While working on this magnificent fantasy I was inspired by the painting "Calumny of Apelles" by the wonderful
artist Sandro Botticelli. Unfortunately, in the real world, the depicted story is still relevant.
The figures are either personifications of vices or virtues or in the case of the king and victim,
of the roles of the powerful and the powerless. From left to right, they represent (with alternative names):
Truth, nude and pointing upwards to Heaven; Repentance in black; Perfidy (Conspiracy) in red and yellow,
over the innocent half-naked victim on the floor, who is being pulled forward by the hair by Calumny (Slander),
in white and blue and holding a flaming torch. Fraud, behind, arranges Calumny's hair. Rancour (Envy),
a bearded and hooded man in black, holds his hand towards the king's eyes to obscure their view.
On the throne, the king has the donkey's ears of King Midas, and Ignorance on his far side and Suspicion on
the near side grasp these as they speak into them. The king extends his hand towards Calumny, but his eyes
look down so that he cannot see the scene.