Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/250

 240 Journal of Philology. that is ideographic about them, present, that is, such salient typical forms, that the smallest indication, such as that here given about knee and neck, is quite sufficient to place us on the scent. The fact involved is one to which we shall presently recur. Meanwhile, the question naturally suggests itself: can we learn nothing of the said Menaechmus elsewhere? The reader of Pausanias at once turns to the 18th chapter of that author's Acliaica. He is there told that in the citadel of Patrae stood a temple of the Laphrian Artemis : in the temple, a statue of the goddess, of which the history, Pausanias learned, was as follows : It was originally on the other side of the gulf, at Calydon of boar notoriety but Augustus gave it, along with other spoils, to Patrae, where Pausanias saw it. " The costume of the statue," he adds, "is that of a huntress; the material, gold and ivory ; it was made by Mencechmus and Soidas of Nau- pactus, who flourished, it is conjectured, soon after Canachus of Sicyon and Callon of jEgina." We may place this Menaech- mus then about Ol. 80 ; at any rate, it seems probable that the statue was executed before 01. 87, for otherwise the artists would have styled themselves Messenians, or Mco-o^Vtoi c< Nav- iraKTov. See Thucyd. I. 103. I have little doubt that this Laphrian Artemis is the same as that of which Pausanias says elsewhere, in speaking of a statue at Naupactus (x. 38) : cr^/xa 8e a.KovTiov(T7)s 7rap^erat kcu cniKKrjo-iv ("r)(f)ev AirwXi;. TllC coins of Naupactus and of Patrce may here be consulted urith advantage. The question now arises : what grounds have we for identifying the Menaechmus of Pliny with the artist of the same name in Pausanias ? Possibly none that will bear the test of a searching criticism. We must content ourselves with plausible conjectures in the absence of any available positive proof. First then, it will be observed, that the Menaechmus of Pliny was a writer on Toreutics, a term which, all are aware, included, or, rather perhaps, did not exclude, chryselephantine sculpture: chrys- elephantine, remember, was the Laphrian Artemis executed by Messrs Menaechmus and Soidas. I cannot say I attach much weight to this argument : still, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, weight it should certainly have. There is another point, however, to which I would invite the reader's at- tention, reminding him at the same time, that I put it forward with considerable diffidence, as it rests upon no higher author-