Brought up by the centaur Chiron, he challenged Pelias for his throne, so was sent to get the Golden Fleece with his Argonauts. He married Hypsipyle and they had twins before he abandoned her and promised to marry Medea in return for her help.
Waterhouse
To enable Theseus to retrace his steps out of the Labyrinth, Ariadne gives him a ball of thread, in return for which he promises to marry her. Once the couple escape to the island of Naxos, Theseus abandons her and sails back to Athens.
Little used for 400 years, in the 19th century painters extended their scenes by including reflections seen in a mirror. Here are some significant examples.
When you see the same face in a mirror that you presume that figure can also see, despite that being optically impossible. An exploration.
Suddenly popular in paintings from around 1880, the story of Pandora and her box brought many interpretations, and remains a story of our time.
Paintings by Helen Allingham, Willard Metcalf, Pierre Bonnard, JW Waterhouse, Nikolai Astrup, and others.
Wood nymphs or Dryads, with Hamadryads being bonded to a tree. Painting by Evelyn De Morgan, Félicien Rops, Walter Crane, JW Waterhouse and others.
Invented by Paracelsus, to have an afterlife they must marry a human. But that man must remain faithful to them, or they will die from Ondine’s Curse.
River gods from Rubens, Poussin, Coypel and Boucher, with Naiads from Walter Crane, JW Waterhouse, Henrietta Rae and others.
A faithful wife is being pestered by another man. She sets him an impossible task, of creating an enchanted Spring garden in the January snow.
The Eclectic Light Company 