DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0425
POLYCLEITOS' HERA.
391
while the old priestess slept, the rapidly spreading flames destroyed the temple
and many of the sacred images.73° The reconstruction of the temple was,
according to Pausanias, undertaken by an Argive architect, Eupolemos; and
the erection of its statue of Hera by Polycleitos. This figure was smaller than
Pheidias' Olympic Zeus, and appeared seated
on a golden throne. The goddess's forehead
was adorned with a stephatie of equal height
all around, beautified with reliefs of the
Graces and Hours. In one hand she held a
pomegranate, and in the other her sceptre,
crowned with a cuckoo. Under her feet was
a lion's skin; and her whole form, with the
exception of neck and white arm, was fully
draped.731 Nearly six hundred years after its
completion, Pausanias saw this statue, but only
dwells upon the significance of its numerous
attributes, giving no hint as to its art-charac-
ter. The pomegranate, he says, he will not
explain; because an understanding of the
legend would require a knowledge of mys-
teries which he, as an initiated, is not at lib-
erty to reveal. The cuckoo, he says, refers
to Zeus' first visit to Hera, transformed into
a bird which she playfully caught; but this
story, even Pausanias does not believe. Near
this goddess by Polycleitos, which, because
having many attributes, seems to have held
to the old style of representing divinity, was
Hera's daughter Hebe, likewise in gold and
ivory, from the hand of a younger Argive mas-
ter, Naukydes, but which, in Pausanias' time,
had disappeared. Seventeen centuries have
passed, with devastating hand, over the
heights of Argos since the Roman traveller
stood before these costly statues. It is not
strange that modern tourists have found little
more than the foundations and some sculptural
fragments of the temple. Argos coins of the fourth century, with the head of
Hera crowned by a stcplianc of equal height all around, can hardly give us an
exact image of Polycleitos' Hera, even though temple-statues seem to have
been copied on coins at that early day; but these coins may give in very
general forms somewhat the type which then prevailed for Hera.732 It is
Fig. 178. An Amazon, perhaps a Copy of Poly-
cleitos' Amazon. Berlin. {Restored.)
391
while the old priestess slept, the rapidly spreading flames destroyed the temple
and many of the sacred images.73° The reconstruction of the temple was,
according to Pausanias, undertaken by an Argive architect, Eupolemos; and
the erection of its statue of Hera by Polycleitos. This figure was smaller than
Pheidias' Olympic Zeus, and appeared seated
on a golden throne. The goddess's forehead
was adorned with a stephatie of equal height
all around, beautified with reliefs of the
Graces and Hours. In one hand she held a
pomegranate, and in the other her sceptre,
crowned with a cuckoo. Under her feet was
a lion's skin; and her whole form, with the
exception of neck and white arm, was fully
draped.731 Nearly six hundred years after its
completion, Pausanias saw this statue, but only
dwells upon the significance of its numerous
attributes, giving no hint as to its art-charac-
ter. The pomegranate, he says, he will not
explain; because an understanding of the
legend would require a knowledge of mys-
teries which he, as an initiated, is not at lib-
erty to reveal. The cuckoo, he says, refers
to Zeus' first visit to Hera, transformed into
a bird which she playfully caught; but this
story, even Pausanias does not believe. Near
this goddess by Polycleitos, which, because
having many attributes, seems to have held
to the old style of representing divinity, was
Hera's daughter Hebe, likewise in gold and
ivory, from the hand of a younger Argive mas-
ter, Naukydes, but which, in Pausanias' time,
had disappeared. Seventeen centuries have
passed, with devastating hand, over the
heights of Argos since the Roman traveller
stood before these costly statues. It is not
strange that modern tourists have found little
more than the foundations and some sculptural
fragments of the temple. Argos coins of the fourth century, with the head of
Hera crowned by a stcplianc of equal height all around, can hardly give us an
exact image of Polycleitos' Hera, even though temple-statues seem to have
been copied on coins at that early day; but these coins may give in very
general forms somewhat the type which then prevailed for Hera.732 It is
Fig. 178. An Amazon, perhaps a Copy of Poly-
cleitos' Amazon. Berlin. {Restored.)