“Through those calm lips, proud goddess, speak!
Portray to us thy gorgeous fane
Where Melian suitors thronged to seek
Thine aid love’s paradise to gain.
Vouchsafe at least our minds to free
From doubts pertaining to thy charms;
The meaning of thy bended knee,
The secret of thy vanished arms.”
--_J. L. Stoddard._
This beautiful Greek original, the Venus of Milo, has been called “the
marble realization of the dream of fair women.” While it is universally
recognized as a great work of art, nothing is definitely known as to
the period or school to which it belongs.
It was discovered in 1820, by a peasant on the Island of Melos, in
the niche of a wall which had long been buried. The French ambassador
at Constantinople purchased and presented it to Louis XVIII., king of
France, and it is now in the Louvre.
The statue is made of two blocks of marble joined above the drapery
which envelops the lower limbs. The tip of the nose and the foot which
projects beyond the drapery have been restored by modern artists. The
restoration of the arms has often been unsuccessfully attempted.
In spite of the mutilated limbs of this marble Venus, she holds
undisputed sway over the hearts of all beholders.
[Illustration]
Hercules.
“The Hero.”
“_I toil no more
On earth, nor wield again the mighty strength
Which Zeus once gave me for the cure of ills;
I have run my race; I have done my work; I rest
Forever from the toilsome days I gave
To the suffering race of men._”
--WM. MORRIS.