DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61301#0288
252
STUDIES IN GREEK ART.
thenon is yet eager to do honour to this far inferior
Hermes. One reason we may show without delay.
The public know what archaeologists scarcely for a
moment doubted, that the statue is the undoubted
work of Praxiteles. This is established beyond doubt.
The statue bears no inscription, but when Pausanias
(already so often quoted) came in the course of his travels
to Olympia, his attention and interest were specially
attracted by the Heraion, the temple of Hera. The
building was of very ancient date and full of curious
archaic works in gold and ivory, among them the
famous chest of Cypselus. Pausanias, like so many of
his amateur type, loved archaic work; the older and
quainter the monument the more it attracted him. At
great length he describes the votive offerings in this
ancient Heraion, and only at last turning to go, he
adds, most fortunately for us : “ And later they set up
other votive offerings in the Heraion a Hermes of
marble, and he is carrying Dionysos as a child ; it is
the work (τεχζ'??) of Praxiteles” (Paus. v. 17). It was at
the foot of the high hill, Kronion, within the precincts
of this very Heraion, between the third and fourth
pillars of its northern side, that the excavators found
the statue lying. This plain of Olympia was indeed to
yield unexpected treasure ; the excavators had eagerly
sought for remains from the temple of Zeus, and what
they found, though full of interest, was as yet full of
STUDIES IN GREEK ART.
thenon is yet eager to do honour to this far inferior
Hermes. One reason we may show without delay.
The public know what archaeologists scarcely for a
moment doubted, that the statue is the undoubted
work of Praxiteles. This is established beyond doubt.
The statue bears no inscription, but when Pausanias
(already so often quoted) came in the course of his travels
to Olympia, his attention and interest were specially
attracted by the Heraion, the temple of Hera. The
building was of very ancient date and full of curious
archaic works in gold and ivory, among them the
famous chest of Cypselus. Pausanias, like so many of
his amateur type, loved archaic work; the older and
quainter the monument the more it attracted him. At
great length he describes the votive offerings in this
ancient Heraion, and only at last turning to go, he
adds, most fortunately for us : “ And later they set up
other votive offerings in the Heraion a Hermes of
marble, and he is carrying Dionysos as a child ; it is
the work (τεχζ'??) of Praxiteles” (Paus. v. 17). It was at
the foot of the high hill, Kronion, within the precincts
of this very Heraion, between the third and fourth
pillars of its northern side, that the excavators found
the statue lying. This plain of Olympia was indeed to
yield unexpected treasure ; the excavators had eagerly
sought for remains from the temple of Zeus, and what
they found, though full of interest, was as yet full of