The Sirens, who with their melodious voices lured all navigators to destruction … were, according to classical tradition, creatures having the body of a bird with the head of a beautiful woman … They were informed by the oracle that as soon as any passed by without heeding their songs they should perish. The 1891 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue summarized the Homeric narrative: This dramatic painting illustrates an episode from the journeys of the Greek hero Odysseus, as told in the ancient Greek poet Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. Spielmann, writing for the Magazine of Art, declared it:Ī very startling triumph … a very carnival of colour, mosaicked and balanced with a skill more consummate than even the talented artist was credited with … The quality of the painting is … a considerable advance upon all his antecedent work.Īt the time of Sir Hubert von Herkomer’s purchase of this picture for the National Gallery of Victoria, in June 1891, the Ulysses was only the second work by John William Waterhouse – a painter renowned for his depictions of Greek and Roman subjects – to be acquired for a public gallery. But at last she knows it is he and accepts him as her long-lost husband and the king of Ithaca.When Ulysses and the Sirens was first exhibited, at London’s Royal Academy in 1891, the painting was praised by most art critics of the day. Penelope still does not believe him and gives him one further test. He then, with the help of Telemachus and two slaves, slays Penelope’s suitors. Recognized at first only by his faithful dog and a nurse, Odysseus proves his identity-with the aid of Athena-by accomplishing Penelope’s test of stringing and shooting with his old bow. He alone survives the ensuing storm and reaches the idyllic island of the nymph Calypso.Īfter almost nine years, Odysseus finally leaves Calypso and at last arrives in Ithaca, where his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, have been struggling to maintain their authority during his prolonged absence. He then encounters the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, and the Cattle of the Sun, which his companions, despite warnings, plunder for food. Next he visits the Land of Departed Spirits, where he speaks to the spirit of Agamemnon and learns from the Theban seer Tiresias how he can expiate Poseidon’s wrath. Books VI–XIII describe his wanderings between Troy and Ithaca: he first comes to the land of the Lotus-Eaters and only with difficulty rescues some of his companions from their lōtos-induced lethargy he encounters and blinds Polyphemus the Cyclops, a son of Poseidon, escaping from his cave by clinging to the belly of a ram he loses 11 of his 12 ships to the cannibalistic Laistrygones and reaches the island of the enchantress Circe, where he has to rescue some of his companions whom she had turned into swine. Odysseus’s wanderings and the recovery of his house and kingdom are the central theme of the Odyssey, an epic in 24 books that also relates how he accomplished the capture of Troy by means of the wooden horse.
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