Ross, pl. 13, fig. A; Kekulé, Balustrade, pl. 1, fig. A; Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd ed., I., fig. 82; Murray, II., pl. 16, fig. 3; Brunn, Denkmaeler, No. 34.
THE CHORAGIC MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES.
The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates is a small edifice which presents one of the earliest examples of the use of the Corinthian order in Greek architecture. It may be thus described. On a square basement is a cylindrical structure resting on six Corinthian columns. Between them are six equal panels of white marble closely joined; at each vertical joint a Corinthian column has been fitted, so as to project more than half its diameter. Between the capitals were figures of tripods in relief, of which only one now survives. Above the colonnade is the entablature and a cupola or tholos; this is in the form of a tiling of laurel-leaves richly decorated round the circumference with a double row of projecting ornaments. From the apex of the roof rises a mass of foliage arranged in a triple form, on the three most projecting leaves of which was placed a bronze tripod, dedicated by a choragos, who had provided a victorious chorus. An inscription on the architrave immediately below the figure of Dionysos furnishes the name and date of the dedicator. It runs,* "Lysicrates of Kikynna, son of Lysitheides, was Choragos. The youths of the tribe Acamantis were victors, Theon was the flute player, Lysiades an Athenian was the instructor of the Chorus, Euainetos was Archon." The mention of this magistrate fixes the date of the monument to b.c. 335-4.
* C. I. G. 221; C. I. A., II., 1242. Λυσικράτης Λυσιθείδου Κικυννεὺς ἐχορήγει. Ἀκαμαντὶς παίδων ἐνίκα. Θέων ηὔλει. Λυσιάδης Ἀθηναῖος ἐδίδασκε. Εὐαίνετος ἦρχε.
Fig. 21.—The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. (After Stuart.)
The building still stands in its original position at Athens, below the eastern side of the Acropolis and a little to the north-east of the theatre of Dionysos. In antiquity it stood in a street called "the street of tripods" (Paus. i. 20, 1), because of the number of tripods which were there dedicated to Dionysos. At least as early as the 15th century the building was popularly known as the Lantern of Demosthenes. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was built into the wall of the French Capuchin monastery, and the interior served as the library of the Superior. The monastery was burnt in 1821, and the only trace of it is in a few tombstones of French citizens lying near. The monument now stands in an open square. Lord Elgin's casts are the best record of the frieze, as the sculptures, which are of Pentelic marble, have suffered considerably in the last ninety years.
The subject of the frieze here described is the victory of Dionysos over the Tyrrhenian pirates who had kidnapped him from Chios with the intention of selling him as a slave. The God revenged himself by transforming the pirates into dolphins, a myth which is to be found in the Homeric Hymn to Dionysos (No. vi.) and elsewhere (Ovid, Met. iii. 650; Nonnus, Dionys. xlv. 102; Philostr. Im. i. 19, &c. Cf. Gaz. Arch. 1875, p. 7). In the frieze the moment is represented when this transformation took place. According to Homer and most other writers, the event happened on board the ship, and the pirates were first terrified by a miraculous appearance of vines and wild beasts. The sculptor has preferred to represent the scene as passing on the rocky shore on which the pirates found Dionysos (Hom. Hymn, vi. l. 2) and has made Satyrs help in the vengeance. The subject is thus made to adapt itself to the requirements of sculpture. For a vase with a representation of the literary form of the legend, see Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder, i., pl. 49; Harrison, Mythology and Monuments of Anc. Athens, p. 251. An intaglio, with a pirate half transformed, as on the frieze, is engraved in the Gaz. Arch. 1875, p. 13.
It is convenient to take the architectural remains of Athens consecutively, and the monument of Lysicrates has therefore been inserted in this place. But the accurately ascertained date (335 b.c.) is a century later than the Parthenon, and it is easy to discern the change that has taken place. The form of Dionysos is becoming softer and more effeminate. The Satyrs on tip-toe belong to a scheme not introduced in the 5th century sculpture; more free play of humour is admitted. At the same time Attic schemes of composition present themselves, which had already come into use in the time of Pheidias.