Greek Mythology

"But the most notable of all was an ivory statue of Jupiter, the work of Phidias, son of the Athenian Charmides, of such greatness that although the temple is very high, nevertheless it seems to exceed the right proportion: for the artist he sat down; and yet it almost touches the roof with its head: so we then see that if it were to stand up it would uncover the temple. And some described the size of that statue, among others Callimachus in iambic verses. The painter Panenos, his nephew, cooperated greatly with Phidias in that work, to whom he was assigned together with Phidias, and embellished the statue with the ornamentation of colours, and mainly in the part of the drapery. (Strabo)"

"Pediments of the temple of Zeus in Olympia"

"Statue of Zeus in Olympia"

"Apollo depicted in the western pediment The artist of the temple of Zeus at Olympia depicted his simultaneously powerful and spiritual superiority in the way grander and more realistic. In the midst of the wildest tumult, the god suddenly appears, and his outstretched arm imposes calm. It is impossible to bring to expression in a more compelling way the entrance of the divine with all its illuminating clarity and his omniscient gaze. (Walter Friedrich Otto)"

"For nothing in the world would I want to see the Colosseum rebuilt, with all the walls and steps in perfect condition, or a Parthenon painted in bright colors, or a Victory of Samothrace with her head. (Matilde Asensi)"

"The wind, the fresh sea breeze, which excites, exalts and inebriates, whips the triumphant, proud figure of the goddess and, having the chiton modeled on the body, collects and shakes the edges while detaching, either inflating high, or knocking down to the ground, the himation. And a very effective means for achieving a grandiose effect is the swelling of the himation between the leg and the leg, which, greatly enriching the lower part of the figure and giving it a solid base, prepares the passage to the torso, to the chest, to the wings widely extended. Everything in this sculpture seems to make us sensitive to the capricious breeze of the sea, so that it almost seems to inhale the salty smell of the wide surface of the waters. (Pericle Ducati)"

"A roaring automobile, which seems to run on machine guns, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. (Filippo Tommaso Marinetti)"

"For the invincible impetus and the conquering energy, for the thrill of life transfused in marble, for the happy contrast between the tumultuous fluttering of the mantle and the adherence of the tunic to the belly and thighs}}, this statue is the most beautiful expression of the movement, which ancient art has transmitted to us. The sculptor has not only translated muscular strength and triumphant elegance, but the intensity of the sea breeze, of that breeze that Sully-Prudhomme makes us hear in an equally winged verse: Un peu du grand zéphir qui souffle à Salamine.... (Salomon Reinach)"

"Joy, thou spark from Heav'n immortal, Daughter of Elysium! Drunk with fire, toward Heaven advancing Goddess, to thy shrine we come. Thy sweet magic brings together What stern Custom spreads afar; All men become brothers Where thy happy wing-beats are."

"ELYSIUM, n. An imaginary delightful country which the ancients foolishly believed to be inhabited by the spirits of the good. This ridiculous and mischievous fable was swept off the face of the earth by the early Christians -- may their souls be happy in Heaven!"

"Ye Furies, and dreadful Styx, ye sufferings of the damned, and Chaos for ever eager to destroy the fair harmony of words, and thou, Pluto, condemned to an eternity of ungrateful existence, Hell and Elysium, of which no Thessalian witch shall partake, Prosperine, for ever cut off from thy health-giving mother, and horrid Hecate, Cerberus, cursed with incessant hunger, ye Destinies, and Charon, endlessly murmuring at the task I impose of bringing back the dead again to the land of the living, hear me! -if I call on you with a voice sufficiently impious and abominable, if I have never sung this chant unsated with human gore, if I have frequently laid on your altars the fruit of the pregnant mother, bathing its contents with the reeking brain if I have placed on a dish before you the head and entrails of an infant on the point to be born- I ask not of you a ghost, already a tenant of the Tartarian abodes, and long familiarized to the shades below, but one who has recently quitted the light of day, and who yet hovers over the mouth of hell: let him hear these incantations, and immediately after descent to his destined place! Let him articulate suitable omens to the son of his general, having so late been himself a soldier of the great Pompey! Do this, as you love the very sound and rumour of a civil war!"

"But though the Shawnees consider the sun the type, if not the essence, of the Great Spirit, many also believe in an evil genius, who makes all sorts of bad things, to counterbalance those made by the Good Spirit. For instance, when the latter made a sheep, a rose, wholesome herbs, etc., the bad spirit matched them with a wolf, a thorn, poisonous plants, and the like. They also appear to think there is a kind of purgatory in which the spirits of the wicked may be cleansed before entering into their elysium."

"Souls of poets dead and gone, What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?"

"[From De Joinville]: Now, I hold that, in most matrimonial instances, it is as well to provide for repentance ; and wealth has its advantages and its alleviations in affairs of the heart, as in all other affairs. It was by means of a golden bough that Æneas passed the evil spirits of Tartarus, and gained Elysium in safety."

"I thank Providence who has guided my destinies, that I now live; nay, that I live happier than a king of Persia. You know, fathers and fellow-citizens, that I am wholly occupied with this academical garden; that it is my Rhodus, or rather my Elysium. There I possess all the spoils of the east and the west which I wished for; and which, in my belief, are far more precious than the silken garments of the Babylonians, and the porcelain vases of the Chinese. There I receive and convey instruction. There I admire the wisdom of the Creator, which manifests itself in so many various modes, and demonstrate it to others."

"Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul And lap it in Elysium."

"Soon as thy son (believe the truths you hear) Shall in Elysium's blissful plains appear... In Hymen's silken chains the hero led, Must share the honours of Medea's bed."

"How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown, Within whose circuit is Elysium, And all that poets feign of bliss and joy."

"I'll be as patient as a gentle stream And make a pastime of each weary step, Till the last step have brought me to my love; And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil, A blessed soul doth in Elysium."

"Some, ’tis whisper’d, down in hell Suffer endless anguish, others in Elysian valleys dwell, Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel."

"Devenere locos laetos et amoena vireta Fortunatonun nemorum, sedesque beatas."

"Hic manus, ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi, Quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat, Quique pii vates, et Phoebo digna locuti, Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes, Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo."

"The virtuous are then conveyed to Swarga or Elysium, whilst the wicked are driven to the different regions of Naraka or Tartarus."

"Ignavis precibus Fortuna repugnat."

"Metamorphoses, trans. Charles Martin (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004)"

"Metamorphoses, trans. A. D. Melville (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986)"

"The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory (New York: The Viking Press, 1958)"

"Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955)"

"The. xv. Booke of P. Ouidius Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis, trans. Arthur Golding (London: Willyam Seres, 1567)"

"A worke very pleasaunt and delectable."

"[Ovid] took the one thing that was to him emotionally real—the love that unites and destroys men and women—and made an epic of it. [...] The Metamorphoses remains unique: it is the only epic of love."

"Cum volet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi: parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum."

"Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas."

"Sic tempora verti cernimus atque illas adsumere robora gentes, concidere has."

"Nascique vocatur incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante, morique desinere illud idem."

"Tempus edax rerum, tuque, invidiosa vetustas, omnia destruitis vitiataque dentibus aevi paulatim lenta consumitis omnia morte!"

"Nihil est toto, quod perstet, in orbe. Cuncta fluunt, omnisque vagans formatur imago."

"Quae natura negabat visibus humanis, oculis ea pectoris hausit."

"Dum peiora timentur, est in vota locus: sors autem ubi pessima rerum, sub pedibus timor est securaque summa malorum."

"Pauperis est numerare pecus."

"Somne, quies rerum, placidissime, Somne, deorum, pax animi, quem cura fugit, qui corpora duris fessa ministeriis mulces reparasque labori."

"Candida de nigris et de candentibus atra."

"Audentes deus ipse iuvat!"

"In audaces non est audacia tuta."

"Labitur occulte fallitque volatilis aetas, et nihil est annis velocius."

"Humana malignas cura dedit leges, et quod natura remittit, invida iura negant."

"Ars adeo latet arte sua."

"Serius aut citius sedem properamus ad unam."

"Cura deum di sint, et, qui coluere, colantur."

"Nulla est sincera voluptas, sollicitumque aliquid laetis intervenit."