Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Aglauros.
The gallery
The Daughters of Cecrops Finding the Child Erichthonius
Jacob Jordaens, 1617
Jordaens' Antwerp canvas shows Cecrops' three daughters opening Athena's forbidden basket — Aglauros among the sisters who glimpse the serpent-child Erichthonius and seal their doom.
Daughters of Cecrops Discovering Erichthonius
Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1615
Rubens' Courtauld oil sketch returns to the same Athenian crisis: the Cecropids uncover Erichthonius — Aglauros' curiosity as the prelude to envy, Mercury, and the stone that Ovid makes of her.
Athena Pursuing Aglauros (Attic red-figure kylix)
The Phiale Painter, c. 440–430 BC
On this Attic cup the goddess herself pursues Aglauros — a rare vase naming the middle daughter of Cecrops in the aftermath of the opened basket, when Athena's anger still runs through Athens.
In play
Metamorphoses
Ovid
Mercury's gold, Minerva's Envy, and Aglauros turned to stone — Ovid's Athenian sister who bars the god from Herse.
Aglaurus, daughter of Cecrops
Cecrops' middle daughter — jealous gatekeeper of her sister's beauty and the princess who becomes rock.
Herse
The sister Mercury loved — Herse's beauty is the bait that makes Aglauros' envy fatal.