HeraclesDeianeira2.0001

HeraclesDeianeira2.0001_Benton

Two murals depicting agricultural themes, with a large cornucopia overflowing with produce and figures interacting with a bull.

"Depicting the contest between Hercules and the river-god Achelous (in the guise of a bull) over the maiden Deianeira, Benton's mural ostensibly domesticated the Greek myth and told the story of Missouri settlement. Hercules' conquest of the river-god was meant to evoke the taming of Missouri waterways by Kansas City pioneers; the horn that Hercules snaps from Achelous' head symbolized the cornucopia of midwestern agriculture." E. Doss (1991), Benton, Pollock, and the Poltics of Modernism (Chicago UP), 374.

Relatively few of Benton's works treat classical-mythological topics, i.e. his "Persephone" (1938-39), "The Apple of Discord" (1948, typically seen as Adam & Eve), "Hailstorm" (1940, may recall Vergil's Georgics), "Susannah and the Elders" (1938, is not technically classical-mythological).