| FIG. | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Bust of Cronus. Vatican Museum, | [20] |
| 2. | Cameo of Athenion | [21] |
| 3. | Zeus of Otricoli. Vatican Museum, | [27] |
| 4. | Jupiter Verospi. Vatican Museum, | [29] |
| 5. | Coins of Elis with Phidias’ Zeus. (After Overbeck.) | [30] |
| 6. | Barberini Juno. Vatican Museum, | [32] |
| 7. | Head of Hera, perhaps after Polycletus. Naples, | [33] |
| 8. | Pallas Giustiniani. Vatican, | [38] |
| 9. | Athene Polias. Villa Albani, | [39] |
| 10. | Pallas Athene. Naples, | [40] |
| 11. | Apollo Belvedere. Vatican, | [44] |
| 12. | Head of Apollo Belvedere, | [45] |
| 13. | Apollo Citharœdus. Munich, | [47] |
| 14. | Diana of Versailles, | [50] |
| 15. | Mars Ludovisi, | [55] |
| 16. | Bust of Ares. Sculpture Gallery at Munich, | [56] |
| 17. | Venus of Milo. Louvre, | [60] |
| 18. | Venus Genetrix. Villa Borghese, | [61] |
| 19. | Resting Hermes. Bronze Statue at Naples, | [66] |
| 20. | Statue of Hermes. Capitoline Collection, | [67] |
| 21. | Hephæstus. Bronze Figure in the British Museum, | [70] |
| 22. | Vesta Giustiniani. Torlonia Collection, | [74] |
| 23. | Head of Eros. Vatican, | [78] |
| 24. | Eros trying his Bow. Capitoline Museum, | [79] |
| 25. | Polyhymnia. Berlin Museum, | [80] |
| 26. | Melpomene. Vatican, | [81] |
| 27. | Euterpe. Vatican, | [82] |
| 28. | The Horæ. Relief from the Villa Albani, | [85] |
| 29. | Victoria. United Collections in Munich, | [86] |
| 30. | Hebe. From Antonio Canova, | [88] |
| 31. | Ganymedes and the Eagle. From Thorwaldsen, | [89] |
| 32. | Asclepius. Berlin, | [95] |
| 33. | Head of Asclepius. British Museum, | [96] |
| 34. | Night and the Fates. From Carstens, | [97] |
| 35. | Poseidon. Dolce Gem, | [103] |
| 36. | Dionysus and Lion. From the Monument of Lysicrates, | [116] |
| 37. | The so-called Sardanapalus in the Vatican, | [119] |
| 38. | Youthful Dionysus. From the Chateau Richelieu, now in the Louvre, | [120] |
| 39. | Marble Head of Youthful Dionysus at Leyden, | [121] |
| 40. | Sleeping Ariadne. Vatican, | [122] |
| 41. | Dannecker’s Ariadne. Frankfort-on-the-Main, | [123] |
| 42. | Head of Satyr. Munich Sculpture Gallery, | [126] |
| 43. | Pan. From a Mural Painting at Herculaneum, | [130] |
| 44. | Demeter Enthroned. Painting from Pompeii. Naples, | [142] |
| 45. | Persephone Enthroned. Painting from Pompeii. Naples, | [145] |
| 46. | Head of Hades. Palazzo Chigi. Rome, | [147] |
| 47. | Three-formed Hecate. Capitoline Museum, | [154] |
| 48. | Metope of the Parthenon, | [166] |
| 49. | From the Frieze of the Temple at Bassæ | [167] |
| 50. | Centaur teaching a boy to play upon the Pipe. Relief by Kundmann, | [169] |
| 51. | Actæon. Group. British Museum, | [172] |
| 52. | Farnese Bull. Naples, | [174] |
| 53. | Head of Niobe. Florence, | [Frontispiece]. |
| 54. | Niobe. Florence, | [178] |
| 55. | Amazon. Berlin, | [183] |
| 56. | Perseus and Andromeda. Marble Relief in the Museum at Naples, | [192] |
| 57. | Rondanini Medusa. Munich, | [193] |
| 58. | Farnese Hercules, | [215] |
| 59. | Elgin Theseus. British Museum, | [225] |
| 60. | Theseus Lifting the Rock. Relief in the Villa Albani, | [226] |
| 61. | Laocoön. Group, | [255] |
| 62. | Priam before Achilles. Relief by Thorwaldsen, | [260] |
| 63. | Rape of Helen. Campana Collection. Paris, | [261] |
| 64. | Orpheus and Eurydice. Marble Relief in the Villa Albani, | [263] |
Greek and Roman Mythology.
INTRODUCTION.
I.—SUBJECTS OF GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY.
Myths may be described as poetic narratives of the birth, life, and actions of the old heathen gods and heroes or demigods. Both myth and legend[[1]] are distinguished from the “Mährchen,” or popular tale, by not being, like the latter, a mere product of the imagination, but always being founded on some preceding reality, whether that be an oft-recurring phase of nature, or a distinct and real occurrence. It is often most difficult to recognise with any precision the true germ of a myth, on account of the numerous additions and alterations made by the poets. And therefore the question, whether a particular tradition be a myth or not, is very hard to answer: on one side we are tempted to view, in the god or demigod, the hero of a tribe magnified to superhuman proportions by the admiration of posterity; and, on the other side, comparison of the legends of different families of nations points us to the operations of nature, not only in the demigod or the hero, but in the animals of fable and the traditions of the nursery.
[1]. The German word “sage” (legend) is really only a translation of the Greek word “mythos,” and is often used in that sense. But lately the custom has tacitly sprung up of employing the term “mythos” when speaking of the life or actions of the gods, and “sage” when speaking of those of heroes.
A large proportion of these myths are due to men’s observations of Nature, and her various active and creative forces, which appeared to their lively Southern fancy as manifestations of single supernatural beings. These were regarded, now as friendly, now as hostile, to man; and men therefore strove as eagerly to gain their favour as to appease their wrath. Of the appearance of the deities who thus manifested themselves in the workings of nature, men necessarily formed at first very crude and fantastic ideas. But later, when men emerged from the simple conditions of the early patriarchal epoch, and began to dwell in regular political communities, they gradually ceased to regard the gods as mere personifications of natural forces. They began to regard them as beings acting in accordance with unchangeable moral laws, and endowed with forms similar to those of men (Anthropomorphism). They brought the gods into connection with each other by means of genealogies in a great measure artificial, and built up a vast political system, which has its centre in Zeus, the “father of gods and men.”
Strange to say, however, it was only among the Greeks that this system of development prevailed. The nations of Italy still continued to regard their gods as mere natural forces—that looked down on them in a cold, strange fashion—of whose form and mode of life they had no clear idea. It was only later, when the Romans came into intellectual contact with their Greek neighbours, and began to study their language and literature, that they adopted the popular Greek conceptions concerning the gods. They now transferred existing myths, and fathered them on those of their own gods and goddesses who bore the closest resemblance to the Greek divinities, and harmonised best with their natural interpretation. Thus it was that the Roman Jupiter was identified with the Greek Zeus, Juno with Hera, Minerva with Athene; though for peculiar deities, such as Janus, they could find no Greek prototype.