DOI Artikel:
Marshall, John Hubert: Of a head of a youthful goddess, found in Chios
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44284#0107
J. Marshall, Of a head of a youthful goddess, found in Chios.
97
His followers could not have imitated the melting colours and the light which
no doubt in Alexander made the expression so wonderful — unless indeed they used
belladonna or kohl: but they could have imitated in a certain measure the expression
itself: the ‘softness’ of the eye, whether it was ‘frankness’ or ‘gentleness’60).
Plutarch’s words biaxucng and uypoTrig explain one another61); they mean an
expression where trouble and strenuousness are absent. One expects in great men
of action ‘an eye like Mars’ to threaten and command’, — an expression like, say,
Prince Bismarck’s. In Roman portraits (not indeed of emperors, who in general
are placid as future gods) we feel quam grata est facies torva viriliter; but in Greek
portraits of the fifth and fourth centuries, who would not readily exchange some
portion of their eternal mildness of look for one spark more of energy in their faces ?
Where the Perikies of Kresilas is deficient, the Alexander of Lysippos was success-
ful ■— it was the embodiment of vigour and courage, animosum signum.
This union of spirit and softness, sweetness and strength, energia with dolcezza,
to Yopföv with tö üypöv, is offen referred to by the poets. For instance, in uno et
Martis vultus et Apollinis esse putavi62), or, of Scipio, flagrabant lumina miti adspectu,
gratusque inerat visentibus horror63). Statius describes it in a boy’s face64):
Non tibi femineum vultu decus, oraque supra
mollis honos, qualis dubiae post crimina formae
de sexu transire iubent, torvoque virilis
graiia, nec petulans acies, blandique severo
igne oculi, qualis bellis in casside visu
Parthenopaeus erat.
Parthenopaeus is a romantic figure, KaTaßotfTpuxoc; öppacti foppd«;: according to
Statius he had his mother’s eyes (cui plurima mater in visu), and the Thebais
describes his look65):
6o) Other interpretations make Alexander anything
but dirpaY.ubvujc; djpaw<j, as the Greeks seem to
have considered him. According to Prof. Schreiber
(Bildn. Alex. S. 12) either his eyes were small or,
from some uncertain cause, they were very
watery. Prof. E. Gardner thinks that they were
small; Mrs. Mitchell that they were small and
voluptuous. According to M. Paris and Miss
Harrison they were “seemingly wet with tears”,
and Mr. von Mach (Greek Sculp.) completes the
sketch in appropriate colours: “eyes focused
as into the distance and exhibiting the moist
sentimentality peculiar to them”, turned “with
a side-long look to heaven” — a figure more
likely to try the patience of Zeus than to challenge
his omnipotence. It would have been interesting
to learn how the courtiers imitated these watery
eyes — unde ille oculis suffecerit umor. — One
text describes him as Taetis oculis.’ Perhaps
the King had large, boyish, frank eyes, in stränge
and attractive contrast with the great part he
was acting, and for that reason as memorable
as was the childish voice of Jeanne d’Arc.
6l) There can be but a faint shade of difference.
In Aristotle Trr|Sl^ and btctxuow are parallel to
tö SqpaiveoOai and tö üypaiveoOai, and irr]Ei<; is
a kind of tqpcujia (384 a, n). Similarly wfpöv
in Pindar Pyth. I 16 is explained by the scholiast
as eübxdxuTOV, and in Longinus 34 Demosthenes
is dvr|0o-rtoir]TO<; dbidynTOt; qKicrra uypöc; without
humour, too grimly in earnest; cf. Phrynichus,
quoted in the Thesaurus: UYpÖYeXux;, 6 ÜYpöv
Kai biaKexupevov y^wv Kai pr; auffTqpöv
pr]bö ßiaiov.
6z) Calpurnius VII 83.
63) Sil. Ital. VIII 560. So Aelian of Alexander
(V. H. 12, 14) urravacpijeadai be ti ek toö ei'bou<;
cpoßepöv tuj ’AXeEdvbpw XdYOUöiv.
64) Silvae II, VI, 38.
97
His followers could not have imitated the melting colours and the light which
no doubt in Alexander made the expression so wonderful — unless indeed they used
belladonna or kohl: but they could have imitated in a certain measure the expression
itself: the ‘softness’ of the eye, whether it was ‘frankness’ or ‘gentleness’60).
Plutarch’s words biaxucng and uypoTrig explain one another61); they mean an
expression where trouble and strenuousness are absent. One expects in great men
of action ‘an eye like Mars’ to threaten and command’, — an expression like, say,
Prince Bismarck’s. In Roman portraits (not indeed of emperors, who in general
are placid as future gods) we feel quam grata est facies torva viriliter; but in Greek
portraits of the fifth and fourth centuries, who would not readily exchange some
portion of their eternal mildness of look for one spark more of energy in their faces ?
Where the Perikies of Kresilas is deficient, the Alexander of Lysippos was success-
ful ■— it was the embodiment of vigour and courage, animosum signum.
This union of spirit and softness, sweetness and strength, energia with dolcezza,
to Yopföv with tö üypöv, is offen referred to by the poets. For instance, in uno et
Martis vultus et Apollinis esse putavi62), or, of Scipio, flagrabant lumina miti adspectu,
gratusque inerat visentibus horror63). Statius describes it in a boy’s face64):
Non tibi femineum vultu decus, oraque supra
mollis honos, qualis dubiae post crimina formae
de sexu transire iubent, torvoque virilis
graiia, nec petulans acies, blandique severo
igne oculi, qualis bellis in casside visu
Parthenopaeus erat.
Parthenopaeus is a romantic figure, KaTaßotfTpuxoc; öppacti foppd«;: according to
Statius he had his mother’s eyes (cui plurima mater in visu), and the Thebais
describes his look65):
6o) Other interpretations make Alexander anything
but dirpaY.ubvujc; djpaw<j, as the Greeks seem to
have considered him. According to Prof. Schreiber
(Bildn. Alex. S. 12) either his eyes were small or,
from some uncertain cause, they were very
watery. Prof. E. Gardner thinks that they were
small; Mrs. Mitchell that they were small and
voluptuous. According to M. Paris and Miss
Harrison they were “seemingly wet with tears”,
and Mr. von Mach (Greek Sculp.) completes the
sketch in appropriate colours: “eyes focused
as into the distance and exhibiting the moist
sentimentality peculiar to them”, turned “with
a side-long look to heaven” — a figure more
likely to try the patience of Zeus than to challenge
his omnipotence. It would have been interesting
to learn how the courtiers imitated these watery
eyes — unde ille oculis suffecerit umor. — One
text describes him as Taetis oculis.’ Perhaps
the King had large, boyish, frank eyes, in stränge
and attractive contrast with the great part he
was acting, and for that reason as memorable
as was the childish voice of Jeanne d’Arc.
6l) There can be but a faint shade of difference.
In Aristotle Trr|Sl^ and btctxuow are parallel to
tö SqpaiveoOai and tö üypaiveoOai, and irr]Ei<; is
a kind of tqpcujia (384 a, n). Similarly wfpöv
in Pindar Pyth. I 16 is explained by the scholiast
as eübxdxuTOV, and in Longinus 34 Demosthenes
is dvr|0o-rtoir]TO<; dbidynTOt; qKicrra uypöc; without
humour, too grimly in earnest; cf. Phrynichus,
quoted in the Thesaurus: UYpÖYeXux;, 6 ÜYpöv
Kai biaKexupevov y^wv Kai pr; auffTqpöv
pr]bö ßiaiov.
6z) Calpurnius VII 83.
63) Sil. Ital. VIII 560. So Aelian of Alexander
(V. H. 12, 14) urravacpijeadai be ti ek toö ei'bou<;
cpoßepöv tuj ’AXeEdvbpw XdYOUöiv.
64) Silvae II, VI, 38.