Iconography and Art: Ancient mythology (Circe)

[vijeno]

I'm trying to understand iconography a bit better - specifically ancient mythology. I would love to get your input on this, maybe get a few pointers and ideas...

I feel like I'm not very good at it myself (I always struggle with the paintings in catholic churches, too), and I don't want to "poison the well" (as it were) by giving my own ideas in the first posting, so I guess I'll wait for a few comments before I give my own opinions.

As an example, let's look at John William Waterhouse's "Circe offering the cup to Odysseus".

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Circe_Offering_the_Cup_to_Odysseus.jpg

What are immediate associations? What is straight from ancient mythology, and what is 19th century interpretation? But most importantly... what do all the details mean?

 

[PureX]

That's a discussion for art historians and folks that study ancient mythology. You're asking for a lot of esoteric information, here.

All I can offer are the details that would normally bear looking into. The mirror seems very odd and prominent. What does it mean? The "lion" motif throne? The peeking bare foot? The boar's head on the bottom right? And the 'carvings' on the mirror frame.

And here's an even more confusing thought: is this painting perhaps really just decorative? As many such paintings, then, were. In which case the image details aren't intended to mean anything, particularly, but rather just to mimic ancient iconography in general. The mirror in particular would indicate this to be the case. Did the ancient Greeks even have mirrors? Certainly not big one's like that.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Great image. I'm afraid I don't know enough about Greek mythology to decode or deconstruct it.

I can say that It's very clearly in the Pre-Raphaelite style; as I understand it the Pre-Raphaelites were consciously reacting against the modernism of the industrial revolution, which would go some way to explaining their interest in classical - and often medieval - subject matter.

 

[RestlessSoul]

That's a discussion for art historians and folks that study ancient mythology. You're asking for a lot of esoteric information, here.

All I can offer are the details that would normally bear looking into. The mirror seems very odd and prominent. What does it mean? The "lion" motif throne? The peeking bare foot? The boar's head on the bottom right? And the 'carvings' on the mirror frame.

And here's an even more confusing thought: is this painting perhaps really just decorative? As many such paintings, then, were. In which case the image details aren't intended to mean anything, particularly, but rather just to mimic ancient iconography in general. The mirror in particular would indicate this to be the case. Did the ancient Greeks even have mirrors? Certainly not big one's like that.

In order to defeat Medusa, and avoid being turned to stone by her gaze, Perseus had to follow her round an abandoned temple, using the mirror image of her reflected in his bronze shield. Nothing to do with Odysseus, but that could be an indirect reference of sorts.