Fig. 55—Amazon. Berlin.
The Amazons appear in legend as early as Homer, though he only mentions them incidentally. They were said to be a nation of women, who suffered no men among them, except so far as it was necessary to keep up the race. The women, on the other hand, were trained from their earliest years in all warlike exercises; so that they were not only sufficiently powerful to defend their own land against foreign invaders, but also to make plundering incursions into other countries. Their dominions, the situation of which was at first indefinitely described as in the far north or far west, were afterwards reduced to more distinct limits, and placed in Cappadocia, on the river Thermodon, their capital being Themiscyra in Scythia, on the borders of Lake Mæotis, where their intercourse with the Scythians is said to have given rise to the Sarmatian tribes. Later writers also speak of the Amazons in Western Libya. Of the numerous stories rife concerning them, none is more tasteless than that of their cutting off or burning out the right breast, in order not to incommode themselves in the use of the bow. From the Thermodon they are said to have made great expeditions as far as the Ægean sea; they are even reported to have invaded Attica, and made war on Theseus. They also play a prominent part in the story of Heracles, by whom they were defeated; and in the Trojan war, when, under their queen Penthesilea, they came to the assistance of Priam against the Greeks.
The Amazons were frequently represented in Greek art. They are here depicted as fine, powerful women, resembling Artemis and her nymphs, though with stouter legs and arms. They generally appear armed, their weapons being a long double-edged battle-axe (bipennis) and a semicircular shield. An anecdote related by Pliny proves what a favourite subject the Amazons were with Greek artists. He says that the celebrated sculptors, Phidias, Polycletus, Phradmon, and Cresilas, made a wager as to who should create the most beautiful Amazon. Polycletus received the prize, so that we may conclude that he brought this statue—the ideal Amazon of the Greeks—to its highest perfection. Unfortunately, we know nothing of it, except that it was of bronze, and stood with the statues of the other artists in the temple of the Ephesian Artemis. The Amazon of Phidias, we are told, was represented as leaning on a spear; Cresilas, on the other hand, endeavoured to portray a wounded Amazon. Besides these statues, we hear a great deal of the Amazon of Strongylion, celebrated for the beauty of her legs, which was in the possession of Nero.
We still possess a considerable number of Amazon statues, some of which are supposed to be imitations in marble of the renowned statue at Ephesus. There are, moreover, several statues of wounded Amazons, some of which are believed to be copies of the work of Cresilas. There is also another marble statue, considerably larger than life, which takes a still higher rank. It was originally set up in the Villa Mattei, but since the time of Clement XIV. it has been in the Vatican collection. It is apparently a representation of an Amazon resting after battle; she is in the act of laying aside her bow, as she has already done her shield, battle-axe, and helmet. In doing so she raises herself slightly on her left foot, an attitude which is as charming as it is natural.
Lastly, we must not omit to mention a statue that has newly come into the possession of the Berlin Museum, which is supposed to be after a work of Polycletus (Fig. 55).
We must now return to the history of Bellerophon. After returning in triumph from his expedition against the Amazons, the life of the young hero was once more attempted by Iobates, who caused him to be surprised by an ambuscade. Bellerophon, however, again escaped, slaying all his assailants. Iobates now ceased from further persecution, and gave him his daughter in marriage, and a share in the kingdom of Lycia. Bellerophon, in full possession of power and riches, and surrounded by blooming children, seemed to have reached the summit of earthly prosperity, when he was overtaken by a grievous change of fortune. He was seized with madness, and wandered about alone, fleeing the society of men, until he at length perished miserably. Pindar says that he incurred the enmity of the gods by attempting to fly to heaven on his winged horse Pegasus; whereupon Zeus sent a gadfly to sting the horse. Pegasus cast off Bellerophon, and flew of his own accord to the stables of Zeus, whose thunder-chariot he has ever since drawn. The sad fate of Bellerophon was the subject of a touching tragedy of Euripides, some parts of which are still in existence. Heroic honours were paid to Bellerophon in Corinth, and he also had a shrine in the celebrated cypress-grove of Poseidon.
4. Argive Legend.—1. Io.—The first personage who meets us on the very threshold of the mythic age of Argos is Inachus, the god of the Argive river of that name. Inachus was venerated by the inhabitants as the first founder of Argive civilisation after the flood of Deucalion. By his union with Melia, the daughter of Oceanus, he became the father of Io, famed for her beauty, whose history, which is of great antiquity, has been so greatly embellished by the poets and legendary writers. The following is the substance of the story:—
Io was the priestess of Hera. Her great beauty attracted the notice of Zeus. On remarking this, Hera, in her jealousy, changed Io into a white heifer, and set the hundred-eyed Argus Panoptes (the all-seeing) to watch her. Zeus, however, sent Hermes to take away the heifer. Hermes first lulled the guardian to sleep with his wand and then slew him, whence he is called Argiphontes (slayer of Argus). Hera avenged herself by sending a gadfly to torment Io, who, in her madness, wandered through Europe and Asia, until she at length found rest in Egypt, where, touched by the hand of Zeus, she recovered her original form, and gave birth to a son. This son, who was called Epaphus, afterwards became king of Egypt, and built Memphis. The myth, as we have already remarked, has received many embellishments, for the wanderings of Io grew more and more extensive with the growth of geographical knowledge. The true interpretation of the myth is due to F. W. Welcker, whose meritorious researches in Greek mythology have proved of such great value. Io (the wanderer) is the moon, whose apparently irregular course and temporary disappearance was considered a most curious phenomenon by the ancients. The moon-goddess of antiquity was very frequently represented under the figure of a heifer; and Isis herself, the Egyptian goddess of the moon, was always depicted with horns. The guardian of the heifer, the hundred-eyed Argus, is a symbol of the starry heaven. Whether we see in Hermes the dawn or the morning breeze, in either case the slaying of Argus will simply mean that the stars become invisible at sunrise. There is nothing extraordinary in representing the apparent irregularity of the moon’s course, inexplicable as it was to the ancients, under the guise of mental disorder. Similar representations occur in the stories of the solar heroes, Bellerophon and Heracles. In the south-east—the direction in which Egypt lay from Greece—Io again appears as full moon, in her original shape.
2. Danaüs and the Danaïds.—According to the legend, Danaüs was a descendant of Io. Epaphus, the son of Io, had a daughter Libya, who bore to Poseidon two sons, Agenor and Belus. The former reigned over Phœnicia, the latter over Egypt. Belus, by his union with Anchinoë, or Achiroë, the daughter of the Nile, became the father of Ægyptus and Danaüs. Between these two brothers—the former of whom had fifty sons and the latter fifty daughters—a deadly enmity arose; this induced Danaüs to migrate from Egypt and seek the old home of his ancestress Io. He embarked with his fifty daughters in a ship—the first that was ever built—and thus came to Argos, where Gelanor, the reigning descendant of Inachus, resigned the crown in his favour. As king of Argos, Danaüs is said to have brought the land, which suffered from want of water, to a higher state of cultivation by watering it with wells and canals. He is also said to have introduced the worship of Apollo and Demeter. The story proceeds to relate that the fifty sons of Ægyptus followed their uncle to Argos, and compelled him to give them his fifty daughters in marriage. Danaüs, in revenge, gave each of his daughters on the wedding day a dagger, and commanded them to slay their husbands in the night. All obeyed his command except Hypermnestra, who spared her husband Lynceus, and afterwards even succeeded, with the assistance of Aphrodite, in effecting his reconciliation with her father. Lynceus succeeded Danaüs in the kingdom, and became, by his son Abas, the ancestor of both the great Argive heroes, Perseus and Heracles. At a later period, the fable sprang up that the Danaïds were punished for their crimes in the lower world by having continually to pour water into a cask full of holes. It has been frequently remarked that this punishment has no conceivable connection with the crime. Neither must we forget that the idea of retribution in the lower world was of a comparatively late date. Originally, too, the idea prevailed that the pursuits of the upper world were continued after death in the realms of Hades. And herein lies the key to the interpretation of the myth, which is evidently connected with the irrigation of Argos ascribed to Danaüs.
3. Prœtus and his Daughters.—Acrisius and Prœtus were twin sons of Abas, the son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra. Between these two brothers an implacable hostility existed, which was said by the poets to have commenced even in their mother’s womb. Prœtus received, as his share of the patrimony, the kingdom of Tiryns; but he was subsequently expelled by his brother, and took refuge at the court of Iobates, king of Lycia. Iobates gave him his daughter Antea, or Sthenebœa, in marriage, and afterwards restored him to his kingdom of Tiryns. Prœtus, with the aid of the Lycian workmen whom he had brought with him (Cyclopes), built a strong fortress, which enabled him not only to maintain peaceable possession of Tiryns, but also to extend his dominion as far as Corinth. The legend then passes to the history of his three daughters, the Prœtides, whose pride was so excited by their father’s greatness and their own beauty that they began to think themselves superior to the gods. Their arrogance, however, was soon punished, for they were visited with a foul disease and driven mad. They now fled the society of mankind, and wandered about among the mountains and woods of Argos and Arcadia. At length Prœtus succeeded in procuring the services of the celebrated soothsayer and purifier Melampus, who undertook the purification and cure of his daughters. It was reported of Melampus that serpents had licked his ears whilst asleep, and that he acquired, in consequence, a knowledge of the language of birds. He successfully accomplished the cure of the Prœtides, and received, as a reward, the hand of the princess Iphianassa, in addition to which both he and his brother Bias received a share in the sovereignty of Tiryns. Thus it was that the race of the Amythaonidæ, who all inherited the gift of seeing into futurity, and from whom the celebrated soothsayer Amphiaraüs himself was descended, came to Argos.