Πολυδεύκεος δὲ μηρούς,
Διονυσίην δὲ νηδύν.
· · · · ·
τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα δὲ τοῦτον
καθελών, ποίει Βάθυλλον.
Thus Lucian, to give an idea of the beauty of Panthea, points to the most beautiful female statues by the old sculptors.[[137]] What is this but a confession that here language of itself is powerless; that poetry stammers, and eloquence grows dumb, unless art serve as interpreter.
XXI.
But are we not robbing poetry of too much by taking from her all pictures of physical beauty?
Who seeks to take them from her? We are only warning her against trying to arrive at them by a particular road, where she will blindly grope her way in the footsteps of a sister art without ever reaching the goal. We are not closing against her other roads whereon art can follow only with her eyes.
Homer himself, who so persistently refrains from all detailed descriptions of physical beauty, that we barely learn, from a passing mention, that Helen had white arms[[138]] and beautiful hair,[[139]] even he manages nevertheless to give us an idea of her beauty, which far surpasses any thing that art could do. Recall the passage where Helen enters the assembly of the Trojan elders. The venerable men see her coming, and one says to the others:[[140]]—