Clik here to view.
Goddess of the Week: Artemis (Diana)
Twin sister of Apollo, Artemis (Greek Ἄρτεμις) is the daughter of Zeus and Leto. Her Greek original is goddess of hunting, wild places and animals, the Moon, and chastity. Although sworn never to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A History of Rome in Paintings: 12 Civil War
The period between the death of Gaius Marius in 86 BCE and the end of the Republic of Rome in 31 BCE was one of the most violent in the whole of Rome’s history. This was the result of a succession of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Faerie Queene 11: Belphoebe, Amoret, Florimell
In the previous episode, Britomart met the Redcrosse Knight outside Castle Joyous, where the pair of them overcame six knights. They were taken inside, where Malecasta, lady of the castle, fell for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Evelyn De Morgan 1: Night and Sleep
Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919) was one of the most prolific and accomplished narrative painters, of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Europe and North America. Throughout her full...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Evelyn De Morgan 2: The Cadence of Autumn
By the middle of the 1880s, Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919) was an established and individualistic Pre-Raphaelite painter who specialised in classical mythology. She was also a strong feminist, and a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
God of the Week: Hermes (Mercury)
Even major deities are sometimes better known for bit-parts rather than lead roles. Today’s god, Hermes (Greek Ἑρμῆς), known to the Romans as Mercury, probably appears on more paintings of classical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A History of Rome in Paintings: 13 Hail Caesar
When Julius Caesar reached Alexandria shortly after Pompey had been murdered, he is said to have wept with regret over that, and won over those who had supported his rival. But his enemies weren’t done...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Faerie Queene 12: Florimell lost at sea
In the previous episode, Prince Arthur’s squire Timias had collapsed after being attacked, but was resuscitated by Belphoebe the huntress, who carried him away to her remote home. During his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
God of the Week: Dionysus (Bacchus)
Of all the Classical deities, Dionysus, also known to both Greeks and Romans as Bacchus, must have the least credible origin. He was the result of yet another of Zeus’s extramarital relations, this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A History of Rome in Paintings: 14 Assassination
Julius Caesar’s passion for royal powers generated open and deadly hatred. As the situation in Rome deterioriated, one seer advised Caesar to be particularly wary of the Ides of March, when he would be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Faerie Queene 13: Rescuing Amoret
In the previous episode, Britomart, the Squire of Dames, Sir Satyrane and Paridell had stayed overnight in the miserly Malbecco’s castle, during which Paridell was busy seducing the keeper’s wife...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In Memoriam Luc-Olivier Merson, storyteller in paint
So many wonderful artists were cast into an abyss and forgotten during the early twentieth century. A hundred years ago today, Luc-Olivier Merson (1846-1920) died in Paris, by that time only remembered...
View ArticleClik here to view.
God of the Week: Pan (Faunus)
In addition to those Greek and Roman deities who formed the core team on Olympus, there were many others, even local variants, who attracted devotees. Among the best-known of the non-Olympian gods is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A History of Rome in Paintings: 15 Peace in the age of Augustus
With the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March 44 BCE, Rome was plunged into turmoil and another civil war. Most of the conspirators fled the city in fear of attacks on their own lives,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Faerie Queene 14: Cambell and Triamond
The last episode completed the legend of Britomartis, or Chastity, so reaching the end of the third book of The Faerie Queene. This episode starts the fourth book, which is intertwined with the third...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goddess of the Week: Psyche
Psyche (Greek Ψυχή) has a murky if not absent history in Classical times, and in art is known from one novel written between 150 and 190 CE in Latin, Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass (as it’s almost...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A History of Rome in Paintings: 16 Disaster and death
The reign of Augustus is taken as the start the Pax Romana (Roman Peace), but it was only peaceful if you ignored its wars and some bloody murders. The most disastrous battle, against Germanic tribes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Faerie Queene 15: Tournament and a troth plighted
The previous episode, covering the first three cantos of the fourth book of The Faerie Queene, told the story of the knights Cambell and Triamond, and how they came to be such close friends, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goddess of the Week: Persephone (Proserpine)
Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη), also known to the Greeks as Kore (Greek Κόρη) or ‘the maiden’, and to the Romans as Proserpine, is the goddess of the plant world and vegetation generally. She is the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A History of Rome in Paintings: 17 Murder and martyrs
Of all the early emperors of Rome, it is perhaps Nero – Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus in full – who is the most notorious. His predecessor Claudius adopted him as his successor, and when...
View Article