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

THRONE OF ZEUS BY PHEIDIAS.

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bearing a fillet (tceiria). If we may believe the testimony of coins, the older
Zeus of Olympia and Arcadia was also conceived as seated, but held in the
outstretched hand his eagle. In all probability, the significant idea of letting
the bringer of victory rest on the god's hand was a beautiful innovation made
by Pheidias on this older scheme.5/°a The nude parts of the master's great
Zeus were of fine ivory : a golden mantle fell over the left shoulder and arm,
and lay in folds over the legs. It was studded with lilies and small figures in
enamel. Sandals, likewise of gold, shod the feet: an olive-wreath, symbolical,
perhaps, of the Olympic prize, rested on the golden locks, as if to suggest the
thought, "With thee, our god, is the fulness of victory." The sceptre was not
menacingly raised, but held so as least to obstruct the view of the benignant
head.

Not the statue alone was sublime in form and thought: seat, footstool, and
pedestal were a world of art in themselves, and replete with sacred import to
the Greeks. The throne was massive in its build, as suited the immovable
seat of the great god: sculpture and painting beautified it with significant
forms. Spaces in front of the throne were colored blue, thus, it may be, set-
ting off the feet and golden drapery against a darker background ; while the
three sides, probably, of the partition around it, were adorned with paintings
by Panainos representing mythic scenes. On each side of the feet were four
single figures, illustrative of the different sacred games usual in Elis. One of
these figures had disappeared by Pausanias' time. One represented a Diadu-
menos,—a youth winding about his head a fillet of victory. This statue,
according to ancient report, purported to be that of the boy Pantarkes, said to
have been a favorite of Pheidias, and successful competitor in 432 B.C. But
there is every reason to believe that this was a late scandal. It is more likely,
that Pantarkes in reality lived at a much later date, and having chosen as the
motive for a statue of himself this Diadumenos, which he saw on the throne of
the great Zeus, nothing would have been easier for a gossip-loving age than
subsequently to bring the later and the earlier work together in time, and date
Pantarkes' statue from the age of Pheidias.57'

Around the other sides of the seat were twenty-nine figures, representing
the mythic combats of the Greeks, under Heracles and Theseus, with the tur-
bulent Amazons; besides, the goddess of victory, Nike, appeared repeatedly, to
pass on, as it were, the hymn of praise around the seat of the Almighty, and
corresponding, perhaps, in thought, to the angel-choirs about the God-Father in
Christian art. Higher up on the throne came reliefs representing Niobe's
family, — symbols of the punishment which follows pride.' Sphinxes, each
holding a youth in her relentless grasp, supported the arms of the throne. Be-
sides such sculptures calculated to inspire fear, there were others indicating
the benignity of the god. His "welcome daughters," the "Three Hours," who,
in Homeric words, "bring to mortals the clay of reward," as well as the three