Myths of Perseus and Atlas, Philemon and Baucis, and the peasants of Lycia teach the ancient code of hospitality to strangers.
Carracci
Jason is given three tasks, in which he is aided by Medea the sorceress. First he yokes a team of fire-breathing bulls to plough a field, then sows dragon’s teeth, before the prize of the Golden Fleece.
In some of the earliest European paintings, the Fall of Man, the fable of the cat’s paw, in Vanitas paintings, and for their mischief and mayhem.
Goddess Latona gives birth to twins Apollo and Diana, but local peasants refuse to let her drink from their lake, so they’re turned into frogs.
The wedding of Perseus to Andromeda turns into a pitched battle, with many turned to stone by Medusa’s face. Then 9 daughters challenge the Muses to a contest.
When the nymph Salmacis falls in passionate love with the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, he resists, and they are joined together in single body.
The Lycians turned into frogs when they refused the goddess Latona a drink of water, and the sorceress Medea accompanied by toads.
Associated with Dionysus/Bacchus and his followers, it’s basically a staff decorated with plant matter. Seen here in different variants from Pompeii onwards.
Janus, Hecate, the personification of Deceit, Cerberus guardian of the Underworld, and the Lernean Hydra.
How truth is associated with a well, where Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman, where to dispose of a rapist, and one of Paul Signac’s less successful paintings.
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