 Schiller begins the essay with an analysis of an ancient Greek myth depicting Venus, the goddess of beauty. According to this myth, Venus possesses a belt that could impart grace to those who wore it, even if they themselves were not beautiful (NA XX, 252/GD 124). Grace is thus associated with but not synonymous with beauty: a person need not be beautiful to be graceful. Since the belt is a transferable accessory, the grace it bestows, Schiller continues, is contingent, not part of the wearer’s essence. But it is also objective; it exists whether or not it is being perceived. Since “movement is the only change an object can undergo without altering its identity”, Schiller concludes that grace must designate “beauty of movement” (NA XX, 253/GD 125; Curran 2005: 26). The Greeks also restricted grace to humans, meaning to those capable of moral sentiments (NA XX, 254/GD 126). Whereas natural objects cannot take credit for their beauty, then, grace implies an expression of human freedom and is an instance of “personal merit”. Grace, Schiller concludes, is “beauty of form under freedom’s influence” (NA XX 264/GD 133–4).