As many of you will know, Nemean is a name that’s familiar in mythology. It’s hardly the only name for an organisation either (although I have to say the gigantic list of other things called Nemean looked as daunting afterwards as much as it affirmed being quite a cool name).
So why was it chosen?
Nothing to do with keywords, recognition or the other SEO concepts to be a kind of digital lightning rod. It’s a cool word and I’ve found no shortage of good art for both the lion and The First Labour of Heracles. The name is not the reason we chose it; but because of the importance of a leonine motif conjoined with the idea of labour. Much like any business or organisation starting from nothing, the First Labour seems the biggest. It feels hard and scary.
The Nemean Lion was not only the challenge, the seeming invulnerability to overcome. But part of the person who overcomes it. When showing Heracles, the lion is a cloak. It’s a large part of his mythological image and most artistic depictions. And keeping with his labours, from a tragic perspective what keeps the demigod (or all humanity) from their Jungian ‘shadow’, the beast we could be.
Our challenges, like our foes, our flaws, and our eventual triumphs define us. Because they are the bravery and actions that show us at our best. At our most memorable. When we are synonymous with power, with energy. And like the lion and the myth, it’s part of living and becoming art ourselves.
Nemean is a word. Like ‘Kithaeron’ it’s a grand word for a mythological lion. But here, the image and the meaning is of the process of the force and effort required to perform a mythological undertaking. It takes courage and artistic idealism to build anything. Here we intend both to dream and to give any kind of spark, any kind of positive fuel to bring out the process in anyone who happens to read what’s here.
Heracles wrestled a gigantic lion. That labour has echoed from antiquity to the 21st century. But running alongside it is every conflict, every struggle and labour humanity made and makes every day to become better. The website was, and is a labour. I know for a certainty you are facing a labour, today. I’m fairly sure you have overcome thousands, possibly even tens of thousands of them in the long climb to the present summit of your existence. And hope you continue to do so. Because beyond strength, or appearance, or catchphrases is the underlying principle of something like poetry attempting to articulate universal truths, express what is rarely said, with meanings unique to as many people as there are minds on the Earth.
Stand tall. Build with pride.
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