Essays in Portraiture (9-11)

This, then, is what sculptors and painters and poets can achieve; but who could counterfeit the fine flower of it all—the grace; nay, all the Graces in company, and all the Loves, too, circling hand in hand about her?

POLYSTRATUS It is a miraculous creature that you describe, Lycinus; “dropt from the skies”[*] in very truth, quite like something out of Heaven. But what was she doing when you saw her?

LYCINUS She had a scroll in her hands, with both ends of it rolled up, so that she seemed to be reading the one part and to have already read the other.[*]— As she walked along, she was discussing something or other with one of her escorts; I do not know what it was, for she did not speak so that it could be overheard. But when she smiled, Polystratus, she disclosed such teeth! How can I tell you how white they were, how symmetrical and well matched? If you have ever seen a lovely string of very lustrous, equal pearls, that is the way they stood in row; and they were especially set off by the redness of her lips. They shone, just as Homer says, like sawn ivory.[*] Nor could you say that some of them were too broad,

others misshapen, and others prominent or wide apart, as they are with most women. On the contrary, all were of equal distinction, of the selfsame whiteness, of uniform size, and similarly close together. In short, it was a great marvel; a spectacle transcending all human beauty!

POLYSTRATUS Hold still! I perceive now quite clearly who the woman is that you describe; I recognize her by just these points and also by her country. Besides, you said that there were eunuchs in her following.

LYCINUS Yes, and several soldiers.

POLYSTRATUS It is the Emperor’s mistress, you simpleton —the woman who is so famous!

LYCINUS What is her name?

POLYSTRATUS Like herself, it is very pretty and charming. She has the same name as the beautiful wife of Abradatas. You know whom I mean, for you have often heard Xenophon praise her as a good and beautiful woman.[*] LYCINUS Yes, and it makes me feel as if I saw her when I reach that place in my reading; I can almost hear

her say what she is described as saying, and see how she armed her husband and what she was like when she sent him off to the battle.

POLYSTRATUS But, my friend, you caught sight of her just once, flying past like a flash, and naturally have praised only what was obvious—I mean, her person and her physical beauty. The good points of her soul you have not beheld, and you do not know how great that beauty is in her, far more notable and more divine than that of her body. I do, for I am acquainted with her, and have often conversed with her, being of the same nationality. As you yourself know, I commend gentleness, kindliness, high-mindedness, self-control, and culture rather than beauty, for these qualities deserve to be preferred over those of the body. To do otherwise would be illogical and ridiculous, as if one were to admire her clothing rather than her person. Perfect beauty, to my mind, is when there is a union of spiritual excellence and physical loveliness. In truth, I could point you out a great many women who are well endowed with good looks, but in every way discredit their beauty, so that if they merely speak it fades and withers, since it suffers by contrast and cuts a shabby figure, unworthily housing as it does with a soul that is but a sorry mistress. Such women seem to me like the temples of Egypt, where the temple itself is fair and great, built of costly stones and adorned with gold and with paintings, but if you seek out the god within, it is either a monkey or an ibis or a goat or a cat! Women of that sort are to be seen in plenty. ,

Beauty, then, is not enough unless it is set off with its just enhancements, by which I mean, not purple raiment and necklaces, but those I have already mentioned—virtue, self-control, goodness, kindliness, and everything else that is included in the definition of virtue.