DENYS LE TYRAN. S'il choisit cet état dans sa triste fortune, C'est qu'en fait d'écoles toujours Les tyrans en font trop pour que dans leurs vieux jours, Ils n'en retrouvent au moins une. (Feu Barthelemy.)

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

Dionysus is spanking a child as he teaches them to be tyrants. During the 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.