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Les peintures de Polygnote dans la Lesché de Delphes
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And you will not go sleep in the smithy,
Nor yet in the club-room, but here you prate. (Od. XVIII. 329 sq)
[3] Phrontis, then, is seen in Polygnotus' painting, and below him is a certain Ithaemenes carrying raiment, and Echoeax (3) going down the gangway with a bronze urn. Polites, Strophius, and Alphius are taking down Menelaus' hut (4), which stands not far from the ship ; and Amphialus is taking to pieces another but. Under the feet of Amphialus is seated a boy ; but there is no inscription at the boy. Phrontis is the only man with a beard. He is also the only figure whose name Polygnotus has taken from the Odyssey (5) : the names of the rest, I suppose, he invented.
[4] Briseis is represented standing, Diomeda is above her, and Iphis is in front of both (6) : all theee seem to be scrutinising Helen's form. Helen herself is seated (7), and so is Eurybates near her. We surmised that the latter was Ulysses' herald, though he had no beard (8). Beside Helen stands her handmaid, Panthalis, while Electra, another handmaid, is putting on her mistress' sandals. These names are also different from the names in the Iliad (9), where Homer represents Helen, accompanied by ber slavewomen, going to the city-wall.
[5] Above Helen, a man clad in a purple mantle is seated in an attitude of profound dejection (10) : you might guess it to be Helenus, son of Priam, even before reading the inscription. Near Helenus is Meges, who is wounded in the arm, just as he is described by Lescheos of Pyrrha, son of Aeschylinus, in his poem, The Sack of Ilium (11) : the poet says he was wounded by Admetus, son of Augeas, in the battle which the Trojans fought by night.
[6] Lycomedes, son of Creon, is also depicted beside Meges with a wound on his wrist : Lescheos says that he was so wounded by Agenor. Clearly Polygnotus could not thus have depicted their wounds unless he had read the poem of Lescheos ; however, he has given Lycomedes in addition a wound on the ankle and another on the head. Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, is also wounded on the head and wrist.
[7] These figures are higher up than Helen in the painting. Next to Helen is the mother of Theseus, with her hair closely cropped, and Demophon, one of the sons of Theseus (12) : to judge from his attitude, Demophon is considering whether it will be in his power to rescue Aethra. The Argives say that Theseus had also a son Melanippus (13) by the daughter of Sinis, and that Melanippus won a race when the Epigoni, as they are called, celebrated the Nemean games for the first time since the original celebration of them by Adrastus.
[8] As to Aethra, Lescheos says (14) that when Ilium was taken she stole out to the Greek camp, and was recognised by the sons of Theseus, and that Demophon asked her from Agamemnon. Agamemnon said he was willing to gratify him, but would not do so till he had obtained Helen's consent ; so he sent a herald, and Helen granted the favour. Accordingly, in the painting Eurybates appears to have corne to Helen about Aethra, and to be delivering Agamemnon's message.
[9] The Trojan women are depicted as captives and lamenting. Andromache is painted, and in front of her stands the boy grasping her breast : this child, says Lescheos, was killed (15) by being hurled from the tower, not that he was doomed by the Greeks, but that Neoptolemus took it on himself to murder him. Medesicaste is also painted : she was another of the bastard daughters of Priam. Homer says that she left Troy (Il. XIII, 170 sqq) to go to the city of Pedaeum as the wife of Imbrius, son of Mentor.
[10] Andromache and Medesicaste wear hoods ; but Polyxena has her hair braided after the manner of maidens (16). Poets tell how Polyxena was slain on Achilles' tomb (17), and both at Athens and at Pergamus on the Caicus I have seen pictures of her tragic fate (18).
[11] Nestor is painted with a cap on his head and a spear in his hand ; and there is a horse in an attitude as if it were about to roll on the ground (19). As far as the horse the scene is the sea-shore, and pebbles may be distinguished on it ; but from that point the scene is no longer the sea.
XXVI. [1] Above the women grouped between Aethra and Nestor are other captive women, Clymene (20), Creusa, Aristomache, and Xenodice. Stesichorus, in his Sack of Ilium (21), reckons Clymene among thecaptive women ; also in the Returns (Nostoi) (22) he represents Aristomache as a daughter of Priam and wife of Critolaus son of Hicetaon ; but I know of no poet or prose writer who mentions Xenodice. Touching Creusa, they say that the Mother of the Gods (23) and Aphrodite rescued her from Greek slavery because she was the wife of Aeneas. But Lescheos and the author of the epic called the Cypria (24) say that Aeneas' wife was Eurydice.
[2] Above these are painted sitting on a couch, Deinome, Metioche, Pisis, and Cleodice. Of these, Deinome alone is mentioned in the Little Iliad (25), as it is called : the names of the others, I suppose, were invented by Polygnotus. Epeus is painted naked, in the act of razing to the ground the wall of Troy : above the wall appears the head alone of the Wooden Horse. Polypoetes, son of Pirithous (26), is represented with a fillet tied round his head, and beside him is Acamas, son of Theseus, wearing a helmet on his head, and there is a crest on the helmet.
[3] Ulysses is also represented ... and Ulysses is clad in a corselet. And Ajax, son of Oileus, holding a shield, is standing beside an altar, taking, an oath with regard to the outrage on Cassandra (27). Cassandra herself is seated (28) on the ground and is holding the image of Athena, for she overturned the wooden image (29) from its pedestal when Ajax dragged her out of sanctuary. The sons of Atreus are also depicted wearing helmets. Menelaus holds a shield, and on the shield is wrought a serpent, in allusion to the prodigy which appeared at Aulis (30). They are swearing Ajax on the sacrificial victims.
[4] In a straight line with the horse (31) which stands by Nestor's side, is Neoptolemus : he has just slain Elasus, whoever Elasus may be. Elasus is represented still faintly breathing. Astynous (32), who is also mentioned by Lescheos, has fallen on his knees, and Neoptolemus is smiting him with his sword. Neoptolemus is the only one of the Grecian host whom Polygnotus depicted as still engaged in slaughtering the Trojans, and the reason is that the whole painting was to be executed over the grave of Neoptolemus. The son of Achilles is always named Neoptolemus by Homer (33) ; but in the epic called the Cypria it is said that he was named Pyrrhus by Lycomedes, and Neoptolemus («young warrior») by Phoenix, because Achilles began to make war at an early age (34).
[5] In the painting is seen an altar and a little boy clinging to it for fear, and on the altar is a bronze corselet (35). Corselets of the sort represented are scarce nowadays, but they were worn in the olden time. They consisted of two bronze pieces called guala (36) : one fitted the breast and the parts about the belly ; the other was meant to protect the back. One was put on in front, the other behind ; then they were joined by buckles.
[6] Such a corselet was thought to he a sufficient protection even without a shield ; hence Homer represents Phorcys (Il. XVII, 312, sqq), the Phrygian, without a shield, because he had one of these corselets. I have seen a corselet of this sort depicted, not only in Polygnotus' painting, but also in a painting by Calliphon the Samian (37) in the temple of Ephesian Artemis, where women are represented buckling on the guala of Patroclus' corselet.
[7] On the farther side of the altar Laodice is painted standing. I do not find Laodice (38) included by any poet in the list of captive Trojan women, and probability appears to me entirely in favour of the supposition that she was released by the Greeks. For Homer in the Iliad describes the hospitable reception of Menelaus and Ulysses in the house of Antenor (Il. III, 205, sqq), and how Laodice was the wife of Antenor's son Helicaon (Il. III, 122, sqq).
[8] And Lescheos says that Helicaon, wounded in the nocturnal battle, was recognised by Ulysses and carried alive out of the fray. Hence the regard which Menelaus and Ulysses had for the house of Antenor would make it natural that Agamemnon and Menelaus should do no ill turn to the wife of Helicaon. The tale which Euphorion, a Chalcidian poet, tells about Laodice (39) is wholly improbable.
[9] Next to Laodice in the picture is a bronze wash-basin on a stone stand (40). Medusa (41) is seated on the ground grasping the stand in both hands. She, if we were to follow the ode of the Himeraean poet (42), would have to be reckoned among the daughters of Priam. Beside Medusa is an old woman (43) or eunuch, with closely cropped hair, holding a naked child on his or her knees. The child is represented holding its hand before its eyes for fear.
XXVII. [1] Of dead bodies there are the following. The naked man, Pelis by name, is flung on his back. Below Pelis lie Eioneus (44) and Admetus, both still clad in their corselets. Lescheos says that Eioneus was slain by Neoptolemus and Admetus by Philoctetes. Other corpses lie higher up. Under the wash-basin is Leocritus, son of Pulydamas, slain by Ulysses. Above Eioneus and Admetus is Coroebus, son of Mygdon (45). This Mygdon has a famous tomb at the boundaries of the territory of Stectorium (46) in Phrygia, and after him poets have been wont to give to the Phrygians the name of Mygdones (47). Coroebus came to wed Cassandra and was killed, according to the general account, by Neoptolemus, but according to Lescheos by Diomede.
[2] Above Coroebus are Priam, Axion, and Agenor. Lescheos says that Priam was not killed on the hearth of the God of the Courtyard, but that he was dragged from the altar (48) and made short work of by Neoptolemus at his own door. As for Hecuba, Stesichorus, in The Sack of Ilium, represents her as conveyed to Lycia by Apollo. Lescheos says that Axion was a son of Priam, and was slain by Eurypylus, son of Euaemon. Agenor, according to the same poet, was butchered by Neoptolemus (49) ; and thus it would appear that Agenor's son Echeclus was slaughtered by Achilles, but Agenor himself by Neoptolemus.
[3] Sinon, a comrade of Ulysses (50), and Anchialus are bringing out the corpse of Laomedon. Another dead man is painted, Eresus by name. But no poet, so far as we know, has sung of the fate of Eresus and Laomedon. The house of Antenor is seen with a leopard's skin hung over the entrance (51), as a sign to the Greeks to spare the house. Theano (52) is painted with her children, Glaucus being seated on a corselet composed of back-piece and breast-piece, and Eurymachus on a rock (53).
[4] Beside Eurymachus stands Antenor, and next Antenor is his daughter Crino, with a baby in her arms. The expression on all their faces is sorrowful. Servants are putting a coffer and other gear upon an ass (54) ; and on the ass is seated a little child. At this part of the picture there is also a couplet of Simonides (55) :
Polygnotus, a Thasian by birth, son of Aglaophon
Painted the sack of Ilium's citadel.
[2] Polygnotus, it seems to me, followed the poem called the Minyad (57) ; for in the Minyad there is a passage about Theseus and Pirithous :
Then the bark of the dead, which the ancient
Ferryman, Charon (58), was
wont to guide, they found not at its moorings.
[3] Tellis appears as a lad, and Cleoboea as still a maid (59), holding on her knees a box such as they make for Demeter (60). All I heard about Tellis was that the poet Archilochus was his grandson. As for Cleoboea, they say that she was the first who brought the orgies of Demeter to Thasos from Paros.
[4] On the bank of Acheron, just below Charon's bark, is a man who had once ill-used, and is now being throttled by, his father. For the men of old set the greatest store by their parents, as we may judge by the example, amongst others, of the so-called Pious Folk at Catana, who, when the stream of fire poured down from Etna on Catana (61), recked nothing of gold and silver, but picked up, this one his mother, that one his father, and fled. As they toiled onwards, the flames came scudding along and overtook them. But even then they did not drop their parents ; so the stream of lava, it is said, parted in two, and the fire passed on without scathing either the young men or their parents.
[5] Hence these pious folk are stil] worshipped at the present day by the Catanians. In Polygnotus' picture, near the man who maltreated his father and is suffering for it in hell, there is a man punished for sacrilege. The woman who is chastising him is skilled in drugs (62), especially baleful ones.
[6] Hence we see that in those days men were still exceedingly pious, as the Athenians showed when they captured the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus at Syracuse (63), for they disturbed none of the votive offerings, and left the Syracusan priest in charge of them. Datis the Mede also showed it, not only in the words he spoke to the Delians (64), but also in his conduct ; for finding an image of Apollo in a Phoenician ship (65), he restored it to the Tanagraeans at Delium. Thus ail men feared God in those days, and that is why Polygnotus painted the punishment of the sacrilegious man.
[7] Higher up than the figures I have enumerated is Eurynomus (66) ; the Delphian guides say that he is one of the demons in hell, and that he eats the flesh of the corpses, leaving only the bones. But Homer's Odyssey, and the poem called the Minyad, and the one called The Returns, though they all speak of hell (67) and its terrors, know of no demon Eurynomus. However I will describe his appearance and attitude in the painting. His colour is between blue and black, like that of the flies that settle on meat : he is showing his teeth, and is seated on a vulture's skin.
[8] Next after Eurynomus are Auge from Arcadia, and Iphimedea. Auge went to the court of Teuthras in Mysia (68), and of ail the women with whom Hercules is said to have consorted none bore a son so like his father as did Auge. Iphimedea receives great marks of honour from the Carians of Mylasa.
XXIX. [1] Higher up than the figures I have enumerated are Perimedes and Eurylochus, the comrades of Ulysses, bringing sacrificial victims (69), and the victims are black rams. After them is a man seated : an inscription sets forth that the man is Indolence (Oknos). He is represented plaiting a rope (70), and beside him stands a she-ass furtively eating the rope as fast as he plaits it. They say that this Indolence was an industrious man who had a spendthrift wife, and as fast as he earned money she spent it.
[2] Hence people hold that in this picture Polygnotus alluded to Indolence's wife. I know, too, that when the Ionians see a man toiling at a fruitless task they say he is splicing the cord of Indolence. The same name of Indolence (oknos) is also given to a certain bird (71) by the soothsayers who observe birds of omen : it is the largest and handsomest of the herons, and is amongst the rarest of birds.
[3] Tityus, too, is painted : his punishment is over, but the prolonged torture has worn him duite away, and he appears as a dim and mangled spectre (72). Continuing our survey of the picture, we see Ariadne close to the man who is twisting the rope. She is seated on a rock, and is looking at her sister Phaedra, who is in a swing (73) and is grasping the rope on each side with both hands. The posture, though graceful enough, suggests the manner of Phaedra's death.
[4] Ariadne was wrested from Theseus by Dionysus, who bore down with a larger fleet : the encounter may have been accidental, or Dionysus may have lain in wait for her. This Dionysus is, in my opinion, no other than he who first led an army against India (74), and first bridged the Euphrates. Zeugma («joining, bridge») was the naine given to a city at the point where the Euphrates was bridged ; and to this day the rope is there preserved wherewith he spanned the river : it is plaited of vine and ivy branches.
[5] Many are the tales told of Dionysus both by Greeks and Egyptians (75). Underneath Phaedra is Chloris leaning on Thyia's knees (76). It is safe to say that the two women were friends in their lifetime ; for one of them, Chloris, belonged to Orchomenus in Boeotia, and the other... They told another story about them, that Poseidon had convection with Thyia, and that Chloris was the wife of Neleus (77), son of Poseidon.
[6] Beside Thyia stands Procris, daughter of Erechtheus, and after her is Clymene, who is turning her back to Procris. In the poem called The Returns, it is said that Clymene was a daughter of Minyas and married Cephalus, son of Deion, and that they had a son Iphiclus. But the story of Procris is in every one's mouth — how she was the wife of Cephalus before he married Clymene, and how she was slain by her husband (78).
[7] Inward from Clymene you will perceive Megara (79) of Thebes. This Megara was taken to wife by Hercules, but dismissed by him in course of time because he lost the children whom he had by her, and so concluded that his marnage with her had been inauspicious. Over the heads of the aforesaid women is the daughter of Salmoneus (80) seated on a rock, and Eriphyle is standing by her, holding up the tips of her fingers through the neck of her tunic, and you may guess that in the folds of the tunic she is grasping the famous necklace with the other hand (81).
[8] Above Eriphyle are depicted Elpenor and Ulysses. Ulysses is crouching and holding his sword over the trench (82), and the soothsayer Tiresias is advancing towards the trench. Behind Tiresias is Anticlea, the mother of Ulysses, on a rock. Instead of a coat, Elpenor is clad in a mat, such as is commonly worn by sailors (83).
[9] Lower down than Ulysses are Theseus and Pirithous seated on chairs (84). Theseus is holding the swords in both hands, the sword of Pirithous and his own, while Pirithous is gazing at them : you may guess that he is vexed at the swords for proving useless and unavailing in their bold emprise. The poet Panyasis says that Theseus and Pirithous were not pinioned to their chairs, but that the rock growing to their flesh held them as in a vice. The famous friendship of Theseus and Pirithous is alluded to by Homer in both his poems.
[10] Thus Ulysses is represented saying to the Phaeacians (85) :
And now should I have seen yet others of the men of old, whom I longed to see,
Theseus and Pirithous, famed children of the gods.
| For never saw I yet, nor am I like to see such men As Pirithous and Dryas, shepherd of the people, And Caeneus and Exadius, and god-like Polyphemus, And Theseus, son of Aegeus, like to the immortals. (86) |
XXX.[1] Next Polygnotus has painted the daughters of Pandareos (87). Homer, in a speech of Penelope, says that the parents of the damsels perished by the wrath of the gods, and that the orphan girls were brought up by Aphrodite, and received gifts from other goddesses, from Hera wisdom and beauty, from Artemis tall stature, and from Athena instruction in women's work.
[2] But Aphrodite (he goes on) went up to heaven to obtain a happy marriage for the girls from Zeus, and in her absence they were snatched away by the Harpies, and by them given over to the Furies. Such is Homer's account of them. Polygnotus has painted the damsels crowned with flowers and playing at dice : their names are Camiro and Clytie. You must know that Pandareos was a native of Miletus in Crete (88), and that he was an accomplice in Tantalus' theft (89) and in the stratagem of the oath.
[3] After the daughters of Pandareos there is Antilochus, with one foot on a rock and his face and head resting on both his hands (90). After Antilochus there is Agamemnon leaning on his sceptre, which is under his left armpit, while he holds up a rod in his hands. Protesilaus is looking at Achilles, who is seated. Such is the attitude of Protesilaus. Above Achilles is Patroclus standing.
[4] All these except Agamemnon are beardless. Above them is Phocus, depicted as a lad, and Iaseus, the latter well bearded. Iaseus is represented taking a ring off the left hand of Phocus, which is explained by the following legend. When Phocus, son of Aeacus, crossed from Aegina (91) to what is now called Phocis, and was desirous of acquiring sovereignty over the people of that part of the mainland, and of settling there himself, Iaseus struck up a fast friendship with him, and gave him amongst other presents a signet-stone set in gold ; but when Phocus returned to Aegina not long afterwards, Peleus immediately plotted his death. Therefore, in memory of that friendship Iaseus is represented wishing to look at the signet, and Phocus is allowing him to take it.
[5] Above them is Maera (92) seated on a rock. In the Returns it is said that she died a maid, and was a daughter of Proetus, son of Thersander, who was a son of Sisyphus. Next to Maera is Actaeon, son of Aristaeus, with his mother : they hold a fawn in their arms, and are seated on a deer-skin. A hound is stretched at their side in token of the life that Actaeon led and the death he died.
[6] Casting your eye back again to the lower part of the picture you perceive, next to Patroclus, Orpheus (93) seated as it were on a sort of hill. With his left hand he grasps the lute, while with his other hand he touches some willow-branches (94) , and he is leaning against the tree. The grove seems to be the grove of Proserpine (Od. X, 509, sqq), where, as Homer thinks, black poplars and willows grow. The aspect of Orpheus is Greek : neither his dress nor head-covering is Thracian. On the other side of the willow leans Promedon.
[7] Some think that the name Promedon was invented by Polygnotus by a sort of poetical fiction; but others say' that he was a Greek with a love for music, and especially for the singing of Orpheus.
[8] At this part of the painting is Schedius, who led the Phocians to Troy (95) . After him is Pelias seated on a chair, with hoary beard and head : he is looking at Orpheus. Schedius holds a dagger in his hand, and is crowned with grass. Near Pelias sits Thamyris with his sightless eyes (96) and lowly mien : long are his locks and long, too, his beard : at his feet is flung a lyre, its sides and strings broken.
[9] Above him is Marsyas seated on a rock (97) , and beside Marsyas is Olympus in the likeness of a blooming boy learning to play the flute. The Phrygians of Celaenae maintain that the river which flows through their city was once the famous flute-player, and that the Mother's Air on the flute was composed by Marsyas. They say, too, that they repulsed the Gallic army by the help of Marsyas, who defended them against the barbarians by the water of the river and by the music of his flutes.
XXXI. [1] If you look back to the upper part of the picture you see that next to Actaeon are Ajax of Salamis, Palamedes, and Thersites, amusing themselves with dice (98) , the invention of Palamedes. The other Ajax is looking at them as they play. The complexion of the latter Ajax is like that of a castaway (99) , the brine forming a scurf on his skin. Polygnotus has purposely grouped together the enemies of Ulysses.
[2] Ajax, son of Oileus, bore Ulysses a grudge, because Ulysses advised the Greeks to stone him (100) for his outrage on Cassandra ; and Palamedes, as I have read in the epic called the Cypria, was drowned by Ulysses and Diomede when he went out a-fishing.
[3] Meleager, son of Oeneus, is higher up in the painting than Ajax, son of Oileus, and appears to be looking at Ajax. All these except Palamedes are bearded. 2. As to the death of Meleager, Homer says that the Fury hearkened to the curses of Althaea (101), and that was the cause of Meleager's death. But the poem called the Eoeae and the Minyad agree in saying that Apollo helped the Curetes against the Aetolians, and that Meleager was slain by him.
[4] The legend of the fire-brand (102), how the brand was given by the Fates to Althaea, and Meleager was not to die till the brand was consumed by fire, and how Althaea in a rage burnt it — this legend was first dramatised by Phrynichus, son of Polyphradmon, in his play of The Pleuronian Women :
For chilly doom
He did not escape, but a swift flame consumed him
While the brand was being destroyed by his grim mischievous mother.
[5] In the lower part of the picture, after the Thracian Thamyris, is Hector seated : his hands are clasped round his left knee (103), and his attitude speaks of sorrow. After him is Memnon seated on a rock, and Sarpedon next to Memnon : Sarpedon's face is buried in his hands, and one of Memnon's hands is laid on Sarpedon's shoulder.
[6] All are bearded. On Memnon's cloak are wrought birds, called Memnonides. The people of the Hellespont say that every year on certain days these birds go to Memnon's grave (104), and where the tomb is bare of trees and grass the birds sweep it and sprinkle it with their wings which are wet with the water of the Aesepus.
[7] Beside Memnon stands a naked Ethiopian boy, because Memnon was king of the Ethiopian race. However, he came to Ilium, not from Ethiopia, but from Susa in Persia (105), and from the river Choaspes, having subjugated all the intervening nations. The Phrygians still show the road (106) by which he led his army, choosing the short cuts : there are halting-places at intervals along the road.
[8] Above Sarpedon and Memnon is Paris, beardless as yet : he is clapping his hands (107) just as a churl might do ; you would say that he was calling Penthesilea to himself by the noise. Penthesilea is there also, looking at him ; but by the toss of her head she seems to disdain him and hold him of no account. She is depicted as a maiden armed with a bow of the Scythian sort, and with a leopard's skin on her shoulders.
[9] The women above Penthesilea are carrying water in broken pitchers (108). One of them is represented in the bloom of youth, the other advanced in years. Neither of them has a separate inscription, but an inscription common to them both sets forth that they are of the uninitiated.
[10] Higher up than these women is Callisto, daughter of Lycaon, also Nomia, and Pero, daughter of Neleus : it was as the price of Pero's hand that Neleus demanded the kine of Iphiclus (Od. XI, 287 sqq). Callisto has a bearskin for a mat (109), and her feet rest on the knees of Nomia. I have already mentioned the statement of the Arcadians that Nomia is one of their local nymphs (110). The poets say that the nymphs live a great many years (111), but are not quite beyond the pale of mortality. After Callisto and the women with her is the outline of a cliff, and Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, is struggling to shove the stone up the cliff (112).
[11] In the picture you may also see a wine-jar, and an elderly man, a boy, and two women : one of the women is young, and is under the rock ; the other is beside the elderly man, and is, like him, elderly. All the others are carrying water, but the old dame's pitcher appears to be broken : all the water that is left in the potsherd she is pouring into the wine-jar. We inferred that these perlons also were of the number of those who held the Eleusinian rites of no account. For the Greeks of an earlier age esteemed the Eleusinian mysteries as much superior to all other religious exercises, as they esteemed gods superior to heroes.
[12] Under this wine-jar is Tantalus suffering all the torments that Homer has described (Od. XI, 582, sqq), and added to them all is the terror inspired by the stone hung over him (113). Clearly Polygnotus has followed Archilochus' account ; but whether Archilochus borrowed the incident of the stone or invented it himself, I do not know. So varied and beautiful is the painting of the Thasian artist.
XXXII.[1] Abutting on the sacred close is a theatre (114) which is worth seeing. Ascending from the close... And here there is an image of Dionysus, an offering of the Cnidians. There is a stadium in the highest part of the city (115) : it was made of the common stone of Parnassus, until Herodes the Athenian rebuilt it of Pentelic marble. Such were the notable objects left at Delphi in my time.
Translated with a commentary by J.G. Frazer - Macmillan and co, London (1913)
NOTES
(1) A building with paintings by Polygnotus. Plutarch has laid the scene of one of his dialogues (De defectu oraculorum) in this building. He says (ch. 6) : «Advancing from the temple we reached the doors of the Cnidian club-house. So we entered and saw the friends of whom we were in search seated and awaiting us». Pliny mentions the paintings of Polygnotus at Delphi, but seems to suppose that they were in a temple (Nat. hist. XXXV. 59). Of the two series of paintings in the club-house, the one which represented Troy after its capture seems to have been especially famous : it is mentioned by Philostratus (Vit. Apollon. VI. 11. 64) and by a scholiast on Plato (Gorgias, p. 448 b). Lucian refers to the graceful eyebrows and rosy checks of Cassandra in this picture (Imagines, 7). In the time of Pausanias the pictures were already between four and five hundred years old, and they seem to have survived for at least two centuries more, for they are mentioned with admiration by the rhetorician Themistius, who lived in the fourth century of our era (Or. XXXIV. II).
The scanty remains of the club-house (Lesche) which contained these famous paintings were excavated by the French in recent years. Although the building was completely excavated in 1895, when I visited it under Mr. Homolle's guidance, no account of it, so far as I know, has up to the present time (November 1897) been published by the French archacologists. Little more than a bare mention of the discovery has appeared in the learned journals (Athenaeum, 7th December 1895, p. 800 ; Archäologischer Anzeiger, 1896, p. 73). To my great regret, therefore, I can offer the reader only a few jottings on this interesting monument. They are taken partly from my own journal, partly from the notes furnished to me by Mr. Cecil Smith.
The Lesche is situated, in accordance with the description of Pausanias, higher up the hill than the spring Cassotis, a few steps to the cast of the theatre. It was built on a terrace, which is supported on the south by a high retaining-wall. A marble slab in this wall bears an inscription :
For our knowledge of the paintings we are indebted to the minute account of them given by Pausanias (X. 25-31). So full and precise is his description that not a few attempts have been made in modern times to reconstruct the pictures from it. The first of these attempts was made by the Comte de Caylus in 1757, and the latest by Dr. Paul Weizsäcker in 1895. Amongst the others may be mentioned those by the brothers Riepenhausen in 1805 and again in 1826, of Mr. W. Watkiss Lloyd in 1851, of Prof. O. Benndorf in 1887, and of Prof. C. Robert in 1892 and 1893, who has accompanied his reconstructions with elaborate commentaries. Of these various restorations the most artistically beautiful are those which were drawn by Mr. Hermann Schenck for Prof. Robert. They are here reproduced (pl. VI. VII.). Some exceptions may be taken to them in detail, but on the whole they probably give a fairly correct idea of the composition and general effect of the pictures.
The arrangement of some of the figures above others, for which we have the authority of Pausanias, is probably to be explained, with Lessing (Laokoon, XIX) and Messrs. Weizsäcker and Schreiber, simply by the artist's ignorance of the laws of perspective rather than, with Prof. Robert, by supposing the figures to be placed one above the other on sloping ground. Some have held that the figures were disposed in regular horizontal bands, one above the other, but a better artistic effect is certainly produced by grouping them freely at various levels, as both Prof. Robert and Dr. Weizsäcker have done. This arrangement is supported by the analogy of many ancient vase-paintings, which taken along with Pausanias's description supply the most trustworthy materials for a reconstruction of the paintings in the Lesche. Probably many ancient vase-painters were influenced directly or indirectly by the pictures of Polygnotus, and it is quite possible that in some extant vasepaintings we possess imitations, more or less free, of certain masterpieces of the great painter. We have seen indubitable evidence that a famous work of art like the Chest of Cypselus at Olympia sometimes furnished subjects to the vase-painter (vol. 4. pp. 608 sqq., 613) ; and if the Chest of Cypselus, why not the stiil more celebrated works of Polygnotus ?
Much difference of opinion has prevailed as to the shape of the Lesche and the disposition of the paintings on its walls. From Pausanias we learn that the pictures fell into two great sets, one representing Troy after its capture, the other Ulysses in hell : the first was on the spectator's right as he entered the building, the second was on his left (Paus. X. 25. 2, X. 28. 1). Hence it may fairly be inferred either that the two sets of pictures were on opposite walls of a quadrangular building, or that they were on the same wall but divided from each other by a doorway. In the former case the paintings probably occupied the two long sides of the building, while the doorway was in one of the two short sides. In the latter case the building was probably in the form of a colonnade with one or three sides open and the doorway in the middle of the back wall. On the whole, archaeologists who have discussed the problem have declared themselves, with some minor differences of opinion as to details, in favour of one or other of these two solutions. The Riepenhausens, Letronne, Otto Jahn, Ch. Lenormant, and Prof. C. Robert decided for the quadrangular building with the pictures on the opposite walls : Ruhl, Schubart, Prof. Michaelis, Mr. P. Girard, Dr. Weizscker, and Dr. Th. Schreiber decided for the colonnade with both pictures on the back wall. The recent excavation of the ruined Lesche would seem to show that the latter were right. But pending an exact and authoritative description of the remains that have been found it might still be premature to award judgment in this long debate. We have seen that as late as 1895, after the excavation of the Lesche, Mr. Homolle was inclined to favour the quadrangular building.
When we learn the exact shape and dimensions of the Lesche, we shall be able by comparing them with Pausanias's description to estimate approximately the scale of the figures in the paintings and so to decide the question, which has lately been discussed by Prof. Robert and Dr. Schöne, whether they were life-size or not. That they were life-size is denied by Dr. Schöne and affirmed by Prof. Robert (Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile, p. 82 sqq.), who bases his opinion chiefly on an ambiguous passage of Aelian (Var. hist. IV. 3) which may perhaps be translated thus : «Polygnotus painted large figures and earned his prizes by life-size pictures» (egraphe ta megala kai en tois teleiois eirgazeto ta athla). This translation of the adjective teleios Prof. Robert defends by comparing the expression eikôn graptê teleia which occurs in two inscriptions (C. I. G. Nos. 3068, 3085) and the expression pinax teleios gegrammenos which occurs in the Lives of the Ten Orators (p. 843 e) attributed to Plutarch. However this verbal question may be settled, the scale of the pictures in the Lesche will be determined within certain limits as soon as the measurements of the building are made public. Speaking from impression (I was not allowed to take measurements) I should say that the building is too small to allow us to suppose that the figures were life-size.
[Since writing as above I have obtained, through Mr. Homolle's courtesy, a copy of part of the Bulletin de Corresp. hellenique for 1896 in which (pp. 633-639) the remains of the Lesche are described and discussed. The description reached me too late to allow me to modify the text in accordance with it, the volume having been already set up in pages. But see below, p. 635 sq.]
The further question discussed by Prof. Robert and Dr. Schöne whether Polygnotus painted directly on a marble wall or on stucco has been definitely decided in favour of Dr. Schöne and stucco by the remains of blue-painted stucco on the wall of the Lesche. It is due to Prof. Robert to add that in deference to the objections urged by his adversary he afterwards inclined with some hesitation to discard marble for stucco (Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile, p. 104).
With regard to the date of the paintings it has been commonly supposed that they must have been executed before 467 B.C., since the couplet attached to the pictures (Paus. X. 27. 4 note) is ascribed to Simonides, who died in that year. This argument would have to be abandoned if with Prof. Robert and Prof. Hauvette (De l'authenticité des épigrammes de Simonide (Paris, 1896), p. 138) we believed the verses not to be by Simonides. But the reasons for this scepticism seem wholly insufficient to counterweigh the express testimony not only of Pausanias but of the compiler of the Palatine Anthology (IX. 700) as to the authorship of the epigram. It seems safer therefore to acquiesce in that testimony and to believe accordingly that one or both the pictures in the Lesche were painted in the lifetime of Simonides. Prof. Robert believes that a surer clue to the date of the paintings is furnished by observing that of the four Theban ladies whom, according to Homer (Od. XI. 26o-28o), Ulysses saw in hell, only one was depicted in the lower world by Polygnotus (X. 29. 7). The omission of the other three was intended, Prof. Robert thinks, as a deliberate slight to the Thebans, and the picture must accordingly have been painted between 458 and 447 B.C., when the Phocians, the bitter enemies of Thebes, were in possession of Delphi. Without going so far as to reverse the argument and affirm that the omission of the ladies from the picture of hell may have been meant as a delicate compliment to Thebes, I find Prof. Robert's reasoning in the highest degree improbable. If three of the four women were left out for the reason supposed, why was the fourth inserted ? If the painter put her in before the Phocians had time to stop him, surely it would have been easy for them to take her out again with the help of a brush and a little paint or whitewash. But to discuss such possibilities is futile.
[See F. S. C. Koenig, De Pausaniae fide et auctoritate (Berlin, 1832), p. 46 sqq. ; K. O. Müller, Kleine deutsche Schriften, 2. pp. 398-404 ; Otto Jahn, «Die Gemälde des Polygnotus in der Lesche zu Delphi», Kieler philologische Studien (Kiel, 1841), pp. 81-154 ; F. G. Welcker, «Die Composition der polygnotischen Gemälde in der Lesche zu Delphi¹, Philolog. und histor. Abhandlungen d. kön. Akad. d. Wissen. zu Berlin, 1847, pp. 81-151 ; J. Overbeck, «Antepicritische Betrachtungen über die polygnotischen Gemälde in der Lesche zu Delphi», Rheinisches Museum, N. F. 7 (1850), pp. 419-454 ; W. Watkiss Lloyd, «On the paintings by Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi», The Museum of Classical Antiquities, 1 (1851), pp. 44-77, 103-130 ; ib. «On the plan and disposition of the Greek Lesche», by the Editor, pp. 78-86 ; L. Ruhl und J. H. C. Schubart, «Glossen zur Beschreibung des Polygnotischen Gemildes in der Lesche zu Delphi bei Pausanias», Zeitschrift für die Alterthumswissenschaft, 13 (1855), Nos. 49-52 ; ib. 14 (1856), Nos. 38-42 ; C. Bursian, in Fleckeisen's Jahrbücher, 2 (x856), p. 517 sqq. ; Ch. Lenormant, Mémoire sur les peintures que Polygnote avait exécutées dans la Lesche de Delphes (Bruxelles, 1864) ; H. Blümner, «Die Polygnotischen Gemälde in der Lesche zu Delphi», Rheinisches Museum, N. F. 26 (1871), pp. 354-369 ; J. H. C. Schubart, in Fleckeisen's Jahrbücher, 18 (1872), pp. 173-178 ; W. Gebhardt, «Die polygnotischen Leschebilder», Fleckeisen's Jahrbücher, 19 (1873), pp. 815-820 ; Miss J. F. Harrison, Myths of the Odyssey, pp. 118-134 ; Wiener Vorlegeblätter für Kunstübungen, 1888 (Wien, 1889), Tafeln x., xi., xii. ; A. S. Murray, Handbook of Greek Archaeology, p. 361 sqq. ; P. Girard, La peinture antique, pp. 157-165 ; C. Robert, Die Nekyia des Polygnot, Hallisches Winckelmannsprogramm (Halle a/S, 1892) ; id., Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, Hallisches Winckelmannsprogramm (Halle a/S, 1893) ; id., Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile und Weiteres über Polygnot, Hallisches Winckelmannsprogramm (Halle a/S, 1895) ; R. Schöne, «Zu Polygnots delphischen Bildem», Jahrbuch d. arch. Inst. 8 (1893), pp. 187-217 ; Th. Schreiber, «Die Nekyia des Polygnot in Delphi», Festschrift für J. Overbeck (Leipzig, 1893), pp. 184-206 ; id., «Die Wandbilder des Polygnot in der Halle der Knidier zu Delphi», Abhandlungen der philolog. histor. Classe der könig. sächs. Gesell. der Wissenschaften, 17 (1897), No. 6, pp. 1-178 ; P. Weizsäcker, Polygnot's Gemälde in der Lesche der Knidier in Delphi (Stuttgart, 1895).
The restorations of the pictures by the Comte de Caylus, W. K. F. Siebelis, the Riepenhausens, F. G. Welcker, W. Watkiss Lloyd, and W. Gebhardt are republished in a convenient form in the Wiener Vorlegeblätter far Kunstübungen, 1888 (cited above), which also contains a reconstruction drawn by L. Michalek for Prof. O. Benndorf.]
(2) Ilium after its capture. As to representations of the sack of Troy in existing works of ancient art, especially vase-paintings, see H. Heydemann, Iliupersis auf einer Trinkschale des Brygos (Berlin, 1866) ; C. Robert, Bild und Lied, p. 59 sqq. ; A. Schneider, Der troische Sagenkreis in der ältesten griechischen Kunst, p. 168 sqq. ; W. Klein, Euphronios, p. 159 sqq. ; Baumeister's Denkmäler, s.v. «Iliupersis». Among the most notable of such representations is a fragmentary marble relief, known as the Tabula Iliaca, which is preserved in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. It seems to date from about the first century A.D., and represents a great variety of scenes from the Trojan legends. It professes to be based on the Iliad of Homer, the Sack of Ilium of Stesichorus, the Aethiopis of Arctinus, and the Little Iliad of Lesches. From fragments of similar reliefs which have been discovered we may infer that tablets of this sort, illustrating the legends of the siege of Troy, were manufactured wholesale, probably for use in schools. These reliefs have been published with an elaborate commentary by Otto Jahn and Ad. Michaelis. See their work Griechische Bilderchroniken (Bonn, 1873) ; Baumeister's Denkmäler, p. 716 sqq. ; A. Brüning, «Über die bildlichen Vorlagen der ilischen Tafeln», Jahrbuch d. archäolog. Instituts, 9 (1894), pp. 136-165. With regard to the poetical sources from which Polygnotus may be supposed to have drawn some at least of the scenes in his great tableau, Mr. F. Noack has argued at length that the painter borrowed everything except some names from the epic known as the Little Iliad, particularly from that part of it which Pausanias cites (X. 25. 5 note) under the title of The Sack of Ilium and attributes to Lesches. See F. Noack, Iliupersis : de Euripidis et Polygnoti quae ad Trojae excidium spectant fabulis (Gissae, 189o), pp. 45-74 Prof. C. Robert, while he admits that Polygnotus drew on this poem, holds that the painter's chief poetical authority was the epic poem of the same title (The Sack of Ilium) which Proclus ascribes to Arctinus (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 49). See C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, PP. 74-80.
(3) Echoeax. His name means «holding the tiller». Hence Prof. C. Robert conjectures that the name really applied to a figure seated at the helm in the ship, and not to the man going down the gangway (Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 56 sq.).
(4) Menelaus' hut. The Greek word here translated «hut» (skênê) may also mean «tent» ; and though the dwellings of the Homeric warriors were perhaps huts rather than tents, Polygnotus may have preferred to represent them, in accordance with the usage of his own time, as tents. On red-figured vases and in Pompeian paintings the abodes of the Homeric heroes in the field are regularly represented as pavilions supported on round poles (C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, P. 39).
(5) The only figure whose name Polygnotus has taken from the Odyssey. The name of Amphialus also occurs in the Odyssey (VIII. 114, 128), though not as the name of one of Menelaus's companions.
(6) Briseis - Diomeda - Iphis. These were female slaves of Achilles (Homer, Il. I. 184, IX. 664 sqq.). After his death they may have passed into the possession of his son Neoptolemus. Cp. C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 57.
(7) Helen herself is seated etc. Prof. C. Robert compares a scene on a fine Attic vase now in the Hermitage Museum at St. Petersburg. It represents the wooing of Helen by Paris. The Grecian beauty appears seated among her maidens while Paris, in Phrygian costume, approaches and greets her. See Compte Rendu (St. Petersburg) for 1861, Atlas, pl. V with Stephani's remarks, p. 115 sqq. The scene of course differs from that depicted in Polygnotus's picture, but possibly there are traces of that picture in the attitude of Helen and her handmaids. Prof. Robert inclines, however, to think that the vasepainter stood directly under the influence of Zeuxis rather than of Polygnotus. See C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, pp. 34-36.
(8) Eurybates Ulysses' herald, though he had no beard. In the Odyssey (XIX. 244 sqq.) Homer describes Eurybates, the herald of Ulysses, as older than his master and with a great shock of hair on his head. Hence the surprise of Pausanias that in the picture Eurybates appeared as youthful and beardless. Eurybates is mentioned as the herald of Ulysses in the Iliad also (II. 184). But Agamemnon had a herald of the same name (Il. I. 320) ; and it is probable that he rather than the herald of Ulysses was represented by Polygnotus, since we know from Pausanias himself (below § 8) that Eurybates was sent by Agamemnon, not by Ulysses, to Helen.
(9) Different from the names in the Iliad etc. See Iliad, III. 143 sq., where Helen's handmaidens are called Aethra and Clymene. As to Aethra, see § 8 note ; as to Clymene see note on X. 26. 1.
(10) A man in an attitude of profound dejection etc. It is said that after Paris's death, the soothsayer Helenus and his brother Deiphobus quarrelled for the hand of Helen. Deiphobus was successful, and Helenus, mortified at his failure, withdrew from Troy to Mt. Ida. Here he was captured by the Greeks and was induced or compelled to reveal to them the means by which Troy could be taken. See Apollodorus, ed. R. Wagner, p. 206 ; Conon, Narrationes, 34 ; Servius on Virgil, Aen. II. 166 ; Sophocles, Philoctetes, 604 sqq. ; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica, X. 344 sqq. ; Dio Chrysostom, Or. LIX. vol. 2. p. 187 ed. Dindorf. Hence Polygnotus appropriately depicted Helenus seated in the midst of the ruin of his native city overwhelmed with grief and remorse. The story of the capture and prophecy of Helenus was told by Lesches in the Little Iliad, from which Sophocles may have borrowed it (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 36).
(11) Lescheos of Pyrrha — in his poem, The Sack of Ilium. This poem is repeatedly referred to by Pausanias in the sequel (§§ 6, 8, 9 ; X. 26. 1, 4, 8 ; X. 27. 1, 2). It is commonly supposed that the Sack of Ilium which Pausanias attributes to Lesches was not a separate poem but merely a part of the Little Iliad (D. B. Monro, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 4 (1883), p. 317 sq. ; Fr. Noack, Iliupersis, p. 45 sq. as to the Little Iliad see note on X. 26. 2). That the Little Iliad included a description of the sack of Troy is proved by the testimony of Aristotle (Poetics, 23, p. 1459 b 4 sqq.), though Proclus in his summary of the poem makes it end with the introduction of the Wooden Horse into Troy (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 37). But against the identification of the Sack of Ilium by Lesches with part of the Little Iliad it must be observed that Pausanias certainly seems to have regarded the two poems as distinct ; for whereas he assigns the former poem to Lesches, he apparently considered that the author of the Little Iliad was unknown (III. 26. 9 ; X. 26. 2). That Pausanias distinguished between the two poems has been recognised by Prof. von Wilamowitz-Müllendorff (Homerische Untersuchungen, p. 342). Prof. C. Robert's attempt to prove that Pausanias regarded the Sack of Ilium by Lesches as part of the Little Iliad is unconvincing («Homerische Becher», 50tes Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste, Berlin 1890, p. 64 sqq.). The name of the poet whom Pausanias always calls Lescheos appears as Lesches on the Tabula Iliaca (Baumeister's Denkmäler, pl. XIII) and on an ancient vase (C. Robert, «Homerische Becher», p. 33). The form Lesches is commonly regarded as the correct one, but the form Lescheos is defended by Mr. O. Immisch («Lescheos-Lesches», Rheinisches Museum, N. F. 48 (1893), pp. 290-298), whose view is, however, combated by Mr. W. Schmid (ib. pp. 626-628) and rejected by Prof. C. Robert (Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 74 note 13).
(12) Demophon, one of the sons of Theseus. His mother was Phaedra (Apollodorus, ed. R. Wagner, p. 179 sq.) or, according to Pindar, Antiope (Plutarch, Theseus, 28).
(13) Theseus had also a son Melanippus etc. Pausanias implies, though he does not say directly, that Melanippus was depicted along with Demophon meditating the rescue of his grandmother Aethra. The descendants of Melanippus, named Ioxids, are said to have revered asparagus because their ancestress Periguna, daughter of Sinis, took refuge in a bed of asparagus from the pursuit of Theseus (Plutarch, Theseus, 8).
(14) As to Aethra, Lescheos says etc. It is said that Aethra, the mother of Theseus, having been captured by the Dioscuri at Aphidna (Paus. V. 19. 3 note), was given by them as a handmaid to Helen whom she followed to Troy (Homer, Il. III. 143 sq. ; Dio Chrysostom, Or. XI. vol. 1. p. 184 ed. Dindorf). The story of her release from captivity after the taking of Troy seems to have been told in somewhat different forms. One version, here given by Pausanias on the authority of Lesches, appears to have been followed by the poet Lysimachus (Schol. on Euripides, Troades, 31) and Dionysius, author of the prose Cycle (Schol. on Euripides, Hecuba, 123 ; Frag. Hist. Graec. ed. Müller, 4. p. 653). The other version was that during the sack of Troy her two grandsons Demophon and Acamas, the sons of Theseus, found and rescued Aethra without, apparently, having to beg for her release from Helen and the Greek leaders. This latter version was seemingly followed by Arctinus in his Sack of Ilium (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p, 50), Quintus Smyrnaeus (Posthomerica, XIII. 496-543), and Apollodorus (p. 211 cd. Wagner). It would appear to have been also adopted by Stesichorus ; at least in the Tabula Iliaca (see note on § 2), which in so far as it represents the capture of Troy is professedly based on Stesichorus's poem the Sack of Ilium, we see Aethra within the walls of Troy being hurried away by her two grandsons amid scenes of slaughter and flight. The same version of the story is depicted on redfigured vases, of which one is in the British Museum (Catalogue of Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, vol. 3, Vases of the finest period, by Cecil H. Smith, No. 458, p. 281). See H. Heydemann, Iliupersis, p. 21 sq. ; A. Michaelis, in Annali dell' Inst. di Corrisp. Archeol. 52 (1880), pp. 32-40 ; O. Jahn, Griechische Bilderchroniken, p. 34 ; Baumeister's Denkmäler, fig. 775, Tafel XIII, fig. 795. Tafel XIV., pp. 743, 748 ; Müller-Wieseler, Denkmäler, 1. pl. XLIII. No. 202 ; C. Robert, Bild und Lied, pp. 72 sq., 75 sq.
(15) This child, says Lescheos, was killed etc. The verses in which Lesches describes the murder of the infant Astyanax, son of Hector and Andromache, by Neoptolemus are preserved by Tzetzes (Schol. on Lycophron, 1263 ; Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 46). Their substance is correctly given by Pausanias. According to another version of the legend the murderer of the child was not Neoptolemus but Ulysses. This latter is the version followed by Arctinus in his poem the Sack of Troy (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 50), by Tryphiodorus (Excidium Ilii, 644-646), and by Tzetzes (Posthomerica, 734). Euripides represents the death of Astyanax as resolved upon by the Greeks in solemn conclave, the chief advocate of the deed being Ulysses (Troades, 704 sqq.). According to Seneca (Troades, 1088 sqq.) Ulysses was deputed to execute the doom, but the child anticipated his fate by leaping from a tower. Quintus Smyrnaeus (Posthomerica, XIII. 251 sq.), Apollodorus (p. 212 ed. Wagner), and Hyginus (Fab. 109) merely say that the child was hurled from the walls by the Greeks ; they do not name the murderer. In the vase-paintings Neoptolemus is depicted seizing Astyanax by the leg and preparing to clash him to pieces against the altar at which the boy's grandfather, Priam, has taken refuge. See H. Heydemann, Iliupersis, pl. I. ; C. Robert, Bild und Lied, p. 59 ; Baumeister's Denkmäler, p. 745 ; Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, vol. 2, Black-figured Vases, by H. B. Walters, p. 135, No. B 205. Cp. F. Noack, Iliupersis : de Euripides et Polygnoti quae ad Trojae excidium spectant fabulis, pp. 29-36.
(16) Her hair braided after the manner of maidens. See note on I. 19. 1.
(17) Poets tell how Polyxena was slain on Achilles' tomb. Among the poets who described the sacrifice of Polyxena at the grave of Achilles were Arctinus (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 50) and Euripides (Hecuba, 109-582).
(18) At Athens I have seen pictures etc. See I. 22. 6.
(19) A horse about to roll on the ground. Prof. C. Robert conjectures that we are to suppose this horse to have been ridden by Elasus and Astynous, two of the victims of Neoptolemus (see below, X. 26. 4), and to have fallen under their weight, thus allowing their relentless pursuer to overtake and dispatch them. He thinks that the same subject is represented, at a somewhat earlier stage, on two of the northern metopes of the Parthenon. On one of the metopes (No. 29) we see two figures riding a horse which seems about to fall, white on the metope next to it (No. 28) appears a young warrior rushing along. If Prof. C. Robert is right, the scene on the former metope (No. 29) represents the flight of Elasus and Astynous, and the scene on the latter metope (No. z8) their pursuit by Neoptolemus. See C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, pp. 59-61 ; id., Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile, p. 124. Against this view of Prof. Robert's, which is accepted by Mr. P. Weizsäcker (Polygnots Gemälde, p. 26 sq.), it must be said that the horse in the picture, to judge by Pausanias's description, had not fallen but only seemed about to do so ; it is, therefore, a necessary part of Prof. Robert's theory that Pausanias mistook the attitude of the beast. A horse rolling on the ground is depicted on a black-figured vase (Mittheil. d. arch. Inst. in Rom, 4 (1889), pl. 7 ; the vase is B 364 in the British Museum) and is engraved on a number of ancient gems. See O. Rossbach, in Aus der Anomia (Berlin, 1890), pp. 195-200. The painter Pauson is said to have painted a horse in this posture (Lucian, Demosthenis encomium, 24 ; Aelian, Var. hist. XIV. 15 ; Plutarch, De Pythiae oraculis, 5).
(20) Clymene. In the Iliad (III. 144) Clymene is one of the two handmaids of Helen, the other being Aethra. It is quite possible that in the picture she may have been represented as a Greek slave waiting on Helen, and that Pausanias made a mistake in classing her with the captive Trojan women. See F. Noack, Iliupersis, p. 56 sq. ; C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 43 sq.
(21) Stesichorus, in his Sack of I1ium. The representation of the sack of Ilium on the Tabula Iliaca professes to be based on this poem of Stesichorus. See O. Jahn, Griechische Bilderchroniken, p. 32 sqq. Prof. Ad. Michaelis has argued that part of an abstract of this poem is contained in the fragments of Proclus's work in the Epic Cycle. See Michaelis, in Jahn's Griech. Bilderchroniken, p. 95 sqq. ; id., in Hermes, 14 (1879), pp. 481-498.
(22) In the Returns. We must distinguish this poem of Stesichorus from the epic of the same name which was ascribed to Agias (or Hagias) of Troezen. See note on X. 28. 7. Cp. Poetae Lyrici Graeci, ed. Bergk,3 3. p. 983.
(23) Touching Creusa, they say that the Mother of the Gods etc. Virgil makes Creusa say (Aen. 785 sqq.) that she will not be carried captive into Greece, because the Mother of the Gods detains her in Asia. Mr. D. B. Monro thinks that the story of Creusa was told in Arctinus's poem the Sack of Ilium (which is to be distinguished from the two poems of the same name by Stesichorus and Lesches). See Journal of Hellenic Studies, 5 (1884), p. 30 sq.
(24) The epic called the Cypria. The poem called the Cypria or Cypriaca, an epic in eleven books, was variously ascribed to Stasinus of Cyprus, Hegesinus of Salamis, Hegesias, and Homer (Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 319 ed. Bekker ; Athenaeus, XVI. p. 682 d e). Herodotus explicitly denied (II. 117) that the poem was by Homer ; and Aristotle did so implicitly (Poetics, 23, p. 1459). The subject of the poem was the origin and progress of the Trojan war down to the point where the subject is taken up in the Iliad. See Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 15 sqq. ; F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus, 1. p. 30o sqq. ; id., 2. p. 85 sqq. ; D. B. Monro, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 5 (1884), p. 2 sqq. ; W. Christ, Gesch. d. griech. Litteratur, p. 59 sq. «The Cypria was considered one of the grandest epics of antiquity, scarcely inferior to the Iliad and the Odyssey... It would appear that the poem of Stasinus [the Cypria] was more popular, had greater influence over the poets and painters of Greece, than the poems of Homer. At least, in the poems and plays which have come down to us the subject is oftener taken from the Cypria than the Iliad. In the case of Greek painted vases, whereas representations taken from the Iliad are rare, we find very frequent paintings of the incidents of the Cypria, such as the Judgment of Paris, the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, or the surprise of Troilus and Polyxena by Achilles at the well» (P. Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History, p. 16o sq.).
(25) The Little Iliad. Here and in III. 26. 9 Pausanias refers to the Little Iliad in a way which seems to imply that he thought the author unknown. It was ascribed to Lesches by Proclus (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 36), a scholiast on Aristophanes (Lysistrata, 155), a vase painter (C. Robert, «Homerische Becher», 5otes Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste, Berlin, 1890, p. 30 sqq.), and the sculptor of the Tabula Iliaca. Proclus (l.c.) calls Lesches a native of Mytilene in Lesbos ; but a scholiast on Aristophanes (l.c.) and the sculptor of the Tabula Iliaca agree with Pausanias (X. 25. 5) in calling Lesches a native of Pyrrha in Lesbos. Others attributed the Little Iliad to Thestorides of Phocaea ; others, including the historian Hellanicus, to Cinaethon the Lacedaemonian (see II. 3. 9 note) ; others to Diodorus of Erythrae. See Schol. on Euripides, Troades, 822. Prof. C. Robert has argued that the claim of Lesches to the authorship of the poem is invalidated by the evidence of Hellanicus, who, being himself a Lesbian, would have certainly attributed the poem to a fellow-countryman if there had been any plausible ground for doing so. Prof. Robert concludes that Lesches is a literary myth concocted in the fourth century B.C. by local Lesbian patriotism as a counterblast to the Ionic legend which claimed the poem for Thestorides of Phocaea. See C. Robert, Bild und Lied, p. 225 sqq. ; cp. id., «Homerische Becher», p. 64 sqq. Aristotle, like Pausanias, refers to «the author of the Little Iliad» in a way which seems to indicate that the author's name was unknown to him (Poetics, 23, p. 1459, Berlin ed). According to Proclus's abstract of the Little Iliad, the poem was in four books, and related the events of the Trojan war from the award of the arms of Achilles down to the introduction of the Wooden Horse into Troy. But in its original form the poem must have carried the history of the war down to the sack of Troy and the departure of the Greeks. See Aristotle, l.c. ; Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 36 sqq. ; F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus, 1. p. 267 sqq. ; id., 2. p. 237 sqq. ; D. B. Monro, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 4 (1883), p. 317 sq. ; id., 5 (1884), p. 18 sqq. ; W. Christ, Gesch. d. griech. Litteratur, p. 61 sq.
(26) Polypoetes, son of Pirithous. He is repeatedly mentioned by Homer (Il. II. 740, XII. 129, 182).
(27) Ajax taking an oath with regard to the outrage on Cassandra. Presumably he swore that he had not been guilty of the outrage. This explanation, however, is too simple for Prof. C. Robert, who conjectures (Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 63 sq.) that Ajax was swearing to atone for his sacrilege by sending two maidens periodically to Athena at Troy. For we are told that in expiation of the guilt of the Locrian Ajax the cities of Locris used to send annually to Athena at Troy two maidens whom the Trojans slew, and burning their bodies on the wood of certain trees which bore no fruit threw the ashes into the sea. If the maidens managed to escape, however, they took refuge in the sanctuary of Athena, which they thenceforward swept and washed, never quitting it except at night, and always going barefooted, shorn, and clad in a single garment. Probably the custom of sacrificing the maidens was sooner or later mitigated by allowing them regularly to escape to the sanctuary, though for form's sake a show of pursuing them was kept up. The custom is said to have been observed for a thousand years down to the Phocian war in the fourth century B.C. See Strabo, XIII. p. 600 sq. ; Plutarch, De sera numinis vindicta, 12 ; and especially Lycophron, Cassandra, 1141 sqq., with the scholia of Tzetzes, who refers to the historian Timaeus (Frag. Hist. Graec. ed. Müller, vol. 1. p. 297, No. 66) as his authority. The trial of Ajax before the Greek leaders for his outrage on Cassandra was depicted by Polygnotus also in the Painted Colonnade at Athens (Paus. I. 15. 2).
(28) Cassandra herself is seated etc. Lucian especially refers to the beauty of Cassandra's eyebrows and her rosy cheeks in this painting (Imagines, 7).
(29) She overturned the wooden image etc. This scene was described by Arctinus in his epic the Sack of Ilium, and was carved on the Chest of Cypselus at Olympia. See V. 19. 5 note.
(30) The prodigy which appeared etc. When the Greeks were sacrificing at Aulis before they set sail for Troy, a serpent issued from under the altar and devoured a sparrow and eight young ones which were perched on a neighbouring plane-tree. Having done so the serpent was turned to stone. The seer Calchas interpreted the prodigy to mean that the war would last nine years and that Troy would be captured in the tenth. See Homer, Il. II. 303-330.
(31) In a straight line with the horse etc. This seems to mean that the following group (Neoptolemus slaying Elasus) was on the same line with and next to the group of Nestor and the horse (see X. 25. 11). The groups which Pausanias has describcd in the intermediate passage (the captive Trojan women, Epeus throwing down the walls of Troy, Polypoetes, Acamas, Ulysses, Ajax, etc.) were on the upper line. Nestor and the horse were on the lower line, and next to them also on the lower line was Neoptolemus in the act of slaying Elasus. The Greek expression which I have translated «in a straight line with» is kat' euthu tou ippou. The same expression is used by Pausanias elsewhere. Thus in V. 11. 3 tô men dê kat' euthu tês esodou kanoni, «the bar which is in a straight fine with (i.e. faces) the entrance». Again in VII. 23. 10 en de oikêmati kateuthu tês esodou «in a chamber in a straight fine with (i.e. facing) the entrance». The expression has been misunderstood in different ways by Welcker and Prof. C. Robert. Sec F. G. Welcker, «Die Composition der polygnotischen Gemälde», p. 101 ; O. Jahn, in Kieler philologische Studien (Kiel, 1841), p. 93 sq. ; Overbeck, in Rheinisches Museum, N. F. 7 (1850), p. 444 ; Schubart, in Zeitschrift für die Alterthumswissenschaft, 13 (1855), p. 409 sqq. ; Ch. Lenormant, Mémoire sur les peintures, etc., p. 54 sq. ; C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 49.
(32) Elasus - Astynous. In the Iliad (V. 144 and XVI. 696) a Trojan named Elasus and another named Astynous are slain by Patroclus and Diomede respectively.
(33) The son of Achilles is always named Neoptolemus by Homer. See Iliad, XIX. 327, Od. XI. 506.
(34) Because Achilles began to make war at an early age. The name Neoptolemus («young warrior») is explained more naturally by Eustathius (on Homer, Il. XIX. 327, p. 1187) as referring to the martial youth of Neoptolemus himself. A scholiast on Homer (Il. XIX. 326) seems to take the same view. See Critical Note on this passage, vol. I. p. 61o. However, Pausanias's view of the origin of the name is supported by the parallel case of Gorgophone, who was so called because her father Perseus had slain the Gorgon (II. 21. 7).
(35) On the altar is a bronze corselet. Prof. C. Robert suggests that we are to suppose this corselet to have been brought by Laodice, daughter of Priam (Il. VI. 252), to her father at the altar where he had taken refuge, and that before Priam could put it on he was murdered by Neoptolemus (Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 64). Virgil has described the aged king arming his feeble body (Aen. II. 509 sqq.). In Polygnotus's picture Laodice was portrayed standing beside the altar (below, § 7). Prof. Robert's explanation of the corselet on the altar is accepted by Mr. F. Noack (Iliupersis, p. 64 sq.).
(36) They consisted of two bronze pieces called guala. See Homer, Iliad, V. 99, 189, XIII. 507, 587, XV. 530, XVII. 314. As to coats of mail in the Homeric age, sec Buchholz, Die homerischen Realien, 2. i. p. 370 sqq. ; W. Leaf, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 4 (1883), p. 73 sqq. ; W. Helbig, Das homerische Epos aus den Denkmälern erläutert, 2 p. 286 sqq. ; Baumeister's Denkmäler, p. 2018 sq. A. Bauer, «Die Kriegsaltertümer», in Iwan Müller's Handbuch der klass. Altertumswissenschaft, 4. p. 235 sq. Mr. W. Reichel has adduced arguments to prove that in the Homeric, as apparently in the Mycenaean age, coats of mail were unknown, the want of them being supplied by the large heavy shield which covered nearly the whole body of the warrior, and thatwherever the mention of a cuirass or coat of mail occurs in Homer the verse is a late interpolation. See W. Reichel, Ueber homerische Waffen, pp. 79-111. His views are accepted by Dr. Walter Leaf (Classical Review, 9 (1895), p. 55 sq.).
(37) A painting by Calliphon the Samian etc. This was doubtless Calliphon's picture of the battle at the ships, which Pausanias has already mentioned (V. 19. 2). Cp. H. Brunn, Gesch. d. griech. Künstler, 2. p. 56.
(38) I do not find Laodice in the list of captive Trojan women. According to one story, Laodice was swallowed up by the earth at the sack of Troy (Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica, XIII. 544 sqq. ; Tryphiodorus, Excidium Ilii, 66o sqq. ; Tzetzes, Posthomerica, 736 ; id., Schol. on Lycophron, 497 ; Apollodorus, ed. R. Wagner, p. 212 ; Epitoma Vaticana ex Apollodori Bibliotheca, ed. R. Wagner, pp. 69, 247 sqq.). Polygnotus depicted her also among the captive Trojan women in the Painted Colonnade at Athens. See note on I. 15. 2.
(39) The tale which Euphorion tells about Laodice. The story was that Laodice fell in love with Acamas, son of Theseus, and bore him a son named Munitus, who was afterwards killed by a snake while he was out hunting. This tale is told by Tzetzes, who has preserved some of Euphorion's verses on the subject (Schol. on Lycophron, 495), and it is told in greater detail by Parthenius (Narrat. Amat. 16). According to a different version of the legend the name of the child was Munychus and his father was Demophon, another of the sons of Theseus (Plutarch, Theseus, 34).
(40) A bronze wash-basin on a stone stand. In Greece at the present day many fluted pedestals of stone, about 2 feet high, may be found, especially in or about the churches. They have sometimes Ionic, but more commonly Doric capitals, mouldings, and flutings. The common shape is illustrated by the annexed cut.
«The use of these pedestals, says Leake, I conceive to have been, that of supporting large basins for holding lustral or sacrificial water, and many of them may have become baptismal fonts after the conversion of Greece. That the ancient basins are never entire is easily accounted for, their form being so much more fiable to fracture than that of the pedestal, which has the solidity of the column increased by its shorter dimensions ; it is probable also that the basin was often of metal, and therefore tempting to the plunderer. The pedestals thus deprived of their lustral vases now often serve to support the holy table or altar of the church». The reason why these pedestals are now so commonly found in Greek churches may be, as Leake suggested, that the ancient temples to which they belonged were converted into churches on the establishment of Christianity. In the Museum at Sparta I remarked a number of such stands with the top or capital complete. (In the similar pedestals at Athens the top is often wanting.) In these tops there is a square hole, obviously intended for fastening something, probably a water-basin, as Leake conjectured. Indeed one of the pedestals at Sparta actually supports a sort of orna-mental font, which is clearly of the same workmanship as the pedestal. This confirms Leake's conjecture as to the use of these stands. Leake may be also right in suggesting that the stone stand supporting the washbasin in Polygnotus's picture may have been a pedestal of this sort. See Leake, Morea, 1. p. 498 sq. ; id., Northern Greece, 2. p. 302 sq. Pausanias calls the stand upostatês and upostaton. The latter form of the name is the one given by Pollux (X. 10. 46 ; X. 22. 79). In an Attic inscription recording the sacred treasures of Athena and the other gods mention is made of a golden upostaton (C. I. A. II. No. 652 ; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscr. Graec. No. 366. 44) ; and in the double Sigean inscription the pedestal which supported the bowl is called upokrêtêrion (Ionie) and epistaton (Attic) (C. I. G. No. 8 ; Roehl, I. G. A. No. 492 ; Loewy, Inschriften griech. Bildhauer, No. 4 ; E. S. Roberts, Greek Epigraphy, No. 42).
(41) Medusa. This daughter of Priam is mentioned also by Apollodorus (III. 12. 5) and Hyginus (Fab. 90). Mr. F. Noack conjectures that her name, as written by Polygnotus beside her figure, was not Medusa but Melusa (Iliupersis, p. 73). The conjecture, which seems to have nothing to recommend it, is rejected by Prof. C. Robert (Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 65).
(42) The ode of the Himeraean poet. The Himeraean poet is Stesichorus. His «ode» is probably the Sack of Ilium. See § 1.
(43) An old woman. Prof. C. Robert suggests that this may have been Hecuba (Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 65 sq.), and the suggestion is approved by Mr. F. Noack (Iliupersis, p. 68 sq.).
(44) Eioneus. He is mentioned by Homer as the father of Rhesus (Il. X. 435).
(45) Coroebus, son of Mygdon. Coroebus is not mentioned by Homer, but Virgil tells how he came to Troy for love of Cassandra and how at the capture of the city he perished in the attempt to rescue her (Aen. 341 sqq., 407 sq.). Quintus Smyrnaeus says that Coroebus was slain by Diomede before he could enjoy the marriage for the sake of which he had come to Troy (Posthomerica, XIII. 168 sqq.). Mygdon, the father of Coroebus, is mentioned by Homer (Il. III. 186).
(46) Stectorium. The remains of Stectorium are near Ille Mesjid in the valley of Sandykli. Among the ruins is a small theatre. Professor W. M. Ramsay identified the site by means of an inscription in 1891. He had previously supposed the ruins to be those of Eucarpia. See W. M. Ramsay, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 8 (1887), p. 476 id., Historical Geography of Asia Minor, p. 139 ; id., in Athenaeum, 15th August 1891, p. 234 ; American Journal of Archaeology, 7 (1891), p. 5o5.
(47) Poets have been wont to give to the Phrygians the name of Mygdones. In a passage of the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius (II. 787) the name of Mygdones was by some ancient authorities read in place of Phrygians, according to a scholiast on the passage. Moschus speaks of a Mygdonian flute (I. 97 sq.), meaning a Phrygian flute. On the borders of Phrygia there was a tribe called Mygdones and a district Mygdonia or Mygdonis (Strabo, XII. pp. 550, 564, 575, 576 ; Pliny, Nat. hist. V. 145 ; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Mugdonia).
(48) Priam was dragged from the altar etc. Another version of the legend was that Priam was actually slain on the altar by Neoptolemus. This was the version followed by Arctinus in the Sack of Ilium, if we may trust the brief abstract of the poem by Proclus (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 49). Stesichorus in his poem the Sack of Ilium seems to have adopted the same version ; for in the Tabula Iliaca, which in this part is professedly based on Stesichorus's poem, Priam is seen seated on an altar in the middle of the courtyard of his palace, while Neoptolemus seizes him by the head with his left hand and prepares tostabhim. See O. Jahn, Bilderchroniken, pl. I. ; Baumeister's Denkmäler, pl. XIII. fig. 775. Later writers seem to have followed Arctinus and Stesichorus in representing Priam as slain at the altar. See Euripides, Troades, 16 sq., 481 sqq. ; id., Hecuba, 23 sq. ; Quintus Smyrnaeus, XIII. 220 sqq. ; Tryphiodorus, Excidium Ilii, 634 sq. ; Tzetzes, Posthomerica, 732 sq. ; Virgil, Aen. II. 550 sqq. ; Dictys Cretensis, V. 12 ; Apollodorus, p. 211 ed. R. Wagner ; Epitoma Vaticana ex Apollodori Bibliotheca, ed. R. Wagner, pp. 69, 236 sq. ; Pausanias, IV. 17. 4 (ep. II. 24. 3). The death of Priam is the subject of vase-paintings, and in all cases the painters appear to have followed Arctinus and Stesichorus rather than Lesches. See H. Heydemann, Iliupersis, pp. 15 sq., 34 ; A. Michaelis, in Annali dell' Inst. di. Corr. Arch. 52 (1880), p. 40 sqq. ; A. Schneider, Der troische Sagenkreis, p. 169 sqq. ; Baumeister's Denkmäler, p. 745 ; E. A. Gardner, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 14 (1894), pp. 170-177, with pl. IX. ; Catalogue of Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, vol. 2 (London, 1893), Nos. B 205, B 241 ; id., vol. 4 (London, 1896), No. F 278.
(49) Agenor was butchered by Neoptolemus. This is mentioned also by Quintus Smyrnaeus (Posthomerica, XIII. 216 sq.).
(50) Sinon, a comrade of Ulysses. He was a cousin of Ulysses, according to Tzetzes (Schol. on Lycophron, 344).
(51) The house of Antenor with a leopard's skin hung over the entrance etc. In his play of the Locrian Ajax Sophocles mentioned that at the sack of Troy a leopard's skin was hung up before Antenor's door as a sign that his house was to be respected. See Schol. on Aristophanes, Birds, 933 ; Pollux, VII. 70 ; Strabo, XIII. p. 608 ; Eustathius, on Homer, Il. III. 207, p. 405 ; Sophocles, Frag. 16, ed. Diodorf. The same story is told by Tzetzes (Posthomerica, 741-743). Antenor and his sons are said to have escaped to Thrace and thence to Venetia (Strabo, l.c. ; Eustathius, l.c.). Hence Polygnotus painted the family preparing to set out on the journey.
(52) Theano. She was the wife of Antenor (Homer, Il. VI. 298 sq.).
(53) Glaucus - Eurymachus. Apollodorus mentions p. 211 ed. R. Wagner) that when Troy was sacked Glaucus son of Antenor took refuge in his father's house, where he was recognised and protected by Ulysses and Menelaus. According to Tzetzes (Schol. on Lycophron, 874) the two sons of Antenor, whom he calls Glaucus and Erymanthus, sailed from Troy with Menelaus, and being shipwrecked at Cyrene in Crete took up their abode there. Homer mentions three sons of Antenor, namely Polybus, Agenor, and Acamas (Il. XI. 59 sq.). Virgil gives the names of the three as Glaucus, Medon, and Thersilochus (Aen. VI. 483 sq.), borrowing them from a passage of Homer (Il. XVII. 216), where, however, nothing is said to show that the three men so called were sons of Antenor.
(54) Servants are putting gear upon an ass. Hesychius in a gloss (s.v. Polugnôtou tou zôgraphou onos) describes a picture by Polygnotus of an ass represented facing the spectator and bearing on his back a load of myrtle and a sutler. This picture, which would seem to have been famous, may very well have been the one at Delphi here described by Pausanias. It is true that at the end of the gloss Hesychius says, «It is preserved in the Anaceum» ; but he seems to be here referring to Polygnotus's picture of the hare which was certainly in the Anaceum at Athens (see vol. 2. p. 166), and which Hesychius mentions in the present passage immediately before the words «It is preserved in the Anaceum», though the full description of it has fallen out. Prof. C. Robert ingeniously suggests that the myrtle boughs with which the ass was loaded pointed to Antenor's intention of going forth to seek a new home in a foreign land, myrtle boughs having been apparently carried by colonists (Aristophanes, Birds, 43, with the scholiast's note). See C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot, p. 54 sq.
(55) A couplet of Simonides etc. This epigram occurs in the Palatine Anthology (IX. 700). It is quoted, but without mention of the author's name, by Plutarch (De dejectu oraculorum, 47) and a scholiast on Plato (Gorgias, p. 448 b), and it is clearly alluded to by Philostratus (Vit. Apollon. VI. 11). The words which contain the names of the artist and his father are cited, with the change of a word, by Photius (Lexicon, s.v. Thasios pais Aglaophôntos) and Hesychius (Lexicon, s.v. Thasios pais Aglaophôntos). These numerous references show that the couplet was celebrated, though its poetical merit is of the slightest. That it was composed by Simonides is denied on insufficient grounds by Prof. C. Robert (Die Nekyia des Polygnot, p. 76 ; id., Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile, p. 70 sq.) and Prof. Hauvette (De l'authenticité des épigrammes de Simonidé (Paris, 1896), p. 137 sq.). The genuineness of the verses is rightly maintained by Prof. Milchhöfer (Jahrbuch des archäolog. Instituts, 9 (1894), p. 72 note 36). Cp. Bergk's Poetae Lyrici Graeci, 3.3 p. 1178.
(56) The descent of Ulysses to hell etc. On the literary authorities followed by Polygnotus in his delineation of the nether world, see F. Dümmler, «Die Quellen zu Polygnot's Nekyia», Rheinisches Museum, N. F. 45 (1890), pp. 178-202 ; C. Robert, Die Nekyia des Polygnot, p. 74 sqq. Prof. Dümmler holds that Polygnotus followed the epic poem called The Returns ; Prof. Robert holds that he did not. As the poem in question has perished, it is obvious that either opinion may be maintained with equal confidence and absence of conflicting evidence. A brief abstract of The Returns has been preserved by Proclus (Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 52 sq.), but there is no mention in it of a descent to hell. On the other hand Prof. Robert accepts the view of Pausanias (below, § 2) that Polygnotus knew and used the Minyad in addition to the Odyssey. With regard to copies of Polygnotus's picture on existing vases, Prof. Robert tells us that none has yet been found, but he is of opinion that some of the particular groups of the famous painting have been freely adapted by vase-painters to form new scenes (op. cit. p. 53). Scenes of the under world are depicted on about a dozen existing vases of Lower Italy. See A. Winkler, Die Darstellung der Unterwelt auf unteritalischen Vasen (Breslau, 1888) ; E. Kuhnert, «Unteritalische Nekyien», Jahrbuch d. archäolog. Instituts, 8 (1893), pp. 104-113.
(57) The poem called the Minyad. This poem was attributed to Prodicus of Phocaea. See IV. 33. 7. F. G. Welcker conjectured that it was identical with the Phocaeis, a poem which Homer was said to have composed at Phocaea ([Herodotus,] Vita Homeri, 16, in Biographi Graeci, ed. Westermann, p. 8). See Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 215 sqq. ; F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus, 1. p. 248 sqq. ; id., 2. p. 422 sqq. ; W. Christ, Gesch. d. griech. Litteratur, p. 64.
(58) Ferryman, Charon. The belief in Charon still survives among the modern Greeks. They call him Charos and regard him as a personification of Death, who with his own hand snatches the souls of the dying from their bodies and conveys them to the nether world. But the conception of him as a ferryman who transports the souls of the departed across the river of Death is also occasionally to be met with. See B. Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, p. 222 sqq.
(59) Tellis - Cleoboea. It has been supposed that these two personages were chosen by Polygnotus on account of their connexion with Thasos in order to indicate the Thasian origin of the painter himself (C. Robert, Die Nekyia des Polygnot, p. 81 ; R. Schöne, in Jahrbuch d. arch. Inst. 8 (1893), p. 200 note 23 ; P. Weizsäcker, Polygnots Gemülde, p. 15). The connexion of Cleoboea with Thasos is mentioned by Pausanias himself. But what had Tellis to do with Thasos ? Nothing whatever, so far as we know. His son Telesicles, the father of Archilochus, did indeed migrate from Paros to Thasos (Eusebius, Praepar. Evang. VI. 7.6 ; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Thassos) ; but that can hardly be regarded as establishing a Thasian connexion for Tellis himself. Mr. Dieterich may be right in supposing that the identification of the Tellis of the picture with the grandfather of Archilochus may have been nothing but a guess of the ciceroni, and that the painter may have chosen the name merely with a punning reference to the mysteries (telos) which his companion in the infernal bark had brought to Thasos (A. Dieterich, Nekyia : Beiträge zur Erklärung der neuentdeckten Petrusapokalypse, Leipzig, 1893, p. 69).
(60) A box such as they make for Demeter. The «box» was probably the mystic cista, which seems to have been a basket rather than a box. See VIII. 25. 7 note.
(61) The Pious Folk at Catana. These Pious Folk were generally said to have been two brothers, Amphinomus and Anapias (or Anapius). The spot where the torrent of lava surrounded them and their parents without scathing them was called the Place (or Field) of the Pious, and stone statues of the brothers were erected there. See Conon, Narrationes, 43 ; Lycurgus, contra Leocratem, XXIII. 95 sq. ; [Aristotle,] De Mundo, p. 400 Berlin ed. ; [Aristotle,] De mirab. Auscultat. 154 (165), p. 56 ed. Westermann ; Seneca, De beneficiis, III. 37, Vi. 36 ; Solinus, V. 15 ; Strabo, VI. p. 269 ; Valerius Maximus, V. 4. Ext. 4 ; Silius Italicus, XIV. 196 sq. ; Philostratus, Vit. Apollonii, v. 17. The Syracusans claimed the pious brothers for Syracuse and called them Emantias and Crito (Solinus, l.c.). In his list of people distinguished for piety Hyginus says (Fab. 254) that at the first eruption of Etna Damon saved his mother from the fire and Phintias saved his father. In a Greek metrical inscription found at Catana, the city is called «the famous town of the Pious» (Eusebeôn kluton astu) (G. Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca, No. 887).
(62) The woman who is chastising him is skilled in drugs etc. How was her skill in drugs indicated in the picture ? Was she depicted administering a dose to the miscreant ? And did the wry face he pulled betray his internal anguish ? This is the view of Prof. E. Rohde (Psyche, p. 291), Mr. R. Schöne (Jahrbuch d. arch. Instituts, 8 (1893), p. 201 note 25), and Mr. A. Dieterich (Nekyia, p. 68 note 2). Prof. C. Robert, on the other hand, suggests (Die Nekyia des Polygnot, p. 60) that the woman was not an apothecary or poisoner at all but a goddess of vengeance who was represented belabouring the sinner with a club which Pausanias mistook for a pestle, remembering the figures of women with pestles on the chest of Cypselus (V. 18. 2). This seems improbable, and we shall do better to adhere to the more natural view that she was offering a poisoned cup to the sacrilegious man. Mr. Dieterich (l.c.) has well pointed out that such a punishment seems to have been regularly inflicted in hell by Tisiphone (Valerius Flaccus, II. 194 sq.).
(63) When they captured the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus at Syracuse. It does not appear from Thucydides that the Athenians ever captured this sanctuary, which stood in a suburb of Syracuse. The Syracusans put a garrison into it to protect the treasures which it contained, but the Athenians did not approach it. See Thucydides, VI. 70 sq., VII. 4 and 37. Plutarch says (Nicias, 16) that although the Athenians were eager to gain possession of the sanctuary on account of the many votive offerings of gold and silver which were stored in it, the pious general Nicias purposely hung back and allowed the enemy to throw a garrison into it unmolested, for fear his soldiers might plunder the treasures and the blame of the sacrilege might rest on himself. On the other hand, Diodorus relates (XIII. 6) that the Athenians succeeded in seizing and fortifying the sanctuary and repelled an attack of the Syracusans.
(64) The words he spoke to the Delians. When the inhabitants of Delos fled at the approach of the Persian fleet, the Persian commander Datis sent a herald after them with a message inviting the «sacred men» to return and assuring them that no harm would be done to them or to their sacred island, the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis (Herodotus, VI. 97).
(65) Finding an image of Apollo in a Phoenician ship etc. According to Herodotus (VI. 118), who is doubtless Pausanias's authority for the anecdote, Datis himself conveyed the image to Delos and charged the inhabitants to restore it to Delium. The Delians neglected to obey this injunction, but twenty years afterwards the Thebans, in compliance with an oracle, had the image brought back to its original home.
(66) Eurynomus. This demon appears to be mentioned by no other ancient writer. Prof. C. Robert regards him as a personification of death, pointing out that his name, which signifies «wide-ruling», would on this hypothesis be appropriate (Die Nekyia des Polygnot, p. 61 ; Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile, pp. 117-119). Mr. A. Dieterich prefers to consider him as a personification of the grave in which the dead are laid and which, as it were, consumes their bodies, leaving only the bones (Nekyia, p. 47 sq.).
(67) The Returns speak of hell etc. In Proclus's abstract of the epic called The Returns there is no mention of a descent to hell. See Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. Kinkel, p. 52 sq. Hence Mr. D. B. Monro has conjectured (Journal of Hellenic Studies, 4 (1873), p. 319) that the editor or editors who redacted the Epic Cycle left out this episode, because a similar one had been already described in the eleventh book of the Odyssey.
(68) Auge went to the court of Teuthras in Mysia etc. Cp. VIII. 47. 4, VIII. 48. 7 ; and sec the note on I. 4. 6 «the band which crossed to Asia with Telephus». Prof. C. Robert conjectures that it was Leda and not Auge whom Polygnotus here painted in the under world, and that the mistake of Pausanias or of his authority originated in misreading the name attached to the figure, the name LHDH being easily confused with AUGH. He points out that in the Odyssey, which Polygnotus may have followed, Auge is not mentioned among the famous dames seen by Ulysses in the lower world, but that on the other hand Leda is so mentioned and is moreover coupled with Iphimedea (Od. XI. 208, 305), just as the figure in question in Polygnotus's picture is coupled. See C. Robert, Die Nekyia des Polygnot, p. 75. The conjecture is ingenious and not improbable. Even if it be accepted, however, it would involve no change in the text of Pausanias, as the mistake, if it be one, was obviously made by Pausanias himself and not by a copyist. As to Iphimedea cp. IX. 22. 6.
(69) The comrades of Ulysses, bringing sacrificial victims. Dr. R. Schöne conjectures that they were really represented carrying away the carcasses of the slaughtered rams in order to skin and sacrifice them to Pluto and Proserpine, as they are ordered by Ulysses in the Odyssey (XI. 44 sqq.) to do. He points out that in Polygnotus's picture Ulysses was supposed to have already slaughtered the rams, since he was depicted holding his sword over the trench in which their blood had flowed (X. 29. 8). See R. Schöne, in Jahrbuch d. arch. Inst. 8 (1893), p. 200. To this Prof. C. Robert replies that in the Odyssey there is nothing said about carrying away the victims and that it is much more probable that they were to be offered to the infernal deities on the spot (Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile, p. 120 sq.).
(70) Indolence plaiting a rope etc. This punishment of Indolence in hell seems to have been a familiar topic with the ancients and to have been often depicted in art. We know of two paintings of it by distinguished artists, the one by Polygnotus which Pausanias here describes, the other by Nicophanes, a pupil of the Sicyonian painter Pausias (Pliny, Nat. hist. XXXV. 137 ; H. Brunn, Gesch. d. griech. Künstler, 2. p. 155). Plutarch refers to «the picture of the rope-twister in hell who allows a browsing ass to consume what he is plaiting» (De tranquillitate animi, 14). Cratinus, in one of his comedies, also referred to «the man plaiting a rope in hell and the ass eating what he plaits» (Photius, Lexicon, s.v. onou pokai ; Suidas, s.v. onou pokai). Propertius speaks of the subject (V. 3. 21 sq.) as if it were proverbial. The story is illustrated by at least six existing monuments of ancient art, namely :
- A round marble well-head, sometimes described as an altar, formerly in the Museo Pie-Clementino, now in the Vatican. Here Indolence is represented in relief seated on a knoll and plaiting his rope, while at his back the other end of the rope is being eaten by an ass. Beside him the Danaids are also represented in relief pouring water into a great jar. See Visconti, Musée Pie-Clementin, vol. 4. pl. XXXVI. and pl. XXXVI* (both plates illustrate the same monument, but the second gives a more careful and accurate rendering of Indolence and the ass), with Visconti's remarks, p. 264 sqq. ; Berichte über die Verhandl. d. k. sächs. Gesell. d. Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philolog. histor. Cl. 8 (1856), pl. III. A. ; J. J. Bachofen, Versuch über die Gräbersymbolik der Alten (Basel, 1859), pl. ii. ; Baumeister's Denkmäler, p. 1925, fig. 2041 ; W. Helbig, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Alterthümer in Rom, 1. p. 278 sq., No. 372 (179).
- A stucco relief in a Columbarium of the Vigna Campana near the Porta Latina at Rome. Here Indolence is represented as an old bearded man kneeling and plaiting his rope, while the ass quietly eats the other end of the rope full in front of him. See Berichte (l.c.), pl. III. E ; J. J. Bachofen, op. cit. pl. i. ; Müller-Wieseler, Denkmäler, 2. pl. LXIX. No. 867.
- A wall-painting in a Columbarium of the Villa Pamfili at Rome. Here Indolence appears sitting idly on a Stone, holding in his right hand the end of a rope, which an ass, lying on the ground in front of him, is eating. The buildings and trees in the background prove that the scene is not laid in the lower world. See Abhandlungen d. philosoph. philolog. Cl. d. k. bayer. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 8 (1858), pl. III. 8, with the remarks of O. Jahn, pp. 245-249 ; J. J. Bachofen, op. cit. pl. II.
- A painting found in a tomb at Ostia, now in the Lateran Museum at Rome. Here Indolence is depicted sitting and plaiting his rope, while the ass is eating the other end of it behind his back. The scene is laid in the lower world. We see the figures of Pluto, Orpheus, and Eurydice, all with their names attached, and the gate of hell guarded by Cerberus and a doorkeeper. The painting, executed in an exceedingly dull prosaic style, is believed to date from the first century of our era. See Monumenti Inediti, 8 (1864-1868), pl. XXVIII. 1 ; C. L. Visconti, in Annali dell' Instituto, 38 (1866), pp. 292-307 ; W. Helbig, op. cit. vol. 1. p. 540, No. 696 (1064).
- A painting on a vase (lekythos) found in a grave on Monte Saraceno near Ravanusa. The picture treats the stories of the nether world in a spirit of caricature. Male and female figures, representing probably the uninitiated (see below, X. 31. 9 note), are depicted carrying water in pitchers on their heads to pour it into a large jar, and Indolence is seated gazing before him at some lines which are supposed to stand for his rope. Behind him is the ass falling on its nose, while one of the male water-carriers pulls it by the tail. See Archäologische Zeitung, 28 (1871), pl. 31. 22, with the remarks of H. Heydemann, p. 42 sq.
- A drawing in the Codex Pighianus (fol. 47) preserved in Berlin. The drawing exhibits in five separate compartments five scenes of the lower world, namely, Ixion stretched on his wheel, Hercules fetching up Cerberus, the Danaids engaged in pouring water into a large broken jar, Sisyphus heaving his rock up hill, and Indolence and the ass. In this last scene Indolence appears as a beardless man clad in a shirt and trousers, seated on a four-legged stool and plaiting a rope, of which the other end is being eaten by an ass. The drawing may be, as O. Jahn supposed, a copy of reliefs on a Roman sarcophagus. See Berichte (l.c.), pl. II. with the remarks of O. Jahn, p. 267 sqq. ; Abhandlungen (l.c.), pl. VII. 21 ; Bachofen, op. cit. pl. III. 2.
The story of Indolence further occurs, with a slight variation, in the Buddhist collection of stories known as the Jatakas. «A man was weaving rope, sir, and as he wove, he threw it down at his feet. Under his bench lay a hungry she-jackal, which kept eating the rope as he wove, but without the man knowing it. This is what I saw. This was my seventh dream. What shall come of it ? This dream too shall not have its fulfilment till the future. For in days to come, women shall lust after men and strong drink and finery and gadding abroad and after the joys of this world. In their wickedness and profligacy these women shah drink strong drink with their paramours ; they shall flaunt in garlands and perfumes and unguents ; and heedless of even the most pressing of their household duties, they shall keep watching for their paramours, even at crevices high up in the outer wall ; aye, they shall pound up the very seed-corn that should be sown on the morrow so as to provide good cheer ; in all these ways shall they plunder the store won by the hard work of their husbands in field and byre, devouring the poor men's substance even as the hungry jackal ate up the rope of the rope-maker as he wove it» (The Jataka or stories of the Buddha's former births, vol. 1. translated by R. Chalmers (Cambridge, 1895), bk. I, No. 77, p. 189). The parallelism of this Indian tale to the Greek one was first pointed out, so far as I know, by Mr. A. Grünwedel (Original-Mittheilungen aus der ethnologischen Abtheilung der kônigl. Museen zu Berlin, 1 (1885), p. 42). It was afterwards indicated independently by Mr. W. H. D. Rouse (Folklore, 1 (189o), P. 409).
The fable of the rope-weaver and the ass or jackal seems a sufficiently obvious apologue of misdirected and therefore fruitless labour. This explanation, which lies to hand, is not however profound enough to satisfy most of the scholars who have touched upon the subject. They have accordingly propounded interpretations of varying degrees of improbability and even absurdity. The tale has been treated as a symbolical expression of the creative forces of primitive nature, as an allegory of the sea devouring the ships of the Phoenicians, as a folk-tale of a man who gathered sticks in a wood, as a high moral allegory of the weakness of the will, and as a veiled description of a bucket being let down into a well. See J. J. Bachofen, op. cit. pp. 301-412 ; P. Cassel, Aus Literatur und Symbolik (Leipzig, 1884), pp. 290-309 ; E. Rohde, Psyche, p. 290 sq. ; U. von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, Homerische Untersuchungen, p. 202 ; C. Robert, Die Neykia des Polygnot, p. 62 sq. ; A. B. Cooke, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 14 (1894), P. 96 sqq.
(71) The same name is also given to a certain bird et