Aspasia (Volume 2); A Romance of Art and Love in Ancient Hellas (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: She read the truth-seeker's heart as plainly as the brilliant sophist's, who uttered no word which he was not sure would please the ear of the beautiful Milesian. This dispute between Socrates and Protagoras roused an increasing anger in Aspasia's mind against the former, and almost unconsciously a plan arose by which, with feminine cunning, she might detract from the wisdom of the man who boasted of " free thought," and despised the " slaves of the senses." CHAPTER III. THE THESMOPHORIAN FESTIVAL. " That is beauty itselff cried the Athenians, when Phidias had finished the new bronze statue of Pallas, ordered by the Lemnians, and revealed it for the first time to the gaze of his fellow-citizens. A cry of astonishment ran through all Athens. " What did Phidias mean ?" No Greek had ever imagined the goddess as his last statue represented her. She was without helm or shield. Waving locks floated unconfined around the face, upturned with an expression full of dignity and sweetness. The contour of this face was marvellous, the cheeks were chiselled with incomparable delicacy. People fancied they could see them blush. The bare arms, like the hands, were models of the most perfect and noble symmetry. One upraised arm permitted part of the right side to be seen, the robe was draped loosely about the hips, and here, as well as everywhere else, disclosed the outlines of the figure with perfect distinctness. Unanimous as were the Athenians in praising this last creation of Phidias, they were equally so in declaring that Aspasia must have been the sculptor's model. Nor was the assertion wholly erroneous. Indeed, though Theodota understood how to treat her figure as artistic material, and by it give expression to the character of various female divinities, while all ...