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| Sebald Beham Hercules battling Centaurs 1542 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Hercules battling Cacus 1545 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Sebald Beham Hercules and the Nemean Lion 1548 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Hercules carrying the Pillars 1545 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Hercules abducting Iole 1544 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Hercules slaying Nessus 1542 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Hercules receiving the Cloak of Nessus from Lichas 1542 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Hercules on the Pyre 1548 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Arithmetic (series, The Seven Liberal Arts) before 1550 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Sebald Beham Geometry (series, The Seven Liberal Arts) before 1550 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Sebald Beham Dialectics (series, The Seven Liberal Arts) before 1550 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Sebald Beham Rhetoric (series, The Seven Liberal Arts) before 1550 engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebald Beham Jupiter (series, The Seven Planets) ca. 1539 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Sebald Beham Mercury (series, The Seven Planets) ca. 1539 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Sebald Beham Sol (series, The Seven Planets) ca. 1539 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Sebald Beham Infortunium (allegorical figure of misfortune) ca. 1541 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
Chorus of the daughters of Danaus:
And the men who then dwelt in that land
felt their hearts leap with green fear*
at the unaccustomed sight,
beholding a half-human beast that their minds could not handle,
with some features of a cow,
and some of a woman, and the monstrosity astounded them.
And who then was it who applied a healing charm
to her who had wandered so far in misery,
the gadfly-tormented Io?
It was he who rules for his eternal lifetime,
Zeus, who restrained her with his hand.
By the force of his painless strength
and by his divine breath
she was stopped,** and in tears she wept away
the grief of her shame.
And, receiving what can truly be called a Zeus-given burden,
she bore a perfect child,
destined to unbroken good fortune through his long lifetime.
And so the whole land cried,
"Truly this is the offspring
of Zeus, the begetter of life!"
Who else could have put a stop
to the sufferings caused by Hera's plotting?
It was the act of Zeus. And if you say that our race
springs from Epaphus, you will hit the mark.
On what god could I appropriately call
on account of actions that give me a juster claim?
The Lord and Father himself, with his own hand, was my engenderer,
the great, wise, ancient artificer of my race,
the all-resourceful one, Zeus who grants fair winds.
He does not speed at the bidding of another,
exercising power inferior to some mightier lord:
there is no one seated above him whose power he reveres,
and he can hasten the deed as fast
as the word. What of all this can the mind of Zeus not bring to pass?
– Aeschylus, from Suppliants (ca. 470-460 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)
*the pallor of intense fear was thought to be caused by a flow of bile
**stopped, that is, from her mad rushing; the following words further imply that the touch of Zeus changed her back into fully human form