Born son of the King of Athens, the god Poseidon, and Princess Aethra, his first task was to find his father’s sandals and sword, and take them to Athens, where Medea tried to poison him.
Flandrin
Perseus and Andromeda, the death of Medusa, Proserpine abducted by Pluto to Hades, weaving contest between Minerva and Arachne, Lycians turned into frogs, Marsyas flayed, Jason and the Golden Fleece, and the origins of Theseus.
The young Theseus is almost poisoned by Medea, Medea creates a poison potion for Jason to gain the Golden Fleece, the death of Socrates, and of Phocion.
Fathered by King Aegeus and Poseidon, after revealing sandals and a sword, Medea tried to poison him with aconite to stop him knowing his father.
She tricks the daughters of King Pelias to murder him, then flees to Corinth, where Jason abandons her. She murders his bride with a poisoned wedding dress, then kills her two children. After that, she tries to kill the young Theseus.
How well do paintings of the stories of Perseus and Theseus fit Booker’s Seven Basic Plots? As he gives these as examples of Overcoming the Monster, do his stages work?
From abandonment by his father, to the reunion in which Medea tried to poison him, Theseus was a true and thoroughly flawed hero.
The Prix de Rome changed in the 19th century. Its subjects became more obscure, and its successes few and far between.
So into the first terrace of Purgatory proper, for those who suffered from pride. On up to the second, for the envious, whose eyelids are sewn shut.
More paintings of surprise, by Gericault, Gérôme, Regnault, Bastien-Lepage, Morelli, and others.
The Eclectic Light Company 