Yippee is a friend, an adviser, a ghost rider, a cosmic traveler, a rake and a pilgrim who makes his own progress. He’s been around. He’s seen things you people wouldn’t believe. He’s seen the best of times and the worst of times. Whenever there’s been a fight so hungry people could eat, he’s been there. He’s been far away from home, haunted and tired with travel. He’s been on the roof of America and all he could do was yell. He controls the past to control the future and the present to control the past. He’s read all the books these lines were lifted from. Cleo is his chronicler when she’s really bored.
Now and then on his journey, Yippee stops for a brief moment and his image is captured by paint, film, paper or thread. Can you find him in the pictures below?
The Bayeux Tapestry. Surviving from the Middle Ages, the tapestry (actually, a wool embroidery on unbleached linen) depicts historical events surrounding William the Conqueror's victorious invasion of England in 1066 A.D. It comprises a series of connected panels 200 feet in length with each panel measuring about 18 inches high. Images on the panels include 623 humans, 55 dogs, 202 horses, 41 ships, 49 horses, 500 mythical (dragons) and non-mythical (birds) creatures...and one Yippee. This particular panel shows Guy of Ponthieu delivering the captured Earl Harold to William. History does not record what part Yippee played in the Earl's capture or his subsequent ransom, but the English embroiderers chose to stitch him here.
The Endurance. Yippee looked on as the last ship of her kind was crushed by the polar ice and sank in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica, November 1915. The expedition’s commander, Sir Ernest Shackleton, was praised for his extraordinary leadership in bringing his crew through the ordeal with minimal casualties. Today, he most likely would be condemned for the loss of the expensive ship, loss of his investor’s funds and for conducting a purely scientific exploration with no possibility of any large commercial or corporate payoff. Oh…hold on a minute…is there oil in Antarctica?
The School of Athens by Raphael, completed in 1511, is a painterly depiction of philosophy. Figures representing each subject that must be mastered in order to hold a true philosophic debate - astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and solid geometry - are depicted in concrete form. Some of the ancient philosophers bear the features of Raphael's contemporaries: Leonardo da Vinci as Plato (center figure); Bramante as Euclid (in the foreground, at right, leaning over a tablet and holding a compass); Michelangelo as Heraclitus (sitting on the stairs and leaning on a block of marble). Raphael included himself--at the extreme right, with a dark hat – and also managed to brush in an ephemeral sketch of Yippee as well.
Black figured amphora. One of the Twelve Labors of Herakles (Hercules) was to rid the country of the pesky, man-eating, Stymphalian birds. This Greek amphora, dated around 540 BC, depicts Yippee assisting Herakles in this mythological feat. Black figure vase paintings often depicted scenes of armed warriors preparing for battle or illustrated myths and heroic tales in which the gods and goddesses mixed with these earthly warriors. This is the only known appearance of Yippee on Athenian pottery and we have no knowledge as to why the painter of this particular vase chose to include him as part of the standard Herakles myth.
Liberation! American troops entering Paris on August 25, 1944 were greeted by French civilians waving hastily made American flags and singing the Star Spangled Banner. At the request of French General Charles de Gaulle, the 28th US Infantry Division paraded past the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysees on August 29. Due to the extensive barricading of streets in the city, the parade served the dual purpose of moving the 28th Division through Paris, and toward combat positions east of the city. For the first time in US military history, soldiers marched straight from a parade, into combat within 24 hours. Yippee rode along. Vive la France! Vive la Resistance! Liberation! Vive les Etats Unis!
Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Apollo 11, July 29, 1969. He called it “magnificent desolation.” Yippee didn’t need to watch the fuzzy television transmission at 2 am—he was there for our greatest technical triumph of the 20th century. We said we’d do it and we did.
The Temple at Karnak. When Francis Frith took this photograph in 1857 of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, he had no idea he was also recording one of the earliest images of Yippee. This hieroglyphic Yippee dates from the time of the Hall's construction during the 19th dynasty under Ramses II (1279-1213 B.C.). Scholars continue to debate the exact translation of the hieroglyph, but most favor its simplest form: "wanderer, delivered of Amon-ra" or, in modern parlance, "mysterious stranger." There have been reports of a similar glyph at Abu Simbel, also dating from the reign of Ramses II, but these claims cannot be verified. The stone on which the image was inscribed was destroyed when the giant figures were dismantled and raised prior to construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1968. Besides its rarity, this Yippee hieroglyph is unusual in another aspect. Only the wealthy could afford to keep horses in ancient Egypt. Horses were status symbols and often given as prestigious gifts from Egyptian rulers to kings of North Africa and the Near East. As we see Yippee riding a horse, yet not engaged in battle, we can only assume he held some special rank within the Egyptian aristocracy.
Yippee helped the Mayans with their calendar. Perhaps he was the one who told them about the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Why did their civilization disappear, anyway? Will we all disappear this year?
With Abbie. 1968. How did you think the yippies got their name? Steal this picture.
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