这座雕像是几年前偶然发现的。某天，有个人在岛上碰巧经过一座石灰窑，发现维纳斯雕像就躺在石灰窑不远的地上。石灰窑是一种用石头烧石灰的熔炉。这位希腊石灰窑主人，像今天大多数人一样，没看出这座残缺破旧雕像的美，所以就打算把它敲碎后扔进炉子烧石灰。正在这关键时刻，那位碰巧路过者看出了这座雕像的价值，于是就按破损大理石的价格买下了。过了一段时间，法国把这座雕像买了去，放在巴黎卢浮宫。如今，它已成为卢浮宫最珍贵的珍宝之一——出多少钱也不卖的无价之宝。
普拉克希特有位雕刻家朋友，名叫斯克帕斯。他喜欢雕刻受苦受难的人像。有几座尼俄伯和她孩子的雕像可能出自斯克斯帕之手，因为这些雕像极似他的风格——表现人们受苦时的样子。不过有人认为是普拉克希特的作品。还有人认为它们是普拉克希特或斯克帕斯的学生们完成的。
在古希腊关于尼俄伯的故事是这样的：尼俄伯是十四个孩子的母亲——七个男孩和七个女孩，并以他们为自豪。可是她犯了错——向一个只有两个孩子的女神夸耀自己的孩子。这在当时被认为是悖逆天理的。那位女神很是嫉妒，作为惩罚，她当着尼俄伯的面，将尼俄伯的十四个孩子全部杀死。雕像中，尼俄伯怀抱幼子，拼命遮挡女神的箭。这唯一活着的孩子还是被射杀了。但女神却发了善心，把尼俄伯变成一块石头，让她不再痛苦。
据说，另外有座非常著名的雕像是斯克伯斯的一位学生完成的。我们把这座雕像称作《双翼胜利女神》。因为它是在希腊萨莫色雷斯岛被发现的，所以也称《萨莫色雷斯胜利女神》。这座雕像是为庆祝希腊人一次海战的胜利而雕刻的。雕像上，胜利女神站在船头，海风吹拂着她的长袍。现在这座雕像的头和臂都不在了，但我们还是能够毫不费力地用我们心中的眼睛看见她吹着喇叭，迎着海风，昂首站立的得胜风姿。
我们也可能会问或者疑惑，为什么就没人来修补这些雕像呢，也就是说，给雕像补上一个新的头或臂。事实上，有许多的雕刻家都做过尝试。当然不允许他们拿原作做实验。他们做了许多摹制品，并按照自己的想法补上缺失的部分。谁知奇怪的是，每次修复都不尽如人意，甚至还使原雕像变丑了。所以人们还是宁愿使它们保持原样。
我认识一个小女孩，她总是在读到精彩之处时用手遮住书上的插图。她说：“因为我想象中的图画要比书上的插图好看得多，我可不愿我心中的图画遭到损害！”那我们能否想象出胜利女神或维纳斯女神当初的风采呢？
PLASTER CASTS
石膏摹制品
WHEN I was a boy I used to be taken to a museum which had copies of all the great Greek sculptures，made out of plaster—plaster casts，they are called.The statues that I liked best of all，I learned afterward，were not considered so good as those I’ve told you about in the last chapter.That seems to be the way with boys.They like certain things when they are boys，and different things when they grow up.My special favorite was a statue which the label called “The Dying Gladiator.”
“What is a gladiator？I asked.
A gladiator，I was told，was a swordsman，and gladiators were prisoners or slaves who were made to fight each other until one or the other died—just for the amusement of a crowd of people who gathered in a field surrounded with seats，like a football stadium，to watch the sport.
I didn’t learn till later that the label on the statue was wrong，that it should have been “The Dying Gaul”and not “The Dying Gladiator.”The Gauls were a barbaric people who lived in the country that is now France.The Gauls fought the Greeks and this Gaul was killed in battle.He wore a twisted collar around his neck—a torque，it was called.That’s how we know he was a Gaul，for Gauls wore this particular kind of collar.
No.39-1THE DYING GAUL（《垂死的高卢人》）This statue showed the wound in the man’s side，made by the sword，and the stony blood flowing from it.There was a card on the statue.“Don’t Touch，”but I could hardly keep from touching the sword wound from which the blood flowed.It seemed so very natural.
“Come away，”said my mother.“It’s dreadful—a man dying.Let’s look at the Apollo Belvedere.This is one of the most beautiful statues of a man ever made.”
“Is that a man？”I exclaimed.“He looks like a woman.”
“That’s just because he has long hair and it is put up on the top of his head in the way many Greek men wore their hair.”
Apollo，as I’ve told you，was the Sun God and the handsomest of all the Greek gods.We don’t know what he is supposed to be doing in this statue.Some say he was holding a bow in his left hand and had just pulled the bowstring with his right hand and shot a dreadful dragon-like serpent called a Python that killed every one who came near him.Others say Apollo was holding the head of Medusa in his left hand，to turn his enemy into stone.Apollo，Minerva，and Perseus all had copies of Medusa’s head to kill their enemies with.
“Belvedere”means “beautiful to see，”but the Apollo is called Belvedere not because he was beautiful to see but because the room in which the statue stands now in the Vatican Museum in Rome is called the Belvedere Room.
No.39-2THE APOLLO BELVEDERE（《贝尔维德尔的阿波罗》）But I was more interested in the statues that told a story，especially if the story seemed to be something terrible.There was a big statue of three men caught in the coils of two huge serpents.The sign on it said，“Laoco？n and His Two Sons.”Laoco？n （Lay-ock’o-on）was Trojan priest who told his people that the Greeks were putting over a trick on them.Just then two huge snakes attacked Laoco？n’s sons.He went to save them and all three were killed by the serpents.The people believed this was a sign that Laoco？n was not telling the truth about their enemy，though it afterward turned out—too late—that he was right.Not one but three sculptors are said to have made this statue.
Why is it that some people，especially boys，like to see pictures and statues of suffering and dying？I used to，but now I wouldn’t have a picture or a statue of such a thing in my house.It is too unpleasant to have around.But in olden times many people were bloodthirsty and loved to see killings，and statues of killing and suffering.They went to fights and took their luncheons along to eat while they watched and gloated over the fighting and especially over fights that ended in death.There are still people who like to see bull-fights and to visit slaughter-houses.
No.39-3LAOCO？N（《拉奥孔》）
Courtesy of The University Prints
But there was one little statue I’ve always liked.It is not the statue of a god or a mythical person—not even of a grown-up.It is of a boy pulling a thorn out of his barefoot，and it shows us that boys who go bare-footed nowadays are very much like boys who went bare-footed two thousand years ago.
One other statue，made just before Christ was born，was so huge that there was no plaster cast of it.It was a bronze giant statue of the Sun God，about one hundred feet high，and was so placed that the god’s legs straddled the entrance to a harbor in the island of Rhodes and ships went in and out of the harbor between the legs.It was called the Colossus of Rhodes.It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.For some reason，perhaps in an earthquake，the Colossus fell and the broken pieces were sold for junk.
No.39-4BOY WITH THORN（《拔刺的男孩》）
Courtesy of The University Prints
【中文阅读】