Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/42

 28 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY the idea of her clear shining glance (suggested in her epithet yAavKWTris, and in the fact that the owl is her sacred bird), which in human beings indicates a spiritual life, and which properly belongs to Athena on account of the same characteristic in the lightning. Also a further explanation may be sought in the notion of the fiery essence of the soul itself; for it was on this ground that the formation and animation of the human race were ascribed to Prometheus, god of lightning, and to Hephaestus, god of fire. 40. Athena's ideal figure in art was made by Phidias, who likewise has been generally credited with having created the type of the so-called Athena Promachos in a colossal bronze statue placed upon the Acropolis under the open sky. It was the same sculptor who fashioned in gold and ivory for the Parthenon the Athena Parthenos (' maiden 7 ), holding on her right hand Mke (< victory '). She appears always serious, even austere, but full of composure, and with an expression of high intellectual- ity ; she always wears a long robe, and is often distin- guished by the Aegis worn over this. 41. The Erinyes (< the angry ones '), black, winged, stalking swiftly along in the dark clouds, are, like the Gorgons described above, the embodiments of the grim thunderclouds which threaten destruction. Their glance of flame and their fiery breath, like the ser- pents twining about their heads, represent the darting lightning. The same idea is signified by the torch and the whip which they brandish, the latter of which pro- duces a state of madness and stupefaction in whomso- ever they strike. But since the clouds on the horizon seem to rise up out of the earth, imagination removed