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| Anonymous Italian Artist Head of Livia 17th century marble relief Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Head of Augustus 17th century marble relief Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist after Giovanni Bellini Circumcision of Christ 16th century oil on panel Musée Ingres Bourdelle, Montauban |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Flying Putto 16th century drawing Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Portrait of a Young Woman ca. 1450-1500 limestone Bode Museum, Berlin |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist after Andrea Mantegna Portraits of Ludovico Gonzaga and Barbara of Brandenburg, Marquis and Marchioness of Mantua ca. 1450-1550 etching and engraving Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Penitent Magdalen ca. 1625-50 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Head of Emperor Septimius Severus ca. 1600-1625 marble Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Apollo Belvedere ca. 1510 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Saint Carlo Borromeo ca. 1625 red and white marble Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Julius Caesar 17th century engraving Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
-and-alabaster-(body)-Hall-of-the-Emperors-Galleria-Borghese-Rome.jpg) |
| Anonymous Italian Artist Bust of Scipio Africanus 17th century porphyry (head) and alabaster (body) Hall of the Emperors, Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Anonymous Venetian Artist Woman with Parrots 16th century oil on canvas Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
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| Anonymous Florentine Artist after Donatello Virgin and Child ca. 1450-1500 painted stucco relief Bode Museum, Berlin |
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| Anonymous Bolognese Artist Half-Length Figure in Raking Light ca. 1642-44 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Pressmark of the Giunti of Florence 1573 woodcut and letterpress Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
Chorus of the daughters of Danaus:
Go now to the town, glorifying
the blessed lords, the gods,
both those of the city and those who dwell around
the ancient stream of Erasinus.
Accept our song,
you escorts, and let praise enfold this city
of the Pelasgians; no longer let us
sing in honour of the mouths of the Nile,
but of the rivers that pour their tranquil waters
through this land, to drink for health
and for fertility, softening the soil of the land
with their oil-smooth streams.
May chaste Artemis watch over
this band in pity, and may Cytherea's consummation
not come to us by compulsion:
may that prize be won only in Hades.
Argive Soldiers:
But it is a wise rule not to ignore Cypris;
for she holds power very close to Zeus, together with Hera,
a goddess of cunning wiles
who is honoured for awesome deeds.
Partners and associates with their dear mother
are Desire and the charmer Persuasion,
to whom nothing can be refused,
and also given to Aphrodite as her portion are Union
and the whispering paths of love-making.
For the fugitives I foresee and fear punishments still to come,
dire suffering and bloody wars:
why, why did they get good sailing
in their swift-sped pursuit?
Whatever is fated, you know, that will happen –
the great, unfathomable mind of Zeus
cannot be crossed –
and this outcome, marriage, would be shared
with many women before you.
Chorus: May great Zeus defend me
from marriage with the sons of Aegyptus!
Argive Soldiers: That would certainly be best –*
Chorus: You're trying to cajole the uncajolable.
Argive Soldiers: And you don't know the future.
– Aeschylus, from Suppliants (ca. 470-460 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)
*the Danaids, it seems, rightly infer that the Argives are about to urge them to be less uncompromising, and interrupt to insist that such advice will be wasted on them