature whose image, to this day, is seen in the coastal areas around the Greek colonies of the Black Sea, where wheat has been a major crop since ancient times.  

Herodotus writes that the horses of Heracles was stolen by the mixoparthenos, who promised to return them if he mated with her.  How could Hercules resist!  From their union came three sons, the youngest, Scythes, the only son who could bend the bow of Hercules.  He became king of the people who would be called Scythian. There were many Scythian wheat growers around the Black Sea. 

Limestone sculpture, 1st-2nc. AD, from the Black Sea.”
From the land of the wheat growing Scythians along the Black Sea, Olbia.

Triskeltion

"In Sicily, the first inhabitants mentioned in history are the tribes of the Sicani (Greek Sikanoi) and the Sicels (Greek Sikeloi), who have given Sicily its more familiar modern "The symbol dates back to when Sicily was part of Magna Graecia, the colonial extension of Greece beyond the Aegean. Pliny the Elder attributes the origin of the triskelion of Sicily to the triangular form of the island, the ancient Trinacria. The triskelion was revived, as an emblem for the new Napoleonic Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, by Joachim Murat in 1808.

                  

 The center head, complete with snakes for hair, is that of Medusa.

In an earlier blog for Sicilia Bedda. sung by Giuseppe di Stefano.

explains the consonant shift from D to L  to change Medus to Melusina

Melusine Image in Commerce

Here is the evolution of the entirety of the Starbuck's logo's history, from 15th century engraving, to its initial rendering, to the logo following the merger of Starbucks and Il Giornale, and finally, to its present-day return back to the original. 

A) Engraving of a twin-tailed siren (15th century); B) First Starbucks logo (1971 - 1987); C) Il Giornale logo; D) Merging of Starbucks and Il Giornale (1987 - 1992); E) Redesigned Starbucks logo (1992 - today); F) Current Starbucks logo, a revival of the original 

 

 

Melusina - Carthusia Perfumes Logo - Capri

This whimsical beauty is a wonderful example of  the  image of the melusina in her commercial guise.

Melusines Around The World

Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folkore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers. 

Basilique St-Julien-de-Brioude

Melusines Around The World

Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folkore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.

  
Bicaudal spandrel intruder with headed tails, from the facade of Notre Dame la Grande in Poitiers, France

Melusines Around The World

Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folkore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.

 

St-Pierre de la Bouïsse, St-Côme-d'Olt (Lot (Olt) Valley)

Gorgon-Medusa Anse - The British Museum

A Gorgon-Medusa anse (handle) the British Museum, similar to the massive handle of the Vix Krater in Chatillon-sur-Seine, Burgundy. 

   photo: Terry Stanfill

Although I've always thought that the Vix Krater's Gorgon-Medusa, with her snake legs split to wrap around the vessel, was melusina in her "dark" aspect. It was only recently that I was struck with the similartiy of the two names, Medusa and Melusina. If the D is removed from Medusa and L substituted we have melus--to which the suffix ina or ine is added to mean "little." From my understanding of southern Italian dialect, it occurred to that there's a consonantal shift here--from the d to the L--fairly common in the southern Italian dialects. 

i.e. Sicilia bedda,. for Sicilia Bella

 

Giuseppe di Stefano, Sicilia Bedda

Hermes Scarf with Ceres Image

Melusina from Vézelay

Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folkore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers. 

About 1050 the monks of Vézelay began to claim to hold the relics of Mary Magdalene, brought, they related, from the Holy Land either by their 9th-century founder-saint, Badilo, or by envoys despatched by him.  Stone carving,  eleventh century.  

 

Melusines Around The World

Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folkore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.


Capital, Romanesque Church of  St-Pierre de Bessuéjouls   Mid Pyrennees, France  built at the end of the eleventh century.

(This is one of the earliest I've come across, The melusina in the mosaic floor at Otranto is later, 12th century.)

Melusine (or Melusina) is a figure of European legends and folkore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.

Bicaudal beauty with comb and mirror and asymmetric hair.

 photo © Günter Endres

She is to be found at Cartmel Priory Church in

in Lancashire.