The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

the song of stone
Apollo of Tenea to the Disk-thrower, the Discobol of Myron, covered a period
of not more than four generations; yet it reveals a development in vision and
a perfection in skill which would have taken any artists but the Hellenes a
millennium to acquire. Myron could “touch” the gods! He knew the type of the
forces which underlay the racial structure of the Hellenes. He knew the types
of Zeus, of Hermes and of the satyr.
The Zeus-type was that of the Northern and Western man. It represented
all the Olympians: Apollo and Athena, Hera, Aphrodite and Artemis. The emphasis
in this racial type appeared in the forces of the head with its senses and
nerves and in their harmonious union with the heart. In its quiet balance this
type represents the quality of Olympian calmness.
In contrast to the Zeus typos was that of Hermes in which emphasis was
placed on the activity of the limbs. In this messenger of the gods, the great
runner, one notices especially the winged heels. Closely related to the Hermes
conception was that of Dionysus, the originator of movement and the dance. In
its dynamics it was in complete contrast to the statics of the Olympians.
Definitely different from both the Zeus- and Hermes-types, and we may
also say from the types of Apollo and Dionysus, was a third—the satyr. It was
represented as Marsyas, Pan, Silenus and all the satyrs, nymphs and maenads
which mythology revealed and the chisel of the sculptor worked out. The satyrs
often appeared with a tail, a goat’s foot and hairy skin. Their most characteristic
features were their sensual lips, their snub noses and the horns on their heads.
The typos of the satyr revealed an amalgamation between the forces of the head
and those of the limbs, but animal-like and decadent in character. With its
horns which signified clairvoyant vision, it suggested a straggler from ancient
Atlantis.
The higher union between the head-forces of the Zeus-type and the
rhythmical limb-forces of the Hermes-type was the ideal typos of the Hellene.
In the later days of Greek art, the three types were more and more fused,
became less and less distinct. Hermes and Dionysus became as Apollonian as a
representative of Zeus and even the satyrs lost their tails, goats’ feet and horns
and appeared with noses formerly found only on “sons of Zeus” (for example,
the Satyr Pouring Wine, marble, Dresden).