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A Masque for Minerva
5th April 2016 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
€10
Dublin Shakespeare Presents
Minerva commands the revels in this light-hearted Masque in the Elizabethan style.
To mark the 400th Anniversary of the death of Shakespeare, the Goddess Minerva summons up some of the fun, the beauty and the pathos in the writings of the greatest dramatist of his own or any other age.
“THE PLAY’S THE THING.”
This unique Dublin event will include excerpts from Shakespeare plays and poetry, with dance and musical accompaniment to mark the 400 anniversary of the death of the Bard.
Seating will be limited to 400.
Since its inception in 1731, the Royal Dublin Society has grown from a small gathering of visionaries into one of Ireland’s most influential bodies.
Through the Library Speaker Series, the RDS hosts a diverse range of interesting and informative talks by noted speakers for Members of the Society and the general public.
This continues a long established tradition of lectures at the Society reaching back over 200 years.
The symbolic figure contained within the RDS logo is the Goddess Minerva.
Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She was born with weapons from the head of Jupiter.
After impregnating the titaness Metis, Jupiter recalled a prophecy that his own child would overthrow him.
Fearing that their child would grow stronger than him and rule the Heavens in his place, Jupiter swallowed Metis whole.
The titaness forged weapons and armor for her child while within the father-god, and the constant pounding and ringing gave him a headache.
To relieve the pain, Vulcan used a hammer to split Jupiter’s head and, from the cleft, Minerva emerged, whole, adult, and bearing her mother’s weapons and armor.
From the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena.
She was the virgin goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, and magic.
She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the “owl of Minerva”,which symbolised her association with wisdom and knowledge.
