Lives of Alcyone

Chart LXVII a
Greece (Birth of Orion) 499 B.C.
1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th 5 th 6 th 7 th
conjectural attempts(mostly inaccurate) have been made at its restoration. Its left hand appears to have originally held an olive branch, while
the right , resting upon a tree-stump, held some kind of belt. Part of the original is still preserved at Athens, and is far superior to the copies.
A temple to Athena Nike was erected at Olympia from the plans and under the supervision of our hero; and the statue of Athena which it
contained was the work of his own hands. For some reason he chose to make it a copy in marble of an ancient and sacred wooden image
called the Xoanon, which was preserved at Athens. This statue was commonly called Nike Apteros, and held in its left hand a helmet, and
its right a pomegranate.
Another work which brought him much fame was a statue of Aphrodite (called the Sesandra) which was placed at the entrance of the Aeropolis
at Athens. The face of this figure was particularly charming. It was executed to the order of a rich man named Kallias, who offered it to
the Goddess in fulfilment of some vow connected with his marriage. His name appears, curiously written, at the head of an incomprehensible
inscription on the base. In at least two cases Agathokles seems to have collaborated with other sculptors: once with the elder Praxiteles (grand
father to the better known artist of that name) the latter supplying the figure of the driver for an elaborately worked bronze quadriga or
chariot executed by Kalamis, and set up in the Acropolis in memory of the victory of the Athenians over Chalcis; and on another occasion
with a man named Onatas, who received a commission for a bronze chariot-group at Olympia--a group which our hero completed by adding
on each side a race-horse with a naked boy as rider. These boys and horses remarkably graceful, and altogether surpass the work of
Onatas. Some other figures of boys in an attitude of prayer--also at Olymmpia--are specially beautiful.
Another remarkable work of which some traces may still be found in a statue of Hermes erected at Tanagra, and popularly called Kriophores
because the God is represented as bearing a ram upon his shoulders--the idea being perhaps suggested by an archaic and roughly exeimage
in which the same deity is seen bearing a calf in similer fashion. This Hermes Kriophoros was largely copied, numbers of smaller reprductions
being made,, not only in marble but in terracotta or some similer substance, and even still smaller images in gold, silver or ivory, which
were used as amulets. A copy of this exists in the British Museum--It was also stamped upon the coins of Tangra.
At the same town Kalamis also produced a statue in marble of Dionysos or Bacchus. At Thebes, too, they had two of his works, collossal
figures of Zeus Ammon and Herakles (the former commissioned by the poet Pindar), both in his best style, and each remarkable for the wonderful
success with which it expresses the special characteristics of the Great Ones--in the first case serene dignity and consciousness of
power, and in the second, the easy self-confidence and joyousness of youth in perfect health and strength. He seems to have been specially
fond of sculpting horses, and was always successful with them; he often represented his subjects driving chariots, and occasionally as riding.
Among his less celebrated statues may be mentioned an Alkmene, a Hermione at Delphi, and an Asklepios (Aesculapius) in gold and ivory
holding a pine-cone in one hand and a staff in the other; also a gilded Athena, standing on a bronze palm-tree at Delphi, holding a staff, and
attended by an owl. This was erected to commemorate a victory over the Persians.
He is mentioned in an encyclopaedia as a contemporary of Phidias, but this is somewhat misleading. Certainly they were on earth at the same
time, but Phidias was twenty or thirty years younger than Kalamis, and studied under him for some time. Kalamis himself studied art under
Antenor, having for his fellow-students: Nestiotes and Kritias among others; but none of these attained the fame of Kalamis. He really held a
peculiar and important place in the history of Greek art, for it was he who first ventured to break through the stiff conventional methods of the
archaic school. His work shows in this respect a marked improvement over that of his master Antenor, though it still bears obvious traces of
the latter influence. Still, to our hero belongs the honour of initiating that reform in sculpture which culminated so gloriously in the works of his
successor Phidias. Praxiax was another successful pupil of Agathokles.
Both of the brothers married, and brought up their families in opposite sides of the origial paternal house, in which there was plenty of room
for all. Indeed they formed a wonderfully united household, and their residence was quite a centre both for philosophers and artists. Stormy
though the times were, there was much in them that was noble and elevating; and our hero took his part in the vivid life of Athens at its best
even though his art and his higher studies always came for him before political considerations. The death of Sirius left a gap in their knowledge
of what death meant, and in their certainty that in a future existence they would meet again. Erato survived Sirius by some five years, and
when he in turn shuffled off this mortal coil he passed through the astral plane with great rapidity, and had a long and elevated sojourn in the
heaven-world.
1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th 5 th 6 th 7 th
Rigel -Betel
Helios
Achilles -Orion
Philae -Altair
Canopus -Beth Cygnus -Lobelia
Lutea -Melete
Aldeb -Fons Clare -Egeria Oak -Gnostic