The Classical Review Archaeology

The Classical Review http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR Additional services for The Classical Review: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Archaeology Jane E Harrison The Classical Review / Volume 9 / Issue 01 / February 1895, pp 85 - 92 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00201248, Published online: 27 October 2009 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00201248 How to cite this article: Jane E Harrison (1895). Archaeology. The Classical Review, 9, pp 85-92 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00201248 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 131.111.185.72 on 30 Apr 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 85 German worked in the dawn, the English- kinship with ancient Hellas,—that voice man, though still in the morning hours, yet which so often within these walls expressed in a far clearer light : between them, the knowledge thrice-refined by ripe study however, there is this intrinsic resemblance, and experience ; a, few years more, and these that in both the mainspring of a devotion will be only traditions : but to our suc- which ended only with life was a native cessors, the members of this Society in days instinct, inteosely strong and lucid, for the to come, the history of learning in Europe spirit and the charm of classical antiquity. will bear witness that no body formed for There are those in this room to whom the the promotion of Hellenic studies could impressive personality of the master whom have entered upon existence with a worthier we commemorate will be a lasting recollec- sanction, or could desire better auspices for tion,—that singularly fine head and pose, its future, than those which are afforded by which themselves seemed to announce some the name of Charles Newton. IN MEMOEIAM : CHARLES THOMAS NEWTON, K.C.B. DECEMBER 4TH, 1894. ov K(i> (^poCSov eros' XPV(ravy^ o.v6ca 71-0177? Taia 7rp6(f>pao-aa <j>epu ^ei/xtpLv' ol^ofievu). ov yap awdvOpwiroi, &a.Kpv<ov aooyri iroOeivwv, es fjiaKapwv \£<r)(T)v oloOtv 010s ami. OVK, dXX' ouAos €pws Tatrys er' a>8a>o-€ irpOTro/JLTrov, KCU. pDO-yu.0? Kpahi-qv eT^c XiOov IJaptViS" ocrns iveaKXrjKrj^ ipov re KO.6' 'EXXaSos ovSas /cat orij8«i)v 'Acrnys wyvyiov Tcju.ei'os, evOev o MawrcoXos 7rpo<T/i,ci8^<Ta<ra re A770I croi icXeos aOavarov Titre KOjUicrTpa Otd. €i 8c cmrtyrirai $oi/8os 8d<f>vai TC fiapdvOtv, rjSe <f>i\oi<ri ^>t\os. GEORGE C. W. WARR. ARCHAEOLOGY. SOME POINTS IN DR. FURT- has been admirably done by Miss Sellers- WAENGLER'S THEORIES ON THE She has undertaken it as a confessed en PARTHENON AND ITS MARBLES.1 thusiast, accepting her author's views en bloc ; the translation is all aglow with eager DR. FURTWANGLER'S Aleisterwerke der championship, and indeed only the devotion griechischen Plastik was very fully reviewed, of an ardent disciple could have carried her and indeed its contents were summarized, in with such brilliant success through a task the Classical Review for April and May of the veritably Herculean. The English transla- past year. The object of the present article tion will, I expect, largely supersede the is to call attention to the appearance of an German version, even in Germany. It is in ' English translation of the work, and to use almost every respect a gain. The changes this occasion for the criticism of certain made are noticed by Miss Sellers in her points in Dr. Furtwangler's theories on the preface, and have all been authorized by Parthenon marbles. I may say at once Dr. Furtwangler. The plates are now in- that the work of editing the English version corporated with the text, and there are no less than thirty-five new illustrations; yet 1 Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture, a series of Essays the bulk of the book is not seriously in- on the History of Art. By Adolf Furtwangler. Authorized Translation. Edited by Eugenie Sellers. creased. The necessary space has been 86 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. gained by condensations freely and wisely worshipped, not in the Erechtheion but in carried out. Current controversies of minor the ' alte Tempel.' Of this more anon. One importance have been relegated to notes. mythological comment may be added. As the The book has gained in unity by the omis- medium of their theophany we see their char- sion of chapters that dealt with pre-Pheidian acteristic (rrj/jLua. Athene shows the olive, art; in one instance, i.e. the chapter on the Poseidon the horse. We go a step further. throne of Apollo at Amyclae, we regret the The gods in their theophany show them- omission, though for consistency's sake it selves, i.e. Athene is the olive, Poseidon is was justifiable. the horse — "ITTTTW; ; the importance for The translation is for the most part clear Athene will appear later in connection with and accurate; but Germanisms abound and the Moirae ; for the present it is essential to sometimes issue in obscurity, e.g. Preface, note that the horse to our mind was the p. viii. : ' the increasingly rich discoveries of original a-qfiuov of the god. It does not original work on Greek soil have lately appear in the pediment—why? Because somewhat thrown into the shade the study (and this is a point that Dr. Furtwangler of the copies for which we are mainly in- seems not clearly to have seized) Poseidon debted to Italy, not to the advantage of our appears in the pediment, not as Poseidon science.' ' Es ist die Auswahl des Besten pure and simple, but as Poseidon Atticized, und Beriihmteston das man im Altertum i.e. combined with Erechtheus. The old besass' is German. ' It is the pick of the primitive worship of Athene knew of certain best and most famous that antiquity pos- local figures only, the olive-goddess Athene, sesses ' would be written independently by her snake-husband Kekrops, their child Eri- no Englishman. 'The no less magnificent chthonios Erechtheus, and the well that bronze head of a boy' is a severe ' split nourished the olive-tree, called after him substantive' for an English tongue. As Erechthei's. Erechtheus is but the snake- a nation we are still so far behind in archaeo- child Erichthonios conceived as a grown-up logy that many of us all but think in prince and ancestor. To this primitive triad German on the subject, but a stern set must of father, mother, and child, to the old be made against writing Germanized English. snake and the young snake and the olive- tree nourished by its sacred well1 there I turn now to the immediate- subject of entered, probably in all but historical times, this paper, Dr. Furtwangler's views on the the horse-god Poseidon. He forced his way Parthenon, and specially its marbles. With into the cults of the Acropolis, but only by more enthusiasm than accuracy Miss Sellers suffering assimilation with the local hero, says in her preface that Dr. Furtw'angler's the original child-god Erechtheus Erichthon- book has been received 'almost with ac- ios ; and more than that, he had to drop his clamation by scholars of all schools.' As horse form (though it lived on in current regards the Parthenon marbles it is surely story and in the horse-tribe of Centaurs) and better to own frankly that his theories have take for his symbol the sacred well of Erech- been met in England not with acclamation theus, originally only important as watering either way, but with a grave distrust. Athene's olive. Given over to him as a sea-god I myself believe and gratefully acknowledge in the Olympian circle, it could easily, when that Dr. Furtwangler has thrown brilliant necessary, be salted for the edification of the light on the whole question of interpreta- faithful. Poseidon showing the horse would tion, but in certain serious matters of have represented a far less perfect fusion, detail I am at issue with his conclusions, though a poet, like Sophocles in the Colonos and these for convenience sake may be stated chorus, may make a splendid conjoint image at once and together. of the white sea-cavalry. (1) In the West pediment the ephebos called Erysichthon by Dr. Furtwangler I Similarly the whole right-hand side of the believe to be Erichthonios. pediment is given to Poseidon's family and (2) In the East pediment the so-called following, but carefully Erechiheusized. ' Theseus' is not Kephalos. Oreithyia and her Thracian sons are purely (3) In the central group of the East Poseidonian—Hippian we might say—but frieze the scene represented is not the offer- 1 In this matter of the primitive olive, well and ing of the peplos. snake cult, and the consequent close connection of (1) The West pediment.—Dr. Furtwangler Athene and Kekrops—a point I believe to be essential —I should like to express my obligations to a paper rightly sees in the centre group not a strife by Mr. A. G. Bather, which, I regret to say, is un- but a rival theophany — scarcely perhaps published ; also in the matter of the lamp of Kal- even rival, for by the time of Pheidias limachos as representing the hearth of the state ; but Athene and Erechtheus were conjointly for the deductions I draw he is in no way responsible. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 87 she, with Ion, Creousa, and the rest, are Delos is merely to darken counsel. If he is turned into Erechthean princesses; the Ionian let him go over and stand near Ion.

Load more