Essays in Portraiture (1-5)

LYCINUS Upon my word, Polystratus, those who saw the Gorgon must have been affected by it very much as I was recently when I saw a perfectly beautiful woman: I was struck stiff with amazement and came within an ace of being turned into stone, my friend, just as it is in the fable!

POLYSTRATUS Heracles! An extraordinary spectacle, that, and a terribly potent one, to astound Lycinus when it was only a woman. To be sure you are very easily affected in that way by boys, so that it would be a simpler matter to move all Sipylus from its base than to drag you away from your pretties and keep you from standing beside them with parted lips, yes, and not infrequently tears in your eyes, the very image of the daughter of Tantalus.[*]_ But tell me about this petrifying Medusa, who she is and where she comes from, so that we, too, may have a look at her. You surely will not begrudge us the sight or be jealous, if we ourselves are going to be struck stiff at your elbow on seeing her!

LYCINUS You may be very certain that if you get but a distant view of her she will strike you dumb, and more motionless than any statue. Yet the effect, perhaps, is not so violent and the wound less serious if it should be you who catch sight of her. But if she should look at you as well, how shall you manage to tear yourself away from her? She will fetter you to herself and hale you off wherever she wishes, doing just what the magnet does to iron.

POLYSTRATUS Don’t keep evoking fancies of miraculous loveliness, Lycinus, but tell me who the woman is.

LYCINUS Why, do you suppose that I am exaggerating? No, I am afraid that when you have seen her you will take me to be a poor hand at turning compliments, so far superior will she prove to be. Anyhow, I can’t say who she is, but she received mich attention, kept splendid state in every way, had a number of eunuchs and a great many maids, and, in general, the thing seemed to be on a greater scale than accords with private station.

POLYSTRATUS You didn’t learn even the name they gave her?

LYCINUS No; only that she comes from Ionia, for one of the onlookers glanced at his neighbour after she had passed and said: “Well, that is what Smiyrna’s beauties are like, and it is no wonder that the fairest

of Ionian cities has produced the fairest of women!” It seemed to me that the speaker himself was of Smyrna because he was so set up over her.

POLYSTRATUS Well, inasmuch as you really and truly behaved like a stone in one way, at least, since you neither followed her nor questioned that Smyrniote, whoever he was, at least sketch her appearance in words as best you can. Perhaps in that way I might recognize her.

LYCINUS Are you aware what you have demanded? It is not in the power of words, not mine, certainly, to call into being a portrait so marvellous, to which hardly Apelles or Zeuxis or Parrhasius would have seemed equal, or even perhaps a Phidias or an Alcamenes. As for me, I shall but dim the lustre of the original by the feebleness of my skill.

POLYSTRATUS Nevertheless, Lycinus, what did she look like? It would not be dangerously bold if you should show your picture to a friend, no matter how well or ill it may be drawn.

LYCINUS But I think I shall act in a way that involves less risk for myself if I call in some of those famous artists of old for the undertaking, to model me a statue of the woman.

POLYSTRATUS What do you mean by that? How can they come to you when they died so many years ago?

LYCINUS Easily, if only you do not refuse to answer me a question or two.

POLYSTRATUS You have but to ask.

LYCINUS Were you ever in Cnidus, Polystratus ?

POLYSTRATUS Yes indeed !

LYCINUS Then you certainly saw the Aphrodite there ?

POLYSTRATUS Yes, by Zeus! The fairest of the creations of Praxiteles.[*] LYCINUS Well, have you also heard the story that the natives tell about it—that someone fell in love with the statue, was left behind unnoticed in the temple, and embraced it to the best of his endeavours? But no matter about that.[*]_ Since you have seen her, as you say, tell me whether you have also seen the Aphrodite in the Gardens, at Athens, by Alcamenes ?[*] POLYSTRATUS Surely I should be the laziest man in all the world

if I had neglected the most beautiful of the sculptures of Alcamenes.

LYCINUS One question, at all events, I shall not ask you, Polystratus—whether you have often gone up to the Acropolis to look at the Sosandra of Calamis ?[*] POLYSTRATUS I have often seen that, too.

LYCINUS So far, so good. But among the works of Phidias what did you praise most highly ?

POLYSTRATUS What could it be but the Lemnian Athena, on which Phidias deigned actually to inscribe his name?[*] Qh, yes! and the Amazon who leans upon her spear.[*]

LYCINUS These are the most beautiful, my friend, so that we shall not need any other artists. Come now, out of them all I shall make a combination as best I can, and shall display to you a single portrait-statue that comprises whatever is most exquisite in each.

POLYSTRATUS How can that be done?

LYCINUS Nothing hard about it, Polystratus, if from now on we give Master Eloquence a free hand with those statues and allow him to adapt, combine, and unite them as harmoniously as he can, retaining at the same time that composite effect and the variety.

POLYSTRATUS Very well; by all means let him have a free hand and show us his powers, for I am eager to know what he really can do with the statues and how he can combine so many into one without making it discordant.