There is something irresistible about magic, about legends associated with sorcerers and wizards, especially when it comes to the wizard Merlin, who had a powerful influence when it came to the affairs of the legendary King Arthur and his court in the country of Whales. Merlin, whose Gaelic name is Myrddin, has his exploits narrated in Geoffrey of Monmouth's book of circa 1136. Geoffrey of Monmouth's book was popular, and was inspired by a character of the fifth century, Ambrosius Aurelianus, who was said to have lost his mind after witnessing the horrors of war, and who had taken refuge from civilization to become a wild man of the woods. The writer Nikolai Tolstoy ( 1935 ) who is now the head of the family of Leo Tolstoy ( 1828 - 1910 ), the Russian writer famous for his novels " War and Peace ", and " Anna Karenina ", has a hypothesis that Merlin was in fact a real historical person, a druid from Southern Scotland. The name of Merlin has a long standing cultural and historical fascination.
The 6th of February Kurt Lolo of Lolo Pics shared a photograph of the eye of the cat of his friend and nature photographer Chamy Tout Court, the founder of the group Merv, Montagne, Nature. The name of the cat is Merlin, so it is really cool the idea of the eye of the cat Merlin, since cats also have a long history of lore and mythology in human culture. The mystical attraction of cats goes back to ancient times, there is evidence of that in drawings of them found in prehistoric cave art. The ancient Egyptians worshipped cats, and had the cultus of Bastet, the goddess of love and fertility, who had the body of a woman and the head of a cat. Cats were protected and enjoyed freedom and respect, because every cat was seen as a representation of the goddess Bastet. In Central America, the jaguar was venerated as a god in the Olmec culture from 1500 B.C. to 400 B.C. and by the Mayan culture of 2000 B.C. to 1697 A.D. and were associated with war and power. The Aztec culture from 1300 A.D. to 1521 A.D. was also known for its cultus of the jaguar, and had an elite military unit of jaguar warriors, that wore uniforms made of the jaguar's fur and attributes, in order to inspire fear in their enemies. In Islam, the cat is venerated as a clean animal, and for having been a preferred animal to the prophet Muhammad. In the Near East, the tradition of protection and worship of cats goes back to the XIII th century in Syria, where the Egyptian sultan Baibars had a garden and veterinary hospital built for cats. In Norse mythology, Freya, the goddess of love and fertility, was associated with cats, and cats were under her protection, as they could be called upon to assist the goddess. In South and South - East Asia, Birmese cats were seen as the incarnations of the sacred Kittah, monks of an ancient religion and so they were protected. Siamese cats were considered the incarnations of dead souls, especially the souls of dead kings, and Siamese cats were invited to live in the royal palace and lived a life of luxury until their death. The European Middle Ages on the other hand, saw cats as reincarnations of evil, of the devil, and cats were persecuted with brutality and vengeance, by a decree by Pope Gregory IX, which led to the virtual elimination of cats, and it is thought now that the terrifying Black Plague, the Black Death of Europe that killed between 30 to 60 % of the then known world population of the XIV th century and reduced it from 450 million to between 350 and 375 million people, was so catastrophic because there were no cats to kill the rats. In Japan there is the legend of the Bakeneko cats that are supposed to have supernatural powers. The Bakeneko start out as regular cats, and after they reach the age of 12 or 13, they start walking upright like a person, and start speaking and understanding the language of humans. Cats have a rich and varied history in culture, and Kurt Lolo honours cats with his magnificent photograph of Merlin's eye.
Cats have eyes that are quite unique, as they have a third eyelid, that is called a nictating membrane, like birds and reptiles and certain mammals, among them cats. These nictating membranes are either transparent or translucent, and protect the animal's eye from debris and dryness, and can cover the eye. The photo of Kurt Lolo shows the eye of the cat Merlin as an emerald polished jewel, a pupil of a clear bright green, that is at the center like a dazzling gem, surrounded by the cat's green - yellow iris that gives the impression of a slightly troubled water. The pupil is like a drop of emerald that opens our view of the world, of which Kurt Lolo has said : " I see the universe, deep in space, deep in his eye. " As a matter of fact, the brilliant and shiny emerald pupil of Merlin seems to show the stars, the lights of galaxies deep in space. It is a very unique photo, I have seen hundreds of photographs of cats' eyes, of all colours of cats' eyes, and this photo of Kurt Lolo is striking in the beauty of its composition and colour. It is a magnificent example of the intellectual, visual and aesthetic idea of the macro cosmos that is reflected in the micro cosmos.
Trudi Ralston
The research on the importance of the legendary personage of Merlin, as well as the research on the importance and the history of the cat, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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