Le FIL D'ARIANE. Au rebours des guerriers qui marchent d'ordinaire En tête de leur peloton; Thésée en royal rejeton Marchait après le sein pour se tirer d'affaire. (Apologue de Mr. Cuvillier Fleury)

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

Theseus is unwinding a ball of string to mark his path so that he will be able to find his way back out of the maze. 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.