"THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE" 



591 



the Wingless Victory is really one of the 

 manifestations of Athena. 



Near by is the spot from which the 

 aged King ^Egeus took his stand to catch 

 the first beam glittering on the sail of the 

 returning ship in which his son Theseus 

 had sailed to Crete to kill the Minotaur. 



The rest of this heroic legend is fa- 

 miliar to all — of the beautiful youths and 

 maidens destined to be devoured by the 

 monster ; of Theseus, their preserver, who 

 penetrated into the Labyrinth and found 

 his way out by means of a silken thread 

 given him by Ariadne, torn from her al- 

 legiance by her love for the handsome 

 stranger ; of how it had been agreed be- 

 tween Theseus and his father that on re- 

 turning to Athens white sails would be 

 hoisted in place of the black ones to indi- 

 cate his triumph over the monster ; of 

 how, in the flush of victory, the young 

 man forgot this, and the old father, seeing 

 the black sails and believing his son to be 

 dead, threw himself headlong from the 

 rock. 



The king's name is given to the /Egean 

 Sea, which a poetic fancy would have 

 lapping on the crags at the foot of the 

 promontory. 



VICTORY TYING HER SANDALS, A MASTER- 

 PIECE IN MARBEE 



Around the bastion-like space in former 

 days was a balustrade adorned on the 

 outer side with reliefs in marble repre- 

 senting Victory in various attitudes. Sev- 

 eral of these have been preserved, notably 

 the Victory tying her sandal. 



This work, dating from the fourth cen- 

 tury B. C, at a moment when Greek art 

 was first manifesting a decline from the 

 austere quality of the preceding century, 

 is certainly one of the loveliest fragments 

 that have come down to us from antiquity. 



The model was, perhaps, a young Greek 

 girl of about fourteen years of age ; the 

 naked body was doubtless drenched with 

 water, and then over it was thrown a filmy 

 garment which molded itself to the fair 

 young form ; the artist then endeavored 

 to express the vision in unyielding marble 

 (see illustration, page 581). 



In this beautiful work the delicate 

 curves of the body, the soft revealing of 

 the budding bosom under the gossamer- 

 like garment, the softly rounded arm, 



whose delicacy of form is vaguely sug- 

 gested by the fold of drapery around it, 

 the eternal and radiant youth which ani- 

 mates the fair figure, all combine to give 

 to it a quality of rarest loveliness and 

 charm. 



It was an effort to leave this spot, but 

 one had the feeling that the great moment 

 was yet to come. 



IN THE SHADOW OE THE PARTHENON 



We walked back a few yards through 

 the upper colonnade of the Propykea and 

 before us stood the Parthenon in all its 

 overwhelming grandeur and severe beauty. 



There are things in this world which 

 we so love or so admire that we are loath 

 to praise them, lest by clumsy or ill- 

 chosen eulogy we should harm or dimin- 

 ish what we are fain to honor. I felt this 

 before the Parthenon. 



Standing there, it was a pleasure to re- 

 call that this monument, the epitome of 

 classic Greek art, like that example of a 

 later Greek art, St. Sophia at Constanti- 

 nople, was really a glorification of the 

 Divine Wisdom ; for he must be a dull 

 fellow who fails to see some such idea in 

 the lovely myth of Athena springing, full 

 grown, fully panoplied, and with a shout, 

 from the brain of Jove ; as for St. Sophia, 

 the name is derived from the Greek, 

 meaning Holy Wisdom. 



We stepped into the warm sunshine and 

 walked slowly toward the temple. There 

 were poppies blowing around our feet, 

 and from below came familiar city noises, 

 softened by the distance. At several 

 points artists had set up their easels and 

 were making more or less successful at- 

 tempts to reproduce some of the beauty 

 of the place and hour. 



THE VIEW FROM THE PARTHENON 



We climbed the steep steps and entered 

 the building, and here were fortunate in 

 meeting an archeological acquaintance 

 who pointed out those things about the 

 building which make a special appeal to 

 the lay mind. 



In the Treasure House, at the west end. 

 we were told, had been stored the booty 

 taken at Salamis, which included Xerxes' 

 throne. 



In another spot various Christian 

 bishops had slept through long centuries. 

 Just here it was recalled to us that the 



