Part 2

From a photograph by the English Photo Co., Athens. The best extant example of a Greek theatre. In the centre is the circular _orchestra_, where the chorus danced and sang, and behind it are relics of the stage-buildings. In the centre of the orchestra was an altar of Dionysus. This theatre was built about the middle of the fourth century B.C. The auditorium would hold about 15,000 spectators. _See_ p. 175

55 MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES AT ATHENS 182

From a photograph by Rhomaides. _See_ p. 182. The whole monument would form a base for the prize tripod

56 RED-FIGURED VASE AND PYXIS 184

Collotype plate, from originals in the British Museum, Third Vase Room: Vase E 155; Pyxis D 11 (_see_ illustration, p. 45). The vase is a fine two-handled _kantharos_ of the late fifth century. The background is painted black and the figures left red. _See_ p. 191

The Pyxis (lady’s jewel-box) shows a marriage procession, drawn in colours on a light ground. The bride is being led to the family altar, preceded by a flute-player. _See_ p. 191

57 WHITE POLYCHROME VASES (LECYTHI) 186

Collotype plate, from originals in the British Museum, Third Vase Room, Vases D 54 and D 60 in Case F. Vessels, specially painted, to contain the oil used in funerals and buried in the tomb. The youth in the mourning robe is holding an oil-jar and gazing at the monument of his deceased friend. Compare Vase Plate, Fig. 4, and _see_ p. 191

58 ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE [TOMBSTONE RELIEF] 188

From a photograph by Alinari of the original at Rome. _See_ p. 192

59 THE MOURNING ATHENA 190

From a photograph by the English Photo Co. of the original in the Athens Museum. _See_ p. 193

60 TWO TOMBSTONE RELIEFS, FROM THE CERAMEIKOS, ATHENS 192

From photographs of originals in the Athens Museum. _See_ p. 193

61 APOLLO SAUROCTONOS (THE LIZARD-SLAYER) (FIG. 1) 194

Collotype plate, from a photograph by Anderson of the original in the Vatican. _See_ p. 217

THE CNIDIAN APHRODITE (FIG. 2)

Collotype plate, from a photograph by Mansell & Co. _See_ p. 214. This Vatican statue of Aphrodite has never been photographed in its original nudity, but a cast was made and from it this photograph was taken

62 GIRL’S HEAD 196

From a photograph by Bruckmann of the original at Munich. _See_ p. 214

63 THE MARBLE FAUN, AFTER PRAXITELES (FIG. 1) 198

From a photograph by Anderson of a copy in the Capitoline Gallery, Rome. _See_ p. 214

THE EROS OF CENTOCELLE (FIG. 2)

From a photograph by Anderson of a copy in the Vatican. _See_ p. 215

64 HEAD OF A YOUTH (FIG. 1) 202

From a photograph by Brogi of the bronze at Naples. _See_ p. 215

WINGED HEAD OF HYPNOS (SLEEP) (FIG. 2)

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. of the original bronze in the British Museum. _See_ p. 220

65 THE HERMES OF PRAXITELES 204

From a photograph by the English Photo Co., Athens, of the original at Olympia. _See_ p. 215

66 THE HERMES OF PRAXITELES: HEAD 206

From a photograph by the English Photo Co., Athens, of the original at Olympia. _See_ p. 215

67 APOLLO AND MARSYAS 208

From a photograph by the English Photo Co., Athens, of the relief from Mantinea. _See_ p. 216

68 MELEAGER: HEAD, AFTER SCOPAS 210

From a photograph by Anderson of the marble at Rome. The head, which does not belong to the body, has been recognised as representing the style of Scopas (fourth century B.C.). _See_ p. 218

69 THE DEMETER OF CNIDOS 212

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. of the marble in the British Museum. _See_ p. 219

70 SCULPTURED COLUMN FROM THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT EPHESUS 214

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. of the original in the British Museum. This belonged to the new temple built after the fire of 356 B.C. _See_ p. 219

71 FIGURE OF A YOUTH. FROM CERIGO 216

From a photograph by the English Photo Co. of the bronze at Athens. _See_ p. 220

72 THE “LUDOVISI” ARES 218

From a photograph by Anderson of the marble at Rome. The cupid between the god’s feet is certainly a later addition. _See_ p. 220

73 THE “RONDANINI” MEDUSA (FIG. 1) 220

From a photograph by Bruckmann of the marble copy at Munich. The original was in bronze. _See_ p. 220

RELIEF FROM THE MAUSOLEUM (FIG. 2)

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. of the original in the British Museum. Representing a combat between Greeks and Amazons. _See_ p. 222

74 STATUE OF MAUSOLUS, FROM THE MAUSOLEUM 222

As the last. _See_ p. 222

75 A NIOBID 224

From a photograph by Anderson of the recently discovered original at Rome. _See_ p. 222

76 ATHLETES BOXING. FROM A PANATHENAIC AMPHORA 226

Drawn from Vase B 607 in the Fourth Vase Room, British Museum. It is inscribed with the name of the Archon Pythodelos, giving the date 336 B.C. The figures are in black, but this is a survival from the earlier style. _See_ p. 224

77 COINS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY 228

Photographed from casts in the British Museum. _See_ p. 225

CASE III.

1 GOLD STATER OF RHODES, A 37

_Obverse_: Head of the Sun-god. _Reverse_: A rose

2 ATHENIAN GOLD STATER, B 30

_Obverse_: Head of Athena. _Reverse_: Owl and olive-branch

3 GOLD STATER OF PANTICAPÆUM, B 2

_Obverse_: Head of Pan. _Reverse_: Gryphon and barley (the latter typifying the corn trade)

4 SILVER TETRADRACHM OF TENEDOS, A 20

_Obverse_: Janiform head. _Reverse_: Double axe and bee in a wreath

5 SICILIAN DECADRACHM, C 29

_Obverse_: Head of Arethusa or Persephone. _Reverse_: Four-horse chariot with Victory above and armour below

78 GREEK GEMS 230

From photographs by Mansell & Co. of gems in the British Museum. _See_ p. 225

1 A QUOIT-THROWER OR HYACINTHUS; probably fourth century B.C.

2 A WOUNDED WARRIOR

3 HARPER (compare Pl. 32). Fine work of the fifth century, cornelian intaglio

4 DRUNKEN SATYR, agate scarab

5 HOMERIC SCENE. ? fifth century

6 IDEAL HEAD IN THE GARB OF HERACLES; late work

79 CORINTHIAN CAPITAL 232

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. of the originals in the British Museum. _See_ p. 226

80 FIVE TANAGRA STATUETTES 234

From photographs by Mansell & Co. of originals in the British Museum. _See_ p. 227

81 BUST OF “SOCRATES” 236

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. Not an authentic portrait but a later attempt to express the rugged exterior of the sage which is often a subject of humorous allusion in Plato and elsewhere. _See_ p. 231

82 ALEXANDER AT ISSUS. 242

Collotype plate, from a photograph by Brogi of the mosaic at Pompeii. _See_ p. 245

83 “THE SARCOPHAGUS OF ALEXANDER” FROM SIDON: LION-HUNT 244

From a photograph by Seban and Joaillier of the original at Constantinople. _See_ p. 246

84 PORTION OF THE EASTERN FRIEZE OF THE SARCOPHAGUS OF ALEXANDER 246

Reproduced in colour from Plate XXXV in “Une Nécropole Royale à Sidon,” by MM. O. Hamdy Bey and Th. Reinach, by kind permission of M. Ernest Leroux, of Paris. _See_ p. 246

85 ALEXANDER THE GREAT 248

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. of the bust in the British Museum. _See_ p. 246

86 RELIEF FROM PERGAMUM 250

Collotype plate, from a photograph by Titzenthaler of the original at Berlin. This is a clever reconstruction of the great altar of Zeus erected by the Attalids near the beginning of the second century B.C. The subject is the combat between gods and giants. _See_ p. 251

87 APHRODITE OF MELOS (THE VENUS OF MILO) 252

From a photograph by Alinari of the marble in the Louvre. _See_ p. 251

88 THE VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE 254

From a photograph by Alinari of the marble in the Louvre. _See_ p. 252

89 STATUE OF ARISTOTLE 256

From a photograph by Anderson of the original in the Palazzo Spada, Rome. An ideal conception of a philosopher rather than an authentic portrait. _See_ p. 253

90 THE PORTLAND VASE 262

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. of the original in the British Museum. No certain interpretation of the figures has been made. _See_ p. 263

91 THE FARNESE BULL 264

From a photograph by Brogi of the original at Naples. Depicts how Zethus and Amphion punished their stepmother, Dirce: a degenerate work by two sculptors of the Rhodian school in the first or second century B.C. _See_ p. 265

THE PRAYING BOY 266

From a photograph by Mansell & Co. of the cast in the British Museum. Original bronze at Berlin. _See_ p. 220

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

PAGE

TABLET OF CRETAN LINEAR SCRIPT, FROM CNOSSOS 13

From the _Annual_ of the British School at Athens, vi. plate ii

BLACK VASE, FROM CYPRUS 18

British Museum, First Vase Room, Case 7, C 81

PLAN OF NEOLITHIC HOUSE 18

TERRA-COTTA FIGURE, FROM PETSOFÀ 20

From the _Annual_ of the B.S.A., ix. plate x

TERRA-COTTA IDOL, FROM TROY 20

British Museum, Terra-cotta Room, Case 1, A 38

VOTIVE TERRA-COTTA, FROM PETSOFÀ 21

From the _Annual_ of the B.S.A., ix. plate viii

KAMÁRES CUP 22

From the _Annual_ of the B.S.A., ix. p. 305

KAMÁRES “HOLE-MOUTHED” JAR 22

From the _Annual_ of the B.S.A., ix. p. 306

CRETAN FILLER 24

From the _Annual_ of the B.S.A., ix. p. 311

CUTTLE-FISH KYLIX 25

British Museum, First Vase Room, Case 19

CLAY SEAL IMPRESSION: PUGILIST 25

From the _Annual_ of the B.S.A., ix. p. 56

CITADEL OF TIRYNS 27

After Schliemann’s reconstruction; from his “Tiryns,” by kind permission of Mr. John Murray

BEEHIVE TOMB: SECTION 29

CRETAN CUP OF DEGENERATE STYLE 31

From the _Annual_ of the B.S.A., ix. p. 318

CLAY SEAL IMPRESSION, CRUCIFORM SYMBOL 34

From the _Annual_ of the B.S.A., ix. p. 90

WARRIOR STÉLÉ FROM MYCENÆ 37

From Ridgeway’s “Early Age of Greece,” i. p. 314, by kind permission of the Cambridge University Press. An early representation of the arms and dress of the Northern Invaders

MARRIAGE PROCESSION 45

From a pyxis in the British Museum, Third Vase Room, Case C, D 11 (_see_ Plate 56)

SEATED STATUE FROM BRANCHIDÆ 55

British Museum, Room of Archaic Sculpture, No. 9

GEOMETRIC VASE 56

British Museum, First Vase Room, Case 34, No. 362

COIN OF CROTON, SHOWING TRIPOD 63

British Museum, Room of Greek and Roman Life, III. 19

SHIP OF ODYSSEUS 64

From a vase in the British Museum, Third Vase Room, Case G, E 440

LYRE AND CITHARA 68

From vases, &c.

THE “DISCOBOLUS” OF MYRON 80

Outline drawing of the statue in the British Museum

COIN OF CORINTH 105

British Museum, Room of Greek and Roman Life, II. B 25. _Obverse_: Head of Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet. _Reverse_: Pegasus

GREEK ARCHITECTURE 107

Diagram illustrating Doric and Ionic styles

COIN OF PHANES 123

British Museum, Room of Greek and Roman Life, I. A 7

OSTRAKON OF THEMISTOCLES 141

COIN OF ELIS: HEAD OF ZEUS 148

British Museum, Room of Greek and Roman Life, III. B 33

COIN OF PHILIP II. OF MACEDON: HEAD OF ZEUS 148

British Museum, as above, III. B 18

THE ERECHTHEUM: MODERN RECONSTRUCTION 166

THEATRICAL FIGURES, COMIC AND TRAGIC 175

From statuettes in the British Museum

COIN OF THRACE: ALEXANDER THE GREAT 246

British Museum, Room of Greek and Roman Life, IV. B 20. Showing Alexander as a god with the horns of Ammon

THE LAOCOÖN GROUP 264

Drawn from a photograph of the original at Rome

LATE GREEK VASE PAINTING 266

British Museum, Vase Room, IV. Case 52, F 308

INTRODUCTION

αἰ δὲ τεαὶ ξώουσιν ἀηδόνες ᾖσιν ὁ πάντων ἁρπακτὴρ Ἀῒδης οὐκ ἐπὶ χεῖρα βαλεῖ CALLIMACHUS.

“Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake, For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.”

HELLENISM

“Greece” and “Greek” mean different things to different people. To the man in the street, if he exists, they stand for something proverbially remote and obscure, as dead as Queen Anne, as heavy as the British Museum. To the average finished product of Higher Education in England they recall those dog-eared text-books and grammars which he put away with much relief when he left school; they waft back to him the strangely close atmosphere of the classical form-room. The historian, of course, will inform us that all Western civilisation has Greece for its mother and nurse, and that unless we know something about her our knowledge of the past must be built upon sand. That is true: only nobody cares very much what historians say, for they deal with the past, and the past is dead and disgusting. To some cultured folk who have read Swinburne (but not Plato) the notion of the Greeks presents a world of happy pagans, children of nature, without any tiresome ideas of morality or self-control, sometimes making pretty poems and statues, but generally basking in the sun without much on. There are also countless earnest students of the Bible who remember what St. Paul said about those Greeks who thought the Cross foolishness and those Athenians who were always wanting to hear something new. St. Paul forgot that “the Cross” was a typical Stoic paradox. Then there are a vast number of people who do not distinguish between “Greek” and “classical.” By “classics” they understand certain tyrannous conventions and stilted affectations against which every free-minded soul longs to rebel. They distinguish the classical element in Milton and Keats as responsible for all that is dull and far-fetched and unnatural. Classicism repels many people of excellent taste, and Greek art is apt to fall under the same condemnation. It is only in the last generation that scholars have been able to distinguish between the true Greek and the false mist of classicism which surrounds it. Till then everybody had to look at the Greeks through Roman and Renaissance spectacles, confounding Pallas with Minerva and thinking of Greek art as represented by the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoön. We are now able, thanks to the labours of scholars and archæologists, to see the Greeks as they were, perfectly direct, simple, natural, and reasonable, quite as antagonistic to classicism as Manet and Debussy themselves.

Lastly, there are a few elderly people who have survived the atmosphere of “the classics,” and yet cherish the idea of Greece as something almost holy in its tremendous power of inspiration. These are the people who are actually pleased when a fragment of Menander is unearthed in an Egyptian rubbish-heap, or a fisherman fishing for sponges off Cape Matapan finds entangled in his net three-quarters of a bronze idol. And they are not all schoolmasters either. Some of them spend their time and money in digging the soil of Greece under a blazing Mediterranean sun. Some of them haunt the auction-rooms and run up a fragment of pottery, or a marble head without a nose, to figures that seem quite absurd when you look at the shabby clothes of the bidders. They talk of Greece as if it were in the same latitude as Heaven, not Naples. The strange thing about them is that though they evidently feel the love of old Greece burning like a flame in their hearts, they find their ideas on the subject quite incommunicable. Let us hope they end their days peacefully in retreats with classical façades, like the Bethlehem Hospital.

Admitting something of this weakness, it is my aim here to try and throw some fresh light upon the secret of that people’s greatness, and to look at the Greeks not as the defunct producers of antique curios, but, if I can, as Keats looked at them, believing what he said of Beauty, that

“It will never Pass into nothingness, but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.”

It cannot be done by studying their history only. Their history must be full of battles, in which they were only moderately great, and petty quarrels, to which they were immoderately prone. Their literature, which presents the greatest bulk of varied excellence of any literature in the world, must be considered. But as it can only reach us through the watery medium of translation we must supplement it by studying also their statues and temples, their coins, vases, and pictures. Even that will not be sufficient for people who are not artists, because the sensible Philistine part of the world knows, as the Greeks knew, that a man may draw and fiddle and be a scoundrel. Therefore we must look also at their laws and governments, their ceremonies and amusements, their philosophy and religion, to see whether they knew how to live like gentlemen and freemen. If we can keep our eyes open to all these sides of their activity and watch them in the germ and bud, we ought to get near to understanding their power as a living source of inspiration to artists and thinkers. Lovers of the classics are very apt to remind us of the Renaissance as testifying the power of Greek thought to awaken and inspire men’s minds. Historically they are right, for it is a fact which ought to be emphasised. But when they go on to argue that if we forget the classics we ourselves shall need a fresh Renaissance they are making a prophecy which seems to me to be very doubtful. I believe that our art and literature has by this time absorbed and assimilated what Greece had to teach, and that our roots are so entwined with the soil of Greek culture that we can never lose the taste of it as long as books are read and pictures painted. We are, in fact, living on the legacy of Greece, and we may, if we please, forget the testatrix.

My claim for the study of Hellenism would not be founded on history. I would urge the need of constant reference to some fixed canon in matters of taste, some standard of the beautiful which shall be beyond question or criticism; all the more because we are living in eager, restless times of constant experiment and veering fashions. Whatever may be the philosophical basis of æsthetics, it is undeniable that a large part of our idea of beauty rests upon habit. Hellas provides a thousand objects which seventy-five generations of people have agreed to call beautiful and which no person outside a madhouse has ever thought ugly. The proper use of true classics is not to regard them as fetishes which must be slavishly worshipped, as the French dramatists worshipped the imaginary unities of Aristotle, but to keep them for a compass in the cross-currents of fashion. By them you may know what is permanent and essential from what is showy and exciting.

That Greek work is peculiarly suited to this purpose is partly due, no doubt, to the winnowing of centuries of time, but partly also to its own intrinsic qualities. For one thing, all the best Greek work was done, not to please private tastes, but in a serious spirit of religion to honour the god of the city; that prevents it from being trivial or meretricious. Secondly, it is not romantic; and that renders it a very desirable antidote to modern extravagances. Thirdly, it is idealistic; that gives it a force and permanence which things designed only for the pleasure of the moment must generally lack. With all these high merits, it might remain very dull, if it had not the charm and grace of youth perfectly fearless, and serving a religion which largely consisted in health and beauty.

THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE

A glance at the physical map of Greece shows you the sort of country which forms the setting of our picture. You see its long and complicated coast-line, its intricate system of rugged hills, and the broken strings of islands which they fling off into the sea in every direction. On the map it recalls the features of Scotland or Norway. It hangs like a jewel on a pendant from the south of Europe into the Mediterranean Sea. Like its sister peninsulas of Italy and Spain it has high mountains to the north of it; but the Balkans do not, as do the Alps and Pyrenees, present the form of a sheer rampart against Northern invaders. On the contrary, the main axis of the hills lies in the same direction as the peninsula itself, with a north-west and south-east trend, so that on both coasts there are ancient trade routes into the country; but on both sides they have to traverse passes which offer a fair chance of easy defence.

The historian, wise after the event, deduces that the history of such a country must lie upon the sea. It is a sheltered, hospitable sea, with chains of islands like stepping-stones inviting the timid mariner of early times to venture across it. You can sail from Greece to Asia without ever losing sight of land. On the west it is not so. Greece and Italy turn their backs upon one another. Their neighbouring coasts are the harbourless ones. So Greece looks east and Italy west, in history as well as geography. The natural affinities of Greece are with Asia Minor and Egypt.

A sea-going people will be an adventurous people in thought as well as action. The Greeks themselves fully realised this. When Themistocles was urging his fellow-Athenians to build a great fleet and take to the sea in earnest, opposition came from the conservatives, who feared the political influence of a “nautical mob” with radical and impious tendencies. The type of solid conservative was the heavy-armed land soldier. So in Greek history the inland city of Sparta stands for tradition, discipline, and stability, while the mariners of Athens are progressive, turbulent, inquiring idealists.