Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

684 THE SURVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
had lost its freshness, and its use eventually became too formal for it to continue
to be inspiring. Voltaire (1694-1778) ironically views the rise and fall of the influence
of classical mythology in France in his late poem addressed to Pindar:
Sors du tombeau, divin Pindare,
Toi qui célébras autrefois
Les chevaux de quelques bourgeois
Ou de Corinthe ou de Mégare;
Toi qui possédas le talent
De parler beaucoup sans rien dire;
Toi qui modulas savamment
Des vers qui personne n'entend,
Et qu'il faut toujours qu'on admire.
[Come out of your grave, divine Pindar, you who in other times used to
celebrate the horses of some rich citizens, whether from Corinth or Megara;
you who possessed the gift of speaking much without saying anything; you
who skillfully modulated lyrics that no one listens to and everyone must always
admire.]
GERMANY IN THE EIGHTEENTH
AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES
The renaissance of classical studies took place later in Germany than in Italy,
France, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and England. Although there had been
fine classical scholars in German universities and princely courts since the sixteenth
century, the classical renaissance did not reach its full vigor there until
well into the eighteenth century. It differed also from the classical renaissance
elsewhere in that the Greeks were admired more than the Romans, and Homer
and the Greek gods reigned supreme. A short work by J. J. Winckelmann
(1717-1768) led to revived interest in Greek sculpture and its ideals. This was
Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (Gedanken iiber
die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst), published
in 1755. Its influence grew with the publication in England of Stuart and
Revett's The Antiquities of Athens Measured and Delineated (1762), which directed
attention to Greek buildings and the sculpture that decorated them. Winckelmann's
ideas spread with the publication, in 1766, of Lessing's Laocoon, which
encouraged viewers to admire and become emotionally involved in works of
Greek sculpture.
Thus Germany was prepared for the emergence of a group of great poets
whose inspiration was drawn from Greece, and through them Greek mythology
enjoyed a new life. The first of these were Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832)
and Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805). Schiller's poem The Gods of Greece (Die Getter
Griechenlands), which appeared in 1788, laments the passing of the world of Greek
mythology and contrasts it with the materialism that the poet perceived in the
Christian world around him.