A challenge to painters: a story of a gender-changing seer, a nymph who becomes no more than an acoustic effect, and a young man who dies of self-love.
myth
He explored new and recurrent themes, including the dark and erotic side of Eve, the Greek sphinx, and made an early painting of movement in dance.
One of the strangest of all myths, only two painters managed to approximate Ovid’s account.
Another narrative painter in Germany around the turn of the 20th century, he is known for his symbolism and femmes fatales.
The grandson of the founder of Thebes suffers a grisly fate when he stumbles across the goddess Diana bathing naked.
The slaying of a dragon/serpent, and transformation of its teeth into warriors, make for five superb paintings spanning most of the story.
Less than 30 lines of the book are devoted to the abduction of Europa, which has become its best-known and most-often painted story.
Two turned to stone: Battus for betraying Mercury, and Aglauros for obstructing Mercury’s courting of Herse, and her jealousy.
How Acontius won his bride, and how a portrait of her by an obscure Dutch painter may be part of a series. Mysteries solved, perhaps?
No less than 6 different stories, 4 transformations, 5 wonderful paintings, all from less than 150 lines of Latin verse.
The Eclectic Light Company 