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114 DARKNESS AND DAWN
the fine Greek ideal, faultless in its lines and youthful contour.
Aliturus was by birth a Jew, and was endowed with
the splendid beauty which still makes some young Arabs the
types of perfect manhood. Both of them danced after supper
on the day which succeeded their arrival, and it was hard to
1
say which of them excelled the other.
First Paris danced, in his fleshings of the softest Canusian
wool, dyed a light red. His dress revealed the perfect outline
of a figure that united fineness with strength. He represented
in pantomimic dance the scene of Achilles in the island
of Scyros. He brought every incident arid person before their
eyes the virgins as they spun in the palace of their father,
Lycomedes the fair
;
youth concealed as a virgin in the midst
of them, and called Pyrrha from his golden locks the maiden
;
Deidamia, whom he loved ;
the eager summons of Ulysses
at his gate ;
the ear-shattering trumpet of Diornedes ;
the
presents brought by the disguised ambassadors the ; young
warrior betraying himself by the eagerness with which he
turns from jewels and ornaments to nodding helmet and
bright cuirass the
; doffing of his feminine apparel the
; leaping
forth in his gleaming panoply. Nothing could be more
marvellous than the whole impersonation. So vivid was the
illusion that the guests of Nero could hardly believe that they
had seen but one young man before them, and not a company
of varied characters.
Yet hardly less subtle was the kindling of the imagination
when Aliturus ' danced,' as it was called, the ' Death of
Hector' in the tragic style which had first been introduced
by the celebrated Bathyllus of Alexandria. They seemed to
see the hero bid farewell to his Andromache, and go bounding
forth to meet the foe ;
to see enacted before them the Might of
Hector ;
the deceitful spectre of Deiphobus the combat
; ;
the
dying prophecy the corpse of the gallant Trojan dragged
;
round the walls of Troy Priam and Hecuba
;
tearing their grey
locks.
They seemed to hear the wild wail of Andromache,
the tender plaint of Helen, the frenzied utterances of Cassandra
;
and when the scene ended there was not one of them who
was not thrilled through and through with pity, with terror,
with admiration.
These scenes were innocent and not ignoble, but softer and
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Note 21. Ancient dancing.