Like many works from the Victorian era, Solomon's painting depicts a scene from Greek legend, the abduction and rape of Cassandra by Ajax the Lesser during the Sack of Troy.

[...] Meanwhile, Cassandra’s strategic covering is caught on the statue, about to expose her nether-regionsGordon Morrison, Director of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, describes Solomon's work as an "amazing bit of composition where it is almost like a helix in the way the figures are bonding.

[8] A review of the opening of the then-Ballarat Fine Art Gallery by The Argus newspaper acclaimed the "dramatic painting on heroic scale" of the "rising young genius" Solomon as a "masterpiece".

[9] ... the splendid modelling and gleaming brilliance of the statuesque form of Cassandra, the virile strength and vigorous muscular action of Ajax, the sense of movement in the flying draperies, and the forceful drawing yet simple and decisive handling by which these artistic aims are attained.The painting, depicting a woman about to be raped, has attracted some controversy.

However, the existence of the work itself is demonstration that despite Victorian prudishness, a depiction of rape was an acceptable topic provided it was "clothed in the respectability of mythology".

[1] Australian artist Norman Lindsay, known for his voluptuous nudes, was inspired by the work, noting his "tender memories" of the painting.

[1] Later, British art historian Elizabeth Prettejohn dismissed Ajax and Cassandra as a "textbook work of patriarchal misogyny" and a "joke".