A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

756 SCOPAS. SCOPAS.
Ly ancient writers, and as still visible in a very at Megara was Scopas's group of marble statues of
similar and nearly contemporaneous work of the Eros, Himeros, and Pothos, in which he showed
very same school, the frieze of the choragic monu- the perfection of his art by the distinct and characment of Lysicrates, which is also preserved in the teristic personified expression of ideas so nearly the
adjoining room (the Elgin Room*) in the British same (Paus. i. 43. ~ 6). The celebrated statue of
dMuseum. The decided inferiority of both these Aphrodite as victorious (Venus Victrix), in the
works to the Panathenaic frieze of the Parthenon Museum at Paris, known as the Venus of Mlilo
only proves the inferiority of the later Attic artists (Melos), is ascribed, by Waagen and others, to
to those of the school of Pheidias; an inferiority Scopas, and is quite worthy of his chisel. It is
which was not likely to be properly appreciated by one of the most beautiful remains of ancient art.
judges who, in the kindred art of dramatic poetry, (Waagen, KIunstwerke u. Kinstler in Paris;
preferred Euripides to Sophocles. The part of the Nagler, Kiinstler-Lexicon; Miiller, Denkiniler d.
fiieze of the Mausoleum executed by Scopas was alten Kunst, vol. ii. pl. xxv. No. 270.)
that of the eastern front; the sculptors of the 2. Subjects from the ilythology of Dionysus.other three sides were Bryaxis, Leochares, and Miiller thinks that Scopas was one of the first who
Timotheus (or, as others said, Praxiteles), all of ventured to attempt in sculpture a free unfettered
them Athenians; and ilinytells us that the works display of Bacchic enthusiasm (Archail. d. Kunst,
were in his time considered to vie in excellence ~ 125). His statue of Dionysus is mentioned by
with each other:-hodieque certant manus (tI. N. Pliny (H. N. xxxvi. 5. s. 4. ~ 5); and his Maenad,
xxxvi. 5. s. 4. ~ 9). with flowing hair, as Xzfmpopdo'os, is celebrated
II. Having thus noticed the works of Scopas in by several writers (Callist. Inmag. 2; Glaucus, Ep.
architecture and architectural sculpture, we proceed 3, ap. Brunck. Anal. vol. ii. p. 347, Anths. Pal. ix.
to the single statues and groups which are ascribed 774; Simonides, Ep. 81, ap. Brunck. Anal. vol.
to him, classifying them according to their connec- i. p. 142, Anth. Planud. iv. 60, Append. in Antl.
tionI with the Greek mythology. The kinds of Pal. vol. ii. p. 642, Jacobs). There are several
mythological subjects, which Scopas and the other reliefs which are supposed to be copied from the
artists of his school naturally chose, have already work of Scopas; one of them in the British Mubeen mentioned under PRAXITELES, P. 519, b. seum. (Miiller, Arch. 1. c. n. 2, Derknsmler, vol. i.
Nearly all these works were in marble, the usual pl. xxxii. No. 140; Townley Gallery, vol. ii. p.
material employed by the school to which Scopas 103.) Respecting his Paniscus, see Cicero (de
belonged, and that also which, as a native of Paros, Div. i. 13).
he may be supposed to have preferred and to have 3. Subjects fromi the 1Mythology of Apollo anzd
been most familiar with. Only one bronze statue Artemis. — Scopas embodied the ideal of the Pvof his is mentioned; and some critics would erase thian Apollo playing on the lyre in a statue, which
his name from Plinv's list of statuaries in bronze Augustus placed in the temple which he built to
(IL N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19). Apollo on the Palatine, in thanksgiving for his
1. Subjects from the Mythology of Aplrodite.- victory at Actium; whence it is called by Pliny
Pliny (H. N. xxxvi. 5. s. 4. ~ 7), after mentioning Apollo Palatinus, and on various Roman coins
Scopas as a rival of Praxiteles and Cephisodotus, Apollo Actins or Palatinus (Eckhel, Doct. Num.
tells us of his statues of Venus, Pothos (Desire), vol. vi. pp. 94, 107, vol. vii. p. 124; comp. Tac.
and Phai'thon, which were worshipped with most Ann. xiv. 14; Suet. ATerv. 25). Propertius desolemn rites at Samothrace. (Respecting the true scribes the statue in the following lines (ii. 31, 10
reading of the passage, and the mythological con- -14):
nection of Phaethoil with Aphrodite, see Sillig's Deinde inter matrem dens ipso interque sororem
edition of Pliny; Hesiod. Thleog. 986-991; and Pythius in louga carmina veste sonat.
WVelcker, in the Kunstblatt, 1827, p. 326). Hic equidem Phoebo visus mihi pulchrior ipso
A little further on, Pliny mentions a naked statue Marmoreus tacita carmen hiare lyre."
of Venus, in the temple of Brutus Callaicus, at Rome,
as Praxiteliam illanm antecedens, which most critics These lines, and the representations of the statue
suppose to mean preceding it in order of time; but on the coins, enable us easily to recognise a copy
Pliny appears really to mean surpassing it in excel- of it in the splendid statue in the Vatican, which
leswe. It would, he adds, confer renown on any was found in the villa of Cassius (Mus. Pio-C/lem.
other city, but at Rome the immense number of vol. i. pl. 16; Music Franf. vol. i. pl. 5; Muller,
works of art, and the bustle of daily life in a great Archaol. ~ 125, n. 4, Denknzirler, vol. i. pl. xxxii.
city, distracted the attention of men; and for this No. 141). There was also a statue of Apollo
reason also, there was a doubt respecting the artist Smintheus by him, at Chrysa in the Troad (Strab.
of another statue of Venus, which was dedicated xiii. p. 604; Eustath. ad II. i. 39). Two statues
by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace, and which of Artemis are ascribed to Scopas; the one by
was worthy of the fame of the ancient artists. Pausanias (ix. 17. ~ 1), the other by Lucian
Another work mentioned by Pliny as doubtful, is (Lexiph. 12, vol. ii. p. 339).
the Cupid holding a thunderbolt, in the Curia of But of all his works in this department, by far
Octavia. Pausanias (vi. 25 ~ 2) mentions abronze the most interesting is the celebrated group, or
group by Scopas, of Aphrodite Pandemos, sitting rather series, of figures, representing the destrucon a goat, which stood at Elis, in the same temple tion of the sons and daughters of Niobe. In
with Pheidias's chryselephantine statue of Aphro- Pliny's time the statues stood in the temple of
dite Urania. The juxtaposition of these works of Apollo Sosianus, at Rome, and it was a disputed
the two Attic schools must have furnished an in- point whether they were the work of Scopas or of
teresting comparison. In the temple of Aphrodite Praxiteles. The remaining statues of this group,
or copies of them, are all in the Florence Gallery,
* The Budrum Marbles are in the Phigaleian with the exception of the so-called Ilioneus, at
Room, perhaps only temporarily. Munich, which some suppose to have belonged to