Enceladus beneath Mount Etna

Enceladus lies crushed beneath Sicily, his vast body pinned under a landscape that still trembles with his movement. The commentary identifies the island by its triangular form and Mount Etna's eruption; the giant's hands reach towards its promontories. Smoke, fire and flying rock turn volcanic activity into the visible breath of a defeated being.

This chapter explicitly continues the preceding battle of the giants. It also notes that ancient poets sometimes confuse Enceladus with Typhon or Briareus. Its proposed historical explanations belong to eighteenth-century mythography; the image itself preserves the more haunting idea of a living force buried beneath the earth.

Historical context is adapted from the accompanying commentary by Antoine de La Barre de Beaumarchais. Its interpretations reflect the period in which the book was published.

This edition follows plate 3 in Le Temple des Muses. The complete historical page and its explanatory text remain available in the source record. Source attribution: Bernard Picart and other engravers, Le Temple des Muses (1749 edition). Museum date: 1749 (publication). Source medium: Engraving, inner pictorial scene. Source portfolio: Le Temple des Muses, plate 3.

The inner illustration has been straightened and extracted from its surrounding engraved frame, caption and paper. The comparison shows that extracted engraving beside Surrealium's contemporary colour interpretation.

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