aughter of Cleomedes, is especially noteworthy. Even the inferior
reliefs are characterised by an atmosphere of dignified and restrained
melancholy.

[Footnote 194: The architectural framework is believed to represent
the portal of Hades.]

We return to the Corridor de Pan and continue past the Salle des
Caryatides through halls filled with Graeco-Roman work of secondary
importance, to the sanctuary of the serenely beautiful Venus of Melos,
the best-known and most admired of Greek statues in Europe. Much has
been written by eminent critics as to the attitude of the complete
statue. Three conflicting theories may be briefly summarised: (1) That
the left hand held an apple, the right supporting the drapery; (2)
that the figure was a Victory holding a shield and a winged figure on
an orb; (3) the latest conjecture, by Solomon Reinach, that the figure
is the sea-goddess Amphitrite, who held a trident in the extended left
arm. It was to this exquisite creation[195] of idealised womanhood
that the poet Heine dragged himself in May 1848 to bid adieu to the
lovely idols of his youth, before he lay, never again to rise, on his
mattress-grave in the Rue d'Amsterdam. "As I entered the hall," he
writes, "where the most blessed goddess of beauty, our dear lady of
Melos, stands on her pedestal, I well-nigh broke down, and fell at her
feet sobbing piteously, so that even a heart of stone must be
softened. And the goddess gazed at me compassionately, yet withal so
comfortless, as who should say: 'Seest thou not that I have no arms
and cannot help thee?'"

[Footnote 195: We are credibly informed that this priceless statue was
first offered to the English Government for 4,000 francs and refused!
The French Government bought it for 6,000 francs.]

To the R. of the Salle de la Venus de Milo is the Salle Melpomene,
with a fine colossal figure of the Tragic Muse, and, No. 419[196]
(163), an excellent Head of a Woman. We enter the Salle de la Pallas
de Velletri, and ranged along its centre find: 436, a fine bust of
Alexander the Great; the Venus of Arles, 439, said to be a copy of an
early work by Praxiteles; a magnificent Head of Homer, 440; and 441,
Apollo, the Lizard-slayer, after a bronze by Praxiteles. The colossal
Pallas, in a recess to the R., was found at Velletri in 1797: it is
another Roman reproduction of a Greek bronze. Near the entrance to the
next room stands a pleasing Venus, 525, and in the centre the famous
"Borghese Gla