And we, who have still before us the
remnants of her temples and statues, and learn from them what man can
accomplish under the inspiration of great ideals, need not scan too
closely her claim to appropriate the funds which she employed for so
noble a purpose. For this was the great age of Grecian art, the age of
Phidias, Polycletus, Myron, and Polygnotus. The greatest of these was
Phidias; and in the Parthenon, or Temple of the Virgin Goddess,
[Footnote: Athene, the patron goddess of Athens.] built under his
direction on the Acropolis at Athens, he has left the most enduring
monument of his fame. He also designed the Propylaea, a magnificent
columned vestibule, fronting the broad flight of steps which led up to
the western entrance of the Acropolis. But the most renowned of his
works was the gigantic statue of the Olympian Zeus, wrought in gold
and ivory, which was the chief glory of the temple at Olympia. Of this
sublime creation, the highest expression of divinity achieved by the
ancients, only the fame survives. These triumphs of art were not
brought to completion until nearly the close of the period of forty-
eight years which separates the Persian from the Peloponnesian War;
and it is now necessary to glance backward, and touch briefly on the
principal events which occurred after the formation of the Delian
Confederacy.
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