Phaethon and his father Note the horses on the left.

Phaethon and his father

Note the horses on the left.

Chariot of the Sun

18th Century

Illustration of Phaethon’s fall and the mourning of his sisters.

Another conception of Phaethon’s fall. This illustration shows two scenes from the story—at right, Phaethon going to visit his father, and at left, his fall from the chariot.

The line at the top is Latin for “Fall of Phaethon”.

Rubens, 17th Century – Painting of Phaethon’s fall.

Jove & Callisto in Arcady

Diana orders Callisto out of her group.

Rubens, 17th Century, the revelation of Callisto’s pregnancy

Callisto’s son, Arcas comes across her in the woods and prepares to kill her.

Ursa Major – Callisto’s constellation

Ursa Minor – Callisto’s son, Arcas

•Apollo and Coronis - the Raven’s story

•Minerva (Pallas) and Erichthonius and the daughters of Cecrops – Herse, Pandrosos, Aglauros – the Crow’s story

•Chiron and daughter, Ocyrhoe

•Mercury and Battus

•Mercury and the daughters of Cecrops

•House of Envy

Further tales from Ovid, Book 2:

Stories of the daughters of Cecrops: Aglauros’ betrayal of Minerva’s trust, Mercury’s desire for Herse and efforts to get

Aglauros to serve as go-between, and Minerva’s punishment of Aglauros, after a visit to the House of EnvySee http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Envy.htmlfor summary and such depictions as that of Envy, below.

Apollo and Coronis

The great English poet Geoffry Chaucer borrowed this story for his “Canterbury Tales”, although he changed the bird from Ovid’s raven to a crow. Check out Chaucer’s version, which also features ‘animal wisdom’ at

http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Manciple%27s_tale.

Ovid had his own crow story of course that goes along with

the Raven’s tale.

Minerva and the daughters of Cecrops – Ovid’s crow story

Although Crow made a mistake in telling Minerva about the girls’ betrayal of her trust, ancients thought, in general, that the crow was an intelligent bird.

Chiron and his daughter

Chiron was a wise and learned centaur, tutor to many of the ancient Greek mythic heroes.

Landscape with Mercury and Battus , Jacob Pynas (1592-1656)

Ovid now takes us to the Asian coast with Mercury—to ancient Phoenicia

Note the location of the city of Sidon on the coast of Phoenicia in the lower right of the map, at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea.

Here Mercury goes to herd cattle to the shoreline to set the scene for Jove’s abduction of Europa.

The abduction of Europa by Jove in the form of

a bull.

Other depictions of Europa’s abduction.

Rubens treatment of this myth.

Europa’s destination.

Where Europa was seized.

Jove carried Europa to Crete, where she gave birth to his son, Minos, who became the King of Crete. More about Minos later in Ovid, Book 7.