Saturn Devouring His Son is a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It is traditionally interpreted as a depiction of the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus (known as Saturn in Roman mythology) eating one of his offspring. Fearing a prophecy foretold by Gaea that predicted he would be overthrown by one of his children, Saturn ate each one upon their birth. The work is one of the 14 so-called Black Paintings that Goya painted directly on the walls of his house sometime between 1819 and 1823. It was transferred to canvas after Goya's death and is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Goya depicts a large figure feasting on a human form. The figure's head and part of the left arm have already been consumed. The right arm has probably been eaten too, though it could be folded in front of the body and held in place by the larger figure's thumbs. The larger figure is on the point of taking another bite from the left arm; as he looms from the darkness, his mouth gapes and his eyes bulge widely. The only other brightness in the picture comes from the white flesh, the red blood of the corpse, and the white knuckles of the larger figure as he digs his fingers into the back of the body.

Various interpretations of the meaning of the picture have been offered: the conflict between youth and old age, time as the devourer of all things, the wrath of God and an allegory of the situation in Spain, where the fatherland consumed its own children in wars and revolution.

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  • vertexarray [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Genesis seems to put humans at the pinnacle of existence. But how would its authors handle humanity's place in creation if humans had to coexist with a civilization of smarter, more cohesive, more technologically advanced beings? Would we worship or revile them? Presumably Genesis would be a completely different document if our "superiors" took it upon themselves to instruct us of our place? Even if we rejected their dominion and attempted to write Genesis, it would have to make mention of these other beings?

    These questions are almost certainly unanswerable

    • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      You know Israel repeatedly got owned by civilizations with better technology, stronger social organization, and more developed knowledge of the world around them, right? Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and later Rome. They literally wrote genesis down while in captivity in Babylon. Perhaps you mean a different species specifically, but your question is basically answered by the book itself. God favors us, specifically His chosen people the Jews.

      • vertexarray [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        hahahahah holy shit you're right lol

        tome of cope

    • PaperCarot [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      These questions are almost certainly unanswerable

      They literally already answered this though. The Nephilim were essentially giant half-man half-angels who could do magic and were better than humans in every conceivable way. They got labeled as evil because they didn't worship god and they eventually went extinct. Except for like a few that survived and showed up at various points in the bible.

      I highly doubt a religious tradition about having your homeland destroyed and then being forced to wander the world for 2000 years couldn't find some explanation.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        From what I recall nephilim are based on like a line or two in the Hebrew bible and the more developed lore about them was made up much, much later.

        • PaperCarot [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Whether or not it was made up earlier they certainly existed in folklore when it was written.

          It's like how angels are a common concept in most ancient semetic religions while the exact hierarchies and properties for Judaism were written later.