Although, as noted above, ‘classical’ is essentially a modern concept, the actual phenomenon already existed much earlier - i. e., in the ‘Classical Period’ itself. It is therefore legitimate to continue to use the term, and this not simply for reasons of convention. Already in the second half of the fifth century at least one artist and one historian each boasted of having created a work that could claim to be a model and would be a standard for future activity far beyond their own day. First, the sculptor Polykleitos of Sikyon produced exclusively statues of a single type - the nude standing youth. He perpetually produced works characterized by pose, rhythm and vivid articulation. Polykleitos was also the first artist ever to discuss this type in a (lost) work entitled Kanon. This treatise probably gave guidelines on the proportion of the ideal male body on the basis of a mathematical ratio designed to guarantee a supernatural beauty. Second, the historian Thucydides of Athens claimed that with his History of the Peloponnesian War he was writing a practical manual for statesmen, ‘compiled not for a contest of the moment, but as a possession for all time’ ( ktema es aiei: Thuc. 1.22.4). It is no accident that Polykleitos and Thucydides were sooner or later to become the centre of the discussion on Classicism.
In retrospect, especially after the turning point of the Peloponnesian War (431-404), the extraordinary achievements of the three preceding generations were readily acknowledged, although in general there was no let-up in creativity, and in some areas, e. g., in rhetoric and philosophical prose, the greatest achievements still lay in the future. In respect of tragedy, the view soon became widespread that after Aischylos, Sophokles and Euripides, only second-rate poets were still active, who were no longer able to hold a candle to the three great tragedians (cf. Aristophanes Frogs 71-2; 96-7, written in 405).
From 386 the staging of earlier plays was also permitted in the tragic competitions, and in 338 Lykourgos, one of the leading politicians in Athens, took it upon himself to ensure that official texts of these ‘classical’ plays were established and stored in the state archives. These texts were to be mandatory for future re-runs. Otherwise, statues of the three tragic poets were erected in the newly renovated Theatre of Dionysos. This measure, along with others, was designed both to preserve Athens’ great past and also to rekindle it (Hintzen-Bohlen 1996). Then, in the Hellenistic Period, it was the great schools and libraries, especially the Mouseion in Alexandreia (from 280 bce), where inventories and texts were drawn up of those Greek authors who were regarded as most representative of each category: the nine lyric poets, the three tragedians, the ten Attic orators, etc. These authors, ‘who had stood the test of time’ (qui vetustatempertulerunt, Quintilian Institutio 10.1.40), became ‘canonical’, and much of the scholarship of the time was devoted to their preservation, classification, and exegesis (Easterling 2002). In combination with the concept ofpaideia, the Alexandrians presented themselves, as a certain Andron puts it, as ‘educators of all the world, of both Greeks and barbarians’ (FGrHist 246 F 1; on paideia, still fundamental, Jaeger 1954-61).
In Attic sculpture, too, there were already in the fourth century stylistic references back to the fifth century, which conveyed a political statement. Thus the Eirene (the goddess of peace), produced by Kephisodotos about 370, was designed to celebrate Athens’ rise once again after the defeat of 404 (Figure 1.3; Stewart 1990: 173-4, 275-6, plates 485-7). The arrangement of the drapery recalls the style of Pheidias, who in the heyday of Athens, between 460 and 430, produced, among other works, the bronze statue of Athena Promachos, at least seven metres high, and the chryselephantine Athena Parthenos, more than twelve metres high (for a reconstruction of the latter, see Boardman 1993: no. 106A). Otherwise, it is precisely in the most
Figure 1.3 The Peace Goddess Eirene and the Boy Pluto. Ht. 2.01 m. Roman marble copy after a statue by Kephisodotos the Elder, active c. 375 bce. Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich. Photo: akg - images.
Advanced works by the artists of the late Classical Period, like Praxiteles and Lysippos, that there is an unmistakable flashback to works of the fifth century. These were viewed as models - in other words, ‘classical’. Lysippos is said to have regarded the famous Doryphoros (‘spearbearer’) of Polykleitos (Figure 1.4; Boardman 1993: no. 93) as his model (Cicero Brutus 296).
From the last third of the fifth century the Athenians regarded their own exploits in the legendary past and in the period of the Persian wars as exemplary. Within a short time the orators who extolled the ancestors in the funeral speeches (epitaphioi logoi) at the annual public burial of those who had fallen in battle developed a canon of exploits which were repeated over and over (Loraux 1986). Lavish praise was heaped in particular on the generation of those who fought at Marathon. Despite the great pride which these orations evoked, it is possible to detect a certain regret that the great former days were probably no longer attainable, at least morally.
In political philosophy it was possible to go a step further, and not seek the ‘classical’ model in a superlative past, but construct it rationally, and this in an ideal form. It is noteworthy that in this context ideas which were also definitive in art played an important role, i. e., the striving for proportion, the mean and proper balance. A polis, too, or a specific constitution, could gain a ‘classical’, i. e., an appropriate form in this discussion, which can be illustrated by analogies in art. As the following passage from Aristotle’s Politics aptly illustrates, ‘suitable’ or ‘appropriate’ does not mean ‘perfect’:
Neither should we forget the mean (to meson), which at the present day is lost sight ofin perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, and many which appear to be oligarchical are the ruin of oligarchies. Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.
A nose which varies from the ideal of straightness to a hook or snub may still be of good shape and agreeable to the eye; but if the excess be very great, all symmetry is lost, and the nose at last ceases to be a nose at all on account of some excess in one direction or defect in the other; and this is true of every other part of the human body. The same law of proportion equally holds in states. (Aristotle Politics 5,1309b19-31; trans. B. Jowett)
There were similar connections between art and politics in other areas. For instance, Damon of Athens, who was a member of the Periklean circle, reflected on the effect which the different styles in music had on ethical and political behaviour. The ideas of Hippodamos of Miletos were concerned with the connection between the form of a city and socio-political organization.
World History
