The Housebook Master Middle Rhenish, active c. 1465/1500 Aristotle and Phyllis, c. 1485 drypoint Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jupiter, related works

Scholars were children of Jupiter, and Aristotle was one of the foremost scholars of antiquity. According to medieval legend he had urgently warned Alexander the Great to abstain from worldly pleasures, but this provoked Alexander's mistress Phyllis, who was determined to humiliate Aristotle and demonstrate the power of the flesh over the intellect. She accomplished this by seducing the great philosopher and then asking him to let her ride on his back. He consented, not realizing that Alexander had been invited to secretly witness this victory.

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