_Nicolas Poussin_ (French: 1593-1669). _See under_ 39.
None of the "learned" Poussin's pictures in the Gallery shows so well
as this how steeped he was alike in the knowledge and in the feeling of
Greek mythology. Cephalus was a Thessalian prince whose love of hunting
carried him away at early dawn from the arms of his wife Procris (see
under 698). Hence the allegorical fable of the loves of Cephalus and
Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, and her attempt to rival Procris in
his affections. Cephalus here half yields to Aurora's blandishments,
but a little Cupid holds up before him the portrait of his wife and
recalls her love to his mind. Behind is Aurora's car, in which she is
drawn by the white-winged Pegasus across the sky. But Pegasus, with
that intermingling of many ideas which is characteristic of all Greek
myths, is also "the Angel of the Wild Fountains: that is to say, the
fastest flying or lower rain-cloud, winged, but racing as upon the
earth."[85] Hence beside him sleeps a river-god, his head resting on
his urn. But the mountain top is tipped with dawn; and behind, one sees
a Naiad waking. Farther still beyond, in a brightening horizon, the
form of Apollo, the sun-god whose advent follows on the dawn, is just
apparent, his horses and his car melting into the shapes of morning
clouds.[86]