Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/250

* MYTHOLOGY IN ART. 212 MYXCEDEMA. MYTHOLOGY IN ART. That portion of an wliiili i> iiiiicerucil with the leprestntation of iiiylhological concepts. Religious notions are symbolized at a very early stage in the history of mankind. Conceptions which can be given in vague and poetic terms in the liti-rature, must of necessity in art be representeil concretely. The first beginnings are rude and uncouth; yet they develop in the course of time into the most beau- tiful of all expressions of national art. They are thus important not only from the point of view of history of art, but as one of the main sources for an accurate knowledge of the history of re- ligion. We may trace in them also in many cases the influence which one religion has exercised upon another. If, for instance, we find the bearded figure within a circle as the Iranian sym- bol of Ormazd, and in .ssyrian sculpture see the same figure hovering over a field of battle, it is at once evident that the religious art of Assyria has influenced that of ancient Persia, and the implication follows that the actual concept of the deity of Ormazd has been modified by a Semitic deity. Nowhere are the distinct national characteris- tics of mythologj' so clearly set forth as in art. In the Egyptian paintings and statues of deities, we hjive the stitT outlines and the grotesque ani- mal-iieaded figures, which stand in marked con- trast to the brutal and massive religious art of Assyria and Habylonia. From the point of view of comparative religion the most perfect pro- ductions of art are as a rule inferior to the rude and archaic. It might almost be laid down as a rule that the higher the artistic merit, the less the purely religious value. The most important contril)Utions of Assyrian art to a knowledge of its mythology are to be found not in the finished productions of the late jieriod. but in the more ancient seal-cylinders, whose ])urely artistic merit is often slight. In Greece, in like manner, the early religious art is rude, but here we find in the most archaic periods traces of influence from Egj'pt. or again, as in certain pictures of the struggle of Hercules with the Xemean lion, an analogue too close to be accidental with Baby- lonian pictures of the Gilganiish cycle. Though the highest religious sentiments of a people at a given period are eml)odied in its art. the endeavor to make this embodiment perfect tends in the course of time to an increased ]iurlty in the type and synibolization of religious concept. This in- teracting process is stimulated by the fact that the statue or the painting is conceived to be in it- self divine, and at lat<'r period a portion of god- hood ; later still it is a symbol which may indeed be a god to the vulgar, hut to the cultnreil or to the initiated is but a representation of divinity. Artistic conceptions of divinities naturally vary, according to the character of the god rejiresented. Thus in ancient Mexico we find beside the figure of the beneficent Qnetzacoatl the horrible statue of the wargod lluitzilopoehtli, on whose altar human .sacrifices were oll'ercd. If the religious art of Mexico is rugged, that of India is effem- inate. In India again, in harmony with the grn- fes(|ue religious legends, we find strange divine figures. The monkey-god Hanuman. in harmony with his energetic character, lias no touch of the effeminate about him. ns has the lovegnd Kama, and in like manner we find the voluptuous fii;ure of Parvati. the wife of Siva, in her kindly aspect, beside the frightful and demoniac figure of Durga, the malignant form of the same goddess. In Greece, where mythology in art was developed to its utmost perfection, we find this principle carried out in its entirety. Beside the austere Athene stands the seductive Aphrodite; with the powerful Hercules is contrasted the delicate, al- most too beautiful Apollo, and over all the Pan- theon towers the majestic figure of Zeus. See Art. Hi.story of: and the various articles on National Art as well as the plates of Eoyptian' Dkities. Hindu Deitie.s under I.vdia; Greek AllT; .Iri'ITEE; LySIPPUS; PARTHENON. MYTILENE, mit'i-le'ni (Lat., from Gk. Muti- XtJit), Turk, ilidillii), or Mitylexe. The largest island in the .Egean Sea, also known as Lesbos (.|.v.). MYTILENE, or MITYLENE (modern Kas- tro, q.v., or Mitilini). The capital of the island of Lesbos ( q.v. ). It was colonized in very ancient times by the -Eolians. Its situation on the southeast coast of Lesbos on a promontory that had been an island gave it two excellent harbors (Map: Turkey in Europe. V 5). Of its internal jxilitical history down to the time when Pittacus became practically dictator early in the sixth century B.C., something is to be learned from the fragments of the poetry of Akveus (q.v.). Meanwhile the city had become the most important centre of the Asiatic .Eolians and a great naval power, and had founded colonies in Mysia and in Thrace. After the Persian wars it became an im- portant member of the Athenian Confederacy, but in B.C. 428, the fourth year of the Pelopon- nesian War, it rebelled against Athenian dom- ination. Defeat after a famous struggle ended its power ( u.c. 427 1 . Mytilene fought on the side of King Mithridates in his war against Rome (li.c. 88). and after his defeat suffered for it. Cimsult: Leithliuser. Der Abfall Mytilvncs von Athens (Leipzig;. 1874) ; Cichorius, Rom und Mi/tildu- (ill.. ISSS). MYTILTJS. See Mussel. MYXINE (from Gk. iiiS^a, mi/xa, mucus). The simple genus of the family Myxinid;e, repre- sented by the single species Viijinr ijlutinosa, the hagfish or •borer' of the North .tlantic Coa.st. The.se eel-shapcil parasitic animals, which bur- row into the bodies of fishes, are extraordinary in their reproductive habits. According to Xansen. Jlyxine is generally or al- ways in its young stage a male, while at a more ad- vanced stage it be- comes transformed into a female. The ovary is single, and on the right side, and there are no oviducts, the mature eggs falling into the abdomi- nal cavity and being extruded through the peri- toneal 0])ening at the side of the vent. The eggs are few an<I large, and each is inclosed in an oblong horny case, with threads at each end, by which the egg adheres to some fixed object until it hatches. See Hagfish. MYXCEDETUAlXeo-Lat. nom. pi., from iii^a, tnt/.rn. mucus -f- otS-rffxa. oifh'inn, swelling) . A progressive disease characterized by widespread chan;:!'- in nutrition and by the invasion of the suiicutaneous tissues by solid ledema. due to di- minished functional activity of the thyroid gland. It has been called cachcxic pachyderm ique (Char- £Ua OF MVXI.S'E.