n a circle, hand in hand? It means
that the course of a benefit is from hand to hand, back to the giver;
that the beauty of the whole chain is lost if a single link fails, and
that it is fairest when it proceeds in unbroken regular order. In the
dance there is one, esteemed beyond the others, who represents the
givers of benefits. Their faces are cheerful, as those of men who give
or receive benefits are wont to be. They are young, because the memory
of benefits ought not to grow old. They are virgins, because benefits
are pure and untainted, and held holy by all; in benefits there should
be no strict or binding conditions, therefore the Graces wear loose
flowing tunics, which are transparent, because benefits love to be seen.
People who are not under the influence of Greek literature may say that
all this is a matter of course; but there can be no one who would think
that the names which Hesiod has given them bear upon our subject. He
named the eldest Aglaia, the middle one Euphrosyne, the third Thalia.
Every one, according to his own ideas, twists the meaning of these
names, trying to reconcile them with some system, though Hesiod merely
gave his maidens their names from his own fancy. So Homer altered
the name of one of them, naming her Pasithea, and betrothed her to a
husband, in order that you may know that they are not vestal virgins.
[Footnote: i.e. not vowed to chastity.]

I could find another poet, in whose writings they are girded, and wear
thick or embroidered Phrygian robes. Mercury stands with them for the
same reason, not because argument or eloquence commends benefits,
but because the painter chose to do so. Also Chrysippus, that man of
piercing intellect who saw to the very bottom of truth, who speaks
only to the point, and makes use of no more words than are necessary to
express his meaning, fills his whole treatise with these puerilities,
insomuch that he says but very little about the duties of giving,
receiving, and returning a benefit, and has not so much inserted fables
among these subjects, as he has inserted these subjects among a mass of
fables. For, not to mention what Hecaton borrows from him, Chrysippus
tells us that the three Graces are the daughters of Jupiter and
Eurynome, that they are younger than the Hours, and rather more
beautiful, and that on that account they are assigned as companions
to Venus. He also thinks that the name of their mother bears upon the
subject, and that she is nam