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calculated to inspire fear there were others indicating the benignity of the god. His "welcome daughters," the "Three Hours," who, in Homeric words, "bring to mortals the day of reward," as well as the three joyous Graces, crowned the back of the throne. The footstool supporting the feet rested on lions, and was enriched with representations of the combat between Theseus and the Amazons. The whole rested on a low pedestal, which discoveries show to have been of stone, incrusted with metal plates. On these appeared the seventeen figures seen by Pausanias, representing the birth of Aphrodite, goddess of love, as she arose from the sea and was welcomed by the gods of Olympus. The chariot of Helios, the sun-god, at one end of the composition, was seen emerging from the ocean, while Selene's car of the night was descending into the deep at the opposite end. These are noteworthy; since the same ideas were repeated in Pheidias's representation of Athena's birth, in the sunrise pediment of the Parthenon.

How sublime seems this conception of the supreme deity of Greece, when compared with the older ideals of the god! Judging from archaic sculptures and vase-paintings, the character of Zeus had been expressed by putting in his hands the winged lightnings which should strike terror into the hearts of offenders. But Pheidias seems to have caught a diviner spirit in his sacred Homeric poet; for, when asked what pattern he intended to follow, he quoted that passage in which the Mighty One, complying

with the pleading of a mother for her son, is said to have given

"The nod with his dark brows.

The ambrosial curls upon the sovereign one's immortal head Were shaken, and with them the mighty Mount Olympos trembled."

Thus Pheidias's conception of his god united that mildness which listens to a mother's prayer with the power which makes the mighty dwelling of the immortals quake. It is related that Pheidias, upon the completion of the statue, humbly prayed the unseen Zeus to grant some sign of his favourable recognition, when suddenly a thunderbolt flashed from the high heaven through the open roof and struck the temple-floor. Antiquity marked the spot by an urn placed in the pavement; and a curious rent still exists recalling the memorable story.

Gladly would we search the galleries of existing sculptures, or ponder over coins, to find a clearer reflex of this great Zeus. One beautiful Elis coin, from Hadrian's time, is thought to give the most faithful hint of the benignant head. Here the hair rolls gently up from the forehead and falls in easy quiet masses under a wreath. In the broad, serene brow, strong eyebrows, firm but gentle mouth, power seems coupled with unspeakable mildness. Sculptures, however, that may suggest the Zeus of Pheidias, are marked by an elaborate exaggeration, altogether unlike the simple truthfulness of the Parthenon marbles, those authentic works

of the Pheidian school. In the latter the outlines are quiet, the passages between the muscles gentle and there is nothing extreme in the treatment. On the other hand, the famous Roman Otricoli head long considered the best copy of Pheidias's Zeus, is painfully unquiet in detail, especially about forehead and eyebrows, where excessive elevations and furrows altogether destroy the grand and simple effect which characterizes the lifelike masses of the Parthenon marbles. The head of Pheidias's statue, as belonging to that age when fullest, freest forms had not yet been developed, must, we imagine, have had a certain severity about it; but such was its grandeur, that a host of ancient writers unite in its unbounded praise. One of these writes: "Pheidias alone has seen likenesses of the gods, or he alone has made them visible"; another: "No one who has seen Pheidias's Zeus can imagine any other semblance of the god." Still another devoutly says: "To reveal his likeness to thee, Zeus came down to earth; or thou thyself, Pheidias, didst go to see the god." He was considered an unhappy mortal who had never looked upon Pheidias's Zeus; and Lucian, the fine art-critic, was so impressed by it, that he wrote: "Those who enter the temple no longer think that they see ivory from the Indus, or beaten gold from Thrace, but the son of Cronos and Rhea, transferred to earth by Pheidias." Quintilian declares that," the Athena Parthenos and Olympian Zeus added new power to the established faith, so nearly did the grandeur of the work equal the divinity of the god." Cicero says: "The great

artist, when he was moulding his Jupiter or Minerva, was not looking at any form for those deities of which he might make a copy; but there dwelt in his mind a certain kind of surpassing beauty, the sight and intense contemplation of which directed his art and hand to produce a similitude. Even Paulus Æmilius, the stern Roman soldier, was overcome by its sight, when on his conquering march he came to Olympia. He entered the temple glorying in the Capitoline Jupiter, whose earthly dwelling was on one of the seven hills of Rome, but came out subdued and ordered richer sacrifices than were customary to be made to the god of the conquered people, saying that "Pheidias alone had formed the Zeus of Homer." More beautifully than all others did Dio Chrysostom express the devotion awakened, saying: "Were any one so heavily burdened with cares and afflicted with sorrows that even sweet sleep would not refresh him, standing before thy statue he would, I firmly believe, forget all that was fearful and crushing in life, so wondrously hast thou, O Pheidias, conceived and completed thy work, such heavenly light and grace is in thy art."

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THE PARTHENON

JAMES FERGUSSON

T will probably be admitted by all who have paid much attention to the subject that, taking it all in all, the Parthenon is the most perfect specimen of architectural art that has yet been erected in any climate, and at any time, by the hand of man. It cannot, of course, compete, in mere masonic magnificence, with such an example as the great hall at Karnak, the most massive and at the same time most sublime of all the architectural creations with which the world has hitherto been adorned. It may also be deficient in that picturesque variety and expression of religious aspirations which charms us in some of our Medieval cathedrals, but it seems to occupy a happy medium position between the two. It avoids, on the one hand, the too solid gloom of the hall, and on the other the somewhat unsubstantial brightness of the church. No other building ever attracted to it the sister arts of painting and sculpture in such perfection as are found in the Parthenon. No one combined them with the most perfect architecture into one harmonious whole so completely, so that we hardly know to which art to assign the pre-eminence. The paintings it is true have perished, but there is little doubt but that they were originally as perfect as either the

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