# Greco-Roman Sources I: the Gods and Their Texts

Art History I · Iconography · https://tryals.app/learn/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts

## Which Texts Painters Actually Used

Renaissance and **Baroque** mythological painting relied on a small set of **Latin texts**:

- **Ovid**: the *Metamorphoses* was the single most-used source.
- **Virgil**: the *Aeneid*, for **Trojan** and **Roman** subjects like **Dido**.
- **Homer**: read in translation, as **Greek** was less known.
- **Apuleius**: source for **Cupid** and **Psyche**.
- **Later handbooks**: summaries for artists who did not read the originals.

Painters used **Roman** names like **Jupiter**, **Venus**, and **Mercury** because their sources were **Latin**. Furthermore, myths arrived **already interpreted** through centuries of moralising commentaries. For instance, readers viewed the *Metamorphoses* as **Christian** allegory.

### The Gods and Their Attributes

| Deity (Roman / Greek) | Attributes |
|---|---|
| **Jupiter** / **Zeus** | Eagle, thunderbolt |
| Juno / **Hera** | Peacock |
| Minerva / **Athena** | Helmet, owl, aegis, spear |
| **Venus** / **Aphrodite** | Doves, shell, **Cupid**, mirror |
| **Diana** / Artemis | Crescent moon, bow, hounds |
| **Apollo** | Lyre, laurel, sun |
| **Mercury** / Hermes | Caduceus, winged hat and sandals |

### Why Patrons Wanted Mythological Subjects

Several motives operated at once:

1. **Learning.** Mythological subjects proved the patron's classical education.
2. **Licence.** Nudity was acceptable in pagan scenes, making **Venus** and **Diana** popular.
3. **Allegory.** Gods personified abstract forces like love, wisdom, or time.
4. **Political analogy.** Rulers appeared as **Hercules** or **Apollo** to claim legitimacy.

These myths posed no threat to **Christian** orthodoxy. Images offered both moral instruction and sensory pleasure simultaneously.

> **Common pitfall:** treating these pictures as a revival of pagan religion. Patrons were not worshipping **Jupiter**. Instead, myths served as a **shared literary language** for exploring love, power, and death.

## Practice questions

10 of this lesson's 14 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app.

### 1. Why do Renaissance mythological paintings use Roman rather than Greek names for the gods?

A. Their sources were Latin texts, above all Ovid, and Greek was far less widely read
B. The Roman Catholic Church strictly mandated Latin terminology for pagan subjects
C. Greek manuscripts containing mythology were lost until the eighteenth century
D. Humanist scholars viewed Roman deities as uniquely suitable for Christian allegory

**Answer:** A. Their sources were Latin texts, above all Ovid, and Greek was far less widely read

**Why:** Because the **sources were Latin**. Ovid was available, readable and repeatedly translated; Greek was read by far fewer people, and Homer often arrived at second hand. The naming follows the transmission, which is why the pantheon of European painting is Roman even when the stories are Greek.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/why-do-renaissance-mythological-paintings-use-roman-rather-than-greek

### 2. Which are reasons patrons commissioned mythological subjects?

A. They displayed the patron's learning
B. They allowed a ruler to be figured as Hercules or Apollo
C. They permitted the nude where a devotional subject would not
D. They expressed a revival of belief in the Roman gods

**Answer:** A. They displayed the patron's learning; B. They allowed a ruler to be figured as Hercules or Apollo; C. They permitted the nude where a devotional subject would not

**Why:** The fourth is the standing misreading. The myths functioned as a **shared literary language** for love, power, time and death, which is precisely why entirely orthodox Christians could use them so freely, and why the moralised commentaries made the arrangement respectable.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/which-are-reasons-patrons-commissioned-mythological-subjects

### 3. Sort each attribute by the deity it identifies.

**Answer:**

- Jupiter: Eagle, thunderbolt
- Venus: Doves and shell, Cupid attending
- Diana: Moon and hounds, Bow in woodland
- Mercury: Caduceus, sandals

**Why:** The system is identical to the saints': an object referring to a known story does the work that individual likeness cannot. Learning both repertoires together is efficient, because they were used side by side by the same painters for the same reason.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/sort-each-attribute-by-the-deity-it-identifies

### 4. The Ovide moralisé read the Metamorphoses as Christian allegory.

**Answer:** True

**Why:** **True**, and it is what made mythological painting comfortable in a Christian culture. The myths arrived **already interpreted** through centuries of moralising commentary, so a fifteenth-century viewer brought that reading with them, and the same picture could be defended as an allegory of virtue and enjoyed as something else entirely.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/the-ovide-moralise-read-the-metamorphoses-as-christian-allegory

### 5. How many books does Ovid's Metamorphoses contain?

**Answer:** 15

**Why:** **Fifteen.** The scale is part of why it dominated: a single accessible Latin poem containing several hundred transformation stories gave painters and patrons a whole mythology in one volume, with no Greek required.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/how-many-books-does-ovids-metamorphoses-contain

### 6. Complete the account of the classical sources.

**Answer:** The single most-used source for mythological painting is Ovid's **Metamorphoses**. Painters used the **Roman** names of the gods because their sources were in that language. The commentary tradition that read the myths as Christian allegory is the **Ovide moralisé**. Venus is identified by doves, a shell and the presence of **Cupid**.

**Why:** The second and third blanks together explain the whole arrangement: Latin sources gave Roman names, and moralising commentary gave a Christian reading, so the classical material arrived pre-translated in both senses at once.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/complete-the-account-of-the-classical-sources

### 7. Match each classical text to what painters took from it.

**Answer:**

- Ovid, Metamorphoses → Transformation stories, the dominant source
- Virgil, Aeneid → Trojan and Roman subjects, and Dido
- Apuleius, The Golden Ass → Cupid and Psyche
- Sixteenth-century mythographies → Mediated the material for artists who read no Latin

**Why:** The fourth entry is the one usually left out and does a great deal of work. Many painters read no Latin, so the mythographies were the practical source, which means the myths reached the canvas through two filters, the ancient text and its sixteenth-century digest.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/match-each-classical-text-to-what-painters-took-from-it

### 8. Arrange the steps of identifying a mythological subject, in order.

**Answer:**

1. Describe the figures, objects and setting
2. Identify the deities by their attributes
3. Identify the episode from the combination of figures present
4. Locate the episode in Ovid or another source
5. Ask what the patron was claiming by choosing it

**Why:** The third step is where the work is: a Venus alone is a subject, and a Venus with Mars and a net is an episode. Once the episode is fixed, the source usually follows immediately, and only then is it worth asking what commissioning that particular story was meant to say.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/arrange-the-steps-of-identifying-a-mythological-subject-in-order

### 9. Renaissance patrons commissioned depictions of pagan deities without compromising their Christian faith. Given that these works were not acts of religious revival, what follows for interpreting their iconographical programmes?

A. They aimed to subvert official church doctrine through veiled paganism
B. They sought to recreate authentic ancient Greco-Roman ritual beliefs
C. They were strictly secular decorations entirely devoid of moral meaning
D. They functioned as an allegorical code for worldly virtues and power

**Answer:** D. They functioned as an allegorical code for worldly virtues and power

**Why:** Mythological imagery operated as a shared literary vocabulary rather than pagan devotion. Confusing classical subjects with religious rebellion overlooks how allegorical and moralising traditions harmonised antique myths with early modern Christian society.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/renaissance-patrons-commissioned-depictions-of-pagan-deities-without

### 10. Homer reached most Renaissance painters directly in the original Greek.

**Answer:** False

**Why:** **False.** Greek was read by far fewer people than Latin, so Homer arrived through translations and through the mythographic handbooks. That is one reason Ovid dominates: he was available in the language that educated Europe actually read.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/art-history-i/greco-roman-sources-i-the-gods-and-their-texts/homer-reached-most-renaissance-painters-directly-in-the-original