DEMETER FROM CNIDUS.
Mr. Newton commenced his operations by examining a platform supported by polygonal masonry, and jutting out like a pier from the side of the mountain, soon discerning that he was on the site of the temenos of Demeter, as a niche in the face of the rock above still retained a portion of a dedicatory inscription to that goddess. Shortly afterwards he found a small stele, and, near it, the statue noticed by the Dilettanti mission, the head, hands, and feet of which were wanting. Enough, however, remained to show that it had once been a work “of fine style and execution.” Inscriptions soon after turned up on the same spot: one of them recording the dedication of an edifice (οἶκος) and of a statue (ἄγαλμα) to Demeter and Persephone, and, what was of far higher interest, the head of the seated figure just noticed, exhibiting a countenance of exquisite beauty, with a most tender and refined expression. This head has recently been specially studied by Professor Brunn, and his paper on it (translated by Mr. Murray, of the British Museum) published in vol. xi. pt. 1 of the Trans. of the Royal Society of Literature. In this paper Professor Brunn traces, with a masterly hand, the intercrossing ideas suggested by the mixed character of Demeter as a wife, a mother, and a widow. “The character,” says he, “of mother pervades the whole mythology of Demeter: the mother who, without a husband, lived only for her child; who had to lose her child, and to be filled with anxiety for her; to have her anxiety lessened, but never silenced or removed, by occasional visits from her daughter.... The eye is sunk in the socket, as if physically weary; but anxiety of mind fights against the weariness, and will not yet surrender to it. The look is not sunk, but is directed upwards, only a little less sharply.” ... “Can it be,” adds the Professor, “only the result of chance that Christian artists have also represented the Madonna wearing the veil? ... In the centre of the Christian religion, also, is the figure of a mother who lives only for her Child and in her Child, who, in the same way, grieves for the loss of her Son, and finds blessedness in the spiritual contemplation of Him. Suppose a Christian artist were to give his Madonna the head of our Demeter, he would certainly not be censured for it.”
About the same time Mr. Newton met with two other statues, each of considerable interest: the one representing a female figure with a modius on her head, partially covered by the peplos, and in her right hand a pomegranate; the other, a female statue nearly six feet high, with its body draped to the feet. Its general character is that of an elderly woman wasted with sorrow, with little of that matronly comeliness which, in ancient art, generally characterizes Demeter. From the Homeric hymn to Demeter we learn that the goddess, while wandering in search of her daughter Persephone, was wont to assume the garb of an old woman, and thus traversed the earth for days without tasting food. She is likened, also, to an aged nurse or housekeeper in a regal house, a description well agreeing with this statue. This type of the sorrowing Demeter has not, we believe, been previously recognized in any extant monument of ancient art. A passage, however, in Clemens Alexandrinus (Cohort. ad Gentes, i. 30, ed. Potter) suggests that she was sometimes represented in sculpture under this aspect.
Near the first statue of Demeter, the sitting figure, were several thin nearly decayed sheets of lead, which, on being unrolled, proved to have been inscribed with curses and imprecations in the names of Demeter, Persephone, and other of the infernal gods. Such inscriptions have been occasionally met with before, and are known by the name of Diræ.
On pursuing his researches in this temenos, Mr. Newton came upon the entrance to a large chamber, full of miscellaneous antiquities, including many bases of former statues, some with remains of stelæ, others with hollowed spaces for the feet of statues. Most of them bore dedications to Demeter in the Doric dialect; and, with them, were many other objects connected with her worship, as three boar pigs, a calathus, and many votive female breasts in marble. The date of these objects is probably, as Mr. Newton suggests, about B.C. 370-320. Below these, again, were layers of lamps, amphoriskoi, vessels in Samian ware, hair-pins of bone, bodkins, and glass bottles, all probably Roman. It is likely that this chamber was formerly a treasury connected with one of the temples; and, that it has never been disturbed since it became a ruin is certain from the fact that the edges of the fractured stones are still clean and sharp. It is curious that, besides the marble pigs, the bones of many young pigs were also found, manifest remains of sacrifices to Demeter.
The clearing out of the Theatres did little to reward Mr. Newton’s labours; indeed, it soon became but too clear that all, or nearly all, the finer works had long since been removed, probably, like the Venus, to Constantinople. Hence, shortly afterwards, he gave his chief attention to a thorough examination of the Necropolis, the vast extent of which naturally inspired hopes of important discoveries. This necropolis, the general character of which is very well shown in one of the plates in the “Ionian Antiquities,” must in former days have been one of the most striking features of the town. One of the structures still remaining in situ was, Mr. Newton observes, not unlike in form to an early Christian church, with a chamber, vestibule, and apse or alcove at the south end. On each side were smaller apses, and, in front of each of them, a marble sarcophagus. The sarcophagi generally exhibit good Roman work of the time of Domitian, but have suffered much by the fall of the roof; they must once have been magnificent specimens of the decorative style of their day, though they exhibit the decay of good taste in the lavish prodigality of ornament with which they have been covered. In the earth around were abundant fragments of Greek inscriptions, nearly all of them decrees of the Senate and people of Cnidus. One of the tombs Mr. Newton considered to have been that of a certain Lykæthus, as an inscription records decrees in his favour, by show of hands (χειροτονία), at the festival of the greater Dionysia, together with the erection of a statue to him at the public expense. There is no satisfactory proof as to when this Lykæthus lived; but his tomb would seem to date from the early Seleucidan period, when Cnidus was a free city.
Having completed the survey of Cnidus itself, Mr. Newton proceeded next to examine the villages in the neighbourhood, the result being the discovery of a colossal lion. Reports of its existence had reached him before, but it was left to Mr. Pullan, the architect of the expedition, to make its actual discovery, at a distance of between three and four miles to the E. of Cnidus, in a position wherein, except by accident, it might have remained unnoticed for another twenty-one centuries. The exact spot where the lion was found may be seen in the Admiralty chart, which shows, on the summit of a cliff, opposite Cape Crio, the ruins of an ancient tomb, which are strewn all around. Below this, some 60 feet, the lion was reposing on a ledge of rock, beneath which, again, is a sheer precipice of 300 feet into the sea. The lion was lying on its right side, and its upper portion had suffered much from exposure to the weather. It had been carved, as well as the base on which it reposes, of one piece of Parian marble, and measures nearly 10 ft. in length, by 6 ft. in height. This noble lion is probably earlier than the Mausoleum, and exhibits a more severe and majestic style than those of the Mausoleum.[[47]] The removal of the lion was a labour of much toil and difficulty; indeed, could hardly have been accomplished had Mr. Newton not had the aid of some sailors from an English ship of war.
[47]. See Frontispiece.
The tomb itself was a nearly equal square of 39 ft. 2¾ inches, with the remains of a pyramid like that of the Mausoleum.[[48]] Its present height is about 17 ft.; the four lower feet being composed of immense blocks of marble, supporting eleven courses of travertine. On the west, and most perfect side, a portion of the lower step of the stylobate still remains. No data have been obtained of the exact height of the columns once round the monument; but, as, in an angle step, one tread was 13½ inches, and the other only 10½, it is clear that this structure, like the Mausoleum, was oblong. Although the action of an earthquake was probably the primary cause of the ruin of this monumental tomb, there can be no doubt, also, that it has suffered much from plunderers, who, in search for treasure, have torn up as much of the inner pavement as they could move. The jambs of the doorway still exist, and the interior was shaped like a beehive. The top has been closed in by one immense block, and, as its upper side was somewhat broader than the lower, this block must have been dropped into its position, like the bung of a gigantic cask, after the rest of the building was finished. The chamber, itself, exhibits in its sides a series of openings expanding outwards like embrasures—no doubt, θῆκαι, or resting-places for bodies: indeed, on clearing the rubbish away, a number of human bones were met with. Mr. Newton considers this monument can hardly be later than 350 B.C., and that it was built as a monument to many citizens who had fallen in battle. To what period, then, can it be assigned? Probably to either the repulse of the Athenians by the Cnidians in B.C. 412; or to the defeat of the Lacedæmonians by Conon in B.C. 394; and, of the two, it is more likely it was erected in commemoration of the former event, which was one of much glory to the town. To the north and further inland, are two other tombs of precisely similar construction, but inferior in size.
[48]. Mr. Falkener found at Ouran, in Phrygia, a monument he has restored as similar to this Lion-tomb. We wish he had also given a sketch of the ruin as he found it. (Museum Class. Antiq. i. p. 174.)