Hygeia, Apollo’s granddaughter, and the goddess of good health and cleanliness, stands imperious in the foreground, staring over the heads of any mortals that might deign to look at her. She is either oblivious or indifferent to the suffering going on in the background, where a tangle of naked bodies—some of them emaciated, others grimacing with pain—represents the river of life. In the center of this mass of humans is a skeleton. Klimt’s message is clear: life is painful, death is certain, and modern medicine hasn’t altered this fundamental reality.
