-Death-of-Dido-c1657-60-oil-on-canvas-Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum-Braunschweig.png) |
| Mattia Preti (il Cavalier Calabrese) Death of Dido ca. 1657-60 oil on canvas Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Jean-François de Troy Death of Creusa of Troy (spouse of Aeneas) ca. 1745 oil on canvas Musée des Augustins de Toulouse |
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| Frans Francken the Younger Orpheus in Hell ca. 1620 oil on panel Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes |
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| Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano Death of Procris ca. 1546-47 engraving Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo |
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| Johan Wierix Death of Lucretia 1578 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Georg Pencz Sophonisba drinking Poison 1539 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Lodovico Lana Death of Seneca ca. 1630 etching Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Roman Empire Funerary Inscription for Licinius Herculanus 2nd century AD marble Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden |
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| Roman Empire Funerary Inscription for Cestius Valentinus 1st century BC - 1st century AD marble Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden |
-3rd-century-BC-(excavated-at-Pergamon)-Antikensammlung-Staatliche-Museen-zu-Berlin.jpg) |
| Ancient Greek Culture Funerary Hero Relief 3rd century BC marble (excavated at Pergamon) Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Ancient Greek Culture Young Siblings with a Bird 420-410 BC marble grave stele (excavated in Attica) National Archaeological Museum, Athens |
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| Ancient Greek Culture Married Couple 320 BC marble grave stele Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Ancient Greek Culture Kouros 500 BC marble tomb statue (excavated in Attica) National Archaeological Museum, Athens |
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| Ancient Greek Culture Kouros 540-530 BC marble tomb statue (excavated in Attica) National Archaeological Museum, Athens |
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| Giovanni Maria Mosca Marc Antony and Cleopatra ca. 1525 marble relief Bode Museum, Berlin |
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| Espen Gleditsch The Dying King Laomedon 2017 pigment print mounted on aluminum KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo |
Chorus of Persian Elders:
O Zeus the King, now, now by destroying
the army of the boastful
and populous Persian nation
you have covered the city of Susa and Agbatana
with a dark cloud of mourning.
Many mothers in a piteous plight
are rending their veils with their delicate hands
and wetting the folds of their garments till they are soaked through
with tears, as they take their share in the sorrow;
and the soft, wailing Persian women who yearn
to see the men they lately wedded,
abandoning the soft-coverleted beds they had slept in,
the delight of their pampered youth,
grieve with wailing that is utterly insatiable.
And I too shoulder the burden of the death of the departed,
truly a theme for mourning far and wide.
For now all, yes all, the emptied land
of Asia groans:
Xerxes took them – popoi!
Xerxes lost them – totoi!
Xerxes handled everything unwisely,
he and his sea-boats.
Why did Darius for his part
do so little harm when he was the bowmaster
who ruled over the citizenry,
the dear leader of Susiana?
Land-soldiers and seamen –
the dark-faced, equal-winged*
ships brought them – popoi! –
ships destroyed them – totoi! –
ships, with ruinous ramming,
and driven by Ionian hands!
And the King himself,
so we hear, barely escaped,
over the wide plains
and wintry tracks of Thrace.
– Aeschylus, from Persians (472 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)
*the ship's "face" is her prow, possibly with allusion to the eyes so often painted on ships' bows; the ship's "wings" are her banks of oars, which are, of couse, equal on each side