Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.

  • Karl Otfried Müller
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    74/664
    D. MYTHOIiOGIOAL FIGTJBES AS CONSECRATED GIFTS (ciu»%fictrct). 1 89. Figures or even wliole groups, mostly of brass, from the mytlii of gods and heroes, were now much more frequent con- 2 secrated gifts. As a reminiscence of the sort of offerings which were general in former times (§. 78) statues were occasionally placed under tripods which served as a frame and roof to 3 them. In these dedicatory gifts mythology was employed en- tirely in the same way as in lyric poetry and by ^schylus in the drama—in order to lend a higher significance to the pre- sent. 2. Tripods at Amyclae by Gallon and Gitiadas with goddesses under tbem, Paus. iii, 18. Comp. Amalthea iii. p. 30 sq. Even the consecrated gifts for the Persian war, and the victories of the Sicilian tyrants over Carthage were in great part tripods. Ibid. p. 27. 3. The Phocians consecrated the theft of the tripod by Hercules for the victory over the Thessalians at Parnassus : Leto, Artemis, Apollo on the one side, Hercules, Athena opposite. Here the idea was to represent the Phocians as defenders of the Delphic tripod ; the Thessalian princes were Heraclidse, their war cry Athena Jtonia. The masters were Chionis, Diyllus, and Amyclseus. Herod, viii, 27. Paus. x, 13, 4. comp. x, 1, 4. A victory of Tarentum over the Peucetii was celebrated in a group by Onatas, wherein were Taras and Phalanthus. Paus. x, 13, 6. E. SCULPTURES ON TEMPLES. 1 90. In a similar way were mythological groups chosen as ornaments for temples,—it having become usual to place stone sculptures in the metopes, on the frieze, the pediments and acroteria,—for here also everything boqe reference to the deity, the consecrators, and the ci^rcumstances of the consecra- 2 tion.' Two works of architectonic sculpture mark pretty well the boundaries of this period,—the reliefs in the metopes at 3 Selinus, and the pediment statues of Mgma. Of these the latter are also especially calculated to throw hght on that art in regard to the choice and treatment of the mythological subject. 2 The metope tablets of calcareous tufa (4 f. 9J 1. X 3 f. 6^ 1.) which were discovered in 1823 on the acropoUs of SeUnus near the middle tem- ple by W. Harris and Sam. AngeU, and put together by them, and which are preserved at Palermo, are adorned with rehefs which were painted and show that the art was still in its infancy (perhaps about the oOth 01) for 5-10 01. earlier], a. Hercules naked (the Hon hide perhaps of gilded bronze) carrying the Cercopes. b. Perseus with the hat (...^) of Hermes (comp. the coins of ^nos, Mionnet, Descr. pi. 49 3 and he taLia, Athena in the peplos, Medusa with Pegasus. The relief with the quadriga from the same place is considerably later as well f tl^^ ';;*^- reliefs of the middle temple in the lower town, although these, which