see also:

The Odyssey of Homer

illustrations by John Flaxman

***

Greek and Roman Myths in Art

***

see also EXPLORATION (in Russian):

Homer  "Iliad "and "Odyssey"

***


Apuleius "The Golden Asse"

illustrations by Jean de Bosschere and Martin Van Maele

***

Longus

"The Pastorals, or the Loves of Daphnis and Chloe"

illustrations by Marc Chagall

***
 

Greek and Roman Myths in Art
 

Narcissus, Graces, Pygmalion, Helios, Aurora, Eos

 

Narcissus

 

Narcissus

(Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Greek mythology

in Greek mythology, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was distinguished for his beauty. According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book III, Narcissus’s mother was told by the blind seer Tiresias that he would have a long life, provided he never recognized himself. His rejection, however, of the love of the nymph Echo or (in an earlier version) of the young man Ameinias drew upon him the vengeance of the gods. He fell in love with his own reflection in the waters of a spring and pined away (or killed himself); the flower that bears his name sprang up where he died. The Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias, in Description of Greece, Book IX, said it was more likely that Narcissus, to console himself for the death of his beloved twin sister, his exact counterpart, sat gazing into the spring to recall her features.

Caravaggio
1571-1610
Italy

Narcissus.
Galleria Nazionale de Arte Antica, Rome

Nicolas
Poussin
1594-1665
France
Echo and Narcissus.

Francoise
Lemoyne
1688-1737
France
  Narcissus.

John
William
Waterhouse
1849-1917
England

Echo and Narcissus.

Graces
 

Grace

(Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Greek mythology

in Greek religion, one of a group of goddesses of fertility. The name refers to the “pleasing” or “charming” appearance of a fertile field or garden. The number of Graces varied in different legends, but usually there were three: Aglaia (Brightness), Euphrosyne (Joyfulness), and Thalia (Bloom). They are said to be daughters of Zeus and Hera (or Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus) or of Helios and Aegle, a daughter of Zeus. Frequently the Graces were taken as goddesses of charm or beauty in general and hence were associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love; Peitho, her attendant; and Hermes, a fertility and messenger god. In works of art they were represented in early times draped, later as nude female figures. Their chief cult centres were at Orchomenus in Boeotia, Athens, Sparta, and Paphos. The singular Gratia or Charis is sometimes used to denote the personification of Grace and Beauty.

Raphael
1483-1520
Italy

Graces.

Hans
Baldung
1484-1545
Germany

Three Graces.
1539
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Peter
Paul
Rubens
1577-1640
Belgium
 
The Three Graces.

 

Pygmalion
 

Pygmalion

(Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Greek mythology

in Greek mythology, a king who was the father of Metharme and, through her marriage to Cinyras, the grandfather of Adonis, according to Apollodorus of Athens. The Roman poet Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, Book X, relates that Pygmalion, a sculptor, makes an ivory statue representing his ideal of womanhood and then falls in love with his own creation, which he names Galatea; the goddess Venus brings the statue to life in answer to his prayer. Their daughter Paphos gives her name to the city of Paphos, the centre of Aphrodite’s worship on Cyprus. The story was the inspiration for many artists: Jean-Léon Gérôme depicted the moment of transformation, and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion in turn provided the basis of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s musical, My Fair Lady.

Francois 
Boucher
1703-1770
France
Pygmalion and Galatea.
1767
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Edward
Burne-
Jones
1833-1898
England

Pygmalion and the Image Series: The Soul Attains.
1878
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Edward
Burne-
Jones
1833-1898
England

Pygmalion and the Image.
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham

Edward
Burne-
Jones
1833-1898
England

Pygmalion and Galatea.

Paul
Delvaux
1897-1994
Belgium

Pygmalion.
1939

Jean-Leon
Gerome
1824-1904
France

Pygmalion and Galatea.
1890

Jean-Leon
Gerome
1824-1904
France

Pygmalion and Galatea.
1890

Boris
Vallejo
1964-
USA

  Pygmalion and Galatea.

Helios
 

Helios

(Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Greek god
(Greek: “Sun”)

in Greek religion, the sun god. He drove a chariot daily from east to west across the sky and sailed around the northerly stream of Ocean each night in a huge cup. In classical Greece, Helios was especially worshipped in Rhodes, where from at least the early 5th century bc he was regarded as the chief god, to whom the island belonged. His worship spread as he became increasingly identified with other deities, often under Eastern influence. From the 5th century bc, Apollo, originally a deity of radiant purity, was more and more interpreted as a sun god. Under the Roman Empire the sun itself came to be worshipped as the Unconquered Sun.

Nicolas
Poussin
1594-1665
France
Helios and Phaeton with Saturn and the Four Seasons.

Guido Reni
1575-1642
Italy 
Helios and Aurora.

Salvador
Dali
1904-1989
Spain

The Colossus of Rhodes.
1954

Aurora
 

Guercino
1591-1666
Italy

Aurora.
1621

Adolphe-
William
Bouguereau 
1825-1905
France

Aurore.
1881

Eos
 

Eos

(Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Greek and Roman mythology

in Greco-Roman mythology, the personification of the dawn. According to the Greek poet Hesiod’s Theogony, she was the daughter of the Titan Hyperion and the Titaness Theia and sister of Helios, the sun god, and Selene, the moon goddess. By the Titan Astraeus she was the mother of the winds Zephyrus, Notus, and Boreas, and of Hesperus (the Evening Star) and the other stars; by Tithonus of Assyria she was the mother of Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, who was slain by Achilles at Troy. She bears in Homer’s works the epithet Rosy-Fingered.

Boris
Vallejo
1964-
USA

  Eos.