Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The four C's or S's...

Here is part of a wall on the stairs of Belgrade's new sports arena, and shadows cast below. You can see that the pattern is made up of four Cyrillic alphabet C's, which actually represent the letter S. They stand for Serbia's slogan and popular motto "Само слога Србина спасава/Samo sloga Srbina spasava" or "Only Unity Saves the Serbs," which also is used as a cry against foreign domination and national disunity. This pattern is also displayed on the Serbian cross and on the Serbian national coat of arms. The origin of this symbol is of the Byzantine coat of arms where four stylized Greek letters "Β" stood for the imperial motto "Basileus Basileon Basileuon Basileusin" or "King of kings, ruling over kings," in Greek.

5 comments:

Louis la Vache said...

Well, Bibi, your auto-posting while you are on vacation seems to be working smoothly!

This is a fine image - "Louis" likes these 'architectural' shots. "Louis" also enjoyed the little history lesson. When you got to the part about 'king of kings', "Louis" heard that chorus from Handel's 'Messiah'' playing on the iPod in his head. :-)

Just Wedeminute said...

Love this photo and the b&w looks phenomenal! GReat job!

parlance said...

thanks for the beautiful crisp photograph. I love the composition of this picture. Interesting about the Byzantine coat of arms. I find the whole Byzantium history fascinating, especially after reading Dorothy Dunnett's saga about the House of Niccolo.

Kim said...

I absolutely LOVE this shot, Pat. Well seen and well taken. Your commentary on the history of the symbol makes this a perfect post for me: beauty + knowledge. Kudos!
-Kim
Seattle Daily Photo

Chuck Pefley said...

Shadows and reflections are always fascinating subjects to me. I like the little bit of linear line on the upper left echoed in the lower right, and the stairs receding through the circles. Nicely done!

SPRING FASHION

 This is a post that would be better in color, but maybe not. These colors were soooo pale.