Reclining male figures are sometimes characterised as Herakles or a Satyr; but this type is most fully developed at Tarentum, in numerous terracottas representing the well-known subject of the Sepulchral Banquet, associated with a cult of the Chthonian deities.[[429]] There are also various types of grotesque figures, usually in a squatting or crouching attitude; some assume the form of a Satyr, and others are obviously derived from the Egyptian figures of Ptah-Socharis, with bent knees and protruding stomach.
PLATE IX
Greek Terracottas of Hellenistic Period (British Museum).
1, 4, Tanagra; 2, 3, Southern Italy.
In the fine and later periods, from the end of the fifth century onwards, the standing or seated feminine figures are still by far the most prominent. The change, however, which has taken place, from mythological to genre, has been described as an evolution rather than a revolution, brought about by artistic, not religious, considerations. The possible varieties of the feminine standing types may be best studied in the Tanagra figures (Plate [IX.]), which include women or girls in every variety of pose or attitude. In most cases the arms are more or less concealed by the himation, which is drawn closely across the figure; in others a fan, mirror, wreath, or mask is held in one hand, the other drawing the edges of the drapery together. Some lean on a column or are seated on a rock; others play with a bird or perform their toilet. Imitations of the Tanagra figures, but vastly inferior in merit, subsequently became popular all over the Greek world; they are found at Myrina in Asia Minor, in Cyprus, the Cyrenaica, and many parts of Southern Italy.
Among miscellaneous types of the Hellenistic period, many of the archaic ones already mentioned retain their popularity. Others appear for the first time, and are more in accordance with the spirit of the age, such as girls dancing, playing with knucklebones, or carrying one another pick-a-back. There is a beautiful group of two knucklebone-players from Capua in the British Museum (D 161). The dancing type is found widely distributed.
Figures of goddesses and mythological subjects are very rare at Tanagra, but fairly common on other sites, as at Myrina and Naukratis. Archaistic imitations of the archaic seated and standing goddesses are often found in the Cyrenaica and Southern Italy; but the Chthonian deities appear but rarely among the types of more advanced style. As in sculpture and vase-paintings, Aphrodite now becomes the most prominent among the feminine deities, and some of the later statuettes appear to be reproductions of well-known works of art, the Cnidian Aphrodite, the Anadyomene, or the crouching type of Aphrodite at the bath. Artemis and Athena are occasionally found, but Nike (Victory) is really the most popular figure after Aphrodite. She, however, plays little more than the part of a female Eros, a counterpart to whom the Hellenic artist felt to be a necessity. Formerly these winged female types were styled Psyche, but this was a conception of post-Hellenistic origin.
Among the male deities the conditions remain much as before. Zeus appears for the first time, and was especially popular at Smyrna, and Sarapis and Asklepios are also occasionally found. In Naukratis the influence of the Egyptian religion made itself felt in the production of numerous figures of Bes, Harpocrates, and the like. Hermes is not found so often as might have been expected, though there is a notable instance in the British Museum (C 406) of a caricature of the famous statue by Praxiteles, where a Satyr takes his place. Dionysos is only met with occasionally, as are Satyrs and Maenads; but masks of a Bacchic character are very common in Italy.