he is a Gaul is proved by several points of agreement with what is known from literary sources of the Gallic peculiarities—­the moustache worn with shaven cheeks and chin, the stiff, pomaded hair growing low in the neck, the twisted collar or torque.  He has been mortally wounded in battle—­the wound is on the right side—­and sinks with drooping head upon his shield and broken battle-horn.  His death-struggle, though clearly marked, is not made violent or repulsive.  With savage heroism he “consents to death, and conquers agony."[Footnote:  Byron, “Childe Harold,” IV, 150] Here, then, a powerful realism is united to a tragic idea, and amid all vicissitudes of taste this work has never ceased to command a profound admiration.

Our knowledge of Pergamene art has recently received a great extension, in consequence of excavations carried on in 1878-86 upon the acropolis of Pergamum in the interest of the Royal Museum of Berlin.  Here were found the remains of numerous buildings, including an immense altar, or rather altar-platform, which was perhaps the structure referred to in Revelation II. 13, as “Satan’s throne.”  This platform, a work of great architectural magnificence, was built under Eumenes II.  Its exterior was decorated with a sculptured frieze, 7 1/2 feet in height and something like 400 feet in total length.  The fragments of this great frieze which were found in the course of the German excavations have been pieced together with infinite patience and ingenuity and amount to by far the greater part of the whole.  The subject is the gigantomachy, i.e., the battle between the gods and the rebellious sons of earth (cf. page 134).

Fig. 185 shows the most important group of the whole composition.  Here Zeus recognizable by the thunderbolt in his outstretched right hand and the aegis upon his left arm, is pitted against three antagonists.  Two of the three are already disabled.  The one at the left, a youthful giant of human form, has sunk to earth, pierced through the left thigh with a huge, flaming thunderbolt.  The second, also youthful and human, has fallen upon his knees in front of Zeus and presses his left hand convulsively to a wound (?) in his right shoulder.  The third still fights desperately.  This is a bearded giant, with animal ears and with legs that pass into long snaky bodies.  Around his left arm is wrapped the skin of some animal; with his right hand (now missing) he is about to hurl some missile; the left snake, whose head may be seen just above the giant’s left shoulder, is contending, but in vain, with an eagle, the bird of Zeus.

Fig. 186 adjoins Fig 185 on the right of the latter. [Footnote:  Fig 186 is more reduced in scale, so that the slabs incorrectly appear to be of unequal height.] Here we have a group in which Athena is the central figure.  The goddess, grasping her antagonist by the hair, sweeps to right.  The youthful giant has great wings, but is otherwise purely human in form.  A serpent, attendant of Athena, strikes its fangs into the giant’s right breast.  In front of Athena, the Earth-goddess, mother of the giants, half emerging from the ground, pleads for mercy.  Above, Victory wings her way to the scene to place a crown upon Athena’s head.