A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities Part 16

[Sidenote: 4.]

_South Side._--A male figure, not bearded, is seated on a throne to right. He has a sceptre resting on his right shoulder. In the left hand he holds a pomegranate fruit, and in the right hand an apple. Before him stands a male (?) figure, holding a dove in the left hand by the wings, and having the right hand raised in a gesture of adoration. On each side of the main group, but disconnected from it, are the winged figures with their burdens as already described. With certain differences of detail, chiefly in the positions of the arms of the figures carried, these groups are nearly similar to those of the north side.

_Drapery, &c._--All the figures on this tomb, except the "Harpies," the diminutive figures connected with them, and the warrior, are draped in chiton, and himation or peplos. The figures borne by the "Harpies" and the figure crouching in grief wear long chitons only. The "Harpies" wear chitons, of which the sleeves alone are indicated. All the princ.i.p.al figures wear shoes or sandals, so far as the feet are preserved, with the exception of the second figure behind the throne on the east side. The women on the west side, and the seated figure on the south side wear shoes with pointed toes. The remaining figures wear sandals only. All the figures on the east side had metal taeniae or stephanae, the holes for the attachment of the metal being still visible. The youth on the east side, as already stated, held a metal object in his hand.

_Colouring._--The following indications of colour can be traced.

The ground of the reliefs was bright blue. Part of the colour remains round the profile of the youth on the east side, and under the right wrist of the first figure behind the throne on this side. Birch (_Archaeologia_, x.x.x., p. 192) states that he has seen scarlet on the crest of the helmet, and Scharf (_Mus. of Cla.s.s.

Antiq._, i., p. 252) that there were "traces of red in the hollow of the s.h.i.+elds and upon sandals." Elsewhere the colour must be inferred from the inequalities of the surface of the marble, due to the unequal protecting powers of the different colours.

There was an egg and tongue pattern on the lower moulding, and a maeander pattern on parts of the upper moulding. On the west side the chair of the figure on the right was painted with palmette ornament. On the east side there was also a palmette pattern on the side of the throne.

_Interpretations._--The interpretations of this monument, that have been proposed, may be divided into three groups--

(1.) According to the first commentators, the subject represented was the rape of the daughters of Pandareos, king of Lycia, by the Harpies (Homer, _Od._ xx., l. 66. Gibson, in Fellows, _Lycia_, p.

171; Birch, _Archaeologia_, x.x.x., p. 185.) The objections to this view are that the subject is an improbable one for representation on a tomb, that the "Harpies" evidently stand in a kindly relation towards the persons whom they carry, and that the reliefs do not agree well with the literary form of the myth. It is also doubtful whether the "Harpies" were imagined with bird-bodies at the period of these sculptures. (Furtwaengler, _Arch. Zeit._, 1882, p. 204.)

(2.) In the second group of theories, the enthroned figures are deities of the lower world to whom the souls of the dead pay reverence. On the west side are Demeter (left), and Persephone (right), and three wors.h.i.+ppers who carry symbols of life and birth, as the egg and the pomegranate. The door of the tomb signifies death, while the cow and calf, immediately above, suggest the renewal of life. The three seated figures remaining, are, according to this system, either Zeus (south), Poseidon (east), and Hades (north), (Braun, _Annali dell' Inst._, 1844, p. 151), or Zeus viewed under a triple aspect (Curtius, _Arch. Zeit._, 1855, p. 10). The symbolic system has been most elaborately worked out by Curtius (_loc. cit._, and _Arch. Zeit._, 1869, p. 10). Thus he regards the "Harpies'" bodies as intended for eggs, and so symbolical of life. This view is untenable, as the bodies are of the form usually given to birds in early art (Conze, _Arch. Zeit._, 1869, p. 78).

(3.) In the third and most recent group of theories, the seated figures are not deities, but heroified personages, buried in the tomb, to whom offerings are made by members of their family.

(Milchhoefer, _Arch. Zeit._, 1881, p. 53; Wolters, p. 75.) This view is supported by a.n.a.logies found elsewhere (cf. p. 299), while it avoids the difficulty of supposing deities to be represented on a tomb. But no parallel has been adduced for such a scene as a young warrior giving his arms to the figure of an heroified ancestor; moreover the dignity and adornments of the enthroned figures seem most appropriate to deities.

On the whole it seems best to suppose that we have on this tomb scenes connected with death, though we cannot attempt, for want of knowledge of Lycian mythology, to a.s.sign names to the personages represented. Maidens make offerings to female deities, and men to male deities. On the east side a boy makes an offering, on the north side a young warrior gives up his armour, and on the south side a man offers a bird. Kindly winged beings bear away the souls of the dead, and the crouching figure on the north side suggests the grief of the survivors. (Cf. Brunn, _Sitzungsber. d. k.

bayer. Akad. Phil. hist. Cl._, 1872, p. 523, who points out the succession of ages among the figures, but does not consider the idea of death to be implied in the central groups of the north, east, and south sides.)

_Style and Period._--In the Harpy Tomb we have a fine example of the work by the Ionian School of Asia Minor, whose chief characteristic is a certain voluptuous fulness of form, and languor of expression, contrasted with the muscular vigour of the Doric sculpture, and the delicate refinement characteristic of a part of the early Attic work (cf. Brunn, _loc. cit._, p. 205, and Rayet, _Monuments_, No. 13). It is uncertain whether the tomb is later than the Persian conquest of Xanthos (545 B.C.). It has a remarkable resemblance to the tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae as described by Arrian (vi., 29) and Strabo (xv., 3, 7), although the force of the parallel is rather diminished if Fergusson (_Nineveh and Persepolis_, p. 215) has correctly identified the tomb. The Harpy reliefs are usually a.s.signed to the close of the sixth century; but a comparison with the sculptures of Ephesus points to a date nearer 550 B.C.

The Harpy tomb is of marble. The reliefs measure 3 feet 4-1/2 inches in height; 8 feet 2 inches in length on the east and west sides; 7 feet 6 inches on the north and south sides. Fellows, _Lycia_, p. 170, and pl.; Birch, _Archaeologia_, x.x.x., p. 185; Braun, _Annali dell' Inst._, 1844, p. 133; _Mon. dell' Inst._, IV., pl. 3; _Rhein. Mus._, N.F., III., 1845, p. 481; Curtius, _Arch. Zeit._, 1855, p. 2, pl. 73; Overbeck, _Gr. Plast._, 3rd edit., I., p. 171; Murray, I., p. 116, pl. 3, and figs. 22-25; Rayet, _Monuments_, Nos. 13-16; Mitch.e.l.l, p. 187, fig. 88 (west and south sides); Wolters, Nos. 127-130.

[Sidenote: =95.=]

Fragment of relief, with parts of two female figures, draped and having sandals, moving to the right in a dance. The relief appears to have been on the face of a lintel, panelled on its lower side.--_Xanthos._

Limestone; height, 1 foot 3-1/2 inches. Prachov, pl. 6B, fig.

_i._; Murray (2nd ed.), I., p. 125.

[Sidenote: =96-98.=]

The following sculptures ill.u.s.trate the way in which the simplicity of an archaic statue is sometimes preserved in later sculptures serving an architectonic purpose:--

[Sidenote: =96.=]

Torso of female figure, wearing a long dress with diplodion, falling in flat surfaces with few folds. The left leg is advanced, the right hand gathered up a part of the drapery. The head and arms are wanting.--_Xanthos._

Marble; height, 4 feet 1/4 inch. Prachov, pl. 2, fig. 5.

[Sidenote: =97.=]

Torso of female figure, nearly similar to preceding, but with surface much mutilated.--_Xanthos._

Marble; height, 2 feet 4-1/2 inches. Prachov, pl. 2, fig. 6.

[Sidenote: =98.=]

Torso of female figure treated like No. 96, but holding the fold of drapery with the left hand.--_Xanthos._

Marble; height, 3 feet 10-1/2 inches. Prachov, pl. 2, fig. 4.

SCULPTURES FROM NAUCRATIS.

The remains here described were obtained for the most part from the site of the temple of Apollo at Naucratis, in the Nile Delta. The site of Naucratis was discovered by Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie, and the remains of the temple were found in the course of excavations which he carried on, in 1884-5. A few sculptures also were found by Mr. E. A.

Gardner in the excavations of 1885-6. The whole of the collections from Naucratis in the British Museum were presented by the Egypt Exploration Fund, which conducted the excavations.

Naucratis was a colony of Greeks, settled in Egypt for purposes of trade. It is situated to the west of the most westerly or Canopic mouth of the Nile, and is nearly midway between Cairo and Alexandria.

The date of the foundation of Naucratis has been a subject of controversy. It is known that the colony owed much to Amasis, King of Egypt (564-526 B.C.). According to the statement of Herodotus (ii.

178), Amasis showed his friends.h.i.+p to the Greeks by giving, to those who came to Egypt, the city of Naucratis to live in ([Greek: Philellen de genomenos ho Amasis alla te es h.e.l.lenon metexeterous apedeixato, kai de kai toisi apikneumenoisi es Aigypton edoke Naukratin polin enoikesai, k. t. l.]). The question has been discussed whether the words of Herodotus prove that Amasis was the first to allow the Greeks to live at Naucratis, or whether the account of Strabo (xvii., 1, 18) can be accepted, according to which Naucratis was already occupied by Greeks, especially by Greeks of Miletus. If Amasis introduced the Greeks to Naucratis, no h.e.l.lenic remains on the site can be older than 504 B.C. If an earlier settlement is a.s.sumed, it may have dated from the middle of the seventh century.

In either case the temple of the Milesian Apollo would have been among the earliest buildings erected. Herodotus states that by permission of Amasis, the Milesians independently founded a temenos of Apollo ([Greek: choris de ... ep' heouton hidrysanto temenos ... Milesioi Apollonos]). Messrs. Petrie and Gardner, arguing for the older date, put the foundation shortly after the middle of the seventh century.

The architectural remains are very scanty. Probably much of the first temple was built of mud bricks. The stone portions may have been used again in the building of the second temple, whose ornaments were of marble. Moreover, all marble and stone is eagerly sought for and removed by the modern Arab diggers.

_Naukratis_, Part I., 1884-5, by W. M. Flinders Petrie and others; _Naukratis_, Part II., 1885-6, by E. A. Gardner; G. Hirschfeld in _Rhein. Mus._, N.F., XLII. (1887), p. 209, and XLIV. (1889), p. 461; Kirchhoff, _Studien_, 4th edit. p. 43; Roberts, _Greek Epigraphy_, p. 323.

THE FIRST TEMPLE OF APOLLO.

[Sidenote: =100.=]

_Columns._--The architectural members of the first temple were of limestone. They are insufficient to fix the dimensions of the temple, which was, however, small. Mr. Petrie supposes it to have been not more than twenty-five feet broad. A volute and a complete base of an Ionic column were discovered, but were immediately destroyed by Arabs.

The following fragments are preserved:--

[Sidenote: 1, 2.]

Two members of an Ionic capital, consisting of two courses of an egg and dart moulding. The upper course is considerably the larger. The lower course is worked with a rebate to fit the upper course. Below the mouldings are the tops of the flutings.

Upper course--height, 5 inches; diameter, 1 foot 7-1/2 inches; lower course--height, 4-1/4 inches; diameter, 1 foot 4-1/2 inches. _Naukratis_, I., pl. 3.

[Sidenote: 3.]

Fragment of necking of a column, of a different design from the preceding, and surrounded by a pattern of lotus buds and lotus flowers.

Height, 11 inches; diameter, 1 foot 8 inches. _Naukratis_, I., pl. 3.

[Sidenote: 4.]

Fragment of necking of a column, somewhat similar to the preceding.