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| Cornelis van Dalen the Younger after Pieter Lastman Jonah spewed out by the Whale before 1664 etching and engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Cornelis van Dalen the Younger after Nicolaes Berchem Isis transforming Iphis into a Young Man (scene adapted from Ovid's Metamorphoses) before 1664 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
One night, in the depths of her sleep, she dreamed that Isis (once Io,
Inachus' daughter) was standing in front of her bed, attended
by all her sacred train. The brow of the goddess was decked
with horns like a crescent moon, her garland of golden corn-spikes
and royal insignia. Close to her side were dog-headed Anubis,
divine Bubastis, Apis the bull with his dappled hide,
the child-god asking for silence with finger pressed to his lips,
Osiris, the search for whom is never abandoned, the timbrels
and snake from Egypt whose neck is puffed with sleep-giving venom.
All these were so clear to the dreamer (she might have been fully awake)
when the goddess addressed her . . .
– from Ovid's Metamorphoses (book 9), translated by David Raeburn (2004)
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| Cornelis van Dalen the Younger after François Perrier Restored Antique Statue of a Muse in the Capitoline Museum, Rome before 1664 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Reinier van Persyn Antique Busts of Ariadne and Bacchus in the Galleria Giustiniani, Rome ca. 1640 engraving Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Reinier van Persyn Antique Busts of Julia Domna and Julia Mamaea in the Galleria Giustiniani, Rome ca. 1640 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jan van Ossenbeeck Merrymakers at the Grotto of Egeria, Rome ca. 1647-55 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Romeyn de Hooghe Siege of Amida in the Perso-Roman War, AD 359 1693 engraving (book illustration) Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles |
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| Romeyn de Hooghe Carl von Rabenhaupt, Baron van Sucha 1674 engraving (book illustration) Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles |
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| Romeyn de Hooghe Renowned Park of Enghien near Brussels ca. 1685 hand-colored engraving Royal Library, The Hague |
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| Jan Gillisz van Vliet The Raising of Lazarus ca. 1628-37 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jan Gillisz van Vliet Scholar in his Study 1634 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jan Gillisz van Vliet St Jerome reading under a Tree ca. 1632-34 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jan Lievens Jacques Gaultier, Lute-Player and Composer ca. 1632-35 etching and engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jan Lievens Study of Unclothed Man with Drape before 1674 etching Rijksmuseum-Amsterdam |
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| Theodor van Kessel after Anthony van Dyck Head of an Apostle ca. 1630-60 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
The Companions of Odysseus in Hades
After Seferis
Since we still had a little
Of the rusk left, what fools
To eat, against the rules,
The Sun's slow-moving cattle,
Each ox huge as a tank –
A wall you'd have to siege
For forty years to reach
A star, a hero's rank.
We starved on the back of the earth,
But when we'd stuffed ourselves,
We tumbled to these delves,
Numbskulls, fed up with dearth.
– A.E. Stallings (2014)