Greek vases Author:Susan Horner Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: APPENDIX A. GODS, GODDESSES, FABULOUS HEROES AND HEROINES, WHO FORM THE SUBJECTS FOR DECORATION ON GREEK VASES. Action. A youth, who having been instru... more »cted in the chase by the Centaur Cheiron, provoked the anger of the goddess Artemis by boasting of his superior skill, and in consequence, by command of Zeus, was torn in pieces by his own dogs. Alcmena. The wife of Amphitryon and mother of Herakles. To enhance the dignity of her son she claimed Zeus as his father, for which Amphitryon attempted her life by placing her to be burnt on a funeral pyre; but as it took fire Zeus sent down rain to extinguish the flames. Amalthea. The sacred goat which nourished the infant Zeus: his mother Rhea (or Cybele) confided the child to the care of the daughters of a king of Crete, who fed him with its milk. Zeus broke off one of its horns and presented it to his guardian nymphs; he endowed it with the property of being at all times filled with whatsoever the possessor most desired; hence the myth or tale of the Cornucopia, the horn of plenty, so frequently represented in ancient sculpture and painting. The breastplate called the aegis of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, was made from the skin of this goat. Amazons. A race of warlike females dwelling in the far east of Asia Minor, whence they were said to have invaded Thrace, Greece, and even Egypt and Libya in Africa. The origin of this fahle may he traced to certain tribes in which the women performed the tasks usually assigned to men. In an invasion of Athens, the Amazons were supposed to have been conquered by the Attic hero Theseus. Their combats with the hoplites, the foot soldiers of Greece, was a frequent subject with artists, and during the best period of art it was rendered with a marvellous display of chivalrous and tend...« less