"All the Pagan Goddesses of Antiquity"

“The Cavaliere, indeed, as became a poet, paragoned her in his song to all the pagan goddesses of antiquity; and doubtless these were finer to look at than mere women; but so, it seemed, was she; for, to believe my grandmother, she made other women look no more than the big French fashion-doll that used to be shown on Ascension days in the Piazza.”[1]

The pagan goddesses of antiquity, referring to female non-Christian god figures in times pre-dating the middle ages, classically includes Greek and Roman goddesses. These are often described as supremely beautiful and so the reader may glean that Cavaliere Ascanio is paying the Duchess an extraordinary compliment. However, most tales of these mythologies include arcs of sadness, betrayal, distrust, rape, violence, wrath and death as much as they carry airs of hope, redemption, love and affirmation of life. This, perhaps, is the Duchess's dual nature expressed to the reader once more: she is as beautiful as a goddess, but may also encounter hardship and meet an ill-fated end, for their mere beauty did not spare the goddesses of antiquity either.

[1] Wharton 1901, p. 9