Pausanias; Harrison, Jane Ellen [Editor]: Mythology & monuments of ancient Athens: being a translation of a portion of the 'Attica' of Pausanias by Margaret de G. Verrall (London , New York: Macmillan & Co., 1890)

SEC. XV

OF ANCIENT A THE NS

375

or sculpture, as naked, I cannot find out, since in more ancient
times both sculptors and painters alike made them wearing
clothes.” Next he enumerates a number of archaic representa-
tions, and among them “ Socrates, son of Sophroniscus, made
images of the Graces for the Athenians in front of the Acropolis,
and all these alike (i.e., all he has mentioned) are draped ; but
later artists—I do not know at what time—altered their fashion.


FIG. 13.—CHIARAMONTI RELIEF I CHARITES (VATICAN).

Anyhow, in my days both painters and sculptors represent them
as naked.” The fate of the Graces is a good instance of how the
Greek conception is often blurred for us by the Romans. The
name we borrow from them has come to mean too little to stand
for the Charites. The Greek conception of these included, it
is true, the modern notion of Graces, but much more ;
they were, in the fullest sense, “givers of all grace.” “What
is desirable for men apart from the Charites ? ” asks Theocritus,36