Fig. 14.—Diana of Versailles.
Artemis is a favourite subject with the masters of the later Attic school. She is always represented as youthful, slender and light of foot, and without womanly fulness. Her devotion to the chase is clearly betokened by the quiver and bow which she generally bears, and by the high girt robe and Cretan shoes, which allow her to pass unencumbered through the thickets of the forest.
Among existing statues, the most celebrated is the so-called Diana of Versailles, which came from the Villa of Hadrian, at Tibur (Fig. 14). It is now a chief ornament of the Louvre collection, and is a worthy companion to the Belvedere Apollo, although it does not quite equal this in beauty. In this statue the goddess does not appear as a huntress, but rather as the protectress of wild animals. She is conceived as having just come to the rescue of a hunted deer, and is in the act of turning with angry mien on the pursuers. With her right hand she grasps an arrow from the quiver that hangs at her back, and in her left she holds the bow.
A really beautiful statue of the Vatican collection depicts the goddess in a most striking attitude. She has just sent forth her deadly arrow, and is eagerly watching its effect. The hound at her side is just about to start in eager pursuit of the mark, which was evidently therefore a wild animal. In her left hand is the bow, still strung, from which her right hand has just directed the arrow. Her foot is likewise upraised in triumph, and her whole deportment expresses the proud joy of victory. The chief attributes of Diana are bow, quiver, and spear, and also a torch, as an emblem of her power to dispense light and life. The hind, the dog, the bear, and the wild boar were esteemed sacred to her.
6. Ares (Mars).—Ares, the son of Zeus and Hera, represents war from its fatal and destructive side, by which he is clearly distinguished from Athene, the wise disposer of battles. He was, it is probable, originally a personification of the angry clouded sky. His home, according to Homer, was in Thrace, the land of boisterous, wintry storms, among whose warlike inhabitants he was held in high esteem, although his worship was not so extensive in Greece. Homer, in the Iliad, paints in particularly lively colours the picture of the rude “manslaying” god of war. He here appears as a deity who delights only in the wild din of battle, and is never weary of strife and slaughter. Clad in brazen armour from head to foot, with waving plume, helmet, and high-poised spear, his bull’s hide shield on his left arm, he ranges the battlefield, casting down all before him in his impetuous fury. With strength he combines great agility, and is, according to Homer, the fleetest of the gods. Strong though he be, however, he is overmatched in battle by Athene; a palpable indication that prudent courage often accomplishes more than impetuous violence.
The usual attendants and servants of Ares are Fear and Terror. By some writers they are described as his sons, yet in Homer they fight against him. There is little to be said of the principal seats of his worship in Greece. In Thebes he was regarded as the god of pestilence; and Aphrodite, who elsewhere appears as the wife of Hephæstus, was given him to wife. By her he became the father of Harmonia, who married Cadmus, and thus became the ancestress of the Cadmean race in Thebes. According to an Athenian local legend, his having slain a son of Poseidon gave rise to the institution of the Areopagus. He was here regarded as the god of vengeance. A celebrated statue by Alcamenes adorned his temple at Athens. Among the warlike people of Sparta the worship of Ares was also extensive.
This deity was regarded with a far greater degree of veneration in Rome, under the appellation of Mars, or Mavors. He seems to have occupied an important position even among the earliest Italian tribes. It was not as god of war, however—for which, amid the peaceful pursuits of cattle-rearing and husbandry, they cared little—but as the god of the spring triumphing over the powers of winter that he was worshipped. It was from his bounty that the primitive people looked for the prosperous growth of their flocks and the fruits of their fields; it was Mars on whom they called for protection against bad weather and destructive pestilence.
In warlike Rome, however, this deity soon laid aside his peaceful character, and donned the bright armour of the god of war. He was even regarded as being, after Jupiter, the most important god of the state and people of Rome. Numa himself gave him a flamen of his own, and created or restored in his honour the priesthood of the Salii. The occasion, according to the sacred legend, was on this wise. As King Numa one morning, from the ancient palace at the foot of the Palatine, raised his hands in prayer to Jove, beseeching his protection and favour for the infant state of Rome, the god let fall from heaven, as a mark of his favour, an oblong brazen shield (ancile). At the same time a voice was heard declaring that Rome should endure as long as this shield was preserved. Numa then caused the sacred shield, which was recognised as that of Mars, to be carefully preserved. The better to prevent its abstraction, he ordered an artist to make eleven others exactly similar, and instituted for their protection the college of the Salii, twelve in number, like the shields, who were selected from the noblest families in Rome. Every year in the month of March, which was sacred to Mars, they bore the sacred shields in solemn procession through the streets of Rome, executing warlike dances and chanting ancient war-songs. From the days of Numa the worship of “Father Mars” continued to acquire an ever-increasing popularity. Before the departure of a Roman army on any expedition, the imperator retired to the sanctuary of the god in the old palace, and there touched the sacred shields and the spear of the statue of Mars, crying aloud at the same time, “Mars, watch over us!” According to popular belief, the god himself went unseen before the host as it marched to battle, whence he was called “Gradivus.” In the war with the Lucanians and Bruttians (282 B.C.), when the consuls were hesitating whether to begin the attack, an unknown youth of extraordinary stature and beauty encouraged the troops to begin the assault on the enemy’s camp, and was himself the first to scale the wall. When he was afterwards sought for, in order that he might receive his richly merited reward, he had disappeared, leaving no trace behind him. As it could have been none other than Father Mars, the consul, Fabricius, decreed him a thanksgiving of three days’ duration.
Mars naturally received a due share of all booty taken in war. Defeat was ascribed to his wrath, which men strove to avert by extraordinary sin-offerings.
Popular belief made Mars the father, by a vestal virgin, of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of the city. His wife appears to have been Nerio; but she enjoyed no honours at Rome.