波利格利托斯还雕刻了一位女运动员雕像，叫《亚马逊女战士》。据说，亚马逊族是好战妇女组成的部落，她们不与男人往来，除非是进行战争。她们甚至还决斗。今天的女孩子可能不会认为亚马逊女人的体形有多美。她们可能会觉得作为女性，她们的肌肉太发达了。但是潮流总是不断变化的。我记得以前流行小腰时，女孩都穿紧身内衣，不过后来古希腊的风格又重新兴起，所以现在大多数女孩子都很明智地不穿紧身内衣了。雕刻家们都很欣赏这两座雕像，于是用大理石刻了许多摹制品。幸好他们那样做了，因为我们今天看到的都是摹制品。波利格利托斯自己刻的那两座雕像早已散失，甚至找不到任何痕迹。它们后来究竟怎么样了也没人知道。
波利格利托斯用一种叫青铜的金属来铸造雕像。其实人们最早发现的金属并不是金、银或铁，而是铜。后来又发现了锡。锡和铜结合产生了青铜。所以，青铜并非一种纯金属，而是铜和锡的结合体。在干燥的情况下，青铜能保存下来，但在经受风吹雨打或者在潮湿的环境下，它就会慢慢地腐蚀。青铜这种材质很好用，所以希腊人很喜欢用它来铸造雕像或其他东西。它不像铁那么容易生锈，也不像金银那样昂贵。而且随着时间的流逝，它会慢慢地变成深棕色或深绿色，而且长时间下来表面会形成一层保护膜，叫“铜绿”。
我有一盏青铜制的古灯，现在上面有一层很漂亮的铜绿，或许是经历了两千年才慢慢形成的。有些人试着把青铜和酸混合，从而产生铜绿，不过真正的铜绿是在自然和时间的催化下才形成的。
古希腊还有一位雕刻家，他是波利格利托斯的朋友，名叫米隆。在赋予雕像自然和动感方面，米隆做得比波利格利托斯还要好。他有一件作品叫《掷铁饼者》。铁饼是一种很重的圆盘，掷铁饼是一项体育运动，比赛看谁掷得远。它像打保龄球那样从底下往外抛，而不像投篮那样，举手投掷。铁饼不是从地上滚出，而是向空中扔出。
《掷铁饼者》正好向我们展示了铁饼即将被掷出的瞬间情景。注意看他的前脚趾抠地，而后脚却在顺地拖，以保持身子平衡。铁饼约重2.5磅，当时掷铁饼的记录不到100英尺。如果你试一下，就知道这个距离不算太远。现代人掷铁饼，要是先转身旋几圈，可将铁饼掷到155英尺那么远。这座雕像开始是用青铜雕铸的，后来青铜慢慢腐蚀了。现在我们从图片中看到的雕像是用大理石仿制的。这座雕像是欧洲博物馆里为数不多的大理石雕像的摹制品之一。
米隆还雕铸了一头青铜牛。据说，这座青铜牛雕像铸得太逼真，人人都被愚弄以为是真牛。后来这座雕像也消失不见了，却没有留下摹制品。
青铜雕像在时间的长河里完全被“吞噬”了。而大理石雕像除非被打碎，否则都能保存下来。
THE GREATEST GREEK SCULPTOR
古希腊最伟大的雕刻家
ORDINARY men we call “Mr.”—Mr.Smith；Mr.Jones，Great men we call by their full names without the “Mr.”—George Washington for instance.But the greatest men of all we call just by their last names.People have made lists of the hundred greatest men of all time—the greatest ruler，the greatest writer，the greatest painter，the greatest sculptor，but probably you have never heard of the greatest sculptor.He was a Greek.His name was Phidias —no first name，no middle name—just Phidias.
Polyclitus and Myron made statues of men and women.Phidias made statues of gods and goddesses and god-like men and women.In Athens there is a huge，high rock called the Acropolis，which means the Upper City，and on this rock the old Greeks built a beautiful temple called the Parthenon.It was built just to hold a magnificent statue of Athene，the Goddess of Wisdom，who the Athenians believed watched over them and their city as a mother watches over her children，and gave them many useful things.
Phidias was chosen to make this statue of the goddess.Cold marble was not good enough material，so Phidias made the statue of gold and ivory，and he made it seven times as high as a human being.His Athene stood erect in a sleeveless robe that reached to the ground.On her bosom was a breastplate with a border of serpents because serpents were supposed to be the wisest of creatures.In the center of the breastplate was the head of Medusa.（You remember I told you that Athene helped Perseus to cut that head off.）Around the head of Medusa，between the serpents and the head，was shown a battle between the Amazons and the Greeks.Athene wore a helmet.On top of this helmet was a sphinx and on each side of the sphinx were winged horses.Athene’s left arm rested on a shield and carried a lance around which coiled another serpent.In her right hand Athene held a statue of Victory，who faced her and offered her a wreath of gold.The statue of Victory was about six feet high，so you see how big the statue of Athene herself must have been.
This statue of Athene has entirely disappeared，probably stolen piece by piece for its gold and ivory.We know what it looked like only by a small，probably very poor，copy that was made of it and judging by the copy we have，we cannot quite agree that the statue was as beautiful as the old Greeks thought it.
This statue，as I told you，was on the inside of the Parthenon.All around the fouroutside walls of the temple，high up near the roof，was a band or strip called a frieze，of sculptured figures in low relief.This frieze was almost a tenth of a mile long and showed in marble a parade or grand procession that took place in Athens once every four years.The object of the procession was to bear a gift of a golden veil made by the virgins of Athens for their goddess，and it was carried with great pomp and glory and ceremony to the temple.All Athenians —men，women，and children—took part in the procession.There were horsemen with their horses.There were animals to be sacrificed.There were girls and boys bearing gifts；there were musicians and singers.
The sculptured picture of the procession starts at one end of the Parthenon and proceeds along both sides of the temple to the other end，where the entrance is.It is the most perfect relief work that we know anything about and though there are hundreds of figures of men，women，and animals，Phidias planned it all and with his pupils made it all.There is a tenth of a mile of it，and yet there is not a rough or unfinished part in the whole.
When the relief was in its place on the Parthenon wall，it could just barely be seen，it was so high up and closed in by the portico of columns that surrounded the whole.That it might be seen better，the background and the figures were painted.But nothing except perfect work，whether it could be seen or not，was good enough for the temple of this goddess of the Athenians and even the parts that never could be seen were finished perfectly.
No.37-1FIGHTING CENTAUR METOPE（《争战的半人半马》）FROM THE PARTHENON（来自帕台农神庙的排档间饰）Above and between the columns which were around these walls were separate groupsof figures in high relief illustrating battles，most of them between gods and fairy-tale animals called centaurs.A centaur had the body of a horse and the head and trunk of a man.There were ninety-two groups of these spaces，or metopes，and there is not one of these metope sculptures that is not now broken！An arm or a leg is off，a nose is broken，an ear or an eye is missing.So you have to use your imagination，if you have any，to understand what the figure looked like when it was perfect.If you have no imagination，you probably will exclaim，“What！You call that beautiful？”
