When one thinks of sphinxes one normally thinks of Egypt. But the mythical creatures have settled in different parts of Europe. They often appear in twos.
This magnificent sphinx looks down from the top of the National Gallery in Edinburgh.
This more modern interpretation of a sphinx sits on Victoria Square in Birmingham.
Even more modern is this standing sphinx seen near the lake in Böblingen. Unfortunately, a victim of a bad paint job.
Sphinxes seem to be drawn to museums. This Art Nouveau specimen crowns the cupola of the Wiesbaden museum together with two non-sphinx companions.
And finally, this rather buxom beauty and its twin sit – of all places – in front of a tomb in a cemetery in Heidelberg.
Last week, I admitted to being a fan of Friedrich Schiller, today I want to show off the other half of the German poetic pair, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
He was a very prolific writer – he lived a long life and wrote defining works during quite a few of the literary epochs he lived through, from the Sturm und Drang (the rebellious pro-romantic youth movement), through the classic era to post-romanticism. He was also a natural scientist of renown. He studied law and worked as a minister at the court in Weimar. His literary works comprise poems, novels, essays and plays – he wrote THE definitive German play, Faust (part I and II – of which I still know parts by heart).
He was born in Frankfurt am Main and so it is no surprise that his face is seen in lots of places in the state of Hesse and in Frankfurt in particular.
The middle picture is not from Frankfurt but I found it in Teplice in the Czech Republic.
Werther
The plaque is a quote from the poem “Song of the Spirits over the Waters” and is translated as:
“Soul of man, how like to the water! Fate of man, how like to the wind!”
The mural is a quote from the novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” and the translation reads:
“Death, where is your sting? Love, where is your victory?”
And finally a photo of the sculpture in front of the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Wiesbaden, which I found really very weird. Just look at the face of a middle-aged Goethe on top of the body a much younger man who spends his time in the gym rather than be the bon vivant which Goethe was according to all that we know.
I’d rather end this post with another view of the Goethe and Schiller, the two friends.
This is the Russian-orthodox church on the Neroberg in Wiesbaden. We were there this weekend and the weather was just awful so I didn’t carry a camera. But even in the grey light of the late afternoon the golden domes of the spires were stunning. So here is a photo from a few years back and a promise that I will go back on a sunny day to take more photos.
pictures imperfect blog 