A TALE OF TWO CHALLENGES

The challenge on Inspiration Avenue  this week is an interesting one - 'Altered Ancestors', with a choice about using real ancestors or 'instant' ones borrowed from some other source.

I have no photographs of real ancestors because sadly almost all my parents family photos were destroyed.  That left me free to use an instant ancestor, and I chose my Auntie Andromeda, though I've lost count of how many 'great, great, great, greats' there are before her name. 

Auntie Andromeda (or Auntie Andie as we call her) was a bit of a rebel, always getting into scrapes and usually being rescued from disaster just in the nick of time.  Here she is, with 'before and after' photographs.

You can see that she took her penchant for tattooing to extremes, and the photographer firmly refused to take a shot of the front view.  Whew, thank goodness for that!

Actually, at the time of the tattooed photograph Auntie Andie was stuck in the middle of one of her latest escapades, marooned on a rock in the ocean and at the mercy of a vicious maiden-eating sea monster.

You probably remember that in Greek Myth, Perseus travelled to rescue Andromeda from a terrifying sea monster.  Valiantly he wasted no time and plunged straight in to tackling and killing the monster, even though it enmeshed him in its coils.

Unfortunately for Auntie Andie, when Perseus turned and saw her, the tattoos were such a turn-off that he changed his mind, departed suddenly, and left her to the mercies of any other sea monster that might come along.  And history (or at least myth) was changed.

Credits:  Original painting: 'The Doom Fulfilled' by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, sourced from Wikipaintings.

Linking to Inspiration Avenue