Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1060 STATUARIA ARS. STATUARi-A ARS.
sentations of the gods, however, were by no means in various branches of the arts is abundantly atregarded as the gods themselves or even as images tested by numerous passages in the Homeric
of them, but only as symbols of their presence; poems. We must not however attribute too much
and as the imagination of a pious primitive age to this foreign influence, for there were many other
does not require much to be reminded of the pre.- causes at work besides, by which the Greek colosence of the deity, the simplest symbols were nies, not only of Asia, but of Sicily and Italy also,
sometimes sufficient to produce this effect. Hence were carried forward in advance of the motherwe find that in many places the presence of a god country. The ancient coins of the Italian Greeks
was indicated by the simplest and most shape- too are much more beautiful and show more indiless symbols, such as unhewn blocks of stone (A- viduality than those of Greece proper; fwe also
fbo adpyol, Paus. ix. 27. ~ 1, 35. ~ 1, vii. 22. find that Learchus of Rhegium' came to Sparta at
~ 3), and by simple pillars or pieces of wood. a very early period, and formed there the ear(Paus. vii. 22. ~ 3.; Clem. Alex. Stro2-. i. p.418, liest bronze statue of Zeus, which consisted of
and p. 348, ed. Sylburg; DOCANA and DAEDALA.) several pieces nailed together. (Paus. iii. 17. ~ 6.)
MIany such symbolic representations of gods were About the same timne, as some think, Gitiadas of
held in the greatest esteem, even in the historical Sparta made a bronze statue of Athena. (Paus.
ages, as sacred inheritances of former times, and iii. 17. ~ 13.) There is, however, very great unremlained the conventional representations of the certainty respecting the true dates of these artists.
gods notwithstanding the progress which the arts (See Diet. of Biog. s. vv. Giiatdias, Leaorczls.)
had made. The general name for a representation Another great work in bronze belonging to this
of a god not consisting of such a rude symbol was period is the colossal statue of Zeus which was
dyaAlua. (Ruhnken,. acd Tims. p. 2.) dedicated at Olympia by Cypselus or Periander of
In the Homeric poems, although the shield of Corinth, and for which the wealthy Corinthians
Achilles, the gold and silver dogs which kept were obliged to sacrifice a considerable part of their
watch at the palace of Alcinous, and other similar property. (Strab. viii. pp. 353, 378; Phot. and Suid.
things may be pure fictions, there are sufficient s. v. KubeaXLcv,.) About 650 B. C. Myron of Sicyon
traces of the existence of statues of the gods; but dedicated two avdAa/ioe of bronze at Olympia, which
it would seem that, as the ideas of the gods were were still there in the days of Pausanias (vi. 19.
yet gigantic and undefined, the representations of ~ 2).
several superhuman beings were more calculated to The time which elapsed between the composition
inspire awe than to display any artistic beauty. of the Homeric poems and the beginning of the
(II. xi. 36, &c.; Hesiod, Scut. Hec. 144, 156, fifth century before our aera may be termed the
248, &c.) This was however not always the case. age of discovery; for nearly all the inventions,
Temples are mentioned in several places (II. i. 39, upon the application of which the developement of
vii. 83, &c.), and temples presuppose the existence the arts is dependent, are assigned to this period,
of representations of the gods. A statue of Athena which may at the same time be regarded as the first
is mentioned at Ilion, upon whose knees the queen historical period -in the history of art. Glaucus of
places a magnificent peplus. (Ii. vi. 92; comp. Chios or Samos is said to have invented the art of
273.) The statue thus appears to have been in a soldering metal (orl6 pov icoAX7-trs, Herod. i. 25).
sitting position like the statues of Athena among The two artists most celebrated for their discoveries
the Ionians in general. (Strab. xiii. p. 601.) The were the two brothers Telecles and Theodorns of
existence of a statue of Apollo must be inferred Samos, about the time of Polycrates. The most
from Iliad i. 28, for the cr'4yua &eo7o call only important of their inventions was the art of castiing
mean the wreath or diadem with which his statue figures of metal. It is a singular circumstance,
itself used to be adorned. This statue must more- that the very twvo artists to whom this invention
over have been represented carrying a bow, for at- is ascribed, are said to have made their studies ill
tributes like dpyvpo'rotos could have no meaning Egypt; and the curious story of the two brothels
unless they referred to something existing and executing a Jdavov, of the Pythian Apollo in shich
well-known. Other proofs of representations of manner, that while Telecles made the one half of
the gods in human form may be found in Iliad ii. the statue at Delos, the other half was made by
478, &c. iii. 396, &c. These statues were un- Theodorus at Ephesus, and that when the two
doubtedly all dtova, and, as we must infer from the halves were put together, they tallied as accurately
expressions of Homer, were far more perfect than as if the whole had been the work of one artist
they are said to have been previously to the time (Diodor. i. 98), has been thought to support the'of Daedalus. A work still extant, which is cer- Egyptian tradition that these artists were greatly
tainly as old as the time of Homer, if not much assisted in the exercise of their art by what they
older, is the relief above the ancient gate of Myce- had learnt in Egypt. But, in the first place, the
nae, representing two lions standing on their hind whole story has a very fabulous appearance, and
legs, with a sort of pillar between them. (Paus. ii. even admitting that the artists, as the Egyptians
16. ~ 4; Sir W. Gell, Argol. pl. 8-10; GSttlirng asserted, had actually been in their country, noin the Rhleizisch. [ulus. 1841. part 2: wood-cut body will on this ground maintain that they learnt
under Muuvs.) These facts justify us in sup- their art there: the utmost they could have learnt
posing that, at the time of Homer, the Greeks, but might have been some mechanical processes: the
icore especially the Ionians of Asia Minor, had art itself must be vindicated for the Greeks. In
mlade great progress in sculpture. The lonians the second place, Telecles and Theodorus are called
appear to have been far in advance of the Greeks by Diodorus sons of Rhoecus, and Pausanias hinmof the mother-country. The cause of this must self, who was unable to discover a bronze work of
probably be sought in the influence which some of Theodorus, saw at Ephesus a bronze statue which
the nations of western Asia, such as the Lydians, was the work of Rhoecus (x. 38. ~ 3.) Hence we
Lycians, and Phoenicians, had upon the Ionian have reason to suppose that Telecles and Theodorls
colonists, for that these nations excelled the Greeks learnt at any rate the art of casting metal from