DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0289
256 ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.
tural decoration, in which the myths of the sacred spot were immortalized.
The stone of the country being too coarse for such higher artistic work,
Parian and Pentelic marble were brought from afar for this purpose. Along
the sima, or gutter-facings, the water from the sloping roof was spewed out
from numerous lions' heads in marble, whose remnants show most varied artis-
tic excellence.-t59 Some of them appear to be original works, executed when
the temple was erected; others, reparations made at a later time, have a freer
style; and still others are evidently of a very late date, being absolutely bar-
barous.
But of far more importance than these so purely architectural decorations,
are the sculptures of the metopes and pediments, fully described by Pausanias,
although, as excavations prove, somewhat incorrectly. The sculptured metopes
did not, as in the Athenian temples, occupy the frieze over the outer row of
columns surrounding the building, but stood over the inner row of columns
(compare Fig. 113), and enlivened the entablature of the prouaos (front portico)
and opistlwdomos (rear portico), there having been six at each end. On them
were glorified the labors of Heracles, — one of the greatest Olympic heroes, the
mythic founder of the games, and layer-out of the altis. Happily their pres-
ervation, owing to their protected position, as well as the skill in combina-
tion of the director of the excavations, Treu, have rescued to us at least their
general scheme, and given us their place in the building.+6° The majority of
the fragments are still in Olympia, and the remainder are in the Louvre ; but
at Berlin may be seen casts of the whole, combined according to their original
groupings.
On the opistliodomos, or west end, the first, or northern metope was con-
nected with Heracles' first great act of heroism, the slaying the Nemean lion.
When Argos was ravaged by this beast, the young hero, according to story,
long followed the king of beasts with arrows and club, but to no purpose, until
finally he defied the monster in his den, and strangled him in his powerful
arms. The metope does not show us the hero in the midst of this struggle.
The lion lies dead ; and the hero, with one foot planted on the prostrate foe,
rests his elbow on his knee, and his face pensively on his hand, as if brooding
over his first great labor, and forecasting what he had promised still to carry
out. A fragment of the figure of Athena has been found, assuring us that
divine help was at hand. Her figure must have well filled up the space left
, vacant beyond the hero and fallen victim. We should not fail to notice the
color on these metopes, which must have blended with that of the architecture,
where columns and walls were found to have a reddish hue. Triglyphs were
painted blue, and all the unadorned horizontal bands seem to have been red.
On the metopes the color varies. In the one just described, the hero's hair,
lips, and even eyeballs, were found to be red; but too little color is left to tell
what manner of harmony was attained by this polychromy, which evidently
tural decoration, in which the myths of the sacred spot were immortalized.
The stone of the country being too coarse for such higher artistic work,
Parian and Pentelic marble were brought from afar for this purpose. Along
the sima, or gutter-facings, the water from the sloping roof was spewed out
from numerous lions' heads in marble, whose remnants show most varied artis-
tic excellence.-t59 Some of them appear to be original works, executed when
the temple was erected; others, reparations made at a later time, have a freer
style; and still others are evidently of a very late date, being absolutely bar-
barous.
But of far more importance than these so purely architectural decorations,
are the sculptures of the metopes and pediments, fully described by Pausanias,
although, as excavations prove, somewhat incorrectly. The sculptured metopes
did not, as in the Athenian temples, occupy the frieze over the outer row of
columns surrounding the building, but stood over the inner row of columns
(compare Fig. 113), and enlivened the entablature of the prouaos (front portico)
and opistlwdomos (rear portico), there having been six at each end. On them
were glorified the labors of Heracles, — one of the greatest Olympic heroes, the
mythic founder of the games, and layer-out of the altis. Happily their pres-
ervation, owing to their protected position, as well as the skill in combina-
tion of the director of the excavations, Treu, have rescued to us at least their
general scheme, and given us their place in the building.+6° The majority of
the fragments are still in Olympia, and the remainder are in the Louvre ; but
at Berlin may be seen casts of the whole, combined according to their original
groupings.
On the opistliodomos, or west end, the first, or northern metope was con-
nected with Heracles' first great act of heroism, the slaying the Nemean lion.
When Argos was ravaged by this beast, the young hero, according to story,
long followed the king of beasts with arrows and club, but to no purpose, until
finally he defied the monster in his den, and strangled him in his powerful
arms. The metope does not show us the hero in the midst of this struggle.
The lion lies dead ; and the hero, with one foot planted on the prostrate foe,
rests his elbow on his knee, and his face pensively on his hand, as if brooding
over his first great labor, and forecasting what he had promised still to carry
out. A fragment of the figure of Athena has been found, assuring us that
divine help was at hand. Her figure must have well filled up the space left
, vacant beyond the hero and fallen victim. We should not fail to notice the
color on these metopes, which must have blended with that of the architecture,
where columns and walls were found to have a reddish hue. Triglyphs were
painted blue, and all the unadorned horizontal bands seem to have been red.
On the metopes the color varies. In the one just described, the hero's hair,
lips, and even eyeballs, were found to be red; but too little color is left to tell
what manner of harmony was attained by this polychromy, which evidently