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Thor and the Journey to Geirröðr
Thor kills and eats the goats that draw his chariot, then restores them with Mjölnir after a meal at a poor farm. One goat rises lame because Þjálfi broke a leg bone for marrow, so he and Röskva enter Thor’s service. Thor’s Goats and the Broken Bone Thor drew his knife and killed both goats that pulled his chariot. He and Loki had reached a farm where Þjálfi and his sister Röskva lived with their parents. The family had little food after a hard winter. They offered vegetables or gruel, but no meat. Thor provided that himself. He skinned the goats and laid the skins beside the fire. He told the household to throw the bones onto the skins and warned them not to break or chew them. The goats would live again when Thor hallowed the skins with his hammer. Loki ate quickly, while the others ate more slowly. When Thor left the table, Þjálfi took his knife and split one goat’s leg bone to reach the marrow. He placed the broken bone among the others and covered it with unbroken bones. Nobody saw what he had done. Thor and Loki slept at the farm that night. Before daybreak, Thor covered the bones with the goatskins. He lifted Mjolnir and hallowed the skins with the hammer. The goats rose, but one limped on a hind leg. Thor saw that its thigh bone had been broken. He blamed the farmer or someone in the household for failing to treat the bones properly. He seized the handle of his hammer and threatened to destroy the farm. The farmer became terrified, and his wife began to weep. Þjálfi confessed that he had broken the bone. He said that his parents had not known what he had done and asked Thor to punish him instead. He offered to become Thor’s bondservant. Röskva said that Þjálfi would not leave without her. Thor accepted them both. He told Röskva to remain for the time being and tend the injured goat, named Grinder in one account, until he returned. Þjálfi left in Thor’s service, and Röskva entered the same service. The goat remained lame because of the broken bone. Source note: Primary text: the ancient sources. Thor’s Duel with Hrungnir Odin rode Sleipnir into Jotunheim while Thor was away crushing trolls. He met the stone giant Hrungnir, who boasted that his horse Gullfaxi was better than Sleipnir. Odin rode back towards Asgard, and Hrungnir followed him in anger. The gods admitted Hrungnir to their hall and gave him drink in the bowls Thor used. Hrungnir emptied them and became drunk. He boasted that he would take Valhalla to Jotunheim, destroy Asgard, and kill the gods. He said that he would spare Freyja and Sif and take them home. When his threats became too bold, the gods called for Thor. Thor arrived ready to crush the giant. Hrungnir said that killing an unarmed enemy would bring Thor little credit. He challenged Thor to a duel at the frontier of his territory, at Grjottungard. Thor accepted. Hrungnir returned to Jotunheim, where the giants prepared for the meeting. They built a clay champion called Mokkrkalfi, nine rasts high and three rasts broad between the shoulders. He had a mare’s heart and stood beside Hrungnir. Another account says that he was so frightened when Thor appeared that he wet himself. Hrungnir carried a broad stone shield and held a flint stone in both hands. Þjálfi went ahead of Thor and told the giant that Thor would burrow through the earth and attack from below. Hrungnir believed him. He placed his shield under his feet and gripped the flint stone as Thor approached in flashes of lightning and loud crashes. Thor threw his hammer as Hrungnir cast the whetstone. The weapons struck each other. The whetstone shattered, and one fragment struck Thor in the temple and remained lodged in his head. The hammer struck Hrungnir between the eyes and broke his stone skull. Hrungnir fell dead. Þjálfi then dealt with the clay champion. Thor’s Duel with Hrungnir. Original MythSource illustration created for this story; not a historical artwork. Source note: Primary text: the ancient sources. Corpus check: Legends of Norse Mythology. Thor’s Journey to Geirröðr Loki flew in Freyja’s falcon guise and perched by a window in Geirröðr’s hall. A servant captured him after Geirröðr noticed that the bird’s eyes were not those of a true falcon. Loki secured his release by promising to bring Thor to the giant’s hall without his hammer, belt of strength, or steel gloves. He fulfilled the promise and travelled with Thor towards Geirröðr’s dwelling. On the way, Thor visited the giantess Gríðr, the mother of Víðarr the Silent. She warned him that Geirröðr was dangerous and difficult to deal with. Gríðr lent Thor her belt of strength, her iron gloves, and her staff, called Gridarvolr. Thor then reached the Vimur, the greatest of rivers. He fastened on the belt and used the staff to steady himself against the torrent. Loki held fast to the belt as Thor waded into the stream. The river rose until its waves reached Thor’s shoulders. He declared that it must not grow while he was crossing to the giants’ dwelling. Looking upwards, he saw Gjalp, Geirröðr’s daughter, standing in a cleft and causing the flood to rise. Thor lifted a great stone from the river and threw it at her, saying that the stream must be stopped at its source. He crossed the Vimur and defeated Geirröðr’s daughters. Geirröðr then invited Thor into the hall for games. Fires burned along its length. Geirröðr seized a pair of tongs, took up a red-hot iron wedge, and threw it at Thor. Thor caught the wedge in Gríðr’s iron gloves and raised it into the air. Geirröðr sprang behind an iron post, but Thor hurled the wedge with such force that it passed through the post, struck Geirröðr, pierced the wall, and entered the ground. Source note: Primary text: the ancient sources. Corpus check: Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland.
Olympia: Why Manet's Gaze Caused a Scandal
When Édouard Manet exhibited Olympia at the 1865 Paris Salon, the canvas incited an immediate wave of public outrage. Rather than painting an idealised classical deity, Manet depicted a contemporary Parisian prostitute who stares directly at the viewer without modesty, confronting nineteenth-century social reality and dismantling traditional artistic conventions. Hostility at the Paris Salon When Olympia was shown to the viewing public at the Paris Salon of 1865, the reaction was fiercely hostile. Immense crowds gathered in Room M, particularly on Sundays when admission was free, creating an atmosphere dominated by hysteria and astonishment. Visitors responded with mockery, catcalls, and fits of crazed laughter, while several spectators turned their heads in fright. Manet was shocked by the extreme hostility, writing to his friend Charles Baudelaire that insults were raining down on him like hailstones and that he had never received such a reception in his career. The commotion surrounding the painting became so severe that the Marquis de Chennevières had to intervene. Having previously assigned guards to manage admirers around popular works, Chennevières now deployed guards to protect Olympia from indignant visitors. When guards proved insufficient to control the crowds, officials moved the canvas high above the heads of the visitors. This created the exact opposite trajectory of Manet's The Spanish Singer, which had been lowered to eye level four years earlier due to public admiration. Hanging near the ceiling, a critic for Le Figaro remarked that viewers could scarcely tell if they were looking at a bundle of laundry or a parcel of nude flesh. Modern Identity and the Unflinching Gaze The primary source of indignation was the figure's direct visual confrontation with the audience. In composition, Manet was inspired by Renaissance precedents, specifically Giorgione's Sleeping Venus and Titian's Venus of Urbino. However, while Renaissance nudes remained psychologically distanced from everyday experience by their identity as classical deities, Manet painted a contemporary figure. The public immediately recognised the model as Victorine Meurent, who had posed for Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe. Her recognisable presence stripped away any mythological pretext, contrasting sharply with popular academic nudes of the era, such as Alexandre Cabanel's The Birth of Venus or Paul Baudry's The Pearl and the Wave. Contemporaries understood immediately that the subject represented a working prostitute awaiting a client. Her complete nudity was accentuated by a thin velvet ribbon around her neck, a gold bracelet on her wrist, and slippers on her feet, which served as a reference to streetwalking. A black servant presents a floral bouquet carefully prepared by a florist, sent by an admirer. The arrival of these flowers fails to interrupt her bold stare at the viewer. By placing a contemporary courtesan on such a prominent canvas, Manet raised the specter of venereal disease, which was rampant across Paris at the time. Édouard Manet - Olympia, 1863. Public domain; source: Wikimedia Commons. Technique and Spatial Distortion Manet's formal technique provoked equal outrage among academic traditionalists and fellow painters. Realist painter Gustave Courbet condemned the work, declaring it completely flat and comparing the figure to the queen of spades from a deck of cards coming out of the bath. Manet discarded the soft lighting, gradual transitions, and sensual modelling seen in Titian's Venus of Urbino. Instead, he used harsh illumination that rendered the anatomy pale and starkly defined, setting her white leg against a dark background without traditional dimensional modelling. This approach was heavily influenced by Japonisme, specifically the technique in Japanese prints of using unmodulated areas of flat colour and simplified forms. While French critics accepted avant-garde experimentation in genre subjects, applying unmodulated paint to a traditional female nude was viewed as unacceptable. Furthermore, Manet flattened the pictorial space by moving the back wall forward so that it sat immediately behind the bed and the black servant. According to art historian Linda Nochlin, this simplified, modern treatment gave a salutary jolt to the traditional concept of the nude as timeless and elevated. Domestic Details and Contemporary Symbols Every detail within the bedroom setting subverted classical expectations. Rather than resting on an idealised couch in an idyllic landscape, the figure lies on rumpled white sheets and a pink silk shawl. At the foot of the bed, an alert black cat arches its back. The cat served as an explicit symbol of female sexuality and popular references to brothels, contrasting sharply with the faithful, sleeping dog depicted in Titian's Renaissance composition. Manet's brushwork in the secondary elements further unsettled contemporary viewers. The bouquet of flowers held by the maid was rendered with rapid, seemingly careless impasto strokes that created an impression of fresh blooms. Observers perceived this vigorous technique, along with the inclusion of the cat and the maid, as a deliberate attempt to mock bourgeois decency, good taste, and the established rules of academic painting. The Provocation of the Title The title Olympia, inscribed directly on the frame, further antagonised the public. Although it sounded dubiously mythological, the name held distinct modern connotations in nineteenth-century Paris. Olympia was recognised as the name of an evil character in E.T.A. Hoffmann's popular stories, as well as the subject of a poem by Manet's friend Zacharie Astruc. Astruc's poem described a majestic young girl waking up to a slave delivering gifts for a lover's night. By attaching the name Olympia to a working courtesan, Manet accentuated the divide between the social reality of Paris and the comfortably removed ideals of classical antiquity. Unlike Titian's Venus, who existed solely within the closed world of her canvas, Olympia looks out unabashedly at the viewer. By refusing to offer traditional signs of modesty, Manet forced the Salon public to confront their own gaze, fundamentally altering the presentation of the female nude in Western art.
Athena and Arachne: Three Stories of the Goddess
Orestes sought Athena’s protection after killing Clytemnestra to avenge Agamemnon. Athena established a court on the Areopagus and appointed Athenian jurors. Their equal votes led her to acquit him, then she gave the Erinyes honours in Attica. Athena Establishes the Areopagus The Erinyes pursued Orestes from Delphi as he travelled to Athens. He sought Athena’s protection after killing his mother, Clytemnestra, to avenge the murder of his father, Agamemnon. Apollo had ordered the act. The Erinyes demanded punishment for matricide, while Orestes maintained that Apollo had commanded him and that he had been cleansed of his guilt. Athena listened to Orestes’ plea. Apollo stood beside him and accepted responsibility for the killing, saying that Orestes had acted on his command. The Erinyes opposed him and called for vengeance. Athena decided that the case required a trial. She established the court on the Areopagus hill and selected jurors from the citizens of Athens to represent the city. At the trial, the Erinyes questioned and accused Orestes. Apollo defended him. He argued that Orestes had acted in revenge for his father’s murder and spoke of the authority of Zeus. Orestes admitted that he had killed his mother, but repeated that Apollo had ordered the deed and that he had been cleansed. The jurors cast their votes. They were evenly divided, so Athena gave the deciding vote for acquittal. Athena then persuaded the Erinyes to accept the verdict. Their anger had threatened Athens, but they agreed to receive honours and a home in Attica. They were changed from frightful Furies into the Eumenides, the Benignant Ones, who protected suppliants. Athena’s court settled Orestes’ case and established a lawful place where future blood feuds could be judged instead of answered by further revenge. Source note: Primary text: Hesiod, Theogony. Corpus check: The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics); Hesiod's Theogony. Athena and Arachne Arachne spun and wove wool in Hypaepa, a village in Lydia. She was of common birth, the daughter of a humble wool dyer, and her mother was dead. Her skill made her famous throughout the towns of Lydia. Even the local nymphs came to see her work. Arachne refused to admit that the goddess of weaving had taught her. She declared that she would gladly compete with the goddess herself. Athena heard this claim and went to Arachne disguised as an old woman. She advised the girl to challenge mortals, not a goddess, and urged her to ask forgiveness for her words. Arachne rejected the advice. She said that she was not afraid of the goddess and would stand by her challenge. Athena then cast off her disguise and appeared in her divine form. Arachne remained defiant, and the contest began. The two women set up their looms and stretched the warp. They worked with fine coloured threads, including gold and silver. Athena wove into her design the contest in which she had prevailed over Neptune. Arachne completed her own cloth at the same time. It was every bit as beautiful as Athena’s and was not inferior in skill. Her work was an impious challenge to the gods, and Athena was overcome with anger. Athena destroyed Arachne’s cloth and broke her loom. She struck the mortal with part of it, then transformed her into a spider. Arachne’s skill in weaving remained, but she no longer worked as a human woman. Athena and Arachne. Original MythSource illustration created for this story; not a historical artwork. Source note: Primary text: Ovid, Metamorphoses. Corpus check: Greek Mythology; Ultimate Greek Mythology. The Contest for Athens Poseidon struck the Acropolis, the highest point in Athens, with his trident. A miraculous spring of salt water burst from the rock. The judges found this impressive. The spring represented the sea and naval power, and Poseidon sought patronage of the city and the surrounding land of Attica. Athena then made an olive tree grow on the dry, rocky hill. The judges decided that her gift was better, so they declared her the winner. Athena became the patron deity of Athens. In one account, the contest took place during the reign of Cecrops. Athena planted the first olive tree beside Poseidon’s salt-water spring, taking possession of the land in a gentler manner. Poseidon was angered by her claim and challenged Athena to single combat. Athena would have accepted, but Zeus intervened and ordered them to submit the dispute to arbitration. The two deities appeared before a divine court made up of their fellow gods and goddesses. The court called on Cecrops to give evidence. Zeus expressed no opinion. All the other gods supported Poseidon, while all the goddesses supported Athena. Athena therefore won by a majority of one, because the court judged that she had given the land the better gift. Other accounts present the contest more briefly. Zeus and several divine judges decide which deity performs the most spectacular feat. Poseidon produces the salt-water spring by touching the Acropolis with his trident, then Athena causes the olive tree to grow. The judges declare Athena the victor. The accounts agree that her olive tree wins the contest and that she becomes Athens’ patron. Source note: Primary text: Hesiod, Theogony. Corpus check: Greek Mythology; Monsters of Greek Mythology, Volume One.