Explore "King Candaules" by Théophile Gautier on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In our character of poet we have the right to lift the saffron-coloured _flammeum_ which concealed the young bride, being more fortunate in this wise than the Sardians, who after a whole day's waiting were obliged to return to their houses, and were left, as before, to their own conjectures.
Nyssia was really far superior to her reputation, great as it was. It seemed as though Nature in creating her had resolved to exhaust her utmost powers, and thus make atonement for all former experimental attempts and fruitless essays. One would have said that, moved by jealousy of the future marvels of the Greek sculptors, she also had resolved to model a statue herself, and to prove that she was still sovereign mistress in the plastic art.