The Greenville Times

BLONDE-HAIRED WOMEN.

Poetry, Romance and History in All Lands Have Paid Tribute to Fair Tresses.

With a web of gold tresses Helen snared the heart of Paris; it was with blonde hair that the Magdalen wiped the feet of the Master. Dante's "Beatrice" was a blonde; Tasso's "Armide" was inspired by the fair and blonde Eleonore d'Este, one of the most beautiful and remarkable women of that epoch, and one with whom, of course, he was desperately in love. The beautiful Cleonice supplants all brunette rivals in the heart of her royal lover where she "veils her pearly tears in the shining gold of her hair." Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, rises from the sea-foam with dead-gold locks. The virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, have blonde hair, and Aurora, who opes the eastern gates of the day god, has hair as yellow as the sunshine. It was the golden hair of the beautiful Delia, mistress of Tibullus, that bewitched the poet, and Catullus sang the glories of Berenice's golden hair. The radiant ideals of Titian, Murillo and Raphael were as Eugene Sue described Adrienne de Cordoville: "Her hair was of reddish hue, of that peculiar color seen in many of the most admirable female portraits." Phryne, the fair, when brought before her judges, suddenly threw off her peplum, and dazzled the lawmakers with her wondrous beauty, clad only in the waves of rippling hair. Men have not changed through the centuries. Beauty was then, as now, a woman's best defense and her pardon was granted instantly.

Among the poets we remember the red-haired "Pyrrha" of Horace, Kingsley's "Hypatia," Bulwer's "Adeline de Montreal," Virgil's "Venus," Homer's "Agamede," Shakespeare's "Portia," Milton's "Eve," and Halleck's "Fanny."

The heroic women of history were of the red-haired sisterhood—Isabelle of Castile, Helen of Troy, Catherine I. of Russia, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth of England, Mary Stuart, Anne of Russia, ex-Empress Eugenie, Lucretia Borgia and Beatrice Cenci.—Will M. Clemens, in Woman's Home Companion.