Perry, Walter Copland: Greek and Roman sculpture: a popular introduction to the history of Greek and Roman sculpture (London, 1882)

ANAL YSIS OF THE CNIDIAN APHRODITE.

thoughts of the beholder both backwards and forwards. The last
garment is just laid aside; in another moment the beautiful apparition
will be lost to sight beneath the cooling wave.'

The principal description of this wonderful work is contained in
Lucian, to whose opinion, as that of a man of cultivated taste, great
importance must be attached, although he is apt to be rhapsodical.
' The Goddess,' he says, ' was placed in the midst of the temple, a
most beautiful and charming image of Parian marble,-'of lofty bearing,
with a gentle smile which just reveals the teeth,
was the demiurgic power of art that the
hard and stubborn nature of the stone
looked beautiful in every limb' Lycinus
in Lucian,when choosing single features
from different statues for the composi-
tion of his pattern beauty Panthea,'1
speaks with admiration of the hair of
the Cnidian Aphrodite, and the fore-
head, and the pencilled eyebrows beau-
tifully drawn, and 'the tender moisture4
of the bright, joyous, and pleasant eyes.'
The term vyphv seems here to denote "*»»M4 as aphrodite.
the peculiar and charming expression given to the eye by the unusual
raising of the lower lid, which is characteristic of almost all the statues
of Venus.

It has been disputed, with a warmth becoming the subject of
controversy, whether the Cnidian Aphrodite is to be regarded as a
purely sensual image of physical beauty, or whether it was ennobled
by an expression of unconscious innocence.'' According to Brunn,

1 Ovid describes the ]*>sition : —

Ipsa Venus puhem, quoties velamina ponit,
Protegitur la:va semireducla manu.

: l.ucian, Am. 13: napias 5f At'floi/ Sai-
oaAua KaAAttTToy.

• Lucian, /mag. & The statue* laid under
contribution were the Aphrodite of Alca-
menes, the Sosandra of Calamis, the Lem-
nian Athene, the Amazon leaning on a spear,
and the Cnidian Aphrodite of IVaxitele-.
4>t'p( fit] airatru'i' ijirj tvvtw u-5 oloy rt

avvapnoaas iiiav <rai eitfoVa tVifietfw to t£aipf-
-ror Tap' •<cottt;j Ixovaav. An absurd idea !

4 Lucian, /m<tgir/rs, 6 : Kal tujv 6<p0a\p.wv
o« to vyphv aua Ttp <pai5p<£> Kal Kf^aptffuc'i/y.

Conf. Anacreon, Od. 28: —

to hi 0A<upii vuv aAi}0u>c
alto tov irirooc noiqaov
oux yKavKov tiK 'A0ij a;
aui 6 it ; j 6 i KvQt)pn$.

s Urunn, h'. Gesih. and Friedcrichs,

Praxi/cus und die Niobt-Gruppc.