At least if you lived in ancient Rome.
Our raku pottery vase ‘Aurora’ tells the tale of a goddess with a powerful brother, a healthy appreciation for young mortal men, and an insect that is immune from even our modern pest control techniques.
Aurora was the goddess of the dawn and announced the coming of the sun each day. Her brother, Sol, who represented the Sun literally cast a shadow over her each morning.
Having a job with no days off must have made Aurora adopt a ‘work hard, play hard’ philosophy. Her empowered sense of her own sexuality made her a frequent topic of poets and writers – the tabloids of her time. Yes, even the double standard by which men and women’s sexual experiences are judged applied to the gods at this time.
One of her more famous lovers, Tithonus, was a prince of Troy. Aurora took a real shine to Tithonus and was beside herself that one day he would succumb to age and die.
Not wanting to lose her love and eager for the opportunity to spend an eternity with her mortal lover, Aurora decided to speak with Jupiter. She asked Jupiter to make Tithonus immortal, and he complied.
Aurora’s happiness at the opportunity to spend an eternity with her lover was short lived. Unfortunately for her, she forget to ask Jupiter to give Tithonus eternal youth to accompany his eternal life.
As time passed Tithonus continued to age and Aurora grew weary of being married to a once vital lover who could no longer lift his arms. I suppose she could have hired a nurse to care for him, but she had another solution in mind. She turned him into an immortal cicada.
I guess he was starting to bug her.
What do you think of our raku pottery vase ‘Aurora’ and the associated story? Please let us know in the comments below.
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