Myth, Mediation, Marvel a Wikibook to Accompany Our Study of “Musée Des Beaux Arts” Contents
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Myth, Mediation, Marvel A Wikibook to accompany our study of “Musée des Beaux Arts” Contents 1 Myth 1 1.1 Daedalus ................................................ 1 1.1.1 Family ............................................. 1 1.1.2 The Labyrinth ......................................... 1 1.1.3 Daedalus and Icarus ...................................... 2 1.1.4 Sicily ............................................. 2 1.1.5 Daedalus and Perdix ..................................... 3 1.1.6 Innovator ........................................... 3 1.1.7 Gallery ............................................ 3 1.1.8 See also ............................................ 3 1.1.9 References .......................................... 3 1.1.10 External links ......................................... 4 2 Myth, reconsidered and framed: Bruegel 5 2.1 Pieter Bruegel the Elder ........................................ 5 2.1.1 Life .............................................. 5 2.1.2 Historical background ..................................... 5 2.1.3 Subjects ............................................ 5 2.1.4 Family ............................................. 7 2.1.5 Work referenced in others’ work ............................... 7 2.1.6 Works ............................................. 8 2.1.7 Selected works ........................................ 9 2.1.8 References .......................................... 10 2.1.9 External links ......................................... 10 2.2 Landscape with the Fall of Icarus ................................... 11 2.2.1 Description .......................................... 11 2.2.2 Attribution .......................................... 11 2.2.3 Mentions in other media ................................... 13 2.2.4 References .......................................... 13 2.2.5 Further reading ........................................ 14 2.2.6 External links ......................................... 14 3 Myth, Mediation, and Marvel: Auden 15 i ii CONTENTS 3.1 W. H. Auden ............................................. 15 3.1.1 Life .............................................. 15 3.1.2 Work ............................................. 18 3.1.3 Published works ........................................ 22 3.1.4 Notes ............................................. 23 3.1.5 References .......................................... 25 3.1.6 External links ......................................... 26 3.2 Musée des Beaux Arts (poem) .................................... 27 3.2.1 Synopsis ............................................ 27 3.2.2 Bruegel’s influence ...................................... 27 3.2.3 Cultural legacy ........................................ 28 3.2.4 References .......................................... 28 3.2.5 External links ......................................... 29 3.3 Ekphrasis ............................................... 29 3.3.1 Definition ........................................... 29 3.3.2 History of ekphrasis ...................................... 30 3.3.3 Ekphrasis genre ........................................ 30 3.3.4 Other aspects ......................................... 33 3.3.5 References .......................................... 35 3.3.6 External links ......................................... 35 4 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses 36 4.1 Text .................................................. 36 4.2 Images ................................................. 38 4.3 Content license ............................................ 40 Chapter 1 Myth 1.1 Daedalus Eupalamus,[5] or Palamaon,[6] and a mother, Alcippe,[7] Iphinoe,[8] or Phrasimede.[9] Daedalus had two sons: [10] [11] This article is about the mythological character. For other Icarus and Iapyx, along with a nephew either Talus uses, see Daedalus (disambiguation). or Perdix. In Greek mythology, Daedalus (/ˈdɛdələs ˈdiːdələs/; Athenians transferred Cretan Daedalus to make him Athenian-born, the grandson[12] of the ancient king Erechtheus, who fled to Crete, having killed his nephew, Talos. Over time, other stories were told of Daedalus. 1.1.2 The Labyrinth Daedalus is first mentioned by Homer as the creator of a wide dancing-ground for Ariadne.[13] He also created the Labyrinth on Crete, in which the Minotaur (part man, part bull) was kept. In the story of the labyrinth as told by the Hellenes, the Athenian hero Theseus is challenged to kill the Minotaur, finding his way with the help of Ariadne’s thread. Daedalus’ appearance in Homer is in an extended metaphor, “plainly not Homer’s invention”, Robin Lane Fox observes: “he is a point of comparison and so he belongs in stories which Homer’s audience al- ready recognized”.[14] In Bronze Age Crete, an inscrip- tion da-da-re-jo-de has been read as referring to a place at Knossos,[15] and a place of worship.[16] In Homer’s language, objects which are daidala are finely crafted. They are mostly objects of armor, but fine bowls and furnishings are daidala, and on one occasion so are the “bronze-working” of “clasps, twisted brooches, ear- Daedalus constructs wings for his son, Icarus, after a Roman rings and necklaces” made by Hephaestus while cared for [17] relief in the Villa Albani, Rome (Meyers Konversationslexikon, in secret by the goddesses of the sea. 1888). Ignoring Homer, later writers envisaged the Labyrinth as an edifice rather than a single dancing path to the Ancient Greek: Δαίδαλος Daidalos, perhaps related center and out again, and gave it numberless winding to δαιδάλλω “to work artfully";[1] Latin: Daedalus; passages and turns that opened into one another, seem- Etruscan: Taitale) was a skillful craftsman and artist.[2][3] ing to have neither beginning nor end.[18] Ovid, in his He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix and possibly Metamorphoses, suggests that Daedalus constructed the also the father of Iapyx although this is unclear. Labyrinth so cunningly that he himself could barely es- cape it after he built it.[19] Daedalus built the labyrinth for King Minos, who needed it to imprison his wife’s 1.1.1 Family son the Minotaur. The story is told that Poseidon had given a white bull to Minos so that he might use it as a His parentage was supplied as a later addition to sacrifice. Instead, Minos kept it for himself; and in re- the mythos, providing him with a father in Metion,[4] venge, Poseidon made his wife Pasiphaë lust for the bull 1 2 CHAPTER 1. MYTH with the help of Aphrodite.[20] For Pasiphaë, as Greek feathers together, from smallest to largest so as to form mythologers interpreted it, Daedalus also built a wooden an increasing surface. He secured the feathers at their cow so she could mate with the bull, for the Greeks imag- midpoints with string and at their bases with wax, and ined the Minoan bull of the sun to be an actual, earthly gave the whole a gentle curvature like the wings of a bird. bull, the slaying of which later required a heroic effort by When the work was done, the artist, waving his wings, Theseus. found himself buoyed upward and hung suspended, pois- This story thus encourages others to consider the long- ing himself on the beaten air. He next equipped his son in term consequences of their own inventions with great the same manner, and taught him how to fly. When both were prepared for flight, Daedalus warned Icarus not to care, lest those inventions do more harm than good. As in the tale of Icarus' wings, Daedalus is portrayed assisting fly too high, because the heat of the sun would melt the wax, nor too low, because the sea foam would soak the in the creation of something that has subsequent negative consequences, in this case with his creation of the mon- feathers. strous Minotaur’s almost impenetrable Labyrinth which They had passed Samos, Delos and Lebynthos by the time made slaying the beast an endeavour of legendary diffi- the boy, forgetting himself, began to soar upward toward culty. the sun. The blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers together and they came off. Icarus quickly fell in the sea and drowned. His father cried, bitterly lamenting 1.1.3 Daedalus and Icarus his own arts, and called the land near the place where Icarus fell into the ocean Icaria in memory of his child. Some time later, the goddess Athena visited Daedalus and gave him wings, telling him to fly like a god. An early image of winged Daedalus appears on an Etruscan jug of ca 630 BC found at Cerveteri, where a winged figure captioned Taitale appears on one side of the vessel, paired on the other side, uniquely, with Metaia, Medea:[21] “its linking of these two mythical figures is unparalleled,” Robin Lane Fox observes: “The link was probably based on their wondrous, miraculous art. Mag- ically, Daedalus could fly, and magically Medea was able to rejuvenate the old (the scene on the jug seems to show her doing just this)".[22] The image of Daedalus demon- strates that he was already well known in the West. 1.1.4 Sicily Further to the west, Daedalus arrived safely in Sicily, in the care of King Cocalus of Kamikos on the island’s south coast; there Daedalus built a temple to Apollo, and hung up his wings, an offering to the god. In an invention of Virgil (Aeneid VI), Daedalus flies to Cumae and founds his temple there, rather than in Sicily; long afterwards Aeneas confronts the sculpted golden doors of the temple. Minos, meanwhile, searched for Daedalus by travelling from city to city asking a riddle. He presented a spiral seashell and asked for a string to be run through it. When Daedalus and Icarus, c. 1645, by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690)