Plato's Cosmology: The Timaeus
The Timaeus is Plato dialogues mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character Timaeus of Locri, written c. 360 BC. Participants in the dialogue include Timaeus, Socrates, Hermocrates, and Critias. In it, Plato gives his cosmological story as a part of the portrait of Greek thought, and as a facet in the complex entity that was Plato's realm of ideas. Thanks to a translation by Cicero the Timaeus was influential in the Middle Ages and continues to hold a place in the significant literature of philosophy.
Raphael's fresco The School of Athens is a symbol of the Renaissance
A fresco The School of Athens Italian Renaissance artist Raphael painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of his commission Pope Julius II to decorate the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. It is located in the first of the four rooms designed by Raphael, the Stanza della Segnatura which was set to be Julius' library. In particular, this fresco has come to symbolize the marriage of art, philosophy, and science that was a hallmark of the Italian Renaissance.
The Apotheosis of Homer by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres is a manifesto of classicism
The painting The Apotheosis of Homer was expressly commissioned by Charles X for the ceiling at the Louvre which is now the ancient Egyptian galleries. Upon receiving the commission, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres conceived the idea for his painting quickly and he had required only an hour to establish the broad outlines of his composition in a sketch. He developed his idea in more than 100 drawings and numerous painted sketches for it that survive. His grandest expression of the classical ideal, this nearly seventeen-foot long canvas reworks Raphael's Vatican fresco, The School of Athens from 1509-1511. Apotheosis of Homer was exhibited in 1827 in the annual Salon and is now exhibited at the Louvre.
The Gods in Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey
In Homer's epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey are personalities, both gods and men. The gods, as well as the people, are very clearly depicted and fully reflect the consciousness, morals, and social relations of the Greeks in Homer's time. Homer portrays the gods as both human-like and god-like. Individuals did not control their destinies. Instead, the gods were responsible for the fate of human affairs.
Phidias' statue of the god Zeus at Olympia
The Athenian sculptor Phidias already had a great reputation when in 437 BC he and his colleagues Colotes and Panaenus settled in ancient Olympia, on the west coast of today's Greece, about 150 kilometers west of Athens in the temple dedicated to Zeus to make the statue of the supreme god of the Greeks, Zeus, in whose honor the Olympic Games were celebrated. The dates of work in Athens, for the realization of the statue ordered by Greek statesman Pericles: 447 to 438, or 9 years. The statue, which stood in the Temple of Zeus, is now lost, but is shown on countless coins and gems, and was described by the Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias.
Pinax of Persephone and Hades from Locri
The city of Locri was one of the cities of Magna Graecia. Due to the local peoples' characteristics, Plato called it the "flower of Italy". A major sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Persephone, who was worshiped as the protector of the fertility of marriage. It contained a treasure trove of what are known as pinakes or terracotta tablets with bas-relief illustrations that represent the cult's myth and rituals. One in a series of pinakes from this sanctuary is the pinax of Persephone and Hades, from around 460 BC, which is today located in the National Museum of Magna Graecia, Reggio Calabria.