8. THE TEMPLE OF OLYMPIA (CASTS)

We now come, on the west wall, to some casts from Olympia (Nos. 190-192). This, as we all know, was one of the most famous sites in Greece. It was here that the Olympic games, the great national festival of the Hellenic world, were held; and here, in the Temple of Olympian Zeus, that stood the famous statue of the god which, in the judgment of antiquity, passed for the masterpiece of Phidias and the most sublime effort of Hellenic art. Of this great work we have no trace; but Olympia has yielded to the excavator other rich prizes of art and archæology. These prizes are shared between the Louvre and the Museum at Olympia itself, the credit in the latter case belonging to Germany. In the British Museum we have only casts-three in this room, and one in the Ephesus Room of the famous Hermes of Praxiteles. As in so many other cases, the excavations at Olympia followed in the wake of political events. In 1829, during the Greek war of independence, and immediately after the battle of Navarino, the French Government landed a body of troops in the Peloponnesus, and this expedition was accompanied by a scientific mission. This mission discovered and removed to the Louvre several metopes from the Temple of Zeus. No. 190 is a cast of one of these. The further exploration of Olympia was reserved for the Germans. The distinguished Professor Curtius had long been anxious to undertake the work, and his royal pupil, afterwards the Emperor Frederick, promised that when a favourable opportunity arrived he would further the enterprise. The time came after the war of 1870, when the German Empire sought to add the honours of peace to those of war. The German Government granted in all a sum of £30,000 for the excavations, and the Crown Prince supplemented this by gifts from his private purse. The convention with the Greek Government authorising the excavations stipulated that whatever was found should be retained in Greece. The excavations (1875-81) unearthed the racecourse and the temple, and discovered many valuable sculptures. Nos. 191 and 192 are casts from two of these sculptures. The Temple of Zeus was being built from 470455 B.C. The date of the metopes (Nos. 190, 191) is probably about 460 B.C. The sculptor of them is unknown. "Most of the labours of Hercules," says Pausanias (v. 10. 9),

"are represented at Olympia." The two metopes here belong to this series. No. 190 is Hercules binding the Cretan bull. The subject is broadly and vigorously treated. The subject of the other metope (No. 191) is Hercules and Atlas

"In order to obtain the wondrous apples of the Hesperides, Hercules asked Atlas to gather them for him in the famous garden, while in exchange he offered the giant to relieve him for a moment in the arduous task of supporting the world upon his shoulders. The weight of the heavens is conventionally represented by the upper part of the entablature. The Olympian metope represents the moment when Atlas, who has accepted the offer, is bringing back the golden apples to the hero. In the centre is the nude figure of Hercules, supporting with both uplifted arms the heavens, which rest upon his head; in front of him is Atlas, holding in each hand three apples, and to the left one of the Atlantides. The sculptor of Olympia did not tell the end of the story. When Atlas had once laid down his burden, he found the liberty he had regained so sweet that he proposed to leave the world on the shoulders of Hercules, and to take the golden apples himself to Eurystheus. This, however, was not to the liking of our hero, who was beginning to find the weight oppressive, and, fortunately for himself, on this occasion he was as crafty as he was strong. made a pretence of accepting the proposal, and only asked as a favour that he might make a comfortable cushion to support the burden, and that meanwhile the giant would take up his accustomed post for a moment. Atlas imprudently consented, and we may imagine that, once the heavens were replaced upon his shoulders, the hero took up his apples and made all haste to depart" (Diehl's Excursions in Greece, p. 272).

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The figures here are very noble in type, while the scene is full of naïve or realistic touches; note, for instance, “the cushion which Hercules has placed on his shoulders to bear the weight, the friendly but futile help of the nymph, the irony with which Atlas offers the apples which Hercules is unable to take " (Gardner, p. 229).

The figure of Victory (No. 192) is very beautiful in itself, and is of further interest as one of the few sculptures of which the artist's name and the date are positively known. On 20th December 1875 a pedestal was dug up in the Temple of Zeus; on it was an inscription recording that "Messenians and Naupactians dedicated it as a tithe of spoil to Olympian Zeus," and that "Pæonius of Mendè made it, who was victor also in the execution of the acroteria (or, figures above the pediments) of the temple." On the following day the greater

part of the Victory itself was discovered close to the pedestal. Our cast is erected on a reproduction of the famous threesided pedestal, and into this is inserted a cast of the inscription. The victory commemorated was that gained at Sphacteria over the Spartans. The Messenians refrained, says Pausanias (v. 26. 1), who records the inscription, from mentioning the name of the enemy from fear. The acroteria referred to were, as we know from Pausanias, gilded figures of Victory, and the statue may have been a replica of one of them. The pillar on which the figure stood was, as here shown, about 20 feet in height, and the Goddess of Victory is thus represented as descending from on high :--

"An eagle hovers beneath her feet, and her whole body is thrown forward in glorious motion; the left foot scarcely touches the pedestal, while the right still presses the marble, which was formerly painted blue and represents the space through which Victory is taking her flight. All the outlines of the body are visible under the fine clinging material of her robes blown about by the wind, and the long Doric chiton, leaving the left leg and shoulder uncovered, swells out behind in harmonious folds. Originally her ample outspread wings and a wide mantle floating on the breeze supported the statue and restored its balance; originally, too, the left arm was raised, and gave the goddess a still prouder attitude, and the head, of which unfortunately only the back remains, completed the effect of this wonderful figure" (Diehl, ibid. p. 270).

In this figure, as in the later sculptures of the Nereid monument (Ch. XI.), the drapery is treated very finely as a means of emphasising the effect of rapid motion.

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9. ARCHAIC "APOLLO" STATUES

We now examine a row of antique statues, which "exhibit in a remarkable degree the shortcomings of the early sculptor struggling to emancipate his art from hieratic stiffness and conventionality, but only attaining to a meagre and painful rendering of nature" (Newton's Essays on Archæology, p. 81). Nevertheless this archaic sculpture has the seeds of progress in it. "The artist only represents the bones and muscles necessary for the representation of active life; but in doing this much well he gives to Greek art its systematic and methodical foundation" (Perry's Greek and Roman Sculpture, p. 58). The nude male figures of this style are generally called "Apollo," and it is known that some of them were

intended to represent that god. But probably the same type was at this period made to serve several purposes. Two classes of the type have been distinguished—the first, in which the hands are close to the sides; the second, in which the hands are slightly raised, by a bending of the arms at the elbows. The figure of “ Apollo" (205), believed to have come from Boeotia, represents the earlier type, in which the hands are pressed against the hips.

The "Strangford" Apollo (206) is so called as coming from the collection of Lord Strangford. This belongs to the second type of "Apollo" statue, in which the arms were no longer close to the sides, and one feels at once a great advance on No. 205

"Here we seem to reach the limit of the period when interest in Greek sculpture ceases to be purely archæological and becomes artistic a point when such a degree of skill had been attained by the artist, that his natural instinct for beauty of form had power to display itself, and he was able in a measure, however imperfectly, to realise his ideal. Like the earlier statues it is symmetrical in design, and this symmetry appears now even greater from the loss of the arms, which may have been differently employed. It is plain that they were not held close to the sides; probably they were bent at the elbow and held forward some object which would make the personality of the statue clearer, whether a god or hero or athlete was intended (Upcott, Introduction to Greek Sculpture, p. 14). There is, too, some expression in the face: "The mouth is small and compressed, the chin pointed and the cheeks full, giving altogether an expression of pleasure" (Murray's History of Greek Sculpture, i. 175).

The torso of a female figure (No. 154), which stands between the two statues last described, is of archaic typefrom the smaller temple of Rhamnus. No. 207, behind, is the torso of another "Apollo"—from Cyprus. The type was, we see, widely dispersed.

10. THE CHARIOTEER FROM DELPHI (CAST)

The bronze statue of a charioteer-a masterpiece of early Greek art and in nearly perfect preservation-is one of the finds which have rewarded the French excavations at Delphi. It was unearthed in 1896; this plaster cast was presented to our Museum in 1898 by the French Minister of Public Instruction. The statue seems to have belonged to a chariot-group, and to have been dedicated at Delphi to commemorate a

victory in the games. An inscription on the base shows that it was set up by a certain Polyzelus, who was probably the brother of the Syracusan tyrants Gelo and Hiero. The figure "affords an admirable example of the transition work of the time of Calamis. His long Ionic chiton [the characteristic costume of a charioteer] is arranged in perfectly simple folds curved on the body and arms, but falling perpendicularly from the girdle to his bare muscular feet, while the toes, drawn up, slightly indicate how he preserved his balance during his rapid course. His right arm is still extended as when he guided his fiery steed to victory, and his short hair, though confined by a fillet, curls delicately above his small ears, and strays softly down his cheeks. His eyes, which in the cast attract but little attention, are in the original composed of coloured enamel " (Wherry's Greek Sculpture with Story and Song, p. 66). The charioteer fitly concludes our studies in archaic Greek art, for the work only precedes the best period by a very short time.

II. MISCELLANEOUS SCULPTURES

But before leaving this room and our studies in archaic sculpture, we may call attention to the casts of Attic reliefs in the north-west, south-east, and south-west corners of the rooms. They are good examples of the transitional period. No. 155 (south-east corner) is a woman mounting a chariot. The original (now at Athens) was found on the Acropolis, and may have been part of the frieze of the early, pre-Persian temple, on the site of which the Parthenon was afterwards constructed :

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"The designation woman or goddess is not undisputed, and there is no certain indication of sex or rank; but the delicacy of the arms and hands and the general effect of the figure seem to justify it. The folds of the drapery in this relief are still in the highest degree conventional and artificial, and contrast strangely with the natural and gracefully flowing lines of the nude parts. An attempt is made to distinguish between the woollen stuff of the upper garment and the linen robe which is thrown across her shoulders" (Perry's Catalogue of Casts at South Kensington, No. 39).

No. 156 (south-west corner) is a sepulchral relief. The original is in the Villa Albani at Rome. The subject was formerly supposed to be the education of the young Dionysus