John Sheldon's photos with the keyword: Cornucopia

The Cornucopia sculpture at Agios Nikolaos, Crete, which celebrates the creation of the Cornucopia by Zeus from one of Amalthea's horns. Amalthea was a goat who nursed Zeus in his infancy. The sculptors were Nikos and Pandelis Sotiriadi.

Zeus, the chief god in Greek mythology, spent his infancy on the island of Crete. He was nourished by milk from a goat called Amalthea. Zeus accidentally broke off one of his nurse's horns. He blessed the horn so that it would always be full of what its owner desired. So came into being the concept of Amalthea's horn, the Cornucopia or in English the 'horn of plenty' - a symbol of abundance. Speculation: The Minoan diet included octopus which was plentiful in the surrounding waters, and images of those creatures appear often in their art work. Is this why the sculptors, Nikos and Pandelis Sotiriadi, have made the horn of plenty resemble a tentacle?