Pythagoras turned geometrical philosophy into a form of liberal education by seeking its first principles in a higher realm of reality. Pr...

Rubens offers a memorable Silenus (thanks Arline) - more later -  The original Silenus resembled a folklore man of the forest w...

But crimson Priapus, guardian and glory of gardens, Of them all, was captivated by Lotis : He desires, and prays, and sighs for her alo...

A few threads from yesterday's discussion. Here's a late Classical image (340 BC or so) of Cadmus confronting the serpent. The hero...

That there is something profoundly foreign, obscure and disquieting in Greek art which no longer allows one to speak simpl...

Bell Idol ( Thebes ) The dolphin story we were all trying to think of was the tale of Arion, from Herodotus: . . . the Greek writer Herodotu...

This ode by Horace, composed before Ovid's text, offers another Roman view of the figure of Dionysus. The translation is by A.S. Kline ....

Three Homeric Hymns are dedicated to Dionysus, the longest of which served as a source for Ovid's tale of Acoetes and his crew, who are...

In Metamorphoses 3, Acoetes tells Pentheus of his first sight of Dionysus: he led a boy, with the beauty of a virgin girl, along the shore, ...

Pentheus and the Maenads - Roman Fresco It should be said early on that Book 3 of Metamorphoses is largely about coming to terms with the ...

By chance I happened to look at Pindar's Third Pythian Ode the other day, and realized it offers the opportunity to see how a Greek po...