Classical MythologyMyths of Creation: Humanity

Prometheus with Minerva creating man. Detail of a child’s sarcophagus, III. Rome, Capitoline Museums (Palazzo Nuovo).

Myrmidons

Kadmos and the serpent at the spring of Ismene, attributed to the Horsemen Painter. Tondo of a Laconian black-figure cup, ca 550. Paris, Louvre.

Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth, illustration by Maxfield Parrish for A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1910.

Diego Rivera, Creation of Man to illustrate an edition of the Popol Vuh, 1930.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Golden Age, ca 1530. Munich, Alte Pinakothek

Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Silver Age, ca 1530. London, National Gallery

The statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream Daniel 2.

Illustration of Purusha Sukta (hymn 10.90 of the Rigveda)

Epimetheus and Pandora. Attic red-figure volute krater, ca 450. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum.

Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, from the Sistine Chapel, ca 1511.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Adam and Eve in Paradise (The Fall), 1533

Enkidu and Shamhat

The Creation of Pandora (“Anesidora”). Attic white-ground kylix by the Tarquinia Painter, ca 460-450. London, The British Museum.

The creation of Pandora. Detail from an Attic red-figured calyx-krater attributed to the Niobid Painter, ca 460-450 BC. London, The British Museum.

ΤΟ ΚΟΥΤΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΝΔΩΡΑΣ ΚΡΥΒΕΙ ΜΙΑ ΕΛΠΙΔΑ (Pandora’s Box Hides a Hope). Cartoon by Ioanna Fetsi, 2012.

Pyrrha and Deucalion. Painted basin from the Fontana workshop, 1565-1575. Los Angeles, J Paul Getty Museum.

Pyrrha and Deucalion. Painted basin from the Fontana workshop, 1565-1575. Los Angeles, J Paul Getty Museum.