air, rather than on the earth. _7._ A square
and lofty obelisk of brass; the sides were embossed with a variety
of picturesque and rural scenes, birds singing; rustics laboring, or
playing on their pipes; sheep bleating; lambs skipping; the sea, and a
scene of fish and fishing; little naked cupids laughing, playing, and
pelting each other with apples; and, on the summit, a female figure,
turning with the slightest breath, and thence denominated _the wind's
attendant_. _8._ The Phrygian shepherd presenting to Venus the prize
of beauty, the apple of discord. _9._ The incomparable statue of Helen,
which is delineated by Nicetas in the words of admiration and love: her
well-turned feet, snowy arms, rosy lips, bewitching smiles, swimming
eyes, arched eyebrows, the harmony of her shape, the lightness of her
drapery, and her flowing locks that waved in the wind; a beauty that
might have moved her Barbarian destroyers to pity and remorse. _10._ The
manly or divine form of Hercules, [96] as he was restored to life by the
masterhand of Lysippus; of such magnitude, that his thumb was equal to
his waist, his leg to the stature, of a common man: [97] his chest ample,
his shoulders broad, his limbs strong and muscular, his hair curled, his
aspect commanding. Without his bow, or quiver, or club, his lion's skin
carelessly thrown over him, he was seated on an osier basket, his right
leg and arm stretched to the utmost, his left knee bent, and supporting
his elbow, his head reclining on his left hand, his countenance
indignant and pensive. _11._ A colossal statue of Juno, which had once
adorned her temple of Samos, the enormous head by four yoke of oxen was
laboriously drawn to the palace. _12._ Another colossus, of Pallas or
Minerva, thirty feet in height, and representing with admirable spirit
the attributes and character of the martial maid. Before we accuse the
Latins, it is just to remark, that this Pallas was destroyed after the
first siege, by the fear and superstition of the Greeks themselves.
[98] The other statues of brass which I have enumerated were broken and
melted by the unfeeling avarice of the crusaders: the cost and labor
were consumed in a moment; the soul of genius evaporated in smoke; and
the remnant of base metal was coined into money for the payment of the
troops. Bronze is not the most durable of monuments: from the marble
forms of Phidias and Praxiteles, the Latins might turn aside with stupid
contempt; [99] but u