The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mythology in Marble, by Louie M. Bell

Transcriber’s Note

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“Myths are told and songs are chanted

Full of promptings and suggestions.”

Mythology in Marble

BY
LOUIE M. BELL

Educational Publishing Company
BOSTON
NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO

Copyrighted
By EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1901

“All passes. Art alone

Enduring stays to us;

The bust outlasts the throne,—

The coin, Tiberius;

“Even the gods must go;

Only the lofty rhyme

Not countless years o’erthrow,—

Not long array of time.

“Paint, chisel, then, or write;

But, that the work surpass,

With the hard fashion fight,—

With the resisting mass.”

—Austin Dobson.

Index

Preface.

“They are coming back in might,

Olympic gods, to claim their ancient right.

Shall then the sacred majesty of old,

The grace that holy was, the noble rage,

Temper our strife, abate our greed for gold,

Make fine our modern age?”

In this practical age it is not to be supposed that busy people in general have time to make a thorough study of mythologic science: but to share understandingly the love of sculpture now awakened in the public mind, and for a better appreciation of our galleries of casts, it is desirable to have at least a suggestive knowledge of the myths and legends which have inspired so many artists in the moulding of their statues, for—

“Even in ruins of their marble limbs

They breathe of that far world wherefrom they came,

Of liquid light and harmonies serene,

Lost halls of heaven and fair Olympian air.”

In this book the aim has been to introduce some of the best specimens of mythologic sculpture to those who wish to become acquainted with things which add to the resources of a happy imagination, but who find it impracticable to study set treatises on “fossil theology,” or to consider the historical development of art.

An unpretentious exposition of the myths has been given together with their popular interpretations. The poets, ever the best commentators on mythology and sculpture, are freely quoted. These metrical lines, relating either to the statues or the stories, may serve to stamp indelibly on the mind facts otherwise effaceable.

A table of Greek and Roman synonymous deities and a list of suggestive readings in modern literature are appended.

—L. M. B.

The Gods and Their Makers.

“Want you the brand and scope of man, he is

Maker of Gods. A novice at the trade,

He made God out of winds and thunder clouds,

The unpropitious seasons, threatening moons,

And the invisible ambuscade of death.

Poor frightened babe, he worshiped with a wail,

Clutching his mother earth, and in her face

Burying his fears. Then childlike artist grown

He craved for form, and from the shapes around

Contorted fair the figure of himself,

Moulded his deities in wood and stone

Around his bed, his banquet board, his tomb

As yet a bungler, but when youth infused

Into the sap and marrow of his brain

The vernal subtleties of love, he dreamed

Of gods as fair as he himself would be,

Majestic, abstract, yet with solid power

To make a goddess tremble; and behold,

Under the yearning passion of his thought

The embryonic marble sloughed its shell,

And gods of strength and beauty trod the earth,

Their foreheads high in heaven.”

—Alfred Austin.

Jupiter.
“The Father of Gods.”

“From the great father of the gods above

My muse begins; for all is full of Jove.”

—Milton.

STORY.
THE KING OF THE HEAVENS.

“When gods began with wrath,

And war rose up between their brows,

Some choosing to cast Cronus from his throne,

That Zeus might king it there, and some in haste,

With opposite oaths, that they would have no Zeus

To rule the gods forever.”

—E. B. Browning.

Cronus, the father of Jupiter, was in the habit of swallowing his children at birth, but when Jupiter was born his mother, Rhea, hid him in a cave and gave to the unnatural father a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he accepted, unaware of the deception.

Jupiter grew up under the care of the nymphs, and, after a mighty conflict, overthrew the dynasty of the old gods and took possession of the throne and dominion of Cronus. He was then supreme ruler of gods and men, but had viceroys of the sea and the regions of the dead in Neptune and Pluto. His lawful wife, Juno, reigned with him in equal sovereignty. Their children were Mars, Vulcan and Hebe. Although wedded to Juno, Jupiter as the deity of the visible heavens, had brides and children in many lands. The abode of this wisest and most glorious of the divinities was on Mt. Olympus in the unclouded ether.

INTERPRETATION.

The strange story of Cronus, who swallowed his own children, has reference to the consumption and reproduction continually going on in nature.

The words Jupiter, Zeus, Jove, mean heaven, father, almighty.

ART.

This Carrara marble head was found at Otricoli, a small town near Rome, in 1775, and is called the most beautiful of all the representations of Jupiter. The high forehead is made to appear still higher by the lines of the hair which meet in the center in a pointed arch. A deep furrow divides the hair from the face. The curled beard seems admirably in keeping with Olympian dignity.

The work was probably executed in Rome in about the first century.

Juno.
“The Ox-eyed Queen.”

“Where, O Juno, is the glory

Of thy regal look and tread?

Will they lay forever more, thee

On thy dim, straight, golden bed?

Will they queendom all lie hid

Meekly under either lid?”

—E. B. Browning.

STORY.
THE GODDESS OF MARRIAGE.

“Wedding is great Juno’s crown:

Oh, blessed bond of board and bed!

’Tis Hymen peoples every town;

High wedlock then be honored;

Honor, high honor and renown,

To Hymen, god of every town.”

—Shakespeare.

Juno’s marriage to Jupiter was one of the most auspicious events that ever took place on Mt. Olympus. To their union were traced all the blessings of nature and when they met as on Mt. Ida in a golden cloud, sweet and fragrant flowers sprang up around them.

It is recorded, however, that they had many quarrels and wranglings, the blame of which was usually traced to Juno. She was frequently angry, jealous and quarrelsome, and her character was proud and not free from bitterness. The Romans believed that every woman had her Juno who protected her through life. The peacock was sacred to Juno.

“The white-armed Juno there enthroned was seen,

Sovereign of heaven and Jove’s imperious queen;

Still near his queen her watchful peacock spreads

His thousand eyes, his circling luster sheds;

Where’er she bends the living radiance burns

And floats majestic as the goddess turns.”

—Lope de Vega.

INTERPRETATION.

Juno is the personification of what may be called the “female powers of the heavens, that is, the atmosphere with its fickle, yet fertilizing qualities.” That phase of her life as bride is obviously associated with the phenomena of the heavens in the spring time when the return of dazzling light and warmth spreads everywhere affectionate gaiety and blooming of new life.

ART.

This marble head is in the Villa Ludovisi, Rome, and is considered the most beautiful of all the representations of Juno. It expresses great energy of character united with the utmost feminine grace and purity. The name of the artist is unknown, but he is presumed to have been an Athenian.

Apollo Belvedere.
“And the cold marble leapt to life a god.”

“‘Bright haired Apollo,’ thou who ever art

A blessing to the world—whose mighty heart

Forever pours out love and light and life.”

—Pike.

STORY.
A PYTHIAN GOD.

The slime with which the earth was covered by the waters of the flood, caused so excessive a fertility as to produce every variety of life, both good and bad. An enormous serpent, called Python, crept forth and lurking in the caves of Mt. Parnassus, became the terror of the people.

Apollo encountered this reptile, and, after a fearful battle, slew him with his arrows. In commemoration of this conquest he instituted the Pythian games, in which the victor in feats of strength, swiftness of foot or in the chariot race, was crowned with a wreath of beech leaves.

INTERPRETATION.

Apollo’s conflict with the serpent, Python, is a symbol of the victory of light and warmth over darkness and cold. He used his bright beams (arrows) against the demon of darkness (Python). His shafts slay men as does sun-stroke. Andrew Lang relates a strange coincidence of a German scholar, Otfried Muller, who had always opposed Apollo’s claim to being a sun-god. He was killed by a sun-stroke at Delphi. The god thus avenged himself in his ancient home.

“The sunbeams are my shafts

With which I kill

Deceit, that loves the night

And fears the day.

All men who do, or even

Imagine ill

Fly me.”

—Shelley.

ART.

This statue is given the highest place of honor in Europe’s most celebrated sculpture gallery, the Belvedere of the Vatican. It was discovered in 1503, amid the ruins of Antium and was purchased by Pope Julius II., who removed it to Rome.

It is for the modern world one of the most popular statues of the ancient world. Though it has been much studied and admired there has been a question as to its exact meaning. Collignon says that the object in the hand is a fragment of the Ægis with the Medusa head with which Apollo routed his enemies. Others think from the position and the quiver strap across the breast that the god is represented immediately after his victory over the Python.

Niobe.
“The Mater Dolorosa of Antique Art.”

“To stone the gods have changed her but in vain;

The sculptor’s art has made her breathe again.”

—Greek Epigram.

STORY.
A FROZEN TRAGEDY.

Niobe, Queen of Thebes, was the daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, who was the most famous of mythological musicians. She was the mother of seven sons and seven daughters. She became jealous of the Goddess Leto and commanded the Theban women to cease their worship of her, explaining that she considered herself far superior to Leto, who had but two children, while she had seven times as many. This so angered Leto that she commanded Apollo and Diana to kill all of Niobe’s children. The father, Amphion, overwhelmed by this calamity, destroyed himself. The proud mother, thus bereft of husband and children, wept continually night and day, until Jupiter turned her into stone; yet tears continued to flow; and borne on a whirlwind to her native mountain, she still remains a mass of rock from which a trickling stream flows, the tribute to her never-ending grief.

“And now in Sipylus, amid the rocks

And lonely mountains, she, though turned to stone,

Broods over wrongs inflicted by the gods.”

—Lewis Morris.

INTERPRETATION.

Niobe is the personification of winter, and the myth signifies the melting of snow and the destruction of its icy offspring under the rays of the spring sun.

ART.

This statue is attributed to Scopas. It was disinterred in Rome in 1583 and is now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

It is part of a group composed of seventeen figures—Niobe and fourteen children, a pedagogue and a nurse. The figure of the mother clasped by the arm of her terrified child is one of the most admired of the ancient statues. It is the highest instance in sculpture in which the body, itself exempt from pain, so wonderfully reflects the tortured soul. It ranks with the Laocoon and Apollo Belvedere as a work of art.

Mars.
“God of Dreadful War.”

“The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit

Up to his ears in blood.”

—Shakespeare.

STORY.
THE WAR GOD.

Mars, the son of Jupiter and Juno, was born in Thrace, a country noted for its fierce storms and war-loving people. He had quarrelsome tastes and delighted in the din and noise of warfare, never questioning which side was right. Strife and slaughter were the conditions of his existence. His attendants, Fear, Discord, Alarm, Dread and Terror, sympathized with him heartily and readily followed his lead.

Bellona, goddess of war, watched over him closely. She drove his chariot, warded off dangerous blows, and in other ways protected him. The altars of Mars and Bellona were the only ones given up to human sacrifice.

The shield and sword, the spear and burning torch are the emblems of Mars. His chosen animals are haunters of the battle field—the vulture and the dog.

The character of this fierce god of battles had a softer side. Although inconsistent and capricious, he loved and was beloved by Venus, the fair goddess of beauty.

The principal worshipers of Mars were Roman soldiers who believed that he marched in person at the head of their armies. Their exercising ground was called the Campus Martius or field of Mars. All the laurel crowns bestowed upon victorious generals were placed on his statues and a bull was their customary sacrifice to him.

“The soldier from successful camps returning

With laurel wreathed and rich with hostile spoil,

Severs the bull to Mars.”

—Prior.

INTERPRETATION.

The fury of the storm winds which threw heaven and earth into confusion furnished the conception of the god of war. The phenomena of the atmosphere with its tumults and uncertainty were well shown by his character.

ART.

This Mars, one of the most excellent works of ancient art, in the Villa Ludovisi, Rome, is sometimes ascribed to Scopas.

The god, with unused sword and shield, is sitting in a careless, easy attitude absorbed in reverie. It would seem to us from the little Cupid at his feet that it is love for Venus which has overcome the god of battles.

Laocoon.

“Or, turning to the Vatican, go see

Laocoon’s torture dignifying pain—

A father’s love and mortal agony

With an immortal patience blending; Vain

The struggle; vain, against the coiling strain

And gripe, and deep’ning of the dragon’s grasp,

The old man’s clinch; the enormous asp

Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp.”

—Byron.

STORY.
A PLASTIC TRAGEDY.

Laocoon was a priest of Apollo at Troy and endeavored unsuccessfully to dissuade the Trojans from admitting into their gates the wooden horse which the Greeks gave out was intended as a propitiatory offering to Minerva, but in fact was filled with Achæan chiefs who, by means of this strategem, obtained entrance into the doomed city. Sinon, who had been left behind when the Greeks pretended to sail away, persuaded the Trojans that the horse would prove a blessing and they drew it inside the gates.

“Oh, the enchanting words of that base slave,

Made them to think Epeu’s pine-tree horse

A sacrifice to appease Minerva’s wrath.”

—Marlowe.

Laocoon also struck his spear into the side of the monster. His words and acts so offended Minerva that she sent two serpents out of the sea to destroy him and his sons. They were speedily enveloped in the creatures’ slimy folds and died in great agony.

INTERPRETATION.

Max Muller says that the meaning or root of the name Laocoon is symbolic of Sin the Throttler. The strange fate of Laocoon was readily believed to be a punishment for the violence he had done the sacred horse.

ART.

“Laocoon! thou great embodiment

Of human life and human history!

Thou record of the past, thou prophecy

Of the sad future, thou majestic voice,

Pealing along the ages from old time!

Thou wail of agonized humanity!

There lives no thought in marble like to thee!

Thou hast no kindred in the Vatican,

But standest separate among the dreams

Of old mythologies—alone—alone!”

—J. G. Holland.

This group is wonderful as a work of sculpture and one of the most celebrated pieces in existence. It was found in the excavations of the Baths of Titus, Rome, in 1506, and was at once placed in the Belvedere of the Vatican, where it has ever since remained. The period of the statue is not definitely known.

The right arm of the father has been incorrectly restored. It is thought that it was originally bent in such a way that the hand was near the back of the head as then the general outline of the group would be pyramidal, and the summit of the pyramid would be the father’s head.

The three figures represent three acts of the tragedy. The eldest son is still unhurt, and if we did not know the story we might think his escape possible.

In the father is seen the highest tension of forces to free himself from the coils of the serpents. The straining muscles, the expanded chest and head thrown upward and backward, show his terrible effort.

The struggles of the younger son are weak and pitiable, showing that resistance is at an end.

The expression of physical and emotional pain in this statue is so materialistic as to be repulsive to sensitive natures. The scene is literally too sensational for sculpture. “Its pathology overpowers its pathos.”

Venus.
“Goddess of Love and Beauty.”

“Look, look, why shine

Those floating bubbles with such light divine?

They break, and from their mist a lily form

Rises from out the wave in beauty warm.”

—Shelley.

STORY.
THE BIRTH OF VENUS.

Cradled on a great blue wave lay Venus when discovered by the lovely sea-nymphs. They immediately assumed her care, tenderly nursed her and watched over her until she became a calm, splendid woman. Her grace and beauty conquered every heart. Oceanides, Tritons and Nereids, all gave her rapturous admiration. At length the foster mothers entrusted her to Zephyrus, who gently wafted her to the island of Cyprus where she was met by the Muses, Hours and Graces and led to the assembly of the gods, who bent in homage to her surpassing beauty.

Her power soon extended over men as well as gods, and temples were reared in her honor upon every shore. She had favors for some and strong antipathies for others of the worshipers at her shrines, and many are the stories and romances which cluster round her name.

INTERPRETATION.

Venus is the image of the dawn, the most lovely of the sights of nature. In ancient times the power of admiring was one of the greatest blessings bestowed on mankind, and the beautiful morning, as embodied in Venus, was, therefore, intensely admired and worshiped.

ART.

“Through those calm lips, proud goddess, speak!

Portray to us thy gorgeous fane

Where Melian suitors thronged to seek

Thine aid love’s paradise to gain.

Vouchsafe at least our minds to free

From doubts pertaining to thy charms;

The meaning of thy bended knee,

The secret of thy vanished arms.”

—J. L. Stoddard.

This beautiful Greek original, the Venus of Milo, has been called “the marble realization of the dream of fair women.” While it is universally recognized as a great work of art, nothing is definitely known as to the period or school to which it belongs.

It was discovered in 1820, by a peasant on the Island of Melos, in the niche of a wall which had long been buried. The French ambassador at Constantinople purchased and presented it to Louis XVIII., king of France, and it is now in the Louvre.

The statue is made of two blocks of marble joined above the drapery which envelops the lower limbs. The tip of the nose and the foot which projects beyond the drapery have been restored by modern artists. The restoration of the arms has often been unsuccessfully attempted.

In spite of the mutilated limbs of this marble Venus, she holds undisputed sway over the hearts of all beholders.

Hercules.
“The Hero.”

“I toil no more

On earth, nor wield again the mighty strength

Which Zeus once gave me for the cure of ills;

I have run my race; I have done my work; I rest

Forever from the toilsome days I gave

To the suffering race of men.”

—Wm. Morris.

STORY.
THE DEMI-GOD.

Hercules is one of the most significant figures in Grecian mythology. He was the son of Jupiter by a mortal maiden named Alcmene. Juno, who hated the children of her husband by mortal mothers, declared war against him from his birth. Through her decrees there were imposed upon him a succession of desperate undertakings which are called the Twelve Labors of Hercules. The variety and motives of these labors make up a story which might easily be turned into Christian allegory. Through them we learn not only of the strength of Hercules and his victories over monstrous evils, but also of his frailties which he vanquished by superhuman will.

INTERPRETATION.

Hercules is a sun hero, born of the sky (Jupiter) and the dawn (Alcmene). His twelve great tasks are interpreted to represent either the twelve signs of the zodiac, the twelve months of the solar year, or the twelve hours of daylight.

ART.

“Great Alcides stooping with his toil

Rests on his club.”

—Pope.

This colossal statue, called the Farnese Hercules, was found in 1540 in the ruins of the baths of Caracalla, Rome, and is now one of the chief attractions of the Naples Museum, where it was placed by the Farnese family in 1790. There has been much dispute as to its origin, but the conclusion to which criticism is now pointing is that it was executed by Glycon in the first century.

The anatomy of the figure, though exaggerated to be in keeping with the character of the hero, is well worth study.

Venus de Medici.

A large proportion of the statues of Praxiteles represented the idealized beauty of women, and with common consent it is admitted that he created the type of Venus in his celebrated statue called the Venus of Cnidus. There is a story that he made two statues of her, one clothed and the other unclothed. The choice between the two was offered to the people of Cos, who, more modest than artistic, selected the draped statue. The Cnidians most joyfully bought the nude Venus and it was said to have made the seaport town so attractive that people flocked thither from all parts to view the beautiful marble goddess. But this statue has perished. It was seen in its beauty probably about 150, A. D. All that remain are but feeble echoes of its grace. Pausanius tells us that it was a portrait of Phryne, who was much beloved by Praxiteles and often served him as a model.

“Phryne, thy human lips shall pale,

Thy rounded limbs decay;

Not love nor prayer can aught avail

To bid thy beauty stay.

But there thy smile for centuries

On marble lips shall live;

For art can grant what love denies

And fix the fugitive.

And there upon the silent face

Shall unborn ages see

Perennial youth, perennial grace

And sealed serenity.”

—W. W. Story.

INTERPRETATION.

The moral conception of Venus as goddess of the higher and purer love, especially wedded love and fruitfulness as opposed to mere sensual lust, was but slowly developed in the course of ages.

ART.

The Venus de Medici claims direct descent from the Venus of Cnidus, and preserves some of the sweet unconsciousness which must have been the special charm of the original. It belongs to the Græco-Roman period of sculpture and was executed by Cleomenes. It was found in the ruins of Portico Octavio, passed at once into the possession of the Medici family, and is now in the Tribuna of the Uffizi, Florence. Its “divinity has vanished; the beautiful humanity alone remains.”