Auge and Telephus

Heracles’ role as the father of Telephus involves significant elements for our understanding of the wider myth. The conception of Telephus is variously depicted as a “rape” or a “seduction” of Auge and starts a chain of events that portray Heracles as a caring father who rescues his abandoned child, providing a model for the Roman foundation myth. It also projects Heracles’ role in the First Trojan War into the Second. The story unfolds across several different locations in the Mediterranean, from Arcadia to king Teuthras’ kingdom in Mysia, and indicates Heracles’ role as a connecting figure for historical and cultural societies.

At the Centre of Two Revolutions

This chapter talks about the Beit Ya’akov (Bais Yaakov), the extensive network of haredi educational institutions for girls that ranged from kindergartens to vocational teacher-training seminaries. It mentions the founder of Beit Ya’akov, Sarah Schenirer, who was labelled the ’mother’ of all haredi women and became an iconic figure as she was the only woman in haredi society to have inspired a foundation myth. It also refers to Dr Leo Deutschländer, who set Beit Ya’akov on a sound financial and pedagogical basis that spearheaded its rapid expansion. The chapter recounts the foundation of Beit Ya’akov in 1918 and the appointment of Rabbi Judah Leib Orlean as its director in 1935, which marked a conservative turn in the development of the institution. It identifies the most influential factors and figures that shaped the development of the Beit Ya’akov network prior to the Holocaust.

Passages to Fantasy : The Performance of Motion in Cellini’s Fontainebleau Portal and the Galerie François I

In the early 1540s, King Francis I commissioned Benvenuto Cellini to design a bronze portal for the Porte Dorée at Fontainebleau. It consisted of a tympanum depicting the ‘Nymph of Fontainebleau’ in a forest setting. The imagery revived the foundation myth of Fontainebleau as a bountiful hunting ground and water source. Although it was never completed, Cellini’s design presented the forest beyond the doors as a recreational space for the varied motions of the hunting ritual and the palace behind the doors as a space for the more choreographed ambulatory motion of guided diplomatic tours. This essay explores the complementarity in the staging of interior and exterior as zones of visual and somatic pleasure.