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Portal Ibis
9 Sept, 12:09
"Nature is one great living whole, and the spiritual power acting within her is omnipotent and eternal. He who desires to know Universal Nature and the Eternal Spirit, must rise above personal and temporal considerations, and look upon nature from the standpoint of the Eternal and Infinite."Art: Studium universale, das ist, alles dasjenige, c. 1698, by Weigel, Valentin (Colored)
Portal Ibis
9 Sept, 11:56
Peter Paul Rubens, The Union of Earth and Water (1618), oil on canvas, Collection of Hermitage Museum
Portal Ibis
9 Sept, 11:22
The dragon on the ceiling of Zhihua Temple in Beijing was made around 1444 during the Ming dynasty. In Chinese tradition, the dragon represents water, rain, heavenly power, and protection. Here, the central dragon is associated with the heavenly realm of Buddhism and was placed above a sacred Buddhist image. The dragon also had a strong connection with imperial power, so the image combines Buddhist symbolism with the authority of the emperor.
Portal Ibis
9 Sept, 11:10
John William Waterhouse’s Ulysses and the Sirens, painted in 1891, depicts a scene from Homer’s Odyssey. Ulysses is sailing past the Sirens, whose beautiful song could enchant sailors and lead them to death. Knowing the danger, Ulysses orders his men to tie him to the mast while they block their ears with wax. He wants to hear the Sirens’ song but cannot follow them. Waterhouse depicts the Sirens as bird-like women, closer to their ancient Greek appearance than the later mermaid tradition. They fly around the ship like beautiful but dangerous creatures, creating a dramatic contrast between fascination and death.
Portal Ibis
9 Sept, 11:04
John William Waterhouse’s The Siren, painted around 1900, shows a mysterious sea creature sitting on a rock while a shipwrecked sailor struggles in the water below. She looks almost human, beautiful and calm, but her lower body seems to merge with the sea. The image is inspired by the ancient Greek Sirens, mythical creatures whose enchanting songs lured sailors to their deaths. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus had himself tied to the mast so he could hear their song without following them. Originally, Sirens were not mermaids but creatures with the body of a bird and the head of a woman. The familiar mermaid-like form appeared much later. Waterhouse combines these traditions and creates a more mysterious figure neither completely human nor completely animal, beautiful but potentially dangerous.
Portal Ibis
5 Sept, 18:33edited
Ceres searching for Proserpine, ca.1780s by Johan Tobias Sergel, 1740-1814, Nationalmuseum, SwedenAccording to the myth, Proserpina was forcibly abducted by Pluto, the god of the Underworld, to become his queen. Consumed by maternal grief and rage, Ceres abandoned her divine duties to roam the earth looking for her missing child.Because Ceres neglected the harvests during her agonizing search, the earth became barren, crops withered, and a devastating famine swept across the mortal world. This mythological event was the ancient explanation for the creation of winter. Ultimately, Jupiter intervened, resulting in a compromise where Proserpina would spend half the year in the Underworld and half the year on the surface with her mother, perfectly mirroring the cyclical death and rebirth of the changing seasons.
Portal Ibis
5 Sept, 12:57edited
Passing of Venus, 1926 by Edward Coley Burne-JonesDesigned in the tradition of medieval millefleurs tapestries, Burne-Jones depicts Venus riding on her chariot drawn by doves. Her son Cupid goes before her, drawing his bow as his foot rests on a prostrate woman; the three women to the left have already been vanquished by his arrows. A group of women to the right flee in terror from Cupid, who is looking in their direction.
Portal Ibis
4 Sept, 09:22
The goddess Nut carved inside the lid of the schist sarcophagus of Ankh-nes-nefer-ib-re, daughter of Psammetichus II and Divine Consort of Amon at Thebes. The texts are from the Book of the Dead. Nut had a role in both solar and Osirian beliefs about the afterlife, for she was the mother of Osiris and bore Ra anew each day. Twenty-sixth Dynasty.
Portal Ibis
2 Sept, 10:35
Aphrodite and Eros on an Ancient Greek red-figure vase, probably dating to the late 5th or early 4th century BCE (c. 400 BCE) and originating from Attica, Greece. Aphrodite is shown richly dressed beside a column, while the winged Eros approaches her with an iynx, a magical love-wheel associated with attraction and desire.In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, sexuality and fertility, while Eros represent desire and the irresistible force of love. The iynx was believed to have the power to draw a desired person toward the one who invoked it, making it a particularly fitting symbol for Aphrodite and Eros.
Portal Ibis
1 Sept, 14:12
Helios was the ancient Greek god and personification of the Sun. He was imagined as a radiant god driving his four-horse chariot across the sky, bringing light to the world. He was sometimes depicted within the circle of the twelve zodiac signs because the Sun appears to travel through the zodiac over the course of a year. The twelve signs therefore represented the celestial path of the Sun and the cycle of the year, with Helios at its center as the source of light and cosmic order.Portal Ibis
1 Sept, 14:08
Table with Helios German, Berlin; ca. 1833–34 Royal Porcelain Manufactory (Manufactory) Attributed to Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) (Designer). The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Portal Ibis
1 Sept, 05:09
Le temple des muses, c. 1749 by Favereau, JacquesArion, a wealthy and famous Greek musician, was targeted by a greedy crew that planned to throw him overboard and steal his fortune. Given permission to play one last song, he performed in his finest robes and jumped into the sea. According to legend, a pod of enchanted dolphins surrounded the ship, and one carried him safely to shore. When the treacherous sailors reached Corinth and lied about his fate, King Periander caught them in the lie and had them executed.
Portal Ibis
30 Aug, 08:09
Egyptian table featuring a labyrinth and a crocodile (perhaps the god Sobek?) Ptolemaic period - Roman period, 332 BCE - 395 CE, Louvre
Portal Ibis
28 Aug, 20:29
Thetis dipping Achilles in the River Styx Statue Group 1789 (made) Banks, Thomas (RA)
Portal Ibis
28 Aug, 20:18
Thetis Dipping the Infant Achilles into the River Styx, c. 1630-1635 Follower of Sir Peter Paul RubensThe scene depicts the sea nymph Thetis attempting to make her newborn son, Achilles, invulnerable by submerging him in the magical waters of the Underworld's River Styx. However, because she holds him tightly by his heel to keep him from being swept away, that single spot remains untouched by the sacred water, leaving him with a fatal vulnerability that would eventually cost him his life during the Trojan War and giving us the famous phrase "Achilles' heel."
Portal Ibis
28 Aug, 20:00
Hekate Triformis, Imperial age, 50–350 AD Rijksmuseum van OudhedenIn Greco-Roman mythology, Hekate Triformis is the fascinating "triple-formed" aspect of the goddess of magic, witchcraft, and the night. To represent her vast power over the three realms of earth, sea, and sky, as well as her deep connection to the phases of the moon, she is traditionally depicted as three identical women standing back-to-back. This unique physical form allowed her to look in all directions simultaneously, making her the ultimate guardian of boundaries and intersecting paths.In ancient times, statues of Hekate Triformis were frequently placed at three-way crossroads spaces considered highly magical and liminal to protect travelers and ward off evil spirits. In her multiple hands, she is usually shown holding deeply symbolic items: the blazing torches she used to guide Persephone, heavy keys to unlock
Portal Ibis
28 Aug, 17:48
An Aztec Ehecatl Snake Figure. Dated CA. A.D. 1400-1521, it originates from State of Mexico, is categorized as Ehecatl, Goddess 13 Serpent, and belongs to the Aztec / Mexica culture.
Portal Ibis
28 Aug, 17:39
Eduardo Chicharro y Agüera (1873-1949)Persephone, 1931In Greek mythology, Persephone is the goddess of spring and the Queen of the Underworld. As the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, her story is the original Greek version of the Roman myth of Proserpina. Famously abducted by Hades, Persephone was bound to the underworld because she consumed a few pomegranate seeds during her captivity. As a result, she is forced to divide her year between the surface and the realm of the dead. Her annual return to her mother brings the blooming of spring, while her descent back to Hades causes the barren cold of winter, perfectly symbolizing nature's eternal cycle.
Portal Ibis
28 Aug, 17:23
In Roman mythology, Pluto is the formidable god of the underworld and the judge of the dead, serving as the equivalent of the Greek god Hades. As one of the three supreme brothers who defeated their father Saturn, he drew the short straw when dividing the cosmos, receiving the dark and gloomy realm of the afterlife while Jupiter took the skies and Neptune the seas. Despite his ominous reputation, Pluto was not considered an evil deity; he was a stern and just ruler who ensured the necessary balance of life and death was maintained. Because his domain lay deep within the earth, he was also revered as the god of hidden wealth, overseeing precious metals, gems, and the fertile soil that nourished crops above. His most famous myth involves the abduction of his niece, Proserpina (Persephone in Greek), whom he brought to the underworld to be his queen.
Portal Ibis
28 Aug, 17:03
The accompanying Old French text below the miniature directly describes and interprets this mythological scene. It characterizes Pluto as a terrible man sitting on a "sulfurous throne" holding a royal scepter, and explicitly describes Cerberus as a strange, monstrous dog with three heads. The text goes on to mention other mythological inhabitants of the underworld, such as the Furies, the Fates, and the Harpies, as well as the subterranean rivers flowing from beneath the throne. Finally, it offers a classic medieval allegorical explanation of the myth, stating that the name Pluto represents the earth itself or the "god of the earth."
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