such a type of art as his.

The chief cause of the progress of art was the greater freedom of the
artist in the choice and treatment of his subjects. So long as the
subjects were almost entirely religious there could be little variety in
the manner of treating them. Each god or goddess had its own attributes,
which must be rendered with exact care; and any new mode of portraying
them was almost a sacrilege. But as time passed on and the Panhellenic
games and the national Pantheon at Olympia grew into their great
importance, new subjects were furnished for the artists, which allowed
them to show their originality and to indulge their artistic
imaginations to their fullest extent. The victors in the games were
heroes, and regarded even as demi-gods, and statues were allowed to be
erected to them, although this had hitherto been considered a divine
honor and was accorded to the gods alone. When these heroes were
represented, the artists, not being bound by any laws, could study their
subjects and represent them to the life as nearly as they were able to
do. This exaltation of the Olympian victors gave an opportunity for the
development of sculpture such as cannot be over-estimated in its
influence and results.

Another characteristic of the art of the time we are now considering
was the almost universal use of bronze. This metal is excellent for
displaying the minute features of the nude parts of statues, but it is
not equal to marble in the representation of draperies or for giving
expression to the face. PYTHAGORAS OF RHEGIUM was a famous artist who
worked entirely in bronze. The only copies from his works of which we
know are on two gems, one of which is in the Berlin Museum. He made
exact studies of the body in action, and gave new importance to the
reproduction of the veins and muscles. It is also claimed that
Pythagoras was the first to lay down clearly the laws of symmetry or
proportion which is governed by strict mathematical rules.

MYRON OF ELEUTHERAE flourished about 500 to 440 B.C., and was reckoned
among Athenian artists because, though not born at Athens, he did most
of his works there, and his most famous work, the statue of a cow, stood
on the Acropolis of that city. This cow was represented as in the act of
lowing, and was elevated upon a marble base. It was carried from Athens
to Rome, where it stood in the Forum of Peace. Many writers mentioned
this work of Myron's, and thirty-seven epigrams were writ