Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 15. (Budapest, 1995)

BALLA Gabriella: „Szerelem és ármány" - Mercurius és Aglauros. A kerámia gyűjtemény egyik „istoriato" tálja

at senior, postquam est merces geminata, "sub Ulis montibus" inquit "erunt," et erant sub montibus Ulis, risit Atlantiades et "me mihi, perfide, prodis? me mihi prodis?" ait periuraque pectora vertit in durum silicem, qui nunc quoque dicitur index, inque nihil merito vetus est infamia saxo.

19 On the left of the dish, there is a young man in the background; in addition, there is a flying figure above him holding a wand in his hand (111. 3). Ovid describes Battus as a well-known old man, but here we have here is a youth standing on a stone. Although the figure of Mercury cannot be identified for certain, either, I still believe that the painting of the dish depicts, in narrative terms, first the meeting of Battus and Mercury and, later, that of Mercury and Aglauros/Herse. From the rest of the story one learns how Minerva, infuriated by Aglauros' greed and an earlier sin of hers, tells Envy to infect Aglauros with her venom. As a result, while Aglauros, "the intriguer", sits at her sister's threshold waiting for Mercury to arrive so that she can prevent his meeting Herse, the venom permeates her body and, finally, she, too, is turned into stone.

20 In the two previously-mentioned editions of Ovid's work, the German one and the Giovanni Bonsignore paraphrased version, there are illustrations (111. 9) of this part of the story, too.