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| attributed to Francesco Rosselli Delphic Sibyl ca. 1480-90 engraving British Museum |
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| attributed to Francesco Rosselli Persian Sibyl ca. 1480-90 engraving British Museum |
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| Hans Schäufelein Abduction of Europa ca. 1506 drawing British Museum |
-Grape-Harvesters-sprawling-Drunk-amongst-Classical-Ruins-c1530-35-engraving-British-Museum.jpg) |
| Monogrammist H.F.E. (Italian printmaker) Grape Harvesters sprawling Drunk amongst Classical Ruins ca. 1530-35 engraving British Museum |
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| Girolamo da Treviso the Younger Triumph of Galatea ca. 1535 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Anonymous Italian Printmaker Reconstruction of Palace of Emperor Marcus Agrippa, Rome ca. 1530-50 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Anonymous Italian Printmaker Reconstruction of Roman Theater in Bordeaux ca. 1530-50 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Anonymous Italian Printmaker Reconstruction of Temple of Mercury, Rome ca. 1530-50 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pierre Reymond Abduction of Helen ca. 1540 enamel on copper (Limoges) British Museum |
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| Hans Rudolf Manuel Roman Arena at Verona 1549 woodcut and letterpress (book illustration printed in Basel) British Museum |
-Landscape-with-Classical-Sculpture-and-Ruins-c1550-70-engraving-British-Museum.jpg) |
| Monogrammist H.I. (German printmaker) Landscape with Classical Sculpture and Ruins ca. 1550-70 engraving British Museum |
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| Monogrammist H.I. (German printmaker) Classical Landscape with Ruinous Bridge ca. 1550-70 engraving British Museum |
-and-Apollo-1560-drawing-(study-for-stucco-relief-Vatican-Casino-of-Pius-IV)-British-Museum.jpg) |
| Pirro Ligorio Aegle [mother of the Graces] and Apollo (study for stucco relief - Vatican Casino of Pius IV) 1560 drawing British Museum |
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| Lambert Sustris Abduction of Proserpine ca. 1568 drawing British Museum |
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| Lorenzo Sabatini Sibyl with Putti before 1576 drawing British Museum |
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| Pirro Ligorio The Muse Polyhymnia before 1583 drawing (excised from a manuscript in the 18th century) British Museum |
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| attributed to Lelio Orsi Neptune enthroned with Sea Deities before 1587 drawing British Museum |
from Of the Answers of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphos to Croesus King of Lydia
So when the Spartans had often fought with ill successe agaynst the Tegeates, they consulted the oracle what god they should appease, to become victorious over them. The answer was, that they should remove the bones of Orestes. Though the words were playne yet the thing was obscure and like finding the body of Moses; and therefore they once more demanded in what place they should find those bones; unto which hee returned this answer
When in the Tegean playnes a place thou findst,
Where blasts are made by two impetuous winds,
When that which strikes is struck, blowes follow blowes,
There doth the earth Orestes bones enclose.
Which obscure reply the wisest of Sparta could not make out, and was casually unriddled by one talking with a smith, who had found large bones of a man buried about his howse; the oracle implying no more than a smiths forge, expressed by a double bellows, the hammer and anville therin.
Now why the oracle should place such consideration upon the bones of Orestes, a mad man and a murtherer, or why in a buisinesse so clearely in his knowledge, hee should affect so obscure expressions, if not to maintaine the warie and evasive method of his answers, it may well be wondred; for speaking obscurely in things clearely within his knowledge, hee might when hee pleased bee more tolerably dark in matters beyond his prescience.
– Sir Thomas Browne (1656)