Sassu’s reading of Biblical themes is analogous with his reading of myth; he uses both to represent the human passions, which are continually repeated and renewed in history, even in the present day. This is the case of Athalia, a Bible character who is the center of an episode of exemplary violence: the daughter of Ahab, wife of Jehoram and mother of Ahaziah, she had the rest of the royal family killed in order to usurp the throne of Judah. Sassu portrays this terrible personage rapaciously gripping the throne while the crime takes place before her eyes. In a more recent version of Athaliah, of 1978-79, the artists rediscovers and combines various motifs and compositional elements typical of his painting.