The Parthenon at Athens, Greece and at Nashville, TennesseeWilson, Benjamin Franklin
History
The Parthenon at Athens, Greece and at Nashville, Tennessee
Wilson, Benjamin Franklin
Parthenon (Art museum : Nashville, Tenn.); Parthenon (Athens, Greece)
Just beyond Artemis is seen Hera, queen of Heaven, also known as Juno,
the jealous wife of Zeus. In addition to her jealousy, it is said that
she was vain and the peacock, seen near by, was sacred to her. Hera was
also the goddess of maternity, and very fittingly was present at the
birth of Athena.
The next figure is that of Hermes, the male messenger of the gods,
corresponding to Iris, the female messenger. Iris usually executed the
commands and carried the messages for Hera, while Hermes performed a
like office for Zeus. He is always represented with a magic wand, or
caduceus, in his hand, which was given to him by Apollo. One day, when
Hermes was a mere child, almost a baby, he was playing in the fields and
captured a tortoise. He placed strings across the shell of the tortoise
and made a musical instrument (we call it the lyre), and presented it to
his brother Apollo. Apollo, who was the god of music, was so delighted
with the precociousness of his baby brother that he gave him the magic
wand, which had the power of putting gods and mortals to sleep at his
will. Hermes is also shown with wings on his ankles and wings on his
cap. He was god of business, and also the god of transportation. His
figure adorns many of the railway stations of the world. His Roman name
is Mercury.
Beyond Hermes, on the pediment, is seen Apollo, the god of music, with
his harp. He was also the god of manly youth and the god of healing.
Esculapius, his son, was the first doctor of Greece, the father of all
the physicians. Apollo was regarded as the most beautiful of the gods.
Reclining on him is seen Ganymede, the cupbearer of the gods.
These were the chief deities of the Greeks. There were others which they
worshiped also. They were as sacred to the ancient Greek as Jehovah is
to us, and it is pertinent to say that they worshiped the beautiful—and
the beautiful is the spiritual.
We are not so much interested in the gods of the Greeks in this
twentieth century, however, as we are in human life; and the next group
of figures to Apollo and Ganymede, the three Fates, brings the Whole
matter closer to us, because it represents the Greek idea of life. The
first figure in the group is Clotho, who is represented as spinning the
thread of life; and as she spins, the second figure, Lachesis, winds it
on a spool, and the third figure, Atropos, clips it at will, typifying
the beginning, the span, and the end of life—the destiny of us all.
Last, in the extreme north angle of the pediment, in the evening, is
seen the gentle Selene, the goddess of the moon, the goddess of the
evening, guiding her tired steeds, so different from those seen coming
out of the sea in the morning, down into the cool, quiet waters of the
deep, typifying not alone the close of the day but the close of the
reign of Athena and the end of time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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