Part 2

"Among them walked The blue-eyed Pallas, bearing on her arm The priceless [ae]gis, ever fair and new, And undecaying; from its edge there hung A hundred golden fringes, fairly wrought, And every fringe might buy a hecatomb. With this and fierce, defiant looks she passed Through all the Achaian host, and made their hearts Impatient for the march and strong to endure The combat without pause,--for now the war Seemed to them dearer than the wished return In their good galleys to the land they loved."[7]

[7] Iliad, Book ii., lines 549-560 in Bryant's translation.

As the air gives us the breath of life, so Athena gave inspiration to the heart of man. It was her friendly mission to fill with "strength and courage" the hearts of those who were beset by difficulties of many kinds.[8] To Achilles, lamenting the death of Patroclus, she came with nectar and ambrosia, that his limbs might not grow faint with hunger.[9] It was because of her aid that Diomed could proudly declare, "Minerva will not let my spirit falter;" and when he cast his spear, "Minerva kept the weapon faithful to its aim."[10]

[8] See the Iliad, Book v., line 2, and the Odyssey, Book i., line 396.

[9] Iliad, Book xix., lines 427-429.

[10] Iliad, Book v., lines 309 and 352.

To Athena Ulysses owed his safe return to Ithaca after the adventures related in the Odyssey. It was her adroit planning which brought together the long lost father and his son Telemachus, with the faithful wife Penelope. She also found ways to help Jason when he went in search of the golden fleece; she aided Hercules in his labors and guided the hand of Perseus when he cut off the Gorgon's head.

Athena was also the patroness of the industrial arts. She was skilful in weaving and needlework, making both her own and others' beautiful robes and teaching the craft to some favored mortals. She was, in short, the personification of "inspired and impulsive wisdom in human conduct and human art, giving the instinct of infallible decision, and of faultless invention."[11] Finally, and not least important, Athena was one of the agencies in the productiveness of the earth, and hence the patron goddess of farmers.

[11] From Ruskin's _Queen of the Air_.

Our statue shows as many as possible of the attributes of the goddess. The figure is tall and stately and magnificently developed. The Greek ideal of beauty was to let nature have its way in the human body, unhindered by any such restraints of clothing as our modern fashions have invented. The broad shoulders and ample waist bespeak the splendid strength of the goddess.

The neck rises from the shoulders like a column to support the well-set head. A tunic falls in straight folds to the feet, and over this is worn a long mantle gathered over the left shoulder. Upon her breast hangs the shield, here made very small, and the helmet and spear complete her equipment as a goddess of war. At her side coils the emblematic serpent.

Her aspect is far from warlike. The face is intellectual and the expression thoughtful. This is the goddess of wisdom reflecting upon grave concerns. The mouth is set somewhat proudly, and the countenance is full of a dignified reserve. The masterful element, so strong in her character, is admirably expressed. There is something almost austere in the beauty of this virgin goddess. A majestic being like this is not one to be familiarly approached.

III

HORSEMEN FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE

To understand the history and meaning of the bas-relief reproduced in our illustration, we must first learn something of the worship of Athena in her chosen city of Athens. An annual festival was held here in her honor, and every four years occurred a very elaborate celebration called the Panathen[ae]a. The Panathen[ae]a lasted several days, and attracted throngs of people from all parts of Greece. There were contests in gymnastics and music, torch-races, horse-races, feasts and dances. Sacrifices of oxen were offered on the altar of the goddess, every state having to furnish an ox for the purpose. The climax was reached on the last day, when a great procession started at sunrise and traversed the streets of the city to the temple of Athena. It is with this procession that the bas-relief of our picture is connected, as we shall presently see.

Some time before the festival a group of Athenian maidens of the noblest families had made and embroidered for Athena a beautiful robe called the _peplos_. This was carried above the procession, stretched like a sail on the mast of a ship which was rolled through the street on wheels. The pageant was made up of many different companies. There were the Athenian magistrates, grave and dignified, maidens carrying sacrificial vessels, men bearing trays of cakes, citharists (harpists) and flute-players, old men with olive branches, four-horse chariots with armed warriors, rows of young men mounted on prancing steeds, and attendants with the cattle for the sacrifice.

During the invasion of Greece by the Persians, the temple of Athena in Athens was destroyed by fire. Later, on its site, was erected another to replace it, called the Parthenon. The city was now at the height of its prosperity under the statesman Pericles. At this time also lived the great sculptor Phidias, and to him Pericles intrusted the decoration of the new temple.

The Parthenon was built of Pentelic marble, and the temple proper was surrounded by a portico supported on rows of columns. The outside of the building was richly adorned with bas-reliefs. There were designs in the triangular spaces under the roof called _pediments_. Above the columns ran a series of panels called _metopes_. Finally, there was a _frieze_ extending around the temple wall, to be seen from within the portico. It is a bit of this frieze which is reproduced in our illustration.

The Panathenaic procession is the subject carried the entire length of this bas-relief decoration. On the portion running across one end were depicted the scenes of preparation. Men are in the act of mounting their horses, some having spirited animals to deal with, and all making ready for the start. At the opposite end is the scene of the arrival at the temple. Here sit the gods to receive the sacrifice, while the magistrates stand ready to perform the rites, and maidens approach with the vessels. On the two long sides the procession is seen actually in motion. Here are represented all the figures which took part in such occasions; old men and maidens, musicians, horsemen, charioteers, and sacrificial animals, all moving forward on their way. Group follows group, with that contrast and variety which give interest to a pageant, and with the proper orderliness to give it unity.

Our panel shows us a line of horsemen riding four abreast. Though it is broken and defaced, we catch at once the spirit of the work. The horses are splendid animals; with dilated nostrils, and necks proudly arched, they seem to prance to the music of the flutes. Though they are well matched in size and type, no two are really alike. Every one has as distinct a character as a human being, and lovers of horses might choose each his own favorite from the four.

Only two of the riders fall within our range of vision. They are handsome youths, with the perfectly formed head and finely cut profile which we learn to recognize as the Greek ideal of beauty. The line across forehead and nose is perfectly straight, and the line connecting nose and chin forms a corresponding angle. Both faces bear the stamp of refinement and high breeding which mark them as belonging to the class of Athenian nobles.

Though the two youths have so similar a cast of countenance, they are quite unlike in temperament. The farther one is of a somewhat dreamy, poetic nature. He rides with bent head as if in a reverie. His companion is of a sterner, more virile type. He looks straight before him, and carries his head with a sense of the dignity of the occasion.

Both youths sit their horses as if born in the saddle. Horse and rider are one, animated by a single dominant will. The Athenian youth were trained from childhood in all sorts of manly exercise. The normal development of the body was of first importance in the Greek educational system. These young men are typical examples of the fine specimens of manhood which that training produced.

IV

BUST OF HERA (JUNO)

"The white armed queen, Juno, the mistress of the golden throne."

It is thus that the Iliad describes Hera, the wife of Zeus, now more often called by her Roman name Juno. The marriage union between the ruler of the gods and his queen represented the Greek ideal of perfect conjugal happiness. Hera was therefore the goddess who presided over human marriages, and was the type of matronly virtue and dignity. As the queen of heaven, she had it in her power to bestow great riches, honor, and influence upon her favorites.

In the Trojan war she was, like Athena, a partisan of the Greeks, and once or twice even accompanied the war goddess to the battlefield. Usually, however, her pursuits were of a more peaceful and domestic order. She was a very beautiful goddess, "ox-eyed" in the quaint Greek phrase, that is, with large expressive eyes. She had the august and majestic bearing befitting a queen, and is usually described in classic literature as wearing a veil. A long passage in the Iliad gives an account of her toilet when arraying herself for a special occasion. After bathing in ambrosia, and anointing with oil,

"When thus her shapely form Had been anointed, and her hands had combed Her tresses, she arranged the lustrous curls, Ambrosial, beautiful, that clustering hung Round her immortal brow. And next she threw Around her an ambrosial robe, the work Of Pallas, all its web embroidered o'er With forms of rare device. She fastened it Over the breast with clasps of gold, and then She passed about her waist a zone which bore Fringes a hundred-fold, and in her ears She hung her three-gemmed ear-rings, from whose gleam She won an added grace. Around her head The glorious goddess drew a flowing veil, Just from the loom, and shining like the sun; And, last, beneath her bright white feet she bound The shapely sandals."[12]

[12] Iliad, Book xiv., lines 210-226 in Bryant's translation.

One of the prettiest stories about Hera is that in which she acted as the friend of Jason. Jason was the son of a dethroned king and was brought up by the centaur Chiron. When he came of age he set forth, with much good advice from Chiron, to reclaim his father's kingdom. On his journey he came to a swollen stream which seemed well-nigh impassable. As he was considering the danger of crossing it, an old woman on the bank begged him to carry her over. This was a hazardous undertaking, and the young man was sorely tempted to refuse her. At last his kindness triumphed and he consented. Taking her on his back, he struggled across the river at the peril of his life. When he set her safely on the opposite bank, a wonderful thing happened. "She grew fairer than all women, and taller than all men on earth; and her garments shone like the summer sea, and her jewels like the stars of heaven; and over her forehead was a veil, woven of the golden clouds of sunset, and through the veil she looked down on him with great soft heifer's eyes; with great eyes, mild and awful, which filled all the glen with light."[13] Then he knew that this was Hera, and from thenceforth she was his guide in every time of need.

[13] From Kingsley's _Greek Heroes_: the Argonauts.

The bust of Hera, reproduced in our illustration, shows how the Greeks liked to think of their queen goddess. We at once recognize the features assigned to her by tradition; the large eyes set somewhat far apart, the low, broad forehead, the mild expression. The waving hair is parted, and gathered at the back in a matronly coiffure, and over it is worn the crown of a queen.

We have seen that in Greek sculpture the artist was not always left to represent the divinities according to his own imagination. For each one a certain fixed type had been gradually thought out in very early times, and this type was handed down from generation to generation. A statue or bust could always be recognized without any title. No one, for instance, could ever mistake Zeus for Apollo, or confuse Hera and Athena.

By comparing this head of Hera with that of Athena in our previous illustration, we can see how perfectly sculpture carried out the distinctions in the two characters. Hera was less intellectual than Athena, and had perhaps more distinctly feminine charms. The mouth has less strength and firmness, the expression more mildness. Her beauty is naturally of a more matronly type than that of the virgin goddess. The crown which she wears belongs as distinctly to her as does the helmet to Athena.

A careful examination of the face suggests that it may have been studied from actual life. If, as some critics believe, the bust was made in Rome by some Greek sojourning there after the conquest of his own nation, a noble Roman matron may have been the model. Be that as it may, this is Hera as the Greeks worshipped her, and perhaps the best existing representation of the great goddess.

V

THE APOXYOMENOS

An important part of the Greek system of education was the training of the body in physical exercise. For this purpose there were gymnasia in every city, where the youth were trained in running, leaping, wrestling, throwing the javelin, and casting the discus. Great spaces were occupied by these gymnasia, which included buildings for dressing-rooms and baths, porticoes and halls used as assembly-rooms, walks, gardens, and the pal[ae]stra, or wrestling-field.

Every four years a great national festival was held at Olympia, consisting of games or contests in the various athletic sports. Every freeman of Hellenic blood had a birthright to take part in them. The contestants were required to undergo a preparatory training, often lasting months, in the gymnasium of Elis, the province in which Olympia was situated.

During the progress of the games a universal truce was proclaimed throughout Greece. All hostilities ceased for the time, and the Greeks as a united people assembled at Olympia for the joyous celebration in honor of Zeus. So important were these Olympic games that they were used as a standard for reckoning time. In assigning a date to an event, the Greeks used to say that it took place in this or that Olympiad, an Olympiad being the period of four years between two successive festivals.

We may well believe that the Olympic festivals, as well as the ordinary daily exercise in the city gymnasia, had great attractions for sculptors. The pal[ae]stra must have been a favorite resort of artists. What a sight it was when the young men came out of the dressing-rooms stripped for running, their bodies shining with oil,--what a play of muscles in the lithe young limbs as the runners "pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling!" The course was usually of deep sand, and was about three miles in length. The runners trained for special emergencies attained extraordinary speed and endurance. The race over, each youth returned to the dressing-rooms of the gymnasium and, taking a small instrument called the _strigil_, made of metal, ivory, or horn, scraped the oil from his body.

It is in this cleansing process that the young man of our illustration is engaged. The statue on this account is called the Apoxyomenos, which is a Greek word meaning "scraping himself." It represents a typical incident of the life of the gymnasium, such as might be seen any day of the year.

Tall and graceful, with slender flexible limbs, the youth stands in an attitude of rest, scraping his right arm. In his fingers is the die which marks his number in the race. His body rests upon one leg, but so light is his poise that he is ready to change his position momentarily. Neither attitude nor countenance shows any sense of exhaustion, only that delicious fatigue which makes rest so enjoyable.

There is a passage in the Greek poet Aristophanes' comedy of the Clouds, in which a speaker urges upon a young man the life of the gymnasium. "Fresh and fair in beauty-bloom," he says, "you shall pass your days in the wrestling-ground, or run races beneath the sacred olive trees, crowned with white reed, in company with a pure-hearted friend, smelling of bindweed, and leisure hours, and the white poplar that sheds her leaves, rejoicing in the prime of spring when the plane tree whispers to the lime." This is the kind of life typified in the figure of our statue,[14] a side of Greek life which no one can overlook if he would understand the genius of the Greek nation.

[14] The application of this passage to the Apoxyomenos is made by J. A. Symonds in his _Greek Poets_.

It must not be supposed that our statue represents an actual individual. It is not a portrait, but an imaginary typical figure. It is true that portrait statues of athletes were made in great numbers, as we shall note again in another chapter. It was indeed this practical experience among athletes that led sculptors to see what a perfect human figure ought to be. In the study of many different forms they developed an idea of a type common to all and uniting all the perfections. Certain sculptors figured out what they regarded as the true proportions of the ideal human form. One of these was Lysippus, who is believed to have executed this statue as an illustration of his theories. We note as the special characteristics of his ideal figure that it is tall, with slim light limbs, and a rather small head, about one eighth the total height.

We may now see how such a statue as the Apoxyomenos was a preparatory study for statues of the gods. The gods were to be represented in the most perfect human forms which it was possible to conceive, and by working out typical figures like this, forms were found worthy of the noblest subjects. Thus the proportions discovered by Lysippus were peculiarly appropriate for the lighter, fleeter gods, as Apollo and Hermes.

Lysippus executed his works entirely in bronze, and the statue reproduced in our illustration is a marble copy of the original, which was long since lost.

VI

HEAD OF THE APOLLO BELVEDERE

Ph[oe]bus Apollo was the Greek god of day, who drove the great chariot of the sun across the sky from dawn to sunset. As the sun's rays pierce the air with darts of fire, so Apollo is an archer god carrying a quiver full of arrows. The old Homeric hymn calls him--

"Heaven's far darter, the fair king of days Whom even the gods themselves fear when he goes Through Jove's high house; and when his goodly bows He goes to bend, all from their thrones arise And cluster near t' admire his faculties."[15]

[15] In Chapman's translation.

If we count up all the gifts which the sunlight brings us, we shall have a list of the offices of Apollo. He brought the spring and the summer, and ripened the grain for harvest. He warded off disease and healed the sick. One of his earliest adventures was to slay the serpent Python lurking in the caves of Mt. Parnassus. Like the legend of St. George and the Dragon, the story is an allegory of the triumph of light over darkness, health over disease, the power of good over the power of evil.

Apollo was also the patron of music, having received from Hermes the gift of the lyre. He was wont to play at the banquets of the gods, and the poet Shelley describes his music in these words:--

"And then Apollo with the plectrum strook The chords, and from beneath his hands a crash Of mighty sounds rushed up, whose music shook The soul with sweetness, and like an adept His sweeter voice a just accordance kept."[16]

[16] From Shelley's translation of the Homeric _Hymn to Mercury_.

Poetry and the dance were also under Apollo's protection, and he was the leader of the nine muses.

His highest office was prophecy, and in all his temples the priestesses gave mystic revelations of the future. The most famous of these was at Delphi, built over an opening in the ground, whence a strange vapor rose. The priestess, a young woman called a _pythia_, from the python slain by Apollo, sat over this opening on a three-legged seat, or tripod, and answered the questions brought to her. Her sayings were in verses called _oracles_, supposed to be communicated to her by the god.

Now, as might be expected, the character of Apollo was as pure and transparent as the sunlight itself. He required clean hands and pure hearts of those who worshiped him. As the sunlight shines into the dark places of the earth, driving the shadows away, so Apollo hated all that was dark and evil in human life. He was not only the rewarder of good but the punisher of evil. In Shelley's "Hymn of Apollo" these words are put in the god's mouth:--

"The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill Deceit, that loves the night and fears the day;

All men who do or even imagine ill Fly me, and from the glory of my ray Good minds and open actions take new might, Until diminished by the reign of night."

The head of Apollo in our illustration is from a famous full-length statue of the god known as the Apollo Belvedere. The name Belvedere, which is useful only to distinguish the statue from others of the same subject, comes from the fact that the marble once adorned a pavilion of the Vatican called the Belvedere.

The god stands with left arm extended holding, it is supposed, either a bow or a shield. A quiver of arrows is slung across his back, and a chlamys, or cloak, hangs over his left shoulder. His is the proud attitude of one who is defending some sacred trust. So he holds his head high and gazes steadily before him as if watching an arrow speed to its mark, or perhaps scanning the vanguard of an approaching army. The expression is not a little haughty, and one detects an almost disdainful curve of the lips as if the god regarded the enemy with scorn. The face is cut in an aristocratic mould, with fine sensitive lines which mark the lover of music and poetry. In fact, the refinement of his beauty has something of a feminine quality.

The carefully curled hair is gathered in a bow knot on the top of his head. It may indeed be supposed that the handsome young god was by no means unconscious of his charms, and took no little pains to display them to good advantage.

The Apollo, however, is a god worthy of our admiration for the noble purity of his countenance. Surely, all base thoughts and mean motives would be put to shame by this pure presence.

The poet Byron, whose "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" describes many interesting sights in Greece and Italy, has written these lines about the Apollo Belvedere:--

"The Lord of the unerring bow, The god of life, and poesy, and light-- The sun, in human limbs array'd, and brow All radiant from his triumph in the fight; The shaft hath just been shot--the arrow bright With an immortal's vengeance; in his eye And nostril beautiful disdain, and might, And majesty flash their full lightnings by, Developing in that one glance the deity."

VII

DEMETER (CERES)