ART.
Since the taste for classic art has existed this statue has attracted attention. It is said that Raphael and Michael Angelo were filled with admiration when beholding it. There has never been any attempt at restoration of the hand which undoubtedly held a spear. Few heads of the hero type can be compared with this for power of expression. Meleager’s unparalleled virtues and his morbid passion are both represented. The statue is probably a Roman copy in marble of some celebrated Greek original in bronze. It is in the Belvedere of the Vatican.
Apollo Musagetes.
“The Patron of Music.”
“To the sun-god all our hearts and lyres,
By day, by night, belong;
And the breath we draw from his living fires
We give him back in song.”
—Moore.
STORY.
THE LEADER OF THE MUSES.
“Whom all the Muses loved, not one alone;—
Into his hand they put the lyre of gold,
And crowned with sacred laurel at their fount,
Placed him as Musagetes, on their throne.”
—Longfellow.
Apollo was skilled in the art of music and sang hymns of his composing to an accompaniment of his own upon a wonderful lyre which Hermes had made for him. He was the dearly loved leader of the nine Muses, and was surnamed Musagetes.
That he should be the god both of music and poetry does not appear strange, but that medicine should also be assigned to his province may. Armstrong, a physician as well as a poet, thus explains—
“Music exalts each joy, allays each grief,
Expels diseases, softens every pain;
And hence the wise of ancient days adored
One power of physic, melody and song.”