DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0472
438 THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
away. Happily the right foot, wingless, and girt with a sandal on which are
still traces of gilding, was dropped within the enclosure of the temple-columns,
and found there only twenty-five centimeters below the surface, trodden into
the earth. Its exquisite shape, which seems to swell with the softness of flesh
under the graceful sandal; the finely proportioned toes, the middle one domi-
nating over the others ; and its delicate surface, making it, perhaps, the most
beautiful foot preserved to us from antiquity, — sharpen our desire to obtain the
missing parts of the statue, such as, for instance, the god's right hand once raised
on high ; but, the excavations being terminated, it is doubtful whether we shall
ever be favored with a sight of these lacking members. Rude hands had like-
wise torn away the babe Dionysos from Hermes' arm. Its head was found
dropped on a pile of rubbish about eighty meters distant from the temple, and
its little body built into a wall in another and "emote part of the altis; while the
tiny draped legs were left to cling to their seat on the god's strong arm, and
one little hand to press his shoulder. But enough remains to make the idea
and movement of the group unmistakable.
In the faith of the Greeks, Hermes was not only the messenger of his father
Zeus, speeding over land and sea to do his bidding. He rested in his course
among the fields, rich with cattle; and they flourished by reason of his presence :
or, laying off his mantle and winged cap, he exercised his lithe members until
they became the ideal of physical force, agility, and skill for every Greek youth
in developing his own powers. But, besides, Hermes delighted to care tenderly
for the little ones, and, when robbed of their parents, was present with speedy
relief. So he saves the babe Asclepios, plays nurse to the young Heracles, and
when Semele is consumed by the thunderbolts of Zeus, and her babe, Dionysos,
appears among the Olympic deities, an unwelcome sight to Hera, it is Hermes
who speedily plans safety to his helpless infant brother, and, seizing him, car-
ries him swiftly away to the Nymphs, who give the young god a mother's love,
and in the lively company of satyrs, silens, and bacchantes, train him for his
future mission as god of wine and merriment.
In this priceless statue of softest-glowing Parian marble, Praxiteles shows
us this Hermes devoting himself to watching over his little brother, with
whom, as is clearly the thought of the group, he merrily plays. On a strong
tree-trunk Hermes rests his left arm, where sits the babe. Did the god in
the raised right hand once hold out to the child a bunch of grapes ? or did his
hand rest on a long tliyrsos, as we might be tempted to think from the analogy
of gems and the like ? 834 The fact that both shoulders are on one level
seems to indicate that the right arm did not thus rest, but raised something;
since a support would have caused the right shoulder to sink below the level of
the left one. Holding something up in mid-air seems also indicated by the
extended muscles and swollen veins.s35 By a natural motion, the god bends
his head towards this raised arm, the direction of which must have broken
away. Happily the right foot, wingless, and girt with a sandal on which are
still traces of gilding, was dropped within the enclosure of the temple-columns,
and found there only twenty-five centimeters below the surface, trodden into
the earth. Its exquisite shape, which seems to swell with the softness of flesh
under the graceful sandal; the finely proportioned toes, the middle one domi-
nating over the others ; and its delicate surface, making it, perhaps, the most
beautiful foot preserved to us from antiquity, — sharpen our desire to obtain the
missing parts of the statue, such as, for instance, the god's right hand once raised
on high ; but, the excavations being terminated, it is doubtful whether we shall
ever be favored with a sight of these lacking members. Rude hands had like-
wise torn away the babe Dionysos from Hermes' arm. Its head was found
dropped on a pile of rubbish about eighty meters distant from the temple, and
its little body built into a wall in another and "emote part of the altis; while the
tiny draped legs were left to cling to their seat on the god's strong arm, and
one little hand to press his shoulder. But enough remains to make the idea
and movement of the group unmistakable.
In the faith of the Greeks, Hermes was not only the messenger of his father
Zeus, speeding over land and sea to do his bidding. He rested in his course
among the fields, rich with cattle; and they flourished by reason of his presence :
or, laying off his mantle and winged cap, he exercised his lithe members until
they became the ideal of physical force, agility, and skill for every Greek youth
in developing his own powers. But, besides, Hermes delighted to care tenderly
for the little ones, and, when robbed of their parents, was present with speedy
relief. So he saves the babe Asclepios, plays nurse to the young Heracles, and
when Semele is consumed by the thunderbolts of Zeus, and her babe, Dionysos,
appears among the Olympic deities, an unwelcome sight to Hera, it is Hermes
who speedily plans safety to his helpless infant brother, and, seizing him, car-
ries him swiftly away to the Nymphs, who give the young god a mother's love,
and in the lively company of satyrs, silens, and bacchantes, train him for his
future mission as god of wine and merriment.
In this priceless statue of softest-glowing Parian marble, Praxiteles shows
us this Hermes devoting himself to watching over his little brother, with
whom, as is clearly the thought of the group, he merrily plays. On a strong
tree-trunk Hermes rests his left arm, where sits the babe. Did the god in
the raised right hand once hold out to the child a bunch of grapes ? or did his
hand rest on a long tliyrsos, as we might be tempted to think from the analogy
of gems and the like ? 834 The fact that both shoulders are on one level
seems to indicate that the right arm did not thus rest, but raised something;
since a support would have caused the right shoulder to sink below the level of
the left one. Holding something up in mid-air seems also indicated by the
extended muscles and swollen veins.s35 By a natural motion, the god bends
his head towards this raised arm, the direction of which must have broken