Orestes seeking asylum at Delphi, detail of a Paestan Red-Figure Bell Krater attributed to Python

Orestes (foreground center) kneels beside the omphalos in front of a tripod at Delphi, seeking sanctuary from the Furies. Athena (left) and Apollo (right) intervene on his behalf.
Date:
360-320 BCE
Image Credit:
© Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.

Herakles and Alkyoneus, detail of a red-figure kylix

Herakles (left) sneaks up on the unconscious giant Alkyoneus (center), with Hermes (right) helping him. Herakles wears his lion skin and carries his club in his left hand. He gestures toward Alkyoneus with his right. Hermes carries his caduceus in his left hand and gestures toward Alkyoneus with his right. Alkyoneus lies with his feet toward Herakles and his right arm thrown over his face.
Date:
c. 525 BCE

Herakles and the Golden Apples, detail of a metope from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia

Herakles stands (center) arms raised above his head supporting the sky. He is approached by Atlas (right) who offers him the golden apples of the Hesperides. Athena (left) stands behind Herakles helping him hold up the sky with her left hand.
Date:
c. 470-456 BCE
Image Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

Hercules slaying the Hydra, detail of the Twelve Labors from a Roman mosaic from Llíria

Heracles (left) grasps the Hydra (right) by one of its many necks while it coils its tail around his left leg. Hercules raises his club in his right hand, preparing to strike.
Date:
200-250 CE
Image Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

Hercules slaying the Nemean lion, detail of the Twelve Labors from a Roman mosaic from Llíria

Hercules (left) grapples with the Nemean lion (right). The lion rears up on his hind legs while Heracles wraps his right arm around the lion's muzzle. Heracles' club lies abandoned above the lion.
Date:
200-250 CE
Image Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

Danaë and the shower of gold, detail of a Boeotian red-figure krater

Danaë reclines on a bed draped with a patterned sheet. Her hair is arranged up on the back of her head and covered with a net or cloth. She wears a cloth drape open in front exposing her abdomen. Zeus in the form of rain falls on her abdomen.
Date:
3rd quarter of the 5th century BCE
Image Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

Titian, Rape of Europa

Jupiter (right), in the form of a bull, swims across the ocean with Europa on his back. She holds onto his left horn with her left hand and looks back over her right shoulder toward the shore, waving a red veil with her right hand. A cupid (left) follows after them on a dolphin. Two additional cupids fly overhead.
Agent:
Titian (Vecellio Tiziano)
Date:
1562 CE

Family tree of the Aeolids

Family tree of the Aeolids

Scansion chart for Pythian Four (Dactylo-Epitrite)

Scansion chart for Pythian Four (Dactylo-Epitrite)
Date:
2021

Triton's Tail fin

Triton's tail fin
Image Credit:
© Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

The Argonauts' route across Libya

The Argonauts' route across Libya
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

The great Syrtis

The “great Syrtis”, i.e. the Gulf of Sidra, west of Cyrene,
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

P.Oxy. LXXXIV 5428 (Benaissa, Slattery, and Henry 2019, 114)

P.Oxy. LXXXIV 5428 (Benaissa, Slattery, and Henry 2019, 114)
Date:
2019
Image Credit:
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Juniper Tree

A single juniper trees stands in the center of a large clearing surrounded by brown grass

Drawing: Romano-British Shackle

Drawing of a Romano-British iron ring shackle. It consists of two semi-circular loops that have been threaded together and closed like links of a chain. This acts as a hinge to open and close the shackle. The opposite ends of the semicircles also terminate in loops which can be threaded together and bound or locked closed. Two rings are attached to the center of each semicircular section through which chains can be run.
Image Credit:
© Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.

Close up of Berenice's Eyes

Close up of Berenice's eyes
Date:
2021

Berenice's eyes

Piercing eyesight of Queen Berenice
Date:
2021
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Imagined confluence of the Rhine, Po and Rhône

Imagined confluence of the Rhine, Po and Rhône
Date:
2021
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Witenwasserenstock

Witenwasserenstock
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Argonauts across Europe 2

Argonauts across Europe 2
Date:
2021
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Argonauts across Europe 1

Argonauts across Europe 1
Date:
2021
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Aphrodite Anadyomene

Photograph showing the upper part of a marble statue of Aphrodite. The statue is visible from the waist up. Aphrodite is nude. Her arms are raised, her hands on either side of her head gathering her hair and twisting it ti wring it out.

Roman Ivory Comb

Double-sided ivory comb. The center spine has been carved out to read MODESTINA VHEE.
Image Credit:
© Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.

Roman Ivory Hair Pin

Ivory hair pin. One end is tapered to a point to be inserted in the hair. The opposite end features a carving of a monkey sitting on his back haunches with his front paws raised at chest height. The monkey carving sits atop a turned section of ivory shaped like a small pedestal, below which the ivory is incised in five concentric bands.
Image Credit:
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble portrait of Agrippina the Elder

Sculpted marble head of Agrippina the Elder. Her hair is parted in the center with a slight wave to it. Beginning just above the temple it is styled in loose curls. The head has sustained damage: the nose and point of the of chine are largely missing and the lips have been chipped as well.

Staia Quinta bust (rear view)

Rear view of a marble bust of a woman. The right side of the head is shown. A series of of curls, beginning about 2/3 of the way across the crown of the head, cascades diagonally from the temple along the skull toward the nape of the neck. The bottom few inches of her hair, beginning approximately where the base of the neck joins the shoulders, transitions from curls to a braid.

Staia Quinta bust

Marble bust of a woman. Her hair is parted in the center, falling in waves to about the temples. At the temples it begins to fall in a cascade of tight curls following the contour of the skull and neck.

Amber on the Beach

Amber on the Beach
Date:
2015
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Heliades in Arbores

Heliades
Date:
1563
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Speaking Argo

Speaking Argo
Date:
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1934
Image Credit:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

The Keraunian Mountains

Map showing the Keraunian Mountains

More travels in the Adriatic

More travels in the Adriatic.
Date:
2021

Roman Sarcophagus: Selene and Endymion

Carved panel from the side of a Roman sarcophagus. Selene, steps down from her chariot. At her feet lies Endymion. A woman stands over him, holding a bunch of poppies in the crook of her left arm. In her right hand she pours something from a small bottle over Endymion.

Mosaic: Aurora and Cephalus

Aurora (Greek: Eos) gazes down at Cephalus who lies across her lap. Aurora's right arm is draped across Cephalus's body, her right hand grasping his left hip. She is dressed in a long gown gathered at the right shoulder. A drape billows behind the couple forming a halo before threading under Cephalus's left arm. Cephalus is shown nude.

Engraving: Memnon on the pyre

Memnon lies in the middle of a large fire on a rocky outcrop. A flock of birds rises among the smoke from the fire. On a cloud in the upper right corner Aurora stands before Jupiter's throne pleading with him. Jupiter's eagle perches by his right leg.

Cameo: Aurora in her chariot

Arurora stands in a two-wheeled chariot, pulled by two horses. She holds the reins with both hands. Her garment billows around her creating a halo effect.

Giovanni da San Giovanni: Aurora and Tithonus

Aurora lovingly gazes down at an aged, sleeping Tithonus. Her garment is twisted around her hips, having fallen down, baring her torso. In a fold of the garment she has gathered roses. Her right arm is raised, a rose in her hand. Three roses are falling down toward Tithonus, either dropped by Aurora or fallen out of her garment.

Fresco from the House of Julia Felix

Fresco in two registers, depicting two shelves. On the top shelf a bag, probably containing coins, sits in the center flanked on one side by a pile of silver coins and on the other gold. On the lower shelf, an inkwell sits far left with a stylus balanced across the left. next to lays a scroll. To the right of the scroll is an open set of wax tablets with a second stylus. Far right, a closed set of wax tablets.

Roman-British writing implements and materials

Photograph of ancient writing implements. A set of styluses, ink opt and wooden pieces of a wax tablet.
Image Credit:
© Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.

Wax tablet from Egypt

Two pieces of wood joined by a hinge. Each piece of wood has a shallow cavity in the center which would have held the wax. Lines of text are visible where the user scratched through the wax into the wood.

Terracotta figure: Woman reading a writing tablet

Seated woman dressed in a chiton wearing a cylindrical headpiece known as a polos. In her lap rests a rectangular writing tablet
Image Credit:
© Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.

Epitaph of Gnome

Marble tombstone with incised inscription highlighted by red paint.

Islands in the Adriatic

The Argonauts navigate their way through a large number of islands
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Argonautic travels in the Adriatic

Argonautic travels in the Adriatic
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Summer storms in the Adriatic

Summer storms in the Adriatic
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

The escape route of the Argonauts after the murder of Apsyrtus

The route taken by the Argonauts after the murder of Apsyrtus
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

River Kur (Kyrus)

Apollonius perhaps thought that the River Kur (Kyrus) joined the Phasis somewhere in the Caucasus Mountains
Date:
2021
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Jason eagerly leaps ashore

François Vase (Black Figure Krater, Kleitias, ABV, 76,1)
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer

Bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer 3rd–2nd century B.C.
Date:
3rd–2nd century B.C.
Image Credit:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Subject:
Apollonius Argonautica

Drawing: Ulysses at Alcinous's Palace

Ulysses (Odysseus), dressed in full armor with helmet, walks with King Alcinous. They stand in the center foreground on the walking path of a planned garden, trees on either side of them. In the middle ground courtiers stroll the gardens, including the princess and her attendants. Greenhouses or outbuildings line the left and right margins of the garden and in the far background steps leads up to the terrace of Alcinous's palace, drawn to resemble a Renaissance villa.
Image Credit:
© Trustees of the British Museum. Used by permission.