DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0188
156 EARLIEST ART ON GREEK SOIL.
The epics the " Iliad " and "Odyssey " are generally admitted to be the crea-
tions of the Asiatic and insular Ionians of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.2I5
They are reminiscences of an heroic ancestry ; but the works of art men-
tioned by the poets are, doubtless, what they saw about them every day, trans-
ferred by them to an earlier time, and applied to scenes of Trojan myth. In
the description of art-objects, the weapons and utensils with which they were
familiar naturally occupied the poets' minds. On Achilles' strong arm they
put a shield similar to what they had doubtless seen themselves, and describe
Phoenician cups like those from which they themselves may have drunk. That
the poets' descriptions are not mere imagination is strengthened by the tes-
timony of objects now brought to light in excavations. Does the poet speak
of ancient Tiryns as " strong walled," the antiquarian points to its Titanic
masonry, still standing. Does he put into the mouth of Telemachos at a
banquet in the palace of Menelaos these words, —
" See, son of Nestor, my beloved friend,
In all these echoing rooms the sheen of copper; "
And does he tell of Alkinoos' palace, where, —
" On every side beneath
The lofty roof of the magnanimous king,
A glory shone, as of the sun or moon ; "
" There from the threshold on each side were walls
Of copper leading towards the inner rooms,"2'5a —
we find his descriptions verified in the so-called Treasuries of Mykene and
Orchomenos, where the bronze nails that once served to attach plates of cop-
per still remain in the walls, and fragments of the latter are found in the ruins.
The gold and silver mastiffs guarding the entrance to Alkinoos' palace call
to mind the Mykene lions and the kindred figures of inner Asia. And when
the slender forms of boys are described,2'6 —
'• In gold upon the shapely altar,
With blazing torches in their hands, to light
At eve the palace guests," —
we must believe that the minstrel had seen something suggestive of such
fancies as he wandered from one splendid court to another. Objects like
Odysseus' golden clasp, "a work of rare design, a hound that held in his fore-
paws a spotted fawn struggling before his mouth ;" or like Heracles' "formid-
able baldric, on whose band of gold were sculptured marvels, forms of bears,
wild boars, grim lions, battles, skirmishings, and death by wounds and slaugh-
ter,"— seem to live before us in the finely executed weapons and engraved
jrcms now discovered.
The epics the " Iliad " and "Odyssey " are generally admitted to be the crea-
tions of the Asiatic and insular Ionians of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.2I5
They are reminiscences of an heroic ancestry ; but the works of art men-
tioned by the poets are, doubtless, what they saw about them every day, trans-
ferred by them to an earlier time, and applied to scenes of Trojan myth. In
the description of art-objects, the weapons and utensils with which they were
familiar naturally occupied the poets' minds. On Achilles' strong arm they
put a shield similar to what they had doubtless seen themselves, and describe
Phoenician cups like those from which they themselves may have drunk. That
the poets' descriptions are not mere imagination is strengthened by the tes-
timony of objects now brought to light in excavations. Does the poet speak
of ancient Tiryns as " strong walled," the antiquarian points to its Titanic
masonry, still standing. Does he put into the mouth of Telemachos at a
banquet in the palace of Menelaos these words, —
" See, son of Nestor, my beloved friend,
In all these echoing rooms the sheen of copper; "
And does he tell of Alkinoos' palace, where, —
" On every side beneath
The lofty roof of the magnanimous king,
A glory shone, as of the sun or moon ; "
" There from the threshold on each side were walls
Of copper leading towards the inner rooms,"2'5a —
we find his descriptions verified in the so-called Treasuries of Mykene and
Orchomenos, where the bronze nails that once served to attach plates of cop-
per still remain in the walls, and fragments of the latter are found in the ruins.
The gold and silver mastiffs guarding the entrance to Alkinoos' palace call
to mind the Mykene lions and the kindred figures of inner Asia. And when
the slender forms of boys are described,2'6 —
'• In gold upon the shapely altar,
With blazing torches in their hands, to light
At eve the palace guests," —
we must believe that the minstrel had seen something suggestive of such
fancies as he wandered from one splendid court to another. Objects like
Odysseus' golden clasp, "a work of rare design, a hound that held in his fore-
paws a spotted fawn struggling before his mouth ;" or like Heracles' "formid-
able baldric, on whose band of gold were sculptured marvels, forms of bears,
wild boars, grim lions, battles, skirmishings, and death by wounds and slaugh-
ter,"— seem to live before us in the finely executed weapons and engraved
jrcms now discovered.