Europa’s brother Cadmus is told to found a new city wherever a cow leads him. After killing a man-eating dragon, he sows its teeth in the soil.
narrative
The most prominent in paintings, Pandora’s box was really a jar, and didn’t become a popular theme until the late 19th century.
Left as a cliffhanger ending to Book 2, Jupiter assumes the form of a white bull, and lures Europa to sit astride his back before whisking her away across the sea.
Readily an obsession, as with Titian, de la Tour, Murillo and others, she’s a penitent, while legends take her to France and even Finland.
Although conflated with another Mary, she features in her own right in paintings of the Deposition, as Myrrhbearer, and Noli me tangere.
Carrying Caravaggio’s rotting fruit, bread from the cereal harvest, Vermeer’s milkmaid, fish, dirty washing, lambs, rocks and garlic.
Carrying infants, including Moses, figs with a few asps, the master’s dinner, Manet’s luncheon on the grass, snacks, banquets, and fruit.
Bottles of alcoholic drink as the way to disaster, absinthe, and the last need of the destitute. As virtuoso displays, and in still lifes.
Glass bottles contain potions, including medicines for the sick, and more generally for scientific purposes. Some also contain alcoholic drinks.
The raven’s feathers are changed from white to black, the crow replaced by an owl originally threatened by Neptune’s rape, and more.
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