[3] Given in Panofka, "Antiques du Cabinet Pourtalès," pl. x. A more unmistakable burlesque on the visit of Jupiter to Alcmena is published by Winckelmann from a vase, formerly in the library of the Vatican, and now at St. Petersburg. The treatment of the subject is not unlike the picture just described. Alcmena appears just in the same posture at her chamber window, and Jupiter is carrying his ladder to mount up to her, but has not yet placed it against the wall. His companion is identified with Mercury by the well-known caduceus he carries in his left hand, while with his right hand he holds a lamp up to the window, in order to enable Jupiter to see the object of his amour. It is astonishing with how much boldness the Greeks parodied and ridiculed sacred subjects. The Christian father, Arnobius, in writing against his heathen opponents, reproached them with this circumstance. The laws, he says, were made to protect the characters of men from slander and libel, but there was no such protection for the characters of the gods, which were treated with the greatest disrespect.[4] This was especially the case in their pictorial representations. [4] Arnobius (_contra Gentes_), lib. iv. p. 150. Carmen malum conscribere, quo fama alterius coinquinatur et vita, decemviralibus scitis evadere noluistis impune: ac ne vestras aures convitio aliquis petulantiore pulsaret, de atrocibus formulas constituistis injuriis. Soli dii sunt apud vos superi inhonorati, contemtibiles, viles: in quos jus est vobis datum quæ quisque voluerit dicere turpitudinem, jacere quas libido confinxerit atque excogitaverit formas. Pliny informs us that Ctesilochus, a pupil of the celebrated Apelles, painted a burlesque picture of Jupiter giving birth to Bacchus, in which the god was represented in a very ridiculous posture.[5] Ancient writers intimate that similar examples were not uncommon, and mention the names of several comic painters, whose works of this class were in repute. Some of these were bitter personal caricatures, like a celebrated work of a painter named Ctesicles, described also by Pliny. It appears that Stratonice, the queen of Seleucus Nicator, had received this painter ill when he visited her court, and in revenge he executed a picture in which she was represented, according to a current scandal, as engaged in an amour with a common fisherman, which he exhibited in the harbour of Ephesus, and then made his escape on ship-board. Pliny adds that the queen admired the beauty and accuracy of the painting more than she felt the insult, and that she forbade the removal of the picture.[6] [5] Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxv. c. 40. [6] Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxv. c. 40. [Illustration: _No. 10. Apollo at Delphi._]