The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1823-08-26
UGLY WOMEN.

ugly WOMEN.
| The ancient inhabitants of Amathus. in the
island of Cyprus, were the most celebrated stat
uaries IN the world, which they almost exclu-
sively supplied with gods and goddesses. Every
one who had amind to be in the vogue ordered
his deity from those fashionable artists: even
Jupiter himself was hardly considered orthodox
and worship-worthy, unless emanating from the
established Pantheon of the Cypriots and as to
juno, Venus, Minerva, and Diana, it was admit
ted that they had a peculiar knack in their man.
ufacture, and it need hardly be added that they
drove thriving trade in those popular goddess
es. But this monopoly was more favourable to
the fortunes than the happiness Of the parties.
BY constantly straining above humanity and as
piring TO the representation of celestial beauty
by fostering the enthusiasm of their imaginatons
in the pursuit of the beau sdeal, they acquired
distaste, or at least an Indifference, for mortal
attractions, and turned up their noses at their
fair countrywomen for not being Junos and
DIinervas. Not one Of them equaled the model
which had been conjured up in their minds, and
not one of them, consequently, would they degn
10 notice. At public games, the women were all
huddled together, whispering and looking glum.
while the men congregated as far from them as
possible, discussing the beau ideal. Had they
been pressing upon politics, you might have
sworn it was an English party. Dancing was
extinct unless the ladies chose to lead out one
another the priests waxed lank and woe begone
for want of the marriage offerings Hymen's
altar was covered with as many cobwebs as a
poor's box successive moons rose and set with
out single honeymoon, and the whole island
threatened to become an antinuptial colony of
bachelors and old maids
In this emergency, Pygmalion, the most emf
neut statuary Of the place, falling in love with
one of his own works, figure of Diana, which
happened TO possess the beau ideal in perfection,
impored Venus to animate the marble; and she,
as is well known to every persen conversant
with authentic history, Immediately granted bis
request. So far as this couple were concerned,
one would have imagined that the evil was rem
edied; but alas! the remedy was worse than the
disease. The model of excellence was now a.
mong them, alive and breathing; the men were
perfectly mad, beIeaguering the house from
morn TO night to get peep at her; all other
women were treated with positive insult, and Of
course the whole female population was possess
ed by all the Furies. Marmorea (such was the
name of the animated statue) was no Diana in
the flesh, whatever she might have been in the
marble; if the scandalous chronicles of those
days may be believed, she had more than one
favored lover; certain it is that she was the
cause of constant feuds and battles in which
many lives were lost, and Pygmalion himself
was at last found murdered in the neighborhood
of his own house. The whole island was now
on the point of a civil war on account of this
philanthropical Helen, when one of her disap-
pointed wooers, in fit of Jealousy, stabbed her
to the heart, and Immediately after threw him
self from high rock into the sea.
Such is the tragedy which would probably be
enacting at the present moment in every coun-
try Of the world, but for the fortunate circum-
stance that we have no longer any fixed stand
ard, of beauty. real or imaginary, and by ne
cessary and happy consequence no determinate