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

2 20 ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.

settlers from Megara in Greece in Olymp. iS. Selinus was settled, it is
believed, in the latter half of the seventh century; and hence the reliefs of the
oldest temple must be dated after that time. The metopes are not in marble,
but in the limestone of the country, and measure each about one meter square.
They are decorated with mythological scenes in very "high and round relief,
quite different from the flat and geometrical reliefs of Laconia, illustrated on
p. 206. On one, a beardless but lusty Heracles (Fig. 110) carries off the Ker-
copes brothers, those thievish knaves who, according to myth, were wont, despite
their mother's warnings, to waylay unwary travellers.375 Their kidnapping
propensities carried them so far, that they fell upon the wandering Heracles, as
the hero slept beneath a tree, with his weapons by his side. Aroused by their
approach, he made them his captives, binding one to each end of a pole, which
he swung over his shoulders, and bore them away, as is represented in the
relief. In this condition, as the story adds, they had leisure to repent their
folly; reminding one another of their mother's warnings, and expressing their
grief in so droll a manner, that the hero was provoked to laughter, and released
them. The second of these old reliefs (Fig. 111) represents another of the
favorite myths of the Greek religion, in which Perseus, in the presence of
Athena, the protectress of all Greek heroes, combats with evil, and cuts off
the head of Medusa, one of the three terrible Gorgon sisters.376 The gaze
of this monster was fabled to petrify all upon whom it was turned : but Athena
had taught Perseus to elude its fatal spell; and in this relief he is represented
as giving Medusa the mortal wound from whose blood)' drops already springs
up the winged horse Pegasos, which she holds in her arms. How anxious is
the ancient sculptor to make us acquainted with every detail of the story!
The successive events are crowded into the relief, as though occurring simulta-
neously. The bold and harsh naturalness of these figures makes them appear
almost a caricature of nature. The broad face given the Medusa is, no doubt,
intended to express the traditional and fear-inspiring conception of that mon-
ster. And in the greater assurance with which it is rendered, we feel that the
sculptor is following an established type, already worked out for him, which is
not the case with the remaining part of the figure. The heavy proportions,
and round, vigorous build, of all the figures, speak a language, moreover, which
is unlike any thing we have met with before ; and there can be no doubt, that
these deeply carved sculptures, well suited for their place in the massive Doric
architecture they adorned, mirror local peculiarities which developed forms in
Sicily different from those in Ionia and Greece itself. Many details, not pro-
duced by the chisel, were brought out with color, traces of which are still visible
on Athena's (Bgis.

In looking back over the sculptures of the sixth century, preserved to us in
such stately numbers, one fact is very evident, that the old masters, in their
working, held on to given types, a few of which are happily preserved to us.