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| attributed to Jacques Bizet Still Life with Books ca. 1650 oil on panel Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes |
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| Christen Dalsgaard In a Pine Wood 1863 oil on canvas Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen |
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| John Paul Edwards Bouquinistes along the Seine ca. 1924 bromoil print Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas |
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| François Bonvin Still Life with Book and Spectacles 1872 oil on panel Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| Isaac Israels Woman Reading ca. 1903-1907 watercolor on paper Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| Johannes Josephus Aarts Woman studying Book of Plates 1905 drawing Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| Henry van de Velde Woman Reading ca. 1891 pastel on paper Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| Alejandro de Riquer Ex Libris Lluis Plandivra ca. 1910 lithograph Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau |
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| Giovanni Andrea Sirani Sibyl ca. 1640-50 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Dirk Hidde Nijland Nautical Still Life with Books and Albums 1927 oil on canvas Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| William Harnett Michael Ease 1887 oil on canvas Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas |
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| James Ensor Portrait of the artist's Father 1881 oil on canvas Musée Fin de Siècle, Brussels |
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| Rembrandt Two Scholars Disputing 1628 oil on panel National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| workshop of Jan van Eyck St Jerome in his Study ca. 1435 oil on panel Detroit Institute of Arts |
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| Chris Beekman Books and Candlestick 1914 lithograph Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| Jan Lodeizen Books ca. 1931 oil on panel Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
They reach the island of Thule and use it as a place of rest from their wandering while they are there. On that island of Thule Dinias takes as his mistress a woman named Dercyllis, a Tyrian by birth who belonged to the aristocracy of that city and who was living with her brother Mantinias. While living with her, Dinias learns of the wandering of the brother and sister and of how much harm the Egyptian priest Paapis had done. After his homeland had been plundered, Paapis took up residence in Tyre and was befriended by the parents of Dercyllis and Mantinias. At first, he seemed to be well intentioned towards his benefactors and the entire household. Later, he did a lot of harm to the household, the brother and sister and their parents. After the misfortune that befell her home, Dercyllis, he learned, was taken with her brother to Rhodes. From there she wandered to Crete, then among the Tyrrhenians and the people called the Cimmerians. While among these people, he learned, she saw Hades and learned much about it, making use of her personal maidservant Myrto as her informant; Myrto had died long ago and returned from the dead to instruct her mistress.
– Antonius Diogenes, from The Wonders Beyond Thule, written in Greek, 1st-2nd century AD. A detailed summary of the book was composed (also in Greek) in the 9th century by Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople. The original text by Antonius Diogenes was subsequently lost; only the summary by Photius has survived. This was translated into English by Gerald N. Sandy (1989).