Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/215

 Greek Sculpture. 185 earth, the sea and sky, and, ascribing to them all that was best and highest in the noblest human types with which he was familiar, he strove to give expression to his ideal conceptions in ideal impersonations of human attributes. Thus Zeus, the lord of heaven, became the embodiment of strength of will; Athena, the protective goddess of wisdom and strength combined; Aphrodite, born of the waves, the goddess of female love and beauty. In studying the sculpture of Greece, this double im- personation of the powers of nature and of human attributes must never be lost sight of, and we would urge those of our readers who are unfamiliar with Greek mythology, to acquaint themselves with the meaning of the principal legends of gods and heroes, upon which a flood of light has been poured by the researches of modern philologists, who have taught us to read the inward thought of infant races in the outward forms assumed by their language and their art.* The relics of Greek sculpture which have been preserved are far too numerous for detailed description. A summary of the principal schools of sculpture, with a brief notice of the greatest masters and their most famous works, is all we can attempt. Greek sculpture may be divided into four periods. The first, to which the general name of archaic has been given, lasted until the Persian wars; the second, from the Persian wars, about 490 B.C., to 400 B.C., during which time Athens was the leading power in Greece ; the third, Heroes/ and ' Tales of Thebes and Argos,' — will be found useful as an introduction to the study of the more advanced works of Max Miiller, Grote, and others.
 * Two small volumes, by the Rev. W. Cox — ' Tales of the Gods and