This article is within the scope of WikiProject Kansas City, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles about Kansas City, Missouri, and the surrounding metropolitan area on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Kansas CityWikipedia:WikiProject Kansas CityTemplate:WikiProject Kansas CityKansas City articles
This article is part of WikiProject Missouri, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Missouri. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.MissouriWikipedia:WikiProject MissouriTemplate:WikiProject MissouriMissouri articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Visual arts, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of visual arts on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Visual artsWikipedia:WikiProject Visual artsTemplate:WikiProject Visual artsvisual arts articles
This article is supported by WikiProject Mythology. This project provides a central approach to Mythology-related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the WikiProject page for more details.MythologyWikipedia:WikiProject MythologyTemplate:WikiProject MythologyMythology articles
A fact from Achelous and Hercules appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 7 June 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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)[reply]
