How a centaur tried to abduct Hercules’ new bride, and the delayed revenge which led to the death of Hercules.
Rubens
Ovid, through Achelous the river god, explains how the Horn of Plenty was wrenched from Achelous’ head in a fight with Hercules. With a gem of modern narrative painting too.
It pays to welcome strangers, and to help them rest and recover, particularly when they turn out to be Jupiter and Mercury. A wonderful story, and 4 superb paintings.
Meleager is burned to death by proxy, his sisters transformed to guinea hens. Then Achelous transforms nymphs into islands.
Five of the best stories and finest paintings from the first half of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from the tragic lovers Pyramus and Thisbe, to the Calydonian boar hunt.
Six of the best stories and the finest paintings from the first half of Metamorphoses, from Daphne’s transformation into the laurel, to Echo and Narcissus.
A group of popular mythical heroes set out to kill a fearsome wild boar sent by Diana in vengeance. It turns into farcical tragedy, and some superb paintings.
The first in a series of 4, starts with Dürer’s brilliant paintings, looks at Raphael, Hans Bol, and the beginnings of the ‘English School’.
The popular story told concisely by Ovid, and painted brilliantly by van Dyck, Leighton, Rubens, Brueghel, and others.
One of Ovid’s best stories of a tragic end to a blissful marriage, with superb paintings by Veronese, Poussin, Rubens, and others.