1.
Palazzo Barberini
–
The Palazzo Barberini is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. It houses the Galleria Nazionale dArte Antica, the sloping site had formerly been occupied by a garden-vineyard of the Sforza family, in which a palazzetto had been built in 1549. The sloping site passed from one cardinal to another during the sixteenth century, when Cardinal Alessandro Sforza met financial hardships, the still semi-urban site was purchased in 1625 by Maffeo Barberini, of the Barberini family, who became Pope Urban VIII. Three great architects worked to create the Palazzo, each contributing his own style, Maderno began in 1627, assisted by his nephew Francesco Borromini. When Maderno died in 1629, Borromini was passed over and the commission was awarded to Bernini, Borromini stayed on regardless and the two architects worked together, albeit briefly, on this project and at the Palazzo Spada. Works were completed by Bernini in 1633, after the Wars of Castro and the death of Urban VIII, the palace was confiscated by Pamphili Pope Innocent X and was only returned to the Barberini in 1653. The palazzo is disposed around a forecourt centered on Berninis grand two-storey hall backed by an oval salone, with an extended wing dominating the piazza, which lies on a lower level. At the rear, a long wing protected the garden from the piazza below, the main block presents three tiers of great arch-headed windows, like glazed arcades, a formula that was more Venetian than Roman. On the uppermost floor, Borrominis windows are set in a perspective that suggests extra depth. Flanking the hall, two sets of stairs lead to the piano nobile, a large squared staircase by Bernini to the left, the salon ceiling is graced by Pietro da Cortonas masterpiece, the Baroque fresco of the Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power. Also in the palace is a masterpiece by Andrea Sacchi, a critic of the Cortona style. The garden is known as a giardino segreto, for its concealment from an outsiders view and it houses a monument to Bertel Thorwaldsen, who had a studio in the nearby Teatro delle Quattro Fontane in 1822-1834. Today, Palazzo Barberini houses the Galleria Nazionale dArte Antica, one of the most important painting collections in Italy and it includes Raphaels portrait La fornarina, Caravaggios Judith Beheading Holofernes and a Hans Holbein portrait of Henry VIII. The palace also houses the Italian Institute of Numismatics, the European Convention on Human Rights, which created the European Court of Human Rights, was signed here on 4 November 1950, a milestone in the protection of human rights. Hidden in the cellars of the part of the building. Blunt, Anthony, The Palazzo Barberini, Journal of the Warburg, il palazzo Barberini, official site Rome Art-Lover, Palazzo Barberini Palazzo Barberini and Veneto Rome guide Italian army ends museum stand-off, BBC News, Friday,13 October 2006 Google Maps. The complex constituting the Palazzo Barberini is in the center, set back from the road on all sides, on the lower side of the image are the start of the Quirinal Palace gardens. Below, and in the first corner on the right, is the San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, diagonally opposite and above is the triangular Piazza Barberini with the Triton Fountain
2.
Vatican City
–
Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery
3.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
4.
Greek mythology
–
It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama
5.
Meleager
–
In Greek mythology, Meleager was a hero venerated in his temenos at Calydon in Aetolia. He was already famed as the host of the Calydonian boar hunt in the tradition that was reworked by Homer. Meleager was the son of Althaea and the vintner Oeneus and, according to some accounts father of Parthenopeus, when Meleager was born, the Moirai predicted he would only live until a piece of wood, burning in the family hearth, was consumed by fire. Overhearing them, Althaea immediately doused and hid it, in addition to the heroes he required, he chose Atalanta, a fierce huntress, whom he loved. According to one account of the hunt, when Hylaeus and Rhaecus, then Atalanta wounded the boar and Meleager killed it. He awarded her the hide since she had drawn the first drop of blood, Meleagers brother Toxeus, the archer, and Plexippus grew enraged that the prize was given to a woman. Meleager killed them in the following argument and he also killed Iphicles and Eurypylus for insulting Atalanta. The women who mourned his death were turned into guineafowl, Meleager is also mentioned as one of the Argonauts. In Hades, his is the shade that does not flee Heracles. In Bacchylides Ode V, Meleager is still in his armor, so formidable, in Bacchylides account. Meleager married Cleopatra, daughter of Idas and Marpessa and they had a daughter, Polydora, who became the bride of Protesilaus, who left her bed on their wedding-night to join the expedition to Troy. Among the Romans, the heroes assembled by Meleager for the Calydonian hunt provided a theme of multiple nudes in striking action, Meleagers story has similarities with the Scandinavian Norna-Gests þáttr. In Rick Riordans book series, The Heroes of Olympus, Frank Zhang and this is most likely inspired by Meleagers curse. Meleager in art Bacchylides Fr 5.93 Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica I, media related to Meleager at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Boeotia
–
Boeotia, sometimes alternatively Latinised as Beotia, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece and it was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its largest city is Thebes, Boeotia lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It also has a coastline on the Gulf of Euboea. It bordered on Megaris in the south, Attica in the southeast, Euboea in the northeast, Opuntian Locris in the north and Phocis in the west. The main mountain ranges of Boeotia are Mount Parnassus in the west, Mount Helicon in the southwest, Cithaeron in the south and its longest river, the Cephissus, flows in the central part, where most of the low-lying areas of Boeotia are found. Lake Copais was a lake in the center of Boeotia. It was drained in the 19th century, lake Yliki is a large lake near Thebes. The earliest inhabitants of Boeotia, associated with the city of Orchomenus, were called Minyans, pausanias mentions that Minyans established the maritime Ionian city of Teos, and occupied the islands of Lemnos and Thera. The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as Minyans, also, according to legend the citizens of Thebes paid an annual tribute to their king Erginus. The early wealth and power of Boeotia is shown by the reputation and visible Mycenean remains of several of its cities, especially Orchomenus, the origin of the name Boeotians may lie in the mountain Boeon in Epirus. Some toponyms and the common Aeolic dialect indicate that the Boeotians were related to the Thessalians and they moved south and settled in another rich plain, while others filtered across the Aegean and settled on Lesbos and in Aeolis in Asia Minor. Others are said to have stayed in Thessaly, withdrawing into the hill country, many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their form during the Mycenean age when the Mycenean Greeks established themselves in Boeotia. Many of them are related to the myths of Argos, and others indicate connections with Phoenicia, Boeotia was also notable for the ancient oracular shrine of Trophonius at Lebadea. Graea, an ancient city in Boeotia, is thought to be the origin of the Latin word Graecus, from which English derives the words Greece. The major poets Hesiod and Pindar were Boeotians, on the other hand, the lack of good harbours hindered its maritime development. The importance of the legendary Minyae has been confirmed by archaeological remains, the Boeotian population entered the land from the north possibly before the Dorian invasion
7.
Hesiod
–
Hesiod was a Greek poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded as the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as a persona with an active role to play in his subject. Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs, modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping. The dating of his life is an issue in scholarly circles. Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations, however, Hesiods extant work comprises didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life. There are three references in Works and Days, as well as some passages in his Theogony that support inferences made by scholars. Some scholars have seen Perses as a creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops in Works and Days. Gregory Nagy, on the hand, sees both Persēs and Hēsiodos as fictitious names for poetical personae. The family association with Cyme might explain his familiarity with eastern myths, evident in his poems, however, while his poetry features some Aeolisms there are no words that are certainly Boeotian—he composed in the main literary dialect of the time, Ionian. Pausanias asserted that Boeotians showed him an old tablet made of lead on which the Works were engraved. If he did write or dictate, it was perhaps as an aid to memory or because he lacked confidence in his ability to produce poems extempore and it certainly wasnt in a quest for immortal fame since poets in his era had no such notions. However, some suspect the presence of large-scale changes in the text. Possibly he composed his verses during idle times on the farm and he was in fact a misogynist of the same calibre as the later poet, Semonides. He resembles Solon in his preoccupation with issues of good versus evil and how a just and he resembles Aristophanes in his rejection of the idealised hero of epic literature in favour of an idealised view of the farmer. Yet the fact that he could eulogise kings in Theogony and denounce them as corrupt in Works, two different—yet early—traditions record the site of Hesiods grave. This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention, the oracle that predicts accurately after all, the other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram by Chersias of Orchomenus written in the 7th century BC claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. Eventually they came to regard Hesiod too as their hearth-founder, later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts. Greeks in the fifth and early 4th centuries BC considered their oldest poets to be Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod
8.
Arcadia
–
Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula and it takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan, in European Renaissance arts, Arcadia was celebrated as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness. Arcadia has its capital at Tripoli. It covers about 18% of the Peloponnese peninsula, making it the largest regional unit on the peninsula, Arcadia has a ski resort on Mount Mainalo, located about 20 km NW of Tripoli. Other mountains of Arcadia are the Parnon in the southeast and the Lykaion in the west, the climate consists of hot summers and mild winters in the eastern part, the southern part, the low-lying areas and the central area at altitudes lower than 1,000 m. The area primarily receives rain during fall and winter months in the rest of Arcadia, winter snow occurs commonly in the mountainous areas for much of the west and the northern part, the Taygetus area, the Mainalon. After the collapse of the Roman power in the west, Arcadia became part of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire, the region fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1460. With the exception of a period of Venetian rule in 1687–1715, the phrase is most often associated with a 1647 painting by Nicolas Poussin, also known as The Arcadian Shepherds. In the painting the phrase appears as an inscription on a tomb discovered by youthful figures in classical garb, Arcadia was one of the centres of the Greek War of Independence which saw victories in their battles including one in Tripoli. After a victorious war, Arcadia was finally incorporated into the newly created Greek state. Arcadia saw economic growth and small emigration, in the 20th century, Arcadia experienced extensive population loss through emigration, mostly to the Americas. Many Arcadian villages lost half their inhabitants, and fears arose that they would turn into ghost towns, Arcadia now has a smaller population than Corinthia. Demographers expected that its population would halve between 1951 and the early 21st century, the population has fallen to 87,000 in 2011. An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter magnitude scale shook Megalopoli, large numbers of buildings were destroyed, leaving people homeless. Within a couple of years, the buildings were rebuilt anti-seismically, in 1967, construction began on the Megalopoli Power Plant, which began operating in 1970, producing additional electricity for southern Greece. A mining area south of the plant is the largest mining area in the peninsula, in July and August 2007 forest fires caused damage in Arcadia, notably in the mountains
9.
Artemis
–
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek, Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron, Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals. The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter, in the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her, in later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth. The name Artemis is of unknown or uncertain origin and etymology although various ones have been proposed, for example, according to J. T. Jablonski, the name is also Phrygian and could be compared with the royal appellation Artemas of Xenophon. Anton Goebel suggests the root στρατ or ῥατ, to shake, babiniotis, while accepting that the etymology is unknown, states that the name is already attested in Mycenean Greek and is possibly of pre-Hellenic origin. It is believed that a precursor of Artemis was worshiped in Minoan Crete as the goddess of mountains and hunting, R. S. P. Beekes suggested that the e/i interchange points to a Pre-Greek origin. Artemis was venerated in Lydia as Artimus, various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, an account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto, but the island of Delos disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there. In ancient Cretan history Leto was worshipped at Phaistos and in Cretan mythology Leto gave birth to Apollo, a scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her mothers mid-wife upon the birth of her brother Apollo. The childhood of Artemis is not fully related in any surviving myth, the Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to that of a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. She wished for no city dedicated to her, but to rule the mountains, Artemis believed that she had been chosen by the Fates to be a midwife, particularly since she had assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis closely guarded her own chastity and her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon. Okeanus daughters were filled with fear, but the young Artemis bravely approached and asked for bow, Callimachus then tells how Artemis visited Pan, the god of the forest, who gave her seven bitches and six dogs. She then captured six golden-horned deer to pull her chariot, Artemis practiced with her bow first by shooting at trees and then at wild beasts. As a virgin, Artemis had interested many gods and men, Orion was accidentally killed either by Artemis or by Gaia
10.
Cupid
–
In classical mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and he is also known in Latin as Amor. Although Eros is generally portrayed as a winged youth in Classical Greek art. During this time, his iconography acquired the bow and arrow that represent his source of power, a person, or even a deity, in myths, Cupid is a minor character who serves mostly to set the plot in motion. He is a character only in the tale of Cupid and Psyche. Although other extended stories are not told him, his tradition is rich in poetic themes and visual scenarios, such as Love conquers all. In art, Cupid often appears in multiples as the Amores, or amorini in the terminology of art history. Cupids are a frequent motif of both Roman art and later Western art of the classical tradition, in the 15th century, the iconography of Cupid starts to become indistinguishable from the putto. Cupid continued to be a figure in the Middle Ages. In the Renaissance, a renewed interest in classical philosophy endowed him with complex allegorical meanings, in contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown drawing his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentines Day. The Romans reinterpreted myths and concepts pertaining to the Greek Eros for Cupid in their own literature and art, in the Greek tradition, Eros had a dual, contradictory genealogy. He was among the gods who came into existence asexually, after his generation. In Hesiods Theogony, only Chaos and Gaia are older, before the existence of gender dichotomy, Eros functioned by causing entities to separate from themselves that which they already contained. At the same time, the Eros who was pictured as a boy or slim youth was regarded as the child of a divine couple, in Latin literature, Cupid is usually treated as the son of Venus without reference to a father. Seneca says that Vulcan, as the husband of Venus, is the father of Cupid and this last Cupid was the equivalent of Anteros, Counter-Love, one of the Erotes, the gods who embody aspects of love. The multiple Cupids frolicking in art are the manifestation of these proliferating loves and desires. During the English Renaissance, Christopher Marlowe wrote of ten thousand Cupids, in Ben Jonsons wedding masque Hymenaei, in the later classical tradition, Cupid is most often regarded as the son of Venus and Mars, whose love affair represented an allegory of Love and War. The duality between the primordial and the sexually conceived Eros accommodated philosophical concepts of Heavenly and Earthly Love even in the Christian era, Cupid is winged, allegedly, because lovers are flighty and likely to change their minds, and boyish because love is irrational
11.
Peter Paul Rubens
–
Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish/Netherlandish draughtsman and painter. He is widely considered as the most notable artist of Flemish Baroque art school, the catalogue of his works by Michael Jaffé lists 1,403 pieces, excluding numerous copies made in his workshop. His commissioned works were mostly history paintings, which included religious and mythological subjects and he painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house and he also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the royal entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in 1635. His drawings are mostly extremely forceful but not overly detailed and he also made great use of oil sketches as preparatory studies. For altarpieces he painted on slate to reduce reflection problems. Rubens was born in the city of Siegen to Jan Rubens and he was named in honour of Saint-Peter and Paul, because he was born on their solemnety. His father, a Calvinist, and mother fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568, after increased religious turmoil and persecution of Protestants during the rule of the Spanish Netherlands by the Duke of Alba. Jan Rubens became the adviser of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange. Following Jan Rubens imprisonment for the affair, Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577, the family returned to Cologne the next year. In 1589, two years after his fathers death, Rubens moved with his mother Maria Pypelincks to Antwerp, religion figured prominently in much of his work and Rubens later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting. In Antwerp, Rubens received a Renaissance humanist education, studying Latin, by fourteen he began his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght. Subsequently, he studied under two of the leading painters of the time, the late Mannerist artists Adam van Noort. Much of his earliest training involved copying earlier works, such as woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at time he entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master. In 1600 Rubens travelled to Italy and he stopped first in Venice, where he saw paintings by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, before settling in Mantua at the court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga. The colouring and compositions of Veronese and Tintoretto had an effect on Rubenss painting. With financial support from the Duke, Rubens travelled to Rome by way of Florence in 1601, there, he studied classical Greek and Roman art and copied works of the Italian masters
12.
Oineus
–
Oeneus was also the father of Tydeus by Periboea, daughter of Hipponous, though Tydeus was exiled from Aetolia and appears in myths concerning Argos. He introduced winemaking to Aetolia, which he learned from Dionysus and he sent Meleager out to find heroes to kill the Calydonian Boar, which was ravaging Calydon because Oeneus had forgotten to honor Artemis at the harvest ceremonies. So began the Calydonian Hunt during which the boar was killed by Atalanta, Meleager, in rage, killed them, which resulted in a war between the Calydonians and the Curetes, in which all of Oeneus sons, including Meleager, fell. The sons of Oeneus brother Agrius deposed him but Diomedes, his grandson through Tydeus, Oeneus either died of natural causes or was killed by the surviving sons of Agrius who laid an ambush against him while Diomedes was transporting him to Peloponessus. He was buried in Argos by Diomedes, and a town was named Oenoe after him, 1-6 Hyginus, Fabulae,129,172,175 Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses,2 Pausanias, Description of Greece,2. 1 Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4
13.
Calydonian Boar
–
The Calydonian or Aetolian Boar is one of the monsters of Greek mythology that had to be overcome by heroes of the Olympian age. This outraged some of the men, with tragic results, strabo was under the impression that the Calydonian Boar was an offspring of the Crommyonian Sow vanquished by Theseus. The Calydonian Boar is one of the monsters in Greek mythology. Like the quest for the Golden Fleece or the Trojan War that took place the following generation, King Oeneus of Calydon, an ancient city of west-central Greece north of the Gulf of Patras, held annual harvest sacrifices to the gods on the sacred hill. It rampaged throughout the countryside, destroying vineyards and crops, forcing people to refuge inside the city walls. Oeneus sent messengers out to look for the best hunters in Greece, offering them the boars pelt and it was the smitten Meleager who convinced them. Nonetheless it was Atalanta who first succeeded in wounding the boar with an arrow, although Meleager finished it off, and offered the prize to Atalanta, outraged by this, Meleager slew the sons of Thestios and again gave the skin to Atalanta. Thus Artemis achieved her revenge against King Oeneus, during the hunt, Peleus accidentally killed his host Eurytion. The Calydonian Hunt was the theme of the main pediment. The heroes who participated assembled from all over Hellas, according to Homer, the table lists, Those seen by Pausanias on the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. Those listed by Latin mythographer Hyginus, they include Deucalion, whose connection is unlikely and those noted in Ovids list from the 8th Book of his Metamorphoses. Those who appear in Book I of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, ternerdos, Iolcos, Sparta, Pleurone, Messene, Perrhaebia, Phthia, Magnesia, Salamin, Calydon, Thessalia, Oechialia, Ithaca, Tegea, Crete, Dolopia, Athens, and Arcadia. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca I, VIII, 2–3, Homer, Iliad, ix Kerenyi, the Heroes of the Greeks pp114ff, et passim Ovid, Metamorphoses VIII, 267–525. Ruck, Carl A. P. and Danny Staples,1994, the World of Classical Myth p 196 Swinburne, Algernon Charles. Atalanta in Calydon Theioi. com, Hus Kaydonios, Literary quotes
14.
Wild boar
–
The wild boar, also known as the wild swine or Eurasian wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia, North Africa, and the Greater Sunda Islands. Human intervention has spread its range further, making the one of the widest-ranging mammals in the world. Its wide range, high numbers, and adaptability mean that it is classed as least concern by the IUCN, the animal probably originated in Southeast Asia during the Early Pleistocene, and outcompeted other suid species as it spread throughout the Old World. As of 1990, up to 16 subspecies are recognised, which are divided into four regional groupings based on skull height, the species lives in matriarchal societies consisting of interrelated females and their young. Fully grown males are solitary outside the breeding season. The grey wolf is the boars main predator throughout most of its range except in the Far East and the Lesser Sunda Islands. It has a history of association with humans, having been the ancestor of most domestic pig breeds. As true wild boars became extinct in Britain before the development of modern English, the English boar stems from the Old English bar, which is thought to be derived from the West Germanic *bairaz, of unknown origin. Boar is sometimes used specifically to refer to males, and may also be used to refer to male domesticated pigs, the young may be called piglets. The animals specific name scrofa is Latin for sow, the earliest fossil finds of the species come from both Europe and Asia, and date back to the Early Pleistocene. Its closest wild relative is the pig of Malacca and surrounding islands. These subspecies are typically high-skulled, with thick underwool and poorly developed manes, Indian, Includes S. s. davidi and S. s. cristatus. These subspecies have sparse or absent underwool, with long manes and prominent bands on the snout, while S. s. cristatus is high-skulled, S. s. davidi is low-skulled. Eastern, Includes S. s. sibiricus, S. s. ussuricus, S. s. leucomystax, S. s. riukiuanus, S. s. taivanus, and S. s. moupinensis. These subspecies are characterised by a streak extending from the corners of the mouth to the lower jaw. With the exception of S. s. ussuricus, most are high-skulled, the underwool is thick, except in S. s. moupinensis, and the mane is largely absent. It is the most basal of the four groups, having the smallest relative brain size, more primitive dentition, with the exception of domestic pigs in Timor and Papua New Guinea, the wild boar is the ancestor of most pig breeds. Remains of pigs have been dated to earlier than 11,400 BC in Cyprus and those animals must have been introduced from the mainland, which suggests domestication in the adjacent mainland by then
15.
Althaea (mythology)
–
Althaea or Althea /ælˈθiːə/ was, in Greek mythology, the daughter of King Thestius and Eurythemis, and was sister to Leda, Hypermnestra, Iphiclus, Euippus. She was also the wife of Oeneus, king of Calydon, and mother of five sons, Meleager, Melanippe, Toxeus, Thyreus, Clymenus, and two daughters, Deianeira and Gorge. According to some writers, Meleager was the result of a liaison with the Greek god Ares, and Deianeira the progeny of Althaea, Althaea is especially celebrated in ancient story about the fate of her son Meleager, they became the cause of each other’s deaths. When Meleager was born, the Moirai predicted he would live until a brand. Oeneus and Mars both slept one night with Althaea, daughter of Thestius. When Meleager was born from them, suddenly in the palace the Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, appeared. ”When Althaea, the mother, heard this, she leaped from the bed, put out the fatal brand, and buried it in the midst of the palace, so that it shouldn’t be destroyed by fire. In Aeschylus Libation Bearers Althaea is mentioned by the Chorus of captive slaves, serving women of Clytemnestra, let anyone whose mind is steady remember this, once he has learned the story of Thestius daughter, ruthless Althaea, who killed her own son. She contrived a plot to burn the brand that fate assigned to span his life, deliberately, deceitfully, she set on fire what was to have kept pace with him from birth to death. It glowed bright red before the fire blackened it, Meleager grew to be a well-respected prince. One spring Oeneus sacrificed the first fruits of the seasons to all the gods, enraged by the slight, Artemis sent a boar of unnatural size and strength to ruin the land of Calydon. Meleager was one of the warriors who hunted the boar, along with the famous huntress Atalanta, Meleager killed the boar, but gave the skin to Atalanta both because he had fallen in love with her and because she had landed the first blow on the animal. When Althaea learned what had happened, she retrieved the brand from where she had concealed it and placed the brand back upon the fire, some say that she and Meleager’s wife Cleopatra later hanged themselves, others that she killed herself with a dagger. Bulfinchs Mythology, The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes
16.
Running
–
Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by a phase in which all feet are above the ground. The term running can refer to any of a variety of speeds ranging from jogging to sprinting and it is assumed that the ancestors of mankind developed the ability to run for long distances about 2.6 million years ago, probably in order to hunt animals. Competitive running grew out of religious festivals in various areas, records of competitive racing date back to the Tailteann Games in Ireland in 1829 BCE, while the first recorded Olympic Games took place in 776 BCE. Running has been described as the worlds most accessible sport and it is thought that human running evolved at least four and a half million years ago out of the ability of the ape-like Australopithecus, an early ancestor of humans, to walk upright on two legs. The theory as first proposed used comparative physiological evidence and the habits of animals when running, indicating the likelihood of this activity as a successful hunting method. Further evidence from observation of modern-day hunting practice also indicated this likelihood, according to Sears scientific investigation of the Nariokotome Skeleton provided further evidence for the Carrier theory. Competitive running grew out of religious festivals in various such as Greece, Egypt, Asia. The Tailteann Games, an Irish sporting festival in honor of the goddess Tailtiu, dates back to 1829 BCE, the origins of the Olympics and Marathon running are shrouded by myth and legend, though the first recorded games took place in 776 BCE. Seeing that they were moving and running, from their running nature they were called Gods or runners. Running gait can be divided into two phases in regard to the extremity, stance and swing. These can be divided into absorption, propulsion, initial swing. Due to the nature of running gait, no certain point is assumed to be the beginning. However, for simplicity it will be assumed that absorption and footstrike mark the beginning of the cycle in a body already in motion. Footstrike occurs when a portion of the foot makes initial contact with the ground. Common footstrike types include forefoot, midfoot and heel strike types and these are characterized by initial contact of the ball of the foot, ball and heel of the foot simultaneously and heel of the foot respectively. During this time the hip joint is undergoing extension from being in maximal flexion from the swing phase. For proper force absorption, the joint should be flexed upon footstrike
17.
Hippomenes
–
The name Hippomenes may also refer to the father of Leimone. In Greek mythology, Hippomenes /hɪˈpɒmᵻniːz/, also known as Melanion /məˈlæniən/, was a son of the Arcadian Amphidamas or of Megareus of Onchestus and the husband of Atalanta. He was known to have one of the disciples of Chiron. Inscriptions mention him as one of the Calydonian hunters, the main myth of Hippomenes courtship of Atalanta, narrated by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Ovid, Servius, and Hyginus was as follows. Hippomenes fell in love with Atalanta, the virgin huntress who strongly disliked the idea of getting married, another version was that her father wanted her to be married, but she did not. She agreed to running races against her suitors because she thought she would never lose, Atalanta raced all her suitors and outran all but Hippomenes, who defeated her by cunning, not speed. Hippomenes knew that he could not win a race with Atalanta. After each of the first two apples, Atalanta was able to recover the lead, but when she stopped for the third and it took all three apples and all of his speed, but Hippomenes was finally successful, winning the race and Atalantas hand. Atalanta and Hippomenes were turned into lions by Cybele as punishment after having sex in one of her temples they entered to take a rest during their journey to Hippomenes home, thereafter they drew Cybeles chariot, which Servius equates with the Earth itself. According to some accounts, Hippomenes was the father of Parthenopaeus, yet others stated Atalanta had her son by either Ares or Meleager prior to her marriage to Hippomenes
18.
Aphrodite
–
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus, and her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus, as with many ancient Greek deities, there is more than one story about her origins. According to Hesiods Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranuss genitals and threw them into the sea, according to Homers Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. In Plato, these two origins are said to be of hitherto separate entities, Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite had many lovers—both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and was lover and surrogate mother of Adonis. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite, Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea and Cypris after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, roses, doves, sparrows and swans were sacred to her, the ancient Greeks identified her with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. Aphrodite had many names such as Acidalia and Cerigo, each used by a different local cult of the goddess in Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these names as referring to the single goddess Aphrodite, despite the differences in what these local cults believed the goddess demanded of them. The Attic philosophers of the 4th century, however, drew a distinction between a celestial Aphrodite of transcendent principles, and a separate, common Aphrodite who was the goddess of the people, hesiod derives Aphrodite from aphrós sea-foam, interpreting the name as risen from the foam. Michael Janda, accepting this as genuine, claims the birth myth as an Indo-European mytheme. Likewise, Witczak proposes an Indo-European compound *abʰor- very and *dʰei- to shine and it has been argued that etymologies based on comparison with Eos are unlikely since Aphrodites attributes are entirely different from those of Eos or the Vedic deity Ushas. A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have suggested in scholarship. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian barīrītu, the name of a demon that appears in Middle Babylonian. Hammarström looks to Etruscan, comparing prϑni lord, an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις and this would make the theonym in origin an honorific, the lady. Hjalmar Frisk and Robert Beekes reject this etymology as implausible, especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru, the medieval Etymologicum Magnum offers a highly contrived etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos, she who lives delicately, from habrós and díaita. The alteration from b to ph is explained as a characteristic of Greek obvious from the Macedonians. Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, however, other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera, hence another of her names, Cytherea
19.
Seven Against Thebes
–
Seven Against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea and it concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia, the trilogys first two plays, Laius and Oedipus, as well as the satyr play Sphinx, are no longer extant. When Oedipus, King of Thebes, realized he had married his own mother and had two sons and two daughters with her, he blinded himself and cursed his sons to divide their inheritance by the sword. The two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, in order to avoid bloodshed, agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years, after the first year, Eteocles refused to step down, leading Polynices to raise an army of Argives to take Thebes by force. This is where Aeschylus tragedy starts, dialogues show aspects of Eteocles character. There is also a description of each of the seven captains that lead the Argive army against the seven gates of the city of Thebes as well as the devices on their respective shields. Eteocles, in turn, announces which Theban commanders he will send against each Argive attacker, finally, the commander of the troops before the seventh gate is revealed to be Polynices, the brother of the king. Then Eteocles remembers and refers to the curse of their father Oedipus, Eteocles resolves to meet and fight his brother in person before the seventh gate and exits. Following a choral ode, a messenger enters, announcing that the attackers have been repelled and their bodies are brought on stage, and the chorus mourns them. Due to the popularity of Sophocles play Antigone, the ending of Seven against Thebes was rewritten about fifty years after Aeschylus death, others appear as stock figures to fill out the list, Burkert remarks. The city is saved when the brothers simultaneously run each other through, the mythic theme passed into Etruscan culture, a fifth-century bronze mirrorback is inscribed with Fulnice and Evtucle running at one another with drawn swords. The Seven Against Thebes were Adrastus Amphiaraus Capaneus Hippomedon Parthenopeus Polynices Tydeus Allies, some sources, however, state that Eteoclus and Mecisteus were in fact two of the seven, and that Tydeus and Polynices were allies. This is because both Tydeus and Polynices were foreigners, however, Polynices was the cause of the entire conflict, and Tydeus performed acts of valour far surpassing Eteoclus and Mecisteus. Either way, all nine men were present in the battle, from the nineteenth century onwards, however, it has not generally been regarded as among the tragedians major works. Translators Anthony Hecht and Helen S. Bacon wrote that the play has been accused of being static, undramatic, ritualistic, guilty of an interpolated and debased text, archaic, and in a word, boring. Lille Stesichorus, a fragment of the Theban myth by the lyric poet Stesichorus A. S. Way,1906 – verse E. D. A. Morshead,1908 – verse. The Orientalizing Revolution, Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age Seven against Thebes pp 106–14, Burkert draws parallels between Greek and Ancient Near Eastern materials
20.
Zeus
–
Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
21.
Rhea (mythology)
–
Rhea is the Titaness daughter of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus, in Greek mythology and sister and wife to Cronus. In early traditions, she is known as the mother of gods and therefore is associated with Gaia and Cybele. The classical Greeks saw her as the mother of the Olympian gods and goddesses, the Romans identified her with Magna Mater, and the Goddess Ops. Alternatively, the name Rhea may be connected with words for the pomegranate, ῥόα, the name Rhea may ultimately derive from a pre-Greek or Minoan source. Cronus sired six children by Rhea, Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, and Zeus in that order. Apart from Zeus, he swallowed all as soon as they were born, because he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that, as he had overthrown his own father, he was destined to be overcome by his own child. When Zeus was about to be born, however, Rhea sought Uranus and Gaia to devise a plan to him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, and saved him by handing Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. Her attendants, the warrior-like Curetes and Dactyls, acted as a bodyguard for the infant Zeus, Rhea had no strong local cult or identifiable activity under her control. She was originally worshiped in the island of Crete, identified in mythology as the site of Zeuss infancy and her cults employed rhythmic, raucous chants and dances, accompanied by the tympanon, to provoke a religious ecstasy. Her priests impersonated her mythical attendants, the Curetes and Dactyls, with a clashing of bronze shields, in Roman religion, her counterpart Cybele was Magna Mater deorum Idaea, who was brought to Rome and was identified in Roman mythology as an ancestral Trojan deity. On a functional level, Rhea was thought equivalent to Roman Ops or Opis, the one at Mycenae is most characteristic, with a lioness placed on either side of a pillar that symbolizes the goddess. In Homer, Rhea is the mother of the gods, although not a mother like Cybele. In the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes, the fusion of Rhea, for her temenos they wrought an image of the goddess, a xoanon, from a vine-stump. They leapt and danced in their armour, For this reason the Phrygians still worship Rhea with tambourines, the name of the bird species rhea is derived from the goddess name Rhea. The second largest moon of the planet Saturn is named after her, gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth, A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press,1996, Two volumes, ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9, ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3. Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A. T
22.
Golden Fleece
–
In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the gold-haired winged ram, which was held in Colchis. The fleece is a symbol of authority and kingship, through the help of Medea, they acquire the Golden Fleece. The story is of great antiquity and was current in the time of Homer and it survives in various forms, among which the details vary. Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia and they had two children, the boy Phrixus and the girl Helle. Later Athamas became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, when Nephele left in anger, drought came upon the land. Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths, in some versions, Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold. The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon Theophane, a nymph and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god. According to Hyginus, Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into a ewe, there Theophanes other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort. Nepheles children escaped on the yellow ram over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the now named after her. The ram spoke to Phrixus, encouraging him, and took the boy safely to Colchis, there Phrixus sacrificed the winged ram to Poseidon, essentially returning him to the god. The ram became the constellation Aries, Phrixus settled in the house of Aeetes, son of Helios the sun god. He hung the Golden Fleece preserved from the sacrifice of the ram on an oak in a sacred to Ares. The golden fleece was defended by bulls with hoofs of brass and it was also guarded by a never sleeping dragon with teeth which could become soldiers when planted in the ground. The dragon was at the foot of the tree on which the fleece was placed, pindar employed the quest for the Golden Fleece in his Fourth Pythian Ode, though the fleece is not in the foreground. When Aeetes challenges Jason to yoke the fire-breathing bulls, the fleece is the prize, Let the King do this, Let him do this, I say, and have for his own the immortal coverlet, the fleece, glowing with matted skeins of gold. In later versions of the story, the ram is said to have been the offspring of the sea god Poseidon, the classic telling is the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, composed in mid-third century BC Alexandria, recasting early sources that have not survived. Another, much less-known Argonautica, using the body of myth, was composed in Latin by Valerius Flaccus during the time of Vespasian. Where the written sources fail, through accidents of history, sometimes the continuity of a mythic tradition can be found among the vase-painters, jasons helper in the Athenian vase-paintings is not Medea— who had a history in Athens as the opponent of Theseus— but Athena
23.
Robert Graves
–
Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, novelist, critic and classicist. He produced more than 140 works, Irish literature deeply affected Graves White Goddess theories, specifically the genre aisling. He earned his living from writing, particularly historical novels such as I, Claudius, King Jesus, The Golden Fleece. He also was a prominent translator of Classical Latin and Ancient Greek texts, his versions of The Twelve Caesars and The Golden Ass remain popular, for their clarity, Graves was awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Graves was born into a family in Wimbledon, then part of Surrey. Gravess mother was from a recently ennobled German family, the eldest daughter of Heinrich von Ranke, a professor of medicine at the University of Munich and she was also a greatniece of the German historian Leopold von Ranke. At school, Graves was enrolled as Robert von Ranke Graves and in Germany his books are published under that name but before and during the First World War, the name caused him difficulties. In August 1916 an officer who disliked him spread the rumour that he was a spy, the problem resurfaced in a minor way in the Second World War, when a suspicious rural policeman blocked his appointment to the Special Constabulary. Gravess eldest half-brother, Philip Perceval Graves, achieved note as a journalist and his brother, Charles Patrick Graves, was a writer. Among the masters his chief influence was George Mallory, who introduced him to contemporary literature, in his final year at Charterhouse, he won a classical exhibition to St Johns College, Oxford but did not take his place there until after the war. At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Graves enlisted almost immediately and he published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed a reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about experience of frontline conflict. In later years, he omitted his war poems from his collections, at the Battle of the Somme, he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die and was officially reported as having died of wounds. He gradually recovered and, apart from a spell back in France. One of Gravess friends at this time was the poet Siegfried Sassoon, in 1917, Sassoon rebelled against the conduct of the war by making a public antiwar statement. Graves feared Sassoon could face a court martial and intervened with the authorities, persuading them that Sassoon was suffering from shell shock. As a result, Sassoon was sent to Craiglockhart, a hospital in Edinburgh. Graves also suffered shell shock, or neurasthenia as it was then called, but he was never hospitalised for it, I thought of going back to France
24.
Argonauts
–
The Argonauts were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War, around 1300 BC, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, Argo, named after its builder and they were sometimes called Minyans, after a prehistoric tribe in the area. After the death of King Cretheus, the Aeolian Pelias usurped the Iolcan throne from his half-brother Aeson, because of this unlawful act, an oracle warned him that a descendant of Aeolus would seek revenge. Pelias put to death every prominent descendant of Aeolus he could, instead, Pelias kept Aeson prisoner and forced him to renounce his inheritance. Aeson married Alcimede, who bore him a son named Jason, Pelias intended to kill the baby at once, but Alcimede summoned her kinswomen to weep over him as if he were stillborn. She faked a burial and smuggled the baby to Mount Pelion and he was raised by the centaur Chiron, the trainer of heroes. When Jason was 20 years old, an oracle ordered him to dress as a Magnesian, while traveling Jason lost his sandal crossing the muddy Anavros river while helping an old woman. The goddess was angry with King Pelias for killing his stepmother Sidero after she had sought refuge in Heras temple, another oracle warned Pelias to be on his guard against a man with one shoe. Pelias was presiding over a sacrifice to Poseidon with several neighboring kings in attendance, among the crowd stood a tall youth in leopard skin with only one sandal. Pelias recognized that Jason was his nephew and he could not kill him because prominent kings of the Aeolian family were present. Instead, he asked Jason, What would you do if an oracle announced that one of your fellow-citizens were destined to kill you, Jason replied that he would send him to go and fetch the Golden Fleece, not knowing that Hera had put those words in his mouth. Jason learned later that Pelias was being haunted by the ghost of Phrixus, Phrixus had fled from Orchomenus riding on a divine ram to avoid being sacrificed and took refuge in Colchis where he was later denied proper burial. According to an oracle, Iolcus would never prosper unless his ghost was taken back in a ship and this fleece now hung from a tree in the grove of the Colchian Ares, guarded night and day by a dragon that never slept. Pelias swore before Zeus that he would give up the throne at Jasons return while expecting that Jasons attempt to steal the Golden Fleece would be a fatal enterprise, however, Hera acted in Jasons favour during the perilous journey. There is no definite list of the Argonauts, H. J. Rose explains this was because an Argonautic ancestor was an addition to even the proudest of pedigrees. The following list is collated from several lists given in ancient sources, several more names are discoverable from other sources. Amyrus, eponym of a Thessalian city, is given by Stephanus of Byzantium as one of the Argonauts, he is said to have been a son of Poseidon. Azorus was the helmsman of Argo according to Hesychius of Alexandria, atalanta is included on the list by Pseudo-Apollodorus, but Apollonius claims that Jason forbade her because she was a woman and could cause strife in the otherwise all-male crew
25.
Colchis
–
Colchis was an ancient kingdom and region on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Internationally, Colchis is perhaps best known for its role in Greek mythology, most notably as the destination of the Argonauts, as well as the home to Medea and the Golden fleece. Colchis was populated by Colchians, an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe, ancestral to the contemporary Western Georgians, namely Svans and Mingrelians, the kingdom of Colchis, Kolkhis or Qulha which existed from the c. According to the scholar of Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff, Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer. Colchis can be regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian kingdom. It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis. A second South Caucasian tribal union emerged in the 13th century BC on the Black Sea coast. There is some difference in authors as to the extent of the country westward, thus Strabo makes Colchis begin at Trabzon, while Ptolemy, on the other hand. The name of Colchis first appears in Aeschylus and Pindar, the earlier writers only speak about it under the name of Aea, the residence of the mythical king Aeëtes, Kolchian Aia lies at the furthest limits of sea and earth, wrote Apollonius of Rhodes. Scylax mentions also Mala or Male, which he, in contradiction to other writers, the central part of the region is Colchis Plain, stretching between Sokhumi and Kobuleti, most of that lies on the elevation below 20 m above sea level. Marginal parts of the region are mountains of the Great and the Lesser Caucasus, the climate is mild humid, near Batumi, annual rainfall level reaches 4,000 mm, which is the absolute maximum for the continental western Eurasia. The dominating natural landscapes of Colchis are temperate rainforests, yet degraded in the part of the region, wetlands. In at least some parts of Colchis, the process of urbanization seems to have been advanced by the end of the 2nd millennium BC. The Colchian Late Bronze Age saw the development of significant skill in the smelting and casting of metals, sophisticated farming implements were made, and fertile, well-watered lowlands and a mild climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques. Colchis was inhabited by a number of related but distinct tribes whose settlements lay along the shore of the Black Sea and these Colchian tribes differed so completely in language and appearance from the surrounding Indo-European nations that the ancients provided various wild theories to account for the phenomenon. Herodotus regarded the Colchians as Ancient Egyptian race, Apollonius of Rhodes states that the Egyptians of Colchis preserved as heirlooms a number of wooden tablets, which show, with considerable accuracy, seas and highways. Detlev Fehling regards the link between Colchis and Egypt as a clear example of the way Herodotus used spurious sources to back up stories he had made up himself. In the 13th century BC, the Kingdom of Colchis was formed as a result of the consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the region. This power, celebrated in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, the home of Medea, the kingdom of Tabal was conquered by the Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser III in the 830s BC
26.
Medea
–
In Greek mythology, Medea was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason. In Euripides play Medea, Jason abandons Medea when Creon, king of Corinth, the play tells of Medea avenging her husbands betrayal by killing their children. Medea figures in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, a known best from a late literary version worked up by Apollonius of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC. Medea is known in most stories as an enchantress, and is depicted as a priestess of the goddess Hecate or a witch. The myth of Jason and Medea is very old, originally written around the time Hesiod wrote the Theogony, Medeas role began after Jason came from Iolcus to Colchis, to claim his inheritance and throne by retrieving the Golden Fleece. In a familiar mythic motif, Aeëtes promised to him the fleece. Next, Jason had to sow the teeth of a dragon in the field, and the teeth sprouted into an army of warriors, Jason was forewarned by Medea, however. Unable to determine where the rock had come from, the attacked and killed each other. Finally, Aeëtes made Jason fight and kill the dragon that guarded the fleece. Jason then took the fleece and sailed away with Medea, as he had promised, Apollonius says that Medea only helped Jason in the first place because Hera had convinced Aphrodite or Eros to cause Medea to fall in love with him. Medea distracted her father as they fled by killing her brother Absyrtus, during the fight, Atalanta, a member of the group helping Jason in his quest for the fleece, was seriously wounded, but Medea healed her. According to some versions, Medea and Jason stopped on her aunt Circes island so that she could be cleansed after murdering her brother, relieving her of blame for the deed. On the way back to Thessaly, Medea prophesied that Euphemus, the helmsman of Jasons ship and this came true through Battus, a descendant of Euphemus. The Argo then reached the island of Crete, guarded by the bronze man, Talos had one vein which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by a single bronze nail. According to Apollodorus, Talos was slain either when Medea drove him mad with drugs, deceived him that she would make him immortal by removing the nail, or was killed by Poeass arrow. In the Argonautica, Medea hypnotized him from the Argo, driving him mad so that he dislodged the nail, ichor flowed from the wound, after Talos died, the Argo landed. Jason, celebrating his return with the Golden Fleece, noted that his father Aeson was too aged, Medea withdrew the blood from Aesons body, infused it with certain herbs, and returned it to his veins, invigorating him. The daughters of king Pelias saw this and wanted the same service for their father, while Jason searched for the Golden Fleece, Hera, who was still angry at Pelias, conspired to make Jason fall in love with Medea, whom Hera hoped would kill Pelias
27.
Apollonius of Rhodes
–
Apollonius of Rhodes, is best known as the author of the Argonautica, an epic poem about Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. In fact almost nothing at all is known about Apollonius and even his connection with Rhodes is a matter for speculation, the most reliable information we have about ancient poets is largely drawn from their own works. Unfortunately, Apollonius of Rhodes reveals nothing about himself. Oxy,1241, which provides names of several heads of the Library of Alexandria. Other scraps can be gleaned from miscellaneous texts, the reports from all the above sources however are scanty and often self-contradictory. The two Lives and the Suda name Apollonius father as Silleus or Illeus, but both names are rare and may derive from σίλλος or lampoon, suggesting a comic source. The second Life names his mother as Rhode, but this is unlikely, Rhodē means Rhodian woman, and is almost certainly derived from an attempt to explain Apollonius epithet Rhodian. The Lives, the Suda, and the geographical writer Strabo say that he came from Alexandria, Athenaeus and Aelian say that he came from Naucratis, no source gives the date of his birth. The Lives and the Suda agree that Apollonius was a student of the poet, Vita B states that Callimachus was his instructor in rhetoric, but the terminology is anachronistic. Moreover, in ancient biographies pupil and student are figures of speech designating the influence one poet may have exercised over another, head of the Library of Alexandria. The second Life, the Suda, and P. Oxy,1241 attest that Apollonius held this post. 1241 bears some signs of confusion since it lists Apollonius under Ptolemy I Soter, the Suda says that Apollonius succeeded Eratosthenes, but this doesnt fit the evidence either. There was another Alexandrian librarian named Apollonius and this may have caused some of the confusion, the epithet Rhodios or Rhodian indicates that Apollonius had some kind of association with the island of that name. The Lives and the Suda attest to his move there from Alexandria and they differ about whether he died in Rhodes or came back to Alexandria to take up the position of head of the Library. According to Vita A, he was a teacher in Rhodes. In fact the epithet of Rhodes need not indicate any physical association with the island and it might simply reflect the fact that he once wrote a poem about Rhodes. According to Athenaeus, he was called the Naucratite. Some modern scholars doubt that he was given that title but, if he was. Only the two Lives give information about Apollonius death, and they disagree, the first reports that he died in Rhodes, the second reports that he died after returning to Alexandria and adds that some say he was buried with Callimachus
28.
Jason
–
Jason was an ancient Greek mythological hero who was famous for his role as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea and he was also the great-grandson of the messenger god Hermes, through his mothers side. Jason appeared in literary works in the classical world of Greece and Rome, including the epic poem Argonautica. In the modern world, Jason has emerged as a character in various adaptations of his myths, such as the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts, Jason has connections outside the classical world, being the mythical founder of the city of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Jasons father is invariably Aeson, but there is great variation as to his mothers name, Pelias was power-hungry and wished to gain dominion over all of Thessaly. Pelias was the product of a union between their mother, Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus, and the sea god Poseidon. In a bitter feud, he overthrew Aeson, killing all the descendants of Aeson that he could and he spared his half-brother for unknown reasons. Alcimede I already had an infant son named Jason whom she saved from being killed by Pelias, by having women cluster around the newborn and cry as if he were still-born. Alcimede sent her son to the centaur Chiron for education, for fear that Pelias would kill him — she claimed that she had been having an affair with him all along. Pelias, still fearful that he would one day be overthrown, many years later, Pelias was holding games in honor of Poseidon, when Jason arrived in Iolcus and lost one of his sandals in the river Anauros, while helping an old woman to cross. She blessed him for she knew, as goddesses do, what Pelias had planned, when Jason entered Iolcus, he was announced as a man wearing one sandal. Jason, knowing that he was the king, told Pelias that and Pelias said, To take my throne. Jason assembled for his crew, a number of heroes, known as the Argonauts after their ship, the group of heroes included the Boreads who could fly, Heracles, Philoctetes, Peleus, Telamon, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, Atalanta, Meleager and Euphemus. The isle of Lemnos is situated off the Western coast of Asia Minor, the island was inhabited by a race of women who had killed their husbands. The women had neglected their worship of Aphrodite, and as a punishment the goddess made the women so foul in stench that their husbands could not bear to be near them. The men then took concubines from the Thracian mainland opposite, the king, Thoas, was saved by Hypsipyle, his daughter, who put him out to sea sealed in a chest from which he was later rescued. The women of Lemnos lived for a while without men, with Hypsipyle as their queen, during the visit of the Argonauts the women mingled with the men creating a new race called Minyae
29.
Peleus
–
In Greek mythology, Peleus was a hero whose myth was already known to the hearers of Homer in the late 8th century BC. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs and he married the sea-nymph Thetis with whom he fathered Achilles. Peleus and his brother Telamon were friends of Heracles, and served in Heracles expedition against the Amazons, his war against King Laomedon, though there were no further kings in Aegina, the kings of Epirus claimed descent from Peleus in the historic period. Peleus and his brother Telamon killed their half-brother Phocus, perhaps in an accident and certainly in an unthinking moment. In Phthia, Peleus was purified by Eurytion and married Antigone, Eurytions daughter, by whom he had a daughter, Peleus was purified of the murder of Eurytion in Iolcus by Acastus. Astydameia, Acastus wife, fell in love with Peleus but he scorned her, bitter, she sent a messenger to Antigone to tell her that Peleus was to marry Acastus daughter. As a result, Antigone hanged herself, Astydameia then told Acastus that Peleus had tried to rape her. Acastus took Peleus on a trip and hid his sword then abandoned him right before a group of centaurs attacked. Chiron, the centaur, or, according to another source, Hermes, returned Peleus sword with magical powers. He pillaged Iolcus and dismembered Astydameia, then marched his army between the rended limbs, Acastus and Astydamia were dead and the kingdom fell to Jasons son, Thessalus. After Antigones death, Peleus married the sea-nymph Thetis and he was able to win her with the aid of Proteus, who told Peleus how to overcome Thetis ability to change her form. Their wedding feast was attended by many of the Olympian gods, as a wedding present, Poseidon gave Peleus two immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus. During the feast, Eris, in revenge for not being invited, produced the Apple of Discord, the marriage of Peleus and Thetis produced seven sons, six of whom died in infancy. The only surviving son was Achilles, Thetis attempted to render her son Achilles invulnerable. In the well-known version, she dipped him in the River Styx, holding him by one heel, which remained vulnerable. In an early and less popular version of the story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and she was interrupted by Peleus and she abandoned both father and son in a rage, leaving his heel vulnerable. Later on in life, Achilles is killed by Paris when he is shot in his vulnerable spot and this is where the term Achilles heel is derived from. Peleus gave Achilles to the centaur Chiron, to raise on Mt. Pelion, in the Iliad, Achilles uses Peleus immortal horses and also wields his fathers spear
30.
Hydria
–
A hydria is a type of water-carrying vessel in the and metalwork and pottery of Ancient Greece. Two horizontal handles on either side of the body of the pot were used for lifting and carrying the pot, the third handle, a vertical one, located in the center of the other two handles, was used when pouring water. If the third handle is missing, the type is called a kalpis and this water vessel can be found in both red- and black-figure technique. They often depicted scenes of Greek mythology that reflected moral and social obligations, as well as holding water hydriai could be used for holding ashes in burials and collecting ballots in elections. By the mid-5th century BC, Greek artisans were also creating hydria from bronze, a 6th-century example is in the Historisches Museum, Berne. Such vessels were known from Minoan pottery. Regina Vasorum is a famous late hydria in the Hermitage Museum, aquamanile Hydriske Galleries of Greek hydriai
31.
Staatliche Antikensammlungen
–
The Staatliche Antikensammlungen in the Kunstareal of Munich is a museum for the Bavarian states antique collections for Greek, Etruscan and Roman art. The Bavarian state collection of Ancient Egyptian art is placed in its own museum. Also Roman art from Bavaria is on display in a separate museum, the Staatliche Antikensammlungen museum however is complemented by the sculptures collection, which is located in the opposite Glyptothek. The neo-classical building at Königsplatz with Corinthian columns was established in 1848 as counterpart to the opposite Glyptothek, the architect was Georg Friedrich Ziebland. Already from 1869 to 1872 the building housed the royal antiquarium before the Munich Secession resided here from 1898 to 1912, from 1919 the building contained the New State Gallery. The museum building was damaged by bombing in World War II but was reconstructed and reopened to the public in the late 1960s to display the State Collection of Antiques. The State Collection of Antiquities is based on the Wittelsbach antique collections, the king acquired also antique gold jewellery from the collection of Caroline Murat, Etruscan bronzes excavated in Perugia and Greek terra-cottas from South Italy. After the kings death in 1868 his collection was united with the Wittelsbach antique collection which was founded already by Albert V, later the museum got extended by purchase and donations. Among these private collections are the donations of Paul Arndt, of James Loeb and these comprehensive collections specialised in smaller antique objects, glassware, bronzes, terra-cottas, jewelry, gold and silver. During World War II the museum lost especially Etruscan pottery, which was stored in the bombed Neue Pinakothek, the internationally renowned collection of antique pottery is outstanding, comparable only with the collections of the Louvre and the British Museum. The Mycenaean pottery is represented as well as the pottery from the geometric, the archaic, the classical, the collection contains numerous masterpieces such as the Belly Amphora by the Andokides Painter. The Standing Woman is a statuette of terracotta. An outstanding example for antique jewellery is the gold Funerary Garland from Armento, a famous Roman Goblet from Cologne made of reticella glass still shows its Latin inscription BIBE MULTIS ANNIS. It was a present of the City of Cologne in return for King Ludwigs support for the completion of Cologne Cathedral, part of the Staatliche Antikensammlungen is also a comprehensive collection of ca 800 engraved gems donated by Helmut Hansmann
32.
Pelias
–
Pelias was king of Iolcus in Greek mythology, the son of Tyro and Poseidon. His wife is recorded as either Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, or Phylomache and he was the father of Acastus, Pisidice, Alcestis, Pelopia, Hippothoe, Amphinome, Evadne, Asteropeia, and Antinoe. Tyro was married to Cretheus, with whom she had three sons, Aeson, Pherês, and Amythaon, but she loved Enipeus, a river god and she pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus and from their union were born Pelias and Neleus, twin boys. Tyro exposed her sons on a mountain to die, but they were found by a herdsman who raised them as his own, as one story goes, when they reached adulthood, Pelias and Neleus found Tyro and killed her stepmother Sidero, for having mistreated her. Pelias was power-hungry and he wished to gain dominion over all of Thessaly, to this end, he banished Neleus and Pherês, and locked Aeson in the dungeons in Iolcus. While in the dungeons, Aeson married and had children, most famously. Aeson sent Jason away from Iolcus in fear that Pelias would kill him as an heir to the throne. Jason grew in the care of Chiron the centaur, on Mount Pelium, to be educated while Pelias, many years later, Pelias offered a sacrifice by the sea in honor of Poseidon. Jason, who was summoned with many others to take part in the sacrifice, in Virgils Aeneid, Hera had disguised herself as an old woman, whom Jason was helping across the river when he lost his sandal. When Jason entered Iolcus, he was announced as a man wearing one sandal, paranoid, Pelias asked Jason what he would do if confronted with the man who would be his downfall. Jason responded that he would send that man after the Golden Fleece, Pelias took Jasons advice and sent him to retrieve the Golden Fleece. It would be found at Colchis, in a sacred to Ares. Though the Golden Fleece simply hung on an oak tree, this was an impossible task. Jason made preparations by commanding the shipwright Argus to build a large enough for fifty men. These heroes who would join his quest were known as the Argonauts, upon their arrival Jason requested the Golden Fleece from the King of Colchis, Aeëtes. Aeëtes demanded that Jason must first yoke a pair of fire-breathing bulls to a plough, Medea, daughter of Aeëtes, fell in love with Jason, and being endowed with magical powers, aided him in his completion of the difficult task. She cast a spell to put the dragon to sleep, enabling Jason to obtain the Golden Fleece from the oak tree, Jason, Medea, and the Argonauts fled Colchis and began their return journey to Thessaly
33.
Nicolas Colombel
–
Nicolas Colombel was a French painter, much inflluenced by Poussin. Colombel was born at Sotteville, near Rouen, in about 1644 and he went to Rome when quite young, and remained there until 1692, forming his style by a study of the works of Raphael and Nicolas Poussin. His pictures met with success, but most later critics dismissed him as a mere imitator of Poussin. He was admitted into the Academy of St Luke at Rome in 1686 and he was employed by Louis XIV at both Versailles and Meudon. Many of his works were engraved by Dufloc, and by Michel Dossier and he died in Paris in 1717. Sir Edmund Head, writing in 1848, described Colombel as in some sense a master who stood alone among his contemporaries in dignity of feeling, an exhibition of Colombels work was held between November 2012 and February 2013 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen
34.
Liechtenstein Museum
–
The Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, Austria contains much of the art collections of its owners, the Princely Family of Liechtenstein, rulers of the principality of Liechtenstein. They include important European works of art, forming one of the leading private art collections. Its highlight used to be Leonardos portrait of Ginevra de Benci and it was reopened on 29 March 2004 and, after battling with low visitor numbers, was closed for regular visiting by the public in November 2011. According to the website, the highlights of the princely collections can be viewed exclusively as part of an event package or a pre-booked guided tour. Objects from the collections have been sent on touring exhibitions to museums in other countries, other works from the collection fill the palaces and residences of the Princely Family in Liechtenstein and Austria. A catalogue of the featured in the Gallery at the time of Prince Joseph Wenzel was compiled by Vicenzo Fanti in 1767. The Gartenpalais was built by Prince Johann Adam Andreas von Liechtenstein, who commissioned its design and construction from Domenico Egidio Rossi, painted decor in the Palais was contributed by Marcantonio Franceschini, Antonio Bellucci, Andrea Pozzo and Johann Michael Rottmayr. Sculpture came from Giovanni Giuliani and his studio, and stucco from the stuccator Santino Bussi
35.
Bergamo
–
Bergamo is a city in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan and 30 km from the lakes Como and Iseo. The foothills of the Bergamo Alps begin immediately north of the town, Bergamo is the seat of the Province of Bergamo. With a population of around 120,000, Bergamo is the fourth-largest city in Lombardy, the metropolitan area of Bergamo extends beyond the administrative city limits, spanning over a densely urbanized area with slightly less than 500,000 inhabitants. The Bergamo metropolitan area is part of the broader Milan metropolitan area. As of 2015, Bergamo is the second most visited city in Lombardy after Milan, Bergamo occupies the site of the ancient town of Bergomum, founded as a settlement of the Celtic tribe of Cenomani. In 49 BC it became a Roman municipality, containing c.10,000 inhabitants at its peak, an important hub on the military road between Friuli and Raetia, it was destroyed by Attila in the 5th century. From the 6th century Bergamo was the seat of one of the most important Lombard duchies of northern Italy, together with Brescia, Trento, after the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne, it became the seat of a county under one Auteramus. An important Lombardic hoard dating from the 6th to 7th centuries was found in the vicinity of the city in the 19th century and is now in the British Museum. From the 11th century onwards, Bergamo was an independent commune, the local Guelph and Ghibelline factions were the Colleoni and Suardi, respectively. Feuding between the two initially caused the family of Omodeo Tasso to flee north c, from 1264, Bergamo was intermittently under the rule of Milan. In 1331, it gave itself to John of Bohemia, after a short conquest by the Malatesta in 1407, in 1428 it fell under the control of the Venetian Republic, remaining part of it until 1797. Between 1797 and 1815, Bergamo and its territory were included in the political entities born in North Italy during the French, notably, the Venetians fortified the higher portion of the town. In 1815, it was assigned to the Austrian Empire, giuseppe Garibaldi freed it in 1859 during the Second Italian War of Independence, when Bergamo became part of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 20th century Bergamo became one of Italys most industrialized cities and it is also one of the few Italian cities that did not suffer major destruction during World War II. Bergamo experiences a subtropical climate characteristic of Northern Italy. While most of Italy is characterized by dry summers with little to no precipitation, Bergamo has the reverse trend, the two parts of the town are connected by funicular/cable car, roads, and foot-paths. Parking spaces are limited in the upper city. The upper city, surrounded by Venetian walls built in the 16th century, Città Alta is an extremely expensive place to live in, with properties being sold for five to twelve thousand euro per square meter
36.
Atalanta B.C.
–
Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio, commonly known as just Atalanta, Atalanta Bergamo or the abbreviation Atalanta BC, is an Italian football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy. The club currently plays in Serie A, having gained the promotion from Serie B in 2010–11 and they are nicknamed the Nerazzurri and the Orobici. Atalanta play in blue-and-black vertically striped shirts, black shorts and black socks, the club stadium is the 26,638 seater Atleti Azzurri dItalia. The club won the Coppa Italia in 1963 and reached the Cup Winners Cup semi-final in 1988 and this is still the best ever performance by a non-first division club in a major UEFA competition. Atalanta also participated twice in the UEFA Cup, reaching the quarter-finals in 1990–91, the club was founded in 1907. A football club had existed in Bergamo since 1904, founded by Swiss immigrants, it was known as Foot Ball Club Bergamo. The rival Atalanta club grew out of a division between different sporting societies in the town, the name is taken from the female athlete of Greek mythology. The FIGC was unimpressed with the new club and did not officially recognize them until 1914, the current club is the result of a merger between Atalanta and a third team called Bergamasca. The first, black and white coloured and the wearing a blue and white shirt. The team moved to the site of the current ground, on the Viale Giulio Cesare, Atalanta joined the Italian league in 1929. The club first reached Serie A in 1937, but was relegated immediately, the club achieved its highest position in 1948, finishing in fifth place. In 1981, the fell into Serie C1, a blow which revitalised the club. The team returned to Serie B the next season and made it back to Serie A in 1984, the clubs form in Serie A remains uncertain, as it was relegated in 1987,1994,1998,2003,2005 and 2010. After a change of ownership, in 2011, Atalanta immediately came back to Serie A, in terms of titles the club has won little, their sole silverware is the 1963 Coppa Italia. The club has had a few runs in Europe, on several occasions being eliminated by the eventual winners. Welsh club Merthyr Tydfil caused an upset in the 1987–88 European Cup Winners Cup, oddly enough, the only other team to do so being Merthyr Tydfils countrymen at Cardiff City. Atalanta reached the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in the 1990–91 season, losing to local rivals Internazionale, in recent years, the club was relegated after the 2002–03, 2004–05 and 2009–10 seasons, but gained the promotion to Serie A after only one season every time. In 2011–12, Atalanta was docked six points in the table due to the outcomes of an Italian football scandal
37.
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
–
Rudolf II was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria. He was a member of the House of Habsburg, Rudolf was born in Vienna on 18 July 1552. Rudolf spent eight years, from age 11 to 19, in Spain. Rudolf would remain for the rest of his reserved, secretive. He suffered from bouts of melancholy, which was common in the Habsburg line. These became worse with age, and were manifested by a withdrawal from the world, like his contemporary, Elizabeth I of England, Rudolf dangled himself as a prize in a string of diplomatic negotiations for marriages, but never in fact married. It has been proposed by A. L. Rowse that he was homosexual, during his periods of self-imposed isolation, Rudolf reportedly had affairs with his court chamberlain, Wolfgang von Rumpf, and a series of valets. One of these, Philip Lang, ruled him for years and was hated by those seeking favour with the emperor, in addition, Rudolf was known to have had a succession of affairs with women, some of whom claimed to have been impregnated by him. He had several children with his mistress Catherina Strada. Their eldest son, Don Julius Caesar dAustria, was born between 1584 and 1586 and received an education and opportunities for political and social prominence from his father. In 1607, Rudolf sent Julius to live at Český Krumlov in Bohemia castle, Julius lived at Český Krumlov when in 1608 he reportedly abused and murdered the daughter of a local barber, who had been living in the castle, and then disfigured her body. Rudolf condemned his sons act and suggested that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his life, however, Julius died in 1609 after showing signs of schizophrenia, refusing to bathe, and living in squalor, his death was apparently caused by an ulcer that ruptured. Many artworks commissioned by Rudolf are unusually erotic, the emperor was the subject of a whispering campaign by his enemies in his family and the Catholic Church in the years before he was deposed. Sexual allegations may well have formed a part of the campaign against him, historians have traditionally blamed Rudolfs preoccupation with the arts, occult sciences, and other personal interests as the reason for the political disasters of his reign. Although raised in his uncles Catholic court in Spain, Rudolf was tolerant of Protestantism and he largely withdrew from Catholic observances, even in death denying last sacramental rites. He had little attachment to Protestants either, except as counter-weight to repressive Papal policies and he put his primary support behind conciliarists, irenicists, and humanists. His conflict with the Ottoman Empire was the cause of his undoing. Unwilling to compromise with the Turks, and stubbornly determined that he could all of Christendom with a new Crusade, he started a long
38.
Michael Maier
–
Michael Maier was a German physician and counsellor to Rudolf II Habsburg. He was a learned alchemist, epigramist and amateur composer, Maier was born in Rendsburg, Holstein, the son of a specialist in beadwork in embroidery named Peter Maier. He studied philosophy and medicine at Rostock, Frankfurt, and Padua, Maier left Padua abruptly after getting involved in a fight, injuring the other party, and being arrested. He went on to the University of Basel, where he attained a doctorate in medicine in October 1596 and his doctoral thesis, De epilepsia was dedicated to Matthias Carnarius. Maier then returned to Holstein to practice medicine, around 1599, he became interested in alchemy and attempted to create an alchemical concordance, synthesizing the works of different authors. In 1608, he went to Prague, and on 19 September 1609, he entered the service of Rudolf II as his physician. Ten days later, Rudolf raised him to the hereditary nobility and he was granted a coat of arms which depicted a bird, bonded together with frog by a golden chain. Around this time, Maier published a limited print run of De Medicina Regia et vere Heroica, Coelidonia. The interest of the emperor in the occult was the reason of his esteem for Maier. Nonetheless, in April 1611, Maier left Rudolfs court and went in search of a new patron and he corresponded with Moritz of Hessen-Kassel, and visited Hessen-Kassels brother-in-law, Count Ernst III of Holstein-Schauenburg. He was also a guest of Christoph Reinhard, Doctor of Laws and town syndic of Mühlhausen, between 1611 and 1616, Maier spent time in England at the court of James I. Maier returned to Germany in September 1616, settling in Frankfurt am Main. His Atalanta Fugiens, an emblem book, was published in 1617. Alongside images, poems, and discussion, it included fifty pieces of music in the form of fugues, in 1619, Maier became the physician of Landgrave Moritz of Hesse-Kassel. In 1620, he moved to Magdeburg to practice medicine, where he died at the age of 54, a devout Lutheran all his life, Michael Maier had a strong influence on Sir Isaac Newton. He was also involved in the Rosicrucian movement that appeared around this time, the 1656 English translation of Themis Aurea appeared as Themis Aurea, The Laws of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross, and was dedicated to Elias Ashmole. Under the initials N. L. T. S. and H. S. the dedicators justified their dedication over three pages, they are now identified as Nathaniel Hodges, and Thomas Hodges. James Brown Craven, who gave detailed descriptions of the works above in his catalogue raissonée of Michael Maier, also included the 1654 English translation of Lusus Serius, or, a Philosophical Discourse. wherein Hermes or Mercury is declared King of all Worldly things. The copy from the Bodleian Library described by Craven was dedicated To the Honourable Cary Dillon, son to Robert, late Earle of Roscommon by J. de la Salle
39.
Atalanta Fugiens
–
Atalanta Fugiens or Atalanta Fleeing is an emblem book by Michael Maier, published by Johann Theodor de Bry in Oppenheim in 1617. It consists of 50 discourses with illustrations by Matthias Merian, each of which is accompanied by a verse, prose. It may therefore be considered an example of multimedia. The title page depicts various scenes from Greek mythology related to apples, Top. Left, Hercules stretching out his arm to one of the golden apples. Right, Aphrodite handing the golden apples to Hippomenes, bottom, Race between Atalanta and Hippomenes, with Atalanta picking up an apple. Behind them is a temple with lovers embracing each other, while in the background they appear as a lion, the preface contains a dissertation upon ancient music and narrates the Greek myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes. Each of the 50 discourses contains, A detailed copper-plated engraving by Matthias Merian. An epigram in verse set to music in the form of a fugue for three voices - Atalanta, or the vox fugiens, Hippomenes, or the vox sequens, Atalanta fugiens is a play on the word fugue An epigram in German. A Latin verse with an accompanying discourse, copies at various websites, scribd. com pagesperso-orange. fr Images and other media at Wikimedia Commons English translation of Epigram Verse at wikisource alchemywebsite
_Meleager_and_Atalante.jpg)
_-_Atalanta_e_Hipomenes_disputando_a_corrida.JPG){kind=small}
