On the right a woman covers her face in horror or disgust as she pours water on to the Tell’s foot in a basin. This may be in reference to the symbolic act of debasement from biblical stories; however, this woman is not performing the task with the usual grace and humility of the bible stories. Dalí makes a similar biblical reference to the Adam and Eve story in The Old Age of William Tell from 1931.
Tell’s female breast is in reference to Freud’s examination of a 17th century painter, Christoph Haizmann, who represented the devil with female features.
The man to the left resembles Sisyphus, whose torment in Hades was to push a rock up a hill but never reach the summit. Sisyphus is a character with whom Dalí identifies in comparison to his relationship with his disapproving Father (signified by Tell) and his weak mother.