Ulysses (127):
–Ohio! the editor crowed in high treble from his uplifted scarlet face. My Ohio!
–A Perfect cretic! the professor said. Long, short, and long.
“A trisyllabic metrical foot having an unaccented or short syllable between two accented or long syllables, as in Peter Pan.” Also called amphimacer. (Dic.) (wiki.) Apelles (an ancient Greek painter) Ras Siyyan, Sawabi islands, Bab-el-Mandeb ( some areas of South East Asian geography); a story about Apelles pertaining to his rival Protogenes —
Apelles travelled to Protogenes’ home in Rhodes to make the acquaintance of this painter he had heard so much about. Arriving at Protogenes’ studio, he encountered an old woman who told him that Protogenes was out and asked for his name so she could report who had enquired after him. Observing in the studio a panel Protogenes had prepared for a painting, Apelles walked over to the easel, and taking up a brush told the servant to tell Protogenes “this came from me,” and drew in colour an extremely fine line across the panel. When Protogenes returned, and the old woman explained what had taken place, he examined the line and pronounced that only Apelles could have done so perfect a piece of work; Protogenes then dipped a brush into another colour and drew a still finer line above the first one, and asked his servant to show this to the visitor should he return. When Apelles returned, and was shown Protogenes’ response, ashamed that he might be bettered, he drew in a third colour an even finer line between the first two, leaving no room for another display of craftsmanship. On seeing this, Protogenes admitted defeat, and went out to seek Apelles and meet him face-to-face
(Somewhat evokes the story of Giotto’s red circle).
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