"In this temple (of Jupiter Casius) were two famous works of
Evanthes, illustrative of the legends of Andromeda and
Prometheus, which the painter had probably selected as a pair,
from the similarity of the Subjects--the principal figure in
each being bound to a rock and exposed to the attack of a
terrific animal; in one case a denizen of the air, in the
other a monster of the sea; and the deliverers of both being
Argives, and of kindred blood to each other, Hercules and
Perseus--the former of whom encountered, on foot, the savage
bird sent by Jove, while the latter mounted on borrowed wings
into the air, to assail the monster which issued from the sea
at the command of Neptune. In the picture of Andromeda, the
virgin was laid in a hollow of the rock, not fashioned by art,
but rough like a natural cavity; and which, if viewed only
with regard to the beauty of that which it contained, looked
like a niche holding an exquisite fresh from the chisel; but
the sight of her bonds, and of the monster approaching to
devour her, gave it rather the aspect of a sepulchre. On her
features extreme loveliness was blended with deadly terror,
which was seated on her pallid cheeks, while beauty beamed
forth from her eyes; but, as even amid the pallor of her
cheeks a faint tinge of colour was yet perceptible, so was the
brightness of her eyes, on the other hand, in some measure
dimmed, like the bloom of lately blighted violets. Her white
arms were extended, and lashed to the rock; but their
whiteness partook of a livid hue, and her fingers were like
those of a corpse. Thus lay she, expecting death, but arrayed
like a bride, in a long white robe, which seemed not as if
woven from the fleece of the sheep, but from the web of the
spider, or of those winged insects, the long threads spun by
which are gathered by the Indian women from the trees of their
own country. The monster was just rising out of the sea
opposite to the damsel, his head alone being distinctly
visible, while the unwieldy length of his body was still in a
great measure concealed by the waves, yet so as partially to
discover his formidable array of spines and scales, his
swollen neck, and his long flexible tail, while the gape of
his horrible jaws extended to his shoulder, and disclosed the
abyss of his stomach. But between the monster and the damsel,
Perseus was depicted descending to the encounter from the
upper regions of the air--his body bare, except a mantle
floating round his shoulders, and winged sandals on his
feet--a cap resembling the helmet of Pluto was on his head,
and in his left hand he held before him, like a buckler, the
head of the Gorgon, which even in the pictured representation
was terrible to look at, shaking its snaky hair, which seemed
to erect itself and menace the beholder. His right hand
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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