Lucian of Samosata, Imagines, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 12

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[12]

LYCINUS

Well then, Polystratus, trade me description for description, giving, as the saying goes, measure for measure, or even better than that, since you can. Do a likeness of her soul and display it to me, so ‘that I need not admire her by halves.

POLYSTRATUS

It is no light task, my friend, that you are setting me; for it is not the same thing to laud what is manifest to all, and to reveal in words what is invisible. I think that I too shall need fellow-workmen for the portrait, philosophers as well as sculptors and painters, so that I can make my work of art conform to their canons and can exhibit it as modelled in the style of the ancients.

Imagines. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Essays in Portraiture (English) (Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Εἰκόνες Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).) — 12 focus

Λυκῖνος

οὐκοῦν, ὦ Πολύστρατε, μῦθον ἀντὶ μύθου ἄμειψαι αὐτῷ τῷ μέτρῳ, φασίν, ἢ καὶ λώϊον, δύνασαι γάρ, καί τινα εἰκόνα γραψάμενος τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπίδειξον, ὡς μὴ ἐξ ἡμισείας θαυμάζοιμι αὐτήν.

Translations (1)

A Portrait-study Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 12 focus

[12]

Lycinus

Why then, Polystratus, you shall give me story for story, good measure, shaken together, out of your abundance: paint me the portrait of her soul, that I may be no more her halfadmirer.

Polystratus

This will be no light task, my friend. It is one thing to commend what all the world can see, and quite another to reveal what is hidden. I too shall want help with my portrait. Nor will sculptors and painters suffice me: I must have philosophers; itis by their canons that I must adjust the proportions of the figure, if I am to attain to the perfection of ancient models.

Lucian of Samosata Imagines 12

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)