DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0236
CHAPTER XI
meaning and style of the reliefs
For the interpretation and full appreciation of the Attic
reliefs, it is important to discuss somewhat carefully a funda-
mental question, which may be set forth in several ways. Is
their allusion primarily to the life of the past or the life of
the future ? Is the scene of them Athens or Hades ? Is the
hand-taking a sign of parting or of re-union in a world of
spirits ? In a word, do they point backward or forward ?
In this controversy the names of eminent archaeologists
appear on both sides. But to the English reader it will be
more satisfactory to find a brief statement of the arguments
cited on this side and on that, than to learn what line has
been taken by the various authorities l.
The view which makes the future the time, and the spirit-
world the scene of the sculptured reliefs has in its favour
many analogies, and will naturally commend itself to those
who are attracted by the investigations of comparative religion.
There can be little doubt that the seated pair of the Spartan
monuments are regarded as holding their court as heroized
dead. And a number of intermediate links connect these
clearly marked memorials of ancestor-worship with the usual
Attic groups in an almost uninterrupted series, so that to draw
1 Good statements of the arguments will be found in the Introduction to
Furtwangler's Sabouroff Collection, and in Bruckner's Griech. Grabreliefs, 1888.
meaning and style of the reliefs
For the interpretation and full appreciation of the Attic
reliefs, it is important to discuss somewhat carefully a funda-
mental question, which may be set forth in several ways. Is
their allusion primarily to the life of the past or the life of
the future ? Is the scene of them Athens or Hades ? Is the
hand-taking a sign of parting or of re-union in a world of
spirits ? In a word, do they point backward or forward ?
In this controversy the names of eminent archaeologists
appear on both sides. But to the English reader it will be
more satisfactory to find a brief statement of the arguments
cited on this side and on that, than to learn what line has
been taken by the various authorities l.
The view which makes the future the time, and the spirit-
world the scene of the sculptured reliefs has in its favour
many analogies, and will naturally commend itself to those
who are attracted by the investigations of comparative religion.
There can be little doubt that the seated pair of the Spartan
monuments are regarded as holding their court as heroized
dead. And a number of intermediate links connect these
clearly marked memorials of ancestor-worship with the usual
Attic groups in an almost uninterrupted series, so that to draw
1 Good statements of the arguments will be found in the Introduction to
Furtwangler's Sabouroff Collection, and in Bruckner's Griech. Grabreliefs, 1888.