The Sleep of Endymion by Anne Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, 1791. A gorgeous man: that’s an

The Sleep of Endymion by Anne Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, 1791.

A gorgeous man: that’s an oxymoron, right? At least it is in the current iteration of western culture– but the Greeks and Romans had other perspectives on male beauty.

Endymion, mythology’s loveliest mortal, is a young shepherd (not a hunter or warrior) sleeping away a sentence of 30 years for offending Juno. Over this period he will not age, and chaste Diana, goddess of the moon, shines her beams on him, playing the voyeur. Zephyr pulls back the branches of the laurel tree so she can get a better view.

Critics speculate that Girodet has rendered Endymion as effeminate or gay–an odd interpretation for such a vivid portrayal of heterosexual lust. Somehow that must seem less preposterous to them than the idea that a woman, a goddess, might enjoy checking out vulnerable, naked, gorgeous male flesh.

(Additional source: The Louvre)