Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/268

 Representations of Human Life. 221 the Egyptian and Assyrian bas-reliefs, or on Phoenician bowls ; but until the other day we knew not that it also belonged to the repertory of Mycenian art. Of course as we read the siege descriptions which, said the Epic poets, were painted on the shields of Hector and of Achylles, we suspected that they had been taken from real works, and that certain features had been borrowed to colour and depict the various scenes grouped in the field of the defensive arm which the hand had decorated. But in our ignorance of Mycenian art and of its manifold resources, we had exclusively looked towards Phoenicia for models which had stimulated the imagination of Homer and Hesiod ; yet there undoubtedly was a grain of truth in the view which made us accept as Phoenician the oldest repousse work found on Hellenic soil ; and Greek poets may well have been indebted to the Semites for the knowledge of those concentric zones which divide the fields, and are the chief characteristics of all their compositions ; be it on those gilt, bronze, or silver bowls which the Sidonian workshops sowed broadcast all over the Mediterranean ; the choice of subject, however, and the spirit with which they are treated, the broad sense of life and concrete truth instilled in the picture of our fragment, would be vainly sought in the trade products of Syria. Hence the inference becomes irresistible that the descriptions of the poets were drawn from works analogous to our vase which they had under their eyes ; for it would be absurd to think that this curious specimen was unique of its kind. The siege figured on the Shield of Heracles coincides at every turn with the picture under consideration, or the passage cited below ; it furnishes another instance of the influence exercised on Epic poetry by native artistic work, the finest instances of which led back to the Mycenian period. native city and their near relations from destruction, others because they were carried away by the lust of carnage. Many had fallen ; a greater number still continued the conflict ; the air was rent by the shrieks and piercing cries of the women standing on well-constructed brazen towers, who seemed to tear their faces ; so cunningly had divine Hephaestos fashioned them that one almost fancied life was pulsating through them. As to the old men, stricken with age, they were gathered together without the gates, their hands were raised to heaven, and their
 * The warriors fought in full armour ; some to preserve their