lightness, contemplative repose
and active energy, voluptuous softness and refined grace, intellectual
sublimity and lascivious seductiveness--the whole rhythm of qualities
which can be typified by bodily form--were analysed, selected,
combined in various degrees, to incarnate the religious conceptions of
Zeus, Aphrodite, Herakles, Dionysus, Pallas, Fauns and Satyrs, Nymphs
of woods and waves, Tritons, the genius of Death, heroes and hunters,
lawgivers and poets, presiding deities of minor functions, man's
lustful appetites and sensual needs. All that men think, or do, or
are, or wish for, or imagine in this world, had found exact corporeal
equivalents. Not physiognomy alone, but all the portions of the body
upon which the habits of the animating soul are wont to stamp
themselves, were studied and employed as symbolism. Uranian Aphrodite
was distinguished from her Pandemic sister by chastened lust-repelling
loveliness. The muscles of Herakles were more ponderous than the tense
sinews of Achilles. The Hermes of the palaestra bore a torso of
majestic depth; the Hermes, who carried messages from heaven, had
limbs alert for movement. The brows of Zeus inspired awe; the breasts
of Dionysus breathed delight.

A race accustomed, as the Greeks were, to read this symbolism,
accustomed, as the Greeks were, to note the individuality of naked
form, had no difficulty in interpreting the language of sculpture.
Nor is there now much difficulty in the task. Our surest guide to
the subject of a basrelief or statue is study of the physical type
considered as symbolical of spiritual quality. From the fragment of
a torso the true critic can say whether it belongs to the athletic or
the erotic species. A limb of Bacchus differs from a limb of Poseidon.
The whole psychological conception of Aphrodite Pandemos enters into
every muscle, every joint, no less than into her physiognomy, her
hair, her attitude.

There is, however, a limit to the domain of sculpture. This art deals
most successfully with personified generalities. It is also strong in
the presentation of incarnate character. But when it attempts to tell
a story, we often seek in vain its meaning. Battles of Amazons or
Centaurs upon basreliefs, indeed, are unmistakable. The subject is
indicated here by some external sign. The group of Laocoon appeals
at once to a reader of Virgil, and the divine vengeance of Leto's
children upon Niobe is manifest in the Uffizzi marbles. But who are