relation was
more subordinate. The worship or service of images, even in the highest
ages of Greek civilisation, was much more associated with primitive and
comparatively inartistic figures than with the masterpieces of
sculpture; and even where these masterpieces were actually objects of
worship it was often from the inheritance of a sanctity transferred to
them from an earlier image rather than for their own artistic qualities.
It does not, indeed, follow that the influence of the great sculptors
upon the religious ideals of the people was a negligible quality; we
have abundant evidence, both direct and indirect, that it was very
great. But it was exercised chiefly by following and ennobling
traditional notions rather than by daring innovation, and therefore can
only be understood in relation to the general development both of
religious conceptions and of artistic facility.

Here we shall be mainly concerned with art as an expression of the
religious ideals and aspirations of the people, and as an influence upon
popular and educated opinions and conceptions of the gods. But we must
not forget that it is also valuable to us as a record of myths and
beliefs, and of ritual and customs associated with the worship of the
gods. This is the case, above all, with reliefs and vase-paintings. In
them we often find representations which do not merely illustrate
ancient literature, but supplement and modify the information we derive
from classical writers. The point of view of the artist is often not the
same as that of the poet or historian, and it is frequently nearer to
that of the people, and therefore a help in any attempt to understand
popular beliefs. The representations of the gods which we find in such
works do not often embody any lofty ideals or subtle characterisation;
but they show us the traditional and easily recognisable figures in
which the gods usually occurred to the imagination of the Greek people.

The association of acts of worship with certain specially sacred objects
or places lies at the basis of much religious art, though very often art
has little or nothing to do with such objects in a primitive stage of
religious development. Stocks and stones--the latter often reputed to
have fallen from heaven, the former sometimes in the shape of a growing
tree, sometimes of a mere unwrought log--were to be found as the centres
of religious cult in many of the shrines of Greece. These sacred objects
are sometimes