elve years younger than
Phidias. Polycleitus was held in such esteem that many of the ancient
writers couple his name with that of Phidias. He was employed in the
decoration of the Heraion, or temple of Hera, at Argos. But his greatest
work was a statue of Hera, or Juno, for a temple on Mount Euboea,
between Argos and Mycenae. This statue was chryselephantine, and as Juno
was the majestic, white-armed, ox-eyed goddess consort of Jupiter, it is
a striking coincidence that Phidias at Olympia and Polycleitus on Mount
Euboea should have made from ivory and gold two famous statues of this
renowned pair, who reigned over the mythical world of the Greek
religion. There are several copies of heads of Juno in various museums,
and some of them have been ascribed to Polycleitus; but the proof of the
truth of this is far from being satisfactory. This master made other
statues of divinities, but he excelled in representing athletes; and
however fine his other works may have been, it was in the reproduction
of strong, youthful, manly beauty that he surpassed other sculptors.
Some of his statues of this sort, especially a Doryphorus, or
spear-bearer, were considered as models from which all other artists
could work.

Polycleitus is said to have written a treatise in which he gave exact
rules for the proportions of the different parts of the body. This was
called "the canon" of Polycleitus, and there is good reason to believe
that the Doryphorus was called by the same name, "the canon," because it
was fashioned according to the rules laid down by Polycleitus in his
treatise. His pupils and followers are mentioned with honor by the Greek
authors of his time, but I need not mention them here.

The art of Phidias and Polycleitus was the art of Greece at its best
period. After the close of the Persian wars the people of Greece were a
religious and patriotic people. The Persian wars developed the best
quality of character, for these wars were waged against a foreign foe,
and the Greeks were defending their freedom and their civilization, and
at the end of the struggle Pericles, who guided them to their greatest
prosperity, was a statesman and a man of high aims; he was a gentleman
as well as a strong ruler. The Peloponnesian war, on the contrary, was a
civil war, and it divided the Greeks among themselves and roused the
evil passions of friend against friend all over their country. It was
the cause of selfishness, treachery, and immorality