of which Homer writes in the Iliad. The symmetrical arrangement of hair and beard carry out the character of perfect evenness belonging to the supreme ruler. The forehead has the full bar of flesh which denotes virility. The brows are straight, the nose finely modeled, the lips rather full, the expression benignant. Altogether the impression is of a being of mental and moral equipoise, full of energy and noble dignity. II ATHENA GIUSTINIANA (MINERVA MEDICA) Athena was the air goddess of the Greeks, or, in Ruskin's phrase, "the queen of the air." She was known also by the name Pallas, and among the Romans as Minerva. As the air comes to us from out the great dome of the sky, so Athena was said to have sprung fully armed from the head of her father Zeus. The old Homeric hymn tells how "Wonder strange possessed The everlasting gods that shape to see, Shaking a javelin keen, impetuously Rush from the crest of ægis-bearing Jove."[5] [5] In Shelley's translation. Her eyes were blue, the color of the sky; her hair hung in ringlets over her shoulders. Her dress was "A gorgeous robe Of many hues, which her own hands had wrought."[6] [6] Iliad, Book viii., lines 483, 484. When arrayed for war she wore a golden helmet and carried a shield, or _ægis_. In the centre of this shield was fastened the gorgon's head which Perseus had cut off with her aid. In her hand she wielded a mighty spear. The owl was her symbolic bird, and she was called _glaukopis_, or owl-eyed, because her wisdom gave her sight in darkness. The serpent was the emblem of her command over the beneficent and healing influences in the earth. Her favorite plant was the fruitful olive, valued by the Greeks both for the beauty of its foliage and for the usefulness of its oil. In the fortunes of war, when it was for defensive aims, Athena took an intense interest and an active part. In the war between the Greeks and the Trojans, she was on the side of the Greeks, who sought to recover from their enemies their queen Helen, whom the Trojan prince had captured. When the Greek army assembled before the walls of Troy-- "Among them walked The blue-eyed Pallas, bearing on her arm The priceless ægis, ever fair and new, And undecaying; from its edge there hung A hundred golden fringes, fairly wrought, And every fringe might buy a hecatomb. With this and fierce, defiant looks she passed Through all the Achaian host, and made their hearts Impatient for the march and strong to endure The combat without pause,--for now the war Seemed to them dearer than the wished return In their good galleys to the land they loved."[7] [7] Iliad, Book ii., lines 549-560 in Bryant's translation.