Europe is gripped in a late-summer heatwave, and the air is alive with the sounds of amorous insects. Which brought to mind this extraordinary gem now at the Getty, showing a grasshopper balancing on a blade of grass. The stone is a striking mottled jasper, with those golden splotches somehow evocative of sun-drenched days.
The delicate engraving is a pretty astounding example of closely observed nature in Greek art. Check out those spiracles, the little vents on the underside of the abdomen (I may or may not have just done a deep google dive into grasshopper anatomy…)!
What the grasshopper meant to the ancient owner might have been little less prosaic, which brings me to the myth of Eos and Tithonos: the goddess of dawn fell in love with a comely young prince as she passed over the countryside each evening. She entreated Zeus to make him immortal, but neglected to ask for eternal youth. When his limbs withered and his mind started to slip, she could not reverse his immortality so mercifully turned him into a grasshopper, chirping for eternity.
Might this summery gem once have been a somewhat darker contemplation on love, mortality, and the risks of being beloved by the gods?
