Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https ://arch i ve . org/detai Is/scu Iptu resof partOI m u rr THE SCULPTURES OF THE PARTHENON BY THE SAME AUTHOR A HANDBOOK OF GREEK ARCHEOLOGY. Treating of Sculpture, Vases, Bronzes, Gems, Terra-cottas, Architecture, and Mural Paintings. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. i8r. A HISTORY OF GREEK SCULPTURE. With Illustrations. 2 volumes. Royal 8vo. 36.?. London JOHN MURRAY ALBEMARLE STREET HEAD OF YOUTH. NORTH FRIEZE . THE SCULPTURES OF THE PARTHENON It v T J By A. S. MURRAY, LL.D. F.S.A. KEEPER OF GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES BRITISH MUSEUM NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET I 9°3 THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED FROM A DEEP SENSE OF INDEBTEDNESS AND IN TOKEN OF MANY FRIENDSHIPS PAST AND PRESENT PREFACE I N this book I have taken as a starting point certain lectures on the sculptures of the Parthenon which I had the honour of addressing to the students of the Royal Academy several years ago. It was the experience of these lectures that has since led me to enter upon a much closer examination of the sculptures on artistic more than on archaeological lines. To assist the reader in following an inquiry of this kind, it was necessary to devise a scheme of illustration which would embrace the whole of the sculptures, so far as they are now known from originals still existing, or from Carrey’s drawings of portions since lost. With this purpose in view, it has been found practicable (i) to give the frieze almost entirely, as we now know it, in one long folding sheet. The mere magnitude of the frieze as an artistic conception will thus be apparent at a glance, and I trust that its extraordinary beauty in detail will also be readily recognisable in the process of photogravure which has been employed. (2) A similarly comprehensive view of the whole of the metopes seemed undesirable for two reasons : first, because a large proportion of those that still exist on the Parthenon are deplorably damaged ; and secondly, because the metopes of the east and west fronts, even had they been well preserved, could not rightly have been dissociated from the PREFACE viii pediment sculptures immediately above them. We have, therefore, placed the east and west metopes, such as they now are, in connection with the respective pediments. It has, however, been possible to illustrate on one plate the entire series of the south metopes, partly from originals still well preserved, and partly from Carrey’s drawings of the missing central groups. Of the north metopes, the one that has best survived is given by itself. (3) As regards the two pediments, we reproduce Carrey’s drawings of the sculptures as he saw them in the seventeenth century, in each case adding the metopes as they now appear, and completing the architectural framework which he left unfinished. We give separately the principal pedi- ment sculptures as they now exist. We reproduce copies of the gold and ivory statue of Athene within the Parthenon, and add a certain number of illustrations in half-tone plates. The interpretation of the two pediments has been, and still is, a subject of much discussion. The name most appropriate for each figure may be argued interminably. But all these discussions revolve round the simple question, Are the figures in the angles of both pediments deities of Olympos, or beings associated with the legendary history of Attica ? On that question turns the grandeur of the artistic conception as a whole. We must each decide one way or the other. After that the names of the several figures are of less consequence. Therefore we have dealt briefly with matters of nomenclature all through. A. S. MURRAY. Novetnber , 1 902 . CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE INTRODUCTORY . . . i CHAPTER II THE WEST PEDIMENT . . . ... 12 CHAPTER III THE EAST PEDIMENT . . . ... 29 CHAPTER IV THE SOUTH METOPES . . . . 53 CHAPTER V THE METOPES OF THE NORTH, EAST, AND WEST SIDES . 76 CHAPTER VI THE FRIEZE . . . . ... 83 CHAPTER VII THE FRIEZE — continued . . . ... 107 CHAPTER VIII THE ATHENE PARTHENOS BY PHEIDIAS . . 126 CHAPTER IX DETAILS OF THE FRIEZE IN CONSECUTIVE ORDER . . 144 INDEX . • 1 71 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Head of Youth, from North Frieze . Frontispiece PLATE I. View of Parthenon . ... To face page i II. St. Petersburg Vase and East Pediment of Olympia . . ... 55 55 !3 III. West Pediment of Parthenon (Carrey) . 55 55 14 IV. Fragment of T (West Pediment), Bronze Group, Fragment of Metope 16 , South Side 55 55 22 V. Ilissos, Horses’ Heads, Amphitrite and Leu- cothea . . ... 55 55 2 5 VI. East Pediment (Carrey) 55 55 29 VII. Theseus and three Horae 55 55 35 VIII. Victory and three Fates 55 55 4i IX. Madrid Puteal, Helios and Selene 55 55 47 X. South Metopes . ... 55 55 54 XI. Metope of North Side . ... 55 55 6 o XII. North Metopes . ... 55 55 76 XIII. Frieze . . In pocket of Cover XIV. Athene Parthenos . ... 55 55 126 XV. Gem and Medallion of Athene . 55 55 133 XVI. Fragments of Frieze, Originals in Athens . 55 55 144 XVII. Parts of Frieze. Prawn by Carrey and Stuart . . ... 55 55 149 PLATE I. THE PARTHENON— EAST FRONT. Face THE SCULPTURES OF THE PARTHENON CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY [Plate I.] W HEN the Parthenon stood forth complete on the Acropolis of Athens in or about the year 438 b.c., there was no other building in the whole of Greece com- parable even in the mere extent and variety of its sculptures. 1 Imagine a frieze 522 feet in length sculptured all along with figures nearly half life size, in many parts densely crowded till the marble could carry no more, the whole in very low relief and executed with marvellous detail. Above the columns externally and round all the four sides of the temple were ninety-two metopes, each consisting of a group of two figures two-thirds life size, in the highest possible 1 Plutarch, Pericles , xiii., speaking of the buildings then being erected in Athens under the auspices of Pericles, including, of course, the Parthenon, says, “As the buildings rose, stately in size and unsurpassed in form and grace, the workmen vied with each other that the quality of their work might be en- hanced by its artistic beauty. Most wonderful of all was the rapidity of the construction.” (H. Stuart Jones, Selected Passages , etc.) 2 INTRODUCTORY relief, and full of the most beautiful workmanship. Within each of the two pediments or gables was an immense group of statues, the smallest equal to life size, the central figures colossal. Lastly, inside the Parthenon was the stupendous statue of Athene herself in gold and ivory by Pheidias. It was he who directed the whole of the work . 1 The greater the extent and variety of the sculptures the more urgent was the need of a unifying purpose to bring the whole together into one scheme. The Parthenon was a new temple to the goddess Athene. To her the sculptor necessarily turned for inspiration. Her birth, her influence on the civilisation of mankind, her special services to Attica, and the consequent gratitude of the Athenians, these were the themes which naturally arose in his mind. Accordingly, in the east pediment, the most conspicuous place externally, he gave the birth of the goddess. In the metopes we have a long series of combats with barbarism, in which we may trace the state of things which she was born to rectify. In the west pediment she herself encounters her rival, Poseidon, and defeats him. All this is shown on the external sculp- tures. Within the colonnade the whole frieze is occupied with solemnities in honour of the gods, while inside the Parthenon itself the gratitude of the Athenians was seen culminating in the new colossal statue of gold and ivory. To borrow the language of the drama, the east pediment may be called Act i., representing the surprise of the birth of 1 Plutarch, ibid., irdvra. Se Sieirre iStvwv tli s as r/xfos rjyayov Meisterwerke , p. 248. That the Horae Tlpui. 40 THE EAST PEDIMENT It is true that the girlishness of her form, when looked at full in front and compared with the two seated women, may suggest a doubt as to the sisterly relation of all three. But there was the space of the pediment to be considered, and besides, we must remember that it was the left side of this figure which came most into view when the spectator stood midway beneath the pediment, looking up. In that aspect her left side is strikingly bold in its con- trasts of nude form and large, simple masses of drapery. She has sprung to her feet, seizing her mantle with both hands in astonishment ; that was a formula among Greek artists of the time. As regards the two seated figures, the extent of their surprise is greater than is usually supposed. The one, E, throws out her right knee with a great strain on her dress, which brings out clearly the form of the leg. Her left arm is not resting idly on the shoulder of F, but has been thrown on it in a hurried as well as affectionate manner. The figure F has swung herself round and raised her arms energetically, as if in terror. We cannot say now how far the action of the heads of these two figures may have accentuated this expression of movement ; but we must add this, that the thick drapery of all three figures must have played an important part in the artistic composition of the pediment. The striking contrast it presents to the brilliantly nude Cephalos on the left must have been balanced by another nude figure on the right belonging to the great central group of deities. In the right wing of the pediment we approach again a group of three draped women. Usually it is assumed that EAST PEDIMENT. THE FATES 4i these also were originally a separate triad, though in fact the absence of the central group of the pediment precludes absolute certainty on this point. We can, however, argue from the analogy of the west pediment, and in that light we accept these three figures, K, L, M, as a triad. No triad of women, each of about the same age and all fairly clad, was better known than the Fates, and none more appropriately present at a birth. On the Madrid puteal (PI. IX., Fig. 1), which represents the birth of Athene, they are present with their shears and thread in their hands. It is true they are there standing in a group as the exigencies of a band of relief required. But they are there all the same. On these grounds it is not surprising that the three figures in the pediment have become popularly known as the Fates. On the other hand, we learn from a fragment of Euripides (. Nauck , 623) that the Fates were divine beings who “sat nearest to the throne of Zeus,” and obviously on an occasion like the birth of Athene they would have been intent on their natural occupation, not surprised and startled as are the three women in the remote angle of the pediment. They would thus have been the “Foolish Fates,” as they are called in Mid- summer Night's Dreavi. Further, the Fates had no special connection with Attica. But let us examine the group as it stands. At first sight, and from a superficial point of view of the pediment as a whole, there is not much of artistic balance in the two angle groups. We recognise that the two figures K, L on the right respond fairly well to E, F on the left. But as a response to the nude Cephalos on the left we have a draped woman, M, on the right. Yet G 4 2 THE EAST PEDIMENT beneath this superficial aspect we cannot deny that the reclining figure, M, represents the same idea as does the Cephalos ; that is to say, a person in the act of awakening. We have thus in the same place in each angle a figure awakening from sleep, the superficial difference being that one is a man, the other a woman. In spirit the two angles thus respond perfectly. In both we have a scene of awaken- ing, appropriately caused in the first instance by the dawn, but intensified in the second instance by the coincident birth of Athene. The third figure, M, lying with the feet still crossed one over the other, is surely still more asleep than awake. The second, L, has pulled back her feet, as a woman must do in rising suddenly from a low seat, and is doing her best to stir up her sleeping sister. The first, K, has swung round towards the centre, her left arm pressing hard on the shoulder of L. 1 All three have been closely grouped like sisters. They are all three taken by surprise, nearly as much so as the three daughters of Cecrops in the west pediment. It is the surprise of beings who, till that moment, have been asleep under daily conditions, and in their native place. In Olympos nothing of the kind was possible. We must, therefore, regard the so-called Fates as local Attic beings, or, to repeat the phrase we have already used, when speaking of the west pediment, “ inter- ested local spectators.” Accordingly we recognise in both wings of the east pediment — as in the west — local personages 1 The marble head belonging to to one or other of the figures in the Count Laborde, in Paris, has some- west pediment. The nose and mouth times been thought to belong to K, but are restored. See the cast in the Elgin more frequently perhaps it is assigned Room. COMPARISON WITH WEST PEDIMENT 43 who either had already passed into legend or were still in the state of personifications. We regret that Professor Furtwaengler, having accepted the local Cephalos and two of the local Attic Horae for the left wing, should have fallen back on the Fates for the right wing, instead of follow- ing up the principle of local representation, a principle which in the west pediment he has pursued to its extreme. The east and the west pediments of the Parthenon were respectively the first and the second acts of the drama of Athene. It was incumbent that certain of the characters should be taken over from the one act to the other ; at all events, Athene herself and Poseidon. Poseidon could not have been absent from among- the gods at the scene of her birth in the east pediment. Nor could Hermes have failed there; yet we find him also again in the west pediment accompanying the chariot of Athene. If the charioteer of Poseidon in the west pediment is Amphitrite, as is mostly supposed, she also may have been present at the birth of Athene in the east pediment by the same right which entitled her to be present at the birth of Aphrodite alongside of Poseidon on the base of the Zeus at Olympia by Pheidias. For all we know, the goddess also who accompanies the chariot of Poseidon and she who drives the chariot of Athene may have been taken over from the missing central group of the east pediment. In any case, the two pediments stood in a dramatic relation to each other, with a certain number of the personae carried over from the one act to the other. The facts are there, and need no illustration from other works of Greek sculpture. But we may mention as more or less analogous and nearly contemporary the narrow frieze of 44 THE EAST PEDIMENT the Nereid monument in the British Museum, where we see first an assault on a walled city, and next the same walled city being surrendered to the captor. On Roman reliefs, as on the columns of Trajan and of Marcus Aurelius, such repetitions are constant. But once we are satisfied that the conception of both pediments involves the idea of “interested spectators,” the extent to which the same figures may appear in both pediments would depend on what degree of intimacy the sculptor wished to express between the angle groups of both pediments. In both the locality was the same, in our opinion. Of course, the sculptor was free to choose a different set of local representatives for each angle. But our suggestion is that he may equally have carried over an angle group from the first act of the drama to the second. In a word, we suggest that the so-called Fates are the three peculiarly Attic personifications of morning dew, Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosos, as many have believed them to be since Welcker’s identification of them in 1845. They would thus be a companion group to the three Horae in the left wing, who had the power of rolling away the clouds and revealing the blue sky. These three sisters were known simply as the Parthenoi, and their position on the Parthenon near the waning moon at dawn would be appropriate. They would be there as strictly local semi-divine beings. When they reappear in the west pediment it is as the daughters of Cecrops, about whom legend had woven a local tale connected with a grotto on the side of the Acropolis, and the birth of the boy Erichthonios. Whether the sculptor had meant us to assume an interval of years between the birth of Athene and her rivalry with Poseidon, no one can say. We THE FATES 45 prefer to think that the one act followed immediately upon the other, but that would not necessarily exclude the re- appearance of the Dew Maidens as the legendary daughters of Cecrops. In any case, we do not press our view beyond insisting on the strictly local character of the persons in all the angles, including the sun and moon, who, as we have said, were the sun and moon as known to the Athenians in their daily life. Whether Fates or Dew Maidens, the three figures K, L, M have exercised a singular fascination from the moment of their becoming widely known. Perhaps we should rather say the two figures L, M. For undoubtedly it is the grouping of these two that excites the most pleasure, so simple and so obvious is the motive, so grand the bodily forms, and so beautiful the drapery. The motive we have already described — one woman putting her heels back and trying to raise hurriedly another who has been sleeping against her. It is one of those universal actions which need no explanation even to the simplest of mankind. The third figure K is a little detached as we see her now. But an examination of the backs of K and L shows that when the group was put up in position it had been found necessary to dig deep holes in the back of L and in the lowermost part of K, in order that the two figures might be brought nearer together and more closely knit. The left arm of K, now missing, had then been firmly planted on the back of the shoulder of L, whose right arm again crosses over on the thigh of K. Thus originally the whole triad had been closely bound together. The figure whose bodily attractions are most obvious is M. Such movement as we see in her body is 4 6 THE EAST PEDIMENT hardly voluntary on her part. She is simply an object of study and admiration. No wonder she has been some- times called Aphrodite, nor that recently she has been compared with the “Aphrodite in the Gardens” at Athens, by Alcamenes, a work renowned for its elegance . 1 She has even been claimed as herself from the hand of that favourite pupil of Pheidias. But whatever her charms, we must not forget that she is only a secondary figure in a great composition. If we are right in describing the Theseus or Cephalos of the opposite angle as sunlit, we should expect to find the corresponding figure M sculptured as in twilight, and illumined by the waning moon ; that is to say, without deep shadows in the folds of the drapery such as the sun casts, but with a predominance of edges of folds as if seen emerging in obscurity. Doubtless the mere attitude of the figure necessarily leads to an effect of this kind. Her body is tilted over to the front in such a manner that the folds of the chiton on her right side hang down and fill up what otherwise would have been a deep mass of shadow. Her dress is drawn tightly round her legs, producing sharp- edged folds, and the drapery covering the rock on which she lies falls in flat masses. It would seem as if the sculptor had chosen this attitude and pose with an instinct for the effect of a figure seen in the dull light of the sinking moon. And in any case we must bear in mind that the fact of all three figures being closely draped, reasonable 1 Amelung in Roem. Mittheilungen , in the Gardens. See also Reisch, in 1901, pi. 1, 2, p. 21, considers that a the Jahresheften d. Oesterr. Inst., i. p. statue in the Doria Pamphili palace at 77 fol. Rome may be a copy of the Aphrodite THE FATES AND SELENE 47 enough as that would be in all circumstances in the time of Pheidias, may still be claimed as artistically appropriate to the occasion of morning twilight. There are some questions of artistic execution which we must notice. In the figure K the drapery which falls over her left thigh is of extraordinary complexity and beauty, where the folds were intended to be seen. But the moment we look a little further towards the back of the figure we come upon folds which are merely blocked out in the roughest manner. How far this sudden change from utmost beauty of detail to general negligence was due to haste or to a consideration of what would be seen and what not, we cannot of course say. The fact remains that in most cases the backs of the pediment figures have not been finished to the extent usually supposed. No one would for a moment deny that the backs of the group L, M, are a splendid conception, and worthy of the greatest of artists. But the greatest of sculptors may at times be casual in his execution, and we maintain that the backs of this group are to an extent casual in execution. Returning to the general scheme of the east pediment, we observe that the Selene in the right angle has of late been called Night. The argument is that Selene, in the time of Pheidias, had no chariot, but rode on a horse or a mule. On the base of Zeus at Olympia, Pausanias (v. 11, 3) speaks of her as having only one horse, and on certain con- temporary vases she appears riding on a horse or a mule. The daily splendour of the sun (aliusque et idem) might well be represented by a quadriga, while the fainter light of the moon would be sufficiently indicated by one horse, 4 8 THE EAST PEDIMENT and, in fact, on the Parthenon only one of the horses’ heads was practically visible. In later art the moon had her quadriga equal with the sun. For all we know that tradition had gone back to the Parthenon times. But where is there in Greek poetry or art any suggestion that Night ever sets or wanes in a chariot, one of her horses’ heads already dipping over the horizon, as on the Parthenon pediment? Euripides (Ion, 1149) may speak of black-robed night as a companion group to Helios, and one poet may call the Fates “fair armed daughters of night,” while another regards them as “daughters of chaos.” In the Parthenon pediment it is a question of sunrise and a waning light which surely can be no other than that of the moon. But apart from the names of the two luminaries, we note that whereas in the west pediment the two chariots of gods are well towards the centre, here in the east the two chariots are little more than visible. Nor is this distinction inappropriate to the different stages of the drama. We have next to consider the Victory, J, and her proper place in the pediment. First we must reckon with her wings. These, it is true, are now wanting, but we can see from two deep sockets in the back of her shoulders that the wings may have risen above her head, possibly to a very considerable height, in any case as much as to make her present position in the Elgin Room impossible. And there are other reasons why her present position is untenable. First, Victory was intimately associated with Zeus and Athene ; secondly, she was always of small dimensions compared with these two deities ; and thirdly, the Madrid puteal shows her between these two. To satisfy VICTORY 49 these conditions she must be moved near to the centre of the pediment. At the same time she must still retain her present attitude of moving from right to left. To place her between Zeus and Athene would involve two things — first, that she would have to be flying in the air, which does not seem consistent with the action of the torso as preserved ; and secondly, that she would thus necessarily be approaching Zeus to crown him rather than Athene, contrary to the evidence of the Madrid puteal and contrary to our expectations. A more appropriate place, these things considered, would be next to Athene on the right. There she would still be of small dimensions compared with the central deities. In those days Victory would have offered to Athene not a wreath, but a taenia or ribbon, as does the Nike on the hand of the Athene Parthenos, but she need not, in a similar manner, have held the ribbon one end in each hand. We can imagine her left hand holding high one end of a bronze- gilt ribbon, the other end fastened by the slight iron plug which still remains on her left thigh. Her right arm would then be stretched forward to welcome Athene’s arrival. For the rest we cannot leave this torso without expressing the highest admiration of its beauty. The grandeur and simplicity of her bodily forms she possesses in common with every other figure of the Parthenon. But she is peculiar in wearing a very thin and slight costume su gg es tiv e of a swift messenger. In that character her chiton necessarily clings to the body. That purpose it serves and no more. There was no occasion for im- pressiveness. What was wanted was a robust, swift figure, H 5 ° THE EAST PEDIMENT clad lightly, but ideally, and in keeping with her large wings, which also in those days would have combined long, powerful pinions with small, finely chased feathers. Compare the drapery on her body with that of the Victory of Olympia, and we see at once where the higher ideal comes in. Indeed, on the left side of the Victory of Olympia the dress is treated in a very indifferent manner, which perhaps may be excused by the fact that Paeonios, the sculptor, was obliged, in the circumstances, to produce an impressive and striking figure alone on a lofty pedestal. With regard to the great gap in the centre of the pediment, we have already said that several of the missing statues can be imagined with reasonable certainty ; in the very centre, Zeus, Athene, Victory, and Hephaestos (or Prometheus). It is almost beyond doubt that Zeus had been seated facing the right, and that Athene was before him, while behind him Hephaestos was hurrying away after cleaving the head of Zeus with his axe. There remains room for six more figures, of whom we are told, on the present-day evidence of the bed of the pediment, that two had been seated, one on each side of the centre group, the others having been standing, two on each side. But valuable as this evidence from the actual bed or floor of the pediment may yet become with increased knowledge from other sources, no satisfactory result is to be obtained from discussing it now. That, we think, will be evident from the attempts of Professor Furtwaengler . 1 His scheme may prove to be in some parts right, in others wrong. But we cannot think that his notion of the Athene in the very centre can be right. Allowing 1 On page 29 of his Intermezzi. TECHNICAL QUESTIONS 5i that on her own temple the most conspicuous place of all was her due ; yet it was her birth from the brain of her father, Zeus, that was the dominant feature of the com- position, not alone her own personality. From Furtwaengler’s point of view we can well understand his choosing for the very centre a stately Athene like the marble statue in the /■ Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris , 1 and pushing Zeus to the side. But we think his notion radically wrong, and certainly the Paris statue, dignified as she is, is far beneath the Parthenon sculptures. While declining to discuss here speculative reconstructions of the east pediment, we, on the other hand, readily welcome them when they are carried out on artistic principles, so as to exhibit the dominating effects of the central deities over the secondary groups in the angles. For example, it may now be said that Cockerell’s reconstruction is fantastic in some important respects , 2 yet with the instincts of a true artist he shows this relationship of the several parts of the composition, and that is the first thing we require. He had as his guide the west pediment, which he knew from Carrey’s drawings. We have in addition the example of the east pediment of Olympia. To conclude with a technical matter: at a number of points on the sculptures of both pediments, especially the east, there may be seen patches of a golden colour. These patches are found in places which have been sheltered more 1 Intermezzi , p. 17. This is the House of Pilate in Seville. They are marble known as the Torso Medici. published with their hideous restorations Since his theory was announced two in the Jahresheften des Oesterr. Arch. more copies of the same original have Inst 1899, pis. 2, 3. been recognised in the Court of the 2 Museum Marbles, v i. pi. 21. 5 2 THE EAST PEDIMENT or less from the weather, and may therefore be regarded as preserving the original surface of the marble, which else- where has been eaten away. One of the most noticeable of these occurs under the left leg of Theseus (or Cephalos). It appears that the sculptures had been covered originally with a thin wash or size of lime, so thin and transparent that in places we can see the finest tool-marks through it. Probably that was what the ancients called circumlitio. A surface of this kind would be far more suitable than the marble itself for the addition of colours on the borders of the draperies and other details, and there is no question now that bright colours were freely employed on archaic Greek sculptures, as on the friezes of Delphi and the archaic pediments and statues of the Acropolis of Athens. Remains of bright colouring were found on the pediment sculptures of Olympia, and to take a much later example, on the sculptures of the Mausoleum. We do not, however, suppose that the golden tint now visible on the Parthenon sculptures represents the original colour. More probably the original colour was an ivory white, intended at once to tone down the harsh surface of the marble, and to be a facile medium for details painted in bright hues. CHAPTER IV THE SOUTH METOPES [Plate X.] I N a Doric temple there were square spaces immediately above the architrave which were called metopes. These square metopes might or might not be sculptured. On the Theseum at Athens, for instance, only the metopes on the two fronts are sculptured ; those along the sides are left blank. But on the Parthenon, such was the splendour of the temple, every one of the ninety-two metopes was sculp- tured in high-relief. Many of them remain in their place in Athens, but are now, for the most part, so much dis- figured by weather as to be barely recognisable even as regards the subjects they were intended to represent. The south was the sunny side of the Parthenon, and there the metopes had suffered comparatively little when Carrey drew them in 1674. Unfortunately he had only time to draw those of the south side. A few years after came the Venetian bombardment (1687), when the Parthenon was blown up, producing a great gap across the middle, and destroying amid much else the centre group of metopes on the south side which Carrey had drawn. So that now the only record existing of those missing metopes of the south 53 54 THE SOUTH METOPES side are the drawings of Carrey (PI. X.). Of the metopes that remained on the building at either side of the great gap, fifteen were subsequently removed by Lord Elgin about the year 1800, and ultimately placed in the British Museum; his colleague, the French ambassador, sent one to Paris, where it may be seen in the Louvre ; two are still in Athens. Thus there exist now only eighteen of the south metopes, which originally were thirty-two in number. As we have said, the remaining fourteen are known only from Carrey’s drawings, except for a fragment here and there found on the Acropolis. With these materials at hand it is possible to understand the general scheme of the south metopes, and in a great measure also to enjoy their beauty. The deplorable con- dition of the others we must consider later on. Accordingly at each end of the south series we find Lapiths and Centaurs engaged in the struggle that ensued at the marriage feast of Peirithoos.v Each of these metopes consists of a group of two figures, a Centaur fighting with a Lapith or carrying off a Lapith woman. Each metope is charged to the utmost with animation, and the general effect is that of nude forms, relieved only here and there by a little drapery or by the dress of a Lapith woman who is being carried away forcibly. But in the middle of the series we have nine metopes (13-21), in which most of the figures are stately, dressed women. We recognise at once the effect of repose, which is obtained by introducing in the middle of the series these imposing figures, so differently characterised from the turbulent groups at the two ends. For this reason alone they must have formed an integral part 1 I a GENERAL SCHEME 55 of the whole composition of the south side ; not only that, but the central and most essential part. We therefore take them to represent an isolated scene at the marriage of Peirithoos, more or less indoors, or at all events at the central place of the marriage feast. The prevalence of womanly figures accords with this view, and the concentration of them suggests alarm occasioned by the turbulence of the Centaurs at the extremes of the scene. The combats of Centaurs and Lapiths could not have been separated as they are into so many metopes on the left and so many on the right, yet all expressing the same sentiment, without some- thing in the centre to account for all the fighting, either as cause or as effect, or possibly both cause and effect combined. In one of these metopes, 18, two women, obviously in dread, move hurriedly away. In another, 21, we see two women beside a sacred image, or xoanon , instantly recalling a group in the battle of Centaurs and Lapiths on the frieze of Phigaleia, where a Lapith woman clings to a similar xoanon. But the metope 15 containing a chariot group is curiously unique amid the others, unless the charioteer may be the goddess Artemis coming to the rescue of the Lapith women, as she does in a chariot of deer on the Phigaleian frieze. The next metope, 16, appears to be even more disconcerting at first sight. It represents one man standing over another who has been struck down mortally. Yet if both men are Lapiths, as they presum- ably are, the one would assuredly not have struck down the other. Nor indeed does it follow from the sculpture itself that the one has slain the other. On the contrary, the stricken Lapith may be a victim of the Centaurs 56 THE SOUTH METOPES left behind, over whom the other Lapith expresses his horror. For the rest the central metopes adapt themselves reason- ably enough to the theory of their being for the most part the women of the wedding feast who so far had escaped the Centaurs. 1 In that portion of the composition we expect a preponderance of women, because most of the men would have already gone out to fight the Centaurs or to rescue the women who are being carried off. In that case we expect indications of a wedding ceremony, such as music and sacrifice ; we expect signs of alarm ; we may find both. Let us see slowly. In the first of these central metopes, 13, are a young woman and a young man, turning away from each other, the woman having one arm raised. These two figures are not characterised as other than ordinary persons, but their attitude towards each other is clearly that of alarm. The youth is gathering his dress as if to run. In the next metope, 14, we have again a young man and a young woman. But here the youth is in great alarm. The young woman still holds in her hands objects connected with a feast or a sacrifice. Carrey’s drawing is not sufficiently clear to decide what exactly they are. We have already spoken of metopes 15, 16, and now pass on to 17. Here we have again a youth and a maiden — he turning away from her instead of listening, she holding a lyre in her hands, which perhaps she has ceased to play. Carrey’s drawing does 1 M. Perrot thinks that these central foundation of the cult of Athene (MS- metopes were occupied with the birth langes Weil , p. 378). of Erichthonios and legends of the CENTRAL GROUP 57 not show quite distinctly that it is a lyre she holds, but fortunately there has survived from this metope just the fragment which was required to prove that it is a lyre, with belt round it to enable the player to hold it in its place. It was not necessary in ordinary circumstances for the maiden to clutch the lyre with her right hand as she does ; her doing so can only signify astonishment or alarm. Next, 18, we see two women rushing away in excitement, leaving behind a young girl, who in her youthful ignorance stands looking back to see what is the matter. In Carrey’s drawing she appears to hold a dish in her left hand, in which case she was doubtless a girl attendant at the wedding. Then follows 19, a group of two women, of whom one is a stately figure wearing a veil like a bride. In her pose, with the left hand raised to her face and her right hand supporting the left elbow, she recalls the bride Hippodameia in the east pediment of Olympia, except that the intensity of her attitude is even stronger. In this respect she may be compared with the striking figure of Medea in the Lateran relief in Rome, than which there is probably no more grandly conceived female figure among existing Greek reliefs. A bride plunged in profound medita- tion would be the natural description of this metope. In the sculptures of the west pediment of Olympia the bride was the first person seized on by the Centaurs, and was necessarily placed in the centre of the composition. But in a long series of detached metopes with no gradation of scale possible, the problem was different. There was no other way of suggesting the greater importance of one figure over another than by dignity of pose and demeanour. 1 THE SOUTH METOPES 58 Instead of allowing the bride to be carried away, it was open to the sculptor to make her an imposing figure in the central group of metopes, as we think he has done. Next, 20, we have two women, standing back to back. One of them, as drawn by Carrey, holds a scroll over what seems to be a table. He may have drawn accurately what he saw, and for all we know to the contrary a woman holding out a scroll over a table may be consistent with a marriage ceremony. But he has drawn the other woman turning her back to her companion, and holding in her hand what appears to be a knife, as if she were preparing for an emergency. Finally, 21, we have two women gathered round an image or xoanon , towards which, as we have already said, they had gone for protection, as in the Phigaleian frieze. Long ago it was proposed to interpret these central metopes as representing the marriage scene of Peirithoos, interrupted by the inroad of the Centaurs. Since then this view has been generally rejected, but without, as we think, due consideration. The only alternative which has been s uggested is that the central metopes represent a congeries of legends having no direct connection with the Lapiths and Centaurs ; but this seems absurd, since we must as a consequence assume that Pheidias, great artist as he was — greatest of all, perhaps, in his masterly gift of composition on a grand scale — had abandoned this gift in the south metopes. On the analogy of the frieze of the Parthenon, as we shall see afterwards, the metopes of the north side of the temple should correspond in subject to those of the south, of which we have been speaking so far. That is to say, the north COMPARISON WITH NORTH METOPES 59 metopes should also represent the struggles of Centaurs and Lapiths at the marriage of Peirithoos and Deidameia. In their present state the north metopes, so far as they exist at all, are, with one exception, too much disfigured to settle the question definitely by themselves. But to judge from certain drawings that were made in the seventeenth century from some of the central metopes of that series — now entirely lost — it appears that they at least had represented Centaurs (PL XII., Figs, a , b , d). It is equally clear from the metopes still in their place on the building towards each end of the north side that they consist largely of female figures. Thus it would seem that the sculptor, while repeating the same subject of Centaurs and Lapiths as on the south side, had reversed his composition in this way, that on the north side the combats of Centaurs and Lapiths occupied the central metopes, while the women and others associated with the marriage, but not yet attacked, were placed on the two sides. That may be regarded as fairly certain. The purpose of the sculptor is obvious. A visitor to the Acropolis of Athens approached the Parthenon from the west, and would see the metopes of the west front first, with its Gigantomachia still identifiable as such. He would then have to choose whether he would pass along by the north or by the south side of the Parthenon, following the metopes as he went on. Whichever side he chose he would find the same subject — the Centauromachia in connection with the marriage of Peirithoos — the same subject on each side, but with the order of the composition inverted. So that, in fact, it was not necessary for the visitor to examine both sides so far as the subject was concerned. 6o THE SOUTH METOPES Only one of the north metopes, 32, has been preserved fairly well. There is a cast of it in the Elgin Room (PI. XI.). It represents two Lapith women, one sitting on a rock, the other approaching her. This metope deserves careful inspection, because, apart from it, we have almost no means of controlling Carrey’s drawings of the Lapith women in the south metopes, and of translating, so to speak, his drawings into actual sculpture. If we could do so effectively, we should then be in the same position with regard to them as we are in with regard to his drawings of the Centaurs and Lapiths from the flanks of the south side, brought home by Lord Elgin. Carrey’s drawings of these Centaurs and Lapiths indicate the general pose and action of the figures. To a great extent they reflect also the style of the sculpture. But they are hasty sketches, and necessarily do not convey to us the sense of reality and force which strikes us in the actual marbles. Let us examine this northern metope from the point of view just indicated. The woman on the right is seated on a rock with one foot raised. The nearer foot is broken off, but clearly it has been drawn back as if in excitement. The lowering of the knee and what remains of the leg show this much. The right hand has been raised a little, while the left arm, which is now gone, is known to have been stretched upward in alarm ; it is so in a drawing by one of Lord Elgin’s artists made when the metope was in better condition. She wears an under chiton of a thin material, which shows on her breast and arms and towards the feet. Over this she has a thick himation wrapped round the legs and falling over the left shoulder. The figure standing before her, obviously PL. XI. METOPE. 32, NORTH SIDE COMPARISON WITH ONE OF THE NORTH METOPES 61 a girl, expresses some alarm in the customary Greek manner by seizing one end of her himation, or mantle, with the left hand, while with the right she clutches the other end of it, and drags it round her back to her right side. She wears a thick chiton, open a little on the right side and girt round the waist. Her right foot is thrown back with the ungainly but true result that the heavy material of the chiton falls straight down from the knee instead of following the bend of the leg. The same effect appears in the seated figure. We are calling attention to these details of drapery because their very heaviness, not to say ungainliness in parts, must, as we think, have been intended as artistic repose and contrast to the display of flesh, human and equine, in the other metopes. Observe also that the relief is very high. The figures are almost in the round, quite as much so as the Centaurs and Lapiths. Carrey’s drawings of the missing women of the south metopes do not in the least convey this impression. We must translate them, so to speak, into high relief of this kind, with its deeply cut, strongly rendered, and heavy masses of folds. Assuming that the central metopes of the south side had been sculptured for the most part in this massive manner, displaying a prevalence of heavy vertical lines, we can appre- ciate the purpose of the sculptor in seeking to produce by these means a general effect of repose in the centre in contrast to the varied and often violent action on the two flanks. And this element of contrast is the more obvious when we remark that while the groups on the flanks are all in profile, those of the centre, or most of them, are turned to the front, either fully, as in 19 and 21, or nearly so, as in 20, 62 THE SOUTH METOPES two women turning away from each other ; 1 7, a woman turning her back to a man who stands to front; 13, a woman standing to front and a youth turning away a little ; 14, a woman to the front and a youth rushing away in fear, not of her, obviously, but of something which is happening outside. In short, we have in these central metopes a peaceful scene which is beginning to be broken into by a disturbance from without. The disturbance has, in fact, begun very seriously. Al- ready five of the Lapith maidens have been seized by Centaurs and carried outside, two on the left of the central group, 10 and 12, and three on the right, 22, 25, and 29. The danger is close at hand. In one instance, 22, the Lapith maiden is being seized hold of at the very side of her two sisters, who approach the sacred image for pro- tection, 21. Of these two, possibly the one on the right with her breast bare has just escaped. The earliest victim was doubtless the one farthest from the centre on the right, 29, which metope we possess in the Museum. The Centaur has had time to throw her up in his arms and make off. In the instances nearer the centre the action is less complete, and in the metope nearest the centre the scene is almost sentimental. Thus a certain gradation of effect seems to have been intended. In preparing a series of detached groups of sculpture such as the metopes of a Doric temple, it was a difficult task for a sculptor to find some common bond of union for them all. In the temple of Zeus at Olympia there were only twelve metopes. In that case, the twelve labours of Heracles supplied a satisfactory bond of union, and were GENERAL SCHEME 63 appropriate to a national temple. On the Theseum, as it is called, at Athens, the labours of Theseus suggested themselves naturally for the metopes, but as these labours could not be multiplied so as to extend round the whole building, the side metopes were left blank. The archaic metopes which have survived from the Doric temples of Selinus in Sicily appear to have little connection with each other. But there is a wide difference between archaic times, when legends of doughty deeds were so much in favour as to need little coherency one with the other, and the com- paratively later times of the Parthenon, when the Greek mind had become more critical, demanding at every turn cause, origin, or association of ideas. On the short ends of the Parthenon, each with only fourteen metopes, we see how one subject could be divided up into the required number of detached groups with no artistic bond uniting them. On the west end was the Amazonomachia, and on the east the Gigantomachia. In these instances the con- tinuity of the subject must have been easily recognisable from the well-known types and attributes of the deities as compared with the giants. The Amazons wearing their peculiar dress and mounted on horseback could be equally well distinguished from the Greeks fighting on foot. But when it came to the long sides of the Parthenon, each with its thirty-two metopes, the problem assumed proportions which it had never reached before. For the first time in art a magnificent effort was made to introduce an artistic centre to the whole series, which should serve obviously as at once cause and effect. The archaic idea of any number of separate legendary groups collected together without any 64 THE SOUTH METOPES association except as legends was brought to an end by Pheidias when he applied to it the rationalising spirit of his day on the Parthenon, giving to the whole series of south metopes an artistic unity which was dependent on the central group. No wonder that thereafter we see little of metopes on Greek temples. We may now examine in detail the Centaur metopes which have survived from the south side of the Parthenon. One would almost have expected that the Centaurs on the left would have rushed uniformly to the left, those on the right to the right. But the sculptor’s conception of the scene appears rather to have been that of a general scrimmage. Accordingly, when we look at the series as a whole, they seem to throw themselves into pairs set back to back (i, 2), or face to face (2, 3), while again two groups may be regarded as following one after the other (3, 4). Nos. 4, 5 again present the scheme of back to back. The result is a sense of balance and harmony in the composition, which is greatly aided by the several groups being kept in profile as far as possible, while at the same time the general idea of a scrimmage is kept in view by the irregularity with which the confronting and opposing groups follow each other. In the Centaur groups in the British Museum the figures are sculptured in very high relief. In some parts they are entirely severed from the background. There are certain marked differences. /For instance, most of the metopes keep the forms of the Centaur and Lapith, though they are in close conflict, as separate as possible, the contours of each figure showing against deep shadow. In some DETAILED EXAMINATION 65 instances the effect seems spotty and unpleasant in the diffused light of the Elgin Room. In the open air, for which the metopes were intended, there would doubtless have been no such effect. But the light which was pro- bably good for these particular metopes could not have been equally so for others on the same wall, where only the outer contours of the group show against deep shadow, as in 2. Here the mass of the group is as high in relief as in the other metopes, yet within the general outline of the group there is a marked avoidance of strongly rounded forms. The Lapith is pressed close to the Centaur in such a manner that the two together convey the impression of a low relief, detachable from the background and brought forward in a mass, as if the intention of the sculptor had been to get rid of those strong inner shadows which characterise the other metopes we have referred to. The comparative flatness of this group is the more noticeable because the body of the Centaur is actually kept flatter than the others to allow the legs of the Lapith to come in front of it ; while again the head of the Centaur, instead of being set against deep shadow, is set against the mantle of the Lapith, the folds of which occupy to a large extent the place of the shadow. But as a whole it is like a Greek bronze relief, in which the figures have been embossed in a separate piece and then soldered on to a flat background. In such bronze reliefs it was necessary to keep the figures as close and compact as possible ; in the marble it was not so. In any case, we must allow that a sculptor who had to produce no less than twenty-three metopes — each with exactly the same subject of K 66 THE SOUTH METOPES a combat of a Lapith and a Centaur, no more and no less, and all visible at once — must have had a hard task to invent variety in his groups. Each metope was of exactly the same size, and separated from the others by exactly the same space. Since Carrey’s time this metope has lost the two nearer legs of the Centaur. Among other instances of this same spirit of avoiding strong shadows within the general contour we may notice 8, 9, and 29, in the British Museum, 10 in Paris, and 12 in Athens. In 8 the Lapith is being forced down to the ground on one knee. In Carrey’s drawing the Lapith still has his head, and the Centaur his human body and head. But observe how the space between the chest of the Centaur and the body of the Lapith, where or- dinarily there would be a deep mass of shadow, is filled in by soft drapery, with folds just enough marked to indicate a contrast between the human forms of both Lapith and Centaur. In this metope there is much to admire in the rendering of the torso of the Lapith and his bent right leg. In 9 we have almost the same effect, the space between the Centaur and the Lapith being occupied by drapery, which is here rather more strongly marked in its folds, and is employed also, as we see behind the Lapith, to cover partially the upturned vase on which he has fallen. In Carrey both heads are complete, as well as the left arm of the Centaur, with his hand seizing the left leg of the Lapith to tip him over. It is curious to see the Lapith falling on an upturned vase before the attack of the Centaur. It is not a very natural position, but it gave the sculptor an opportunity of creating a new DETAILED EXAMINATION 67 and somewhat picturesque motive. No. 10 is the metope now in the Louvre, representing a Centaur rushing off with a Lapith maiden. The equine body of the Centaur and the body of the maiden present the appearance of low relief detached as a mass from the background to the same extent as the equine body of the Centaur. The arm of the maiden crossing the chest of the Centaur is, in fact, rendered in low relief, like the drapery on her body and between her and the Centaur. Even more striking in this respect is 12, now in Athens, in which the Centaur seizes a maiden, grasping her with his right foreleg as well as with his arms. Excepting the equine body of the Centaur, the rest of this metope may be described as low relief brought forward to the necessary degree of projection. It seems beautiful in the contrasts of nude form, as in the breast, leg, and foot of the maiden, against her disordered yet clearly indicated dress, with its strongly marked folds. The body of the Centaur is modelled on the surface with great care and minuteness, and therefore has not the full and rounded appearance of most of the other Centaurs. In Carrey’s drawing the Centaur is not yet headless. In the metope, as it exists now, we see that the victim’s dress is thin and clings in fine folds to her person, following the movements of the limbs. Her thick himation has almost gone to the winds. We see traces of it on her left arm, where she is trying to dislodge the Centaur’s hand, and again floating at the back of the Centaur. But her body is closely pressed against the Centaur, so as to leave no room whatever for deep shadows within the general contours and to produce the effect of a broad surface of low relief. 68 THE SOUTH METOPES In i, which is in Athens, we have a similar effect, with the difference that it is here a combat of a Lapith and Centaur at very close quarters indeed. Here again drapery is used to conceal the close impact of the two bodies and to introduce contrasts between the entwined legs of the two combatants. Lastly there is 29, in which the Centaur has carried off the Lapith maiden to a distance ; we may call her the first victim. The Centaur has raised her in his arms ; she has no foothold on the ground like her sisters. These are the most striking instances of the mixture of both high and low relief in the Centaur metopes ; but among them there are several others where something of the same kind is noticeable. For instance, there is the grandly composed 7, in which the sudden impact of Lapith and Centaur produces a nearly pyramidal group, as happens when two opposing forces crash into each other at full speed. Here again we see the space between the Lapith and Centaur occupied with drapery ; but the folds are sharply indicated, and the effect of the drapery in stopping out the dense shadow which might have been there is less marked than in the metopes just noticed. In Carrey’s drawing the Centaur’s right arm is complete, his hand clutching the right arm of the maiden. How differently drapery may be treated is seen in 27, which is generally accepted as the grandest of all the metopes of the Parthenon. In execution it far surpasses the others. The whole figure of the Lapith stands free from the back- ground, except in two small places where his left leg crosses the crupper of the Centaur and where his shoulder is not DETAILED EXAMINATION 69 altogether severed from the background. In the other metopes there are numerous places where limbs are partially detached from the background, but there is no instance which can at all compare with this tour de force. Both heads existed in Carrey’s time. Here the mantle of the Lapith is made to stretch behind him like a curtain, to show off his fine bodily form. The folds are kept in low relief close to the background, and in no perceptible degree lessen the amount of shadow there, but only break it up by their sharp undulating edges. The ends of this great mantle hang over each arm of the Lapith. At the next moment the whole will have fallen to the ground in a bundle, and the spell will have been broken. The sculptor has chosen an instantaneous point of the action at which this immense mantle would be seen at its best as an element of display, and doubtless also the attitude of the Lapith has been conceived for the sake of display and an imposing effect, rather than to indicate a special group in the legend. The left hand of the Lapith has got a hold of the Centaur’s head — we can see parts of his fingers — and is dragging it towards him to deal it an effective blow from his right hand. To prevent this, the Centaur exerts all the might of his left hand, which is thrown up to dislodge the Lapith’s grasp, while the right hand goes round his back for the same purpose, almost suggesting that the Centaur’s hands were bound behind him, which, of course, was not the case. This is one of the metopes where the Centaur is plainly getting the worst of it. Why the instances of that sort are so few we do not know. But it is a fact that the Centaurs of these metopes are favourably represented. No 7o THE SOUTH METOPES one of them is to be seen stretched dead on the ground, like the Lapith in the next metope, 28, with his opponent passing over him triumphantly. At the worst the Centaur is in the grip of the Lapith, who is about to deal a heavy blow, but in no case is the blow already dealt. There is no indication of any weapon in the hands of the Lapiths, though perhaps in the broken condition of the marbles it would be too much to say that there had not been any, especially as two of the Lapiths carry shields on their arms. The one 4, and the other 11, are now known only from Carrey. Equally the Centaurs do not appear to have carried branches of trees, such as they employed for weapons ordinarily. One of them is driven to seize on a wine jar to strike his opponent with. It was a sudden fray which had arisen at a peaceful wedding, where neither side ought to have been armed, and this was apparently the view taken of it by the sculptor of the Parthenon. In these respects the metopes of the Parthenon differ very greatly from the frieze of Phigaleia, which represents the same subject by a contemporary artist — by an artist, in fact, who had taken part as an architect in the building of the Parthenon. One slab will serve as an illustration. There is no delay there in striking. There is indeed a brutality in both Centaur and Lapith which is far removed from the spirit of the Parthenon metopes. We see also there how a dead Centaur could be represented, with due regard to his equine and human forms. He could not have been thrown on his back like the dead Lapith without looking ridiculous. He had to fall prone to the ground, with his arms and legs powerless, and the panther’s skin which had been wrapped DETAILED EXAMINATION 7 1 round his shoulders almost grinning at what has happened — altogether a pathetic figure. In the metope of the dead Lapith, 28, the Centaur also wears a panther’s skin ; it hangs stretched over the left arm almost defiantly like a banner. That display of it may be mere accident, for the panther’s skin was a recognised article of dress among the Centaurs to wrap round their human shoulders. In one of the frescoes by Polygnotos at Delphi a panther’s skin was hung up over the door of the house of Antenor in Troy to indicate to the Greeks when they entered the city that they were to spare that house because of the friendliness of its owner to the Greeks on a former occasion, so that possibly there may be some symbolism in the manner in which the Centaur holds forward the panther’s skin. In the Parthenon metopes the panther’s skin only occurs here and in three more instances ; that is to say, in 3, where it is just visible, twisted over his left arm, and in 5, where it has been tied round the neck of the Centaur, and has floated back behind him, as we see from traces on the marble. In this metope the Lapith, originally in combat with the Centaur, has entirely disappeared, but in Carrey’s time he was there all but the head. In 30 there is just a bit of panther’s skin sketched in slightly on the background, but no apparent connection with the Centaur. In 26 it is curious to observe a slight piece of drapery sketched in on the background behind the legs of the Lapith, but having at present no visible connection with the figure. Possibly the right hand of the Lapith had originally held the end of this diminutive mantle. There seems to be a support for that hand still projecting on the 72 THE SOUTH METOPES marble. But apart from this, the metope is finely composed in our judgment. We must admire the action of the Lapith, with his left foot raised and planted against the Centaur, his left arm stretched to its utmost to push back the Centaur, who has raised both arms to strike down the Lapith with the greatest force he could command. It is an even contest. No one can say which of the two is to be victor ultimately. The group is finely spaced, with just enough contact and just enough separation to produce a well-balanced effect in an artistic sense, no less than a well-balanced fight. In 6 the Lapith has a mantle sketched in on the back- ground behind his legs, and falling from his left shoulder. Obviously his legs have been sculptured quite free from the background. There are no traces of them on the folds of the mantle. Otherwise there is not much to be said of this metope except that it represents in an almost friendly manner the first stage of an encounter which was bound to end in excessive violence. In every conflict there must be similar initial stages. It depends on the sculptor to take advantage of them or not, and we have already seen that the sculptor of the Parthenon was inclined to avoid as far as possible the brutalities which his contemporary Ictinos indulged in on the frieze of Phigaleia. The last three metopes of the series, 30, 31, 32, are remarkable, as we have said, for the accumulation of nude forms. Only in one of them is there a bit of drapery to break the monotony. For some reason the sculptor had chosen to place groups of that nature at the very outer extreme of his composition. What that reason was it is hard to guess. But let us note each group in passing. In DETAILED EXAMINATION 73 30 there is drapery behind the Lapith, one end of it still clinging on his right shoulder, while behind the Centaur a panther’s skin is faintly sketched in on the background. The Lapith has fallen on one knee, and clutches a stone with his left hand ; but there is otherwise not much indica- tion of violence. The Centaur merely touches the Lapith s head, and the Lapith merely touches the ribs of the Centaur. The suggestion of the artist may be that the powers of the combatants are about exhausted. In any case, the group seems finely composed. In 31 the Centaur is trying to choke the Lapith, who in return seizes him by the ear apparently. That again does not seem a deadly encounter ; the action is mild comparatively. The Centaur has caught up one leg of the Lapith between his two fore legs, and between the two combatants there is an intertwining of legs and cross- ing of arms which occupies the intervening space with a more curious than forcible effect. In 32 the combatants are closer together. The legs of the Centaur and his left arm pass behind the Lapith and make no display. Doubtless the struggle can only end in the death of one or other, but there is no intensity in the action. Possibly, therefore, the artist’s intention in these last three metopes was to suggest an enfeebled stage of the fight. Towards the other end of the series we should notice 3, as hard in execution and ungainly in the composition. The Centaur’s head has been lost since Carrey’s time. No. 4 is a marked contrast, with its Lapith falling backward and raising his shield to defend himself against the wine vase which the Centaur is about to hurl down. That is one of the finely composed groups, touching in its sentiment, because L 74 THE SOUTH METOPES after all the Centaur may yet withhold the crushing blow. We may here state that the heads of these two figures are now in Copenhagen, whither they had been carried off by a Danish officer in the service of the Venetians, when they bombarded the Parthenon in the seventeenth century. The head of the Centaur is of the mild, purely human type which we find in several other metopes. The other type, which seems to have been equally common, exhibits a human head with the ears of a horse, with long, loose hair and beard and staring eyes. No. 31 is the most marked example. As regards the Lapiths, the heads that have been pre- served, as in 30, 31, indicate a youth with short-cropped hair, which the sculptor has left merely blocked out in the marble. But in 4 the head, equally youthful, has the hair more carefully rendered, and even wears a diadem. In size the Lapiths vary considerably, as, for instance, in 26, 27, where the latter is much bigger than the former. The former is, indeed, exceptionally slight in build, as is also the Lapith in 8. As a rule, the torso is short, with carefully marked bodily forms, and the legs long. In some instances there is, perhaps, excess in the indication of the finer forms of the body. But the excess, if any, is in the number of these minuter forms, not at all in their being more pronounced than they should be. They are rendered in the lowest possible relief, and we suppose could hardly have been visible at the height at which the metopes were placed. Seen closer at hand, as in the Elgin Room, this painstaking exhibition of bodily structure is not without formality and conventionalism, such as prevailed in the age immediately before Pheidias. Hence it has been suggested DETAILED EXAMINATION 75 that some, at least, of the sculptors of the metopes had been older men working under Pheidias, who had not been able to shake off the traditions of minute accuracy in which they had been trained. But Pheidias himself had been brought up in those traditions, and we may well sup- pose that part of his scheme in these south metopes was to have his central groups of heavily draped figures con- trasted on the flanks with Centaur groups strongly and sharply defined in their contours. That was the first consideration ; minute accuracy of detail was secondary. Desirable in some of the metopes, it could be exchanged in others with a more generalised rendering of bodily forms, as in fact is the case. Compare, for instance, the Lapith torso, of 31, 32, the former laboriously rendered, with the result that it looks hard and formal ; the other generalised, with the result that it looks full of life. The metopes of the other sides, unfortunately in their mostly deplorable condi- tion, appeal less to our artistic sense than to our desire to ascertain the subject of them and the general scheme of the sculptor. To these considerations we now proceed. CHAPTER V THE METOPES OF THE NORTH, EAST, AND WEST SIDES O F the thirty-two metopes originally on the north side of the Parthenon, only eleven are now recognisable — nine remain on the building at the two extreme ends, seven on the right and two on the left. With so enormous a gap in the middle it may seem hazardous to offer an opinion as to what had been the subject represented in the whole series. We have no drawings by Carrey from the missing metopes to help us. On the other hand, this poor array of existing metopes is supplemented by certain drawings made in 1686 for D’Ortieres by a French artist. These include three met- opes of Centaurs careering along, two from the left and one from the right (PI. XII., Figs, a , b, c, d ). If these drawings and the statement appended to them are correct, 1 there can be no question but that there had been a Centauromachia on the north side as well as the south. It does not, of course, follow that the whole series of northern metopes had been included in this subject, and that, therefore, the north were 1 Laborde, Athcnes , ii. p. 63, note 43, au verso du feuillet 126 comprend dix speaking of the drawings made for metopes de la face septentrionale du D’Ortieres in the Bibliotheque Na- Parthenon.” tionale, Paris, says : “ Le dessin fixe 76 GENERAL SCHEME 77 in substance a duplicate of the south series. But we may assume thus much to begin with on the analogy of the two corresponding long sides of the frieze which, as we shall see, were practically duplicates. From the evidence of the existing metopes and from the Centaurs in D’Ortieres’ drawings, we argue further that the place of the Centaurs had been inverted in the north series, they occupying the centre, while the marriage party occupied the two ends. On the north side the stormy element would be in the middle, and the placid element at the two ends. Let us now see how far this view is corroborated by the existing metopes of the north side — that is to say, how far they represent groups of Lapith women such as Carrey drew in the middle of the south series. 1 No. i on the extreme left represents a biga with female charioteer (PI. XII.), pre- cisely as metope 15 towards the middle of the south side. As we have before said, the presence of a chariot in the Centauromachia is attested by the Phigaleian frieze. On the north side 25 (PI. XII.), with two women beside an archaic image or xoanon , corresponds to 21 on the south with two women beside a xoanon. The grouping is not the same in both instances. Yet in each case one of the women places her hand on the head of the image. There is a similar archaic xoanon in the Centauromachia of the Phigaleian frieze, with one woman clasping it and another turning away. Apparently this had been an essential feature of the legend. Again, in the north metopes we 1 Michaelis, Parthenon, p. 138, says : rupted the order of the other represen- “ Probably in the middle were a number tations, similarly as on the south side of Centaur scenes which had inter- do the metopes 13-20 in the centre.” 78 METOPES OF THE NORTH, EAST, AND WEST SIDES have three separate instances of a man and a woman, he expressing alarm and bent on protecting her, 3, 27, 28. Answering to this, we have in the south metopes a group of a young man similarly alarmed beside a young woman 14, and something nearly approaching the same subject in 13 and 17. We cannot, of course, claim that the whole of the nine central metopes as drawn by Carrey on the south side re- appear at the ends of the north side, as we might expect. But in at least two of the cases of identity which we have pointed out it will be allowed that the subjects represented are remarkably characteristic of a Centauromachia. We are not obliged to assume that the same stage of the Centauromachia was presented on the two sides. On the contrary, we can well imagine an earlier stage of the incident on the north side than on the south. That would involve a certain number of differences in the action and in the grouping. It might explain why there are more groups consisting of a young man and young woman in the north than in the south metopes. Above all, it gives a reason why the three Centaurs drawn for D’Ortieres have no Lapith opponents. These Centaurs would be rushing into the fray. In a word, our argument is that the coincidences between the north and south metopes are sufficient to justify the opinion that the same subject of a Centauromachia had covered both, but that the scheme of arrangement was in the one case an inversion of the other. In these matters no one has shown greater discrimination than Professor Peter- sen, who says 1 : — “If, therefore, on both long sides (north 1 Kunst des Pheidias, p. 230. GENERAL SCHEME 79 and south) practically the same subjects were represented, only with this alteration, that greater elaboration was bestowed now on the one side, now on the other, the intention could only have been to convey to the spectator of either side the idea of the whole, and thus spare him the necessity of going round to the other side. The same intention is as clear as possible in the arrangement of the frieze.” We are bound to notice here a difficulty presented by 29 (PI. XII.) of the north side, with a horse stumbling forward apparently the rider turned right round on his back, like one of the Amazons on the Mausoleum frieze. We confess our inability to reconcile that subject with the battle of Centaurs and Lapiths. So also in 25 (PI. XII.), otherwise perfectly consistent with a Centauromachia, as we have pointed out, we cannot explain the presence of a diminutive winged figure above the shoulder of the woman on the left. 1 So minute a figure can hardly be Eros, as Michaelis 2 3 confi- dently supposed. It is more like a Shade or eidolon, such as we see on Athenian funeral lekythi, suggestive of death. Possibly that is its meaning here also. The last of the series of north metopes 32 is the only one which has been well preserved. But we have already described it in some detail (PI. XI. p. 60), and will now 1 This small figure had been over- looked till Laborde had a cast made of it and drew it in the Revue Archto- logique , 1845, pp. 16, 17. 3 Parthenon, p. 139. He claims that metopes 24 and 25 represent a consecu- tive scene from the Iliupersis, the xoanon being the image of Athene, the two women beside it Helena and Aphrodite, accompanied by Eros, the warrior in the preceding metope 24 Menelaos. The Greek vase which he reproduces seems to him to confirm his view. But there are too many women about in these north metopes for us to admit scehes from the Trojan war. 80 METOPES OF THE NORTH, EAST, AND WEST SIDES merely add that the position of the woman seated high on a rock would be quite consistent with an early stage of the marriage scene, just when the Centaurs had begun their violence. The younger woman has just run up to her with the news. EAST METOPES [Plate VI.] It is agreed that the fourteen metopes on the east or principal front of the Parthenon represent the Giganto- machia, and even now, in the present desperate condition of these sculptures, we can see, or fancy we see, a fulness and wealth of imagination in the designing of the several groups appropriate to their primary position on the temple. The metopes on the west end are empty in comparison. We would gladly linger over certain of the east metopes, where even in ruin the artistic conception may still be recognised as beautiful ; for example, in the chariot of winged horses 7, or the vigorous action in 6 and 9, but the present state of the sculptures hardly justifies more than a passing notice. Still less are we entitled to enter on the vexed question of identifying the several deities in their combats with the giants. There is not sufficient material to judge by. It will be enough to give the names that seem most likely. One question, however, we must stop to consider, because it involves a principle of an artistic nature. In four of the metopes we find a chariot group of two horses and a charioteer, but in each case there is no combatant as we expect. He must be some- where near. On all analogy he should be in front. We GROUPS OF THE METOPES 81 therefore look for him in the next metope in front. In effect we find him so in each case. Accordingly we have four instances in which two contiguous metopes form one group as regards subject, i.e. 5 and 6, 7 and 8, 9 and 10, 13 and 14. Two of the bigae move from left to right, and two in the opposite direction, so that there is a certain amount of balance or response in the action of the whole series, though not anything approaching the formality of older Greek art. The horses are always beautifully conceived, and form a most attractive contrast to the semi-equine Centaurs on the long sides. We give here the names of the deities which seem the most likely to be correct P 1 Hermes and giant, 2 Dionysos and giant, 3 Ares and giant, 4 Hera and giant, 5 chariot of Zeus, 6 Zeus slaying giant, 7 chariot of Athene, 8 Athene slaying giant, 9 Heracles attacking giant, 10 chariot of Heracles, 11 Apollo and giant, 12 Artemis and giant, 13 Poseidon attacking giant, 14 chariot of Poseidon. WEST METOPES [Plate III.] We may accept without question that the fourteen metopes on the west or secondary front of the Parthenon represent the Amazonomachia. It was a subject always dear to Greek sculptors. As a subject, it had no beginning nor end, and no definite number of figures. The series of combatants could be multiplied or curtailed at pleasure. The battle of Greeks and Amazons was therefore peculiarly suitable for 1 Prof. C. Robert, Arch. Zeit., 1884, p. 47. M 82 METOPES OF THE NORTH, EAST, AND WEST SIDES a frieze or for a series of metopes. It had a special attraction for the Athenians, because of the part their hero Theseus had taken in that singular enterprise against war- like women. The sculptor was free to introduce as many Amazons on horseback as he chose, and in the Parthenon metopes he has made ample use of that freedom. There were at least six mounted Amazons, possibly more. A favourite artistic motive was an Amazon riding over a fallen Greek, and in the act of striking down at him. The body of the Greek admirably fills the space under the horse, and at the same time the action of the group becomes pathetic, for the Greek is still able to raise himself somewhat for defence. Thus art and nature go hand in hand. Whether or not that particular motive had been the creation of Pheidias, he certainly makes the most of it in these metopes. It recurs at least five times. We find this motive once in the Phigaleian frieze, which is contemporary with the Parthenon, and once in the Mausoleum frieze, which is later. In metope i there is no Greek combatant, but only a mounted Amazon, who looks as if she had been the last to arrive on the scene. So far as we can judge, the metopes of the west front alternate between combats on foot and combats on horseback in regular order, the effect of the whole being decidedly more formal than we expect on the Parthenon. Among the combatants on foot we may notice 14, where a Greek assails an Amazon who has fallen on her knees before him, much in the manner of a group at the left end of the Phigaleian frieze. CHAPTER VI THE FRIEZE [Plate XIII.] F ROM the metopes of the Parthenon, which, as we have seen, were sculptured in the highest possible relief, we must be prepared for an abrupt but interesting change to the frieze, which, being placed within the outer colonnade of the temple, and therefore illumined only by diffused, indirect light, was necessarily sculptured in the lowest possible relief. The subject also changes from fierce conflict and alarm in the metopes to peaceful and grave demeanour in the frieze. In the matter of artistic compo- sition we pass from the isolated groups of the metopes to the uninterrupted procession of the frieze. A poetic narrative which carries us along by its charms of style and by the skilful distribution of its parts, is what the frieze may be compared to. The metopes on any one side of the Parthenon could be seen from a distance and all at once. The connection between the separate groups could be recognised like the recurring measures in a lyric poem of Pindar’s. The sculp- tures of the two pediments were dramatic in their intensity and centralisation. But the frieze could only be seen slowly from the colonnade itself. The subject which it represented 83 8 4 THE FRIEZE could only be recognised gradually as the visitor passed along, looking up, at a very sharp angle. In these circumstances it would no doubt have been more convenient for the visitor as he passed if the subject could have been broken up into isolated groups, presenting much the same effect as we find on the nearly contemporary temple of Zeus at Olympia, where metopes take the place of frieze within the colonnade at each end. But on the frieze of the Parthenon that was impossible, because of the nature of the subject — a public procession of ordinary mortals on their way from one quarter of Athens to the Acropolis, where there was to be a mag- nificent sacrifice to the gods, with much ceremony, such as the bestowing of prizes on the athletes who had been successful in the Panathenaic games just finished. That was the subject in general terms. The continuity of the procession could not be broken up to oblige visitors. As we have already indicated, a visitor reaching the Parthenon from the Propylaea in the ordinary way saw first the west frieze, representing that section of the proces- sion which was the most rapid in its movement and was therefore the last to start, viz. the last of the young men on horseback. It is altogether a scene of preparation and starting. These young men on their fiery horses, or pre- paring to mount, will soon overtake those who had started before them on foot, carrying vessels for sacrifice, leading cows and sheep, playing music, or in chariots, like heroes at the war of Troy. As we have previously explained, the difficulty for the sculptor was how to get this continuous subject on to a four-sided building. What he did was this : He placed on the west side, which was the part first visible SUBJECT 85 to spectators, the start of the last section of the procession. On the east side, which was the actual front of the temple, he placed the culminating point, where the gods are present to witness the sacrifices. But on the two long sides he represented the middle part of the procession in duplicate, so that a visitor besfinnincr at the west end could choose whichever of the two long sides he preferred to pass round by, and in either case be able to follow the sculptured pro- cession from start to finish. We saw much the same prin- ciple of duplication employed in the metopes of the long sides. We do not mean that the north and the south friezes are strictly duplicates one of the other, but the various groups or sections correspond much like a procession sketched from two sides. If we imagine the procession at some par- ticular stage of the journey dividing into two halves, the one turning to the right, the other to the left, each half arriving from an opposite point at the meeting-place, we shall be able to realise in a measure what Pheidias was compelled to do to get his procession with its three points of start, middle and head, on to a four-sided building. Imagine the two long sides of the frieze set back to back, and you have the middle of the procession in a solid body, seen from both sides of the road. The long sides of the frieze are full of movement, and in most places crowded with figures, while on the short ends there is less action, on the east almost none at all ; instead of crowding, there is an abundance of space round all the figures. The total length of the frieze was over 522 feet 10 inches. Of this something less than the half, 240 feet 6 inches, was brought home by Lord Elgin. From the 86 THE FRIEZE west frieze he removed only one slab and a figure close to the angle ; the rest of it remains in its place on the building, exposed to the weather, which is often severe in Athens during the winter. That the west frieze has suffered greatly on this account is plain from a com- parison of the plaster casts which Lord Elgin had made from it with the new casts made some years ago (1872). The two sets of casts are placed side by side in the Elgin Room, so that it is easy to see the extent of the damage done within a period of about seventy years. Every year seems to add fresh injury. The French ambassador, who was Lord Elgin’s colleague in Constantinople, carried off a fine slab from the east frieze — the one now in the Louvre — representing a group of the girls who walked close to the head of the procession (49-56). At the same time he sent to Paris a cast of the slab immediately preceding this one. Very fortunately so, because that slab was subsequently much destroyed. One figure of an old man, 46, was chipped off entirely ; other parts were broken off and split in pieces. A large piece was sent home by Lord Elgin ; a small fragment has been found on the Acropolis of Athens, and another in the Museum of Palermo in Sicily. Possibly some day the rest may be recovered. Meantime we are able to put these fragments into their right places and to recon- struct the slab by means of the cast in Paris. These things happened about the year 1800. Since then several slabs of the frieze, more or less perfect, have been found buried on the Acropolis. They had fallen from their place before any great injury had been done to them. The best preserved is a slab from the east frieze containing a PRESENT CONDITION 87 group of seated deities (vi.). Equally well preserved is part of a chariot group from the north frieze (xvii.). Casts of these and of many smaller pieces which have been recovered in comparatively recent years from all sorts of odd places will be found let into their true positions among the original marbles in the Museum, as shown in our plate. So that what with originals and casts, we can put together now 415 feet out of the entire 522 feet, leaving about 107 feet to be accounted for. Of this fully 60 feet is known from drawings by Carrey and Stuart, while 47 feet has totally disappeared. It will be noticed in many of the slabs that angle pieces have been broken off. The cause of this was the excessively fine joints of the slabs, which allowed of no play when the building was subjected to any strain as during the gunpowder explosion or under a slight subsidence of the foundations. The frieze, as we see it in the Elgin Room, has two dis- advantages. First, it is there illumined by light from the top instead of from below. The consequence is that on the west side of the room, where there is a long cavalcade of young horsemen, it is the legs of the horses which are most conspicuous. The heads of the horses and the riders are deprived of their due amount of shadow, and at some hours of the day the effect is disagreeable. Another dis- advantage arises from the fact that the frieze being placed nearly on the level of the eye can be seen broadside on, so to speak, instead of at an acute angle high above the level of the eye. On the other hand, there is an immense gain in being able to study every detail closely, as can now be done ; and this gain does far more than counterbalance the disadvantages just referred to. 88 THE FRIEZE But these remarks on the present condition of the frieze do not affect the main question we have to consider, which is, how the sculptor conceived and represented a procession through the streets of Athens which took place in his own lifetime every four years. The people of Athens knew very well what the actual procession was like. They knew that the head of it consisted of a ship on wheels, bearing, as a sail, a new robe intended for the rude wooden image of Athene on the Acropolis. The new robe 1 had just been embroidered by a number of girls chosen from the well- to-do families of Athens. While engaged on their task they had to live within the precincts of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis, under the charge of the priestess of Athene. When the robe was carried through the streets, spread like a sail, these girls walked in procession behind it, and are so represented on the east frieze, conventionally separated into two groups, as if approaching the meeting-place of the gods from both sides. Pheidias has omitted the ship on wheels, and has chosen rather the culminating act in which the robe, having been taken down from the ship and duly folded, is being handed up to the priest by a boy. This final incident he has placed in the most central spot of the whole frieze, directly above the great doorway of the Parthenon. The ship was drawn by a crowd of men pulling at a rope or hawser, we are told, and we can see what it may have looked like from a painted vase in the Museum of the sixth century b.c. with a ship on wheels. But the 1 The robe is figured on the Pan- Museum it has a border of figures, athenaic vases as richly embroidered. which do not appear to represent a On one of these vases in the British Gigantomachia, as would be expected. THE GODS 89 idea is even much older than that. It occurs as a seal on a Babylonian tablet as old as the seventh century b.c. EAST FRIEZE The Athenians of those days knew that the cows and sheep which were being led along in the procession were to be sacrificed in honour of the gods. They supposed that the gods were not indifferent in such matters, but it may be doubted whether many of the Athenians then actually believed that the deities were invisibly present at this great sacrifice. Yet that is the view which the sculptor has taken. He has introduced into the frieze two groups of deities (24-30 and 36-42) whom he means us to understand as invisibly present on the Acropolis at the moment when the priest is receiving the new robe. They would remain so till the sweet- smelling sacrifice which they loved was offered to them. We are familiar in older Greek bas-reliefs, as in those at Delphi, with this artistic convention of invisible deities. It is conspicuous also on the frieze of the Theseum, which is only a very little older than the Parthenon. There we may see a warrior rushing into a group of seated deities, as unconscious of their presence as was one of Homer’s heroes when a deity approached him wrapped in mist or disguised. To every Athenian, whatever his faith, these two groups of seated figures in the central part of the east frieze were manifestly deities. First of all, they are the only seated figures in the whole frieze, yet, though seated, their heads reach as high in the frieze as the mortals who are standing beside them. They are therefore exceptional in size and N 90 THE FRIEZE dignity. There are but two figures among them which are not seated, and they are remarkable in another respect also, for they both have wings (28 and 42). That is a final and con- clusive proof that these two figures at least are not mortals. The great deities did not have wings, and did not need them ; but their messengers — like Victory, Iris, or Eros — were winged. The presence of two such figures implies that the seated groups are gods. The one, 28, is a winged girl who stands close beside the goddess Hera, and is obviously a divine messenger, such as Iris or Nike. The other, 42, on the extreme right, is a winged boy, even more obviously the god of love, Eros, leaning idly against the knees of his mother Aphrodite and carrying her parasol open over his head. It seems odd that he should be holding up a parasol, and this may appear contradictory to the theory of invisibility. But we must remember that certain accessories were necessary for the identification of certain deities, and that in the case of Aphrodite the parasol was one such accessory. That she allows her son to hold it, and at the same time directs him with her hand towards the approaching procession, is a very just obser- vation of mother and child. Let us add that the figure of Eros is plainly that of a young boy. We may bear this in mind when we read that it was only in later Greek art that he took this very youthful form. As regards the assembly of the gods generally, we must remember the passage in Homer ( Iliad , i. 423), where the gods are said to have gone in a body to a feast among the “ blameless Ethiopians.” Pheidias may very well have had that passage in his mind. THE GODS 9i In the second place, these seated figures are recognisable as deities by their bearing and their attributes. Zeus, 30, the chief of them, is distinguished by the chair or throne on which he is seated. He alone has this mark of dignity. His form and attitude are those of an exalted being ; they separate him from the others. Every Athenian would know him at a glance. On his right sits his consort Hera, 29. The veil over the back of her head shows that she is a wife. Her action in pulling it aside means, no doubt, that she is taking a lively interest in what is transpiring. In Greek art a matron usually has a girl servant beside her to attend to her personal wants ; that is the function of the winged girl Iris close beside Hera. What the action of the left hand of Iris is precisely, we do not know. But she clearly shares the sudden interest which has made her mistress pull aside her veil. The action of Iris must mean something- of that kind. But now we must notice a singular thing. The great triad of deities was Zeus, Hera, and Athene. We see Zeus and Hera side by side, but Athene, 36, is separated from them by a group of mortals — a priest and priestess with two girl attendants, receiving the new robe or peplos from a boy. But the explanation is simple. The sculptor had to show that the gods were invisibly present in the atmosphere which surrounded the mortals on the Acropolis, and he could hardly have shown that better than by interjecting a group of mortals among the deities, appearing to separate a triad which was believed to be inseparable in assemblies of the deities. Observe that Athene does not wear her helmet. Even her aegis is not on her breast, but lies 92 THE FRIEZE crumpled on her lap, as it would seem. Still, she has held a spear in her right hand — we can see that from the holes in the marble for its attachment — if the action of the hand were not alone sufficient. The spear had been of metal, probably gilt bronze. Just as Athene appears without her helmet, so Hermes, 24, instead of wearing his characteristic cap or petasos, holds it on his knee ; in fact, all the gods are uncovered, and probably that is meant to illustrate their custom at a feast. Hephaestos, 37, would have been more easily recognisable if he had worn his pointed cap, but his attitude of leaning on a staff, the indication of his club- foot, and the fact of his sitting beside Athene would have made him easily identifiable to an Athenian. If the figure clasping his hands round his knee is Ares, 27, the god of war, as he is thought to be, we are not surprised that he is not characterised by helmet, cuirass, and shield. The gods were here not only invisible, but they were present at a festival held in their honour. The sculptor had therefore a doubly difficult task. He had to respect the invisibility of the deities, and at the same time he had to dispense as far as possible with the accessories or symbols character- istic of each. One of the consequences is that with regard to several of these figures there is much uncertainty as to who they are. We recognise Zeus, Hera, and Iris, Demeter, Persephone, or Artemis, with her torch, 26, and Hermes in the left group — Athene, Hephaestos, Poseidon, 38, Aphrodite, 41, and Eros in the right group; we are not sure about the rest. But that they are the twelve gods, six in each group, is absolutely plain. OFFICIALS 93 The men standing apparently in two groups at each ex- treme of the gods, 18-23 and 43-52, represent several classes of officials who were bound to be present on the Acropolis to receive the procession, to superintend the sacrifice and the giving of the prizes which had been won in the games just concluded. They do not present an even number in each group. At first sight there seem to be six on each side, but looking closer we find an additional two on the right, mixed up more or less with the approaching group of girls. There are no two men similarly disposed in the group on the left ; but a knot of men standing promiscuously, and waiting perhaps eagerly the approach of the procession, would not naturally break up into symmetrical groups. In theory they are only one group, and we think that this very irregu- larity confirms the theory. It is different with the girls ; they walked in the regular order becoming to a solemn procession. The group at one end ought to balance the other, marching close together with quiet demeanour and carrying vessels for the sacrifice. Such is, in fact, their general aspect, but with infinite differences of detail. The group on the right con- sisted of thirteen figures, of which the two at the end are lost and known only from drawings (PI. XVII., Fig. 5) ; that on the left of fifteen. If we follow these figures one by one, we shall find under an apparent uniformity an extraordinary fertility of invention in the variety of details, and that is one of the striking characteristics of Greek art in the best age. With all their gifts of imagination, the Greek artists kept continually returning to favourite types or conceptions of their own day, as if trying to exhaust every possibility of them. But let us add, as regards the two groups of maidens, 94 THE FRIEZE that their position at each extreme of the east frieze, with their masses of vertical lines, and the girlishness of their proportions as compared with the men and the gods, pro- duces a singularly happy effect in closing in the whole scene ; and if this, as a mere matter of composition, appeals to the artistic sense, was it not also a beautiful idea of the sculptor’s to admit these young girls into the presence of the gods, so to speak, reserving the rest of the procession for the other sides of the frieze, with its commotion and its more pronounced suggestions of ordinary daily life ? Having thus made a rapid review of the east frieze as the climax of the procession, we shall now do best to pass round to the west, where the last section — the end of the cavalcade — is starting, or preparing to start. In this manner we shall be able to follow the procession not only as was most natural for a visitor to the Acropolis, but also as the sculptor wished us to follow it. With few exceptions the movement of the west frieze is towards the north angle. As we have already said, that was the natural direction for visitors to take. Ordinarily they w T ould turn round the north angle of the colonnade and pass along under the north frieze. We must imagine ourselves taking that course. But even if we prefer turning round the south angle and passing along under the south frieze, we shall equally find that the sculptor in many instances has been at pains to represent his horses and riders, especially the horses, with their chests turned round partially to the front, as if to meet the eye of a visitor who is following up the procession from behind, observing first the flanks of the horses and afterwards their chests and heads. Their heads are mostly in profile, with a sharp, deep incision, THE PROCESSION 95 which, as has been well pointed out , 1 looks ungainly if we approach the frieze from the opposite direction. It will be observed also that the chests of the horses often reach the highest relief possible in the circumstances, and present to anyone following them the appearance of a billowy movement which helps to carry us on gently but surely. The first group of horsemen we see on turning the north angle is still in a state of preparation, but beyond that the cavalcade breaks into speed, and so goes on till it reaches the chariots, of which there appear to have been nine, and forming a conspicuous feature midway along the frieze. It was just there that the greatest damage was done by the gunpowder explosion which blew out the centre of the cella walls. From the fragmentary chariot slabs that remain, aided by Carrey’s drawings of those that have been de- stroyed, we can in a measure see how this striking series of chariots in the very centre of each long side must have provided the most attractive feature of all. The large and simple forms of the horses, together with the greater space around them, would supply an element of repose to the eye of the spectator, while yet the fiery action of the horses and the energy of the apobatae would carry on the general movement of the procession. The first chariot we come to on the north side is standing- still (xxiii.). After that the chariots also dash forward, till the foremost (xi.) of them is violently pulled up beside the group of bearded representatives of a fine manhood ( evavSpla ). We next overtake in order youths playing on lyres and on flutes, others carrying jars (hydriae) and trays, then boys leading 1 W. Watkiss Lloyd, Trans. R. Soc. Lit ., xvi. (1893). 9 6 THE FRIEZE sheep and cows for the great sacrifice. At this point we reach the north or south angle, as we choose, and find on the east side a quite new element of the procession — a string of young girls, the Ergastinae as they were called, who had been chosen to weave and embroider the new peplos for the image of Athene, and who now were allowed to walk in the procession 1 * * * * behind the peplos, carrying some of them vessels for the sacrifice, others an object which has been a source of per- plexity, and to present a silver cup to the goddess. It may be asked, Why was this bringing of the new peplos associated with so apparently different a scene as the bestow- ing of prizes after the Panathenaic games ? We can only suppose that the games, the culminating procession, and the great sacrifice to the gods had been founded in connection with the new peplos. The fact that the peplos was conveyed through the streets spread like a sail on a ship must have had its own significance, though we cannot pretend to fathom it. We can imagine the scene as a theoxenia or entertainment of the gods on a grand scale, and may even suppose that the peplos had been hung spread out on the Acropolis before being placed on the image of Athene, like the curtain displayed in the visit of Dionysos to Icarios, as seen in the bas-relief in the British Museum. We may now consider certain matters of detail. In 1 Hesychius gives, cpyacrrlvai ■ at rov TTtirXov vcf>aivov(ra.i.. See also the restoration of several fragments of inscriptions referring to them in the Bull. Corr. Hell. xiii. p. 170: ol 7rar[€p€s] tu>v Trapdeviov [raiv ypy\ arrptv wv ttj Adyvq. ra ep ta ra [ei’s to] v 7r«rAov kpfyav'itovcri . . . ireTropTrev^Kevai Ka]ra ra irpos oti K[dAAtcr]ra /cat evcr^jj- /xovejVrara. k] areaKevaKevai 8e avras €k[toh' iJSfwv kcu