DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0106
86
PRINCIPLES OP GREEK ART
CHAP.
which it would be uninteresting. The Greek translated those
features by means of human parallels. The sun was a bright-
haired god, driving his four fiery horses from rising to setting.
The moon was a cold and chaste goddess, sometimes, however,
stooping from heaven to earth, for the love of a shepherd or a
hunter. The strength and untamed fury of the sea was incor-
porated in the figure of Poseidon, with deep chest, and unkempt
hair like the drifting sea-weed. In the representation of some
of the deities, especially of Apollo and Poseidon, there remained
always some trace of this primitive naturalism. But as the
race grew more civilized and ethical, and the deities were united
into an Olympian society, under the presidency of supreme
Zeus, the gods became more human as well as more humane
and righteous. The myths told about them remained like
fairy-stories at a barbarous level, but they were often inter-
preted in a moral and allegorical sense, just as in our days
many people read in a spiritual sense the stories, not always
quite edifying, of Jacob and Joseph, of Jael and Elijah. We
see clearly from the writings of Plato and Sophocles how even
gods who originated in naturalism could serve to give a sanc-
tion to morality, and a bond to civic life. In the case of many
of the deities, especially the great trinity of Zeus, Apollo and
Athena, the ethical and civic interpretation quite supersedes
that which was more primitive, at all events on the surface of
society.
Working on lines parallel to those followed by the statesman
and the poet, the Greek artist took up the task of adding a
certain degree of moral and spiritual elevation to mere physical
beauty. In the sixth century the type of Apollo is scarcely
different from that of the athlete, save that his long flow-
ing hair reminds us that the hair of the sun-god stands for
the rays of the sun. But in the time of the maturity of
sculpture Apollo has a majesty beyond that of a mere human
being. When the Apollo of the West Pediment was found at
PRINCIPLES OP GREEK ART
CHAP.
which it would be uninteresting. The Greek translated those
features by means of human parallels. The sun was a bright-
haired god, driving his four fiery horses from rising to setting.
The moon was a cold and chaste goddess, sometimes, however,
stooping from heaven to earth, for the love of a shepherd or a
hunter. The strength and untamed fury of the sea was incor-
porated in the figure of Poseidon, with deep chest, and unkempt
hair like the drifting sea-weed. In the representation of some
of the deities, especially of Apollo and Poseidon, there remained
always some trace of this primitive naturalism. But as the
race grew more civilized and ethical, and the deities were united
into an Olympian society, under the presidency of supreme
Zeus, the gods became more human as well as more humane
and righteous. The myths told about them remained like
fairy-stories at a barbarous level, but they were often inter-
preted in a moral and allegorical sense, just as in our days
many people read in a spiritual sense the stories, not always
quite edifying, of Jacob and Joseph, of Jael and Elijah. We
see clearly from the writings of Plato and Sophocles how even
gods who originated in naturalism could serve to give a sanc-
tion to morality, and a bond to civic life. In the case of many
of the deities, especially the great trinity of Zeus, Apollo and
Athena, the ethical and civic interpretation quite supersedes
that which was more primitive, at all events on the surface of
society.
Working on lines parallel to those followed by the statesman
and the poet, the Greek artist took up the task of adding a
certain degree of moral and spiritual elevation to mere physical
beauty. In the sixth century the type of Apollo is scarcely
different from that of the athlete, save that his long flow-
ing hair reminds us that the hair of the sun-god stands for
the rays of the sun. But in the time of the maturity of
sculpture Apollo has a majesty beyond that of a mere human
being. When the Apollo of the West Pediment was found at