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| Karl Borschke An der Quelle des Lebens ca. 1918 oil on canvas Belvedere Museum, Vienna |
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| Astrid Holm Two Models 1915 oil on canvas Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Lolland, Denmark |
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| Oskar Kokoschka The Pagans 1918 oil on canvas Museum Ludwig, Cologne |
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| Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Couple 1905 woodcut Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Edvard Munch Head to Head 1905 color woodblock print Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Koloman Moser Lovers ca. 1914 oil on canvas Leopold Museum, Vienna |
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| Egon Schiele Embrace 1917 oil on canvas Belvedere Museum, Vienna |
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| Johann August Nahl the Elder after Cornelis van Haarlem Pygmalion ca. 1765 etching Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| Hendrik van der Borcht the Younger after Parmigianino Nymphs and Satyr 1637 etching Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| Édouard Cibot Les Amours des Anges 1834 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest |
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| Wilhelm Böttner Jupiter and Ganymede 1803-1804 oil on canvas Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel |
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| Eikoh Hosoe Embrace no. 11 1971 gelatin silver print Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
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| Antonio Domenico Triva Hero and Leander ca. 1680 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lons-le-Saunier |
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| Friedrich August von Kaulbach Antique Couple 1876 oil on panel Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel |
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| George Bellows Two Girls 1924 lithograph Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas |
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| Carl Wilhelm Kolbe Loving Couple in a Grotto ca. 1808-1810 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
Queen [to the Messenger]: I have been silent all this time because I was struck dumb with misery by this catastrophe. The event is so monstrous that one can neither speak nor ask about the sufferings it involved. Still, we mortals have no choice but to endure the sorrows the gods send us; so compose yourself and speak, revealing all that has happened, even if you are groaning under the weight of the disaster. Who has survived, and which of the leaders of the host must we mourn, who after being assigned to hold a staff of command perished and so left his post deserted and unmanned?
Messenger: Well, Xerxes himself is alive and sees the light of day –
Queen: To my house at least your words come as a great relief, like bright day shining out after a pitch-dark night.
Messenger: But Artembares, the commander of ten thousand horse, is being pounded against the rugged shores of Sileniae; Dadaces, commander of a thousand, was struck by a spear and took an effortless leap out of his ship; and the excellent Tenagon, a noble of the Bactrians, now wanders around the wave-beaten island of Ajax. Lilaeus, Arsames, and Argestes, these three vanquished men were beating their heads against the hard rocks around the island where doves breed, as was Pharnuchus, whose home was near the stream of Egyptian Nile, and three who fell from one ship, Arcteus, Adeues, and Pheresseues, leader of thirty thousand dark-skinned horsemen. Matallus of Chrysa, commander of ten thousand perished; his full, bushy, reddish beard got a soaking, and a purple dye changed the colour of his skin. And Magus the Arab and Artabes the Bactrian, now a permanent resident in a harsh county, perished there too, and Amistris, and Amphistreus who wielded a spear that caused much trouble, and brave Ariomardus who dispensed grief with his arrows, and Seisames the Mysian, and Tharybis, admiral of five times fifty ships, a Lyrnaean by birth and a handsome man, lies wretchedly dead, having enjoyed no very good fortune. And Syennesis, foremost in courage, the leader of the Cilicians, who gave more trouble to the enemy than any other single man, met a glorious end. All this I report about the commanders, but I have mentioned only a small part of the great suffering that there was.
– Aeschylus, from Persians (472 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)