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Paradise Lost: Book 4 in paintings and illustrations
In the third book: [Satan] comes to the gate of Heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: his passage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there...
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Goddess of the Week: Mnemosyne (memory)
The goddess Mnemosyne (Μνημοσύνη), or the Roman equivalent Moneta, is usually considered to be one of the early deities, the daughter of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), making her one of the Titans, a...
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Paradise Lost: Book 5 in paintings and illustrations
In the fourth book: Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest: their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel drawing forth his bands of nightwatch to walk the round of...
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Gods of the Week: Uranus and Cronos (Saturn)
The oldest of the Greek myths must come from a far distant past, and over the millenia their stories have seemed increasingly bizarre. This article looks at paintings of one of the strangest tales in...
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Paradise Lost: Book 6 in paintings and illustrations
William Blake (1757–1827), Adam and Eve Asleep (Butts Set) (1808), paper, 50 x 39 cm, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA. Wikimedia Commons. In the fifth book: Raphael comes down to Paradise,...
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Goddess of the Week: The Birth of Aphrodite (Venus Anadyomene)
Most of the primordial and other early deities of the classical Mediterranean civilisations represented the hard side of life: negative qualities, the Furies and Fates, suffering and death. One notable...
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Paradise Lost: Book 7 in paintings and illustrations
In the sixth book: God on the third day sends Messiah his Son, for whom he had reserved the glory of that victory: he, in the power of his Father, coming to the place, and causing all his legions to...
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Paradise Lost: Book 8 in paintings and illustrations
In the seventh book: Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this World was first created; that God, after the expelling of Satan and his Angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure...
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God of the Week: Eros (Cupid)
The ancient mind worked quite differently to ours. When it came to myths, it was perfectly content to accept two or more conflicting accounts without expecting any resolution as to which was true. This...
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Paradise Lost: Book 9 in paintings and illustrations
In the eighth book: Adam inquires concerning celestial motions, is doubtfully answered, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of knowledge; Adam assents, and still desirous to detain...
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Goddesses of the Week: The Muses
The Muses (Greek Μοῦσαι Mousai) are the daughters of Mnemosyne, fathered by Zeus over a succession of nine nights which he spent with their mother. Their origin is doubted by sources other than Hesiod,...
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Paradise Lost: Book 10 in paintings and illustrations
In the ninth book: The Serpent answers, that by tasting of a certain tree in the garden he attained both to speech and reason, till then void of both. Eve requires him to bring her to that tree, and...
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Goddesses of the Week: Graiai and Gorgons
Among many other murky and rarely painted descendants of primordial deities are two groups of three sisters: the Graiai (Greek Γραῖαι) or Graeae (Latin), and the Gorgons. They both appear in the myth...
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Paradise Lost: Book 11 in paintings and illustrations
In the tenth book: God fortels the final victory of his Son over them, and the renewing of all things; but for the present commands his Angels to make several alterations in the heavens and elements....
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Goddess of the Week: Hecate
Hecate (Greek Ἑκάτη, Hekate, by which she was also known to the Romans) is another murky deity from the early days of the ancient Greek theogony. By Hesiod’s account she is the daughter of Perses and...
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Paradise Lost: Book 12 in paintings and illustrations
In the eleventh book: The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them. God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in...
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Goddess of the Week: Leto (Latona), mother of Apollo and Artemis
Now almost forgotten among the Classical deities, Leto (Greek Λητώ, Roman Latona) previously appeared quite extensively in art, almost entirely in her role as the mother of Apollo and Artemis (Diana)....
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Paradise Lost: Summary and Contents
A summary, in Milton’s own words, of his epic Paradise Lost, with some of the finest paintings and illustrations, and links to each article in this series. Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), The Shepherd’s...
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God of the Week: Zeus (Jupiter)
Zeus (Greek Ζεύς, Roman Jupiter) is the senior of the deities of Olympus, married to his sister Hera (Juno). A son of the primordial deities Kronos and Rhea, he led the revolt against the Titans and...
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Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’– introduction to a new painting series
Following John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, the next major work of literature which I’m going to tackle here is the next milestone in English writing: Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, which has nothing...
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