Suddenly popular in paintings from around 1880, the story of Pandora and her box brought many interpretations, and remains a story of our time.
myth
A strange ancient Greek myth of the creation of woman was hardly ever painted until the 19th century. Even then, only one depicted the crux of the story until it became popular late in the century.
When the centaur Nessus tries to abduct his wife, Hercules shoots him with a poisoned arrow. But Nessus gets his revenge when Hercules’ wife gives her husband a shirt impregnated with Nessus’ blood.
Well known for their fights and battles, Delacroix was fond of Chiron, Achilles tutor, but Pirithous and Hippodame regretted inviting them to their wedding feast.
Early career, including the Judgement of Paris, Hesiod and the Muses, Oedipus and the Sphinx, Jason, Orpheus, and Jupiter and Europa.
Wood nymphs or Dryads, with Hamadryads being bonded to a tree. Painting by Evelyn De Morgan, Félicien Rops, Walter Crane, JW Waterhouse and others.
Invented by Paracelsus, to have an afterlife they must marry a human. But that man must remain faithful to them, or they will die from Ondine’s Curse.
River gods from Rubens, Poussin, Coypel and Boucher, with Naiads from Walter Crane, JW Waterhouse, Henrietta Rae and others.
Stories retold differently from Perseus and Andromeda, the Rape of Europa, and some atmospheric landscapes of Honfleur in snow and fog.
Hephaistos or Vulcan in classical myth, cheated on by Aphrodite/Venus, and as creator of Pandora. In Bosch’s Last Judgement, and elsewhere.
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