This statue is of a strong and athletic youth.He is holding in his arms a little boy whom Zeus had given him to take care of.Hermes looks thoughtful as be tenderly holds the baby，and you can almost imagine the baby is reaching up to pull Hermes’s curly hair.What he really was reaching for was a bunch of grapes which Hermes held in his hand as a father nowadays might dangle his watch.This statue has lost parts of its arms and legs，but the head and body are still perfect and probably no broken piece of sculpture in the world is more charming or more beautiful than this.It was made by a Greek sculptor named Praxiteles （Prax-it’el-lees）and if he had made nothing else or done nothing else in his life，this one statue was great enough to make him famous through the ages.
Praxiteles is supposed to have made several other statues—one，a faun which gave the title to a book by Nathaniel Hawthorne—“The Marble Faun”—but we are not sure that there are any other sculptures in existence that he himself made.
Perhaps the best known of all statues in the world is one of Venus，the Goddess of Love and Beauty，which was found on the Greek Island of Melos and so is called the Venus of Melos—or，sometimes，Venus de Milo.She too has a perfect Greek nose，though we can’t see it in the front view.We do not know who the sculptor was，but some people now think that one of the pupils of Praxiteles must have made it.This Venus has no arms，but a great many people have tried to imagine what the arms were doing when she did have them.Some say that she was holding a bronze shield on her knee and looking into its brightly polished surface to see herself.People had no glass mirrors at that time.Their mirrors were made of shiny metal.Others say she held a lance or something else or nothing at all，but no one is sure.
No.38-1HERMES（《赫尔墨斯》）PRAXITELES（普拉克希特制）The Venus was discovered not so many years ago，just by accident.A man happened to pass by a lime kiln on the island one day and the Venus was lying on the ground near the lime kiln.A lime kiln is a kind of furnace where stone is burned to turn it into lime.The Greek owner of the lime kiln，like a good many people nowadays，saw no beauty in the old broken statue and was about to break it up and put it in the furnace to make it into lime.The man who happened by just in the nick of time did know how valuable the statue was and he bought it for just so much broken marble.After some time，France bought it and placed it in the Louvre in Paris.It is one of that great museum’s chief treasures and could not be bought for a fortune—not for any sum of money whatever.
Praxiteles had a friend named Scopas who also was a sculptor，but he liked to make statues that showed people suffering.There are several statues showing Niobe and her children which Scopas may have done，for the statues are the kind he did—they show suffering.But some believe Praxiteles did them.Others think they were done by thepupils of one of these two sculptors.
The Greek story of Niobe is this：
Niobe was the mother of fourteen children—seven boys and seven girls—of whom she was very proud.But she made the mistake of boasting of them to a goddess who had only two children.That was considered sacrilege and the goddess was jealous，so，as a punishment，all of Niobe’s children were killed before her eyes.Niobe，with her arms about her youngest child，is shown trying to shield her from the arrows of the gods.As her last child was killed，the gods，as a great favor，turned Niobe into stone so that she wouldn’t suffer any more.
One of the pupils of Scopas is supposed to have made another very famous statue which we call the Winged Victory，or the Victory of Samothrace because it was found on the Greek island of Samothrace.The statue was made to celebrate a victory of the Greeks on the water.The statue shows the Goddess of Victory standing on the prow of a boat，the wind blowing back her robe.Though she has neither head nor arms，you can，without half trying，see in your mind’s eye how she must have looked as she stood triumphantly erect，blowing a trumpet and facing the sea breeze.
NO.38-2VENUS DE MILONO.38-3THE WINGED VICTORY（《米洛的维纳斯》）（《双翼胜利女神》）
You may ask or wonder why some one has not repaired this Greek statue and others.That is，put on a new head or arms.As a matter of fact，many sculptors have tried to doso.Of course they were not allowed to experiment on the original statue，but they made copies and added the missing parts as they supposed those parts must have been.It may seem strange，but every such restoration，as it is called，has been so unsatisfactory，so ugly even，that every one prefers the broken statue instead of a restored one.
I know a little girl who always puts her hand over the illustrations in a book that she loves to read，“Because，”says she，“the picture I see in my mind is so much better than the picture in the book，that I don’t want the picture I have in my mind spoiled！”Can you picture in your mind how the Victory or the Venus once looked？
【中文阅读】
你的鼻子长得像希腊人吗？对希腊人的鼻子我们了解多少呢？希腊鼻就是从侧面看鼻子呈一条直线。看看周围有没有人长着希腊鼻呢。如今很少有人长希腊鼻了，而且也并不是所有古希腊人都长希腊鼻。但是，古希腊雕刻家认为这种鼻型最美，所以他们把自己雕像中人物的鼻子都雕成希腊鼻。下面的雕像向我们展示了最完美的希腊鼻。雕像是神的信使赫尔墨斯。
赫尔墨斯是一位身强力壮的年轻人。他手里抱着一个宙斯让他照看的婴儿。他小心翼翼地抱着婴儿，看上去若有所思。我们差不多能想象出小孩伸手去拉赫尔墨斯卷发的情景。事实上，小孩伸手去够的是赫尔墨斯手里的一串葡萄，就像现在抱在爸爸怀里的孩子伸手去够爸爸戴的手表一样。这座雕像失去了胳膊和腿，好在头和身子都保存无损。全世界也许再也找不到比这座残缺雕像更迷人、更漂亮的了。它是古希腊雕刻家普拉克希特制作的。即使他再没制过任何作品，甚至一生什么事也没干成，单就这座雕像也足以使他流芳百世了。
据说普拉克希特还制作了几座别的雕像。其中有一座是半人半羊的农牧神像，后来纳撒尼尔.霍桑以此来命名他的小说《玉石雕像》。不过，我们不确定这位雕刻家是否还有其他作品保存下来。
或许世界上最著名的雕像要数《维纳斯女神像》。维纳斯是智慧与美貌女神。因为这座雕像是在希腊米洛斯岛发现的，所以也称《米洛斯的维纳斯》，有时候也称《米洛的维纳斯》。维纳斯有一个完美的希腊鼻，只不过从正面看不到。我们不知道雕刻家是谁，现在有人认为是普拉克希特的一个学生。这座维纳斯像没有双臂，但是，很多人都在努力猜想有双臂的情形。有人说她手里拿着一副青铜盾牌，放在膝盖上，把磨得发光的盾面当镜子照。那时候还没有玻璃镜，所以就照闪闪发亮的金属面。也有人说她手里拿着一根长矛，或别的什么东西，或根本就什么都没拿。其实，没人能确定她手里到底拿了什么。