ABSTRACT
Art, the handmaiden of the city, commemorated the important events of its life— warlike or peaceful enterprises, joyful or sorrowful happenings, national festivals, and all that was of particular interest to the citizen. Whether victory, treaty or national calamity such as the plague, each formed the pretext for a work of art which was at one and the same time an historical document and an act of gratitude or expiation to the gods. History, like religion, is reflected in the mirror of art, and the visitor to such great sanctuaries as Olympia, Delphi, Delos, Dodona, 1 and the Acropolis of Athens, where offerings were accumulated in such profusion, could read it step by step as in a book whose pages were of stone or metal, and thus learn the story of their past.
