網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

Επτα σοφων εμπροσθεν, επεί κεινοι μεν αναγκην

Εμβαλον, 8 πείθω, φθεγμασι τοις σφετέροις
Ος δε σοφοις μυθοις και πλασμασι καίρια λέξας
Παίζων εν ςπεδη, πείθει εχεφρονεειν.
Φευκτον δη τρηχεια παραίνεσις η Σαμις δε
Το γλυκυ τε μυθε καλον εχει δελεαρ.

Grotii Verfio.

Fictorum, Lyfippe, decus Sicyonie, laudo
Æfopi Samii quod fenis effigiem
Antelocas feptem Græcis fapientibus: horum
Nam dictis vis eft plurima, suada deest.
Ille docet verum blanda fub imagine falfi,
Sed docet, et monftrat feria cuncta joco.
Afpra juvent alios: Samii me fabula mulcet
Utile fub dulci quæ clepit illecebra.

Agathias, on the Statue of Efop.

Well haft thou done, Lyfippus, thus to place
Thy fculptur'd Æfop high on Honour's base,
Before the feven fages. Their discourse
In foft perfuafion fails, though not in force.
His fapient fiction timely truth fupplies;
Sporting he leads his hearer to be wife.
We shun harsh counsel: but this Samian sage
Of fable forms a feast for ev'ry age.

334

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Diogenes Laertius afferts, in his Life of Socrates, that the Athenians immediately repented their conduct towards the philosopher, and honoured his memory by a public ftatue of brass, the work of Lyfippus ! It is remarkable that two men, one efteemed the wifeft, and the other the wittieft of the Greeks, Socrates and Lucian, were bred to the profeffion of sculpture. The vivacity of Lucian, and his antipathy to a fevere relation, his mafter, probably precluded that comic genius from making any confiderable advances in an art which requires the steadiest union of industry and talent. But Socrates is known to have executed some works, as a ftatuary, that were objects of public regard. Paufanias has noticed the Graces, in the Acropolis of Athens, as the work of the philofopher; and in obferving that these and the elder Golden Graces of Bupalus were not deftitute of drapery, he profeffes himself unable to discover what artift introduced the custom, prevalent in his time, of representing the Graces naked. Falconet imagines that statues executed by Socrates could have but a trifling degree of merit as works of art, from the philofopher's having quitted the profeffion very early in life: but the more candid Greeks seem inclined to applaud the laudable endeavours of juvenile talent; and a Greek epigram on a very young fculptor, Eutychides, speaks of him as equal to Praxiteles, though calamitoufly hurried out of life at the age of fixteen:

Πραξιτελες ηνθεν λαοξόος ἔτι χερείων,

Ες δ' ετεων δισσας ηλυθον ογδοάδας.

Ουνομα δ' Ευτυχίδης ψευδώνυμον, αλλα με δαίμων

Θηκεν αφαρπάξας ωκυτατ' εις αιδα

NOTE XII. Ver. 264.

And rail'd at ftatues rais'd in woman's name.

Let me introduce the juft and polite Guasco, defending the fair sex against the afperity of the Roman cenfor:

"Caton le cenfeur, toujours zélé pour le maintien des maximes prim❝ordiales, et peut-être quelquefois un peu fujet à l'humeur, blamoit

[ocr errors]

comme un abus les ftatues qu'on dreffoit aux dames Romaines dans "les provinces, le regardant comme chofe contraire aux vieilles max"imes de la fimplicité et de la décence des mœurs; cependant les "blâmes de Caton ne parvinrent point à arrêter cette pratique même "dans la capitale de l'empire.

[ocr errors]

Plutarque auffi philofophe, mais plus galant que Caton, fans parler "de ce dernier, mais probablement dans l'intention de le refuter, fait 66 l'apologie des monumens élévés en l'honneur des femmes illuftres

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

et foutient qu'elles avoient droit auffi bien que les hommes, aux monumens qui font vivre dans la poftérité, toutes les fois qu'elles les "avoient mérités par des vertus et des actions brillantes; ajoutant plufieurs exemples qui prouvent que la vertu du beau fexe peut être “ auffi utile à l'état que celle des hommes. En effet, s'il arrive que s'élevant au-deffus de fa foibleffe naturelle, une femme donne des exemples d'une vertu fuperieure, pourquoi la priveroit-on des "honneurs patriotiques, pourquoi ôteroit-on de devant les yeux des monumens capables d'encourager fon fexe à fe vouer au bien public? "Car quoiqu'on flatte perpétuellement les charmes du beau fexe, quoiqu'on en abuse fans ceffe, on ne confidere pas affez la puissante

66

[ocr errors]

"Dans le Traité des Femmes Vertueuses."

"influence que les femmes peuvent avoir comme mères, comme époufes, comme citoyennes, en bien des occafions et en mille "manières fur l'efprit et fur le cœur."-De l'Ufage des Statues, p. 269.

[ocr errors]

NOTE XIII. Ver. 272.

E'en from a boftile king extorted praise.

"Cloelia Virgo, una ex obfidibus, quum caftra Etrufcorum forte haud

procul ripa Tiberis locata effent, frustrata custodes, dux agminis virginum inter tela hoftium Tiberim tranavit, fofpitefque omnes Romam "ad propinquos reftituit.

[ocr errors]

Quod ubi regi nuntiatum eft, primo incenfus ira.....deinde in ad"mirationem verfus, Supra Coclites Muciofque,' dicere, id facinus "effe.' Pace redintegrata, Romani novam in fœmina virtutem novo genere honoris, ftatua equeftri, donavere. In fumma facra via fuit "pofita Virgo infidens equo."-Liv. lib. ii. c. 13.

[ocr errors]

NOTE XIV. Ver. 286.

Confummate beauty, and the true fublime.

Cornelia was the admired model of the maternal character in ancient Rome. Her fons and the people feem to have fympathized in affectionate veneration towards this illuftrious woman: and a ftatue was raised to the living parent with that moft fimple and eloquent infcription, "Cor"nelia, Mater Gracchorum." Pliny describes the statue in the following words:

[ocr errors]

"Sedens, foleifque fine amento infignis, in Metelli publica Porticu: quæ ftatua nunc eft in Octaviæ operibus."-Lib. xxxiv. c. 6.

NOTE XV. Ver. 326.

Express'd the feelings of that parting hour.

This anecdote, one of the most pleasing in all the records of Pagan hiftory, is well related in the following words of Paufanias :

Το δε αγαλμα της Αιδους, τριακοντα που σταδια απέχον της πολεως, Ικαριε μεν αναθημα ειναι ποιηθήναι δε επι λογῳ φασι τοιῳδε. Οτ' εδωκεν Οδυσσει Πηρ νελοπην γυναίκα Ικαριος, επειρατο μεν κατοικησαι και αυτον Οδυσσεα εν Λακεδαιμονι' διαμαρτανων δε εκείνα, δευτερα την θυγατερα ικετευε καταμείναι, και εξορμώμενης ες Ιθακην επακολουθων τῳ αρματι εδειτο. Οδυσσευς δε τεως μεν ηνείκετο, τελος δε εκέλευε συνακολυθειν Πηνελοπην εκεσαν, η τον πατερα ελομένην αναχωρείν ες Λακεδαίμονα και την αποκρίνασθαι φασιν εδεν εγκαλυψα μένης δε προς το ερώτημα, Ικαριος την μεν, ατε δη συνιεις ως βελεται απιεναι μετα Οδυσσέως, αφίησιν αγαλμα δε ανέθηκεν Αίδες" ενταυθα γαρ της οδες προηκέσαν ηδη την Πηνελοπην λεγεσιν εγκαλυψασθαι Ρ. 263.

« 上一頁繼續 »