DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0101
Ill
THE EARLIEST HELLENIC STONE STATUES
I. SOFT STONES
HE name given by the Greeks to the earliest known
A. statues was, as we have seen, £6ava. But Pausanias
adds1 that they were also called ScdSaAcc.
‘People long ago called £oava by the name of ScuSaAa5, he says, ‘I
believe they even called them so before Daedalus was born at Athens2
and I think that the name Daedalus was a surname subsequently
given him from the SoaSccAa and not a name given at his birth.5
Pausanias strictly limits the use of the word £oavcc to
images of wood. Other writers, however, use it indiscrimin-
ately and widely in describing statues both of stone and of
bronze, leaving to the word only the implication of age.3
The lexicographers4 explicitly apply it to works either of
stone or of wood, deriving it from the verb £sco. Pausanias
seems to have been a purist in establishing a specific usage
which contrasted with the general usage.
We can be certain, then, that the bulk of the descriptions
in Pausanias of these wooden statues refer to works of high
antiquity belonging either to early Hellenic times or to pre-
Hellenic times.
For the date of the earliest large stone statues we have no
literary evidence at all. We have only the statues themselves.
Before considering them in detail it is essential to realize
that they belong to an age of iron, when the simplest iron
chisel or drill had an infinitely greater cutting and boring
capacity than the tools of the Bronze Age. Iron swords of
great cutting power and hardness are known in Greek lands
1 ix. 3. 2.
2 The best authorities make Daedalus an Athenian born. See Topffer,
Attische Genealogie, p. 165. Daedalus was a Metionid.
3 The most succinct account of the usage of the word is to be found in
Frazer’s edition of Paus. II, p. 69 in a note to Paus. iii. 3. 5.
4 Suidas and Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. £6avov.
THE EARLIEST HELLENIC STONE STATUES
I. SOFT STONES
HE name given by the Greeks to the earliest known
A. statues was, as we have seen, £6ava. But Pausanias
adds1 that they were also called ScdSaAcc.
‘People long ago called £oava by the name of ScuSaAa5, he says, ‘I
believe they even called them so before Daedalus was born at Athens2
and I think that the name Daedalus was a surname subsequently
given him from the SoaSccAa and not a name given at his birth.5
Pausanias strictly limits the use of the word £oavcc to
images of wood. Other writers, however, use it indiscrimin-
ately and widely in describing statues both of stone and of
bronze, leaving to the word only the implication of age.3
The lexicographers4 explicitly apply it to works either of
stone or of wood, deriving it from the verb £sco. Pausanias
seems to have been a purist in establishing a specific usage
which contrasted with the general usage.
We can be certain, then, that the bulk of the descriptions
in Pausanias of these wooden statues refer to works of high
antiquity belonging either to early Hellenic times or to pre-
Hellenic times.
For the date of the earliest large stone statues we have no
literary evidence at all. We have only the statues themselves.
Before considering them in detail it is essential to realize
that they belong to an age of iron, when the simplest iron
chisel or drill had an infinitely greater cutting and boring
capacity than the tools of the Bronze Age. Iron swords of
great cutting power and hardness are known in Greek lands
1 ix. 3. 2.
2 The best authorities make Daedalus an Athenian born. See Topffer,
Attische Genealogie, p. 165. Daedalus was a Metionid.
3 The most succinct account of the usage of the word is to be found in
Frazer’s edition of Paus. II, p. 69 in a note to Paus. iii. 3. 5.
4 Suidas and Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. £6avov.