Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/946

Rh 928 DAEDALUS. eyes and of the feet, which had been fonuerly closed (aiifxiroSa^ (TkcA-tj avfiSeSrjKSTa, the figures of Daedalus were called Sia§e§rjK6Ta and the ex- tending of the hands, which had been formerly placed down close to the sides (Kadei/xivai koI tcus ■jrKfvpais KiKor)p.hai, Diod. /. c; Suid. s. r. AaiSdov iron^fiaTa). In consequence of these improvements, the ancient writers speak of the statues of Daedalus as being distinguished by an expression of life and even of divine inspiratiou. (Paus. ii. 4. § 5 ; Plato, passim, and particularly Men. p. 97, ed. Steph. ; Aristot. Polit. i. 4 : the last two passages seem to refer to automata, which we know to have been called Daedalian imuijcs : Aristotle mentions a wooden figure of Aphrodite, which was moved by quicksilver within it, as a work ascribed to Daedalus, de Anim. i. 3. § 9 : see further, Junius, Catul. Art, p. 64.) The diffi- cult passage in Plato {Hiirp. MaJ. iii. 281, d.) is rightly explained by Thiersch, as being only com- parative, and as meant not in disparagement of Daedalus, but in praise of the artists of Plato's time. The material in which the statues of Dae- dalus were made, was wood. The only exception worth noticing is in the passage of Pausanias (ix. 40. § 2), irapd rovTois Se [Kvwaalots] Koi J T17S 'ApjdScTjJ X'^P^^t o5 Kol "OjuL-npJS €V 'lAiciSi ixvr]fjii]v iiron^ffaTO, 4rr(ipya<Tfj.4vos earlv ewl tvKoO idov. (Comp. vii. 4. § 5.) The passage of Homer is in the description of the shield of Achilles {II. xviii. 690—593): 'Ev 5f x^P"'' 'yroiKiWe irepiKXvTos *Aju<^fyvr^«it, Tqi) XKfov oTou iroT* 4vi KvucriZ fvpflrj AaliaXos ijaKrjffep KaWiirXoKOL/jLO) 'Apiddvri. Now the mention of a. group of dantxrs as a work of Daedalus, — the material, white stone, — the cir- cumstance of the poet's representing Hephaestus as copying the work of a mortal artist, — and the absence of any other mention of Daedalus in Ho- mer, — all this is, at the least, very suspicious. It cannot be explained by taking xopov to mean a sort of dance which Daedalus invented (Tjo-fCTjaef), for we never hear of Daedalus in connexion with dancing (Bottiger, Andeutunen,iQ)^?in^ a sufficient number of examples can be produced from Homer of ixTKtiv meaning to make or mamtfaciure. Un- less the passage be an interpolation, the best ex- planation is, that xop^" means simply a place for dancing; and, further, it is not improbable that AaiSahos may be nothing more than an epithet of Hephaestus, who is the great artist in Homer, and that the whole mythological fable in which Daeda- lus was personified had its origin in the misunder- standing of this very passage. At all events, the group seen by Pausanias at Cnossus, if it really was a group of sculpture, must have been the work of an artist later than the Daedalian period, or at the very end of it. From these statements of the ancient writers it is not difficult to form some idea of the period in the history of art which the name of Daedalus re- presents. The name itself, like the others which are associated with it, such as Eupalamus, implies skill. The earliest works of art, which were attributed to the gods, were called 5o/5aAo. Passing from mythology to history, we find sculpture taking its rise in idolatry ; but the earliest idols were nothing more than blocks of wood or stone, which were worshipped under the name of some gods. (Paus. DAEDALUS. vii. 22. § 3.) The next eflPort was to express th« attributes of each particular divinity, which was at first done only by forming an image of the head, probably in order to denote purely intellectual at- tributes : hence the origin of terminal busts, and the reason for their remaining in use long after the art of sculpturing the whole figure had attained to the highest perfection. But there were some dei- ties for the expression of whose attributes the bust was not sufficient, but the whole human figure was required. In the earliest attempts to execute such figures, wood would naturally be selected as the material, on account of the ease of working it. They were ornamented with real drapery and bright colours. It was to such works especially, that the name SotSaAo was applied, as we are in- fonned by Pausanias (ix. 3. § 2), who adds, that they were so called before Daedalus was born at Athens. The accuracy and the expression of such images was restricted not only by the limited skill of the artist, but also, as we see so strikingly in Egyptian sculpture, by the religious laws which bound him to certain forms. The period repre- sented by the name of Daedalus was that in which such forms were first broken through, and the at- tempt was made to give a natural and lifelike ex- pression to statues, accompanied, as such a deve- lopment of any branch of art always is, by a great improvement in the mechanics of art. The period when this development of art took place, and the degree of foreign influence implied in the fables about Daedalus, are very difficult questions, and cannot be discussed within the limits of this arti- cle. The ancient traditions certainly point to Egypt as the source of Grecian art. (See especially Diod. i. 97.) But, without hazarding an opinion on this point, we may refer to the lOgyptiau and Etruscan and earliest Greek antiquities, as giving some vague idea of what is meant by the Daeda- lian style of sculpture. The remains called Cyclo- pean give a similar notion of tiie Daedalian archi- j tecture. The Daedalian style of art continued to prevail and improve down to the beginning of the fifth century b. c, and the artists of that long pe- riod were called Daedalids, and claimed an actual descent from Daedalus, according to the well-known custom by which art was hereditary in certain fa- ' milies. This genealogy was carried down as late ! as the time of Socrates, who claimed to be a Dae- dalid. The most important of the Daedalids, be- sides his son Icanxs, and his nephew Talus or Perdix, were Scyllis and Dipoenus, whom some made the sons of Daedalus (Paus. ii. 15. § 1), Endoeus of Athens (Paus. i. 26". § 5), Learchus of Rhegium ( Paus. iii. 17. § 6), and Onatas of Aegina. (Paus. v. 25. § 7.) All these, however, lived long after the period in which Daedalus is placed. Besides Icarus, Daedalus was said to have had a son, Japyx, who founded lapygae. (Strab. vi. p. 279; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 379.) A hriuios of the Athenian <pvr KeKpSms bore the name of AaiSaXiSai. (Meurs. de Att. Pop. s. v.) Feasts called AaioaAeio were kept in different parts of Greece. 2. Of Sicyon, a statuarj' in bronze, the son and disciple of Patrocles, who is mentioned by Pliny among the artists of the 95th Olympiad. Daeda- lus erected a trophy for the Eleians in the Altis after a victory over the Lacedaemonians in the war which lasted B. c. 401 — 399. Besides this trophy, Daedalus made several statues of athletes, and