We're doing a sort of book club with Madge and some friends. The book is Chasing Vermeer, and, honestly, it has too random a conclusion to it, if you ask me. Still a fun read, though, considering.
Anyway, I'm chasing Vermeer in my own way and one of the books from the library had Rembrandt as context with this painting in it, depicting Danae.
My Classical education is skimpier than her outfit, so I decided to look it up in one of my favorite reference works, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable.
It turns out she's the mother of Perseus, and got impregnated by Zeus when he took on the form of a gold shower. Or a shower of gold. Either way, it boggles the mind. I know myths can get bestially and symbolically kinky, but that's just weird.
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