Chloe Cavender

The exhibition Ὄρχις looks at how certain bodily experiences and anxieties are outlined, through fragments, within ancient mythology and how those experiences have been passed on through history.

The word orchid comes from the Greek Ὄρχις (Órkhis), meaning either orchid or testicle. The word for the flower is derived from the word for testicle due to the tuberous shape of a wild orchid’s roots. In modern English, words like orchidectomy are still derived from the original Greek word for testicle.

In the Greek creation myth, Kronos gave his oppressive father Uranus an orchidectomy by castrating him with a sickle and throwing his genitals into the sea. His discarded genitals then formed a foam from which emerged the goddess Aphrodite.

Similarly, in ancient Rome, eunuch priests who worshipped the goddess Cybele held a festival on the day of the spring equinox where they would sever their own penis and testicles with sickles, in devotion to the Goddess, and then wear feminine clothes and jewellery for the rest of their lives.

One can make out connections being made in ancient cultures between ideas such as violence and beauty that we would usually expect to conflict. Why would bloody genital mutilation be the source of mythical beauty? Today, we can never fully understand the reasons that those associations were once made. We can only speculate based on our present day experiences.

Despite their origins being somewhat obscure, signs and symbols alluding to these ideas still exist today in our language and culture. Their existence suggests that perhaps our own encounters with the body might resonate with those from thousands of years ago. Equally, our conceptions of the body might change as we move forward, and there might be exciting changes to ahead.