Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Amalthea.
The gallery
The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1609–1615
Bernini's early Borghese marble presents Amalthea as the goat herself: the infant Jupiter and a faun drink at her udder — the Cretan nurse of Zeus carved before the sculptor's fame.
The Infant Jupiter Suckled by the Goat Amalthea
Jacob Jordaens, c. 1630–1650
Jordaens' Flemish pastoral fills the Cretan cave with satyrs and the nursing goat — Amalthea as the living source of the hidden god's strength.
The Infant Jupiter Nurtured by the Goat Amalthea
Nicolas Poussin, c. 1630s
Poussin's classical landscape seats nymphs and the goat around the infant Jupiter — Amalthea's milk as the quiet opening of Olympian power.
Amalthea Nursing the Infant Zeus
Unknown, 19th century
A nineteenth-century French painting returns Amalthea to nymph form: the Cretan nurse offers her breast to the hidden child — the tradition in which she is woman, not goat.
In play
Cornucopia
The broken horn of Amalthea's goat became the horn of plenty — so the Cretan nurse's gift still names every Western emblem of abundance.
Amalthea (mythology)
The foster-mother of Zeus — nymph or goat — who hid and nursed the infant god in Crete until he could overthrow Cronus.