The fourth ‘basic plot’ is the story of voyage and return, for which we turn to Ovid’s account of this couple, and a dozen superb paintings. But does the model fit?
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How paintings of the Aeneid, Jason and the Golden Fleece, and Homer’s Odyssey match up with the basic plot of The Quest.
Odysseus finally arrives home, but has to decide what to do with more than 100 suitors to his wife Penelope.
Odysseus and his crew survive their encounter with the Sirens, but the hero has to endure 7 years with Calypso before he meets Nausicaä.
How Odysseus and his crew escaped the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, then became turned into pigs by the sorceress Circe.
Once he has the Golden Fleece, Jason is pursued by Medea’s father. They make away in his ship the Argo, but he later abandons Medea, and everything goes wrong for them both.
Jason promises to marry King Aeëtes’ daughter, the sorceress Medea, in return for her help accomplishing his three tasks to take possession of the Golden Fleece.
After Dido’s suicide, Aeneas takes a trip to the underworld, guided by the Cumaean Sibyl. He goes on to found the city of Lavinium, a precursor to Rome.
Great paintings of the masters telling Virgil’s epic of the life of Aeneas. From his conception and the fall of Troy, to his time with Dido in Carthage.
Increasingly popular during the 19th century, stories of people going from rags to riches have seldom appeared in paintings. Here are Cinderella and Robin Hood, and an explanation.
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