Talk:Achelous and Hercules

A closer look
The painting takes place at the cinematic moment when the rope that is holding back the bull breaks. Note the other end of the rope around the bull's horns. In the original mythological story, Achelous is a river god competing with Hercules for the hand of a princess named Deianeira. Hercules is famous for tearing off the bull's horn, but not for winning the fight. The princess and a goddess judging the fight are important parts of the story, too. But who exactly is the goddess giving the laurel wreath to? Not to any of the white men and not to the bull...

The brown behind the bull isn't a hill, it's a wave of brown water, the same color as the river. You can see the water from the flood rushing through the cornucopia and lapping up against the central figure's left leg. This is a powerful picture of oncoming destruction. Benton didn't explain it to anyone - we have to actually look and see what's going on here. Had the owners of the Kansas City department store that commissioned the painting done that, they probably wouldn't have put it on display (or paid Benton for his work). The painting is dated 1947. In 1951 Kansas City and areas across Kansas and Missouri were severely flooded - 19 people died, 45,000 homes were damaged, and 17 major bridges were washed away.

This is the largest and best painting in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, but unfortunately no one ever actually looks at it to see what's going on. The Smithsonian's descriptions of the painting and the remarks of its tour guides don't get that it was created as a prediction of the future of Benton's home town of Kansas City rather than as a memorial to Greek mythology. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.39.69.88 (talk) 03:51, 10 November 2021 (UTC)