Note 294 — Chapter XXIII
L. Dora Schmitz translation
See Plate XX., Nos. 279, 280, for a representation of the fillet and ear-rings. The four “ear-rings” remind us, both by their form and material, of the “beautifully twined tassels of solid gold” which fringed the Ægis of Athena: Iliad, II. 448, 449:—
Τῆς ἑκατὸν θύσανοι παγχρύσεοι ἠερέθονται, Πάντες ἐϋπλεκέες, ἑκατόμβοιος δὲ ἕκαστος. “all around A hundred tassels hung, rare works of art, All gold, each one a hundred oxen’s price.”
Again, when Hera adorns herself to captivate Jove, her zone is fringed with a hundred tassels, and her ear-rings are described in terms corresponding exactly to the triple leaves seen on some of Schliemann’s (Iliad, XIV. 181-3):—
Ζώσατο δὲ ζώνην ἑκατὸν θυσάνοις ἀραρυῖαν, Ἐν δ’ ἄρα ἕρματα ἧκεν ἐϋτρήτοισι λοβοῖσιν Τρίγληνα μορόεντα· χάρις δ’ ἀπελάμπετο πολλή. “Her zone, from which a hundred tassels hung, She girt about her; and, in three bright drops, Her glittering gems suspended from her ears; And all around her grace and beauty shone.”—[Ed.]