AphroditeTannhäuser1.0020

AphroditeTannhäuser1.0020_FantinLatour

A knight kneels before a goddess in a red robe, as another nude woman stands to the side.

Reid's OGCMA defines this myth thus: "Tannhäuser was a thirteenth-century lyric poet whose travels around Germany and participation in one of the Crusades became legend. He was later identifided with a knight in a sixteenth-century ballad who, on passing the Venusberg (hill of Venus), found himself enchanted by a vision of the goddess. After living a life of sensual pleasure with her, the knight was at length seized by a longing to return to his mundane existence and invoked the name of the Virgin to help him escape. Having fled the Venusberg, he asked the Pope's absolution but received only a decree stating that his sins would be forgiven when the papal staff bore flowers. Three days later, the staff did bloom, but that time Tannhäuser had returned to the Venusberg. The legend of Tannhäuser has no true classical source, but it is a persistent theme in the postclassical arts." J.D. Reid, OGCMA, s.v. "Aphrodite: Tannhäuser and the Venusberg".