should be no strict or binding conditions, therefore the Graces
wear loose flowing tunics, which are transparent, because benefits
love to be seen. People who are not under the influence of Greek
literature may say that all this is a matter of course; but there
can be no one who would think that the names which Hesiod has given
them bear upon our subject. He named the eldest Aglaia, the middle
one Euphrosyne, the third Thalia. Every one, according to his own
ideas, twists the meaning of these names, trying to reconcile them
with some system, though Hesiod merely gave his maidens their names
from his own fancy. So Homer altered the name of one of them,
naming her Pasithea, and betrothed her to a husband, in order that
you may know that they are not vestal virgins. [Footnote: i.e. not
vowed to chastity.]

I could find another poet, in whose writings they are girded, and
wear thick or embroidered Phrygian robes. Mercury stands with them
for the same reason, not because argument or eloquence commends
benefits, but because the painter chose to do so. Also Chrysippus,
that man of piercing intellect who saw to the very bottom of truth,
who speaks only to the point, and makes use of no more words than
are necessary to express his meaning, fills his whole treatise with
these puerilities, insomuch that he says but very little about the
duties of giving, receiving, and returning a benefit, and has not
so much inserted fables among these subjects, as he has inserted
these subjects among a mass of fables. For, not to mention what
Hecaton borrows from him, Chrysippus tells us that the three Graces
are the daughters of Jupiter and Eurynome, that they are younger
than the Hours, and rather more beautiful, and that on that account
they are assigned as companions to Venus. He also thinks that the
name of their mother bears upon the subject, and that she is named