Lot Essay
The theme was fashionable in the early 19th Century because of Mehul's opera. Ingres also executed a number of drawings and pictures on that subject. Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, ruler of the Asian provinces after the death of Alexander the Great, fell in love with his step-mother, Stratonica. In despair he decided to starve himself. His condition was recognised by the court physician Erasistratus, and he confided in Seleucus who gave up his kingdom and his wife to his son.