Myths of Perseus and Atlas, Philemon and Baucis, and the peasants of Lycia teach the ancient code of hospitality to strangers.
Burne-Jones
First Slade Professor, Principal of what became the Royal College of Art, Director of the National Gallery, and President of the Royal Academy, yet now forgotten.
Largely restricted among Classical deities to Hermes, Cupid, and personifications of winds, heavenly bodies, and events, the gift of flight extends to angels and even saints.
The King of Thrace who raped his sister-in-law, cut out her tongue, and imprisoned her in a remote cabin. Her revenge is brutal and unforgiving.
The helmets of Minerva, Bellona, Mars, Perseus, Achilles, Aeneas, the Knights of the Round Table, and Joan of Arc.
When Edward Burne-Jones was invited to remove his painting from exhibition, it wasn’t so much the male genitals in the centre, but the scandal surrounding its model.
Perseus describes in his wedding speech how he beheaded Medusa, and how she came to have snakes in her hair.
First Perseus turns Atlas to stone for his failure to offer him hospitality. He then flies on to rescue the beautiful Andromeda, who’s going to be the next meal for a sea-monster.
The wedding feasts of Peleus and Thetis, Pirithous and Hippodame, Perseus and Andromeda, and a more peaceful banquet thrown by Achelous.
From his conception in an adulterous deception arranged by Merlin, and drawing a sword from an anvil, to his death following wounds inflicted by the dying Mordred.
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