DOI chapter:
Division A: The Agora and adjacent buildings lying to the west and north of the Acropolis, from the city gate to the Prytaneion
DOI chapter:Section VII
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0307
SEC. VIJ
OF ANCIENT ATHENS
135
on the other a fine group of cavalry Amazons advancing against
Greeks on foot, a group more, sculptural, perhaps, than pictorial.
The fact that only a detachment is mounted may point to its being
an innovation. The figure of Hippolyte, the mounted Amazon
with the helmet, is inscribed. Andromache, not Hippolyte, is
engaged in actual combat with Theseus. It is highly probable
that some frequently recurrent motives of such compositions as
this were originated by Mikon, but there is no distinct evidence.
FIG. 27.—BATTLE OF GREEKS AND AMAZONS.
The notice of the painting that represented the taking of
Troy is equally unsatisfactory and scanty. We have only one
other notice by which to supplement it. Plutarch in his Life oj
Cimon™ speaking of Elpinice, sister of the statesman, says that
according to current report Polygnotus loved her, and “in the stoa
then called Peisianakteios, but now Poikile, he painted the face of
Elpinice as Laodike.” He adds that Polygnotus was not a pro-
fessional artist, and received no pay for his work in the stoa, but
did it without reward, to commend himself to his fellow-citizens.
So the writers of history say, and also the poet Melanthus in
these verses-
“ The temple of the gods,
The heroes’ shrines, and halls of Cecrops he
In liberal wise made fair.”
We can scarcely conclude from the words of Pausanias that
OF ANCIENT ATHENS
135
on the other a fine group of cavalry Amazons advancing against
Greeks on foot, a group more, sculptural, perhaps, than pictorial.
The fact that only a detachment is mounted may point to its being
an innovation. The figure of Hippolyte, the mounted Amazon
with the helmet, is inscribed. Andromache, not Hippolyte, is
engaged in actual combat with Theseus. It is highly probable
that some frequently recurrent motives of such compositions as
this were originated by Mikon, but there is no distinct evidence.
FIG. 27.—BATTLE OF GREEKS AND AMAZONS.
The notice of the painting that represented the taking of
Troy is equally unsatisfactory and scanty. We have only one
other notice by which to supplement it. Plutarch in his Life oj
Cimon™ speaking of Elpinice, sister of the statesman, says that
according to current report Polygnotus loved her, and “in the stoa
then called Peisianakteios, but now Poikile, he painted the face of
Elpinice as Laodike.” He adds that Polygnotus was not a pro-
fessional artist, and received no pay for his work in the stoa, but
did it without reward, to commend himself to his fellow-citizens.
So the writers of history say, and also the poet Melanthus in
these verses-
“ The temple of the gods,
The heroes’ shrines, and halls of Cecrops he
In liberal wise made fair.”
We can scarcely conclude from the words of Pausanias that