DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0051
HISTORY OF ATHENS. 45
events of Egyptian history are associatedwith the name
of a Rhamses or Sesostris, and the exploits of the hero
are cut in almost imperishable forms on the massive
structures of the Theban edifices, or painted in hardly
less durable colours on the interior of tombs and tem-
ples. B ut though these works of art undoubtedly belong
to a much more remote period than any thing of which
Athens has preserved a trace, a large part of them
represent, not the unsubstantial and obscure image of
mythic history, but the events of actual life and the
scenes of real war. We see human figures carefully
represented in appropriate costume, and nations dis-
tinguished by characteristic differences; here, at least,
no monstrous form or combinations meet the eye;
every thing looks like the picture of truth. In the
sculptures and paintings of the temple of Theseus
[there were both the possible and the impossible: there
were his combats with robbers, with the wild bull of
;Marathon, and the boar of Crommyon ; and his con-
gests with the warlike Amazons who invaded Attica,
[and the combats of the Centaurs and the Lapitha;, one
|Of the favourite subjects of antient art. But we have no
'extant work of art relating to Theseus, and none, we
[believe, described by Pausanias, which.is altogether
[free from the shadowy colouring of the mythus.
j In the war of Troy we find fifty Athenian ships
[enumerated under the command of Menestheus, but
fue Athenians are never mentioned in the other parts
[of the Iliad, as distinguishing themselves above the
rest by any acts of valour: they are merged in
Ithe more general name of Achffii, Danai, and
jArgeii; even the Myrmidones of Achilles, one of the
[Warlike bands of Phthiotis, occupy a much more
[prominent station. Athens, at this period, could have
been of no great importance as a commercial or a
Warlike city ; nor can we suppose that its architectural
improvements had extended much beyond the fortifica-
events of Egyptian history are associatedwith the name
of a Rhamses or Sesostris, and the exploits of the hero
are cut in almost imperishable forms on the massive
structures of the Theban edifices, or painted in hardly
less durable colours on the interior of tombs and tem-
ples. B ut though these works of art undoubtedly belong
to a much more remote period than any thing of which
Athens has preserved a trace, a large part of them
represent, not the unsubstantial and obscure image of
mythic history, but the events of actual life and the
scenes of real war. We see human figures carefully
represented in appropriate costume, and nations dis-
tinguished by characteristic differences; here, at least,
no monstrous form or combinations meet the eye;
every thing looks like the picture of truth. In the
sculptures and paintings of the temple of Theseus
[there were both the possible and the impossible: there
were his combats with robbers, with the wild bull of
;Marathon, and the boar of Crommyon ; and his con-
gests with the warlike Amazons who invaded Attica,
[and the combats of the Centaurs and the Lapitha;, one
|Of the favourite subjects of antient art. But we have no
'extant work of art relating to Theseus, and none, we
[believe, described by Pausanias, which.is altogether
[free from the shadowy colouring of the mythus.
j In the war of Troy we find fifty Athenian ships
[enumerated under the command of Menestheus, but
fue Athenians are never mentioned in the other parts
[of the Iliad, as distinguishing themselves above the
rest by any acts of valour: they are merged in
Ithe more general name of Achffii, Danai, and
jArgeii; even the Myrmidones of Achilles, one of the
[Warlike bands of Phthiotis, occupy a much more
[prominent station. Athens, at this period, could have
been of no great importance as a commercial or a
Warlike city ; nor can we suppose that its architectural
improvements had extended much beyond the fortifica-