DOI chapter:
Preface
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0017
PREFACE
v
grave of CEdipus. The “ Enneakrounos episode ” might seem
mere matter of contention for topographer and linguistic
scholar; but, sever the Enneakrounos from the Areopagus,
and we rob the Eleusinion of half its meaning, and make
mere nonsense of one form of the legend of Oreithyia. So,
again, with sculpture. What has mythology to do with the
lovely grave reliefs, the human family groups of the Hagia
Trias ? This—as I have tried to show—that the very form
and grouping of those figures that seem merely human has
its root and ground in mythology.
I had intended to devote a chapter to the bibliography of
the subject. Space has failed me, and happily the appearance
of two important works on the subject renders such a labour
superfluous. If the student will supply himself with the second
augmented edition of E. Hubner’s Bibliographic der Klass-
ischen Alterthumswissenschaft (Berlin, 1889), which has just
appeared, he will have before him the whole apparatus of his
subject. Specially valuable will be the historical summary of
the progress of classical studies in ancient times, dealing, as it
does, with matters such as the scholia on the various authors,
the lexicographers, and Byzantine scholarship. All the
editions of fragments, lexicons, and remoter authors are care-
fully noted. Moreover—a great merit in the eyes of the
English student — a list is given of all foreign academies,
institutes, etc., and full reference to all monographs appearing
in the various periodicals issued by them. In the depart-
ment devoted to the fine arts a complete list is given of
books and monographs, not only on architecture, sculpture,
and painting, but on figured mythology, vase-paintings, terra-
cottas, and the like. In the department of mythology I have
only one important addition to make. J. Toepffer’s Attische
Genealogie appeared just too late for me to avail myself of his
investigations. I am glad to find that in the one or two
v
grave of CEdipus. The “ Enneakrounos episode ” might seem
mere matter of contention for topographer and linguistic
scholar; but, sever the Enneakrounos from the Areopagus,
and we rob the Eleusinion of half its meaning, and make
mere nonsense of one form of the legend of Oreithyia. So,
again, with sculpture. What has mythology to do with the
lovely grave reliefs, the human family groups of the Hagia
Trias ? This—as I have tried to show—that the very form
and grouping of those figures that seem merely human has
its root and ground in mythology.
I had intended to devote a chapter to the bibliography of
the subject. Space has failed me, and happily the appearance
of two important works on the subject renders such a labour
superfluous. If the student will supply himself with the second
augmented edition of E. Hubner’s Bibliographic der Klass-
ischen Alterthumswissenschaft (Berlin, 1889), which has just
appeared, he will have before him the whole apparatus of his
subject. Specially valuable will be the historical summary of
the progress of classical studies in ancient times, dealing, as it
does, with matters such as the scholia on the various authors,
the lexicographers, and Byzantine scholarship. All the
editions of fragments, lexicons, and remoter authors are care-
fully noted. Moreover—a great merit in the eyes of the
English student — a list is given of all foreign academies,
institutes, etc., and full reference to all monographs appearing
in the various periodicals issued by them. In the depart-
ment devoted to the fine arts a complete list is given of
books and monographs, not only on architecture, sculpture,
and painting, but on figured mythology, vase-paintings, terra-
cottas, and the like. In the department of mythology I have
only one important addition to make. J. Toepffer’s Attische
Genealogie appeared just too late for me to avail myself of his
investigations. I am glad to find that in the one or two