oly work, with modest mien, and gentle
dignity and grace. All that was sacred, powerful, and grand--all that
was beautiful, graceful, and joyous in Athenian life, is represented
there, in ideal form, of course, but in strict conformity with the
realities of life.... It is by the study of such works as these that we
get the clearest insight into the essence and spirit of classical
antiquity; and they help us better to understand all that we may read in
history or poetry concerning the ancient, classic Greeks.

[Illustration: FIG. 30.--HORSEMEN STARTING.]

[Illustration: FIG. 31.--PROCESSION OF CAVALRY.]

[Illustration: FIG. 32.--PROCESSION OF CHARIOTS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 33.--TRAIN OF MUSICIANS AND YOUTHS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 34.--COWS FOR SACRIFICE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 35.--TRAIN OF NOBLE MAIDENS.]

We must now leave Phidias and speak of other sculptors who were his
contemporaries and pupils. Among the last ALCAMENES was the most
celebrated. He was born in Lemnos, but was a citizen of Athens; so he is
sometimes called an Athenian, and again a Lemnian. His statues were
numerous, and most of them represented the gods. One of Hephaestus, or
Vulcan, was remarkable for the way in which his lameness was concealed
so skilfully that no deformity appeared.

His most famous statue was a Venus, or Aphrodite, concerning which it is
related that Agoracritus, another celebrated pupil of Phidias, contended
with Alcamenes in making a statue of that goddess. The preference was
given to Alcamenes, and Agoracritus believed this to have been done on
account of his being an Athenian citizen, and not solely for the merit
of the statue. The Venus of Alcamenes stood in a temple of that goddess
in a garden beyond the eastern wall of Athens. This statue was very much
praised for its beauty by ancient writers, who all mention with especial
pride the _eurythmy_ of the action of the wrist. This is a term
frequently used in regard to sculpture, and is somewhat difficult to
explain. It means a harmony and proportion of action which corresponds
to rhythm in music. When a statue has the effect it should have it
appears as if the motion of the figure was arrested for a moment, and
would be resumed immediately. That is what we mean when we say a statue
has life; and, as in life, the motion of a statue may be awkward or it
may be graceful; it may be harmonious to the eye, just as music is
harmonious to the ear, or it may seem out of tune an