Associated with the legendary story of the origin of Rome, a woodpecker kept a close eye on the twin infants Romulus and Remus. It’s also associated with the sorceress Circe.
Dossi
The faithful king turned into a woodpecker, Aeneas’s long war against Turnus, his founding of the city of Alba, and promotion to deity on his death.
Ulysses visits Circe’s island, where his crew are turned into swine. When she tries to do the same with him, he refuses. They marry and spend a year together.
Femme fatale, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, she was the lover of Isabella d’Este’s husband, and inspired portraits until Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1871.
A deer substituted for the sacrifice of Iphigenia, as companions for the sorceresses Medea and Circe, in Bonnard’s rural idyll, Rosa Bonheur’s wildlife portraits, and others.
Associated with the fire of the underworld, painted into life by Jupiter, attracted by Psyche, hunted on expeditions, in vanitas paintings, or just for their beauty.
One of Ovid’s weirdest tales, in which Juno convinces the pregnant Semele to demand her lover Jupiter reveals himself, resulting in her death, caesarian section and his surrogate pregnancy.
Candles in Candlemas, as votives, at pardons and funerals, and snuffed out as part of excommunication. Used in sorcery, allegory, and Vanitas.
She invited Odysseus and his crew to a feast, where she turned most of them into pigs. Odysseus avoids that fate, and later gets a prophecy from Tiresias.
Paintings of sorceresses, who combine dark arts and seduction. Circe with Odysseus and Scylla, Melissa, Armida, Morgan le Fay and others.
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