THE ARTIST TRIUMPHANT _TRANSLATOR’S NOTE_ _TO_ _THE ARTIST TRIUMPHANT_ _Parrhasius, the great painter, son of Evenor of Ephesus, lived about four hundred years before Christ. He was a mighty master of his profession, and particularly excelled in strongly expressing the violent passions. He was blessed with wondrous genius and invention, and was particularly happy in his designs. He acquired great reputation by his pieces, but by none more than that in which he allegorically represented the people of Athens with all the injustice, the clemency, the fickleness, timidity, the arrogance and inconsistency which so eminently characterized that amazing nation. He once entered the lists against Zeuxis, and when they had produced their respective pieces, the birds came to pick, with the greatest avidity, the grapes which Zeuxis had painted. Parrhasius immediately exhibited his piece, and Zeuxis said, “Remove your curtain, that we may see the painting.” The curtain was the painting. Zeuxis acknowledged himself conquered by exclaiming, “Zeuxis has deceived birds, but Parrhasius has deceived Zeuxis himself.” Parrhasius grew so vain of his art, that he clothed himself in purple and wore a crown of gold, calling himself the king of painters. He was lavish in his own praises, but by his vanity too often exposed himself to the ridicule of his enemies._ G. F. M. CHAPTER I In the green gardens of white Ephesus we were two young learners, or apprentices, with the aged Bryaxis, the sculptor. He was sitting upon a seat made of stone as pallid as his face. He did not speak, but lightly struck the earth with the end of his staff. Out of respect for his great age and his greater glory we stood patiently before him. Our backs leaned against two dark cypress trees. We did not talk, but eagerly listened for him to speak. Motionless we studied him with homage of which he appeared to be conscious. We knew that he had survived all those whom we had longed to know. We loved him to reveal his spirit to us, for we were simple-hearted children, born too late to have heard the voices of heroes. We sought to trace the almost invisible bonds that united him to his striking, astonishing lifework. That brow had conceived, that hand had helped to model a frieze and twelve figures for the tomb of Mausolus, the King of Caria, whose tomb was a wonder of the world: the five Colossi erected in front of the town of Rhodes, the Bull of Pasiphæ, that made women dream strange dreams, the formidable Apollo of bronze, and the Seleucus Triumphant. The more I contemplated their author, the more it seemed to me that the Gods must have fashioned with their own hands this sculptor, in order that he might be the means of revealing them to men! All at once a rush of feet, a whistle, and a cry of a gay heart; the young Ophelion bounded among us.