The metopes of the temple are in the same style of art as the pediments,
but the defects of awkwardness and want of mastery are less conspicuous,
because the narrow limits of the metope exclude any elaborate grouping.
The subjects are provided by the twelve labours of Heracles; the figures
introduced in each metope are but two or at most three; and the action
is simplified as much as possible. The example shown (fig. 35)
represents Heracles holding up the sky on a cushion, with the friendly
aid of a Hesperid nymph, while Atlas, whom he has relieved of his usual
burden, approaches bringing the apples which it was the task of Heracles
to procure.
Another of the fruits of the excavations of Olympia is the floating
Victory by Paeonius, unfortunately faceless (fig. 36), which was set up
in all probability in memory of the victory of the Athenians and their
Messenian allies at Sphacteria in 425 B.C. The inscription states that
it was dedicated by the Messenians and people of Naupactus from the
spoils of their enemies, but the name of the enemy is not mentioned in
the inscription. The statue of Paeonius, which comes floating down
through the air with drapery borne backward, is of a bold and innovating
type, and we may trace its influence in many works of the next age.
Delphic charioteer.
Among the discoveries at Delphi none is so striking and valuable to us
as the life-size statue in bronze of a charioteer holding in his hand
the reins. This is maintained by M. Homolle to be part of a
chariot-group set up by Polyzalus, brother of Gelo and Hiero of
Syracuse, in honour of a victory won in the chariot-race at the Pythian
games at Delphi (fig. 37). The charioteer is evidently a high-born
youth, and is clad in the long chiton which was necessary to protect a
driver of a chariot from the rush of air. The date would be about
480-470 B.C. Bronze groups representing victorious chariots with their
drivers were among the noblest and most costly dedications of antiquity;
the present figure is our only satisfactory representative of them. In
style the figure is very notable, tall and slight beyond all
contemporary examples. The contrast between the conventional
decorousness of face and drapery and the lifelike accuracy of hands and
feet is very striking, and indicates the clashing of various tendencies
in art at the time when the great style was formed in Greece.
[Illustration: _Memoires, Piot_, 1807, 16.