Monday, December 27, 2010

Question 461: Oh Heavenly Delight

The lady in this picture is the patron saint of all engineers ( lucky B*st*rds), and the reason behind it was that most engineering colleges in England had sprung up during the Industrial Revolution. When it migrated to the US, it remained as the mascot (no surprises) and was passed onto their various drinking songs (again, lucky B*st*rds). Her story was often regaled by rogues in MIT and other engineering colleges, and often enacted over there by females ( lucky guys), and sometimes by  guys (what the deuce?), until strong feminist views stopped these practices  (was it against the girls doing it or the guys?)

Her influence isn't only encompassed by those engineers, as she finds her find figure upon chocolates, a pop music festival, poems (obviously), pictures ( they have more?), and movies (someone send me a link).

As for the question

1) ID the fine piece of art (im not talking about the painting, smirk)
2) Ignore the comments
3) And why is she portrayed as such?
(And why she should be portrayed so again,lol)






Answer:

1) Lady Godiva
2) Thanks for ignoring the comments
3) Reason: According to the popular story, Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband's oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Only one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism. In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind. In the end, Godiva's husband keeps his word and abolishes the onerous taxes.


11 comments:

Kapinjal Chowdhury said...

lady godiva?

Anonymous said...

Lady Godiva and her story of the taxes and how she'd go naked in the streets and all that

R said...

It's Lady Godiva. the story goes that her husband was some duke or earl or something and had some heavy tax laws, so the ppl came to the Lady to free them from his tyranny. So she appealed to him, and he said he would oblige if she was willing to ride naked on horseback through the village. She told all the villagers to close their windows and doors so that she could ride naked. So there are many reference to this event in popular culture. This event also brings the term "peeping tom" in english language. Apparently, some guy opened his window to check her out and he was suddenly struck blind. I had tried posting this question on my blog...

St. Jisu said...

Lady Godiva

AttitudeMonger said...

Lady Godiva, to stop her husband from tax oppressing common people. Somebody called Tom peeped in to see her riding nude on horseback (not that I blame him) and hence the phrase Peeping Tom.

Nanda said...

Its Lady Godiva by Collier. Her husband was taxing the people of Coventry heavily and she took pity on them and asked him to remove the taxes. He agreed to do so if she rode naked on the road. She did it and the taxes were removed. The idiom Peeping Tom arrived in the language due to this incident.

DARSHAN BHEDA said...

Lady Godiva
She rode naked through the streets of Coventry, in England, in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants

Sebin said...

Its lady godiva who rode naked through town so her husband would be nice to the villagers

abhimanyu said...

its lady godiva....riding nude to protest taxation by her husband......origin of phrase peepin tom.....

Priyank Mehta said...

Lady Godiva
She rode naked on the streets after her oppressive husband promised to abolish taxes if she stripped naked and rode through the streets of Coventry

Aravind V said...

Lady Godiva.
She agreed to parade the city naked on horseback, when her husband said he would reduce taxes i she did so.