Cephalus and Procris
Procris injured in the Hunt
Carved ebony Medallion in an octagonal frame of silvered bronze
Louis XIV period, second half of the seventeenth century
Height (overall) in 11; width (overall) 8 1/4 in
Cephalus is a name, used both for the hero-figure in Greek mythology, and carried as a theophoric name by historical persons. The word kephalos is Greek for "head", perhaps used here because Cephalus was the founding "head" of a great family that includes Odysseus. It could be that Cephalus means the head of the Sun who kills (evaporates) Procris (dew) with his unerring ray or 'javelin'. Cephalus was one of the lovers of the dawn goddess Eos.
Sumptuous sacrifices for Cephalus and for Procris are required in the inscribed sacred calendar of Thorikos in southern Attica, dating perhaps to the 430s BCE and published from the stone in 1983. More
Cephalus was married to Procris, a daughter of Erechtheus, an ancient founding-figure of Athens. One day the goddess of dawn, Eos, kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting. The resistant Cephalus and Eos became lovers, and she bore him a son. However, Cephalus always pined for Procris, causing a disgruntled Eos to return him to her, making disparaging remarks about his wife's fidelity.
Once reunited with Procris after an interval of eight years, Cephalus tested her by returning from the hunt in disguise, and managing to seduce her. In shame Procris fled to the forest, to hunt. In returning and reconciling, Procris brought two magical gifts, an inerrant javelin that never missed its mark, and a hunting hound, Laelaps that always caught its prey. The hound met its end chasing a fox (the Teumessian vixen) which could not be caught; both fox and the hound were turned into stone. But the javelin continued to be used by Cephalus, who was an avid hunter.
Procris then conceived doubts about her husband, who left his bride at the bridal chamber and climbed to a mountaintop and sang a hymn invoking Nephele, "cloud". Procris became convinced that he was serenading a lover. She climbed to where he was to spy on him. Cephalus, hearing a stirring in the brush and thinking the noise came from an animal, threw the never-erring javelin in the direction of the sound – and Procris was impaled. As she lay dying in his arms, she told him "On our wedding vows, please never marry Eos". Cephalus was distraught at the death of his beloved Procris, and went into exile. More
A Hellenistic bronze figure of Artemis Bendis
Circa 3rd-1st Century B.C.
Depicted standing on her right leg, with her left leg slightly raised, the goddess wears a Phrygian cap, a short draped and knotted tunic and knee-high laced boots, 15cm high.
Bendis was a Thracian goddess of the moon and the hunt whom the Greeks identified with Artemis. She was a huntress, like Artemis, but was accompanied by dancing satyrs and maenads on a fifth-century red-figure stemless cup (at Verona).
Artemis Bendis
Thracian goddess of the hunt identified with Artemis by the Greeks
Recognizable by the Phrygian cap and the fawn-skin.
Terracotta, ca. 350 BC
By a decree of the oracle of Dodona, which required the Athenians to grant land for a shrine or temple her cult was introduced into Attica by immigrant Thracian residents, and, though Thracian and Athenian processions remained separate, both cult and festival became so popular that in Plato's time (c. 429-413 BCE) its festivities were naturalized as an official ceremonial of the city-state, called the Bendideia. Among the events were nighttime torch-races on horseback, mentioned in Plato's Republic, 328: More
Artemis Bendis
Marble votive relief, made in Athens, ca. 400-375 BC.
Said to be from Piraeus, more probably from the area of a sanctuary of Bendis on the Mounichia Hill.
H. 52 cm (20 ¼ in.), W. 84 cm (33 in.)
British Museum
Artemis Bendis (on the right, wearing a Phrygian cap, a short tunic, high boots and an animal skin) and her followers, maybe athletes taking part in the torch relay race in honour of the goddess. Marble votive relief, made in Athens, ca. 400-375 BC. Said to be from Piraeus, more probably from the area of a sanctuary of Bendis on the Mounichia Hill.
A Roman bronze figure of Herakles (Hercules)
Circa 1st-2nd Century A.D.
The muscular hero depicted nude, standing with his weight on his right leg, the left relaxed and bent at the knee, his beardless face with curly hair, wearing the lionskin over his head, its paws tied at his chest and the ends rolled over his left arm, holding a cornucopia in his left hand, 10.8cm high
Heracles, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon[4] and great-grandson/half-brother of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters.
Hercules capturing the Cretan bull
Architectural terracotta plaque (so-called Campana plaque)
discovered in 1828 in Quadraro (Roma Vecchia)
Gregorian Etruscan Museum (Vatican Museums).
In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves.
Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him. Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for the king Augeas of Elis, wrestling the giant Antaeus, or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. More
A Roman bronze weight
Circa 2nd Century A.D.
10.5cm high
In the form of a bust of a goddess, her head turned slightly to her right, drapery pinned at her shoulders, her hair tied in a chignon at the back of her head, a diadem in her hair, the remains of a loop for the steelyard chain on top of her head.
Giuseppe Rossi (1823-1907) Ital.
Crouching Venus
White marble
Height: c. 55 cm
A Roman bronze figure of Zeus
Circa 2nd Century A.D.
11cm high
Depicted with wavy hair dressed with a wreath and with full curling beard, the nude deity holding a thunderbolt in his right hand, a chlamys falling in folds from the left shoulder and arm, raised to hold a sceptre, now missing.
Zeus was the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter.
Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, by whom the Iliad states that he fathered Aphrodite. Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses.
He was respected as an allfather who was chief of the gods and assigned the others to their roles. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty. More on Zeus
Acknowledgement: Bonhams
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