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

KEPHISODOTOS. 433

have executed statues of Zeus Soter and Athena Soteira for the Peiraieus,
as well as an altar there, described by Pausanias as of very superior workman-
ship.s,7 The Zeus stood holding a sceptre and a Nike, a continuation, perhaps,
of the use of Nike employed, as we have seen, by Pheidias in his Zeus and
Athena. It is possible that Kephisodotos' Zeus was but the ancestral type
of many small standing bronzes, such as one found at Paramythia in Epeiros,
and now in the British Museum. In this nude, bearded figure, the raised arm
rests on a sceptre ; and the other is extended as if to hold a Nike, which tiny
figure is now gone. But Kephisodotos, like all his successors, seems to have
left Athens for other parts; and it was for the new city of Megalopolis, founded
in Arcadia in 371 B.C., and doubtless for its recently erected shrines, that his
works, seen by Pausanius, were executed. In the Temple of Zeus Soter in this
city, the main deities were by him and by one Xenophon, otherwise scarcely
known to us. Here was a seated Zeus in Pentelic marble between a stand-
ing city-goddess of Megalopolis and an Artemis Soteira.s,s Again, we find
Kephisodotos executing two different groups of Muses for Mount Helicon in
Bceotia.8,9 Of an orator by him, we only know that he was represented as
extending the hand.820

One beautiful group by this master, which was praised by Pausanias, has
been recognized by Brunn in a most pleasing copy in Attic marble, in the
Glyptothek at Munich (Fig. 191).S21 The original monument, seen by Pausa-
nias, represented Eirene, or Peace, holding the babe Plutos, or Riches. The
appropriateness of representing Peace as holding Riches in her arms pleased
the ancient traveller; since, as he well says, wealth can alone be secured under
the fostering care of Peace. During the early part of the fourth century, the
war-harassed Athenians must have had similar feelings ; since, after the battle
of Leucas in 375 B.C., the cult of the goddess of peace was renewed with
great earnestness. She was then raised from a minor to a very high rank in
their faith, regular offerings being made to her, and a rich ceremonial attend-
ing her worship; for this it, doubtless, was, that Kephisodotos executed the
statue seen by Pausanias in the public place. Athenian coins repeatedly
reproduce a stately female figure, holding on her arm a babe ; and, by com-
parison with them and Pausanias' statements, the group in Munich, originally
from Italy, was recognized as being an echo of a favorite work of antiquity.
Fragments of the child Plutos, recently found in the Peiraieus, show, that,
in Greece itself, Kephisodotos' group was also reproduced.822 The mar-
ble group in Munich, represented in the cut, will win from the modern
observer a loving admiration, even though he be unable to enter into the
feeling of the ancient Athenians towards its great original. The meaningless
vase, now restored in the child's hand, as may be gathered from the coins,
should have been a horn of plenty,—a most suitable attribute for the god of
plenty; and the right hand of the goddess should have been clasped firmly