The story of the battle with the Giants, the Giganto-Machia, formed a favourite subject for illustration with the Greek sculptors. The cameo of Athenion depicts Zeus in his chariot, and the Giants attacking, having snakes for their legs (Fig. 264).
Zeus was the national god of the Greeks, and was first worshipped on high places and mountain tops long before any temples were raised to his honour. He was worshipped all over Greece, and one of his earliest shrines was at Dordona, in Epirus. The greatest of all his shrines was at Olympia, on the northern banks of the Alpheus. It was here that the Olympian games were celebrated.
Fig. 264.—Cameo of Athenion.
It was also here that the great statue of Zeus was set up, which was the work of the renowned Greek sculptor Phidias (B.C. 500-432). This famous statue of the supreme god of the Greeks was a seated figure on a lofty throne, and was more than 40 feet high. It was made of, or probably covered over with, plates of ivory and gold (chryselephantine); the ivory plates covered the exposed parts of the flesh. In his right hand he held a figure of Victory, also made of ivory and gold. The sculptor sought to give his statue a look of sublime majesty, as the ruler of gods and men, and, at the same time, a kindly expression of benevolence, as the gracious father and dispenser of good gifts to mankind. Thousands are said to have come from great distances in order to gaze on this masterpiece of the greatest sculptor of Greece. It remained in its place for more than eight hundred years, and was supposed to have been destroyed by fire in the time of Theodosius III. The coins of Elis have a seated figure, and the head of Zeus on them (Fig. 265).
Fig. 265.—Coins of Elis with the Phidian Zeus (after Overbeck).
A supposed copy of the head of the god is in the Vatican Museum. It was found at Otricoli in the last century (Fig. 266).
The worship of Jupiter was also universal in Italy; many temples have been erected to his honour. The most famous of these was the one erected by Tarquin on the Capitol at Rome. It had a statue of Jupiter, the work of the Greek artist Apollonius, made of ivory and gold, and said to be a copy of the Phidian Zeus.
Fig. 266.—Zeus of Otricoli, Vatican Museum.
Zeus is credited with a numerous family. He produced Pallas Athene from his own head; the birth of Athene is supposed to have formed part of the subject of the sculptures on the pediment of the Parthenon (Temple of Athene at Athens) the remains of which are in the British Museum, but unfortunately the central figures of the pediment are wanting which depicted the event.
One of his goddess-wives was Themis, of the Titan family, whose children are the Fates. Dione was his Dodonian wife, by whom he had as daughter Aphrodite (Venus). The Arcadian Zeus had for his wife Maia, who was the mother of Hermes (Mercury). By Demeter (Ceres) he had a daughter Persephone (Proserpina), the flower goddess. By Eurynome, the Graces, and by Leto (Latona) Apollo and Artemis (Diana).
Later mythology recognises Hera (Juno), his sister, to be his only legitimate wife (Fig. 267), and by her he had his children Ares (Mars), Hephæstus (Vulcan), and Hebe.
Fig. 267.—Head of Hera, perhaps after Polycletus.
His earthly mistresses were Semele, daughter of Cadmus, King of the Greek Thebes, and mother of Dionysus (Bacchus) and others; Leda, Danaë, Alcmene, Europa, and Io.
The Roman Jupiter had at first no family, nor wives, but later, when the Greek influences were more strongly developed in Roman mythology, he was made to be the son of Saturn, and had Juno for his wife, and Minerva (Athene) for his daughter.
Hera (Juno) is the feminine counterpart of Zeus (Jupiter). She represents air or atmosphere, is the queen of heaven, and is the guardian goddess of marriage ties with both Greeks and Romans. The peacock, goose, and the cuckoo as the herald of spring, are sacred to her. The beautiful head (Fig. 267) of Hera is supposed to be the work of Polycletus, a celebrated Greek sculptor.
Pallas Athene (Minerva) is the great virgin goddess of wisdom, of the dawn, and of war. According to some Greek accounts she sprang forth to life from her father’s head (Zeus) fully armed with helmet and spear, chanting a war song, at which event the whole earth and sea trembled with commotion. She is represented in sculpture as the war goddess, in flowing robes with helmet and spear, and wearing the dreadful ægis, the breastplate of mail, with the snakes and head of Medusa, that “turned all men to stone who gazed on it” (Fig. 268). The serpent, the owl, and the cock are sacred to her.
Apollo was the favourite son of Zeus, and was a great god with both Greeks and Romans. He is the god of light, of music, and of healing. He is sometimes the god of death, sending out his arrows of sunshine that often breeds pestilence, as well as giving health. His favourite instrument is the lyre, which he plays at the feasts of the gods. His sons were Orpheus, the god of music, and Asclepius (Æsculapius), god of healing. Delphi was the chief seat of his worship, where a gorgeous temple was erected to him.
There the priestess Pythia uttered the oracles that were supposed to come to her ears alone, from out of a cleft in the rock under the sacred tripod, from which also issued gaseous vapours. These oracles were sacred words of advice or warning for those who came to consult them. Other oracles of Apollo were at Didyma near Miletus, at Clarus, and at Thebes.
Fig. 268.—Athene Polias (Villa Albani).
The Roman Emperor Augustus erected a great temple to Apollo on the Palatine Hill, in which was placed the celebrated statue of Apollo Citharædus (Apollo with the lyre), a work by the famous Greek sculptor Scopas. The statues of Apollo are of two kinds: one represents him as a conquering deity, strong and handsome, of youthful beauty both in face and body (Fig. 270); the other is in the more benign character of the Pythian lute player, with long flowing garments of a feminine nature, and with a pleasing expression. Scopas and Praxiteles made many statues of Apollo; copies of some of these are still in existence. These sculptors flourished about B.C. 400. The celebrated statue of the youthful Apollo known as the Apollo Sauroctonus (the lizard slayer) is a work of Praxiteles.
Fig. 269.—Pallas Athene, Naples.
Fig. 270.—Apollo Belvedere, Vatican.
Aphrodite (Venus) was “born of the sea foam,” as some say near to the island of Cyprus, where she was first supposed to touch the land; many temples were built to her worship in this island. She was the goddess of love and beauty, and of the generative and creative forces in nature; the goddess of spring, and all kinds of fertility, both in celestial and terrestrial regions. She was the favourite deity of the Grecian mariners, and was worshipped in Cyprus and the isles of Greece more than any other divinity. Iris in the Tempest, in referring to Venus, says—
“I met her deity
Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son
Dove-drawn with her.”
The story of her love for Adonis, and of his death and coming to life again, is but the decay of nature in autumn, and its resuscitation in the spring. The Seasons and the Graces are her attendants, who dress and adorn her. She is accompanied by Eros and Hymen, the gods of love and marriage. Venus of the Romans is the goddess of spring, and the