Honey-cakes and Spots

Jan Brueghel the Elder Aeneas and a Sibyl in the Underworld, ~1600 Sibyl of Cumae tells Aeneas how to enter the underworld. Venus, Aeneas' mother, sends two doves to be guides. These are not in the image. The quest was to find Aeneas' father, Anchises, who was in Elysium, a green and wonderous place for the good-hearted dead. Here, the sibyl and Aeneas witnessed a cleansing of souls and a return of pure souls to the living realm. Here, Aeneas received from his father many prophecies and knowledge, saw his yet to be born sons, and had a sense of place imparted to his lineage. Sibyl and he returned to the world of the living without misadventure. Virgil told this story in the Aeneid. #art #painting #mythology: https://www.romaoptima.com/roman-empire/aeneas-trip-to-the-underworld/