70 DESCRIPTION" OF
PLATE XV.
ULYSSES AND PENELOPE.
It is of consequence to preserve every
thing which can convey to us the conceptions
which the ancients themselves formed on the
subjects connected with poetry and history,
before dress and manners had undergone that
complete change which took place soon after
the general introduction of Christianity. By
collecting the materials which Pompeii and
Herculaneum have already furnished and
may hereafter supply, we shall probably, ere
long, have the means of forming editions of
the writers of antiquity, and decorating our
classical and mythological dictionaries with
figures and illustrations which the ancients
themselves might have approved, but which
have hitherto been attempted in vain. This
picture refers to the nineteenth book of
the Odyssey, where Penelope is represented
as inquiring of the supposed mendicant
stranger for tidings of Ulysses. Penelope
is clothed in a violet-coloured tunic and
PLATE XV.
ULYSSES AND PENELOPE.
It is of consequence to preserve every
thing which can convey to us the conceptions
which the ancients themselves formed on the
subjects connected with poetry and history,
before dress and manners had undergone that
complete change which took place soon after
the general introduction of Christianity. By
collecting the materials which Pompeii and
Herculaneum have already furnished and
may hereafter supply, we shall probably, ere
long, have the means of forming editions of
the writers of antiquity, and decorating our
classical and mythological dictionaries with
figures and illustrations which the ancients
themselves might have approved, but which
have hitherto been attempted in vain. This
picture refers to the nineteenth book of
the Odyssey, where Penelope is represented
as inquiring of the supposed mendicant
stranger for tidings of Ulysses. Penelope
is clothed in a violet-coloured tunic and