PHÆDRA GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I. _Frontispiece_ _Facing page_ HELEN LORD LEIGHTON 20 ANDROMACHE LORD LEIGHTON 34 PENELOPE PATTEN WILSON 50 CIRCE PATTEN WILSON 66 CALYPSO PATTEN WILSON 82 NAUSICAA PATTEN WILSON 94 CLYTÆMNESTRA HON. JOHN COLLIER 114 ELECTRA GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I. 128 CASSANDRA SOLOMON J. SOLOMON, R.A. 140 JOCASTA GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I. 172 ANTIGONE FROM THE STATUE BY HUGUES 192 ALCESTIS LORD LEIGHTON 224 MEDEA HERBERT DRAPER 238 IPHIGENIA M. NONNENBRUCH 260 DIDO GIANBATTISTA TIEPOLO 284 _Introduction_ The women in this book are the heroines of Homer, of Attic Tragedy, and of the _Æneid_ of Virgil. Their stories are taken out of the best modern translations of the old poems; and they are retold from the human standpoint, with the minimum of critical comment. It is curious, when we reflect a moment, how little we really know about the women of the classics. Their names have been familiar to us as long as we can remember. We have always been vaguely conscious of a glory clothing them—sometimes sombre and troubled, often gracious and serene, occasionally enchanting. About the greatest of them some floating hints of identity ripple on the surface of the mind. But we can by no means fit these little fragments into any clear outline of the sublime beauty of their originals. And when we light upon a reference to them in our reading, or stand before one of the innumerable works of art which they have inspired, memory is baffled. We have no clue to the spell that they have cast upon the centuries: the spell itself has no power over us; and we grope in vain for the key which would admit us to a world of delight.