Charon and Cerberus Waiting Along Via Stygiana Painting

Charon and Cerberus Here is the story that this painting tells…. At the end of the Age of Greece, quite a few years after the Golden Age of Athens and Sparta, the Greeks found themselves not only conquered, but abandoned of depths of their spiritual knowledge. Akin to the burning of the Library of Alexandria. A great loss. Their stories and tales, and even their gods, usurped and reprocessed by their conquers. When the wars were over, the core control that they had – Death and Hades – was left somehow happily intact. The Stygian river and its dark eternal access codes were still theirs to protect. To their surprise (like forgotten gold hidden under the bed and still retained, now remembered) they still had control of both. Only the Romans did not know this. They spoke of Elysium and all the old stories that somehow would not go away. The River Styx became the “Fiume Alpheus,” and the Romans thought that they were the ones who made it all up. However, no Roman ever entered the afterworld without the assistance and protection of two very old Greek protectors of the underworld: Charon and Cerberus. Charon ferried the worthy across the river Styx to the dark portal of Hades Cerberus destroyed the unworthy before they could ever even hope to enter After the destruction of Rome, 14 centuries later, Charon and Cerberus suffered through the godless Celtics, Judeo-Christians, and finally Muslims. They survived the decent into the great European ages of darkness, Eastern times of enlightenment, and Mesoamerican mystical explosions. But through all of this, they toiled on. Always ferrying souls who deserved to enter, protecting the underworld from those who should never dare to try. Nothing had changed. Hades remained intact. They were still alive. Death was always. The River Styx was always – like the Po, Danube, Nile or Indus or Ganges, Amazon, Yangtze or even Mississippi and especially the underground rivers of the Yucatan - still there. For centuries they toiled in darkness along the fetid waters of the River Styx as the world shifted ever westward. By 1452, after the Italian renaissance arrived, Charon and Cerberus felt it was finally safe enough to rise up into the light. They percolated up through ancient Etruscan caves in central Italy and found a place above ground. They pulled the Hadean portal out of darkness to the crisp sweet sunshine light of a steep street descending from the city of Perugia, high on a hilltop in the center of the ochre Umbrian landscape. The name of the street was Via Stygiana. Too old to ferry, Charon sits on a stone seat next to the great portal, already anticipating for the next traveler as a recent arrival enters the darkness. He holds his cane with anticipation and waits yet again. Above him, rising from the depths, the stygian waters, leaping for air - like fish in the sea, only for a moment – flow back down into the deadly fountain. [the irony here is that the sign says: “Water is not drinkable,” but only those traveling through the portal to die will ever have the chance to drink it] Meanwhile, the three headed Cerberus stands watch guarding in all directions. Symbols: • Awning – the candy of life. The 9 stripes represent the 9 children of the first American generation of Family Mangiardi • Falling grape ivy – the fecundity of life that goes on after we are gone • Shadow Man – the most recent soul to enter the portal • Stone façade – the hard candy of lives lived. Solid lasting memorials to legacies of those who have lived and loved and died and passed with approval though the portal • No 52 – The year I first began the original painting that my third wife later threw into a trash container. Also the year 1452, when they felt safe to come to earth • Via – the River Styx • Tablet – Early Acadian cuneiform writing affirming the authority of the old man from Styx. Hammurabi code. • Upper left: “Why?” • Mid and lower left: “Alpha and Omega” (pre-Greek) • Right top: “John Mangiardi” signature • Mid right: “Charon” • Lower right: “Hammurabi”

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:48 W x 36 H x 2.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.