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?
Flandrin
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.
Born from the incestuous union of the King of Athens with his daughter, he survived an attempt on his life by Medea, and went on to kill the Minotaur of Crete. Paintings by Poussin, Moreau, and others.
A link between the downfall of Medea and a series of stories about the hero Theseus, this was a subject for the Prix de Rome. Includes a little-known Poussin.
The Eclectic Light Company 