#prosepine

[a-little-bit-pre-raphaelite]

Proserpine

Original by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, coloured chalks, 1880

A version by Rossetti's assistant Henry Treffry Dunn, coloured chalks, 1883

Both frames were designed by Rossetti

[thelongnineteenthcentury]

As for Cyane, she lamented the rape of the goddess, and the contempt shown for her fountain's rights, nursing silently in her heart a wound that none could heal; until, entirely wasted away with weeping, she dissolved into those waters of which she had lately been a powerful spirit...It needed but a little change to transform her slight limbs into chill waters; after that her shoulders, her back, her sides, her breast disappeared, fading away into insubstantial streams, till at last, instead of living blood, water flowed through her softened veins, and nothing remained for anyone to grasp.

Ovid, Metamorphoses (The Rape of Prosepine)

[chrestomatheia]

Bryson Burroughs (1869-1934), Pluto and Proserpine.