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You love Greek Mythology. I love Greek Mythology. Let’s keep the love flowing.
This weekend I have had a lovely visit to Washington, DC, where I visited a number of museums, including the spectacular African-American Museum of History and Culture. Highly recommended! However, it was at the nearby National Museum of American History that I saw this:
This was in an exhibit entitled ‘Pleibol,” and featured a wonderful array of materials having to do with the history of Latino baseball players in the United States.
As a devotée of Greek Mythology, I immediately thought of a moment from a Greek tale. Can you guess which one it would be?
Here we have a painting (2017) by the artist Reynerio Tamayo. It features the Virgin Mary and child in her aspect as La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, a title which refers to a miracle that happened in Cuba. This Mary is a kind of patron saint of Cuba, and Abreu is from Cuba, having overcome great obstacles to play baseball in the United States.
But what about the moment from the Greek myths? What stood out for me comes in the Iliad, Book 1.
Agamemnon, the top general of the Greek side of the Trojan War, has had to give back a captured woman (Chryseis) to her father (Chryse), who is a priest of Apollo and who asked Apollo to bring a plague on the Greeks as punishment for Agamemnon’s abduction of Chryseis. Agamemnon has been forced to give back Chryseis to forestall the plague.
In recompense, because he doesn’t want to lose face, Agamemnon takes away the captured woman (Briseis) of Achilles, who is the top warrior on the Greek side. This somehow makes up for the loss of Chryseis.
Achilles is furious and at a certain point determines to draw his sword and kill Agamemnon. But at that moment he is stopped by none other than the goddess Athena:
Grief came upon Achilles, and his heart was divided, whether he should draw his sharp sword and slay the son of Atreus, or stay his anger and curb his spirit. While he pondered this in mind and heart, and was drawing from its sheath his great sword, the goddess Athena came from heaven. Hera had sent her forth, for in her heart she loved and cared for both men alike.
Athena stood behind him, and seized Achilles by his blazing hair, appearing to him alone. No one of the others saw her. Achilles was seized with wonder, turned around, and immediately recognized Athena. Terribly her eyes shone. Then he addressed her: “Why now, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus, have you come? Is it so that you might see the arrogance of Agamemnon, son of Atreus? One thing I will tell you, and I think this will be brought to pass: through his own excessive pride shall he presently lose his life.
Translation abridged from here.
Athena convinces Achilles not to kill Agamemnon, promising him “three times” as many gifts as Agamemnon will get in the future.
Now in the painting, Mary is not restraining Abreu from doing something; in fact, she seems to guiding his bat and almost hitting for him. And the Christ child seems to be blessing Abreu on his batting helmet.
But there’s still that epiphany: the appearance of a divinity or immortal person in all her glory, there to help and guide a warrior whose weapon (a sword or a bat) is about to do damage. That Athena pulls Achilles hair back and not his sword is a beautiful touch, characteristic of the Iliad’s precocious virtuosity.
And I love the whimsical nature of the piece that comes out in the details: Mary’s expression is almost that of a fan anticipating the pitch coming to her favorite player, while Jesus is sporting a baseball cap! Altogether an exquisite rendering.
And on that note, I recommend the newsletter (subscription required, but not for the newsletter linked—scroll down to bullet point 3 for a terrific discussion of baseball) of the theologian and author David Bentley Hart, who feels baseball and Christianity (or indeed, the cosmos itself) are highly linked.
But maybe C was meant to stand for Cuba rather than Chicago? A thought, especially since red is the color of the Cuban national team hat.
Comment from reader Michael:
My interpretation is different. The logo in the right upper corner of the painting is the modern day “Sox” logo, but the Baby Jesus’s cap has a “C”. Sox caps have had “Sox” on them since 1912. From 1901-11 the team logo was a “C”: https://www.sportslogos.net/logos/list_by_team/1456/Chicago_White_Stockings/
The “C” that Baby Jesus’s cap most resembles is the Sox logo of 1906-7: https://www.sportslogos.net/logos/view/7149/Chicago_White_Sox/1906/Primary_Logo
So why might the artist Reynerio Tamayo have wanted to sport this logo on Baby Jesus’s cap? Politics, of course! In 1906, the government of the first Cuban president collapsed when he rigged an election to stay in power and the liberal candidate and his followers mounted a revolt (Wow, sound familiar?). Teddy Roosevelt stepped in to prevent civil war and established a provisional government that lasted until 1909, when a new election was fairly held and a new liberal government was formed.
The painting’s La Cachita (the affectionate name of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre) was made the patroness of Cuba in 1916, during the new government, and she wants to help Abreu swing his bat faster against today’s 100 MPH fastballs (which surprises her so!). But Baby Jesus, with his 1906 cap, is orating: “Hey, José, bless you, but don’t ever forget why you defected from Cuba to come to the USA--for freedom and free agency! America helped Cuba get a legit government at its beginning, and America helped you get PAID for being a great baseball player, just like Cespedes and Puig before you. Honor your homeland and your adopted land, give ten percent to the Church, and don’t forget José de la Caridad Méndez.”
During the 1906-9 US occupation of Cuba, there was international baseball. The Afro-Cuban pitcher José de la Caridad Méndez faced the visiting Cincinnati Reds in December 1908. In a three-game exhibition series, he pitched 25 consecutive scoreless innings, including a five-hit shutout in the last game!