Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/182

 towards the "doors of the Hall of the Cnidians, and," proceeds Plutarch, "entering therein we came upon our friends sitting down and waiting for us." Demetrius playfully suggests that their listless attitude and idle expression do not indicate attention to any important subject of discussion; but Heracleon of Megara retorts sharply upon the grammarian that people who try to solve trifling questions of grammar and philology naturally contract their brows and contort their features; but there are subjects of importance which people discuss with their eyebrows composed in their natural way. "Such," amiably replies Cleombrotus, "such is the subject we now propose to discuss;" and, the two groups having joined company, he proceeds to explain the topic to his hearers. His observations excite the cynic Didymus, surnamed Planetiades, in aloses a [Greek: l] in the future; and what were the positives from which the comparatives [Greek: cheiron] and [Greek: beltion], and the superlatives [Greek: cheiriston] and [Greek: beltiston] were formed (412 E).—"Quelques années après les guerres médiques, le pinceau de Polygnote couvrit la Lesché des Cnidiens à Delphes de scènes empruntées au monde infernal." (Bouché-Leclerq: iii. 153.)—It would have been more interesting to a modern student if Heracleon had replied that the pictures of Polygnotus were quite sufficient to keep one mentally alert, and had seized the opportunity to give us an exact description of the scenes depicted and the meaning they conveyed to the men of his time. "'Not all the treasures,' as Homer has it, 'which the stone threshold of the Far-darter holds safe within, would now,' as Mr. Myers says, 'be so precious to us as the power of looking for one hour on the greatest work by the greatest painter of antiquity, the picture by Polygnotus in the Hall of the Cnidians at Delphi, of the descent of Odysseus among the dead.'"]