I will briefly refer, however, to his influence on the painting of the Prado Museum, Museo del Prado in Madrid. Ovid is present in all the important museums of the world: Louvre Museum of Paris and the National Gallery of London and the Alte Pinakothek of Munich and the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, etc. etc.,  through its influence on painters, especially of the Renaissance and Baroque (Rubens, Velázquez, Tiziano ...) but also contemporaries, as Picasso himself.

The influence is mostly that of his book of mythology The Metamorphosis or transformation of some beings into others, usually humans or gods in animals, trees or stars. The Metamorphosis are a true treatise on mythology.

I will refer exclusively and briefly to his presence at the Prado Museum, Museo del Prado, in Madrid. In fact it is absolutely advisable to anyone who visits this important museum, one of the most important Pinacothecas, "art galleries", in the world, to do so after a previous reading of the work of Ovid, the Metamorphosis, or some of the guides and publications that exist on the subject, or a visit to the museum's own website.

https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obras-de-arte?search=metamorfosis&ordenarPor=pm:relevance

Note: the word "pinacotheca" has come to us through the Latin "pinacotheca, but in fact it is from  Greek origin: πινακοθήκη, pinakotheke, word itself composed of πινακος, pinakos, genitive of πίναξ, pinax, meaning " picture" and θήκη, theke," box, wardrobe, shelf,  and by extension collection of things and objects deposited therein.

The consultation to this link at the time of the publication of this article offers the immediate reference of 158 works, some of them of the most famous of which the Museum houses. It is true that not all of them are indebted exclusively to Ovid, but the vast majority.

I will confine myself to presenting only three of the corresponding Ovid texts and to cite some of the others to encourage the reader to search for the correspondences of himself, an experience that can be extended to any other museum, such as the Louvre Museum or the National Gallery of London) or the Alte Pinakothek of Munich or the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, etc. etc.

The reader can find ample information in numerous books and published articles on this, of general form in the work of Amalia Fernández: Diosesy mitos. Una aproximación literaria a la pintura mitológica del Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1998) (Gods and myths. A literary approach to the mythological painting of the Museo del Prado); Or Rosa López Torrijos: Mitología e Historia en las obras maestras del Prado, Madrid, 1998 (Mythology and History in the masterpieces of the Prado,) or more concretely in Mª. Cruz García Fuentes: Mitos de las Metamorfosis de Ovidio en la Iconografía del Museo del Prado, Madrid, Edit. C. E. R. S. A., 2013. ( Myths of the Metamorphoses of Ovid in the Iconography of the Prado Museum).

I will limit myself to relate, as I said, by way of example, three or four great works of the Museum, of the hundred and fifty exposed, with the corresponding text of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. I hope that this is enough incentive for the reader to locate and atmosphere the visit to the Museum with the reading of Ovid.

The painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is widely represented in the Museo del Prado with paintings of mythological subject, whose commission received from King Felipe IV to decorate the "Torre de la parada” (Tower of the Parada). Most of the mythological scenes of the passions of the gods were inspired by Ovid's description in the Metamorphoses.

For example:

Deucalión and Pyrrha. (1636-1637. Oil on wood, 26.4 x 41.7 cm.)

In Greco-Roman mythology there is also a deluge with which Jupiter punishes the evil of the human race, which must perish. Only Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha are saved from punishment in their  ark, which was stranded on Mount Parnassus in the Greek Peloponnese. This pair will give rise to a new race of men.

Although Rubens's picture refers only to the creation of the new men, I will return to the story since the appearance of Deucalion in the poem of Ovid.

Ovid tells us the episode of the deluge and the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrh a in Metamorphosis, I, 309-430:

Now hills, and vales no more distinction know;
And levell'd Nature lies oppress'd below.
The most of mortals perish in the flood:
The small remainder dies for want of food.

A mountain of stupendous height there stands
Betwixt th' Athenian and Boeotian lands,
The bound of fruitful fields, while fields they were,
But then a field of waters did appear:
Parnassus is its name; whose forky rise
Mounts thro' the clouds, and mates the lofty skies.
High on the summit of this dubious cliff,
Deucalion wafting, moor'd his little skiff.
He with his wife were only left behind
Of perish'd Man; they two were human kind.
The mountain nymphs, and Themis they adore,
And from her oracles relief implore.
The most upright of mortal men was he;
The most sincere, and holy woman, she.

When Jupiter, surveying Earth from high,
Beheld it in a lake of water lie,
That where so many millions lately liv'd,
But two, the best of either sex, surviv'd;
He loos'd the northern wind; fierce Boreas flies
To puff away the clouds, and purge the skies:
Serenely, while he blows, the vapours driv'n,
Discover Heav'n to Earth, and Earth to Heav'n.
The billows fall, while Neptune lays his mace
On the rough sea, and smooths its furrow'd face.
Already Triton, at his call, appears
Above the waves; a Tyrian robe he wears;
And in his hand a crooked trumpet bears.
The soveraign bids him peaceful sounds inspire,
And give the waves the signal to retire.
His writhen shell he takes; whose narrow vent
Grows by degrees into a large extent,
Then gives it breath; the blast with doubling sound,
Runs the wide circuit of the world around:
The sun first heard it, in his early east,
And met the rattling ecchos in the west.
The waters, listning to the trumpet's roar,
Obey the summons, and forsake the shore.

A thin circumference of land appears;
And Earth, but not at once, her visage rears,
And peeps upon the seas from upper grounds;
The streams, but just contain'd within their bounds,
By slow degrees into their channels crawl;
And Earth increases, as the waters fall.
In longer time the tops of trees appear,
Which mud on their dishonour'd branches bear.

At length the world was all restor'd to view;
But desolate, and of a sickly hue:
Nature beheld her self, and stood aghast,
A dismal desart, and a silent waste.

Which when Deucalion, with a piteous look
Beheld, he wept, and thus to Pyrrha spoke:
Oh wife, oh sister, oh of all thy kind
The best, and only creature left behind,
By kindred, love, and now by dangers joyn'd;
Of multitudes, who breath'd the common air,
We two remain; a species in a pair:
The rest the seas have swallow'd; nor have we
Ev'n of this wretched life a certainty.
The clouds are still above; and, while I speak,
A second deluge o'er our heads may break.
Shou'd I be snatcht from hence, and thou remain,
Without relief, or partner of thy pain,
How cou'dst thou such a wretched life sustain?
Shou'd I be left, and thou be lost, the sea
That bury'd her I lov'd, shou'd bury me.
Oh cou'd our father his old arts inspire,
And make me heir of his informing fire,
That so I might abolisht Man retrieve,
And perisht people in new souls might live.
But Heav'n is pleas'd, nor ought we to complain,
That we, th' examples of mankind, remain.
He said; the careful couple joyn their tears:
And then invoke the Gods, with pious prayers.
Thus, in devotion having eas'd their grief,
From sacred oracles they seek relief;
And to Cephysus' brook their way pursue:
The stream was troubled, but the ford they knew;
With living waters, in the fountain bred,
They sprinkle first their garments, and their head,
Then took the way, which to the temple led.
The roofs were all defil'd with moss, and mire,
The desart altars void of solemn fire.
Before the gradual, prostrate they ador'd;
The pavement kiss'd; and thus the saint implor'd.

O righteous Themis, if the Pow'rs above
By pray'rs are bent to pity, and to love;
If humane miseries can move their mind;
If yet they can forgive, and yet be kind;
Tell how we may restore, by second birth,
Mankind, and people desolated Earth.
Then thus the gracious Goddess, nodding, said;
Depart, and with your vestments veil your head:
And stooping lowly down, with losen'd zones,
Throw each behind your backs, your mighty mother's bones.
Amaz'd the pair, and mute with wonder stand,
'Till Pyrrha first refus'd the dire command.
Forbid it Heav'n, said she, that I shou'd tear
Those holy reliques from the sepulcher.
They ponder'd the mysterious words again,
For some new sense; and long they sought in vain:
At length Deucalion clear'd his cloudy brow,
And said, the dark Aenigma will allow
A meaning, which, if well I understand,
From sacrilege will free the God's command:
This Earth our mighty mother is, the stones
In her capacious body, are her bones:
These we must cast behind. With hope, and fear,
The woman did the new solution hear:
The man diffides in his own augury,
And doubts the Gods; yet both resolve to try.
Descending from the mount, they first unbind
Their vests, and veil'd, they cast the stones behind:
The stones (a miracle to mortal view,
But long tradition makes it pass for true)
Did first the rigour of their kind expel,
And suppled into softness, as they fell;
Then swell'd, and swelling, by degrees grew warm;
And took the rudiments of human form.
Imperfect shapes: in marble such are seen,
When the rude chizzel does the man begin;
While yet the roughness of the stone remains,
Without the rising muscles, and the veins.
The sappy parts, and next resembling juice,
Were turn'd to moisture, for the body's use:
Supplying humours, blood, and nourishment;
The rest, too solid to receive a bent,
Converts to bones; and what was once a vein,
Its former name and Nature did retain.
By help of pow'r divine, in little space,
What the man threw, assum'd a manly face;
And what the wife, renew'd the female race.
Hence we derive our nature; born to bear
Laborious life; and harden'd into care.

The rest of animals, from teeming Earth
Produc'd, in various forms receiv'd their birth.
The native moisture, in its close retreat,
Digested by the sun's aetherial heat,
As in a kindly womb, began to breed:
Then swell'd, and quicken'd by the vital seed.
And some in less, and some in longer space,
Were ripen'd into form, and took a sev'ral face.
Thus when the Nile from Pharian fields is fled,
And seeks, with ebbing tides, his ancient bed,
The fat manure with heav'nly fire is warm'd;
And crusted creatures, as in wombs, are form'd;
These, when they turn the glebe, the peasants find;
Some rude, and yet unfinish'd in their kind:
Short of their limbs, a lame imperfect birth:
One half alive; and one of lifeless earth.
(Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717))

Note: because some texts are somewhat extensive, I will reproduce the Latin texts at the end of the article.

The Rape of Europa

According to the mythical account, Europa was daughter of Agenor, the king of Tiro; The god Zeus fell in love with her, who ordered Hermes to bring the king's cows to the river; Zeus was transformed into a white bull to gain the confidence of Europa, that was mounted in its loins; At that moment the bull started speeding, entered the Mediterranean Sea and reached Crete. There the god appeared in his divinity and seduced the young woman.

This is one of the myths most represented since ancient times; we have representations since the 6th century BC. Tiziano painted between 1559 and 1562 an oil on this myth that is exposed in the Museum of the Prado. Peter Paul Rubens copied this painting in 1628-1629. Then the same Rubens repeated the theme again for the “Torre de la Parada”,Tower of the Parade, but in a very different way (the sketch is preserved in the same museum) and in turn shortly afterwards Jan Erasmus Quelinus painted on this sketch the painting which is also preserved in the Prado Museum.

Peter Paul Rubens.  (Copy of Tiziano, Vecellio di Gregorio)

The Rape of Europa. Sketch by Peter Paul Rubens 1636 – 1637. Oil painting, 18.9 x 13.7 cm. And Jan Erasmus Quelinus oil.

Ovid tells us in Metamorphoses II, 833-875:

Europa's Rape

When now the God his fury had allay'd,
And taken vengeance of the stubborn maid,
From where the bright Athenian turrets rise
He mounts aloft, and re-ascends the skies.
Jove saw him enter the sublime abodes,
And, as he mix'd among the crowd of Gods,
Beckon'd him out, and drew him from the rest,
And in soft whispers thus his will exprest.

"My trusty Hermes, by whose ready aid
Thy sire's commands are through the world convey'd.
Resume thy wings, exert their utmost force,
And to the walls of Sidon speed thy course;
There find a herd of heifers wand'ring o'er
The neighb'ring hill, and drive 'em to the shore."

Thus spoke the God, concealing his intent.
The trusty Hermes, on his message went,
And found the herd of heifers wand'ring o'er
A neighb'ring hill, and drove 'em to the shore;
Where the king's daughter, with a lovely train
Of fellow-nymphs, was sporting on the plain.

The dignity of empire laid aside,
(For love but ill agrees with kingly pride)
The ruler of the skies, the thund'ring God,
Who shakes the world's foundations with a nod,
Among a herd of lowing heifers ran,
Frisk'd in a bull, and bellow'd o'er the plain.
Large rowles of fat about his shoulders clung,
And from his neck the double dewlap hung.
His skin was whiter than the snow that lies
Unsully'd by the breath of southern skies;
Small shining horns on his curl'd forehead stand,
As turn'd and polish'd by the work-man's hand;
His eye-balls rowl'd, not formidably bright,
But gaz'd and languish'd with a gentle light.
His ev'ry look was peaceful, and exprest
The softness of the lover in the beast.

Agenor's royal daughter, as she plaid
Among the fields, the milk-white bull survey'd,
And view'd his spotless body with delight,
And at a distance kept him in her sight.
At length she pluck'd the rising flow'rs, and fed
The gentle beast, and fondly stroak'd his head.
He stood well-pleas'd to touch the charming fair,
But hardly could confine his pleasure there.
And now he wantons o'er the neighb'ring strand,
Now rowls his body on the yellow sand;
And, now perceiving all her fears decay'd,
Comes tossing forward to the royal maid;
Gives her his breast to stroke, and downward turns
His grizly brow, and gently stoops his horns.
In flow'ry wreaths the royal virgin drest
His bending horns, and kindly clapt his breast.
'Till now grown wanton and devoid of fear,
Not knowing that she prest the Thunderer,
She plac'd her self upon his back, and rode
O'er fields and meadows, seated on the God.

He gently march'd along, and by degrees
Left the dry meadow, and approach'd the seas;
Where now he dips his hoofs and wets his thighs,
Now plunges in, and carries off the prize.
The frighted nymph looks backward on the shoar,
And hears the tumbling billows round her roar;
But still she holds him fast: one hand is born
Upon his back; the other grasps a horn:
Her train of ruffling garments flies behind,
Swells in the air, and hovers in the wind.

Through storms and tempests he the virgin bore,
And lands her safe on the Dictean shore;
Where now, in his divinest form array'd,
In his true shape he captivates the maid;
Who gazes on him, and with wond'ring eyes
Beholds the new majestick figure rise,
His glowing features, and celestial light,
And all the God discover'd to her sight.
Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717)

Orpheus and Eurydice

The theme of the mythical pair Orpheus and Eurydice is that of the descent into the lower world, to hell, to the world of the dead, to the world where Pluto and Proserpine reign; In Greek this descent is called καταβᾴσεις, katabaseis, or κάθοδοι, kathodoi, and are adjudged to Hercules, Ulysses, Aeneas, Theseus, Pyrithus and especially to Orpheus, who goes in search of his wife, deceased by the venom of a snake, and whose end I do not anticipate for not to diminish the interest in the reading of Ovid's text, which undoubtedly inspired the many pictorial representations of the myth. I present it in a painting also by Peter Paul  Rubens.

Orpheus and Eurydice. 1636 – 1638. Oil on canvas, 196.5 x 247.5 cm.

Virgil tells us also  the myth in his little Culex and then in his famous Georgics. Ovid had to know this Virgilian version and it is Ovid's account that we find at the beginning of Book X of his Metamorphoses, verses 1 to 77. which I now transcribe:

The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice

Thence, in his saffron robe, for distant Thrace,
Hymen departs, thro' air's unmeasur'd space;
By Orpheus call'd, the nuptial Pow'r attends,
But with ill-omen'd augury descends;
Nor chearful look'd the God, nor prosp'rous spoke,
Nor blaz'd his torch, but wept in hissing smoke.
In vain they whirl it round, in vain they shake,
No rapid motion can its flames awake.
With dread these inauspicious signs were view'd,
And soon a more disastrous end ensu'd;
For as the bride, amid the Naiad train,
Ran joyful, sporting o'er the flow'ry plain,
A venom'd viper bit her as she pass'd;
Instant she fell, and sudden breath'd her last.

When long his loss the Thracian had deplor'd,
Not by superior Pow'rs to be restor'd;
Inflam'd by love, and urg'd by deep despair,
He leaves the realms of light, and upper air;
Daring to tread the dark Tenarian road,
And tempt the shades in their obscure abode;
Thro' gliding spectres of th' interr'd to go,
And phantom people of the world below:
Persephone he seeks, and him who reigns
O'er ghosts, and Hell's uncomfortable plains.
Arriv'd, he, tuning to his voice his strings,
Thus to the king and queen of shadows sings.

Ye Pow'rs, who under Earth your realms extend,
To whom all mortals must one day descend;
If here 'tis granted sacred truth to tell:
I come not curious to explore your Hell;
Nor come to boast (by vain ambition fir'd)
How Cerberus at my approach retir'd.
My wife alone I seek; for her lov'd sake
These terrors I support, this journey take.
She, luckless wandring, or by fate mis-led,
Chanc'd on a lurking viper's crest to tread;
The vengeful beast, enflam'd with fury, starts,
And thro' her heel his deathful venom darts.
Thus was she snatch'd untimely to her tomb;
Her growing years cut short, and springing bloom.
Long I my loss endeavour'd to sustain,
And strongly strove, but strove, alas, in vain:
At length I yielded, won by mighty love;
Well known is that omnipotence above!
But here, I doubt, his unfelt influence fails;
And yet a hope within my heart prevails.
That here, ev'n here, he has been known of old;
At least if truth be by tradition told;
If fame of former rapes belief may find,
You both by love, and love alone, were join'd.
Now, by the horrors which these realms surround;
By the vast chaos of these depths profound;
By the sad silence which eternal reigns
O'er all the waste of these wide-stretching plains;
Let me again Eurydice receive,
Let Fate her quick-spun thread of life re-weave.
All our possessions are but loans from you,
And soon, or late, you must be paid your due;
Hither we haste to human-kind's last seat,
Your endless empire, and our sure retreat.
She too, when ripen'd years she shall attain,
Must, of avoidless right, be yours again:
I but the transient use of that require,
Which soon, too soon, I must resign entire.
But if the destinies refuse my vow,
And no remission of her doom allow;
Know, I'm determin'd to return no more;
So both retain, or both to life restore.

Thus, while the bard melodiously complains,
And to his lyre accords his vocal strains,
The very bloodless shades attention keep,
And silent, seem compassionate to weep;
Ev'n Tantalus his flood unthirsty views,
Nor flies the stream, nor he the stream pursues;
Ixion's wond'ring wheel its whirl suspends,
And the voracious vulture, charm'd, attends;
No more the Belides their toil bemoan,
And Sisiphus reclin'd, sits list'ning on his stone.

Then first ('tis said) by sacred verse subdu'd,
The Furies felt their cheeks with tears bedew'd:
Nor could the rigid king, or queen of Hell,
Th' impulse of pity in their hearts repell.

Now, from a troop of shades that last arriv'd,
Eurydice was call'd, and stood reviv'd:
Slow she advanc'd, and halting seem to feel
The fatal wound, yet painful in her heel.
Thus he obtains the suit so much desir'd,
On strict observance of the terms requir'd:
For if, before he reach the realms of air,
He backward cast his eyes to view the fair,
The forfeit grant, that instant, void is made,
And she for ever left a lifeless shade.

Now thro' the noiseless throng their way they bend,
And both with pain the rugged road ascend;
Dark was the path, and difficult, and steep,
And thick with vapours from the smoaky deep.
They well-nigh now had pass'd the bounds of night,
And just approach'd the margin of the light,
When he, mistrusting lest her steps might stray,
And gladsome of the glympse of dawning day,
His longing eyes, impatient, backward cast
To catch a lover's look, but look'd his last;
For, instant dying, she again descends,
While he to empty air his arms extends.
Again she dy'd, nor yet her lord reprov'd;
What could she say, but that too well he lov'd?
One last farewell she spoke, which scarce he heard;
So soon she drop'd, so sudden disappear'd.

All stunn'd he stood, when thus his wife he view'd
By second Fate, and double death subdu'd:
Not more amazement by that wretch was shown,
Whom Cerberus beholding, turn'd to stone;
Nor Olenus cou'd more astonish'd look,
When on himself Lethaea's fault he took,
His beauteous wife, who too secure had dar'd
Her face to vye with Goddesses compar'd:
Once join'd by love, they stand united still,
Turn'd to contiguous rocks on Ida's hill.

Now to repass the Styx in vain he tries,
Charon averse, his pressing suit denies.
Sev'n days entire, along th' infernal shores,
Disconsolate, the bard Eurydice deplores;
Defil'd with filth his robe, with tears his cheeks,
No sustenance but grief, and cares, he seeks:
Of rigid Fate incessant he complains,
And Hell's inexorable Gods arraigns.
This ended, to high Rhodope he hastes,
And Haemus' mountain, bleak with northern blasts.
(Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717))

Atalanta and Hippomenes

Hippomenes and Atalanta 1618 – 1619. Oil on canvas, 206 x 297 cm. Reni, Guido, baroque Bolognese painter

Some time ago I wrote  the story of the famous race of Atalanta and Hippomenes in this same blog adapting directly the text of Ovid. The myth tells the story of Atalanta, the daughter of the king of Arcadia, who offered to marry anyone who could beat her in the race; Those who were defeated would be punished with death. The handsome Hippomenes won the race by using the help of the goddess Venus, who suggested a stratagem.

I refer to http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/atalanta-mythologie-palace-of-the-infant

to get a wider commentary on the story, but I nonetheless offer the text, now in view of one of the pictures of the Prado , The one corresponding to Guido Reni.

Whoever wants a full reading of Ovid's text must go to Metamorphoses, VIII, 281 et seq. for the episode of Meleager and the boar hunt of Calidon and to Metamorphosis X, 560-704 for the race with Hippomenes.

When Atalanta was born, her father, the king of Arcadia, enraged because he only wanted a son, abandoned her all godliness lacking at the top of a mountain so that she could die of hunger or devoured by the ferocious beasts. The goddess Artemis, who casually hunted in those places, took pity on the helpless child and sent her a huge bear that, docilely, suckled her with her milk.
Sometime later, and adopted as a daughter by the goddess, she became an accurate huntress and the fastest woman in the world and emulating her patroness she promised that she would never marry either.

When being a famous huntress she received as a trophy the skin of the wild boar ravaging the kingdom of Calydon, whose hunting she had participated in, she reconciled with her father, who again and again insisted her on the need to get married and provide him a future heir for his throne.

The elusive Atalanta consulted the oracle of the gods on her husband and heard these confusing words:

– For anything you need a husband, Atalanta; avoid having a husband. And yet you will not escape from marriage and still alive you will see yourself private of yourself.

Frightened by these words, hard to be understood, she tries to remain single living in the woods, away from her many suitors, who she wants to scare and avoid with a strange proposal:

– Only will possess me the one of you who beats me in a quick race, that one will be my husband. Instead the loser will have to die in punishment for his pretensions. This is my final proposal.

Such is the beauty of the fast Atalanta that many were the unsuspecting youth who dared to compete with the fastest woman in the world, so they lost the race moaning and crying and, with it, they lost the priceless life.

So the young Hippomenes, who had only heard to talk about the beautiful Atalanta, considered excessive the risk he would have to face in order to get her as his wife. But as soon as he saw the splendid body of the young girl who had removed the veil from her face, he fell in love and was immediately seduced.

– I’ll also try my luck; the prize is worth risking death. Gods always help those who are brave- he says inflamed. And madly in love, he continues:

– Beautiful Atalanta, you have beaten easily and effortlessly those poor boys, but now measure yourself with me, that I'm the son of Megareus. If I beat you, it won´t be a dishonorable defeat for you and if you win the race, you would have beaten Hippomenes, the great-grandson of Neptune, god of the waters.

Atalanta raising her beautiful bright eyes up looks at him tenderly.

– Why do you, foolish boy, want to risk your precious life, you who are still a child? You are beautiful and brave, because death does not scare you. So much you love and want me that you are willing to die…? Run away while you can, young handsome boy; many other pretty girls will be pleased and happy to marry you.

And perhaps touched by the sweet feeling of love for the very first time, the inexperienced and unfriendly Atalanta softens her relentless decision and thinks in the inner part of her heart:

– Why has this unhappy boy to die undeservedly as a reward for his love? I wish you, unhappy boy, had not ever seen me. If virginity was not my eternal destiny, you'd be the only one with whom I would share my wedding bed. I wish you, fool, were faster than me.
But Hippomenes already urges the race, but not before entrusting himself to the goddess of love and asking for her divine help:

– You, goddess, who has inspired my blind passion, help my fearlessness.

Venus answered the call wrapped in a white cloud, visible only to Hippomenes, and gave him three yellow apples, as bright as the sun, that he should use in the race in a certain way.

The trumpets gave the departure signal. There the two contenders go, so fast that they seem to fly. Atalanta, refusing to pass and leave the boy behind, places herself on par and, rapt, she stares at his virginal face. Hippomenes then throws one of the three bright apples, which immediately attracts the eye and interest of Atalanta. She restrains then her speed and while she´s collecting the golden fruit from the ground with curiosity, she is passed by Hippomenes. The fast Atalanta recovers the lost space and again she surpasses the young man easily. The young man throws a second fruit and once again entertains the girl, who soon also recovers the lost time. All that remains is the last stretch before the finish line. Now the young man throws strongly the third apple out of the way. Atalanta hesitates, but trusting in her swift feet, she goes to collect the golden fruit which is placed in the distance. But she miscalculated her speed or maybe the burgeoning love restrained her progress, because now she loses the race. Meanwhile Hipomenes has reached the finish line and, this way, he has reached his desired and deserved prize too, the marriage with the young virgin.

Incomprehensibly, the young Hippomenes forgot Venus and failed to thank her help. This way, the goddess felt neglected and offended by it.

One day as they were passing by the temple of Cybele, Mother of gods, they decided to rest because they were very tired due to the long trip. Hipomenes was taken by a sudden and overwhelming desire to lie with Atalanta, sparked no doubt by the vengeful Venus. Right there, in the sacred cave, in front of the divine images, they desecrate the sanctuary with their obscene love.

Mother Cybele punished their lustfulness with her divine severity: long and fierce manes cover their human necks, hands become claws, a long tail emerges from their backs, fierce they raise up their proud lion heads and their jaws make roaring noises which intimidate the rest part of the animals.

Later the goddess takes pity on them, so she ties the pair of lions with strong flex leather straps to her majestic carriage, which they´ll have to pull tireless for the whole eternity.

These are three or four examples of how Ovid can facilitate the visit to Museums such as the Prado and facilitate the understanding of dozens of works exposed there.

Latin texts

Deucalion and Pyrrha, Metamorphosis, I, 309-430:

Obruerat tumulos inmensa licentia ponti,
Pulsabantque noui montana cacumina fluctus.
Maxima pars unda rapitur: quibus unda pepercit,
Illos longa domant inopi ieiunia uictu.
Separat Aonios Oetaeis Phocis ab aruis, 
Terra ferax, dum terra fuit, sed tempore in illo
Pars maris et latus subitarum campus aquarum;
Mons ibi uerticibus petit arduus astra duobus,
Nomine Parnasus, superantque cacumina nubes:
Hic ubi Deucalion (nam cetera texerat aequor)
Cum consorte tori parua rate uectus adhaesit,
Corycidas nymphas et numina montis adorant
Fatidicamque Themin, quae tunc oracla tenebat:
Non illo melior quisquam nec amantior aequi
Vir fuit aut illa metuentior ulla deorum.
Iuppiter ut liquidis stagnare paludibus orbem
Et superesse uirum de tot modo milibus unum
Et superesse uidet de tot modo milibus unam,
Innocuos ambo, cultores numinis ambo,
Nubila disiecit nimbisque aquilone remotis
Et caelo terras ostendit et aethera terris.
Nec maris ira manet, positoque tricuspide telo
Mulcet aquas rector pelagi supraque profundum
Exstantem atque umeros innato murice tectum
Caeruleum Tritona uocat conchaeque sonanti
Inspirare iubet fluctusque et flumina signo
Iam reuocare dato: caua bucina sumitur illi,
Tortilis, in latum quae turbine crescit ab imo,
Bucina, quae medio concepit ubi aera ponto,
Litora uoce replet sub utroque iacentia Phoebo.
Tunc quoque, ut ora dei madida rorantia barba
Contigit et cecinit iussos inflata receptus,
Omnibus audita est telluris et aequoris undis
Et, quibus est undis audita, coercuit omnes.
Iam mare litus habet, plenos capit alueus amnes,
Flumina subsidunt collesque exire uidentur,
Surgit humus, crescunt loca decrescentibus undis,
Postque diem longam nudata cacumina siluae
Ostendunt limumque tenent in fronde relictum.
Redditus orbis erat; quem postquam uidit inanem
Et desolatas agere alta silentia terras,
Deucalion lacrimis ita Pyrrham adfatur obortis:
"O soror, o coniunx, o femina sola superstes,
Quam commune mihi genus et patruelis origo,
Deinde torus iunxit, nunc ipsa pericula iungunt,
Terrarum, quascumque uident occasus et ortus,
Nos duo turba sumus: possedit cetera pontus.
Haec quoque adhuc uitae non est fiducia nostrae
Certa satis; terrent etiam nunc nubila mentem.
Quis tibi, si sine me fatis erepta fuisses,
Nunc animus, miseranda, foret? quo sola timorem
Ferre modo posses? quo consolante doleres?
Namque ego, crede mihi, si te quoque pontus haberet,
Te sequerer, coniunx, et me quoque pontus haberet.
O utinam possim populos reparare paternis
Artibus atque animas formatae infundere terrae!
Nunc genus in nobis restat mortale duobus
(Sic uisum superis) hominumque exempla manemus."
Dixerat, et flebant; placuit caeleste precari
Numen et auxilium per sacras quaerere sortes.
Nulla mora est: adeunt pariter Cephisidas undas,
Vt nondum liquidas, sic iam uada nota secantes.
Inde ubi libatos inrorauere liquores
Vestibus et capiti, flectunt uestigia sanctae
Ad delubra deae, quorum fastigia turpi
Pallebant musco stabantque sine ignibus arae.
Vt templi tetigere gradus, procumbit uterque
Pronus humi gelidoque pauens dedit oscula saxo,
Atque ita "si precibus" dixerunt "numina iustis
Victa remollescunt, si flectitur ira deorum,
Dic, Themi, qua generis damnum reparabile nostri
Arte sit, et mersis fer opem, mitissima, rebus."
Mota dea est sortemque dedit: "discedite templo
Et uelate caput cinctasque resoluite uestes
Ossaque post tergum magnae iactate parentis."
Obstipuere diu, rumpitque silentia uoce
Pyrrha prior iussisque deae parere recusat,
Detque sibi ueniam, pauido rogat ore pauetque
Laedere iactatis maternas ossibus umbras.
Interea repetunt caecis obscura latebris
Verba datae sortis secum inter seque uolutant.
Inde Promethides placidis Epimethida dictis
Mulcet et "aut fallax" ait "est sollertia nobis,
Aut (pia sunt nullumque nefas oracula suadent)
Magna parens terra est: lapides in corpore terrae
Ossa reor dici; iacere hos post terga iubemur."
Coniugis augurio quamquam Titania mota est,
Spes tamen in dubio est: adeo caelestibus ambo
Diffidunt monitis. sed quid temptare nocebit?
Discedunt uelantque caput tunicasque recingunt
Et iussos lapides sua post uestigia mittunt.
Saxa (quis hoc credat, nisi sit pro teste uetustas?)
Ponere duritiem coepere suumque rigorem
Mollirique mora mollitaque ducere formam.
Mox ubi creuerunt naturaque mitior illis
Contigit, ut quaedam, sic non manifesta uideri
Forma potest hominis, sed, uti de marmore coepta,
Non exacta satis rudibusque simillima signis.
Quae tamen ex illis aliquo pars umida suco
Et terrena fuit, uersa est in corporis usum;
Quod solidum est flectique nequit, mutatur in ossa;
Quae modo uena fuit, sub eodem nomine mansit;
Inque breui spatio superorum numine saxa
Missa uiri manibus faciem traxere uirorum,
Et de femineo reparata est femina iactu.
Inde genus durum sumus experiensque laborum
Et documenta damus, qua simus origine nati.
Cetera diuersis tellus animalia formis
Sponte sua peperit, postquam uetus umor ab igne
Percaluit solis caenumque udaeque paludes
Intumuere aestu fecundaque semina rerum
Viuaci nutrita solo ceu matris in aluo
Creuerunt faciemque aliquam cepere morando.
Sic, ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros
Nilus et antiquo sua flumina reddidit alueo
Aetherioque recens exarsit sidere limus,
Plurima cultores uersis animalia glaebis
Inueniunt et in his quaedam modo coepta per ipsum
Nascendi spatium, quaedam inperfecta suisque
Trunca uident numeris, et eodem in corpore saepe
Altera pars uiuit, rudis est pars altera tellus.

             …………………
The rape of Europa. Metamorphoses II, 833-875:

Has ubi uerborum poenas mentisque profanae
Cepit Atlantiades, dictas a Pallade terras
Linquit et ingreditur iactatis aethera pennis.
Seuocat hinc genitor nec causam fassus amoris:
"Fide minister" ait "iussorum, nate, meorum,
Pelle moram solitoque celer delabere cursu
Quaeque tuam matrem tellus a parte sinistra
Suspicit (indigenae Sidonida nomine dicunt),
Hanc pete, quodque procul montano gramine pasci
Armentum regale uides, ad litora uerte".
Dixit et expulsi iamdudum monte iuuenci
Litora iussa petunt, ubi magni filia regis
Ludere uirginibus Tyriis comitata solebat.
Non bene conueniunt nec in una sede morantur
Maiestas et amor; sceptri grauitate relicta,
Ille pater rectorque deum, cui dextra trisulcis
Ignibus armata est, qui nutu concutit orbem,
Induitur faciem tauri mixtusque iuuencis
Mugit et in teneris formosus obambulat herbis.
Quippe color niuis est, quam nec uestigia duri
Calcauere pedis nec soluit aquaticus Auster.
Colla toris exstant, armis palearia pendent;
Cornua parua quidem, sed quae contendere possis
Facta manu puraque magis perlucida gemma.
Nullae in fronte minae nec formidabile lumen;
Pacem uultus habet. miratur Agenore nata
Quod tam formosus, quod proelia nulla minetur;
Sed quamuis mitem, metuit contingere primo.
Mox adit et flores ad candida porrigit ora.
Gaudet amans et, dum ueniat sperata uoluptas,
Oscula dat manibus; uix iam, uix cetera differt.
Et nunc alludit uiridique exsultat in herba
Nunc latus in fuluis niueum deponit harenis;
Paulatimque metu dempto, modo pectora praebet
Virginea plaudenda manu, modo cornua sertis
Impedienda nouis. ausa est quoque regia uirgo,
Nescia quem premeret, tergo considere tauri,
Cum deus a terra siccoque a litore sensim
Falsa pedum primo uestigia ponit in undis,
Inde abit ulterius mediique per aequora ponti
Fert praedam. pauet haec litusque ablata relictum
Respicit et dextra cornum tenet, altera dorso
Imposita est; tremulae sinuantur flamine uestes.

   ………..
Orpheus and Eurydice

Inde per immensum croceo uelatus amictu
Aethera digreditur Ciconumque Hymenaeus ad oras
Tendit et Orphea nequiquam uoce uocatur.
Adfuit ille quidem, sed nec sollemnia uerba
Nec laetos uultus nec felix attulit omen;
Fax quoque, quam tenuit, lacrimoso stridula fumo
Vsque fuit nullosque inuenit motibus ignes.
Exitus auspicio grauior. nam nupta per herbas
Dum noua naiadum turba comitata uagatur,
Occidit in talum serpentis dente recepto.
Quam satis ad superas postquam Rhodopeius auras
Defleuit uates, ne non temptaret et umbras,
Ad Styga Taenaria est ausus descendere porta
Perque leues populos simulacraque functa sepulcro
Persephonen adiit inamoenaque regna tenentem
Vmbrarum dominum pulsisque ad carmina neruis
Sic ait: "o positi sub terra numina mundi,
In quem reccidimus, quidquid mortale creamur,
Si licet et falsi positis ambagibus oris
Vera loqui sinitis, non huc, ut opaca uiderem
Tartara, descendi, nec uti uillosa colubris
Terna Medusaei uincirem guttura monstri;
Causa uiae est coniunx, in quam calcata uenenum
Vipera diffudit crescentesque abstulit annos.
Posse pati uolui nec me temptasse negabo:
Vicit Amor. supera deus hic bene notus in ora est;
An sit et hic, dubito. sed et hic tamen auguror esse,
Famaque si ueteris non est mentita rapinae,
Vos quoque iunxit Amor. per ego haec loca plena timoris,
Per Chaos hoc ingens uastique silentia regni,
Eurydices, oro, properata retexite fata!
Omnia debentur uobis paulumque morati
Serius aut citius sedem properamus ad unam.
Tendimus huc omnes, haec est domus ultima, uosque
Humani generis longissima regna tenetis.
Haec quoque, cum iustos matura peregerit annos,
Iuris erit uestri: pro munere poscimus usum.
Quod si fata negant ueniam pro coniuge, certum est
Nolle redire mihi: leto gaudete duorum."
Talia dicentem neruosque ad uerba mouentem
Exsangues flebant animae: nec Tantalus undam
Captauit refugam stupuitque Ixionis orbis,
Nec carpsere iecur uolucres, urnisque uacarunt
Belides, inque tuo sedisti, Sisyphe, saxo.
Tunc primum lacrimis uictarum carmine fama est
Eumenidum maduisse genas, nec regia coniunx
Sustinet oranti nec, qui regit ima, negare
Eurydicenque uocant. umbras erat illa recentes
Inter et incessit passu de uulnere tardo.
Hanc simul et legem Rhodopeius accipit Orpheus,
Ne flectat retro sua lumina, donec Auernas
Exierit ualles; aut irrita dona futura.
Carpitur adcliuis per muta silentia trames,
Arduus, obscurus, caligine densus opaca.
Nec procul abfuerant telluris margine summae:
Hic, ne deficeret, metuens auidusque uidendi
Flexit amans oculos: et protinus illa relapsa est
Bracchiaque intendens prendique et prendere certans
Nil nisi cedentes infelix adripit auras.
Iamque iterum moriens non est de coniuge quicquam
Questa suo (quid enim nisi se quereretur amatam?)
Supremumque "uale", quod iam uix auribus ille
Acciperet, dixit reuolutaque rursus eodem est.
Non aliter stupuit gemina nece coniugis Orpheus,
Quam tria qui timidus, medio portante catenas,
Colla canis uidit; quem non pauor ante reliquit,
Quam natura prior, saxo per corpus oborto;
Quique in se crimen traxit uoluitque uideri
Olenos esse nocens, tuque, o confisa figurae,
Infelix Lethaea, tuae, iunctissima quondam
Pectora, nunc lapides, quos umida sustinet Ide.
Orantem frustraque iterum transire uolentem
Portitor arcuerat; septem tamen ille diebus
Squalidus in ripa Cereris sine munere sedit:
Cura dolorque animi lacrimaeque alimenta fuere.
Esse deos Erebi crudeles questus in altam
Se recipit Rhodopen pulsumque aquilonibus Haemum.

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Calligramme is a modern word, derived from the French Calligramme, created by the poet GuillaumeApollinaire in his work entitled  "Calligrammes. Poèmes de la Paix et de la Guerre 1913-1916 ". The word is composition of the Greek adjective καλός, kalós, which means beautiful, good and substantive γράμμα, gramma, meaning letter. writing. So properly it means "beautiful letter, beautiful written."

Ausonius was the the first used “technopaegnia” in his work  XII, 1 to refer to a poem in hexameters in which each verse ends with the monosyllable with which  the next begins. It is a Greek word composed of τέχνη, techne, art, and παἱγνιον, paígnion, game, thus meaning "art game", referring to the special ability of the poet, but it doesn’t  had the meaning we ascribe now.

On Latin it is called carmina figurata and naturally they are numerous by the Roman tendency to imitate everything Greek.

Poem-figure Pattern Poetry are  a good names.

Visual poetry and concrete poetry are two modern terms to refer to a kind  of poetry in which the visual and space work with rhyme and rhythm to the objective representation (objectualization) of abstract ideas.

Such poems are somehow put in value in modern times by Guillaume Apollinair  (1880-1918), and by the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948), to the point that there will be many people who consider the creators without knowing who already the Greeks as Simias of Rhodes, author of the fourth century BC, lived about 300 BC , famous because he was the first of whom we preserved  some in our Western tradition, and Theocritus, the poet of Idylls, wrote them. In our modern pride we should not ignore that in the Arab world poems also are drawn taking advantage of the graphical beauty of the signs that the Arabs used in their writing.

The ancient Greek technopaegnia or poems-figure are six: of  Simmias of Rhodes we retain three  that have darken wowing since ancient times, which are titled Wings, Axe and Egg. Of Theocritus we have the poem called the Syrinx. Of Dosiadas, a contemporary of the previous we preserve, "The Doric altar," and of a Besantinus, who was identified with the Latin lexicographer of II century A.D., Lucius Julius Vestinus, contemporary of Hadrian, the poem "The Ionic altar." Besantinus" would be a corruption of the name" Vestinus" through "Bestinus". But all these authorships have been questioned at some point; of these authors only Theocritus is well known for us.

Naturally, there were similar poems in Latin in Roman times. So Levius, in the first century, used them in its Pterygium Phoenicis (the Wings of Phoenix), and in the IV century the poet Publilius Porfirius Optacianus writes  poems entitled also Syrinx, the Altar and Water Organ, proof that he knew the Greeks. Venantius Fortunatus, in the sixth century and later Rabanus Maurus, in time of Charlemagne, wrote some poems-figure.

Since the Renaissance they had a great development throughout Europe; actually in Spain it was lower because its Humanism had less knowledge of Greek.

Modern and currently its development is enormous, given the importance that all visual and designs of the things have in our culture, given to know by effective mass media

Generally the six Greeks have been preserved in manuscripts attached to the end of the work of Theocritus since Antiquity and in the tenth century they were included by the Byzantine compiler in the Greek Anthology as book number XV. But these are scholars details that do not interest us at the moment.

On the origin of these poetic forms it has been thought, perhaps without much foundation, they were poems to be inscribed in the object they describe, because there are certainly many objects with allusive inscriptions. Thus the "Axe" would be enrolled in an "axe", the "wings" on the wings of a statue of Eros, etc ..

With less ground although its origin should be  in magic formulas. Probably its origin is in the mannerism of the educated Hellenistic poets interested in their eruditeness about  ancient inscriptions when poetry is no longer oral and does not fulfill a social function being sung or recited on certain occasions, to become a purely bookish creation oriented to mere reading.

It should be taken into account that that the manuscripts often present us  two settings of the lines: the setting that makes up the figure to the terms and the setting of the verses in the order in which they are to be read. In the latter case, not all scholars are agree with that the manuscripts transmit;  generally they respected the order of Wings, Syrinx and the two Altars, but not with the Egg or the Axe.

Another question to consider is that both the Greek metric as the Latin and its various types of verses are based on the amount or duration of syllables and not in number, so they have an added difficulty to performing the visual forms. The solve it using and mixing different types of lines to adjust its visual form.

I offer the printing these poems as it appears in the edition of Jean Crispin 1570, forming the corresponding figures and its Latin version in case  of The Axe, The Wings, The Egg, and The Syringx or Pipe:

Theokritou Syrakoisiou Eidyllia kai epigrammata sozomena. Simmiou Rodiou, Moschou Syrakosiou, Bionos Smyrnaiou = Theocriti, Simmiae, Moschi, & Bionis Eidyllia & Epigrammata quae supersunt, cum Musaei poemario, omnia graecolatina & exposita. Genevae : apud J(ean) Crispinum.1570:

Simias: The Axe

Epeus devoted to the goddess Athena the axe with which he built the famous Trojan horse

Note: in the Loeb Classical Library edition, The Greek Antohology, vol V, translation by W.R. Paton. London. 1918 it appears with this form for easy reading. But the reading would form a spiral from the outer verses 1-2 left towards 11-12 interiors, according to proposal by P.E. Legrand. The double axe, called on Greek labrys λάβρυς is itself already of Cretan culture; then the Greeks called the ax of double edge pelekys (πέλεκυς) and the Romans bipennis, word which has passed as a historical and archaeological technical term.

THE AXE OF SIMIAS

Phocian Epeius, in gratitude for her strong device, gave to the virile goddess Athena the axe with which of old he laid in ruin the high, god-built towers, then when he burnt to ashes with fire-breathing doom the holy city of the Dardanidae and dashed down from their seats the gilded kings, a man who was not reckoned among the chieftains of the Achaeans, but one of low degree who carried water from the pure fountains. But now he has entered on the path of Homer, thanks to thee, holy Pallas of many counsels. Thrice blessed he whom with a gracious mind thou watchest over. This blessedness ever lives and breathes.  ( Loeb Classical Library, The Greek Antohology, vol V, translated by W.R.Paton. London. 1918)

Simias: the Wings

Note: it is supposed that it was engraved on the wings of a statue of Eros. The poem presents  a young and old Eros at the same time. Eros is the god of love and sexual attraction, but also he is the cosmological god who emerged from the egg laid by Night after the original Chaos and brings order to the Cosmos.

Behold the ruler of the deep-bosomed Earth, the turner upside-down of the Son of Acmon, and have no fear that so little a person should have so plentiful a crop of beard to his chin. For I was born when Necessity bare rule, and all creatures, moved they in Air or in Chaos, were kept though her dismal governance far apart. Swift-flying son of Cypris and war-lord Ares – I am not that at all; for by no force came I into rule, but by gentle-willed persuasion, and yet all alike, Earth, deep Sea, and brazen Heaven, bowed to my behest, and I took to myself their old sceptre and made me a judge among gods. (The Greek Bucolic Poets. Translated by Edmonds, J M. Loeb Classical Library Volume 28. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Univserity Press. 1912.)

Simias: the Egg

Lo here a new weft of a twittering mother, a Dorian nightingale; receive it with a right good will, for pure was the mother whose shrilly throes did labour for it. The loud-voiced herald of the gods took it up from beneath its dear mother’s wings, and cast it among the tribes of men and bade it increase its number onward more and more – that number keeping the while due order of rhythms – from a one-footed measure even unto a full ten measures: and quickly he made fat from above the swiftly-slanting slope of its vagrant feet, striking, as he went on, a motley strain indeed but a right concordant cry of the Pierians, and making exchange of limbs with the nimble fawns the swift children of the foot-stirring stag. – Now these fawns through immortal desire of their dear dam do rush apace after the beloved teat, all passing with far-hasting feet over the hilltops in the track of that friendly nurse, and with a bleat they go by the mountain pastures of the thousand feeding sheep and the caves of the slender-ankled Nymphs, till all at once some cruel-hearted beast, receiving their echoing cry in the dense fold of his den, leaps speedily forth of the bed of his rocky lair with intent to catch one of the wandering progeny of that dappled mother, and then swiftly following the sound of their cry straightway darteth through the shaggy dell of the snow-clad hills. – Of feet as swift as their urged that renowned god the labour, as he sped the manifold measures of the song. (The Greek Bucolic Poets. Translated by Edmonds, J M. Loeb Classical Library Volume 28. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Univserity Press. 1912.)

Note: It is a difficult to translate and difficult to read poem, whose reading should be made from the first verse to the last, from the second to the penultimate and so until to the center; but Legrand proposes another reading from the center to the periphery. It is made a comparison with an egg of nightingale, which grows with the rhythm that  the god Hermes set with his foot. The increasing rate is then compared with a fawn running around looking for his mother. It seems that the poet is referring to the fact of poetic creation itself: the poet is a nightingale, frequent identification in antiquity, and therefore he makes a poem as would the bird egg. But there he is who gives a more transcendent and cosmological interpretation, relating it to the poem of the wings of Eros and by referring to the cosmic egg.

Theocritus: The syrinx

Note: Theocritus offers a syrinx or pipe  the god Pan. With it he will play sweetly to Echo, his beloved nymph. Curiously, the poem draws a syrinx or shepherd's flute in which the reeds are decreasing, when the figure we have of it from pictures or reliefs is of all same reeds, which were covered with wax at different distances for different sound.

THE PIPE OF THEOCRITUS

The bed-fellow of nobody and mother of the far-fighter gave birth to the swift director of the nurse of him whose place a stone took, not Cerastas, whom the child of the bull once reared, but him whose heart once was burnt by the edge of a shield lacking a Pi, whole by name, a double animal who felt desire for the Meropian girl born of a voice and like to the wind, who put together for the violet-crowned Muse a shrill wound, the monument of fiery love ; he who quenched the bravery that had the same name as the slayer of his grandfather and freed the Tyrian maiden from it ; he to whom Paris Simichidas offered this beloved possession of the blind-bearers ; rejoicing in thy soul at which, O treader of flocks, tormentor of the Saettian woman, son of a thief, without a father, box-footed, mayst thou sweetly play to the mute girl. Calliope the invisible. (Loeb Classical Library, The Greek Antohology, vol V, translated by W.R.Paton. London. 1918)

Notes:
“The bed-fellow” is Penelope; “of nobody” is Odysseus;  “the far-fighter” is Telemachus; “a stone”  is Juppiter; “Cerastas” is long-horned = Comatas, long-haired; “child of the bull” is the bees, because it was believed that bees are born from the bowels of the bulls;
"Edge shield" because if we add a “p” to “itys” (shield) we have “pitys”, which means “pine tree”  and Pine is also the name of a nymph loved by the god Pan, word which means ”all”; “double animal” because is goat-legged; “girl born of a voice” is Echo; “a shrill wound” because  Syrinx also = fistula; “monument of fiery love” for Syrinx; “the bravery” for the Persian at Marathon; “the slayer of his grandfather” is Perseus, word that sounds similar to Persian; “freed the Tyrian maiden” because Europa (Euroep) was daughter of a Phoenician; “the blind-bearers”  because the pastors  carry satchel, which in Greek is called “pera” and it sounds similar to  “perós”, " which means "crippled" and the blind are disabled; “treader of flocks” because Pan walks on  rocks  and "laos”, the" people, sounds like "laas", the stone,  and Deucalion made men  throwing stones over his shoulder; “Saettian woman”  is Omphalè; “son of a thief” ,  son of Hermes; “box-footed”, Pan has hooves and the Greek word for hoof khele reminds khelos, box,  which is synonymous with larnax and because it  Pan is Larnakógulos; “the mute girl” is Echo, who cannot speak of herself; “Calliope” means “of beautiful voice”.

It is a difficult text to read without the notes to clarify many puns in Greek. The scholiasts or ancient commentators devoted good efforts to this task. This poem is full, like following Doric Altar, of guessing or "griphos" that is necessary to be solved in order to understand.

Dosiadas:  The Doric Altar

The poem presents itself as inscribed on the altar, which Jason made; Philoctetes is bitten by a snake when contemplates and suffers terrible pain until  Odysseus and Diomedes go to look him to conquer Troy.

DOSIADAS. THE ALTAR

The husband of the woman clothed in male attire, a man who was twice young, made me ; not he who lay on the fire, the son of the Empusa, whose death was due to the Trojan cowherd, offspring of a dog, but the friend of Chryse, when the cook of men struck the brazen-limbed watchman whom the faithless husband of two wives, he who was cast away by his mother, toiled to fashion. And when he had looked on my structure, the slayer of Theocritus, the burner of him of the three nights, called out . . . for it afflicted him with its poison, the belly-creeper that had put off old age. And him … in the sea-girt place, the husband of Pan's mother, the thief with two lives and the son of the man-devourer, for the sake of the shafts that destroyed Ilion, brought to the Teucrian city thrice sacked.
(Loeb Classical Library, The Greek Antohology, vol V, translated by W.R.Paton. London. 1918)

Notes: the poem is also  unintelligible without the explanatory notes, because it is also plagued, like Syrinx, of "guessing" or "griphos". “The woman clothed in male attire” is Medea fleeing from Athens disguised as a man; The poet  names the husband, Jason, saying  he was not Achilles, who was born from Thetis who changed shape often like the ghost Empusa: who lay on the fire, because his mother got him into the fire except for the heel, which was vulnerable;  “the Trojan cowherd”, is Paris; offspring of a dog because his mother Hecuba became dog after the fall of Troy; Chryse  is a goddess of the northern Aegean; the cook of men" is Medea who cooked  Pelias with the false promise of restoring youth;  "the brazen-limbed watchman " is the Talos automaton, built by Hephaestus; the faithless husband of two wives because  was born only of Hera, "the two wives" for Aglaia and Aphrodite; he who was cast away by his mother because the sky threw his mother;  the slayer of Theocritus, is Philoctetes ; Theocritus is Paris, who  prepared the pyre of Heracles, who is" the man of three nights "because Zeus begetting him lasted up night to three times its normal length; the belly-creeper that had put off old age is the snake which crawls and take the old skin; the husband of Pan's mother, the  mother is Penelope, whose husband is Odysseus (see the Siringa ); the "Thief" because he had stolen the Palladium or image of Pallas that protected Troy. “with two lives" because he came under the Hades and returned alive;  the man-devourer  is Diomedes, son of Tydeus who had eaten the head of Melanippus.

Besantinus, ( Iulius Vestinus):  Ionic Altar

Note: It is not a normal altar, stained by the blood of the victims, but the altar of the Muses where the poets can come  to make their offerings without snakes, like the altar of Jason.

BESANTINUS. THE ALTAR

The black cloud of victims does not, like purple, dye me with its reddening stream, and the knives sharpened on the Naxian stone spare the flocks of Pan ; the sweet-scented juice of the Arabian trees does not blacken me with its curling smoke. Thou seest in me an altar not composed of golden bricks or the clods of Alybe, nor let that altar be like to me which the two gods born in Cynthus built, taking the horns of the goats that feed about the smooth ridges of Cynthus. For together with the children of Heaven did the earth-born Nine rear me, the Muses to whose art the King of the gods granted immortality. And mayest thou, who drinkest of the spring that the Gorgon's son opened with a blow of his hoof, sacrifice and pour on me libations in abundance sweeter than the honey of Hymettus'bees. Come to meet me with a confident heart, for I am pure of the venomous monsters which lay hid on that altar in Neae of Thrace that the thief of the purple ram dedicated to thee. Trito-born, hard by Myrina.  (Loeb Classical Library, The Greek Antohology, vol V, translated by W.R.Paton. London. 1918)

Note: the initials of each verse in Greek, read vertically, makes  an acrostic  phrase that can be translated as “I hope you can, Olympic, sacrificing many times”. "Olympic" was one of the titles of Hadrian, and so it seems that the author is his contemporary. the children of Heaven  are the Graces. the earth-born Nine  are the Muses.  the Gorgon's  son  is  Pegasus. Trito-born is an epithet of Athena.

These examples and explanations may serve to illustrate and imagine the eruditeness, mannerism and aestheticism reached by the Greeks of the Hellenistic period. Again, everything, almost everything, were found or invented by the Greeks.

I indicated how this Mannerist and erudite practice continued at the end of the Roman era, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, when they are edited  profusely and in modern times.

One example of the  Renaissance by Michel de Montaigne in his Essays,

CHAPTER LIVOF VAIN SUBTLETIES

There are a sort of little knacks and frivolous subtleties from which men sometimes expect to derive reputation and applause: as poets, who compose whole poems with every line beginning with the same letter; we see the shapes of eggs, globes, wings, and hatchets cut out by the ancient Greeks by the measure of their verses, making them longer or shorter, to represent such or such a figure.  Of this nature was his employment who made it his business to compute into how many several orders the letters of the alphabet might be transposed, and found out that incredible number mentioned in Plutarch. (ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE. Translated by Charles Cotton. Edited by William Carew Hazilitt 1877)

Des Vaines Subtilitez
Il est de ces subtilitez frivoles et vaines, par le moyen desquelles les hommes cherchent quelquesfois de la recommandation: comme les poetes qui font des ouvrages entiers de vers commençans par une mesme lettre: nous voyons des oeufs, des boules, des aisles, des haches façonnées anciennement par les Grecs avec la mesure de leurs vers, en les alongeant ou accoursissant, en maniere qu'ils viennent à représenter telle ou telle figure. Telle estoit la science de celuy qui s'amusa à conter en combien de sortes se pouvoient renger les lettres de l'alphabet, et y en trouva ce nombre incroiable qui se void dans Plutarque.

The modern examples are countless and  the imagination of artists is exuberant. I will offer only this one of Apollinair, this representing the Eiffel Tower:

Salut monde dont je suis la langue èloquente que sa bouche o Paris tire et tirera toujours aux allemands.

Hello world, of which I am the eloquent tongue which your mouth, O Paris, and will always  stick out at the Germans.

Or this poem Wrectched Wars of Miguel Hernandez,  to celebrate the first century birth in 2010.

Wretched wars

Wretched wars
if not fought for love.

Wretched. Wretched.

Wretched weapons
if they are not words.

Wretched. Wretched.

Wretched men
if they do not die of love.

Wretched. Wretched.

https://sites.google.com/site/nightingalesthatsing/40-poemas/tristes-guerras

Tristes guerras
si no es amor la empresa.
Tristes, tristes.

Tristes hombres
si no mueren de amores.
Tristes, tristes.

The post Calligramme, technopaegnia τεχνοπαíγνια, Carmina figurata, Pattern Poetry, figure poem, visual Poetry, concrete Poetry, creative writing . appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

We get some paint on a wall of buildings, especially in Pompeii, but also in other isolated area, some exceptionally well-preserved table in the warm climate of the Egyptian desert and little else. Certainly they are preserved many mosaics that reproduce many paintings or try to imitate them.

And we have also numerous texts which refer to this art. Among them, for example, a treatise of Lucianus of Samosata and especially the book XXXV of Pliny, who in his encyclopedic Natural History wrote almost about everything.

Well, in Natural History, XXXV, chap. 36 (60). he tells us, even briefly, an in Antiquity well known anecdote and reproduced ad nauseam since the Renaissance, about the method for painting from a natural model.

The story is told in more detail and otherwise set by Cicero in one of his minor works on rhetoric, in his De Inventione rhetorica, On the rhetorical invention, II, 1: 1-4

The story has had a special importance in the history of later art. It raises the question of the pursuit of beauty from a natural model and the matter is linked to the Platonic doctrine of general ideas, because when a painter draws the face of a man or of a woman or of any other being, what really does he express on the canvas or on the table, the face he is  watching or the ideal representation of the beautiful face he has created in his mind, that is, the general idea?

We will read these two texts and we will make make three further references to the anecdote, one from the humanist Leon Battista Alberti, another one of the painter Raphael Sanzio and the third one of Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644), teacher and father in law of Velazquez, who naturally could not escape his appointment.

Cicero (106a.C.-43a.C.) wrote his manual entitled De Inventione, On rhetoric invention, being very young, around the year 86, 20 years old. We retain only two of the four books that this work  should have. As a work of youth, the mature orator Cicero was not very proud of it, as he tells us in his De Oratore, (Lib.I. 5) and also Quintilian (Institutio Oratoria, III. 1, 20)

Well Marcus Tullius Cicero tells us in "On invention", Book II, 1.1-4:

Some men of Crotona, when they were rich in all kinds of resources, and when they were considered among the most prosperous people in Italy, were desirous to enrich the temple of Juno, which they regarded with the most religious veneration, with splendid pictures. Therefore they hired Zeuxis of Heraclea at a vast price, who was at that time considered to be far superior to all other painters, and employed him in that business. He painted many other pictures, of which some portion, on account of the great respect in which the temple is held, has remained to within our recollection; and in order that one of his mute representations might contain the preeminent beauty of the female form, he said that he wished to paint a likeness of Helen. And the men of Crotona, who had frequently heard that he exceeded all other men in painting women, were very glad to hear this; for they thought that if he took the greatest pains in that class of work in which he had the greatest skill, he would leave them a most noble work in that temple.

Nor were they deceived in that expectation: for Zeuxis immediately asked of them what beautiful virgins they had; and they immediately led him into the palaestra, and there showed him numbers of boys of the highest birth and of the greatest beauty. For indeed, there was a time when the people of Crotona were far superior to all other cities in the strength and beauty of their persons; and they brought home the most honourable victories from the gymnastic contests, with the greatest credit. While, therefore, he was admiring the figures of the boys and their personal perfection very greatly; "The sisters," say they, "of these boys are virgins in our city, so that how great their beauty is you may infer from these boys." "Give me, then," said he, "I beg you, the most beautiful of these virgins, while I paint the picture which I promised you, so that the reality may be transferred from the breathing model to the mute likeness." Then the citizens of Crotona, in accordance with a public vote, collected the virgins into one place, and gave the painter the opportunity of selecting whom he chose. But he selected five, whose names many poets have handed down to tradition, because they had been approved by the judgment of the man who was bound to have the most accurate judgment respecting beauty. For he did not think that he could find all the component parts of perfect beauty in one person, because nature has made nothing of any class absolutely perfect in every part. Therefore, as if nature would not have enough to give to everybody if it had given everything to one, it balances one advantage bestowed upon a person by another disadvantage.

But since the inclination has arisen in my mind to write a treatise on the art of speaking, we have not put forth any single model of which every portion was necessarily to be copied by us, of whatever sort they might be; but, having collected together all the writers on the subject into one place, we have selected what each appears to have recommended which may be most serviceable, and we have thus culled the flower from various geniuses. For of those who are worthy of fame or recollection, there is no one who appears either to have said nothing well, or everything admirably. So that it seemed folly either to forsake the sensible maxims brought forward by any one, merely because we are offended at some other blunder of his, or, on the other hand, to embrace his faults because we have been tempted by some sensible precept which he has also delivered.
(Translation by C. D. Yonge (1853))

Crotoniatae quondam, cum florerent omnibus copiis et in Italia cum primis beati numerarentur, templum Iunonis, quod religiosissime colebant, egregiis picturis locupletare voluerunt. itaque Heracleoten Zeuxin, qui tum longe ceteris excellere pictoribus existimabatur, magno pretio conductum adhibuerunt. is et ceteras conplures tabulas pinxit, quarum nonnulla pars usque ad nostram memoriam propter fani religionem remansit, et, ut excellentem muliebris formae pulchritudinem muta in se imago contineret, Helenae pingere simulacrum velle dixit; quod Crotoniatae, qui eum muliebri in corpore pingendo plurimum aliis praestare saepe accepissent, libenter audierunt. putaverunt enim, si, quo in genere plurimum posset, in eo magno opere elaborasset, egregium sibi opus illo in fano relicturum.

[2] neque tum eos illa opinio fefellit. nam Zeuxis ilico quaesivit ab iis, quasnam virgines formosas haberent. illi autem statim hominem deduxerunt in palaestram atque ei pueros ostenderunt multos, magna praeditos dignitate. etenim quodam tempore Crotoniatae multum omnibus corporum viribus et dignitatibus antisteterunt atque honestissimas ex gymnico certamine victorias domum cum laude maxima rettulerunt. cum puerorum igitur formas et corpora magno hic opere miraretur: ‘Horum,’ inquiunt illi, ‘sorores sunt apud nos virgines. quare, qua sint illae dignitate, potes ex his suspicari.’ ‘Praebete igitur mihi, quaeso,’ inquit, ‘ex istis virginibus formonsissimas, dum pingo id, quod pollicitus sum vobis,  ut mutum in simulacrum ex animali exemplo veritas transferatur.’ tum Crotoniatae publico de con- silio virgines unum in locum conduxerunt et pictori quam vellet eligendi potestatem dederunt. ille autem quinque delegit; quarum nomina multi poetae memoriae prodiderunt, quod eius essent iudicio probatae, qui pulchritudinis habere verissimum iudicium de- buisset. neque enim putavit omnia, quae quaereret ad venustatem, uno se in corpore reperire posse ideo, quod nihil simplici in genere omnibus ex partibus per- fectum natura expolivit. itaque, tamquam ceteris non sit habitura quod largiatur, si uni cuncta concesserit, aliud alii commodi aliquo adiuncto incommodo muneratur.

[4] Quod quoniam nobis quoque voluntatis accidit, ut artem dicendi perscriberemus, non unum aliquod proposuimus exemplum, cuius omnes partes, quocumque essent in genere, exprimendae nobis necessarie vi- derentur; sed omnibus unum in locum coactis scriptoribus, quod quisque commodissime praecipere videbatur, excerpsimus et ex variis ingeniis excellentissima quaeque libavimus. ex iis enim, qui nomine et memoria digni sunt, nec nihil optime nec omnia prae- clarissime quisquam dicere nobis videbatur. quapropter stultitia visa est aut a bene inventis alicuius recedere, si quo in vitio eius offenderemur, aut ad vitia eius quoque accedere, cuius aliquo bene praecepto duceremur.

Moreover, the reader will easily understand how the matter was to be frequent theme in painting from the Renaissance and of course in the Baroque and neoclassicism, as lovers of classic themes. I also will reproduce a couple of illustrations on the content of the texts; which it comes next seems the representation of a modern casting selection of candidates for representation, as I comment at  the bottom of it.

Work of neoclassical painter François-André Vincent (Paris, 1746-1816), "Zeuxis et les filles de Crotone", "Zeuxis and daughters of Crotona" (3.23 m. X 4.15 m.), Painted in 1789 . Louvre Museum.

In the picture, like it were a modern "casting", we can appreciate the beauty of each girl, the shame of some because  remaining  naked, the content of the selected, the nerves on edge of waiting, the anger of rejected … well, like a "casting" is involved.

I extend a little more the corresponding text of Pliny, which refers to a statue of the goddess Juno, to include another famous anecdote referring to the rivalry between Zeuxis and Parrasius, which I have already referred in http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/zeuxis-parraxius-classical-art-painting 

In these two stories it is illustrated with examples the discussion between aesthetic theory of exact imitation of nature to fool the eye, from  the concept of "trompe l'oeil" , "trap for the eye",  comes and the perfect imitation, and transcending the inherent beauty of nature.

Pliniy, Naturalis Historia, XXXV, 36 (60)

 Aetists who painted with the pencil.

In the ninetieth Olympiad lived Aglaophon, Cephisodorus, Erillus, and Evenor, the father of Parrhasius, one of the greatest of painters, and of whom we shall hare to speak when we come to the period at which he flourished. All these were artists of note, but not sufficiently so to detain us by any further details, in our haste to arrive at the luminaries of the art ; first among whom shone Apollodorus of Athens, in the ninety-third Olympiad. He was the first to paint objects as they really appeared ; the first too, we may justly say, to confer glory  by the aid of the pencil." Of this artist there is a Priest in Adoration, and an Ajax struck by Lightning, a work to be seen at Pergamus at the present day : before him, there is no painting of any artist now to be seen which has the power of rivetting the eye.

The gates of art being now thrown open by Apollodorus,- Zeuxis of Heraclea entered upon the scene, in the fourth year of the ninety-fifth Olympiad, destined to lead the pencil — for
it is of the pencil that we are still speaking — a pencil for which there was nothing too arduous, to a very high pitch of glory. By some writers he is erroneously placed in the eighty-ninth Olympiad, a date that must of necessity be reserved for Demophilus of Himera and Neseus of Thasos, of one of whom, it is uncertain which, Zeuxis was the pupil. It was in reference to him that Apollodorus, above-mentioned, wrote a verse to the effect, that Zeuxis had stolen the art from others and had taken it all to himself.' Zeuxis also acquired such a vast amount of wealth, that, in a spirit of ostentation, he went so far as to parade himself at Olympia with his name embroidered on the checked pattern of his garments in letters of gold. At a later period, he came to the determination to give away his works, there being no price high enough to pay for them, he said. Thus, for instance, he gave an Alcmena to the people of Agrigentum, and a Pan to Archelaus. He also painted a Penelope, in which the peculiar character of that matron appears to he delineated to the very life ; and a figure of an athlete, with which he was so highly pleased, that he wrote beneath it the line which has since become so famous, to the effect that it would be easier to find fault with him than to imitate him. His Jupiter seated on the throne, with the other Deities standing around him, is a magnificent production : the same, too, with his Infant Hercules strangling the Dragons, in presence of Amphitryon and his mother Alcmena, who is struck with horror.

Still, however, Zeuxis is generally censured for making the heads and articulations of his figures out of proportion. And yet, so scrupulously careful was he, that on one occasion, when he was about to execute a painting for the people of Agrigentum, to be consecrated in the Temple of the Lacinian Juno there, he had the young maidens of the place stripped for examination, and selected five of them, in order to adopt in his picture the most commendable points in the form of each. He also painted some monochromes in white.

The contemporaries and rivals of Zeuxis were Timanthes, Androcydes, Eupompus, and Parrhasius.  This last, it is said, entered into a pictorial contest with Zeuxis, who represented some grapes, painted so naturally that the birds flew towards the spot where the picture was exhibited. Parrhasius, on the other hand, exhibited a curtain, drawn with such singular truthfulness, that Zeuxis, elated with the judgment which had been passed upon his work by the birds, haughtily demanded that the curtain should be drawn aside to let the picture be seen. Upon finding his mistake, with a great degree of ingenuous candour he admitted that he had been surpassed, for that whereas he himself had only deceived the birds, Parrhasius had deceived him, an artist. There is a story, too, that at a later period, Zeuxis having painted a child carrying grapes, the hirds canae to peck at them ; upon which, with a similar degree of candour, he expressed himself vexed with his work, and exclaimed — '' I have surely painted the grapes better than the child, for if I had fully succeeded in the last, the birds would have been in fear of it." Zeuxis executed some figures also in clay," the only works of art that were left behind at Ambracia, when Fulvius jS'obilior'® transported the Muses from that city to Rome. There is at Ptome a Helena by Zeuxis, in the Porticos of Philippus,  and a Marsyas Bound, in the Temple of Concordia there.  (Translated by John Bostock,M.D.,F.R.S., and H.T.. Riley,Cambridge)

LXXXX autem olympiade fuere Aglaophon, Cephisodorus, Erillus, Euenor, pater Parrhasii et praeceptor maximi pictoris, de quo suis annis dicemus, omnes iam inlustres, non tamen in quibus haerere expositio debeat festinans ad lumina artis, in quibus primus refulsit Apollodorus Atheniensis LXXXXIII olympiade. hic primus species exprimere instituit primusque gloriam penicillo iure contulit. eius est sacerdos adorans et Aiax fulmine incensus, quae Pergami spectatur hodie. neque ante eum tabula ullius ostenditur, quae teneat oculos.
Ab hoc artis fores apertas Zeuxis Heracleotes intravit olympiadis LXXXXV anno quarto, audentemque iam aliquid penicillum — de hoc enim adhuc loquamur — ad magnam gloriam perduxit, a quibusdam falso in LXXXVIIII olympiade positus, cum fuisse necesse est Demophilum Himeraeum et Nesea Thasium, quoniam utrius eorum discipulus fuerit ambigitur.
in eum Apollodorus supra scriptus versum fecit, artem ipsis ablatam Zeuxim ferre secum. opes quoque tantas adquisivit, ut in ostentatione earum Olympiae aureis litteris in palliorum tesseris intextum nomen suum ostentaret. postea donare opera sua instituit, quod nullo pretio satis digno permutari posse diceret, sicuti Alcmenam Agragantinis, Pana Archelao.

fecit et Penelopen, in qua pinxisse mores videtur, et athletam adeoque in illo sibi placuit, ut versum subscriberet celebrem ex eo, invisurum aliquem facilius quam imitaturum. magnificus est et Iuppiter eius in throno adstantibus diis et Hercules infans dracones II strangulans Alcmena matre coram pavente et Amphitryone.

reprehenditur tamen ceu grandior in capitibus articulisque, alioqui tantus diligentia, ut Agragantinis facturus tabulam, quam in templo Iunonis Laciniae publice dicarent, inspexerit virgines eorum nudas et quinque elegerit, ut quod in quaque laudatissimum esset pictura redderet. pinxit et monochromata ex albo. aequales eius et aemuli fuere Timanthes, Androcydes, Eupompus, Parrhasius.

descendisse hic in certamen cum Zeuxide traditur et, cum ille detulisset uvas pictas tanto successu, ut in scaenam aves advolarent, ipse detulisse linteum pictum ita veritate repraesentata, ut Zeuxis alitum iudicio tumens flagitaret tandem remoto linteo ostendi picturam atque intellecto errore concederet palmam ingenuo pudore, quoniam ipse volucres fefellisset, Parrhasius autem se artificem.

fertur et postea Zeuxis pinxisse puerum uvas ferentem, ad quas cum advolassent aves, eadem ingenuitate processit iratus operi et dixit: uvas melius pinxi quam puerum, nam si et hoc consumassem, aves timere debuerant. fecit et figlina opera, quae sola in Ambracia relicta sunt, cum inde Musas Fulvius Nobilior Romam transferret. Zeuxidis manu Romae Helena est in Philippi porticibus, et in Concordiae delubro Marsyas religatus.

As I said above, the anecdote, well known since Antiquity itself is remembered, for example, by the great humanist Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), who devoted himself as a good humanist all the arts and knowledge of the most varied disciplines and was the first theorist of art. He wrote the treatise De pictura, On painting, first in Latin and then he translated it into Italian. I also offer in Spanish what he says in Book III, chapter 56 about the story of Zeuxis and the question of imitating or not to paint nature.

In order not to waste his study and care the painter should avoid the custom of some simpletons. Presumptuous of their own intellect and without any example from nature to follow with their eyes or minds, they study by themselves to acquire fame in painting. They do not learn how to paint well, but become accustomed to their own errors. This idea of beauty, [8] which the well trained barely discern, flees from the intellect of the inexpert.
In order to make a painting which the citizens placed in the temple of Lucina near Croton, Zeuxis, the most excellent most skilled painter of all, did not rely rashly on his own skills as every painter does today. He thought that he would not be able to find so much beauty as he was looking for in a single body, since it was not given to a single one by nature. He chose, therefore, the five most beautiful young girls from the youth of that land in order to draw from them whatever beauty is praised in a woman.

[9] He was a wise painter. Frequently when there is no example from nature which they can follow, painters attempt to acquire by their own skill a reputation for beauty. Here it easily happens that the beauty which they search is never found even with much work. But they do acquire bad practices which, even when they wish, they will never be able to leave. [10] He who dares take everything he fashions from nature will make his hand so skilled that whatever he does will always appear to be drawn from nature.

The following demonstrates what the painter should seek out in nature. Where the face of some well known and worthy man is put in the istoria –even though there are other figures of a much more perfect art and more pleasing than this one– [p. 93] that well known face will draw to itself first of all the eyes of one who looks at theistoria . So great is the force of anything drawn from nature. For this reason always take from nature that which you wish to paint, and always choose the most beautiful.  (http://www.noteaccess.com/Texts/Alberti/Intro1.htm  Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting. [First appeared 1435-36] Translated with Introduction and Notes by John R. Spencer. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1970 [First printed 1956]).

56. Sed quo sit studium non futile et cassum, fugienda est illa consuetudo nonnullorum qui suopte ingenio ad picturae laudem contendunt, nullam naturalem faciem eius rei oculis aut mente coram sequentes. Hi enim non recte pingere discount sed erroribus assuefiunt. Fugit enim imperitos ea pulchritudinis idea quam peritissimi vix discernunt. Zeuxis, praestantissimus et omnium doctissimus et peritissimus pictor, facturus tabulam quam in tempio Lucinae apud Crotoniates publice dicaret, non suo confisus ingenio temere, ut fere omnes hac aetate pictores, ad pingendum accessit, sed quod putabat omnia quae ad venustatem quaereret, ea non modo proprio ingenio non posse, sed ne a natura quidem petita uno posse in corpore reperiri, idcirco ex omni eius urbis iuventute delegit virgines quinque forma praestantiores, ut quod in quaque esset formae muliebris laudatissimum, id in pictura referret. Prudenter is quidem, nam pictoribus nullo proposito exemplari quod imitentur, ubi ingenio tantum pulchritudinis laudes captare enituntur, facile evenit ut eo labore non quam debent aut quaerunt pulchritudinem assequantur, sed plane in malos, quos vel volentes vix possunt dimittere, pingendi usus dilabantur. Qui vero ab ipsa natura omnia suscipere consueverit, is manum ita exercitatam reddet ut semper quicquid conetur naturam ipsam sapiat.  Quae res in picturis quam sit optanda videmus, nam in historia si adsit facies cogniti alicuius hominis, tametsi aliae nonnullae praestantioris artificii emineant, cognitus tamen vultus omnium spectantium oculos ad se rapit, tantam in se, quod sit a natura sumptum, et gratiam et vim habet. Ergo semper quae picturi sumus, ea a natura sumamus, semperque ex his quaeque pulcherrima et dignissima deligamus.

III, 56. Ma per non perdere studio e fatica si vuole fuggire quella consuetudine d'alcuni sciocchi, i quali presuntuosi di suo ingegno, senza avere essemplo alcuno dalla natura quale con occhi o mente seguano, studiano da sé a sé acquistare lode di dipignere. Questi non imparano ipignere bene, ma assuefanno sé a' suoi errori. Fugge gl'ingegni non periti quella idea delle bellezze, quale i bene essercitatissimi appena discernono. Zeusis, prestantissimo e fra gli altri essercitatissimo pittore, per fare una tavola qual pubblico pose nel tempio di Lucina appresso de' Crotoniati, non fidandosi pazzamente, quanto oggi ciascuno pittore, del suo ingegno, ma perché pensava non potere in uno solo corpo trovare quante bellezze egli ricercava, perché dalla natura non erano ad uno solo date, pertanto di tutta la gioventù di quella terra elesse cinque fanciulle le più belle, per torre da queste qualunque bellezza lodata in una femmina. Savio pittore, se conobbe che ad i pittori, ove loro sia niuno essemplo della natura quale elli seguitino, ma pure vogliono con suoi ingegni giugnere le lode della bellezza, ivi facile loro avverrà che non quale cercano bellezza con tanta fática troveranno, ma certo piglieranno sue pratiche non buone, quali poi ben volendo mai potranno lassare. Ma chi da essa natura s'auserà prendere qualunque facci cosa, costui renderà sua mano sì essercitata che sempre qualunque cosa farà parrà tratta dal naturale. Qual cosa quanto sia dal pittore a ricercarla si può intendere, ove poi che in una storia sarà uno viso di qualche conosciuto e degno uomo, bene che ivi sieno altre figure di arte molto più che questa perfette e grate, pure quel viso conosciuto a sé imprima trarrà tutti gli occhi di chi la storia raguardi: tanto si vede in sé tiene forza ciò che sia ritratto dalla natura. Per questo sempre ciò che vorremo dipignere piglieremo dalla natura, e sempre torremo le cose più belle.

Little later the great Raphael (1483 -1520), also known as Raphael Sanzio or Raphael of Urbino, says in a letter to Baldassare Castiglione, who feels admired by painting "Triumph of Galatea":

IV. Letter to Castiglione

On the Galatea, I think a great teacher if I did half the things so great that Your Lordship writes me. But I recognize in your  words your love for me and I tell you that to paint a beautiful one, I should need to see many beautiful ones, with this condition, that Your Lordship will be with me to choose the best. But as there is a shortage of good judges and of lovely ladies, I use a certain idea that which comes into my mind. Wheter  it has in it self any excellent art, I do not know. But I do strive to it have it. To which send Your Lordship. From Rome ".

IV. Lettera al Castiglione

Signor conte….Della Galatea mi terrei un gran maestro se vi fossero la metà delle tante cose che V.S. mi scrive. Ma nelle sue parole riconosco l´amore che mi porta: et le dico che per dipingere una bella mi bisogneria veder più belle, con questa conditione, che V.S. si trovasse meco a far scelta del meglio», Ma, essendo carestia e di buoni giudici e di belle donne, io mi servo di certa idea che mi viene nella mente. Se questa ha in sé alcuna eccellenza d'arte, io non so; ben m'affatico di averla. Vostra Signoria mi comandi. Di Roma.

Francisco Pacheco knows this opinion of Raphael Sanzio. Pacheco is the teacher and father in law of Velazquez, and he says in his “Arte de la pintura”, (The art of painting), book I, chap 12:

And if this should fail, or it is not caught with the beauty that should, or by discomfort of place or of time, it is admirably take advantage from  the beautiful ideas that the brave architect has acquired. As Raphael of Urbino gave to understand writing to Baltasar Conde Castellon, who urged much the figure of Galatea which he had frescoed. Saying this way:  Ma essendo carestia, e de buoni giudecij et de belle dome, io mi servo di certa iddea, che mi viene nellamente ; si questa ha in se alcuna escellenza d'arte, io non so : ben me affatico di haberla. It means: But as there is a shortage of good judges and of lovely ladies, I use a certain idea that which comes into my mind. Wheter  it has in it self any excellent art, I do not know. But I do strive to it have it, so that perfection is to move from ideas to nature, and from nature to the ideas: always looking for the best and safest and perfect. So Leonardo de Vinci, a man of very subtle wit,  teacher of Raphael,  did it so, tending to follow the ancients; who, before putting himself first to invent any story, investigated  all proper and natural effects of any figure, according to his idea. And made then many scratches, then went where people, similar whom he would paint, were gathered; and watched the way of their faces and clothes and body movements and when he found things that please him, according to his attempt, he drew on the libretto he always carried (we will see below his words under this attempt) and thus he ended his works beautifully. This is finally what should be done in this last stage, with the example of the old Zeusis, who for the beautiful Helena whom the people of Agrigentum offered him to paint, he chose five beautiful maidens and from each of them he was choosing the most perfect to make an equally ended figure, outstripping the art to nature: because  he painted in a fellow  the beauty that just was in many.

Y cuando esto faltare , ó no se hallare con la belleza que conviene, ó por incomodidad de lugar ó de tiempo, viene admirablemente el valerse de las hermosas ideas que tiene adquiridas el valiente artífice. Como lo dió á entender Rafael de Urbino escribiendo al Conde Baltasar Castellón, que le encareció mucho la figura de la Galatea que había pintado al fresco. Diciendo de esta manera : Ma essendo carestia, e de buoni giudecij et de belle dome, io mi servo di certa iddea, che mi viene nellamente ; si questa ha in se alcuna escellenza d'arte, io non so : ben me affatico di haberla. Quiere decir : « Mas careciendo de buen juicio y de hermosas mujeres , yo me sirvo de cierta idea que se me ofrece á la imaginación ; si esta tiene alguna excelencia en el arte , no lo sé ; pero bien me fatigo para alcanzarla, de manera que la perfección consiste en pasar de las ideas á lo natural , y de lo natural á las ideas : buscando siempre lo mejor y más seguro y perfecto. Así lo hacía también su maestro del mismo Rafael, Leonardo de Vinci, varón de sutilísimo ingenio , atendiendo á seguir los antiguos ; el cual primero que se pusiese á inventar cualquier historia, investigaba todos los efectos propios y naturales de cualquier figura , conforme á su idea. Y hacia luego diversos rasguños, después se iba donde sabia que se juntaban personas de la suerte que las había de pintar y observaba el modo de sus semblantes y vestidos y movimientos del cuerpo ; y hallando cosa que le agradase , conforme á su intento, lo dibujaba en el libreto que siempre llevaba consigo (veremos adelante sus palabras conforme a este intento ) y de esta manera acababa sus obras maravillosamente. Esto es finalmente lo que conviene hacer en este último grado, con el ejemplo del antiguo Zéusis , que para la bellísima Helena que se le ofreció pintar al pueblo de Agrigento, eligió cinco hermosas doncellas , y de cada una de ellas fue escogiendo lo más perfecto para hacer una figura igualmente acabadísima, aventajando la arte á la misma naturaleza: pues pintó en un sugeto la hermosura que apenas se hallaba en muchos.  (Arte de la pintura, book I, chap. 12, Arte de la pintura, page 216-218. Edit. 1866 by Manuel Galiano) 

Concerning the numerous pictorial representations of the story, in addition to the one presented above, I show another one, which is an illustration of a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose, edited in the year 1525 in Rouen, preserved in New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.0948, page 159.

The post Should the painting be imitation of nature, or creation of the intellect? appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Trees, plants in general, play an important role in the symbolic and religious life of all the peoples. In many cases and places they are sacred elements; and there are sacred forests where the genius or sacred power of divinity hide and sacred trees, inhabited by the gods, consecrated or identified with them. Each species is related to a deity and to a specific function. Its elements, such as leaves or , are used as symbols or simply as decorative elements. Thus, for example, crowns of various kinds are used according to their meaning.

We know how Athena, the Minerva of the Romans, gave Athens her name and tree, the olive tree. The tree of Dionysus or Bacchus, god of wine, of course must be the vine and ivy. Myrtle is this of the Venus, goddess of love.

Virgil clearly expressed it, for example, in their Bucolics,VII, 61-64:

CORYDON

“The poplar doth Alcides hold most dear,
the vine Iacchus, Phoebus his own bays,
and Venus fair the myrtle: therewithal
Phyllis doth hazels love, and while she loves,
myrtle nor bay the hazel shall out-vie.”
(J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1895.)

Populus Alcidae gratissima, uitis Iaccho,
Formosae myrtus Veneri, sua laurea Phoebo;
Phylis amat corylos; illas dum Phyllis amabit,
Nec myrtus uincet corylos, nec laurea Phoebi.

The laurel is the tree of Phoebus or Apollo, the sun god, the god of wisdom, of artistic creation, of poetry, music and divination. The laurel is the tree in which the virgin nymph Daphne, pursued by Apollo, to escape the god, was transformed.

The laurel, always green, is a tree that is therefore associated with the fire of the sun and the prophecy.

Apollo issued oracles * to men who request it. In his famous sanctuary of Delphi, forced destination for the Greek, to know the future, he issued them by a priestess or a medium, the Pithia, the Pythoness **.

* From Latin oraculum and this from orare, speak, etymologically it means message, parliament.

** At Delphi Apollo killed the  Python snake; hence the term also applies to a powerful and feared constrictor snake that kills its victims by suffocation curling environment.

It seems that the oracle was obtained from the fire, throwing bay leaves to it;  if the leaves frizzle and crackle,  this was good signal and if they did not frizzle, the signal was bad. Who obtained a good oracle, they returned home crowned with laurel. In addition laurel caused premonitory dreams.

In the Renaissance, Alciatus reminds us in his Book of Emblems,  CCX  (aliter CCXI)  the laurel knows the future and placed near produces precognitive dreams:

The laurel tree

Knowing what is to come, the laurel tree bears signs of safety: placed under a pillow, it creates dreams that come true.

Praescia venturae laurus fert signa salutis:
Subdita pulvillo somnia vera facit

In the same Book of emblems reminds us an appointment of Tibullus on the same issue:

Tibullus, Book II, 5, v. 79 et seq.

Such was the olden time. O Phoebus, now
Of mild, benignant brow,
Let those portents buried be
In the wild, unfathomed sea!
Now let thy laurel loudly flame
On altars to thy gracious name,
And give good omen of a fruitful year
Crackling laurel if the rustic hear,
He knows his granary shall bursting be,
And sweet new wine flow free,
  …. (Translated by Theodore C.Williams. Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company. The Riverside Press. Cambridge,1908)

Haec fuerant olim; sed tu iam mitis, Apollo,
prodigia indomitis merge sub aequoribu.
Et succensa sacris creepitet bene laurea flammis
Omine quo felix et sacer annus erit.
Laurus ubi bona signa dedit, gaudete coloni:
Distendet spicis horrea plena Ceres…

And another of Propertius Book. II, 28, 35

Now cease the wheels whirled to the magic chant, the altar fire is dead and the laurel lies in ashes. (Translated by H.E. Butler,M.A. The Loeb Classical Library)

The chanting of magic, the whirling bullroarers cease, and the laurel lies scorched in the quenched fires.  (Translated by A. S. Kline)

Deficiunt mágico torti sub carmine rhombi,
Et iacet extincto laurus adusta foco

And Lucretius  in his De Rerum Natura, VI, 154-155

Nor is there aught that in the crackling flame
Consumes with sound more terrible to man
Than Delphic laurel of Apollo lord.
(Transated by William Ellery Leonard, Ed.)

Nec res ulla magis quam Phoebi Delphica laurus
Terribili sonitu flamma crepitante crematur

The laurel is a symbol of glory; the palm is symbol of victory and the olive branch of peace. The leaves of various plants are used to crown the winners.

A corona is a circular leaf ornament or tree branches, flowers or herbs metal ornament that is placed around the head in recognition or memory of the special value of a person's intelligence, his art or his military merits.

In ancient Greece they will likely be used initially as a decorative element and later used in the world of athletic games (ex. Olympics) as a reward for the winners and also of poetic games. Recall that with athletic games,  poetic and literary competitions are also held.

From the world of competitive sport certainly it went  to the world of the war (from which incidentally athletic games come ) and from Greece came to Rome. Although today what really is estimated is  actually prize money,  the Crown or similar tool as a symbol of victory is still used.

As I said above, probably it came into use as merely ornamental element and soon served to crown the victors in the poetic or literary games that were developed in parallel with athletic games, of which the Olympics are the best example, but also "Pythian" in honor of Apollo and the "Isthmian" in honor of Neptune. We may even think that in the case of the Pythian games at first only artistic competitions are held, as befits the god Apollo, and eventually athletic competitions would be added as  in Olympia in honor of Zeus. And again in Olympia art competitions would be introduced, like the "Pythian".

In relation to the Pythian games and laurel we can quote a few lines from Ovid, I century before and after Christ, so far from their origin, but they are illustrative. Ovid in his poem recalls the victory of Apollo over the serpent Python.

Ovid, Metamorphoses I, 445-ff.

Lest in a dark oblivion time should hide
the fame of this achievement, sacred sports
he instituted, from the Python called
“The Pythian Games.” In these the happy youth
who proved victorious in the chariot race,
running and boxing, with an honoured crown
of oak leaves was enwreathed. The laurel then
was not created, wherefore Phoebus, bright
and godlike, beauteous with his flowing hair,
was wont to wreathe his brows with various leaves.
(Translated by Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.)

Neve operis famam posset delere vetustas,
instituit sacros celebri certamine ludos,
Pythia perdomitae serpentis nomine dictos.
Hic iuvenum quicumque manu pedibusve rotave
vicerat, aesculeae capiebat frondis honorem:
nondum laurus erat, longoque decentia crine
tempora cingebat de qualibet arbore Phoebus.

So soon they also meant the triumph of the great athletes, who conferred so much honor to their hometowns. Since the athletic games, in turn, are clearly related to the military tasks of the early Greek warrior aristocrats, it could easily bee moved the meaning of laurel to the military world and thus prove the military glory.

This meaning is especially developed among the Romans, who were almost always at war throughout his history. With laurel the undefeated generals and emperors are crowned, and the victorious weapons are adorned with laurel, such as spears, bows of ships or letters and tablets which brought news of victory. So Roman generals at the ceremony of victory, who also in their hands carry a branch of laurel, and the lictors and soldiers parading in the procession.

Even a small digression, I will comment that the Romans greatly developed the typology of the crowns as symbols of very specific functions; on another occasion I will comment in more detail. Suffice now a hasty catalog of crowns: obsidionalis (for breaking the siege of a city), civica (for saving the life of a Roman citizen), navalis (for being the first in the collision or by a naval victory) muralis ( for being the first to climb a wall), castrensis (for going into the enemy camp), triumphalis (the triumph is the greatest reward the General winner), etc. There are also the convivalis (of the banquet), the funebris (it needs no explanation), the nuptialis (for wedding), the natalitia (for birth: of olive if a boy, of wool if a girl), etc.

Going back to early Greece, Pindar (518? -438 BC), for example, tells us how the winner is crowned with olive leaf crowns on the occasion of the chariot race of the year 452 B.C. . In Olympic IV, 11ff, dedicated to his friend Psaumis of Camarina:

For the procession comes in honor of Psaumis' chariot; Psaumis, who, crowned with the olive of Pisa, hurries to rouse glory for Camarina. (Translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990.)

And Pliny, who described the various types of laurel reminds us how properly the laurel is the decorative element, in Natural History, XV, 39 (127):

The laurel is especially consecrated to triumphs, is remarkably ornamental to houses, and guards the portals of our emperors and our pontiffs: there suspended alone, it graces the palace, and is ever on guard before the threshold. Cato speaks of two varieties of this tree, the Delphic and the Cyprian. Pompeius Lenæus has added another, to which he has given the name of "mustax," from the circumstance of its being used for putting under the cake known by the name of "mustaceum." He says that this variety has a very large leaf, flaccid, and of a whitish hue; that the Delphic laurel is of one uniform colour, greener than the other, with berries of very large size, and of a red tint approaching to green. He says, too, that it is with this laurel that the victors at Delphi are crowned, and warriors who enjoy the honours of a triumph at Rome. The Cyprian laurel, he says, has a short leaf, is of a blackish colour, with an imbricated edge, and crisped. (John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed)

Laurus triumphis proprie dicatur, vel gratissima domibus, ianitrix Caesarum pontificumque. sola et domos exornat et ante limina excubat .  duo eius genera tradidit Cato, Delphicam et Cypriam. Pompeius Lenaeus adiecit quam mustacem appellavit, quoniam mustaceis subiceretur: hanc esse folio maximo flaccidoque et albicante; Delphicam aequali colore viridiorem, maximis bacis atque e viridi rubentibus ac victores Delphis coronare ut triumphantes Romae; Cypriam esse folio brevi, nigro, per margines imbricato crispam.

Virgil remembers how the sailors placed wreaths of flowers  (and laurel in the prows of boats in victory and peace, in his Georgics, I, 303-304:

As laden keels, when now the port they touch,
And happy sailors crown the sterns with flowers.
(Translated by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900.)

Ceu pressae cum iam portum tetigere carinae,
Puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas

Pliny also reminds us it in  Natural History XV, 40 (133):

This tree is emblematical of peace: when a branch of it is extended, it is to denote a truce between enemies in arms. For the Romans more particulary it is the messenger of joyful tidings, and of victory: it accompanies the despatches of the general, and it decorates the lances and javelins of the soldiers and the fasces which precede their chief.  (Translated by John Bostock, M.D.,F.R.S. and H.T. Riley, Esq. B.A. 1855)

Ipsa pacifera, ut quam praetendi etiam inter armatos hostes quietis sit indicium. Romanis praecipue laetitiae victoriarumque nuntia additur litteris et militum lanceis pilisque, fasces imperatorum decorat.

Saint Isidore also considered the laurel as a symbol of glory and victory. In his Etymologies XVII, 7.2 he derives its name from the word laus (praise), and explains why it crowns the head of the winners:

"Laurel" (Laurus) is so called from the word laudis (praise). The heads of the victors were crowned with praise with this tree.  Among the ancients it was called laudea; then the letter D was abolished and replaced by R and it was called laurus, just like auriculis (ears) which was at first pronounced audiculae and medidies (midday) which is now pronounced meridies. The Greeks call this tree  δάφνη (Dafne) δαφνην  because it never loses its verdure; and for this reason the winners are crowned with him. The common people believe that this is the only tree that can not be struck by lightning.

Laurus a verbo laudis dicta; hac enim cum laudibus victorum capita coronabantur. Apud antiquos autem laudea nominabatur; postea D littera sublata et subrogata R dicta est laurus; ut in auriculis, quae initio audiculae dictae sunt, et medidies, quae nunc meridies dicitur. Hanc arborem Graeci  δάφνην (dafnen)  vocant, quod numquam deponat viriditatem; inde illa potius victores coronantur. Sola quoque haec arbor vulgo fulminari minime creditur.

Apollo, whose tree is the laurel, is the patron god of poetry, of music and of the arts in general. Its perennial verdure is the best symbol of the enduring value of poetry and art. A greater specialization seems to require the laurel for epic poetry which sings  the victorious heroes and the myrtle for lyric  and pastoral poetry:

Virgil, Bucolic: VIII 11-13:

Take thou these songs that owe their birth to thee,
and deign around thy temples to let creep
this ivy-chaplet 'twixt the conquering bays.
(Translated by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1895.)

…accipe iussis
Carmina coepta tuis, atque hanc sine tempora circum
Inter uictrices hederam tibi serpere laurus.

This symbolic value of the literary glory survived in the Middle Ages, it gained new importance in the Renaissance and endures today.

Mostly it has been used, appropriated, translated, recreated the famous fable or myth of Apollo and Daphne. Daphne δάφνη is precisely the Greek name for the laurel. The myth was divulged by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, I, 452 et ff.:

Apollo, proud of their victory over the serpent Python, mocked Cupid, who being  a child used arms of an adult; Cupid took revenge wounding him with a golden arrow and inflaming his heart with an irresistible love for the nymph Daphne while he  wounded her with an arrow of lead, which generated disgust and rejection.The supplications  of Apollo were useless , and they did not soften the heart of the nymph; Apollo, desperate chases her through the woods and he is about to reach her  when Dafne implores the help of his father, Peneus River, who turns her into laurel; Apollo desperate and tearful embraces the tree, which made its emblem and its tree. And the laurel is also the symbol of unrequited and unhappy love.

Well, no Medieval or Renaissance literary or Baroque author who does not remember, imitate or reproduce this myth.

I will comment on a curious question. Often in the literature, with an epic or lyrical character appears a comic element that downplays the grandeur of earlier. Thiat happens with laurel: given its culinary value to flavor stews and cooked, it is not uncommon in the Baroque Literature of contrasts appear burlesque versions of the value of laurel.

An example is the famous Spanish playwright and poet Lope de Vega, who under the name of his heterónimo Tomé Burguillos, is the author of this great sonnet which ridicules the desire of poets to receive laurels and awards. I offer only Spanish text without translation to avoid damaging the poem:

Llevóme Febo a su Parnaso un día,
y vi por el cristal de unos canceles
a Homero y a Virgilio con doseles,
leyendo filosófica poesía
Vi luego la importuna infantería
de poetas fantásticos noveles,
pidiendo por principios más laureles
que anima Dafne y que Apolo cría.
Pedile yo también por estudiante,
y díjome un bedel: “Burguillos, quedo:
que no sois digno de laurel triunfante”
“¿Por qué?”, le dije; y respondió sin miedo:
“Porque los lleva todos un tratante
para hacer escabeches en Laredo.”

This comic contrast between the two functions of laurel, the sublime to crown the head of the poets and this of the prosaic culinary seasoning, remains a continuing reflection today. For example, the writer, journalist and Spanish writer Manuel Vicent reminds us in his article in the newspaper El País of 22 July 2001 "Glory":

.. So they you want you, dedicated to the verses in the horatian village, between chickens and lettuce, you contemplating the twilight and they filling the sack. The laurel  has two destinations: the head of the hero or the stew. Maybe one day you were a rebel: it was that day when you were willing to die for no bend yourself. That is the moment of glory that belongs to you.

But Laurel does not exhaust its virtuality in this symbolic work; its branches also serve as a shield against lightning, which increases the idea of symbol of immortality. Pliny tells us how Tiberius crowned himself with bay when there was a storm:

Naturalis Historia, book XV,  40 (134-135):

Another reason, too, may be the fact, that of all the shrubs that are planted and received in our houses, this is the only one that is never struck by lightning…. It is said that when it thundered, the Emperor Tiberius was in the habit of putting on a wreath of laurel to allay his apprehensions of disastrous effects from the lightning.

et quia manu satarum receptarumque in domos fulmine sola non icitur. ..Ti. principem tonante caelo coronari ea solitum ferunt contra fulminum metus.

Saint Isidore picked up the belief in his Etymologies (XVII, 7, 1), as we saw above:

The common people believe that this is the only tree that can’t  be struck by lightning.

Sola quoque haec arbor vulgo fulminari minime creditur.

Even today in some towns, they are placed on the balconies branches of laurel to ward off the danger of lightning.

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) had very easy to pun on the name of his immortal beloved, Laura, "Laurel" in many poems of his Songbook; so, Song XXIX:

She is a star on earth, and she keeps
her chastity as laurel stays green,
so no lightning strikes her, no shameful breeze
can ever force her.
(Translated by: A.S.Kline)

ch'è stella in terra, et come in lauro foglia
conserva verde il pregio d'onestade,
ove non spira folgore, né indegno
vento mai che l'aggrave.

and in song CXXIX

where the breeze is fragrant
with fresh and perfumed laurel.
(Translated by: A.S.Kline)

ove l'aura si sente
d'un fresco et odorifero laureto.

Also the laurel is a common element in the ideals gardens (locus amoenus) ideal scene, despite the redundancy, for love. So  Petronius does it in his Satyricon , chap. CXXXI,8,

Shorn of its top, the swaying pine here casts a
summer shade
And quivering cypress, and the stately plane
And berry-laden laurel. A brook's wimpling waters strayed
Lashed into foam, but dancing on again
And rolling pebbles in their chattering flow.
It was Love's own nook,
(Translation by W. C. Firebaugh)

Mobilis aestiuas platanus diffuderat umbras
et bacis redimita Daphne tremulaeque cupressus
et circum tonsae trepidanti uertice pinus.
Has inter ludebat aquis errantibus amnis
spumeus, et querulo uexabat rore lapillos.
Dignus amore locus …

And even occasionally it may appear in funeral environments, recalling the perennial glory of the deceased.

Finally, only the olive tree can compete in the ancient world in symbolic value with laurel.

So the meaning of laurel as a symbol of artistic and military triumph was preserved throughout the Middle Ages and of course in the Renaissance, where it can also be a symbol of triumph in love, given the similarities with these the poets present the two battles, war and love, and in Baroque periods and so to this day. Appointments are innumerable. And even a piece remains of its  magic value in the custom of placing branches on the balconies, custom now generally Christianized by putting olive branches in Palm Sunday.

I will transcribe as an example of the emblem of Alciato cited above aimed at Charles V for his campaign in Tunisia and two quotes from Cervantes in Don Quixote with evident ironic tone:

Alciato's Book of Emblems
Emblem 211

The laurel tree is owed to Charles for his victory over the Poeni:
may such garlands adorn victorious heads.

Debetur Carolo superatis Laurea Poenis:
  Victrices ornent talia serta comas.

Don Quixote (II, 18):  

When Don Lorenzo had finished reciting his gloss, Don Quixote stood up, and in a loud voice, almost a shout, exclaimed as he grasped Don Lorenzo's right hand in his, "By the highest heavens, noble youth, but you are the best poet on earth, and deserve to be crowned with laurel, not by Cyprus or by Gaeta—as a certain poet, God forgive him, said—but by the Academies of Athens, if they still flourished, and by those that flourish now, Paris, Bologna, Salamanca. Heaven grant that the judges who rob you of the first prize—that Phoebus may pierce them with his arrows, and the Muses never cross the thresholds of their doors. Repeat me some of your long-measure verses, senor, if you will be so good, for I want thoroughly to feel the pulse of your rare genius." (Translated by John Ormsby)

Don Quixote (II, 55):

(aimed for his donkey)

! O comrade and friend, how ill have I repaid thy faithful services! Forgive me, and entreat Fortune, as well as thou canst, to deliver us out of this miserable strait we are both in; and I promise to put a crown of laurel on thy head, and make thee look like a poet laureate, and give thee double feeds."

Etymological note: “laureate”, of course,  means crowned with laurel. Who perform  secondary education are the laureates with the bacca, which according to the dictionary of the Royal Academy is the fruit or berry laurel; they  are bacca laureati, ie "bachelors" (word derived from "Baccalaureatus").

I then offer a long quotation from Pliny, at the end of Book XV on the bay, their classes, their symbolism and wonders. This gives us an idea of the importance that the laurel was in the ancient world and detail with which it is studied.

Pliny, Natural History, 39-40
39. (30.)—The laurel; thirteen varieties of it.

The laurel is especially consecrated to triumphs, is remarkably ornamental to houses, and guards the portals of our emperors and our pontiffs: there suspended alone, it graces the palace, and is ever on guard before the threshold. Cato speaks of two varieties of this tree, the Delphic and the Cyprian. Pompeius Lenæus has added another, to which he has given the name of "mustax," from the circumstance of its being used for putting under the cake known by the name of "mustaceum." He says that this variety has a very large leaf, flaccid, and of a whitish hue; that the Delphic laurel is of one uniform colour, greener than the other, with berries of very large size, and of a red tint approaching to green. He says, too, that it is with this laurel that the victors at Delphi are crowned, and warriors who enjoy the honours of a triumph at Rome. The Cyprian laurel, he says, has a short leaf, is of a blackish colour, with an imbricated edge, and crisped.
Since his time, however, the varieties have considerably augmented. There is the tinus for instance, by some considered as a species of wild laurel, while others, again, regard it as a tree of a separate class; indeed, it does differ from the laurel as to the colour, the berry being of an azure blue. The royal laurel, too, has since been added, which has of late begun to be known as the "Augustan:" both the tree, as well as the leaf, are of remarkable size, and the berries have not the usual rough taste. Some say, however, that the royal laurel and the Augustan are not the same tree, and make out the former to be a peculiar kind, with a leaf both longer and broader than that of the Augustan. The same authors, also, make a peculiar species of the bacalia the commonest laurel of all, and the one that bears the greatest number of berries. With them, too, the barren laurel is the laurel of the triumphs, and they say that this is the one that is used by warriors when enjoying a triumph—a thing that surprises me very much; unless, indeed, the use of it was first introduced by the late Emperor Augustus, and it is to be considered as the progeny of that laurel, which, as we shall just now have occasion to mention, was sent to him from heaven; it being the smallest of them all, with a crisped short leaf; and very rarely to be met with.
In ornamental gardening we also find the taxa employed, with a small leaf sprouting from the middle of the leaf, and forming a fringe, as it were, hanging from it; the spadonia, too, without this fringe, a tree that thrives remarkably well in the shade: indeed, however dense the shade may be, it will soon cover the spot with its shoots. There is the chamædaphne, also, a shrub that grows wild; the Alexandrian laurel, by some known as the Idean, by others as the "hypoglottion," by others as the "carpophyllon," and by others, again, as the "hypelates." From the root it throws out branches three quarters of a foot in length; it is much used in ornamental gardening, and for making wreaths, and it has a more pointed leaf than that of the myrtle, and superior to it in softness, whiteness, and size: the seed, which lies between the leaves, is red. This last kind grows in great abundance on Mount Ida and in the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus: it is only found, however, in mountainous districts.
The laurel, too, known as the daphnoides, is a variety that has received many different names: by some it is called the Pelasgian laurel, by others the euthalon, and by others the stephanon Alexandri. This is also a branchy shrub, with a thicker and softer leaf than that of the ordinary laurel: if tasted, it leaves a burning sensation in the mouth and throat: the berries are red, inclining to black. The ancient writers have remarked, that in their time there was no species of laurel in the island of Corsica. Since then, however, it has been planted there, and has thrived well.

40.—Historical anecdotes connected with the laurel.

This tree is emblematical of peace: when a branch of it is extended, it is to denote a truce between enemies in arms. For the Romans more particularly it is the messenger of joyful tidings, and of victory: it accompanies the despatches of the general, and it decorates the lances and javelins of the soldiers and the fasces which precede their chief. It is of this tree that branches are deposited on the lap of Jupiter All-good and All-great, so often as some new victory has imparted uni- versal gladness. This is done, not because it is always green, nor yet because it is an emblem of peace—for in both of those respects the olive would take the precedence of it—but because it is the most beauteous tree on Mount Parnassus, and was pleasing for its gracefulness to Apollo even; a deity to whom the kings of Rome sent offerings at an early period, as we learn from the case of L. Brutus. Perhaps, too, honour is more particularly paid to this tree because it was there that Brutus earned the glory of asserting his country's liberties, when, by the direction of the oracle, he kissed that laurel-bearing soil. *

(Note *: He alludes to the circumstance of the priestess being asked who should reign at Rome after Tarquin; upon which she answered, "He who first kisses his mother;" on which Brutus, the supposed idiot, stumbled to the ground, and kissed the earth, the mother of all.)

Another reason, too, may be the fact, that of all the shrubs that are planted and received in our houses, this is the only one that is never struck by lightning. It is for these reasons, in my opinion, that the post of honour has been awarded to the laurel more particularly in triumphs, and not, as Massurius says, because it was used for the purposes of fumigation and purification from the blood of the enemy.

In addition to the above particulars, it is not permitted to defile the laurel and the olive by applying them to profane uses; so much so, indeed, that, not even for the propitiation of the divinities, should a fire be lighted with them at either altar or shrine. Indeed, it is very evident that the laurel protests against such usage by crackling as it does in the fire, thus, in a manner, giving expresssion to its abhorrence of such treatment. The wood of this tree when eaten is good as a specific for internal maladies and affections of the sinews.
It is said that when it thundered, the Emperor Tiberius was in the habit of putting on a wreath of laurel to allay his apprehensions of disastrous effects from the lightning. There are also some remarkable facts connected with the laurel in the history of the late Emperor Augustus: once while Livia Drusilla, who afterwards on her marriage with the Emperor assumed the name of Augusta, at the time that she was affianced to him, was seated, there fell into her lap a hen of remarkable whiteness, which an eagle let fall from aloft without its receiving the slightest injury: on Livia viewing it without any symptoms of alarm, it was discovered that miracle was added to miracle, and that it held in its beak a branch of laurel covered with berries. The aruspices gave orders that the hen and her progeny should be carefully preserved, and the branch planted and tended with religious care. This was accordingly done at the country-house belonging to the Cæsars, on the Flaminian Way, near the banks of the Tiber, eight miles from the City; from which circumstance that road has since received the title "Ad gallinas." From the branch there has now arisen, wondrous to relate, quite a grove: and Augustus Cæsar afterwards, when celebrating a triumph, held a branch of it in his hand and wore a wreath of this laurel on his head; since which time all the succeeding emperors have followed his example. Hence, too, has originated the custom of planting the branches which they have held on these occasions, and we thus see groves of laurel still existing which owe their respective names to this circumstance. It was on the above occasion, too, that not improbably a change was effected in the usual laurel of the triumph. The laurel is the only one among the trees that in the Latin language has given an appellation to a man, and it is the only one the leaf of which has a distinct name of its own,—it being known by the name of "laurea." The name of this tree is still retained by one place in the city of Rome, for we find a spot on the Aventine Mount still known by the name of "Loretum," where formerly a laurel-grove existed. The laurel is employed in purifications, and we may here mention, incidentally, that it will grow from slips—though Democritus and Theophrastus have expressed their doubts as to that fact.We shall now proceed to speak of the forest trees.  (Translated by  John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855).

Naturalis Historia, XV, 39-40

Laurus triumphis proprie dicatur, vel gratissima domibus, ianitrix Caesarum pontificumque. sola et domos exornat et ante limina excubat. duo eius genera tradidit Cato, Delphicam et Cypriam. Pompeius Lenaeus adiecit quam mustacem appellavit, quoniam mustaceis subiceretur: hanc esse folio maximo flaccidoque et albicante; Delphicam aequali colore viridiorem, maximis bacis atque e viridi rubentibus ac victores Delphis coronare ut triumphantes Romae; Cypriam esse folio brevi, nigro, per margines imbricato crispam.  postea accessere genera: tinus — hanc silvestrem laurum aliqui intellegunt, nonnulli sui generis arborem — differt colore; est enim caerulea baca. accessit et regia, quae coepit Augusta appellari, amplissima et arbore et folio, bacis gustatu quoque non asperis. aliqui negant eandem esse et suum genus regiae faciunt longioribus foliis latioribusque.

iidem in alio genere bacaliam appellant hanc quae vulgatissima est bacarumque fertilissima, sterilem vero earum, quod maxime miror, triumphalem eaque dicunt triumphantes uti, nisi id a Divo Augusto coepit, ut docebimus, ex ea lauru quae ei missa e caelo est, minima altitudine, folio crispo, brevi, inventu rara. accedit in topiario opere Thasia, excrescente in medio folio parvola veluti lacinia folii, et sine ea spadonina, mira opacitatis patientia, itaque quantalibeat sub umbra solum implet.  est et chamaedaphne silvestris frutex et Alexandrina, quam aliqui Idaeam, alii hypoglottion, alii danaen, alii carpophyllon, alii hypelaten vocant. ramos spargit a radice dodrantales, coronarii operis, folio acutiore quam myrti ac molliore et candidiore, maiore, semine inter folia rubro, plurima in Ida et circa Heracleam Ponti, nec nisi in montuosis. id quoque quod daphnoides vocatur genus in nominum ambitu est; alii enim Pelasgum, alii eupetalon, alii stephanon Alexandri vocant. et hic frutex est ramosus, crassiore ac molliore quam laurus folio, cuius gustatu accendatur os, bacis e nigro rufis. notatum antiquis, nullum genus laurus in Corsica fuisse, quod nunc satum et ibi provenit.

40
Ipsa pacifera, ut quam praetendi etiam inter armatos hostes quietis sit indicium. Romanis praecipue laetitiae victoriarumque nuntia additur litteris et militum lanceis pilisque, fasces imperatorum decorat.  ex iis in gremio Iovis optimi maximique deponitur, quotiens laetitiam nova victoria adtulit, idque non quia perpetuo viret nec quia pacifera est, praeferenda ei utroque olea, sed quia spectatissima in monte Parnaso ideoque etiam grata Apollini visa, adsuetis eo dona mittere, oracula inde repetere iam et regibus Romanis teste L. Bruto, fortassis etiam in argumentum, quoniam ibi libertatem publicam is meruisset lauriferam tellurem illam osculatus ex responso et quia manu satarum receptarumque in domos fulmine sola non icitur.  ob has causas equidem crediderim honorem ei habitum in triumphis potius quam quia suffimentum sit caedis hostium et purgatio, ut tradit Masurius, adeoque in profanis usibus pollui laurum et oleam fas non est, ut ne propitiandis quidem numinibus accendi ex iis altaria araeve debeant. laurus quidem manifesto abdicat ignes crepitu et quadam detestatione, interna eorum etiam vitia et nervorum ligno torquente. Ti. principem tonante caelo coronari ea solitum ferunt contra fulminum metus.

Sunt et circa Divum Augustum eventa eius digna memoratu. namque Liviae Drusillae, quae postea Augusta matrimonii nomen accepit, cum pacta esset illa Caesari, gallinam conspicui candoris sedenti aquila ex alto abiecit in gremium inlaesam, intrepideque miranti accessit miraculum. quoniam teneret in rostro laureum ramum onustum suis bacis, conservari alitem et subolem iussere haruspices ramumque eum seri ac rite custodiri: quod factum est in villa Caesarum fluvio Tiberi inposita iuxta nonum lapidem Flaminiae viae, quae ob id vocatur Ad Gallinas, mireque silva provenit. ex ea triumphans postea Caesar laurum in manu tenuit coronamque capite gessit, ac deinde imperatores Caesares cuncti. traditusque mos est ramos quos tenuerunt serendi, et durant silvae nominibus suis discretae, fortassis ideo mutatis triumphalibus.  unius arborum Latina lingua nomen inponitur viris, unius folia distinguntur appellatione; lauream enim vocamus. durat et in urbe inpositum loco, quando Loretum in Aventino vocatur ubi silva laurus fuit. eadem purificationibus adhibetur, testatumque sit obiter et ramo eam seri, quoniam dubitavere Democritus atque Theophrastus.

Nunc dicemus silvestrium naturas.

The post Crowned with laurel appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

In this culture the water, which was profusely used, was fundamental. So as necessary was than  sometimes the Romans transported it from springs at tens of kilometers through aqueducts and pipelines that continue to cause us a deep impression.

In the built city there are several essential elements: the square or forum, temples, civil administration buildings as the Basilica, and of course, the baht, spa or  “thermae”, sportive  and cultural complex where added to several pools to satisfy the desire of citizen pleasure there is also a gymnasium where the citizens train and keep the body fit.

Note: “thermae” meants “warm baths”, from Greek θερμός , thermos = warm, name that also we apply to the cooking vessel that keeps hot the food, especially the drinks.

In all of this, the Greek experience, which took several centuries ahead to initially rough Roman,  was fundamental. The Roman architect Vitruvius widely discussed in his De Architectura the conditions of urban buildings of the city in his book V especially.

Curious note: "gym-nasium," is originally a Greek word gymnasion, assigned to the Latin as "gymnasium”. It comes from gymnos (γυμνός), gymnos, meaning "naked" and refers to the practice of physical training and performing the various sports training naked. Who trains or practice gym exercise is the "gymnast".

Incidentally I would say that this nudity allows  anoint or smear the body with toning oil. That oil, mixed with natural sweat and sticky powder after training must  to be removed with a scraper which in Latin is called "strigilis". Recall the famous Greek statue of Lysippos “The Apoxyomenos”,  in which an athlete is being used that instrument. See http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/hadrian-thermae-roman-bads-strigilis

As I said, the relaxed Greek and eastern customs  soon were settled in the mighty Rome and were creating spas and gyms increasingly grandiose. Vitruvius spends  all Chapter 9 of Book V of his De architectura to the construction of these buildings:
Vitruvius 5.9.9 

As it appears that we have given an adequate account of them, next will follow descriptions of the arrangements of baths.  (Translate by Morris Hicky Morgan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. London: Humphrey Milford. Oxford University Press. 1914.)

Quoniam haec nobis satis videntur esse exposita, nunc insequentur balinearum dispositionum demonstrationes.

And he continues  specifying the conditions on chapter 10.

The first sports-cultural complex with  these large-scale characteristics  built in Rome was the one commanded by the Emperor Nero and which was opened the year 61.

The construction of these baths and gym  is told by the all the historians of the period, reflecting its grandeur, which also impressed the whole society. Martial,  the poet, who was born in Bilbilis, the current Calatayud in Spain, in the year 40 and went to Rome around the year 64, for return to his hometown 34 years later, where he died six years later,  uses  the reference as a synonym topic of great, as we will see below

We read texts that give us account of the event belonging to Tacitus, Suetonius and Dio Cassius.

Tacitus, XIV, 47

Nero, the same year, established a gymnasium, where oil was furnished to knights and senators after the lax fashion of the Greeks. (Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb.Maxmillan and Co. London.1869)

gymnasium eo anno dedicatum a Nerone praebitumque oleum equiti ac senatui Graeca facilitate.

Suetonius, Nero, XII,3

He was the first who instituted, in imitation of the Greeks, a trial of skill in the three several exercises of music, wrestling, and horse-racing, to be performed at Rome every five years, and which he called Neronia. Upon the aedication of his bath and gymnasium, he furnished the senate and the equestrian order with oil. He appointed as judges of the trial men of consular rank, chosen by lot, who sat with the praetors. At this time he went down into the orchestra among the senators, and received the crown for the best performance in Latin prose and verse, for which several persons of the greatest merit contended, but they unanimously yielded to him. The crown for the best performer an the harp, being likewise awarded to him by the judges, he devoutly saluted it, and ordered it to be carried to the statue of Augustus. ( Translation by J. Eugene Reed. Alexander Thomson. Philadelphia. Gebbie & Co. 1889.)

Instituit et quinquennale certamen primus omnium Romae more Graeco triplex, musicum gymnicum equestre, quod appellauit Neronia; dedicatisque thermis atque gymnasio senatui quoque et equiti oleum praebuit. magistros toto certamini praeposuit consulares sorte, sede praetorum. deinde in orchestram senatumque descendit et orationis quidem carminisque Latini coronam, de qua honestissimus quisque contenderat, ipsorum consensu concessam sibi recepit, citharae autem a iudicibus ad se delatam adorauit ferrique ad Augusti statuam iussit.

Dio Cassius, LXI, 21

These things, then, he did to celebrate the shaving of his beard; and in behalf of his preservation and the continuance of his power, he instituted some quadriennial games, which he called Neronia. In honour of this event he also erected the gymnasium,6 and at its dedication made a free distribution of olive oil to the senators and knights. 2 The crown for lyre-playing he took without a contest; for all others were debarred, on the assumption that they were unworthy of being victors. And immediately, wearing the garb of this guild, he entered the gymnasium itself to be enrolled as victor. Thereafter all other crowns awarded as prizes for lyre-playing in all the contests were sent to him as the only artist worthy of victory. (Loeb Classical Library, 9 volumes, Greek texts and facing English translation: Harvard University Press, 1914 thru 1927. Translation by Earnest Cary.)

Martial, VII, 34

How does it possibly come, Severus, that Charinus, the worst rascal in the world, did one thing well ? Do you ask ? I will tell you, and briefly. What was worse than Nero ? What is better than Nero's warm baths ? See, at once some one of the malicious crowd is ready to say in sour tones : " What do you set above the many structures erected by our Master and God?" I set Nero's warm baths above the baths of a pathic. (Translation by Walter C. A. Ker, M.A. The Loeb Classical Library)

Quo possit fieri modo, Severe,
Ut vir pessimus omnium Charinus
Unam rem bene fecerit, requiris?
Dicam, sed cito. Quid Nerone peius?
Quid thermis melius Neronianis?
Non deest protinus, ecce, de malignis,
Qui sic rancidulo loquatur ore:
'Quid tu tot domini deique nostri
Praefers muneribus?' Neronianas
Thermas praefero balneis cinaedi.

Well, there is a curious anecdote of interest in connection with the inauguration of this complex. It is the appearance on the scene of the inauguration of a famous contemporary cynic philosopher, well respected by the intelligentsia of the moment by his moral integrity, Demetrius. This critical philosopher to the power, without mincing words and unwisely  ruined the opening ceremony thought for the greater glory of the emperor. The text, although living and descriptive, it is still cold and almost of attorney. It is necessary that the reader make a small stretch of the imagination, whom  can help to compare with picturesque and grotesque, contemporary current events, also needed of a "cynical" voice to reduce the "ego" of the governor.

Note: Although it is well known by the generality, let me informed reader, to comment that the word "ego" is  the  Latin person pronoun of first person, which we translate as "I". From it quite clear terms derived meaning, according to this etymology, as egoism" and "egotism",  egocentrism,…  So well known is the term than often we say about someone full of himself that he has "a highly developed ego".

Well Demetrius criticized the famous Baths of Nero inaugurated in 61 because unhygienic and very expensive in the same opening ceremony. At that time escaped the wrath of the Emperor, but when one year later the baths collapsed as a result of lightning, the words of Demetrius were considered the cause of the collapse and Demetrius was sent into exile by Tigellinus, the praetorian prefect (chief top police and executive arm) of Nero.

But it is better tell us all the ancient texts themselves:

About the  lightning,Tacitus tells us in Tacitus. Annales XV.22:

In the same consulate, the Gymnasium was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, a statue of Nero, which it contained, being melted into a shapeless piece of bronze.

Isdem consulibus gymnasium ictu fulminis conflagravit effigiesque in eo Neronis ad informe aes liquefacta.

And Philostratus, Life of Apollonius IV 42 (it is necessary that we will put in  a little imagination on our part to color the story):

Now Demetrius being attracted to Apollonius, as I have said above in my account of the events at Corinth, betook himself subsequently to Rome, and proceeded to court Apollonius, at the same time that he launched out against Nero. In consequence our sage's profession was looked at askance, and he was thought to have set Demetrius on to proceed thus, and the suspicion was increased on the occasion of Nero's completion of the most magnificent gymnasium in Rome:[1] for the auspicious day was being celebrated therein by Nero himself and the great Senate and all the knights of Rome, when Demetrius made his way into the gymnasium itself and delivered himself of a philippic against people who bathed, declaring that they enfeebled and polluted themselves; and he showed that such institutions were a useless expense.
He was only saved from immediate death as the penalty of such language by the fact that Nero was in extra good voice when he sang on that day, and he sang in the tavern which adjoined the gymnasium, naked except for a girdle round his waste, like any low tapster.
Demetrius, however, did not wholly escape the risk which he had courted by his language; for [the praetorian prefect] Tigellinus, to whom Nero had committed the power of life and death, proceeded to banish him from Rome, on the plea that he had ruined and overthrown the bath by the words he used; and he began to dog the steps of Apollonius secretly, in the hope that he would catch him out too in some compromising utterance.  (Translated by F.C. Conybeare)

It is easy to imagine the face that they would put the entire Roman high society, with Emperor Nero to his head, listening to the cynical gadfly Demetrius (Socrates, from whom he learned many things his pupil Antisthenes, founder of the Cynic school,  is considered by himself  in Plato's Apology of Socrates  a “gadfly”;  we would say today in more explicit language “pain in the neck” or more colloquial pain in the ass)  ruin the event with two heavy motivated reviews:  that is a waste of resource  and also in public bathrooms all you can catch is a disease …

Started our imaginative process, we can assume that at the opening ceremony not just "they cut the ribbon" but that senators and the other guests were bathed and smeared with oil.  Therefore gives us rise  the explicit reference of  the cited authors that Nero gave them the oil, at the Greek way.

It is also a cause for reflection the attitude of "policeman" Tigellinus regarding Apollonius secretly spy to catch him in the act and then, punch …

Without any doubt, it would have been very appropriate  in our time the presence of some cynical philosopher as Demetrius in the ghostly opening of an airport without airplanes, a freeway without cars or a bridge without river.
          …….
Postscript Note: First the word "posdata”, “postscript" means or refers to the "already offered, and given, and exposed," especially to the date or dating that closes the document and therefore I want to adjectival this note, because it comes to below the  text and date of the article.

Secondly with the note I want to explain the term "inaugurate", with them I headlined the article. The Romans, like many other  people, did not perform any action of public nor private importance unconnected with the feel of the gods. The augurs were the priests, from Etruscan origin,  who "predicted" or scrutinized the will of the gods or the future; the "omen" , augurium, figured in various ways, such as observing the flight of birds, operation called  “auspicium”, “auspices” from “avis”, bird,  and spicere, to see,  meant the agreement of the gods. The favorable omen,  augurium,  was especially necessary when engaging in battle;  do not forget that Rome is a great empire founded on the strength of their legions. Who had a "omens", a particularly favorable “augurium” was the emperor Octavian Caesar and because it he is called "Augustus", that means  something like "favored, loved by the gods."; "ausugustus" is translated into Greek as ἱερὸν, hieron, sacred.

The post Nero inaugurates a great gym and Demetrius will ruin the opening ceremony. (Intellectuals against the power III) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Among these transformations  they are especially interesting the conversions to stars, called Catasterisms, not least because the force to survive. 

We call "Catasterismi" the conversion or transformation of gods, heroic beings, mythological events, and even ethical principles later, in stars, celestial bodies in the sky, or clusters of stars.

This is a technical or cult Greek term, composed of the preposition kata, κατά (above, below) and the noun ἀστήρ, aster, (star). The term was used as a title of a booklet attributable to the director of the Library of Alexandria, the mathematician, geographer, astronomer, physician, scholar, literary author, Eratosthenes.

Two  constellation or group of stars (that's what the word constellation means, from latin cum, with, and stella, star) most popular and important throughout the history of our hemisphere are the "Ursa Maior", Great Bear,result of the transformation of the nymph Callisto and Boötes, the guardianb of the Ursa, transformation of her son Arcas.

The poet Ovid tells us literally  in a long story of more than a hundred and fifty verses in Metamorphoses, Book II, v. 401-550.

Today I let a small license that surely would not bother  Ovid; in the ancient world the same mythological subject is recovered  and modified, reduced or enlarged again and again by various authors.

Let me make a smaller version of Ovid's story that may be easier to read than the original text for possible current readers, but I will offer at end to the interested reader  the complete Latin text of the author with its translation.

The Nymph Callisto

Jupiter, the powerful god, walked vigilant the broad and clear sky and reluctantly watched the land where men live. In his daily trips across the sky stopped many times in Arcadia, fertile region of the earth especially dear to him, governed by Licaón, cultured and religious king, respected by his citizens who he finally civilized, forcing them to abandon their way of  primitive and rude life.

Licaón had numerous children and among them a daughter named Callisto. Her extraordinary beauty attracted the loving attention of Jupiter, who  too often betrayed his wife Juno.

Lycaon’s daughter neither liked the comfortable life of the palace nor occupied the time carding  wool nor perfuming  her  body of fine forms. Tied her messy hair with a white ribbon and tied her dress with a slight brooch, armed with the curved bow and pointed arrows at her shoulder, she crossed the lush forests accompanying Diana, virgin goddess, free and accurate huntress.

A hot summer day, when the sun was halfway through his walk , Callisto rested lonely lying in the green forest floor, laying her head on the multicolor quiver. When Jupiter saw her so beautiful and defenseless, burning with the passion like only gods can burn, he thought:

   — My wife Juno will not know about this secret love

And taking the figure of the goddess Diana she approached to Callisto:

– Beautiful maiden,  you have hunted today extraordinarily and in accurate way.

Callisto got up swiftly jumping and responded with grateful words:

– Thank you, my dear and beloved goddess. I think you're bigger and stronger than Jupiter himself, who does not hear us.

Jupiter smiled, listening her and held her tightly against his powerful chest and filled her with lascivious kisses and inappropriate to the virgin goddess whose figure he had supplanted.

Callisto wanted uselessly to released herself out of the divine embrace, conscious of the adulterer deception. But who can beat the mighty Jupiter?

When insensitive Jupiter flew to the ether, Callisto picked up his bow and quiver and ran away fast from the accomplice and forever odious forest.

A certain day, after a good hunt, Diana, happy and contented, call Callisto, who, fearing that she were Jupiter, again disguised, runs away to hide in the thick forest. But when she sees the goddess surrounded by her nymphs preventing the deception, she walked head down and approached to the group. The flush of her face would betray her injured shame to Diana  if the goddess was not inexperienced virgin.

Fatigued by the long chase, they reached a fresh stream of clear water. Diana just dipped his virgin foot in the fresh water which ran murmuring and said friendly:

– Rest a while. Nobody sees us here; let us undress and refresh our bodies in these crystalline waters.

All nymphs quickly divest themselves of their hunting clothes, but Callisto, blushing again, dilated her nakedness. When she finally took off his clothes, it appeared evident in his body the guilt that she needlessly wanted to hide with her hands.

The angry virgin goddess shouted the embarrassed nymph:

– Get away fast from us, betrayer, and do not tarnish these sacred waters

Museo del Prado. Rubens: Calisto y Diana

The time is passed and the small Arcas was born, fruit  of this forced union. Juno, wife of Jupiter knew long time ago what happened. Now, at the right time, she does not delayed longer her cruel punishment. So the powerful goddess angry said:

– It is not possible, adulteress, that you were fruitful and that your son testify before all the gods the shameful outrage of my husband Jupiter. I soon will take off  the beauty of your body with which you attracted my adulterous husband.

She said it, and she grabs his blond hair and threw she  to the ground with all violence. Callisto tended suppliant her arms, which were covered irredeemably with  black hairs; she spread her hands which became twisted claws and sweet mouth, desired by Jupiter, was transformed into deformed animals jaws. No pleading words came out from her hoarse throat which  would move the heart, but a hoarse roar that arise in terror.

Become into a bear, she retains her previous soul, as it is evidenced by her  constant groans of pain and her hands raised upward, perhaps protesting the unfeeling ingratitude of Jupiter, the father of the gods who intimidates everyone with his rays.

Callisto now wanders the woods in solitude and hazardous fields. Who tirelessly hunted before, how many times now hides herself pursued by the barking of dogs and the arrows of the hunters! Even now being a bear, she is afraid to see the fierce bears on top of the rocks.

Many years passed and Arcas, son of Callisto, whom she did not met, pursues  wild animals through the gorges and forests of Mount Erimanto in the fertile Arcadia.  At certain  day Arcas meets his mother, who seems to recognize him and fixed her black eyes to him. When the mother approaches  unsure the son, she is about to die pierced by the arrow that Arcas placed in his tensioned bow, but the powerful  Jupiter prevented the terrible sacrilege. Snatched from the hard earth, transported through the space, he placed them in heaven, forever changed in two neighboring constellation with bright stars, the "Big Dipper" and "Boötes" (the guardian ofthe  Bear) .

——-

Full text of Ovidius

CALLISTO AND JUPITER

Now after Phaethon had suffered death
for the vast ruin wrought by scorching flames,
all the great walls of Heaven's circumference,
unmeasured, views the Father of the Gods,
with searching care, that none impaired by heat
may fall in ruins. Well assured they stand
in self-sustaining strength, his view, at last,
on all the mundane works of man is turned;—
his loving gaze long resting on his own
Arcadia. And he starts the streams and springs
that long have feared to flow; paints the wide earth
with verdant fields; covers the trees with leaves,
and clothes the injured forests in their green.
While wandering in the world, he stopped amazed,
when he beheld the lovely Nymph, Calisto,
and fires of love were kindled in his breast.
Calisto was not clothed in sumptuous robes,
nor did she deck her hair in artful coils;
but with a buckle she would gird her robe,
and bind her long hair with a fillet white.
She bore a slender javelin in her hand,
or held the curving bow; and thus in arms
as chaste Diana, none of Maenalus
was loved by that fair goddess more than she.
But everything must change. When bright the sun
rolled down the sky, beyond his middle course,
she pierced a secret thicket, known to her,
and having slipped the quiver from her arm,
she loosed the bended bow, and softly down
upon the velvet turf reclining, pressed
her white neck on the quiver while she slept.
When Jupiter beheld her, negligent
and beautiful, he argued thus, “How can
my consort, Juno, learn of this? And yet,
if chance should give her knowledge, what care I?
Let gain offset the scolding of her tongue!”
This said, the god transformed himself and took
Diana's form—assumed Diana's dress
and imitating her awoke the maid,
and spoke in gentle tones, “What mountain slope,
O virgin of my train, hath been thy chase?”
Which, having heard, Calisto, rose and said,
“Hail, goddess! greater than celestial Jove!
I would declare it though he heard the words.”
Jove heard and smiled, well pleased to be preferred
above himself, and kissed her many times,
and strained her in his arms, while she began
to tell the varied fortunes of her hunt.—
but when his ardent love was known to her,
she struggled to escape from his embrace:
ah, how could she, a tender maid, resist
almighty Jove?—Be sure, Saturnia
if thou hadst only witnessed her thy heart
had shown more pity!—
Jupiter on wings,
transcendent, sought his glorious heights;
but she, in haste departing from that grove,
almost forgot her quiver and her bow.
Behold, Diana, with her virgin train,
when hunting on the slopes of Maenalus,
amidst the pleasures of exciting sport,
espied the Nymph and called her, who, afraid
that Jove apparelled in disguise deceived,
drew backward for a moment, till appeared
to her the lovely Nymphs that followed: thus,
assured deceit was none, she ventured near.
Alas, how difficult to hide disgrace!
She could not raise her vision from the ground,
nor as the leader of the hunting Nymphs,
as was her wont, walk by the goddess' side.
Her silence and her blushes were the signs
of injured honour. Ah Diana, thou,
if thou wert not a virgin, wouldst perceive
and pity her unfortunate distress.
The Moon's bent horns were rising from their ninth
sojourn, when, fainting from Apollo's flames,
the goddess of the Chase observed a cool
umbrageous grove, from which a murmuring stream
ran babbling gently over golden sands.
When she approved the spot, lightly she struck
her foot against the ripples of the stream,
and praising it began; “Far from the gaze
of all the curious we may bathe our limbs,
and sport in this clear water.” Quickly they
undid their garments,—but Calisto hid
behind the others, till they knew her state.—
Diana in a rage exclaimed, “Away!
Thou must not desecrate our sacred springs!”
And she was driven thence.
Ere this transpired,
observed the consort of the Thunder-God
her altered mien; but she for ripening time
withheld severe resentment. Now delay
was needless for distracted Juno heard
Calisto of the god of Heaven had borne
a boy called Arcas. Full of jealous rage,
her eyes and thoughts enkindled as she cried;
“And only this was wanting to complete
your wickedness, that you should bear a son
and flaunt abroad the infamy of Jove!
Unpunished you shall not escape, for I
will spoil the beauty that has made you proud
and dazzled Jupiter with wanton art.”
So saying, by her forehead's tresses seized
the goddess on her rival; and she dragged
her roughly to the ground. Pleading she raised
her suppliant arms and begged for mercy.—While
she pled, black hair spread over her white limbs;
her hands were lengthened into feet, and claws
long-curving tipped them; snarling jaws deformed
the mouth that Jove had kissed. And lest her prayers
and piteous words might move some listening God,
and give remembrance, speech was so denied,
that only from her throat came angry growls,
now uttered hoarse and threatening.
Still remains
her understanding, though her body, thus
transformed, makes her appear a savage bear.—
her sorrows are expressed in many a groan,
repeated as she lifts her hands—if we
may call them so—repeated as she lifts
them towards the stars and skies, ungrateful Jove
regarding; but her voice accuses not.
Afraid to rest in unfrequented woods,
she wandered in the fields that once were hers,
around her well-known dwelling. Over crags,
in terror, she was driven by the cries
of hounds; and many a time she fled in fear,
a huntress from the hunters, or she hid
from savage animals; forgetting her
transformed condition. Changed into a bear,
she fled affrighted from the bears that haunt
the rugged mountains; and she feared and fled
the wolves,—although her father was a wolf.
When thrice five birthdays rounded out the youth
of Arcas, offspring of Lycaon's child,
he hunted in the forest of his choice;
where, hanging with his platted nets the trees
of Erymanthian forest, he espied
his transformed mother,—but he knew her not;
no one had told him of his parentage.
Knowing her child, she stood with levelled gaze,
amazed and mute as he began approach;
but Arcas, frightened at the sight drew back
to pierce his mother's breast with wounding spear.—
but not permitting it the god of Heaven
averted, and removed them from that crime.
He, in a mighty wind—through vacant space,
upbore them to the dome of starry heaven,
and fixed them, Constellations, bright amid
the starry host.
Juno on high beheld
Calisto crowned with glory—great with rage
her bosom heaved. She flew across the sea,
to hoary Tethys and to old Oceanus,
whom all the Gods revere, and thus to them
in answer to their words she made address;
“And is it wondered that the Queen of Gods
comes hither from ethereal abodes?
My rival sits upon the Throne of Heaven:
yea, when the wing of Night has darkened
let my fair word be deemed of no repute,
if you behold not in the height of Heaven
those new made stars, now honoured to my shame,
conspicuous; fixed in the highest dome of space
that circles the utmost axis of the world.
“Who, then, should hesitate to put affront
on Juno? matchless goddess! each offense
redounds in benefit! Who dreads her rage?
Oh boundless powers! Oh unimagined deeds!
My enemy assumes a goddess' form
when my decree deprives her human shape;—
and thus the guilty rue their chastisement!
“Now let high Jove to human shape transform
this hideous beast, as once before he changed
his Io from a heifer.—Let him now
divorce his Juno and consort with her,
and lead Calisto to his couch, and take
that wolf, Lycaon, for a father-in-law!
“Oh, if an injury to me, your child,
may move your pity! drive the Seven Stars
from waters crystalline and azure-tint,
and your domain debar from those that shine
in Heaven, rewarded for Jove's wickedness.—
bathe not a concubine in waters pure.”—
(Ovid. Metamorphoses. Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.)

At pater omnipotens ingentia moenia caeli
circuit et ne quid labefactum viribus ignis
corruat explorat. Quae postquam firma suique
roboris esse videt terras hominumque labores
perspicit. Arcadiae tamen est impensior illi
cura suae: fontes et nondum audentia labi
flumina restituit dat terrae gramina, frondes
arboribus, laesasque iubet revirescere silvas.
Dum redit itque frequens, In virgine Nonacrina
haesit et accepti caluere sub ossibus ignes.
Non erat huius opus lanam mollire trahendo
nec positu variare comas; ubi fibula vestem,
vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos,
et modo leve manu iaculum, modo sumpserat arcum,
miles erat Phoebes: nec Maenalon attigit ulla
gratior hac Triviae. Sed nulla potentia longa est.
Ulterius medio spatium sol altus habebat,
cum subit illa nemus, quod nulla ceciderat aetas.
Exuit hic umero pharetram lentosque retendit
arcus, inque solo, quod texerat herba, iacebat
et pictam posita pharetram cervice premebat.
Iuppiter ut vidit fessam et custode vacantem,
“hoc certe furtum coniunx mea nesciet” inquit,
“aut si rescierit sunt o sunt iurgia tanti.”
Protinus induitur faciem cultumque Dianae
atque ait: “O comitum, virgo, pars una mearum,
in quibus es venata iugis?” De caespite virgo
se levat et “salve numen, me indice”, dixit
“audiat ipse licet maius Iove.” Ridet et audit,
et sibi praeferri se gaudet et oscula iungit
nec moderata satis nec sic a virgine danda.
Qua venata foret silva, narrare parantem
impedit amplexu, nec se sine crimine prodit.
Illa quidem contra, quantum modo femina possit
(adspiceres utinam, Saturnia: mitior esses !),
illa quidem pugnat: sed quem superare puella,
quisve Iovem poterat? — Superum petit aethera victor
Iuppiter: huic odio nemus est et conscia silva.
Unde pedem referens paene est oblita pharetram
tollere cum telis et quem suspenderat arcum.
Ecce, suo comitata choro Dictynna per altum
Maenalon ingrediens et caede superba ferarum
adspicit hanc visamque vocat: clamata refugit,
et timuit primo, ne Iuppiter esset in illa.
Sed postquam pariter nymphas incedere vidit,
sensit abesse dolos numerumque accessit ad harum.
Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu!
Vix oculos attollit humo, nec, ut ante solebat,
iuncta deae lateri, nec toto est agmine prima,
sed silet et laesi dat signa rubore pudoris;
et nisi quod virgo est poterat sentire Diana
mille notis culpam; nymphae sensisse feruntur.
Orbe resurgebant lunaria cornua nono,
cum dea venatu, fraternis languida flammis,
nacta nemus gelidum, de quo cum murmure labens
ibat et attritas versabat rivus harenas.
Ut loca laudavit, summas pede contigit undas:
his quoque laudatis “procul est” ait “arbiter omnis;
nuda superfusis tingamus corpora lymphis.”
Parrhasis erubuit. Cunctae velamina ponunt:
una moras quaerit. Dubitanti vestis adempta est;
qua posita nudo patuit cum corpore crimen.
Attonitae manibusque uterum celare volenti
“i procul hinc” dixit “nec sacros pollue fontes”
Cynthia; deque suo iussit secedere coetu.
Senserat hoc olim magni matrona Tonantis
distuleratque graves in idonea tempora poenas.
Causa morae nulla est, et iam puer Arcas (id ipsum
indoluit Iuno) fuerat de paelice natus.
Quo simul obvertit saevam cum lumine mentem,
“scilicet hoc etiam restabat, adultera” dixit,
“ut fecunda fores, fieretque iniuria partu
nota, Iovisque mei testatum dedecus esset.
Haud impune feres: adimam tibi nempe figuram,
qua tibi, quaque places nostro, importuna, marito.”
Dixit et adversa prensis a fronte capillis
stravit humi pronam. Tendebat bracchia supplex:
bracchia coeperunt nigris horrescere villis
curvarique manus et aduncos crescere in ungues
officioque pedum fungi, laudataque quondam
ora Iovi lato fieri deformia rictu.
Neve preces animos et verba precantia flectant
posse loqui eripitur; vox iracunda minaxque
plenaque terroris rauco de gutture fertur.
485Mens antiqua tamen facta quoque mansit in ursa,
adsiduoque suos gemitu testata dolores
qualescumque manus ad caelum et sidera tollit
ingratumque Iovem, nequeat cum dicere, sentit.
A quotiens, sola non ausa quiescere silva,
ante domum quondamque suis erravit in agris!
A quotiens per saxa canum latratibus acta est
venatrixque metu venantum territa fugit!
Saepe feris latuit visis, oblita quid esset,
ursaque conspectos in montibus horruit ursos
pertimuitque lupos, quamvis pater esset in illis.
Ecce, Lycaoniae proles, ignara parentis,
Arcas adest, ter quinque fere natalibus actis:
dumque feras sequitur, dum saltus eligit aptos
nexilibusque plagis silvas Erymanthidas ambit,
incidit in matrem; quae restitit Arcade viso
et cognoscenti similis fuit. Ille refugit
inmotosque oculos in se sine fine tenentem
nescius extimuit propiusque accedere aventi
vulnifico fuerat fixurus pectora telo.
Arcuit omnipotens pariterque ipsosque nefasque
sustulit, et celeri raptos per inania vento
imposuit caelo vicinaque sidera fecit.
Intumuit Iuno, postquam inter sidera paelex
fulsit et ad canam descendit in aequora Tethyn
Oceanumque senem, quorum reverentia movit
saepe deos, causamque viae scitantibus infit:
“Quaeritis, aetheriis quare regina deorum
sedibus huc adsim? pro me tenet altera caelum.
Mentiar, obscurum nisi nox cum fecerit orbem,
nuper honoratas summo, mea vulnera, caelo
videritis stellas illic, ubi circulus axem
ultimus extremum spatioque brevissimus ambit.
Est vero, cur quis Iunonem laedere nolit
offensamque tremat, quae prosum sola nocendo?
O ego quantum egi! quam vasta potentia nostra est!
Esse hominem vetui: facta est dea. Sic ego poenas
sontibus impono, sic est mea magna potestas.
Vindicet antiquam faciem vultusque ferinos
detrahat, Argolica quod in ante Phoronide fecit.
Cur non et pulsa ducit Iunone meoque
collocat in thalamo socerumque Lycaona sumit?
At vos si laesae tangit contemptus alumnae,
gurgite caeruleo septem prohibete triones
sideraque in caelo, stupri mercede, recepta
pellite, ne puro tingatur in aequore paelex.”

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The term designates in Antiquity a rhetoric figure of speech. For example, Hermogenes of Tarsus (h 160 -.. 225 h) defines it in his Ecphrasis Progymnasmata as "the extensive, detailed, vivid description, which places the object before the eyes."

In the ancient world the word ekphrasis means any vivid description, full of energeia, energy, of strength, of artworks, objects, landscapes and people which  places them with words before the eyes of the listener or the reader.

Over time this general sense was limited to verbal representation of a plastic object, usually a painting or sculpture, because it would be more frequent in rhetorical exercises. That is the literary description of a work of art.

Philostratus Lemnius was precisely who helped to fix this more restricted sense of this term at the beginning of his work in the second century,  in Imagines I, 1:

Whosoever scorns painting is unjust to truth ; and he is also unjust to all the wisdom that has been bestowed upon poets — for poets and painters make equal contribution to our knowledge of the deeds and the looks of heroes — and he withholds his praise from symmetry of proportion, whereby art partakes of reason. (Translation by Arthur Fairbanks.
London: William Heineman Ltd. New York.G.P.Putman’s sons. MCMXXXI)

This is the sense that has prevailed modern. Thus Umberto Eco (2003: 110): "When a verbal text describes a visual artwork, the classical tradition speaks of ekphrasis".

Or Leo Spitzer, "the poetic description of a pictorial or sculptural work of art" (1962, 72);

or James Heffernan: "the verbal representation of a visual representation" (1993, 3)

or Clüver Claus: "the verbal representation of a real or fictional text set in a nonverbal sign system" (1994, 26).

It is therefore a detailed description, from the beginning, which is what the word "de- scribere means: writing, from the beginning); and it is also a re-presentation or  second presentation because it represents another object, the painting, which is also the first representation of the object.

Note: progymnasmata (from pro and gymnasmata) designates the previous exercises in which the students of rhetoric were able to use the topoi or loci commonplace in speeches.

As long as it is an emotional, vivid, lifelike, animated description,it coincides with the meaning of hypotyposis (Greek: úποτúπωσις, sketch, to place a sketch before the eyes of someone), or especially emotional story to excite the imagination of listening public. Some more nuanced, in the sense that in the hypotyposis it leaves  from a text and goes to the image and in  the ekphrasis, by contrast, it leaves from the picture and goes to the text. Actually, the nuances are many, because there it is not an exact definition of the terms. Curiously, the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy does not adopt the term ekphrasis and instead it collects “hypotyposis”, that is defined as: From Greek  Ὑποτύπωσις.  Quick and powerful description of someone or something through language. The Webster's 1913 Dictionary defines it: (Rhet.) A vivid, picturesque description of scenes or events.

Note: the “portrait” is the description of the physical appearance and spiritual characteristics of a person; prosopography is the portrait of physical ant ethopoeia  is the portrait of  the interior.  Topography is the description of the land .. Other more specialized terms like topofesía and pragmatography  exceed the interest of this article.

Theorizing about ekphrasis is part of the extensive theorizing about the relationship between the arts together and especially painting and literature, parallel and complementary arts: the visual arts are part of the static space and the verbal arts are developed in the time: painting tries to break the statism, the immobility, the poetry seeks the materiality of the space.

It is attributed to Simonides (c. 556 BC-c. 468 BC) to have  raised the relationship between art and literature in accordance with the sentence "Painting is silent poetry and painting is verbal poetry", which was so successful later.

So in écfrasis the literary expression, which is capable of expressing the movement and the  time, imitates the stillness of the painting; the painting in turn often aspires, being static, to express the movement and time.

Is worth a picture more than a thousand words? Perhaps it is in some cases, but the words can  made to see something exciting the imagination and using metaphors. It is possible to give voice to the image.

Today the discussion is extended to the relationship between the verbal and the visual in the new digital context and textual video products support a wide variety of formats.

Plato referred to these issues when he comes to try about the beauty and mimesis or imitation. Mimesis is representation,  interpretation and recreation.

About the ,imitation  Aristotle says in his Poetics, 1448 b,

From childhood men have an instinct for representation, and in this respect, differs from the other animals that he is far more imitative and learns his first lessons by representing things. (translated by W.H. Fyfe. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1932.)

In this regard in relation to mimesis, the ekphrasis is representation but also interpretation and recreation, because naturally, the poet gives us his vision and interpretacón of the visual work. Even the poet can create the visual object, nonexistent before their description, as it is the case in  the description of the shield of Achilles, that I reproduce below.

Plato says, linking poetry with painting, in Republic, X, 601a:

“Certainly.” “And similarly, I suppose, we shall say that the poet himself, knowing nothing but how to imitate, lays on with words and phrases the colors of the several arts in such fashion that others equally ignorant, who see things only through words, will deem his words most excellent, (Translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.)

And Aristotle in his Poetics, 1460b:

Since the poet represents life, as a painter does or any other maker of likenesses, he must always represent one of three things—either things as they were or are; or things as they are said and seem to be; or things as they should be. (translated by W.H. Fyfe. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1932.

The phrase which summarizes sententiously the subject matter is the famous sentence of Horace  "Ut Pictura Poesis", “Poetry is like painting”, in his  Epistula ad Pisones, v. 361

Just he started this work (Epistula ad Pisones) on literary prescriptive with the comparison of the poetry to the painting: (v 1-10.)

If a painter should wish to unite a horse's neck to a human head, and spread a variety of plumage over limbs [of different animals] taken from every part [of nature], so that what is a beautiful woman in the upper part terminates unsightly in an ugly fish below; could you, my friends, refrain from laughter, were you admitted to such a sight Believe, ye Pisos, the book will be perfectly like such a picture, the ideas of which, like a sick man's dreams, are all vain and fictitious: so that neither head nor foot can correspond to any one form. "Poets and painters [you will say] have ever had equal authority for attempting any thing."  (C. Smart. Theodore Alois Buckley. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1863.)

Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
iungere si velit et varias inducere plumas,
undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atrum
desinat in piscem mulier Formosa superne:
spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici?
Credite, Pisones, isti tabulae fore librum
persimilem, cuis, velut aegri somnia, vanae
fingentur species, ut nec pes nec caput uni
reddatur formae. Pictoribus atque poetis
quidlibet audendi simper fuit aequa potestas.

The ekphrasis or vivid and detailed description of a work precisely interrelates the two arts and and provides liaison between the verbal and the visual.

Ovid is the poet who very often and in detail describes pictures and at turn he generated pictorial works over all time. The museums are riddled with  paintings that recreate some of the myths and mythological characters described by Ovid.

Ovid indeed in this context of relationship between the textual and the visual and art and imitation, mimesis and reproduction of reality,  had said in Metamorphoses, III, 155

The vale Gargaphia stretch’d along the glade,
Hid from the sun,and thick with Cypress shade,
Sacred to Dian: … in its deepest part,
Ingenious Nature, imitating art,
Had form’d a sylvan grot with moss o’ergrown,
Arch’d in a bow, and bright with spars and stone;
(Translated by Thomas Orger. London, 1814)

Vallis erat piceis et acuta densa cupressu,
nomine Gargaphie, succintae sacra Dianae,
cuius in extremo est antrum nemorale recessu
arte laboratum nulla; simulaverat artem
ingenio natura suo; nam pumice vivo
et levibus tofis nativum duxerat arcum.

Centuries later Oscar Wilde made the statement “Life imitates art far more than arts imitates life” in The Decay of Lying. 

There are numerous examples of authors on every language.  Probably the most famous in Antiquity is the famous description in the  XVIII book of Iliad of the shield of Achilles manufactured by Hephaestus. His influence has been enormous in all poetry, especially in the epic. Despite its size, I reproduce the fragment at the end of this article.

I will give other examples:

The vision of a painting that a certain Zoilus has in the dining room of his home in Trier is what causes the famous poem in 103 hexameters of Ausonius (310-395) entitled "Cupid tortured" (Cupidus cruciatus) in which he describes how some women are crucifying Cupid, the god of love.

The poem, in which Ausonius sends greetings to his son Gregorius begins:

Cupid crucified. 1,1-7) 

Ausonius to his son Gregorius, Greeting

" Pray, have you ever seen a picture painted on a wall ? " To be sure you have, and remember it. Well, at Treves, in the dining-room of Zoilus, this picture is painted : Cupid is being nailed to the cross by certain lovelorn women not those lovers of our own day, who fall into sin of their own freewill, but those heroic lovers who excuse themselves and blame the gods. Some of these our own Virgil recounts in his description of the Fields of Mourning. I was greatly struck by the art and the subject of this picture. Subsequently I translated my amazed admiration into insipid versification… (Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn White, M.A. The Loeb Classical Library)

En umquam vidisti tabulam pictam in pariete? vidisti utique et meministi. Treveris quippe in triclinio Zoili fucata est pictura haec: Cupidinem cruci adfigunt mulieres amatrices, non istae de nostro saeculo, quae sponte peccant, sed illae heroicae, quae sibi ignoscunt et plectunt deum. quarum partem in lugentibus campis Maro noster enumerat. hanc ego imaginem specie et argumento miratus sum. Deinde mirandi stuporem transtuli ad ineptiam poetandi.

The poem follows them.

See now:

http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/christian-martyrs-prudentius-ekphrasis

http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/hyppolitus-phaedra-martyr-prudentius

Another example. The Christian poet Prudentius, (348 AD -.. C 410), from Calahorra, use this figure in several of his poems in which he sings the deaths of some martyrs. I reproduce two texts also concerned to the poems IX about Cassianus and XI about on Hippolitus. In both cases narrates the ordeal describing the paintings illustrating the graves of martyrs.

Passage of Prudentius, IX, on the martyrdom of Cassianus, v. 7-20 

…and while in tears I was thinking of my sins and all my life's distresses and stinging pains, I lifted my face towards heaven, and there stood confronting me a picture of the martyr painted in colours, bearing a thousand wounds, all his parts torn, and showing his skin broken with tiny pricks. Countless boys round about (a pitiful sight !) were stabbing and piercing his body with the little styles " with which they used to run over their wax tablets, writing down the droning lesson in school.

I appealed to the verger and he said : " What you are looking at, stranger, is no vain old wife's tale. The picture tells the story of what happened ; it is recorded in books and displays the honest assurance of the olden time.   (Translation BY H. J. THOMSON)
………

dum lacrimans mecum reputo mea vulnera et omnes
vitae labores ac dolorum acumina,
erexi ad caelum faciem, stetit obvia contra
fucis colorum picta imago martyris
plagas mille gerens, totos lacerata per artus,
ruptam minutis praeferens punctis cutem,
innumeri circum pueri, miserabile visu,
confossa parvis membra figebant stilis,
unde pugillares soliti percurrere ceras
scholare murmur adnotantes scripserant.
aedituus consultus ait: ‘quod prospicis, hospes,
non est inanis aut anilis fabula;
historiam pictura refert, quae tradita libris
veram vetusti temporis monstrat fidem.

And at the end of the poem, verses 93-94,he abstracts:

" This, stranger, is the story you wonder to see represented in liquid colours, this is the glory of Cassian"

haec sunt, quae liquidis expressa coloribus, hospes, 
miraris, ista est Cassiani gloria,

Passage of the poem XI of Prudentius on Hippolytus, verses 123-152:

There is a picture of the outrage painted on a wall,
showing in many colours the wicked deed in all its
details ; above the tomb is depicted a lively likeness,
portraying in clear semblance Hippolytus' bleeding
body as he was dragged along. I saw the tips of
rocks dripping, most excellent Father, and scarlet
stains imprinted on the briers, where a hand that
was skilled in portraying green bushes had also
figured the red blood in vermilion. One could see
the parts torn asunder and lying scattered in dis-
order up and down at random. The artist had
painted too his loving people walking after him in
tears wherever the inconstant track showed his zig-
zag course. Stunned with grief, they were searching
with their eyes as they went, and gathering the
mangled flesh in their bosoms. One clasps the snowy
head, cherishing the venerable white hair on his
loving breast, while another picks up the shoulders,
the severed hands, arms, elbows, knees, bare frag-
ments of legs. With their garments also they wipe
dry the soaking sand, so that no drop shall remain to
dye the dust; and wherever blood adheres to the
spikes on which its warm spray fell, they press a
sponge on it and carry it all away.

Now the thick wood held no longer any part of
the sacred body, nor cheated it of a full burial. The
parts were reviewed and found to make the number
belonging to the unmutilated body ; the pathless
ground being cleared, and the boughs and rocks
wiped dry, had nothing of the whole man still to
give up ; and now a site was chosen on which to set a
tomb. They left the river-mouth," for Rome found
favour with them as the place to keep the holy
remains.
(TRANSLATION BY H. J. THOMSON)

Exemplar sceleris paries habet illitus, in quo
multicolor fucus digerit omne nefas ;
picta super tumulum species liquidis uiget umbris,
effigians tracti membra cruenta uiri.
Rorantes saxorum apices uidi, optime papa,
purpureasque notas uepribus impositas.
Docta manus uirides imitando effingere dumos
luserat et minio russeolam saniem.
Cernere erat, ruptis compagibus, ordine nullo,
membra per incertos sparsa iacere situs.
Addiderat caros gressu lacrimisque sequentes,
deuia quo fractum semita monstrat iter.
Mærore adtoniti atque oculis rimantibus ibant
implebantque sinus uisceribus laceris.
Ille caput niueum complectitur ac reuerendam
canitiem molli confouet in gremio ;
hic humeros truncasque manus et brachia et ulnas
et genua et crurum fragmina nuda legit.
Palliolis etiam bibulæ siccantur harenæ,
ne quis in infecto puluere ros maneat.
Si quis et in sudibus recalenti aspergine sanguis
insidet, hunc omnem spongia pressa rapit.
Nec iam densa sacro quidquam de corpore silua
obtinet aut plenis fraudat ab exsequiis.
Cumque recensitis constaret partibus ille
corporis integri qui fuerat numerus,
nec purgata aliquid deberent auia, toto
ex homine extersis frondibus et scopulis,
metando eligitur tumulo locus, ostia linquunt,
Roma placet, sanctos quæ teneat cineres.

Iliad, book XVIII, v. 478 y ss.

First he shaped the shield so great and strong, adorning it all over and binding it round with a gleaming circuit in three layers; and the baldric was made of silver. He made the shield in five thicknesses, and with many a wonder did his cunning hand enrich it.
He wrought the earth, the heavens, and the sea; the moon also at her full and the untiring sun, with all the signs that glorify the face of heaven- the Pleiads, the Hyads, huge Orion, and the Bear, which men also call the Wain and which turns round ever in one place, facing. Orion, and alone never dips into the stream of Oceanus.

He wrought also two cities, fair to see and busy with the hum of men. In the one were weddings and wedding-feasts, and they were going about the city with brides whom they were escorting by torchlight from their chambers. Loud rose the cry of Hymen, and the youths danced to the music of flute and lyre, while the women stood each at her house door to see them.

Meanwhile the people were gathered in assembly, for there was a quarrel, and two men were wrangling about the blood-money for a man who had been killed, the one saying before the people that he had paid damages in full, and the other that he had not been paid. Each was trying to make his own case good, and the people took sides, each man backing the side that he had taken; but the heralds kept them back, and the elders sate on their seats of stone in a solemn circle, holding the staves which the heralds had put into their hands. Then they rose and each in his turn gave judgement, and there were two talents laid down, to be given to him whose judgement should be deemed the fairest.
About the other city there lay encamped two hosts in gleaming armour, and they were divided whether to sack it, or to spare it and accept the half of what it contained. But the men of the city would not yet consent, and armed themselves for a surprise; their wives and little children kept guard upon the walls, and with them were the men who were past fighting through age; but the others sallied forth with Mars and Pallas Minerva at their head- both of them wrought in gold and clad in golden raiment, great and fair with their armour as befitting gods, while they that followed were smaller. When they reached the place where they would lay their ambush, it was on a riverbed to which live stock of all kinds would come from far and near to water; here, then, they lay concealed, clad in full armour. Some way off them there were two scouts who were on the look-out for the coming of sheep or cattle, which presently came, followed by two shepherds who were playing on their pipes, and had not so much as a thought of danger. When those who were in ambush saw this, they cut off the flocks and herds and killed the shepherds. Meanwhile the besiegers, when they heard much noise among the cattle as they sat in council, sprang to their horses, and made with all speed towards them; when they reached them they set battle in array by the banks of the river, and the hosts aimed their bronze-shod spears at one another. With them were Strife and Riot, and fell Fate who was dragging three men after her, one with a fresh wound, and the other unwounded, while the third was dead, and she was dragging him along by his heel: and her robe was bedrabbled in men's blood. They went in and out with one another and fought as though they were living people haling away one another's dead.

He wrought also a fair fallow field, large and thrice ploughed already. Many men were working at the plough within it, turning their oxen to and fro, furrow after furrow. Each time that they turned on reaching the headland a man would come up to them and give them a cup of wine, and they would go back to their furrows looking forward to the time when they should again reach the headland. The part that they had ploughed was dark behind them, so that the field, though it was of gold, still looked as if it were being ploughed- very curious to behold.

He wrought also a field of harvest corn, and the reapers were reaping with sharp sickles in their hands. Swathe after swathe fell to the ground in a straight line behind them, and the binders bound them in bands of twisted straw. There were three binders, and behind them there were boys who gathered the cut corn in armfuls and kept on bringing them to be bound: among them all the owner of the land stood by in silence and was glad. The servants were getting a meal ready under an oak, for they had sacrificed a great ox, and were busy cutting him up, while the women were making a porridge of much white barley for the labourers' dinner.

He wrought also a vineyard, golden and fair to see, and the vines were loaded with grapes. The bunches overhead were black, but the vines were trained on poles of silver. He ran a ditch of dark metal all round it, and fenced it with a fence of tin; there was only one path to it, and by this the vintagers went when they would gather the vintage. Youths and maidens all blithe and full of glee, carried the luscious fruit in plaited baskets; and with them there went a boy who made sweet music with his lyre, and sang the Linus-song with his clear boyish voice.

He wrought also a herd of homed cattle. He made the cows of gold and tin, and they lowed as they came full speed out of the yards to go and feed among the waving reeds that grow by the banks of the river. Along with the cattle there went four shepherds, all of them in gold, and their nine fleet dogs went with them. Two terrible lions had fastened on a bellowing bull that was with the foremost cows, and bellow as he might they haled him, while the dogs and men gave chase: the lions tore through the bull's thick hide and were gorging on his blood and bowels, but the herdsmen were afraid to do anything, and only hounded on their dogs; the dogs dared not fasten on the lions but stood by barking and keeping out of harm's way.

The god wrought also a pasture in a fair mountain dell, and large flock of sheep, with a homestead and huts, and sheltered sheepfolds.

Furthermore he wrought a green, like that which Daedalus once made in Cnossus for lovely Ariadne. Hereon there danced youths and maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another's wrists. The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well woven shirts that were slightly oiled. The girls were crowned with garlands, while the young men had daggers of gold that hung by silver baldrics; sometimes they would dance deftly in a ring with merry twinkling feet, as it were a potter sitting at his work and making trial of his wheel to see whether it will run, and sometimes they would go all in line with one another, and much people was gathered joyously about the green. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune.

All round the outermost rim of the shield he set the mighty stream of the river Oceanus.
Then when he had fashioned the shield so great and strong, he made a breastplate also that shone brighter than fire. He made helmet, close fitting to the brow, and richly worked, with a golden plume overhanging it; and he made greaves also of beaten tin.

Lastly, when the famed lame god had made all the armour, he took it and set it before the mother of Achilles; whereon she darted like a falcon from the snowy summits of Olympus and bore away the gleaming armour from the house of Vulcan. (Translated by Samuel Butler)
 

The post Ecphrasis, ekphrasis. Ut pictura poesis (Horace). Poetry is like painting appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Some works of the Ancients impress us by its dimensions and other for their beauty. The best examples are the "seven wonders of the ancient world," including "the Hanging Gardens of Babylon." There is another work in Babylon, in addition to the gardens, less known, but no less impressive: the construction of a tunnel under the River Euphrates which linked secretly the  existing royal palaces on either side of the river.

Before developing the theme, we should remember that Babylon was on the Euphrates in land what is now Iraq. Its ruins were partially rebuilt by Saddam Hussein in the twentieth century and they are located about 110 kms. from Baghdad in Babil province, opposite the town of Hillah.

This area is rich in bitumen and petroleum, as it is well known, also in antiquity. But maybe not all readers know  that the bitumen or asphalt, which then surfaced in the same area where today the oil is extracted, was used in the construction of buildings among other things, as the Roman architect Vitruvius tells us .

Vitruvius: De Architectura libri decem (De Architectura): I, 5,8 (39)

 With regard to the material of which the actual wall should be constructed or finished, there can be no definite prescription, because we cannot obtain in all places the supplies that we desire. Dimension stone, flint, rubble, burnt or unburnt brick,—use them as you find them. For it is not every neighbourhood or particular locality that can have a wall built of burnt brick like that at Babylon, where there was plenty of asphalt to take the place of lime and sand, and yet possibly each may be provided with materials of equal usefulness so that out of them a faultless wall may be built to last forever. (English translation by Morris Hicky Morgan, 1914))

De ipso autem muro, e qua materia struatur aut perficiatur, ideo non est praefiniendum, quod in omnibus locis, quas optamus copias, eas non possumus habere. sed ubi sunt saxa quadrata sive silex seu caementum aut coctus later sive crudus, his erit utendum. non enim, uti Babylone abundantes liquido bitumine pro calce et harena ex cocto latere factum habent murum, sic item possunt omnes regiones seu locorum proprietates habere tantas eiusdem generis utilitates, uti ex his comparationibus ad aeternitatem perfectus habeatur sine vitio murus.

And again Vitruvius: Book VIII cap. 3, 8:

In Babylon, a lake of very great extent, called Lake Asphaltitis, has liquid asphalt swimming on its surface, with which asphalt and with burnt brick Semiramis built the wall surrounding Babylon. At Jaffa in Syria and among the Nomads in Arabia, are lakes of enormous size that yield very large masses of asphalt, which are carried off by the inhabitants thereabouts. (English (Morris Hicky Morgan, 1914))

Babylone lacus amplissima magnitudine, qui λίμνη ἀσφάλτιτις appellatur, habet supra natans liquidum bitumen; quo bitumine et latere testaceo structum murum Samiramis circumdedit Babyloni. item Iope in Syria Arabiaque Nomadum lacus sunt inmani magnitudine, qui emittunt bituminis maximas moles, quas diripiunt qui habitant circa.

Small digression: it is very known in the ancient world that the walls of Babylon were made with fired brick is something very present in the ancient world; by way of example I cite that  the satirical Roman poet Juvenal, who lived in the second half of the first century and the first of II AD,  refers to it in connection with the entry of Alexander the Great in Babylon sick unto death. He says in Satire 10, 169 et seq.

One globe is all too little for the youth of Pella; he chafes uneasily within the narrow limits of the world, as though he were cooped up within the rocks of Gyara or the diminutive Seriphos; but yet when once he shall have entered the city fortified by the potter's art, a sarcophagus will suffice him! Death alone proclaims how small are our poor human bodies! ([Translated by G. G. Ramsay])

Unus Pellaeo iuveni non sufficit orbis;
aestuat infelix angusto limite mundi
170ut Gyarae clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho;
cum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem,
sarcophago contentus erit. mors sola fatetur
quantula sint hominum corpuscula.

Pliny refers extensively to the asphalt or bitumen; at another time I will comment it. On the subject that interests us, he tells us in Natural History, 35, 51.5

It has been used, too, as a substitute for lime; the walls of Babylon, for instance, which are cemented with it. (Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. 1855)

calcis quoque usum praebuit ita feruminatis Babylonis muris.

Well, Philostratus of Athens (160 / 70-249) wrote an interesting biography of Apollonius of Tyana, which is more like a novel, or rather he wrote a novel that seems a biography. In this work information and certain details are mixed with elements of the unbridled fantasy in harmony. Apollonius decided to travel to India and went through Babylon, describing it in some detail.

Philostratus of Athens, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, book I,25:

I FOUND the following to be an account of the sage's stay in Babylon, and of all we need to know about Babylon. The fortifications of Babylon extend 480 stadia and form a complete circle, and its wall is three half plethrons high, but less than a plethron  in breadth. And it is cut asunder by the river Euphrates, into halves of similar shape; and there passes underneath the river an extraordinary bridge which joins together by an unseen passage the palaces on either bank. For it is said that a woman, Medea, was formerly queen of those parts, who spanned the river underneath in a manner in which no river was ever bridged before; for she got stones, it is said, and copper and pitch and all that men have discovered for use in masonry under water, and she piled these up along the banks of the river. Then she diverted the stream into lakes; and as soon as the river was dry, she dug down two fathoms, and made a hollow tunnel, which she caused to debouch into the palaces on either bank like a subterranean grotto; and she roofed it on a level with the bed of the stream. The foundations were thus made stable, and also the walls of the tunnel; but as the pitch required water in order to set as hard as stone, the Euphrates was let in again on the roof while still soft, and so the junction stood solid. (Translation by F.C Conybeare, 1912)

Note: A plethrons is equivalent to 29.6 m. These measures of perimeter and thickness are very close to these of Herodotus, I, 178: 480 stadia for the perimeter and 50 royal cubits (about 25 m) thick, but the height that Herodotus gives, 200 royal cubits (about 100 m ) is more than twice this one of Philostratus.

Herodotus tells us on I, 178- 179:

When Cyrus had made all the mainland submit to him, he attacked the Assyrians. In Assyria there are many other great cities, but the most famous and the strongest was Babylon, where the royal dwelling had been established after the destruction of Ninus (Ninnive). Babylon was a city such as I will now describe. It lies in a great plain, and is in shape a square, each side fifteen miles in length; thus sixty miles make the complete circuit of the city. Such is the size of the city of Babylon; and it was planned like no other city of which we know.  Around it runs first a moat deep and wide and full of water, and then a wall eighty three feet thick and three hundred thirty three feet high. The royal measure is greater by three fingers' breadth than the common measure.
Further, I must relate where the earth was used as it was dug from the moat and how the wall was constructed. As they dug the moat, they made bricks of the earth which was carried out of the place they dug, and when they had moulded bricks enough, they baked them in ovens; then using hot bitumen for cement and interposing layers of wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of bricks, they built first the border of the moat and then the wall itself in the same fashion. On the top, along the edges of the wall, they built houses of a single room, facing each other, with space enough between to drive a four-horse chariot. There are a hundred gates in the circuit of the wall, all of bronze, with posts and lintels of the same. There is another city, called Is,1 eight days' journey from Babylon, where there is a little river, also named Is, a tributary of the Euphrates river; from the source of this river Is, many lumps of bitumen rise with the water; and from there the bitumen was brought for the wall of Babylon.  (English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.)

Herodotus goes on to describe the city and the impressive refurbishment which I will comment on at another time. But I want to reproduce  what he tells us in chapter 186 which is a significant variation in what Philostratus told us, but they are not necessary  two contradictory version but opposed; after all, if the tunnels were secret, they did not must to be known by all of the world:

CLXXXVI
So she made the deep river her protection; and this work led to another which she added to it. Her city was divided into two parts by the river that flowed through the middle. In the days of the former rulers, when one wanted to go from one part to the other, one had to cross in a boat; and this, I suppose, was a nuisance. But the queen also provided for this; she made another monument of her reign out of this same work when the digging of the basin of the lake was done.

She had very long blocks of stone cut; and when these were ready and the place was dug, she turned the course of the river into it, and while it was filling, the former channel now being dry, she bricked the borders of the river in the city and the descent from the gate leading down to the river with baked bricks, like those of the wall; and near the middle of the city she built a bridge with the stones that had been dug up, binding them together with iron and lead.

Each morning, she laid square-hewn logs across it, on which the Babylonians crossed; but these logs were removed at night, lest folk always be crossing over and stealing from one another.

Then, when the basin she had made for a lake was filled by the river and the bridge was finished, Nitocris brought the Euphrates back to its former channel out of the lake; thus she had served her purpose, as she thought, by making a swamp of the basin, and her citizens had a bridge made for them.  (English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920).

Strabo, who lived between 64 and 63. C. and 19 or 24 d. C., has also given us an interesting description of Babylon in Book 16, 2

….His wife, who succeeded her husband, and founded Babylon, was Semiramis. These sovereigns were masters of Asia. Many other works of Semiramis, besides those at Babylon, are extant in almost every part of this continent, as, for example, artificial mounds, which are called mounds of Semiramis, and walls7 and fortresses, with subterraneous passages; cisterns for water; roads8 to facilitate the ascent of mountains; canals communicating with rivers and lakes; roads and bridges. (The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.)

And soon after, he makes us a complete description of Babylon, that I reproduce partly, in the Book 16, chap. 5:

Babylon itself also is situated in a plain. The wall is 38518 stadia in circumference, and 32 feet in thickness. The height of the space between the towers is 50, and of the towers 60 cubits. The roadway upon the walls will allow chariots with four horses when they meet to pass each other with ease. Whence, among the seven wonders of the world, are reckoned this wall and the hanging garden: the shape of the garden is a square, and each side of it measures four plethra. It consists of vaulted terraces, raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted. The pillars, the vaults, and the terraces are constructed of baked brick and asphalt.

The ascent to the highest story is by stairs, and at their side are water engines, by means of which persons, appointed expressly for the purpose, are continually employed in raising water from the Euphrates into the garden. For the river, which is a stadium in breadth, flows through the middle of the city, and the garden is on the side of the river. The tomb also of Belus is there. At present it is in ruins, having been demolished, as it is said, by Xerxes. It was a quadrangular pyramid of baked brick, a stadium in height, and each of the sides a stadium in length. Alexander intended to repair it. It was a great undertaking, and required a long time for its completion (for ten thousand men were occupied two months in clearing away the mound of earth), so that he was not able to execute what he had attempted, before disease hurried him rapidly to his end. None of the persons who succeeded him attended to this undertaking; other works also were neglected, and the city was dilapidated, partly by the Persians, partly by time, and, through the indifference of the Macedonians to things of this kind, particularly after Seleucus Nicator had fortified Seleucia on the Tigris near Babylon, at the distance of about 300 stadia. Both this prince and all his successors directed their care to that city, and transferred to it the seat of empire. At present it is larger than Babylon; the other is in great part deserted, so that no one would hesitate to apply to it what one of the comic writers said of Megalopolitæ in Arcadia, “‘The great city is a great desert.’” (The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.)

All of this certainly impresses us, but especially the ingenuity to build a waterproof tunnel under the river. Indeed, this technique of tunneling opencast is still used today where it is easier than underground drilling. Similarly it is used for waterproofing terraces and roofs of buildings the called "roofing felt", which is nothing but a modern version of the ancient Mesopotamian bitumen or asphalt.

The post A tunnel in Babylon under the River Euphrates appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

An episode often used in art and in ancient literature is the abduction or raptus of Hylas by Nymphs, goddesses of waters:

Hylas is a member of the expedition of the Argonauts to search  the Golden Fleece; at some point, they have made landfall in the country Cio for the night; Hylax goes to fetch water for dinner; Nymphs of the river, loved by the young warrior,  kidnapped and immersed him in water; his companions, especially his friend Hercules captivated by her beauty, come to look for, but they do not found him; the ship continues its course, leaving Hercules to land, who then walk to Colchis; Later they will know the truth of what happened; Hylas, kidnapped by the Nymphs, had become a divine being.

This myth of the Nymphs, Ondinas, Naiad, Nereids, dancing in the water where they live or in nearby meadows, and snatching mortals who have the misfortune of seeing them, has even reached our time in beliefs or folklore, such as the Asturian Xanas in Spain..

The myth already appears in the literature of V century BC and it is popular in the Hellenistic period. They are well known in the versions of Theocritus Idyll XIII and in Apollonius of Rhodes in the Argonautica. Interestingly it does not appear in the paintings of the attics or Sicilian Greek vases.

I reproduce the version of Theocritus and leave  to the end of the article the very large and interesting version of Apollonius to ease the text.

Theocritus, Idyl XIII. Hylas

From what god soever sprung, Nicias, Love was not, as we seem to think, born for us alone; nor first unto us of mortal flesh that cannot see the morrow, look things of beauty beautiful. For Amphitryon’s brazen-heart son that braved the roaring lion, he too once loved a lad, to wit the beauteous Hylas of the curly locks, and even as father his son, had taught him all the lore that made himself a good man and brought him fame; and would never leave him, neither if Day had risen to the noon, nor when Dawn’s white steeds first galloped up in to the home of Zeus, nor yet when the twittering chickens went scurrying at the flapping of their mother’s wings to their bed upon the smoky hen-roost. This did he that he might have the lad fashioned to his mind, and that pulling a straight furrow from the outset the same might come to be a true man.

Now when Jason son of Aeson was to go to fetch the Golden Fleece with his following of champions that were chosen of the best out of all the cities in the land, then came there with them to the rich Iolcus the great man of toil who was son of the high-born Alcmena of Midea, and went down with Hylas at his side to that good ship Argo, even to her that speeding ungrazed clean through the blue Clappers, ran into Phasis bay as an eagle into a great gulf whereafter those Clappers have stood still, reefs ever more.

And at the rising of the Pleiads, what time of the waning spring the young lambs find pasture in the uplands, then it was that that divine flower of hero-folk was minded of its voyaging, and taking seat in the Argo’s hull came after two days’ blowing of the Southwind to the Hellespont, and made haven within Propontis at the spot where furrow is broadened and share brightened by the oxen of the Cianians. Being gone forth upon the strand, as for their supper they were making it ready thwart by thwart; but one couch was strown them for all, for they found to their hand a meadow that furnished good store of litter, and thence did cut them taper rushes and tall bedstraw.

Meanwhile the golden-haired Hylas was gone to bring water against supper for his own Heracles and for the valiant Telamon – for they two did ever eat together at a common board – bone with a brazen ewer. Ere long he espied a spring; in a hollow it lay, whereabout there grew many herbs, as well blue swallow-wort and fresh green maidenhair as blooming parsley and tangled deergrass. Now in the midst of the water there was a dance of the Nymphs afoot, of those Nymphs who, like the water, take no rest, those Nymphs who are the dread Goddesses of the country-folk, Eunica to wit and Malis and Nycheia with the springtime eyes. And there, when the lad put forth the capacious pitcher in haste to dip it in, lo! with one accord they all clung fast to his arm, because love of the young Argive had fluttered all their render breasts. And down he sank into the black water headlong, as when a falling star will sink headlong in the main and a mariner cry to his shipmates ‘Hoist away, my lads; the breeze freshens.’ Then took the Nymphs the weeping lad upon their knees and offered him comfort of gentle speech.

Meantime the son of Amphitryon was grown troubled for the child, and gone forth with that bow of his that was bent Scythian-wise and the cudgel that was ever in the grasp of his right hand. Thrice cried he on Hylas as loud as his deep throttle could belch sound; thrice likewise did the child make answer, albeit his voice came thin from the water and he that was hard by seemed very far away. When a fawn cries in the hills, some ravening lion will speed from his lair to get him a meal so ready; and even so went Heracles wildly to and fro amid the pathless brake, and covered much country because of his longing for the child. As lovers know no flinching, so endless was the toil of his wandering by wood and wold, and all Jason’s business was but a by-end. And all the while the ship stood tackle aloft, and so far as might be, laden, and the heroes passed thee night a-clearing of the channel, waiting upon Heracles. But he alas! was running whithersoever his feet might carry him, in a frenzy, the god did rend so cruelly the heart within him.

Thus came fairest Hylas to be numbered of the Blest, and the heroes to gird at Heracles for a deserter because he wandered and left the good ship of the thirty thwarts. Nevertheless he made the inhospitable land of the Colchians afoot.  (Translated by J.M. Edmonds)

They are numerous texts and ancient references to this myth; I reproduce any of them:

Apollonius of Rhodes tells us in the Argonautica, I, 1171-1357: I reproduce it at the end of this article. It is a very interesting text that gives a slightly different version.

Virgil makes a quick reference to it on the Eclogue VI, 40 et seq .:

Hinc lapides Pyrrhae iactos, Saturnia regna,
Caucasiasque refert volucres, furtumque Promethei:
his adiungit, Hylan nautae quo fonte relictum
clamassent, ut litus “Hyla, Hyla!” omne sonaret.

Then sang he of the stones by Pyrrha cast,
of Saturn's reign, and of Prometheus' theft,
and the Caucasian birds, and told withal
nigh to what fountain by his comrades left
the mariners cried on Hylas till the shore
then re-echoed “Hylas, Hylas!”
(English (J. B. Greenough, 1895)

Ovid also on Ars amandi, II,110

Sis licet antiquo Nireus adamatus Homero,
      Naïadumque tener crimine raptus Hylas,
Ut dominam teneas, nec te mirere relictum,
     Ingenii dotes corporis adde bonis.

Though you should be Nireus,be praised by ancient Homer, and the charming Hylas, carried off by the criminality of the Naiads; that you may retain your mistress, and not have to wonder that you are deserted, add the endowments of the mind to the advantages of the person. (Translator: Henry T. Riley)

Propertius, inspired by Apolonius and Theocritus, writes the poem Elegies, I,20:

Hoc pro continuo te, Galle, monemus amore,
quod tibi ne vacuo defluat ex animo:
saepe imprudenti fortuna occurrit amanti:
crudelis Minyis sic erat Ascanius.
est tibi non infra specie, non nomine dispar,
Theiodamanteo proximus ardor Hylae:
huic tu, sive leges Umbrae rate flumina silvae,
sive Aniena tuos tinxerit unda pedes,
sive Gigantei spatiabere litoris ora,
sive ubicumque vago fluminis hospitio,
Nympharum semper cupidas defende rapinas
(non minor Ausoniis est amor Adryasin);
ne tibi sit duros montes et frigida saxa,
Galle, neque expertos semper adire lacus.
quae miser ignotis error perpessus in oris
Herculis indomito fleverat Ascanio.
namque ferunt olim Pagasae navalibus Argo
egressam longe Phasidos isse viam,
et iam praeteritis labentem Athamantidos undis
Mysorum scopulis applicuisse ratem.
hic manus heroum, placidis ut constitit oris,
mollia composita litora fronde tegit.
at comes invicti iuvenis processerat ultra
raram sepositi quaerere fontis aquam.
hunc duo sectati fratres, Aquilonia proles
(nunc superat Zetes, nunc superat Calais),
oscula suspensis instabant carpere plantis,
oscula et alterna ferre supina fuga.
ille sed extrema pendentes ludit in ala
et volucris ramo summovet insidias.
iam Pandioniae cessit genus Orithyiae:
ah dolor! ibat Hylas, ibat Hamadryasin.
hic erat Arganthi Pege sub vertice montis,
grata domus Nymphis umida Thyniasin,
quam supra nulli pendebant debita curae
roscida desertis poma sub arboribus,
et circum irriguo surgebant lilia prato
candida purpureis mixta papaveribus.
quae modo decerpens tenero pueriliter ungui
proposito florem praetulit officio,
et modo formosis incumbens nescius undis
errorem blandis tardat imaginibus.
tandem haurire parat demissis flumina palmis
innixus dextro plena trahens umero.
cuius ut accensae Dryades candore puellae
miratae solitos destituere choros
prolapsum et leviter facili traxere liquore,
tum sonitum rapto corpore fecit Hylas.
cui procul Alcides ter 'Hyla!' respondet: at illi
nomen ab extremis montibus aura refert.
his, o Galle, tuos monitus servabis amores,
formosum ni vis perdere rursus Hylan.

Addressed to Gallus

I make you this warning, Gallus, in favor of continuous love
(so that you don't lose your mind and forget):
Disaster often comes to the unsuspecting lover.
The cruel Ascanius made that plain to the Argonauts.
Your boy approximates Theiodamantean Hylas,
in appearance as much as in name.
So, whether you choose streams in shady woods,
or the Anio's wave touches your feet,
whether you stroll on the Gigantean coast's shore,
on the wandering welcome of the stream, wherever,
always be on the lookout for ravenous Nymphs' attacks on him
(love isn't weaker for Italian Hadryades).
Don't insist on trekking to hard mounts and
frigid rock, Gallus, or to unexplored lakes:
Hercules wept by the untameable Ascanius
when he came wandering to foreign shores.
They say the Argo set off from the port at Pagasa
to make the long journey to Colchis;
already the gliding raft has crossed the Hellespont's waves
and has come ashore on Mysian rocks.
Here, the band of heroes, standing on the calm shore,
covers a coast decorated in lush foliage.
But the unconquered youth's companion has gone
beyond, to seek fresh water from a hidden spring.
Two brothers follow him, Aquilonian seed,
Zetes is above him and above him Calais,
standing with hands poised to snatch kisses,
to smother him with kisses, one at a time.
He hangs beneath a high wing, hidden,
and shoos away the rapid pranksters with his stick.
Already the race of Pandionian Orithyia has ceased.
o for shame! Hylas was on his way, on his way to the Hamadryads.
He was in Pege, the wet abode favored by
the Thynian Nymphs, beneath the peak of Mount Arganthus.
Dewy fruit hung from wild trees,
product of no human labor,
and shining lilies flourished all over in the damp grass,
mixed with purple poppies.
Like a child, he'd pluck them with his delicate nail,
preferring the flower to his assigned duty.
And now, lying mindless near the beautiful water,
he prolongs his dallying with the lovely reflections.
At last, he prepares to draw water with cupped palms,
propped on his right arm, drinking his fill.
The Dryad nymphs are excited by his whiteness,
they break off their usual chorus and stare.
Lightly, they draw him, slipping, into the gentle water.
Then, his body caught, Hylas raises a shout.
Far off, Hercules sends a response, but the breeze
returns the name from distant mountains.
You've been warned, Gallus: protect your love.
You appear to have trusted your beautiful Hylas to the Nymphs.
(Vincent Katz. trans. Los Angeles. Sun & Moon Press. 1995.)

The version of Apollonius, which I reproduce below, inspired several poets of the Flavian period. Valerius Flaccus, III, 545-564; Martial VI, 68.9; VII, 15.1 to 1; IX, 65.14. Statius: Silvae, I, 5.22; III, 4, 42-43.

Valerius Flaccus Argonautica, III, 545-564:

So saying she puts up a swift hart through the trackless brushwood, all lofty-antlered, right in the lad’s path. By tardy flight and lengthy halt it challenges his ardour, and provokes him to content in speed of foot. Hylas adventures, and madly afire for so near a quarry, gives chase, while Alcides looking after him urges him on with cheering cry. And now both are out of sight, when as the boy presses on and with weary arm threatens a shot the stag leads him far onward to where a bright fountain gushes forth, and himself with light bound springs clear over the pool. Thus is the lad’s hope baffled nor is he fain to struggle farther; and since sweat had bathed his limbs sand labouring breast, he greedily sinks beside the pleasant stream. Even as the light that shifts and plays upon a lake, when Cynthia looks forth from heaven or the bright wheel of Phoebus in mid course passes by, so doth he shed a gleam upon the waters; he heeds not the shadow of the Nymph or her hair or the sound of her as she rises to embrace him. Greedily casting her arms about him, as he calls, alack! too late for help and utters the name of his mighty friend, she draws him down; for her strength is aided by his falling weight. (TRANSLATED BY J. H. MOZLEY )

sic ait et celerem frondosa per avia cervum
suscitat ac iuveni sublimem cornibus offert.
ille animos tardusque fugae longumque resistens
sollicitat suadetque pari contendere cursu.
credit Hylas praedaeque ferox ardore propinquae
insequitur; simul Alcides hortatibus urget
prospiciens; iamque ex oculis aufertur uterque,
cum puerum instantem quadripes fessaque minantem
tela manu procul ad nitidi spiracula fontis
ducit et intactas levis ipse superfugit undas.
hoc pueri spes lusa18 modo est, nec tendere certat
amplius; utque artus et concita pectora sudor
diluerat, gratos avidus procumbit ad amnes.19
stagna vaga sic luce micant, ubi Cynthia caelo
prospicit aut medii transit rota candida Phoebi:
tale iubar diffundit aquis; nil umbra comaeque
turbavitque sonus surgentis ad oscula Nymphae.
illa avidas iniecta manus heu sera cientem
auxilia et magni referentem nomen amici
detrahit; adiutae prono nam pondere vires.

Martial also makes reference to it on several occasions, for example in VI, 68

LXVIII. TO CASTRICUS, ON THE DEATH OF THE YOUNG EUTYCHUS.

Bewail your crime, you Naiads, bewail it through the whole Lucrine lake, and may Thetis herself hear your mourning! Eutychus, your sweet inseparable companion, Castricus, has been snatched away from you, and has perished amid the waters of Bais. He was the partner and kind consoler of all your cares: he was the delight, the Alexis, of our poet. Was it that the amorous nymph saw your charms exposed beneath the crystal waves, and thought that she was sending back Hylas to Hercules? Or has Salmacis at length left her effeminate Hermaphroditus, attracted by the embrace of a tender but vigorous youth? Whatever it may be, whatever the cause of a bereavement so sudden, may the earth and the water, I pray, be propitious to you. (anonymous translation published in the Bohn edition)

Flete nefas vestrum, sed toto flete Lucrino,
Naides, et luctus sentiat ipsa Thetis.
Inter Baianas raptus puer occidit undas
Eutychos ille, tuum, Castrice, dulce latus.
5Hic tibi curarum socius blandumque levamen,
Hic amor, hic nostri vatis Alexis erat.
Numquid te vitreis nudum lasciva sub undis
Vidit et Alcidae nympha remisit Hylan?
An dea femineum iam neglegit Hermaphroditum
10Amplexu teneri sollicitata viri?
Quidquid id est, subitae, quaecumque est causa rapinae,
Sit, precor, et tellus mitis et unda tibi.

Martial, VII,15

TO ARGYNNUS.

What boy is this that retreats from the sparkling waters of Ianthis, and flees from the Naiad their mistress? Is it Hylas? Well is it that Hercules is honoured in this wood, and that he so closely watches these waters. You may minister at these fountains, Argynnus, in security; the Nymphs will do you no harm; beware lest the guardian himself should wish to do so. (anonymous translation published in the Bohn edition)

Quis puer hic nitidis absistit Ianthidos undis?
Effugit dominam Naida numquid Hylas?
O bene, quod silva colitur Tirynthius ista
Et quod amatrices tam prope servat aquas!
Securus licet hos fontes, Argynne, ministres:
Nil facient Nymphae: ne velit ipse, cave.

Statius, Silvae, I,5,22

ite. deae virides, liquidosque advertite vultus
et vitreum teneris crimen redimite corymbis,
veste nihil tectae, quales emergitis altis
fontibus et visu Satyros torquetis amantes,
Non vos, quae culpa decus infamastis aquarum,
quae culpa decus infamastis aquarum. 3 4 [p. 60]
20sollicitare iuvat: procul hinc et fonte doloso
Salmacis et viduae Cebrenidos arida luctu
flumina et Herculei praedatrix cedat alumni,
vos mihi, quae Latium septenaque culmina, nymphae,
incolitis Thybrimque novis attollitis undis,
25quas praeceps Anien atque exceptura natatus
Virgo iuvat Marsasque nives et frigora ducens
Marcia, praecelsis quarum vaga molibus unda
crescit et innumero pendens transmittitur arcu—:

You, who with guilt have defamed the honour of the streams, I care not to solicit: far hence remove thou, O Salmacis, with thy deceiving fount, and the river of Cebrenis left forlorn, that grief made dry, and the ravisher of Hercules’ young ward!”But ye Nymphs who dwell in Latium and on the Seven Heights and make Thybris swell with your fresh waters, ye whom headlong Anio delights and the Maiden destined to welcome the swimmer, and Marcia that brings down the Marsian snow and cold, ye whose travelling waves flood through the lofty masonry and are carried high in air over countless arches- (Translated by J.H.Mozley. The Loeb Classical Library)

Statius  Silvae III, 4, 40 ss.

…     cedet tibi Latmius ultro 
Sangariusque puer quemque irrita fontis imago
et sterilis consumpsit amor. te caerula Nais
mallet et adprensa traxisset fortius urna.
tu, puer, ante omnis; solus formosior ille,
cui daberis.’ sic orsa leves secum ipsa per auras
tollit olorinaque iubet considere biga.

…Straightway will the Latmiam yield to thee, and the Sangarian youth,and he whom the fruitless image in the fountain and barren love consumed. The Nymph of the dark-blue water would have preferred thee,and grasped thy urn and drawn thee doen more boldly. Thou, boy,dost surpass them all; only he to whom I shall give thee is more beautiful. (Translated by J.H.Mozley. The Loeb Classical Library)

Although, as I said, this ground of Hylas does not appear in the paintings of Greek vases of Attica or Sicily, itself stucco reliefs instead it appears profusely in wall paintings, in stucco reliefs, in sculptural reliefs, on works of gold and especially in mosaics, which have been preserved better. All these representations are spread over several sites and appear between  the beginning of the empire and the V century, totaling no less than forty. Of course it was an oft-repeated theme in mosaics adorning the mansions of the rich men at the time. We found it in Italy, Africa, Hispania, Gaul...

There are more than fifteen in the vicinity of Pompeii and Herculaneum and Stabiae, (where especially  the murals paintings are ). Mosaics appear in Saint Colombe in France, in Thina in Carthage, Constantine and Djemila in Algeria, Volubilis in Morocco, at various points in Rome (Via Appia, Bassus Iunius Basilica, Via Flaminia at the tomb of the Nasoni). They appear sculptural reliefs, coins, etc.

That it was why the theme of pictures of some painters, we also deduct from Petronius in his Satyricon, 83, where a painting of the Greek painter Apelles with this motive is described, though it may well just be a literary creation without which there had been a painting about we know nothing more:

Petronius, Satyricon, 83:

I took a walk through all the public arcades and) entered a picture-gallery, which contained a wonderful collection of pictures in various styles. I beheld works from the hand of Zeuxis, still undimmed by the passage of the years, and contemplated, not without a certain awe, the crude drawings of Protogenes, which equalled the reality of nature herself; but when I stood before the work of Apelles, the kind which the Greeks call "Monochromatic," verily, I almost worshipped, for the outlines of the figures were drawn with such subtlety of touch, and were so life-like in their precision, that you would have thought their very souls were depicted. Here, an eagle was soaring into the sky bearing the shepherd of Mount Ida to heaven; there, the comely Hylas was struggling to escape from the embrace of the lascivious Naiad. Here, too, was Apollo, cursing his murderous hand and adorning his unstrung lyre with the flower just created. Standing among these lovers, which were only painted, "It seems that even the gods are wracked by love," I cried aloud, as if I were in a wilderness. "Jupiter could find none to his taste, even in his own heaven, so he had to sin on earth, but no one was betrayed by him! The nymph who ravished Hylas would have controlled her passion had she thought Hercules was coming to forbid it. Apollo recalled the spirit of a boy in the form of a flower, and all the lovers of Fable enjoyed Love's embraces without a rival, but I took as a comrade a friend more cruel than Lycurgus!" (translation by W. C. Firebaugh)

In pinacothecam perveni vario genere tabularum mirabilem. Nam et Zeuxidos manus vidi nondum vetustatis iniuria victas, et Protogenis rudimenta cum ipsius naturae veritate certantia non sine quodam horrore tractavi. Jam vero Apellis quam Graeci mon(kthmon appellant, etiam adoravi. Tanta enim subtilitate extremitates imaginum erant ad similitudinem praecisae, ut crederes etiam animorum esse picturam. Hinc aquila ferebat caelo sublimis Idaeum, illinc candidus Hylas repellebat improbam Naida. Damnabat Apollo noxias manus lyramque resolutam modo nato flore honorabat. Inter quos etiam pictorum amantium vultus tanquam in solitudine exclamavi: "Ergo amor etiam deos tangit. Iuppiter in caelo suo non invenit quod diligeret, sed peccaturus in terris nemini tamen iniuriam fecit. Hylan Nympha praedata temperasset amori suo, si venturum ad interdictum Herculem credidisset. Apollo pueri umbram revocavit in florem, et omnes fabulae quoque sine aemulo habuerunt complexus. At ego in societatem recepi hospitem Lycurgo crudeliorem."

The mosaics usually decorate the rooms according to what they represent. So it is logical that the Muses or Graces adorn spaces dedicated to literary or artistic delight,  that mosaics depicting hunting scenes decorate large salons of rich and idle landowners; that paintings or  referring to love mosaics decorate more intimate spaces, such as bedrooms.

The abduction of Hylas by the Nymphs has various interpretations. The most obvious, if not the only,  seems certainly the rapture of love; Hylas was abducted by the force of love, by passion. Moreover, on several occasions this theme appears along with other of certain similarity: Artemis and Actaeon, Pyramus and Thisbe, Amymone and Poseidon, Narcissus, nymphs and satyrs, Selene and Endymion, etc. This was a commonplace in antiquity, and the first apologists and church fathers, as I will say later,  criticize and often grouped them. Clearly, if the scene appears in a sarcophagus, it seems more logical to interpret as abduction by the gods after death, as the way of life to the world of the dead.

In his pictorial or musivarish   representation there are numerous variations, but also some iconographic and compositional unity, quasi fossilized: Hylas with the pitcher at  the banks of the river or lake, a fully bent knee, resting on a rock, while the other leg, stretched, is in the water, anticipating the time of the fall; the nymphs taking his arms, at other times  the legs or torso.                                                 

In Spain there have been found several mosaics depicting the myth in Los Villares, near the La Bañeza in Leon, in Carranque and in Italica.  I will devote specially my attention to this latter by its special features.

Mosaic Hylas and the Nymphs. Quintana del Marco (Provincial Archaeological Museum of León).

Roman Villa of Carranque (Toledo. Spain)

The  myth appears in Italica as the central emblem of a geometric mosaic of great dimension. It was first interpreted as the god Neptune or Neaereus;  later García Bellido then definitively identified it as the abduction of Hylas. In 1962 it was transferred to the Archaeological Museum of Seville, where it continues beeing.

Although the plane of the house in which it appears is not clear, it is certainly an area of some privacy, because it is not open to the peristyle, away from the meeting rooms, in the center of a large mosaic geometric meandering form swastikas, perhaps in the entrance area to the bedrooms or cubicula. This would support its erotic-romantic interpretation.

In this mosaic of Italica the central iconographic motif is the abduction of Hylas. On the left they appear three nymphs, who grip the hero, who appears naked with chlamys, spear and amphora or jar to collect water. On the right the male figure of Heracles appears with raised right arm and mantle and mace on the left. By setting background gloom and dark tones (the myth takes place in a forest at dusk), by the water delicately suggested, the trees stripped of leaves and the arrangement of the characters, this mosaic seems to be the the transposition of a pictorial model that on turn follows a Hellenistic model. The composition is very dramatic: the three nymphs, Hylas about to disappear in the water, on the other side Heracles alarmed when it is  supposed that Hylas is dipping immediately.  Like  some Pompeian paintings and unlike most paintings, the figure of Hylas is not centered. As in almost all tiles, it is represented with a bent knee on a rock and the other leg  over the water. Commentators often noted as the most outstanding feature the appearance of Heracles, who usually does not appear in either, except in Italica, because they focus on the essential motive of the myth: the rapture.

However there are an exceptional detail that is not highlighted. Generally the Nymphs grab arms, legs and even the chest or torso of Hylas. In this mosaic, exceptionally, one of the nymphs just grabs his penis, which supports the erotic-festive interpretation.

I do not know another similar representation. If this is a unique case, we should perhaps relate it to the old and extraordinary sense of humor that the southern lands of Hispania had already developed when it was not yet called Andalusia but Baetica.

So it's incomprehensible the prudery of the Archaeological Museum of Seville which reproduces it in a souvenir postcard or merchanding, but only from the waist up. But putting some doors in Andalusia seems a meaningless and impossible task.

The myth has obvious erotic sense and that explains that often and as in the case of Italica, these mosaics appear far from the central colonnade of Roman houses and at rather more hidden area, often at the entrances to cubiculum or bedroom. It confirms this erotic sense that also it appears often associated with other myths, both literary texts as pictorial representations or “musivaria” representations, such as the abduction of Ganymede ("the most beautiful of mortals" according Iliad, XX, 231) by Jupiter, Hyacinth, accidentaly  killed by Apollo, Actaeon watching Diana in the bath, Narcissus reflecting his beautiful face in the water, with a similar result as Hylas …

Some Christian writers  found already that Ganymede, Hyacinth and Hylas agreed that they aroused the gay character in the gods (Hylas, although kidnapped by the Nymphs, was loved by Hercules).

Clement of Alexandria says so in Protrepticus II, 33.5:

Heracles is the son of Zeus, begotten in this long night. And a true son he is; for long and weary as the time was in which he accomplished his twelve labours, yet in a single night he corrupted the fifty daughters of Thestius, becoming at once bridegroom and adulterer to all these maidens. Not without reason, then, do the poets dub him “abandoned” and “doer of evil deeds.” It would be a long story to relate his varied adulteries and his corruption of boys. For your gods did not abstain from boys. One [Heracles] loved Hylas, another [Apollo] Hyacinthus, another [Poseidon] Chrysippus, another [Zeus] Ganymedes. These are the gods your wives are to worship! Such they must pray for their own husbands to be, similar models of virtue, – that they may be like the gods by aspiring after equally high ideals! Let these be they whom your boys are trained to reverence, in order that they may grow to manhood with the gods ever before them as a manifest pattern of fornication! But perhaps in the case of the gods, it is the males only who rush eagerly after sexual delights while. (Translated by Butterworth, G W. Loeb Classical Library Volume 92. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Universrity Press. 1919.)

Also Firmicus Maternus says on  De errore profanarum religionum 12,2;

Adulterio delectatur aliquis: Iovem respicit, et inde cupiditatis suae fomenta conquirit; Probat imitatur et laudat, quod deus sus in cygno fallit, in tauro rapit ludit in satyro, et ut liberalis in flagitiis esse consuescat, quod inclusam regiam virginem auro largiter fluente corruperit. Puerorum aliquis delectatur amplexibus: Ganymedem in sinu Iovis quaerat, Herculem videat Hylam impatiente amore quaerentem, Hyacinthi desiderio captum Apollinem discat, Chrysippum alius, alius  Pelopem videat, ut per deos suos sibi licere dicat quicquid hodie severissime Romanis legibus vindicatur.

One person is fond of adultery; well, he cats a glance at Jupiter and in that quarter finds encouragement for his passion. He approves, imitates, and glorifies the fact that his god was a deceiver in the shape of a swan, a kidnaper in the of a bull, a hoaxer in the shape of a satyr, and (as if fain to cultivate the habit of generosity –but for debauched purposes) a briber who corrupted with with lavishly flowing gold the princess maiden pent. Another person is fond of the embraces of boys: well,let him look for Ganymede in Jupiter’s bosom, let him see Hercules questing after Hylas with the impatience of love, let him learn how Apollo was overcome with desire for Hyacinthus, let someone else look at the case of Crhysippus,and another at that of Pelops, so that he may declare that his gods authorize him to do whatever is todfay most severely punished by the laws of Rome.  (Firmicus Maternus: The Error of the Pagan Religions Translator Clarence A. Forbes.Edit. Paulister Press, 1970)

Also Arnobius on Seven Books against the Heathen (Adversus Nationes),  IV,26,10.

Quid quod non contenti feminei generis adtribuisse diis curas etiam sexus adiungitis adamatos ab his mares? Hylam nescio quis diligit, Hyacintho est alius occupatus, ille Pelopis desideriis flagrat, hic in Chrysippum suspirat ardentius, Catamitus rapitur deliciarum futurus et poculorum custos, et ut Iovis dicatur pullus, in partibus Fabius aduritur mollibus obsignaturque posticis..

Moreover, not content to have ascribed to the gods love of women, do you also say that they lusted after men? Some one loves Hylas; another is engaged with Hyacinthus; that one burns with desire for Pelops; this one sighs more ardently for Chrysippus; Catamitus is carried off to be a favourite and cup-bearer; and Fabius, that he may be called Jove's darling, is branded on the soft parts, and marked in the hinder. (Trans. Christian Classics Ethereal Library (English ed.). IntraText Digital Library.)

And Lucian of Samosata, on The true History II,17

And I saw Socrates son of Sophroniscus in converse with Nestor and Palamedes; clustered round him were Hyacinth the Spartan, Narcissus of Thespiae, Hylas, and many another comely boy. With Hyacinth I suspected that he was in love; at least he was for ever poking questions at him. (ranslated by Fowler, H W and F G. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1905).

Otherwise the myth has had and continues to have a remarkable success to this day. No doubt the beautiful men also occupy the imagination and dreams of women.

In this blog I do not usually use images, especially in an abusive manner; at this time I reproduce numerous after the text of Apollonius to demonstrate the strength and vigor that this myth has to this day.

Apollonius of Rhodes, The Argonautica, I, 1200-1357:

Meantime Hylas with pitcher of bronze in hand had gone apart from the throng, seeking the sacred flow of a fountain, that he might be quick in drawing water for the evening meal and actively make all things ready in due order against his lord's return. For in such ways did Heracles nurture him from his first childhood when he had carried him off from the house of his father, goodly Theiodamas, whom the hero pitilessly slew among the Dryopians because he withstood him about an ox for the plough. Theiodamas was cleaving with his plough the soil of fallow land when he was smitten with the curse; and Heracles bade him give up the ploughing ox against his will. For he desired to find some pretext for war against the Dryopians for their bane, since they dwelt there reckless of right. But these tales would lead me far astray from my song. And quickly Hylas came to the spring which the people who dwell thereabouts call Pegae. And the dances of the nymphs were just now being held there; for it was the care of all the nymphs that haunted that lovely headland ever to hymn Artemis in songs by night. All who held the mountain peaks or glens, all they were ranged far off guarding the woods; but one, a water-nymph was just rising from the fair-flowing spring; and the boy she perceived close at hand with the rosy flush of his beauty and sweet grace. For the full moon beaming from the sky smote him. And Cypris made her heart faint, and in her
confusion she could scarcely gather her spirit back to her. But as soon as he dipped the pitcher in the stream, leaning to one side, and the brimming water rang loud as it poured against the sounding bronze,
straightway she laid her left arm above upon his neck yearning to kiss
his tender mouth; and with her right hand she drew down his elbow, and
plunged him into the midst of the eddy.

Alone of his comrades the hero Polyphemus, son of Eilatus, as he went forward on the path, heard the boy's cry, for he expected the return of mighty Heracles. And he rushed after the cry, near Pegae, like some beast of the wild wood whom the bleating of sheep has reached from afar, and burning with hunger he follows, but does not fall in with the flocks; for the shepherds beforehand have penned them in the fold, but he groans and roars vehemently until he is weary.

Thus vehemently at that time did the son of Eilatus groan and wandered
shouting round the spot; and his voice rang piteous. Then quickly
drawing his great sword he started in pursuit, in fear lest the boy
should be the prey of wild beasts, or men should have lain in ambush for him faring all alone, and be carrying him off, an easy prey. Hereupon as he brandished his bare sword in his hand he met Heracles himself on the path, and well he knew him as he hastened to the ship through the darkness. And straightway he told the wretched calamity while his heart laboured with his panting breath.

"My poor friend, I shall be the first to bring thee tidings of bitter woe. Hylas has gone to the well and has not returned safe, but robbers have attacked and are carrying him off, or beasts are tearing him to pieces; I heard his cry."

Thus he spake; and when Heracles heard his words, sweat in abundance poured down from his temples and the black blood boiled beneath his heart. And in wrath he hurled the pine to the ground and hurried along the path whither his feet bore on his impetuous soul. And as when a bull stung by a gadfly tears along, leaving the meadows and the marsh land, and recks not of herdsmen or herd, but presses on, now without cheek, now standing still, and raising his broad neck he bellows
loudly, stung by the maddening fly; so he in his frenzy now would ply
his swift knees unresting, now again would cease from toil and shout
afar with loud pealing cry.

But straightway the morning star rose above the topmost peaks and the breeze swept down; and quickly did Tiphys urge them to go aboard and avail themselves of the wind. And they embarked eagerly forthwith; and they drew up the ship's anchors and hauled the ropes astern. And the sails were bellied out by the wind, and far from the coast were they joyfully borne past the Posideian headland. But at the hour when gladsome dawn shines from heaven, rising from the east, and the paths stand out clearly, and the dewy plains shine with a bright gleam, then at length they were aware that unwittingly they had abandoned those men. And a fierce quarrel fell upon them, and violent tumult, for that they had sailed and left behind the bravest of their comrades. And Aeson's son, bewildered by their hapless plight, said never a word, good or bad; but sat with his heavy load of grief, eating out his heart. And wrath seized Telamon, and thus he spake:

"Sit there at thy ease, for it was fitting for thee to leave Heracles behind; from thee the project arose, so that his glory throughout Hellas should not overshadow thee, if so be that heaven grants us a return home. But what pleasure is there in words? For I will go, I only, with none of thy comrades, who have helped thee to plan this
treachery."

He spake, and rushed upon Tiphys son of Hagnias; and his eyes sparkled like flashes of ravening flame. And they would quickly have turned back to the land of the Mysians, forcing their way through the deep sea and the unceasing blasts of the wind, had not the two sons of Thracian Boreas held back the son of Aeacus with harsh words. Hapless
ones, assuredly a bitter vengeance came upon them thereafter at the
hands of Heracles, because they stayed the search for him. For when they were returning from the games over Pelias dead he slew them in sea-girt Tenos and heaped the earth round them, and placed two columns above, one of which, a great marvel for men to see, moves at the breath of the blustering north wind. These things were thus to be accomplished in after times. But to them appeared Glaucus from the depths of the sea, the wise interpreter of divine Nereus, and raising aloft his shaggy head and chest from his waist below, with sturdy hand he seized the ship's keel, and then cried to the eager crew:

"Why against the counsel of mighty Zeus do ye purpose to lead bold Heracles to the city of Aeetes? At Argos it is his fate to labour for insolent Eurystheus and to accomplish full twelve toils and dwell with the immortals, if so be that he bring to fulfilment a few more yet; wherefore let there be no vain regret for him. Likewise it is destined for Polyphemus to found a glorious city at the mouth of Cius among the Mysians and to fill up the measure of his fate in the vast land of the Chalybes. But a goddess-nymph through love has made Hylas her husband, on whose account those two wandered and were left behind."

He spake, and with a plunge wrapped him about with the restless wave; and round him the dark water foamed in seething eddies and dashed against the hollow ship as it moved through the sea. And the heroes rejoiced, and Telamon son of Aeacus came in haste to Jason, and
grasping his hand in his own embraced him with these words:

"Son of Aeson, be not wroth with me, if in my folly I have erred, for grief wrought upon me to utter a word arrogant and intolerable. But let me give my fault to the winds and let our hearts be joined as before."

Him the son of Aeson with prudence addressed: "Good friend, assuredly with an evil word didst thou revile me, saying before them all that I was the wronger of a kindly man. But not for long will I nurse bitter wrath, though indeed before I was grieved. For it was not for flocks of sheep, no, nor for possessions that thou wast angered to fury, but for a man, thy comrade. And I were fain thou wouldst even champion me against another man if a like thing should ever befall me."

He spake, and they sat down, united as of old. But of those two, by the counsel of Zeus, one, Polyphemus son of Eilatus, was destined to found and build a city among the Mysians bearing the river's name, and the other, Heracles, to return and toil at the labours of Eurystheus. And he threatened to lay waste the Mysian land at once, should they not discover for him the doom of Hylas, whether living or dead. And for him they gave pledges choosing out the noblest sons of the people and took an oath that they would never cease from their labour of
search. Therefore to this day the people of Cius enquire for Hylas the
son of Theiodamas, and take thought for the well-built Trachis. For
there did Heracles settle the youths whom they sent from Cius as pledges.

And all day long and all night the wind bore the ship on, blowing fresh and strong; but when dawn rose there was not even a breath of air. And they marked a beach jutting forth from a bend of the coast, very broad to behold, and by dint of rowing came to land at sunrise. (Translation by Seaton, R.C.: "Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica" (Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1912).

Pompeya VII, 4, 62. Museo Nazionale di Napoli

In the northern Greek city of Amphipolis

Saint Colombe (France). Museum of Grenoble.  3rd. century

Opus sectile. From the Basílica of Iunius Bassus on the Esquiline Hill

Tor Bella Monaca. Museo Nazionale Romano

Constantine Museum.

Djemila (Argelia) Museum of Djemila

Pietro Santo Bartoli (1635-1700): Hylas A Nymphis Raptus (Hylas Captured by the Nymphs), after Giulio Romano Engraver

Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844)-Hylas and the Water Nymphs-Thorvaldsens Museum

Carl Ferdinand Sohn, 1805-1867- Der Raub Des Hylas

Hylas and the Nymphs (1896) by John William Waterhouse

Victorian Sculpture

Duncan Grant (1885-1978

Hylas and the Nymphs- Karl Bryullov, 1827

According to the above

Hylas stolen by the Nymphs, from an antique painting by Santi Bartoli-Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Henrietta Rae (1859–1928)

Hylas And The Water Nymps. by David Neaves

James Stenhouse

Hylas and the Water Nymphs by Edouard Theophile Blanchard

HYLAS RESCUED FROM THE RIVER BY THE NYMPHS' (31), by Joshua Cristall, (1767-1847) in the East Anteroom at Attingham Park

by doomed-echo

by RevolverWinds

ECLECTICLANZ – Artwork

Atley Loughridge as Dyrope and Justin Blanchard as Hylas in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Argonautika, written and directed by Mary Zimmerman. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Hylas and the Nymphs by KatiaST

http://antidepresivo.net/wp-content/…ylasNymphs.jpg

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We are witnessing these days the plundering which subjects  territories archaeologically rich like Syria or Iraq exploiting the violence of war. Egypt  is being systematically for hundreds of years. It has always been the same since the "homo Necans", "the man who kills",  discovered his capacity for violence with his peers. All lavish museums of the civilized Europe are filled with the fruit  of war and colonial plunder. This is well known and well painful.

In the Antiquity wars were so frequent and destructive as today and  examples of destruction and looting of art are well numerous. I will quote two or three texts which show the insensitivity of Roman  "Legionnaire"  against Greek art, which is systematically plundered.

Perhaps the most famous case of destruction of an immense cultural either the award of the burning of the Library of Alexandria by the army of Julius Caesar in 48 or 47 BC in Caesar's war with Ptolemy XIII, Cleopatra's brother. Actually the confusion of texts and subsequent survival of the Library does not reveal it to be burned and destroyed the Library as such; it seems rather that the fire was confined to papyrus scrolls packages prepared in the docks for export, which was part of the economic strength of Alexandria. See http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/destruction-of-library-of-alexandria

But it is very curious  what happened in the conquest of Greece by the Romans. Corinth is one of the most famous ancient cities by their artistic creativity. Its bronze figures and  objects are desired and demanded across the ancient world. Corinth was conquered and sacked by the Romans in 146 BC. Well, the texts I reproduce are very significant of the valuation of the  masterpiece of art by professionals of militia and army.

Strabo, Geography, 8.6.23

The Corinthians, when subject to Philip, espoused his party very zealously, and individually conducted themselves so contemptuously towards the Romans, that persons ventured to throw down filth upon their ambassadors, when passing by their houses. They were immediately punished for these and other offences and insults. A large army was sent out under the commaud of Lucius Mummius, who razed the city.1 The rest of the country, as far as Macedonia, was subjected to the Romans under different generals. The Sicyonii, however, had the largest part of the Corinthian territory. 

Polybius relates with regret what occurred at the capture of the city, and speaks of the indifference the soldiers showed for works of art, and the sacred offerings of the temples. He says, that he was present, and saw pictures thrown upon the ground, and soldiers playing at dice upon them. Among others, he specifies by name the picture of Bacchus2 by Aristeides, (to which it is said the proverb was applied, ‘Nothing to the Bacchus,’) and Hercules tortured in the robe, the gift of Deïaneira.

3  This I have not myself seen, but I have seen the picture of the Bacchus suspended in the Demetreium at Rome, a very beautiful piece of art, which, together with the temple, was lately consumed by fire. The greatest number and the finest of the other offerings in Rome were brought from Corinth. Some of them were in the possession of the cities in the neighbourhood of Rome. For Mummius being more brave and generous than an admirer of the arts, presented them without hesitation to those who asked for them.4 Lucullus, having built the temple of Good Fortune, and a portico, requested of Mummius the use of some statues, under the pretext of ornamenting the temple with them at the time of its dedication, and promised to restore them. He did not, however, restore, but presented them as sacred offerings, and told Mummius to take them away if he pleased. Mummius did not resent this conduct, not caring about the statues, but obtained more honour than Lucullus, who presented them as sacred offerings.

Corinth remained a long time deserted, till at length it was restored on account of its natural advantages by divus Cæsar, who sent colonists thither, who consisted, for the most part, of the descendants of free-men.  On moving the ruins, and digging open the sepulchres, an abundance of works in pottery with figures on them, and many in brass, were found. The workmanship was admired, and all the sepulchres were examined with the greatest care. Thus was obtained a large quantity of things, which were disposed of at a great price, and Rome filled with Necro- Corinthia, by which name were distinguished the articles taken out of the sepulchres, and particularly the pottery. At first these latter were held in as much esteem as the works of the Corinthian artists in brass, but this desire to have them did not continue, not only because the supply failed, but because the greatest part of them were not well executed.

5 The city of Corinth was large and opulent at all periods, and produced a great number of statesmen and artists. For here in particular, and at Sicyon, flourished painting, and modelling, and every art of this kind.

The soil was not very fertile; its surface was uneven and rugged, whence all writers describe Corinth as full of brows of hills, and apply the proverb, “ Corinth rises with brows of hills, and sinks into hollows. (Translation by H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed)

Notes:
– Aristides of Thebes, the painter of  the famous "Bacchus", was a contemporary of Alexander the Great. At a public sale  of the spoils of Corinth, King Attalus offered   so large an amount of money for this "Bacchus" that Mummius, who knew nothing of art and unknowing its value, thought that the picture had some magical power that he  did not know, and sent it to Rome in spite of the protestations of Attalus. In another text of this article I put in evidence the ignorance of this rough Mummius.

– The story of Hercules and Deianira forms  the subject of Sophocles' tragedy “The Tarquiniae”.

Velleius Paterculus says us it in his Roman I, 13 History:

13  Cato, the constant advocate of her destruction, died three years before the fall of Carthage, in the consulship of Lucius Censorinus and Manius Manilius. In the same year in which Carthage fell Lucius Mummius destroyed Corinth to her very foundations, nine hundred and fifty-two years after her founding by Aletes, son of Hippos.  The two conquerors were honoured by the names of the conquered races. The one was surnamed Africanus, the other Achaicus. Before Mummius no new man earned for himself a cognomen won by military glory.

The two commanders differed in their characters as in their tastes. Scipio was a cultivated patron and admirer of liberal studies and of every form of learning, and kept constantly with him, at home and in the field, two men of eminent genius, Polybius and Panaetius. No one ever relieved the duties of an active life by a more refined use of his intervals of leisure than Scipio, or was more constant in his devotion to the arts either of war or peace. Ever engaged in the pursuit of arms or his studies, he was either training his body by exposing it to dangers or his mind by learning. Mummius was so uncultivated that when, after the capture of Corinth, he was contracting for the transportation to Italy of pictures and statues by the hands of the greatest artists, he gave instructions that the contractors should be warned that if they lost them, they would have to replace them by new ones. Yet I do not think, Vinicius, that you would hesitate to concede that it would have been more useful to the state for the appreciation of Corinthian works of art to have remained uncultivated to the present day, than that they will be appreciated to the extent to which they now are, and that the ignorance of those days was more conducive to the public weal than our present artistic knowledge.  (Translation  of Frederick W. Shipley, Loeb Classical Library, Velleius Paterculus and Res Gestae Divi Augusti, first published in 1924).

Velleius Paterculus,  Historia Romana I, 13

13 Ante triennium quam Carthago deleretur, M. Cato, perpetuus diruendae eius auctor, L. Censorino M'. Manilio consulibus mortem obiit. Eodem anno, quo Carthago concidit, L. Mummius Corinthum post annos nongentos quinquaginta duos, quam ab Alete Hippotis filio erat condita, funditus eruit. Uterque imperator devictae a se gentis nomine honoratus, alter Africanus, alter appellatus est Achaicus; nec quisquam ex novis hominibus prior Mummio cognomen virtute partum vindicavit.
Diversi imperatoribus mores, diversa fuere studia: quippe Scipio tam elegans liberalium studiorum omnisque doctrinae et auctor et admirator fuit, ut Polybium Panaetiumque, praecellentes ingenio viros, domi militiaeque secum habuerit. Neque enim quisquam hoc Scipione elegantius intervalla negotiorum otio dispunxit semperque aut belli aut pacis serviit artibus: semper inter arma ac studia versatus aut corpus periculis aut animum disciplinis exercuit.  Mummius tam rudis fuit, ut capta Corintho cum maximorum artificum perfectas manibus tabulas ac statuas in Italiam portandas locaret, iuberet praedici conducentibus, si eas perdidissent, novas eos reddituros.  Non tamen puto dubites, Vinici, quin magis pro re publica fuerit manere adhuc rudem Corinthiorum intellectum quam in tantum ea intellegi, et quin hac prudentia illa imprudentia decori publico fuerit convenientior.

The final consideration of the text of Velleius Paterculus is due to the moralizing character of his work, which rejects the luxury and oriental influence that has prevailed in Rome and perhaps claiming to be a compliment to the austerity policy of Tiberius.

Pliny  also gives us information about this so rude Mummius, who was used as a prototype in rhetorical exercises,  in his Natural History, XXXV, (8), 24.

The high estimation in which the paintings of foreigners were held at Rome commenced with Lucius Mummius, who, from his victories, acquired the surname of "Achaicus." For upon the sale of the spoil on that occasion, King Attalus having purchased, at the price of six thousand denarii, a painting of Father Liber by Aristides, Mummius, feeling surprised at the price, and suspecting that there might be some merit in it of which he himself was unaware, in spite of the complaints of Attalus, broke off the bargain, and had the picture placed in the Temple of Ceres; the first instance, I conceive, of a foreign painting being publicly exhibited at Rome. After this, I find, it became a common practice to exhibit foreign pictures in the Forum. (English  translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., 1855)

Tabulis autem externis auctoritatem Romae publice fecit primus omnium L. Mummius, cui cognomen Achaici victoria dedit. namque cum in praeda vendenda rex Attalus VI emisset tabulam Aristidis, Liberum patrem, pretium miratus suspicatusque aliquid in ea virtutis, quod ipse nesciret, revocavit tabulam, Attalo multum querente, et in Cereris delubro posuit. quam primam arbitror picturam externam Romae publicatam, deinde video et in foro positas volgo.

Corinth is a famous arts center. From its artistic production they are especially sought its  bronzes, its making jewelery, the famous " Corinthian bronzes" (cups, trays, jugs, flowers and other objects), which had a characteristic color and odor that made them highly prized by the Romans, who collected them as a sign of wealth.

The freedman and nouveau riche Trimalchius, star of much of the Satyricon of Petronius, has no qualms about giving a crazy version of the origin of these famous glasses, even if it means to make the biggest anachronism:  the fall of Troy and the Carthaginian  Anibal are contemporaries. Petronius tells us it in his Satyricon, 50:

The whole household burst into unanimous applause at this; "Hurrah for Gaius," they shouted. As for the cook, he was given a drink and a silver crown and a cup on a salver of Corinthian bronze. Seeing that Agamemnon was eyeing the platter closely, Trimalchio remarked, "I'm the only one that can show the real Corinthian!" I thought that, in his usual purse-proud manner, he was going to boast that his bronzes were all imported from Corinth, but he did even better by saying, "Wouldn't you like to know how it is that I'm the only one that can show the real Corinthian? Well, it's because the bronze worker I patronize is named Corinthus, and what's Corinthian unless it's what a Corinthus makes? And, so you won't think I'm a blockhead, I'm going to show you that I'm well acquainted with how Corinthian first came into the world. When Troy was taken, Hannibal, who was a very foxy fellow and a great rascal into the bargain, piled all the gold and silver and bronze statues in one pile and set 'em afire, melting these different metals into one: then the metal workers took their pick and made bowls and dessert dishes and statuettes as well. That's how Corinthian was born; neither one nor the other, but an amalgam of all. But I prefer glass, if you don't mind my saying so; it don't stink, and if it didn't break, I'd rather have it than gold, but it's cheap and common now." (Translation by W. C. Firebaugh)

Plausum post hoc automatum familia dedit et "Gaio feliciter!" conclamavit. Nec non cocus potione honoratus est, etiam argentea corona poculumque in lance accepit Corinthia. Quam cum Agamemnon propius consideraret, ait Trimalchio: "Solus sum qui vera Corinthea habeam." Exspectabam ut pro reliqua insolentia diceret sibi vasa Corintho afferri. Sed ille melius: "Et forsitan, inquit, quaeris quare solus Corinthea vera possideam: quia scilicet aerarius, a quo emo, Corinthus vocatur. Quid est autem Corintheum, nisi quis Corinthum habeat? Et ne me putetis nesapium esse, valde bene scio, unde primum Corinthea nata sint. Cum Ilium captum est, Hannibal, homo vafer et magnus stelio, omnes statuas aeneas et aureas et argenteas in unum rogum congessit et eas incendit; factae sunt in unum aera miscellanea. Ita ex hac massa fabri sustulerunt et fecerunt catilla et paropsides statuncula. Sic Corinthea nata sunt, ex omnibus in unum, nec hoc nec illud. Ignoscetis mihi quod dixero: ego malo mihi vitrea, certe non olunt. Quod si non frangerentur, mallem mihi quam aurum; nunc autem vilia sunt.

It is a shocking anachronism to make contemporaries the fall of Troy and Anibal, but no less shocking is that Isidore collect from Petronius this anecdote, it is true that removing the anachronism, in his Origins or Etymologies 16, 20.4:

The "Corinthian bronze" is an alloy of all metals that was first mixed by chance during the burning of Corinth, when the city was conquered. Indeed, when Hannibal captured the city, he raised a pyre with all the bronze and  gold and silver statues, and set them on fire: the workmen took  material from  this resulting mixture and manufactured plates. Thus Corinthian bronze, created from  all the metals and not just this neither one particular,  was discovered. Therefore, to the present  today it is known as "Corinthian bronze" or "Corinthian vessels"  it which is derived from the same alloy or from an imitation of it.

Corintheum  est commistio ómnium metallroum, quod casus primum miscuit, Corintho, cum caperetur, incensa. Nam dum hanc civitatem Hannibal cepisset, omnes statuas aeneas et aureas et argenteas in unum rogum congessit et eas incendit: ita ex hac commistione fabri sustulerunt et fecerunt parapsides. Sic Corinthea nata sunt ex omnibus in unum, nec hoc nec illud. Unde et usque in hodiernum diem sive ex ipso sive ex imitation eius aes Corintheum vel Corinthea vasa dicuntur.

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