Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/110

 (Nem. vii. 78). Pindar's epithets sometimes suggest that he was thinking of colours which he had seen in works of art (sculpture or painting). Thus Ol. vi. 94,, Demeter with red sandals, Persephone with white horses; Pyth. iv. 182, Zetes and Calais,, "with purple wings erect upon their backs": Ol. vi. 14,, perhaps alluding to the white horses of Amphiaraus (Philostr. Imagines i. 27): the saffron swaddling bands of Heracles, the saffron robe of Jason (Nem. i. 38, Pyth. iv. 232). The poet's own feeling for colour appears in the beautiful story of the birth of Iamus; Evadne lays aside her silver pitcher and her girdle of scarlet web; the babe is found |, "its delicate body steeped in the golden and deep purple rays of pansies" (Ol. vi. 55).

§ 28. In concluding this sketch of Pindar's relation to the art of his own day, we may notice one or two glimpses which he gives us of archaic Greek art. In Ol. vii. 50 f. he mentions the Heliadae, a clan or hereditary guild of artists in Rhodes, united by the cult of Helios (the sun-god) as their ancestor. To them Athene gave skill above that of other men: "and the ways of Rhodes bare works like to beasts and creeping things; and theirs was wealth of fame. Yea, for him who hath knowledge science also is greater when 'tis guileless". The latter words