Athena Reborn is a 5ftx8ft oil painting which offers a meditation on the energy of Athena's divine feminine power: wisdom and strategy directed towards the expansion of peace, justice, and integrity.
Mythology is the story that plays out continuously through us. It is living history. Joseph Campbell calls it “The story we tell ourselves about ourselves.” This painting is a mythic painting. It is a variation on the story of the birth of the goddess Pallas Athena. The simplest description is she is born of Zeus’s mind, a fully formed idea that leapt out and brought wisdom to the world. In painting “Reborn” over the course of two years, Morgan sought to rekindle this energy and found so much more. Two stories lived deep within him while he painted this painting. The first speaks to the relationship of male to female and lead him to the question, “Can I behold the beauty of a woman without possession in my heart?” The second story blooms out to a universal question: "How can we move towards justice and peace with each?" The first story: There is a whisper of a tale from Teiresius’ youth when he chanced upon the goddess Athena naked, bathing. This was not for his or anyone else’s eyes to see. With blinding speed Athena plucked away his sight, supplanting his eyes with true vision. From then on Teiresius was blessed and cursed to see what has been, what is, and what shall be. Teiresius is best known as the blind prophet who illuminated the awful fate of Oedipus the King in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. The second story illuminates an alternative origin of Dionysus, the youngest of the Greek gods. Dionysus is the god of wine, ritual madness, theater, and myth. Born of Semele, a mortal woman, and Zeus, Dionysus represented the unified ego of all of humanity. Imagine saying “I” and meaning the whole world: no delusion, no dilution. Meanwhile, Hera, Zeus’ wife, was furious at her husband, the father of the gods, for begetting yet another bastard son. At a word from Hera, the Titans lured the helpless child Dionysus from the safety of his mother with shiny toys and trinkets. Once he set foot in their domain they dismembered and devoured the infant god. However, just before they could eat the heart of Dionysus, Athena stole it away. It was from this heart that a second Dionysus was born. And thus, it is only through our hearts that we can say “I” and mean the whole world once more.