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| Joachim Heller Terrible and Wonderful Sign observed in the Sky 1554 hand-colored woodcut and letterpress (broadside) Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich |
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| Georg Lemberger Apocalyptic Woman and the Dragon 1524 hand-colored woodcut (illustration to the "Luther" Bible) Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Anonymous German Artist Brazilian Sea Monster ca. 1565 hand-colored woodcut and letterpress (broadside) Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich |
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| Gottlieb Böttger Woman separating Duelists 1804 hand-colored etching Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| François-Émile Ehrmann Oedipus and the Sphinx 1903 oil on canvas Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg |
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| Adolph Menzel Studies of Wrestlers ca. 1865 watercolor and gouache on paper Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Giovanni Battista Mengardi Sacrifice of Isaac ca. 1770 etching Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Stefano della Bella Study of the Borghese Curtius (shortly after installation) ca. 1635 drawing Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Giulio Romano Abduction of Ganymede ca. 1520 drawing Städel Museum, Frankfurt |
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| Marcantonio Raimondi Hercules and Antaeus ca. 1520-22 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Cristoforo Roncalli (il Pomarancio) Gladiators before 1626 drawing Städel Museum, Frankfurt |
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| Pietro Testa Martyrdom of a Bishop before 1650 etching (with explanatory verses) Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Andrea Mantegna Thief on Cross with Soldiers Gambling ca. 1460-80 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Nicolò Boldrini The Laocoön as Apes ca. 1540-45 woodcut Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden |
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| Rembrandt van Rijn Beheading of St John the Baptist 1640 etching and drypoint Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Jusepe de Ribera Apollo and Marsyas ca. 1637 oil on canvas Museo di Capodimonte, Naples |
We should praise the Thracians because they mourn for their children when they issue from their mothers' wombs to the light, while on the other hand they bless those on whom Death, the unforeseen servant of the Fates, lays his hand. For the living ever pass through every kind of evil, but the dead have found the medicine of all.
The astrologers foretold that I would live thrice ten and twice three years, but I am satisfied with three decades. For this is the right limit of men's life. Longer life is for Nestor, and even Nestor went to Hades.
When Pyrrhus on his father's high-piled tomb celebrated in his honour the mournful wedding of Polyxena, thus did Cissean Hecuba bewail the murder of her children, tearing the hair from her tear-worn head: "Once thou didst drag Hector tied to thy chariot wheels, and now thou art dead thou acceptest the blood of Polyxena. Achilles, why is thy wrath so sore against the fruit of my womb? Not even in death art thou gentle to my children."
The son of Laertes gained by the unjust judgment of the Greeks the shield of Achilles that had drunk the blood of Hector. But when he suffered shipwreck the sea robbed him of it, and floated it ashore by the tomb of Ajax and not in Ithaca.*
Poseidon's judgment was far more admirable than Athena's. The sea proved how hateful was the decision of the Greeks, and Salamis possesses the glory that is her due.
The shield cries aloud by the shore and beats against the tomb, summoning thee, its worthy bearer: "Awake, son of Telamon, the shield of Achilles is thine."
– from Book IX (Declamatory and Descriptive Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)
*The shield was awarded to Ulysses and this led to Ajax killing himself. When Ulysses was shipwrecked the shield is said to have come ashore in Salamis, the home of Ajax.