#mercury and amphion

[tragediambulante]

Mercury and Amphion, Jean Vignaud, 1819

[promptuarium]

AMPHION, son of Jupiter and Antiope, ruled Thebes in the 2636th year since the founding of the world, the 1326th before Christ was born. He was such an exceptional musician that he is said to have received a lyre from Mercury, whose melody was imagined by the poets to have enticed and drawn out the stones to build Thebes.

Eusebius explained this in his Chronicle: he said, “Certain listeners were hard-hearted and (just as I say) stony.” Horace agreed to this in his Ars Poetica, saying:

The priest and interpreter of the gods [deterred] the wild people,

Et cetera, and a little later:

And Amphion, founder of the city of Thebes, was said To move the stones with the sound of his lyre, and by smooth requests To lead them where he wanted. This was wisdom once, To separate public from private, sacred from profane, To prohibit fickle intercourse, to give laws to the married, To build cities, to carve laws on wood.

By the force of his eloquence, he persuaded the rough and scattered to gather as one, and to surround the city with walls. Or, as Palaephatus interprets it, he had the Theban wall built in exchange for the service of playing the lyre.

[worldsandemanations]

Mercury and Amphion, Jean Vignaud, 1819

[hadrian6]

Mercury and Amphion. 1819. Jean Vignaud. French 1775-1826. oil/canvas.   http://hadrian6.tumblr.com

[lionofchaeronea]

An Untamed Maiden

Horace, Odes 3.11, ll. 1-12 O Mercury – for, heeding your teaching, Amphion moved stones by singing - And you, tortoise-shell lyre, so cunning At resounding with your seven strings (Once upon a time you were neither Vocal nor pleasing, but now you are welcome At rich men’s tables and temples alike), Sing the sorts of measures that Lyde Will harken to with her stubborn ears - Lyde, who, like a three-year-old filly In broad pastures, sports and leaps And dreads to be touched, as yet knowing nothing Of marriage, still too rude and raw To take to herself a shameless husband. Mercuri, - nam te docilis magistro movit Amphion lapides canendo, - tuque testudo resonare septem     callida nervis, nec loquax olim neque grata, nunc et divitum mensis et amica templis, dic modos, Lyde quibus obstinatas     applicet auris, quae velut latis equa trima campis ludit exultim metuitque tangi, nuptiarum expers et adhuc protervo     cruda marito.

The Girl with the Marmot, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806)

[caballerodelatristefigura]

Minerva as Protectress of the Arts and Sciences

Luca Giordano, early 1680s

The National Gallery (NG6638)

“Minerva, goddess of Wisdom, accompanied by Mercury, entrusts the key of knowledge to Intellect, beside whom is the naked figure of Truth. To the left is the she-wolf with the infants Romulus amd Remus, founders of Rome. Minerva gives a hammer to Artifice and Industry at whose feet lie other tools. In the background is Amphion or Eloquence, playing the viola and surrounded by birds.

This painting is one of a group of 10 'modelli', or elaborated oil studies, made in preparation for the fresco projects that Giordano created for the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence. This painting is connected with the ceiling of the Galleria.”

[creartistiq-blog]

Jean Vignaud (1774–1826) Mercury teaching the lyre to Amphion, 1819, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes

Amphion and his twin brother Zethus are in Greek mythology the sons of Zeus and Antiope.

Amphion, lover of Hermes (Mercury for the Romans), became a great singer and musician after Hermes taught him to play the golden lyre that he gave him

Zethus became a hunter and shepherd, with a great interest in cattle breeding. As Zethus was associated with agriculture and hunting, his attribute was the hunting dog, while that of Amphion is the lyre.

Amphion and Zethus built the fortifications of Thebes and around the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes at the command of Apollo. While Zethus struggled to carry his stones, Amphion played his lyre and the stones followed him, sliding gently into place.

Mercury and Amphion, Jean Vignaud, 1819