DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0207
1872.] SCULPTURE OF THE SUN-GOD. 145
sculpture in high relief, a little above 2 feet 10 inches long
and nearly the same height, which represents Phcebus
Apollo, who, in a long woman's robe with a girdle, is
riding on the four immortal horses which pursue their
career through the universe. Nothing is to be seen of
a chariot. Above the splendid, flowing, unparted, but not
long hair on the head of the god, there is seen about
two-thirds of the sun's disc with ten rays 2^ inches long,
and ten others 3^ inches long. The face of the god is
very expressive, and the folds of his long robe are so
exquisitely sculptured that they vividly remind one of
the masterpieces in the temple of Ni/07 airrepos in the
Acropolis of Athens. But my admiration is especially
excited by the four horses, which, snorting and looking
wildly forward, career through the universe with infinite
power. Their anatomy is so accurately rendered that I
frankly confess that I have never seen such a masterly
work. On the right and left of this metope are Doric
tnglyphs; there is a third triglyph on the left side of the
marble block, which is nearly 22 inches thick, whereas the
nght side (14 inches thick) contains no sculpture. Above
and below the block, iron clamps are fastened by means
of lead ; and from the triglyphs on the left side I presume
that this metope, together with another sculpture which
has a Doric triglyph on the right side as well, adorned the
propylaea of the temple. {See Plate IV., p. 32.)
It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here,
for Homer knows nothing of a temple to the Sun in Troy,
and later history does not say a word about the existence
°f such a temple. However, the image of Phcebus Apollo
does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to
a temple of the Sun; in my opinion it may just as well
have served as an ornament to any other temple.
As early as my report of the nth of May,* I ventured
Chapter VIII.
sculpture in high relief, a little above 2 feet 10 inches long
and nearly the same height, which represents Phcebus
Apollo, who, in a long woman's robe with a girdle, is
riding on the four immortal horses which pursue their
career through the universe. Nothing is to be seen of
a chariot. Above the splendid, flowing, unparted, but not
long hair on the head of the god, there is seen about
two-thirds of the sun's disc with ten rays 2^ inches long,
and ten others 3^ inches long. The face of the god is
very expressive, and the folds of his long robe are so
exquisitely sculptured that they vividly remind one of
the masterpieces in the temple of Ni/07 airrepos in the
Acropolis of Athens. But my admiration is especially
excited by the four horses, which, snorting and looking
wildly forward, career through the universe with infinite
power. Their anatomy is so accurately rendered that I
frankly confess that I have never seen such a masterly
work. On the right and left of this metope are Doric
tnglyphs; there is a third triglyph on the left side of the
marble block, which is nearly 22 inches thick, whereas the
nght side (14 inches thick) contains no sculpture. Above
and below the block, iron clamps are fastened by means
of lead ; and from the triglyphs on the left side I presume
that this metope, together with another sculpture which
has a Doric triglyph on the right side as well, adorned the
propylaea of the temple. {See Plate IV., p. 32.)
It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here,
for Homer knows nothing of a temple to the Sun in Troy,
and later history does not say a word about the existence
°f such a temple. However, the image of Phcebus Apollo
does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to
a temple of the Sun; in my opinion it may just as well
have served as an ornament to any other temple.
As early as my report of the nth of May,* I ventured
Chapter VIII.