They tried to lure Odysseus and his crew to their deaths, and the same with Jason and his Argonauts. With the head of a beautiful woman and the legs of a bird, their singing was alluring to sailors.
myth
Lycaon transformed into a wolf, the origin of later werewolves, the she-wolf who fed Romulus and Remus, a shepherd defending his flock, the wolf of Agubbio, the fable of the wolf and the lamb, and others.
On a barren, sandy plain, naked spirits suffer under showers of flakes of fire. Blasphemers lie flat on their backs, sodomites keep moving, and usurers crouch with purses strung from their necks.
Is this Hecate, triple-headed goddess of the night, with owl and bats, or another of Blake’s mythology, representing spiritual beauty? A misidentified painting explained.
God seen as a master craftsman, forming the world, or a symbol of reason drawn from Blake’s own personal mythology? A painting explained.
While other uncouth figures fought with their clubs, animal skins appealed to a different group, as John Godward’s beauties draped their bodies on them.
That well-muscled man brandishing a large olive-wood club and wearing a lion-skin can only be the ultimate high-testosterone uncouth hero, Hercules.
Overview and full contents of all 74 articles in this series, from creation out of chaos and the flood, to the death of Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus.
His finest narrative paintings from Susanna and the Elders in 1890, through Salome and Homeric Laughter, to Ariadne on Naxos and the Trojan Horse in 1924.
Completes this unique virtual exhibition with paintings on the Calydonian Boar Hunt, Philemon and Baucis, Birth of the Milky Way, Adonis, and more.
