Essays in Portraiture Defended (16-20)

LYCINUS But it is annoying, Polystratus, that she will not be present when I make my speech. It would be far better if she were. As it stands, I must plead by proxy.[*] But if you are going to be as faithful in carrying my message to her as you have been in carrying hers to me, I shall make bold to cast the die.

POLYSTRATUS Never fear, Lycinus, as far as that goes! I shan’t be at all bad, you will find, at delivering your plea, if only you try to speak briefly, so that I may be better able to fix it all in memory.

LYCINUS But I really needed to speak at length in answering so forcible an accusation. Nevertheless, for your sake I shall cut my plea short. Take, then, this message from me to her—

POLYSTRATUS No, no, Lycinus! Make your speech just as if she herself were present, and then I will do her an imitation of you.

LYCINUS Well then, since that is the way you want it, Polystratus, she is here and as the first speaker, of course, has said all that you reported as her messenger; and now it is for me to begin my answer. However—for I shall not hesitate to tell you the state of my feelings—somehow or other

you have made the thing more terrifying to me. As you see, I am even now in a sweat and a tremble and almost think I really see her, and the affair has begotten great turmoil within me. But I will begin, anyhow, for it isn’t possible to withdraw, with her already here.

POLYSTRATUS Yes, and she shows great friendliness in her expression, for she is radiant, as you see, and gracious. So get on with your speech boldly.

LYCINUS Noblest of women, it is true I praised you, as you say, highly and immoderately; but I do not see what commendation I bestowed as great as the encomium which you have pronounced upon yourself in extolling your reverence for the gods. Really, this is more than all that I said about you, and you ‘must forgive me that I did not add this trait to your likeness; it escaped me because I did not know about it, for there is no other which I should have preferred to represent. So in that particular at least I not only did not go beyond bounds, it seems to me, with my praises, but actually said far less than I should. Think what an important point I omitted there—how very significant as evidence of sterling character and sound judgement! For those who assiduously reverence what pertains to the gods will surely be above reproach in their relations with mankind. So if the speech absolutely must be revised and the portrait corrected, I should not venture to take a single thing away from it, but will add this detail to cap, as it were, and crown the complete work.

There is one thing, however, for which I admit that I am very grateful to you. After I had praised the reasonableness of your character and the fact that the present exalted state of your fortunes has not engendered in you any arrogance or pride, you confirmed the truth of my praise by censuring what you did censure in my speech. Not to catch greedily at such praise, but to blush for it and say that it is too high for you betokens a reasonable and unassuming disposition. But the more you manifest that attitude toward praise itself, the more worth of extravagant praise you prove yourself! Really the thing, despite you, has come to a pass where the remark of Diogenes applies. When he was asked how one could become famous, he answered: “If he were to scorn fame!” If I myself should be asked: “Who are most worthy of praise?” I should answer: “Those who are unwilling to be praised!”

But all this, no doubt, is apart from the issue and has nothing to do with the case; and the charge to which I must answer is that in making my sketch of you I likened you in beauty to Cnidian Aphrodite and Our Lady in the Gardens and Hera and Athena. That seemed to you extravagant and presumptuous. I shall address myself precisely to that point.

It is an ancient saying, however, that poets and painters are not to be held accountable;[*] still less, I think, eulogists, even if they fare humbly afoot like me, instead of being borne on the wings of song. For praise is an unshackled thing, and has

ESSAYS IN PORTRAITURE DEFENDED no limit, whether upper or lower, prescribed for it. The only object that it ever has in view is to excite high admiration and to maké its subject enviable. Nevertheless, I shall not take this course, for fear you may think that I do so for want of a better.

This, however, I do say; the conditions that govern us in these laudatory writings are such that the eulogist must employ comparisons and similes, and really the most important part of it is to make successful comparisons. And success would be most likely to be held attained, not if a man compares like to like, or if he makes his comparison with something that is inferior, but if he approximates, in so far as he may, what he is praising to something that surpasses it.

For example, if in praising a dog someone were to say that it was larger than a fox or a cat, does it seem to you that he knows how to praise? You will not say so! But even if he should say it was as large as a wolf, he has not praised it generously. Well, at what point will the special end of praise be achieved? When the dog is said to resemble a lion in size and in strength. So the poet who praised Orion’s dog[*] called him “lion-daunting.”’ That, of course, in the case of a dog is perfect praise.

Again, if someone who wished to praise Milo of Croton or Glaucus of Carystus or Polydamas[*] should say of any one of them that he was stronger than a woman, do not you suppose that he would be laughed at for the senselessness of his praise?

Indeed, if it had been said that he was better than any single man, that would not have sufficed for praise. Come, how did a famous poet? praise Glaucus when he said: “Not even mighty Polydeuces” could have held up his hands against that man, “nor yet the iron-hard son of Alemene!” You see what gods he likened him to—nay, actually avouched him better than those gods themselves! And it cannot be said either that Glaucus became indignant when he was praised in opposition to the gods who are the overseers of athletes, or that they punished either Glaucus or the poet as guilty of sacrilege in the matter of that praise. On the contrary, both enjoyed good fame and were honoured by the Greeks, Glaucus for his strength and the poet especially for this very song!

Do not wonder then, that I myself, desiring to make comparisons, as one who sought to praise was bound to do, used an exalted counterfoil, since my theme demanded it.

Since you mentioned flattery, let me say that I praise you for hating flatterers; I would not have it otherwise. But I wish to make a distinction and a difference for you between the achievement of one who praises, and its exaggeration on the part of one who flatters.

The flatterer, since he praises for a selfish reason and has little regard for truth, thinks that he must praise everything to excess, telling falsehoods and contributing a great deal on his own account, so that he would not hesitate to declare Thersites had a better figure than Achilles, and that of all who took part in the expedition against Troy, Nestor was the youngest; he would take his oath upon

it that the son of Croesus had sharper ears than Melampus,[*] and Phineus sharper sight than Lynceus,[*] if only he hoped to gain something by the lie. But the other, in praising the self-same object, instead of telling any lie or adding any quality that did not belong to it, would take the good points that it had by nature, even if they were not very great, and would amplify them and make them greater. He would venture to say, when he wished to praise a horse, which is the lightest of foot and the best runner of all the animals that we know.

Over the top of the flowers he ran without bending them downward.

Iliad20, 227, of the horses of Erichthonius, sired by Boreas. And again he would not hesitate to speak of

the swiftness of wind-footed horses.

Source unknown, if δρόμον is part of the quotation. But for “wind-footed horses,” see Hymn to Venus217, Pindar, frag. 221. And if he were to praise a house that was beautiful and handsomely furnished, he would say:

Surely like this, inside, is the palace of Zeus on Olympus.

Odyssey4, 74, said by Telemachus to his friend, admiring the palace of Menelaus. The flatterer, however, would express himself in that way even about the swineherd’s hut, if only he hoped to get something from the swineherd! Take Cynaethus, the toady of Demetrius Poliorcetes; when he had used up all his means of flattery, he praised Demetrius, who was troubled with a cough, because he cleared his throat melodiously!