DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0336
316
PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART
CHAP.
Athena, who, clad in shining arms, overthrew her opponent,
Enceladus, and buried him under Etna. In this combat Athens
is represented by her goddess. But in the second and third
chapters of the history it is the ancestors of the people of
Athens, under their ancestral leader, Theseus, who appear.
Their foes are respectively the monstrous Centaurs, compounded
of horse and man, and the monstrous Amazons, compounded of
man and woman. By overthrowing the Centaurs, Theseus and
his men made it certain that Greece should not be the prey of
the barbarous races of the North, stealers of boys and women,
drunken and brutal, but should be able to grow and develop
in peace. What is meant by the repulse of the Amazons is
not so clear, nor can it be so briefly stated. But I think those
are at bottom right who regard the combats of Greeks and
Amazons as a reflex in art of the early clashing of the primi-
tive races of Asia and Greece with their female divinities, and
the Aryan invaders from the North, the Greeks and their
cousins the Phrygians and the Carians, with male deities and
patriarchal government.
In the battles with Amazon and Centaur as represented in
art, Theseus is conspicuous. In myth he is represented as
aiding Peirithous in his resistance to the Centaurs when they
attacked him and his bride in her Thessalian home; and as
driving back from Attica the invading Amazons under their
queen Hippolyta. We are unable to say how much actual
history lies under these myths, whether the Athenians in the
prehistoric age really took a large share in the wars against
the aboriginal people of Greece and against the rude Thracian
tribes of the North. But whether the myths embody actual
history or not, they certainly embody ideal history. If they
do not tell us what really took place, they tell us at least what
was supposed to have taken place.
In the monumental art of Greece one is somewhat surfeited
with the Centaur and the Amazon. To a modern eye these
PRINCIPLES OF GREEK ART
CHAP.
Athena, who, clad in shining arms, overthrew her opponent,
Enceladus, and buried him under Etna. In this combat Athens
is represented by her goddess. But in the second and third
chapters of the history it is the ancestors of the people of
Athens, under their ancestral leader, Theseus, who appear.
Their foes are respectively the monstrous Centaurs, compounded
of horse and man, and the monstrous Amazons, compounded of
man and woman. By overthrowing the Centaurs, Theseus and
his men made it certain that Greece should not be the prey of
the barbarous races of the North, stealers of boys and women,
drunken and brutal, but should be able to grow and develop
in peace. What is meant by the repulse of the Amazons is
not so clear, nor can it be so briefly stated. But I think those
are at bottom right who regard the combats of Greeks and
Amazons as a reflex in art of the early clashing of the primi-
tive races of Asia and Greece with their female divinities, and
the Aryan invaders from the North, the Greeks and their
cousins the Phrygians and the Carians, with male deities and
patriarchal government.
In the battles with Amazon and Centaur as represented in
art, Theseus is conspicuous. In myth he is represented as
aiding Peirithous in his resistance to the Centaurs when they
attacked him and his bride in her Thessalian home; and as
driving back from Attica the invading Amazons under their
queen Hippolyta. We are unable to say how much actual
history lies under these myths, whether the Athenians in the
prehistoric age really took a large share in the wars against
the aboriginal people of Greece and against the rude Thracian
tribes of the North. But whether the myths embody actual
history or not, they certainly embody ideal history. If they
do not tell us what really took place, they tell us at least what
was supposed to have taken place.
In the monumental art of Greece one is somewhat surfeited
with the Centaur and the Amazon. To a modern eye these