Canto XIV/4: Etna and Ida

Silkscreen page proof approved by the artist and signed / initialled by him, taken from the original Talford Press edition of 185, printed on 100% rag, acid-free Inveresk (Somerset) paper

page size 39.5 x 31 cm

1979 – 1983

The two mountains brought together here frame this Canto – Mount Etna at the beginning and the Cretan Mount Ida at the end, giving it a special symmetry. The first is pictured as a male mountain ejaculating fire, housing as it does the forge of Vulcan). The second is, as befits its name, cast as a female mountain in the shape of a breast to indicate its use by Cybele as a place of nurture for her son Jupiter.