The Symplegades

The Symplegades, 2011. 6' x 8'. Acrylic, oil stick, pencil on cardboard.

Inspired by Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece aboard the Argo this painting depicts the passage through the narrow straits of the Bosphorus at a place called the Clashing Rocks. These cliffs, the Symplegades which were also called the Cyanean Rocks, would come booming together and demolish any ship careless enough to try passage. The Argonauts were saved from this harrowing fate by Phineas who told them to release a dove into the thoroughfare. If the bird of peace made it past the crags then they should row like madman.

Please, please, please:


As they made their approach to the rock-ribbed walls they set the dove into the air between them. The bird made it through, losing only a few tail feathers. The crew of the bold Agro paddled fast as they could and lost only a piece of the stern to the smashing stone landmass. With a bit of help from the divine the rocks were set steadfast never to move again.

The three black shapes at the top represent the tail feathers of the dove. The motif can be seen repeated in the bottom of the image where they become oars. The two black rocks on either side clamp the edges of the painting.

Lord Byron wrote of this same rocky outcropping at the end of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:

And from the Alban Mount we now behold

Our friend of youth, that ocean, which when we

Beheld it last by Calp's rock unfold

Those waves, we follow on till the dark Euxine roll'd

Upon the blue Symplegades …