Research Results For 'Persephone'

WALTER CRANE

Walter Crane was an English painter, decorative artist and prominent socialist. He was born in 1845 at Liverpool and died in 1915. He was apprenticed to W J Linton, the well-known wood-engraver, and soon began to illustrate books, and in 1862 exhibited a picture - The Lady of Shalott - at the Royal Academy. He has held various posts in connection with art education, such as that of principal of the Royal College of Art, South Kensington from 1898 to 1899, and had numerous medals and other honours conferred upon him in recognition of his artistic work. He belongs essentially to the imaginative and poetic school of artists, and his tendency was towards pre-Raphaelitism and mediaevalism, the decorative element also making itself more or less prominent. Among his chief pictures are Renascence of Venus, Fate of Persephone, Europa, The Bridge of Life, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, England's Emblem, The Rainbow and the Wave, Britannia's Vision, The World's Conquerors. The Sirens Three is a poem written and decoratively illustrated by himself. Spenser's Faerie Queene and Shepherd's Calendar, some of Shakespeare's plays, etc, have been illustrated by him; and he did much in the decoration of buildings internally. He aided the socialist movement, both as a writer and as a lecturer.
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ADONIS

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ERINYS

The Erinys or Furiae also called Dirae, Eumenides, or Semnae - that is, the ' revered' goddesses - were, in Greek mythology, daughters of Night, or, according to another myth, of the Earth and Darkness, while a third account calls them offspring of Cronos and Eurynome. They were attendants of Hades and Persephone, and lived at the entrance to the lower world. Their first duty was to see to the punishment of those of the departed who, having been guilty of some crime on earth, had come down to the shades without obtaining atonement from the gods. At the command of the higher gods, sometimes of Nemesis, they appeared on earth pursuing criminals. Nothing escaped their sharp eyes as they followed the evil-doer with speed and fury, permitting him no rest.
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LIBERA

Libera was the Roman name for the Greek goddess Persephone.
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PEIRITHOUS

In Greek mythology, Peirithous was a King of the Lapiths and a son of Ixion and Dia. He waged war against the Centaurs and helped Theseus carry off the Amazon Antiope and later Helen. He tried to abduct Persephone, but was bound to a stone seat by her husband Hades and remained a prisoner in the underworld.
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PERSEPHONE

Persephone was a Greek goddess (known to the Romans as Proserpine). She was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Hades obtained sanction from Zeus to carry her off by force and marry her.
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SIRENS

The Sirens (Acheloides) were daughters of the river-god Achelous and the Muse Melpomene. They had been nymphs and playmates of Persephone, but for not protecting her when she was carried off by Pluto, they were transformed into beings half-woman and half-bird by Demeter. Later they were transformed into half-woman and half-fish. By other accounts they were birds with women's heads and lions' claws. The Sirens lived on a barren island, one of the entrances to the underworld, and whenever ships passed they sang, hoping to entice Persephone. Their singing was so beautiful that no human could resist it, and the ships sailed ever closer to the lips of hell. Each time the Sirens realized that Persephone was not on board, they swooped on the ship and tore its sailor's limb from limb sending their souls unburied to the underworld.
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TRIPTOLEMUS

In Greek mythology, Triptolemus was a son of Celeus, king of Eleusis. In gratitude for the hospitality shown to her by Celeus when she was wandering over the earth in search of her daughter Persephone, the goddess Demeter gave Triptolemus a chariot with winged dragons with which to visit the whole world and give mankind seeds of corn. On his return Triptolemus instituted the festival of the Thesmophoria, one of the two great festivals to Demeter.
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ORPHISM

Orphism was a mystic cult of ancient Greece, believed to have been drawn from the writings of the legendary poet and musician Orpheus. Fragmentary poetic passages, including inscriptions on gold tablets found in the graves of Orphic followers from the 6th century BC, indicate that Orphism was based on a cosmogony that centred on the myth of the god Dionysus Zagreus, the son of the deities Zeus and Persephone. Furious because Zeus wished to make his son ruler of the universe, the jealous Titans dismembered and devoured the young god. Athena, goddess of wisdom, was able to rescue his heart, which she brought to Zeus, who swallowed it and gave birth to a new Dionysus. Zeus then punished the Titans by destroying them with his lightning and from their ashes created the human race. As a result, humans had a dual nature: the earthly body was the heritage of the earth-born Titans; the soul came from the divinity of Dionysus, whose remains had been mingled with that of the Titans. According to the tenets of Orphism, people should endeavour to rid themselves of the Titanic or evil element in their nature and should seek to preserve the Dionysiac or divine nature of their being. The triumph of the Dionysiac element would be assured by following the Orphic rites of purification and asceticism. Through a long series of reincarnated lives, people would prepare for the afterlife. If they had lived in evil, they would be punished, but if they had lived in holiness, after death their souls would be completely liberated from Titanic elements and reunited with the divinity.
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