Showing posts with label Acteon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acteon. Show all posts

Friday 23 April 2021

CAT








cat 
The animal that is thought of today as a beloved pet (and hardly as an exterminator of RATS and mice any more) has a predominantly negative reputation in symbolic tradition. It was domesticated in ancient Egypt around 2000 B.C. from the Nubian Felis sylvestris lybica

A short-tailed cat, the so-called "reed cat," which was known there even earlier, is mentioned in The Book of the Dead as slicing up the evil SNAKE Apepi.

The domestic cat soon replaced leonine deities: the cat goddess Bast or Bastet was a lioness in earlier times, but cats themselves came to be frequently mummified, and feline deities appeared, represented with a cat's head and a woman's body. 

In late antiquity cats were brought from Egypt to Greece and Rome and were viewed as attributes of the goddess DIANA. 

BLACK cats in particular were believed to have magic powers; even their ASHES, strewn over a farmer's fields, were believed to ward off harmful insects and animals. 

For the Celts cats symbolized evil forces and were frequently sacrificed, whereas the Norse goddess Freya was represented in a chariot drawn by cats.

The eye of the cat, which appears to change as the light strikes it from different angles, was considered deceptive, and the animal's ability to hunt even in virtual DARKNESS led to the belief that it was in league with the forces of darkness. 

It was associated with lasciviousness and cruelty and was considered above all the "familiar" (Latin spiritus familiaris) of WITCHES, who were often said to ride black {tom-}cats to their sabbaths. Even today the superstitious believe the black cat brings bad luck. 


Interestingly, humorous or satirical papyri from ancient Egypt often portray a "world turned upside down" in which mice in CHARIOTS wage war on cats in their entrenchments-not unlike the humor we find in "Tom and Jerry" cartoons of our day. 

For some psychologists the cat is "the typically feminine animal, " a creature of the NIGHT, "and woman is, we know, more deeply rooted in the dark, intuitive side of life than man, with his simpler psyche" [Aepplil] 

We are tempted to speculate that the negative valuation of the cat, which we have noted in many cultures, is related to an aggressive attitude toward that which is female. (Note the frequent feline metaphors in misogynist expressions and cliches: a "cat fight" between two women, a "catty" remark, "like a cat in heat."

In heraldic tradition cats appear frequently, and with associations that recall little of the ailurophobia we find elsewhere: "Cats, being difficult to catch or to confine, signify liberty. The cat is tireless and cunning when going after its prey-the virtues of a good soldier. This is why the Swabians, Swiss, and Burgundians of old had cats in their coats of arms, standing for liberty" [Bbckler] 







deer (male), stag, hart, or buck 
A symbolic animal prominent in Old World cultures. The stag seems to have been frequently paired with the BULL to form a mythic and cosmological DUALITY, not unlike the wild HORSE and the wild bull in Ice Age CAVE art in the hypothesis of French archaeologists. 

The stag's tree-like antlers with their periodic regeneration made him a symbol of rejuvenation, rebirth, and the passage of time. In Norse mythology four stags graze in the highest branches of the world-tree Yggdrasill, eating buds (hours), blossoms (days), and branches (seasons). 

The deer's antlers were seen as symbols of the SUN'S rays. 

In antiquity the stag was considered the enemy of poisonous SNAKES, its skin an amulet against snakebite. and powdered antler as protection for seed corn against black magic. In ancient China the deer (iu). through homonymy with the word for riches. came to symbolize wealth, and also filial piety (according to fable a young man disguised himself in a deerskin to obtain deer's milk as eye medicine for his blind parents); the animal accompanied the god of longevity, Shou-hsing. Christian iconography is greatly influenced by the 42nd Psalm: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks. so panteth my soul after thee, 0 God" [verse I] .

 According to the early Christian text Physiologus, the deer spits water into every crevice in which poisonous snakes are hiding; it thus floats them out and tramples them. "So too does our Lord strike the serpent. the DEVIL, with heavenly WATER . . .. In another sense. ascetics are like the deer: with tears of penitence they extinguish the flaming ARROWS of evil, and they trample the great serpent. the devil. and kill him." 

The deer is also said to be able to suck snakes out of their holes protecting itself against the snakes' venom by drinking spring water within three hours; then. supposedly, the deer will live another 50 years. "If you have the serpent in your heart, namely sin. then rush to the springs, to the veins of Holy Scripture. and drink the living water. . . and die not of sin." 

Medieval bestiaries repeat all of this. adding: deer discovered the miraculous power of the herb dittany (Dictamnus albus. or gas plant) when they had hunters' arrows in them and found that eating dittany enables them to expel the arrows and their wounds to heal. 

When deer cross a stream each one "lays its head on the hindquarters of the deer in front of it, thus reducing its weight. If they come to a filthy place, they quickly leap away from it. Thus, too, should Christians . . . help carry one another; they should leap over a place of filthy sin, and when they have satanic venom in their bodies they should run to Christ, the true spring and source, to confess and be rejuvenated" [Unterkircher]. 

Deer horn, according to the same sources, is an effective medicine, the RIGHT antler being more potent than the left, and burnt deer horn drives away any snake. Deer meat heals fever, and a salve made from the deer marrow is also an effect ive remedy for it. The stag appears frequently in heraldry, signifying "gentleness and mildness, because the deer is believed to have no yellow bile, the reputed reason for its long life, reaching a hundred years" [Bockler]. 

The antlers also appear alone (or a single antler, or a part thereof), referring, according to Bockler, to "strength." [n this context he explains the symbolism of "putting horns on" a husband: 

The Greek emperor Andronicus had horns placed on the houses of women with whom he had slept, authorizing them to hunt, and thus we speak even today of putting horns on a cuckold

Also in the time of Galeazzo Sforza, Count of Milan, women were not ashamed to sleep with princes, for their husbands came away not with paltry but with golden horns and received great honors." [n Celtic myth deer are "cattle of the fairies" and messengers between the world of the gods and that of mortals. The Celtic god Cemunnos was portrayed with antlers on his head like the shamans of ancient peoples. [n Christian sculpture of the Middle Ages the deer is sometimes portrayed nibbling on grapes (see WINE), symbolizing humanity, which even on earth can already enjoy the fruits of God's grace. The animal's striving to reach springs symbolizes the desire for purification through baptism: "Just as the deer devours the snake,/ Then rushes off his thirst to slake,/ Lets spring the venom wash away,! So all is well, can Christian say,! For he is saved, sin's trace is lost,! When in baptismal font he's washed." This is why the relief-work on such fonts often includes the representation of deer. 

The imagery of ALCHEMY sees the deer as a symbol in the context of the classical myth of the hunter ACTAEON, who was transformed into a stag by the goddess DIANA (Artemis) : for the alchemist the deer is a reminder of the possible transmutation of metals in connection with the lunar (see MOON), feminine world of SILVER

The animal is referred to figuratively in occasional idioms. Germans speak of "hunting the white deer" to indicate that a task is very difficult, or a goal unattainable; and in English "stag" refers to a man attending a social function unaccompanied by a woman: "to go stag," a "stag party." 

The legends of St. Eustace and St. Hubert tell of a CROSS appearing in the antlers of a hunted stag. Other saints (Meinulf, Meinhold, Oswald, Prokop of Bohemia) are portrayed with deer as their attributes. [n pre-Columbian Central America antlered animals resembling the deer (in Aztec, mazatl; in Maya, manik) give their name to the seventh of the 20 day-signs of the calendar. Like these creatures of the wild, persons born under this sign are said to roam through nature, seeking distant regions and shunning fixed abodes. [n the Shinto religion of Japan, the stag is the mount of the gods and is often portrayed with their symbols on scrolls at shrines. (See also DOE.)




Diana 
The Latin designation, popular in Europe since the Renaissance, for the goddess of the hunt, in Greek Artemis, who by this time had only allegorical or symbolic meaning. Statues of Diana with the crescent-MOON in her hair, bow and ARROWS in her hand, accompanied by hunting DOGS, adorned especially the gardens of the baroque period. 

On occasion, the legendary scene is represented in which ACTEON, having observed the chaste Diana bathing, is transformed into a stag (see DEER) and tom apart by his own hunting dogs. 

The crescent is explained by the fact that the early Italian goddess Diana was originally the goddess of the Moon and only later were the myths relating to Artemis, the mistress of the animals (potnia theron), carried over to her. 

Diana seems to have lived on not only in garden sculpture but also as a mythical figure in Italy. 

The American mythologist Charles G. Leland (1824-1903) reported in his book Arcadia (1899) about a cult of "WITCHES" (streghe) who revered Diana and appealed to her as a great goddess: "Diana! Diana! Diana! Queen of all magicians and of the dark night, the stars, the moon, all fate and fortune! You, mistress of ebb and flow, who shine at night upon the sea, throwing your light upon the water! You, commander of the sea, in your boat like a half-moon. . ." (from a hymn appearing in a legend in which Melampus has his mother ask that he be given the art of understanding the language of SNAKES). 

doe or hind 
A female DEER, stands in many myths for the female animal in general, which can have a demonic character, despite what we see as the gentleness of the doe. 

The second of the Labors of Hercules was to capture the Hind of Ceryneia. 

The chariot of Artemis (in Latin myth DIANA), the goddess of the hunt, was pulled by does

The animal is also important in Asiatic myth. In the Ural-Altaic regions she was the supernatural ancestor of several peoples (compare TOTEM).

The Hungarian myth of origlls of a fleeing doe who lured two primeval hunter into a swamp, where she transformed herself into two princesses who coupled with the hunters, becoming the progenitors of the Huns and the Magyars, respectively. 

Similarly, the family tree of Genghis Khan shows a doe and a WOLF as his progenitors. 

A doe was said to have rescued fleeing Frankish warriors by showing them a point at which they could ford the Main River. 

In many old European fairy tales young women and girls are transformed into does. 

In one ancient Chinese legend a doe gives birth to a human child, a girl who is later reared by a man; but when she dies her body disappears, revealing her supernatural origins. 

In prehistoric rites of passage does may have symbolized female initiates.

 [In Mayan mythology of the Yucatan, Zip is a god of the hunt; under the name A Uuc Yol Zip he is portrayed in ancient hieroglyphic writings as a horned man having intercourse with a doe.

Sunday 16 July 2017

Accession : Witches




Take time to pause; and, by the next new moon--
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship--
Upon that day either prepare to die
For disobedience to your father's will,
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;
Or on Diana's altar to protest
For aye austerity and single life.



Diana 
The Latin designation, popular in Europe since the Renaissance, for the goddess of the hunt, in Greek Artemis, who by this time had only allegorical or symbolic meaning. Statues of Diana with the crescent-MOON in her hair, bow and ARROWS in her hand, accompanied by hunting DOGS, adorned especially the gardens of the baroque period.

On occasion, the legendary scene is represented in which ACTEON, having observed the chaste Diana bathing, is transformed into a stag (see DEER) and tom apart by his own hunting dogs. 

The crescent is explained by the fact that the early Italian goddess Diana was originally the goddess of the Moon and only later were the myths relating to Artemis, the mistress of the animals (potnia theron), carried over to her.

Diana seems to have lived on not only in garden sculpture but also as a mythical figure in Italy.




The American mythologist Charles G. Leland (1824-1903) reported in his book Arcadia (1899) about a cult of "WITCHES" (streghe) who revered Diana and appealed to her as a great goddess: "Diana! Diana! Diana! Queen of all magicians and of the dark night, the stars, the moon, all fate and fortune! You, mistress of ebb and flow, who shine at night upon the sea, throwing your light upon the water! You, commander of the sea, in your boat like a half-moon. . ." (from a hymn appearing in a legend in which Melampus has his mother ask that he be given the art of understanding the language of SNAKES). 





Enter PUCK
OBERON
[Advancing] Welcome, good Robin.
See'st thou this sweet sight?
Her dotage now I do begin to pity:
For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,
I did upbraid her and fall out with her;
For she his hairy temples then had rounded
With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers
;
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her
And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child;
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
And now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes:

And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
From off the head of this Athenian swain;
That, he awaking when the other do,
May all to Athens back again repair
And think no more of this night's accidents
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be as thou wast wont to be;
See as thou wast wont to see:
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
Hath such force and blessed power.
Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
TITANIA
My Oberon! what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
OBERON
There lies your love.
TITANIA
How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON
Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
Titania, music call; and strike more dead
Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
TITANIA
Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!
Music, still
PUCK
Now, when thou wakest, with thine
own fool's eyes peep.
OBERON
Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity,
And will to-morrow midnight solemnly
Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair prosperity:
There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.
PUCK
Fairy king, attend, and mark:
I do hear the morning lark.
OBERON
Then, my queen, in silence sad,
Trip we after the night's shade:
We the globe can compass soon,
Swifter than the wandering moon.
TITANIA
Come, my lord, and in our flight
Tell me how it came this night
That I sleeping here was found
With these mortals on the ground.

Exeunt

Saturday 15 July 2017

Diana - The Accursed Hunteress


Diana Emphasises the Monstrous/Terrible aspect of Woman’s nature. 


Nevertheless, because of her vows of virginity, she was endowed with a morally GOOD character.




Diana - The goddess of woods, related to nature in general and to fertility and wild animals.

She bears the Greek name of Hecate, meaning ‘She who succeeds from afar’, and she is therefore linked with the ‘Accursed Hunter’ (such as Wotan). 


Accompanied by dogs, she becomes a night-huntress, in turn linked with the demons of chthonian cults.

It has been pointed out that her characteristics vary with the phases of the moon: Diana, Jana, Janus. 


This is why some mythological and emblematic designs show her as Hecate with three heads, a famous, triform symbol which—like the trident or the three heads of Cerberus—is the infernal inversion of the trinitarian form of the upper world. 



According to Diel, these threefold symbolic forms of the underworld allude also to the perversion of the three essential ‘urges’ of man: 




Conservation
Reproduction and 
Spiritual Evolution


If this is so, then Diana emphasizes the terrible aspect of Woman’s nature. 




Nevertheless, because of her vows of virginity, she was endowed with a morally good character as opposed to that of Venus, as can be seen in the Hippolytus of Euripides.



Diana 
The Latin designation, popular in Europe since the Renaissance, for the goddess of the hunt, in Greek Artemis, who by this time had only allegorical or symbolic meaning. Statues of Diana with the crescent-MOON in her hair, bow and ARROWS in her hand, accompanied by hunting DOGS, adorned especially the gardens of the baroque period. 

On occasion, the legendary scene is represented in which ACTEON, having observed the chaste Diana bathing, is transformed into a stag (see DEER) and tom apart by his own hunting dogs. 

The crescent is explained by the fact that the early Italian goddess Diana was originally the goddess of the Moon and only later were the myths relating to Artemis, the mistress of the animals (potnia theron), carried over to her. 

Diana seems to have lived on not only in garden sculpture but also as a mythical figure in Italy. 

The American mythologist Charles G. Leland (1824-1903) reported in his book Arcadia (1899) about a cult of "WITCHES" (streghe) who revered Diana and appealed to her as a great goddess: "Diana! Diana! Diana! Queen of all magicians and of the dark night, the stars, the moon, all fate and fortune! You, mistress of ebb and flow, who shine at night upon the sea, throwing your light upon the water! You, commander of the sea, in your boat like a half-moon. . ." (from a hymn appearing in a legend in which Melampus has his mother ask that he be given the art of understanding the language of SNAKES). 

Diana's mother 'called her a whore for sleeping with Muslim men'

P17:06, 14 Jan 2008, updated 13:04, 15 Jan 2008
The mother of Princess Diana called her a 'whore' for dating Muslim men, her inquest has heard.
Frances Shand Kydd made the 'disgraceful' comment when she discovered her daughter was in a serious relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.
The pair did not speak again before Diana died two months later, according to her butler Paul Burrell. 
The sensational revelation came on the day that he told how:
 • Diana was planning to marry Dr Khan;

Her romance with Dodi Fayed was just a '30-day' fling;


Prince Philip did write 'cutting' letters to the princess but would not have ordered her murder;


The [So-Called] Queen warned him of mysterious 'powers at work' - but he had no idea what she meant.

The 49-year-old former butler revealed that Diana's bitter conversation with her mother happened in June 1997, during the last throes of her relationship with Dr Khan and just two months before she and Dodi died in Paris.
Mr Burrell told the High Court that the princess had held up the phone as they sat together on the sofa of her Kensington Palace apartment so that he could hear her mother's rant.
He said Mrs Shand Kydd, who died in 2004, was a 'formidable lady' who often expressed herself 'in extremely forceful terms about Diana's consorts, especially if they were Muslim'.
Asked to describe what he had heard on that particular day, he hesitated.
It was only when the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, interjected, saying: 'This is relevant', that Mr Burrell replied: 'Well, she called the princess a whore and she said that she was messing around with f****** Muslim men and she was disgraceful. She said some very nasty things.'
Mohamed Al Fayed's barrister, Michael Mansfield, asked: 'It was shortly after one of these telephone calls that the princess decided she did not want to talk to her mother again?'
'Yes,' Mr Burrell confirmed. 

Mrs Shand Kydd went through a bitter divorce from Diana's father Earl Spencer, after she left him for wallpaper tycoon Peter Shand Kydd. 
She endured a rocky relationship with her youngest daughter and had no idea how serious Diana's relationship with Dr Khan was.
In fact the princess had been planning to marry the man she described as her 'soul mate' just months before she embarked on her high-profile relationship with Dodi Fayed.
Mr Burrell told the court that he discussed the matter in confidence with Father Anthony Parsons, a priest from a Catholic church near Kensington Palace, without Dr Khan's knowledge.
But the pair split up the month before Diana died in a clandestine night-time meeting in Battersea Park, South London.
As he took the stand yesterday, Mr Burrell appeared nervous. His voice was barely audible and he failed even to remember the date of his wedding with wife Maria, who worked as Diana's dresser.
As he went on, however, he gave a voluble account of his time with Diana and her troubled personal relationships, describing Dr Khan as the love of Diana's life.
'The princess said that this was her soul mate, this was the man she loved more then any other and it was a very deep spiritual relationship,' he said.
'I witnessed it at first hand and they were very much in love.'  The couple met in 1995 when the princess visited a friend at the Royal Brompton Hospital in West London, where Dr Khan was working as a heart surgeon. 
At first they held secret rendezvous, with Mr Burrell smuggling the consultant into Kensington Palace in the boot of his car.
But towards the end of their two-year relationship Dr Khan had, Mr Burrell said, become part of the 'fixtures and fittings' at Kensington Palace.
There were even plans to prepare some of the rooms in Diana's apartment for her lover. Dr Khan's identity was also well known in the upper echelons of the Royal Family.
Princess Margaret - Diana's closest neighbour at the palace - was, in particular, aware of all her 'clandestine comings and goings'.
Most importantly, the surgeon had been introduced to Diana's sons with the intention of paving the way for something more permanent.
However the couple split during an emotional rendezvous shortly after Diana's 36th birthday in July 1997.
'I remember it coming to an abrupt halt because it happened in a park, in Battersea Park, late at night, and the princess came home that night very distressed and said that she had had it. She had tried everything she could to bring this man out into the public spotlight and he was having none of it.
'He did not want to become a public name, he didn't want to become known, and they had reached a stalemate situation.'
Later the butler had a meeting with Dr Khan.
'He explained to me one day he worked very hard and had come from nothing to achieve what he had and had now become an eminent heart surgeon. 'He was achieving what always dreamed of and wasn't prepared to put that on hold for the princess.'
Days later, a distraught Diana flew off with Mohamed Al Fayed on holiday, where she met his playboy son for the first time.
While she quickly became fond of Dodi, the relationship was dismissed by Mr Burrell yesterday as a '30-day' fling.
Diana's highly public romance, he insisted, was part of her attempt to 'get back' at Dr Khan.
Asked why she would want to humiliate a man she had cared for so much, Mr Burrell replied: 'I don't think that a relationship that lasted for 18 months was gone overnight.
'The princess was still burning a candle for Mr Khan. She was still in love with him.'
Mr Burrell was dressed in an ice-blue shirt and tie, his face tanned from the sun in Florida, where he has bought a luxury home on the back of two tell-all books about his former employer.
He was subsequently accused by her sons, William and Harry, of a 'cold and overt betrayal' by bringing out the books. He has also been a contestant on I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!

Friday 14 July 2017

Accession : Hunting with Hounds

The Big Man: 
Rapists and murders may be the victims according to you, but I, 

I call them dogs

And if they're lapping up their own vomit, the only way to stop them is with a lash. 


Grace: 
But dogs only obey their own nature, so why shouldn't we forgive them? 

The Big Man: 
Dogs can be taught many useful things, but not, 

NOT 

if we forgive them every time they obey their own nature.


Do you know what 'Nemesis' means? 

A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent, personified in this case by a 'orrible cunt : -

Me.

Lyons said she looked like an angel, serene, with a smile on her face and only a small cut on her forehead. 

The photograph has never been published.

Diana 
The Latin designation, popular in Europe since the Renaissance, for the goddess of the hunt, in Greek Artemis, who by this time had only allegorical or symbolic meaning. Statues of Diana with the crescent-MOON in her hair, bow and ARROWS in her hand, accompanied by hunting DOGS, adorned especially the gardens of the baroque period.

On occasion, the legendary scene is represented in which ACTEON, having observed the chaste Diana bathing, is transformed into a stag (see DEER) and tom apart by his own hunting dogs. 



*************
Exclusive extract from Mr Paparazzi in tomorrow's Good Weekend magazine, free with The Sydney Morning Herald.
**************
AN Australian paparazzo who has powerful images of the Princess of Wales close to death will give evidence next week at her inquest.

Darryn Lyons, the owner of one of the world's largest paparazzi photo agencies, will give evidence on Tuesday by video link from a barrister's chambers in Phillip Street, Sydney, accompanied by his British lawyer, Hugh Carlisle, QC.

The original images were confiscated by police in France and London in 1997 but Lyons has copies and has described in his new autobiography, Mr Paparazzi, one particularly strong image of the princess just before she died.

Lyons said she looked like an angel, serene, with a smile on her face and only a small cut on her forehead. The photograph has never been published.

It contrasts with photographs taken of her companion, Dodi Al Fayed. The car crash that killed them in Paris in 1997 was so violent that Fayed's jeans had been ripped off. His chest was opened as doctors had tried to resuscitate him with electric paddles and open heart massage. The images are unprintable.

Lyons believes he has been called as a witness because his London office was broken into soon after the accident. He says nothing was taken and that he had handed over all the images that had been sent to him in London on the night of the crash by his Paris agent, Laurent Sola.

One of two photographers working for Mr Sola appears to be the first person at the crash scene.

Lyons writes that David Kerr and the other photographer, Fabrice Chassery, were driving cars and lost the Mercedes driven by Henri Paul as it left the Ritz Hotel. Paparazzi on scooters roared on ahead, chasing the car, but Kerr and Chassery agreed to call it a night.

Lyons says Kerr headed home via the Alma tunnel and came across the crash scene, where he said there were no witnesses. He estimated the accident had occurred two minutes before.

Kerr parked outside the tunnel then returned to find four other photographers who had been riding on scooters.

(Kerr and Chassery subsequently sued the British television network Channel 4 for "stealing" some of their pictures for use in The Witnesses In The Tunnel, a documentary which was screened in Britain last year. They said the images were held by police and copies must have been stolen.)

Lyons said he believed early news reports that the princess was only concussed and had a broken arm. He alerted the News Of The World that he had a photo of her and says he was offered £250,000.

He writes that the then editor of the paper, Phil Hall, who he says was in contact with its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, then called Lyons to say the princess was dead and the paper was pulling out of the deal.

Lyons says the paper claimed the image never got to the printing process, "but I have it on good authority that thousands of newspapers were pulped".

In 1998, Lyons says, he was approached by someone who said they were acting for The New Yorker, offering $3 million to $4 million for the crash photos. He said he would never sell any of them.


These details of the crash and its aftermath are told in his autobiography, Mr Paparazzi, to be published on Monday by Viking.

Lyons yesterday visited Geelong, which he left 20 years ago to make a career in London. He worked for The Daily Mail before establishing his own photo agency, Big Pictures.