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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20523-h.zip b/20523-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..835dac3 --- /dev/null +++ b/20523-h.zip diff --git a/20523-h/20523-h.htm b/20523-h/20523-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cfbc33 --- /dev/null +++ b/20523-h/20523-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2578 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> + +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + <title>The Project Gutenberg e-Book of Religion and Art in Ancient Greece, + by Ernest A. Gardner</title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin:10%; text-align:justify} + h1 {text-align:center} + h2 {text-align:center} + h3 {text-align:center} + h4 {text-align:center} --> + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Religion and Art in Ancient Greece, by +Ernest Arthur Gardner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Religion and Art in Ancient Greece + +Author: Ernest Arthur Gardner + +Release Date: February 6, 2007 [EBook #20523] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGION AND ART IN ANCIENT GREECE *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + + +</pre> + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="logo"> + <tr> + <td width="305"> + <img src="images/harper.jpg" alt="logo"> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="title"> + <tr> + <td width="399"> + <img src="images/title.jpg" alt="title"> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>RELIGION AND ART</h1> +<h4>IN</h4> +<h1>ANCIENT GREECE</h1> +<br> +<br> +<h4>BY</h4> +<h2>ERNEST A. GARDNER</h2> + +<center><small>YATES PROFESSOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND<br> +PUBLIC ORATOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON;<br> +LATE DIRECTOR OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center>LONDON AND NEW YORK<br> +HARPER & BROTHERS<br> +45 ALBEMARLE STREET, W.<br> +1910</center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<br> +<br> +<p>Greek religion may be studied under various aspects; and many recent +contributions to this study have been mainly concerned either with the +remote origin of many of its ceremonies in primitive ritual, or with the +manner in which some of its obscurer manifestations met the deeper +spiritual needs which did not find satisfaction in the official cults. +Such discussions are of the highest interest to the anthropologist and +to the psychologist; but they have the disadvantage of fixing our +attention too exclusively on what, to the ordinary Greek, appeared +accidental or even morbid, and of making us regard the Olympian +pantheon, with its clearly realised figures of the gods, as a mere +system imposed more or less from outside upon the old rites and beliefs +of the people. In the province of art, at least, the Olympian gods are +paramount; and thus we are led to appreciate and to understand their +worship as it affected the religious ideals of the people and the +services of the State. For we must remember that in the case of religion +even more than in that of art, its essential character and its influence +upon life and thought lie rather in its full perfection than in its +origin.</p> + +<p>In a short sketch of so wide a subject it has seemed inadvisable to make +any attempt to describe the types of the various gods. Without full +illustration and a considerable expenditure of space, such a description +would be impracticable, and the reader must be referred to the ordinary +handbooks of the subject. A fuller account will be found in Dr. +Farnell's <i>Cults of the Greek States</i>, and some selected types are +discussed with the greatest subtlety and understanding in Brunn's +<i>Griechische Götterideale</i>. In the present volume only a few examples +are mentioned as characteristic of the various periods. It may thus, I +trust, serve as an introduction to a more complete study of the subject; +and may, at the same time, offer to those who have not the leisure or +inclination for such further study, at least a summary of what we may +learn from Greece as to the relations of religion and art under the most +favourable conditions. It is easy, as Aristotle says, to fill in the +details if only the outlines are rightly drawn—</p> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="quote"> + <tr> + <td width="350"> + <img src="images/quote.jpg" alt="quote"> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="Contents"> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><small>CHAPTER</small></td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">I.</td> + <td><a href="#chap1">IDOLATRY AND IMAGINATION</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">II.</td> + <td><a href="#chap2">ASPECTS OF RELIGION—POPULAR, OFFICIAL, POETICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">III.</td> + <td><a href="#chap3">THE CONDITIONS OF RELIGIOUS ART IN GREECE</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">IV.</td> + <td><a href="#chap4">ANTHROPOMORPHISM</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">V.</td> + <td><a href="#chap5">IDEALISM</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">VI.</td> + <td><a href="#chap6">INDIVIDUALISM</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top">VII.</td> + <td><a href="#chap7">PERSONIFICATION, CONVENTION, AND SYMBOLISM</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>RELIGION AND ART IN ANCIENT GREECE</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="chap1"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h4>INTRODUCTION—IDOLATRY AND IMAGINATION</h4> +<br> + +<p>The relation of religion to art has varied greatly among different +peoples and at different periods. At the one extreme is the +uncompromising puritan spirit, which refuses to admit any devices of +human skill into the direct relations between God and man, whether it be +in the beauty of church or temple, in the ritual of their service, or in +the images which they enshrine. Other religions, such as those of the +Jews or of Islam, relegate art to a subordinate position; and while they +accept its services to decorate the buildings and apparatus connected +with divine worship, forbid any attempt to make a visible representation +of the deity. Modern Christianity, while it does not, as a rule, repeat +this prohibition, has varied greatly from time to time and from country +to country as to the extent to which it allows such representations. +Probably the better educated or more thoughtful individuals would in +every case regard them merely as symbolic aids to induce the +concentration and intensity of religious ideas and aspirations; but +there is no doubt that among the common people they tend to become +actually objects of worship in themselves. It is instructive to turn to +a system in which idolatry, the worship of images, was an essential part +of orthodox religious observance. It is easy and customary with a +certain class of minds to dismiss all such examples of idolatry with a +superficial generalisation such as "the heathen in his blindness bows +down to stock and stone." But it seems worth while to devote a short +study to an attempt to understand how such a system worked in the case +of a people like the ancient Greeks, who possessed to a degree that has +never been surpassed both clearness of intellectual perception and a +power to embody their ideals in artistic form. Whether it tended to +exalt or to debase religion may be a doubtful question; but there can be +no doubt that it gave an inspiration to art which contributed to the +unrivalled attainments of the Greeks in many branches of artistic +creation. We shall be mainly concerned here with the religion of Greece +as it affected the art of sculpture; but before attempting a historical +summary it is necessary for us to understand exactly what we mean by the +worship of representations of the gods, and to consider the nature of +the influence which such representation must have upon artistic +activity.</p> + +<p>Idolatry—the worship of images—is almost always used by us in a bad +sense, owing, no doubt, chiefly to the usage of the word in the Jewish +scriptures. Mr. Ruskin, in his chapter on the subject in his <i>Aratra +Pentelici</i>, points out that it may also be used in a good sense, though +he prefers to use the word imagination in this meaning. There is +doubtless a frequent tendency to failure to</p> + +<blockquote> "Look through the sign to the thing signified,"</blockquote> + +<p>but there is no essential reason why the contemplation of a beautiful +statue, embodying a worthy conception of the deity, should not be as +conducive to a state of worship and communion as is an impressive ritual +or ceremony, or any other aid to devotion. This view of the matter is +expressed by some later Greek writers; in earlier times it was probably +unconsciously present, though it is hardly to be found in contemporary +literature. But it was only by slow stages that art came to do so direct +a service to religious ideas; in more primitive times its relation was +more subordinate. The worship or service of images, even in the highest +ages of Greek civilisation, was much more associated with primitive and +comparatively inartistic figures than with the masterpieces of +sculpture; and even where these masterpieces were actually objects of +worship it was often from the inheritance of a sanctity transferred to +them from an earlier image rather than for their own artistic +qualities. It does not, indeed, follow that the influence of the great +sculptors upon the religious ideals of the people was a negligible +quality; we have abundant evidence, both direct and indirect, that it +was very great. But it was exercised chiefly by following and ennobling +traditional notions rather than by daring innovation, and therefore can +only be understood in relation to the general development both of +religious conceptions and of artistic facility.</p> + +<p>Here we shall be mainly concerned with art as an expression of the +religious ideals and aspirations of the people, and as an influence upon +popular and educated opinions and conceptions of the gods. But we must +not forget that it is also valuable to us as a record of myths and +beliefs, and of ritual and customs associated with the worship of the +gods. This is the case, above all, with reliefs and vase-paintings. In +them we often find representations which do not merely illustrate +ancient literature, but supplement and modify the information we derive +from classical writers. The point of view of the artist is often not the +same as that of the poet or historian, and it is frequently nearer to +that of the people, and therefore a help in any attempt to understand +popular beliefs. The representations of the gods which we find in such +works do not often embody any lofty ideals or subtle characterisation; +but they show us the traditional and easily recognisable figures in +which the gods usually occurred to the imagination of the Greek people.</p> + +<p>The association of acts of worship with certain specially sacred objects +or places lies at the basis of much religious art, though very often art +has little or nothing to do with such objects in a primitive stage of +religious development. Stocks and stones—the latter often reputed to +have fallen from heaven, the former sometimes in the shape of a growing +tree, sometimes of a mere unwrought log—were to be found as the centres +of religious cult in many of the shrines of Greece. These sacred objects +are sometimes called fetishes; and although it is perhaps wiser to avoid +terms belonging properly to the religion of modern savages in speaking +of ancient Greece, there seems to be an analogy between the beliefs and +customs that are implied. Such sacred stocks or stones were not regarded +merely as symbols of certain deities, but were looked upon as having +certain occult or magic qualities inherent in them, and as being in +themselves potent for good or evil. The ceremonies used in their cult +partook of the nature of magic rather than religion, so far as these +consisted of anointing them with oil or with drink offerings; such +ceremonies might, indeed, be regarded as gratifying to the deity +worshipped under their form, when they were definitely affiliated to the +service of an anthropomorphic god; but in a more primitive stage of +belief the indwelling power probably was not associated with any such +generalisation as is implied in the change from "animism" or +"polydæmonism" to polytheism. We are here concerned not with this +growth of religious feeling, but rather with its influence upon the +sacred things that were objects of worship and with the question how far +their sanctity encouraged their artistic decoration.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps easier to realise the feeling of a primitive people about +this matter in the case of a sacred building than in that of the actual +image of a god. A temple does not, indeed—in Greece, at least—belong +to the earliest phase of cult; for it is the dwelling of the god, and +its form, based on that of a human dwelling-house, implies an +anthropomorphic imagination. We find, however, in Homer that the gods +are actually thought of as inhabiting their temples and preferring one +to another, Athena going to Athens and Aphrodite to Paphos as her chosen +abode. It was clearly desirable for every city to gain this special +favour; and an obvious way to do this was to make the dwelling-place +attractive in itself to the deity. This might be done not merely by the +abundance of sacrifices, but also by the architectural beauty of the +building itself, and by the richness of the offerings it contained. Here +was, therefore, a very practical reason for making the dwelling of the +god as sumptuous and beautiful as possible, in order that he might be +attracted to live in it and to give his favour and protection to those +that dwelt around it. Doubtless, as religious ideas advanced and the +conception of the nature of the gods became higher, there came the +notion that they did not dwell in houses made with hands; yet a Greek +temple, just like a mediæval cathedral, might be made beautiful as a +pleasing service and an honour to the deity to whom it was dedicated; +and there was a continuous tradition in practice from the lower +conception to the higher, nor is it easy to draw the line at any +particular stage between the two.</p> + +<p>If we turn now to the sacred image of the deity we find the same process +going on. The rude stock or stone was sometimes itself the actual +recipient of material offerings; or it might be painted with some bright +and pleasing colour, or wrapped in costly draperies. In most of these +customs an assumption is implied that the object of worship is pleased +by the same things as please its worshippers; and here we find the germ +of the anthropomorphic idea. It was probably the desire to make the +offerings and prayers of the worshippers perceptible to the power within +that first led to the addition of human features to the shapeless block. +Just as the early Greeks painted eyes upon the prows of their ships, to +enable them to find their way through the water, so they carved a head, +with eyes and ears, out of the sacred stone or stock, or perhaps added a +head to the original shapeless mass. We find many primitive idols in +this form—a cone or column with a head and perhaps arms and feet added +to it; and the tradition survives in the herm, or in the mask of +Dionysus attached to a post, round which we still see the Mænads +dancing on fifth-century vases. The notion that such carved eyes or ears +actually served to transmit impressions to the god is well illustrated +by Professor Petrie's discovery at Memphis of a number of votive ears of +the god, intended to facilitate or to symbolise his reception of the +prayers of his votaries. In fact, the taunt of the psalmist against the +images of the heathen—"Eyes have they, but they see not; they have +ears, and yet they hear not"—is not a merely rhetorical one, as it +seems to us, but real and practical, if spoken to men who gave their +gods ears and eyes that they might hear and see.</p> + +<p>An imagination so entirely materialistic may belong to a more primitive +stage than any we can find among the Greeks. As soon as religion has +reached the polytheistic stage the gods are regarded as travelling from +image to image, just as they travel from temple to temple. Even in +Æschylus' <i>Eumenides</i> it will be remembered that when Orestes, by the +advice of Apollo, clasps as a suppliant the ancient image of Athena at +Athens, the goddess comes flying from far away in the Troad when she +hears the sound of his calling. The exact relation of the goddess to the +image is not, in all probability, very clearly realised; but, so far as +one can trace it from the ritual procedure, what appears to be implied +is that a suppliant will have a better chance of reaching the deity he +addresses if he approaches one of the images preferred by that deity as +the abode of his power; often there is one such image preferred to all +others, as this early one of Athena at Athens. The deity was not, +therefore, regarded as immanent in any image—at least, in classical +times; the gods lived in Olympus, or possibly visited from time to time +the people whom they favoured, or went to the great festivals that were +held in their honour. But the various images of them, especially the +most ancient ones, that were set up in their temples in the various +cities of Greece were regarded as a means of communication between gods +and men. The prayer of a worshipper addressing such an image will be +transmitted to the deity whom he addresses, and the deity may even come +in person to hear him, if special aid is required. A close parallel may +be found even in modern days. I have known of a child, brought up in the +Roman Catholic religion, who had a particular veneration or affection +for a certain statue of the Virgin, and used often to address it or, as +she said, converse with it. And she said she had an impression that, if +only she could slip in unawares, she might see the Virgin Mary herself +approaching or leaving the statue, whether to be transformed into it or +merely to dwell in it for a time. On Greek vases we see the same notion +expressed as in the <i>Eumenides</i>, when a god or goddess is represented as +actually present beside the statue to which a sacrifice or prayer is +being offered.</p> + +<p>In such a stage of religious belief or imagination it is clearly of high +importance that the image of any deity should be pleasing to that deity, +and thereby attract his presence and serve as a ready channel of +communication with him. From the point of view of art, it would seem at +first sight that the result would be a desire to make the image as +beautiful as possible, and as worthy an embodiment of the deity as the +sculptor could devise. This doubtless was the result in the finest +period of art in Greece, and it involved, as we shall see, a great deal +of reciprocal influence on the part of religion and art. But in earlier +times the case is not so simple; and even in statues of the fifth +century it is not easy to understand the conditions under which the +sculptor worked without some reference to the historical development +that lay behind him.</p> + +<p>Before the rise of sculpture in Greece, images of the gods, some of them +only rudely anthropomorphic, had long been objects of worship; and it +was by no means safe in religious matters to depart too rashly from the +forms consecrated by tradition. This was partly owing to the feeling +that when a certain form had been accepted, and a certain means of +communication had worked for a long time satisfactorily, it was a +dangerous thing to make a change which might not be agreeable to the +powers concerned, and which might, so to speak, break the established +connection. But while hieratic conservatism tended to preserve forms and +formulæ almost for what we may call magic reasons, there was also a +sentiment about the matter which gave popular support to the tendency. +Thus Pausanias probably expresses a common feeling when he says that the +images made by Dædalus, "though somewhat strange in aspect, yet seem to +be distinguished by something in them of the divine."</p> + +<p>It is true that these early images attributed to Dædalus showed already +a considerable advance on the shapeless or roughly shaped stocks or +stones that had served as the most primitive objects of worship; but it +was their resemblance to these rather than their difference from them +that impressed the imagination of Pausanias. He appreciated them not so +much as examples of an art that promised much for the future, but rather +as linked with the past by the tradition of an immemorial sanctity. We +find, in fact, that the rude early images remained the centres of state +cult and official worship, as well as of popular veneration, long after +the art of sculpture had become capable of providing their worshippers +with more adequate embodiments of the gods they represented. It was the +early image of Athena, not the Athena Parthenos by Phidias, that was +annually washed in the sea, and for which the peplos was woven by the +chosen women of Athens. The connection between art and religion is, in +such a case, reduced to narrow limits; but, on the other hand, we hear +of many instances where new statues of the gods were made as temple +statues, to be the chief objects of worship and centres of cult. And +this was sometimes done with the official sanction of the gods +themselves, as expressed through the oracle of Delphi.</p> + +<p>The sanctity of the old image was sometimes transferred to the new one; +a striking example of this is seen in the case of Artemis Brauronia on +the Athenian Acropolis. It had been the custom for the garments +presented to the goddess by her worshippers to be placed upon her +primitive statue; and when a new and worthier representation of the +goddess was placed in the temple in the fourth century, we are informed +by inscriptions that dedicated garments were sometimes hung upon it, +even though it was a statue from the hand of Praxiteles. It sometimes +happened that the old and the new statues stood side by side in the same +temple, or in adjacent temples, and they seem then to exemplify the two +kinds of idolatry—the literal and the imaginative—the one being the +actual subject of the rites ceremonially observed, and the other being +the visible presentment of the deity, and helping the worshipper to +concentrate his prayers and aspirations. Here the art of the sculptor +had the fullest scope, and it is in such cases that he could, as +Quintilian said of Phidias, "make some addition to the received +religion."</p> + +<p>This duality was, however, the result of accident rather than the normal +arrangement, and, so long as the primitive image remained the official +object of worship, it was difficult, if not impossible, for the new and +more artistic statue to have its full religious effect. In many cases, +probably in most cases, it was actually substituted, sooner or later, +for the earlier embodiment of the deity. Sometimes the early image, +which was often of wood, may have decayed or been worn away by the +attentions lavished upon it; we hear of a statue of which the hand had +perished under the kisses of the devout. We hear also of cases in which +it had been entirely lost—for instance, the Black Demete of Phigalia, +an uncouth image with a horse's head; here, when a plague had warned the +people to replace it, the Æginetan sculptor Onatas undertook the task; +and he is said to have been vouchsafed a vision in sleep which enabled +him to reproduce exactly this unsightly idol. It would not seem that +such a commission gave much scope to his artistic powers; but it is +noteworthy that the Phigalians employed one of the most famous sculptors +of the day. Elsewhere the conditions were more favourable, and it was +possible for the artist, while conforming to the accepted type, to give +it a more correct form and more pleasing features.</p> + +<p>Dædalus, we are told—and in this story Dædalus is an impersonation of +the art of the early sculptors in Greece—made statues of the gods so +life-like that they had to be chained to their pedestals for fear they +should run away. It is likely that this tale goes back to a genuine +tradition; for Pausanias actually saw statues with fetters attached to +them in several early shrines in Greece. The device is natural enough. +Dædalus was a magician as well as a sculptor; and if he could give his +statues eyes that they might see, and ears that they might hear, it was +an obvious inference that if he gave them legs they might run away and +desert their shrines and their worshippers.</p> + +<p>We may very likely find also in a similar notion the explanation of a +peculiarity often found in early statues of the gods—the well-known +archaic smile. Many explanations, technical and otherwise, have been +given of this device; but none of them can get over the fact that it was +just as easy, or even easier, for a primitive sculptor to make the mouth +straight as to make it curve up at the ends, and that he often did make +it straight. When he does not do so, it is probably done with intention; +and it is quite in accordance with the conditions of early religious art +that he should make the image of a deity smile in order that the deity +himself might smile upon his worshippers; and a pleasant expression +might also, by a natural transfer of ideas, be supposed to be pleasing +to the god, and so attract him to his statue. We are told that at Chios +there was a head of Artemis set high up, which appeared morose to those +entering the temple, but when they left it seemed to have become +cheerful. This may have been originally due to some accident of placing +or lighting, but it seems to have acquired a religious significance; and +we can hardly deny a similar significance to the smile which we find on +so many early statues. In some cases, especially in statues of men, it +may have been intended merely as a device to give expression and life to +the face; but it cannot have been a matter of indifference to a +primitive worshipper that his deity should smile on him through the face +of its visible image. This point of view being given, it is evidently +only a question of how far it is within the power of art to express the +benignity of the god, and later on his character and personality, in an +adequate manner; and this power depends on the gradual acquisition of +mastery over form and material, of knowledge and observation of the +human body and face, and of the technical skill requisite to express +this knowledge in marble or bronze, or more precious materials such as +gold and ivory. All this development belongs to the history of art, not +to that of religion. But before we can pursue the investigation any +further, it is necessary to consider the different sources and channels +of religious influence on art with which we have to deal.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="chap2"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h4>VARIOUS ASPECTS OF RELIGION</h4> +<br> + +<p>Religion, for our present purpose, may be considered as (1) popular, (2) +official, (3) poetic, and (4) philosophical. These four divisions, or +rather aspects, are not, of course, mutually exclusive, and they act and +react extensively upon one another; but, in their relations to art, it +is convenient to observe the distinction between them.</p> + +<p>(1) The beliefs of the people are, of course, the basis of all the +others, though they come to be affected by these others in various +degrees. There is no doubt that the people generally believed in the +sanctity and efficacy of the shapeless idols or primitive images, and +this belief would tend to support hieratic conservatism, and thus to +hinder artistic progress. But, on the other hand, the people of Greece +showed throughout their history a tendency to an intensely and vividly +anthropomorphic imagination. This tendency was doubtless realised and +encouraged by the poets, but it was not created by them, any more than +by the mythologists who defined and systematised it. The exact relation +of this anthropomorphic imagination to the primitive sacred stocks and +stones is not easy to ascertain; but it seems to have tended, on the one +hand, to the realisation of the existence of the gods apart from such +sacred objects, and thus to reduce the stocks and stones to the position +of symbols—a great advance in religious ideals; and, on the other hand, +to the transformation of the stocks and stones into human form, not +merely by giving them ears and eyes that they might hear and see, but +also by making them take the image and character of the deity whom they +represented.</p> + +<p>It was impossible for any ordinary Greek to think of the gods in other +than human form. He had, indeed, no such definite dogma as the Hebrew +statement that "God created man in His own image"; for the legends about +the origin of the human race varied considerably and many of them +represented crude philosophical theorising rather than religious belief. +But the monstrous forms which we find in Egypt and Mesopotamia as +embodiments of divine power were alien to the Greek imagination; if we +find here and there a survival of some strange type, such as the +horse-headed Demeter at Phigalia, it remains isolated and has little +influence upon prevalent beliefs. The Greek certainly thought of his +gods as having the same human form as himself; and not the gods only, +but also the semi-divine, semi-human, sometimes less than human beings +with which his imagination peopled the woods and mountains and seas. His +Nereids had human feet, not fishy tails like our mermaids; and if +centaurs and satyrs and some other creatures of his imagination showed +something of the beast within the man in their visible shape, they had +little about them of the mysterious or the unearthly. It would be a +great mistake to regard all these creatures as mere impersonations or +abstractions. If "a pagan suckled in a creed outworn" could</p> + +<blockquote>"Have sight of Proteus coming from the sea<br> + And hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn,"</blockquote> + +<p>much more were such sights and sounds familiar to his forefathers, to +whom the same beliefs were fresh and real. Even to the present day Greek +peasants may often be found who can tell of such experiences; to them, +as to the Greeks of old, desert places and remote woods and mountains +are terrible, not because they are lonely, but because when a man is +alone then is he least alone; hence the panic terror, the terror of Pan.</p> + +<p>The same idea, which later takes the religious or philosophic form of +the belief in the omnipresence of the deity, peopled the woods with +dryads, the streams and springs with nymphs and river-gods, the seas +with Nereids and Tritons. When an artist represented a mountain or a +river-god, a nymph or a Triton, or added such figures to a scene to +indicate its locality by what seems to us at first sight a mere artistic +convention, he was not inventing an impersonation, but he was +representing something which, in the imagination of the people, might +actually be seen upon the spot—at least, by those whose eyes were +opened to see it. It was the same gift of imagination that made Blake +say: "'What,' it will be questioned, 'when the sun rises, do you not see +a disc of fire, somewhat like a guinea?' 'Oh no, no! I see an +innumerable company of the heavenly host, crying "Holy, holy, holy is +the Lord God Almighty!" I question not my corporeal eye, any more than I +would question a window, concerning a sight. I look through it, and not +with it.'"<small>1</small></p> + +<blockquote><small>1 Blake, "Aldine" edition, p. cvi.</small></blockquote> + +<p>In the case of the gods, the matter is somewhat less simple than in that +of all these dæmonic creatures of the popular imagination. Gods imply a +greater power of generalisation and a higher stage of religious +development. It was not thought likely that the gods would show +themselves to mortal eyes, as had been their habit in the Golden Age, +except perhaps upon some occasion of a great national crisis; and even +then it was the heroes rather than the gods who manifested themselves. +But the ordinary Greek believed that the gods actually existed in human +form, and even that their characters and passions and moods were like +those of human beings. The influence of the poet and the artist could +not have been so vigorous if it had not found, in the imagination of the +people, a suitable and sympathetic material.</p> + +<p>(2) Official or state religion consisted in the main of an organisation +of popular ritual. There was no priestcraft in Greece, no exclusive +caste to whom the worship of the gods was assigned, although, of course, +the right to practise certain cults belonged to particular families. But +a priesthood, as a rule, was a political office like any other +magistracy, and there was no exclusive tradition in the case of the +chief cults of any Greek state to keep the point of view of the priests +different from that of the people generally. The tendency of state +religion was, as a rule, conservative, for reasons that we have already +noticed; innovations in the matter of ritual are dangerous, for the new +rite may not please the gods as well as the old; and the same feeling +applies to the statues that form the centres of ritual. Pericles, for +example, doubtless wished to make the Athena Parthenos of Phidias the +official and visible representation of the goddess of Athens, and +thereby to raise the religious ideals of the Athenians. In this last +part of his attempt he was successful; the statue became the pride and +glory of the city in its fitting shrine, the Parthenon; but the old +image was still preserved in the temple of Athena Polias, and remained +the official centre of worship. We are not told that Pericles meant to +supersede it; but it is very probable that he intended to do so, and was +only prevented by the religious conservatism that curtailed other plans +of his for the beautifying of the Acropolis. On the other hand, there is +no evidence that in Greece—at least, in the best period of Greek +art—any statesman held the views as to the official religion frankly +expressed in Rome, that it was expedient for this religion to be +accepted by the common people, but that educated men could only +reconcile their consciences to taking part in it by a philosophical +interpretation.</p> + +<p>There is something unreal and artificial about any such compromise. If +Pericles was intimate with Anaxagoras, who was prosecuted for atheism, +he was also the friend of Phidias, who expressly said that his Zeus was +the Zeus of Homer, no mere abstract ideal of divinity. If this was the +case with Pericles, who held himself aloof from the common people, it +must have been much more so with other statesmen, who mingled with them +more freely, or even, like Nicias, shared their superstitions. Under +such conditions the influence of art upon the representations of the +gods could not well go in advance of popular conceptions, though it +might accompany and direct them. The making of new statues of the gods, +to be set up as the centres of worship in their temples, in some cases +received the formal sanction of the Delphic oracle, the highest official +and religious authority. Public commissions of this sort are common at +all times, but commonest in the years immediately succeeding the Persian +Wars, when the spoils of the Persians supplied ample resources, and in +many cases the ancient temples and images had been destroyed; and at the +same time the outburst of national enthusiasm over the great deliverance +led to a desire to give due thank-offerings to the gods of the Hellenic +race, a desire which coincided with the ability to fulfil it, owing to +the rapid progress of artistic power. Such public commissions, and the +popular feeling which they expressed, offered an inspiration to the +artist such as has rarely, if ever, found a parallel. But any great +victory or deliverance might be commemorated by the setting up of +statues of the gods to whom it was attributed; and in this way the +demands of official religion offered the sculptor the highest scope for +the exercise of his art and his imagination.</p> + +<p>(3) The influence of poetic mythology upon art can hardly be +exaggerated. The statement of Herodotus that Homer and Hesiod "made the +Greek theogony, and assigned to the gods their epithets and +distinguished their prerogatives and their functions, and indicated +their form," would not, of course, be accepted in a literal sense by any +modern mythologist. But it is nevertheless true that the clear and vivid +personality and individuality given to the gods by the epic poets +affects all later poetry and all Greek art. The imagination of the poets +could not, as we have already noticed, have had so deep and wide an +influence unless it had been based upon popular beliefs and conceptions. +But it fills these conceptions with real and vivid character, so that +the gods of Homer are as clearly presented to us as any personalities of +history or fiction. They are, indeed, endowed not only with the form, +but with the passions, and some even of the weaknesses of mankind; and +for this reason the philosophers often rejected as unworthy the tales +that the poets told of the gods. But even an artist such as Phidias +expressly stated that it was the Zeus of Homer who inspired his greatest +work, quoting the well-known passage in the Iliad in which the god +grants the prayer of Thetis:—</p> + +<blockquote>"He said; and his black eyebrows bent; above his deathless head<br> + Th' ambrosian curls flowed; great heaven shook."</blockquote> + +<p>Descriptive passages such as this are not, indeed, common, because, as +Lessing clearly pointed out, the poet depends more upon action and its +effect than on mere enumerative description. Even here it is the action +of the nod, and the shaking of heaven that follows it, that emphasises +the impression, rather than the mere mention of eyebrows or hair. In +many other cases the distinctive epithet has its value for all later +art—the cow-eyed Hera, the grey-eyed Athena, the swift messenger +Hermes; but, above all, it is the action and character of the various +gods that is so clearly realised by the poet that his successors cannot, +if they wish, escape from his spell.</p> + +<p>The influence of the various Greek poets is not, indeed, for the most +part, to be traced in contemporary Greek art. This is obvious in the +case of the Homeric poems, for the art of the time was of a purely +decorative character, and was quite incapable of representing in any +adequate way the vivid and lively imagination of the poets; and, for +that matter, for many centuries after the date of the composition of the +Iliad and Odyssey, Hellenic art made no attempt to cope with any so +ambitious problems. Even when the art of sculpture had attained to a +considerable degree of mastery over material and expression, we find its +aims and conceptions lagging far behind those of the poet. This will +become clearer when, in the next chapter, we consider the conditions of +artistic expression in Greece; but it must be noted here, in order to +prevent possible misconception. As soon, however, as art became capable +of aiming at something beyond perfection of a bodily form—a change +which, in spite of Pausanias' admiration of something divine about the +works of Dædalus, can hardly be dated earlier than the fifth century +<small>B.C.</small>—the Homeric conceptions of the gods came to have their full +effect. Zeus, the king and father of gods and men; Athena, the friendly +protectress of heroes, irresistible in war, giver of all intellectual +and artistic power; Apollo, the archer and musician, the purifier and +soothsayer—these and others find their first visible embodiment in the +statues whereby the sculptors of the fifth century gave expression to +the Homeric conceptions.</p> + +<p>The tales, too, that were told about the gods, some of them trivial +enough, but others full of religious and ethical significance, had for +some time before this been common subjects upon reliefs and +vase-paintings, and on these also the influence of the poets was very +great. Here we have not only the Iliad and Odyssey to consider, but many +other early epics that are now lost to us. The vase-painter or sculptor +did not, indeed, merely illustrate these stories as a modern artist +might; often he had a separate tradition and a repertory of subjects +belonging to his own art, and developed them along different lines from +those followed by the poets. But although this tradition might lead him +to choose a version less familiar to poetry, or even to give a new form +to an old story, his conception was essentially poetical, in that it +implied an imaginative realisation of the scene or action, and even of +the character of the deity or hero represented.</p> + +<p>The conception of the gods to be found in other early epics probably did +not differ essentially from that we find in the Iliad and Odyssey; but +with the Homeric hymns and with some of the earlier lyric poets we find +a change setting in. There seems to be a new interest in the adventures +of the gods themselves, apart from their relation to mankind; romantic +and even pathetic stories are told about them, implying almost a +psychological appreciation of their personality—the tale of Demeter's +mourning for her daughter Persephone, her wanderings and adventures; of +the love of Aphrodite for a mortal; of how Hermes invented the lyre and +tricked Apollo about his cattle; of the birth of Apollo and the founding +of his worship at Delos and Delphi; of the marvellous birth of Athena +from the head of Zeus. It is hardly too much to say that in the later of +these Homeric hymns—those that are mentioned first in the above +enumeration—an almost human interest is given to the gods, to their +sufferings and adventures. It is the same tendency which we see in the +lyric poetry of the Greeks, with its intensely personal note. The +reflexion of this tendency in art is not, indeed, to be seen until the +fourth century; not only the power of expression, but the desire to +express such a side of the character of the gods seems to be absent +until this period.</p> + +<p>It may seem curious at first sight that art was so slow in this case to +follow the lead given it by poetry; but it is to be remembered that a +power of expression such as would have enabled it to do so was not +attained until the fifth century, and that in this age there was an +exaltation of national and religious enthusiasm, owing mainly to the +victories over the Persians, which checked the tendency to sentiment and +pathos; and it was not until this vigorous reaction had died away that +the tendency once more asserted itself. The early fifth century was also +marked by poets such as Pindar and AEschylus, who raised the religious +ideals of the nation on to a higher plane, who consciously rejected the +less worthy conceptions of the gods, and, whether in accordance with the +popular beliefs or not, gave expression to a higher truth in religion +than had hitherto been dreamed of. The gods whom the sculptors of the +fifth century were called upon to represent may have been the gods of +Homer, but they were the Homeric gods transformed by the creative +imagination of a more reflective age, and purified by a poetic, if not a +philosophic, idealism. But while AEschylus suggests "a deeply brooding +mind, tinged with mysticism, grappling with dark problems of life and +fate,"<small>2</small> and so was, in some ways, remote from the clarity and +definition of sculptural form, Sophocles "invests the conceptions of +popular religion with a higher spiritual and intellectual meaning; and +the artistic side of the age is expressed by him in poetry, much as in +architecture and sculpture it is interpreted by the remains of the +Parthenon; there is the same serenity and wholeness of work; power +joined to purity of taste; self-restraint; and a sure instinct of +symmetry."<small>3</small> Sophocles was a friend and companion of Pericles, and +therefore probably of Phidias; and in both alike we see the same harmony +and absence of exaggeration that are characteristic of Greek art at its +best. In this case we may say with some confidence that the poet and the +sculptor probably influenced each other.</p> + +<blockquote><small> 2 Sir R. C. Jebb in <i>Cambridge Companion to Greek Studies</i>, +p. 110.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small> 3 <i>Ibid</i>. p. 113.</small></blockquote> + +<p>It seems a tempting hypothesis to see something of the influence of +"Euripides the human" in the individualistic tendencies of the art of +the fourth century; but it seems hardly to be justified by the facts. +The influence of his dramas is, indeed, to be seen in later +vase-paintings; but this is not a matter with which we are here +concerned. In his treatment of the gods, Euripides can hardly be quoted +as an example of the humanising tendency. "He resented the notion that +gods could be unjust or impure"; but the purer and more abstract +conceptions of divinity that appealed to him were hardly such as could +find expression in art; it has even been said that "he blurred those +Hellenic ideals which were the common man's best without definitely +replacing them." The bringing of these ideals nearer to the common life +of man finds its poetic inspiration rather in the tendency which has +already been noticed in the Homeric hymns and the lyric poets, and which +now, after the reaction of the fifth century, exerts its full force on +the art of Scopas and Praxiteles.</p> + +<p>There is no need to dwell here on the influence of later poets upon +religious art, though we shall have to notice hereafter the parallel +development of the representation of the gods in Hellenistic sculpture. +The Alexandrian poets expressed in elegant language their learning on +matters of religion and mythology, but there was no living belief in the +subjects which they made their theme; and the art they inspired could +only show the same qualities of a correct and academic eclecticism. The +idylls of Theocritus find, indeed, a parallel in the playful treatment +of Satyrs and other subjects of a similar character; but these belong to +what may be called mythological genre rather than to religious art. The +dramatic vigour and intensity which we find in the art of Pergamon +cannot easily be traced to the influence of any similar development in +literature, though its artificial and learned mythology is such as we +find also in the work of Hellenistic poets.</p> + +<p>(4) The philosophical aspect of religion had no very great influence +upon art in Greece. We might perhaps expect that, so far as the +philosophers accepted the popular religion, they would tend to purify it +and to give it a higher meaning, just as the more thoughtful of the +poets doubtless assisted the idealising tendency of fifth-century art. +And it might well seem that, for example, Plato's theory of ideas +supplies a more satisfactory basis for an idealist art than any other +system, since it might be maintained that the true artist represents not +the material object which he sees before him, but the ideal prototype of +which it is but a faint and inadequate reflexion. This theory is +peculiarly applicable to statues of the gods, and we find it so applied +by later philosophical and rhetorical writers; for instance, Cicero says +that Phidias "when he was making the statue of Zeus or of Athena did not +derive his image from some individual, but within his own mind there was +a perfect ideal of beauty; and gazing on this and in contemplation of +it, he guided the craft of his hand after its likeness."<small>4</small> The same +notion underlies the saying quoted by Strabo, that Phidias was "either +the only man that saw, or the only man that revealed to others the +images of the gods."<small>5</small> But there is no trace or encouragement of any +such feeling in the philosophic literature contemporary with the great +age of Greek art. Plato expressly states that the artist only makes "an +imitation of an imitation"; and the higher ideas of divinity preached by +philosophers did not so much tend to ennoble the popular conceptions as +to substitute others for them. Above all, the monotheistic idea, even if +associated with the name of Zeus, tended to become an abstract +conception with little relation to the national god of Hellas, whom +Phidias embodied in his Olympian statue.</p> + +<blockquote><small> 4 <i>Or</i>. 2. 8.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small> 5 viii. p. 353. It does not matter whether the passage is +quoted by Strabo himself or by an interpolator.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The philosophic or theological conception of a monotheistic deity does +not, in fact, seem to lend itself at any time to impressive artistic +representation. We may observe the same thing in Christian art, in which +representations of God the Father are not very common nor, as a rule, +very expressive of the most vivid religious ideals; while Christ, +usually not as God, but as man or child, and the Virgin Mary are the +constant themes of the most devout religious art, not to speak of the +numerous saints who correspond more or less to the gods of a +polytheistic system. Philosophical thought was antagonistic to +anthropomorphism, which, as we have seen, was the most characteristic +feature of popular religion in Greece, and which was essential to Greek +religious art. As soon as the human form is a mere symbol, no longer +regarded as the express image of the god and the embodiment of his +individuality, it loses touch with reality. And this reality in the +relation of the god to his image must be believed in by the people, and +at least through the people by the artist, if religious art is to +preserve its vitality.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="chap3"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h4>CONDITIONS OF RELIGIOUS ART IN GREECE</h4> +<br> + +<p>The Greeks possessed, as we have seen, to an exceptionally high degree +the vivid anthropomorphic imagination necessary for the expression of +their conception of the gods in their art; we have also noticed the +conditions which encouraged or restricted such representation, and the +influences that affected its nature. Given the desire to represent the +character and individuality of the gods in human form, the next question +we have to consider is how far their art, and especially the art of +sculpture, was capable of giving effect to this desire. The answer lies +mainly in the history of Greek sculpture, which can only be touched on +here in the barest outline. But, at the outset, it is necessary to +remove a misconception which is prevalent at the present day, and more +especially in England, owing partly to the dominating influence of a +great critic. Mr. Ruskin's <i>Aratra Pentelici</i> is full of the most +admirable and suggestive appreciations of Greek sculpture in its more +technical aspects; but side by side with them are found passages such as +the following: "There is no personal character in true Greek art; +abstract ideas of youth and age, strength and swiftness, virtue and +vice—yes; but there is no individuality." Or again: "The Greek, as +such, never expresses personal character, while a Florentine holds it to +be the ultimate condition of beauty." If this criticism were just, it +would follow that any study of the relation of religion to art in Greece +would lose most if not all of its interest. But anyone who is acquainted +with the present state of our knowledge of Greek sculpture will not so +much feel called upon to refute such statements as to explain how so +strange a misconception could have arisen. Nor is the explanation very +far to seek. Mr. Ruskin was writing for a generation not yet penetrated +by the constructive criticism of recent investigation. Its conception of +"the antique" in art was based mainly on the mass of mechanical and +academic copies or imitations, of Græco-Roman date, with which our +museums are filled, and on the influence of such sculpture to be seen in +the work of Flaxman or Thorwaldsen. It had, indeed, learnt from the +Elgin marbles that the Greek sculptors in the fifth century possessed a +nobility in their conception of the human form, a mastery in the +treatment of the nude and of drapery, and a skill in marble technique of +which only a faint reflection can be traced in the later Græco-Roman +tradition; but the great statues in which the sculptors of the fifth +century embodied their ideals of the gods were either entirely lost or +preserved only in inadequate copies; and it is only in recent years that +the discovery of originals or the identification of trustworthy copies +has enabled us to appreciate the intensity of expression and of inner +life which distinguished the work of the great sculptors of the fourth +century, such as Scopas, Praxiteles, and Lysippus. Still, if Mr. Ruskin +had, like Brunn in his <i>Götteridealen</i>, selected heads like those of the +Demeter of Cnidus or the Hera Farnese to illustrate his theme, instead +of a series of heads on coins magnified to many times the size for which +they were designed, he could hardly have written the passages just +quoted. But the second of those passages itself supplies us with another +clue. In this estimate of Greek sculpture there is throughout implied a +comparison with Christian, and above all with Florentine art, and its +desire to</p> + +<blockquote> + "... bring the invisible full into play;<br> + Let the visible go to the dogs; what matters?"</blockquote> + +<p>It is evident that the expression of the invisible, of character and +individuality, will be more striking and obvious in an art which lets +them "shine through the flesh they fray" than in the case of the Greek +sculptors whose respect and even passionate admiration for the human +body would not allow them thus to transfigure it, at least in their +statues of the gods, and led them to seek for subtler methods of +expression by means of the flesh and in harmony with its nature. Their +expression of character and emotion is rendered in terms of a beautiful +and healthy body. How this end was attained we must consider later on; +but there is yet another current prejudice in favour of this +exaggeration of individuality which has its influence especially upon +modern artists. It is sometimes said nowadays that a departure from the +individual model is an attempt to "improve upon nature," and is +therefore an artistic mistake. Now the Greek sculptor, as a rule, did +not work from an individual model at all. He trusted partly, especially +in earlier times, to the tradition which familiarised him with a few +fixed types, on which he made variations, partly to his observation and +memory trained for generations, and daily supplied with new material in +the gymnasium where nude youths and men were constantly exercising, or +in the marketplace where he met his fellow-citizens. To see before him, +whether draped or nude, the figures he wanted for his art, he had no +need to pose a model in a studio; his models were at all times around +him in his daily life. The result was that when he wished to represent a +youth or a maiden, or even to make a portrait of a statesman, he tended +to reproduce the type with certain personal modifications rather than to +produce a portrait in the modern sense. But when he came to making +statues of the gods, his freedom of hand was of incalculable service to +him in giving a bodily form to his imagination; it enabled him to create +after nature, without being dependent on an individual model or having +to fall back upon such vague and generalised forms as are sometimes +associated with an academic or classical art; for it was his own trained +observation and memory that he called into play, not a mere mechanical +system he had learnt from his predecessors. In the more individualistic +art of the fourth century, as we shall see, it is probable that the +personal model was of more importance, especially in female statues; but +even then it was still modified by the tradition and style which makes a +harmonious whole, not only of each Greek statue, but of the development +of Hellenic sculpture generally. In typical examples of the sculpture of +the fourth century we find not only this harmony and restraint, and the +beauty of bodily form in figure as well as in features which is +generally recognised as characteristic of Greek art, but also an +expression of character and individuality, of mood and temperament, of +pathos and passion, which is none the less intense and real because it +is expressed by means of the perfection of physical form, not as wasting +or deforming it.</p> + +<p>It may be asked how the invisible, mental, or spiritual qualities can be +portrayed in visible form, especially if that visible form be not +overmuch distorted or modified, and in a more general way, how the +expression of a statue, and the impression it produces, can be analysed +or discussed. For examples of the way this can be done, the reader may +be referred once more to Brunn's <i>Götteridealen</i>, a study of a few +selected representations of Greek gods in which the character of each is +brought out by a subtle and discriminating analysis of the visible +forms. Here it may suffice to quote Brunn's own words from the +Introduction to that work: "The spiritual effect produced on us by a +work of sculpture cannot be comprehended as a moral or a metaphysical +peculiarity, completely independent of corporeal phenomena; it can +become intelligible to us only by means of tangible sculptural forms, as +the exponents of spiritual expression." And again: "The spiritual +understanding of ideal artistic creations can only be attained on the +basis of a thorough analysis of their forms"; hence in such a study we +have to do with "no subjective fancies, but an investigation of +objective artistic principles, according to the method of scientific +work."</p> + +<p>There are various ways in which spiritual qualities, mood, and character +may be given material expression in harmony with the bodily forms, not +in combat with the flesh. There are, for instance, certain bodily +peculiarities that usually accompany, and therefore suggest by +association, various temperaments or mental qualities; and, moreover, +the actual effect upon the features and bearing of certain emotions or +moods often leaves permanent traces, from which a habitual or repeated +tendency to such emotions or moods can be inferred. That certain types +of face and certain expressions are usually associated with certain +spiritual or mental qualities will hardly be denied; and here the method +of the Greek artist, in observing and working from memory rather than +from a posed model, gave him a great advantage in variety and freedom in +the expression of character no less than in the rendering of bodily +form. If he realised clearly the individuality of his gods, his skill +and mastery over his material and his store of observation gave him a +facility in giving this individuality a visible form which may not be so +obvious at first sight as the individuality of a Florentine or of a +modern head, but which is none the less there for those who have eyes to +see it, and who can accustom themselves to the subtle atmosphere of +ancient art, and to the moderation and restraint which are seldom, if +ever, violated in its most characteristic productions.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="chap4"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<h4>ANTHROPOMORPHISM</h4> +<br> + +<p>We have already noticed the religious conceptions and impulses which led +to the substitution of images in human shape for the rude stocks and +stones of primitive worship. The beginning of the change seems to have +taken place at an early stage in the development of Greek art. In +pre-Hellenic times we find representation of gods and goddesses in human +form upon gems and other small works of art, and also in statuettes that +were either objects of worship or dedicated in shrines; but we have at +present no evidence as to whether monumental images of the gods were +made in human form, though some objects of worship, such as the +double-axe, were certainly set up in regular shrines. We know too little +about the religious beliefs and customs of this prehistoric age to be +able to judge whether such objects were regarded merely as symbols of +the deity or as having immanent in them some divine or superhuman power; +but survivals, especially of an early tree and pillar cult, are probably +to be traced in historic Greece, and even to the present day.</p> + +<p>The Homeric poems, on the other hand, supply us with little or no +evidence as to the existence of any sculptural representation of the +gods. Although temples are frequently mentioned, we are not informed +that any of them contained a sacred image, with the apparent exception +of the temple of Athena at Troy. There we are told that the Trojan +matrons, in a time of stress, brought a robe to offer to the goddess, +and that the priestess Theano placed it "upon the knees of +beauteous-haired Athene." Unless, as is possible, this is a purely +metaphorical expression, it would seem to imply a seated statue; but it +is to be noted that the Palladium of Troy, the sacred image of Athena +which was stolen by Ulysses and Diomed, and which was preserved, +according to conflicting traditions, in one or another shrine in later +Greece, was a standing statue of a primitive type. The inconsistency is +not of great importance, except as showing that the supposed mention of +the statue of Athena in the Iliad had little, if any, influence on later +tradition; and in any case it is isolated, and does not refer to a +Greek, but a foreign temple. On the other hand, we find frequent mention +in later writers of primitive statues of the gods which were said to +have been set up or dedicated by various persons in the heroic age. An +example is offered by the Trojan Palladium already mentioned; another +was the statue of Artemis carried off from Tauris by Iphigenia and +Orestes; rival claimants to this identification existed at Sparta and at +Brauron in Attica. The legends of dedication are of no historic value; +the story of the Palladium itself was unknown to Homer, though it +occurred in later epics. All that can be asserted of such images is that +they were of unknown antiquity, and that local patriotism claimed for +them a heroic origin. Much the same may be said of Dædalus. It need not +be discussed here whether an actual artist of this name ever existed. +The information we have as to Dædalus is of two kinds; on the one hand, +we find tales of a mythical craftsman and magician, to whose invention +many of the most typical improvements in early Greek sculpture are +attributed; on the other hand, we have records of many statues of the +gods, extant in historical times in various shrines of Greece, which +were attributed to him. Such attributions are not really of greater +historical value than the traditions of dedication in the heroic age +which we find elsewhere. The name of Dædalus having once become famous +in this connection, it was natural that many statues of primitive style +and unrecorded origin should be attributed to him. More importance may +be attached to the fact that the sculptors who actually made some of the +early statues of the gods in Athens and in the Peloponnesus are +described as the pupils or by some as the sons or companions of +Dædalus. In this way his name is associated with some of the early +schools that had the greatest influence in Greece, especially on the +representation of the gods in sculpture. There are other traditions of +early schools of sculptors, the marble workers of Chios, the bronze +founders of Samos, who devoted themselves mainly to making statues of +the gods, some of which survived throughout historical times. When we +turn from tradition and consider the early examples of statues of gods +that may still be seen or are recorded by extant copies, we find that +these fall into two classes. On the one hand, there are more or less +exact repetitions of the primitive stock or stone, the cylindrical +tree-trunk or the rectangular block cut from the quarry, with the rudest +indication of head and arms and feet, deviating as little as possible +from the original shape of the block. When images of this sort were, as +was often the case, of wood, they have, of course, disappeared; but we +can sometimes recognise copies of them upon reliefs or in stone. On the +other hand, we find another class of images which approximate more to +the attainments of Dædalus as described by rationalising writers of +later date. These images are completely in human form, and, if male, are +usually nude. They have their legs separated in a short stride, the left +foot being usually advanced; their arms are either set close to their +sides, or one or both of them is raised from the elbow; their whole +shape suggests a rigid system of proportions and a more or less +conventionalised form. These images have no resemblance to the +modifications of the primitive stocks and stones, and could not well be +directly derived from them; they are found in great numbers upon many +sites of early sanctity in Greece itself and in Greek settlements around +the Levant, notably in Cyprus, Rhodes, and Naucratis in Egypt. Sometimes +they seem to represent the god, sometimes the dedicator; but all alike +show the attempt of the early Greek craftsman to imitate the products of +more advanced and finished art which he saw around him. Many of them are +derived from Egyptian types; others show the influence of Mesopotamian +art, or of the hybrid craftsmanship of Phoenicia. The borrowing or +imitation of such foreign types may at first sight appear to show even +less promise of artistic progress than variations on the old native +images; but it is not in its origins, but in its development and +perfection that the chief excellence of Greek art is to be found.</p> + +<p>The types borrowed by sculpture from foreign art are almost exclusively +of human form. The monstrous mixed forms in which the deities of Egypt +or Mesopotamia often found the expression of their superhuman and +mysterious powers do not seem to have appealed to the imagination of the +Greeks. Such mixed forms were, indeed, frequently borrowed by early +decorative art, and on "Orientalising" vases we constantly find +human-headed and bird-headed quadrupeds, usually winged, and +human-headed birds. The delight in winged figures generally, which was +mainly decorative in early times, also finds its origin in Oriental +woven stuffs. Greek sculpture adopted and translated into stone or +bronze some of these mixed types—notably the human-headed bird and the +human-headed winged lion; these it identified as the Siren and the +Sphinx of Greek myth, and associated them with the mysteries of the +tomb. To some other forms, that of the Centaur and the Satyr and the +Triton, it also gave considerable scope. But all these, if not human, +are hardly to be regarded as divine; they are mostly noxious, and, even +if benignant, do not attain the rank of gods. Perhaps a nearer approach +to divine character is to be found in the river-gods, who are often +represented as bulls with human heads or as human with bull's horns; but +here, too, we have only to deal with minor deities. No sculptor +represented Dionysus in this way, even though he was called +"bull-shaped" by poets; nor is the horse-god Posidon even represented as +a Centaur. The horse-headed Demeter of Phigalia remains the strange and +solitary exception, however we may explain her existence.</p> + +<p>The process by which the early human types were gradually improved and +made more life-like, by a continuous struggle with technical +difficulties, by constant and direct observation of nature, and by the +building up of an artistic tradition in different schools and families, +is a question that concerns the history of art rather than our present +study. But it is impossible to distinguish rigidly between the two, +because these types, whether of the nude standing male figure, of the +draped female, or of the seated figure, are all of them used alike to +represent human and divine personages; and, apart from inscriptions of +dedication or conditions of discovery or distinctive attributes, it +would often be impossible to tell whether any particular statue was +meant to represent, for example, the image of a god or a conventional +portrait of a man. These nude male statues, commonly known by the name +of "Apollo," were certainly, some of them, made to commemorate athletes, +whose images were set up either in the place where they won their +victories or in their native town; others were placed over graves as +memorials of the dead; and even in a sacred precinct it is sometimes +uncertain whether the god himself is represented or the worshipper who +dedicates this record of his devotion.</p> + +<p>At this early period, therefore, Mr. Ruskin's strictures as to the +impossibility of distinguishing the individuality of the different gods +must be admitted, and even supplemented by an admission of the +impossibility of distinguishing gods and goddesses from human beings. +The explanation is obvious enough. During this age of early progress the +constant aim of the sculptor is to attain to complete mastery over the +material and to perfection of bodily form. In religious art, what +corresponds to this is the struggle towards anthropomorphism—first to +represent the gods in human form, and then to make that form the most +perfect that human art can devise. During this stage of artistic and +religious development the type and the ideal cannot be distinguished. It +was only when a type or a varying series of types had been brought to +perfection in the fifth century, so as to satisfy the demand for a +harmonious system of bodily proportions, for beauty of outline and +dignity of countenance, that these types could be used as a means of +expression for the religious ideals of the nation. In developing the +type the accidental has to be discarded, and with it much of the feeling +of individuality; works of early archaic art, for all their defects, +often show more sign of individual character than the more perfect works +of the earlier part of the fifth century. The attainment of the type is +followed by an infusion of character and individuality, drawn from the +artist's trained memory and observation with clear artistic intention, +not from the mere caprice of an accidental recollection or a casual +peculiarity of a model. The character and individuality thus expressed +must be considered in subsequent chapters; it is only necessary here to +distinguish it from the suggestion of an individual, almost of a +caricature, which we find sometimes in archaic art, and which is +certainly to be seen occasionally in works of Florentine sculpture. +During the period of the rise of Greek sculpture the various schools +were advancing each in its own way towards what has been called +naturalism in art, as opposed to realism on the one side and idealism on +the other. That is to say, they were striving by constant study of the +athletic form, of proportions and muscles, of drapery and hair, to +attain to a series of types both in harmony with themselves and in +accordance with nature; and they were too much absorbed in this attempt +to go far beyond their predecessors in rendering the character of the +gods according to the form consecrated by tradition. Even in the +expression of the face the same process is to be traced. In early works +we find sometimes no expression at all, or an apparent stolidity which +is really the absence of expression; in the archaic smile we see an +attempt to enliven the face, and possibly also, as we have noticed, to +express and even to induce the benignity of the deity. But this attempt, +made with inadequate artistic resources, tends to result in a mere +grimace; and as we approach the transitional age before the greatest +period of sculpture, we often find a reaction against any such +exaggeration of expression in a severity and dignity that may have a +certain grace of their own, but that are in some sense a retrograde +movement so far as the expression of character is concerned.</p> + +<p>It follows that the statues of the gods dating from this early period, +however interesting they might be for the history of sculpture, would +not, even if we possessed many more of them than we do possess, throw +very much light upon the development of the ideas of the Greeks +concerning their deities. They would probably conform to a limited +number of clearly defined types. The most familiar of all, the standing +nude male figure, would, if beardless, usually represent Apollo, with a +bow or a branch of bay, or sometimes other attributes. A similar type, +bearded, would stand for Zeus or Posidon or Hermes, if provided with +thunderbolt or eagle, with trident or fish, or with a caduceus. Similar +figures might also be draped, and still represent gods; or, if female, +would serve for Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, and sometimes for Athena, if +she was represented without her arms and ægis. Then, too, there was the +seated type, usually enveloped in full drapery, which might readily be +adapted to a statue of any of the chief gods. In all of these there is +no question of distinguishing the gods from one another in character and +individuality; apart from attributes, there is hardly any attempt to +distinguish gods from men.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the earliest class of statues in which we find any attempt to +give artistic expression to superhuman power is that in which we see the +god in vigorous action, often striking with his characteristic weapon: +Zeus with his thunderbolt in his raised right hand, Posidon with his +trident, or Athena advancing rapidly with brandished spear and shield +advanced. But even these figures, apart from their divine attributes, +show no essential distinction from human combatants. It is a significant +fact that it is still a matter of dispute<small>6</small> whether one of the most +famous statues of the early fifth century, "the Choiseul-Gouffier +Apollo," represents a god or an athlete. This is neither because the +Greeks at this time idealised their athletes nor because they humanised +their gods, but because they typified them both; that is to say, they +represented them by a type which was the most perfect rendering within +their power either of man or of an anthropomorphic deity. Here we have +the material form provided by means of which the ideals of the +succeeding period were to find their artistic expression—such a typical +or normal human form is, in fact, the logical expression of +anthropomorphism in its most literal sense—the making of gods after +man's image. But those who believed rather that man was made after God's +image would look to find in the prototype something more and higher than +can be seen in its earthly copy. This notion, even if not formulated by +philosophy until a later age, certainly underlies the idealistic art of +the fifth century.</p> + +<blockquote><small> 6 Even if this dispute be regarded as now settled by weight +of evidence, the fact that such a dispute is possible retains its +significance.</small></blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="chap5"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h4>IDEALISM</h4> +<br> + +<p>The age which followed the great Persian Wars was the time of the +highest political, literary, and intellectual development in Greece. Nor +was it unfavourable to strength and depth of religious feeling among the +people. If the more thoughtful among them were inclined to doubt whether +some of the stories told about the gods were either probable or +edifying, these were the very men who, on the other hand, were most +capable of appreciating the higher and nobler conceptions of the gods +which we find in contemporary poets. And the great delivery from the +Persians not only gave the Greeks a confidence in themselves which +justly increased their national pride and thereby strengthened their +national ideals, but it also gave occasion to a confidence in the gods +and a gratitude to them which found expression in numerous buildings and +offerings. All this religious activity could not fail to have +considerable influence upon the common people; and in some cases, as at +Athens, there was the necessity of replacing the temples and statues +that had been destroyed or carried off by the Persian invader. At the +time when a demand occurred for new statues of the gods, the rapid +progress of the art of sculpture made it inevitable that these new +statues should not be mere reproductions or reminiscences of the ones +they replaced, but fresh and original conceptions, worthy of the +increased skill of the artist and of the nobler ideals of the people. +And by one of those coincidences which we meet so often both in the +history of art and in that of literature, just at the time when the +material conditions, the spirit of the people, and the rapid advance of +art gave the utmost scope for artistic creation, there arose the man of +transcendent genius to give full expression to the religious and +artistic aspirations of the time. The age of Pericles was also the age +of Phidias. It is true that there was an interval between the defeat of +the Persians and the period of highest attainment in Greece; and during +this interval many temples were built or rebuilt, and many statues were +set up as objects of worship or as dedications to the gods. Some of +these may have anticipated to a certain extent the work of Phidias; +several of them were of colossal size, like his chief masterpieces, and +thus, even from the technical point of view, may have prepared the way +before him; one, the Apollo by Calamis at Apollonia, was about +forty-five feet high, and so actually rivalled the Zeus and Athena of +Phidias in size. But of these statues we know little or nothing. As to +the two most famous works of Phidias himself, the Athena Parthenos +within the Parthenon at Athens and the Zeus at Olympia, we are better +informed, so far as elaborate descriptions and the somewhat rhetorical +appreciations of later writers are concerned; and we possess some extant +copies which tell us something of their pose and attributes. But any +notion we may form as to their true artistic and religious character +must be mainly dependent upon our imagination; and even for their +relation to the religious ideals of the people we are dependent for the +most part upon indirect evidence. Though the art of sculpture was so +closely bound up with the life of the people in Greece, we find very few +references to its greatest works; it is evident that the Athenians, for +example, took the greatest pride in the buildings that adorned their +Acropolis and in the sculptures they contained; yet when Pericles, as +reported by Thucydides, speaks of the statue of the Athena Parthenos, it +is only to reckon the gold of her drapery as part of the possible +resources of the state. We know that in the eyes of Pericles and of his +hearers the preciousness of the material was only an incident in the +artistic character of the work; but what is felt most deeply is often +the least spoken about. Later descriptions, such as that of Pausanias, +lay emphasis on the details and accessories of the statue, the +ornamentation of helmet and shield and sandals; they lay themselves open +to the stricture of Lucian on "such as can neither see nor praise the +whole beauty of the Olympian Zeus, great and noble as it is, nor +describe it to others that do not know it, but admire the accurate work +and fine polish of his footstool and the good proportions of the basis, +enumerating all such details with the utmost care." At the same time +even such information as they give us is welcome, since it aids our +imagination to reconstruct the appearance of the whole. These great +chryselephantine statues were placed within the cella of a temple, +lighted only through the door and by some infiltration through the +marble roof, and their effect was calculated for these conditions. The +rich tone and subtle reflections of the ivory and the gold, mingled with +coloured inlays of enamel or precious stones, and tempered and +harmonised by a "dim religious light," must have been most impressive; +and the grandeur of the figures was enhanced by their colossal size. But +in all this we are still dealing only with conditions and accessories, +not with the art itself and the religious ideals which it expressed. +These are perhaps easier for us to appreciate in the case of the Zeus +than of the Athena, though we are better provided with copies of the +latter. We are accustomed in our own religious art to the attempt to +express divinity in the form of a mature man of unspeakable majesty and +benignity. To the Greeks, indeed, the human figure of Zeus was not +merely an incarnation, but the actual form of the god himself; the god +was not thought of as having taken upon himself the sorrows and the +weaknesses of our mortal nature, but as sharing only its ideal +perfection. Yet that the effect was not altogether dissimilar is shown +by such a passage as that we find in Dion Chrysostom: "A man whose soul +is utterly immersed in toil, who has suffered many disasters and +sorrows, and cannot even enjoy sweet sleep, even such an one, I think, +if he stood face to face with this statue, would forget all the dangers +and difficulties of this mortal life: such the vision you, Phidias, have +invented and devised, a sight 'to lull all pain and anger, and bring +forgetfulness of every sorrow.'"</p> + +<p>The same writer elsewhere puts into the mouth of Phidias an explanation +of how he had attempted to embody in his statue the current conception +of the god, and even the epithets that belonged to his worship. "My +Zeus," says the sculptor, "is peaceful and altogether gentle, as the +guardian of a Hellas free from factions and of one mind with itself. +Him, taking counsel with my art, and with the wise and noble Elean +state, I set up in his temple, mild and majestic in a form free from all +sorrow, as the giver of life and livelihood and all good things, the +common father of men, their saviour and their guardian, so far as it is +possible for a mortal man to conceive and to copy his divine and +inexpressible nature. And consider whether you will not find the image +according with all the epithets of the god; Zeus alone is called the +father of gods and their only king, and also god of the city and of +friendship and society, and of suppliants too and strangers, the giver +of harvest, and by innumerable other titles. And for one whose aim it +was to display all these qualities without speaking, is not my art +successful? The strength of the form and its imposing proportions show +the power to rule and the king; the gentle and amiable character shows +the father and his care; the majesty and severity show the god of the +city and of law; and of the kinship of men and gods the similarity of +their shape serves as a symbol. His protective friendship of suppliants +and strangers and fugitives and such like is seen in his kindliness and +his evident gentleness and goodness. And an image of the giver of +possessions and harvest is seen in the simplicity and magnanimity +displayed in his form; he seems just like one who would give and be +generous of good things. All this, in short, I imitated as far as +possible, being unable to express it in speech." This description is, of +course, the work of a late and rhetorical author, but it is the work of +a man who was familiar with these great statues that are now lost to us, +and was capable of appreciating them. His criticism may not be so +thorough and subtle as the analysis of the Greek type of Zeus made by +Brunn in his <i>Götteridealen</i>; but it is based on similar principles, the +observation of the physical type and the spiritual expression which +serves best to embody the majesty and benignity of the god. After all, +we come back perhaps to the saying of Phidias himself, and his quotation +from Homer; here, too, it is the brow of the god that is emphasised, and +the nod that shook Olympus while it granted a prayer. It is in such +effects rather than in any detailed description that it is possible to +realise the nature of a great work of art.</p> + +<p>What success in the attainment of its aim was here reached by the art of +the sculptor may perhaps best be estimated from the often quoted +sentence of Quintilian, perhaps the noblest praise ever accorded to an +artist by a critic: "The beauty of the statue even made some addition to +the received religion; the majesty of the work was equal to the god." We +might indeed, without irreverence, impute to Phidias the words uttered +in a very different sense by one who later gave a new and higher +interpretation to a formula of "the received religion" in Greece: "Whom +therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you."</p> + +<p>The other great Phidian ideal, that of Athena, was represented by +several statues, both in Athens and in other cities. As to these we have +a certain amount of information, and even a certain number of copies, +which show us the pose and the accessories of the various statues; some +of the better ones even suffice to give us some notion of the beauty of +their original. We have also descriptions by ancient writers, which tell +us, as in the case of the Olympian Zeus, much about the decoration of +the statue; but we have not in this case any appreciations of the effect +upon those who saw it. The ideal of Athena is in some ways more +difficult for us to comprehend than that of Zeus, partly because it is +less universally human, and more peculiarly characteristic of Greece and +even of Athens. The notion of the mother goddess is common to most +religions; that of the "queen and huntress, chaste and fair" is at least +familiar to us in literature, and readily commends itself to the +imagination. But Athena, though she has something of both these +characters, has a nature different from both. It is impossible to derive +her varied mythological functions from any one origin; but here it is +not the origin of her worship that concerns us, rather its meaning and +influence as these affected the people of her chosen city. Just as Zeus +was the ideal of all that was best in the Hellenic conception of manhood +and the god of a united Hellas, so Athena is especially the goddess of +Athens, the giver and fosterer of all those qualities that made the +Athenians what they were, the creatress of that ideal city sketched in +the wonderful speeches of Pericles. Her gifts are the arts of war and +peace, and all artistic and intellectual activity, as well as the olive +and other characteristic products of Attic soil, and the clear and +luminous air and stimulating climate which Attic writers are never tired +of extolling, and of associating with the peculiar genius of the +Athenian race. One can imagine how Dion Chrysostom might have recognised +the expression of these various qualities in the broad and majestic, yet +keenly intellectual brow, in the wide and clear eyes, and in other +features; but the extant copies of the Athena Parthenos cannot do more +than assist our imagination in realising how the sculptor represented +the goddess of Athens. Here, too, as in the case of the Zeus, it is +difficult for us to avoid the error of regarding the statue as a mere +philosophical abstraction, an impersonation of the qualities it +represents. Athena in later art, as set up in libraries and museums, was +doubtless such an impersonation, just as she is in modern art unreal and +comparatively uninteresting. But the Athenian believed intensely in the +existence of his goddess. He believed that the ceremonies connected with +her ancient image were necessary to the continuance of her favour to her +city and people, and that the new temples and statues set up in her +honour would still further delight her and ensure her protection and her +abode among her grateful worshippers. The statue by Phidias within the +Parthenon offered not merely that form in which she would choose to +appear if she showed herself to mortal eyes, but actually showed her +form as she had revealed it to the sculptor. To look upon such an image +helped the worshipper as much as—perhaps more than—any service or +ritual to bring himself into communion with the goddess, and to fit +himself, as a citizen of her chosen city, to carry out her will in +contributing his best efforts to its supremacy in politics, in +literature, and in art. If a work of art could have this actual +influence upon religious emotion, and through it upon practical life, it +may be said to have attained the utmost that any human effort can +achieve in the service of God.</p> + +<p>The religious influence of art in the fifth century is, as we have seen, +closely associated with the state; the Athena Parthenos and the Olympian +Zeus appealed to their worshippers as citizens of Athens and as members +of the privileged Hellenic race. It would be easy to trace a similar +character in almost all the great statues of gods that are recorded as +belonging to this period. Thus the Dionysus of Alcamenes is not the +dreamy god of wine and pleasure that we find at a later age, but an +august figure, bearded and enthroned, the giver of the riches of the +earth and the wine, the god in whose honour all the great Dionysian +festivals were held; the same sculptor's Hermes is the guardian of ways +and gates, the giver of increase to flocks, not the youthful and +athletic messenger of the gods. Hephæstus, too, especially when +associated with Athena, is the patron and teacher of all handicrafts, +himself the ideal artisan, practical and genial, but with none of his +godhead lost in a too human individuality; even his +lameness—characteristic of the smith in all folk-lore—is lightly +indicated, not dwelt on as an interesting motive. Various statues of +particular gods may, of course, emphasise one side or another of their +functions. Athena may be worshipped and represented as goddess of +Victory or of Health; but here, too, it is usually some recognised state +cult that underlies the representation. Outside Athens we find the same +conditions. To take only one instance, the colossal gold and ivory Hera +of Argos, made by the chief Argive master Polyclitus, is the great +goddess of the city, just as Athena is of Athens. She was represented as +the bride of Zeus, who annually renewed her maidenhood at the great +Argive festival of the divine marriage; and we cannot doubt that +Polyclitus expressed in this statue, which was hardly less famous than +the masterpieces of Phidias, all the essential features of the great +religious ideals that underlay this primitive rite. His Hera had neither +the warlike nor the intellectual and spiritual characteristics of the +Attic Athena; but she was the goddess of womanly grace and beauty in the +bride, and embodied that perfection of physical form which Argive art +sought also in its athletic figures, and which was in a sense a part of +the religion that found expression in the great athletic games. Some +gods—Apollo, for example—seem in fifth-century statues to have a more +individual character. Just as in earlier times the name Apollo serves to +cover a multitude of statues of which some may be meant to represent +individual men, so even in the age of Phidias we sometimes meet with a +figure of athletic type or of youthful beauty as to which it is possible +to doubt whether it is an Apollo; this may be partly the result of the +great popularity of the type in all ages of Greek sculpture which led to +its more rapid development and earlier individualisation. But the Apollo +of this period is never the mere dreamy youth of later time; it has been +well said that he is the god who, in the mythical athletic contest, +could surpass Hermes in the foot-race and Ares in boxing; the embodiment +of all-round physical and intellectual excellence, the combination of +music and gymnastic, which again brings us back to a national Hellenic +ideal. Throughout the representations of the gods in the art of the +fifth century we find the same essential character. They embody in +themselves the expression, by means of the most perfect physical forms, +of the qualities attributed to the god himself, or given by him to his +worshippers. They are no impersonal abstraction of these qualities, but +are real and living beings, in whom these qualities exist to a degree +impossible for a mere mortal. But, on the other hand, they have nothing +of the passions and emotions, the weaknesses and imperfections of mortal +nature. In this they are inconsistent, perhaps, with that Homeric +presentment of the gods which the greatest artists consciously set +before themselves. But we cannot wonder that an age of such clear and +lofty intellectual and moral perceptions should have rejected what it +felt to be unworthy in the current notions of the gods, and should have +selected only what it felt to be truly divine. Art did not, however, +remain very long upon its highest level of religious feeling; but in +Greece, by a fortunate coincidence, the age of the greatest religious +ideals was also that of the highest perfection of physical type in art +as well as of technical skill in execution. We do not therefore find in +this age that the sculptor lacks the power to express his ideas, or that +his ideas are too strong for the forms in which they are expressed; +there is rather that perfect harmony between the two that, here as +elsewhere, is characteristic of Hellenic art.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="chap6"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h4>INDIVIDUALISM</h4> +<br> + +<p>The great religious ideals of the fifth century were, as we have seen, +closely bound up with the subordination of the individual to the State; +and their expression in sculpture was also due in almost every case to +the employment of the artist by the community. In the fourth century, on +the other hand, we find on every side a stronger assertion of +individuality. It was a commonplace among Attic orators in the fourth +century to contrast the private luxury and ostentation of their own day +with the simplicity of life among the great men of the earlier age, +whose houses could not be distinguished from those of the common people, +though their public buildings and the temples they raised to the gods +were of unparalleled splendour. In religion, and above all in religious +art, we find something of the same tendency. There are few if any +records of the dedication during the fourth century of those great +statues of the chief gods which were looked back to by all subsequent +generations as the embodiment of a national ideal. But there were, +perhaps, more statues of the gods made in the fourth century which were +the objects not merely of artistic admiration, but of intense and +sometimes morbid personal devotion. The mere list of the gods preferred +for representation is an indication in itself; while in the fifth +century, Zeus and Athena and Hera, the great gods of the State or of the +Hellenic race, are the subjects of the most famous statues, in the +fourth century it is rather Aphrodite and Dionysus and Asclepius, those +whose gifts contribute to individual happiness or enjoyment, that offer +most scope to the powers of the artist.</p> + +<p>And the sculptors themselves, in the fourth century, show more +individuality of style. In the latter part of the fifth century the +genius of Phidias had so dominated religious art that the works of his +successors, men like Alcamenes and Agoracritus, could hardly be +distinguished from his. But the great sculptors of the fourth century, +Scopas and Praxiteles and Lysippus, not to mention others of less note, +devoted themselves not so much to the expression through perfect +physical form of great religious ideals, but to a realisation of the +character and, so to speak, the personality of the gods whom they +portrayed. And they did this by the same means by which they expressed +in their art the characters and passions of heroes or of men, thereby +removing the gods from the sphere of passionless benignity and power +which is assigned to them by the art of the fifth century. Such a +treatment evidently gave more scope for variety in the styles of the +sculptors; and although we can sometimes trace the influence of one upon +another, yet each clearly shows his own characteristics. We are +expressly told of Praxiteles that he showed the most admirable skill in +infusing into his marble works the passions and emotions of the soul; +and the extant remains of the statues made by Scopas and Lysippus show +that they also, each in his own way, attained the same results.</p> + +<p>If the sculpture of the fifth century was ethical, expressing noble +ideals of character whether in gods or men, that of the fourth century +may be called psychological. It is not content with character; it +expresses also mood and even passion, and thereby gives more prominence +to individuality. At first sight it is not easy to realise how this +change came to affect the representations of the gods. The gods of Homer +are, indeed, full of individual character; but we have seen how in the +fifth century, though the greatest sculptors declared it was the gods of +Homer that they represented, these representations were idealised and +raised above those human touches in which the individuality is most +conspicuous. There was, in the Homeric hymns and in the lyric poets, a +delight in details of incident and in personal peculiarities and even in +romantic tales about the gods; and in the fourth century, when the high +idealisation of the preceding age is no longer so strong in its +influence, we find a similar tendency in art as well. While the great +statues of the gods in the fifth century are almost all represented as +either enthroned or standing, not employed in any particular action or +function, the most characteristic examples of the statues of gods made +in the fourth century have almost all some definite motive. We may take +as an example what was perhaps the most famous statue of antiquity, the +Aphrodite by Praxiteles at Cnidus. The goddess is represented as nude; +and it is often said that goddesses would not have been so represented +in the fifth century. It is true that full drapery seems more consistent +with the dignified and august figures of Phidian art. But if the +religious type had required that Phidias should make a nude goddess, we +may be sure he would have made her naked and unashamed, with no more +self-consciousness than a nude Apollo; above all, he would not have +thought it necessary to provide a motive for her nudity. With Praxiteles +it is otherwise. He represents the goddess as preparing for the bath, +and just letting her last garment slip from her hand on to a vase that +stands beside her; and, in addition to this provision of a motive—an +excuse, one might almost say—for representing her without her clothes, +he hints, from the instinctive gesture of her other hand which she holds +before her body, at a half-conscious shrinking from exposure, a feeling +of modesty which, however suitable to a woman, is by no means consistent +with a high ideal of the goddess. The face and figure are of +extraordinary physical beauty of type, of a breadth and nobility which +contrast with the smaller, prettier, and less dignified forms of later +art; the gesture, too, has not the conscious coquetry which we see in +such a work as the Venus de' Medici. But, on the other hand, we must +recognise that the statue represents the goddess under a human rather +than a divine aspect, that even her mood and feeling of timidity are +portrayed in a manner which, however charming in itself, is totally +inconsistent with her worship as a great goddess. We are not surprised +to hear that this statue inspired a personal passion; she is the goddess +of love, and is represented as not beyond the reach of human attraction; +but she is brought down to the level of mortals, rather than capable of +raising mortals to a higher sphere by her contemplation. It is the same, +though perhaps to a less degree, with other statues of the gods made in +the fourth century. The motives with which the later Greeks went to +visit the great statues of the Phidian age were, as we have seen, to a +great extent religious, and their contemplation was regarded to some +extent as a service; here we have "idolatry" in its highest form. But +those who went to see the Aphrodite of Cnidus went chiefly to enjoy the +beauty of the statue; and although this may be the best thing from the +artistic point of view, it certainly has not the same religious import.</p> + +<p>There is another element in the individuality of fourth-century statues +which may appeal to modern artists, and which certainly did appeal—in +an inverted manner—to early Christian writers of invectives against +pagan idolatry. It was said that Phryne had posed as a model for the +Cnidian Aphrodite of Praxiteles; and the character of the goddess was +inferred from that of her votary. It is clear that a Greek artist could +not have, in the case of a nude female statue, the same choice of types +constantly present to his observation and his memory as he had in the +case of male statues; and the individuality of the model, however +beautiful, would thus tend to assert itself against the type. Thus +personality and individual character, "the ultimate condition of +beauty," to use Mr. Ruskin's words, in modern as in Tuscan art, comes +much nearer to expression in the fourth century than in the fifth. But a +study of such a statue as the Cnidian Aphrodite shows us nevertheless +that in the beauty of the type and the avoidance of the accidental, the +art of Praxiteles was as far removed from realism as it was from the +vague generalisation of Græco-Roman and modern pseudo-classical art. It +is full of life and individuality, but it is the individuality of a +character realised within his mind by the artist, not merely copied from +the human model he set before him.</p> + +<p>Another method by which the motive becomes prominent in the art of the +fourth century is to be seen in the interpretation of mythological +conceptions. These are realised and embodied in statues; but the statues +offer a new, sometimes, it seems, almost an accidental and trifling +version of a solemn religious conception; it appears as if the artist +were playing with a mythological subject. Thus in the statue made by +Praxiteles of Apollo Sauroktonos, "the lizard-slayer," the god stands +with an arrow in his hand, as if trying to catch with it a lizard who +runs up a tree; it suggests a boyish game rather than the epithet of a +god. Again, the worship of Artemis Brauronia at Athens was one of the +oldest and most sacred cults in the city, and women at marriage and at +other critical times of their life used to offer her their garments, +thereby bringing themselves into close contact with the goddess and +claiming her special protection, the garments being actually placed on +the old image. If, as is probable, the Artemis of Gabii is a copy of the +statue substituted by Praxiteles for this old image, we see there the +goddess, as a graceful girlish figure, fastening a cloak upon her +shoulder. This may be taken as symbolical of the earlier custom of +placing the garments on the statue; but we have evidence that the +worshippers were not content with such a symbolic contact, but had the +actual garments placed on the new statue as they had been on the old. +Here we have probably a case of unsuccessful substitution; the artistic +representation did not suffice to replace the actual rite. But the +representation itself is doubtless intended in a way which, however +graceful, does not represent any deep religious feeling; one feels that +the artist found the subject a convenient one as an artistic motive, +rather than that he had any deep religious idea to express.</p> + +<p>We must not, however, go too far in denying religious ideals to the +fourth century altogether. Some of the gods, who came very near to the +life of man, but who were nevertheless worshipped with a real belief in +their power and benevolence, found at this time their fullest expression +in art. An example may be seen in the Demeter of Cnidus, the mother +sorrowing for her daughter, whose suffering brings her into close +sympathy with human weakness, and whose mysteries, perhaps more than any +other Hellenic service, brought men and women into personal communion +with the gods. We may take as another instance the head of Asclepius +from Melos in the British Museum. Here, as Brunn has pointed out in his +admirable analysis of its forms, we may recognise not so much the god as +the half-human, half-divine physician, a genial and friendly spirit who +persuades rather than commands. The expression is not only intellectual, +but has also an infinite gentleness, as of one not himself unacquainted +with mortal pain and sorrow; and such a conception, as we know from +Christian art, often appeals to those who find the majesty of Zeus too +distant, the idea of his godhead too abstract. In such almost human +ideals the individuality of the fourth century finds its full scope, as +in other half-human creations of the artist's imagination. Apollo as the +inspired musician or—if we accept the derivation of the Apollo +Belvedere from a fourth-century original—as the disdainful archer, +Hermes, the protector and playmate of his little brother Dionysus, and +many other such representations of the gods in their personal moods and +characteristic actions, seem in many ways less divine, less full of +religious feeling than such an Asclepius; if the great gods are brought +too near to human passions and weaknesses, they cannot but lose much of +their divinity.</p> + +<p>One might easily multiply examples of similar motives in the statues of +the gods made in the fourth century; but we should find the same +underlying principles in all cases. The gods are indeed more clearly +realised as having personal character and individuality, and for this +reason they may sometimes inspire keener personal feelings of worship or +even of romantic devotion. But the older and higher conceptions of the +gods, as an essential part of the State religion, and as embodying the +ideals of the race or of the city, are no longer to be found, except in +a somewhat lifeless continuance of the fifth-century tradition. The +intensity of expression which we find in human heroes is, indeed, +expressed also in such types as that of Apollo the musician or of +Dionysus the god of inspired enthusiasm. But this tendency is not fully +developed until a later age. The subtle distinctions of character +between the different gods are, on the other hand, now most keenly +observed and most skilfully rendered. But in spite of this, one does not +feel that the artist has the same belief in the gods and in their power +as we can see in the Phidian age. If his artistic attainment is possibly +more skilful, the religious import of his work is certainly less.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="chap7"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h4>PERSONIFICATION, CONVENTION, AND SYMBOLISM</h4> +<br> + +<p>In the Hellenistic age we find the Greek types of the gods adapting +themselves to new conditions and new meanings. With the conquests of +Alexander, Greek language and civilisation spread over the Eastern +world; and with them went the artistic forms of the Greek pantheon, +though often to be modified by local beliefs or influences. Similarly, +when at a later time the Roman conquest of Greece spread Hellenic +influence to the West, there also the types of the Greek deities came to +be adopted or adapted to new mythological meanings. Greek art +practically became cosmopolitan; its influence was broadened; but at the +same time its essential nature, in its harmony with the imagination of +the Hellenic race, was lost or obscured. It becomes more intelligible to +us for this very reason, but at the same time less instructive in its +relation to religious conceptions.</p> + +<p>In the art of the Hellenistic and Græco-Roman age we find two main +tendencies, the one towards academic generalisation, and the other +towards excessive realism, often coupled with a theatrical or +sensational treatment. This latter is the more interesting to us, partly +because it is in itself more original, partly because it is more in +accordance with modern artistic practice. The two tendencies are by no +means rigidly distinguished; for example, we often find a theatrical +treatment combined with academic work; and throughout are to be seen +traces of eclecticism—that is to say, of the habit of imitating or +reproducing, often in an unintelligent manner, the devices and even the +style of earlier art. It does not follow that no great works of art were +made in the Hellenistic age; the fine traditions of the fifth and fourth +centuries were not easily lost. But the inspiration of the subject, so +far as it still exists, comes from new and different sources.</p> + +<p>If we consider first the statues of the older gods of Greece, we often +find in them the individualistic tendencies of the fourth century +carried to a further pitch—sometimes to an extreme—in the sentimental +or passionate works of the Hellenistic age; there is often something +affected or dramatic about them, as if they were not merely realised as +expressing their individual character in their mood or action, but +acting their part as the representative of such a character; in fact, +they tend to embody impersonations rather than to express personalities. +One might almost repeat here much that has been said about the gods in +the fourth century, but that there is often, in this case, a touch of +exaggeration which is avoided by the finer artistic instinct and +appreciation of harmony that mark the work of earlier sculptors; and +joined with this we often find a love of display and a seeking after +effect which imply that the artist thinks more of his skill than of the +idea he is striving to express.</p> + +<p>We can trace in the Hellenistic age not only the traditions of earlier +art, but the direct influence of the masters of the fourth century, the +Praxitelean cult of beauty for its own sake, the passion and dramatic +force of Scopas, and the preference for allegorical subjects and for +statues of colossal size which we may see, as well as many higher +qualities, in the art of Lysippus. We have already noticed how in the +Apollo Belvedere there is an impression of theatrical posing which was +probably either introduced by the copyist or at any rate much +exaggerated by him in imitating an earlier type; and how in the Venus +de' Medici we find a crude insistence on a gesture of mock modesty which +is a mere travesty of the hint at half-conscious shrinking from exposure +which we see in the Cnidian Aphrodite. Even in a statue which, like the +Aphrodite of Melos, shows an endeavour to return to the nobler ideals +and more dignified and simple forms of an earlier age, there is +something artificial and conventional about both figure and drapery; and +one feels that the sculptor, though both his aims and his attainments +are of the highest, is trying rather to reflect the best influences of +his predecessors than to embody a present religious conception.</p> + +<p>The influence upon art of religious personifications is perhaps stronger +than any other during this period. There had, indeed, been such +personifications at an earlier time, such as the statue by Cephisodotus +of Peace nursing the infant Wealth. The most interesting example of such +personification may be seen in the figures of cities, or, to speak more +accurately, of the Fortunes of cities, such as the Antioch of +Eutychides. The influence of the city or state upon religious art was +conspicuous in the fifth century; but here we find the city itself or +its presiding genius represented in a statue which seems at first sight +a mere allegory of its situation. The way in which the figure is seated, +half turned on herself, and with her feet resting upon the shoulder of +the river that swims below her, seems to suggest an artificially +invented symbolism; yet we are expressly told that this statue received +great veneration from the natives of the district. In the decay of the +belief in the gods, there seems to have been a craving for nearer and +more real objects of worship.</p> + +<p>We can see the same tendency in a more extreme form in the deification +of human beings. Though some examples of this occur earlier, especially +in the case of the heroes or founders of cities, these are not placed on +a level with the gods; but the worship of Alexander, and in imitation of +him, of his successors, placed him in a distinctly divine rank. It is +difficult to say how far this was due to non-Hellenic influences. In the +case of Alexander, with his marvellous, almost superhuman achievements, +and his final solution of the great drama of the contest of East and +West, such idealisation is easy to understand; and we find not only that +Alexander is himself represented as a god, but that his expression and +cast of features come to affect the sculpture of his age, even in the +representations of the gods themselves. On coins, too, his head occurs; +an honour that before his time was not given to mere mortals. In other +cases this worship of men reached a pitch which was a matter of shame to +the later Greeks; thus Demetrius Poliorcetes, when he gave Athens back +her freedom, was welcomed at the city with divine honours. Even hymns +were composed in his honour, of which we find specimens preserved.<small>7</small> +After welcoming his advent at the same time as that of Demeter, the poet +addresses him thus:—"Other gods are either far away, or they have no +ears, or they exist not, or have no care for us. But we see thee, a +present deity, not of wood or stone, but real; therefore we pray to +thee." It is true that such materialistic and atheistic expressions were +probably reprobated by many at the time, as well as by later writers; +but the mere possibility of their public enunciation shows how far the +Athenians had gone from their old religious beliefs.</p> + +<blockquote><small> 7 Athen., VI, 63.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Allegorical impersonations, such as that of Antioch, are religious +conceptions of a high order compared to this. Nevertheless, one feels +that such impersonations can have no separate divine existence apart +from the city or the people whom they represent. They are on a different +plane of religious belief from Athena, for example, as the goddess of +the city. The goddess was, indeed, in some ways representative of what +was best in her chosen people; but she was not a mere symbol of its +character and its greatness. She existed before it, and would continue +though it should disappear from the earth, unlike the Fortune of +Antioch, whose very existence was bound up with that of the city she +represented.</p> + +<p>Another example of personification may be seen in the recumbent figures +of river-gods—notably that of the Nile, with his sixteen cubits, as +babies, playing around him. River-gods were indeed an object of worship +from early times in Greece, and so appear on coins and elsewhere; but +this figure of the Nile, a product of Alexandrian art, is not like the +earlier gods, who were looked upon as the givers of increase and +fertility; it is a mere allegorical impersonation of the river, such as +might be made by a modern artist who made no pretence to believe in the +existence of such an anthropomorphic river-god. It cannot be counted as +religious art at all. And the attributes and accessories of such a +figure, the crocodile and hippopotamus, the sphinx and corn and horn of +plenty, are all of them symbolic allusions such as are suitable to such +a frigid personification. The art of Alexandria is full of such devices; +that of Pergamon is more vigorous and dramatic; but in both alike we +find the influence of a learned study of mythology, full of quaint and +far-fetched allusions and symbols. The culmination of this learned +mythology is to be seen in the great altar of Pergamon, on which the +gods who are in combat with the giants include not only all figures, +appropriate and inappropriate, from the Hellenic pantheon, but many +other deities whose right of admission to that pantheon is more than +doubtful. The figures of the gods no longer correspond to the belief in +any real divinities, but are either mere artistic types, repeated again +and again in accordance with convention, or else they are regarded as +symbols representing different aspects of divine power.</p> + +<p>Symbolism of this kind is a common symptom of the decay of religious +faith. The more thoughtful or educated classes, who follow the +speculations of philosophers as to the nature of the deity, find it +possible to reconcile these speculations with the forms of popular +religion by accepting the forms in a symbolic sense. The common people, +on the other hand, finding the old forms inadequate to satisfy their +religious aspirations, import new and strange divinities, whose cult is +often mixed with magic or mystic rites. Here, too, the symbols have a +meaning other than what appears to the uninitiated eye, and the province +of art, which approaches the mind through the senses, is closely +circumscribed. A statue or other work of art which needs explanation of +its allusions, which does not express an ideal that appeals directly to +the imagination of the people, has lost touch with religion, and cannot +to any appreciable extent influence it or be influenced by it. The age +of idolatry in the higher sense, of a religious imagination that enables +the artist to bring the people nearer to their gods, or even the gods +nearer to the heart of the people, has passed away, and in its place we +find either a superstitious clinging to the magic power of the early +objects of worship, or a mere acceptance, as conventional symbols, of +forms that bear no direct relation to anything that is believed in as +real.</p> + +<p>Our brief historical survey has shown us how the Greeks, starting from a +belief, such as is common to many primitive religions, in the superhuman +powers or sanctity of certain objects, were enabled by their vivid +anthropomorphic imagination first to think of the gods as in like form +to themselves, and then to make their images in human shape. And as +their art progressed towards the power of making a physical type of +perfect beauty to serve as the means of expression of this "human form +divine," and also to skill in expressing character by means of human +features and figures, it became possible for them to embody in their +great statues the various ideals of divinity which belonged to their +chief gods. Here the skill of the artist would have availed little or +nothing if he had not shared with the people for whom he worked a belief +in the reality of these ideals, not merely as philosophic aspects of the +divine nature, but as real beings who were able to help and to inspire, +and to manifest themselves to their worshippers in this human form. The +next step is towards an even more vivid realisation of the personality +of the gods; but by bringing them nearer to human level it made the +worship of their images less easy to accept in a literal sense to the +more thoughtful, while such worship tended, with the common people, to +enter upon a more material and less exalted phase. The result was a +tendency towards symbolism in which the symbol itself was regarded as a +mere convention, and the inspiration and actual communion with men, +vouchsafed by the gods through their ideal images, was no longer sought +after. When any means of communion between god and man, whether by means +of a solemn service or by means of an image which the god himself +accepts as his earthly representative, ceases to be felt as anything +more than a human device, its religious power must fail. When, on the +other hand, we find a union of religion and art to provide a means for +this divine intercourse, we may recognise idolatry in its highest form, +the use of images not merely as accessories of religious service, but as +providing in themselves a channel of worship and inspiration.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><small>WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.<br> +PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr> +<br> +<br> +<h4>Harper's Library of Living Thought</h4> +<center><small><i>Foolscap 8vo, gilt tops, decorative covers, richly gilt backs</i><br> +<i>Per Volume: Cloth 2s. 6d. net, Leather 3s. 6d. net</i></small></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr> +<br> +<br> +<center><small>"Original research of great importance."—<i>Times</i></small></center> +<h2>CRETE, THE FORERUNNER OF GREECE</h2> +<center><small>BY</small></center> +<h4>C. H. Hawes, M.A. & Harriet B. Hawes, M.A.</h4> +<center><i>With Map, Plans, etc.</i></center> +<br> +<center><small>Preface by Arthur J. Evans, D.Litt., F.R.S., Etc.</small></center> +<p>"Mr. and Mrs. Hawes have a fascinating story to tell—the story of the +unfolding of a great civilisation which flourished in Crete before +Abraham was born. Reading these deeply interesting pages we seem to get +right back into the dawn of history. We seem to enter into the feelings +of the inhabitants when the ships of the sea-rovers hove in sight. Here +a carpenter's kit lies concealed in a cranny; there a carefully mended +anvil stands at the door of the village smithy. In the palace at Knossos +the system of drainage is superior to any known in Europe between that +day and the last century. Most wonderful of all is the art; two small +ivory figures of youths leaping, display a life and freedom nothing +short of marvellous."</p> +<div align="right"><i>Evening Standard</i></div> +<br> +<br> +<hr> +<br> +<br> +<h3>Harper's Library of Living Thought</h3> +<center><i>Now Ready</i></center> +<br><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="library"> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Algernon Charles Swinburne</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>THREE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Leo Tolstoy</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>THE TEACHING OF JESUS</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">W. M. Flinders Petrie</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>PERSONAL RELIGION IN EGYPT BEFORE CHRISTIANITY</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>THE ETHER OF SPACE. <small><i>Illustrated</i></small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. William Wrede (University of Breslau)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>THE ORIGIN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. C. H. Becker (Colonial Institute, Hamburg)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. Svante Arrhenius (Nobel Institute, Stockholm)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>THE LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE. <small>2 vols. <i>Illustrated</i></small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. Arnold Meyer (University of Zurich)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>JESUS OR PAUL?</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. D. A. Bertholet (University of Basle)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. Reinhold Seeberg (University of Berlin)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>REVELATION AND INSPIRATION</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. Johannes Weiss (University of Heidelberg)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>PAUL AND JESUS</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. Rudolf Eucken (University of Jena)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW IDEALISM</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. P. Vinogradoff (Oxford University)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>ROMAN LAW IN MEDIÆVAL EUROPE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Sir William Crookes, LL.D., F.R.S.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>DIAMONDS. <small><i>Illustrated</i></small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">C. H. Hawes, M.A., and Harriet Boyd Hawes, M.A.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>CRETE, THE FORERUNNER OF GREECE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Sir William A. Tilden. F.R.S.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>THE ELEMENTS: SPECULATIONS AS TO THEIR NATURE AND ORIGIN</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2">Prof. Ernest A. Gardner (University of London)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td>RELIGION AND ART IN ANCIENT GREECE</td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div align="right"><small><i>June, 1910</i>.</small></div> +<h3>HARPER & BROTHERS</h3> +<center><small><b>45 Albemarle Street, London. W. : : Franklin Square. New York.</b></small></center> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Religion and Art in Ancient Greece, by +Ernest Arthur Gardner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGION AND ART IN ANCIENT GREECE *** + +***** This file should be named 20523-h.htm or 20523-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/5/2/20523/ + +Produced by Ron Swanson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Religion and Art in Ancient Greece + +Author: Ernest Arthur Gardner + +Release Date: February 6, 2007 [EBook #20523] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGION AND ART IN ANCIENT GREECE *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + + +RELIGION AND ART +IN +ANCIENT GREECE + + +BY +ERNEST A. GARDNER + +YATES PROFESSOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND PUBLIC ORATOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF +LONDON; LATE DIRECTOR OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS + + + + +LONDON AND NEW YORK +HARPER & BROTHERS +45 ALBEMARLE STREET, W. +1910 + + + + +PREFACE + + +Greek religion may be studied under various aspects; and many recent +contributions to this study have been mainly concerned either with the +remote origin of many of its ceremonies in primitive ritual, or with the +manner in which some of its obscurer manifestations met the deeper +spiritual needs which did not find satisfaction in the official cults. +Such discussions are of the highest interest to the anthropologist and +to the psychologist; but they have the disadvantage of fixing our +attention too exclusively on what, to the ordinary Greek, appeared +accidental or even morbid, and of making us regard the Olympian +pantheon, with its clearly realised figures of the gods, as a mere +system imposed more or less from outside upon the old rites and beliefs +of the people. In the province of art, at least, the Olympian gods are +paramount; and thus we are led to appreciate and to understand their +worship as it affected the religious ideals of the people and the +services of the State. For we must remember that in the case of religion +even more than in that of art, its essential character and its influence +upon life and thought lie rather in its full perfection than in its +origin. + +In a short sketch of so wide a subject it has seemed inadvisable to make +any attempt to describe the types of the various gods. Without full +illustration and a considerable expenditure of space, such a description +would be impracticable, and the reader must be referred to the ordinary +handbooks of the subject. A fuller account will be found in Dr. +Farnell's _Cults of the Greek States_, and some selected types are +discussed with the greatest subtlety and understanding in Brunn's +_Griechische Gotterideale_. In the present volume only a few examples +are mentioned as characteristic of the various periods. It may thus, I +trust, serve as an introduction to a more complete study of the subject; +and may, at the same time, offer to those who have not the leisure or +inclination for such further study, at least a summary of what we may +learn from Greece as to the relations of religion and art under the most +favourable conditions. It is easy, as Aristotle says, to fill in the +details if only the outlines are rightly drawn--[Greek: doxeie d' an +pantos einai proagagein kai diorthosai ta kalos echonta te perigraphe.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. IDOLATRY AND IMAGINATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + + II. ASPECTS OF RELIGION--POPULAR, OFFICIAL, POETICAL, + PHILOSOPHICAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + +III. THE CONDITIONS OF RELIGIOUS ART IN GREECE . . . . . . . . . 48 + + IV. ANTHROPOMORPHISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 + + V. IDEALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + + VI. INDIVIDUALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 + +VII. PERSONIFICATION, CONVENTION, AND SYMBOLISM . . . . . . . . . 108 + + + + +RELIGION AND ART IN ANCIENT GREECE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTION--IDOLATRY AND IMAGINATION + + +The relation of religion to art has varied greatly among different +peoples and at different periods. At the one extreme is the +uncompromising puritan spirit, which refuses to admit any devices of +human skill into the direct relations between God and man, whether it be +in the beauty of church or temple, in the ritual of their service, or in +the images which they enshrine. Other religions, such as those of the +Jews or of Islam, relegate art to a subordinate position; and while they +accept its services to decorate the buildings and apparatus connected +with divine worship, forbid any attempt to make a visible representation +of the deity. Modern Christianity, while it does not, as a rule, repeat +this prohibition, has varied greatly from time to time and from country +to country as to the extent to which it allows such representations. +Probably the better educated or more thoughtful individuals would in +every case regard them merely as symbolic aids to induce the +concentration and intensity of religious ideas and aspirations; but +there is no doubt that among the common people they tend to become +actually objects of worship in themselves. It is instructive to turn to +a system in which idolatry, the worship of images, was an essential part +of orthodox religious observance. It is easy and customary with a +certain class of minds to dismiss all such examples of idolatry with a +superficial generalisation such as "the heathen in his blindness bows +down to stock and stone." But it seems worth while to devote a short +study to an attempt to understand how such a system worked in the case +of a people like the ancient Greeks, who possessed to a degree that has +never been surpassed both clearness of intellectual perception and a +power to embody their ideals in artistic form. Whether it tended to +exalt or to debase religion may be a doubtful question; but there can be +no doubt that it gave an inspiration to art which contributed to the +unrivalled attainments of the Greeks in many branches of artistic +creation. We shall be mainly concerned here with the religion of Greece +as it affected the art of sculpture; but before attempting a historical +summary it is necessary for us to understand exactly what we mean by the +worship of representations of the gods, and to consider the nature of +the influence which such representation must have upon artistic +activity. + +Idolatry--the worship of images--is almost always used by us in a bad +sense, owing, no doubt, chiefly to the usage of the word in the Jewish +scriptures. Mr. Ruskin, in his chapter on the subject in his _Aratra +Pentelici_, points out that it may also be used in a good sense, though +he prefers to use the word imagination in this meaning. There is +doubtless a frequent tendency to failure to + + "Look through the sign to the thing signified," + +but there is no essential reason why the contemplation of a beautiful +statue, embodying a worthy conception of the deity, should not be as +conducive to a state of worship and communion as is an impressive ritual +or ceremony, or any other aid to devotion. This view of the matter is +expressed by some later Greek writers; in earlier times it was probably +unconsciously present, though it is hardly to be found in contemporary +literature. But it was only by slow stages that art came to do so direct +a service to religious ideas; in more primitive times its relation was +more subordinate. The worship or service of images, even in the highest +ages of Greek civilisation, was much more associated with primitive and +comparatively inartistic figures than with the masterpieces of +sculpture; and even where these masterpieces were actually objects of +worship it was often from the inheritance of a sanctity transferred to +them from an earlier image rather than for their own artistic qualities. +It does not, indeed, follow that the influence of the great sculptors +upon the religious ideals of the people was a negligible quality; we +have abundant evidence, both direct and indirect, that it was very +great. But it was exercised chiefly by following and ennobling +traditional notions rather than by daring innovation, and therefore can +only be understood in relation to the general development both of +religious conceptions and of artistic facility. + +Here we shall be mainly concerned with art as an expression of the +religious ideals and aspirations of the people, and as an influence upon +popular and educated opinions and conceptions of the gods. But we must +not forget that it is also valuable to us as a record of myths and +beliefs, and of ritual and customs associated with the worship of the +gods. This is the case, above all, with reliefs and vase-paintings. In +them we often find representations which do not merely illustrate +ancient literature, but supplement and modify the information we derive +from classical writers. The point of view of the artist is often not the +same as that of the poet or historian, and it is frequently nearer to +that of the people, and therefore a help in any attempt to understand +popular beliefs. The representations of the gods which we find in such +works do not often embody any lofty ideals or subtle characterisation; +but they show us the traditional and easily recognisable figures in +which the gods usually occurred to the imagination of the Greek people. + +The association of acts of worship with certain specially sacred objects +or places lies at the basis of much religious art, though very often art +has little or nothing to do with such objects in a primitive stage of +religious development. Stocks and stones--the latter often reputed to +have fallen from heaven, the former sometimes in the shape of a growing +tree, sometimes of a mere unwrought log--were to be found as the centres +of religious cult in many of the shrines of Greece. These sacred objects +are sometimes called fetishes; and although it is perhaps wiser to avoid +terms belonging properly to the religion of modern savages in speaking +of ancient Greece, there seems to be an analogy between the beliefs and +customs that are implied. Such sacred stocks or stones were not regarded +merely as symbols of certain deities, but were looked upon as having +certain occult or magic qualities inherent in them, and as being in +themselves potent for good or evil. The ceremonies used in their cult +partook of the nature of magic rather than religion, so far as these +consisted of anointing them with oil or with drink offerings; such +ceremonies might, indeed, be regarded as gratifying to the deity +worshipped under their form, when they were definitely affiliated to the +service of an anthropomorphic god; but in a more primitive stage of +belief the indwelling power probably was not associated with any such +generalisation as is implied in the change from "animism" or +"polydaemonism" to polytheism. We are here concerned not with this +growth of religious feeling, but rather with its influence upon the +sacred things that were objects of worship and with the question how far +their sanctity encouraged their artistic decoration. + +It is perhaps easier to realise the feeling of a primitive people about +this matter in the case of a sacred building than in that of the actual +image of a god. A temple does not, indeed--in Greece, at least--belong +to the earliest phase of cult; for it is the dwelling of the god, and +its form, based on that of a human dwelling-house, implies an +anthropomorphic imagination. We find, however, in Homer that the gods +are actually thought of as inhabiting their temples and preferring one +to another, Athena going to Athens and Aphrodite to Paphos as her chosen +abode. It was clearly desirable for every city to gain this special +favour; and an obvious way to do this was to make the dwelling-place +attractive in itself to the deity. This might be done not merely by the +abundance of sacrifices, but also by the architectural beauty of the +building itself, and by the richness of the offerings it contained. Here +was, therefore, a very practical reason for making the dwelling of the +god as sumptuous and beautiful as possible, in order that he might be +attracted to live in it and to give his favour and protection to those +that dwelt around it. Doubtless, as religious ideas advanced and the +conception of the nature of the gods became higher, there came the +notion that they did not dwell in houses made with hands; yet a Greek +temple, just like a mediaeval cathedral, might be made beautiful as a +pleasing service and an honour to the deity to whom it was dedicated; +and there was a continuous tradition in practice from the lower +conception to the higher, nor is it easy to draw the line at any +particular stage between the two. + +If we turn now to the sacred image of the deity we find the same process +going on. The rude stock or stone was sometimes itself the actual +recipient of material offerings; or it might be painted with some bright +and pleasing colour, or wrapped in costly draperies. In most of these +customs an assumption is implied that the object of worship is pleased +by the same things as please its worshippers; and here we find the germ +of the anthropomorphic idea. It was probably the desire to make the +offerings and prayers of the worshippers perceptible to the power within +that first led to the addition of human features to the shapeless block. +Just as the early Greeks painted eyes upon the prows of their ships, to +enable them to find their way through the water, so they carved a head, +with eyes and ears, out of the sacred stone or stock, or perhaps added a +head to the original shapeless mass. We find many primitive idols in +this form--a cone or column with a head and perhaps arms and feet added +to it; and the tradition survives in the herm, or in the mask of +Dionysus attached to a post, round which we still see the Maenads +dancing on fifth-century vases. The notion that such carved eyes or ears +actually served to transmit impressions to the god is well illustrated +by Professor Petrie's discovery at Memphis of a number of votive ears of +the god, intended to facilitate or to symbolise his reception of the +prayers of his votaries. In fact, the taunt of the psalmist against the +images of the heathen--"Eyes have they, but they see not; they have +ears, and yet they hear not"--is not a merely rhetorical one, as it +seems to us, but real and practical, if spoken to men who gave their +gods ears and eyes that they might hear and see. + +An imagination so entirely materialistic may belong to a more primitive +stage than any we can find among the Greeks. As soon as religion has +reached the polytheistic stage the gods are regarded as travelling from +image to image, just as they travel from temple to temple. Even in +AEschylus' _Eumenides_ it will be remembered that when Orestes, by the +advice of Apollo, clasps as a suppliant the ancient image of Athena at +Athens, the goddess comes flying from far away in the Troad when she +hears the sound of his calling. The exact relation of the goddess to the +image is not, in all probability, very clearly realised; but, so far as +one can trace it from the ritual procedure, what appears to be implied +is that a suppliant will have a better chance of reaching the deity he +addresses if he approaches one of the images preferred by that deity as +the abode of his power; often there is one such image preferred to all +others, as this early one of Athena at Athens. The deity was not, +therefore, regarded as immanent in any image--at least, in classical +times; the gods lived in Olympus, or possibly visited from time to time +the people whom they favoured, or went to the great festivals that were +held in their honour. But the various images of them, especially the +most ancient ones, that were set up in their temples in the various +cities of Greece were regarded as a means of communication between gods +and men. The prayer of a worshipper addressing such an image will be +transmitted to the deity whom he addresses, and the deity may even come +in person to hear him, if special aid is required. A close parallel may +be found even in modern days. I have known of a child, brought up in the +Roman Catholic religion, who had a particular veneration or affection +for a certain statue of the Virgin, and used often to address it or, as +she said, converse with it. And she said she had an impression that, if +only she could slip in unawares, she might see the Virgin Mary herself +approaching or leaving the statue, whether to be transformed into it or +merely to dwell in it for a time. On Greek vases we see the same notion +expressed as in the _Eumenides_, when a god or goddess is represented as +actually present beside the statue to which a sacrifice or prayer is +being offered. + +In such a stage of religious belief or imagination it is clearly of high +importance that the image of any deity should be pleasing to that deity, +and thereby attract his presence and serve as a ready channel of +communication with him. From the point of view of art, it would seem at +first sight that the result would be a desire to make the image as +beautiful as possible, and as worthy an embodiment of the deity as the +sculptor could devise. This doubtless was the result in the finest +period of art in Greece, and it involved, as we shall see, a great deal +of reciprocal influence on the part of religion and art. But in earlier +times the case is not so simple; and even in statues of the fifth +century it is not easy to understand the conditions under which the +sculptor worked without some reference to the historical development +that lay behind him. + +Before the rise of sculpture in Greece, images of the gods, some of them +only rudely anthropomorphic, had long been objects of worship; and it +was by no means safe in religious matters to depart too rashly from the +forms consecrated by tradition. This was partly owing to the feeling +that when a certain form had been accepted, and a certain means of +communication had worked for a long time satisfactorily, it was a +dangerous thing to make a change which might not be agreeable to the +powers concerned, and which might, so to speak, break the established +connection. But while hieratic conservatism tended to preserve forms and +formulae almost for what we may call magic reasons, there was also a +sentiment about the matter which gave popular support to the tendency. +Thus Pausanias probably expresses a common feeling when he says that the +images made by Daedalus, "though somewhat strange in aspect, yet seem to +be distinguished by something in them of the divine." + +It is true that these early images attributed to Daedalus showed already +a considerable advance on the shapeless or roughly shaped stocks or +stones that had served as the most primitive objects of worship; but it +was their resemblance to these rather than their difference from them +that impressed the imagination of Pausanias. He appreciated them not so +much as examples of an art that promised much for the future, but rather +as linked with the past by the tradition of an immemorial sanctity. We +find, in fact, that the rude early images remained the centres of state +cult and official worship, as well as of popular veneration, long after +the art of sculpture had become capable of providing their worshippers +with more adequate embodiments of the gods they represented. It was the +early image of Athena, not the Athena Parthenos by Phidias, that was +annually washed in the sea, and for which the peplos was woven by the +chosen women of Athens. The connection between art and religion is, in +such a case, reduced to narrow limits; but, on the other hand, we hear +of many instances where new statues of the gods were made as temple +statues, to be the chief objects of worship and centres of cult. And +this was sometimes done with the official sanction of the gods +themselves, as expressed through the oracle of Delphi. + +The sanctity of the old image was sometimes transferred to the new one; +a striking example of this is seen in the case of Artemis Brauronia on +the Athenian Acropolis. It had been the custom for the garments +presented to the goddess by her worshippers to be placed upon her +primitive statue; and when a new and worthier representation of the +goddess was placed in the temple in the fourth century, we are informed +by inscriptions that dedicated garments were sometimes hung upon it, +even though it was a statue from the hand of Praxiteles. It sometimes +happened that the old and the new statues stood side by side in the same +temple, or in adjacent temples, and they seem then to exemplify the two +kinds of idolatry--the literal and the imaginative--the one being the +actual subject of the rites ceremonially observed, and the other being +the visible presentment of the deity, and helping the worshipper to +concentrate his prayers and aspirations. Here the art of the sculptor +had the fullest scope, and it is in such cases that he could, as +Quintilian said of Phidias, "make some addition to the received +religion." + +This duality was, however, the result of accident rather than the normal +arrangement, and, so long as the primitive image remained the official +object of worship, it was difficult, if not impossible, for the new and +more artistic statue to have its full religious effect. In many cases, +probably in most cases, it was actually substituted, sooner or later, +for the earlier embodiment of the deity. Sometimes the early image, +which was often of wood, may have decayed or been worn away by the +attentions lavished upon it; we hear of a statue of which the hand had +perished under the kisses of the devout. We hear also of cases in which +it had been entirely lost--for instance, the Black Demete of Phigalia, +an uncouth image with a horse's head; here, when a plague had warned the +people to replace it, the AEginetan sculptor Onatas undertook the task; +and he is said to have been vouchsafed a vision in sleep which enabled +him to reproduce exactly this unsightly idol. It would not seem that +such a commission gave much scope to his artistic powers; but it is +noteworthy that the Phigalians employed one of the most famous sculptors +of the day. Elsewhere the conditions were more favourable, and it was +possible for the artist, while conforming to the accepted type, to give +it a more correct form and more pleasing features. + +Daedalus, we are told--and in this story Daedalus is an impersonation of +the art of the early sculptors in Greece--made statues of the gods so +life-like that they had to be chained to their pedestals for fear they +should run away. It is likely that this tale goes back to a genuine +tradition; for Pausanias actually saw statues with fetters attached to +them in several early shrines in Greece. The device is natural enough. +Daedalus was a magician as well as a sculptor; and if he could give his +statues eyes that they might see, and ears that they might hear, it was +an obvious inference that if he gave them legs they might run away and +desert their shrines and their worshippers. + +We may very likely find also in a similar notion the explanation of a +peculiarity often found in early statues of the gods--the well-known +archaic smile. Many explanations, technical and otherwise, have been +given of this device; but none of them can get over the fact that it was +just as easy, or even easier, for a primitive sculptor to make the mouth +straight as to make it curve up at the ends, and that he often did make +it straight. When he does not do so, it is probably done with intention; +and it is quite in accordance with the conditions of early religious art +that he should make the image of a deity smile in order that the deity +himself might smile upon his worshippers; and a pleasant expression +might also, by a natural transfer of ideas, be supposed to be pleasing +to the god, and so attract him to his statue. We are told that at Chios +there was a head of Artemis set high up, which appeared morose to those +entering the temple, but when they left it seemed to have become +cheerful. This may have been originally due to some accident of placing +or lighting, but it seems to have acquired a religious significance; and +we can hardly deny a similar significance to the smile which we find on +so many early statues. In some cases, especially in statues of men, it +may have been intended merely as a device to give expression and life to +the face; but it cannot have been a matter of indifference to a +primitive worshipper that his deity should smile on him through the face +of its visible image. This point of view being given, it is evidently +only a question of how far it is within the power of art to express the +benignity of the god, and later on his character and personality, in an +adequate manner; and this power depends on the gradual acquisition of +mastery over form and material, of knowledge and observation of the +human body and face, and of the technical skill requisite to express +this knowledge in marble or bronze, or more precious materials such as +gold and ivory. All this development belongs to the history of art, not +to that of religion. But before we can pursue the investigation any +further, it is necessary to consider the different sources and channels +of religious influence on art with which we have to deal. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +VARIOUS ASPECTS OF RELIGION + + +Religion, for our present purpose, may be considered as (1) popular, (2) +official, (3) poetic, and (4) philosophical. These four divisions, or +rather aspects, are not, of course, mutually exclusive, and they act and +react extensively upon one another; but, in their relations to art, it +is convenient to observe the distinction between them. + +(1) The beliefs of the people are, of course, the basis of all the +others, though they come to be affected by these others in various +degrees. There is no doubt that the people generally believed in the +sanctity and efficacy of the shapeless idols or primitive images, and +this belief would tend to support hieratic conservatism, and thus to +hinder artistic progress. But, on the other hand, the people of Greece +showed throughout their history a tendency to an intensely and vividly +anthropomorphic imagination. This tendency was doubtless realised and +encouraged by the poets, but it was not created by them, any more than +by the mythologists who defined and systematised it. The exact relation +of this anthropomorphic imagination to the primitive sacred stocks and +stones is not easy to ascertain; but it seems to have tended, on the one +hand, to the realisation of the existence of the gods apart from such +sacred objects, and thus to reduce the stocks and stones to the position +of symbols--a great advance in religious ideals; and, on the other hand, +to the transformation of the stocks and stones into human form, not +merely by giving them ears and eyes that they might hear and see, but +also by making them take the image and character of the deity whom they +represented. + +It was impossible for any ordinary Greek to think of the gods in other +than human form. He had, indeed, no such definite dogma as the Hebrew +statement that "God created man in His own image"; for the legends about +the origin of the human race varied considerably and many of them +represented crude philosophical theorising rather than religious belief. +But the monstrous forms which we find in Egypt and Mesopotamia as +embodiments of divine power were alien to the Greek imagination; if we +find here and there a survival of some strange type, such as the +horse-headed Demeter at Phigalia, it remains isolated and has little +influence upon prevalent beliefs. The Greek certainly thought of his +gods as having the same human form as himself; and not the gods only, +but also the semi-divine, semi-human, sometimes less than human beings +with which his imagination peopled the woods and mountains and seas. His +Nereids had human feet, not fishy tails like our mermaids; and if +centaurs and satyrs and some other creatures of his imagination showed +something of the beast within the man in their visible shape, they had +little about them of the mysterious or the unearthly. It would be a +great mistake to regard all these creatures as mere impersonations or +abstractions. If "a pagan suckled in a creed outworn" could + + "Have sight of Proteus coming from the sea + And hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn," + +much more were such sights and sounds familiar to his forefathers, to +whom the same beliefs were fresh and real. Even to the present day Greek +peasants may often be found who can tell of such experiences; to them, +as to the Greeks of old, desert places and remote woods and mountains +are terrible, not because they are lonely, but because when a man is +alone then is he least alone; hence the panic terror, the terror of Pan. + +The same idea, which later takes the religious or philosophic form of +the belief in the omnipresence of the deity, peopled the woods with +dryads, the streams and springs with nymphs and river-gods, the seas +with Nereids and Tritons. When an artist represented a mountain or a +river-god, a nymph or a Triton, or added such figures to a scene to +indicate its locality by what seems to us at first sight a mere artistic +convention, he was not inventing an impersonation, but he was +representing something which, in the imagination of the people, might +actually be seen upon the spot--at least, by those whose eyes were +opened to see it. It was the same gift of imagination that made Blake +say: "'What,' it will be questioned, 'when the sun rises, do you not see +a disc of fire, somewhat like a guinea?' 'Oh no, no! I see an +innumerable company of the heavenly host, crying "Holy, holy, holy is +the Lord God Almighty!" I question not my corporeal eye, any more than I +would question a window, concerning a sight. I look through it, and not +with it.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: Blake, "Aldine" edition, p. cvi.] + +In the case of the gods, the matter is somewhat less simple than in that +of all these daemonic creatures of the popular imagination. Gods imply a +greater power of generalisation and a higher stage of religious +development. It was not thought likely that the gods would show +themselves to mortal eyes, as had been their habit in the Golden Age, +except perhaps upon some occasion of a great national crisis; and even +then it was the heroes rather than the gods who manifested themselves. +But the ordinary Greek believed that the gods actually existed in human +form, and even that their characters and passions and moods were like +those of human beings. The influence of the poet and the artist could +not have been so vigorous if it had not found, in the imagination of the +people, a suitable and sympathetic material. + +(2) Official or state religion consisted in the main of an organisation +of popular ritual. There was no priestcraft in Greece, no exclusive +caste to whom the worship of the gods was assigned, although, of course, +the right to practise certain cults belonged to particular families. But +a priesthood, as a rule, was a political office like any other +magistracy, and there was no exclusive tradition in the case of the +chief cults of any Greek state to keep the point of view of the priests +different from that of the people generally. The tendency of state +religion was, as a rule, conservative, for reasons that we have already +noticed; innovations in the matter of ritual are dangerous, for the new +rite may not please the gods as well as the old; and the same feeling +applies to the statues that form the centres of ritual. Pericles, for +example, doubtless wished to make the Athena Parthenos of Phidias the +official and visible representation of the goddess of Athens, and +thereby to raise the religious ideals of the Athenians. In this last +part of his attempt he was successful; the statue became the pride and +glory of the city in its fitting shrine, the Parthenon; but the old +image was still preserved in the temple of Athena Polias, and remained +the official centre of worship. We are not told that Pericles meant to +supersede it; but it is very probable that he intended to do so, and was +only prevented by the religious conservatism that curtailed other plans +of his for the beautifying of the Acropolis. On the other hand, there is +no evidence that in Greece--at least, in the best period of Greek +art--any statesman held the views as to the official religion frankly +expressed in Rome, that it was expedient for this religion to be +accepted by the common people, but that educated men could only +reconcile their consciences to taking part in it by a philosophical +interpretation. + +There is something unreal and artificial about any such compromise. If +Pericles was intimate with Anaxagoras, who was prosecuted for atheism, +he was also the friend of Phidias, who expressly said that his Zeus was +the Zeus of Homer, no mere abstract ideal of divinity. If this was the +case with Pericles, who held himself aloof from the common people, it +must have been much more so with other statesmen, who mingled with them +more freely, or even, like Nicias, shared their superstitions. Under +such conditions the influence of art upon the representations of the +gods could not well go in advance of popular conceptions, though it +might accompany and direct them. The making of new statues of the gods, +to be set up as the centres of worship in their temples, in some cases +received the formal sanction of the Delphic oracle, the highest official +and religious authority. Public commissions of this sort are common at +all times, but commonest in the years immediately succeeding the Persian +Wars, when the spoils of the Persians supplied ample resources, and in +many cases the ancient temples and images had been destroyed; and at the +same time the outburst of national enthusiasm over the great deliverance +led to a desire to give due thank-offerings to the gods of the Hellenic +race, a desire which coincided with the ability to fulfil it, owing to +the rapid progress of artistic power. Such public commissions, and the +popular feeling which they expressed, offered an inspiration to the +artist such as has rarely, if ever, found a parallel. But any great +victory or deliverance might be commemorated by the setting up of +statues of the gods to whom it was attributed; and in this way the +demands of official religion offered the sculptor the highest scope for +the exercise of his art and his imagination. + +(3) The influence of poetic mythology upon art can hardly be +exaggerated. The statement of Herodotus that Homer and Hesiod "made the +Greek theogony, and assigned to the gods their epithets and +distinguished their prerogatives and their functions, and indicated +their form," would not, of course, be accepted in a literal sense by any +modern mythologist. But it is nevertheless true that the clear and vivid +personality and individuality given to the gods by the epic poets +affects all later poetry and all Greek art. The imagination of the poets +could not, as we have already noticed, have had so deep and wide an +influence unless it had been based upon popular beliefs and conceptions. +But it fills these conceptions with real and vivid character, so that +the gods of Homer are as clearly presented to us as any personalities of +history or fiction. They are, indeed, endowed not only with the form, +but with the passions, and some even of the weaknesses of mankind; and +for this reason the philosophers often rejected as unworthy the tales +that the poets told of the gods. But even an artist such as Phidias +expressly stated that it was the Zeus of Homer who inspired his greatest +work, quoting the well-known passage in the Iliad in which the god +grants the prayer of Thetis:-- + + "He said; and his black eyebrows bent; above his deathless head + Th' ambrosian curls flowed; great heaven shook." + +Descriptive passages such as this are not, indeed, common, because, as +Lessing clearly pointed out, the poet depends more upon action and its +effect than on mere enumerative description. Even here it is the action +of the nod, and the shaking of heaven that follows it, that emphasises +the impression, rather than the mere mention of eyebrows or hair. In +many other cases the distinctive epithet has its value for all later +art--the cow-eyed Hera, the grey-eyed Athena, the swift messenger +Hermes; but, above all, it is the action and character of the various +gods that is so clearly realised by the poet that his successors cannot, +if they wish, escape from his spell. + +The influence of the various Greek poets is not, indeed, for the most +part, to be traced in contemporary Greek art. This is obvious in the +case of the Homeric poems, for the art of the time was of a purely +decorative character, and was quite incapable of representing in any +adequate way the vivid and lively imagination of the poets; and, for +that matter, for many centuries after the date of the composition of the +Iliad and Odyssey, Hellenic art made no attempt to cope with any so +ambitious problems. Even when the art of sculpture had attained to a +considerable degree of mastery over material and expression, we find its +aims and conceptions lagging far behind those of the poet. This will +become clearer when, in the next chapter, we consider the conditions of +artistic expression in Greece; but it must be noted here, in order to +prevent possible misconception. As soon, however, as art became capable +of aiming at something beyond perfection of a bodily form--a change +which, in spite of Pausanias' admiration of something divine about the +works of Daedalus, can hardly be dated earlier than the fifth century +B.C.--the Homeric conceptions of the gods came to have their full +effect. Zeus, the king and father of gods and men; Athena, the friendly +protectress of heroes, irresistible in war, giver of all intellectual +and artistic power; Apollo, the archer and musician, the purifier and +soothsayer--these and others find their first visible embodiment in the +statues whereby the sculptors of the fifth century gave expression to +the Homeric conceptions. + +The tales, too, that were told about the gods, some of them trivial +enough, but others full of religious and ethical significance, had for +some time before this been common subjects upon reliefs and +vase-paintings, and on these also the influence of the poets was very +great. Here we have not only the Iliad and Odyssey to consider, but many +other early epics that are now lost to us. The vase-painter or sculptor +did not, indeed, merely illustrate these stories as a modern artist +might; often he had a separate tradition and a repertory of subjects +belonging to his own art, and developed them along different lines from +those followed by the poets. But although this tradition might lead him +to choose a version less familiar to poetry, or even to give a new form +to an old story, his conception was essentially poetical, in that it +implied an imaginative realisation of the scene or action, and even of +the character of the deity or hero represented. + +The conception of the gods to be found in other early epics probably did +not differ essentially from that we find in the Iliad and Odyssey; but +with the Homeric hymns and with some of the earlier lyric poets we find +a change setting in. There seems to be a new interest in the adventures +of the gods themselves, apart from their relation to mankind; romantic +and even pathetic stories are told about them, implying almost a +psychological appreciation of their personality--the tale of Demeter's +mourning for her daughter Persephone, her wanderings and adventures; of +the love of Aphrodite for a mortal; of how Hermes invented the lyre and +tricked Apollo about his cattle; of the birth of Apollo and the founding +of his worship at Delos and Delphi; of the marvellous birth of Athena +from the head of Zeus. It is hardly too much to say that in the later of +these Homeric hymns--those that are mentioned first in the above +enumeration--an almost human interest is given to the gods, to their +sufferings and adventures. It is the same tendency which we see in the +lyric poetry of the Greeks, with its intensely personal note. The +reflexion of this tendency in art is not, indeed, to be seen until the +fourth century; not only the power of expression, but the desire to +express such a side of the character of the gods seems to be absent +until this period. + +It may seem curious at first sight that art was so slow in this case to +follow the lead given it by poetry; but it is to be remembered that a +power of expression such as would have enabled it to do so was not +attained until the fifth century, and that in this age there was an +exaltation of national and religious enthusiasm, owing mainly to the +victories over the Persians, which checked the tendency to sentiment and +pathos; and it was not until this vigorous reaction had died away that +the tendency once more asserted itself. The early fifth century was also +marked by poets such as Pindar and AEschylus, who raised the religious +ideals of the nation on to a higher plane, who consciously rejected the +less worthy conceptions of the gods, and, whether in accordance with the +popular beliefs or not, gave expression to a higher truth in religion +than had hitherto been dreamed of. The gods whom the sculptors of the +fifth century were called upon to represent may have been the gods of +Homer, but they were the Homeric gods transformed by the creative +imagination of a more reflective age, and purified by a poetic, if not a +philosophic, idealism. But while AEschylus suggests "a deeply brooding +mind, tinged with mysticism, grappling with dark problems of life and +fate,"[2] and so was, in some ways, remote from the clarity and +definition of sculptural form, Sophocles "invests the conceptions of +popular religion with a higher spiritual and intellectual meaning; and +the artistic side of the age is expressed by him in poetry, much as in +architecture and sculpture it is interpreted by the remains of the +Parthenon; there is the same serenity and wholeness of work; power +joined to purity of taste; self-restraint; and a sure instinct of +symmetry."[3] Sophocles was a friend and companion of Pericles, and +therefore probably of Phidias; and in both alike we see the same harmony +and absence of exaggeration that are characteristic of Greek art at its +best. In this case we may say with some confidence that the poet and the +sculptor probably influenced each other. + +[Footnote 2: Sir R. C. Jebb in _Cambridge Companion to Greek Studies_, +p. 110.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_. p. 113.] + +It seems a tempting hypothesis to see something of the influence of +"Euripides the human" in the individualistic tendencies of the art of +the fourth century; but it seems hardly to be justified by the facts. +The influence of his dramas is, indeed, to be seen in later +vase-paintings; but this is not a matter with which we are here +concerned. In his treatment of the gods, Euripides can hardly be quoted +as an example of the humanising tendency. "He resented the notion that +gods could be unjust or impure"; but the purer and more abstract +conceptions of divinity that appealed to him were hardly such as could +find expression in art; it has even been said that "he blurred those +Hellenic ideals which were the common man's best without definitely +replacing them." The bringing of these ideals nearer to the common life +of man finds its poetic inspiration rather in the tendency which has +already been noticed in the Homeric hymns and the lyric poets, and which +now, after the reaction of the fifth century, exerts its full force on +the art of Scopas and Praxiteles. + +There is no need to dwell here on the influence of later poets upon +religious art, though we shall have to notice hereafter the parallel +development of the representation of the gods in Hellenistic sculpture. +The Alexandrian poets expressed in elegant language their learning on +matters of religion and mythology, but there was no living belief in the +subjects which they made their theme; and the art they inspired could +only show the same qualities of a correct and academic eclecticism. The +idylls of Theocritus find, indeed, a parallel in the playful treatment +of Satyrs and other subjects of a similar character; but these belong to +what may be called mythological genre rather than to religious art. The +dramatic vigour and intensity which we find in the art of Pergamon +cannot easily be traced to the influence of any similar development in +literature, though its artificial and learned mythology is such as we +find also in the work of Hellenistic poets. + +(4) The philosophical aspect of religion had no very great influence +upon art in Greece. We might perhaps expect that, so far as the +philosophers accepted the popular religion, they would tend to purify it +and to give it a higher meaning, just as the more thoughtful of the +poets doubtless assisted the idealising tendency of fifth-century art. +And it might well seem that, for example, Plato's theory of ideas +supplies a more satisfactory basis for an idealist art than any other +system, since it might be maintained that the true artist represents not +the material object which he sees before him, but the ideal prototype of +which it is but a faint and inadequate reflexion. This theory is +peculiarly applicable to statues of the gods, and we find it so applied +by later philosophical and rhetorical writers; for instance, Cicero says +that Phidias "when he was making the statue of Zeus or of Athena did not +derive his image from some individual, but within his own mind there was +a perfect ideal of beauty; and gazing on this and in contemplation of +it, he guided the craft of his hand after its likeness."[4] The same +notion underlies the saying quoted by Strabo, that Phidias was "either +the only man that saw, or the only man that revealed to others the +images of the gods."[5] But there is no trace or encouragement of any +such feeling in the philosophic literature contemporary with the great +age of Greek art. Plato expressly states that the artist only makes "an +imitation of an imitation"; and the higher ideas of divinity preached by +philosophers did not so much tend to ennoble the popular conceptions as +to substitute others for them. Above all, the monotheistic idea, even if +associated with the name of Zeus, tended to become an abstract +conception with little relation to the national god of Hellas, whom +Phidias embodied in his Olympian statue. + +[Footnote 4: _Or_. 2. 8.] + +[Footnote 5: viii. p. 353. It does not matter whether the passage is +quoted by Strabo himself or by an interpolator.] + +The philosophic or theological conception of a monotheistic deity does +not, in fact, seem to lend itself at any time to impressive artistic +representation. We may observe the same thing in Christian art, in which +representations of God the Father are not very common nor, as a rule, +very expressive of the most vivid religious ideals; while Christ, +usually not as God, but as man or child, and the Virgin Mary are the +constant themes of the most devout religious art, not to speak of the +numerous saints who correspond more or less to the gods of a +polytheistic system. Philosophical thought was antagonistic to +anthropomorphism, which, as we have seen, was the most characteristic +feature of popular religion in Greece, and which was essential to Greek +religious art. As soon as the human form is a mere symbol, no longer +regarded as the express image of the god and the embodiment of his +individuality, it loses touch with reality. And this reality in the +relation of the god to his image must be believed in by the people, and +at least through the people by the artist, if religious art is to +preserve its vitality. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CONDITIONS OF RELIGIOUS ART IN GREECE + + +The Greeks possessed, as we have seen, to an exceptionally high degree +the vivid anthropomorphic imagination necessary for the expression of +their conception of the gods in their art; we have also noticed the +conditions which encouraged or restricted such representation, and the +influences that affected its nature. Given the desire to represent the +character and individuality of the gods in human form, the next question +we have to consider is how far their art, and especially the art of +sculpture, was capable of giving effect to this desire. The answer lies +mainly in the history of Greek sculpture, which can only be touched on +here in the barest outline. But, at the outset, it is necessary to +remove a misconception which is prevalent at the present day, and more +especially in England, owing partly to the dominating influence of a +great critic. Mr. Ruskin's _Aratra Pentelici_ is full of the most +admirable and suggestive appreciations of Greek sculpture in its more +technical aspects; but side by side with them are found passages such as +the following: "There is no personal character in true Greek art; +abstract ideas of youth and age, strength and swiftness, virtue and +vice--yes; but there is no individuality." Or again: "The Greek, as +such, never expresses personal character, while a Florentine holds it to +be the ultimate condition of beauty." If this criticism were just, it +would follow that any study of the relation of religion to art in Greece +would lose most if not all of its interest. But anyone who is acquainted +with the present state of our knowledge of Greek sculpture will not so +much feel called upon to refute such statements as to explain how so +strange a misconception could have arisen. Nor is the explanation very +far to seek. Mr. Ruskin was writing for a generation not yet penetrated +by the constructive criticism of recent investigation. Its conception of +"the antique" in art was based mainly on the mass of mechanical and +academic copies or imitations, of Graeco-Roman date, with which our +museums are filled, and on the influence of such sculpture to be seen in +the work of Flaxman or Thorwaldsen. It had, indeed, learnt from the +Elgin marbles that the Greek sculptors in the fifth century possessed a +nobility in their conception of the human form, a mastery in the +treatment of the nude and of drapery, and a skill in marble technique of +which only a faint reflection can be traced in the later Graeco-Roman +tradition; but the great statues in which the sculptors of the fifth +century embodied their ideals of the gods were either entirely lost or +preserved only in inadequate copies; and it is only in recent years that +the discovery of originals or the identification of trustworthy copies +has enabled us to appreciate the intensity of expression and of inner +life which distinguished the work of the great sculptors of the fourth +century, such as Scopas, Praxiteles, and Lysippus. Still, if Mr. Ruskin +had, like Brunn in his _Gotteridealen_, selected heads like those of the +Demeter of Cnidus or the Hera Farnese to illustrate his theme, instead +of a series of heads on coins magnified to many times the size for which +they were designed, he could hardly have written the passages just +quoted. But the second of those passages itself supplies us with another +clue. In this estimate of Greek sculpture there is throughout implied a +comparison with Christian, and above all with Florentine art, and its +desire to + + "... bring the invisible full into play; + Let the visible go to the dogs; what matters?" + +It is evident that the expression of the invisible, of character and +individuality, will be more striking and obvious in an art which lets +them "shine through the flesh they fray" than in the case of the Greek +sculptors whose respect and even passionate admiration for the human +body would not allow them thus to transfigure it, at least in their +statues of the gods, and led them to seek for subtler methods of +expression by means of the flesh and in harmony with its nature. Their +expression of character and emotion is rendered in terms of a beautiful +and healthy body. How this end was attained we must consider later on; +but there is yet another current prejudice in favour of this +exaggeration of individuality which has its influence especially upon +modern artists. It is sometimes said nowadays that a departure from the +individual model is an attempt to "improve upon nature," and is +therefore an artistic mistake. Now the Greek sculptor, as a rule, did +not work from an individual model at all. He trusted partly, especially +in earlier times, to the tradition which familiarised him with a few +fixed types, on which he made variations, partly to his observation and +memory trained for generations, and daily supplied with new material in +the gymnasium where nude youths and men were constantly exercising, or +in the marketplace where he met his fellow-citizens. To see before him, +whether draped or nude, the figures he wanted for his art, he had no +need to pose a model in a studio; his models were at all times around +him in his daily life. The result was that when he wished to represent a +youth or a maiden, or even to make a portrait of a statesman, he tended +to reproduce the type with certain personal modifications rather than to +produce a portrait in the modern sense. But when he came to making +statues of the gods, his freedom of hand was of incalculable service to +him in giving a bodily form to his imagination; it enabled him to create +after nature, without being dependent on an individual model or having +to fall back upon such vague and generalised forms as are sometimes +associated with an academic or classical art; for it was his own trained +observation and memory that he called into play, not a mere mechanical +system he had learnt from his predecessors. In the more individualistic +art of the fourth century, as we shall see, it is probable that the +personal model was of more importance, especially in female statues; but +even then it was still modified by the tradition and style which makes a +harmonious whole, not only of each Greek statue, but of the development +of Hellenic sculpture generally. In typical examples of the sculpture of +the fourth century we find not only this harmony and restraint, and the +beauty of bodily form in figure as well as in features which is +generally recognised as characteristic of Greek art, but also an +expression of character and individuality, of mood and temperament, of +pathos and passion, which is none the less intense and real because it +is expressed by means of the perfection of physical form, not as wasting +or deforming it. + +It may be asked how the invisible, mental, or spiritual qualities can be +portrayed in visible form, especially if that visible form be not +overmuch distorted or modified, and in a more general way, how the +expression of a statue, and the impression it produces, can be analysed +or discussed. For examples of the way this can be done, the reader may +be referred once more to Brunn's _Gotteridealen_, a study of a few +selected representations of Greek gods in which the character of each is +brought out by a subtle and discriminating analysis of the visible +forms. Here it may suffice to quote Brunn's own words from the +Introduction to that work: "The spiritual effect produced on us by a +work of sculpture cannot be comprehended as a moral or a metaphysical +peculiarity, completely independent of corporeal phenomena; it can +become intelligible to us only by means of tangible sculptural forms, as +the exponents of spiritual expression." And again: "The spiritual +understanding of ideal artistic creations can only be attained on the +basis of a thorough analysis of their forms"; hence in such a study we +have to do with "no subjective fancies, but an investigation of +objective artistic principles, according to the method of scientific +work." + +There are various ways in which spiritual qualities, mood, and character +may be given material expression in harmony with the bodily forms, not +in combat with the flesh. There are, for instance, certain bodily +peculiarities that usually accompany, and therefore suggest by +association, various temperaments or mental qualities; and, moreover, +the actual effect upon the features and bearing of certain emotions or +moods often leaves permanent traces, from which a habitual or repeated +tendency to such emotions or moods can be inferred. That certain types +of face and certain expressions are usually associated with certain +spiritual or mental qualities will hardly be denied; and here the method +of the Greek artist, in observing and working from memory rather than +from a posed model, gave him a great advantage in variety and freedom in +the expression of character no less than in the rendering of bodily +form. If he realised clearly the individuality of his gods, his skill +and mastery over his material and his store of observation gave him a +facility in giving this individuality a visible form which may not be so +obvious at first sight as the individuality of a Florentine or of a +modern head, but which is none the less there for those who have eyes to +see it, and who can accustom themselves to the subtle atmosphere of +ancient art, and to the moderation and restraint which are seldom, if +ever, violated in its most characteristic productions. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ANTHROPOMORPHISM + + +We have already noticed the religious conceptions and impulses which led +to the substitution of images in human shape for the rude stocks and +stones of primitive worship. The beginning of the change seems to have +taken place at an early stage in the development of Greek art. In +pre-Hellenic times we find representation of gods and goddesses in human +form upon gems and other small works of art, and also in statuettes that +were either objects of worship or dedicated in shrines; but we have at +present no evidence as to whether monumental images of the gods were +made in human form, though some objects of worship, such as the +double-axe, were certainly set up in regular shrines. We know too little +about the religious beliefs and customs of this prehistoric age to be +able to judge whether such objects were regarded merely as symbols of +the deity or as having immanent in them some divine or superhuman power; +but survivals, especially of an early tree and pillar cult, are probably +to be traced in historic Greece, and even to the present day. + +The Homeric poems, on the other hand, supply us with little or no +evidence as to the existence of any sculptural representation of the +gods. Although temples are frequently mentioned, we are not informed +that any of them contained a sacred image, with the apparent exception +of the temple of Athena at Troy. There we are told that the Trojan +matrons, in a time of stress, brought a robe to offer to the goddess, +and that the priestess Theano placed it "upon the knees of +beauteous-haired Athene." Unless, as is possible, this is a purely +metaphorical expression, it would seem to imply a seated statue; but it +is to be noted that the Palladium of Troy, the sacred image of Athena +which was stolen by Ulysses and Diomed, and which was preserved, +according to conflicting traditions, in one or another shrine in later +Greece, was a standing statue of a primitive type. The inconsistency is +not of great importance, except as showing that the supposed mention of +the statue of Athena in the Iliad had little, if any, influence on later +tradition; and in any case it is isolated, and does not refer to a +Greek, but a foreign temple. On the other hand, we find frequent mention +in later writers of primitive statues of the gods which were said to +have been set up or dedicated by various persons in the heroic age. An +example is offered by the Trojan Palladium already mentioned; another +was the statue of Artemis carried off from Tauris by Iphigenia and +Orestes; rival claimants to this identification existed at Sparta and at +Brauron in Attica. The legends of dedication are of no historic value; +the story of the Palladium itself was unknown to Homer, though it +occurred in later epics. All that can be asserted of such images is that +they were of unknown antiquity, and that local patriotism claimed for +them a heroic origin. Much the same may be said of Daedalus. It need not +be discussed here whether an actual artist of this name ever existed. +The information we have as to Daedalus is of two kinds; on the one hand, +we find tales of a mythical craftsman and magician, to whose invention +many of the most typical improvements in early Greek sculpture are +attributed; on the other hand, we have records of many statues of the +gods, extant in historical times in various shrines of Greece, which +were attributed to him. Such attributions are not really of greater +historical value than the traditions of dedication in the heroic age +which we find elsewhere. The name of Daedalus having once become famous +in this connection, it was natural that many statues of primitive style +and unrecorded origin should be attributed to him. More importance may +be attached to the fact that the sculptors who actually made some of the +early statues of the gods in Athens and in the Peloponnesus are +described as the pupils or by some as the sons or companions of +Daedalus. In this way his name is associated with some of the early +schools that had the greatest influence in Greece, especially on the +representation of the gods in sculpture. There are other traditions of +early schools of sculptors, the marble workers of Chios, the bronze +founders of Samos, who devoted themselves mainly to making statues of +the gods, some of which survived throughout historical times. When we +turn from tradition and consider the early examples of statues of gods +that may still be seen or are recorded by extant copies, we find that +these fall into two classes. On the one hand, there are more or less +exact repetitions of the primitive stock or stone, the cylindrical +tree-trunk or the rectangular block cut from the quarry, with the rudest +indication of head and arms and feet, deviating as little as possible +from the original shape of the block. When images of this sort were, as +was often the case, of wood, they have, of course, disappeared; but we +can sometimes recognise copies of them upon reliefs or in stone. On the +other hand, we find another class of images which approximate more to +the attainments of Daedalus as described by rationalising writers of +later date. These images are completely in human form, and, if male, are +usually nude. They have their legs separated in a short stride, the left +foot being usually advanced; their arms are either set close to their +sides, or one or both of them is raised from the elbow; their whole +shape suggests a rigid system of proportions and a more or less +conventionalised form. These images have no resemblance to the +modifications of the primitive stocks and stones, and could not well be +directly derived from them; they are found in great numbers upon many +sites of early sanctity in Greece itself and in Greek settlements around +the Levant, notably in Cyprus, Rhodes, and Naucratis in Egypt. Sometimes +they seem to represent the god, sometimes the dedicator; but all alike +show the attempt of the early Greek craftsman to imitate the products of +more advanced and finished art which he saw around him. Many of them are +derived from Egyptian types; others show the influence of Mesopotamian +art, or of the hybrid craftsmanship of Phoenicia. The borrowing or +imitation of such foreign types may at first sight appear to show even +less promise of artistic progress than variations on the old native +images; but it is not in its origins, but in its development and +perfection that the chief excellence of Greek art is to be found. + +The types borrowed by sculpture from foreign art are almost exclusively +of human form. The monstrous mixed forms in which the deities of Egypt +or Mesopotamia often found the expression of their superhuman and +mysterious powers do not seem to have appealed to the imagination of the +Greeks. Such mixed forms were, indeed, frequently borrowed by early +decorative art, and on "Orientalising" vases we constantly find +human-headed and bird-headed quadrupeds, usually winged, and +human-headed birds. The delight in winged figures generally, which was +mainly decorative in early times, also finds its origin in Oriental +woven stuffs. Greek sculpture adopted and translated into stone or +bronze some of these mixed types--notably the human-headed bird and the +human-headed winged lion; these it identified as the Siren and the +Sphinx of Greek myth, and associated them with the mysteries of the +tomb. To some other forms, that of the Centaur and the Satyr and the +Triton, it also gave considerable scope. But all these, if not human, +are hardly to be regarded as divine; they are mostly noxious, and, even +if benignant, do not attain the rank of gods. Perhaps a nearer approach +to divine character is to be found in the river-gods, who are often +represented as bulls with human heads or as human with bull's horns; but +here, too, we have only to deal with minor deities. No sculptor +represented Dionysus in this way, even though he was called +"bull-shaped" by poets; nor is the horse-god Posidon even represented as +a Centaur. The horse-headed Demeter of Phigalia remains the strange and +solitary exception, however we may explain her existence. + +The process by which the early human types were gradually improved and +made more life-like, by a continuous struggle with technical +difficulties, by constant and direct observation of nature, and by the +building up of an artistic tradition in different schools and families, +is a question that concerns the history of art rather than our present +study. But it is impossible to distinguish rigidly between the two, +because these types, whether of the nude standing male figure, of the +draped female, or of the seated figure, are all of them used alike to +represent human and divine personages; and, apart from inscriptions of +dedication or conditions of discovery or distinctive attributes, it +would often be impossible to tell whether any particular statue was +meant to represent, for example, the image of a god or a conventional +portrait of a man. These nude male statues, commonly known by the name +of "Apollo," were certainly, some of them, made to commemorate athletes, +whose images were set up either in the place where they won their +victories or in their native town; others were placed over graves as +memorials of the dead; and even in a sacred precinct it is sometimes +uncertain whether the god himself is represented or the worshipper who +dedicates this record of his devotion. + +At this early period, therefore, Mr. Ruskin's strictures as to the +impossibility of distinguishing the individuality of the different gods +must be admitted, and even supplemented by an admission of the +impossibility of distinguishing gods and goddesses from human beings. +The explanation is obvious enough. During this age of early progress the +constant aim of the sculptor is to attain to complete mastery over the +material and to perfection of bodily form. In religious art, what +corresponds to this is the struggle towards anthropomorphism--first to +represent the gods in human form, and then to make that form the most +perfect that human art can devise. During this stage of artistic and +religious development the type and the ideal cannot be distinguished. It +was only when a type or a varying series of types had been brought to +perfection in the fifth century, so as to satisfy the demand for a +harmonious system of bodily proportions, for beauty of outline and +dignity of countenance, that these types could be used as a means of +expression for the religious ideals of the nation. In developing the +type the accidental has to be discarded, and with it much of the feeling +of individuality; works of early archaic art, for all their defects, +often show more sign of individual character than the more perfect works +of the earlier part of the fifth century. The attainment of the type is +followed by an infusion of character and individuality, drawn from the +artist's trained memory and observation with clear artistic intention, +not from the mere caprice of an accidental recollection or a casual +peculiarity of a model. The character and individuality thus expressed +must be considered in subsequent chapters; it is only necessary here to +distinguish it from the suggestion of an individual, almost of a +caricature, which we find sometimes in archaic art, and which is +certainly to be seen occasionally in works of Florentine sculpture. +During the period of the rise of Greek sculpture the various schools +were advancing each in its own way towards what has been called +naturalism in art, as opposed to realism on the one side and idealism on +the other. That is to say, they were striving by constant study of the +athletic form, of proportions and muscles, of drapery and hair, to +attain to a series of types both in harmony with themselves and in +accordance with nature; and they were too much absorbed in this attempt +to go far beyond their predecessors in rendering the character of the +gods according to the form consecrated by tradition. Even in the +expression of the face the same process is to be traced. In early works +we find sometimes no expression at all, or an apparent stolidity which +is really the absence of expression; in the archaic smile we see an +attempt to enliven the face, and possibly also, as we have noticed, to +express and even to induce the benignity of the deity. But this attempt, +made with inadequate artistic resources, tends to result in a mere +grimace; and as we approach the transitional age before the greatest +period of sculpture, we often find a reaction against any such +exaggeration of expression in a severity and dignity that may have a +certain grace of their own, but that are in some sense a retrograde +movement so far as the expression of character is concerned. + +It follows that the statues of the gods dating from this early period, +however interesting they might be for the history of sculpture, would +not, even if we possessed many more of them than we do possess, throw +very much light upon the development of the ideas of the Greeks +concerning their deities. They would probably conform to a limited +number of clearly defined types. The most familiar of all, the standing +nude male figure, would, if beardless, usually represent Apollo, with a +bow or a branch of bay, or sometimes other attributes. A similar type, +bearded, would stand for Zeus or Posidon or Hermes, if provided with +thunderbolt or eagle, with trident or fish, or with a caduceus. Similar +figures might also be draped, and still represent gods; or, if female, +would serve for Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, and sometimes for Athena, if +she was represented without her arms and aegis. Then, too, there was the +seated type, usually enveloped in full drapery, which might readily be +adapted to a statue of any of the chief gods. In all of these there is +no question of distinguishing the gods from one another in character and +individuality; apart from attributes, there is hardly any attempt to +distinguish gods from men. + +Perhaps the earliest class of statues in which we find any attempt to +give artistic expression to superhuman power is that in which we see the +god in vigorous action, often striking with his characteristic weapon: +Zeus with his thunderbolt in his raised right hand, Posidon with his +trident, or Athena advancing rapidly with brandished spear and shield +advanced. But even these figures, apart from their divine attributes, +show no essential distinction from human combatants. It is a significant +fact that it is still a matter of dispute[6] whether one of the most +famous statues of the early fifth century, "the Choiseul-Gouffier +Apollo," represents a god or an athlete. This is neither because the +Greeks at this time idealised their athletes nor because they humanised +their gods, but because they typified them both; that is to say, they +represented them by a type which was the most perfect rendering within +their power either of man or of an anthropomorphic deity. Here we have +the material form provided by means of which the ideals of the +succeeding period were to find their artistic expression--such a typical +or normal human form is, in fact, the logical expression of +anthropomorphism in its most literal sense--the making of gods after +man's image. But those who believed rather that man was made after God's +image would look to find in the prototype something more and higher than +can be seen in its earthly copy. This notion, even if not formulated by +philosophy until a later age, certainly underlies the idealistic art of +the fifth century. + +[Footnote 6: Even if this dispute be regarded as now settled by weight +of evidence, the fact that such a dispute is possible retains its +significance.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IDEALISM + + +The age which followed the great Persian Wars was the time of the +highest political, literary, and intellectual development in Greece. Nor +was it unfavourable to strength and depth of religious feeling among the +people. If the more thoughtful among them were inclined to doubt whether +some of the stories told about the gods were either probable or +edifying, these were the very men who, on the other hand, were most +capable of appreciating the higher and nobler conceptions of the gods +which we find in contemporary poets. And the great delivery from the +Persians not only gave the Greeks a confidence in themselves which +justly increased their national pride and thereby strengthened their +national ideals, but it also gave occasion to a confidence in the gods +and a gratitude to them which found expression in numerous buildings and +offerings. All this religious activity could not fail to have +considerable influence upon the common people; and in some cases, as at +Athens, there was the necessity of replacing the temples and statues +that had been destroyed or carried off by the Persian invader. At the +time when a demand occurred for new statues of the gods, the rapid +progress of the art of sculpture made it inevitable that these new +statues should not be mere reproductions or reminiscences of the ones +they replaced, but fresh and original conceptions, worthy of the +increased skill of the artist and of the nobler ideals of the people. +And by one of those coincidences which we meet so often both in the +history of art and in that of literature, just at the time when the +material conditions, the spirit of the people, and the rapid advance of +art gave the utmost scope for artistic creation, there arose the man of +transcendent genius to give full expression to the religious and +artistic aspirations of the time. The age of Pericles was also the age +of Phidias. It is true that there was an interval between the defeat of +the Persians and the period of highest attainment in Greece; and during +this interval many temples were built or rebuilt, and many statues were +set up as objects of worship or as dedications to the gods. Some of +these may have anticipated to a certain extent the work of Phidias; +several of them were of colossal size, like his chief masterpieces, and +thus, even from the technical point of view, may have prepared the way +before him; one, the Apollo by Calamis at Apollonia, was about +forty-five feet high, and so actually rivalled the Zeus and Athena of +Phidias in size. But of these statues we know little or nothing. As to +the two most famous works of Phidias himself, the Athena Parthenos +within the Parthenon at Athens and the Zeus at Olympia, we are better +informed, so far as elaborate descriptions and the somewhat rhetorical +appreciations of later writers are concerned; and we possess some extant +copies which tell us something of their pose and attributes. But any +notion we may form as to their true artistic and religious character +must be mainly dependent upon our imagination; and even for their +relation to the religious ideals of the people we are dependent for the +most part upon indirect evidence. Though the art of sculpture was so +closely bound up with the life of the people in Greece, we find very few +references to its greatest works; it is evident that the Athenians, for +example, took the greatest pride in the buildings that adorned their +Acropolis and in the sculptures they contained; yet when Pericles, as +reported by Thucydides, speaks of the statue of the Athena Parthenos, it +is only to reckon the gold of her drapery as part of the possible +resources of the state. We know that in the eyes of Pericles and of his +hearers the preciousness of the material was only an incident in the +artistic character of the work; but what is felt most deeply is often +the least spoken about. Later descriptions, such as that of Pausanias, +lay emphasis on the details and accessories of the statue, the +ornamentation of helmet and shield and sandals; they lay themselves open +to the stricture of Lucian on "such as can neither see nor praise the +whole beauty of the Olympian Zeus, great and noble as it is, nor +describe it to others that do not know it, but admire the accurate work +and fine polish of his footstool and the good proportions of the basis, +enumerating all such details with the utmost care." At the same time +even such information as they give us is welcome, since it aids our +imagination to reconstruct the appearance of the whole. These great +chryselephantine statues were placed within the cella of a temple, +lighted only through the door and by some infiltration through the +marble roof, and their effect was calculated for these conditions. The +rich tone and subtle reflections of the ivory and the gold, mingled with +coloured inlays of enamel or precious stones, and tempered and +harmonised by a "dim religious light," must have been most impressive; +and the grandeur of the figures was enhanced by their colossal size. But +in all this we are still dealing only with conditions and accessories, +not with the art itself and the religious ideals which it expressed. +These are perhaps easier for us to appreciate in the case of the Zeus +than of the Athena, though we are better provided with copies of the +latter. We are accustomed in our own religious art to the attempt to +express divinity in the form of a mature man of unspeakable majesty and +benignity. To the Greeks, indeed, the human figure of Zeus was not +merely an incarnation, but the actual form of the god himself; the god +was not thought of as having taken upon himself the sorrows and the +weaknesses of our mortal nature, but as sharing only its ideal +perfection. Yet that the effect was not altogether dissimilar is shown +by such a passage as that we find in Dion Chrysostom: "A man whose soul +is utterly immersed in toil, who has suffered many disasters and +sorrows, and cannot even enjoy sweet sleep, even such an one, I think, +if he stood face to face with this statue, would forget all the dangers +and difficulties of this mortal life: such the vision you, Phidias, have +invented and devised, a sight 'to lull all pain and anger, and bring +forgetfulness of every sorrow.'" + +The same writer elsewhere puts into the mouth of Phidias an explanation +of how he had attempted to embody in his statue the current conception +of the god, and even the epithets that belonged to his worship. "My +Zeus," says the sculptor, "is peaceful and altogether gentle, as the +guardian of a Hellas free from factions and of one mind with itself. +Him, taking counsel with my art, and with the wise and noble Elean +state, I set up in his temple, mild and majestic in a form free from all +sorrow, as the giver of life and livelihood and all good things, the +common father of men, their saviour and their guardian, so far as it is +possible for a mortal man to conceive and to copy his divine and +inexpressible nature. And consider whether you will not find the image +according with all the epithets of the god; Zeus alone is called the +father of gods and their only king, and also god of the city and of +friendship and society, and of suppliants too and strangers, the giver +of harvest, and by innumerable other titles. And for one whose aim it +was to display all these qualities without speaking, is not my art +successful? The strength of the form and its imposing proportions show +the power to rule and the king; the gentle and amiable character shows +the father and his care; the majesty and severity show the god of the +city and of law; and of the kinship of men and gods the similarity of +their shape serves as a symbol. His protective friendship of suppliants +and strangers and fugitives and such like is seen in his kindliness and +his evident gentleness and goodness. And an image of the giver of +possessions and harvest is seen in the simplicity and magnanimity +displayed in his form; he seems just like one who would give and be +generous of good things. All this, in short, I imitated as far as +possible, being unable to express it in speech." This description is, of +course, the work of a late and rhetorical author, but it is the work of +a man who was familiar with these great statues that are now lost to us, +and was capable of appreciating them. His criticism may not be so +thorough and subtle as the analysis of the Greek type of Zeus made by +Brunn in his _Gotteridealen_; but it is based on similar principles, the +observation of the physical type and the spiritual expression which +serves best to embody the majesty and benignity of the god. After all, +we come back perhaps to the saying of Phidias himself, and his quotation +from Homer; here, too, it is the brow of the god that is emphasised, and +the nod that shook Olympus while it granted a prayer. It is in such +effects rather than in any detailed description that it is possible to +realise the nature of a great work of art. + +What success in the attainment of its aim was here reached by the art of +the sculptor may perhaps best be estimated from the often quoted +sentence of Quintilian, perhaps the noblest praise ever accorded to an +artist by a critic: "The beauty of the statue even made some addition to +the received religion; the majesty of the work was equal to the god." We +might indeed, without irreverence, impute to Phidias the words uttered +in a very different sense by one who later gave a new and higher +interpretation to a formula of "the received religion" in Greece: "Whom +therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." + +The other great Phidian ideal, that of Athena, was represented by +several statues, both in Athens and in other cities. As to these we have +a certain amount of information, and even a certain number of copies, +which show us the pose and the accessories of the various statues; some +of the better ones even suffice to give us some notion of the beauty of +their original. We have also descriptions by ancient writers, which tell +us, as in the case of the Olympian Zeus, much about the decoration of +the statue; but we have not in this case any appreciations of the effect +upon those who saw it. The ideal of Athena is in some ways more +difficult for us to comprehend than that of Zeus, partly because it is +less universally human, and more peculiarly characteristic of Greece and +even of Athens. The notion of the mother goddess is common to most +religions; that of the "queen and huntress, chaste and fair" is at least +familiar to us in literature, and readily commends itself to the +imagination. But Athena, though she has something of both these +characters, has a nature different from both. It is impossible to derive +her varied mythological functions from any one origin; but here it is +not the origin of her worship that concerns us, rather its meaning and +influence as these affected the people of her chosen city. Just as Zeus +was the ideal of all that was best in the Hellenic conception of manhood +and the god of a united Hellas, so Athena is especially the goddess of +Athens, the giver and fosterer of all those qualities that made the +Athenians what they were, the creatress of that ideal city sketched in +the wonderful speeches of Pericles. Her gifts are the arts of war and +peace, and all artistic and intellectual activity, as well as the olive +and other characteristic products of Attic soil, and the clear and +luminous air and stimulating climate which Attic writers are never tired +of extolling, and of associating with the peculiar genius of the +Athenian race. One can imagine how Dion Chrysostom might have recognised +the expression of these various qualities in the broad and majestic, yet +keenly intellectual brow, in the wide and clear eyes, and in other +features; but the extant copies of the Athena Parthenos cannot do more +than assist our imagination in realising how the sculptor represented +the goddess of Athens. Here, too, as in the case of the Zeus, it is +difficult for us to avoid the error of regarding the statue as a mere +philosophical abstraction, an impersonation of the qualities it +represents. Athena in later art, as set up in libraries and museums, was +doubtless such an impersonation, just as she is in modern art unreal and +comparatively uninteresting. But the Athenian believed intensely in the +existence of his goddess. He believed that the ceremonies connected with +her ancient image were necessary to the continuance of her favour to her +city and people, and that the new temples and statues set up in her +honour would still further delight her and ensure her protection and her +abode among her grateful worshippers. The statue by Phidias within the +Parthenon offered not merely that form in which she would choose to +appear if she showed herself to mortal eyes, but actually showed her +form as she had revealed it to the sculptor. To look upon such an image +helped the worshipper as much as--perhaps more than--any service or +ritual to bring himself into communion with the goddess, and to fit +himself, as a citizen of her chosen city, to carry out her will in +contributing his best efforts to its supremacy in politics, in +literature, and in art. If a work of art could have this actual +influence upon religious emotion, and through it upon practical life, it +may be said to have attained the utmost that any human effort can +achieve in the service of God. + +The religious influence of art in the fifth century is, as we have seen, +closely associated with the state; the Athena Parthenos and the Olympian +Zeus appealed to their worshippers as citizens of Athens and as members +of the privileged Hellenic race. It would be easy to trace a similar +character in almost all the great statues of gods that are recorded as +belonging to this period. Thus the Dionysus of Alcamenes is not the +dreamy god of wine and pleasure that we find at a later age, but an +august figure, bearded and enthroned, the giver of the riches of the +earth and the wine, the god in whose honour all the great Dionysian +festivals were held; the same sculptor's Hermes is the guardian of ways +and gates, the giver of increase to flocks, not the youthful and +athletic messenger of the gods. Hephaestus, too, especially when +associated with Athena, is the patron and teacher of all handicrafts, +himself the ideal artisan, practical and genial, but with none of his +godhead lost in a too human individuality; even his +lameness--characteristic of the smith in all folk-lore--is lightly +indicated, not dwelt on as an interesting motive. Various statues of +particular gods may, of course, emphasise one side or another of their +functions. Athena may be worshipped and represented as goddess of +Victory or of Health; but here, too, it is usually some recognised state +cult that underlies the representation. Outside Athens we find the same +conditions. To take only one instance, the colossal gold and ivory Hera +of Argos, made by the chief Argive master Polyclitus, is the great +goddess of the city, just as Athena is of Athens. She was represented as +the bride of Zeus, who annually renewed her maidenhood at the great +Argive festival of the divine marriage; and we cannot doubt that +Polyclitus expressed in this statue, which was hardly less famous than +the masterpieces of Phidias, all the essential features of the great +religious ideals that underlay this primitive rite. His Hera had neither +the warlike nor the intellectual and spiritual characteristics of the +Attic Athena; but she was the goddess of womanly grace and beauty in the +bride, and embodied that perfection of physical form which Argive art +sought also in its athletic figures, and which was in a sense a part of +the religion that found expression in the great athletic games. Some +gods--Apollo, for example--seem in fifth-century statues to have a more +individual character. Just as in earlier times the name Apollo serves to +cover a multitude of statues of which some may be meant to represent +individual men, so even in the age of Phidias we sometimes meet with a +figure of athletic type or of youthful beauty as to which it is possible +to doubt whether it is an Apollo; this may be partly the result of the +great popularity of the type in all ages of Greek sculpture which led to +its more rapid development and earlier individualisation. But the Apollo +of this period is never the mere dreamy youth of later time; it has been +well said that he is the god who, in the mythical athletic contest, +could surpass Hermes in the foot-race and Ares in boxing; the embodiment +of all-round physical and intellectual excellence, the combination of +music and gymnastic, which again brings us back to a national Hellenic +ideal. Throughout the representations of the gods in the art of the +fifth century we find the same essential character. They embody in +themselves the expression, by means of the most perfect physical forms, +of the qualities attributed to the god himself, or given by him to his +worshippers. They are no impersonal abstraction of these qualities, but +are real and living beings, in whom these qualities exist to a degree +impossible for a mere mortal. But, on the other hand, they have nothing +of the passions and emotions, the weaknesses and imperfections of mortal +nature. In this they are inconsistent, perhaps, with that Homeric +presentment of the gods which the greatest artists consciously set +before themselves. But we cannot wonder that an age of such clear and +lofty intellectual and moral perceptions should have rejected what it +felt to be unworthy in the current notions of the gods, and should have +selected only what it felt to be truly divine. Art did not, however, +remain very long upon its highest level of religious feeling; but in +Greece, by a fortunate coincidence, the age of the greatest religious +ideals was also that of the highest perfection of physical type in art +as well as of technical skill in execution. We do not therefore find in +this age that the sculptor lacks the power to express his ideas, or that +his ideas are too strong for the forms in which they are expressed; +there is rather that perfect harmony between the two that, here as +elsewhere, is characteristic of Hellenic art. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +INDIVIDUALISM + + +The great religious ideals of the fifth century were, as we have seen, +closely bound up with the subordination of the individual to the State; +and their expression in sculpture was also due in almost every case to +the employment of the artist by the community. In the fourth century, on +the other hand, we find on every side a stronger assertion of +individuality. It was a commonplace among Attic orators in the fourth +century to contrast the private luxury and ostentation of their own day +with the simplicity of life among the great men of the earlier age, +whose houses could not be distinguished from those of the common people, +though their public buildings and the temples they raised to the gods +were of unparalleled splendour. In religion, and above all in religious +art, we find something of the same tendency. There are few if any +records of the dedication during the fourth century of those great +statues of the chief gods which were looked back to by all subsequent +generations as the embodiment of a national ideal. But there were, +perhaps, more statues of the gods made in the fourth century which were +the objects not merely of artistic admiration, but of intense and +sometimes morbid personal devotion. The mere list of the gods preferred +for representation is an indication in itself; while in the fifth +century, Zeus and Athena and Hera, the great gods of the State or of the +Hellenic race, are the subjects of the most famous statues, in the +fourth century it is rather Aphrodite and Dionysus and Asclepius, those +whose gifts contribute to individual happiness or enjoyment, that offer +most scope to the powers of the artist. + +And the sculptors themselves, in the fourth century, show more +individuality of style. In the latter part of the fifth century the +genius of Phidias had so dominated religious art that the works of his +successors, men like Alcamenes and Agoracritus, could hardly be +distinguished from his. But the great sculptors of the fourth century, +Scopas and Praxiteles and Lysippus, not to mention others of less note, +devoted themselves not so much to the expression through perfect +physical form of great religious ideals, but to a realisation of the +character and, so to speak, the personality of the gods whom they +portrayed. And they did this by the same means by which they expressed +in their art the characters and passions of heroes or of men, thereby +removing the gods from the sphere of passionless benignity and power +which is assigned to them by the art of the fifth century. Such a +treatment evidently gave more scope for variety in the styles of the +sculptors; and although we can sometimes trace the influence of one upon +another, yet each clearly shows his own characteristics. We are +expressly told of Praxiteles that he showed the most admirable skill in +infusing into his marble works the passions and emotions of the soul; +and the extant remains of the statues made by Scopas and Lysippus show +that they also, each in his own way, attained the same results. + +If the sculpture of the fifth century was ethical, expressing noble +ideals of character whether in gods or men, that of the fourth century +may be called psychological. It is not content with character; it +expresses also mood and even passion, and thereby gives more prominence +to individuality. At first sight it is not easy to realise how this +change came to affect the representations of the gods. The gods of Homer +are, indeed, full of individual character; but we have seen how in the +fifth century, though the greatest sculptors declared it was the gods of +Homer that they represented, these representations were idealised and +raised above those human touches in which the individuality is most +conspicuous. There was, in the Homeric hymns and in the lyric poets, a +delight in details of incident and in personal peculiarities and even in +romantic tales about the gods; and in the fourth century, when the high +idealisation of the preceding age is no longer so strong in its +influence, we find a similar tendency in art as well. While the great +statues of the gods in the fifth century are almost all represented as +either enthroned or standing, not employed in any particular action or +function, the most characteristic examples of the statues of gods made +in the fourth century have almost all some definite motive. We may take +as an example what was perhaps the most famous statue of antiquity, the +Aphrodite by Praxiteles at Cnidus. The goddess is represented as nude; +and it is often said that goddesses would not have been so represented +in the fifth century. It is true that full drapery seems more consistent +with the dignified and august figures of Phidian art. But if the +religious type had required that Phidias should make a nude goddess, we +may be sure he would have made her naked and unashamed, with no more +self-consciousness than a nude Apollo; above all, he would not have +thought it necessary to provide a motive for her nudity. With Praxiteles +it is otherwise. He represents the goddess as preparing for the bath, +and just letting her last garment slip from her hand on to a vase that +stands beside her; and, in addition to this provision of a motive--an +excuse, one might almost say--for representing her without her clothes, +he hints, from the instinctive gesture of her other hand which she holds +before her body, at a half-conscious shrinking from exposure, a feeling +of modesty which, however suitable to a woman, is by no means consistent +with a high ideal of the goddess. The face and figure are of +extraordinary physical beauty of type, of a breadth and nobility which +contrast with the smaller, prettier, and less dignified forms of later +art; the gesture, too, has not the conscious coquetry which we see in +such a work as the Venus de' Medici. But, on the other hand, we must +recognise that the statue represents the goddess under a human rather +than a divine aspect, that even her mood and feeling of timidity are +portrayed in a manner which, however charming in itself, is totally +inconsistent with her worship as a great goddess. We are not surprised +to hear that this statue inspired a personal passion; she is the goddess +of love, and is represented as not beyond the reach of human attraction; +but she is brought down to the level of mortals, rather than capable of +raising mortals to a higher sphere by her contemplation. It is the same, +though perhaps to a less degree, with other statues of the gods made in +the fourth century. The motives with which the later Greeks went to +visit the great statues of the Phidian age were, as we have seen, to a +great extent religious, and their contemplation was regarded to some +extent as a service; here we have "idolatry" in its highest form. But +those who went to see the Aphrodite of Cnidus went chiefly to enjoy the +beauty of the statue; and although this may be the best thing from the +artistic point of view, it certainly has not the same religious import. + +There is another element in the individuality of fourth-century statues +which may appeal to modern artists, and which certainly did appeal--in +an inverted manner--to early Christian writers of invectives against +pagan idolatry. It was said that Phryne had posed as a model for the +Cnidian Aphrodite of Praxiteles; and the character of the goddess was +inferred from that of her votary. It is clear that a Greek artist could +not have, in the case of a nude female statue, the same choice of types +constantly present to his observation and his memory as he had in the +case of male statues; and the individuality of the model, however +beautiful, would thus tend to assert itself against the type. Thus +personality and individual character, "the ultimate condition of +beauty," to use Mr. Ruskin's words, in modern as in Tuscan art, comes +much nearer to expression in the fourth century than in the fifth. But a +study of such a statue as the Cnidian Aphrodite shows us nevertheless +that in the beauty of the type and the avoidance of the accidental, the +art of Praxiteles was as far removed from realism as it was from the +vague generalisation of Graeco-Roman and modern pseudo-classical art. It +is full of life and individuality, but it is the individuality of a +character realised within his mind by the artist, not merely copied from +the human model he set before him. + +Another method by which the motive becomes prominent in the art of the +fourth century is to be seen in the interpretation of mythological +conceptions. These are realised and embodied in statues; but the statues +offer a new, sometimes, it seems, almost an accidental and trifling +version of a solemn religious conception; it appears as if the artist +were playing with a mythological subject. Thus in the statue made by +Praxiteles of Apollo Sauroktonos, "the lizard-slayer," the god stands +with an arrow in his hand, as if trying to catch with it a lizard who +runs up a tree; it suggests a boyish game rather than the epithet of a +god. Again, the worship of Artemis Brauronia at Athens was one of the +oldest and most sacred cults in the city, and women at marriage and at +other critical times of their life used to offer her their garments, +thereby bringing themselves into close contact with the goddess and +claiming her special protection, the garments being actually placed on +the old image. If, as is probable, the Artemis of Gabii is a copy of the +statue substituted by Praxiteles for this old image, we see there the +goddess, as a graceful girlish figure, fastening a cloak upon her +shoulder. This may be taken as symbolical of the earlier custom of +placing the garments on the statue; but we have evidence that the +worshippers were not content with such a symbolic contact, but had the +actual garments placed on the new statue as they had been on the old. +Here we have probably a case of unsuccessful substitution; the artistic +representation did not suffice to replace the actual rite. But the +representation itself is doubtless intended in a way which, however +graceful, does not represent any deep religious feeling; one feels that +the artist found the subject a convenient one as an artistic motive, +rather than that he had any deep religious idea to express. + +We must not, however, go too far in denying religious ideals to the +fourth century altogether. Some of the gods, who came very near to the +life of man, but who were nevertheless worshipped with a real belief in +their power and benevolence, found at this time their fullest expression +in art. An example may be seen in the Demeter of Cnidus, the mother +sorrowing for her daughter, whose suffering brings her into close +sympathy with human weakness, and whose mysteries, perhaps more than any +other Hellenic service, brought men and women into personal communion +with the gods. We may take as another instance the head of Asclepius +from Melos in the British Museum. Here, as Brunn has pointed out in his +admirable analysis of its forms, we may recognise not so much the god as +the half-human, half-divine physician, a genial and friendly spirit who +persuades rather than commands. The expression is not only intellectual, +but has also an infinite gentleness, as of one not himself unacquainted +with mortal pain and sorrow; and such a conception, as we know from +Christian art, often appeals to those who find the majesty of Zeus too +distant, the idea of his godhead too abstract. In such almost human +ideals the individuality of the fourth century finds its full scope, as +in other half-human creations of the artist's imagination. Apollo as the +inspired musician or--if we accept the derivation of the Apollo +Belvedere from a fourth-century original--as the disdainful archer, +Hermes, the protector and playmate of his little brother Dionysus, and +many other such representations of the gods in their personal moods and +characteristic actions, seem in many ways less divine, less full of +religious feeling than such an Asclepius; if the great gods are brought +too near to human passions and weaknesses, they cannot but lose much of +their divinity. + +One might easily multiply examples of similar motives in the statues of +the gods made in the fourth century; but we should find the same +underlying principles in all cases. The gods are indeed more clearly +realised as having personal character and individuality, and for this +reason they may sometimes inspire keener personal feelings of worship or +even of romantic devotion. But the older and higher conceptions of the +gods, as an essential part of the State religion, and as embodying the +ideals of the race or of the city, are no longer to be found, except in +a somewhat lifeless continuance of the fifth-century tradition. The +intensity of expression which we find in human heroes is, indeed, +expressed also in such types as that of Apollo the musician or of +Dionysus the god of inspired enthusiasm. But this tendency is not fully +developed until a later age. The subtle distinctions of character +between the different gods are, on the other hand, now most keenly +observed and most skilfully rendered. But in spite of this, one does not +feel that the artist has the same belief in the gods and in their power +as we can see in the Phidian age. If his artistic attainment is possibly +more skilful, the religious import of his work is certainly less. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PERSONIFICATION, CONVENTION, AND SYMBOLISM + + +In the Hellenistic age we find the Greek types of the gods adapting +themselves to new conditions and new meanings. With the conquests of +Alexander, Greek language and civilisation spread over the Eastern +world; and with them went the artistic forms of the Greek pantheon, +though often to be modified by local beliefs or influences. Similarly, +when at a later time the Roman conquest of Greece spread Hellenic +influence to the West, there also the types of the Greek deities came to +be adopted or adapted to new mythological meanings. Greek art +practically became cosmopolitan; its influence was broadened; but at the +same time its essential nature, in its harmony with the imagination of +the Hellenic race, was lost or obscured. It becomes more intelligible to +us for this very reason, but at the same time less instructive in its +relation to religious conceptions. + +In the art of the Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman age we find two main +tendencies, the one towards academic generalisation, and the other +towards excessive realism, often coupled with a theatrical or +sensational treatment. This latter is the more interesting to us, partly +because it is in itself more original, partly because it is more in +accordance with modern artistic practice. The two tendencies are by no +means rigidly distinguished; for example, we often find a theatrical +treatment combined with academic work; and throughout are to be seen +traces of eclecticism--that is to say, of the habit of imitating or +reproducing, often in an unintelligent manner, the devices and even the +style of earlier art. It does not follow that no great works of art were +made in the Hellenistic age; the fine traditions of the fifth and fourth +centuries were not easily lost. But the inspiration of the subject, so +far as it still exists, comes from new and different sources. + +If we consider first the statues of the older gods of Greece, we often +find in them the individualistic tendencies of the fourth century +carried to a further pitch--sometimes to an extreme--in the sentimental +or passionate works of the Hellenistic age; there is often something +affected or dramatic about them, as if they were not merely realised as +expressing their individual character in their mood or action, but +acting their part as the representative of such a character; in fact, +they tend to embody impersonations rather than to express personalities. +One might almost repeat here much that has been said about the gods in +the fourth century, but that there is often, in this case, a touch of +exaggeration which is avoided by the finer artistic instinct and +appreciation of harmony that mark the work of earlier sculptors; and +joined with this we often find a love of display and a seeking after +effect which imply that the artist thinks more of his skill than of the +idea he is striving to express. + +We can trace in the Hellenistic age not only the traditions of earlier +art, but the direct influence of the masters of the fourth century, the +Praxitelean cult of beauty for its own sake, the passion and dramatic +force of Scopas, and the preference for allegorical subjects and for +statues of colossal size which we may see, as well as many higher +qualities, in the art of Lysippus. We have already noticed how in the +Apollo Belvedere there is an impression of theatrical posing which was +probably either introduced by the copyist or at any rate much +exaggerated by him in imitating an earlier type; and how in the Venus +de' Medici we find a crude insistence on a gesture of mock modesty which +is a mere travesty of the hint at half-conscious shrinking from exposure +which we see in the Cnidian Aphrodite. Even in a statue which, like the +Aphrodite of Melos, shows an endeavour to return to the nobler ideals +and more dignified and simple forms of an earlier age, there is +something artificial and conventional about both figure and drapery; and +one feels that the sculptor, though both his aims and his attainments +are of the highest, is trying rather to reflect the best influences of +his predecessors than to embody a present religious conception. + +The influence upon art of religious personifications is perhaps stronger +than any other during this period. There had, indeed, been such +personifications at an earlier time, such as the statue by Cephisodotus +of Peace nursing the infant Wealth. The most interesting example of such +personification may be seen in the figures of cities, or, to speak more +accurately, of the Fortunes of cities, such as the Antioch of +Eutychides. The influence of the city or state upon religious art was +conspicuous in the fifth century; but here we find the city itself or +its presiding genius represented in a statue which seems at first sight +a mere allegory of its situation. The way in which the figure is seated, +half turned on herself, and with her feet resting upon the shoulder of +the river that swims below her, seems to suggest an artificially +invented symbolism; yet we are expressly told that this statue received +great veneration from the natives of the district. In the decay of the +belief in the gods, there seems to have been a craving for nearer and +more real objects of worship. + +We can see the same tendency in a more extreme form in the deification +of human beings. Though some examples of this occur earlier, especially +in the case of the heroes or founders of cities, these are not placed on +a level with the gods; but the worship of Alexander, and in imitation of +him, of his successors, placed him in a distinctly divine rank. It is +difficult to say how far this was due to non-Hellenic influences. In the +case of Alexander, with his marvellous, almost superhuman achievements, +and his final solution of the great drama of the contest of East and +West, such idealisation is easy to understand; and we find not only that +Alexander is himself represented as a god, but that his expression and +cast of features come to affect the sculpture of his age, even in the +representations of the gods themselves. On coins, too, his head occurs; +an honour that before his time was not given to mere mortals. In other +cases this worship of men reached a pitch which was a matter of shame to +the later Greeks; thus Demetrius Poliorcetes, when he gave Athens back +her freedom, was welcomed at the city with divine honours. Even hymns +were composed in his honour, of which we find specimens preserved.[7] +After welcoming his advent at the same time as that of Demeter, the poet +addresses him thus:--"Other gods are either far away, or they have no +ears, or they exist not, or have no care for us. But we see thee, a +present deity, not of wood or stone, but real; therefore we pray to +thee." It is true that such materialistic and atheistic expressions were +probably reprobated by many at the time, as well as by later writers; +but the mere possibility of their public enunciation shows how far the +Athenians had gone from their old religious beliefs. + +[Footnote 7: Athen., VI, 63.] + +Allegorical impersonations, such as that of Antioch, are religious +conceptions of a high order compared to this. Nevertheless, one feels +that such impersonations can have no separate divine existence apart +from the city or the people whom they represent. They are on a different +plane of religious belief from Athena, for example, as the goddess of +the city. The goddess was, indeed, in some ways representative of what +was best in her chosen people; but she was not a mere symbol of its +character and its greatness. She existed before it, and would continue +though it should disappear from the earth, unlike the Fortune of +Antioch, whose very existence was bound up with that of the city she +represented. + +Another example of personification may be seen in the recumbent figures +of river-gods--notably that of the Nile, with his sixteen cubits, as +babies, playing around him. River-gods were indeed an object of worship +from early times in Greece, and so appear on coins and elsewhere; but +this figure of the Nile, a product of Alexandrian art, is not like the +earlier gods, who were looked upon as the givers of increase and +fertility; it is a mere allegorical impersonation of the river, such as +might be made by a modern artist who made no pretence to believe in the +existence of such an anthropomorphic river-god. It cannot be counted as +religious art at all. And the attributes and accessories of such a +figure, the crocodile and hippopotamus, the sphinx and corn and horn of +plenty, are all of them symbolic allusions such as are suitable to such +a frigid personification. The art of Alexandria is full of such devices; +that of Pergamon is more vigorous and dramatic; but in both alike we +find the influence of a learned study of mythology, full of quaint and +far-fetched allusions and symbols. The culmination of this learned +mythology is to be seen in the great altar of Pergamon, on which the +gods who are in combat with the giants include not only all figures, +appropriate and inappropriate, from the Hellenic pantheon, but many +other deities whose right of admission to that pantheon is more than +doubtful. The figures of the gods no longer correspond to the belief in +any real divinities, but are either mere artistic types, repeated again +and again in accordance with convention, or else they are regarded as +symbols representing different aspects of divine power. + +Symbolism of this kind is a common symptom of the decay of religious +faith. The more thoughtful or educated classes, who follow the +speculations of philosophers as to the nature of the deity, find it +possible to reconcile these speculations with the forms of popular +religion by accepting the forms in a symbolic sense. The common people, +on the other hand, finding the old forms inadequate to satisfy their +religious aspirations, import new and strange divinities, whose cult is +often mixed with magic or mystic rites. Here, too, the symbols have a +meaning other than what appears to the uninitiated eye, and the province +of art, which approaches the mind through the senses, is closely +circumscribed. A statue or other work of art which needs explanation of +its allusions, which does not express an ideal that appeals directly to +the imagination of the people, has lost touch with religion, and cannot +to any appreciable extent influence it or be influenced by it. The age +of idolatry in the higher sense, of a religious imagination that enables +the artist to bring the people nearer to their gods, or even the gods +nearer to the heart of the people, has passed away, and in its place we +find either a superstitious clinging to the magic power of the early +objects of worship, or a mere acceptance, as conventional symbols, of +forms that bear no direct relation to anything that is believed in as +real. + +Our brief historical survey has shown us how the Greeks, starting from a +belief, such as is common to many primitive religions, in the superhuman +powers or sanctity of certain objects, were enabled by their vivid +anthropomorphic imagination first to think of the gods as in like form +to themselves, and then to make their images in human shape. And as +their art progressed towards the power of making a physical type of +perfect beauty to serve as the means of expression of this "human form +divine," and also to skill in expressing character by means of human +features and figures, it became possible for them to embody in their +great statues the various ideals of divinity which belonged to their +chief gods. Here the skill of the artist would have availed little or +nothing if he had not shared with the people for whom he worked a belief +in the reality of these ideals, not merely as philosophic aspects of the +divine nature, but as real beings who were able to help and to inspire, +and to manifest themselves to their worshippers in this human form. The +next step is towards an even more vivid realisation of the personality +of the gods; but by bringing them nearer to human level it made the +worship of their images less easy to accept in a literal sense to the +more thoughtful, while such worship tended, with the common people, to +enter upon a more material and less exalted phase. The result was a +tendency towards symbolism in which the symbol itself was regarded as a +mere convention, and the inspiration and actual communion with men, +vouchsafed by the gods through their ideal images, was no longer sought +after. When any means of communion between god and man, whether by means +of a solemn service or by means of an image which the god himself +accepts as his earthly representative, ceases to be felt as anything +more than a human device, its religious power must fail. When, on the +other hand, we find a union of religion and art to provide a means for +this divine intercourse, we may recognise idolatry in its highest form, +the use of images not merely as accessories of religious service, but as +providing in themselves a channel of worship and inspiration. + + + + +WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. +PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH + + + + +Harper's Library of Living Thought + +_Foolscap 8vo, gilt tops, decorative covers, richly gilt backs_ +_Per Volume: Cloth 2s. 6d. net, Leather 3s. 6d. net_ + + + + +"Original research of great importance."--_Times_ + +CRETE, THE FORERUNNER OF GREECE +BY +C. H. Hawes, M.A. & Harriet B. Hawes, M.A. +_With Map, Plans, etc._ +Preface by Arthur J. Evans, D.Litt., F.R.S., Etc. + +"Mr. and Mrs. Hawes have a fascinating story to tell--the story of the +unfolding of a great civilisation which flourished in Crete before +Abraham was born. Reading these deeply interesting pages we seem to get +right back into the dawn of history. We seem to enter into the feelings +of the inhabitants when the ships of the sea-rovers hove in sight. Here +a carpenter's kit lies concealed in a cranny; there a carefully mended +anvil stands at the door of the village smithy. In the palace at Knossos +the system of drainage is superior to any known in Europe between that +day and the last century. Most wonderful of all is the art; two small +ivory figures of youths leaping, display a life and freedom nothing +short of marvellous." + +_Evening Standard_ + + + + +Harper's Library of Living Thought + +_Now Ready_ + +Algernon Charles Swinburne + THREE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE + +Leo Tolstoy + THE TEACHING OF JESUS + +W. M. Flinders Petrie + PERSONAL RELIGION IN EGYPT BEFORE CHRISTIANITY + +Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. + THE ETHER OF SPACE. _Illustrated_ + +Prof. William Wrede (University of Breslau) + THE ORIGIN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT + +Prof. C. H. Becker (Colonial Institute, Hamburg) + CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM + +Prof. Svante Arrhenius (Nobel Institute, Stockholm) + THE LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE. 2 vols. _Illustrated_ + +Prof. Arnold Meyer (University of Zurich) + JESUS OR PAUL? + +Prof. D. A. Bertholet (University of Basle) + THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS + +Prof. Reinhold Seeberg (University of Berlin) + REVELATION AND INSPIRATION + +Prof. Johannes Weiss (University of Heidelberg) + PAUL AND JESUS + +Prof. Rudolf Eucken (University of Jena) + CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEW IDEALISM + +Prof. P. Vinogradoff (Oxford University) + ROMAN LAW IN MEDIAEVAL EUROPE + +Sir William Crookes, LL.D., F.R.S. + DIAMONDS. _Illustrated_ + +C. H. Hawes, M.A., and Harriet Boyd Hawes, M.A. + CRETE, THE FORERUNNER OF GREECE + +Sir William A. Tilden. F.R.S. + THE ELEMENTS: SPECULATIONS AS TO THEIR NATURE AND ORIGIN + +Prof. Ernest A. Gardner (University of London) + RELIGION AND ART IN ANCIENT GREECE + +_Other volumes will be duly announced_ +_Please write for a prospectus_ + +_June, 1910_. +HARPER & BROTHERS +45 Albemarle Street, London. W. : : Franklin Square. New York. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Religion and Art in Ancient Greece, by +Ernest Arthur Gardner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGION AND ART IN ANCIENT GREECE *** + +***** This file should be named 20523.txt or 20523.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/5/2/20523/ + +Produced by Ron Swanson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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