Achelous Defeated by Hercules. The Origin of the Cornucopia. (Allegory of Fruitfulness)

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Artist: Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, 1593–1678)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 245 × 311 cm
Museum: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
Rights: Public Domain Mark

Voluptuous women, capering satyrs and an abundance of flowers, fruit, and muscle. Everything is plentiful here, which is hardly surprising given that the subject of the painting is the origins of the cornucopia, the horn of plenty. Jordaens based the painting on a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses in which the river god Achelous relates the tale of how he transformed into a bull in order to vanquish Heracles. However, Heracles bested him and broke off the horn that would be come the cornucopia.

The painting shows Achelous in his bull form. He is watching the deities of nature alongside Heracles, who is clad in a lion pelt. In 1604 the Dutch artist Karel van Mander published his interpretation of Ovid. Here, the cornucopia is read as a symbol of the power that money brings: "With copia's horn, or plenty / is nothing other meant / than the power of wealth / that all are subjects before Money; first and foremost the horn denotes/ strength or power."