Now we know that the farther an imitator gets from the original standard, the weaker is his copy. The first successors of Phidias made direct studies from his statue, but those coming after worked from copies. Still later artists took for their models copies of these copies, until at last much of the original grandeur of Phidias's conception was lost.
The bust of Zeus reproduced in our illustration is thought to be a far-away copy of the head of Phidias's statue. From the marble of which it is made we know that it was executed in Italy, probably by some Greek sculptor who had come thither after his own nation had been conquered by Rome. The marvel is that he preserved so well the noble dignity of the ideal Zeus. This is the father of gods and men in his most benign aspect. The massive head is crowned like that of a lion with long, overhanging locks with which the flowing beard is mingled. These are the
"Ambrosial curls Upon the Sovereign One's immortal head,"
of which Homer writes in the Iliad. The symmetrical arrangement of hair and beard carry out the character of perfect evenness belonging to the supreme ruler.
The forehead has the full bar of flesh which denotes virility. The brows are straight, the nose finely modeled, the lips rather full, the expression benignant. Altogether the impression is of a being of mental and moral equipoise, full of energy and noble dignity.
Athena was the air goddess of the Greeks, or, in Ruskin's phrase, "the queen of the air." She was known also by the name Pallas, and among the Romans as Minerva. As the air comes to us from out the great dome of the sky, so Athena was said to have sprung fully armed from the head of her father Zeus. The old Homeric hymn tells how
"Wonder strange possessed The everlasting gods that shape to see, Shaking a javelin keen, impetuously Rush from the crest of ægis-bearing Jove."[5]
Her eyes were blue, the color of the sky; her hair hung in ringlets over her shoulders. Her dress was
"A gorgeous robe Of many hues, which her own hands had wrought."[6]
When arrayed for war she wore a golden helmet and carried a shield, or _ægis_. In the centre of this shield was fastened the gorgon's head which Perseus had cut off with her aid. In her hand she wielded a mighty spear.