s of
his predecessors than to embody a present religious conception.

The influence upon art of religious personifications is perhaps stronger
than any other during this period. There had, indeed, been such
personifications at an earlier time, such as the statue by Cephisodotus
of Peace nursing the infant Wealth. The most interesting example of such
personification may be seen in the figures of cities, or, to speak more
accurately, of the Fortunes of cities, such as the Antioch of
Eutychides. The influence of the city or state upon religious art was
conspicuous in the fifth century; but here we find the city itself or
its presiding genius represented in a statue which seems at first sight
a mere allegory of its situation. The way in which the figure is seated,
half turned on herself, and with her feet resting upon the shoulder of
the river that swims below her, seems to suggest an artificially
invented symbolism; yet we are expressly told that this statue received
great veneration from the natives of the district. In the decay of the
belief in the gods, there seems to have been a craving for nearer and
more real objects of worship.

We can see the same tendency in a more extreme form in the deification
of human beings. Though some examples of this occur earlier, especially
in the case of the heroes or founders of cities, these are not placed on
a level with the gods; but the worship of Alexander, and in imitation of
him, of his successors, placed him in a distinctly divine rank. It is
difficult to say how far this was due to non-Hellenic influences. In the
case of Alexander, with his marvellous, almost superhuman achievements,
and his final solution of the great drama of the contest of East and
West, such idealisation is easy to understand; and we find not only that
Alexander is himself represented as a god, but that his expression and
cast of features come to affect the sculpture of his age, even in the
representations of the gods themselves. On coins, too, his head occurs;
an honour that before his time was not given to mere mortals. In other
cases this worship of men reached a pitch which was a matter of shame to
the later Greeks; thus Demetrius Poliorcetes, when he gave Athens back
her freedom, was welcomed at the city with divine honours. Even hymns
were composed in his honour, of which we find specimens preserved.[7]
After welcoming his advent at the same time as that of Demeter, the poet
addresses him thus:--"Ot