Mythology had named both triads of sisters daughters of Zeus. The mis, the goddess of Law, bore to him the Hours. They rule over the changes of day and night and of the seasons; they foster and mature all growth in the natural or the spiritual world; they ordain the law of change and the measure of time. The essential characteristics of the Graces, on the other hand, arc liberality and grace; of this nature are the blessings which they bestow upon the world. Freedom and order are significantly proclaimed by these two groups, in which the nature of the god himself was revealed.
The arm-rests, again, were supported by sphinxes holding youths in their claws, and on the sides of the seat-beams were represented, respect ively, Apollo and Artemis slaying the sons and daughters of Niobe. We are thus confronted with the solemnity of existence and the judgment power of God. The crossbeams were decorated with reliefs; in front the ( )1ympic games were represented, and on the other side were illustrated real battles in defence of the lIellenic father-land and its culture—the struggle of Theseus and Iferakles against the .‘ mazons. This subject furnished the artists not merely with the welcome theme of the female form and strange dress, but also with a symbol of barbaric foreign lands. The father of the heavens protects his Greeks through the agency of heroes and vouchsafes to them victory in this defence of their homes.
The footstool of Zeus was supported by golden lions, the king of the beasts serving at the feet of the king of the gods, and was decorated with a relief representing Theseus battling against the Amazons. Finally, the base on which the throne rested was decorated with the assembly of the gods. Around the throne of the Highest they are gathered as its orna ments: at the ends are the Sun and the Moon; then Apollo and Artemis, Athena and Herakles, Poseidon and Amphitrite, on the one side, and Hermes and Hestia, Hephaistos and Claris, Zeus and Hera, on the other. All are subordinate to the central group, where appears Aphrodite rising from the sea attended by Eros and being crowned by Peitlio.
by wall with opening doors in front sur rounded the statue. The outer side of this wall was painted blue, and on the three sides not screened by the feet and the footstool of Zeus were paint ings executed by Panainos, three groups on each side. Once upon each of these sides appears Herakles, the founder of the Olympic games and the son of Zeus, who won heaven by his bravery and sufferings. On one side he strangles the Nemean lion, thus freeing Nature from wild monsters; on another, he takes from Atlas his burden, the vault of heaven, winch the Titan had been forced to bear, and places it upon his own shoulders; on the third side he loosens the fetters of Prometheus, who had opposed the will of Providence, but is now reconciled to Zeus. In these three paintings we have, therefore, deliverance from burdens, freedom, and reconciliation through the grace of Zeus.
Three other groups are distributed upon the three sides—Ajax and Kassandra, Achilles and Penthesileia, Theseus and Pcirithoos. The lat ter pair represents the friendship of heroes, while the first pairs portray the power of love, which passes, indeed, beyond the bounds of nationality.
Ajax wantonly desires to drag Kassandra from the sanctuary of the deity's image, and must atone for the outrage. Achilles has mortally wounded Penthesileia, his enemy, and mourns her for her beauty. There is, finally, on each side a female group—Hippodameia, who was won by Pelops in the first Olympian games, together with her mother, Sterope; and then in commemoration of this mythical victory is shown the historical victory over the Persians granted by Zeus. This is represented by the figure of Salamis with the beak of a ship by the side of Hellas. Last come two Hesperides with the golden apples, the sweet prize of a toilsome life and the reward of contests successfully endured.
The Ideal Expressed by Pheidias in this statue of Zeus was derived, according to the ancient writers, from the lines of Homer in the first book of the Iliad, which read: "Kronion spike, and nodded his dark brow, and the ambrosial locks waved from the king's immortal head; and he made great Olympus quake." It was the ideal of infinite reserve power. united with kindliness in sublime repose.
The impression which this statue made upon antiquity was a profound one, as may be gathered from the passages which Overbeck has collected in his Schriftque/kn. We quote from two of these. Ouintilian writes: " rhi. said to have been even more remarkable as a sculptor of Irods alt tan of men. By his clmselephantine work he would have been far It ) id all rim ads e‘ en if he had made else than the Minerva n, or the t mpian Jove in Elis, the beauty of which was a real a 1 lition to the established faith. So nearly did the majesty of his work equ,.1 the divinity f the gods." The devotional Dio Chrysostom most beantruIlY writes: " Were any one so heavily burdened with cares and ai1liytc 1 with sorrows that even sweet sleep would nut refresh him, stand ing before thy statue he would, I firmly believe, forget all that was fearful and crushing in life, so wondrously ]cast thou, 0 Pheidias! conceived and compILtt.d thy work, such heavenly light and grace is in thy art." kfriA).8' rd.—The wives of Zeus, by whom he became the father t 1 the gods, were many in number, but of them all Hera occupies the 'IL:hest place. Like Zeus, she has power over the storm-clond; she the tempest an 1 causes the thunder to roll; she is the mother of the war-god, Ares, and the fire-god, Hephaistos. On the other hand, she is also the calm after the storm, is attended by the Graces, the Ilours, and Iris, .ut I is the mother of the beautiful Ilebe. She is the queen of heaven, the al faithful wife, the special guardian of mothers and widows. She is represented as a full-grown woman, either as standing or as seated upon a throne, clad in rich attire, and holding the long sceptre. The important statue of I lera which influenced all that followed was the gold and ivory statue at Argos made by Polykleitos in the latter portion of the fifth cen tury r. c. The Parnese head of Hera in the 'Museum at Naples preserves much of the dignity and severity which we may suppose to have char:le tt:died the work of Polvkieitos.