The lyric poet Pindar (518 - 438 BC) raises his lyre. Ictinus, the fifth-century BC architect of the Parthenon in Athens, holds an architect's rule.

This picture is related to Ingres's 'Apotheosis of Homer', painted from 1826-27 for a ceiling in the Louvre, Paris, but now hanging there as a framed painting. Ingres later worked on the drawing 'Homer Deified' (Paris, Louvre), in which he modified the earlier composition. This painting is one of several which relate to different details of the drawing.