'Divine Mothers of Athens', alternatively titled 'Athena and her daughters'
Many a modern day scholar of the Athenides states their interest in the fountain daughters began when a painting of William Bouguereau or Lawrence Alma-Tadema involving the goddesses captured their imagination. Whilst the mortal world attributes their zeal for these deities to scholastic appeal, those attuned to the truth of Olympus's continued existence know that both were legacies of Dionysius and Apollo respectively so a sense of nostalgia towards the family fate so cruelly deprived them of is universally felt by demigods seeing their art.
For Lawrence Alma-Tadema the Athenide was not simply a dream of what once was. At 15 he suffered a physical and mental breakdown, diagnosed as tuberculosis. On death's door he was given permission to draw away the estimated remaining year of his life while his mother begged her godly father and brothers to intercede. Nearing said year his mother found the youth's bedroom locked, a strange green-blue light peaking out of the shadows. Try as she might, the door would not budge open so she beseeched Phoebus to save her son. Hearing her plea, the light bringer arrived bow in arm and burst the room open. Both were shocked to see Lawrence had miraculously recovered. When pressed for answers he instantly said 'My grand-aunt and grandmother have saved me. Through art I will earn this gift and continue to be saved'.
According to the youth, they had entered his room to cleanse his lungs in a ritual where Perse covered him in seafoam then washed him using a waterbowl brimming with olive blossoms and as he coughed red Arsinoe slowly turned his blood into coral like currents which flew into the golden torch of Lady Compromise. Both sisters washed him in the salt flowered waters until there was no consumption left. Whilst the veracity of this claim has always been in dispute for the demigod community, Alma-Tadema himself never strayed from believing it and painted the twins his whole life. For the most part he avoided their typical 'doomed romance kiss' as he felt the artistic community had focused too much on them solely as star crossed lovers. Instead he favored key events in their life such as the Deification of Asclepius or the Finding of Apollonia or symbolic portraits to remind humanity of the values they instilled in the world.
The latter is seen in this context as Lawrence depicts the Athenide twins and their mother as a holy trinity. Wisdom, Loyalty and Reason at the center of society which cannot thrive without them. On each corner we see an aspect of civilization: matters of state at top left, the home at top right, religion at the bottom left and architecture at the bottom right.
Athena Soteira stands at the left to ward off any ill omens. Bright eyes never leaving her precious daughters. Golden hair donning roses for love, white in recognition of her loss as the greeks used it as a mourning color thus declaring Mother Wisdom as a goddess forever crowned in sorrowful affection towards children long gone. A slight flush to her cheeks in a rare display of tender emotion. Each of her darlings places a hand upon her shoulders, perfectly poised in familial ease.
In the middle stands Perseleia, eldest of the Athenide sisters: lady of riptides and keeper of loyalty. Lawrence highlights his passion for medieval lore by placing a crown of ivy upon her jet-black hair. In the middle ages ivy symbolized fidelity and life eternal thus making it a preferred motif for illuminated manuscripts depicting angels or other heavenly beings. A nod to Homer is given through 'the wine-dark sea' colored irises chosen though it can also serve as a nod to her eldest son Dionysius or Perseleia's own mad grief upon the death of her second son Asclepius.
Lady Logic stands at the right. Unlike Wisdom whose gaze is exclusively tied to the fountain daughters and Loyalty whose eyes are unfocused, Reason directs her view to the audience. Silently judging our decision to live rejecting her patronage. Lawrence paints the golden Athenide's locks bronze in homage to how in Sparta, Athena has the local epithet Chalkioikos, ‘of the bronze house’. The walls of Athena’s temple at the Spartan akropolis were decorated with bronze plaques, and her cult statue was made of bronze. Like her mother, Arsinoe is Ergane. A sponsor, creator and innovator of craftsmen. A crown of chrysanthemum flowers lays on her head, a token of protection as it deflects the dreaded children of Aracne but also a symbol of nobility and rejuvenation as the light of reason restores a youthful glow to the mind.
Real painting name is 'The Three Graces' by Lawrence Alma-Tadema made in 1890.