Lethe, also known as Lesmosyne, was one of the Greek underworld rivers, and particularly the river of unmindfulness (Amelēs potamos): it gained its properties because it flowed around the cave of Hypnos, the god of sleep, son of Night and brother of Death. Whoever drinks from this river experiences forgetfulness. Interestingly enough, though, the Greek […]
Jean Restout I (1663-1702) was a French baroque painter, and one of his most notable works is “Orpheus in the Underworld to Demand the Return of Eurydice, or Music” (1763), currently preserved at the Louvre Museum. Today on my Patreon we take a look at this work.
Are you obsessed with the geographies of the underworld? Well, you’re not alone. An Apulian vase painter from Ancient Greece, active around the second half of the 4th century BC, shared your obsession so much that scholars call him “the Underworld Painter“. Today we take a look at his work on my Patreon.
Maximilian Pirner (1854–1924) was a Czech painter and one of the leading figures in the Vienna Secession, a significant movement in art and design that emerged in 1897. At its core, the Vienna Secession was a rebellion against the academic art establishment, which was dominated by historicism and rigid standards: the artists involved sought to […]
Alternatively translated “That Which Is In the Afterworld” or “Text of the Hidden Chamber Which is in the Underworld”, and called Kitab al-Akhira in Arabic, the Amduat is a funerary text from the New Kingdom and it has been found inscribed on the walls of tombs such as the one of Thutmose III, whose entire […]
Lelwani, also spelt Leluwani, was a Hittite underworld deity, but their presence is attested way before the Hittite came to Anatolia. In the Hattic culture, Lelwani was considered a male deity and addressed as a “king” when the Hittites, known for adopting deities from conquered or neighbouring cultures, incorporated Lelwani into their own belief system. […]
The artist of this painting was born at Alexandria, Egypt, from English parents but he spent most of his childhood in American after his father died and his mother moved closer to her family. He was adopted by his aunt after his mother died too, in a freak domestic accident. He came back to Europe […]
Manea was an Etruscan goddess of the dead, of spirits and of chaos, of Oscan origin, associated with the Genetai group. Later Latin mythology incorporated her into their systems of belief, making her the mother of ghosts, of the undead, the night spirits, the Lares and the Manes. She was believed to rule the underworld […]
Nun-gal, literally the Great Princess, was a Sumerian goddess of prisons, mercy and the underworld, worshipped in the Third Dynasty of Ur (Neo-Sumerian Empire, from 2112 to 2004 BC) in cities such as Nippur, Lagash, Umma, Susa, and Ur itself. Today on my Patreon, we take a look at her and at how she’s described in […]
Tuonetar is the Queen of the Underworld in Finnish mythology, and I promised you we’d talk about her when we saw her daughter Kalma, who’s tasked to prevent the dead from escaping their tombs. She brews one kick-ass beer, and she’s today’s profile on my Patreon.