Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/433

OF THE KOMAN EMPIEE 411 scenes : birds singing ; rustics labouring or playing on their pipes ; sheep bleating ; lambs skipping ; the sea, and a scene of fish and fishing ; little naked Cupids laughing, playing, and pelting each otlier with apples ; and, on the summit, a female figure turning with the slightest breath, and thence denominated Ike wind's at- [Anemo- tciula/it. H. The Phrygian shepherd presenting to Venus the prize of beauty, the apple of discord. 9- The incomparable statue of Helen, which is delineated by Nicetas in the words of admiration and love : her well-turned feet, snowy arms, rosy lips, bewitching smiles, swimming eyes, arched eye-brows, the harmony of her shape, the lightness of her drapery, and her flowing locks that waved in the wind : a beauty that might have moved her barbarian destroyers to pity and remorse. 10. The manly or divine form of Hercules,ii"* as he was restored to life by the master-hand of Lysippus, of such magnitude that his thumb was equal to the waist, his leg to the stature, of a common man ; ^^^ his chest ample, his shoulders broad, his limbs strong and muscular, his hair curled, his aspect commanding. With- out his bow, or quiver, or club, his lion's skin thrown carelessly over him, he was seated on an osier basket, his right leg and arm stretched to the utmost, his left knee bent, and sup- porting his elbow, his head reclining on his left hand, his countenance indignant and pensive. 11. A colossal statue of Juno, Avhich had once adorned her temple of Samos ; the enor- mous head by four yoke of oxen was laboriously drawn to the palace. 12. Another colossus, of Pallas or Minerva, thirty feet in height, and representing, with admirable spirit, the attributes and character of the martial maid. Before we accuse the Latins, it is just to remark that this Pallas was destroyed after the first siege by the fear and superstition of the Greeks themselves. ^^^ The other statues of brass which I have enumerated were broken and melted by the unfeeling avarice of the crusaders ; the cost and labour were consumed in a moment ; the soul of genius evaporated in smoke ; and the remnant of base metal was coined into money for the payment of the troops. Bronze is not the "•'To illustrate the statue of Hercules, Mr. Harris quotes a Greek epigram, and engraves a beautiful gem, which does not however copy the attitude of the statue. In the latter, Hercules had not his club, and his right leg and arm were extended. II'* I transcribe these proportions, which appear to me inconsistent with each other, and may possibly show that the boasted taste of Nicetas was no more than affectation and vanity. 1" Nicetas, in Isaaco Angelo et Alexio, c. 3, p. 359. The Latin editor very properly observes that the historian, in his bombast style, produces ex pulice ele- phantem.