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ZEUXIS.
at a greater or less distance. The active operations of most of the gods appear only as an outcome of his being, particularly those of his children, among whom the
(1) BUST OP ZEUS. Fo«»d at Otricolt (Rome, Vatican.)
nearest to him are Athene and Apollo, his favourites, who often seem to be joined with their father in the highest union.
The eagle and the oak were sacred to Zeus ; the eagle, together with the sceptre
forth in the spectator the feeling that no earthly dwelling would be adequate for such a divinity. The bearded head was ornamented with a wreath of olive leaves, the victor’s prize at Olympia. The upper part of the body, made of ivory, was naked, the lower part was wrapped in a golden mautle falling from the hips to the feet, which, adorned with golden sandals, rested on a footstool. Beside this lay golden lions. The right hand bore the goddess of victory, the left the sceptre, surmounted by an eagle. Like the base, and the whole space around, the seat of the throne was decorated with various works of art. It was supported by figures of the goddess of victory ; and on the back of the throne, which rose above the head of the god, were represented the hovering forms of the Hours and the Graces [Pausanias, v 11; Strabo, p. 353]. This statue was the model for most of the later representatives of Zeus. Among those that are extant the well-known bust of Zeus (fig. 1) found at Otricoli (the ancient Ocrl-culum in Umbria) and now in the Vatican Museum, is supposed (as well as some others) to be an imitation of the great work of Phidias. In the most direct relation to the latter stand the figures of Zeus on the coins of Elis (fig. 2). Among the standing statues of Zeus the most famous
(2) THE OLYMPIAN ZF.t’S.
(Coins of Elis of the time of Hadrian, from the collections in Paris and Florence respectively.)
and the lightning, is also one of his customary attributes. The most famous statue of Zeus in antiquity was that executed by Phidias in gold and ivory for the temple at Olympia. It represented the enthroned Olympian god, with a divine expression of the highest dignity, and at the same time with the benevolent mildness of the deity who graciously listens to prayer. The figure of the seated god was about forty feet high ; and since the base was as high as twelve feet, the statue almost touched with its crown the roof of the temple, so as to call
was the bronze colossus, forty cubits (or sixty feet) high, by Lysippus at Tarentum [Pliny, N. H. xxxiv 40].
Zeuxis. A celebrated Greek painter of the Ionic school, a contemporary of Par-rhasius ; he was & native of Heraclea in South Italy, and lived till about 400 B.C. at different places in Greece, at last, as it appears, settling in Ephesus. According to the accounts of his works which have been preserved, in contrast to the great mural painter, PSlyguotus, he specially devoted himself to painting on panels. He endea-
