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Odilon Redon's Cyclops: The Monster Who Hides
The image of the Cyclops Polyphemus hiding on distant rocks or watching nymphs from afar developed through Renaissance and Baroque visual art. Works by Sebastiano del Piombo and Nicolas Poussin transformed Ovidian mythology into quiet pastoral compositions, exploring the giant's song, human agriculture and hidden desires. Classical Statues and Renaissance Frescoes In 1511, the banker Agostino Chigi sought to marry the illegitimate daughter of the Gonzaga family. After those hopes were disappointed, Chigi travelled to Venice, met Francesca Ordeaschi, a young girl of humble stock, and brought her to Rome. In Rome, Chigi commissioned frescoes representing a love story from Greek mythology. The artistic choices for these frescoes drew directly upon an ancient classical statue of Polyphemus in the collection of Cardinal Raffaele Riario. The French traveller Claude de Bellièvre saw Cardinal Riario's statue in Rome around 1514 or 1515. In his unpublished manuscript titled Noctes Romanae, Bellièvre described the marble as an image of physical power and submission. He noted that the statue possessed a huge, hairy head, a beard and empty eye sockets, with its single eye in the centre of the forehead gouged out by Ulysses. Sebastiano del Piombo used this marble source for his fresco of Polyphemus created around 1512-13, painted alongside Raphael's fresco of Galatea. Sebastiano modified the ancient sculpture by replacing the body of the dead Acis between the giant's legs with a pastoral stick, a zuffolo pipe and a companion dog. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Polyphemus sings his song of love and loyalty to Galatea from a high rock on his island. Galatea flees from the giant after he kills her lover Acis. Sebastiano's fresco shows the seated Cyclops looking off into the distance, holding his musical instruments to sing rather than engaging in violent action. The fresco suited Chigi's desire to depict a powerful man's love for a beautiful nymph. Poussin and the Calmer Giant of 1627 Nicolas Poussin addressed the myth of Acis and Galatea in a painting created between 1627 and 1628, now held in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. In Ovid's poem, Polyphemus is described as highly agitated and satirical when serenading Galatea. Poussin altered this disposition significantly. His painting depicts Polyphemus sitting quietly on a rock in the background, playing his musical pipes while seemingly unaware of the lovers embracing below. The foreground of Poussin's 1627 work displays Acis and Galatea embracing in a kiss. Ovid describes Acis as a youth of sixteen with soft cheeks. Galatea is a deity and nereid, making her the superior partner in the relationship. Poussin depicts Galatea as the active lover, gazing into Acis's eyes and holding his neck. Above the water, two erotes fly and shoot arrows of love at cavorting sea gods, who then accost uninhibited nereids. While Ovid describes Galatea's repulse of Polyphemus as forceful and obstinate, Poussin presents her demeanour toward Acis as mild. The uninhibited nereids offering no resistance to the sea gods contrast with the unstated tension of Galatea's distaste for Polyphemus's advances. In Ovid's narrative, Polyphemus is feminised by his song, whereas Galatea becomes masculinised by her stubborn resistance to the giant's unwanted desires. 1914 Redon Zyklop anagoria. Public domain; source: Wikimedia Commons. The Sicilian Countryside and Human Agriculture In 1649, Poussin completed the oil painting Landscape with Polyphemus for Jean Pointel, a French banker and silk merchant. Pointel also commissioned Poussin's Eliezer and Rebecca, now in the Louvre. The 1649 painting, measuring 150 by 198 centimetres, is preserved in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The composition presents a moment in early human history when mankind discovered the practices of agriculture. In the middle distance of the St. Petersburg canvas, men are shown digging, ploughing and watching over their agricultural flocks. Classical mythology associates the Cyclopes with the Golden Age that existed before the invention of agriculture, a period when humans lived entirely off the natural fruits of the earth. Polyphemus sitting on the mountain top symbolises this older age that recedes as human cultivation advances across the land. The background depicts Polyphemus seated on a high mountain top, playing his pipes to an invisible Galatea who disports herself in the sea visible on the far right. The setting represents the contrast between barren mountains and fertile plains typical of the Sicilian countryside, particularly in western Sicily. Poussin rendered this general Sicilian environment without copying a single specific geographic site. Hidden Nymphs and Watching Satyrs According to the writer Félibien, Jean Pointel specifically requested that Poussin paint a composition containing several girls showing different aspects of female beauty. Poussin fulfilled this request in the 1649 Hermitage painting by placing three semi-nude water nymphs in the immediate foreground. These water nymphs represent the fertility that water brings to the soil. One of the nymphs features hair of a blue-green colour matching the surrounding reeds. Behind bushes on the right side of the canvas, satyrs hide and secretly gaze at the nymphs. These satyrs act as traditional symbols of animal fertility, complementing the vegetable fertility symbolised by the water nymphs. The most prominent nymph in the foreground is identified as Galatea. She is shown wringing out her wet hair while listening to the sound of Polyphemus's distant music. This details Ovid's Metamorphoses, where Galatea describes hiding beneath a rock and resting in the lap of Acis while hearing the giant's rustic piping echo across the mountains. Ovid notes that Charybdis combed Galatea's hair while Galatea recounted her tale. By placing the hiding satyrs near the resting nymphs, Poussin connects Ovidian storytelling with visual themes of hidden observation. Narrative Contrast and Visual Tradition The treatments of Polyphemus by Sebastiano del Piombo and Nicolas Poussin establish visual patterns for representing the monster in myth. Rather than portraying the giant solely as a violent brute, both artists show Polyphemus removed from the immediate central action, perched on rocks or distant mountains with his musical instruments. The seated position originates partly from the classical marble once owned by Cardinal Riario. In Poussin's paintings, the physical separation between the giant and Galatea heightens the narrative contrast. In the 1627 Dublin painting, Polyphemus plays calmly in the background while Acis and Galatea embrace below. In the 1649 St. Petersburg painting, Polyphemus plays on his distant mountain top while Galatea listens from the foreground among her companion nymphs.
Marduk and the Making of the Cosmos
Ea subdued Apsû and Mummu, while Marduk later defeated Tiamat and Kingu before dividing Tiamat’s body to form heaven and earth. He ordered the skies, weather, time, stars, earth, gods, and humanity, then made Babylon the gods’ first city and centre. Marduk’s Rise, Victory, and Creation of the Cosmos Ea poured sleep over Apsû, bound him, and killed him. He confined Mummu and kept him under control. Ea established his dwelling on Apsû, named it Apsû, and appointed its shrines. Ea and Damkina lived there in splendour, in the chamber of the destinies and the room of the archetypes. The Enūma Eliš then recounts Marduk’s rise to kingship. Marduk defeated Tiamat and Kingu, overcoming the forces opposed to him. After the battle, he surveyed Tiamat’s corpse and divided it by a planned design. He split her in two, like a dried fish. He raised one half and stretched it out as the heavens. He fixed the skin in place and appointed a watch so that her waters could not escape. Marduk crossed the heavens and arranged their celestial parts. He adjusted them to match the Apsû, the dwelling of Nudimmud, and measured the shape of the Apsû. He built Ešarra as a replica of Ešgalla. From Tiamat’s spittle he formed clouds, then appointed the winds, violent rainstorms, and billowing mist. He organised the day, the year, the watches of night and day, and the movements of the heavenly bodies. He organised the earth and the pantheon. He created humanity and gave the gods an ordered cosmos in which to dwell. He established Babylon as the first city and the centre of the gods. Source note: Primary text: the ancient sources. Corpus check: Babylonian mythology. Marduk’s Ordeal Marduk grew exasperated with the existing divine government and resolved to overthrow it. At that point, his plan and its immediate result were lost. In one telling, the gods later gathered under Enlil’s leadership, at Anu’s command, and came before the lord of the land. They raised a lament for Babylon, and the Babylonians’ grief disturbed Marduk’s sleep. The gods wept for Babylon. After much weeping, they reached a decision, but the story gave no account of what they decided. Its direct consequence was therefore uncertain. Babylon may have been freed from hard labour and given a privileged place in the universe, but no scene showed how this happened. No event showed Marduk seized, confined, killed, restored, or sought by other gods. Another tale placed Marduk before Enmešarra and his sons after Nergal brought the prisoners from the jail. Marduk denounced Enmešarra for his offence, then beheaded the seven sons and portrayed them on a wall. He next turned to Enmešarra. Enmešarra’s rays were taken from him and given to Šamaš, and Marduk placed Enmešarra’s depiction on his own dwelling. The account gave no clear statement of Enmešarra’s execution, and it did not describe a seizure, confinement, death, recovery, or return of Marduk. The wider creation cycle also included conflicts, the organisation of the universe, the splitting of heaven and earth, the ordering of the heavens and earth, and Babylon as the first city, but none of those events completed Marduk’s ordeal. Marduk’s Ordeal. Original MythSource illustration created for this story; not a historical artwork. Source note: Primary text: the ancient sources. Corpus check: Babylonian Creation Myths.
The Nightmare: How Fuseli Painted a Bad Dream
In 1781, Swiss painter Henry Fuseli created The Nightmare, a canvas depicting a sleeping woman draped over a bed as a demonic creature squats upon her torso. The work combines Northern folklore, Renaissance medical theories, and personal grief to give visual form to human terror. Visualising the Unconscious Mind Henry Fuseli painted a bad dream by uniting three distinct levels of reality within a single picture plane. A young woman slumps across a bed, her head and arms dangling toward the floor in total surrender to sleep. On her torso sits an incubus, a squatting demon depicted with dark, heavy features. Behind a red curtain in the background, a pale spectral horse with glowing, wide eyes forces its head into the bedroom. This composition allows the viewer to examine the sleeping figure, the external demon causing her torment, and the bizarre dream vision simultaneously. Fuseli used stark lighting to draw attention to the white nightgown and pale skin of the woman. This bright central element contrasts directly with the shadowy environment and the dark figures invading her space. The woman's open posture suggests vulnerability, while her facial expression indicates subconscious distress. By arranging these elements together, Fuseli captured the psychological experience of severe sleep paralysis. The heavy posture of the incubus visualises the suffocating chest weight that sleeping victims often report during bad dreams. Rather than presenting a clear moral narrative, Fuseli focused entirely on the internal mood of dread, making the painting an early visual study of the human subconscious. Mythological and Etymological Origins The title The Nightmare refers directly to European folklore rather than acting as a simple wordplay on the horse in the background. The English word nightmare derives from the Old English maere and the Teutonic word mara. In Northern European myth, a mara was a malevolent nocturnal spirit that visited sleeping individuals, crouching upon their chests to induce terror and physical suffocation. In classical antiquity, similar nocturnal spirits were known as an ephialtes in Greek or an incubus in Latin. These entities were thought to torment sleeping women, often with erotic overtones. During the Renaissance, the Swiss physician Paracelsus incorporated these creatures into a formal classification system of imaginary beings, positioning incubi as male spirits targeting female dreamers and succubi as female spirits targeting men. Fuseli drew directly upon these historical traditions to construct the iconographic details of his canvas. By bringing the incubus out of medieval folklore and placing it in an eighteenth-century domestic bedroom, he bridged ancient folklore and modern psychological representation. The presence of the demon gave tangible form to fears that had previously existed only in stories and medical treatises. Johann Heinrich Füssli - The Nightmare - WGA08332. Public domain; source: Wikimedia Commons. Rejection and the Hidden Portrait Beyond its reliance on folklore, The Nightmare carries strong connections to Fuseli's personal life. In 1779, while travelling through Zurich on his way to London, Fuseli fell in love with Anna Landoldt. She was the niece of his close friend, the Swiss physiognomist Johann Caspar Lavater. Fuseli proposed marriage to her, but her parents rejected his suit, and she married another man shortly after. The physical canvas of the painting reveals a direct link to this rejected proposal. On the reverse side of The Nightmare, Fuseli painted an unfinished portrait of a young woman, identified by scholars as Anna Landoldt. The proximity of her portrait to the demonic composition on the front suggests that Fuseli's personal grief and sexual frustration informed the creation of the work. Some art historians argue that the leering horse thrusting through the curtain or the demon squatting on the sleeper represents the artist's own troubled emotional state. Fuseli painted four distinct versions of The Nightmare throughout his career, indicating a persistent interest in the theme. The repetition of the subject demonstrates how deeply the imagery resonated with both the painter and his contemporary audience. Classical Rejection and Italian Mannerism Fuseli was largely self-taught as a painter, having initially trained for the ministry in Switzerland. After moving to London in 1764, he travelled to Rome in 1770 to study art firsthand, remaining in Italy for eight years. While in Rome, Fuseli became the central figure in a circle of British and Swedish artists who sought new forms of artistic expression. During his time in Italy, Fuseli rejected the Neoclassical doctrines promoted by Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Winckelmann praised the calm grandeur and idealised harmony of ancient Greek sculpture. Fuseli found this approach rigid and emotionally cold. Instead, he turned his attention to the muscular, contorted figures painted by Michelangelo on the ceiling and back wall of the Sistine Chapel. Fuseli also studied the exaggerated anatomies and unnatural proportions of Italian Mannerist masters such as Parmigianino and Rosso Fiorentino. These Mannerist influences shaped Fuseli's approach to human anatomy. He adopted elongated limbs, dramatic foreshortening, and intense lighting to heighten the emotional charge of his paintings, discarding Neoclassical balance in favour of dark theatricality. Literary Dark Fantasy and Romanticism Upon returning to London in 1779, Fuseli established himself by painting scenes from literature that emphasized horror, passion, and madness. Rather than choosing moral stories from Roman history, he selected dramatic episodes from Homer, William Shakespeare, John Milton, and Spenser. He also painted scenes from the Gaelic epics of Ossian, which enjoyed widespread popularity across Europe at the time. Fuseli's preference for dark themes influenced British art in the late eighteenth century. His paintings often depicted physical agony, demonic encounters, and psychological conflict. In works such as Thor Battering the Midgard Serpent or his depictions of Milton's Satan, Fuseli presented figures caught in violent struggles against overwhelming supernatural forces, using explosive brushwork and stark light contrasts. Fuseli eventually became a full member of the Royal Academy and served as Professor of Painting. His exploration of dark fantasy, medieval myth, and nocturnal terror marked a shift away from Enlightenment rationalism. By giving visual form to bad dreams in The Nightmare, Fuseli helped open the domain of human emotion and subconscious fantasy for the Romantic movement.