WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Mythology in Marble cover

Mythology in Marble

Chapter 58: INTERPRETATION.
By Louie M. Bell
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

ArtEssays, Letters & SpeechesMythology, Legends & Folklore

About This Book

A concise guide that pairs brief retellings of classical myths with descriptive analyses of the marble sculptures inspired by them, offering readers accessible explanations of how narrative themes inform pose, expression, and iconography. Each entry includes notes on artistic features and provenance alongside poetic quotations and illustrations to reinforce popular interpretations. Practical tools such as a table of Greek and Roman deity equivalents and a suggested reading list are appended to aid further study. The overall aim is to equip museumgoers and general readers with the background needed to appreciate mythological sculpture without requiring specialized art-historical training.

Apollo Musagetes.
“The Patron of Music.”

“To the sun-god all our hearts and lyres,
By day, by night, belong;
And the breath we draw from his living fires
We give him back in song.”
—Moore.

STORY.
THE LEADER OF THE MUSES.

“Whom all the Muses loved, not one alone;—
Into his hand they put the lyre of gold,
And crowned with sacred laurel at their fount,
Placed him as Musagetes, on their throne.”
—Longfellow.

Apollo was skilled in the art of music and sang hymns of his composing to an accompaniment of his own upon a wonderful lyre which Hermes had made for him. He was the dearly loved leader of the nine Muses, and was surnamed Musagetes.

That he should be the god both of music and poetry does not appear strange, but that medicine should also be assigned to his province may. Armstrong, a physician as well as a poet, thus explains—

“Music exalts each joy, allays each grief,
Expels diseases, softens every pain;
And hence the wise of ancient days adored
One power of physic, melody and song.”

INTERPRETATION.

As the kindly beams of the “orb of day” (Apollo) spread light and warmth over nature there are heard everywhere happy, joyful sounds, the music of his lyre.

The sun was regarded as the natural restorer of all life and as such his power extended over human ailments and diseases.

ART.

This statue was found in the ruins of the so-called Villa of Cassius in 1774, and was added to the Vatican collection.

The rich and flowing draperies in which Apollo is clothed give the statue an almost feminine fulness of form. Although only indifferently executed, it has a graceful movement which renders it impressive. It is evidently a copy of a famous original, some critics say of Scopas.

The god is represented as gliding forward in the dance in which he leads the Muses.