What is "eirene"

Eirene or Irene was an ancient Greek artist described by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century. She was the daughter of a painter, and created an image of a girl that was housed at Eleusis.

During the Renaissance, Boccaccio, a 14th-century humanist, included Eirene in De mulieribus claris (Latin for On Famous Women). However, in this telling Boccaccio apparently conflated many of the women described by Pliny and attributed many more works to Eirene. Some other paintings he credits to Eirene are an older Calypso, the gladiator Theodorus, and a famous dancer called Alcisthenes.

Eirene is a fictional character from the HBO/ BBC/ RAI original television series Rome, played by Chiara Mastalli. Her name is Greek for "peace".

In the first season of the mini series, the female characters were strong and well drawn. Their lives were depicted and grew while illustrating the woman of the time through society, religion and other parts of Roman life.

Eirene (; , Eirēnē, , "Peace"), more commonly known in English as Peace, was one of the Horae, the personification of peace. She was depicted in art as a beautiful young woman carrying a cornucopia, sceptre, and a torch or rhyton. She is said sometimes to be the daughter of Zeus and Themis. Her Roman equivalent was Pax.

She was particularly well regarded by the citizens of Athens. After a naval victory over Sparta in 375 BC, the Athenians established a cult for Peace, erecting altars to her. They held an annual state sacrifice to her after 371 BC to commemorate the Common Peace of that year and set up a votive statue in her honour in the Agora of Athens. The statue was executed in bronze by Cephisodotus the Elder, likely the father or uncle of the famous sculptor Praxiteles. It was acclaimed by the Athenians, who depicted it on vases and coins.

Although the statue is now lost, it was copied in marble by the Romans; one of the best surviving copies (right) is in the Munich Glyptothek. It depicts the goddess carrying a child with her left arm – Plutus, the god of plenty and son of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. Peace's missing right hand once held a sceptre. She is shown gazing maternally at Plutus, who is looking back at her trustingly. The statue is an allegory for Plenty (i.e., Plutus) prospering under the protection of Peace; it constituted a public appeal to good sense. The copy in the Glyptothek was originally in the collection of the Villa Albani in Rome but was looted and taken to France by Napoleon I. Following Napoleon's fall, the statue was bought by Ludwig I of Bavaria.

In Greek mythology, Eirene was a daughter of Poseidon and Melantheia (daughter of Alpheus). She gave her name to Eirene, a small island near Crete. The island was later called Anthedonia and Hypereia, but eventually received the name Calauria after Calaurus, who was also a son of Poseidon.