Laocoon | Project Gutenberg

96. Iliad i. 44–53. Tableaux tirés de l’Iliade, p. 70.

Down he came,
Down from the summit of the Olympian mount,
Wrathful in heart; his shoulders bore the bow
And hollow quiver; there the arrows rang
Upon the shoulders of the angry god,
As on he moved. He came as comes the night,
And, seated from the ships aloof, sent forth
An arrow; terrible was heard the clang
Of that resplendent bow. At first he smote
The mules and the swift dogs, and then on man
He turned the deadly arrow. All around
Glared evermore the frequent funeral piles.—Bryant.

97. Iliad iv. 1–4. Tableaux tirés de l’Iliade, p. 30.

Meantime the immortal gods with Jupiter
Upon his golden pavement sat and held
A council. Hebe, honored of them all,
Ministered nectar, and from cups of gold
They pledged each other, looking down on Troy.

Bryant.

98. See Appendix, note 34.

99. See Appendix, note 35.

100. See Appendix, note 36.

101. Iliad v. 722.

Hebe rolled the wheels,
Each with eight spokes, and joined them to the ends
Of the steel axle,—fellies wrought of gold,
Bound with a brazen rim to last for ages,—
A wonder to behold. The hollow naves
Were silver, and on gold and silver cords
Was slung the chariot’s seat; in silver hooks
Rested the reins; and silver was the pole
Where the fair yoke and poitrels, all of gold,
She fastened.—Bryant.

102. Iliad ii. 43–47.

He sat upright and put his tunic on,
Soft, fair, and new, and over that he cast
His ample cloak, and round his shapely feet
Laced the becoming sandals. Next, he hung
Upon his shoulders and his side the sword
With silver studs, and took into his hand
The ancestral sceptre, old but undecayed.—Bryant.

103. Iliad ii. 101–108.

He held
The sceptre; Vulcan’s skill had fashioned it,
And Vulcan gave it to Saturnian Jove,
And Jove bestowed it on his messenger,
The Argus-queller Hermes. He in turn
Gave it to Pelops, great in horsemanship;
And Pelops passed the gift to Atreus next,
The people’s shepherd. Atreus, when he died,
Bequeathed it to Thyestes, rich in flocks;
And last, Thyestes left it to be borne
By Agamemnon, symbol of his rule
O’er many isles and all the Argive realm.—Bryant.

104. Iliad i. 234–239.

By this my sceptre, which can never bear
A leaf or twig, since first it left its stem
Among the mountains,—for the steel has pared
Its boughs and bark away,—to sprout no more,
And now the Achaian judges bear it,—they
Who guard the laws received from Jupiter.

Bryant.

105. Iliad iv. 105–111.

He uncovered straight
His polished bow made of the elastic horns
Of a wild goat, which, from his lurking-place,
As once it left its cavern lair, he smote,
And pierced its breast, and stretched it on the rock.
Full sixteen palms in length the horns had grown
From the goat’s forehead. These an artisan
Had smoothed, and, aptly fitting each to each,
Polished the whole and tipped the work with gold.

Bryant.

106. Von Haller’s Alps.

The lofty gentian’s head in stately grandeur towers
Far o’er the common herd of vulgar weeds and low;
Beneath his banners serve communities of flowers;
His azure brethren, too, in rev’rence to him bow.
The blossom’s purest gold in curving radiations
Erect upon the stalk, above its gray robe gleams;
The leaflets’ pearly white with deep green variegations
With flashes many-hued of the moist diamond beams.
O Law beneficent! which strength to beauty plighteth,
And to a shape so fair a fairer soul uniteth.

Here on the ground a plant like a gray mist is twining,
In fashion of a cross its leaves by Nature laid;
Part of the beauteous flower, the gilded beak is shining,
Of a fair bird whose shape of amethyst seems made.
There into fingers cleft a polished leaf reposes,
And o’er a limpid brook its green reflection throws;
With rays of white a striped star encloses
The floweret’s disk, where pink flushes its tender snows.
Thus on the trodden heath are rose and emerald glowing,
And e’en the rugged rocks are purple banners showing.

107. Breitinger’s kritische Dichtkunst, vol. ii. p. 807.

108. Georg. lib. iii. 51 and 79.

If her large front and neck vast strength denote;
If on her knee the pendulous dewlap float;
If curling horns their crescent inward bend,
And bristly hairs beneath the ear defend;
If lengthening flanks to bounding measure spread;
If broad her foot and bold her bull-like head;
If snowy spots her mottled body stain,
And her indignant brow the yoke disdain,
With tail wide-sweeping as she stalks the dews,
Thus, lofty, large, and long, the mother choose.

Dryden.

109. Georg. lib. iii. 51 and 79.

Light on his airy crest his slender head,
His belly short, his loins luxuriant spread;
Muscle on muscle knots his brawny breast, &c.

Dryden.

110. De Art. Poet. 16.

111. See Appendix, note 37.

112. See Appendix, note 38.

113. Gedanken über die Schönheit und über den Geschmack in der Malerei, p. 69.

115. Iliad xii. 296.

116. Dionysius Halicarnass. in Vita Homeri apud Th. Gale in Opusc. Mythol. p. 401.

117. See Appendix, note 39.

118. Æneid lib. viii. 447.

Their artful hands a shield prepare.
One stirs the fire, and one the bellows blows;
The hissing steel is in the smithy drowned;
The grot with beaten anvils groans around.
By turns their arms advance in equal time,
By turns their hands descend and hammers chime;
They turn the glowing mass with crooked tongs.

Dryden.

119. See Appendix, note 40.

120. Iliad xviii. 497–508.

Meanwhile a multitude
Was in the forum where a strife went on,—
Two men contending for a fine, the price
Of one who had been slain. Before the crowd
One claimed that he had paid the fine, and one
Denied that aught had been received, and both
Called for the sentence which should end the strife.
The people clamored for both sides, for both
Had eager friends; the herald held the crowd
In check; the elders, upon polished stones,
Sat in a sacred circle. Each one took
In turn a herald’s sceptre in his hand,
And rising gave his sentence. In the midst
Two talents lay in gold, to be the meed
Of him whose juster judgment should prevail.

Bryant.

121. Iliad xviii. 509–540.

122. See Appendix, note 41.

123. Phocic. cap. xxv.-xxxi.

124. See Appendix, note 42.

125. Betrachtungen über die Malerei, p. 185.

126. Written in 1763.

127. “She was a woman right beautiful, with fine eyebrows, of clearest complexion, beautiful cheeks; comely, with large, full eyes, with snow-white skin, quick-glancing, graceful; a grove filled with graces, fair-armed, voluptuous, breathing beauty undisguised. The complexion fair, the cheek rosy, the countenance pleasing, the eye blooming; a beauty unartificial, untinted, of its natural color, adding brightness to the brightest cherry, as if one should dye ivory with resplendent purple. Her neck long, of dazzling whiteness; whence she was called the swan-born, beautiful Helen.”

128. See Appendix, note 43.

129. Orlando Furioso, canto vii. st. 11–15.

Her shape is of such perfect symmetry,
As best to feign the industrious painter knows;
With long and knotted tresses; to the eye
Not yellow gold with brighter lustre glows.
Upon her tender cheek the mingled dye
Is scattered of the lily and the rose.
Like ivory smooth, the forehead gay and round
Fills up the space and forms a fitting bound.

Two black and slender arches rise above
Two clear black eyes, say suns of radiant light,
Which ever softly beam and slowly move;
Round these appears to sport in frolic flight,
Hence scattering all his shafts, the little Love,
And seems to plunder hearts in open sight.
Thence, through ’mid visage, does the nose descend,
Where envy finds not blemish to amend.

As if between two vales, which softly curl,
The mouth with vermeil tint is seen to glow;
Within are strung two rows of orient pearl,
Which her delicious lips shut up or show,
Of force to melt the heart of any churl,
However rude, hence courteous accents flow;
And here that gentle smile receives its birth,
Which opes at will a paradise on earth.

Like milk the bosom, and the neck of snow;
Round is the neck, and full and round the breast;
Where, fresh and firm, two ivory apples grow,
Which rise and fall, as, to the margin pressed
By pleasant breeze, the billows come and go.
Not prying Argus could discern the rest.
Yet might the observing eye of things concealed
Conjecture safely from the charms revealed.

To all her arms a just proportion bear,
And a white hand is oftentimes descried,
Which narrow is and somedeal long, and where
No knot appears nor vein is signified.
For finish of that stately shape and rare,
A foot, neat, short, and round beneath is spied.
Angelic visions, creatures of the sky,
Concealed beneath no covering veil can lie.

William Stewart Rose.

130. See Appendix, note 44.

131. See Appendix, note 45.

132. See Appendix, note 46.

133. See Appendix, note 47.

134. See Appendix, note 48.

135. Æneid iv. 136.

The queen at length appears;
A flowered cymar with golden fringe she wore,
And at her back a golden quiver bore;
Her flowing hair a golden caul restrains;
A golden clasp the Tyrian robe sustains.—Dryden.

136. Od. xxviii., xxix.

137. Εἰκόνες, § 3, T. ii. p. 461 (edit. Reitz).

138. Iliad iii. 121.

140. Ibid. 156–158.

Small blame is theirs if both the Trojan knights
And brazen-mailed Achaians have endured
So long so many evils for the sake
Of that one woman. She is wholly like
In feature to the deathless goddesses.—Bryant.

141. Val. Maximus lib. iii. cap. 7. Dionysius Halicarnass. Art. Rhet. cap. 12. περὶ λόγων ἐξετάσεως.

142.

So be it; let her, peerless as she is,
Return on board the fleet, nor stay to bring
Disaster upon us and all our race.—Bryant.

143. Fabricii Biblioth. Græc. lib. ii. cap. 6, p. 345.

144. See Appendix, note 49.

145. Iliad i. 528. Valerius Maximus, lib. iii. cap. 7.

As thus he spoke the son of Saturn gave
The nod with his dark brows. The ambrosial curls
Upon the Sovereign One’s immortal head
Were shaken, and with them the mighty mount
Olympus trembled.—Bryant.

146. See Appendix, note 50.

147. Hogarth’s Analysis of Beauty, chap. xi.

148. Iliad iii. 210.

149. Philos. Schriften des Herrn Moses Mendelssohn, vol. ii. p. 23.

150. De Poetica, cap. v.

151. Paralipom. lib. i. 720–778.

152. King Lear, Act i. scene 2.

153. King Richard III. Act i. scene 1.

154. Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend, Part v. p. 102.

155. De Poetica, cap. iv.

156. Klotzii Epistolæ Homericæ, p. 33 et seq.

157. Klotzii Epistolæ Homericæ, p. 103.

158. Nubes, 170–174. Disciple. But he was lately deprived of a great idea by a weasel. Strepsiades. In what way? tell me. Disciple. He was studying the courses of the moon and her revolutions, and, while gazing upward open-mouthed, a weasel in the dark dunged upon him from the roof.

159. See Appendix, note 51.

160. Περὶ Ὕψους, τμῆμα ή. p. 15 (edit. T. Fabri).

161. Scut. Hercul. 266.

162. Philoct. 31–39.

163. Æneid, lib. ii. 277.

164. Metamorph. vi. 387. “The skin is torn from the upper limbs of the shrieking Marsyas, till he is nought but one great wound: thick blood oozes on every side; the bared sinews are visible; and the palpitating veins quiver, stripped of the covering of skin; you can count the protruding entrails, and the muscles shining in the breast.

165. Metamorph. lib. viii. 809. “Seeing Famine afar off, she delivers the message of the goddess. And after a little while, although she was yet at a distance and was but approaching, yet the mere sight produced hunger.”

166. Hym. in Cererem, 111–116.

167. Argonaut. lib. ii. 228–233. “Scarcely have they left us any food that smells not mouldy, and the stench is unendurable. No one for a time could bear the foul food, though his stomach were beaten of adamant. But bitter necessity compels me to bethink me of the meal, and, so remembering, put it into my wretched belly.”

168. See Appendix, note 52.

169. Richardson de la Peinture, vol. i. p. 74.

170. Geschichte der Kunst, p. 347.

171. Not Apollodorus, but Polydorus. Pliny is the only one who mentions these artists, and I am not aware that the manuscripts differ in the writing of the name. Had such been the case, Hardouin would certainly have noticed it. All the older editions also read Polydorus. Winkelmann must therefore have merely made a slight error in transcribing.

172. Ἀθηνόδωρος δὲ καὶ Δαμέας ... οὗτοι δὲ Ἀρκάδες εἰσὶν ἐκ Κλείτορος. Phoc. cap. ix. p. 819 (edit. Kuhn).

173. Plinius, lib. xxxiv. sect. 19.

174. Lib. xxxvi. sect. 4. “Nor are there many of great repute the number of artists engaged on celebrated works preventing the distinction of individuals; since no one could have all the credit, nor could the names of many be rehearsed at once: as in the Laocoon, which is in the palace of the emperor Titus, a work surpassing all the results of painting or statuary. From one stone he and his sons and the wondrous coils of the serpents were sculptured by consummate artists, working in concert: Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, all of Rhodes. In like manner Craterus with Pythodorus, Polydectes with Hermolaus, another Pythodorus with Artemon, and Aphrodisius of Tralles by himself, filled the palaces of the Cæsars on the Palatine with admirable statuary. Diogenes, the Athenian, decorated the Pantheon of Agrippa, and the Caryatides on the columns of that temple rank among the choicest works, as do also the statues on the pediment, though these, from the height of their position, are less celebrated.”

175. Bœotic. cap. xxxiv. p. 778 (edit. Kuhn).

176. Plinius, lib. xxxvi. sect. 4, p. 730.

177. Geschichte der Kunst, part ii. p. 331.

178. Plinius, xxxvi. sect. 4.... “which would make the glory of any other place. But at Rome the greatness of other works overshadows it, and the great press of business and engagements turns the crowd from the contemplation of such things; for the admiration of works of art belongs to those who have leisure and great quiet.”

179. See Appendix, note 53.

180. Plinius, xxxvi. sect. 4.

181. Geschichte der Kunst, part ii. p. 347.

182. Lib. xxxvi. sect. 4.

183. See Appendix, note 54.

184. Prefatio Edit. Sillig. “Lest I should seem to find too much fault with the Greeks, I would be classed with those founders of the art of painting and sculpture, recorded in these little volumes, whose works, although complete and such as cannot be sufficiently admired, yet bear a suspended title, as Apelles or Polycletus ‘was making’; as if the work were always only begun and still incomplete, so that the artist might appeal from criticism as if himself desirous of improving, had he not been interrupted. Wherefore from modesty they inscribed every work as if it had been their last, and in hand at their death. I think there are but three with the inscription, ‘He made it,’ and these I shall speak of in their place. From this it appeared that the artists felt fully satisfied with their work, and these excited the envy of all.”

185. See Appendix, note 55.

186. Geschichte der Kunst, part i. p. 394.

187. Cap. i. “He was also reckoned among their greatest leaders, and did many things worthy of being remembered. Among his most brilliant achievements was his device in the battle which took place near Thebes, when he had come to the aid of the Bœotians. For when the great leader Agesilaus was now confident of victory, and his own hired troops had fled, he would not surrender the remainder of the phalanx, but with knee braced against his shield and lance thrust forward, he taught his men to receive the attack of the enemy. At sight of this new spectacle, Agesilaus feared to advance, and ordered the trumpet to recall his men who were already advancing. This became famous through all Greece, and Chabrias wished that a statue should be erected to him in this position, which was set up at the public cost in the forum at Athens. Whence it happened that afterwards athletes and other artists [or persons versed in some art] had statues erected to them in the same position in which they had obtained victory.”

188. See Appendix, note 56.

189. Περὶ Ὕψους, τμῆμα, ιδ’ (edit. T. Fabri), ρ. 36, 39. “But so it is that rhetorical figures aim at one thing, poetical figures at quite another; since in poetry emphasis is the main object, in rhetoric distinctness.”

190. “So with the poets, legends and exaggeration obtain and in all transcend belief; but in rhetorical figures the best is always the practicable and the true.”

191. De Pictura Vet. lib. i. cap. 4, p. 33.

192. Von der Nachahmung der griech. Werke, &c., 23.

193. Τμῆμα, β. “Next to this is a third form of faultiness in pathos, which Theodorus calls parenthyrsus; it is a pathos unseasonable and empty, where pathos is not necessary; or immoderate, where it should be moderate.”

194. Geschichte der Kunst, part i. p. 136.

195. Herodotus de Vita Homeri, p. 756 (edit. Wessel).

197. Geschichte der Kunst, part i. p. 176. Plinius, lib. xxxv. sect. 36. Athenæus, lib. xii. p. 543.

198. Geschichte der Kunst, part ii. p. 353. Plinius, lib. xxxvi. sect. 4.

199. See Appendix, note 57.

“Miss Frothingham’s translation is something to be glad of: it lends itself kindly to perusal, and it presents Goethe’s charming poem in the metre of the original.... It is not a poem which could be profitably used in an argument for the enlargement of the sphere of woman: it teaches her subjection, indeed, from the lips of a beautiful girl, which are always so fatally convincing; but it has its charm, nevertheless, and will serve at least for an agreeable picture of an age when the ideal woman was a creature around which grew the beauty and comfort and security of home.”—Atlantic Monthly.

“The poem itself is bewitching. Of the same metre as Longfellow’s ‘Evangeline,’ its sweet and measured cadences carry the reader onward with a real pleasure as he becomes more and more absorbed in this descriptive wooing song. It is a sweet volume to read aloud in a select circle of intelligent friends.”—Providence Press.

“Miss Frothingham has done a good service, and done it well, in translating this famous idyl, which has been justly called ‘one of the most faultless poems of modern times.’ Nothing can surpass the simplicity, tenderness, and grace of the original, and these have been well preserved in Miss Frothingham’s version. Her success is worthy of the highest praise, and the mere English reader can scarcely fail to read the poem with the same delight with which it has always been read by those familiar with the German. Its charming pictures of domestic life, the strength and delicacy of its characterization, the purity of tone and ardent love of country which breathe through it, must always make it one of the most admired of Goethe’s works.”—Boston Christian Register.