IV

HORSEMEN FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE -- British Museum, London -- London Stereoscopic Co., Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.HORSEMEN FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE -- British Museum, London -- London Stereoscopic Co., Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"When thus her shapely formHad been anointed, and her hands had combedHer tresses, she arranged the lustrous curls,Ambrosial, beautiful, that clustering hungRound her immortal brow. And next she threwAround her an ambrosial robe, the workOf Pallas, all its web embroidered o'erWith forms of rare device. She fastened itOver the breast with clasps of gold, and thenShe passed about her waist a zone which boreFringes a hundred-fold, and in her earsShe hung her three-gemmed ear-rings, from whose gleamShe won an added grace. Around her headThe glorious goddess drew a flowing veil,Just from the loom, and shining like the sun;And, last, beneath her bright white feet she boundThe shapely sandals."[12]

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

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

[13]From Kingsley'sGreek Heroes: the Argonauts.

BUST OF HERA (JUNO) -- Ludovisi Villa, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.BUST OF HERA (JUNO) -- Ludovisi Villa, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE APOXYOMENOS -- Vatican Gallery, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc. -- Vatican Gallery, RomeTHE APOXYOMENOS -- Vatican Gallery, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.

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

[14]The application of this passage to the Apoxyomenos is made by J. A. Symonds in hisGreek Poets.

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

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

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

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

"Heaven's far darter, the fair king of daysWhom even the gods themselves fear when he goesThrough Jove's high house; and when his goodly bowsHe goes to bend, all from their thrones ariseAnd cluster near t' admire his faculties."[15]

[15]In Chapman's translation.

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

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

"And then Apollo with the plectrum strookThe chords, and from beneath his hands a crashOf mighty sounds rushed up, whose music shookThe soul with sweetness, and like an adeptHis sweeter voice a just accordance kept."[16]

[16]From Shelley's translation of the HomericHymn to Mercury.

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

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

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

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

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

HEAD OF THE APOLLO BELVEDERE -- Vatican Gallery, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.HEAD OF THE APOLLO BELVEDERE -- Vatican Gallery, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Greeks worshipped among their deities a goddess called Demeter, which means "mother earth." It was her office to attend to the sowing and reaping and all kinds of farm work. She first taught mankind the use of the plough; she helped the men in their threshing and the women in their baking. All country folk sought her blessing in their labors. She was, in fact, a personification of nature, and perhaps it is a remnant of the old Greek belief in our speech that we still refer to "mother earth" and "mother nature."

Demeter's only child was a daughter, Persephone, and upon her she lavished all a mother's fond devotion. The story runs that one day Persephone was gathering posies in the meadow when a strange accident overtook her. A beautiful flower suddenly attracted her attention, the like of which she had never before seen. When she put forth her hand to pluck it, the entire plant came up by the roots, leaving a hole in the ground. The hole widened into a great crack, the earth shook with a mighty thundering, and out dashed a chariot drawn by coal-black steeds, bearing Pluto, the king of the lower regions. He caught up the astonished Persephone, and away theysped again into the gloomy kingdom beyond the Styx, where Persephone was installed as queen.

Demeter, missing her daughter, inquired everywhere what had become of the maiden, but none could tell her. Then she lighted a torch and began a weary search for the lost child. Nine days she wandered without finding any clew. But on the tenth day she met the old witch Hecate, who had heard Persephone scream when she was carried away. Together the two sought Apollo, who sees all the doings of gods and men, and he told them the whole story. "Then a more terrible grief took possession of Demeter, and ... she forsook the assembly of the gods and abode among men for a long time, veiling her beauty under a worn countenance so that none who looked upon her knew her." She declared that the earth should not again bring forth fruit till she had seen her daughter.

It comforted her not a little in this time of mourning to take a mother's care of a certain sickly little child she chanced upon. Disguised as a nurse, she fed the child upon ambrosia, held him in her bosom, and at night covered him in a bed of coals. Under this treatment he thrived amazingly; but the parents discovered the nurse's strange ways and became alarmed. Their anxiety was turned to dismay when they learned that this was a goddess, who would have made their son immortal but for their interference.

DEMETER (CERES) -- Vatican Gallery, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.DEMETER (CERES) -- Vatican Gallery, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.

In the mean time the crops fell into a bad state, and it was a year of grievous famine. Demeter still kept her vow to let no green thing appear upon the earth. Then Zeus came to the rescue of perishing humanity. He sent a messenger to Pluto begging him to let Persephone return to her mother. The request was granted, the chariot was made ready, but the wily king first pressed his bride to eat with him some pomegranate seeds, designing that she should return to him again. Mother and daughter were now joyfully reunited, but not without further separation; for a portion of each year Persephone returned to her kingdom below the earth, reappearing in the spring to visit her mother. And this is why to this day the harvest is followed by winter until the spring revisits the earth.[17]

[17]The story of Demeter and Persephone is related in the HomericHymn to Demeter, of which an abridged English version is given in the chapter on the Myth of Demeter and Persephone in Pater'sGreek Studies. The same chapter refers to various other ancient forms of the story, one of the most important being that of Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated into English blank verse by Edward King.

In all this story we see that the most striking characteristic of Demeter is her motherliness. In some respects she is like Hera, because both are matrons and are patterns of the domestic virtues. But while Hera is the model wife, Demeter is the model mother.

It is the motherliness of our statue which makes us feel sure that it must be intended to represent Demeter.[18]The goddess stands holding in her outstretched right hand a sheaf of wheat, and lifting high in the left hand the torch with which she journeyed round the world. It is as if she stood on the threshold of the opening season awaiting her daughter's return. She gazes straight before her with a look of expectancy as if she already saw her child from afar. Her face is lighted by a smile of welcome. One can fancy how tenderly those motherly arms will fold the child to her heart, and how gladly the daughter will pillow her head on that broad bosom.

[18]See in theHistorical Directoryanother subject assigned to the statue.

The figure is in striking contrast to the statue of Athena which we have studied. The virgin goddess is stately and unapproachable in her panoply of wisdom, but the great mother seems to invite our confidence. She is one to whom a frightened child might run, sure of being soothed. To her the sorrowing would turn, fearing no repulse. She would welcome, she would understand, she would comfort. There is strength and repose in every line of her majestic figure.

The statue illustrates admirably the grandeur and simplicity of the best Greek art. The long straight lines of the drapery, unbroken by any unnecessary folds, are the secret of the impression of tranquil dignity in the work.

The imagination of the Greeks peopled the woods and waters with all sorts of mythical beings, among which one of the most delightful was the faun. This was a creature half human, half animal, which frolicked in the woods in spring time. In outward appearance it looked much like a human being, except that it had pointed furry ears. In nature, however, it was closely akin to the animals, and lived a free happy life, with none of the thoughts and cares which beset the soul of man.

Our statue represents a sculptor's conception of this sportive being. It is famous not only because it is a celebrated work of art, but because it takes an important place in a celebrated novel. This is the "marble faun" which gives the title to Hawthorne's book. It will be remembered that in the beginning of the story, a party of friends are visiting the museum of the Capitol in Rome, where the statue stands. Suddenly they notice the resemblance which one of their number, a young Italian named Donatello, bears to the statue. They bid him take the same attitude, and the likeness is complete. The writer describes the statue in these words: "The Faun is the marble image of a young man leaning his rightarm on the trunk or stump of a tree; one hand hangs carelessly by his side; in the other he holds the fragment of a pipe, or some such sylvan instrument of music. His only garment—a lion's skin,[19]with the claws upon his shoulder—falls halfway down his back, leaving the limbs and entire front of the figure nude. The form, thus displayed, is marvellously graceful, but has a fuller and more rounded outline, more flesh, and less of heroic muscle, than the old sculptors were wont to assign to their types of masculine beauty.[20]The character of the face corresponds with the figure; it is most agreeable in outline and feature, but rounded and somewhat voluptuously developed, especially about the throat and chin; the nose is almost straight, but very slightly curves inward, thereby acquiring an indescribable charm of geniality and humor. The mouth, with its full yet delicate lips, seems so nearly to smile outright that it calls forth a responsive smile. The whole statue—unlike anything else that ever was wrought in that severe material of marble—conveys the idea of an amiable and sensual creature, easy, mirthful, apt for jollity, yet not incapable of being touched by pathos. It is impossible to gaze long at this stone image without conceiving a kindly sentiment towards it, as if its substance were warm to the touch, and imbued with actual life. It comes very close to some of our pleasantest sympathies."

[19]More likely a leopard's skin.

[20]Compare, for instance, the slender figure of theApoxyomenos.

THE FAUN OF PRAXITELES -- Capitol Museum, Rome -- Alinari, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.THE FAUN OF PRAXITELES -- Capitol Museum, Rome -- Alinari, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.

After this description the writer goes on to analyze the nature of the Faun. "The being here represented," he says, "is endowed with no principle of virtue, and would be incapable of comprehending such; but he would be true and honest by dint of his simplicity. We should expect from him no sacrifice or effort for an abstract cause; there is not an atom of martyr's stuff in all that softened marble; but he has a capacity for strong and warm attachment, and might act devotedly through its impulse, and even die for it at need. It is possible, too, that the Faun might be educated through the medium of his emotions, so that the coarser animal portion of his nature might eventually be thrown into the background, though never utterly expelled."

The original statue, of which the marble of the Capitol is a copy, was the work of the sculptor Praxiteles. As Hawthorne says: "Only a sculptor of the finest imagination, the most delicate taste, the sweetest feeling, and the rarest artistic skill—in a word, a sculptor and a poet too—could have ... succeeded in imprisoning the sportive and frisky thing in marble." We are presently to see again in the head of Hermes that Praxiteles was indeed a remarkable sculptor. The Faun, however, is the more difficult subject of the two, for it was puzzling to think what expression would be proper to a being partly human, but without a soul.

It is said that Praxiteles himself considered the Faun one of his two best works. It had been impossible for his friends to get an expression of opinion from him in regard to his statues, until one daya trick was devised to betray him. He was told that his studio was on fire, when he exclaimed that his labor was all lost if the Faun and the Eros were destroyed.

The Faun originally stood in the street of the Tripods at Athens, but what has now become of it we do not know. The statue in our illustration is one of the most celebrated copies. Many travellers make a special pilgrimage to see it, and seeing it recall the words of Hawthorne, describing the spell it casts upon the spectator. "All the pleasantness of sylvan life, all the genial and happy characteristics of creatures that dwell in woods and fields, will seem to be mingled and kneaded into one substance, along with the kindred qualities in the human soul. Trees, grass, flowers, woodland streamlets, cattle, deer, and unsophisticated man—the essence of all these was compressed long ago, and still exists, within that discolored marble surface of the Faun of Praxiteles."

One of the greatest of Greek writers was the tragic poet Sophocles. He was born near Athens in the year 495B. C., and was educated after the manner of the Greek youth of his time. Every advantage was given him for the study of music and poetry, and also for that gymnastic training which, as we have seen, was so important in Greek education.

Sophocles was a handsome youth, and acquitted himself well in the palæstra. When he was sixteen years of age the great battle of Salamis was fought and won by the Greeks. In the celebration of this victory at Athens, Sophocles led with dance and lyre the chorus of young men who sang the pæan or hymn of victory. That such an honor should be given him shows how graceful and gifted he must have been.

The beginning of his literary career came when he was in his twenty-fifth year. At that time a solemn festival was held in Athens in memory of the ancient King Theseus, whose bones had been brought thither from the island of Scyros. Now all religious festivals in Greece were celebrated with contests, some athletic, others artistic and literary. On this occasion there was a contest of dramatic poets.Æschylus was at that time the greatest of living tragedians, and as he was among the contestants, it might have been supposed that no other candidate could have succeeded. Sophocles now came forward with his first tragedy, and so remarkable was it found to be that the judges pronounced him victor.

From this time forth Sophocles continually grew in dramatic and literary power. Twenty times he obtained the first prize in other contests, and many times also the second prize. The amount of his work was prodigious. Most of his dramas are lost, but we still have a half dozen or more to show us the noble quality of his work. The finest are perhaps those called Œdipus Tyrannus, Œdipus Coloneus, and Antigone, all dealing with the tragic fate of an ancient royal family.

Athens was justly proud of her great poet and bestowed various honors upon him. He was even made a general, and served in the war against Samos; but nature had made him a poet, and it is as a poet that we must always think of him. Full of years and honors, he died in Athens at the age of ninety. Of him the Greek poet Phrynicus wrote,—

"Thrice happy Sophocles! in good old ageBlessed as a man, and as a craftsman blessed,He died: his many tragedies were fair,And fair his end, nor knew he any sorrow."

Our portrait shows admirably what manner of man he was, handsome and dignified, in the prime of life.

SOPHOCLES -- Lateran Museum, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.SOPHOCLES -- Lateran Museum, Rome -- D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.

The scanty folds of his toga reveal the fine lines of his graceful figure. The pose shows the bodily vigor which his early athletic training gave him. He holds his head erect in a manner suggestive of his military life. The face is that of an idealist and a poet, a man who sees splendid visions. Yet it is not altogether dreamy in the ordinary sense; it has the alert, energetic aspect of one who would turn from vision to action. It is not hard to believe the tale of his one hundred and twenty-three dramas: such a man would fill his life with activity. The face has, too, the expression of genial kindliness which made the great poet so beloved of his fellow men. His must have been that calm, equable temperament not easily ruffled, which goes with the self-respecting nature. A receptacle at his side is filled with the scrolls of his tragedies. He stands in the attitude of a poet reciting his lines to an assembled audience.

The statue shows how sane was the Greek ideal of intellectual greatness. In those days genius did not mean eccentricity, but the rule of life was a sound mind in a sound body. It is a mistaken notion of our own times that bodily health must be sacrificed to the training of the brain. It is even supposed by some that oddities of dress and manner are signs of greatness.

The Greeks had no such delusions. Here is Sophocles, the greatest dramatic poet of antiquity, a magnificent specimen of symmetrically developed manhood. He is a man who has made the most of life's opportunities as he understood them. He enjoys perfect bodily vigor; he is as well a man of theworld, at ease among men. There is evidently nothing of the recluse in his character. He wears his beard carefully trimmed as one who looks well to his personal appearance. Yet intellectual greatness is stamped on face and bearing: the noble countenance marks him as a poet.

There was a period in Greek history when it was a custom to adorn public buildings with statues of famous men, living or dead. Libraries were appropriately decorated with statues of poets, and we fancy that our statue of Sophocles was made for such a purpose. The original is supposed to have been set up by a certain Athenian statesman named Lycurgus in the fourth centuryB. C.

Old soldiers tell us that sometimes in the thick of a battle men fight as though possessed by a spirit of fury. The excitement of the conflict seems to arouse an impulse of bloodthirstiness in them, and for the moment they seem to exult in the carnage. In the ancient methods of warfare, when a battle was literally a hand-to-hand conflict, this spirit of brutality was of course even more marked. In the wars among the early Greeks men fell upon one another with the violence of wild animals.

The Greeks with their ready gift for personification conceived of this spirit of warfare as a supernatural being acting on human lives. He was called Ares, the god whose special delight was to incite the fierce passions of men.

It was natural that the Greeks should refer his influence chiefly to their enemies. On their own part they preferred to think that their armies were inspired by the prudent spirit of self-defense embodied in Athena. This explains why in the Iliad Ares was on the side of the Trojans, while Athena aided the Greeks. Thus Ares and Athena were brought into direct rivalry, the spirit of violence against the spirit of strategy.

An instance is related when Athena makes an appeal to her enemy, the translation running in these words, the Roman name Mars being used for Ares.

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