Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/768

 746 the hinder portions of the temple were lodgings of the priests and storerooms for the offerings of the faithful; the courts and columned halls were merely developments of the palisaded inclosure. The flagstaffs actually remained till the latest times erect on each side of the single entrance to the temple, though the idea of them was still further carried out in monumental fashion by the rearing of two vast, almost completely solid masses of masonry of tower-like form, called pylons, that flanked the gateway and gave the desired imposing aspect to the approach toward the shrine." The writer goes on to show that a similar account might be given of "the most important monument in the whole history of architecture—the temple of the Greeks."

The manner in which sculpture contributed to the festival is also obvious. In the mimetic representations which formed a part of all the primeval religious ceremonies (and all early festivals were in some sense religious) the mask was an important factor. Much curious and suggestive lore regarding masks in all ages is to be found in a work previously referred to on Masks, Heads, and Faces. The earliest disguise was effected by the use of lees of wine mixed with black earth. This, applied directly to the face, served as a mask. Then vegetable shells and wood, later baked earth and stone, and finally metals, served a better purpose. The object was to impersonate the absent, usually a hero or a god, or the animal in which the deity was fond of appearing. "Certain lines were traced upon the masks used in ceremonial dances, and in the protection of the face of the dead, whose meaning can be understood only by a knowledge of the customs, traditions, and superstitions of the people among whom they were used. These lines are not only found on the wooden masks, but on the terra cotta and plaster, and also upon cocoanut and gourd masks. There is reason to believe that, in the case of the terra cotta, the devices were fac-simile to the tattoo-marks on the face of the deceased, the mask in this case being intended to insure preservation of the cherished lineaments, and also affording means of identification. . . . The custom of the use of portrait-masks survived in Roman burial service, when the lineaments were made in wax, and worn by his representative with a costume of the dead dignitary. From this ceremonial arose a more extensive fashion of carving the features in marble." But the same tendency had earlier shown itself in Egypt and Assyria, and pre-eminently in Greece. Not only real but also mythic beings, first impersonated in the festival, were carved in marble for its future ornament. "The solemn representations of the gods in the circling dance about the archaic altar admitted of no irreverent hilarity. Thus were presented the movements of the sun and moon, accompanied each by a retinue of lesser gods; for to the