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

EARLIEST PEDIMENTAL GROUP.

2 I I

arrangement of the hair than that in vogue in the time after the Persian war.
A terra-cotta head, also found at Olympia, shows us this type and expression,
which has, however, lost much of the archaic harshness of the bronze.351 A
Zeus in full, quaint figure is also represented among these bronzes ; but his
whole appearance has still nothing that inspires us with an idea of the god-
like, which was yet to be expressed by coming artists, standing on the shoul-
ders of those who had gone before.

Important among the most archaic sculptures discovered at Olympia, but
unfortunately very seriously injured, are those high reliefs which adorned the
pediment of the Treasury of the people of Megara. They form the oldest
pedimental group known to us, and are referred to by Pausanias.352 They
decorated the exterior of the building in which stood the small figures in
cedar-wood and gold by Dontas and Dory-
cleidas, mentioned p. 202, and may possibly
be connected with the ancient art of La-
conia, the home of those masters. They
are, doubtless, from the latter half of the
sixth century B.C., and, although in the
coarse stone of the land, show upon what
compositions those old men ventured in
decorating the Treasuries of the altis.
The scene represents in crudest forms the
combat of gods and giants, a subject which
should attain long afterwards fullest expres-
sion in the powerful frieze of the Great Altar
at Pergamon. Parts of all the groups are
fortunately preserved to us, as well as many
architectural fragments. The giants are clad in full armor, and seem complete
but very brutal human beings, their faces calling to mind those of the cen-
taurs of the great Temple of Zeus. But the composition is the most interesting
feature of these stiff reliefs, there being observed that strict correspondence of
parts met with in all early Greek compositions. In the centre, not a single
figure, but a struggling group of two, appears, doubtless Zeus and a giant. On
each side follow two groups of combatants,—to the right, according to Treu's
interpretation, (1) Athena and a giant ; (2) Poseidon and a giant. To the left
are (1) Heracles with his foe; (2) Arcs with his, and in the corners a sea-
monster and what seems to be a serpent. There is, then, that symmetry to
be met with constantly in later times, but here still monotonously regular ; and
in the single groups the exaggerated motion, so marked in archaic relief, is
everywhere evident. Other peculiarities of composition show still other in-
cipient stages of what should be developed by Greek genius into the highest
results. Thus there is an earnest attempt to fill out the sloping space of the

Fig. 104. Head of Zeus in Bronze. Olurn/jia.