Plate XVI - Aethra and Theseus *

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Plate XVI is a picture in the Pantheon, from the wall of that portico which might have been called the Poikilos of Pompeii.

The subject seems to have been taken from the story of Theseus, at the moment when he recovers his father's sword by raising the enormous stone under which it had been concealed. His mother Aethra sits near, and seems explaining the circumstances to Theseus, whose force had thus been proved according to the order of his father. Theseus is dressed in two tunics, one of which, fastened with a fibbia on the shoulder, is white, and the other purple. Aethra is dressed in a robe of yellow colour.

The ground of this painting has been left white, thus producing a striking contrast with the broad panel of black which surrounds it. This picture has suffered so much from exposure, that perhaps little of its beauty can now be traced, A. D. 1829.

To fill up the plate a coloured border is introduced above, and, below, is a pavement of very fanciful figures in black and white marble.

(*) This picture has usually been called that of Theseus and Aethra, but Signor Nibby, the Roman Professor of Archaeology, was persuaded, from the first, that the supposed rock in the background was intended to represent a cloud. In fact, the rain having at length washed away some of the stains and dirt which adhered to the picture, the female was found to be decorated with a small pair of horns, almost concealed by her hoir. In the year 1829 was found in another house a second painting, in which the attitudes of the figures were similar, and the horns more visible, and, in addition, the male had the wings of Mercury at his feet, so as to leave little doubt that both the pictures are intended to represent Mercury, when sent by Jupiter to restore Io to liberty, after having slain Argus with the sword which he holds in his hand. The rock is so undefined in either of the paintings, that it is impossible to decide whether it be a dense substance, or only the cloud in which the Thunderer sometimes visited his favourite.