[Illustration: FIG. 15.--LION DEVOURING DEER.]
The principal subjects represented in the sculpture of the archaic period were connected with the religion of the Greeks, which is known to us as mythology. Most statues were of the gods, but portrait statues were not unknown, and the custom of setting up statues of the victors in the Greek games dates back to this very early time. This was a custom which afforded a large field for sculptors to work in, and must have had a great influence to give life and progress to their art.
Of the remains of this art very interesting things have been written, but I shall speak only of a few such objects of which pictures can be given to aid you in understanding about them. Among the earliest reliefs that have been preserved are those now in the Museum of the Louvre, at Paris, which were found in the ruins of a Doric temple at Assos (Fig. 15).
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--HERACLES, TRITON, AND NEREIDS.]
The various designs upon these marbles seem to have no connection with each other, and are executed in a rude manner. The most interesting one represents Heracles, or Hercules, struggling with a Triton (Fig. 16).
The female figures represent Nereids, who are terrified by seeing Heracles in contest with the sea-monster. There are many proofs that these reliefs belong to a very ancient day.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--HERACLES AND THE CECROPS.]
An interesting relief from the temple of Selinus represents Heracles striding off with a pole across his shoulders, to which are hung two Cecrops who had robbed and tormented him (Fig. 17).
A very fine work is also from Selinus, and represents Actæon torn by his dogs. The mythological story was that Zeus, or Jupiter, was angry with Actæon because he wished to marry Semele, and the great god commanded Artemis, or Diana, to throw a stag's skin over Actæon, so that his own dogs would tear him. In the relief Artemis stands at the left (Fig. 18).
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--ACTÆON AND HIS DOGS.]
There is in the British Museum a monument which was discovered at Xanthos in 1838. It is thought to have been made about 500 B.C., and is called "The Harpy Monument," It is a tower, round the four sides of which runs a frieze at a height of about twenty-one feet from the ground. The frieze is of white marble, and is let into the frieze which is of sandstone. The Lycians, in whose country it was found, were accustomed to bury their dead at the top of such towers.