Antoine-Louis Bayre
(French, 1796 -1875)
Theseus is the Hercules of Greece.
Hercules is from Rome (and his real name is Heracles) ;)
The reason why, in my opinion we don't hear about him is because Theseus relied almost solely on his strength when beating his opponents. Unlike Hercules who used his wit, Theseus ripped heads off. Actually, Theseus is a major player in Greek mythology. He's the guy who kidnapped Helen of Troy and set off the Trojan War. When you read a little more about him, you begin to understand that... he would.
From the sound of his story, and the looks of this sculpture, sounds like Theseus didn't give a damn about anything. I was most impressed by the solemn look on dude's face as he confronted death --no emotion, no fear. It's incredible. Seems the Greeks & Romans looked at death so differently than we did. I suppose it's the difference between murder and assassination. Between vengeance and retaliation. "Theseus Fighting the Centaur Bianor" might represent the story of when his best friend, Pirithous, was about to get married. They'd invited the Centaurs over, but they'd gotten drunk and tried to kidnapp all the women --including Pirithous's wifey--I believe Theseus decided how the matter should be handled.
I wiki'd Theseus, so can you ;) Hover over the names for links :)
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| I wish they weren't in my photo -_- |
