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Divine Love: The Romantic Escapades of Zeus with Wendy Fossen

Divine Love: The Romantic Escapades of Zeus with Wendy Fossen


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

At the peak of Mount Olympus resides the biggest womanizer of classical history: Zeus – or Jupiter as he is known in Rome. Though he leads the pack of Grecian Gods, he's certainly doesn't exemplify good behavior.  Even though he is married to Hera (or Juno as the Romans called her), he frequently sleeps with other people to satisfy his needs. 

After a short introduction to the Olympian Gods and their origin stories, we will discuss Zeus’ extramarital affairs through the lens of paintings and cultures produced throughout the ages. Since antiquity, artists from all mediums have drawn inspiration from the drama and intrigue of Mount Olympus’s rowdy resident Gods, Goddesses, and attendants. 

Throughout the canon of Greek mythology, Zeus dons many unique disguises in order to seduce his bedpartners – and in an attempt to avoid getting in trouble with his wife. His cunning, mischievous, methods of bullying most often result in unwanted pregnancies and his wife always finds out. 

Curiously, Hera never punishes her husband – even though she has plenty of valid reasons to divorce Zeus. Instead, she targets the women who slept with her husband and the offspring they have produced along the way.

Led by Wendy Fossen, an art historian with a passion for Greek mythology, this Context Conversation will take the participants on a journey of a magical world of myths and legends that will leave the participants with a desire to learn more about Classical Antiquity.

Wendy Fossen is a freelance art historian with a number of degrees, one of them being in Art History. She loves a wide variety of art and shares this passion in her work as a museum guide in the Kunstmuseum and Mauritshuis (both in The Hague, The Netherlands), as a tourmanager in Europe (mainly Italy), and as an art history docent.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 2 reviews
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Nancy J Grayson (Austin, US)
Remarkable Paintings

This Seminar deserves more than one viewing—actually two or three—to take in the beauty of the paintings shown in the remarkable slides Wendy selected!

A
Anonymous (Portland, US)

Guest did not leave comment

Customer Reviews

Based on 2 reviews
50%
(1)
50%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
N
Nancy J Grayson (Austin, US)
Remarkable Paintings

This Seminar deserves more than one viewing—actually two or three—to take in the beauty of the paintings shown in the remarkable slides Wendy selected!

A
Anonymous (Portland, US)

Guest did not leave comment