ARHI4030AncientTexts

ARHI4030, The Classical Tradition, Dr. Frances Van Keuren
http://fvankeur.myweb.uga.edu/ARHI4030StudyGuide.html
email: fvankeur@aol.com

Ancient and Later Texts Relating to Art Works

Links

Class Study Guide with List of Required Art Works

Hesiod, Theogony , lines 325 ff., a work of late 8th or early 7th century B.C. (translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White; see Geometric Attic vase (stand) showing Heracles ? killing lion ?) :

[325] Echidna [monster who was half nymph and half snake] was subject in love to Orthus [a two-headed dog] and brought forth... the Nemean lion, which Hera, the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of Nemea, a plague to men. [330] There he preyed upon the tribes of her own people and had power over Tretus [a mountain near Nemea where lion's cave was located] of Nemea and Apesas [another mountain near Nemea]: yet the strength of stout Heracles overcame him.

Hesiod, Theogony , lines 945 ff. (see Geometric Attic statuettes with Minotaur and Theseus or one of Athenian youths):

[945] And golden-haired Dionysus made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and the son of Cronos [Zeus] made her deathless and unageing for him.

Catalogue of Women, believed to have been composed in the 6th century B.C. (see Orientalizing Cycladic relief vase showing Europa riding bull, as well as Classical vases):

Fragment #19A -- (19)
Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358 fr. 1 (3rd cent. A.D.): (20)
(ll. 1-32) So she [Europa] crossed the briny water from afar
to Crete, beguiled by the wiles of Zeus. Secretly did the Father
snatch her away and gave her a gift, the golden necklace, the toy
which Hephaestus the famed craftsman once made by his cunning
skill and brought and gave it to his father [Cronos] for a possession.
And Zeus received the gift, and gave it in turn to the daughter
of proud Phoenix [Europa]. But when the Father of men and of gods had
mated so far off with trim-ankled Europa, then he departed back
again from the rich-haired girl. So she bare sons to the
almighty Son of Cronos, glorious leaders of wealthy men -- Minos
the ruler, and just Rhadamanthys and noble Sarpedon the blameless
and strong. To these did wise Zeus give each a share of his
honour.

Sappho , Fragment 144, Lesbian poetess who was writing in the early 6th century B.C. (see Orientalizing Cycladic relief vase showing Minotaur, Theseus, Ariadne and four Athenian youths and maidens ?):

Servius [commentator of 4th century A.D.], commenting on Vergil, Aeneid, vi, 21, says:--

'Some would have it believed that Theseus rescued along with himself seven boys and seven maidens, as Plato says in his Phaedo, and Sappho in her lyrics, and Bacchylides in his dithyrambics, and Euripides in his Hercules .'

No such passage from Sappho has been preserved.

Hesiod, Theogony , lines 270 ff. (see four Orientalizing vases , all showing parts of the story of Perseus' beheading of the Gorgon Medusa):

[270] And again, Ceto [sea monster] bore to Phorcys [sea god] the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean [275] in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One [Poseidon] in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. [280] And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs [pegae in Greek] of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade [aor in Greek] in his hands.

Shield of Heracles , believed to have bene composed ca. 580-570 B.C., lines 216 ff. (see four vases for preceding passage):

There, too, was the son of rich-haired Danae, the
horseman Perseus: his feet did not touch the shield and yet were
not far from it -- very marvellous to remark, since he was not
supported anywhere; for so did the famous Lame One fashion him of
gold with his hands. On his feet he had winged sandals, and his
black-sheathed sword was slung across his shoulders by a cross-
belt of bronze. He was flying swift as thought. The head of a
dreadful monster, the Gorgon, covered the broad of his back, and
a bag of silver -- a marvel to see -- contained it: and from the
bag bright tassels of gold hung down. Upon the head of the hero
lay the dread cap of Hades which had the awful gloom of
night. Perseus himself, the son of Danae, was at full stretch,
like one who hurries and shudders with horror. And after him
rushed the Gorgons, unapproachable and unspeakable, longing to
seize him: as they trod upon the pale adamant [an extremely hard substance], the shield rang
sharp and clear with a loud clanging. Two serpents hung down at
their girdles with heads curved forward: their tongues were
flickering, and their teeth gnashing with fury, and their eyes
glaring fiercely. And upon the awful heads of the Gorgons great
Fear [god Phobos] was quaking.

Pherecydes of Athens, a work of ca. 456 B.C., as summarized in commentaries of Apollonios of Rhodes' Argonautica (from D. Ogden, Perseus , 2008, pp. 4-6, on reserve under call number BL820 .P5 O33 2008; see Archaic and Classical Greek vases with Danae and Perseus myths):

Acrisius married Eurydice, the daughter of Lacedaemon. Danae was born from them. Acrisius consulted the oracle about a male child and the god in Pytho [i.e. Delphi] replied that he would not have one, but that one would be born to his daughter, and that this child was destined to kill him. He went back to Argos and constructed a bronze chamber in the courtyard of his house beneath the ground. And into it he put Danae with her nurse. He kept her under guard in there so that no child might be born to her. Zeus fell in love with the girl and flowed down from the roof in the likeness of gold. And she received it [i.e. welcomed it] in her lap. Zeus revealed himself and had sex with the girl. Perseus was born from them, and Danae reared him together with her nurse, keeping him secret from Acrisius. When Perseus was three or four, Acrisius heard his voice as he played. He summoned Danae and her nurse through his servants, killed the nurse, and took Danae with her son to the altar of his Courtyard Zeus. Standing alone with her, he asked her from whom she had conceived the child. She said, 'From Zeus'. He did not believe her, but he put her into a chest with her child. He shut it and put it in the sea. Being carried along, they arrived at the island of Seriphos. Dictys the son of Peristhenes hawled them out of the sea as he was fishing with a net. Thereupon Danae supplicated him to open the chest. He opened it, and, learning who they were, took them to his house and reared them as if they were his own relatives...

When Perseus had become a youth, Polydectes, the maternal brother of Dictys, who happened to be king of Seriphos, saw Danae and fell in love with her, but was at a loss as to how to sleep with her. So he prepared a feast and invited many to it, including Perseus. Perseus asked what was the price of attendance. Polydectes said, 'A horse.' Perseus said, 'The head of the Gorgon.' On the sixth day after the feast, when the other banqueters brought their horses, so did Perseus. But Polydectes would not accept it, and demanded instead the head of the Gorgon in accordance with Perseus' promise. He said that if Perseus did not bring it, he would take his mother. Perseus was vexed and went off, lamenting his fate, to the remotest corner of the island. Hermes appeared before him and interrogated him, and learned the reason for his lamentation. He told him to cheer up and led the way for him. First he took him to the Graeae, the daughters of Phorcys, named Pemphredo, Enyo and Deino. Athena told him the way. He stole from them their eye and tooth as they were handing it among themselves. When they realised, they shouted out and besought him to give them back to them. For the three of them had been using one tooth and one eye by turns. Perseus said that he had them and that he would give them back if they directed him to the Nymphs that had the Cap of Hades, the winged sandals and the pouch (kibisis). So they showed him, and Perseus gave them their things back. He went off to the Nymphs with Hermes, and asked them for the equipment. He put on the winged sandals, slung the pouch around himself, and put the Cap of Hades on his head. Then he travelled in flight to the region of Ocean and the Gorgons, with Hermes and Athena accompanying him. He found the Gorgons asleep. These gods instructed him to cut off the head whilst turning away, and in a mirror they showed him Medusa, who alone of the Gorgons was mortal. He approached, cut off her head with his sickle (harpe) and, putting it in his pouch, fled. The other Gorgons, realising what had happened, pursued him. However, they could not see him, because of his Cap of Hades...

When Perseus arrived at Seriphos he came before Polydectes and bade him gather the people, so that he might show the Gorgon's head, in the knowledge that when they saw it they would be turned to stone. Polydectes assembled the people and bade him show the head. He turned away, took it out of his pouch, and showed it. The people saw it and were turned to stone. Athena took the head from Perseus and mounted it upon her goatskin (aegis). He gave the pouch back to Hermes, and his sandals and cap to the Nymphs.

Bacchylides, Ode 13.46 ff. , a work of ca. 480 B.C. (see Archaic Greek and later depictions of Heracles and the Nemean lion):

Look how the descendant of Perseus [i.e. Heracles, who was the son of Perseus' granddaughter Alcmene] brings his hand down heavily on the neck of the bloodthirsty lion with every type of skill! [50] For the gleaming, man-subduing bronze refuses to pierce the lion's fearsome body; the sword was bent back.

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 5 (Roman mythographer 2nd century A.D.; see Archaic shieldband from Olympia with Ariadne with wreath):

As the author of the Cretica says [Epimenides, a philosopher-poet of 6th century B.C.], at the time when Liber [Dionysos] came to Minos with the hope of lying with Ariadne, he gave her this crown as a present. Delighted with it, she did not refuse the terms. It is said, too, to have been made of gold and Indian gems, and by its aid Theseus is thought to have come from the gloom of the labyrinth to the day, for the gold and gems made a glow of light in the darkness.

Pherecydes' account of slaying of Minotaur (as reported by Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth, 1993, p. 264, on reserve under call number BL782 .G34 1993; see Archaic Greek and later depictions of Theseus and Minotaur):

From this [scholiast's summary of Pherecydes' account] we learn that Ariadne, daughter of Minos, falls in love with Theseus on his arrival in Crete, where he has come to be offered to the Minotaur, and gives him a ball of thread which she herself has gotten from Daedalus. She advises him to tie this to a part of the door as he goes in, and unroll it until he arrives at the innermost part (of what is not specified). There, should he find the Minotaur asleep, he is to seize him by the hair and sacrifice him to Poseidon, then follow the thread back (the implication is thus that he has a sword, although this is not stated). Apparently, everything evolves as Ariadne has anticipated, for in the following sentence Theseus is boarding ship with her and the youths and maidens not yet given to the Minotaur.

Homer, Odyssey 10.208 ff. (an epic of ca. 725 B.C., translated by A.T. Murray; see Archaic and later depictions of Odysseus and Circe):

Within the forest glades they [half of Odysseus' men] found the house of Circe, built of polished stone in a place of wide outlook, and round about it were mountain wolves and lions, whom Circe herself had bewitched; for she gave them evil drugs. Yet these beasts did not rush upon my men, [215] but pranced about them fawningly, wagging their long tails. And as when hounds fawn around their master as he comes from a feast, for he ever brings them bits to soothe their temper, so about them fawned the stout-clawed wolves and lions; but they were seized with fear, as they saw the dread monsters. [220] So they stood in the gateway of the fair-tressed goddess, and within they heard Circe singing with sweet voice, as she went to and fro before a great imperishable web, such as is the handiwork of goddesses, finely-woven and beautiful, and glorious...

They cried aloud, and called to her. [230] And she straightway came forth and opened the bright doors, and bade them in; and all went with her in their folly. Only Eurylochus remained behind, for he suspected that there was a snare. She brought them in and made them sit on chairs and seats, and made for them a potion of cheese and barley meal and yellow honey [235] with Pramnian wine; but in the food she mixed baneful drugs, that they might utterly forget their native land. Now when she had given them the potion, and they had drunk it off, then she presently smote them with her wand, and penned them in the sties. And they had the heads, and voice, and bristles, [240] and shape of swine, but their minds remained unchanged even as before. So they were penned there weeping, and before them Circe flung mast [nuts from forest floor] and acorns, and the fruit of the cornel tree, to eat, such things as wallowing swine are wont to feed upon. But Eurylochus came back straightway to the swift, black ship, [245] to bring tiding of his comrades and their shameful doom...

So saying, I [speaker is Odysseus] went up from the ship and the sea. [275] But when, as I went through the sacred glades, I was about to come to the great house of the sorceress, Circe, then Hermes, of the golden wand, met me as I went toward the house, in the likeness of a young man with the first down upon his lip, in whom the charm of youth is fairest... "I will free thee from harm, and save thee. Here, take this potent herb, and go to the house of Circe, and it shall ward off from thy head the evil day."

So saying, Argeiphontes [i.e. Hermes] gave me the herb, drawing it from the ground, and showed me its nature. At the root it was black, but its flower was like milk. [305] Moly the gods call it, and it is hard for mortal men to dig; but with the gods all things are possible...

And she [Circe] prepared me a potion in a golden cup, that I might drink, and put therein a drug, with evil purpose in her heart. But when she had given it me, and I had drunk it off, yet was not bewitched, she smote me with her wand, and spoke, and addressed me: [320] "Begone now to the sty, and lie with the rest of thy comrades." So she spoke, but I, drawing my sharp sword from beside my thigh, rushed upon Circe, as though I would slay her. But she, with a loud cry, ran beneath, and clasped my knees, and with wailing she spoke to me winged words: [325] “Who art thou among men, and from whence?... Surely thou art Odysseus, the man of ready device... Nay, come, put up thy sword in its sheath, and let us two then go up into my bed, that couched together [335] in love we may put trust in each other..."

Now when Circe noted that I sat thus, and did not put forth my hands to the food, but was burdened with sore grief, she came close to me, and spoke winged words: “Why, Odysseus, dost thou sit thus like one that is dumb, eating thy heart, and dost not touch food or drink? [380] Dost thou haply forbode some other guile? Nay, thou needest in no wise fear, for already have I sworn a mighty oath to do thee no harm." So she spoke, but I answered her, and said: "Circe, what man that is right-minded could bring himself to taste of food or drink, [385] ere yet he had won freedom for his comrades, and beheld them before his face? But if thou of a ready heart dost bid me eat and drink, set them free, that mine eyes may behold my trusty comrades."

So I spoke, and Circe went forth through the hall holding her wand in her hand, and opened the doors of the sty, [390] and drove them out in the form of swine of nine years old. So they stood there before her, and she went through the midst of them, and anointed each man with another charm. Then from their limbs the bristles fell away which the baneful drug that queenly Circe gave them had before made to grow, [395] and they became men again, younger than they were before, and far comelier and taller to look upon. They knew me, and clung to my hands, each man of them, and upon them all came a passionate sobbing, and the house about them rang wondrously, and the goddess herself was moved to pity.

Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica 4.891 ff. (work of 3rd century B.C.; according to Gantz, Early Greek Myth, p. 721, this role of Orpheus drowning out the song of the Sirens goes back to lost account by Herodoros, who was writing ca. 400 B.C.; see Archaic depictions of Orpheus):

And a fresh breeze wafted the ship on. And soon they [Argonauts] saw a fair island, Anthemoessa [meaning "Flowery", an island west of Naples], where the clear-voiced Sirens, daughters of Achelous, used to beguile with their sweet songs whoever cast anchor there, and then destroy him... they were fashioned in part like birds and in part like maidens to behold. And ever on the watch from their place of prospect with its fair haven, often from many had they taken away their sweet return, consuming them with wasting desire; and suddenly to the heroes, too, they sent forth from their lips a lily-like voice. And they were already about to cast from the ship the hawsers [large ropes] to the shore, had not Thracian Orpheus, son of Oeagrus [Thracian king], stringing in his hands his Bistonian lyre, rung forth the hasty snatch of a rippling melody so that their ears might be filled with the sound of his twanging; and the lyre overcame the maidens' voice.

Euripides' Bacchae , lines 337 ff. (a tragedy performed between 408 and 406 B.C., translated by T.A. Buckley; see Archaic and later Greek depictions of death of Actaeon):

You see the wretched fate of Actaeon, who was torn apart in the meadows by the blood-thirsty hounds he had raised, [340] having boasted that he was superior in the hunt to Artemis.

Homer's Odyssey 12.85 ff. (translated by A.T. Murray; see Classical Paestan calyx crater with Europa riding bull to Crete):

Not even a man of might could shoot an arrow from the hollow ship so as to reach into that vaulted cave. [85] Therein dwells Scylla, yelping terribly. Her voice is indeed but as the voice of a new-born whelp, but she herself is an evil monster, nor would anyone be glad at sight of her, no, not though it were a god that met her. Verily she has twelve feet, all misshapen,1 [90] and six necks, exceeding long, and on each one an awful head, and therein three rows of teeth, thick and close, and full of black death.

Fragment from poem by Simonides (556-467 B.C., translated by Peter John Allan; see Classical Attic red-figure lekythos with Danae and Perseus riding in chest on the sea):

Yet sleep, my boy--I charge thee sleep,
And slumber thou, resistless deep,
And sleep ye, too, my many woes;
Oh! grant, great Jove, a mother's prayer,
My Perseus in thy mercy spare
(Rash wish!) to punish Danäe foes.

Papyrus fragment from Aeschylus' Dictyoulcoi (The Net-Drawers, translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones), a satyr play perhaps as early as 490s B.C.; see Classical Attic pyxis with rescue of Danae and Perseus by Dictys):

?—Can you see . . .?
DICTYS. —I can see. . . .
? —What do you want me to look out for? . . .
DICTYS. —In case anywhere . . . in the sea. . . .
—Not a sign; so far as I can see, the sea’s a mill-pond.
DICTYS. —Look now at the crannies of the cliffs by the shore.
? —All right, I’m looking. . . . Good Lord, what am I to call this! Is it a monster of the sea that meets my eyes, a grampus [small whale] or a shark or a whale? Lord Poseidon and Zeus of the deep, a fine gift to send up from the sea . . .!
DICTYS. —What gift of the sea does your net conceal? It’s covered with seaweed like. . . . Is it some warm-blooded creature? Or has the Old Man of the Island [= ? Old Man of the Sea, a sea god] sent us something in a chest? How tremendously heavy it is! the work’s not going ahead! I’ll shout and raise an alarm. HALLO THERE!

Passage from Pausanias' Description of Greece 5.10.9 (written in the 2nd century A.D., translated by W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod; see the Early Classical metope with Heracles and the dead lion from the temple of Zeus at Olympia):

Most of the labours of Heracles are represented at Olympia. Above the doors of the temple [of Zeus] is carved the hunting of the Arcadian boar, his exploit against Diomedes the Thracian, and that against Geryones at Erytheia; he is also about to receive the burden of Atlas, and he cleanses the land from dung for the Eleans. Above the doors of the rear chamber he is taking the girdle from the Amazon; and there are the affairs of the deer, of the bull at Cnossus, of the Stymphalian birds, of the hydra, and of the Argive lion.

Euripides' Alcestis , lines 357 ff. (a tragedy of 438 B.C., tranaslated by David Kovacs; see the relief, associated with the Classical Altar of Twelve Gods in the Agora of Athens, that shows Orpheus and Hermes leading Eurydice back to the Underworld):

If I [Admetus] had the voice and music of Orpheus so that I could charm Demeter's daughter or her husband with song and fetch you from Hades, [360] I would have gone down to the Underworld, and neither Pluto's hound nor Charon the ferryman of souls standing at the oar would have kept me from bringing you [Alcestis] back to the light alive.

Virgil, Georgics , 4.485 ff. (a poem of 29 B.C., translated by J. B. Greenough; see the relief, associated with the Classical Altar of Twelve Gods in the Agora of Athens, that shows Orpheus and Hermes leading Eurydice back to the Underworld):

And now with homeward footstep he had passed
All perils scathless, and, at length restored,
Eurydice to realms of upper air
Had well-nigh won, behind him following--
So Proserpine had ruled it--when his heart
A sudden mad desire surprised and seized--
Meet [appropriate] fault to be forgiven, might Hell forgive.
For at the very threshold of the day,
Heedless, alas! and vanquished of resolve,
He stopped, turned, looked upon Eurydice
His own once more. But even with the look,
Poured out was all his labour, broken the bond
Of that fell tyrant, and a crash was heard
Three times like thunder in the meres [boundaries] of hell.
‘Orpheus! what ruin hath thy frenzy wrought
On me, alas! and thee? Lo! once again
The unpitying fates recall me, and dark sleep
Closes my swimming eyes. And now farewell:
Girt with enormous night I am borne away,
Outstretching toward thee, thine, alas! no more,
These helpless hands.’ She spake, and suddenly,
Like smoke dissolving into empty air,
Passed and was sundered [separated] from his sight.

Conon, Narratives 45 (30 B.C.-17 A.D., translation by W.K.C. Guthrie; see Classical Attic vases with Orpheus' death and oracular head):

The manner of his [Orpheus'] death was this: he was torn in pieces by the women of Thrace and Macedonia because he would not allow them to take part in his religious rites, or it may be on other pretexts too: for they do say that after the misfortune that he had with his own wife [Eurydice] he became the foe of the whole sex. Now on appointed days a throng of armed Thracians and Macedonians used to gather at Leibethra [near Mt. Olympus in Thessaly]... for the performance of initiatory rites; and when they entered... they laid down their arms before the door. The women filled with anger at the sight put upon them, seized the arms, slew those who attempted to overpower them, and rending Orpheus limb from limb, cast the scattered remains into the sea. [Much later, the Leibethrans found Orpheus' head] at the mouth of the river Meles [which flowed by Smyrna in Asia Minor = Western Turkey]. It was still singing and in no way harmed by the sea, nor had it suffered any of the other dreadful changes which the fates of man bring upon dead bodies. Even after so long a time it was fresh, and blooming with the flood of life.

Moschus, Europa (a poem of mid-2nd century B.C., translated by J.M. Edmonds; see Hellenistic glass beaker with Europa riding bull, and ivory panels from Byzantine caskets with same theme):

[115] And lo! the sea waxed calm, the sea-beasts frolicked afore great Zeus, the dolphins made joyful ups and tumblings over the surge, and the Nereids rose from the brine and mounting the sea-beasts rode all a-row. And before them all that great rumbling sea-lord the Earth-Shaker [Poseidon] played pilot of the briny pathway to that his brother [Zeus], and the Tritons gathering about him took their long taper shells and sounded the marriage-music like some clarioners of the main [mainland]. Meanwhile Europa, seated on the back of Zeus the Bull, held with one hand to his great horn and caught up with the other the long purple fold of her robe, lest trailing it should be wet in the untold waters of the hoar brine; and the robe went bosoming deep at the shoulder like the sail of a ship, and made that fair burden light indeed.

[131] When she was now far come from the land of her fathers, and could see neither wave-beat shore nor mountain-top, but only sky above and sea without end below, she gazed about her and lift up her voice saying: “Whither away with me, thou god-like bull? And who art thou, and how come undaunted where is so ill going for shambling oxen? Troth [Truth], ‘tis for the speeding ship to course o’ the sea, and bulls do shun the paths of the brine. What water is here thou canst drink? What food shalt thou get thee of the sea? Nay, ‘tis plain thou art a God; only a God would do as thou doest. For bulls go no more on the sea than dolphins of the wave on the land; but as for you, land and sea is all one for your traveling, your hooves are oars to you. It may well be you will soar above the gray mists and fly like a bird on the wing. Alas and well-a-day that I left my home and followed this ox to go so strange a sea-faring and so lonesome! O be kind good Lord of the hoar sea – for methinks I see thee yonder piloting me on this way – , great Earth-Shaker, be kind and come hither to help me; for sure there’s a divinity in this my journey upon the ways of the waters.”

[153] So far the maid, when the hornèd ox upspake and said: “Be of good cheer, sweet virgin, and never thou fear the billows. ‘Tis Zeus himself that speaketh, though to the sight he seem a bull; for I can put on what semblance soever I will. And ‘tis love of thee hath brought me to make so far a sea-course in a bull’s likeness; and ere ‘tis long thou shalt be in Crete, that was my nurse when I was with her; and there shall thy wedding be, whereof shall spring famous children who shall all be kings among them that are in the earth.”

[162] So spake he, and lo! what he spake was done; for appear it did, the Cretan country, and Zeus took on once more his own proper shape, and upon a bed made him of the Seasons unloosed her maiden girdle. And so it was that she that before was a virgin became straightway the bride of Zeus, and thereafter straightway too a mother of children unto the Son of Cronus.

Strabo 10.459 (geographer who lived ca. 64 B.C.-21 A.D.; see Greek and Roman copies of Lysippus' group from Alyzia with Heracles and lion):

Alyzia, in whose territory is a harbor sacred to Heracles and a precinct from which a Roman commander removed to Rome the labors of Heracles, the work of Lysippus, whcih had become displaced through the desolation of the district.

Plato, Phaedo (dialogue of 360 B.C. translated by Benjamin Jowett; see the paintings from Herculaneum and Pompeii, believed to copy Hellenistic prototypes):

This is the ship in which, as the Athenians say, Theseus went to Crete when he took with him the fourteen youths, and was the saviour of them and of himself. And they were said to have vowed to Apollo at the time, that if they were saved they would make an annual pilgrimage to Delos. Now this custom still continues, and the whole period of the voyage to and from Delos, beginning when the priest of Apollo crowns the stern of the ship, is a holy season, during which the city is not allowed to be polluted by public executions.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.836 ff. (composed before Ovid's exile in 8 A.D., translated by Brookes More; see Roman and later depcitions of abduction of Europa):

His father [Jupiter] called him [Mercury] to his side,
and said,--with words to hide his passion;--Son,--
thou faithful minister of my commands.--
let naught delay thee--swiftly take the way,
accustomed, to the land of Sidon [city in Phoenicia] (which
adores thy mother's star upon the left) [Maia, mother of Mercury and daughter of Atlas, was one of Pleiades who were placed in sky by Jupiter]
when there, drive over to the sounding shore
that royal herd, which far away is fed
on mountain grass.--

he spoke, and instantly
the herd was driven from the mountain side;
then headed for the shore, as Jove desired,--
to where the great king's daughter often went
in play, attended by the maids of Tyre.--
can love abide the majesty of kings?
Love cannot always dwell upon a throne.--
Jove laid aside his glorious dignity,
for he assumed the semblance of a bull
and mingled with the bullocks in the groves,
his colour white as virgin snow, untrod,
unmelted by the watery Southern Wind.

His neck was thick with muscles, dewlaps hung
between his shoulders; and his polished horns,
so small and beautifully set, appeared
the artifice of man; fashioned as fair
and more transparent than a lucent gem.
His forehead was not lowered for attack,
nor was there fury in his open eyes;
the love of peace was in his countenance.

When she beheld his beauty and mild eyes,
the daughter of Agenor was amazed;
but, daring not to touch him, stood apart
until her virgin fears were quieted;
then, near him, fragrant flowers in her hand
she offered,--tempting, to his gentle mouth:
and then the loving god in his great joy
kissed her sweet hands, and could not wait her will.

Jove then began to frisk upon the grass,
or laid his snow-white side on the smooth sand,
yellow and golden. As her courage grew
he gave his breast one moment for caress,
or bent his head for garlands newly made,
wreathed for his polished horns.

The royal maid,
unwitting what she did, at length sat down
upon the bull's broad back. Then by degrees
the god moved from the land and from the shore,
and placed his feet, that seemed but shining hoofs,
in shallow water by the sandy merge;
and not a moment resting bore her thence,
across the surface of the Middle Sea [Mediterranean],
while she affrighted gazed upon the shore--
so fast receding. And she held his horn
with her right hand, and, steadied by the left,
held on his ample back--and in the breeze
her waving garments fluttered as they went.

Now Jupiter had not revealed himself,
nor laid aside the semblance of a bull,
until they stood upon the plains of Crete.

Translation by J.M.C. Toynbee of inscription from Roman mosaic from villa at Lullingstone (Kent):

If jealous Juno had seen the swimming of the bull she would with greater justice on her side have repaired to the halls of Aeolus (god of winds).

Vergil, Aeneid 1.71 ff. (apparently left unfinished at time of poet's death in 19 B.C., translated by Theodore C. Williams; Juno is speaking to Aeolus when she wants him to release his winds to overwhelm Aeneas en route to Italy):

"I give thee in true wedlock for thine own,
to mate thy noble worth; she at thy side
shall pass long, happy years, and fruitful bring
her beauteous offspring unto thee their sire.”

Horace, Odes 3.16 (written after battle of Actium of 31 B.C., translated by John Conington; see Roman and later depictions of Danae and the golden rain):

Full well had Danae been secured, in truth,
By oaken portals, and a brazen tower,
And savage watch-dogs, from the roving youth
That prowl at midnight's hour:

But Jove [Jupiter] and Venus mock'd with gay disdain
The jealous warder of that close stronghold:
The way, they knew, must soon be smooth and plain
When gods could change to gold.

Gold, gold can pass the tyrant's sentinel,
Can shiver rocks with more resistless blow
Than is the thunder's.

Ovid, Metamorphoses , 9.172 ff. (see Roman mosaic with Hercules' vanquished opponents at Piazza Armerina, Sicily)

There was no limit to his misery;
raising both hands up towards the stars of heaven,
he cried, “Come Juno, feast upon my death;
feast on me, cruel one, look down from your
exalted seat; behold my dreadful end
and glut your savage heart! Oh, if I may
deserve some pity from my enemy,
from you I mean, this hateful life of mine
take from me--sick with cruel suffering
and only born for toil. The loss of life
will be a boon to me, and surely is
a fitting boon, such as stepmothers give!

“Was it for this I slew Busiris, who
defiled his temples with the strangers' blood?
For this I took his mother's strength from fierce
antaeus--that I did not show a fear
before the Spanish shepherd's triple form?
Nor did I fear the monstrous triple form
of Cerberus.--And is it possible
my hands once seized and broke the strong bull's horns?
And Elis knows their labor, and the waves
of Stymphalus, and the Parthenian woods.
For this the prowess of these hands secured
the Amazonian girdle wrought of gold;
and did my strong arms, gather all in vain
the fruit when guarded by the dragon's eyes.
The centaurs could not foil me, nor the boar
that ravaged in Arcadian fruitful fields.
Was it for this the hydra could not gain
double the strength from strength as it was lost?
And when I saw the steeds of Thrace, so fat
with human blood, and their vile mangers heaped
with mangled bodies, in a righteous rage
I threw them to the ground, and slaughtered them,
together with their master! In a cave
I crushed the Nemean monster with these arms;
and my strong neck upheld the wide-spread sky!
And even the cruel Juno, wife of Jove--
is weary of imposing heavy toils,
but I am not subdued performing them.

“A new calamity now crushes me,
which not my strength, nor valor, nor the use
of weapons can resist. Devouring flames
have preyed upon my limbs, and blasting heat
now shrivels the burnt tissue of my frame.
But still Eurystheus is alive and well!
And there are those who yet believe in Gods!”

Just as a wild bull, in whose body spears
are rankling, while the frightened hunter flies
away for safety, so the hero ranged
over sky-piercing Oeta; his huge groans,
his awful shrieks resounding in those cliffs.
At times he struggles with the poisoned robe.
Goaded to fury, he has razed great trees,
and scattered the vast mountain rocks around!

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.19 (written before his death from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., translated by John Bostock; see Roman mosaics with Theseus and the Minotaur inside the Layrinth):

There is still in Egypt, in the Nome of Heracleopolites, a labyrinth [perhaps at Howarah el Soghaï on Lake Fayum], which was the first constructed, three thousand six hundred years ago, they say, by King Petesuchis or Tithöes: although, according to Herodotus, the entire work was the production of no less than twelve kings, the last of [p. 6340] whom was Psammetichus [Egyptian king of 7th or 6th century B.C.]. As to the purpose for which it was built, there are various opinions: Demoteles says that it was the palace of King Moteris, and Lyceas that it was the tomb of Mœris, while many others assert that it was a building consecrated to the Sun, an opinion which mostly prevails.

That Dædalus took this for the model of the Labyrinth which he constructed in Crete, there can be no doubt; though he only reproduced the hundredth part of it, that portion, namely, which encloses circuitous passages, windings, and inextricable galleries which lead to and fro. We must not, comparing this last to what we see delineated on our mosaic pavements, or to the mazes formed in the fields for the amusement of children, suppose it to be a narrow promenade along which we may walk for many miles together; but we must picture to ourselves a building filled with numerous doors, and galleries which continually mislead the visitor, bringing him back, after all his wanderings, to the spot from which he first set out. This Labyrinth is the second, that of Egypt being the first. There is a third in the Isle of Lemnos, and a fourth in Italy.

They are all of them covered with arched roofs of polished stone.

Virgil, Georgics 4.504 ff. (see Roman and later depictions of Orpheus playing to the animals):

What should he [Orpheus] do? fly whither, twice bereaved?
Move with what tears the Manes [Roman spirits of the dead], with what voice
The Powers of darkness? She indeed even now
Death-cold was floating on the Stygian barge!
For seven whole months unceasingly, men say,
Beneath a skyey crag, by thy lone wave,
Strymon [river in Thrace], he wept, and in the caverns chill
Unrolled his story, melting tigers' hearts,
And leading with his lay the oaks along.
As in the poplar-shade a nightingale
Mourns her lost young, which some relentless swain [rustic peasant],
Spying, from the nest has torn unfledged [not ready for flight], but she
Wails the long night, and perched upon a spray
With sad insistence pipes her dolorous strain,
Till all the region with her wrongs o'erflows.
No love, no new desire, constrained his soul:
By snow-bound Tanais [modern Don River in Russia] and the icy north,
Far steppes to frost Rhipaean [the Alps] forever wed,
Alone he wandered, lost Eurydice
Lamenting, and the gifts of Dis [Pluto] ungiven.
Scorned by which tribute the Ciconian [Thracian] dames,
Amid their awful Bacchanalian rites
And midnight revellings, tore him limb from limb,
And strewed his fragments over the wide fields.
Then too, even then, what time the Hebrus stream [river in Thrace],
Oeagrian [i.e. Thracian] Hebrus, down mid-current rolled,
Rent from the marble neck, his drifting head,
The death-chilled tongue found yet a voice to cry
‘Eurydice! ah! poor Eurydice!’
With parting breath he called her, and the banks
From the broad stream caught up ‘Eurydice!’

Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.155 ff. (see Roman and later depictions of Diana and Actaeon):

There is a valley called
Gargaphia [a name for Plataia, west of Thebes]; sacred to Diana, dense
with pine trees and the pointed cypress, where,
deep in the woods that fringed the valley's edge,
was hollowed in frail sandstone and the soft
white pumice of the hills an arch, so true
it seemed the art of man; for Nature's touch
ingenious had so fairly wrought the stone,
making the entrance of a grotto cool.
Upon the right a limpid fountain ran,
and babbled, as its lucid channel spread
into a clear pool edged with tender grass.
Here, when a-wearied with exciting sport,
the Sylvan goddess loved to come and bathe
her virgin beauty in the crystal pool.

After Diana entered with her nymphs,
she gave her javelin, quiver and her bow
to one accustomed to the care of arms;
she gave her mantle to another nymph
who stood near by her as she took it off;
two others loosed the sandals from her feet;
but Crocale, the daughter of Ismenus,
more skillful than her sisters, gathered up
the goddess' scattered tresses in a knot;--
her own were loosely wantoned on the breeze.

Then in their ample urns dipt up the wave
and poured it forth, the cloud-nymph Nephele,
the nymph of crystal pools called Hyale,
the rain-drop Rhanis, Psecas of the dews,
and Phyale the guardian of their urns.
And while they bathed Diana in their streams,
Actaeon, wandering through the unknown woods,
entered the precincts of that sacred grove;
with steps uncertain wandered he as fate
directed, for his sport must wait till morn.--
soon as he entered where the clear springs welled
or trickled from the grotto's walls, the nymphs,
now ready for the bath, beheld the man,
smote on their breasts, and made the woods resound,
suddenly shrieking. Quickly gathered they
to shield Diana with their naked forms, but she
stood head and shoulders taller than her guards.--
as clouds bright-tinted by the slanting sun,
or purple-dyed Aurora, so appeared
Diana's countenance when she was seen.

Oh, how she wished her arrows were at hand!
But only having water, this she took
and dashed it on his manly countenance,
and sprinkled with the avenging stream his hair,
and said these words, presage of future woe;
“Go tell it, if your tongue can tell the tale,
your bold eyes saw me stripped of all my robes.”
No more she threatened, but she fixed the horns
of a great stag firm on his sprinkled brows;
she lengthened out his neck; she made his ears
sharp at the top; she changed his hands and feet;
made long legs of his arms, and covered him
with dappled hair--his courage turned to fear.
The brave son of Autonoe took to flight,
and marveled that he sped so swiftly on.--

he saw his horns reflected in a stream
and would have said, “Ah, wretched me!” but now
he had no voice, and he could only groan:
large tears ran trickling down his face, transformed
in every feature.--Yet, as clear remained
his understanding, and he wondered what
he should attempt to do: should he return
to his ancestral palace, or plunge deep
in vast vacuities of forest wilds?
Fear made him hesitate to trust the woods,
and shame deterred him from his homeward way.

While doubting thus his dogs espied him there:
first Blackfoot and the sharp nosed Tracer raised
the signal...

All eager for their prey the pack surmount
rocks, cliffs and crags, precipitous--where paths
are steep, where roads are none. He flies by routes
so oft pursued but now, alas, his flight
is from his own!--He would have cried, “Behold
your master!--It is I--Actaeon!” Words
refused his will. The yelping pack pressed on...

But his companions, witless of his plight,
urged on the swift pack with their hunting cries...

They [the dogs] gathered round him, and they fixed their snouts
deep in his flesh: tore him to pieces, he
whose features only as a stag appeared.--
'Tis said Diana's fury raged with none
abatement till the torn flesh ceased to live.

Apollodorus, Library 3.4.4 (a mythological compilation of the 1st or 2nd century A.D.; see the Roman sarcophagus with the story of Actaeon):

Autonoe and Aristaeus had a son Actaeon, who was bred by Chiron to be a hunter and then afterwards was devoured on Cithaeron [chain of mountains on border between Attica and Boeotia] by his own dogs. He perished in that way, according to Acusilaus [who lived in the second half of the 6th century B.C.], because Zeus was angry at him for wooing Semele; but according to the more general opinion, it was because he saw Artemis bathing. And they say that the goddess at once transformed him into a deer, and drove mad the fifty dogs in his pack, which devoured him unwittingly. Actaeon being gone, the dogs sought their master howling lamentably, and in the search they came to the cave of Chiron, who fashioned an image of Actaeon, which soothed their grief.

Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2 f. (translated by James George Frazer; see Roman sarcophagi with Perseus' beheading of Medusa):

He [Perseus] flew to the ocean and caught the Gorgons asleep. They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Now Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head. But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine's, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone such as beheld them. So Perseus [p. 159] stood over them as they slept, and while Athena guided his hand and he looked with averted gaze on a brazen shield, in which he beheld the image of the Gorgon, he beheaded her. When her head was cut off, there sprang from the Gorgon the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor, the father of Geryon; these she had by Poseidon.

So Perseus put the head of Medusa in the wallet (kibisis) and went back again; but the Gorgons started up from their slumber and pursued Perseus: but they could not see him on account of the cap, for he was hidden by it...

Athena inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield. But it is alleged by some that Medusa was beheaded for Athena's sake; and they say that the Gorgon was fain [desirous] to match herself with the goddess even in beauty.

Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy , Book 4, p. 139 (published ca. 520-526 A.D.; see Carolingian chair of Charles the Bald, from Old St. Peter's, Rome):

Hercules became famous through hard labours. He tamed the haughty Centaurs, and from the fierce lion of Nemea took his spoil. With his sure arrows he smote the birds of Stymphalus; and from the watchful dragon took the apples of the Hesperides, filling his hand with their precious gold; and Cerberus he dragged along with threefold chain. The story tells how he conquered the fierce Diomedes and set before his savage mares their master as their food. The Hydra's poison perished in his fire. He took the horn and so disgraced the brow of the river Achelous, who hid below his bank his head ashamed. On the sands of Libya he laid Antæus low; Cacus he slew to sate Evander's wrath. The bristling boar of Erymanthus flecked with his own foam the shoulders which were to bear the height of heaven; for in his last labour he bore with unbending neck the heavens, and so won again his place in heaven, the reward of his last work.

Go forth then bravely whither leads the lofty path of high example. Why do ye sluggards turn your backs? When the earth is overcome, the stars are yours.

Apollodorus, Library 2.5.1 (see Byzantine ivory caskets with Hercules strangling lion):

And having [p. 187] come to Nemea and tracked the lion, he first shot an arrow at him, but when he perceived that the beast was invulnerable, he heaved up his club and made after him. And when the lion took refuge in a cave with two mouths, Hercules built up the one entrance and came in upon the beast through the other, and putting his arm round its neck held it tight till he had choked it.

Psalm 90 , verse 13, with Latin Vulgate translation by Jerome (accomplished 386-391 A.D.; see sardonyx cameo with Hercules trampling on what appears to be a basilisk):

Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon (super aspidem et basiliscum calcabis conculcabis leonem et draconem).

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.130 ff. (see illustration from Bergamo Ovid of Pasiphae mating with bull and giving birth to Minotaur):

[Scylla is speaking to Minos]
"That woman [Pasiphae] is a worthy mate for you
who hid in wood deceived the raging bull,
and bore to him the infamy of Crete [the Minotaur].
I do not wonder that Pasiphae
preferred the bull to you, more savage than
the wildest beast."

Pentecost, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (composed ca. 64 A.D.; see Romanesque tympanum at Vézelay):

2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7.2.23 (see the dog-headed men from the left archivolt of the tympanum at Vézelay):

On many of the mountains... [in India], there is a tribe of men who have the heads of dogs, and clothe themselves with the skins of wild beasts. Instead of speaking, they bark; and, furnished with claws, they live by hunting and catching birds. According to the story, as given by Ctesias, the number of these people is more than a hundred and twenty thousand.

Psalm 21 , verse 17 (see the sword in the left dog-headed man from the tympanum at Vézaley):

For many dogs have encompassed [surrounded] me: the council of the malignant hath besieged me. They have dug [pierced] my hands and feet. (circumdederunt me venatores concilium pessimorum vallavit me vinxerunt manus meas et pedes meos).

Psalm 22 , verse 1 ff. (see the Early Christian painting of Orpheus-like Christ from catacomb of Domitilla, Rome):

The Lord ruleth me: and I shall want nothing (Dominus pascit me nihil mihi deerit).
He hath set me in a place of pasture. He hath brought me up, on the water of refreshment (in pascuis herbarum adclinavit me super aquas refectionis enutrivit me).

Gospel of John 10.14 ff. (composed in the late 1st century A.D.; see the Early Christian painting of Orpheus-like Christ from catacomb of Domitilla, Rome):

14 "I [Jesus] am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd."

Eusebius, ORATION IN PRAISE OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE 14.5 (composed before 339 A.D.; see the Coptic tunic with Orpheus playing his lyre):

5. Thus, I say, did our common Saviour
prove himself the benefactor and preserver of all, displaying his wisdom
through the instrumentality of his human nature, even as a musician uses
the lyre to evince his skill. The Grecian myth tells us that Orpheus had
power to charm ferocious beasts, and tame their savage spirit, by striking
the chords of his instrument with a master hand: and this story is
celebrated by the Greeks, and generally believed, that an unconscious
instrument could subdue the untamed brute, and draw the trees from their
places, in obedience to its melodious power. But he who is the author of
perfect harmony, the all-wise Word of God, desiring to apply every remedy
to the manifold diseases of the souls of men, employed that human nature
which is the workmanship of his own wisdom, as an instrument by the
melodious strains of which he soothed, not indeed the brute creation, but
savages endued with reason; healing each furious temper, each fierce and
angry passion of the soul, both in civilized and barbarous nations, by the
remedial power of his Divine doctrine.

Pseudo-Nonnus' 6th-century Commentaries on Gregory of Nazianus' Sermons , written in 4th century A.D. (see Byzantine manuscript illustration that accompanied this text, showing Orpheus playing his lyre to animals):

As the first of all mankind the Thracians are said to have begun to observe religious observances, to worship, to introduce initiations and to install mysteries, from which the word threskeuein [Greek] is derived, i.e. the reverence of Divinity. Moreover, Orpheus is said to have been the first of all men who introduced the initiations and the manner of initiating. He is the Orpheus who is said to have enchanted the inamimate with the sounds of his lyre and tamed the wild animals.

Pseudo-Nonnus' 6th-century Commentaries on Gregory of Nazianus' Sermons, written in 4th century A.D. (see Byzantine manuscript illustration that accompanied this text, showing Actaeon being torn apart by his dogs):

Actaeon was a hunter and he saw Artemis naked. Considering it a crime to see the gods naked, especially virginal ones, the goddess in her wrath enraged the dogs at Actaeon; and the dogs, mistaking him for a deer with antlers, lacerated him.

Aratus, Phaenomena lines 248-254 (a poem of 3rd century B.C.; see Carolingian manuscript with Perseus constellation):

Her [Andromeda's] two feet will guide thee to her bridegroom, Perseus, over whose shoulder they are for ever carried. But he moves in the North a taller form than the others. His right hand is stretched toward the throne of the mother of his bride [Cassiopeia], and, as if pursuing that which lies before his feet, he greatly strides, dust-stained, in the heaven of Zeus.

Hyginus, Fabularum liber [Book of Tales] 64 = Andromeda (a Latin work of 2nd century A.D.; see Medieval manuscript illustration that accompanied this text, with Perseus in flight):

Cassiopeia [queen of Ethiopia] claimed that her daughter Andromeda's beauty excelled the Nereids' [sea nymphs]. Because of this, Neptune demanded that Andromeda, Cepheus' [king of Ethiopia and husband of Cassiopeia] daughter, be offered to a sea-monster. When she was offered, Perseus, flying on Mercury's winged sandals, is said to have come there and freed her from danger.

Pseudo-Oppian, Cynegetica (a poem on animals and the techniques of the chase, dedicated to Caracalla, Roman emperor 211-217 A.D.; see Byzantine manuscript illustration that accompanied this text, showing Perseus spearing Medusa with a serpentine tail):

Among men it [the chase] was invented first by him who cut off the Gorgon's head, even Perseus, the son of golden Zeus; howbeit he soared on the swift wings of his feet to capture Hares and Jackals and the tribe of wild Goats and swift Gazelles and the breeds of Oryx [type of long-horned African antelope] and the high-headed dappled Deer themselves.

Achilles Tatius of Alexandria, The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon, book 1.2-13 (a prose novel written in 2nd century A.D. which was available to Titian in an Italian translation that was published in Venice in 1550; the passage below was translated into English by S. Gaselee; see Titan's Renaissance painting of Europa at sea on the bull):

As I was walking about the city [of Sidon], paying especial attention to the temple-offerings, I saw a picture hanging up which was a landscape and a seascape in one. The painting was of Europa: the sea depicted was the Phoenician Ocean; the land, Sidon. On the land part was a meadow and a troop of girls: on the sea a bull was swimming, and on his back sat a beautiful maiden, borne by the bull towards Crete. The meadow was thick with all kinds of flowers, and among them was planted a thicket of trees and shrubs, the trees growing so close that their foliage touched: and the branches, intertwining their leaves, thus made a kind of continuous roof over the flowers beneath. The artist had also represented the shadows thrown by the leaves, and the sun was gently breaking through, here and there, on to the meadow, where the painter had represented openings in the thick roof of foliage. The meadow was surrounded on all sides by an enclosure, and lay wholly within the embowering roof; beneath the shrubs grass-beds of flowers grew orderly–narcissus, roses, and bays; in the middle of the meadow in the picture flowed a rivulet of water, bubbling up on one side from the ground, and on the other watering the flowers and shrubs; and a gardener had been painted holding a pick, stooping over a single channel and leading a path for the water.

The painter had put the girls at one end of the meadow where the land jutted out into the sea. Their look was compounded of joy and fear: garlands were bound about their brows; their hair had been allowed to flow loose on their shoulders; their legs were bare, covered neither by their tunics above nor their sandals below, a girdle holding up their skirts as far as the knee; their faces were pale and their features distorted; their eyes were fixed wide open upon the sea, and their lips were slightly parted, as if they were about to utter a cry of fear; their hands were stretched out in the direction of the bull. They were standing on the water’s edge, so that the surge just wetted their feet: and they seemed to be anxious to run after the bull, but to be afraid of entering the water.

The sea had two different tinges of colour; towards the land it was almost red, but out towards the deep water it was dark blue: and foam, and rocks, and wave crests had been painted in it. The rocks ran out from the shore and were whitened with foam, while the waves rose into crests and were then dashed into foam by breaking upon the rocks. Far out in the ocean was painted a bull breasting the waves, while a billow rose like a mountain where his leg was bent in swimming: the maiden sat on the middle of his back, not astride but sideways, with her feet held together on the right: with her left hand she clung to his horn, like a charioteer holding the reins, and the bull inclined a little in that direction, guided by the pressure of her hand. On the upper part of her body she wore a tunic down to her groin, and then a robe covered the lower part of her body: the tunic was white, the robe purple: and her figure could be traced under the clothes–the deep-set navel, the long slight curve of the belly, the narrow waist, broadening down to the loins, the breasts gently swelling from her bosom and confined, as well as her tunic, by a girdle: and the tunic was a kind of mirror of the shape of her body. Her hands were held widely apart, the one to the bull’s horn, the other to his tail; and with both she held above her head the ends of her veil which floated down about her shoulders, bellying out through its whole length and so giving the impression of a painted breeze. Thus she was seated on the bull like a vessel under way, using the veil as a sail; about the bull dolphins gambolled, Cupids sported: they actually seemed to move in the picture. Love himself led the bull–Love, in the guise of a tiny boy, his wings stretched out, wearing his quiver, his lighted torch in his hands: he was turning towards Zeus [Jupiter] with a smile on his face, as if he were laughing at him for becoming a bull for his sake.

Latin inscription from engraving after Goltzius of Europa from Ovid's Metamorphoses (translation of first two lines, by Frances Van Keuren):

The bull, Jupiter, carries off Europa through the Neptunian channels.
She gazes back upon her companions.

Latin inscription from engraving after Goltzius from series Loves of the Gods (translation by Frances Van Keuren):

Amorous Juppiter embraces Europa, whom he had borne over the depths of the sea, on the shores of Minoan Crete. He lays aside the form of the Bull. But Agenor [father of Europa and king of Tyre or Sidon] grieves, and allows that her name might be made famous for part of the world.

Franciscus de Retza, Defensorium Inviolatae Virginitatis Mariae (Defense of the Inviolate Virginity of Mary), work composed ca. 1400 A.D. (see 1490 woodcut and painting by Jan Gossaert showing virginal Danae):

If Danae conceived from Jupiter through a golden shower, why should the Virgin not give birth when impregnated by the Holy Spirit?

Giovanni Boccacio, Genealogy of the Gods, work composed ca. 1350-1375 A.D. (see Correggio's and other Renaissance and later depictions of Danae):

By Jove's being transformed into a shower of gold and falling through the roof into Danae's lap... must have been meant: the chastity of the virgin had been corrupted with gold... However, Theodontius [medieval author of now-lost Latin work on mythology] says that Danae, being loved by Jove, and knowing that out of fear her father had condemned her to perpetual imprisonment, in order the escape and secretly take flight, made a bargain with Jove at the price of intercourse with him.

Commentary on two Cupids in foreground of engraving of Correggio's painting, from J. Couché, Galerie du Palais royal, gravée d’après les tableaux des differentes ecoles qui la composent (1786-1808; translation by Frances Van Keuren):

Two little Cupids hold a touchstone on which one tests one of the pieces of gold, while the other tests an arrow which it must be imagined is of the same metal.

Translation of Latin inscription on engraving by Hieronymus Wierix of Danae and Jupiter:

Nourishing Venus laughed that Danae was imprisoned and that Jupiter was changed into a bribe and that gold filled the lap of the maiden and infiltrated everything under the blue heavens.

Passage on Samson and lion, from Book of Judges 14.5-6 (probably composed by reign of King David, ca. 1012-972 B.C.), Old Testament of Bible (see Renaissance depictions of Hercules and lion, where he tears the lion's jaws apart as the Biblical Samson):

14. 5. Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Thamnatha [in Judaea, west of Dead Sea]. And when they were come to the vineyards of the town, behold a young lion met him, raging and roaring.

14.6. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he tore the lion as he would have torn a kid in pieces, having nothing at all in his hand: and he would not tell this to his father and mother.

Latin inscription on engraving of Hercules and the lion by Heinrich Aldegrever (translation by Frances Van Keuren):

The vast beast, lion of Nemea, is killed in a cave;
Afterwards the rest [of Hercules' opponents] will have succombed to death at the hands of Alcides [Hercules].

Christine de Pisan, Epistle from Othea, goddess of wisdom, to Hector (1399?; English translation by Stephen Scrope, ca. 1450; see 15th-century manscript in Brussels with Minotaur and his parents):

Texte:
Knowing that this Pasiphe was a fool,
In no wise lerne thou not of here scool.
though that som wommen do soo amys,
Yit right many goode there be, ywis [certainly].

Glose:
Pasiphe was a quene; and some fables sein [say] that sche was a woman of grete dissolucion, and namely soo that sche loued a bull, the which is to vndirstonde, that sche was aqueynted with a man of foul condicions, be whom sche conceyved a son of grete cruelnes [f. 31] and mervelous of strengthe. And because he had forme of man and nature of a bull, in that he was stronge and of gret scharpenes and so yvell [evil] that all the worlde exilid him, poetis seide be ficcion that he was half man & half bull.

Passage from Plutarch, Theseus (written 75 A.D., translated by John Dryden; see woodcut from 1496 edition of Plutarch's Lives):

When he [Theseus] arrived at Crete, as most of the ancient historians as well as poets tell us, having a clue of thread given him by Ariadne, who had fallen in love with him, and being instructed by her how to use it so as to conduct him through the windings of the labyrinth, he escaped out of it and slew the Minotaur, and sailed back, taking along with him Ariadne and the young Athenian captives. Phercydes adds that he bored holes in the bottom of the Cretan ships to hinder their pursuit.

Translation of Latin poem by Theodoricus Ulsenius, a Nuremberg physician (c. 1460-1508), that is inscribed on Renaissance relief plaque with Orpheus and Eurydice, by Vischer the Younger:

Greece reports that Orpheus, the mover of rivers and rocks along with trees, even crossed the infernal waters, and recovered Eurydice from there to her former life, so long as he preserved the agreements with Stygian Jove [Hades].

Orpheus' Metamorphoses 10.78 ff. (see Renaissance engraving after Mantegna and drawing by Dürer):

Three times the Sun completed his full course [i.e. ended a year]
to watery Pisces [the Fish constellation], and in all that time,
shunning all women, Orpheus still believed
his love-pledge was forever. So he kept
away from women, though so many grieved,
because he took no notice of their love.
The only friendship he enjoyed was given
to the young men (teneros mares) of Thrace.

Translation of Latin inscription from Renaissance engraving after Bartholomeus Spranger with Perseus arming:

What does Perseus want? What is the Cyllenian [Mercury] doing to him? He is fitting a pair of wings to his feet, he is belting the sword to his side. Any say, what is Pallas [Minerva] doing here? She is giving [Perseus] some gifts. What then? The aegis shield. Why? He flies in great haste to the jaws of the Gorgon.

Translations of Latin inscriptions from Cellini's Perseus, Renaissance bronze statue in Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence:

Strap on chest of Perseus:
Benvenuto Cellini, a Florentine citizen, made it in 1553 (Benvenutus Cellinus civis Flor/Faciebat MDLIII).

Inscriptions beneath bronze figures in niches of statue's marble base:
Jupiter: "If anyone harms thee, my son, I will avenge thee."
Danae and Perseus: "With Jove's protection and with such a pledge [of Jupiter], I go happily into exile."
Minerva: "I, thy chaste sister [as child of Jupiter, like Perseus], give thee [Perseus] the shield with which thou wilt conquer."
Mercury: "Thou [Perseus] shalt bear thy brother's [Mercury as child of Jupiter, like Perseus] arm [sword]; I fly naked to the heavens."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.1 ff. (see the Renaissance bronze plaquette with the wedding banquet of Perseus and Andromeda by Guglielmo della Porta):

While Perseus, the brave son of Jupiter,
surrounded at the feast by Cepheus' lords [Cepheus was the father of Andromeda and king of Ethiopia],
narrated this, a raging multitude
with sudden outcry filled the royal courts--
not with the clamours of a wedding feast
but boisterous rage, portentous of dread war.

As when the fury of a great wind strikes
a tranquil sea, tempestuous billows roll
across the peaceful bosom of the deep;
so were the pleasures at the banquet changed
to sudden tumult.,,

Foremost of that throng,
the rash ring-leader, Phineus [brother of Cepheus and uncle of Andromeda], shook his spear,
brass-tipped of ash, and shouted, “Ha, 'tis I!
I come avenger of my ravished bride!
Let now your flittering wings deliver you,
or even Jupiter, dissolved in showers
of imitation gold.” So boasted he,
aiming his spear at Perseus.

He [Perseus] spoke, and moved Medusa to that side
where Phineus had turned his trembling face:
and as he struggled to avert his gaze
his neck grew stiff; the moisture of his eyes
was hardened into stone.--And since that day
his timid face and coward eyes and hands,
forever shall be guilty as in life.