Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/121

99 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GIIEECE. 9U tion which was manifestly occasioned by that of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad, but nevertheless quite peculiar, and executed in the genuine spirit of the Hesiodean school. For while the reliefs upon the shield of Achilles are entirely drawn from imagination, and pure poetical imagi- nation, objects are represented upon the shield of Hercules which were in fact the first subjects of the Greek artists who worked reliefs in bronze and other decorative sculptures*. We cannot, therefore, sup- pose the shield of Hesiod to be anterior to the period of the Olympiads, because before that time nothing was known of similar works of art among the Greeks. But on the other hand, it cannot be posterior to the 40th Olympiad, as Hercules appears in it armed and equipped like any other hero ; whereas about this d^te the poets began to represent him in a different costume, with the club and lion's skin f- The entire class of these short epics appears to be a remnant of the style of the primitive bards, that of choosing separate points of heroic history, in order to enliven an hour of the banquet, before longer compositions had been formed from them. On the other hand, these short Hesiodean epics are connected with lyric poetry, particularly that of Stesichorus, who sometimes composed long choral odes on the same or similar subjects (as for example, Cycnus), and not without reference to Hesiod. This close approximation of the Hesiodean epic poetry and the lyric poetry of Ste- sichorus doubtless gave occasion to the legend that the latter was the son of Hesiod, although he lived much later than the real founder of the Hesiodean school of poetry. Of the other names of Hesiodean Poems, which are mentioned by of earth, heaven, and sea : then in the next circular band two cities, the one engaged in peaceable occupations, the other beleagured by foes : afterwards, in six depart- ments (which must be considered as lying around concentrically in a third row), rural and joyous scenes — sowing, harvest, vine-picking, a cattle pasture, a flock of sheep, a choral dance : lastly, in the external circle, the ocean. The poet takes a delight in adorning this implement of bloody war with the most pleasing scenes of peace, and pays no regard to what the sculptors of his time were able to execute. The Hesiod- ean poet, on the other hand, places in the middle of the shield of Hercules a terrible dragon (fyaxovro; tp'ofhov), surrounded by twelve twisted snakes, exactly as the gorgo- neum or head of Medusa is represented : on Tyrrhenian shields of Taiquinii other monstrous heads are similarly introduced in the middle. A battle of wild boars and lions makes a border, as is often the case in early Greek sculptures and vases. It must be conceived as a narrow band or ring round the middle. The first consi- derable row, which surrounds the centre piece in a circle, consists of four depart- ments, of which two contain warlike and two peaceable subjects. So that the entire shield contains, as it were, a sanguinary and a tranquil side. In these are repre- sented the battle of the Centaurs, a choral dance in Olympus, a harbour and fishermen, Perseus and the Gorgons. Of these the first and last subjects are among those which are known to have earliest exercised the Greek artists. An external row (i-rlp abriuv,. 237) is occupied by a. city at war and a city at peace, which the poet borrows from Homer, but describes with greater minuteness, and indeed overloads with too many details. The rim, as in the other shield, is surrounded by the oceau. t See the remarks on Peisander below, ch. ix.§ 3. £ See above, p. 40, (ch. iv. § 6). h2
 * The shield of Achilles contains, on the prominence in the middle, a representation