Gell, William: Pompeiana: the topography, edifices and ornaments of Pompeii ; the result of excavations since 1819 ; in two volumes (Band 2) (London, 1832)

THE PLATES. 71

a white mantle, or, perhaps, a species of
veil. She holds the materials for spinning
in her hand. Ulysses has a white tunic
and a yellow chlamys, or a pallium. The
attendant, Eurynome, is also represented.
The size of the picture is about three feet
by two feet six. The total absence of
affectation in this, and indeed almost every
effort of ancient art, is one of its distin-
guishing characteristics.

PLATE XVI.

THESEUS AND iETHKA*.

Plate XVI. is a picture in the Pantheon,
from the wall of that portico which might
well have been called the Poikilos of Pompeii.

* This picture has usually been called that of Theseus and
iEthra, but Signor Nibby, the Roman Professor of Archaeology,
was persuaded, from the first, that the supposed rock in the back-
ground was intended to represent a cloud. In fact, the rain
having at length washed away some of the stains and dirt which
adhered to the picture, the female was found to be decorated with
a small pair of horns, almost concealed by her hair. In the year
1829 was found in another house a second painting, in which the
attitudes of the figures were similar, and the horns more visible,