Paris, France – Finding Myths at the Louvre

I took this photo in the Louvre Museum in Paris. And I think it’s pretty funny because Chiron the Centaur, who is from Greek mythology, and is pretty much the only calm centaur, has a little baby angel-thingy on its back. I’m reading the Percy Jackson books (by Rick Riordan) and that got me interested in mythology. I wasn’t surprised to see something like this because we were in the Greek and Roman art gallery, so I knew we’d run into one of the more famous people from the myths. Like, who trained Jason and Hercules? It’s Chiron! But he’s not training this angel-thingy, I kinda think that the little thingy is teasing Chiron, by pulling his hair and trying to ride him. But Chiron is saying, “Please! Get off!”

The Rick Riordan “Lightning Thief” books really opened The Kid’s eyes to classical mythology. So when we walked through this section of the Louvre, I could see that they were trying to identify the gods and heroes by their iconography now that they know a bit about it. The sculpture The Kid photographed said it was Eros with an Old Centaur, so they were pretty close since Chiron is the only centaur they know by name from the books.

As I wandered around the other galleries, I noticed this sculpture, and had trouble placing which mythological character it was supposed to be because it wasn’t obvious. However, what was obvious about it, was that it looked like it was taking a selfie. So of course I snapped this photo since it ironically looked like a contemporary sculpture. What I found out later is that it’s an 18th Century statue of Apollo vanquishing the Python. He’s supposed to be holding a sword, but the blade has been lost to time, so he is only holding it’s grip or handle. But it certainly looks like a “classical selfie” to me.