This is a scene from an opera by the French composer
André Cardinal Destouches based on a Greek love story in which a
priest named Coresus falls in love with a girl called Callirrhoe. She repeatedly
turns him down, which invokes the wrath of the god Dionysus,
who would only be appeased through the sacrifice of Callirrhoe or anyone
else willing to die for her. Coresus then takes his own life to save the
woman whom he loves.
See also: Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The
High Priest Coresus Sacrifices Himself to Save Callirhoe.