oceeding to the monstrous
license of showing the nipples of the breast as if the dress were molded
over them like plaster. Thus he paints the poor nymph beloved of
Apollo,--the clearest and queenliest in prophecy and command of all the
sibyls,--as an ugly crone, with the arms of Goliath, poring down upon a
single book.

219. There is one point of fine detail, however, in Botticelli's Cumaean
Sibyl, and in the next I am going to show you, to explain which I must
go back for a little while to the question of the direct relation of the
Italian painters to the Greek. I don't like repeating in one lecture
what I have said in another; but to save you the trouble of reference,
must remind you of what I stated in my fourth lecture on Greek birds,
when we were examining the adoption of the plume crests in armor, that
the crest signifies command; but the diadem, _obedience_; and that every
crown is primarily a diadem. It is the thing that binds, before it is
the thing that honors.

Now all the great schools dwell on this symbolism. The long flowing hair
is the symbol of life, and the [Greek: diadema] of the law restraining
it. Royalty, or kingliness, over life, restraining and glorifying. In
the extremity of restraint--in death, whether noble, as of death to
Earth, or ignoble, as of death to Heaven, the [Greek: diadema] is
fastened with the mort-cloth: "Bound hand and foot with grave-clothes,
and the face bound about with the napkin."

220. Now look back to the first Greek head I ever showed you, used as
the type of archaic sculpture in Aratra Pentelici, and then look at the
crown in Botticelli's Astrologia. It is absolutely the Greek form,--even
to the peculiar oval of the forehead; while the diadem--the governing
law--is set with appointed stars--to rule the destiny and thought. Then
return to the Cumaean Sibyl. She, as we have seen, is the symbol of
enduring life--almost immortal. The diadem is withdrawn from the
forehead--reduced to a narrow fillet--here, and the hair thrown free.

[Illustration: IX.

In the woods of Ida.]

221. From the Cumaean Sibyl's diadem, traced only by points, turn to
that of the Hellespontic, (Plate 9, opposite). I do not know why
Botticelli chose her for the spirit of prophecy in old age; but he has
made this the most interesting plate of the series in the definiteness
of its connection with the work from Dante, which becomes his own
prophecy in old age. The fantastic yet solemn treatment of t