The Fight Between Ulysses and Irus
Jan Muller Netherlandish
after Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem Netherlandish
Publisher Claes Jansz. Visscher Dutch
Not on view
Muller made six engravings after Cornelis; and, impressions of four are in the Met. In addition to the present work they include Cain Killing Abel (56.597.4), Arion on a Dolphin (56.597.5) and The Three Fates Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos (56.597.7). The Fight Between Ulysses and Irus illustrates an event from Book 18 of the epic poem of Homer, The Odyssey. Finally returning to Ithaca after years of wandering, Ulysses discovers that his wife Penelope is besieged by suitors who, believing he was dead, wish to marry her. Disguised as a beggar, Ulysses goes to see her and is challenged to a fight by Irus, a drunken tramp and companion of the suitors. Ulysses easily defeats Irus, and Muller shows him as he is decribed by Homer; a nude figure, standing victorious over the body of his opponent, his back to the viewer putting on full display: "his big rippling thighs – his boxer’s broad shoulders, his massive chest and burly arms."
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