174 risked vote judged to ravo, Hermes. You have performed your crier's the dangst admirably; and, indeed, they are already rushing So take and seat them, each according to rank, thing er. belongs to him by reason of material or art-the olden in the front rank, then next to them the Silver; next in due order all the Ivory ones; after them the Bronze or the Marble; and among these same let those of Pheidias, or Alkamenes, or Myron, or Euphranor, or of similar artists, have the best places. As for these rabble, and inartistic fellows, let them be crammed together somewhere at a distance, and serve only to fill up the House as dummies. 2 Hermes. So it shall be, and they shall take their seats as is proper. But it's not so easy to know-when any one of them is of gold, indeed, and of many hundredweight, but not perfect in workmanship, but plainly vulgar and plebeian, and badly proportioned, shall he seat himself before the bronze gentlemen of Myron, and of Polykleitus,3 and of Pheidias, and the marble ones of Alkamenes? Or must we consider Art to have precedence? Zeus. So it ought to be; but, all the same, preference must be given to Gold.* 1 The first of these most distinguished sculptors and statuaries of Hellas and the world is sufficiently well known. Alkamenes, the most eminent of the pupils of Pheidias, was especially famous for a statue of Aphrodite. Myron, the sculptor of the well-known Discobolos, an elder contemporary of Pheidias, was the Landseer of Greek sculptors. His Cow was especially in high repute, and in the Greek Anthologia thirty-six epigrams celebrate her praise. It was removed from Athens between the age of Cicero and that of Pausanias. This beautiful statue survived, at least, to the sixth century. Of the works of Euphranor, a native of Korinth, but, like most of the great artists, resident at the "hospitable" Athens, most celebrated was his representation of Paris, of which the statue in the Museo Pio-Clementino is probably a copy. See Pliny, Hist. Nat. * Πολυτάλαντος τὴν ὁλκὴν. Lit. 6 many talents in weight." The ráλavrov, both gold and silver, was used as a measure of weight varying at different periods. Here the gold talent, probably, is intended. 3 Polykleitus, of the Argive and Sikyon School of Sculpture, a contemporary of Pheidias, has been ranked second only to the Koryphæus of Greek Art. The Argive was more celebrated for human, the Athenian for divine figures. The most famous of his works were the Doryphorus, or Kanon (as it was termed, from being held to be the ideal of the human form), and his Hera. See Pliny, Hist. Nat. 4"An excellent trait," remarks Wieland, "of the anthropomorphic character of this Jupiter." Hermes. I understand you to direct me to seat them according to wealth and property, not according to excellence and real value.-Come, then, to the front seats, you golden gentlemen. (In a whisper.) The foreigners, Zeus, appear to be the only ones likely to occupy first places; for you observe of what description the Greeks areelegant and good-looking enough, and artistically fashioned, but, none the less,' all of marble or bronze, or (at all events) the most costly of them are ivory, with just a little gold gilding so as merely to have a surface tint and veneer of that metal; but inside they are, in fact, all wooden, sheltering whole troops of rats, that form regular colonies there; while Bendis here, and that Anubis there, and Attis at his side, and Mithras and Meen 2 are all of solid gold, and pretty costly, and no mistake. Poseidon. Is really this justice, Hermes, that this dogfaced fellow of Egypt should have place before me actually before Poseidon, God of the Sea, himself! 4 Hermes. Yes, but, Earth-shaker," Lysippus fashioned you as a poor fellow of bronze-for the Korinthians had then no gold, and that is more precious than all the other metals put together. You must, therefore, submit to be thrust aside, and not be angry, if a fellow with such a huge snout of gold has been preferred to you. 5 Aphrodite. In that case, Hermes, take me, too, and give me a seat on the front row; for I am golden. Hermes. Not as far as I can see, Aphrodite: but (unless 1 Jacobitz has ouoiwc, "alike." 2 Bendis, a Thracian divinity, whom Hesychius identifies with Artemis. See 'Ikapo-MέvITTоç, 24; Strabo, x. Mithras, the Persian solar divinity, represented in sculpture in a Phrygian dress, kneeling on a prostrate bull, whose throat he is cutting. Meen, or Lunus, a Phrygian divinity. Consult Spanheim, De Usu Numism. For Attis and Anubis, see Θ. Δ. xii., Ν. Δ. xiii., Ζεὺς Τραγ., Ἐκκλ. θεῶν. 3 'Evvoolyaie-the Homeric epithet for Poseidon. 4 Lysippus, of Sikyon, the distinguished sculptor-laureate of Alexander of Macedon, whose statues in bronze (in which material only he worked) are said to have been 1,500 in number. With Apelles in painting, he had, in sculpture, the monopoly of Alexander's portraits, of which he executed a large variety, none of which have come down to us. 5 Anubis. "Plangentis populi currit derisor Anubis."-Juv. Sat. vi. 534. N I am altogether purblind) after having been hewn out of white marble from Pentele, I imagine, you then, at the good pleasure of Praxiteles, became Aphrodite, and were handed over to the Knidians.1 Aphrodite. Indeed I have a very credible witness I shall quote to you-Homer himself, who up and down his poems calls me the "Golden Aphrodite." 3 Hermes. Why, indeed, the same Homer says that Apollo, too, is very golden and rich: but now you will see even him seated somewhere in the third class, deprived of his crown by thieves, and completely robbed of the pegs of his cithara. So be satisfied that even your place in the assembly is not, in fact, among the lowest classes. Kolossus (of Rhodes). With me who would venture to compete, for I am the very Sun himself, and of size so cnormous ? If, to be sure, the Rhodians had not thought fit to construct me of so portentous and excessive dimensions, at an equal expense they could have made for themselves sixteen Gods of gold. So that, by the rules of proportion, I should be considered of all the greater value; The Knidian Aphrodite, one of the most celebrated statues of antiquity, and the production of one of the most eminent of Greek sculptors, perished by fire at Constantinople, in the reign of Justinian. It had the reputation of being the most perfectly beautiful of the statues of the Goddess, and was modelled from the famous hetara, Phryne, who, also, was the original of the equally famous picture of Apelles-the Aphrodite Anadyomene ("Aphrodite Rising from the Sea"). Cf. Lucian, 'Epwrec, 11, K. T.X. Pentelicus, an offshoot of the Mt. Parnes range, in Attica, famous for its marble, derived its name from the borough of Pentele. 2 "He is called 'rich,' but nowhere in Homer Tolúxpuños, which is the usual epithet of Venus in Hesiod."-De Soul. 3 'Ev Tois ZEVYiraus. Among the Zeugite (those who could afford to have a yoke of oxen), the third class of the citizens in the timocratic constitution of Solon. The income of the Zeugite was fixed at from about £8 to £12 per annum. The Thetes, whose property-qualification fell below £8, formed the fourth and lowest class. The Pentecosiomedimnoi, who possessed a minimum income of 500 medimni or drachmæ (about £20), were ranked in the first class. 4 He was the work of Chares of Lindus, 280 B.C. This gigantic bronze statue of Apollo, one of the "Seven Wonders," had a height of over 100 feet. It was thrown down by an earthquake about fifty years after its creation, and lay where it fell until the year 667 A.D., when the Saracen Arabs broke it up. The extraordinary fable, so often repeated by modern writers, of its striding the Rhodian harbour, originated in the sixteenth century. See Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxv. 10. and the artistic skill is to be counted into the bargain, and the perfection of the work in a statue of such magnitude. : Hermes (aside to Zeus). What must I do, Zeus ? For this for me, at least, is a hard business to determine for if I should regard solely the material, he is bronze; but if I should reckon at the cost of how many thousands he has been fabricated, he would be far above the first-class claimants. Zeus (aside to Hermes). Why, what must he, too, needs come here for, to reproach the insignificance of the rest, and to be a nuisance to the company? (To the Kolossus) Well, but hark you, most excellent Rhodian, even if you are to be preferred to the utmost to your golden rivals, how in the world would you ever occupy the front place, unless all have to stand up, that you alone may be accommodated, and occupy the whole Pnyx' with one of your buttocks? So you will do better to give your vote standing up, and make your bow to the council. Hermes. Here, again, is another difficult thing. They are both of them, in point of fact, bronze, and of the same workmanship each of them the work of Lysippus, and, what is most important, of the same rank as to birthseeing both are sons of Zeus-Dionysus here and Herakles. Which of them, pray, shall have precedence? For they are wrangling, as you observe. Zeus. We are wasting time, Hermes; whereas we ought long ago to have been at business. So now let them take their seats higgledy-piggledy, where each has a mind to; and, at some future time, a sitting shall be given to settle that point, and I shall know then what is the rank to assign to them. 66 Hermes. But, Herakles! what an uproar they make with their clamours for their vulgar and every-day wantsdoles! doles! where is our nektar? The ambrosia runs short. Where are the hecatombs? The sacrificial victims for the public!"" 1 A semicircular hill, near the Areiopagus, on which the Athenian 'Ekkλnoia, or Commons' House, held its sittings. For an entertaining scene at one of these sittings, see Aristoph. 'Axap. 1-202. 2 A double satire on the celestial gourmandism and the selfish policy of the imperial Roman Government in keeping the populace of Zeus. Silence them at once, Hermes, that they may learn on what account they have been assembled, and drop this nonsense. Hermes. Not all of them, Zeus, understand Greek, and I am not much of a linguist, so as to make my proclamations intelligible to Tartars, and Persians, and Thracians, and Kelts. It will be better, therefore, I imagine, to make signs, and in that way to enjoin silence. Zeus. So do. Hermes. Capital: they have become dumber than the philosophers themselves. So it is high time for you to harangue them. You observe they have been long regarding you fixedly, expecting what you will say. Zeus (aside to Hermes). Yes, but what my feelings are, Hermes, I will not shrink from imparting to you, as you are my son. You are aware how bold and magniloquent I always was in our public Assemblies. Hermes. I am, and I used to dread hearing your harangues; most especially when you would threaten to drag up from their foundations the earth, and sea, and the Gods and all, by simply letting down that golden chain of yours.1 Zeus. However, now, my son, I don't know whether it is from the magnitude of the present pressing dangers, or from the number of the company-for our Parliament is crowded by the Gods to an excess, as you see—but I am utterly confused in mind, and am all of a tremble, and my tongue seems tied. But, what is strangest of all, I have clean forgotten the exordium to my speech, which I had prepared for myself, so that it might have as specious a beginning as possible. Hermes (in a whisper). You have ruined everything, Zeus; they suspect your silence, and expect to hear some very great calamity as the cause of your hesitation. the capital dependent on periodical supplies for their sustenance. Juvenal, Sat. x. 78-81, alludes to this policy : Imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se Cf. Aristoph. "Opvibes, 1515-1524. 1 See 0. A. xxi. |