Kephalos und Aurora

Cephalus and Aurora

Aurora, the goddess of dawn, embraces Cephalus. He rejects her advances, instead looking at an image of his wife, Procris. Ovid recounts this tale in Metamorphoses (Book 7) but Poussin here enhances the story by including a portrait-bearing cupid, a reclining river god, the winged horse Pegasus and the god Apollo's chariot in the sky.