Sacred & Profane

First of all, I would like to provide a shout-out to JoeBlow's new blog The Closet Professor.  Recently, he has been concentrating on classical mythology and how it applies to gay readers.  Check it out because I know that you will enjoy it as much as I do!

In his new blog, Joe references the Sacred and the Profane.  I would like to expound a little on that by providing you with a clip from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana:

And if you want the entire score instead of just an excerpt:

Carmina Burana (Orff)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images.") Carmina Burana is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes the cantata Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The best-known movement is "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (O Fortuna)" that opens and closes the piece.

Text

Orff first encountered the text in John Addington Symonds's 1884 publication Wine, Women and Song], which included English translations of 46 poems from the collection. Michel Hofmann, a young law student and Latin and Greek enthusiast, assisted Orff in the selection and organization of 24 of these poems into a libretto, mostly in Latin verse, with a small amount of Middle High German and Old Provençal. The selection covers a wide range of secular topics, as familiar in the 13th century as they are in the 21st century: the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of Spring, and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling and lust.

See also: Carmina Burana

Carved Phalli

Starting on a tangent, plurals can be so difficult!  Is the plural of phallus -- phalli or phalluses?  Is the plural of penis -- penes or penises? (Actually, all those plurals are acceptable -- take your choice.) Maybe I should have titled this post "Carved Cocks" or "Carved Dicks" as the slang words are more easily made plural.

Following up on my last post about amulets, which are often carved, I thought I would give you a sampling of some carved male organs of reproduction, and as you would expect they are erect.