used as one means of detaching
the figures from the ground; ordinarily on the under side of them,
marking the lighter colour of the hair in wild animals. But the placing
of this bar of white, or the direction of the face in deities of light,
(the faces and flesh of women being always represented as white,) may
become expressive of the direction of the light, when that direction is
important. Thus we are enabled at once to read the intention of this
Greek symbol of the course of a day (in the centre-piece of S. 208,
which gives you the types of Hermes). At the top you have an archaic
representation of Hermes stealing Io from Argus. Argus is here the
Night; his grotesque features monstrous; his hair overshadowing his
shoulders; Hermes on tip-toe, stealing upon him and taking the cord
which is fastened to the horn of Io out of his hand without his feeling
it. Then, underneath, you have the course of an entire day. Apollo
first, on the left, dark, entering his chariot, the sun not yet risen.
In front of him Artemis, as the moon, ascending before him, playing on
her lyre, and looking back to the sun. In the centre, behind the horses,
Hermes, as the cumulus cloud at mid-day, wearing his petasus heightened
to a cone, and holding a flower in his right hand; indicating the
nourishment of the flowers by the rain from the heat cloud. Finally, on
the right, Latona, going down as the evening, lighted from the right by
the sun, now sunk; and with her feet reverted, signifying the reluctance
of the departing day.

Finally, underneath, you have Hermes of the Phidian period, as the
floating cumulus cloud, almost shapeless (as you see him at this
distance); with the tortoise-shell lyre in his hand, barred with black,
and a fleece of white cloud, not level but _oblique_, under his feet.
(Compare the "+dia ton koilon--plagiai+," and the relations of
the "+aigidos eniochos Athana+," with the clouds as the moon's
messengers, in Aristophanes; and note of Hermes generally, that you
never find him flying as a Victory flies, but always, if moving fast at
all, _clambering_ along, as it were, as a cloud gathers and heaps
itself: the Gorgons stretch and stride in their flight, half kneeling,
for the same reason, running or gliding shapelessly along in this
stealthy way.)

157. And now take this last illustration, of a very different kind. Here
is an effect of morning light by Turner (S. 301), on the rocks of
Otley-hill, near Leeds, drawn long