Indiana Spirit Quest #104: Venus on the Halfshell Traditional Cache

edit 8-25-11

Pioneer Cemetery (All photos by THE SHADOW)

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of small, rural, historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers. In less than a year, the quest has grown to over a hundred caches hidden in nine northeast Indiana counties, and the hiders have grown to three cacher teams, each comprised of A Man and His Dog... PRAIRIEPARTNERS has set a record for one-day ISQ finds on 10-16-2004 at 55! 112 cacher teams have logged over 1,600 finds.

TOP TWENTY FINDS

FTF's

2. 16 --Bluegillfisherman
3. 14 --Buddaman
4. 8 --Pinestrail

The Shadow has selected Krontz Cemetery, Wilmington Township, DeKalb County, for this caching adventure.This cemetery ground was donated by John A. Krontz (1803 - 1876) who emigrated to the township from Ohio in 1843, and who is buried here, along with about a hundred other folks. Even tho you cannot see him, Listen carefully to what THE SHADOW has to say about this place:

Try to find Krontz Cemetery, A smaller, older cemetery that is no longer active. It sits back on a hill and that drops off quickly down to a small creek to the north. I found a few pieces of markers just over the embankment.Modern progress has also placed a railroad along the west side. So much for peace and quiet. Some of the markers are illegible, but I found some dating back to the early 1870s. Less than half dozen veterans markers were noticeable. I found an unusual statue for a cemetery. At first I thought it was an angel or cherub or something along that line. Turned out to be a half naked lady.I would love to know the story of how that came to be here ? Offroad parking is available here in the form of a graveled over turn-in. Just look for the culvert. Oh yeah, the usual camoed match holder is in place. --THE SHADOW

Actually, Shadow, from what we can see, that lady is not half naked, she's ALL naked; only covered by her hands and her hair. Looks to us to be a statue of Botticelli's famous "Birth of Venus" more commonly known as "Venus on the Half-shell".

>c. 1485-86; painted for the villa of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici at Castello; Tempera on canvas, 172.5 x 278.5 cm; now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence .

Among the Florentine artists of the second half of the fifteenth century was the painter Sandro Botticelli (1446-1510). One of his most famous pictures represents a classical myth - the birth of Venus.

The patron who commissioned the Botticelli painting for his country villa was a member of the rich and powerful family of the Medici. He probably explained to the painter what was known of the way the ancients had represented Venus rising from the sea. To these scholars the story of her birth was the symbol of mystery through which the divine message of beauty came into the world. Venus has emerged from the sea on a shell which is driven to the shore by flying wind-gods amidst a shower of roses. As she is about to step on to the land, one of the Hours or Nymphs receives her with a purple cloak

Botticelli's Venus is so beautiful that we do not notice the unnatural length of her neck, the steep fall of her shoulders and the queer way her left arm is hinged to the body. Or, rather, we should say that these liberties which Botticelli took with nature in order to achieve a graceful outline add to the beauty and harmony of the design because they enhance the impression of an infinitely tender and delicate being, wafted to our shores as a gift from Heaven.

FEBRUARY 2005: WHAT SHE'S DOING IN THE CEMETERY, I HAVE NO IDEA! DO ANY OF YOU? Check out the Gallery for VirtualMoores's Feb. 13th photo of her with her head back in place... Anyway , Civil War vets here include Peter B. Lanning (1837 - 1881), Co. G 53rd Indiana and S.N. Welch, Co.E 44th Ind Inf. Cache on!

OCTOBER 2005:HERE'S WHAT SOME SUB-HUMAN CRETINS HAVE DONE TO THE STATUE...(photo by Los Xile)

The cache container was a small camo'd match holder. Now it's a loc n loc container. Cache was relocated to new coordinates by the SHADOW on 10/8/05. BYOP. Park with care. If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground.Congrats to Pats! As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out.

Cache In - Trash Out!

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MYSTERY GEO DAWG #4
Who is this girl?