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Greek and Roman Myths in Art
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Graces
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see also:
The Odyssey of Homer
illustrations by
John Flaxman
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Greek and Roman
Myths in Art
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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
***
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Greek and Roman Myths in Art
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Narcissus, Graces, Pygmalion,
Helios,
Aurora,
Eos
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Narcissus
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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.
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Caravaggio
1571-1610
Italy
Narcissus.
Galleria Nazionale de Arte Antica, Rome
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Nicolas
Poussin
1594-1665
France
Echo and Narcissus.
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Francoise
Lemoyne
1688-1737
France
Narcissus.
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John
William
Waterhouse
1849-1917
England
Echo and Narcissus.
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Graces
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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.
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Raphael
1483-1520
Italy
Graces.
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Hans
Baldung
1484-1545
Germany
Three Graces.
1539
Museo del Prado, Madrid
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Peter
Paul
Rubens
1577-1640
Belgium
The Three Graces.
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Pygmalion
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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.
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Francois
Boucher
1703-1770
France
Pygmalion and Galatea.
1767
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
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Edward
Burne-
Jones
1833-1898
England
Pygmalion and the Image Series: The
Soul Attains.
1878
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
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Edward
Burne-
Jones
1833-1898
England
Pygmalion and the Image.
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham
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Edward
Burne-
Jones
1833-1898
England
Pygmalion and Galatea.
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Paul
Delvaux
1897-1994
Belgium
Pygmalion.
1939
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Jean-Leon
Gerome
1824-1904
France
Pygmalion and Galatea.
1890
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Jean-Leon
Gerome
1824-1904
France
Pygmalion and Galatea.
1890
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Boris
Vallejo
1964-
USA
Pygmalion and Galatea.
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Helios
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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.
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Nicolas
Poussin
1594-1665
France
Helios and Phaeton with Saturn and the Four Seasons.
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Guido Reni
1575-1642
Italy
Helios and Aurora.
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Salvador
Dali
1904-1989
Spain
The Colossus of Rhodes.
1954
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Aurora
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Guercino
1591-1666
Italy
Aurora.
1621
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Adolphe-
William
Bouguereau
1825-1905
France
Aurore.
1881
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Eos
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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.
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Boris
Vallejo
1964-
USA
Eos.
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