![]() ![]() ![]() Everyone knows that a person is not really a farm animal. Similes and metaphors are figures of speech: they are descriptive ways of saying something-in this case, that your friend eats sloppily. If you say to him or her, “You’re a real pig!” you’re using a metaphor. If you say to your friend, “You eat like a pig!” you’re using a simile. (A simile usually has the word like or as in it.)Ī metaphor calls one thing by the name of something else-something that is similar to the first thing in some way. All of these devices are ways to convey meaning.Ī simile compares one thing to another. Simile and metaphor appear only in writing. Symbolism appears in both art and writing. ![]() You would find a quiet stream that flows along fertile fields-fields that are safe for farming. It is in the rainiest part of a fairly dry country. If you are ever in Greece, you might go to see his river. With one horn missing, Achelous lost much of his power to flood the kingdom. It became the Cornucopia, or Horn of Plenty. The goddess named Plenty ordered that the bull’s broken horn be filled with all the fruits and vegetables of the harvest. Hercules won the match and won Dejanira’s hand in marriage. He then gave a mighty jerk to one of the horns. He seized Achelous by both of them and flipped him to the ground. The crowd let out a gasp.īut to a man like Hercules, the horns of a bull were just two convenient handles. He scratched at the dirt and then he charged. He lowered his broad head to point his sharp horns at Hercules. Hercules’s famous first feat in life was strangling two snakes that had crawled into his crib.Īchelous the snake decided to become Achelous the furious bull. ![]() What might have seemed a wild boast was entirely true, and Achelous knew it. “Is that the best you can do? I’ve been killing snakes since I was a babe in the crib.” Hercules laughed and spoke for the first time. It was then that he took the form of a snake that slithered out of the strong man’s arms. The god saw he could not beat Hercules in a regulation wrestling match. As Achelous would later say, “It was as if a mountain had fallen on me. He listened patiently and politely and then gave his answer: he grabbed the river god, threw him, and pinned him to the ground. Hercules, in contrast, was a man of very few words. I feel as if you and I are already family!” Her land and my flooding river have already joined. So often has my river flooded your fields and crops, fields and crops that are Dejanira’s too. Do you want a stranger for a son-in-law? You and I are neighbors. “Here is Hercules,” Achelous said to the king. He alone would wrestle Achelous for the hand of Dejanira. When Hercules came to town, all other suitors withdrew. And when he was a bull he could tear the very earth with his massive horns, just as the river carved away the land when it overflowed its banks. He could become a bull that roared like the roaring river. He could become a snake that curved like the winding river. Hercules was the strongest mortal in the world, but Achelous, being a god, had some advantages over him. But Dejanira’s beauty was known everywhere, so it wasn’t long before Hercules came to Calydon to try his luck. When it came time for Dejanira to marry, her father announced a contest: the strongest of her suitors would win her hand.Īchelous, the river god, was by far the strongest in the region. The king had a beautiful daughter named Dejanira. The land along the river was ruled by the king of the nearby city of Calydon. close Previous Page Next PageĪchelous was the god of the most powerfully flowing river in Greece, and so was the chief of all the river gods. That means that the artist shows, in one scene, events that happen at different times in a story. Did the artist show all of the details that you thought were symbolic? Did he change them? How? Did he include other details that might be symbols? Then select areas on the mural to learn more about the painting. What do you think these things represent? For help, select “Meanings and Second Meanings.” He moved the setting from ancient Greece to the American Midwest and gave new meanings to the story’s symbols.įirst read the myth by selecting “The Story.” Jot down anything that you think might be symbolic of something else. This mural is Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton’s retelling of the ancient myth of Achelous and Hercules. For a quick game about symbols, check out Symbols in Art. Often these symbols stand for something abstract, like a force of nature, a condition of the world, or an idea. In a story, a character, an action, an object, or an animal can be symbolic. A symbol is anything that stands for, or represents, something else. ![]()
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