Myths are not dry, ancient tales. They are our earliest experiments with metaphor and language. They are truths nestled within layers of mystery and magic…
It’s Mythic March! Created by my friends Grace Nuth and Lisa Stock, its premise is similar to NaNoWriMo: spend a month incorporating the beauty of myth…
According to myth, after Prometheus stole fire from the gods, Zeus wanted to punish mankind. He ordered Hephaistos and other gods to create a woman…
The tale of Thisbe comes from book four of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In ancient Babylon, the families of Pyramus and Thisbe live in separate houses that…
In Listening to my Sweet Pipings, Waterhouse has shown the figure of Earth reclining as Pan serenades her. Notice that Earth holds a poppy in…
After my recent post on Dante’s Divine Comedy, I’ve been thinking about metaphorical descents into the Underworld. The rather beautiful Greek word for descent is…
Orpheus was given his lyre by the god Apollo and it was the Muses that taught him how to play. His gift for music enchanted…
In Rossetti’s 1853 drawing Boatmen and Siren, one of the boatmen is captivated by the siren, but is saved from certain death by his companion.…
After my post about Clytie changing into the sunflower, I’ve been pondering transformations. Lamia is perhaps my favorite example of a dramatic transformation. Based on…
Dryads are nymphs of the trees. Their connection with the tree they lived in was so strong, they would die when the tree died. Purple…
Dante Gabriel Rossetti is making headlines with the recent news that Pandora will be part of the Sotheby’s sale of British and Irish art on May…
In De Morgan’s painting, we see Demeter as she mourns the loss of her daughter. Stricken with grief, she clasps her head–surrounded by shafts of…
Help spread the word about this gorgeous project. Here’s a link to a short video that is easily shared to your Twitter or Facebook. Take…
Autumn Leaves , Sir John Everett Millais. Models: Millais’ sisters-in-law modeled for two of the girls, the other two were local girls, who also appeared in…
I love how names from ancient mythology still permeate our language. They do not shrivel and fall away. They persist. Today we use the word…
Pre-Raphaelite art has its critics. I feel like many of them don’t actually look at the paintings or consider an artist’s individual work. They give…
Today I contemplate the floating head of Orpheus. Proper blog post forthcoming, but in the meantime I am pondering myth, beauty and violence. Just like…
A few weeks ago, Grace Nuth posted a beautiful and brilliant idea at Domythic Bliss. In her first post introducing the concept of Mythic March,…
There is a problem that arises as you become more and more immersed in Pre-Raphaelite art: it is quite hard to stick to a small,…
Apparently I can not resist their lure and mermaids have become my theme of the week. Previously I shared that I had read Undine, which…
