The Princess of Babylon by Voltaire Fiction Classics Literary

<p><strong>But what was more admirable in Babylon and eclipsed everything else was the only daughter of the king named Formosanta. </strong>It was from her pictures and statues that in succeeding times Praxiteles sculptured his Aphrodita and the Venus of Medicis. Heavens! what a difference between the original and the copies! King Belus was prouder of his daughter than of his kingdom. She was eighteen years old. It was necessary she should have a husband worthy of her; but where was he to be found? An ancient oracle had ordained that Formosanta could not belong to any but him who could bend the bow of nearly-mythic Nimrod.</p><p>Three kings came to try to bend Nimrod's storied bow -- rulers from Egypt and India and Scythia -- but also came a young man not of royal mien upon a unicorn.</p>