"You do not understand," rejoined Menelaus, "that the perfection of pleasure consists in its bringing with it no satiety; the very fact of its being of a permanent and satisfying kind takes away from its delight. What we snatch but now and then is always new, and always in full beauty. Of such things the pleasure is not liable to decay and age, and it gains in intensity what it loses by briefness of duration; for this reason, the rose is considered the most lovely among flowers, because its beauty so quickly fades. There are two species of beauty among mortals, each bestowed by its presiding goddess;[61] the one is of heaven, the other of earth; the former chafes at being linked to what is mortal, and quickly wings its flight to heaven; the latter clings to earth, and cleaves to mortal bodies. Would you have a poet's testimony of the ascent of heavenly beauty? hear what Homer sings:—
'Ganymede,
Fairest of human kind, whom for that cause
The gods caught up to heav'n that he might dwell
For ever there, the cup-bearer of Jove.'[62]
But no woman, I trow, ever ascended to heaven for her beauty's sake, though Jove had abundance of intrigues with women: grief and exile were the portion of Alcmena; the chest and the sea were the receptacle of Danæ; and Semele became food for fire;[63] but—mark the difference—when Jove became enamoured of a Phrygian youth, he took him up to heaven to dwell with him, and pour out his nectar, depriving his predecessor of the office, she being, I rather think, a woman."
"In my opinion," said I, interrupting him, "female beauty has in it much more of the heavenly kind, because it does not so quickly fade; and the freer from decay, the nearer is anything to the divine nature. On the other hand, whatsoever in accordance with its mortal nature soon decays, is not of heaven, but of earth. I grant that Jove, enamoured of a Phrygian youth, raised him to the skies, but the beauty of woman brought him down from heaven; for a woman he bellowed under the form of a bull, for a woman he danced as a satyr, for a woman he transformed himself into a golden shower. Let Ganymede, therefore, be Jove's cup-bearer, if you will, provided that Juno[64] also reclines at the banquet, and has a youth to wait on her. For my part, I cannot think upon his rape without feelings of pity: a savage bird is sent down, he is seized and borne aloft (cruel and tyrannous treatment, methinks), and the unseemly spectacle is seen of a youth suspended from an eagle's talons. No ravenous bird of prey, but the element of fire, bore Semele aloft; nor should there seem anything strange and unnatural in this, since it was by the same means that Hercules went up to heaven. You amuse yourself at the expense of Danæ's chest, but why do you pass over Perseus, who shared her fate? For Alcmena it sufficed that Jove for love of her robbed the world of three whole days.[65]
"Passing, however, from the legends of mythology, I will speak of the real delights of love, though my experience in such matters has been small, compared with that of others, and confined to females who sell their charms for lucre. In the first place, how tender and yielding is a woman's body to the touch, how soft are her lips when kissed; her person is in every way fitted for the amorous embrace: he who is connected with her tastes genuine enjoyments; her kisses are impressed upon his lips as seals upon a letter, and she kisses with such studied art as imbues the kiss with double sweetness. Not content to use her lips, she brings her teeth also into play, and feeding upon her lover's mouth, makes her very kisses bite. What pleasure also is there in the sensation of pressing a woman's breast, while in the amorous crisis, so powerful is her excitement, that she is actually maddened with delight. Her kisses are not confined to the lips, but lovers' tongues even do their endeavour to kiss each other. At the conclusion of the amorous combat, she pants, overcome with the fiery delight, and her love-sick breath finding its way to her lips, encounter the lover's kiss still wandering there, and mingling with it both descend and exert their electric influence upon her heart, which leaps and beats, and were it not fast bound within, would desert its seat, and be drawn forth by the strength of kisses."[66]
"Upon my word," said Menelaus, "you seem no raw recruit, but a thorough veteran in the service of the Queen of Love, so minute are you in all your detail. Now hear what I have to say in favour of male beauty. With women their words and postures, everything, in short, is studied and artificial: and their beauty, if they possess any, is the laborious work of cosmetic appliances, of perfumes and of dyes;[67] divest them of these meretricious attractions, and they will appear like the daw stripped of its feathers, which we read of in the fable. The beauty of youths, on the other hand, requires no unguents or artificial essences to recommend it; nature has made it complete and sufficient in itself."[68]
[1] Il. xvi. 823.
"As when the lion and the sturdy boar,
Contend in battle on the mountain tops
For some scant rivulet which both desire,
Ere long the lion quelle the panting boar."
Cowper's Tr.
[2] καμπαί, signify properly, the changes and inflections in a piece of music.