THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

'
"*
WHO WERE THE MAKERS ? 281
282 WHO WERE THE MAKERS?
again there is neither tree nor pillar.
Nor need we be surprised
to find this treatment surviving on the coins of Delphi,
for in the temple there the Omphalos
with its two eagles looking towards each
other is essentially Mycenean, as may
be seen from a well-known Cyzicene
stater (Fig. 49). The strange device
of two owls with a common head, seen
on some Attic coins, is a last remnant
of the same motive (Fig. oO), for a
Fig. -47.
Coin of Delphi.
Mycenean gem shows two lions with a
common head. Similarly in Lycia, where this principle is
found in architecture, and from whence according to tradition
came the
makers of the Lion Gate, the coins
also exhibit the same treatment of animal
devices. One of these shows two lions seated
and confronted, with their right-fore-paws
raised, between them a symboP. There are
Fi(i. 48.
Coin of Delplii.
gems with ccjws suckling their calves (p. 18)
and a hind suckling her fawn (p. 09), a motive repeated on the
coins of Corcyra and Dyrrhacium (Fig. G')). Again, the love
of spii';l
shown in the tentacles of the
cuttle-fish (Fig. '.])
and in the tail of
the d(jg (Fig. (51) lingers in the I'ecurved
wing of Pegasus on the archaic
coins of (Jorinth, while the Great Myceiii'aii
ox-head with a star on the
forehead finds a counterpact in tlu' bull's
head similarly adorned seen on
Phoeian
coins (
Fig. (>7). Thus tlieii in Pi' was unbroken continuitv
in art, so was there a like continuity
of popnlat
loll.
\'U I'.). Coin of Cyzicus
witli Oiiiplmlos.
('din of Allien.'-
It is lint without signiticMiice tjiat Theodorus
and M nesarchus ( t he tat her of I'ythagoras the philosojiher),
the only two engravers of the sixth century
B.C.
whose names
have survived, were both natives of Samos, the population
of which was Pelasgic. Theodoras engraved the famous
smaragdus of Polycrates, the despot of Samos, and he made
a statue of himself holding a gem (probably a scarab^) in one
hand and his file in the other.
As there is now reason to believe that the same race practically
has dwelt in the Aegean from the earliest times down to
the present, it is possible to attain with considerable certainty
to some knowledge of its characteristics.
The island statuettes have already furnished us with an
indication that the prehistoric people of the Aegean were
dolichocephalic.
But the modern population of the same area
is likewise distinguished by dolichoccphalism'', from which it
seems that the modern Greek and the prehistoric islanders had
a similar type of skull.
Again, the modern Greeks have dark hair and dark eyes,
and there are strong reasons for holding that the Greeks of
classical times had hair and eyes of the like colour. Thus
Plato''' remarks that the eyes of statues were usually black, and
the Pseudo-Dicaearchus'' speaks of the yellow hair of the
Theban women as if it were exceptional (for which later on we
'
Ik'nmlorf, Zcitsclir. f. ocxteir. Gi/nui. 1873, p. 401 sq. ; Middleton,
Kuiiraved Gcinn. jj. 70.
"
About a hundred well uutheutioated ancient (Jreek crania known, show
that "at all timerf from 400 n.c. to the third century of our era"' the Greeks were
of the dolichocephalic type. Stephanos gives the averaj^'e cranial index of
'
them all as about 75'7, betoken inii; a people like the jiresent Calabrians in head
form""; that is, about as lonj,'-headed as the Anglo-Saxons in England and
America (l{ii)ley, o/*. cit., }). 407). The Albanian immigrants have brought a
broad-skulled element into the Greek po])ulation, and to them likewise is
ascribed the pro])ortion of fair hair and light eyes found among the (ireeks
of to-day. Grustein found less than 10 j)er cent, of light hair, "although blue
and grey eyes were characteristic of rather more tlian a ([uarter of liis 17t)7
recruits." .Vmongst the .Vlbanian.s ligiit eyes are (piite (H)mmon. Weisbach's
data show that Dli ))er cent, of his Greeks were ])ure brunettes (liipley, oji. cit.
J). 410). I'ericles, a typical Athenian of ancient family, was probably abnornuilly
dolichocephalic, and it was to this circumstance that Ihipolis .illuded when he
called him ax'-^OKiflioKo'i and K((pa\rjyff)eTa Zei'S.
'
Jii'p. 4"20 c, oi ")dp 6(l>0a\uol, KaWiarou uv. ovk offTpelui ii'aXrfXi.u./j.^i'OL dtv,
dWa /J.(\an /xr]
oi'oi' OtiV rjuas oi'TW Ka\ovs 6(pOa\aovs ypdijyf
iv . uare
(paiviaOai. kt\.
/JLrjOi 6(p(hi\/j,ovi
Hill, r.rit. Mas. Cut. nf Citin^ nf I.i/i-in. p. :il.
J)e.