THE ELGIN MARBLES.
"Goddess of wisdom! here thy temple was,
And is, despite of war and wasting fire,
And years that bade thy worship to expire."
The Elgin Marbles are the remains of the sculptures which once adorned
the Temple of Minerva at Athens, known as the Parthenon, of world-wide
fame. Brought from Athens to England at the beginning of the present
century, they are now placed where they can be seen of all sightseers,
and studied by all lovers of art, in a long, well-lighted room at the
British Museum, popularly known as the Elgin Room.
As we take our stand in this room, and gaze round us at these grand
fragments--for, alas! fragments only are they now--our mind strives
to restore the mutilated forms of these marble "men and women of more
than mortal mould," that seem to repose or move before us in their
grand statuesque dignity. And, broken and damaged as they indeed have
become by time and exposure, many without heads, or hands, or feet,
yet we cannot gaze upon them and consider them attentively without
feeling more and more impressed by their heroic proportions and stately
attitudes. We may well feel that we are justified in this impression,
when we learn that these sculptured fragments are the remains of what
is universally considered to have been, when perfect, the finest work
of the best masters at the time of the highest development of Greek art.
Let us turn for a moment from the large figures that occupy the centre
of the Elgin Room, to the bas-relief of smaller figures that seem to
follow each other with living and rapid movement round the whole length
of the walls of the room; horsemen on prancing steeds, charioteers in
their chariots, animals driven to sacrifice, maidens bearing vases,
succeed each other in quick succession; and the conclusion dawns upon
us that this must surely have been intended to represent some stately
procession, held in honour of those central heroic figures.
We ask, Whence come these people of stone? Who were they meant for?
What are they supposed to be doing or celebrating?
Let us first devote a few words as to the place whence they came.
They must carry us to Athens, and, with them to lead us, we must
travel back through the long ages to the world's golden youth in
Greece--Greece, whose poetry speaks to us from wood, and cave, and
ocean--whose mythic heroes are associated with the stars themselves.
Turn our thoughts, then, to Greece, and to Athens, its pearl of
cities, of which our own Milton writes so lovingly--
"Behold
Where, on the Ægean shore, a city stands,
Built nobly; pure the air and light the soil--
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence."
"What time the nightingale
Trills her thick warbled notes the summer long"
to Plato in the gardens of the Academe, and the bees murmured on the
fragrant slopes of Mount Hymettus, as they gathered their sweet honey
from its scented flowers, in times long past and gone.
We refer to the time of Plato and Socrates, when, under Pericles,
"wisest of rulers," the arts of poetry and sculpture sprang into
glorious perfection, and the great name of Pheidias rose.
This was the time of that great war when the Greeks, with Athens at
their head, beat back the invading army of Persians, and preserved
civilisation for Europe. In that war, Athens itself (with all its
beautiful buildings, its theatres, its temples, even its very walls)
was levelled to the ground by the invaders; and it was immediately
after their glorious success, when the brave little nation had stemmed
the tide of Asiatics under Xerxes with his
"ships by thousands,
And men in nations,"
that Pheidias, the architect and sculptor, was called upon, in
commemoration of the victory, to build a temple to the patron goddess
of Athens, and to adorn it with sculpture which should be worthy alike
of the occasion and the divinity.
[Illustration]
THE TEMPLE.--In the centre of the city of Athens rises the bold
rocky eminence known as the Acropolis, in earliest prehistoric days
the citadel and stronghold of her kings, but long since given up
exclusively to her temples. From this commanding height might be seen
the city stretched below, the fertile plain beyond, enclosed by the two
winding streams, the Illissus and the Cyphissus, which spread verdure
and abundance as they flowed on into the blue Ægean sea. The view was
bounded on the south by the dark waters of that sea, while the distant
mountains skirted the plain on the north, and varied the beauty of the
scene.
On this rocky height, and on the highest part thereof, was erected
the new temple, built entirely of white marble. It was called the
Parthenon, and was dedicated to Pallas-Athéné, the patron goddess of
Athens. The same divinity was worshipped by the Romans under the name
of Minerva. For, just as Ephesus is known to have worshipped especially
the great goddess Diana, so Athens devoted herself to the worship of
Pallas-Athéné, the goddess of wisdom, the virgin daughter of Jove. She
was one of twelve chief gods who were worshipped throughout Greece, but
was held as more peculiarly the protecting deity of ancient Athens.
A temple to this goddess had stood on the self-same spot before the
war, which the Persians had destroyed. The former one was called the
Hecatompedon, referring to its size.[1] The new one, the Parthenon,
was the house (or chamber) of the virgin.[2] It was to be used for
festivities and ceremonies in honour of the goddess, rather than for
worship. It was of the same size as its predecessor, and was for that
reason occasionally, but very rarely, called by the older name. The
building of this temple was commenced 445 B.C., soon after the happy
termination of the Persian war, while peace and prosperity ruled in the
land. It took ten years to complete, and was accordingly finished in
435 before the Christian era. The times were therefore pagan times; but
a great wave of civilisation passed over the favoured land of Greece,
to which all modern art and literature owes so much; and the worship of
Athéné, the goddess of wisdom and activity, takes its place amongst the
purest and most elevating of the heathen religions.
It is, then, with Athéné and her worship that we have now to do.
ATHÉNÉ.--We must pause to devote a few words to the description of the
qualities and attributes of this goddess who inspired these works of
art, once so perfect. Athéné (or Pallas-Athéné, as she is frequently
called) was the fair daughter of Zeus or Jupiter.[3] In her, "power
and wisdom were harmoniously blended; she appears as the preserver
of the State, and of everything which gives to the State strength
and prosperity. She was the protectress of agriculture." With the
Greeks, those most superstitious people, every fresh invention that
led the way for the arts of civilisation was at once attributed to the
inspiration of a god, thus "Athéné was said to have invented the plough
and the rake, and to have created the olive tree"--that tree of so
much importance in all Eastern countries, where the fruit is often an
article of daily food, and the oil extracted from the olives is also
serviceable for domestic purposes. As Apollo is associated with the
sun, so Athéné is associated with the dawn, which wakes men from their
slumbers when there is work to be done. She is therefore the goddess
of industry and work, which daylight brings to all mortals. Athéné was
thus the goddess of industry in every form. Besides agriculture, she
was the patroness of arts and artificers, of embroidery and spinning,
and all kinds of women's needlework. Also of intelligent and scientific
warfare, as opposed to Ares (or Mars), the other Greek god of war, who
was the god of "blind brute force," while she is called the "preventer
of war," "the defender of towns." She protected the State from outward
enemies, and, as the patron divinity, she maintained the authority of
law and order in the courts of the assembly of the people. It was she
who was believed to have instituted the Court of the Areopagus, the
Court of Justice, at Athens. She was, moreover, good and pure, a
virgin deity whose heart was inaccessible to the passion of love.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Such are the many attributes of this beneficent goddess--ever young
and ever strong, but thoughtful and serious--the beautiful, blue-eyed
Athéné. Sometimes she is represented by artists in her warlike
character; she then wears a golden helmet adorned with sphinxes,
a breastplate of armour over her woman's drapery, the terrible
snake-wreathed Medusa head in the centre, which turned to stone all
who looked on it; she grasps her long spear in one hand, and holds
her shield with the other. But, as often, we meet with her in her
character of goddess of the peaceful arts. Then, her hair waves in long
curls over her shoulders from beneath her helmet, but her dreadful
corslet is put off, and instead of the spear she carries the spindle,
emblem of domestic work, or feeds the serpent of Æsculapius (god of
medicine)--type of the kindly acts of peace.
We shall find that she appears in both these capacities among
the sculptures on her beautiful temple, the Parthenon. The two
chief incidents of her fabled story were represented in the two
pediments--the long, triangular spaces at the east and west ends of
the building. The grand broken fragments are all that now remain
to the world of those majestic figures; while the chief ceremonies
yearly performed in her honour by her worshippers, are depicted in the
bas-relief of the procession, which ran continuously round the outer
wall of the temple, under the colonnade. The delicate forms were here
protected from inclement weather, and the work was seen in pleasant,
subdued, reflected light. The effect was enhanced by delicate tinting,
both of flesh and drapery, against a background of blue; also by points
of judicious gilding here and there--for instance, on the spear of
Athéné, the harness and trappings of the horses, the olive-branches
borne by the farmers. Holes are plainly visible in the marble, where
these gilt or bronze additions were made.
THE PROCESSION.--This sculptured procession represents the final act of
the chief national festival, which lasted for twelve days. The festival
was called the Pan-Athenæa; it was celebrated every year, but in its
full splendour only every fourth year.
The word _pan_ means _all_, and _Athenæa_, _Athenians_. It was so
named because all free-born Athenian citizens were bound to appear in
it, but none others were allowed that honour. Accordingly, in this
bas-relief we see marshalled in procession all the various people in
whose occupations "the blue-eyed goddess"[4] was supposed principally
to interest herself. As we approach the temple from the western
end, first appear in long array the horsemen, the knights of Athens,
the flower of her young nobility, on their prancing and curvetting
Thessalian steeds, the defenders of their country in times of peril.
Most of these are dressed in light armour. We note both horses and men;
how wonderfully instinct with life and movement they are, yet each one
different! Next advance the warriors, in their light, open, two-wheeled
chariots, every one with his attendant driver beside him.
Marshals at intervals turn to the advancing throng to regulate the
order of march, spirited figures that seem greatly to add to the
reality and movement of the scene.
Next come the aliens--that is, foreigners resident in Athens who,
in acknowledgment of the great favour of being allowed to reside in
that proud city, and as a return for her protection, had to carry
the heavy pitchers of water and great vases of wine, to be used
in the sacrifices. Their wives also walked in the procession, and
carried sunshades, (I mean parasols), for the freeborn Athenian
ladies, in order to remind them of their dependent position. These
so-called aliens were probably well-to-do merchants, either from the
Greek colonies or from some neighbouring state, they themselves and
their wives in every way as much considered in their own city as the
Athenians in theirs.
Next came the musicians, with flutes and lyres, instruments that the
"fair goddess" was said to have herself invented.
Then came the farmers from the Attic plains, the worthy countrymen
who cultivated the olive orchards that yielded the special harvest
of the country; they bear boughs of the tree that Athéné herself was
supposed to have planted, the growth of which had so largely conduced
to the prosperity of the land. Lastly, come the colonists from all the
Athenian colonies, who were obliged to contribute sheep, oxen, and
goats for sacrifice; these are accompanied by their officiating priests.
At the head of the procession, with modest air and downcast eyes
and slow and stately movement, walk the noble matrons and virgins
of Athens, carrying small vases, and saucers called pateræ, for the
libations which were to be used in the sacrifices. A marshal takes a
roll from the foremost pair of maidens, probably the hymn which has
been chanted on the way.
We now approach the climax. The people of Athens do not come
empty-handed to their guardian patroness. They bring her a beautiful
dress or shawl, called in Greek the _peplos_, which has been covered
with richest embroidery by maidens selected from the noblest families.
These Athenian girls have plied their needles daily for many months,
in a room set apart within the precincts of the temple, where they
have worked under the superintendence of the priestesses of Athéné.
The gorgeous embroidery represented the fight with the giants, the
brutal and lawless powers of fabulous times, in which the goddess of
law and order had been victorious, and had destroyed the monsters. The
colour of the dress was yellow, the colour of the sun; by which it
was evidently intended to suggest the idea that the power of light,
physical and moral, would conquer the evil powers of darkness.
It is the birthday of Athéné, the 28th day of the Greek month, called
Hecatombæon, supposed to be our Midsummer Day, the day of the sun's
summer solstice; and the beautiful crocus-coloured peplus is her
birthday present from the city which she honours with her patronage and
mild sway. A young boy bears it folded up in a large fringed square,
and presents it to the priest of the temple, while the priestess beside
him turns to receive the sacrificial cakes which a maiden carries on
her head, on a tray covered with a cloth.
We have by this time come to the space immediately over the main
entrance to the temple, at the east end; and here we see the twelve
gods of Greece ranged, six on each side, over the doorway, the
presentation of the peplus dividing the two groups of gods. Amongst
them sits Athéné, as described in Homer's "Odyssey."
"Like a fair virgin in her beauty's bloom," a tall and simple maiden;
her armour is cast off, she does not even wear her helmet; a golden
spear formerly rested by her side, and the snake, type of the native
soil, coils round her arm like a delicate bracelet.
The gay procession which this bas-relief represents actually took
place every fourth year at Midsummer. The festival lasted, as I have
mentioned, for twelve days, during which time various games, or rather
trials of strength and skill, were performed, in which the bravest
and noblest of the Athenian youths eagerly competed. Each day was
held a different game or contest. The procession and prize-giving
terminated the proceedings. None but free-born Athenian citizens,
however noble they might be held elsewhere, were allowed to take part.
None others might even walk in the procession, except, as we have
seen, in a servile capacity. The games consisted of chariot races,
races on horseback and on foot; and musical contests, in which the
flute players, and the players on the cithæra (or lyre) contended for
pre-eminence.
On the last day of the festival the citizens met in the Agora, or
market-place, where the procession was formed in the early morning;
they wound round the city and across the plain; and by noon they were
streaming up the steep hill of the Acropolis, their shining armour
of bronze flashing in the bright sunlight, and their white or yellow
holiday garments brilliant against the blue sky of Greece, as they
paced along on the hill-top towards their temple, chanting the praise
and story of their goddess as they went.
Arrived at the temple, sacrifices were offered up to Athéné and her
father, Zeus. This ceremony was performed in a manner somewhat similar
to that used for burnt-offerings in the Jewish Ritual, and described in
Leviticus. Certain portions of the victim were burnt, another portion
was set aside for the priests, and the rest was afterwards eaten by
the common people. The Greeks believed that their gods were actually
nourished by the fumes of the burning food.
I give a description of a Greek sacrifice from Homer's "Iliad":--
"Their prayers performed, the chiefs the rite pursue,
The barley sprinkled, and the victim slew.
The limbs they sever from the inclosing hide,
The thighs, selected to the gods, divide.
On these, in double cauls involved with art,
The choicest morsels lie from every part.
From the cleft wood the crackling flames aspire,
While the fat victims feed the sacred fire.
The thighs thus sacrificed, and entrails dress'd,
The assistants part, transfix, and roast the rest;
Then spread the tables, the repast prepare,
Each takes his seat and each receives his share."
While the priests offered up the victims on the altar in front of the
temple, the people chanted hymns in honour of their goddess, while they
moved round the altar with slow, rhythmic steps.
Immediately after the sacrifice of the burnt-offerings, the awards to
the victors in the athletic games took place; the victors themselves
and their immediate friends were alone admitted into the temple, where
sat the judges, the priests, and the chief officers of state; the
populace stood outside. There were no money prizes. The honour was the
one thing they had striven for, and the crowns of fresh leaves of oak
or parsley, olive or bay, were deemed an all-sufficient reward.
"'Tis but a crown of fading leaves
That the conqueror's hand receives."
But the prize esteemed before all others was a jar filled with the oil
made from the fruit of the olive-tree which grew within the precincts
of another and more ancient temple to Athéné on the Acropolis. This
tree was very old, and was firmly believed by her worshippers to have
been the same that Athéné had herself created, the first one known on
Attic soil, from which all the fertile olive-woods had sprung that
covered the plains. So highly did the victors in the games treasure
these vases that they never parted with them during their lifetime,
and when they died they were placed in their graves. From this custom
of burying treasured objects, many curious relics have come down to
us, and from it do we derive much of our knowledge of antiquity. The
sketch given against our initial-letter is from a vase found in the
tomb of a Greek colonist at Cyrene, on the north coast of Africa.
Our colonist, who laid his bones on the parched and sandy soil of
Africa, had evidently, in his youth, been the proud victor in one of
the chariot-races in Athens, for we see depicted on one side of the
vase a chariot-race, while a figure of Athéné, as the "warrior maid,"
appears on the other; the jar itself is inscribed with the words (in
Greek), "I am one of the prizes from Athens," of such a year, giving
the date. There are many of these interesting prize-vases from various
parts of the Greek world now to be seen in the Vase Room in the British
Museum--links with the dead past.
The judges who awarded the prizes to the victors in the games sat
within the temple, in a row, on a raised platform at the foot of the
great statue of Athéné, which was considered, for perfect beauty of
proportion and grand dignity of expression, one of the finest works of
art ever conceived. The expectant crowd, collected outside the temple,
could see through the open doorway this gigantic figure towering high
above the row of judges. It measured forty feet in height, and the
golden figure of the Victory, which is held in its outstretched hand,
alone measured six feet, the height of an extremely tall man.
The goddess thus appeared to the multitude to be presenting the prizes
to the successful competitors.
The Greeks aimed at cultivating the physical powers up to the greatest
possible pitch of perfection, and in later times they gave the same
pains to cultivating the powers of the mind. "_Mens sana in corpore
sano_" (a healthy mind in a healthy body) was one of their favourite
maxims. Their games and feats of strength were to the Greeks, in their
day, a good deal what our Oxford and Cambridge boat races, our Eton
and Harrow cricket matches, our Volunteer training, are to us, which
help to make our English lads such fine spirited young fellows. In the
early days, before Pericles, the games consisted entirely of trials of
physical skill--foot races, horse races, wrestling, boxing, throwing
the discus or quoit. But in the more cultivated times of Pheidias,
there were also trials of intellectual skill.
It is recorded that Herodotus, the earliest Greek historian (called the
"father of history"), read aloud his history to the assembled Athenians
at the Pan-Athenaic festival, 446 B.C. It was so greatly admired that
the city with one voice voted him a reward of ten talents (a talent is
worth about £240). While at other festivals dramas were produced, and
the plays being acted in the great open-air theatre at the foot of the
Acropolis, the author of the best play received a crown of laurel.
The plays then written, the subjects of which were the popular Greek
legends, still rank, for grandeur of sentiment and nobility of feeling,
with the finest poetry the world has ever produced. This proves to us
that the Greeks were a highly refined and cultivated people. The Greek
influence in art and literature has left its own mark in civilising
and elevating mankind; but the belief in their legends was doomed to
fade away and vanish utterly, "like an insubstantial pageant," when the
truer light arose in Palestine which came in after years to bless and
illumine the world.
(_To be concluded._)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hecaton--Greek for hundred; pedon, feet.
[2] Parthenos--Greek for virgin.
[3] The Greek Zeus is the Jupiter of the Roman mythology.
[4] As Homer constantly calls her.
EXPLANATION OF FRENCH AND OTHER TERMS USED IN MODERN COOKERY.