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| attributed to Agnolo Gaddi St Lawrence and St Catherine of Alexandria ca. 1360 tempera on panel Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Albrecht Dürer A Lady from Nuremberg and a Lady from Venice ca. 1495 drawing Städel Museum, Frankfurt |
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| Bernardino Luini Portrait of a Lady ca. 1520-25 oil on panel National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Hans Krell Hedwig Jagiellon, Electress of Brandenburg 1537 oil on panel Jagdschloss Grunewald, Berlin |
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| Erasmus Horninck Details of Stuffed and Bejeweled Animal-Pelt ca. 1575 etching (pattern sheet) Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Jacopo Ligozzi Study of Young Woman in Turkish Costume 1614 watercolor on paper Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Jan Harmensz Muller after Peter Paul Rubens Portrait of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia 1615 hand-colored engraving Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Anonymous German Artist Electress Magdalene Sibylle von Sachsen with her Son 1617 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden |
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| Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn Portrait of a Woman 1620 oil on canvas Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
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| Francisco de Zurbarán St Agatha 1630 oil on canvas Musée Fabre, Montpellier |
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| Michiel van Miereveld Portrait of a Woman ca. 1630 oil on panel Musée Saint-Loup, Troyes |
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| attributed to Jean de Saint-Igny Woman with Mirror ca. 1640 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Wenceslaus Hollar after Martin Schongauer Woman wearing Horned Headgear 1646 etching Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Nicolaes Maes Portrait of a Lady 1674 oil on canvas Musée des Augustins de Toulouse |
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| Johann Alexander Boener after Benjamin von Block Portrait of Eleonore Magdalene of Neuberg ca. 1685 engraving Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Hyacinthe Rigaud Portrait of Marie Cadenne, wife of sculptor Martin Desjardins ca. 1690 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen |
The fair name of Philostorgius contains twelve letters, and therefore I wrote as many books, the first beginning with the first letter, and so on, thus by the initial letter of each writing my name.
Even, stranger, is the water of Hellespont cruel to women. Ask Cleonike of Dyrrhachium. For she was sailing to Sestos to meet her bridegroom, and in the black ship she met with the same fate as Helle. Poor Hero, thou didst lose a husband, and Deimachus a bride, in the space of a few furlongs.
You will cite the holy marriage of Harmonia, but that of Oedipus was unlawful. You will tell me of Antigone's piety, but her brothers were most wicked. Ino was made immortal, but Athamas was ill-fated. The lyre built the walls by its music, but the strains of the flute were fatal to them.* So did Heaven compound the destiny of Thebes, mixing good and evil in equal portions.
Ah! would that the waves of the wintry sea had engulfed me, wretched ship that I am, my load of living men now changed for one of corpses. I am ashamed of being saved. What doth it profit me to come to harbour with no men in me to tie my hawsers? Call me the dismal hull of Cocytus. I brought death to men – death, and they are shipwrecked inside the harbour.
I see upon the signet-ring Love, whom none can escape, driving a chariot drawn by mighty lions. One hand menaces their necks with the whip, the other guides the reins; about him is shed abundant bloom of grace. I shudder as I look on the destroyer of men, for he who can tame wild beasts will not show the least mercy to mortals.
As thou wast cutting the dry roots of old trees, unhappy Mindon, a spider nesting there attacked thee from beneath and bit thy left foot. The venom, spreading, devoured with black putrefaction the fresh flesh of thy heel, and hence thy sturdy leg was cut off at the knee, and a staff cut from a tall wild olive-tree supports thee now on one leg.
– from Book IX (Declamatory and Descriptive Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)
*Thebes is said to have been destroyed by Alexander to the accompaniment of the flute-player Ismenias