"As to the other point which my opponent made, that a beautiful hall spurs a speaker on and makes him more ambitious, I think it does the opposite. It dazzles and frightens him, disturbs his thought and makes him more timid, for he reflects that it is disgraceful beyond everything that his discourse should not match a place so beautiful. For such surroundings put a man most clearly to the proof. It is ’ asif he should put on a handsome coat of mail and then take to his heels.before the rest, making his cowardice only the more conspicuous for his armour. This, ‘I think, is the consideration which causes Homer's famous oratorOdysseus: Il. 3, 219. to think very little of good-looks and even make himself appear ‘ an utter know-nothing’ in order that the beauty of his words may seem more striking by comparison with that which is uglier. Besides, it is inevitable that the speaker’s own mind should be occupied in looking, and that the accuracy of his thinking should be disturbed because what he is looking at gets the better of him, attracts him and ‘does not allow him to attend to what he is saying. So how can he help speaking very badly, when in spirit he is busied with the praise of all that he sees?

“I forbear to say that even those who are present and have been invited to the lecture become spectators instead of hearers when they enter such a hall as this, and no speaker is enough of a Demodocus, a Phemius, a Thamyris, an Amphion or an Orpheus to distract their minds from looking. Why, every one of them is flooded with beauty the instant he crosses the threshold, and does not give the least sign of hearing Il, 23, 430. what the speaker says or anything else, but is all absorbed in what he sees, unless he is stone-blind or like the court of the Areopagus, listens in the dark!

That the power of the tongue is no match for the eyes, one can learn by comparing the story of the Sirens with the one about the Gorgons. The Sirens charmed passing voyagers by making music and working on them with songs, and held them long when they put in. In short, their performance only exacted a delay, and no doubt one or another voyager went by them, neglecting their music. On the contrary, the beauty of the Gorgons, ° being extremely powerful and affecting the very vitals of the soul, stunned its beholdersand made them speechless, so that, as the story has it and everyone says, they turned to stone in wonder. For this reason I count what my opponent said to you a moment ago about the peacock a plea for my side: surely his attractiveness is in his looks, not in his voice! If anybody should match a nightingale or a swan against him, letting them sing - and showing the peacock silent while they were singing, I “know well that your soul would go over to him, bidding a long farewell to their songs. So invincible, it seems, is the delight of the eyes!

If you wish, I will produce you a witness in the person of a sage, who will testify on the spot that what one sees is far more effective than what one hears. Crier, summon in person Herodotus, son ‘of Lyxus, of Halicarnassus. Since he has been so kind as to comply, let him take the stand and give his testimony. Suffer him to speak to you in Ionic, to which he is accustomed. “'Master Point o’ View telleth ye true herein. Believe whatso he sayeth to this matter, esteeming sight over hearing, for in sooth ears be less trusty than eyes.’ Only the last clause is really Herodotean (I, 8, 3). “Do you hear what the witness says, that he gives the palm to sight? With reason, for words are winged and go flying off the instant they have left the lips, while the beauty of things seen is always present and lasting and entices the spectator, will he, nill he.

"Is not then a hall so beautiful and admirable a dangerous adversary to a speaker? But I ,have not yet mentioned the principal point. You yourselves, gentlemen of the jury, have been regarding the roof as we spoke, admiring the walls and examining the pictures, turning toward each of them. Do not be ashamed! It is excusable if you have felt a touch of human nature, especially in the presence of pictures so beautiful and so varied. The exactness of their technique and the combination of antiquarian interest and instructiveness in their subjects are truly seductive and call for a cultivated ‘spectator. That you may not look exclusively in that direction and leave us in the lurch, I will do my best to paint you a word-picture of them, for I think you will be glad to hear about things which you look at with admiration. Perhaps you will even applaud me for it and prefer me to my opponent, saying. that I have displayed my powers as well as he, and that I have made your pleasure double. But the difficulty of the task is patent, to represent so many pictures without colour, form or space. Word-painting is but a bald thing.

“On the right as you come in, you have a‘ combination of Argolic myth and Ethiopian romance. Perseus is killing the sea-monster and freeing Andromeda ; in a little while he will marry her and go away with her. It is an incident to his winged quest of the Gorgons. The artist has represented much in little—the maid’s modesty and terror (for she is looking down on the fight from the cliff overhead), the lad’s fond courage and the beast’s unconquerable mien. ‘As he comes on bristling with spines and inspiring terror with his gaping jaws Perseus displays the Gorgon in his left hand, and with his right assails him with the sword: the part of the monster which has seen the Medusa is already stone, and the part that is still alive is feeling the hanger’s edge. Cf. Claudian (Gigantom. 113), of a giant slain by Athena: pars moritur ferro, partes periere videndo. An echo of the same source?

“Next to this picture is portrayed another righteous deed, for which the painter derived his model, I suppose, from Euripides or Sophocles, inasmuch as they have portrayed the subject in the same way. In the Electra of each. But tais description is modelled on Sophocles (1424 ff.). The two youthful comrades Pylades of Phocis and Orestes (supposed to be dead) have secretly entered the palace and are slaying Aegisthus. Clytemnestra is already slain and is stretched on a bed half-naked, and the whole household is stunned by tle deed— some are shouting, apparently, and others casting about for a way of escape. It was a noble device on the painter’s part simply to indicate the impious element in the undertaking and pass it over as an accomplished fact, and to represent the young men lingering over the slaying of the adulterer/

“Next is a handsome god and a pretty boy, a scene of fond foolery. Branchus, sitting on a rock, is holding up a hare and teasing his dog, while the dog is apparently going to spring up at him; Apollo, standing near, is smiling in amusement at the tricks of the lad and the efforts of the dog.