DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0416
38o
promiscuous love (vulgivaga). Scopas also made a figure of Hecate
in marble for her temple in Argos (which contained two other images
of the Goddess in bronze by Polycleitus the younger and Naucydes),
and a statue of Heracles for the Gymnasium in Sicyon. Heracles, as
we know, like the God Hermes, was regarded as the patron of gym-
nastics, and as a pattern to the Ephebi of physical strength and
endurance, and courageous effort.1
About the year 377 B.C. (01. 100. 3) Scopas went, in the prime of
life, to reside at Athens, to which place, no doubt, his fame had long
preceded him. Paros, his native island, was in all probability included
at this period in the Confederation formed by Timotheus and the
orator Callistratus, and he may new have acquired the citizenship of
Athens. His well-established fame procured him many pupils, among
whom were Leoc/iares, Timotheus, Bryaxis, and his great rival Praxi-
teles, whose style bore so strong a resemblance to that of Scopas that
the Roman critics of Pliny's time were unable to distinguish between
the works of the two artists.2 During his residence at Athens he
must have executed many works for that city, and for other places
which looked to it as the great centre of art; but it is very remark-
able that only one group by Scopas is mentioned as being in Athens
itself. This was the two Erinnyes (EvfispiSss, asfival deal) or Furies, of
the Parian marble called Lychnites, which Scopas added to the one by
Calamis. They stood in the temple of these dread goddesses on theslope
of the Areopagus at Athens.3 According to Pausanias, there was ' no-
thing terrible ' in their aspect, as in that of the Eumcnides of ^Eschj-lus,
' who,' he says, ' first placed serpents in their hair ; or that of the
wooden statues of their temple at Keryncia with their blood-coloured
robes.'4 Scopas probably represented the Rv/xsinSes literally as the 'gra-
cious ' Goddesses, solemn, even awful, but appeased and not unkindly.
The Cancpliora: (basket-bearers) of Scopas, which Pliny8 mentions
among the possessions of Asinius Pollio, were only ideal representations
of the noble Athenian maidens who bore the sacred utensils in a basket
1 Pindar, Ncm. x. 53 :—
eupv^opou Tam'at iiraora? mwHf
flaipaf 'KpM? Kat avv HfWffAfl Bui OVfl 0<iA(iav •
M-aAa fubf aripuif &<Katu.v ntputa&ofurui.
1 Plin. JV. //. xxxvi. 28.
2 Clem. Alcx.imlr. Protrtpt, 47 (p. 41,
ed. Pott). Schol. Aisch. c. Tim. (p. 747,
cd. Kciskc). Pausan. i. 28. 6.
* Pausan. vii. 25. 7.
3 .V. //. xxxvi. 25.
promiscuous love (vulgivaga). Scopas also made a figure of Hecate
in marble for her temple in Argos (which contained two other images
of the Goddess in bronze by Polycleitus the younger and Naucydes),
and a statue of Heracles for the Gymnasium in Sicyon. Heracles, as
we know, like the God Hermes, was regarded as the patron of gym-
nastics, and as a pattern to the Ephebi of physical strength and
endurance, and courageous effort.1
About the year 377 B.C. (01. 100. 3) Scopas went, in the prime of
life, to reside at Athens, to which place, no doubt, his fame had long
preceded him. Paros, his native island, was in all probability included
at this period in the Confederation formed by Timotheus and the
orator Callistratus, and he may new have acquired the citizenship of
Athens. His well-established fame procured him many pupils, among
whom were Leoc/iares, Timotheus, Bryaxis, and his great rival Praxi-
teles, whose style bore so strong a resemblance to that of Scopas that
the Roman critics of Pliny's time were unable to distinguish between
the works of the two artists.2 During his residence at Athens he
must have executed many works for that city, and for other places
which looked to it as the great centre of art; but it is very remark-
able that only one group by Scopas is mentioned as being in Athens
itself. This was the two Erinnyes (EvfispiSss, asfival deal) or Furies, of
the Parian marble called Lychnites, which Scopas added to the one by
Calamis. They stood in the temple of these dread goddesses on theslope
of the Areopagus at Athens.3 According to Pausanias, there was ' no-
thing terrible ' in their aspect, as in that of the Eumcnides of ^Eschj-lus,
' who,' he says, ' first placed serpents in their hair ; or that of the
wooden statues of their temple at Keryncia with their blood-coloured
robes.'4 Scopas probably represented the Rv/xsinSes literally as the 'gra-
cious ' Goddesses, solemn, even awful, but appeased and not unkindly.
The Cancpliora: (basket-bearers) of Scopas, which Pliny8 mentions
among the possessions of Asinius Pollio, were only ideal representations
of the noble Athenian maidens who bore the sacred utensils in a basket
1 Pindar, Ncm. x. 53 :—
eupv^opou Tam'at iiraora? mwHf
flaipaf 'KpM? Kat avv HfWffAfl Bui OVfl 0<iA(iav •
M-aAa fubf aripuif &<Katu.v ntputa&ofurui.
1 Plin. JV. //. xxxvi. 28.
2 Clem. Alcx.imlr. Protrtpt, 47 (p. 41,
ed. Pott). Schol. Aisch. c. Tim. (p. 747,
cd. Kciskc). Pausan. i. 28. 6.
* Pausan. vii. 25. 7.
3 .V. //. xxxvi. 25.