General History for Colleges and High Schools Part 18

The political affairs of Greece proper during the period we are considering were chiefly comprehended in the fortunes of two confederacies, or leagues, one of which was called the Achaean, and the other the aetolian League. United, these two confederacies might have maintained the political independence of Greece; but that spirit of dissension which we have seen to be the bane of the h.e.l.lenic peoples caused them to become, in the hands of intriguing Rome, weapons first for crushing Macedonia, and then for grinding each other to pieces. Finally, in the year 146 B.C., the splendid city of Corinth was taken by the Roman army and laid in ashes. This was the last act in the long and varied drama of the political life of ancient Greece. Henceforth it const.i.tuted simply a portion of the Roman Empire.

CONCLUSION.--We have now traced the political fortunes of the h.e.l.lenic race through about seven centuries of authentic history. In succeeding chapters it will be our pleasanter task to trace the more brilliant and worthy fortunes of the artistic and intellectual life of h.e.l.las,--to portray, though necessarily in scanty outline, the achievements of that wonderful genius which enabled her, "captured, to lead captive her captor."

CHAPTER XVIII.

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND PAINTING.

THE GREEK SENSE OF BEAUTY.--The Greeks were artists by nature. "Ugliness gave them pain like a blow." Everything they made was beautiful. Beauty they placed next to holiness; indeed, they almost or quite made beauty and right the same thing. They are said to have thought it strange that Socrates was good, seeing he was so unprepossessing in appearance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PELASGIAN MASONRY.]

1. ARCHITECTURE.

PELASGIAN ARCHITECTURE.--The term Pelasgian is applied to various structures of ma.s.sive masonry found in different parts of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor. The origin of these works was a mystery to the earliest h.e.l.lenes, who ascribed them to a race of giants called Cyclops; hence the name Cyclopean that also attaches to them.

These works exhibit three well-defined stages of development. In the earliest and rudest structures the stones are gigantic in size and untouched by the chisel; in the next oldest the stones are worked into irregular polygonal blocks; while in the latest the blocks are cut into rectangular shapes and laid in regular courses. The walls of the old citadels or castles of several Grecian cities exhibit specimens of this primitive architecture (see p. 90).

ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE.--There are three styles, or orders, of Grecian architecture--the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. They are distinguished from one another chiefly by differences in the proportions and ornamentation of the column.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DORIC CAPITAL.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: IONIC CAPITAL.]

The Doric column is without a base, and has a simple and ma.s.sive capital.

At first the Doric temples of the Greeks were almost as ma.s.sive as the Egyptian temples, but later they became more refined.

The Ionic column is characterized by the spiral volutes of the capital.

This form was borrowed from the a.s.syrians, and was princ.i.p.ally employed by the Greeks of Ionia, whence its name.

The Corinthian order is distinguished by its rich capital, formed of acanthus leaves. This type is made up of Egyptian, a.s.syrian, and Grecian elements. The addition of the acanthus leaves is said to have been suggested to the artist Callimachus by the pretty effect of a basket surrounded by the leaves of an acanthus plant, upon which it had accidentally fallen.

The entire structure was made to harmonize with its supporting columns.

The general characteristics of the several orders are well portrayed by the terms we use when we speak of the "stern" Doric, the "graceful" Ionic, and the "ornate" Corinthian.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CORINTHIAN CAPITAL.]

TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS.--The temple of Diana at Ephesus was regarded as one of the wonders of the world. The original structure was commenced about the beginning of the sixth century B.C., and, according to Pliny, was one hundred and twenty years in process of building. Croesus gave liberally of his wealth to ornament the shrine.

In the year 356 B.C., on the same night, it is said, that Alexander was born, an ambitious youth, named Herostratus, fired the building, simply to immortalize his name. Alexander offered to rebuild the temple, provided that he be allowed to inscribe his name upon it. The Ephesians gracefully declined the proposal by replying that it was not right for one deity to erect a temple to another. Alexander was obliged to content himself with placing within the shrine his own portrait by Apelles--a piece of work which cost $30,000. The value of the gifts to the temple was beyond all calculation: kings and states vied with one another in splendid donations.

Painters and sculptors were eager to have their masterpieces a.s.signed a place within its walls, so that it became a great national gallery of paintings and statuary.

So inviolable was the sanct.i.ty of the temple that at all times, and especially in times of tumult and danger, property and treasures were carried to it as a safe repository. [Footnote: The Grecian temples were, in a certain sense, banks of deposit. They contained special chambers or vaults for the safe-keeping of valuables. The heaps of gold and silver relics discovered by Di Cesnola at Sunium, in the island of Cyprus, were found in the secret subterranean vaults of a great temple. The priests often loaned out on interest the money deposited with them, the revenue from this source being added to that from the leased lands of the temple and from the t.i.thes of war booty, to meet the expenses of the services of the shrine. Usually the temple property in Greece was managed solely by the priests; but the treasure of the Parthenon at Athens formed an exception to this rule. The treasure here belonged to the state, and was controlled and disposed of by the vote of the people. Even the personal property of the G.o.ddess, the gold drapery of the statue (see p. 185), which was worth about $600,000, could be used in case of great need, but it must be replaced in due time, with a fair interest.] But the riches of the sanctuary proved too great a temptation to the Roman emperor Nero. He risked incurring the anger of the great Diana, and robbed the temple of many statues and a vast amount of gold. Later (in 262 A.D.), the barbarian Goths enriched themselves with the spoils of the shrine, and left it a ruin.

THE DELPHIAN TEMPLE.--The first temple erected at Delphi over the spot whence issued the mysterious vapors (see p. 105) was a rude wooden structure. In the year 548 B.C., the temple then standing was destroyed by fire. All the cities and states of h.e.l.las contributed to its rebuilding.

Even the king of Egypt, Amasis, sent a munificent gift. More than half a million of dollars was collected; for the temple was to exceed in magnificence anything the world had yet seen. It will be recalled that the Athenian Alcmaeonidae were the contractors who undertook the rebuilding of the shrine (see p. 122).

The temple was crowded with the spoils of many battle-fields, with the rich gifts of kings, and with rare works of art. Like the temple at Ephesus, the Delphian shrine, after remaining for many years secure, through the awe and reverence which its oracle inspired, suffered frequent spoliation. The greed of conquerors overcame all religious scruples. The Phocians robbed the temple of a treasure equivalent, it is estimated, to more than $10,000,000 with us (see p. 160); and Nero plundered it of five hundred bronze images. But Constantine (emperor of Rome 306-337 A.D., and founder of Constantinople) was the Nebuchadnezzar who bore off the sacred vessels and many statues as trophies to his new capital then rising on the h.e.l.lespont.

THE ATHENIAN ACROPOLIS AND THE PARTHENON.--In the history of art there is no other spot in the world possessed of such interest as the flat-topped rock, already described, which const.i.tuted the Athenian Acropolis. We have seen that in early times the eminence was used as a stronghold. But by the fifth century B.C. the city had slipped down upon the plain, and the summit of the rock was consecrated to the temples and the worship of the deities, and came to be called "the city of the G.o.ds." During the period of Athenian supremacy, especially in the Periclean Age, h.e.l.lenic genius and piety adorned this spot with temples and statues that all the world has p.r.o.nounced to be faultless specimens of beauty and taste.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ATHENIAN YOUTH IN PROCESSION. (From the Frieze of the Parthenon.)]

The most celebrated of the buildings upon the Acropolis was the Parthenon, the "Residence of the virgin-G.o.ddess Athena." This is considered the finest specimen of Greek architecture. It was designed by the architect Ictinus, but the sculptures that adorned it were the work of the celebrated Phidias. [Footnote: The subject of the wonderful frieze running round the temple was the procession which formed the most important feature of the Athenian festival known as the Great Panathenaea, which was celebrated every four years in honor of the patron-G.o.ddess of Athens. The larger part of the frieze is now in the British Museum, the Parthenon having been despoiled of its coronal of sculptures by Lord Elgin. Read Lord Byron's _The Curse of Minerva_. To the poet, Lord Elgin's act appeared worse than vandalism.] It was built in the Doric order, of marble from the neighboring Pentelicus. After standing for more than two thousand years, and having served successively as a Pagan temple, a Christian church, and a Mohammedan mosque, it finally was made to serve as a Turkish powder-magazine, in a war with the Venetians, in 1687. During the progress of this contest a bomb fired the magazine, and more than half of this masterpiece of ancient art was shivered into fragments. The front is nearly perfect, and is the most prominent feature of the Acropolis at the present time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RESTORATION OF THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS.]

THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNa.s.sUS.--This structure was another of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was a monumental tomb designed to preserve the memory of Mausolus, king of Caria, who died 353 B.C. Its erection was prompted by the love and grief of his wife Artemisia. The combined genius of the most noted artists of the age executed the wish of the queen. It is the traditions of this beautiful structure that have given the world a name for all magnificent monuments raised to perpetuate the memory of the dead.

THEATRES.--The most noted of Greek theatres was the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, which was the model of all the others. It was semi-circular in form, and was partly cut in the rock on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis, the Greeks in the construction of their theatres generally taking advantage of a hillside. There were about one hundred rows of seats, the lowest one, bordering the orchestra, consisting of sixty-seven marble arm-chairs. The structure would hold thirty thousand spectators.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE THEATRE OF DIONYSUS AT ATHENS. (Restored by G.

Rehlender.)]

2. SCULPTURE AND PAINTING.

PROGRESS IN SCULPTURE: INFLUENCE OF THE GYMNASTIC ART.--Wood was the material first employed by the Greek artists. About the eighth century B.C. bronze and marble were generally subst.i.tuted for the less durable material. With this change sculpture began to make rapid progress.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PITCHING THE DISCUS, OR QUOIT (Discobolus.)]

But what exerted the most positive influence upon Greek sculpture was the gymnastic art. The exercises of the gymnasium and the contests of the sacred games afforded the artist unrivalled opportunities for the study of the human form. "The whole race," as Symonds says, "lived out its sculpture and its painting, rehea.r.s.ed, as it were, the great works of Phidias and Polygnotus, in physical exercises, before it learned to express itself in marble or in color."

As the sacred buildings increased in number and costliness, the services of the artist were called into requisition for their adornment. At first the temple held only the statue of the G.o.d; but after a time it became, as we have already seen, a sort of national museum. The entablature, the pediments, and every niche of the interior of the shrine, as well as the surrounding grounds and groves, were peopled with statues and groups of figures, executed by the most renowned artists, and representing the national deities, the legendary heroes, victors at the public games, or incidents in the life of the state in which piety saw the special interposition of the G.o.d in whose honor the shrine had been reared.

PHIDIAS.--Among all the great sculptors of antiquity, Phidias stands pre- eminent. He was an Athenian, and was born about 488 B.C. He delighted in the beautiful myths and legends of the Heroic Age, and from these he drew subjects for his art. It was his genius that created the wonderful figures of the pediments and the frieze of the Parthenon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ATHENA PARTHENOS. After a statue found at Athens in 1880, which is supposed to be a copy of the colossal statue of Athena by Phidias, described in the text.]

The most celebrated of his colossal sculptures were the statue of Athena within the Parthenon, and that of Olympian Zeus in the temple at Olympia.

The statue of Athena was of gigantic size, being about forty feet in height, and was constructed of ivory and gold, the hair, weapons, and drapery being of the latter material.

The statue of Olympian Zeus was also of ivory and gold. It was sixty feet high, and represented the G.o.d seated on his throne. The hair, beard, and drapery were of gold. The eyes were brilliant stones. Gems of great value decked the throne, and figures of exquisite design were sculptured on the golden robe. The colossal proportions of this wonderful work, as well as the lofty yet benign aspect of the countenance, harmonized well with the popular conception of the majesty and grace of the "father of G.o.ds and men." It was thought a great misfortune to die without having seen the Olympian Zeus. [Footnote: Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the representation which Homer gives in the first book of the _Iliad_ in the pa.s.sage thus translated by Pope:-- "He spake, and awful bends his sable brow, Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, The stamp of fate, and sanction of the G.o.d.

High heaven with reverence the dread signal took, And all Olympus to the centre shook." BULFINCH'S _Age of Fable_.]

The statue was in existence for eight hundred years, being finally destroyed by fire in the fifth century A.D.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HEAD OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS BY PHIDIAS.]

Phidias also executed other works in both bronze and marble. He met an unworthy fate. Upon the famous shield at the feet of the statue of Athena in the Parthenon, among the figures in the representation of a battle between the Athenians and the Amazons, Phidias introduced a portrait of himself and also one of his patron Pericles. The enemies of the artist caused him to be prosecuted for this, which was considered an act of sacrilege. He died in prison (432 B.C.).

POLYCLETUS.--At the same time that Phidias was executing his ideal representations of the G.o.ds, Polycletus the elder, whose home was at Argos, was producing his renowned bronze statues of athletes. Among his pieces was one representing a spear-bearer, which was so perfect as to be known as "the Rule."

PRAXITELES.--This artist, after Polycletus, stands next to Phidias as one of the most eminent of Greek sculptors. His works were executed during the fourth century B.C. Among his chief pieces may be mentioned the "Cnidian Aphrodite." This stood in the Temple of Aphrodite at Cnidus, and was regarded by the ancients as the most perfect embodiment of the G.o.ddess of beauty. Pilgrimages were made from distant countries to Cnidus for the sake of looking upon the matchless statue.