DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0151
Chap. V.] Recent Discoveries and the Homeric Poems. 129
of the class has been discovered, dating doubtless from
near the time of the foundation of Naucratis in the seventh
century B.C. But Greek art soon became a thing too much
alive to be confined in the limits of any decoration, how-
ever admirable. A demand arose for something contain-
ing more of human interest. And the Greek potters met
the demand, not by copying on their vases some of the
more elaborate scenes of cult or of court life, such as they
must have seen on the eclectic metal vessels of Phoenicia,
but by introducing something of their own, some scene out
of Greek legend or mythology. Thus we see illustrations
of Greek myths gradually make their way on the decorative
Oriental pottery, and by degrees claim the first place,
driving into a corner the foreign elements, until the friezes
of animals which used to cover the whole surface of the
vases remain only in a narrow band above and below the
mythological scene, which has now occupied the post of
honour which it is never again to lose until Greek art is
in its dotage. A good illustration alike of the Oriental
setting of early Greek art and its aggressive attempt at
originality will be found in that remarkable archaic bronze
plate found at Olympia, where a combat between Herakles
and a Centaur appears as a proof of Hellenic workmanship
among animals and monsters of purely Asiatic character.
Having thus brought down the archaeological record of
Greece to the seventh century, after which time we emerge
into the full light of history, let us retrace our steps. Let
us take up the problem at the other end; and briefly
consider what account is given in the Homeric poems
themselves of the state of contemporary art; and of those
details of vessels, armour, and the like, of which we find in
works of art a full and satisfactory representation. Such a
discussion will, we believe, firmly establish the conclusion
that the Homeric poems were written at a time of
decadence of art, when the light which shines so clearly
K
of the class has been discovered, dating doubtless from
near the time of the foundation of Naucratis in the seventh
century B.C. But Greek art soon became a thing too much
alive to be confined in the limits of any decoration, how-
ever admirable. A demand arose for something contain-
ing more of human interest. And the Greek potters met
the demand, not by copying on their vases some of the
more elaborate scenes of cult or of court life, such as they
must have seen on the eclectic metal vessels of Phoenicia,
but by introducing something of their own, some scene out
of Greek legend or mythology. Thus we see illustrations
of Greek myths gradually make their way on the decorative
Oriental pottery, and by degrees claim the first place,
driving into a corner the foreign elements, until the friezes
of animals which used to cover the whole surface of the
vases remain only in a narrow band above and below the
mythological scene, which has now occupied the post of
honour which it is never again to lose until Greek art is
in its dotage. A good illustration alike of the Oriental
setting of early Greek art and its aggressive attempt at
originality will be found in that remarkable archaic bronze
plate found at Olympia, where a combat between Herakles
and a Centaur appears as a proof of Hellenic workmanship
among animals and monsters of purely Asiatic character.
Having thus brought down the archaeological record of
Greece to the seventh century, after which time we emerge
into the full light of history, let us retrace our steps. Let
us take up the problem at the other end; and briefly
consider what account is given in the Homeric poems
themselves of the state of contemporary art; and of those
details of vessels, armour, and the like, of which we find in
works of art a full and satisfactory representation. Such a
discussion will, we believe, firmly establish the conclusion
that the Homeric poems were written at a time of
decadence of art, when the light which shines so clearly
K