DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0070
34
HOMERIC ART.
shoulders,'to save him from the wicked sorceress, and to rescue him in
the last extremity from a watery grave. We live at one time amongst
monster-cannibals, more impious and terrible than those whom Jack
the Giant-killer slew; at another we watch with delight the lovely white-
armed Nausicaa and her maidens, as they play and sing on the
Phaeacian strand. We pass with little preparation from the dread
abodes and shapes of Hades to the gorgeous palaces of kings and heroes,
and the bright and glorious mansions of the happy Gods, which far
outshine in golden splendour the creations of Aladdin's lamp.
Notwithstanding, however, the poetic golden haze which envelopes
the objects and incidents of the divine Epics, no one can fail to sec
that decorative art had attained to a very high degree of perfection
before the a^e of Homer, though not probably in Greece itself.
The working of metals especially plays a prominent part in
Homeric art, and we find in the Odyssey1 the name of a goldsmith,'2
Lacrces, who is summoned to the palace of Nestor to cover a cow's
horn with gold at a sacrifice; and the existence of professional
artisans is referred to in many other passages. The works of art in
metal most frequently mentioned are the various kinds of drinking-
vessels used at the banquets of the chiefs. Like the costly pieces of
armour which Homer describes, they are either the work of the god
Hephaestus or of foreigners from Tyre, Sidon and Cyprus.
A large number of silver and silver-gilt bowls and cups of this
kind have been found, always in Phoenician marts, and especially
in Cyprus, the ornaments of which show a remarkable mixture of
styles—Egyptian, Assyrian and Phoenician.3 ' On the same work of
art we find the pschent, the hawk, the lotus and scarabajus, of Egypt,
with the bull, the antelope, and the chariot, of Assyria; and one of
the vases found in Palestrina bears a Phoenician inscription.''1
The passionate love of the Greeks for chased and embossed
goblets, not only in the age of Homer, but throughout their whole
1 iii. 425. Conf. xxiii. 159.
1 xpvaoxoos, generally xa^K("s'
* Bowls answering to the descriptions in
Homer wer<: found at Cervetri, in the famous
Regulini-Galassi tomb, and are now in the
Vatican (Musco Elrusco, vol. i. pi. 63-66).
1 Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 334. The same
class of bronze bowls have been found by
Layard at Nineveh, and Cesnola at Cyprus.
(Musco Napol. (in Louvre), iii. pi. 10, 11.)
HOMERIC ART.
shoulders,'to save him from the wicked sorceress, and to rescue him in
the last extremity from a watery grave. We live at one time amongst
monster-cannibals, more impious and terrible than those whom Jack
the Giant-killer slew; at another we watch with delight the lovely white-
armed Nausicaa and her maidens, as they play and sing on the
Phaeacian strand. We pass with little preparation from the dread
abodes and shapes of Hades to the gorgeous palaces of kings and heroes,
and the bright and glorious mansions of the happy Gods, which far
outshine in golden splendour the creations of Aladdin's lamp.
Notwithstanding, however, the poetic golden haze which envelopes
the objects and incidents of the divine Epics, no one can fail to sec
that decorative art had attained to a very high degree of perfection
before the a^e of Homer, though not probably in Greece itself.
The working of metals especially plays a prominent part in
Homeric art, and we find in the Odyssey1 the name of a goldsmith,'2
Lacrces, who is summoned to the palace of Nestor to cover a cow's
horn with gold at a sacrifice; and the existence of professional
artisans is referred to in many other passages. The works of art in
metal most frequently mentioned are the various kinds of drinking-
vessels used at the banquets of the chiefs. Like the costly pieces of
armour which Homer describes, they are either the work of the god
Hephaestus or of foreigners from Tyre, Sidon and Cyprus.
A large number of silver and silver-gilt bowls and cups of this
kind have been found, always in Phoenician marts, and especially
in Cyprus, the ornaments of which show a remarkable mixture of
styles—Egyptian, Assyrian and Phoenician.3 ' On the same work of
art we find the pschent, the hawk, the lotus and scarabajus, of Egypt,
with the bull, the antelope, and the chariot, of Assyria; and one of
the vases found in Palestrina bears a Phoenician inscription.''1
The passionate love of the Greeks for chased and embossed
goblets, not only in the age of Homer, but throughout their whole
1 iii. 425. Conf. xxiii. 159.
1 xpvaoxoos, generally xa^K("s'
* Bowls answering to the descriptions in
Homer wer<: found at Cervetri, in the famous
Regulini-Galassi tomb, and are now in the
Vatican (Musco Elrusco, vol. i. pi. 63-66).
1 Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 334. The same
class of bronze bowls have been found by
Layard at Nineveh, and Cesnola at Cyprus.
(Musco Napol. (in Louvre), iii. pi. 10, 11.)