In surveying the humanistic implications of the Greek and Roman myths that have provided subject matter for twentieth-century art, the article shows how modern artists have interpreted the myths through their own personal experience. Among their motivations for turning to mythology is the attempt to suggest that the world is a continuum of unchanged human experience.

Also explored is the influence on the artists of earlier artistic, literary, philosophical, and psychological interpretations. The focus is on the myths most frequently seen as bearing humanistic meaning: Prometheus, Venus, Apollo, Dionysos, Orpheus, Oedipus, and Odysseus, and the Minotaur.