was an Athenian or not (Fig.
47).

There is still standing at Athens, in its original place, the Choragic
monument of Lysicrates; and though we do not know the names of the
architects and sculptors who made it, there are traces upon it which
indicate that it belonged to the school of Scopas (Fig. 48).

[Illustration: FIG. 46.--A NIOBID.]

[Illustration: FIG. 47.--GANYMEDE. _After Leochares._]

This monument was erected B.C. 334, when Lysicrates was _choragus_--that
is, when it was his office to provide the chorus for the plays
represented at Athens. This was an expensive office, and one that
demanded much labor and care. He had first to find the choristers, and
then bring them together to be instructed, and provide them with proper
food while they studied. The choragus who gave the best musical
entertainment received a tripod as his reward, and it was the custom to
build a monument upon which to place the tripod, so that it should be a
lasting honor to the choragus and his family. The street in which these
monuments were erected was called "the street of the Tripods."

It was also the custom to dedicate each tripod to some special divinity,
and this of Lysicrates was dedicated to Bacchus, and had a frieze with
sculptures telling the story of that god and the Tyrrhenian robbers who
bore him off to their ship. In order to revenge himself he changed the
oars and masts into serpents and himself into a lion; music was heard,
and ivy grew all over the vessel; the robbers went mad and leaped into
the sea, and changed into dolphins.

[Illustration: FIG. 48.--MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES. _Athens._]

In the frieze, however, it is represented that the god is on shore
quietly amusing himself with the lion (Fig. 49), while satyrs and sileni
punish the robbers by beating them with sticks and chasing them with
fury, while they are turning gradually into dolphins and rushing into
the sea. The design is so fine that it might easily be attributed to one
of the best sculptors; but the execution is careless, and this is not
strange when we remember that it was all done at the expense of one
man, and he a private citizen.

We will return now to the Peloponnesian school, of which Polycleitus was
the head in its earliest period. After his time the sculptors of his
school continued to prefer the subjects in which he excelled, and
represented youthful heroes and victors with as much industry as the
artists of Athens bestowed upon their sta