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| Henri-Pierre Danloux Portrait of a Woman 1783 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| William Merritt Chase Portrait of a Man ca. 1875 oil on canvas Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts |
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| Axel Fridell Ingrid XIII 1929 drypoint Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
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| Hans Hammarskiöld Portrait of dancer Rudolf Nureyev 1967 gelatin silver print Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
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| Vilhelm Hammershøi Self Portrait 1891 oil on canvas Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen |
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| Rockwell Kent Self Portrait 1934 lithograph Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas |
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| Per Krafft the Younger Portrait of merchant Jacob Svante Wolter ca. 1820 oil on canvas Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden |
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| Aina Marmén Self Portrait 1969 oil on canvas Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden |
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| Amedeo Modigliani Portrait of Germaine Sauvage 1918 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy |
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| Charles Perrin Portrait of a Woman 1931 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims |
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| Curt Querner Self Portrait 1943 oil on board Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden |
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| Roman Empire Head of Sabina AD 130-140 marble Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Dante Gabriel Rossetti Helen of Troy (Annie Miller) 1863 oil on panel Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Philipp Otto Runge Portrait of painter and writer Friedrich August von Klinkowström 1808 oil on canvas Belvedere Museum, Vienna |
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| Félix Vallotton Portrait of actress Marthe Mellot 1898 oil on canvas Kunsthaus Zürich |
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| Pål-Nils Nilsson Untitled (Face) ca. 1960 gelatin silver print Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
As the Chorus turn towards the palace, as if about to enter and investigate, the ekkyklema platform is rolled out of the door. On it is Clytemnestra, sword in hand, her clothes stained with blood, standing over the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Agamemnon is slumped in a silver bathtub, and is enveloped from head to foot in a richly embroidered (but now also blood-stained) robe.
Clytemnestra: I have said many things hitherto to suit the needs of the moment, and I shall not be ashamed to contradict them now. How else could anyone, pursuing hostilities against enemies who think they are friends, set up their hunting-nets to a height too great to overleap? This showdown was something that had long been in my thoughts, arising from a long-standing grievance; now it has come – at long last. I stand where I struck, with my work accomplished. I did it this way – I won't deny it – so that he could neither escape death nor defend himself. I staked out around him an endless net, as one does for fish – a wickedly opulent garment. Then I struck him twice, and on the spot, in the space of two cries, his limbs gave way and when he had fallen I added a third stroke, in thanksgiving to the Zeus of the underworld, the saviour of the dead, for the fulfillment of my prayers. Thus, having fallen, he forced out his own soul, and he coughed up a sharp spurt of blood and hit me with a black shower of gory dew – at which I rejoiced no less than the growing corn rejoices in the liquid blessing granted by Zeus when the sheathed ears swell to birth. If it were possible to make a really appropriate libation over the corpse, this [pointing to the blood on her clothes] is what it should rightly – no, more than rightly be; so many are this man's accursed crimes, with which he has filled a great mixing-bowl in this house, which now, on returning here, he himself has had to drink up. That is the situation, you assembled Argive elders. Rejoice in it or not, as you please. I glory in it!
– Aeschylus, from Agamemnon (458 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)