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| Peter Birmann Mule Train on Devil's Bridge, Schöllenen Gorge ca. 1795-1805 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich Footbridge over Waterfalls 1763 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Alvin Langdon Coburn Trafalgar Square, London 1909 photogravure Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
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| Georges Gaudion La place du Griffoul à Gaillac 1913 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Gaillac |
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| attributed to Hendrik van Cleve Tower of Babel ca. 1565-70 oil on panel Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Anonymous Flemish Artist Tower of Babel under Construction ca. 1620 oil on copper Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève |
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| Domenico Campagnola Apocalyptic Scene with Fallen Buildings ca. 1545-50 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Jan van Bronchorst after Cornelis van Poelenburgh Roman Ruins before 1661 etching Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Charles Camoin Landscape - Pont de Vernon (ruinous 17th-century bridge on the Seine supporting a house) ca. 1910 oil on canvas Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh |
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| Bello Brivio Seashore with Ruin and Shrine 1849 oil on canvas Belvedere Museum, Vienna |
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| Ludwig Neuhoff Last Light ca. 1905 oil on canvas Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal |
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| Ernst Fries Monastery of San Francesco at Amalfi 1828 oil on panel Lenbachhaus, Munich |
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| Anonymous Printmaker after Andrea Palladio Volute and Elevation of Base - Ionian Order 1581 woodcut and letterpress (illustration from Quattro Libri dell'Architettura) Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Master of 1515 Studies from Antiquity ca. 1515-20 drypoint Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Giovanni di Paolo St Jerome appearing to St Augustine ca. 1465 tempera on panel Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Albert Girard Femme dans un intérieur à Alger ca. 1880 oil on canvas Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Narbonne |
Eteocles: O my family driven mad and greatly hated by the gods, my family so full of tears, the house of Oedipus! Ah me, my father's curse is truly now fulfilled! But it is not proper to cry or lament, lest that give birth to grief even harder to bear. For this man so well named – Polynices, I mean – we shall soon know where that blazon will end up, whether those letters worked in gold, blathering insanely on his shield, are really going to bring him home. If Justice, the virgin daughter of Zeus, were actually present in his actions and his mind, that might possibly have been the case. But in fact, neither when he escaped the darkness of the womb, nor when he was growing, nor when he reached adolescence, nor when his chin was gathering hair, did Justice ever set eyes on him or hold him in any honour; nor now, surely, when he does harm to his own fatherland, is she standing close by him, I imagine. Truly Justice would be utterly false to her name if she consorted with a man with so utterly audacious a mind. Trusting to this, I will go and stand against him myself; who else has a better right to? I will stand as ruler against ruler, brother against brother, enemy against enemy. [To one of his attendants] Give me my greaves at once, to protect me against spear and shaft.
[During the following exchanges Eteocles, with the help of his attendants, is putting on his armour.]
Chorus of Theban Maidens: No, dearest of men, son of Oedipus, do not let your passions make you like that utterer of evil words! There are enough Cadmean men to go to battle with the Argives: such blood purifies itself.* But the death of two men of the same blood killing each other – that pollution can never grow old.
Eteocles: If one must suffer evil, let it not be shameful; that is the only profit the dead can gain. You can never speak of a good reputation arising from a disaster which is also a disgrace.
Chorus: Why this mad passion, child? You must not let yourself be carried away by this spear-mad delusion that fills your heart. Cast out the root of this evil desire!
Eteocles: Since the god is plainly hastening things to their conclusion, let it run before the wind, the whole house of Laius, hated by Phoebus and consigned to the waves of Cocytus.
– Aeschylus, from Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)
*normally anyone who shed another's blood, intentionally or not, became ritually polluted, but this did not apply to the killing of an enemy in war