Athena and Nike fight Alkyoneus
The Battle Between Gods and Giants
c. 200 BC
found at
now located at
Glyptothek Museum, Munich, Germany
The Pergamon Altar depicts the battle between the Olympian Gods and the Giants (The Gigantomachy)
1599 AD
located at
Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy
Nessus was a centaur who was killed by Heracles, and whose poisoned blood in turn killed Heracles.
by
1865 AD
located at
Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy
Polyxena was eager to die as a sacrifice to Achilles rather than live as a slave.
Achilles trusted Polyxena and told her of his only vulnerability: his heel. Polyxena's brothers, Paris and Deiphobus, ambushed Achilles and shot him in the heel to kill him.
by
1824 AD
located at
Heracles fought Achelous (transformed into a snake) for the right to marry Deianeira.
by
c. 200 AD
located at
National Roman Museum, Palazzo Altemps, Rome
The Ludovisi Gaul statue depicts the fate of those defeated in war.
by
1525 AD
located at
Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy
Hercules stole cattle as part of his his tenth labor, and Cacus in turn stole those from Hercules. In the ensuing fight, Hercules killed Cacus.
by
Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus
c. 27 BC
located at
Goddess Minerva sent sea serpents to strangle the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons as punishment for attempting to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse.
The Greeks used the Trojan horse to enter and sack the city of Troy.
Laocoon warned:
[O unhappy men!
What madness this? Who deems our foemen fled?
Think ye the gifts of Greece can lack for guile? ]
— Virgil's Aeneid, Book 2
Roman Copy, 222-235 AD
located at
National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy
To avenge their mother the twins Amphion and Zethue tie the woman Dirce to the horns of a bull.
Roman Copy, 222-235 AD
located at
National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy
To avenge their mother the twins Amphion and Zethus tie the woman Dirce to the horns of a bull.
by
1582 AD
located at
Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, Italy
When the city of Rome was founded, it contained relatively few women. This led to Roman men committing a raptio (large-scale abduction) of young women from nearby towns and cities.
330 BC
located at
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome, Italy
Over two thousand years ago, bronze was melted and cast to express the overcoming of pain and suffering in this masterpiece. 2,000+ years ago!
by
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
1504 AD
located at
Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, Florence, Italy
Moments before fighting the giant Goliath with nothing but a sling and a stone, David contemplates the battle to come.
Roman Copy, 370 BC
located at
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
The two young men engaged in the pankration, a kind of wrestling sport. This statue is a Roman copy (and a poor one at that) of the now lost Hellenistic bronze statue (c. 300BC)
found at
now located at
Glyptothek Museum, Munich, Germany
500 BC
A soldier's last breath. Victory or defeat — fight to the death.
The Trojan king Laomedon is killed by Hercules in the sack of Troy.
Troy was sacked many times by many generations of Greeks.
A Story
Excerpt from
The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization
by
It was now that Hasdrubal’s nerve broke. Deserting his comrades and family, he secretly made his way down and surrendered to Scipio. The sight of their general grovelling in supplication at the feet of his Roman nemesis merely hardened the resolve of the remaining defenders to die a defiant death. Cursing Hasdrubal, they set fire to the building and died in the flames.
It would be Hasdrubal’s own wife, with her terrified children cowering at her side, who would deliver the final damning verdict on her disgraced husband: ‘Wretch,’ she exclaimed, ‘traitor, most effeminate of men, this fire will entomb me and my children. Will you, the leader of great Carthage, decorate a Roman triumph? Ah, what punishment will you not receive from him at whose feet you are now sitting.’ She then killed her children and flung their bodies into the fire, before throwing herself in after them. After 700 years of existence, Carthage was no more.
References
- Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, 645–635 BC
- Boxer at Rest, 330 BC
- Hercules and Nessus, 1599 AD
- Hercules fighting Achelous, 1824 AD
- Laocoon & Sons, 27 BC
- Michelangelo's David, 1504 AD
- Warrior at the Temple of Aphaia, 500 BC
- The Abduction of the Sabine Women, 1582 AD
- Hercules and Cacus
- The Farnese Bull, 222 BC
- The Sacrifice of Polyxena, 1865 AD
- The Ludovisi Gaul, 2 AD