WHENCE THE ART OF ROME? 281 



made as the representative of the best masculine shape, 

 and Venus was the embodiment of grace in the female 

 figure. Out of this kind of god-making has come the 

 most attractive of art representations. Nearly all 

 there is of pagan art has been developed in the 

 creation of divinities, while the most of Christian art 

 consists in the development of Biblical objects. 



The Greeks were disposed to shelter their ods, 

 hence the rage for architectural display in construct- 

 ing deistical temples. With sesthetical people it was 

 not becoming to house the ideal divinities in a 

 cave or rock-shelter. The Parthenon of Athens was 

 an abode of the gods, and so was the Pantheon of 

 Rome. Every temple had an altar where incense was 

 burned or sacrifices were made, hence the occasion for 

 a priesthood to becomingly administer the sacred 

 offices. In all religious things the Romans were 

 servile imitators of the Greeks ; and both peoples were 

 pantheists. An outward form was the abode of a 

 spirit which in its activities imparted feature to the 

 physical envelope ; and certain symbols w r ere invented 

 to emphasize inner qualities. Themis who imper- 

 sonated justice, is represented as a noble and majestic 

 woman, with blind-folded eyes, and as holding a 

 balance in one hand and a sword in the other. The 

 god of physical love is represented as a sturdy boy 

 with plump cheeks and curling auburn locks, he is 

 winged, and armed with a bow and arrow. 



^Esculapius, the god of medicine, was a celestial, 

 being a son of Apollo. His ability to heal the sick and 

 the wounded, rendered him popular among gods and 

 men. In art he is represented with a staff which lias 

 a serpent entwined about it. The eldest daughter of 

 ^Esculapius was Hygeia. In the Capitoline Collection 



