Femme Fatale in Greek and Roman Mythology (Paintings)

2. FEMME FATALE
The ladies in this clique are all crazy beautiful and alluring, but they also have a tendency to lure men to
their deaths.
If you see one of these girls walking down the hall, you'd better think twice before asking her to go to the
mall on Friday night. Chances are that a seemingly innocent date at the food court might just be your last.

4. Art in Detail
Femme Fatale in Mythology
(Paintings)

5. SPHINX ...
Oedipus: Maybe, I should've married her. It would've been a lot less trouble.

6. MOREAU, Gustave
Oedipus and the Sphinx
1864
Oil on canvas, 206 x 105 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

8. HELEN ...
Sweet Paris.
Oh, that Trojan really was a charmer.

9. DAVID, Jacques-Louis
The Loves of Paris and Helen
1788
Oil on canvas, 144 x 180 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

11. PANDORA ...
I'm sorry!
I was just curious, okay?

12. ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel
Pandora
1871
oil on canvas, 131 × 79 cm
Private collection

14. APHRODITE ...
Go ahead – bask in my glow.

15. CABANEL, Alexandre
The Birth of Venus
1863
Oil on canvas, 130 x 225 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

17. NYMPHS ...
Surly Satyrs ...
Sometimes those Satyrs get a little too wild even for us.

18. RUBENS, Peter Paul
Nymphs and Satyrs
1637-40
Oil on canvas, 136 x 165 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

20. SCYLLA ...
I'm not a monster.
I'm really a nice person if you take the time to get to know me.

21. FÜSELI, Johann Heinrich
Odysseus in front of Scylla and
Charybdis
1794-1796
Oil on canvas, 126 x101 cm
Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau

23. CIRCE ...
I’m Really a Nice Person. Really, I promise.
Come On, Drink from My Cup ...

24. WATERHOUSE, John William
Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus
1891
Oil on canvas, 148 × 92 cm
Gallery Oldham, Oldham

26. MEDEA...
Jason: My mamma always told me to never marry a witch, but did I listen? Nooooo ...

27. WATERHOUSE, John William
Jason and Medea
1907
Oil on canvas, 134 × 107 cm
Private collection

29. MEDUSA …
Medusa: Hey, Perseus, why don’t you give me back my friggin head?
Perseus: I thought you were dead.
Medusa: You’d love that, wouldn’t you. Now where’s my head?
Perseus: Ummm, I kind of gave it to Athena. She kind of like… decorates her shield with it.
Medusa: One night, very soon, your bed will be filled with snakes.

30. RUBENS, Peter Paul
The Head of Medusa
c. 1617
Oil on wood, 69 x 118 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

32. SIRENS ...
Odysseus: The Sirens ? ... These dangerous ladies who sing beautifully mesmerizing songs ?
I don't think I'm going to invite them over anytime soon.

33. WATERHOUSE, John William
Ulysses and the Sirens
1891
Oil on canvas, 100.6 × 202.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

35. Art in Detail: Femme Fatale in Mythology
(Paintings)
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36. THE MUSES VS. THE SIRENS
Case Description:
Complainants (The Muses) accuse defendants (the Sirens) of slander. The Sirens claimed that they were better singers than
the Muses—which is a really big deal to the Muses.
Case Status:
Case closed. The Muses beat the Sirens in a singing contest, then plucked out the bird women's feathers and wore the
feathers in their hair.
The Sirens tried to file a countersuit of assault, but no one really cares what happens to the Sirens because they're always
luring sailors to their deaths with their mesmerizing voices. The way we see it, the Sirens totally got what was coming to
them.

37. THE SPHINX
The Sphinx is a crazy monster with the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a lioness, the wings of a bird, and (some
say) a snake for a tail.
Her favorite activity is sitting on a big rock outside of Thebes and asking everybody a riddle.
When people get it wrong (and they always do) she strangles them, or eats them, or some other such awful thing.
...
Oedipus he strolls up to the Sphinx's rock, stepping over the bones of those of failed before him.
The monster swoops down on him and asks her riddle.
In a mysterious voice, she purrs, "Which creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three
legs in the evening?"
Oedipus scratches his head for a second and then declares confidently, "Man."
Get it? It's because we humans crawl on all fours when we're babies, walk upright in our prime, and some walk with a cane
when we're old.
The Sphinx is so upset that somebody figured out her riddle that she throw herself of a cliff and dies.

38. HELEN OF TROY
Ah, Helen. The most beautiful woman ever to walk the face of the earth. All it took was a flick of her eyes and a flip of
her hair to make guys go completely and totally crazy for her. Though most of the time she's called Helen of Troy, she
was actually from the Greek city of Sparta and was the daughter of Zeus, King of the Gods, and Leda, the wife of
Tyndareas, King of Sparta.
Back to the "of Troy" thing. That started after she was taken away from Sparta by Paris, a handsome Trojan prince.
Just one problem: she was already married to a guy named Menelaus, who didn't take too kindly to his wife's Trojan
fling. To answer the insult, Menelaus gathered the biggest army of Greeks ever assembled, sailed across the sea to
Troy, and ignited the legendary Trojan War.

39. PANDORA
Pandora, the first woman ever, is responsible for the biggest oops of all time. In fact, people blame her for every bad
thing that's ever happened.
You see, way back in the day, she opened a jar full of evil and suffering, letting all that nastiness fly out into the formerly
perfect world. Luckily, Hope was chilling in the jar, so humanity still has a little something to get us though the day.
Even though Pandora gets a bad rap, it's not really her fault. Zeus had Hephaestus make her out of clay and gave her
the jar full of nastiness, knowing full well what she would do. In a way, it was all a total set up, right? It's okay, Pandora
- we forgive you.

40. APHRODITE
Greeks call her Aphrodite, Romans call her Venus, but everybody calls her drop dead gorgeous. One of the most
worshipped of Greek deities, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, and procreation.
As you might guess, Aphrodite has a pretty wild love life. She provides Olympus with more scandal and trouble than it
could ever want. She is often vain, selfish, vengeful, and untrustworthy. Still, though, both god and mortal can’t get enough
of Aphrodite's unearthly beauty and irresistible sensual charms. There's no one quite like her.

41. THE NYMPHS
If you're out in nature, chances are there are nymphs all around you. That doesn't mean you'll be able to see them, though.
These lovely nature spirits tend to be shy when it comes to humans. Well, most of the time anyway. Sometimes nymphs,
like the naiads, rise to the surface of their forest pools to seduce sexy young men into coming below the water with them.
This is almost always a bad idea. Dudes who go for a swim with naiads rarely ever see the surface again.

42. ODYSSEUS VS. SCYLLA
Case Description:
Complainant (Odysseus) accuses Defendant (Scylla) of murder and cannibalism.
To avoid his ship being totally destroyed by Charybdis, the whirlpool, Odysseus veered toward Scylla's side of the strait,
where the sea monster lived with Charybdis. Scylla then lashed out with her six heads, snatched up six of Odysseus' men,
and gobbled them down.
Case Status:
Case pending. All investigators sent to question Scylla are devoured, so we just kind of gave up after a while.

43. ODYSSEUS VS. CIRCE
Case Description:
Complainant (Odysseus) accuses Defendant (Circe) of murder and unlawful transformation.
When Odysseus landed on Aeaea, Circe's island, the witch waved her magic wand and turned Odysseus' men into pigs.
Case Status:
Case dismissed. After getting some advice from Hermes, Odysseus took a potion that made him resistant to Circe's power.
Afterward, Odysseus poured on the charm and Circe transformed the hero's posse back into men.

44. JASON VS. MEDEA
Case Description:
Complainant (Jason) accuses Defendant (Medea) of multiple accounts of first degree murder. When Jason decided to
leave his wife for Glauce, the princess of Corinth, the sorceress took awful revenge. It is alleged that she sent a cursed
robe to the princess, which ended up melting the skin off of Glauce and her father, King Creon. To make her revenge
complete, Medea also killed her and Jason's sons, Mermeros and Pheres.
Case Status:
Case pending. Medea escaped the authorities by flying away to Athens in a chariot drawn by dragons, sent to her by
her grandfather Helios.

45. MEDUSA VS. PERSEUS
Case Description:
Complainant (Medusa) accuses the defendant (Perseus) of aggravated assault and battery and armed robbery.
Medusa alleges that Perseus chopped off her head and then stole it.
Case Status:
Dismissed. No one liked Medusa, anyway. Full details are filed away in the myth of Perseus and Medusa.