Note 127 — ESSAYS. (continued 2)

Lucian’s description of the Calumny is as follows: “On the right hand side sits a man with ears almost as long as Midas’s, stretching forth his hand towards the figure of Calumny, who appears at a distance coming up to him; he is attended by two women, who, I imagine, represent Ignorance and Suspicion. From the other side approaches Calumny, in the form of a woman, to the last degree beautiful, but seeming warmed and inflamed, as full of anger and resentment; bearing a lighted torch in her left hand, and with her right dragging by the hair of his head a young man, who lifts up his eyes to Heaven, as calling the gods to witness his innocence. Before her stands a pale ugly figure, with sharp eyes, and emaciated, like one worn down with disease, which we easily perceive is meant for Envy; and behind are two women, who seem to be employed in dressing, adorning, and assisting her, one of whom, as my interpreter informed me, was Treachery, and the other Deceit; at some distance, in the back part of the picture, stands a woman in a mourning habit, all torn and ragged, which we were told represented Penitence; as she turned her eyes back she blushed and wept at the sight of Truth, who was approaching towards her.” It is evident that Botticelli first, and afterwards Raffaelle, followed this account of Lucian. Albert Durer also, in his decorative picture, on the walls of the town hall at Neurembourg, drew from the same source.

Lucian says that Apelles had been held in esteem by Ptolemy, until the rivals of Apelles made the king believe that he had conspired at Tyre, with one Theodotus, against him, and that the defection of Tyre and the loss of Pelusium were owing to the advice of Apelles. Now nothing could be more false, Apelles never was at Tyre. But Ptolemy, without considering this, was about to order him to be beheaded. Afterwards, when convinced of his innocence, he is said to have given him a hundred talents, and likewise his accuser for a slave.