The ancient and medieval world appears to be a complete mix of what would today be termed squalor with beliefs of the cosmic underworld.
In the Tintin scene from HB193, the disappearance of the sun would to the Incas be equated to the dire region of the underworld. As Kari Hohne delineates in Decoding the Night Sky, to Babylonians and other peoples the sun travelled round the sky, going into the underworld at night.
Night is the fertile time of copulation. Western myths, particularly Greek, have goddesses in diaphanous clothing - scant, like underwear.
According to Hohne, the Babylonian astrologers of the constellations were the precursors of later Greek myth, which the Greeks more-or-less refined. The sky was read as a cuneiform text by the shapes of the constellations.
The night-attire of goddesses relates the underworld to underwear. Night is the fertile time of copulation; it fertilizes the sky. These diaphanous maidens have a way of being deadly if caught. There is the famous painting of Diana and Actaeon by Titian (prev).
The fertile female body and the dire area of the underworld are linked by their underwear, and much the same might be said to apply to Red Sonja, particularly in Clair Noto's 'Red Lace' (prev.)
Where one sees a diaphanous goddess one might just glimpse the underworld as well. Remember the famous scene from Conan #16..
The ancients have a curious way of equating the sordid aspects of the body with both the deadly and the cosmic; Howard's classic tale carries all three off beautifully.
As Hohne says, the constellations carry cuneiform stories in their shapes, shapes which are visible at the nocturnal time of human fertility. The Greek gods embody those passions.
At the same time, the underworld is totally connected to the cosmos (even more in Egyptian glyphs). Proserpine (spring) spends six months of the year with Pluto in Hades before rejoining her mother Ceres (harvest).
This has the obvious meaning that the harvest emerges from the dormancy of winter from the cold earth. In a somewhat similar sense, the beautiful Venus is married to the greasy and ugly Vulcan in his vaults.
The mix of beauty with sordid din; of the fertile spring with the blighted winter; diaphanous maidens everywhere. Relating this to the sky, the nighttime is fertile and fertilizes the sky. The sordid situation is also strongly linked to death and decay (winter, Pluto.)
The reason for the revolutions has to be that the celestial sphere is s nighttime event; as Hohne says, Babylonian astrologers from 10,000 years ago gave the stories to the sky in cuneiform that the Greeks later developed.
To that way of looking at things, the night sky is a text written in stars and wandering stars (planets). It is connected to both female fertility and decay (the underworld.)
Our culture is very much the reverse: the fertile body and the underworld are nowhere. We look at the cosmos literally through perspective mirrors. This has the effect of putting the head (of acolytes) at a premium. Of course, the head is infertile. It has only ego.
In other words, the way we look at things very literally takes away the fertility of the cosmos - which includes the underworld - and its relation to diaphanous maidens in our culture.
In our universe, you (the observer) are the origin. Wherever you go in the universe you are viewing a perspective system with yourself as the origin.
This is what I tend to call the vanishing-point of technique, since the technical side of things (sun) approaches ones and zeros (algorithm.) This is the universe represented above all by electricity and spokespeople like Musk (of Mars.)
They are the origin of the universe and the it is made in their image - meaning the head or various forms of electromagnetic senses.
Outside of the head (of acolytes of the mirror of illusions) is the real universe with a real origin. Meaning the body, or anything that develops from an egg/seed
The real universe is fertile while the illusory one is infertile. From this perspective, perspective itself is just a good illusion that fools the head. While perspective appears to hold a lot of information, in reality it's just parallel lines and a vanishing-point.
It's useful, and is used in classical art, so long as the reality is there. So, what is that reality? Well, you could call it culture and nature in animation; the narrative myths of Titian or Turner; the erotic satyrs of Krenkel.
The myth needs anatomy and balance and proportion since this is the way things grow from an egg/seed. Life has an unreal aspect in that this animated miracle happens spontaneously.
Myths often illustrate erotic strength or athletic grace because this is the miracle that grows from an egg. The strength of myth is in its spontaneity of form. The unreal is made real (again.)
The night sky is a stockpile of Earth's myths - from the Feathered Serpent of the Incas to the morning sun or Venus of all men - for the reason that it is outside a perspective system.
If the universe can be thought of as growing spontaneously, the proportions of the night sky are a spontaneous occurrence that maps Earthspin (day and night.)
If one chooses not to believe in spontaneity, then one is left with a perspective system that looks real but has no origin apart from the head of the observer. The system continually approaches the vanishing-point of technique, which is where Musk&Co are determined to head for.
While pondering that over, have a listen to something that might just be a narrative myth (or urban myth)
