Images

"Woman at the window" or "the lady of the window" is one of the most famous scenes in Phoenician ivory carving. The plaque shows a woman who looks out of a window, thought to be a sacred prostitute linked to the goddess Astarte or Ishtar...

This terracotta plaque dates back to the old Babylonian period. It depicts a male and female having sex while the woman drinks a fluid (beer?) from a jar through a straw. Such scenes were mass-produced in southern Mesopotamia during the old...

This terracotta plaque dates back to the old Babylonian period. It depicts a male and female having sex in a missionary position. Such scenes were mass-produced in southern Mesopotamia during the old Babylonian era. The precise idea behind...

The Fates Gathering in the Stars by Elihu Vedder, 1887 CE, now in the Art Institute of Chicago. This image depicts the three Greek Fates - Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos - spinning the thread of life, then marking it's length and cutting...

Hercules and the Hydra, Antonio Pollaiuolo (1431-1498 CE). This painting, which represents one of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, is now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

An 1867 painting in oils, The Abduction by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), the French post-impressionist artist. This painting is thought to depict Hercules rescuing Alcestis from the underworld (another theory is that this represents the abduction...

Attic black-figure funerary amphora depicting Heracles wrestling down the Centaur Nessos, from a tomb in Athens, 620-610 BCE. (National Archaeological Museum of Athens)

Marble bust of Hercules, Roman copy after Greek original, 117-118 CE, made for Hadrian for his villa at Tivoli. (British Museum)

Statue of Hercules, Parc de Versailles, by Louis Leconte (19th century CE)

Zeus separates Athena and Ares while Cycnus (far right) runs away from Hercules who approaches in his chariot (only the horses are visible, far left). Attic black-figured volute-krater, ca 540–510 BCE.