Lucian of Samosata, Imagines, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 8

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[8] We have Homer, the best of all painters, éven in the presence of Euphranor and Apelles. Let her be throughout of a colour like that which Homer gave to the thighs of Menelaus when he likened them to ivory tinged with crimson;¹ and let him also paint the eyes and make her “ox-eyed.” The Theban poet, too, shall lend him a hand in the work, to give her ‘violet brows.”² Yes, and Homer shall make her “laughter-loving” and “white-armed" and “rosy-fingered,” and, in a word, shall liken her to golden Aphrodite far more fittingly than he did the daughter of Briseus.³

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).) — 8 focus

Λυκῖνος

μᾶλλον δὲ τὸν ἄριστον τῶν γραφέων Ὅμηρον παρόντος Εὐφράνορος καὶ Ἀπελλοῦ δεδέγμεθα· οἷον γάρ τι τοῖς Μενελάου μηροῖς τὸ χρῶμα ἐκεῖνος ἐπέβαλεν ἐλέφαντι εἰκάσας ἠρέμα πεφοινιγμένῳ, τοιόνδε ἔστω τὸ πᾶν· ὁ δʼ αὐτὸς οὗτος καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς γραψάτω βοῶπίν τινα ποιήσας αὐτήν. συνεπιλήψεται δὲ τοῦ ἔργου αὐτῷ καὶ ὁ Θηβαῖος ποιητής, ὡς ἰοβλέφαρον¹ ἐξεργάσασθαι· καὶ φιλομειδῆ δὲ Ὅμηρος ποιήσει καὶ λευκώλενον καὶ ῥοδοδάκτυλον, καὶ ὅλως τῇ χρυσῇ Ἀφροδίτῃ εἰκάσει πολὺ δικαιότερον ἢ τὴν τοῦ Βρισέως.

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.) — 8 focus

[8] And lastly, Aétion shall give her Roxana’s lips, Nay, we can do better: have we not. Homer, best of painters, though a Euphranor and an Apelles be present? Let him colour all like the limbs of Menelaus, which he says were ‘ivory tinged with red.’ He too shall paint her calm ‘ox-eyes,’ and the Theban poet shall help him to give them their ‘violet’ hue. Homer shall add her smile, her white arms, her rosy finger-tips, and so complete the resemblance to golden Aphrodite, to whom he has compared Brises’ daughter with far less reason.

Notes on the current edition

Essays in Portraiture

Iliad 4, 141 sqq.

Pindar; the poem in which he applied this epithet to Aphrodite (cf. p. 333) is lost.

Iliad 19, 282.

Lucian of Samosata Imagines 8

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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