Elder Philostratus. Younger Philostratus. Callistratus 9780674992825, 0674992822

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OH THE LIBRARY of

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY Toronto

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY EDITED BY T. E. E.

CAPPS,

PAGE, LiTT.D. W. H. D. ROUSE,

PH.D., LL.D.

litt.d.

PHILOSTRATUS THE ELDER IMAGINES

PHILOSTRATUS THE YOUNGER IMAGINES

CALLISTRATUS DESCRIPTIONS

THE LYRE OF AMPHION BOOK

I

DESCRIPTION

lO

NOTE OX ILLUSTRATION The fronljspiece Lyre described description

is

an atlempted reconstruction of The drawing is made from

in 1. 10.

of Philosfratus

the the

interpreted in the light of

various Greet vase paintings by J/?s>? 31. L. Fairbanks,

PHILOSTEATUS IMAGINES

CALLISTEATUS DESCRIPTIONS WITH AX ENGLISH TRAXSLATION BY

ARTHUR FAIRBANKS,

Litt.D.

PROFESSOR OF FEfE ARTS IN DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS MCMXXXI

133/

Printed in Great Britain

4-97044-11-31

CONTENTS PAGE

LIST OF DESCRTPTIO>'S

vi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ix

MANUSCRIPTS

;

EDITIONS

xii

PHILOSTRATUS THE ELDER XV

INTRODUCTION IMAGINES, BOOK

BOOK

,,

1

I

127

II

PHILOSTRATUS THE YOUNGER INTRODUCTION

275

IMAGINES

281

CALLISTRATUS INTRODUCTION

369

DESCRIPTIONS

375

INDEX

425

LIST OF DESCRIPTIONS PlIILOSTRATUS, IMAGINES,

1.

Scamandcr

Comus

3.

Fables

4. 5.

Menoeceus Dwarfs

6.

Cupids

8.

Memnon Amymone

9.

A

7.

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31.

vi

I

PAGE 3

Introduction 2.

BoOK

7

9 13 15 19 21

Bacchantes The Tyrrhenian Pirates

29 33 35 41 45 49 55 59 61 65 69 73 75

Satyrs

81

Marsh

Amphion Phaethon Bosphoros Bosphoros Semele Ariadne Pasiphae

Hippodameia

.

Olympus Midas Narcissus

Hyacinthus Andrians Birth of Hermes Amphiaraus Hunters

Perseus Pelops

Xenia

83 85 89 93 97 99 105 107 115 119 123

LIST OF DESCRIPTIONS Book

II pac;e

1.

Singers

2. 3.

The Education of Female Centaurs

4.

Hippolytus

0.

Rhodogoune

6.

Arricliion

Achillea-

Antilochus 8. Melcs 9. Pantheia 10. Cassandra 7.

11.

Pan

12.

Pindar

13.

The Gvraean

14. 15.

Thessaly Glaucus Pontius

16.

Palaemon

Pvocks

17. Islands

18.

Cyclops

19.

Phorbas

20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.

Atlas

Antaeus

among the Pygmies The Madness of Heracles Theiodamas The Burial of Abderus Heracles

Xenia

The Birth Looms

of

Athena

Antigone

Evadne Themistocles Palaestra

Dodona Horae

129 133 139 141 145 149 155 159 165 171 177 179 181 185 187 191 195 211

215 219 223 229 231 237 239 243 245 249 253 255 259 263 267 269

Philostratus the Younger, Imagines Prooemium 1.

on Scyros Pyrrhus on Scyros Achilles

283 287 291 vii

LIST OF DESCRIPTIONS PAGE 2.

IMarsyas

3.

Hunters

4.

Heracles or Acheloiis Heracles in Swaddling-clothes

5. 6.

Orpheus

8.

Medea among the Colchians Boys at Play

9.

Pelops

7.

10.

Pyrrhus or the Mysians

11.

The Argo or Aeetes

12.

Hesione Sophocles Hyacinthus Meleager Nessus

13.

295 297 303 307 309 313 317 321 325 343 347 351 353 357 361 365

14. 15. 16. 17. Philoctetes

Callistratus, Descriptions 1.

2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

9.

10. 11.

12.

13.

14.

Vlll

On a Satyr On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Statue On the Figure

of of of of of of of of of of of of of

Bacchante Eros an Indian Narcissus

Opportunity at Sicyon Orpheus Dionysus

Memnon Paean a Youth a Centaur

Medea Athamas

....

377 381 385 389 391 395 401 403 407 411 413 417 419 421

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Philostratus the Elder Frontispiece

The Lyre.

:

From

a drawing.

FIG. 1.

—The Nile with Dwarfs. Marble statue in the Vatican. From a photograph To face —Erotes Wrestling and Boxing. From a sarco.

2.

phagus I.

3.

Florence.

in

—Death

of

25

Memnon.

Red-figured vase painting. of Fine Arts, Boston, Inventory 97.

Museum From a photograph Poseidon and Amymone. Red-figured

To face vase paint^/iie ceVa/n., III. 18

— Lenormant-De Witte, —Fallof Phaethon. Arretine bowl a

drawing.

Museum

6.

of

Chase,

in Boston.

Arretine

Pottery

Fine Arts, Boston, No. 66

.

29 35

From in

the

To face

—Ariadne deserted. Red-figured vase painting in Boston, Inventory 349 .... To face — Wooden Cow made by Daedalus. From a drawing. 00.

7.

19

Baumeister, Denkmdler,

ing.

5.

.

502

368.

4.

.

PAGE

47 63

Pompeian wall painting.

Bomische MittheilXI. (1896), p. 50 Race of Oenomaiis and Pelops, with Eros. Roscher, Lex. Myth., III. 782 To face Death of Pentheus. Red-figured vase painting in Boston. Inventory 10. 221a To face Marsyas brought in bonds to Midas. Red-figured vase painting. Monumenti delV Instituto, IV., xingen,

8.

9.

10.

— — —

....

PI. 10

67

69 73

87

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS rUi.

11.

—Narcissus gazing into a Pool. Pompeian wallRoscher, Lex. Myth. painting. 19 —Hyacinthus wounded the Discus. Furtwiingler, XX. 31 Antike Gemmen, —Descent of Aniphiaraiis into the Earth. Kelief on III.

12.

.

.

.

an Etruscan urn. 14.

15.

Roscher, Lex Myth.

—Boar Hunt.

Relief on a sarcophagus. Reinach, Une necropcle a Sidon, PI.

17.

299

I.

.

105

To face

109

.

—Perseus and Andromeda. Red-figured vase paintTo face ing. Roscher, Lex. 3Iyth. 111. 2053 —Quadriga. Coin of Syracuse. From a drawing —Education Achilles. Pompeian wall painting. 26 Roscher, Lex. Myth. —Head of Female Centaur. Red-figured vase paintTo face ing Boston, Inventory 306 —The Death of Hippolvtus. Red-figured vase paintTo face Arch. 1883, PI. VI. —Nose with "up-curved" Nostrils. Red-figured vase .

.

13.

in

19.

Zeit.

ing.

20.

115 121

of

I.

18.

95

To face Hamdi BeyXVI. 2

.

16.

89

b}'

PI.

13.

PAGK

.

135

.

.

139

.

.

141

Pfuhl, Malerei der Griechen, 415 c. 7' o face Coin of Rhodes. From a Helios with Rays. drawing. Roscher, Lex. 3Iyth. I. 2003 painting.

— ... — Atlas bent under the Heavens. ^Marble statue in Naples. From a drawing 23. — Madness of Heracles. Red-figured vase paiiiting. 665 To face Baumeister, Denkmdler, —Spiderweb with Cables. From a drawing 25. — Palaestra. Medallion on Roman terracotta 21.

171

219

22.

.

I.

.

.

.

24.

.

.

.

221

233 251

jar.

From

drawing.

a

(father of Palaestra.

omitted.

Inscriptions

Atalante),

Atalante

:

Schoeneus

Hippomedon,

The hexameter inscription Cf. Gaz. Arch. 1889, p. 56

above

...

is .

265

PllILOSTRATUS THE YoUNGEK. 26.

— Marsyas

:

Slave whetting knife.

in Florence.

Clarac,

Mus.

Marble statue

Sculpt., PI. 543, 1141

295

List OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE

Fir;.

—Heracles strangling

27.

From a drawing. PI. XIV. 8 28.

tlie

Serpents.

Brit.

M us.

of

Thebes.

Cat, Central Greece,

307

—x\nimals charmed by the Music of Orpheus.

Pom-

peian wall-painting. Roscher, Lex. Myth. III. 1178 Boys at Play (the children of Medea). Pompeian wall-painting. Baumeister, Denkmdler, I. 142 Marble sarcophagus in the Calydonian Hunt. Capitoline Museum. Baumeister, Denhndler,

30.

— —

31.

—Deianeira at the Death of Xessus.

29.

Coin

.

II.

918

painting. Baumeister, Denkmdler,

311

317

To face Pompeian wall

357

To face

363

I.

667

Callistratus 32.

33.

— Satyr playing Flute. From a drawing. BrunnBruckman, 435 —Palatine Eros. Marble statue in the Louvre. 1360 Roscher, Lex. 3Iyfh. —Narcissus. Marble statue (called Ganymede) in I.

34.

the

Museo Chiaramonti.

703 Opportunity. Marble

36.

— Pl.Ll —Dionysus.

37.

— Dionysus.

387

Clarac. 3Ii(s. Sculpt.

391

PI. 407,

35.

377

relief.

Arch. Zeit.

XXXIII. 397

the Louvre.

Clarac,

statue in Madrid. 3Ius. Sculpt. PI. 690, B, 1598 a

Clarac,

Marble statue

2l'us. Sculpt. PI. 275,

Marble

in

405

1574

407

XI

MANUSCRIPTS EDITIONS ;

The important Manuscripts

are as follows

:

Philostkatus the Elder

LXVIX (30), XIII cent, XIV cent., P. Vindohonensis, 331, XIV cent, V^.

Laurcntianus,

F.

Parisiensis, gr. 1696,

Vatkanus, 1898, XIII cent., V2. 98, XIII cent, V.

Philostratus the Younger Laurentianus,

LVIII

(32),

XII cent.

:

Callistratus

LIX

(15), XI cent., Nos. 1-5. 1696, XIV cent., Nos. 1-7. Vaticanus, 1898, XIII cent., Nos. 9-14.

Laurentianus, Parisiensis,

f^r,

Editions Olearius: Leipzig, 1709. Heyne Gottingen, 1796. Jacobs: Leipzig, 1797, 1825. Kayser Turin, 1842-1846. :

:

Westermann 1878.

xu

:

Paris,

1849

(witli

Latin translations),

MANUSCRIPTS

EDITIONS

;

Literature K.

H.

Friedrichs

Bilder.

Philostratischen

Erlangen, 1860; and Jahr. Phil. Suppl. V (1864), 134 f. Die Philostratischen Geindlde gegen Brunn K. Friedrichs vertheidigt ; and Jahr. Phil. Suppl. IV (1861), 179 f.; XVII (1871), If., 81 f. :

Matz

:

De

Philostratorum

Bonn, 1867

fide.

585 C.

Die

:

;

in

describendis imaginihus

XXXI

and Philol

(1872),

f.

Nemitz

De

:

Philostratorum imaginihus.

^"ratisl.

1875. E.

Bertrand

:

Un

d'art

critique

Philostrate et son ecole.

A.

Bougot antique.

:

Philostrate Paris,

1881.

l'

dans

Paris,

Ancien

:

l'a7diqnite

1887. nne

:

oo^alerie

PHILOSTRATUS THE ELDER IMAGINES INTRODUCTION The position of the sophists in the literary, the educational, and the social world was never more important than during the second and third centuries A.D. They wandered from one centre to another, or they occupied established chairs of rhetoric in some principal city, attracting to their lecture halls the youth who desired a higher education and men who took pleasure in rhetorical display. They were the university professors of their day, treating science and history and philosophy as well as literature and the different forms of rhetoric in their discourses. It was characteristic of the men and of their age, however, that lecturers and hearers alike laid the emphasis on the form of the discourse, and that subject-matter was completely subordinated to the mode of presentation, A Lemnian family furnished three or four successful exponents of this art in the period under discussion, all of them bearing the name of Philostratus. Suidas mentions a Philostratus (1) son of Verus, as having written the dialogue entitled Xero^ Ilavius Philostratus (2), probably his son or grandson, was

born about a.d. 170 and educated in Athens under He is the the most famous sophists of his day. ^

Included in the MS. of Lucian.

XV

INTRODUCTION author of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana,^ of the Lives of the Sophists, and presumably of some minor works extant under his name. He calls himself a Lemnian (£/;. 70), though he is generally known as '' Philostratus the Athenian " in distinction from his son-in-law, the son of Nervianus, whom he refers to as Philostratus the Lemnian" (/7/. soph. 617, 627-8). Philostratus son of Nervianus (3), who was born about A.D. 190 (for he was twenty- four years old in the reign of Caracalla, Fit. soph. 623), is generally regarded as the author of the earlier series of Imagines.'^ His grandson, of the same name, and referred to as Philostratus the Younger (4), wrote about A.D. 300 a series of Imagines of much the same type as his grandfather's. Philostratus son of Nervianus (3) has been called the "father of art criticism," but the phrase is hardly appropriate, for Lucian, Polemon, Apuleius and other writers had previously made paintings and sculpture the subject of their discourse. The re'•

newed

interest in art in this period, a critical, rather

than a creative interest, and the need of new themes for the rhetorical discourses of the sophist, made it natural for these lecturers to find their themes in works of art. Philostratus points out that his interest is in the paintings themselves, not in the lives of the painters nor in their historical relation to each other {infra, p. 5). That rhetoric should take its themes from painting is all the more natural because painting in Greece had so commonly taken its themes from literature. It will be found that ^

Translated by Conybeare in

L

C. L.

allusions to Athens in the Imagines, ivfra Index uixler "Athens, Attica, which show his interest in Athens." ^

xvi

Cf.

INTRODUCTION but six or eight of the paintings described by Philostratus are based either directly on literary sources or on the myths which found expression may even say both in literature and painting. that in this epoch literature and painting actually vied with each other in the presentation of the same Certainly Philostratus seems to try to outthemes. all

We

do the painter whose work he is describings and often passes beyond the limits of pictorial art without stopping to note what the picture itself gives and what he adds to make his account of the theme more attractive.

The

confine himself the painting he is describing may be regarded as his inheritance from the descriptions of works of art in earlier Greek literature. From the Homeric poems onw^ard the poet's skill is used in describing works of art. The cup of Nestor is quite simply described on the other hand Homer's account {Iliad, 11. 632 f.) of the Shield of Achilles is very elaborate (Iliad, 18. 483 f.), including the description in detail of one scene after another^ scenes which may have been suggested by some simple means, but which can hardly have been wrought with all the detail given by the poet. Such description becomes a definite type of literary ornament, and the poet who uses it feels no need to limit himself very closely to some actual object which he had seen or might have seen. So Euripides describes statues which were used to adorn the sterns of ships (Iph. Aid. 230 f.), and puts in the mouth of Ion an account of the treasures in the temple of Apollo {Ion, 192 f., 1133 f.). Apollonius of Rhodes tells of the mantle failure

closely to

of

our author

what was depicted

;

to

in

;

INTRODUCTION wrouglit by Pallas for Jason^ and gives a detailed account of scenes mainly mythological with which it was decorated (Argon. 1. 730 f.). Later Greek writers^ as well as the Latin poets, adopt the same literary device and pass with the same freedom from the actual description of a work of art to elements of the story which presumably could not be or were not included in the painting or statue It is or embroidered scene they were describing. by no means unnatural that Philostratus, for whom description is not a side issue but the main purpose, If we recall that should retain the same freedom. he claims to be speaking in the presence of the paintings themselves, we can hardly blame his procedure as lacking in clearness. Foreign as the procedure is to our point of view, it is the tendency of Philostratus to discuss paintings The almost as if they were w^orks of literary art. scene or scenes are described for the story they tell, and for the sentiment they express in this The excellence of the picture for him lies story. in its effective delineation of character, in the pathos of the situation, or in the play of emotion it represents. Its technical excellence is rarely mentioned, and then only as a means for successful representation. Of colour we read only that it is brilliant of drawing only that it is able to give perspective. The Composition and design are not mentioned. painter's insight, which enables him to see a new reality in his subject and to depict it in such wise as to make the world larger and richer for one who In a sees his work, is unknown to Philostratus. word, the whole discussion centres on literary problems rather than on problems of painting. xviii

INTRODLCTIOX This point of view explains itself^ however, if turn to extant paintings of the Graeco-Roman period. Most of these have been found in Campania, at Pompeii and elsewhere. While the Campanian wall-paintings carry on in a measure the tradition of Greek painting, the spirit of Greek art has practically disappeared, and these late paintings show much the same literary tendency as that which appears in the paintings described by Philostratus.

we

Helbig^ finds it possible to classify Campanian wallpaintings under rubrics familiar to literature, as epic in their style, or tragic, or idyllic. For example, the painter like the poet may treat stories of gods and heroes in a grand manner, emphasizing the greatness of the beings he depicts and the superior importance of their actions as compared with the activities of ordinary men. Representations of the deeds of Heracles and of Theseus in painting were commonly of this character. The appeal of such paintings is like the appeal of epic poetry, in that they directed attention away from man's ordinary activities, as relatively insignificant, to a world in which everything was on a higher, nobler plane. Among the descriptions of Philostratus the Amphiaraus (1,27)2 and the Gyrae (II, 13) illustrate the

in painting. epic style Campanian paintings, decorative as was their aim, include many that were based on tragic myths and emphasized the great conflicts in life which were the basis of the tragic drama. The conflict of emotion when Medea plans to slay her children, the conflicts in the stories of Oedipus and of Hippolytus, furnished themes for ^

2

Untersuchungen zv.r cawpanischen JVandmalerei. I, Description 27.

Book

INTRODUCTION The Menoeceiis the painter as well as for the poet. of Philostratus (I, 4) and the Cassandra (II, 19) describe paintings in the manner of tragedy. Philostratus describes no paintings which are re-

we do, however, find several which depict light, humorous themes based on mythology, like the thefts of Hermes (I, 26), the Theiodamas (II, 24) and the Pygmies (I I, 22). Perhaps in greater number are paintings in the idyllic manner, depicting a landscape in which is some scene that expresses tender human sentiment as, for example, Perseus freeing Andromeda or Pelops winning Hij)podameia as his bride. The Cyclops of Philostratus (II, 18) and the Olympus (I, 20-21) are the examples of the idyllic manner in his paintings. Such genre scenes as the Female Centaurs (II, 3) and the Singers (II, 1) may be classed here and the sentiment for nature in pure landscape, e.g. the Marsh (I, 9) and the Islands lated

to

comedy

;

paintings

;

;

It is 17), is not unrelated to idyllic poetry. characteristic of Hellenistic sculpture, if not of later

(II,

painting, to present idealized portraits of historical characters, portraits which express to the eye the characters which the historian portrayed in language. The Themistocles of Philostratus (II, 31) is such a portrait, and the Pantheia (II, 9) is described as a historical portrait based on the description of Xenophon. It should be noted, however, that in general the historical paintings of Philostratus merely draw the material from history instead of mythology, and emphasize now the tragedy, now

the simple beauty of the scene in the same

way

as paintings with a mythological content.

Granted that painting

in this

epoch was intimately

INTRODUCTION allied with literature, the question arises whether paintings described by Philostratus were actually based on some literary w^ork. In a few cases, but only in a few cases, is such a connection clear.

The Scamander (I, 1), the Memnon (I, 7), the Antilochus (II, 7) may be regarded as illustrations for the Iliad ; the Hippolytus (II, 4), the Pentheus (I, 18), and the Madness of Heracles (II, 23) follow the version of Euripides very closely, though not with literal exactness and the Antigone hardly varies from the treatment by Sophocles. While it is reasonable to assume that these paintings were actually based on the extant literary treatment of the same themes, it would not be strange if Philostratus overstressed the dependence on literature, for, as we have seen, it is his method to discuss the story of the painting as it may have appeared in literature instead of limiting himself to what he saw in the painting. No reader can forget that Philostratus is a sophist^ that his first preoccupation is the literary form in which he writes his descriptions. Whatever the paintings themselves may have been, it is his aim to emphasize and develop the sentiment, be it epic or tragic or idyllic, which he found in the paintings. The very subjects of the paintings show that the sentiment existed, and all the powders of his literary art were used in exploiting it. For the moment he is attempting to w^nte tragedy or again to develop a However sentiment for the beauties of nature. tedious he may become, however foreign to our ideas his method may be, the reader must remember that he is simply trying to outdo the paintings he In this describes in this appeal to the emotions. ;

xxi

INTllODUCTION connection it is not uninteresting]^ to read Goethe's version of these pictures [Philostrats GemaeJdc, 1818),^ in wliich lie goes beyond Piiilostratus himself in the word painting of sentiment. In the Introduction Piiilostratus clearly states the aim of the Imagines. They were written as lectures or rhetorical exercises to display the powers of the In so far as he was a teacher, they were sophist. models to be followed by his pupils at the same time, because they dealt with works of art, they served to stimulate the imagination and to train a-sthetic taste according to the standards then in vogue. We have no right to expect literal and complete descriptions by which the paintings could some of them can be be reconstructed in detail reconstructed in a measure, while others baffle the but this type of descrij)tion is not the attempt Further, he explicitly states that he sophist's aim. leaves to others the history of painters and painting. One reference to a painter with whom he once studied (p. 5) is the single case in which the name of a painter appears. Nor are we to expect technical Rarely he speaks about data about paintings. draughtsmanship and only as something to be assumed, or of perspective only as a curious device of the j)ainter's, or of correct proportion as an essential element in the truth of painting, or of the successful use of shadow to bring out form in three Rhetorically he lays stress on brilliant dimensions. colours, but colour plays a relatively small part in his Following the tradition of literary descriptions. allusions to painting, he lays much stress on the illusion of reality, but one may suspect that his in;

;

;

^

See Note at the end of this Introduction.

INTRODUCTION terest in it is largely because it is a useful rhetorical device. The reader is never allowed to forget the boy who represents the audience of Philostratus and the writer's effort to develop imagination in his hearers.

must be judged by aim and by the standards of his age. While we miss the "very pure Attic Greek" and the "extreme beauty and force" of his description which his grandson praises (infra, p. 283), we cannot fail to be impressed by his effort to reproduce the language of the golden age of Greek Philostratus as a rhetorician

his

He

literature.

evidently seeks the simplicity w^hich

suitable to the audience he presupposes; none the less a simplicity more studied or more often is

interrupted by grandiloquent and complicated The loose passages would be difficult to imagine. nominatives, the choppy phrases, the frequent parentheses are apparently intended to give the illusion of a casual conversation about the paintings. A relative simplicity is attained in certain short Thessaly, II, 14 ; Pygmies, descriptions (Pan, II, 11 II, 22) but such complicated ones as the Arrichion (II, 6) or the Cupids (I, 6), and the grandiloquent treatment of the Gyrae (II, 13) or the Evadne (II, 30) pass quite beyond the sphere of simple conversations. Moreover, the figures of speech,^ the paradoxical expressions and the tricks of phraseEven the making,2 often become quite laboured. ;

;

^ p. 183 p. 123

:

"As

if

using the flames as a

sail."

" Pelops glows with the radiance

of his shoulder, as does the night with the evening star." 2 p. 75: "From those locks he derived vigour, and he imparted vigour to them but this was itself his madness, that he would not join Dionysus in madness." :

;

INTRODUCTION effort to write

^'

pure Attic Greek"

is

almost buried

mass of literary allusion and quotation, Words till it becomes itself a device of rhetoric. or phrases are quoted from Homer more than a hundred times, from Euripides more than forty times, from Pindar twenty-five times and in all some twenty authors furnish recognized quotations. Such classics which was is the acquaintance with the demanded both of the sophist and of his hearers. under

tlie

;

Tiie frequent introduction into the descriptions bits of curious knowledge is to be regarded as a rhetorical device which is appropriate to the discourses of a sophist "professor," and which lends another interest to the paintings as well

of

This curious knowas to the description of them. It has to do with geoledge has a wide range. graphy the fertility of Egypt (1, 5), the detailed explanation of Tempe and the draining of the Thessalian plains (II, 14; II, 17, 4), the account of volcanic springs and streams (II, 17, 5), the It deals nature of the river Alpheius (II, 6, 1). with material things the painter's pigments (I, 28), the origin of amber (I, 11), the origin of limestone (I, 12, 2), the nature of bitumen and sulphur (II, 17, 5), the fiery element in the universe (I, 11, 1). It includes both fact and fancy as to plants and animals: the relation of trees to soil (I, 9, 1), the sexual instinct in date palms (I, 9), the characteristics :

:

" She prays to conquer men even as now she has p. 147 conquered them for I do not think she loves to be loved." :

;

p.

157:

"His

300, 13 K. p. 144: describe."

bright hair

is

his pride,"

ko/xS.

.

.

.

kSjutj

;

cf.

A

p. 167

xxiv

:

mouth "most sweet

"A beautiful

to kiss,

most

difficult to

burial offering are these arms."

INTRODUCTION of tunny-fish (I, 13, 7), the habits of the wild boar (I, 28, 1), of ants (II, 22, 1), of gulls (II, 17, 11) and of spiders (II, 28), the details of the tortoiseshell (I, 19, 2), the different breeds of dogs (I, 28, 5), It does not omit the fertility of the hare (I, 6, 6). the disease of Heracles the field of medicine (II, 23), the effect of eating owl's eggs (II, 17, 8), the use of gulls' stomachs as a remedy (II, 17, 11). And naturally it covers the various forms of human activity occupations like agriculture (I, 6, 2) and hunting (I, 28) and fishing (I, 13) and carpentry (I, 16, 2), religious rites (II, 24, 4; II, 33), athletic games (II, 6, 4-5; II, 25, 2), war and the use of All the chariot in war (I, 1, 2 I, 4, 2 I, 17, 1). these curious facts may be supposed to have educational significance, but they are introduced primarily as a rhetorical device to stimulate the interest of the hearer or reader. The method of presentation of course varies with the theme. Frequently Philostratus begins with references to the story as given by Homer or by More commonly he states some other writer. rather abruptly the striking points of the picture [e.g. II, 5), then develops the mythological or historical theme before he describes the picture itself, and concludes with an effort after striking sentiment or phrase. His actual descriptions of paintings are rather meagre his praise of the beauty of men and women and landscape is the main end of his rhetoric as he says (p. 5), his effort is to praise the skill of the painter and to cultivate the taste of the observer. The estimate placed on this work of Philostratus depends largely on the spirit in which it is :

:

;

;

;

;

INTRODUCTION approached. Goethe^ filled \vith iindiscriminating enthusiasm for all the products of Greece and Rome which had been developed by Winckelmann and his associates, found the Imagines as thrilling in form as the paintings they described were admirable. FriedrichSj applying to these paintings the standards of the great periods of Greek art, questioned whether they could be called Greek, and even whether they existed outside the sophist's imaginaIt remained for Brunn with his wider and tion. more critical knowledge to show that the paintings described by Philostratus were not in any way Whether they were foreign to later Greek art. actual paintings, whether some M-ere real paintings and others created by the imagination of the sophist, whether there ever was such a gallery as Two is described, we have no means of knowing. First, Philostratus was points, however, are clear. primarily a sophist, who developed the description of paintings as a form of literary art he would be quite consistent in describing paintings that were figments of his imagination, provided only he succeeded in preserving the illusion that he dealt Secondly, there is little with existing paintings. or nothing to indicate any inconsistency between the paintings existing in his day and the paintings he describes. The student of late Greek paintings is fully justified in treating these examples as data for his study, whether or not they were actual paintings. all

;

"

:

INTRODUCTION

NOTE OX GOETHE, "PHILOSTRATS GEMAELDE XXVI, 276

(Ed. Cotta, 1868, Vol.

f.)

In 1818 Goethe published an essay on the paintings of Philostratus in which he refers to the enthusiasm of the '' Weimarsche Kunstfreunde " for this work, and to the extended study which they had given it. His essay was intended, he says, to preserve some of the results of this study, as the times were not favourable for the publication of the elaborate edition, with illustrations, which they had hoped To his translation of a series of the to make. Descriptions reference has already been made (p. xix).

Goethe finds the greatest difficulty for the appreciation of Philostratus' work in what he calls the confused arrangement of the Descriptions. He arranges them under nine headings as follows II. Love and Wooing; 1. Heroic, tragic subjects; IV. Deeds of Heracles ; III. Birth and Education V. Athletic Contests; VI. Hunters and Hunting; VII. Poetry, Song, and Dance; VIII. Landscapes, including pictures of the sea IX. Still Life. This arrangement serves to emphasize the variety of the paintings described by Philostratus, even if it is In the following list are included not very logical. Goethe's references to ancient and modern paintings. ;

;

I.

1.

The death tion

7.

Heroic, tragic subjects.

of Antilochus.

Book

II,

Descrip-

INTRODUCTION 2.

3. 4. 5.

death and burial of Memnon. I, 7. Scamander overcome by Hephaestus. I, 1. I, 4. death of Menoeceus. II, 4. death of Hippolytus. Hippolytus and Phaedra. Ilercul. Altcrih?-

The The The The

iii.

15.

pi.

II, 29. Antigone's burial of her brother. II, 30. 7. Evadne's death on her husband's pyre. II, 9. 8. Pantheia's death on her husband's pyre. II, 13. 9. The death of Ajax. Phil. Jun. 17. 10. The sufferings of Philoctetes. I, 11. 11. The death of Phaethon. 6.

Icarus

mourned

Alterth. iv.

pi.

by

father.

his

Ilercul.

63.

Ibid. iii. 4. Phrixus and Helle. Phil. Jun. 14. Hvacinthus, beloved of A])ollo. I, 24. 13. The death of Hyacinthus.

12.

14.

"Cephalus and Procris," by Giulio Romano. Amphiaraus and his oracle. I, 27.

15. Cassandra. 16.

Rhodogoune victorious. Victor and goddess Alterth.

17.

iii.

Themistocles.

II.

18.

Cupids at play.

II, 5.

of

Hercul,

11, 32.

Love and IVooing. I, 6.

Birth of V^enus.

Ilercul. Alterth. iv. pi. 3.

1 Gori, Le antichite di Ercolano, 1757 C. G. V. Muir, 1777-1802.

xxviii

victory.

pi. 39.

;

German

translation,

INTRODUCTION 19.

I, 7. Poseidon and Amvmone. Theseus and the rescued children.

Alterth.

20.

i.

pi.

Hercul.

5.

Ariadne deserted. IhicL ii. pis. 14-15. Ariadne asleep. I^ 15. Ariadne asleep. Ibid. ii. pi. 16. Leda with the swan. Ibid. iii. pi. 8. Leda on the Eurotas birth of twins from the ;

Giuiio

egg.

Romano.

Pelops as suitor. I, 30. Pelops as suitor. Phil. Jun. 9. 23. Pelops winning Hippodameia, I, 17. Phil. Jun. 8. 24. The coming of the Argonauts. II, 15. 25. Glaucus prophesying to the Argonauts. Phil. Jun. 7. 26. Jason and Medea. Phil. Jun. 11. 27. The return of the Argonauts. I, 29. 28. Perseus and Andromeda. 21.

22.

29. C3^clops

and Galatea.

Cyclops in love.

II, 18.

Hercul. Alterth.

30.

Pasiphae's love for the bull.

31.

Meles and

Critheis.

I,

and Educcdion.

32.

Birth of Athena.

33.

Semele and the birth of Bacchus. Hercul. Fauns and Nvmphs.

34. Birth of

p. 10.

II, 8.

Ill, Birth

pi.

i.

16.

II, 27. I,

11. Altetih.

ii.

12.

Hermes.

I,

26.

II, 2. Achilles brought up by Cheiron. Hercul Alterih. Achilles and Cheiron. Phil. Jun. 1. 36. Achilles on Scyros.

35.

37.

Centaur

families,

i.

pi. 8.

II, 4.

xxix

INTRODUCTION IV. Heracles. Phil. Jun. 5. 38. The deeds of Heracles as a babe. Ilercid. Alleiih. i. pi. 7. Heracles as a babe. Phil. Jun. 4. 39. Achelous and Deianeira. Phil. Jun. 16. 40. Deianeira rescued from Xessus.

41. 42.

Antaeus overcome. W, 21. Hesione freed by Heracles. Heracles and Hesione. pi.

Phil. Jun. 12.

Hercul. Alterth,

iv.

64.

and Heracles. II, 20. Hylas and Nymi)hs. Ilercul. A Iter/ h. and Giulio Romano. Death of Abderus. H, 25.

43. Atlas

44. 45.

iv. pi. 6,

Heracles as a father. Ilercul. Alterth. i. pi. 6. Heracles insane. II, 23. Heracles and Admetus. Weimarsche Kunstfreunde.

47.

Theiodamas. II, 24. Heracles and the pygmies. II, 22. Heracles and the pygmies. Giulio Romano.

48.

Palaestra.

46.

V. Athletic Contests. II,

49. Arrichion.

33.

II, 6.

50.

Phorbas killed by Apollo.

51.

Meleager and Atalante. Phil. Jun. 15. ^' Meleager and Atalante." Giulio Romano.

II, 19.

VI. Hunters and Hunting.

52.

Boar-hunt.

53.

Hunters

54.

Narcissus as a hunter.

XXX

I,

28.

feasting.

Phil. Jun. 3. I,

23.

INTRODUCTION VII. Poetry, Song, and Dance. 55. 56.

57.

Pan and Nymphs. II, 11. Midas and Satyrs. I, 22. Olympus blowing the flute. I, Olympus taught by Pan. i.

58.

pi.

21.

Hercul.

Alterih.

9.

Olympus and Satyrs. I, 20. "Olympus playing the

Hannibal

flute."

Carracci. 59. 60. 61. 62.

The defeat of Marsyas. Amphion and the walls

Phil. Jun. of Thebes.

2. I,

10.

Aesop and the Fables. I, 3. Orpheus charming animals, plants and Phil.

Jun.

stones.

6.

Orpheus charming animals.

Antique gem.

63.

The

64.

Sophocles and Melpomene. Phil. Jun. 13. Aphrodite hymned by maidens. II, 1.

65.

birth of Pindar.

II, 12.

VIII. Landscapes, including Pictures of the Sea.

68.

Dionysus and the Tyrrhenian pirates. x\ndros, island favoured by Dionysus. Palaemon. II, 16.

69.

Bosphorus.

70.

71.

The Nile. I, 5. The Nile. Mosaic by The Islands. II, 17.

72.

Thessaly freed from water

66.

67.

Tempe. 73. Marsh.

I,

I,

19.

I,

25.

12.

Palestrina.

when Poseidon opens

II, 14.

1, 9.

xxxi

INTRODUCTION 71.

Fishermen catching tunny-fisli. I, 13. "Catching dolphins/' by GiiiHo Romano.

75.

Dodona. II, 34. ComuSj a feast at night.

Cf.

76.

Hercid. Alterth.

IX.

Still

ii.

pi.

50.

I, 2.

Life.

I, 31. 77. Xenia. II, 26. Cf. Ilercul. Alterth. 78. Xenia. II, 29. 79. Spider webs.

ii.

pi.

56

f.

PHILOSTRATUS IMAGINES

BOOK

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