of her, one being
draped and the other nude. The people of Cos bought the first, and the
last was purchased by the Cnidians, who placed it in the midst of an
open temple, where it could be seen from all sides. It became so famous
that many people went to Cnidos solely for the purpose of seeing it, and
the "Cnidian Venus" acquired a reputation wherever art was known. When
the oppressor of the Cnidians, King Nicodemus of Bithynia, offered to
release them from a debt of one hundred talents (about $100,000) if they
would give him the Venus, they refused, and declared that it was the
chief glory of their State.

[Illustration: FIG. 42.--THE EROS OF CENTOCELLE.]

Another story relates that Phryne, a friend of Praxiteles, had been told
by him that she could have any work which she might choose from his
workshop. She wished to have the one which the artist himself considered
the best. In order to find out which he so esteemed she sent a servant
to tell him that his workshop was on fire. He exclaimed, "All is lost if
my Satyr and Cupid are not saved!" Then Phryne told him of her trick,
and chose the Cupid, or Eros, for her gift. Phryne then offered the
statue to the temple of Thespiae, in Boeotia, where it was placed
between a statue of Venus and one of Phryne herself. This Cupid was
almost as celebrated as the Cnidian Venus, and was visited by many
people. The head given here (Fig. 42), which was found in Centocelle by
Gavin Hamilton, and is now in the Vatican, is thought by many to be a
copy of a Cupid by Praxiteles, and even of the Thespian statue; but we
have no proof of this. The Cupid, or Eros, of the art of Scopas and
Praxiteles is not the merry little creature who bears that name in later
art; he is a youth just coming into manhood, with a dreamy, melancholy
face, the tender beauty of which makes him one of the most attractive
subjects in sculpture. Caligula carried the Thespian Cupid to Rome;
Claudius restored it to its original place, but Nero again bore it to
Rome, where it was burned in a conflagration in the time of Titus.

I shall say no more of Praxiteles personally, because I wish to describe
to you the largest and grandest group of Greek statues which exists, or,
as I should say, of which we have any copies. We do not know whether
Scopas or Praxiteles made these famous figures, since they are
attributed to both these sculptors; perhaps we can never positively know
to whom to ascribe the fame of this marvellou