Mitchell, Lucy M.: A history of ancient sculpture (New York, 1883)

160 EARLIEST ART ON GREEK SOIL.

One of these was the Athena, upon whose lap the Trojan women laid a robe,
"many hued," and "glistening like a star."223 Judging from the garments
which covered it, we may conclude that it was one of those primitive objects
of worship, clothed to give them lifelikeness. No notice of large statues,
independent of the architecture and sculptured in the round, can be traced in
the poetic creations of the "Iliad" or "Odyssey." The torch-bearing youths,
the gold and silver mastiffs, were clearly decorative, if not purely fantastic.

How highly Phoenician products were prized by the early Ionians, is evident
from many passages. A richly embroidered garment, the handiwork of Sidon's
damsels, was considered the most beautiful of all, and, as such, offered to
the goddess. The wrought silver cup, " the prize of swiftness " at Patroclos'
funeral, "that in beauty far excelled all others known," was from "the cunning
hands of Sidonian artists," and was brought over the dark seas " to the Greek
harbor" by "the men of Phoenicia." Menelaos, when about to make a gift,
"a cup wrought all of silver, save its brim of gold," calls it the "choicest and
most precious of all that was in his house," adding, that it was given him by
the king of Sidon.

But that the Greek artist*in that day had a character of his own, seems ap-
parent from the poet's distinction between foreign and native wares. Was
this simply on account of the helplessness of infant Hellenic art ? or did it even
then show signs of a higher, more ideal type ? The few monuments rescued
from that earlier age, which we have in part considered, and the enthusiastic
descriptions of poetry, strengthen the belief that a spirit was already awak-
ened which should guide the hands of this younger people to imitate and then
excel the older craftsmen, and should teach them to mould forms of higher
import and truer beauty.

While the artist was thus still struggling with traditions and technique,
poetry was giving birth to new creations, and was purifying and elevating the
imagination of the people. The Homeric poets were revealing a world of
mythology and beautiful imagery, thoroughly Greek in character. Their vivid
language described scenes so graphically, and material forms with such natural-
ness, that they became plastic, standing out with statuesque power. The grand
and heroic deeds of men were elevated into the region of the godlike ; and, on
the other hand, the conceptions of supernatural themes received such distinct-
ness, that they seemed to become a part of human life. Thus was formed a
heroic mythology. The poet was giving the gods shapes, not monstrous like
those of the Oriental deities, but humanly perfect, so that Herodotos could say
that Homer and Hesiod had created for the Greeks their gods.224 With these
men, followed by the later poets, innumerable ideals were brought into exist-
ence, around which rich fancy and description threw their charms : thus abun-
dant material was prepared, from which the artist of the future, sculptor or
painter, could draw his inspiration.