DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0117
VI
THE TYPES OF THE GODS
07
themes taken from myth, and the arrangement of dramatic
costume and scenery so as to contrast with those of every day.
At first the student of Greek art is surprised to find that in
reliefs and vase-paintings the gods mingle freely with men, and
at a hasty glance are not to be distinguished from them. But he
soon realizes that by this custom the deities and heroes are
not vulgarized ; but the events of life are raised to an ideal level.
If Apollo, for example, makes his appearance, lyre in hand, in a
human marriage procession (Fig. 14),1 he is represented as
present not to the eyes, but to the spirit; his partaking of the
ceremony shows that it has a religious side and is in accord with
the will of the gods. If Dionysus comes to feast with a human
votary, his presence shows that there is in mere human enjoy-
ment a furtherance of life, which adds to happiness and is
pleasing to superhuman Powers. The Greek lived in nearer
and more equal relation with his deities than the severity of
modern religion can well understand; at all events the severity
of northern religion, for to this day the peasants of Italy and
Spain live on terms of some intimacy with patron saints, who
have in a great measure taken with them the place once held
by pagan deities.
1 Wiener Vorlegeblatter, 1888, PI. VIII.
H
THE TYPES OF THE GODS
07
themes taken from myth, and the arrangement of dramatic
costume and scenery so as to contrast with those of every day.
At first the student of Greek art is surprised to find that in
reliefs and vase-paintings the gods mingle freely with men, and
at a hasty glance are not to be distinguished from them. But he
soon realizes that by this custom the deities and heroes are
not vulgarized ; but the events of life are raised to an ideal level.
If Apollo, for example, makes his appearance, lyre in hand, in a
human marriage procession (Fig. 14),1 he is represented as
present not to the eyes, but to the spirit; his partaking of the
ceremony shows that it has a religious side and is in accord with
the will of the gods. If Dionysus comes to feast with a human
votary, his presence shows that there is in mere human enjoy-
ment a furtherance of life, which adds to happiness and is
pleasing to superhuman Powers. The Greek lived in nearer
and more equal relation with his deities than the severity of
modern religion can well understand; at all events the severity
of northern religion, for to this day the peasants of Italy and
Spain live on terms of some intimacy with patron saints, who
have in a great measure taken with them the place once held
by pagan deities.
1 Wiener Vorlegeblatter, 1888, PI. VIII.
H