Baubo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baubo is an old woman in Greek mythology who jested with Demeter when she was mourning the loss of her daughter Persephone. In his 'Greek Myths', Robert Graves writes that Demeter (in disguise) was the guest of King Celeus in Eleusis. The lame daughter of the King, Iambe, "tried to console Demeter with comically lascivious verses, and a dry nurse, old Baubo, persuaded her to drink barley-water by a jest: she groaned as if in great travail and, unexpectedly, produced from beneath her skirt Demeter's own son Iacchus, who leapt into his mother's arms and kissed her." (Robert Graves, The Greek Myths. (London: Folio Society, 1996) 2 Vols. Vol 1, p.92) Graves writes, "Iambe and Baubo personify the obscene songs, in iambic metre, which were sung to relieve emotional tension at the Eleusinian Mysteries; but Iambe, Demeter, and Baubo form the familiar triad of maiden, nymph, and crone. Old nurses in Greek myth nearly always stand for the goddess as crone." (p.96)

[edit] Baubo figurines

Figurines known as Baubos are found in a number of settings usually with Greek connections. Mass produced, they came in a number of styles but the basic figure always exposed the vulva in some way.

• A plump figure with her legs held apart gesturing to her exposed vulva.
• A naked splay legged figure riding a boar holding a harp.
• A naked headless torso with the face in the body and the vulva in the chin of the face.
• A seated figure with an exagerated vulva filling the space between the legs

The figures usually had elaborate headresses and some hold cups or harps. Some figures have a suspension loop moulded into the head which seems to indicate that they were suspended in some way possibly as some sort of amulet.

[edit] References

• Margaret Murray. "Female Fertility Figures" Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Vol. LXIV 1934

The following two books are mostly about medieval sexual sculpture but both have sections on Baubo's

• Anthony Weir & James Jerman, Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches 1986
• Dr Jørgen Andersen, The Witch on the Wall: Medieval Erotic Sculpture in the British Isles 1977

[edit] External links

Baubo in Clement of Alexandria's Exhortation to the Greeks The story of Babuo as related by Clement of Alexandria

Baubo figurines from the temple of Demeter at Priene Turkey Face in body type Baubo figurines.

Examples of Baubo figurines Anthony Weir's page on Baubo's