Edward Burne-Jones in the context of "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood"

In Greek mythology, the Graeae (/ˈɡriːiː/; Ancient Greek: Γραῖαι Graiai, lit. 'old women', alternatively spelled Graiai), also called the Grey Sisters and the Phorcides ('daughters of Phorcys'), were three sisters who had gray hair from their birth and shared one eye and one tooth among them. They were the daughters of the primordial sea gods Phorcys and Ceto and, among others, sisters of the Gorgons. Their names were Deino (Δεινώ), Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ), and Enyo (Ἐνυώ; not to be confused with the war goddess, Enyo). The Graeae are best known from their encounter with Perseus, who, after capturing their eye, forced them to reveal information about the Gorgons.

William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he campaigned for socialism in fin de siècle Great Britain.

Morris was born in Walthamstow, Essex, to a wealthy middle-class family. He came under the strong influence of medievalism while studying classics at Oxford University, where he joined the Birmingham Set. After university, he married Jane Burden, and developed close friendships with Pre-Raphaelite artists and poets such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and Edward Burne-Jones, as well as with Neo-Gothic architect Philip Webb. Webb and Morris designed Red House in Kent where Morris lived from 1859 to 1865, before moving to Bloomsbury, central London. In 1861, Morris founded the Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. decorative arts firm with Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, and others, which became highly fashionable and much in demand. The firm profoundly influenced interior decoration throughout the Victorian period, with Morris designing tapestries, wallpaper, fabrics, furniture, and stained glass windows. In 1875, he assumed total control of the company, which was renamed Morris & Co.

Humility is the quality of being humble. The Oxford Dictionary, in its 1998 edition, describes humility as having a low opinion of oneself or not being prideful. More recent definitions of humility involve having an accurate opinion of oneself and expressing one-self's modesty as appropriate, with clear goal orientation, openness, broad-mindedness, and a non-imposing mentality. In a religious context, humility can mean a self-recognition of a deity (i.e. God) and subsequent submission to that deity as a religious member. Outside of a religious context, humility is defined as being "unselved"—liberated from the consciousness of self—a form of temperance that is neither having pride (or haughtiness) nor indulging in self-deprecation.

Humility may also refer to a proper sense of self-regard. Humility may be misinterpreted as the capacity to endure humiliation through self-denigration. This misconception arises from the confusion of humility with traits like submissiveness and meekness. Such misinterpretations prioritize self-preservation and self-aggrandizement over true humility, and emphasize an undiminished focus on the self.

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides (/hɛˈspɛrɪdiːz/ ; Ancient Greek: Ἑσπερίδες, Ancient Greek pronunciation: [hesperídes]) are the nymphs of evening and the golden light of sunsets, who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called the Atlantides (Ancient Greek: Ἀτλαντίδες, romanized: Atlantídes) from their reputed father, Atlas.

Laudine is a character in Chrétien de Troyes's 12th-century romance Yvain, or, The Knight with the Lion. The character is unnamed in the Welsh version of the tale, Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain, but is named as Laudine in both Chrétien's romance and the German adaptation, Iwein by Hartmann von Aue. Known as the Lady of the Fountain, she becomes the wife of the poem's protagonist, Yvain, one of the knights of King Arthur's Round Table, after he kills her husband, but later spurns the knight-errant when he neglects her for heroic adventure, only to take him back in the end.

Chrétien calls her "la dame de Landuc", i.e. the noblewoman in command of the territory and castle of "Landuc", located near a supernatural fountain within the enchanted forest of Brocéliande. The lady Laudine's fountain, which magically generated a powerful storm when its water was poured into a nearby basin, was guarded by her husband, Esclados the Red, until his defeat by Yvain. After learning about his cousin Calogrenant's encounter with Esclados, in which the former was attacked and beaten for using the well to create a storm, Yvain took revenge on behalf of his kinsman by slaying Esclados in single combat. He then followed the mortally wounded warrior back to the castle, where he fell instantly in love with his victim's widow. Though distraught over her husband's death, Laudine was convinced by her vassals (especially her servant and confidante Lunete) to marry Yvain to ensure the protection of her lands.

The Birmingham Set, sometimes called the Birmingham Colony, the Pembroke Set or later The Brotherhood, was a group of students at the University of Oxford in England in the 1850s, most of whom were from Birmingham or had studied at King Edward's School, Birmingham. Their importance as a group was largely within the visual arts, where they played a significant role in the birth of the Arts and Crafts Movement: The Set were intimately involved in the murals painted on the Oxford Union Society in 1857, and members William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Charles Faulkner were founding partners of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1861.

Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (/rəˈzɛti/ rə-ZET-ee; Italian: [rosˈsetti]), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti inspired many contemporary artists and writers, such as Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Morris, and Edward Burne-Jones in particular. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism. His early poetry was influenced by John Keats and William Blake. His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence The House of Life. Poetry and image are closely entwined in Rossetti's work. He frequently wrote sonnets to accompany his pictures, spanning from The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849) and Astarte Syriaca (1877), while also creating art to illustrate poems such as Goblin Market by his sister Christina Rossetti.