DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52591#0320
304 GREEK PORTRAITS FROM DELPHI
statue by that of the goddess in the temple, when he built
a temple of Artemis in Melita?
It was, fortunately, the Greek statue of honour which
affected decisively the character and development of Greek
portraiture. This is seen most clearly in the athlete statues,
the object of which is to explain the poet’s words: “He
fulfilled his course in a manner which corresponded with his
physical form." 1 2 It was the deed that was to be glorified
and illustrated, through the vigour of muscles, the har-
monious and healthy build of the body, whether it was a
slim and elastic body suited to victory in running and jump-
ing, or a “ four-square ” body, which by its weight could
lay opponents in the dust in the Pancratium. What cared
posterity for the features of the victor s' They only asked
how the victory was possible. The desire was to see beauty
and strength immortalized for the sake of the State and the
youth that should follow in the footsteps of the hero. The
deed was to live in the memory, and not the man’s wrinkles
and warts. ■ This tendency was strengthened by the universal
joy of Greek art in the idealization of reality. A statue
had to be beautiful in both form and face. Not for nothing
have the Greeks two words for external beauty, ευειδή? and
ευπρόσωπος; and even in the time of Demosthenes, in spite
of the naturalistic tendencies of the age, the Greek mother,
when she played with her little child, used the fond ex-
pression, “ my little statue." 3
The craving for beauty dominated everything, life,
palaestra, and art in the fifth century. It came out in
rendezvous of beauty, in which the handsomest men got
prizes for εύα^δρία; with pride the Athenian authors
record that at these meetings it was generally their city
which conquered.4 One gets the best impression of the
sensuous rapture of the Greeks for the beautiful male
body by the introduction to the Charmides of Plato, where
1 Plutarch, Themistocles, 222 ; Parallels in Paus., ix. 4,2, and Lycurgus, In Leocratem,
136.
2 Sophocles, Electra, 686, where Prof. A. C. Pearson conjectures opopcv a’ Ισώσας
rij φύσβί τά τ’ epyij.'iTo. (Class. Quart., xiii. 124); cp. O.C., 578.
3 Demosthenes, xviii. 129 ; Bekker, Anecd. graec., 394, 29 ; cp. Plautus, Epidicus,
624.
4 Harpocration and Hesychius, s.v. ebavBpia; Andocides, De Alcibiade, 42;
Xenophon, Memorabilia, Hi. 3, 12.
statue by that of the goddess in the temple, when he built
a temple of Artemis in Melita?
It was, fortunately, the Greek statue of honour which
affected decisively the character and development of Greek
portraiture. This is seen most clearly in the athlete statues,
the object of which is to explain the poet’s words: “He
fulfilled his course in a manner which corresponded with his
physical form." 1 2 It was the deed that was to be glorified
and illustrated, through the vigour of muscles, the har-
monious and healthy build of the body, whether it was a
slim and elastic body suited to victory in running and jump-
ing, or a “ four-square ” body, which by its weight could
lay opponents in the dust in the Pancratium. What cared
posterity for the features of the victor s' They only asked
how the victory was possible. The desire was to see beauty
and strength immortalized for the sake of the State and the
youth that should follow in the footsteps of the hero. The
deed was to live in the memory, and not the man’s wrinkles
and warts. ■ This tendency was strengthened by the universal
joy of Greek art in the idealization of reality. A statue
had to be beautiful in both form and face. Not for nothing
have the Greeks two words for external beauty, ευειδή? and
ευπρόσωπος; and even in the time of Demosthenes, in spite
of the naturalistic tendencies of the age, the Greek mother,
when she played with her little child, used the fond ex-
pression, “ my little statue." 3
The craving for beauty dominated everything, life,
palaestra, and art in the fifth century. It came out in
rendezvous of beauty, in which the handsomest men got
prizes for εύα^δρία; with pride the Athenian authors
record that at these meetings it was generally their city
which conquered.4 One gets the best impression of the
sensuous rapture of the Greeks for the beautiful male
body by the introduction to the Charmides of Plato, where
1 Plutarch, Themistocles, 222 ; Parallels in Paus., ix. 4,2, and Lycurgus, In Leocratem,
136.
2 Sophocles, Electra, 686, where Prof. A. C. Pearson conjectures opopcv a’ Ισώσας
rij φύσβί τά τ’ epyij.'iTo. (Class. Quart., xiii. 124); cp. O.C., 578.
3 Demosthenes, xviii. 129 ; Bekker, Anecd. graec., 394, 29 ; cp. Plautus, Epidicus,
624.
4 Harpocration and Hesychius, s.v. ebavBpia; Andocides, De Alcibiade, 42;
Xenophon, Memorabilia, Hi. 3, 12.