So, I don’t really like just praying off into the air. I like to have a depiction or a statue or something. My shrine to Aphrodite features a framed photo of William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s La Naissance de Vénus, which I think is beautiful, powerful, and erotic–in short, perfect for the goddess. But I just can’t find a picture or painting of Dionysus that really captures the power, passion, and majesty that have surrounded my experiences with him. I am not sure what to do about this, because I feel like my relationship with the god is suffering because I find it difficult to pray to him, compared to Aphrodite–her shrine makes her much more accessible to me.
Also, the Judeo-Christian sin of “idolatry” is basically a Hebrew polemic. Nobody really actually thinks that the image of the god is in fact the god (except for pantheists and panentheists who believe their god(s) permeate everything and thus the image is a part of their god like everything else is, but that is not actually the same thing). In my opinion, Biblical condemnations of idolatry were a willful misrepresentation of the religious practices of ancient pagans–basically amounting to nothing more than religious propaganda, deliberately obscuring the subtleties in order to condemn and other-ize.
Sailing to Byzantium 
Hail, fellow idolator! Here are a couple of images that resonate for me…
1. I’ve seen this statue in person, and it is very impressive… one thing you don’t see in this picture is that at each corner of the little courtyard it sits in is a statue of a prowling panther. If you ever go to Myrtle Beach, SC, check it out.
2. This print by Ivy Izzard. She has a whole series of Olympians, but this is the only one I actually like at all – and I find it very powerful and evocative.
I have postcards of both of these in my shrine.
I am inclined to think that the Jewish prophetic critique of sacred images has a lot to do with the religion’s roots in a nomadic culture where you can’t cart a lot of stuff around. (There is a satirical story in the book of Genesis where Rachel, one of the wives of Jacob, steals her family’s household gods, sits on them, and claims she can’t get up because she’s menstruating. Haw haw, bloody idols!) On the other hand, much of the prophetic literature of the Tanakh critiques the priestly obsession with ritual correctness at the expense of ethics. If you read some of the descriptions of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, and of Solomon’s temple in Kings/Chronicles, there are plenty of sacred images, just not one of YHWH specifically.
I personally love this painting of baby Dionysos/Bacchus riding a little baby leopard:
The painting is by Franz von Stuck (1863-1928).
I am a fan of this one here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bacchus_(painting).jpg
Though, I think it was originally supposed to be st. john the baptist… But later was redone to be Bacchus…
I was curious and did a google image search and found this painting of a young Bacchus by Angela Reilly:
http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Artwork_Detail.asp?G=&gid=424200064&which=&ViewArtistBy=online&aid=424732468&wid=424971231&source=artist&rta=http://www.artnet.com
Hypatia, the Da Vinci one is probably the best I have seen, and the closest to what I have in mind.
Yeah, the da Vinci does look like a classic Baptist-in-the-Wilderness, doesn’t it?
Here’s the scoop on Hypatia’s painting – they do think it’s based on a da Vinci drawing for a John the Baptist, but executed by someone else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchus_(Leonardo)
Perhaps Bacchus was hiding in the painting all along… until someone let him out. 🙂
I put these images together for the same reason. I seem to have divided the camp on Apollo, but the rest most people seem to agree with.
Olympians Photo Gallery:
http://sites.google.com/site/michelgdaw/Home/the-seminary-at-ár-ndraíocht-féin/the-dedicant-program/the-third-triad-of-druidic-teachingthe-three-rituals/patrons/the-olympians-photo-gallery