The Voynich Ninja

My problem is that I see lots of details in the nymphs on these few pages because I've studied them in particular. That's cool and all, but when I just say look, this nymph has these and these special (or even unique) properties, people generally won't realize that there really are details in these figures that set them apart from the others, and which are definitely not slips of the pen.

So I thought as an experiment I'd just ask what others saw and go from there. It worked pretty well, thanks to you and Searcher.

So we have:

- She is taller/more slender than the average nymph. Her neck is relatively long and slender, an effect which is reinforced by her really narrow head.
- Strange nose shape.
- Dynamic pose. You guys saw this as stretching/dancing. I think it's supposed to be suggestive of taking flight.
- The hands are weird. Palms turned up, as you noted. Also, the fingers are pointy and somewhat bent at the ends. 
- Base is wavy or suggestive of clouds. 
- I'm not sure about the hair or veil. It's funny that Searcher actually used the word "nebule", apparently a name for this kind of headdress.

Now to recap, I'm certain that the nymph right above this one represents the constellation Hercules with Lyra (I've written a lot about that, most recently here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. )

This means, in my hypothesis, that the other nymphs will represent those constellations in the same section of the sky: Eagle, Swan, Dolphin, Pegasus, Crown. I always postponed pinning them down though, since these constellations are very similar: four animals, three of which have wings! The ambiguity between cloud and wave doesn't help.

First I thought this nymph was Aquila, the eagle, going only by the nose (which you also called aquiline). Taking everything into account though, I think all details point toward Cygnus, the swan. In the image below, note the shape of the feathers and compare to that of the nymph's fingers.



The swan also lives in both the water and the clouds, which accounts for the base. The slenderness of the nymph also points towards Cygnus instead of Aquila.

I think the shape of her nose is meant to bring to mind the knob on swan's beaks:


Most importantly though, the constellation. Here's a pdf by Kristen Lippincott which collects dozens of images of the constellation Cygnus. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

As so often, the more authentic images (instead of later alterations) work the best to explain the image.

[attachment=1465]

That Gottweig one is good. Straight and bent arm, one leg up.

I also was wondering about that nose, but it might well be the knob on a swan's beak.

Yeah, there's a whole string of manuscripts using this "one leg up" pose, though I'm not sure where it comes from or to what extent it can be considered standard. 

Either way, if you google images of swans or geese you'll often see them in this "stretching towards the sky/about to take off" pose, which is also rendered in many constellation illustrations. That's what I think the nymph's pose alludes to, of course reinforced by the feather-like hands.



I've still got no hypothesis about the other figures by the way, haven't had the time yet to study them in depth. For a while I thought the one all the way on top had to be Virgo because of the "spica"-like attribute, but there's not much else pointing that way so I'm not happy with that. She'd also be out of place in the Hercules group.

I don't know if it has any connection to Konstellations, but some of the nymphs are pointing quite assertively and there's a historical connection between battering rams, Aries, and aries (male sheep):

[attachment=1535]

JKP; yes, I do think this etymology is relevant. Aries is on f79r, though it's not the most obvious Konstellation
I attempted to explain it in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. The overall composition is made to look like ship parts, and the context is one of a destructive storm. I included a passage from Ovid, who uses an aries metaphor to describe the battering of waves on a ship's hull. The Ram and "ramming" are blended together here.

I found this very hard to bring across since for us there is more of a linguistic disconnect between the animal, the siege weapon and Aries. This and the fact that these images are so layered means that I need 1500 words to describe what would be seen at a glance by the intended audience, thereby ruining everything and making it seem needlessly complex. As a blogger yourself I think you may understand this

(27-07-2017, 09:16 AM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....I need 1500 words to describe what would be seen at a glance by the intended audience, thereby ruining everything and making it seem needlessly complex. As a blogger yourself I think you may understand this

I can completely relate to that. It seems to be one of the biggest challenges.

(23-12-2016, 12:07 AM)-JKP- Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I wonder... this is just a thought, since your proposed Cetus appears in conflict with the other nymph, could this be someone like Perseus who defeated Cetus by holding up Medusa's severed head and frightened the monster to death or turned it to stone? Could there be a myth combined with a Cetus constellation to cinch down the identification? Cetus is in the Perseus Group (along with Andromeda and Perseus) and the pulling of hair (or snake-like tendrils) in the image might be a reference to holding the severed Medusa head.

JKP, I just wanted to return to this suggestion of yours since I happened to come across an interesting mosaic. It's from a Roman settlement in Portugal, though the exact location may not be too important: these mosaics were almost always based on types, and imitated throughout the provinces.

What is more important is that this image shows that there was a type which uses the exact composition you describe, with the figures in roughly the same position as the VM nymphs. It is certainly a better match for the scene than the previous examples. 

[attachment=1816]

Perseus with the head of Medusa & Ketos
Roman mosaic [3rd century CE]
Conimbriga near Coimbra, Portugal -
casa dos repuxos (house of fountains)

(16-12-2016, 10:01 PM)Linda Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Here is something that might connect constellations and the body part idea, I've seen quite a few of these, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. maybe something sparks with some of your identifications of the related constellations?

Here is another one. Of interest:
1 Identity of the associations with body parts
2 Stating with Aries, ending with Pisces
3 The flow down the page and RIGHT TO LEFT
4 Lobster Cancer
Apologies if this one has been posted before
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

I haven't tried, but I strongly suspect that it will be very hard to find an illustration of Perseus hold the medusa's head by the 'hair',  with the body still attached to the head.

This "thing" is a lotus flower (from Lahun, Egypt):



Image credit: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology