The Origin of the Milky Way is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance master Jacopo Tintoretto (1575-1580), in the National Gallery, London, formerly in the Orleans Collection.
According to myth, the infant Heracles was brought to Hera by his half-sister Athena, who later played an important role as a goddess of protection. Hera nursed Heracles out of pity, but he suckled so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and she pushed him away. Her milk sprayed across the heavens and there formed the Milky Way. With divine milk, Heracles acquired supernatural powers.
Famous quotes containing the words origin and/or milky:
“Our theism is the purification of the human mind. Man can paint, or make, or think nothing but man. He believes that the great material elements had their origin from his thought.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The Milky Way perhaps
Was woman’s way of life.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)