DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0324
MYRON'S WORKS. 291
unconscious and chaste smile, and the well-ordered and becoming drapery, of
Calamis' Sosandra."532a Quintilian and Cicero further declare his works to
have been less rigid than those of Canachos, but by no means free from harsh-
ness ; and it is perhaps suitable, with Brunn, to compare his statues with the
works of the pre-Raphaelites, the saints of Perugino or Francia, and the quaint,
sweet faces and forms of Mino da Fiesole.533 Many have been the attempts to
trace existing works back to this celebrated master, but his peculiarities are
too vaguely transmitted by the ancients for safe conclusions.
We are much happier with regard to Calamis' contemporary, Myron, who,
although a native of Bceotia, lived mostly in Athens. Like Pheidias and Poly-
cleitos, he was a scholar of old Ageladas of Argos. Of his later years, it is
related, that, although his statues were scattered from Asia Minor to Sicily, he
was so poor that no one cared to be his heir.534 For ^igina he executed a wooden
Hecate.535 In Ephesos was an Apollo from his hand, which, after being carried
off, was returned by Augustus, warned to do so, it was said, in a dream.536 Ac-
cording to Cicero, another Apollo, having Myron's name inlaid on its thigh in
fine silver letters, was robbed by Verres from a temple at Agrigentum.537 His
statue of Dionysos was taken from its shrine in Orchomenos by Sulla, and
dedicated anew on Mount Helicon,—a dealing significantly called, among the
Greeks, "burning before the gods incense which belongs to another." 538 Two
statues of Heracles, as well as a group of Zeus, Athena, and Heracles, by
Myron, also passed through Roman hands. The latter work was removed from
the Temple of Hera at Samos, to Rome, by Antony, where Augustus took
from it the Zeus, for which he built a chapel on the Capitol, returning the two
remaining figures to Samos. 539 Myron also executed a Nike on a steer ; a Per-
seus, who had slain the Gorgon ; and an Erechtheus, seen by Pausanias in
Athens, who declared it to be remarkably fine.54°
Still one other group of a mythological character, Athena and Marsyas, is
mentioned by Pliny as the work of Myron ; and copies, or better suggestions, of
this work, have, happily, been found on an Athenian coin, a vase, and a relief.
We likewise have reminiscences of this work by Myron, in two statues, —
one of life-size in marble, in the Lateran (Fig. 138) ; and the other a bronze,
but little more than two feet high, in the British Museum, which came from
Patras.541 Athena, according to Greek myth, had invented the flute, making
it sigh out the wails and hisses of the Gorgon sisters. While blowing it, the
goddess noticed that her features were distorted, and in anger threw away the
hated instrument. The music-loving satyr, Marsyas, caught it up, hoping by
its charmed notes to excel even Apollo, the god of the solemn lyre. Myron's
group, as described by the ancients, and represented on a vase found at Athens,
must have shown the goddess in angry gesture, checking Marsyas in his eager
advance to catch the flute. The Lateran statue, falsely restored as if dancing,
should represent him as disappointed, and drawing back from Athena ; and the
unconscious and chaste smile, and the well-ordered and becoming drapery, of
Calamis' Sosandra."532a Quintilian and Cicero further declare his works to
have been less rigid than those of Canachos, but by no means free from harsh-
ness ; and it is perhaps suitable, with Brunn, to compare his statues with the
works of the pre-Raphaelites, the saints of Perugino or Francia, and the quaint,
sweet faces and forms of Mino da Fiesole.533 Many have been the attempts to
trace existing works back to this celebrated master, but his peculiarities are
too vaguely transmitted by the ancients for safe conclusions.
We are much happier with regard to Calamis' contemporary, Myron, who,
although a native of Bceotia, lived mostly in Athens. Like Pheidias and Poly-
cleitos, he was a scholar of old Ageladas of Argos. Of his later years, it is
related, that, although his statues were scattered from Asia Minor to Sicily, he
was so poor that no one cared to be his heir.534 For ^igina he executed a wooden
Hecate.535 In Ephesos was an Apollo from his hand, which, after being carried
off, was returned by Augustus, warned to do so, it was said, in a dream.536 Ac-
cording to Cicero, another Apollo, having Myron's name inlaid on its thigh in
fine silver letters, was robbed by Verres from a temple at Agrigentum.537 His
statue of Dionysos was taken from its shrine in Orchomenos by Sulla, and
dedicated anew on Mount Helicon,—a dealing significantly called, among the
Greeks, "burning before the gods incense which belongs to another." 538 Two
statues of Heracles, as well as a group of Zeus, Athena, and Heracles, by
Myron, also passed through Roman hands. The latter work was removed from
the Temple of Hera at Samos, to Rome, by Antony, where Augustus took
from it the Zeus, for which he built a chapel on the Capitol, returning the two
remaining figures to Samos. 539 Myron also executed a Nike on a steer ; a Per-
seus, who had slain the Gorgon ; and an Erechtheus, seen by Pausanias in
Athens, who declared it to be remarkably fine.54°
Still one other group of a mythological character, Athena and Marsyas, is
mentioned by Pliny as the work of Myron ; and copies, or better suggestions, of
this work, have, happily, been found on an Athenian coin, a vase, and a relief.
We likewise have reminiscences of this work by Myron, in two statues, —
one of life-size in marble, in the Lateran (Fig. 138) ; and the other a bronze,
but little more than two feet high, in the British Museum, which came from
Patras.541 Athena, according to Greek myth, had invented the flute, making
it sigh out the wails and hisses of the Gorgon sisters. While blowing it, the
goddess noticed that her features were distorted, and in anger threw away the
hated instrument. The music-loving satyr, Marsyas, caught it up, hoping by
its charmed notes to excel even Apollo, the god of the solemn lyre. Myron's
group, as described by the ancients, and represented on a vase found at Athens,
must have shown the goddess in angry gesture, checking Marsyas in his eager
advance to catch the flute. The Lateran statue, falsely restored as if dancing,
should represent him as disappointed, and drawing back from Athena ; and the