40 THE FINE ARTS. 
principal of them. Now, however, we can recognise so definitely very few 
of these heroes, in fact none scarcely but Heracles; for instead of the 
numerous marble and bronze statues, the productions of great artists, which 
antiquity possessed, we have nothing scarcely but the reliefs on sarcophagi 
and vase paintings, which latter are too light and sketchy to exhibit even 
a portion of those characteristics which the Greek artists knew how to stamp 
upon their masterpieces. It is, therefore, only by the contents of some large 
representation that we can ascertain the personages represented ; and even 
here there is too often a choice between different cycles of heroes. 
a. Heracles. Weracles was a national hero of the Greeks, and in him 
the heroic ideal is expressed with the greatest vividness. The characteristic 
feature of Heracles, strength steeled and proved by exertion, was expressed 
even in the earliest representations, but was developed in the highest 
degree by Lysippus and Miron. Even the youthful Hercules displays this 
concentrated energy in the immense strength of the muscles of his neck, the 
thick short curls of his small head, the small eyes, the form of his limbs, 
and the breadth and prominence of the lower part of his forehead. But his 
character is still more forcibly exhibited in the victor of fierce combats, the 
toil-laden hero of mature age as represented with especial predilection by 
Lysippus. The swelling muscles rendered protuberant by perpetual toil, 
the powerful arms, thighs, legs, breast, and back, and the serious features 
of his resolute countenance, produce an impression which cannot be effaced 
by transitory repose. For the twelve labors of Heracles, which were very 
frequently sculptured on reliefs, there were soon established certain modes 
of representation, which varied according to time and place. The strictly 
warlike exploits of Heracles became less generally the subjects of represen- 
tation by the ‘plastic art; and he appears for the most part in the costume 
introduced by Hesiod, where the lion’s skin, the club, and the bow form 
the ordinary accoutrements of the hero. Another phase of the character of 
Hercules is displayed in his relation to Omphale, where the hero spinning in 
female attire is opposed to the heroine in her nudity armed with the club 
and lion’s hide. In his relation to his son Telephus, who was suckled by a 
hind and found again, artists, with whom it was a favorite subject, 
especially in the time of the Antonines, must have followed other sources 
than the usual mythological legend. Of the statues belonging here, of 
which there is no inconsiderable number, we will particularize only the 
Farnese Hercules in repose (pl 5, figs. 1 and 2), of which we have already 
spoken (p. 21); the Combat with Anteus, a magnificent marble group in 
the Florentine Museum (pl. 3, fig. 1); and lastly the Hercules with the boy 
Telephus on his arm (pl. 6, fig. 5), a wonderfully fine statue which is found 
in the Museo Pio Clementino, and is in excellent preservation. Another 
style of representation is seen in the Hercules in careless, sportive ease 
among the attendants of Dionysus. A Hercules in this state of easy repose 
was represented by the statue of which there remains to us the world- 
renowned Zorso Belvedere, whose posture perfectly agrees with that of the 
Hercules reposing among the satyrs. This torso is copied in pl. 5, fig. 3. 
Hercules seems here to have leaned on his right arm in a sitting posture; 
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