DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0525
49Q
THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
fact, that the original form for satyrs and silens seems to have been the same ;
this silen and the youthful beardless satyrs being developed out of an older con-
ception.eSz Thus, up to the fifth century, satyrs and silens both are bearded,
and have equine tail, hoofs, and ears, — types which had probably been brought
by way of the north, as they are seen on coins of Macedonia and Thasos, and
on Chalkidian vases. Little by little, through the union of Attic and Pelopon-
nesian elements, the goat character of these sprites seems, in the popular
fancy, to have crowded the equine form out of art. By the fourth century
the silen, who came to be looked upon as one, the leader, of the youthful crowd
of satyrs, received pigs' ears; while his followers preserved their caprine char-
acter, and are represented as youthful, beardless, and so graceful as to be well-
nigh perfect human forms. The remaining sculptures
found in this theatre are so inferior to this amusing,
toiling silen, as probably to belong to a later day, when
the theatre seems again to have been repaired.
But while Athens has yielded few masterpieces,
witnesses from this fourth century to its wonderful and
varied art, yet testimony is not lacking in the great
number of tombstones lining the highways about the
city, which are now partly removed to the collections
of other countries.9S2a Although the names of most of
the sculptors who executed these humbler marbles are
not preserved to us, and although the men and women
honored by them are unknown to fame, still the spirit
manifested in these unpretending sculptures brings us
very near to the innermost life of the Athenians of old, and gives us clear views
of family devotion and private virtue, which make these monuments the more
precious. We cannot fail to be touched by the sweet spirit of affection that
sounds from a metric inscription on a tombstone in the Sabouroff collection. A
husband raises it to his wife, putting into her mouth the words, "That all may
know my years, twenty-five years old was I when I ceased to see the light of
the sun. Of my gentle being and serious-mindedness (soplirosyne), my husband
knows better than all others of that." Furthermore, these tombstones open up
to us priceless glimpses into the spirit of the art of that time, which trans-
formed by its magic wand of ideality all that is limited and fleeting into
enduring forms, appealing to our common humanity, and possessed of a sweet-
ness greater than that of the sculpture which preceded, and more delicate than
that which followed.
But the erection of the tombstone, with its sculptural ornament, was the
central link in a chain of beautiful funereal rites among the ancient Greeks, and
gains its proper significance only in connection with these. Before wandering
among the ruined homes of the dead, now eagerly explored in search of anti-
Fig. 206. Architectural Support
in Theatre of Dionysos. A Bur-
dened Silen. Athens.
THE AGE OF SCOPAS, PRAXITELES, AND LYSIPPOS.
fact, that the original form for satyrs and silens seems to have been the same ;
this silen and the youthful beardless satyrs being developed out of an older con-
ception.eSz Thus, up to the fifth century, satyrs and silens both are bearded,
and have equine tail, hoofs, and ears, — types which had probably been brought
by way of the north, as they are seen on coins of Macedonia and Thasos, and
on Chalkidian vases. Little by little, through the union of Attic and Pelopon-
nesian elements, the goat character of these sprites seems, in the popular
fancy, to have crowded the equine form out of art. By the fourth century
the silen, who came to be looked upon as one, the leader, of the youthful crowd
of satyrs, received pigs' ears; while his followers preserved their caprine char-
acter, and are represented as youthful, beardless, and so graceful as to be well-
nigh perfect human forms. The remaining sculptures
found in this theatre are so inferior to this amusing,
toiling silen, as probably to belong to a later day, when
the theatre seems again to have been repaired.
But while Athens has yielded few masterpieces,
witnesses from this fourth century to its wonderful and
varied art, yet testimony is not lacking in the great
number of tombstones lining the highways about the
city, which are now partly removed to the collections
of other countries.9S2a Although the names of most of
the sculptors who executed these humbler marbles are
not preserved to us, and although the men and women
honored by them are unknown to fame, still the spirit
manifested in these unpretending sculptures brings us
very near to the innermost life of the Athenians of old, and gives us clear views
of family devotion and private virtue, which make these monuments the more
precious. We cannot fail to be touched by the sweet spirit of affection that
sounds from a metric inscription on a tombstone in the Sabouroff collection. A
husband raises it to his wife, putting into her mouth the words, "That all may
know my years, twenty-five years old was I when I ceased to see the light of
the sun. Of my gentle being and serious-mindedness (soplirosyne), my husband
knows better than all others of that." Furthermore, these tombstones open up
to us priceless glimpses into the spirit of the art of that time, which trans-
formed by its magic wand of ideality all that is limited and fleeting into
enduring forms, appealing to our common humanity, and possessed of a sweet-
ness greater than that of the sculpture which preceded, and more delicate than
that which followed.
But the erection of the tombstone, with its sculptural ornament, was the
central link in a chain of beautiful funereal rites among the ancient Greeks, and
gains its proper significance only in connection with these. Before wandering
among the ruined homes of the dead, now eagerly explored in search of anti-
Fig. 206. Architectural Support
in Theatre of Dionysos. A Bur-
dened Silen. Athens.