Strife - II

Joachim Heller
Terrible and Wonderful Sign observed in the Sky
1554
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress (broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Georg Lemberger
Apocalyptic Woman and the Dragon
1524
hand-colored woodcut
(illustration to the "Luther" Bible)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anonymous German Artist
Brazilian Sea Monster
ca. 1565
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress (broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Gottlieb Böttger
Woman separating Duelists
1804
hand-colored etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

François-Émile Ehrmann
Oedipus and the Sphinx
1903
oil on canvas
Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg

Adolph Menzel
Studies of Wrestlers
ca. 1865
watercolor and gouache on paper
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giovanni Battista Mengardi
Sacrifice of Isaac
ca. 1770
etching
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Stefano della Bella
Study of the Borghese Curtius
(shortly after installation)
ca. 1635
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Giulio Romano
Abduction of Ganymede
ca. 1520
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Marcantonio Raimondi
Hercules and Antaeus
ca. 1520-22
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Cristoforo Roncalli (il Pomarancio)
Gladiators
before 1626
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Pietro Testa
Martyrdom of a Bishop
before 1650
etching (with explanatory verses)
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Andrea Mantegna
Thief on Cross with Soldiers Gambling
ca. 1460-80
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Nicolò Boldrini
The Laocoön as Apes
ca. 1540-45
woodcut
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Rembrandt van Rijn
Beheading of St John the Baptist
1640
etching and drypoint
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jusepe de Ribera
Apollo and Marsyas
ca. 1637
oil on canvas
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

We should praise the Thracians because they mourn for their children when they issue from their mothers' wombs to the light, while on the other hand they bless those on whom Death, the unforeseen servant of the Fates, lays his hand. For the living ever pass through every kind of evil, but the dead have found the medicine of all. 

The astrologers foretold that I would live thrice ten and twice three years, but I am satisfied with three decades. For this is the right limit of men's life. Longer life is for Nestor, and even Nestor went to Hades.

When Pyrrhus on his father's high-piled tomb celebrated in his honour the mournful wedding of Polyxena, thus did Cissean Hecuba bewail the murder of her children, tearing the hair from her tear-worn head: "Once thou didst drag Hector tied to thy chariot wheels, and now thou art dead thou acceptest the blood of Polyxena. Achilles, why is thy wrath so sore against the fruit of my womb? Not even in death art thou gentle to my children."

The son of Laertes gained by the unjust judgment of the Greeks the shield of Achilles that had drunk the blood of Hector. But when he suffered shipwreck the sea robbed him of it, and floated it ashore by the tomb of Ajax and not in Ithaca.*

Poseidon's judgment was far more admirable than Athena's. The sea proved how hateful was the decision of the Greeks, and Salamis possesses the glory that is her due.

The shield cries aloud by the shore and beats against the tomb, summoning thee, its worthy bearer: "Awake, son of Telamon, the shield of Achilles is thine."

– from Book IX (Declamatory and Descriptive Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)

*The shield was awarded to Ulysses and this led to Ajax killing himself. When Ulysses was shipwrecked the shield is said to have come ashore in Salamis, the home of Ajax.