#ancient greece

The evocative and wonderful D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. Trained by the painter Henri Matisse, the D’Aulaires did books of Greek Myths, Norse myths, Norwegian troll stories, and even did a couple on the life of great American heroes, like a volume on the life of Abe Lincoln. 

Their imaginative version of Greek Myth was a towering achievement.

argonauticae:

A L E X A N D E R   T H E   G R E A T (forilvalentinos)

‘how may a man become a god?‘ 

'by doing something a man cannot do.’

Cycladic aesthetics

Naxos island
Church, the holy temple of Goddess Demetra and buildings

Ares Borghese, imperial era marble, ca. 1st - 2nd century AD, Rome.

The Ares Borghese is a Roman marble statue of the imperial era. It is 2.11m high. It is identifiable as Ares by the helmet and by the ankle ring given to him by his lover Aphrodite. This statue possibly preserves some features of an original work in bronze, now lost, of the 5th century BC. - wikipedia

Krater from the Geometric Period, terracotta, ca. 750-730BC, Greece.

Monumental vases like this one were used as grave markers during the Geometric Period (kraters for men and amphoras for women). On the largest part of the vase is depicted a scene called “prothêsis” in which the deceased is laid on a bier and surrounded by mourners. The mourners are represented with the hands on their heads because it symbolises their wailing. The charriots and shields depicted under the prothêsis are probably there to show that the deceased had a powerful ancestry.

Courtesy of Metmuseum.