A symbol is anything that stands for, or represents, some- thing else. In a story, a character, an action, an object, or an animal can be symbolic. Often these symbols stand for something abstract, like a force of nature, a condition of the world, or an idea.
This mural is Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton’s retelling of the ancient myth of Achelous and Hercules. He moved the setting from ancient Greece to the Amer- ican Midwest and gave new meanings to the story’s symbols.