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| Domenico Campagnola Landscape with copse and village ca. 1520 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Giulio Romano Allegory of the Regentship of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga in Mantua ca. 1540-46 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Moretto da Brescia Lady sitting on balustrade with two monkeys ca. 1543-54 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
HELEN
I'm trapped inside an evil destiny.
My life and everything involved with me
is monstrous. For some beauty, what a cost!
If only I could somehow be erased
as pictures are, and part of me replaced
with something plainer, would the Greeks let go
of that ill fame which long has dragged me so
and keep instead some happy memory?
If people suffer one great stroke of ill
luck, it's hard, but it is bearable.
My web of woes is more complex by far.
First, though I have done nothing wrong, I bear
this evil reputation – so unfair,
far worse than if the charge were true. I'm banned
from my own country to this foreign land,
these alien customs – all without one friend.
I'm treated like a slave here. Never mind
parentage; places like this are bound
by slavery. All but one of us are slaves.
My only anchor in these tossing waves
of trouble was the hope that one fine day
my husband would come carry me away
from here to safety. He cannot; he's gone,
he's dead, my mother's dead. The fault is mine –
all unintentional, but still a crime.
My daughter, once so beautiful, begins
to wither into spinsterhood. The twins,
Castor and Pollux, are no more. And I –
my heart is shriveled from this misery,
and yet I go on living. If I should
return to Sparta, what would be the good?
At home they'd hate me, they would slam the door:
"Helen for whom a war was fought – you whore!"
Living, my husband might identify
me by signs known only to his eye,
but he is dead now; this can never be.
And I – what course of action's left to me?
Marriage might be a bulwark against pain,
but could I live with a barbarian,
no matter what his wealth? What bitterness –
hating my husband, loathing each caress.
Some women wear their beauty gracefully;
my beauty has destroyed me utterly.
– a speech from Helen by Euripides, translated by Rachel Hadas (1998)
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| Bartolomeo Passerotti Four studies of hands ca. 1560-90 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Anonymous Italian artist Bishop and Supplicant 17th century drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Antonio Tempesta Building of the Trojan Horse before 1630 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Alessandro Maganza Standing soldier holding two rods before 1630 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Claude Villaume after Annibale Carracci Atlante supported by Putti (after fresco from Palazzo Magnani) 1646 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Domenico Maria Canuti Diana and Apollo in clouds slaying children of Niobe ca. 1650-80 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
ON A STATUE OF NIOBE
This is the daughter of Tantalus, who of old bore from a single womb twice seven children, victims of Phoebus and Artemis: for the Maiden sent untimely death to the maidens, the male god to the boys, the two slaying two companies of seven. She, once the mother of such a flock, the mother of lovely children, was not left with one to tend her age. The mother was not, as was meet, buried by her children, but the children all were carried by their mother to the sorrowful tomb. Tantalus, thy tongue was fatal to thee and to thy daughter; she became a rock, and over thee hangs a stone to terrify thee.
– Antipater (of Thessalonica?)
ON THE SAME
Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, hearken to my word, the announcer of woe: receive the most mournful tale of thy sorrows. Loose the fillet of thy hair! thy male children, alas! thou didst bear but to fall by the woe-working arrows of Phoebus. Thy boys are no more. But what is this other thing? What do I see? Alack! alack! the flood of blood has overtaken the maidens. One clasps her mother's knees, one rests on her lap, one on the ground, and the head of one has fallen on her breast. Another is smitten with terror at the shaft flying straight to her, and one stoops before the arrows, while the rest still live and see light. And the mother, who erst took pleasure in her tongue's chatter, now for horror stands like a rock built of flesh.
– Meleager (1st century BC)
Epigrams from Book 16 of the Greek Anthology, translated by W.R. Paton (1916-18)
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| attributed to Gianlorenzo Bernini Child with Guardian Angel ca. 1660-80 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Lazzaro Baldi Vision of St John the Evangelist ca. 1662-65 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione Plague at Ashdod before 1670 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| workshop of Carlo Maratti St Rosalia chisels her vows into the rock face ca. 1685-1700 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Giovanni Ghisolfi Jacob and Rachel at the well before 1683 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |