Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (5.1886-1890)

THE NEWLY DISCOVERED HEAD OF IBIS.

163

nice completed the decorations of the wall, which was joined, above, to
the entablature of the outer colonnade by a ceiling, just as, below, the
marble pavement joined the base of the columns with the wall. The
length of the frieze was 159.42 m. (522.8 ft.), of which 21.18 m. (69.5 ft.)
covered each of the narrower walls of the front and back, while 58.53 m.
(191.9 ft.) decorated each longer side of the rectangular building. It
consists of numerous slabs carefully joined together, almost exactly 1 m.
(3 ft. 3.95 in. according to Stuart) in height."1

The subject represented on this frieze is generally acknowledged to
be the procession on the occasion of the Panathenaic Festival. The
participants in this procession started at sunrise on the last day of the
Festival, the birthday of Athene, from the outer Kerameikos, passed
through the Dipylon, the Dromos, and the chief street of the Inner
Kerameikos, to the market-place, then to the Eleu.sinion, to the north-
east corner of the Akropolis, to the west, and through the Propylaia
to the Temple of Athene Polias, upon whose altar the hecatombs offered
by Athens and its dependent states were sacrificed, and a great festive
meal concluded the whole celebration. Accordingly, in the frieze on
the narrow west end of the Temple is represented a scene of preparation
for the procession. There are groups of horsemen, many of them already
mounted, others in the act of mounting, another forcing the bit into
the mouth of his restive horse, another drawing on his boots, another
again trying to hold back a rearing horse, and so on. The long north
and south sides present the procession proper. In it are not only the
divisions of horsemen, the chariots with charioteers and hoplites; but
also groups of men and youths and maidens on foot carrying branches
or vases, or musical or sacrificial instruments of which in ancient life
the authors give us an account. Finally there are the sacrificial cows
and sheep which bring us to the narrow east or front side where the
advancing maidens are met by the magistrates supposed to be awaiting
them on the Akropolis. With this the procession is brought to a close,
but the scene has only reached its climax; for in the central portion
of this frieze forming the front of the Temple are represented the gods
and goddesses who are supposed to be witnessing the display in honor
of Athene. Accordingly, Athene heads the right-hand division of gods,
as Zeus heads the left-hand division ; and these two divisions are kept
apart by the introduction of a scene supposed by many to represent

'Waldstein, Essays on the Art of Pheidias, p. 191.