This painting closely illustrates lines spoken by the chorus in the play 'Alcestis' by Euripides. The lines are:- 'Apollo’s self/ Deigned to become a shepherd in thine halls/ And tune his lays along the woodland slopes/ Whereat entranced the spotted lynxes came,/ To mingle with thine flocks; from Othry’s glen/ Trooped tawny lions; e’en the dappled faun/ Forth from the shelter of her pinewood haunts/ Tripped to the music of the Sun-God’s lyre'. The artist was primarily an animal painter and produced many ambitious allegorical and classical subjects featuring animals, like this one, but he is now best known for his pictures of faithful dogs. With such paintings he courted an easy popularity, aiming not to enlarge public taste but rather to provide a form of mass entertainment.