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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

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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 epu ^ei/xtpLv' ol^ofievu). ov yap awdvOpwiroi, &a.Kpv8a>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 7rpovai TC fiapdvOtv, rjSe i\oit\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 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 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 . 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. daughters of Erechtheus are nonentities But the case is much worse than this. Dr. invented to acclimatize these foreign women Zielenski, in a monograph which Dr. Furt- —• the boldest myth-maker shrank from wangler does not even cite,1 has, we think, making them Kekropidae. demonstrated that the very living Triopian Turning to the Kekrops side, from which Erysichthon is the same as the rather indeed all certainty of interpretation must shadowy Athenian hero, and in Triopas we spring, one point seems to escape Dr. Furt- learn his real nature, i.e. that he is none other wiingler, though early commentators (Weber, than Poseidon Halirrhothios, he who in Overbeck, &c.) had noted it, and that is Triopas attacks the sacred tree of Demeter, that the three women-figures next Kekrops who at tries to cut down the /xopiai, are not his three daughters, but his wife and the sacred olives of Athene, or, when the two daughters. Dr. Furtwangler says ' die story is put in human form (nymph and letzte, wohl die jiingste, kniet neben ihm und tree being, as we shall see, one and the halt ihn umschlungen.' Surely this is to same), to violate the daughter of Aglauros, mistake the situation. It is Aglauros, wife Alkippe. It is true that in later times, of Kekrops, who clings to him, and the pose when everything was Atticized, Erysichthon indicates the relation ; her concern is with was tacked on to the Aglaurides as the her husband, the maidens have another young brother who died childless. But is a charge, the boy. Dr. Furtwangler does not figure, in this relation so fatuous, and in his seem to have any clear conception of the real essence so Poseidonian, on the Athene origin of this group of three, who under side of the pediment to upset that very other names appear as Horae, Charites, principle of interpretation which Dr. Furt- Moirae, and the like. A right understanding wangler himself so ably maintains ? of these is essential to the interpretation of I have spoken strongly about Erysi- the pediment. Herse, as I have tried to chthon because he has been treated with much show elsewhere {Hellenic Journal, vol. xii. detrimental vagueness as a 'shadowy per- p. 351, ' The Three Daughters of Kekrops'), sonality,' who can be thrown in anywhere is merely eponymous of the Hersephoria— when convenient; and it is time this sort of she has no real cult, no shrine, or even pre- thing stopped, at least among serious mytho- cinct. Pandrosos and Aglauros are both logists. forms—Horae—of the same goddess, who at Before leaving the West pediment a word some time or another, perhaps through the as to Kekrops, rather by way of clearing up making of a permanent image, perhaps his mythology than of criticism of the through formulation due to the incoming of pediment. The personality of Kekrops as the Poseidon cult, became unified as Athene; the snake-father god has been much ob- Athene, in process of time, separated off as scured by the intrusion of the Olympian a distinct superior goddess with her two conception of Zeus. As the snake father handmaids, Aglauros and Pandrosos. Such of the child Erichthonios he appears on is the idea in the terracotta cited by Dr. the familiar Berlin terracotta, in his right Furtwangler himself, where the seated god- place, balancing the real mother Athene dess is attended by two standing Parthenoi Aglauros, all the notions and legends of her (Gerhard, Ges. akad. Abh. Taf. 22, 1). This being merely foster-mother having arisen idea of two and one, not three, lives on even when the doctrine of Athene's virginity was in the groups of the Nymphs and Chaiites, promulgated at Athens. To explain him as where either the middle one faces round or an interested spectator only, is to miss the sometimes the first of the group is heavily point. Even after, as in the Corneto vase, draped with a himation for distinction. the putative father Hephaistos is introduced, It is most clearly seen in the West pediment, he takes a back place in the scene, and where Aglauros the wife, who gave her name Kekrops holds his own. On the archaic to the 'AyA.au/jiSes, clings to her husband. poros pediment he holds the eagle in his hand—he is Zeus. This notion is confirmed But I come to what seems to me a crucial 2 mistake, Erysichthon. To call the ephebos by the recent investigations of Dr. Robert between the two maidens Erysichthon is to on the worship of the snake-child Zeus me to make nonsense of the whole composi- Sosipolis at Crete and Olympia, and, as we tion. If the Delos, Triopas hero was wanted know from the inscription newly found at anywhere it is on the opposite side. To talk Magnesia, in that city also. On Magnesian of his balancing Ion on the right half of the 1 Philol. N.F. iv. p. 161. pediment because of his relations to Ionian 2 Mitiheilungen, 1893, p. 39. 88 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. coins the snake, the child, and the chest1 of cults in the several chambers of the ' alte appear in conjunction just as in the Eri- Tempel' rests on the analogy he supposes— chthonios story (Rayet, Golfe Latmique, p. and I think probably with reason — to 139 ; A. Anzeiger, 1894, p. 81). The analogy, exist between its ground-plan and that of indeed, between the cultus conditions of the Erechtheion. The account given of the Athens and Magnesia is close, as has Erechtheion by Pausanias can on this sup- been already indicated by Professor Kekule position be applied to the ' alte Tempel.' It {pp. dt.). We have Zeus Sosipolis = Kekrops does not escape Dr. Furtwangler that Pau- worshipped with the sacrifice of a chosen sanias makes no mention there of a Kek- bull, apxo[i.tvov i ? Dr. Furtwiingler quite rightly ritual to learn some particulars, otherwise observes that in this inscription irpos with lost, of the mother cult. Yet another point the genitive indicates direction, ' nach '; about Kekrops, and one, to my mind, of that is true enough and every one knows it, extreme importance. The snake-god—call but he goes on roundly to assert that wpds him Kekrops or Zeus as you will—is the with the dative must be taken to mean father-god, the generating spirit, husband of contact, irpdoracrts irpos TJS K£Kpo7na>, ' die an the mother-goddess Athene Agraulos, the das Kekropion gefiigte Halle '; and this for olive-tree round which the snake is twined. no better reason than that once in the same He stands on the Athene side of the pedi- inscription irpds with the dative does imply ment ; his snake, to the end crouched be- contact. Now surely this is a wrong and neath her shield, was tended by her priestess. most misleading inference. The real dis- Kekrops, in any distribution of cults and tinction in the use of the preposition with division of temple-chambers, must never be genitive and dative is that the genitive separated from Athene, must never go over denotes direction—the point of the compass to the temple or temple-division of Poseidon ; (of course without motion towards); 7rpds we cannot separate him from the snake, with the dative denotes proximity with no and the snake clings always to Athene. indication of direction, but proximity of I heartily agree with Dr. Furtwiingler's every varying degree from mere nearness to dogma that the double back-to-back temple absolute contact. Because contact is ex- denotes the double cult, but it is always pressed once in the inscription it does not the cult of affiliated divinities, not of follow that contact is always intended. The those essentially and primarily related— real grammatical distinction lies, I repeat, husband and wife need no separate shrines between direction without implied proximity —nor yet the snake-child. Athene and and proximity without implied direction, and Poseidon Erechtheus may be and were wor- Dr. Furtwangler's argument is based on a shipped back to back, but Athene and confusion of grammatical thought. What Kekrops we may not put asunder. Until and where, then, is the Kekropion 1 A Poseidon came and made complications these building near, uncomfortably close up to the back-to-back temples could not and would portico—incompatibly close up, some say. not have existed. To put Kekrops in the The Kekropion is none other to my mind west hall of the 'alte Tempel,' aloof from than the East cella or part of the East Athene and closely allied with the succes- cella of the ' alte Tempel.' To this we sively immigrant gods Poseidon, Butes and return when the frieze is reached. Hephaistos, is to introduce an element of mythological confusion truly deplorable. (2) The East pediment.—For the centre of Dr. Furtwangler's elaborate distribution the composition Sauer's restoration is adopt- ed. There was possibly not time to incor- porate in the translation, even as an adden- 1 The coin should be studied not in Rayet's wholly dum, any mention of the altered arrangement inadequate and inaccurate reproduction but in the pho- by Mr. Six which appeared in the Jdhrbuch totype plate of Imhoof-Blumer, Griechische Milnzen, pi. viii. 33 where the object is manifestly a cista this summer (1894, 2, p. 83). For the with round lid. A similar Magnesiau type shows remaining figures Dr. Furtwangler adopts the child seated on the cista. the Horae of Prof. Brunn, and restores to THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 89 us the ancient Moirae. To this attribution goddess, so the Moirae were at one time the authorities of the British Museum have multiple forms of that olive-tree, i.e. juopuu. steadfastly adhered, though the faith of The scholiast on Aristophanes Nubes many was shaken by Dr. Waldstein's bril- 1005 makes this, I think, clear enough: liant theory of Gaia and Thalassa. The Kvplwi fiopia Xeyerai r] iepa i\aia Trjs 6tov, i.e. Gaia and Thalassa attribution never, I the 'AOrjvaU — Athene Aglauros herself. believe, made much way in Germany; but Against this, olive as against the goddess it had one great merit which should never herself, Poseidon sent his son Halirrhothios, be overlooked, and that is that it lent to rjTTr)0el<; rrjs 'AOrjvas 6 HoaeiSwv ITTL vrj rijs the pose of the semi-recumbent sister a eAaias ortSetfet tirefixf/e TOV viov avrov TOV beautiful and fitting motive. So fitting do 'AXippo&iov TCLVTTJV Tc/AovvTa.; and the scholiast I feel this to be that I would suggest goes on to tell how, the missing tree, Halir- that Dr. Waldstein's Gaia and Thalassa at- rhothios wounded himself. As has been tribution may be combined with that of the pointed out with reference to Erysichthon, Moirae. Moirae certainly the three figures the tree in one version becomes humanized are, but may there not have been a sort of as Alkippe daughter of Aglauros. Another underthought that the Moirae ruled over version makes him attack the olive-trees the three departments of the universe, collectively : at tepat cXaiai rrjs 'AOrjvas tv rrj Heaven (Ourania was the eldest of the d/cpo7roAei fjLopiai eKaXovvro' Aeyovo~i yap OTI Moirae), Earth, and Sea ] We should thus 'AAippd&os, 6 7raTs IIoo"£i8wvos, rjBtXrjcrev iKKoif/at gain a further point and be able again to avras K.T.A.1 compare the pediment with the Homeric It scarcely needs to be pointed out that Hymn to Athene— the olive of Athens was the fate-tree of the state. The city, ruined by the Persians, /j.eya's 8' eXcAt^er' "O^D/ITOS could only revive when it sent forth a new Seivov V7ro jSpijur; yXavi«07riSos" d/A^i St yaia shoot. It was a miraculous growth, a\upw- o-jU.cp8aX«ov id)(i)(rev iKivrjOri o" Spa TOVTOS TOV, avroTToiov, a tjiofiriiJLa. even to the foreign iroptftvpeoiari KVKov, nurturer of the sons of the land. Hesychius tells us it And the third Fate, she of the sea, would was the custom when a male child, a Branch recline with fresh fitness close to Nux, her of the house of Athens, was born, vritpavov mother, as she descends into the waves. i\aias nOevai wpo TU>V 0vpG>v; at the birth of I throw out this suggestion for what it is his child Erichthonios, old Kekrops holds the worth, as emphasizing the cosmic note of olive-spray in his hands. the East pediment. But the Moirae were But the fate-tree is for death as well as local goddesses at Athens, with a local cult life. This comes out curiously in the myth carried on by the Praxiergidae, the priest- of Meleager. As long as the life-brand is esses of Athene, as Dr. Furtwangler has unconsumed, the brand brought by the well pointed out, and this long before they Moirae, Meleager lives; with it he dies. were Olympianized. And here I hope to According to a less familiar, and for my add a fresh link in their close connection purpose very pertinent version, given by with Athene Aglauros. Tzetzes ad Lyk. 492, the fatal branch was Athene Aglauros was, as we have seen, <£u\Aas eXatas ov Sas, which Althaea swallowed herself the olive-goddess. The Fates of when she became with child and which she Athens were, I believe, at one period of brought to birth. Anyhow the life of the their development olive-goddesses, Motpai one and the other were intimately bound Mopicu. up ; as the Moirae at the hero's birth— I would guard against misapprehension. I do not say that the idea of fate arose at Tempora dixerunt eadem lignoque tibique. Athens or in connection with the olive-tree ; , Met. viii. 454. the conception of ouo-a, of Themis, of avayia) Abundant evidence as to the various cus- may, nay must, have existed prior to the in- toms and traditions about ' life-trees' has troduction of the olive-tree to Athens. Nor been collected by Mannhardt (Baumhultus, do I say that fiopiai is derived from Moirae ; p. 45), and it would be superfluous to enlarge both probably sprung f rom a common root on the matter here. The custom survives meaning division, partition, or allotment. with us still in our Christmas-trees and in What I am convinced of is that at Athens, 1 as Athene herself at one period of her The identity of Athene and the olive-tree has been long ago pointed out by Boettielier, Baumkultus, development was 'AOrjvads, the sacred olive- p. 108, but he did not extend his argument to the tree and the Mopia was the O-IJKOS of the Moriae. 90 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. the pleasant custom of planting a tree at the laid down that they must be dwellers in birth of a child. Olympos. This is true, but with a difference, Another point must, however, be empha- or rather an added condition. I believe that sized. The image of the goddess was made all the spectators of the birth of Athene of her olive-tree, as were those of Damia are, as in the West pediment, local divinities, and Auxesia. But this is a second step on but such as have been Olympianized, turned from the time when the goddess was the into cosmic potencies by advanced Athenian, tree, dwelt in the tree, her life and that of Pan-Hellenic theology. This is true of the people intimately bound up, practically Helios, who had his local Eiresione with the identical with it.1 A sort of midway stage Horae at Athens; doubly true of the Horae in religious conception is seen in the familiar who are themselves Agraulides, two-fold coin of Myrrha, where the statue of a god- forms of Athene, before they become gate- dess actually emerges from the tree itself, keepers in the Pan-Hellenic Olympos. At and the local Halirrhothioi attacking the the Horae I must pause for a moment to tree and goddess with axes are driven off by note how admirably they balance in idea the her guardian snakes. At Myrrha, too, the Moirae ; their very name has the same fun- snake, as at Athens, guarded the life of the damental conception ; they are the division, state. the allotment, partition of time, whether of To return to the pediment. It has been day, month, or year. As the Moirae of life often pointed out that in the West pediment they gradually absorb to themselves the the spectators are the dwellers in the land, notion of the right time, the prime, beauty, the local heroes of the East pediment; it is and vigour. Hence, as Dr. Furtwiingler beautifully points out, they are on the side 1 Mr. Marindin points out to me a curious passage of Helios, the Moirae on the darker side of in the Homeric Hymn to Demcter (11. 22-3) which Nux, the Horae of happier nature, the seems to bear on the human olive-goddesses. Perse- phone shrieked aloud as Hades bore her away, but Moirae of sadder humanity ; but both are Aglaurides, both manifestations, double or ouSe Tis aOaydrcop OUTC BviyrS>v av&p&nwv triple forms of Athene. I hesitated defi- fJKOu