haha the gayest picture evah!!

OK in my parent's hall is a picture that has always been there: when waiting for sistrah becky to get ready to leave for london last night i had time to stand at gaze at it properly for the first time since i was quite small, with grown-up eyes

It is of Ulysses escaping the Cyclops Polyphemus, hiding under the belly of a ram. It's a lithograph my dad bought while he wz at college (eg late 40s). It is — I just noticed — the Gayest Picture Evah! Totally hot and queer!

OK the story is this. The Cyclops Polyphemus had trapped Ulysses and his men in a cave, along with a herd of sheep, and eaten several. Ulysses somehow got Polyphemus drunk, persuaded him that he (Ulysses) was called "nobody", and put the Cyclops's single eye out (Polyphemus shoputed out "Nobody is hurting me" and the others Cyclopses all continued on their way, presumably muttering to themselves "Polyphemus is such a tool when he's drunk" etc etc). Polyphemus rolled the stone back from the cave, knowing that — even blind — he could tell when one of Ulysses's men escape, and kill and eat them one by one. But they hugged themselves under the bellies of the sheep, and left that way: Polyphemus feeling the back of a sheep let it go etc.

OK: in the background, in fine line that you don't immedately see — it can give you a scare when you do — is one-eyed monster Polyphemus, on all fours, naked and muscly.

In the foreground is the Ram, facing towards the viewer, slightly at a diagonal. Ulysses, also naked, also hotly muscly, is hanging under the Ram's belly, arms round its neck, necks up gripping its haunches. It totally looks like the Ram has mounted Ulysses up the butt: Ulysses is looking over his shoulder, winsome pornchick style.

One-eyed monster Polyphemus = phallic symbol one
Ram's thin face topped with supercurly and excellent horns, and surrounded by top furry fleece = cock-and-balls style phallic symbol two
Ulysses's thigh as it grips the Ram's side = phallic symbol three