Zeus2.0010_Brumidi

Constantino Brumidi, 1805-1880, "The Apotheosis of Washington," 1865, ceiling fresco in oculus of rotunda, U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.

Washington sits where and as Zeus would in a celestial pantheon surrounded by thirteen heavenly revelers (one for each original state) and an outer ring of six Olympians establishing culture in the nascent country. These other six are War=Lady Liberty (in lieu of Ares), Science=Athena/Minerva, Marine Arts=Poseidon/Neptune, Commerce=Hermes/Mercury, Mechanics=Hephaistos/Vulcan, Agriculture=Demeter/Ceres.

This image of Washington — the statesman as a figure of Zeus — is not unrelated to Horatio's Greenough's "Washington as Phidian Zeus". J.-A.-D. Ingres' "Jupiter and Thetis" (1811) is also part of this rich iconographic tradition. — Brumidi goes further, perhaps, than American tastes sometime allow and glorifies Washington by association with the classical sky-god.