The room in which the guests were assembled, was furnished with less of
Asiatic splendour than the private apartment of Aspasia; but in its
magnificent simplicity there was a more perfect manifestation of ideal
beauty. It was divided in the middle by eight Ionic columns, alternately
of Phrygian and Pentelic marble. Between the central pillars stood a
superb statue from the hand of Phidias, representing Aphrodite guided by
Love, and crowned by Peitho, goddess of Persuasion. Around the walls
were Phoebus and Hermes in Parian marble, and the nine Muses in ivory. A
fountain of perfumed water, from the adjoining room, diffused coolness
and fragrance, as it passed through a number of concealed pipes, and
finally flowed into a magnificent vase, supported by a troop of Naiades.

In a recess stood the famous lion of Myron, surrounded by infant Loves,
playing with his paws, climbing his back, and decorating his neck with
garlands. This beautiful group seemed actually to live and move in the
clear light and deep shadows derived from a silver lamp suspended above.

The walls were enriched with some of the choicest paintings of
Apollodorus, Zeuxis, and Polygnotus. Near a fine likeness of Pericles,
by Aristolaus, was Aspasia, represented as Chloris scattering flowers
over the earth, and attended by winged Hours.

It chanced that Pericles himself reclined beneath his portrait, and
though political anxiety had taken from his countenance something of the
cheerful freshness which characterized the picture, he still retained
the same elevated beauty--the same deep, quiet expression of
intellectual power. At a short distance, with his arm resting on the
couch, stood his nephew Alcibiades, deservedly called the handsomest man
in Athens. He was laughing with Hermippus, the comic writer, whose
shrewd, sarcastic and mischievous face was expressive of his calling.