DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0056
20
MYTHICAL ART.
to be chained to prevent their running away. Apollodorus1 relates
that Daedalus made an image of Heracles at Pisa, which the hero him-
self, having caught sight of it at night-time, attempted to drive away
by throwing stones at2 the wooden impostor.3
The celebrity of Daadalus is attested by numerous passages in
Greek literature, in which his works are spoken of as little less than
divine creations. Hecuba in her earnest supplication to Agamem-
non wishes that she had a voice in every member of her body ' by the
aid of Daedalus or one of the Gods.'1 Yet the praise accorded to them
referred to their relative rather than their actual merit. Plato5 says
that if Daedalus were to make such statues, as those which bore his
name, in his (Plato's) time, he would only make himself ridiculous.
' No one,' says Aristides 6 the rhetorician, ' admires Daedalus or the
artists of former times in comparison with Pheidias, but everyone
knows that the arts have grown to greater perfection from small and
mean beginnings.'
Among the works of Daedalus, Pausanias speaks of the Chorus of
Ariadue, executed in marble (sirl Xsvicov XlOov), as existing in his time,
and he refers to the well-known passage in the Iliad in which it is
said that Hephaestus ornamented the shield of Achilles with a chorus
' like that which Daedalus once executed (ija-Kijasv)7 for the fair-haired
Ariadne in spacious Cnossus! That a relief in marble of this kind
existed by the hand of Daedalus or any other artist in the age of the
Homeric poets is out of the question, and the theory of Overbeck8 and
others, that the marble work to which Pausanias refers may have been a
1 ii. 6. 3. Plato, Sfenon, p. 97. Socrates
compares the statues of Daedalus with true
opinions, and says that the former are not of
much value while they are at liberty, for
then they will walk off like run-away slaves,
but when bound they are of great value, 'for
they are really very beautiful works.' 'In
the same manner, true opinions, while they
abide with us, are beautiful and fruitful, but
they run away from the soul, and are of
little use until they are fastened by the tie
of the cause.'
* Hesych. s. i: ir\7){oi.
3 Brunn, K.-G. p. 15.
1 Eurrp. Hec. v. 819: —
Ei floi y<VoiTO tftBoyyos jf> fip*YtO0l
Kai xeptri Ka\ Ko^taitrt Ka't no&Ctv fiatrtl,
7j AaifidAov T<\i'ai<7iy Jj tjiwr nrof.
5 Hipp, Ma«. p. 282.
• Aristides, Tltp\ 'PTj-nipiKris, i. 30, ii. 38
(ed.Dindorf): Kal oi>5els tIiv AaiSaKuv ouSt rot/s
tola 8avfid£u irapa rhv 'I'fi8(ae, a\\a Toiivav-
rtop Ik fiiKpav «al <pav\wv rb /cot' apxas ftl
fiu&v Ka\ Te\(t<iTtpov al Tf'xwi Kariffrnirav.
Conf. Cic. Brut, xviii. ft,
' Horn. Iliad, xviii. 590:—
'El' fie xopin' jrol'iaAAe trtpucAvrta 'A/A^tymffif,
\<e\ov, olor HOT bil fCVWOTp c'''P(lTt
Aai'fiaAcK i)tjKT\trtv KaAAiTrAoKa>o> 'Apiafii*!).
A mazy dance,
Like that which Dadalus in Cnoiwi erst
At fair-hair'd Ariadne's bidding framed.
Conf. F.ustathius, Com. ad Iliad, p, 1166
» Gach. d. gruck, Plastik, i. 35.
MYTHICAL ART.
to be chained to prevent their running away. Apollodorus1 relates
that Daedalus made an image of Heracles at Pisa, which the hero him-
self, having caught sight of it at night-time, attempted to drive away
by throwing stones at2 the wooden impostor.3
The celebrity of Daadalus is attested by numerous passages in
Greek literature, in which his works are spoken of as little less than
divine creations. Hecuba in her earnest supplication to Agamem-
non wishes that she had a voice in every member of her body ' by the
aid of Daedalus or one of the Gods.'1 Yet the praise accorded to them
referred to their relative rather than their actual merit. Plato5 says
that if Daedalus were to make such statues, as those which bore his
name, in his (Plato's) time, he would only make himself ridiculous.
' No one,' says Aristides 6 the rhetorician, ' admires Daedalus or the
artists of former times in comparison with Pheidias, but everyone
knows that the arts have grown to greater perfection from small and
mean beginnings.'
Among the works of Daedalus, Pausanias speaks of the Chorus of
Ariadue, executed in marble (sirl Xsvicov XlOov), as existing in his time,
and he refers to the well-known passage in the Iliad in which it is
said that Hephaestus ornamented the shield of Achilles with a chorus
' like that which Daedalus once executed (ija-Kijasv)7 for the fair-haired
Ariadne in spacious Cnossus! That a relief in marble of this kind
existed by the hand of Daedalus or any other artist in the age of the
Homeric poets is out of the question, and the theory of Overbeck8 and
others, that the marble work to which Pausanias refers may have been a
1 ii. 6. 3. Plato, Sfenon, p. 97. Socrates
compares the statues of Daedalus with true
opinions, and says that the former are not of
much value while they are at liberty, for
then they will walk off like run-away slaves,
but when bound they are of great value, 'for
they are really very beautiful works.' 'In
the same manner, true opinions, while they
abide with us, are beautiful and fruitful, but
they run away from the soul, and are of
little use until they are fastened by the tie
of the cause.'
* Hesych. s. i: ir\7){oi.
3 Brunn, K.-G. p. 15.
1 Eurrp. Hec. v. 819: —
Ei floi y<VoiTO tftBoyyos jf> fip*YtO0l
Kai xeptri Ka\ Ko^taitrt Ka't no&Ctv fiatrtl,
7j AaifidAov T<\i'ai<7iy Jj tjiwr nrof.
5 Hipp, Ma«. p. 282.
• Aristides, Tltp\ 'PTj-nipiKris, i. 30, ii. 38
(ed.Dindorf): Kal oi>5els tIiv AaiSaKuv ouSt rot/s
tola 8avfid£u irapa rhv 'I'fi8(ae, a\\a Toiivav-
rtop Ik fiiKpav «al <pav\wv rb /cot' apxas ftl
fiu&v Ka\ Te\(t<iTtpov al Tf'xwi Kariffrnirav.
Conf. Cic. Brut, xviii. ft,
' Horn. Iliad, xviii. 590:—
'El' fie xopin' jrol'iaAAe trtpucAvrta 'A/A^tymffif,
\<e\ov, olor HOT bil fCVWOTp c'''P(lTt
Aai'fiaAcK i)tjKT\trtv KaAAiTrAoKa>o> 'Apiafii*!).
A mazy dance,
Like that which Dadalus in Cnoiwi erst
At fair-hair'd Ariadne's bidding framed.
Conf. F.ustathius, Com. ad Iliad, p, 1166
» Gach. d. gruck, Plastik, i. 35.