191. Cast of a metope from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. Heracles supports on his shoulders the vault of heaven, while the Titan Atlas brings him the golden apples of the Hesperides. Heracles has a folded cushion on his shoulders to make the burden easier; Atlas stands before him with six apples in his outstretched hands. A Hesperid or nymph stands behind and raises one hand as if to share the weight.
The original is of marble, and is at Olympia, where it was discovered by the German excavators. Ausgrabungen zu Olympia, I., 26; Athenische Mittheilungen, I., pl. 11; Murray, II., pl. 13; Wolters, No. 280; Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd ed., I., p. 445; Boetticher, Olympia, p. 285. (Boetticher's illustration is most nearly complete. That of Overbeck gives both hands of Atlas.) For the female head, see Journ. of Hellen. Studies, V., pl. 45.
192. Cast of a statue of Victory, by Paionios of Mendè, Victory is supposed to be moving forward through mid-air. One foot rests lightly on the back of an eagle, beneath which is a rock. The wings and draperies that were originally spread out behind the figure are now wanting. The statue stood on a triangular pedestal, about 19 feet high. On the pedestal was an inscription recording that the Victory was offered as a tithe of spoil to Olympian Zeus by the Messenians and Naupactians; and that the author was Paionios of Mendè, who made the acroteria of the temple:—Μεσσάνιοι καὶ Ναυπάκτιοι ἀνέθεν Διὶ | Ὀλυμπίῳ δεκάταν ἀπὸ τῶμ πολεμίων. Παιώνιος ἐποίησε Μενδαῖος | καὶ τἀκρωτήρια ποιῶν ἐπὶ τὸν ναὸν ἐνίκα. Mr. Murray (Gr. Sculpt., ii. p. 162) suggests as an explanation of the last clause of the inscription that the Victory was a replica of the acroteria (or figures above the pediments) of the Temple of Zeus. These are known to have been gilded figures of Victory (Paus., v. 10, 2). Pausanias was inclined to think that the inscription referred to a war of the Messenians against the Acarnanians (452 b.c.); but the Messenians of his time supposed that the statue was erected soon after the defeat of the Spartans at Sphacteria in 424 b.c.
Discovered by the German excavators at Olympia, and now in the Museum at Olympia.
Marble. Ausgrabungen zu Olympia, I., pls. 9-12; inscr. ibidem, pl. 32; pedestal, ibidem, II., pl. 34; Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd ed., I., figs. 88, 89; Murray, II., pl. 19; Wolters, Nos. 496, 497.
STATUES OF APOLLO (?).
Of the following sculptures, Nos. 200-207 are examples of a somewhat numerous class of nude male figures, standing constrainedly with the heads directed straight to the front, having the hands either close by the sides, or slightly raised, by a bending of the arms at the elbows.
The name of Apollo has been commonly given to sculptures of the type here described, but doubts have often been raised as to the accuracy of the title. It seems clear that at the stage of art represented by these figures one type of nude male figure was made to serve various purposes. It cannot be doubted that the type was often used to represent Apollo, for such figures have been found in or near shrines of Apollo at Naucratis (Petrie, Naukratis, i., pl. 1, fig. 4), Delos (Arch. Zeit., 1882, p. 323), Actium (Gaz. Arch., 1886, p. 235), and at the temple of Apollo Ptoös in Boeotia (Bull. de Corr. Hellénique, x., p. 66, Brunn, Denkmaeler, No. 12). The same type of Apollo occurs, e.g. on a vase in the Brit. Mus. (No. E, 313; Gaz. Arch., 1882, p. 58), on a vase published in Annali dell' Inst., 1849, pl. D (cf. Hamilton Vases, ii., pl. 6), and on a Pompeian fresco (Arch. Zeit., 1882, p. 58). Compare a relief in the Palazzo Corsini (Dütschke, ii., p. 114). At the same time, similar figures served to represent athletes (Paus., viii., 40) and, perhaps, were placed on tombs, to represent a deceased person.