Lucian of Samosata, Imagines, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 7

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[7]

POLYSTRATUS

Yes, surely, when it has been completed to the uttermost detail; for there is still, despite your unexampled zeal, one beauty that you have left out of your statue in collecting and combining everything as you did.

LYCINUS

What is that?

POLYSTRATUS

Not the most unimportant, my friend, unless you will maintain that perfection of form is but little enhanced by colour and appropriateness in each detail, so that just those parts will be black which should be black and those white which should be, and the flush of life will glow upon the surface, and so forth. I fear we still stand in need of the most important feature!

LYCINUS

Where then can we get all that? Or shall we call in the painters, of course, and particularly those who excelled in mixing their colours and in applying them judiciously? Come, then, let us call in Polygnotus and Euphranor of old, and Apelles and Aétion. Let them divide up the work, and let Euphranor colour the hair as he painted Hera’s:¹ let Polygnotus do the becomingness of her brows and the faint flush of her cheeks, just as he did Cassandra in the Lesche at Delphi,² and let him also do her clothing, which shall be of the most delicate texture, so that it not only clings close where it should, but a great deal of it floats in the air. The body Apelles shall represent after the manner of his Pacate,³ not too white but just suffused with red; and her lips shall be done by Aétion like Roxana’s.⁴ But stay!

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).) — 7 focus

Πολύστρατος

ἔτι γάρ, ὦ πάντων γενναιότατε, καταλέλοιπάς τι κάλλος ἔξω τοῦ ἀγάλματος οὕτως πάντα εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ συμπεφορηκώς.

Λυκῖνος

τί τοῦτο;

Πολύστρατος

οὐ τὸ¹ μικρότατον, ὦ φιλότης, εἰ μή σοι δόξει ὀλίγα πρὸς εὐμορφίαν συντελεῖν χρόα καὶ τὸ ἑκάστῳ πρέπον, ὡς μέλανα μὲν εἶναι ἀκριβῶς ὁπόσα μέλανα, λευκὰ δὲ ὅσα τοιαῦτα χρή, καὶ τὸ ἐρύθημα ἐπανθεῖν καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα· κινδυνεύει τοῦ μεγίστου ἔτι ἡμῖν προσδεῖν.

Λυκῖνος

πόθεν οὖν καὶ ταῦτα πορισαίμεθʼ ἄν; ἢ παρακαλέσαιμεν δηλαδὴ τοὺς γραφέας, καὶ μάλιστα ὁπόσοι αὐτῶν ἄριστοι ἐγένοντο κεράσασθαι τὰ χρώματα καὶ εὔκαιρον ποιεῖσθαι τὴν ἐπιβολὴν αὐτῶν; καὶ δὴ παρακεκλήσθω Πολύγνωτος καὶ Εὐφράνωρ ἐκεῖνος καὶ Ἀπελλῆς καὶ Ἀετίων· οὗτοι δὲ διελόμενοι τὸ ἔργον ὁ μὲν Εὐφράνωρ χρωσάτω τὴν κόμην οἵαν τῆς Ἥρας ἔγραψεν, ὁ Πολύγνωτος δὲ ὀφρύων τὸ ἐπιπρεπὲς καὶ παρειῶν τὸ ἐνερευθὲς οἵαν τὴν Κασάνδραν ἐν τῇ λέσχῃ ἐποίησεν τοῖς Δελφοῖς, καὶ ἐσθῆτα δὲ οὗτος ποιησάτω εἰς τὸ λεπτότατον ἐξειργασμένην, ὡς συνεστάλθαι μὲν ὅσα χρή, διηνεμῶσθαι δὲ τὰ πολλά· τὸ δὲ ἄλλο σῶμα ὁ Ἀπελλῆς δειξάτω κατὰ τὴν Πακάτην μάλιστα, μὴ ἄγαν λευκὸν ἀλλὰ ἔναιμον ἁπλῶς· τὰ χείλη δὲ οἷα Ῥωξάνης ὁ Ἀετίων ποιησάτω.

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.) — 7 focus

[7]

Polystratus

Assuredly it will be, when it is perfected. At present, my paragon of sculptors, one element of loveliness has escaped your comprehensive grasp.

Lycinus

What is that?

Polystratus

A most important one. You will agree with me that colour and tone have a good deal to do with beauty? that black should be black, white be white, and red play its blushing part? It looks tome as if the most important thing of all were still lacking.

Lycinus

Well, how shall we manage? Call in the painters, perhaps, selecting those who were noted for their skill in mixing and laying on their colours? Be it so: we will have Polygnotus, Euphranor of course, Apelles and Aétion; they can. “divide the work between them. Euphranor shall colour the hair like his Hera’s; Polygnotus the comely brow and faintly blushing cheek, after his Cassandra in the Assembly-room at Delphi. Polygnotus shall also paint her robe,—of the finest texture, part duly gathered in, but most of it floating in the breeze. For the flesh-tints, which must be neither too pale nor too high-coloured, Apelles shall copy his own Campaspe.

Notes on the current edition

Essays in Portraiture

Painted as one of the Twelve Gods in the portico of Zeus Eleutherius at Athens (Pausanias 1, 3, 3; Pliny 35, 129).

“Above the Cassotis is a building with paintings by Polygnotus; it was dedicated by the Cnidians, and is called by the Delphians the Club-room (Lesche, “place of talk”), because here they used of old to meet and talk over both mythological and more serious subjects. . . . Cassandra herself is seated on the ground and is holding the image of Athena, for she overturned the wooden image from its pedestal when Ajax dragged her out of the sanctuary.” (Pausanias 10, 25, 1 and 26, 3, Frazer’s translation. )

Called Pancaste by Aelian (Var. Hist., 12, 34), Pancaspe by Pliny (35, 86). She was a girl of Larissa, the first sweetheart of Alexander the Great.

In the famous “Marriage of Alexander and Roxana,” described fully in Lucian’s Herodotus, c. 4-6.

Lucian of Samosata Imagines 7

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

POLYSTRATUS

LYCINUS

POLYSTRATUS

LYCINUS

Current edition Perseus

Πολύστρατος

ἔτι γάρ, ὦ πάντων γενναιότατε, καταλέλοιπάς τι κάλλος ἔξω τοῦ ἀγάλματος οὕτως πάντα εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ συμπεφορηκώς.

Λυκῖνος

τί τοῦτο;

Polystratus

Lycinus

Polystratus

Lycinus

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

POLYSTRATUS

LYCINUS

POLYSTRATUS

LYCINUS

Current edition Perseus

Πολύστρατος ἔτι γάρ, ὦ πάντων γενναιότατε, καταλέλοιπάς τι κάλλος ἔξω τοῦ ἀγάλματος οὕτως πάντα εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ συμπεφορηκώς.

Λυκῖνος τί τοῦτο;

Polystratus

Lycinus

Polystratus

Lycinus

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Πολύστρατος

ἔτι γάρ, ὦ πάντων γενναιότατε, καταλέλοιπάς τι κάλλος ἔξω τοῦ ἀγάλματος οὕτως πάντα εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ συμπεφορηκώς.

Λυκῖνος

τί τοῦτο;