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| Heinrich Aldegrever Soul of the Rich Man carried to Hell by Demons 1554 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Alessandro Algardi Hercules mounting the Pyre ca. 1640 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Anonymous German Artist Man carried to Hell by Demons ca. 1760 etching Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| Merry-Joseph Blondel Death of King Louis XII 1817 oil on canvas Musée des Augustins de Toulouse |
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| Arnold Böcklin The Lamentation 1876 tempera on panel Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Bernard Boutet de Monvel Burial at Nemours ca. 1925 watercolor on paper Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest |
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| Hans Canon Transporting the Corpse of Jean-Paul Marat ca. 1875 oil on canvas Belvedere Museum, Vienna |
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| Théodore Géricault Death of Queen Brunhilde of Austrasia (Merovingian historical figure) ca. 1820 oil on canvas Kunsthalle Bremen |
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| Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée Death of Cleopatra 1755 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau |
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| Jean-Paul Laurens Death of Tiberius 1864 oil on canvas Musée Georges Labit, Toulouse |
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| Andrea Lilio Figure Study for The Deposition ca. 1596 drawing Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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| Georg Vogel Antique Warriors lighting Funeral Pyre ca. 1790-1810 hand-colored etching Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| follower of Rogier van der Weyden Descent from the Cross ca. 1450-1500 oil on panel Detroit Institute of Arts |
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| Pierre Woeiriot Wife of Asdrubal of Carthage throwing herself and her Children into Flames ca. 1555-60 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Lucas van Leyden Adam and Eve mourning Abel 1529 engraving Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Max Beckmann The Lamentation 1908 oil on canvas Hamburger Kunsthalle |
Queen: O cruel divinity, how I see you have beguiled the minds of the Persians! My son has found his vengeance upon famous Athens to be a bitter one; the Eastern lives that Marathon had already destroyed were not enough for him. My son, in the belief that he was going to inflict punishment for that, has drawn upon himself this great multitude of sorrows. But tell me – those of the ships that escaped destruction – where did you leave them? Do you know enough to give us clear information?
Messenger: The commanders of the remaining ships took to headlong, disorderly flight, running before the wind. The rest of the host* suffered continual losses, first of all in the land of the Boeotians, some of them prostrated by thirst when close to a sparkling spring, others by hunger, while we survivors, out of breath and panting, passed on into the country of the Phocians and the land of Doris and came to the Malian Gulf, where the Spercheius waters the plain and provides drink bountifully. From there the soil of Achaea received us, and then the cities of Thessaly; we were very short of food , and very many died in those parts from thirst and hunger – we had both of them. Then we entered the land of Magnesia and entered the country of the Macedonians, coming to the river Axius, the reed-swamps of Lake Bolbe, and Mount Pangaeum in the land of Edonia. That night the god brought on an unseasonable cold snap, and froze the whole stream of holy Strymon; and those who had never before paid any regard to the gods now addressed them with prayers, making obeisance to earth and heaven. When the army had finished its many invocations to the gods, it began to cross the river, now solid ice. Those of us who started across before the Sun-god scattered his rays, got over safely; for the brilliant orb of the Sun, with his blazing beams, parted the ice in the middle of the channel, heating it with his flames. The men fell one on top of another, and he was lucky, I tell you, who broke off the breath of life soonest! Those who were left and had gained safety crossed Thrace and have now, after escaping with difficulty, and with much hard toil, returned to the land of their hearth and home – but not many of them; so that the city of the Persians must grieve, longing vainly for the beloved youth of the land. All this is true; and there is much that I have omitted in my speech of the evils that a god has brought down upon the Persians.
[Messenger exits.]
– Aeschylus, from Persians (472 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)
*i.e. the Persian land army