Anath a fertility goddess as well as the Goddess of Love and War, lured a troop of warriors to her temple, ostensibly for a celebration. Once they were there, however, she slew them all single-handedly. Subsequently she cleansed and perfumed herself, and as if in benediction, the heavens sent down rain. This symbolism is connected with the ancient Semitic belief in blood as the essence of life, not only in terms of human and animal life, but also in terms of agriculture.

A sea monster was ravaging the countryside and the princess Andromeda was to be sacrificed to him that he might cease his destruction. Perseus, on his way home to Seriphos, happened upon Andromeda chained to a rock in the sea. He saved her by pulling Medusa's head from the pouch and turning the monster to stone.

The twelfth labour of Hercules called for him to descend into Had es. There he was to abduct the fierce three-headed dog Cerberus, who guarded the entrance to the land of the dead, and bring him back to King Eurystheus. The king had set Hercules this task in order to be rid of the man for good. But Hercules, the strongest of men, subdued the terrible Cerberus with his bare hands.

Diana, the Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt, was bathing in a forest spring one day when she was surprised by the hero Actaeon. Angered by his intrusion, Diana dashed water in his face and turned him into an animal. Subsequently, he was chased and slain by his hounds, who no longer recognised him. Boris evidently felt it better, aesthetically, to have Diana shoot the creature than to have dogs rip it apart.

Icarus was the son of Daedalus, a master craftsman who built the intricate labyrinth in which the Minotaur was imprisoned. When father and son were imprisoned there, Daedalus fashioned wings out of feathers and wax that the two might fly to freedom. He cautioned Icarus to fly neither too low lest the wings get drenched by the sea, nor too high lest the sun melt the wax. But in his exuberance, Icarus forgot his father's warning and soared toward the heavens. The sun melted his wings and he plunged to his grave in the blue water below. Icarus, here an African-Greek, is soaring. You can see his father in the distance.

Perseus had been sent to destroy the terrible Medusa, a once beautiful woman whose hair had been transformed into snakes by Athene. To aid Perseus in this quest, Athene gave him a highly polished shield to use as a mirror. Thus, in the fateful confrontation, he could avoid looking directly at the Medusa herself.

Pygmalion, King of Cyprus, was a talented sculptor. Among the statues he carved was one of a beautiful woman that he named Galatea. In time he fell wildly in love with Galatea. She made all the flesh-and-blood women he knew seem drab in comparison. Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty and Love, took pity on the lovesick Pygmalion. She turned Galatea into a living woman and presided over the marriage of the two.

Manco Copac and Mama Ocllo, son and daughter of the Sun emerg ed from Lake Titicaca. They journeyed to the Valley of Cuzco, which at that time was inhabited by barbarians. These savages, however, recognised the two deities as Gods and accepted the laws, the concepts of justice, and the skills they taught them. Thus the great empire of the Incas was founded.

The Sirens were beautiful nymphs who lived on a rocky island in the midst of the sea. They sang to passing sailors and their voices were so sweet, their songs so irresistible, that all who heard them were driven to jump from their boats and swim for the fateful shore on which they met their deaths. Four mermaid babes with curiously modern hair sit on a rock in the middle of the ocean. Not recommended as a backdrop in a politically correct workplace - well, probably none of these are...

Idun, Goddess of Youth, was carried off by Thiassi the Giant in the guise of an eagle. Thiassi had plotted this abduction with Loki in order to wrest the Golden Apples of Youth from Idun. But deprived of their precious fruit, the Gods began to wither and age. Therefore, they decreed that the traitorous but resourceful Loki (disguised as a falcon and under threat of painful death) rescue Idun and bring her back to the safety of Asgard, where she might again tend the tree on which the apples grew. An eagle with arms carries a forlorn woman away.

In a moment of drunkenness, Krungnir the Giant challenged Thor the Thunder God to a fight. Krungnir then decided to improve his chances of defeating Thor by having an even larger giant (nine miles and one furlong high) built out of clay. During the confrontation, Krungnir hurled a huge whetstone at Thor. But he had not counted on Thor's magic hammer, which collided with the whetstone, smashed it to bits, and went on to cleave Krungnir's skull in two. The clay man, seeing this, trembled so violently that he disintegrated into dust. Krungnir aiming a boulder at Thor.

The Valkyries, also known as the "Choosers of the Slain," were the beautiful, fearless, and immortal woman warriors who rode across the skies above battlefields. They carried out the will of Odin in determining the victors and in gathering the souls of dying warriors found deserving of afterlife in Valhalla. The best known of the Valkyries is Brynhild, who forfeited her immortality by saving the life of Agnar, a young hero who had been fated to die. The warrior maids ride their horses across the sky.