Images

A battle scene of Etruscans fighting Romans in the guise of mythical figures. From the Francois Tomb at Vulci. c. 350 BCE.

The remains of the 4th century BCE temple platform at the Etruscan city of Vulci (Velch).

A detail of the head of the Chimera of Arezzo. An Etruscan bronze dating to the 5th-4th century BCE it represents the fire-breathing monster of Greek mythology which had the body of a lion, a snake tail and goat head coming from its back...

A sardonyx cameo depicting the defeat of Roman emperor Valerian (r. 253-260 CE) by the Persian king Shapur. c. 260 CE. (Cabinet des Médailles, National Library, Paris)

A scene from a Greek red-figure vase depicting the death of Talos, the iron automaton which protected Crete.

A red-figure vase depicting Scylla, the monster who preyed on victims going through the Straits of Messina. Boeotian, 450-425 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris.

A table support representing the sea monster Charybdis, who was said to haunt the straits between Sicily and the Italian peninsula. 2nd century CE. Archaeological Museum of Naples.

The punishment of the 50 daughters of Danaus who, for killing their husbands on their wedding night, must fill a bowl with water down in Hades - a task which never ends as the bowl leaks. (Painting by John William Waterhouse, 1849-1917 CE)

A mosaic depicting the Greek river/water goddess Tethys. (Antakya Museum, Turkey)

A Roman mosaic depicting the Greek primordial gods Uranus (in the guise of the later Aion) and Gaia. Sentinum, 3rd century CE. (Glyptothek, Munich)