Embodiments

Marjorie Lundin
City Gate, Nice
1979
C-print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Anonymous Italian Artist
Capriccio of Renaissance Architecture
17th century
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel

Friederike Meinert
Upper Round Hall, Schloss Charlottenburg
1843
watercolor on paper
Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin

Antoine Lafréry
Reconstruction of the Arch of Vespasian, Rome
1548
engraving (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Josef Ziegler
Design for Classical Temple
ca. 1810
drawing, with added watercolor
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Schütze
Palatial Stage Design
ca. 1770-80
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

François-Martin Testard
Ancient Egyptian Scientists
gathering outside the Dendera Temple to Hathor
1819
oil on panel
Musée Champollion, Figeac

Antonio Labacco (publisher)
Reconstruction of the Temple of Vulcan
in the Roman Forum
1570
engraving and letterpress (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Luigi Rossini
Rome, Pantheon (side view)
1821
etching
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Daniel Dupré
Bernini's Monument to Alexander VII, Rome
(Obelisk supported by Elephant)
1790
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

August von Pettenkofen
Venetian Rooftops
before 1889
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Ernst Meyer
Theater of Marcellus, Rome
ca. 1840
oil on paper
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen

Francesco Guardi
Capriccio
1781
oil on panel
Kunsthaus Zürich

Jean Heiberg
The Erechtheion
1958
watercolor on paper
Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø

Christo
Otterlo Mastaba
1974
drawing
(colored pencils and ink)
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Miriam Schapiro
Shrine I
1964
lithograph
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

 Chorus:  Don't be provoked! You will not be called a coward

                 if you find an honourable way to stay alive;  the Fury's black squall

                 will leave your house, once the gods

                 receive a sacrifice at your hands.

Eteocles [who has meanwhile put on his helmet]:  The gods, it seems, have already abandoned us, and will they honour any gift from us, doomed as we are?  Why then should we still cringe before the fate of death?

Chorus:  Stay, while you have the chance! For the controlling power

                may perhaps, given time, change the wind of your spirit

                and blow with a gentler breath;

                but at present it is still seething.

Eteocles [who has meanwhile taken his shield and spear]:  Yes, for the curse of Oedipus has made it seethe: it was too true, what I saw in those dream-visions about the dividing of our father's property.*

Chorus:  Listen to us women, even if you don't like doing so. 

Eteocles:  You can say what's helpful, but don't make it lengthy.

Chorus:  Don't make this journey to the Seventh Gate. 

Eteocles:  I am whetted and your words will not blunt me. 

Chorus:  Yet god respects even an inglorious victory. 

Eteocles:  That's not an expression that a man-at-arms should tolerate. 

Chorus:  You want to shed the blood of your own brother?

Eteocles:  When the gods send evil, one cannot escape it.  [He departs.]

– Aeschylus, from Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

*this may refer to something said by Eteocles in the preceding play, Oedipus, now lost