Part 4 (1/2)
It comforted her not a little in this time of mourning to take a mother's care of a certain sickly little child she chanced upon.
Disguised as a nurse, she fed the child upon ambrosia, held him in her bosom, and at night covered him in a bed of coals. Under this treatment he thrived amazingly; but the parents discovered the nurse's strange ways and became alarmed. Their anxiety was turned to dismay when they learned that this was a G.o.ddess, who would have made their son immortal but for their interference.
[Ill.u.s.tration: D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.
DEMETER (CERES)
_Vatican Gallery, Rome_]
In the mean time the crops fell into a bad state, and it was a year of grievous famine. Demeter still kept her vow to let no green thing appear upon the earth. Then Zeus came to the rescue of peris.h.i.+ng humanity. He sent a messenger to Pluto begging him to let Persephone return to her mother. The request was granted, the chariot was made ready, but the wily king first pressed his bride to eat with him some pomegranate seeds, designing that she should return to him again. Mother and daughter were now joyfully reunited, but not without further separation; for a portion of each year Persephone returned to her kingdom below the earth, reappearing in the spring to visit her mother. And this is why to this day the harvest is followed by winter until the spring revisits the earth.[17]
[17] The story of Demeter and Persephone is related in the Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_, of which an abridged English version is given in the chapter on the Myth of Demeter and Persephone in Pater's _Greek Studies_. The same chapter refers to various other ancient forms of the story, one of the most important being that of Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated into English blank verse by Edward King.
In all this story we see that the most striking characteristic of Demeter is her motherliness. In some respects she is like Hera, because both are matrons and are patterns of the domestic virtues. But while Hera is the model wife, Demeter is the model mother.
It is the motherliness of our statue which makes us feel sure that it must be intended to represent Demeter.[18] The G.o.ddess stands holding in her outstretched right hand a sheaf of wheat, and lifting high in the left hand the torch with which she journeyed round the world. It is as if she stood on the threshold of the opening season awaiting her daughter's return. She gazes straight before her with a look of expectancy as if she already saw her child from afar. Her face is lighted by a smile of welcome. One can fancy how tenderly those motherly arms will fold the child to her heart, and how gladly the daughter will pillow her head on that broad bosom.
[18] See in the _Historical Directory_ another subject a.s.signed to the statue.
The figure is in striking contrast to the statue of Athena which we have studied. The virgin G.o.ddess is stately and unapproachable in her panoply of wisdom, but the great mother seems to invite our confidence. She is one to whom a frightened child might run, sure of being soothed. To her the sorrowing would turn, fearing no repulse. She would welcome, she would understand, she would comfort. There is strength and repose in every line of her majestic figure.
The statue ill.u.s.trates admirably the grandeur and simplicity of the best Greek art. The long straight lines of the drapery, unbroken by any unnecessary folds, are the secret of the impression of tranquil dignity in the work.
VIII
THE FAUN OF PRAXITELES
The imagination of the Greeks peopled the woods and waters with all sorts of mythical beings, among which one of the most delightful was the faun. This was a creature half human, half animal, which frolicked in the woods in spring time. In outward appearance it looked much like a human being, except that it had pointed furry ears. In nature, however, it was closely akin to the animals, and lived a free happy life, with none of the thoughts and cares which beset the soul of man.
Our statue represents a sculptor's conception of this sportive being. It is famous not only because it is a celebrated work of art, but because it takes an important place in a celebrated novel. This is the ”marble faun” which gives the t.i.tle to Hawthorne's book. It will be remembered that in the beginning of the story, a party of friends are visiting the museum of the Capitol in Rome, where the statue stands. Suddenly they notice the resemblance which one of their number, a young Italian named Donatello, bears to the statue. They bid him take the same att.i.tude, and the likeness is complete. The writer describes the statue in these words: ”The Faun is the marble image of a young man leaning his right arm on the trunk or stump of a tree; one hand hangs carelessly by his side; in the other he holds the fragment of a pipe, or some such sylvan instrument of music. His only garment--a lion's skin,[19] with the claws upon his shoulder--falls halfway down his back, leaving the limbs and entire front of the figure nude. The form, thus displayed, is marvellously graceful, but has a fuller and more rounded outline, more flesh, and less of heroic muscle, than the old sculptors were wont to a.s.sign to their types of masculine beauty.[20] The character of the face corresponds with the figure; it is most agreeable in outline and feature, but rounded and somewhat voluptuously developed, especially about the throat and chin; the nose is almost straight, but very slightly curves inward, thereby acquiring an indescribable charm of geniality and humor. The mouth, with its full yet delicate lips, seems so nearly to smile outright that it calls forth a responsive smile. The whole statue--unlike anything else that ever was wrought in that severe material of marble--conveys the idea of an amiable and sensual creature, easy, mirthful, apt for jollity, yet not incapable of being touched by pathos. It is impossible to gaze long at this stone image without conceiving a kindly sentiment towards it, as if its substance were warm to the touch, and imbued with actual life. It comes very close to some of our pleasantest sympathies.”
[19] More likely a leopard's skin.
[20] Compare, for instance, the slender figure of the Apoxyomenos.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Alinari, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.
THE FAUN OF PRAXITELES
_Capitol Museum, Rome_]
After this description the writer goes on to a.n.a.lyze the nature of the Faun. ”The being here represented,” he says, ”is endowed with no principle of virtue, and would be incapable of comprehending such; but he would be true and honest by dint of his simplicity. We should expect from him no sacrifice or effort for an abstract cause; there is not an atom of martyr's stuff in all that softened marble; but he has a capacity for strong and warm attachment, and might act devotedly through its impulse, and even die for it at need. It is possible, too, that the Faun might be educated through the medium of his emotions, so that the coa.r.s.er animal portion of his nature might eventually be thrown into the background, though never utterly expelled.”
The original statue, of which the marble of the Capitol is a copy, was the work of the sculptor Praxiteles. As Hawthorne says: ”Only a sculptor of the finest imagination, the most delicate taste, the sweetest feeling, and the rarest artistic skill--in a word, a sculptor and a poet too--could have ... succeeded in imprisoning the sportive and frisky thing in marble.” We are presently to see again in the head of Hermes that Praxiteles was indeed a remarkable sculptor. The Faun, however, is the more difficult subject of the two, for it was puzzling to think what expression would be proper to a being partly human, but without a soul.
It is said that Praxiteles himself considered the Faun one of his two best works. It had been impossible for his friends to get an expression of opinion from him in regard to his statues, until one day a trick was devised to betray him. He was told that his studio was on fire, when he exclaimed that his labor was all lost if the Faun and the Eros were destroyed.
The Faun originally stood in the street of the Tripods at Athens, but what has now become of it we do not know. The statue in our ill.u.s.tration is one of the most celebrated copies. Many travellers make a special pilgrimage to see it, and seeing it recall the words of Hawthorne, describing the spell it casts upon the spectator. ”All the pleasantness of sylvan life, all the genial and happy characteristics of creatures that dwell in woods and fields, will seem to be mingled and kneaded into one substance, along with the kindred qualities in the human soul.