FIGURE i.i Giambattista Tiepolo. Allegory of the Power of Eloquence, 1725-26. Fresco. Venice, Palazzo Sandi. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, New York. wife, Eurydice, who had been killed by a snakebite. him by chains. Antonio Morassi, who first pub- With music so moving it brought even the Furies lished the sketch in 1955, identified this scene as to tears, Orpheus persuaded Pluto to release 5 Hercules and the chained Cercopes. The Eurydice, which the god granted on the condition Cercopes were gnomes whom Hercules seized that Orpheus not gaze upon her until he had and carried away in chains after they attempted passed Cerberus at the gates of the underworld. to rob him. Dangling behind his back, the In Tiepolo's sketch, Orpheus—supporting his 5 Cercopes joked about their view—Hercules wife with one hand and raising a stringed instru- hairy and sunburned buttocks — and their witty ment with the other—crosses the rocks near comments caused the hero to laugh so uproari- the exit of Hades, with its menacing dark cloud, ously that he agreed to free them. while the three-headed Cerberus barks fiercely While the story lends itself to the overall in front of them. Tiepolo thus presents the theme of eloquence, the large crowd of figures, charged moment just before Orpheus, fearing Hercules' lack of amusement, and the position that Eurydice might falter on the rocky path, of the chains indicate another story Hercules glances back at his wife and loses her forever. Gallicus captivating his audience. This ancient Across from Amphion appears the strap- Celtic tradition, first described by Lucian in ping figure of Hercules, clad in animal skins, who Herakles: An Introduction, casts Hercules, rather strides above eight prostrate figures attached to than Mercury, as the god of eloquence and 24