A Midsummer's Day tale. In pictures.

Pagan or not, people worldwide seem to celebrate the longest day of the year. Pick your own fave tale or ritual to worship Sun and Life on this Summer Solstice. Some of the greatest artists have already done so! Get inspired! Here is the aRTistokratissa's TOP 5 of the day.

1. Stonehenge. By John Constable. 

Painting by John Constable (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).1835


2. "A Midsummer Night's Dream". By Arthur Rackham.  

Some have theorized that the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" comedy  by William Shakespeare   might have been written for an aristocratic wedding , while others suggest that it was written for the Queen to celebrate the feast day of St. John. We like thinking of the second theory, to match with the day.

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939). The meeting of Titania and Oberon.


3. By William Blake.

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing by William Blake, c. 1786


4. Ra, the Sun God of ancient Egyptians.King of Gods.To the Egyptians, the sun represented light, warmth, and growth. This made the sun deity very important, as the sun was seen as the ruler of all that he created. The sun disk was either seen as the body or eye of Ra.

Abu Simbel temples


5. Helios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. Helios was described as a handsome titan crowned with the shining aureole of the Sun, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to earth-circling Oceanus and through the world-ocean returned to the East at night.

Head of the God Helios (Sun). Archaeological Museum of Rhodes, Rhodes

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