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History > Photography > A Flag for Kythera. Proposal 4. A Flag for Kythera. Proposal 3. Utilising the symbol for womanhood as it is currently depicted.

History > Photography

submitted by George Poulos on 14.01.2006

A Flag for Kythera. Proposal 4. A Flag for Kythera. Proposal 3. Utilising the symbol for womanhood as it is currently depicted.

A Flag for Kythera. Proposal 4. A Flag for Kythera. Proposal 3. Utilising the symbol for womanhood as it is currently depicted.
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This symbol is based on the original symbol for Aphrodite - Venus (Venus is the Romanised version of Kythera's Aphrodite).

The symbol for Venus, based on the even older Egyptian symbol of the ankh, is that which is now being used in the Western World for the symbol of womanhood, ie, a cross placed on a circle.

Here I have retained the symbol in its original form.

The visual allusion to the Greek cross and the Greek national flag is deliberate.

Good iconography and vellilography is based on the principle of "distillation to essence" - what is the minimal visual data that can be used to denote a particular entity or place - in this case Aphrodite, and by extension Kythera.

In iconography and vellilography - "less is more".

The "re-worked" Venus/Aphrodite symbol fulfils this edict.

However, I believe that the Version 1 flag, in which the cross has been removed from the periphery, and has been replaced to the centre of the circle is a far more satisfying design.

To appreciate the power and primal nature of the womanhood/Aphrodite symbol - go to:

Symbols.com Online Encyclopaedia of Western signs and ideograms

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/41a/41a7.html

This is also the symbol still in use by astronomers to designate the planet Venus (Aphrodite).

You will note that in accordance with "best" Heraldic practice - at no stage have either of the metals (silver (white), and gold (yellow)), been placed next to each other in the design. They have always been de-marcated and/or fimbriated, ("bordered") by a colour.

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