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

254 ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.

banks of the sacred Alpheios and smaller Cladeos, in 1829, partial excavations
were made by the French, to be most thoroughly completed by the Germans
between 1875 and 1881, roused to this effort by the eloquence of the eminent
historian Ernst Curtius, who has continued to be the soul of the operations.

Here in antiquity no bustling cities were to be seen, but all around the eye
met rich fields and gardens; while in their midst rose the walls of the sacred
precincts, or aids, enclosing an area measured off, it was said, by Heracles, in
remote mythic ages, and filled by later generations with monuments expressive
of devotion to the gods and heroes there worshipped. Here Zeus, the highest
god of all Hellas, was pre-eminent; and in the centre of the altis stood his
colossal altar. On it offerings were daily burned with white poplar, the ashes
being left to accumulate century after century ; and, as Pausanias credulously
adds, birds of prey were miraculously kept from infesting the spot. An oblong
base 6.50 meters long, covered with a thick layer of ashes intermingled with
many votive statuettes of bronze and clay, discovered to the north of the great
temple, testifies at once to the truth of this description, and the devotion of
the Greeks from very ancient times.

When Greece by heroic efforts had arrested and turned back the Persian
hosts, an elevating feeling of glorious triumph and thankfulness seems to have
pervaded the land ; and, in the years immediately following the battle of Plataiai,
many votive offerings of great size and costliness were put up by Greeks, from
near and far, in this great national shrine, to Zeus. The Tyrants, and the rich
dwellers in Sicily and Southern Italy, now made regal gifts at this shrine.
Rhormis, the Arcadian, collected such riches in services in the wars of Hieron,
that he was able to put up costly gifts, not only at Delphi, but also at Olym-
piad- Besides the horses and grooms alluded to above (p. 251), there were
other groups, dedicated by a friend of Phormis, in which that soldier appeared
fighting with an enemy. It is very probable, as Furtwangler surmises, that
fragments of one of these groups are among the marbles discovered at Olym-
pia. They consist of two admirably executed heads in Parian marble, parts of
arms, one foot, and a piece of a shield.453 The fragments of arms and feet
remind us strongly, in style and technique, of some statues of the east pedi-
ment from ^Egina: instance the fallen warrior (Fig. 119). From tradition we
know that ^Eginetan masters worked for Phormis ; and it is possible, that in
these fine fragments found at Olympia their skill may be traced. The frag-
ment of the shield, which was doubtless carried by the old warrior, has upon
it, in very low relief, the figure of a lad on a shaggy skin, and presents pleas-
ingly flowing lines, although still constrained. In one of the preserved heads
(Fig. 121) the artist has evidently struggled to represent the portrait of an old
warrior. Although this helmeted head, and the second, very like it, are sadly
injured, enough remains to see portraiture here combined with a most naive
rendering of hair and beard. The curls of marble were each put on separately,