. Pompeii : its life and art . ng isa fragment, badly preserved, in the tablinum of the house ofCaecilius Jucundus. Thecomposition probably rep-resented Priam turningback toward Troy withthe body of Hector, whichhe had just ransomed. Inthe fragment, shown inFig. 259, we see the agedHecuba, together with adaughter or maidservant,looking with unutterableanguish from an upperwindow down upon thescene. The gray-haired queen, whose features still retain much of their youthful beauty,gazes upon the dust-stained body of her son with grief too deepfor tears. In the majority of paintings the subjects o
. Pompeii : its life and art . ng isa fragment, badly preserved, in the tablinum of the house ofCaecilius Jucundus. Thecomposition probably rep-resented Priam turningback toward Troy withthe body of Hector, whichhe had just ransomed. Inthe fragment, shown inFig. 259, we see the agedHecuba, together with adaughter or maidservant,looking with unutterableanguish from an upperwindow down upon thescene. The gray-haired queen, whose features still retain much of their youthful beauty,gazes upon the dust-stained body of her son with grief too deepfor tears. In the majority of paintings the subjects of which arc takenfrom myths the characters are represented either in a relation oirest, not suggestive of intense emotion, or in a lasting situationof dramatic interest, which is devoid of momentary excitementand does not suggest the display of evanescent feeling. Thesituation is sometimes cheerful, sometimes calculated to arousesympathy; if the characters were not mythological, the scenesmight pass for those of everyday Fig. 259.— Hecuba with a youngei companionlooking from an upper window as Priam bringsback the body oi Hector. Thus we see Narcissus 470 POMPEII looking at the reflection of his face in a clear spring in the for-est ; Polyphemus, on the seashore, receiving from the hands ofa Cupid a letter sent by Galatea; and Apollo playing on the lyrefor Admetus, while the herd grazes around him. To the same series of cheerful or idyllic pictures belong theSelene bending over the sleeping Endymion ; Paris and Oenoneon Mt. Ida, Paris cutting the name of his sweetheart in the barkof a tree ; and Perseus with Andromeda looking at the reflectionof the head of Medusa in a pool. With these we may classalso the representations of Bacchus as he moves along with hisrollicking band and suddenly comes upon the sleeping Ariadne;and Hercules with Omphale, sometimes sitting in womans attirebeside her and spinning, sometimes staggering in his cups orlying drunk upon the ground whil
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