Télémaque interrogé pas les sages. A l'aspect imposant de ces nobles ganaches, Télémaque en finaud jura ses plus grands Dieux, Qu'il voudrait échanger ses naissantes moustaches Contre la majesté de leurs front radieux. (Fénélon, Livre XXIV.).

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1842

We see the questioning of Telemachos by the three sages: Minos, Eaque, Rhadamante. During this time, 1840's, a quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.