Читать книгу The Mythology of Greece and Rome, With Special Reference to Its Use in Art онлайн

33 страница из 40

Fig. 13.—Apollo Citharœdus. Munich.

Lastly, the graceful statue of Apollo Sauroctonus (Lizard-slayer) deserves mention. Many copies of it still exist, the chief of which is a marble statue in the Vatican collection. The delicate figure of the god, midway between youth and boyhood, leans carelessly against the trunk of a tree, up which a lizard is creeping. The god is eagerly watching its movements, in order to seize a favourable moment to nail it to the tree with his arrow.

The principle attributes of Apollo are the bow, arrows, quiver, laurel crown, and lyre. To these may be added, as symbols of his prophetic power, the tripod and the omphalos (navel), the latter being a representation of the earth’s centre in the temple at Delphi, on which he is often depicted as sitting. The god also appears standing on the omphalos; as in the case of a marble statue lately found in the theatre of Dionysus. His sacred animals were the wolf, the hind, the bat, the swan, the goose, and the dolphin; the three last being music-loving creatures.