A GREEK GALLEY
500BC
Nearly
everyone will admit that among the sculptured productions of antiquity none are
more satisfying in beauty, in sentiment, and in romantic interest that those
from Greece.
Many of the older Greek works were produced so long ago that
it almost seems as if they might have been part and parcel of the legends and
myths that have come down to us from those remote times. And although they
are lacking in technical excellence attained in later Greek works of art they
still show qualities of beauty and romance in embryo, especially in their
association with the romantic characters that many of them portray.
Among those
legends one of the appealing is that of "Jason and the Golden
Fleece." What a pity it is that the wonderful figurehead of Jason's
vessel, the Argo, could not have been preserved. You will recall that it
represented Pallas Athene and was carved from a branch of the Talking Oak of
Dordona by some precursor of Paxiteles and Phidias.
Let us assume
that it might have been petrified by the Medusa's head she carried on her
shield. Still endowed with the all-pervading power of speech of her divine
parent (for all things are possible to the goods, and what is more common than a
speaking likeness, be it on canvas or in stone?) the goddess might have told us
poor mortals for an age far removed from those golden days, and of the
vessel over whose destinies she ruled.
Instead of being
compelled to rely on ancient vase paintings, distorted by conventions of the
decorator's art, on minute seals, and on descriptions composed by authors
untutored in the technique of naval affairs, she might have described to us at
first hand the form of the Argo, her rig, the details of her construction, her
decorations, and given us other information, now sadly lacking.
We can form some
idea of the size of the Argo, because you will remember Jason summoned fifty
Greek heroes to man her oars.
Assuming one hero
(and they were all mighty men) to an oar, a length, according to other credible
standards of comparison of about one hundred and twenty-five feet might be
inferred; not so bad, for, oh, so many centuries B.C.
And then she
might have told us something about Medea and Jason (for even goddesses are not
above gossip) and how she had to chaperon them on the voyage back to
Colchis. Perhaps she was a little jealous of Medea; and so would any one
be who did not have an enchantress for either wife or sweetheart.
Art work and copy modify from The book of Old Ships Copyright
1924
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