Having established her case so far, Miss Harrison makes what she herself terms “a great leap.”  She passes from the thing done, whether dromenon or drama, to the thing made.  She holds that as it was the god who arose from the rite, similarly it was the ritual connected with the worship of the god which gave birth to his representation in sculpture.  Art, she says, is not, as is commonly supposed, the “handmaid of religion.”  “She springs straight out of the rite, and her first outward leap is the image of the god.”  Miss Harrison gives two examples to substantiate her contention.  In the first place, she states at some length arguments of irrefutable validity to show that the Panathenaic frieze, which originally surrounded the Parthenon, represents a great ritual procession, and she adds, “Practically the whole of the reliefs that remain to us from the archaic period, and a very large proportion of those of later date, when they do not represent heroic mythology, are ritual reliefs, ‘votive’ reliefs, as we call them; that is, prayers or praises translated into stone.”

Miss Harrison’s second example is eminently calculated to give a shock to the conventional ideas generally entertained, for, as she herself says, if there is a statue in the world which apparently represents “art for art’s sake” it is that of the Apollo Belvedere.  Much discussion has taken place as to what Apollo is supposed to be doing in this famous statue.  “There is only one answer.  We do not know.”  Miss Harrison, however, thinks that as he is poised on tiptoe he may be in the act of taking flight from the earth.  Eventually, after discussing the matter at some little length, she appears to come to the audacious conclusion which, in spite of its hardy irreverence, may very probably be true, that as Apollo was, after all, only an early Jack-in-the-Green, he has been artistically represented in marble by some sculptor of genius in that capacity.

Finally, before leaving this very interesting and instructive work, it may be noted that Miss Harrison quotes a remarkable passage from Athenaeus (xiv. 26), which certainly affords strong confirmation of her view that in the eyes of ancient authors there was an intimate connection between art and dancing, and therefore, inasmuch as dancing was ritualistic, between art and ritual.  “The statues of the craftsmen of old times,” Athenaeus says, “are the relics of ancient dancing.”

It is greatly to be hoped that Miss Harrison will continue the study of this subject, and that she will eventually give to the world the results of her further inquiries.

[Footnote 104:  Ancient Art and Ritual. By Miss Jane Harrison.  London:  Williams and Norgate. 1s.]

XXIV

PORTUGUESE SLAVERY

"The Spectator,” August 16, 23, 30, 1913