Another sculpture that captures the visitors’ imagination is the Glykon serpent.

The Glykon was a god-serpent from Roman mithology, whose cult was initiated by Alexander of Abonutichus, in the first century A.D. (according to Lucian of Samosata). The mithological importance of the serpent originates from ancient Macedonia, whose inhabitants believed the snakes are the symbols of fertility. Alexander the Great’s mother, Olympia, was a fervent worshipper of serpents and she even asserted that Alexander’s father was not Philip of Macedonia, but a god, transformed in a snake, that had spent a night with her.

The statue was discovered in an archaeological site in Constanta (the former ancient city Tomis), in 1962, together with other precious artifacts, such as a statuary group consisting from goddess Fortuna and demigod Pontos (a mythological figure of the Black Sea).

The statues dates from the second century A.D. and it was carved in a single block of marble, having a square shape and a side’s lenght of 66 cm. The snake is represented coiled, but it was calculated that it would be almost 5 m long. It has a lamb mouth and human hair and ears. This anthropomorphic representation can also be found in bronze statuettes of the Glykon serpent, found in Turkey or Greece.

Some say that, under various forms, the cult of the god-serpent has perpetuated to our days. In 1970, during a hunt near Inebolou (a Turkish town, situated in the South of the Black Sea), a friend of the Dutch historian Jona Lendering, recounts that the locals warned him about a mysterious snake. In 1993, the comics writer Alan Moore proclaimed himself magician and claimed he intended to revive Glykon’s cult, by building a shrine and mixing magical experiments to the use of soft drugs.

Constantin Brancusi tended to simplify the way reality was perceived through sculpture, but not all of his contemporaries followed the same path. Dimitrie Paciurea (1873 – 1932) also tried to evade the classic style, but he was more enclined towards surrealistic means of expression. After finishing the Arts and Craftmanship School in Bucharest, he went to Paris for studying sculpture (1896 – 1900). All the artistic influences there mixed and forged his creative personality, one that many considered out of date and even bizzare. His works included exterior sculptures, funerary monuments (that avoided observed rules as much as possible) and the Chimera series.

The Chimera series (which can be admired at the National Art Museum in Bucharest) is an example of his way of descending into the abyss of the unconscious. There are several sculptures (The Chimera of Air, The Chimera of Earth, The Chimera of Water, The Chimera of Night), different and similar, at the same time. Some consider that these creatures are artistic expressions of the fear, sorrow and trauma Paciurea experienced during the conflicts that marked the beginning of the XXth century. But, as true surrealistic works, an absolute explanation evades even the sharpest mind.

Author: Iulian Fira

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