Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, the founder of the dynasty, who ruled the Asian provinces after the death of Alexander the Great, fell in love, as legend says, to his stepmother Stratonica. Believing that his passion is hopeless, he began to look for a way, to commit suicide: introducing himself as a sick man, he starved himself to death.
The court physician Erasistratus quickly guessed the nature of his illness: sitting in the bedroom of Antiochus and watching his reaction to the ladies who came to him, he soon realized which of them was the cause of the mental disorder of Antiochus. Erasistratus reported this to Seleucus, who in tears announced his abdication and the transfer of Antiochus not only his kingdom, which he would inherit in any case, but his wife.
This plot, popular with Italian, French and Dutch Baroque artists, depicts the royal bedroom; Antiochus in bed, he gloomily looks at the richly dressed beauty. Erasistratus sits on the edge of the bed; in some images of this story, he feels the patient’s pulse. In some paintings there are courtiers.
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