24 IVORY AND THE ELEPHAxNT 



and that the aid of the sculptor Damophon was called in to 

 remedy the evil. He succeeded in fitting them together 

 again with the utmost accuracy, for which task he was 

 greatly honoured by the Eleans. The importance accorded 

 to the care of the great Zeus is shown by the fact that the 

 cleaner of this image had a special seat reserved for him in 

 the theatre of Athens.* In the dry air of the Acropolis at 

 Athens, however, not oil but water was used to prevent the 

 material from drying out. On visiting Epidaurus and view- 

 ing the ivory and gold statue of Asklepios there, the Greek 

 traveller was informed that in this case neither oil nor water 

 was used on the ivory, and when he inquired the reason he 

 was told that directly beneath where the statue rested was 

 a deep excavation — a kind of well — and that the moisture 

 arising from this was just sufficient to preserve the ivory in 

 proper condition. f 



It was stated that the injunction to pour oil over this Zeus 

 image emanated from the great Phidias himself, who had 

 enjoined that this should be done "so as to keep it immortal 

 as far as possible."! The use of oil immediately on the 

 ivory has been doubted, and Schubart conjectures that it 

 was rather applied to the wooden framework to prevent 

 this from shrinking and thus cracking the ivory plates cover- 

 ing it.** A confirmation of this view is found in Pliny's 

 assertion (Nat. Hist. Lib. xvi) that in the statue of Artemis 

 at Ephesus, the "Diana of the Ephesians," were many holes 

 into which oik was poured to prevent the framework from 

 splitting. 



In his "Description of Greece" Pausanias mentions a 



*C. I. A. Ill, Nos. 243, 291; in Eraser's Pausanius, Vol. 11, p. 182. 

 jPausanise, Descriptio Graecise, Lib. V, cap. 11, 10. 



{Methodius in Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 293, b. 1, sq., ed. Bekker. Cited in Fraser's 

 Pausanias, London, 1898, Vol. Ill, p. 545. 



**Zeitsch, f. d. Altertliumswissenschaft. Vol. I, 1849, pp. 407-413. 



