DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0149
INFLUENCE OF PHOENICIAN ART.
117
Such an object was found at Chiusi, a highly interesting but very puzzling
bit of ivory carving, with mythical subjects so purely Greek that it is difficult
to imagine it the product of Phoenician carving, even though the style
undoubtedly resembles Phoenician work.M9 Here are to be seen male and
female centaurs, Odysseus under the ram as being carried out from Polyphe-
mos' cave, as well as his adventure with the sirens, — all themes sung first
by the epic poets of Ionia. Although found in Chiusi in Etruria, there is
little doubt that this remarkable carving is an imported article. Some
authorities hold the opinion, that it is the work of very early Ionian carvers,
who, although imitating the style of the Phoenicians, from whom they had re-
ceived the ivory, gave expression to their own national myths. Comparison
and further discoveries in Asia-Minor soil will, no doubt,
give us the key to this most interesting problem.
In the few well-certified and widely scattered extant
Phoenician monuments, it is impossible to trace any de-
velopment or steady growth. The scanty remains possess
little intrinsic significance ; and their main interest lies in
the fact, that through the Phoenicians, the art-forms, and
especially the technique, of older civilizations, were com-
municated by trade to the younger and artistically more
gifted people of other lands. Fig. e;. HnMef ,„ lmry
from Nimroud. British
r • • Museum.
lurning from the Phoenician coast westward, we find
that Phoenician art, scattered through the Mediterranean coast-lands, every-
where shows, as in Phoenicia itself, a lack of vigor and originality, being mainly
a feeble reflex of that with which it came in contact. Such remains have been
found in Sardinia, Sicily, and elsewhere; but nowhere do they seem more
abundant than in Cyprus, whose position near the Phoenician coast must have
strengthened its relationship to the mother-land.
The mountain ranges of Cyprus must have earl}- offered a tempting goal to
the Phoenicians, who, looking from the slopes of Lebanon across the sea, could
descry their purple lines skirting the horizon. The dense forests and cop-
per mines, so rich as to give the island its name, could not fail to tempt these
conquerors ; and we learn, that, as early as the middle of the thirteenth cen-
tury B.C.,'5° they settled Cyprus, to hold it until the Greeks should come in
the ninth century to share its possession. From that time the two nationalities
seem to have occupied the island in common, exercising a reciprocal influence.
The influence of Egypt and Assyria must also have been felt in Cyprus, since
the island at times paid tribute to these great powers. When the Thoth-
mes and Rameses conquered Syria, it is evident from hieroglyphics, that
Cyprus also came into political connection with the Nile valley. Later, when
Assyria gained the ascendency, Cypriote princes paid tribute to the Assyrian
117
Such an object was found at Chiusi, a highly interesting but very puzzling
bit of ivory carving, with mythical subjects so purely Greek that it is difficult
to imagine it the product of Phoenician carving, even though the style
undoubtedly resembles Phoenician work.M9 Here are to be seen male and
female centaurs, Odysseus under the ram as being carried out from Polyphe-
mos' cave, as well as his adventure with the sirens, — all themes sung first
by the epic poets of Ionia. Although found in Chiusi in Etruria, there is
little doubt that this remarkable carving is an imported article. Some
authorities hold the opinion, that it is the work of very early Ionian carvers,
who, although imitating the style of the Phoenicians, from whom they had re-
ceived the ivory, gave expression to their own national myths. Comparison
and further discoveries in Asia-Minor soil will, no doubt,
give us the key to this most interesting problem.
In the few well-certified and widely scattered extant
Phoenician monuments, it is impossible to trace any de-
velopment or steady growth. The scanty remains possess
little intrinsic significance ; and their main interest lies in
the fact, that through the Phoenicians, the art-forms, and
especially the technique, of older civilizations, were com-
municated by trade to the younger and artistically more
gifted people of other lands. Fig. e;. HnMef ,„ lmry
from Nimroud. British
r • • Museum.
lurning from the Phoenician coast westward, we find
that Phoenician art, scattered through the Mediterranean coast-lands, every-
where shows, as in Phoenicia itself, a lack of vigor and originality, being mainly
a feeble reflex of that with which it came in contact. Such remains have been
found in Sardinia, Sicily, and elsewhere; but nowhere do they seem more
abundant than in Cyprus, whose position near the Phoenician coast must have
strengthened its relationship to the mother-land.
The mountain ranges of Cyprus must have earl}- offered a tempting goal to
the Phoenicians, who, looking from the slopes of Lebanon across the sea, could
descry their purple lines skirting the horizon. The dense forests and cop-
per mines, so rich as to give the island its name, could not fail to tempt these
conquerors ; and we learn, that, as early as the middle of the thirteenth cen-
tury B.C.,'5° they settled Cyprus, to hold it until the Greeks should come in
the ninth century to share its possession. From that time the two nationalities
seem to have occupied the island in common, exercising a reciprocal influence.
The influence of Egypt and Assyria must also have been felt in Cyprus, since
the island at times paid tribute to these great powers. When the Thoth-
mes and Rameses conquered Syria, it is evident from hieroglyphics, that
Cyprus also came into political connection with the Nile valley. Later, when
Assyria gained the ascendency, Cypriote princes paid tribute to the Assyrian